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Thursday, December 31st, 2009
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12:01 am - Holiday Gift Guide
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Looking for something unique and handmade to give for the holidays? Well, my friends are very talented, and may just have what you're looking for:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) the_star_fish: Has beautiful hand-knitted bags and other stuff. But not posted online yet. You could always ask her.
ltlbird: Handmade Cards, or buy charity cards made by her patients.
ojouchan: Horns, Barrettes, and more. Yes, horns.
froggish_elf: Earrings. Only a few; get 'em while they're hot.
squirrelhaven: Is going to have pretty jewelry, but not necessarily a website. So if you want pretty jewelry, let her know.
Now with more cool artsy stuff!
porcupinemoon: Photomanipulations
sen_no_ongaku: Chamber Music CD
Have friends that are stressed? Get them a gift certificate for a massage, presuming you live near one of my masseuse friends. You can contact saraheeyore for Boston, or kimberkit for NYC.
Or perhaps you wanted books? Well, what topic did you have in mind?
Urban Fantasy?
Hamlet Cartoons? (Hint: Yes.)
Child Slavery?
Of course, there's always my books:
A Random Novel
Rhode Island
Weird Groups
and if for some reason you would like me to write a personalized poem (limerick, sonnet, or even rap) for someone as a present, I will invent reasonable rates.
Also, if you like wargames, ltcmdrwhitman worked on this one, and ultiville worked on these two and this.
Are you a friend of mine that has something that should be on this list, but isn't? I probably either don't know about it or forgot about it! Let me know, and I'll add you.
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| Saturday, December 5th, 2009
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12:55 am - New Music Video: Dump Stat
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A dozen or so of you have already seen this video because you helped me make it, so a big thanks to all of you once again.
For the rest of you: Hi! I have a new music video:
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| Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
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5:35 pm - December Links
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| Saturday, November 21st, 2009
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1:57 pm - Efficient increases in happiness
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As I believe I mentioned last year, studies show that your happiness has a strong correlation with the happiness not only of your friend group, but their friends as well. And sure, correlation is not causation, but can you afford to take that chance? Why not increase the happiness of your social group threefold, by buying unique holiday gifts from my (very talented) friends, and giving them to your (very deserving) friends and family? You can consult this handy-dandy link, the target of which will remain at the top of my journal for the rest of the year:
Friends Holiday Gift Guide 2009
As always, if you are a friend of mine and made something that would make a good gift, and you are not on this list, please comment here with a link and I will likely add you.
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| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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5:49 pm - Philosophy and Political Science -- my two majors!
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So today I came across this philosophy department webpage which made me wonder: Were there supposed to be answers, or perhaps links, on that page? Or are they just embracing the fact that we have no good answers for those questions?
In the original version of my column from last week, the entire column was a tight parody of Machiavelli's "The Prince", with lots of words changed and small pieces moved around, but basically sticking to the form of the original throughout the entire article. Then I remembered I was writing for a local newspaper and not a political science journal, so I threw away 3/4ths of what I had, and replaced it with silly suggestions in standard language. It makes a funnier column, and certainly one that more readers of the local paper are likely to enjoy, but I still am slightly sad to have replaced what I thought was a very relevant and biting satire piece about North Adams politics with something that's a bit more all over the map.
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| Sunday, November 8th, 2009
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5:26 am - It's a weird life
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One of these days, I'm going to get back to my 4am bedtime. This is not that day.
So, if you wanted to go to a really good falafel shop for dinner, and you drove half an hour, and then realized oops you went in the complete opposite direction of the falafel shop, you'd probably go somewhere else for dinner near where you went, rather than turn around, right? But I bet hypothetical situations can be constructed where you would turn around. The problem with examining life by analogy is that analogies change.
My to-do list doesn't get things done, it just gets longer until I repeatedly triage it and move some things below the fold. The things below the fold never get done. I found some items from 2004. Things that have deadlines get done. Everything else slowly sinks until it is below the fold. Alas.
Sometimes I think I'm good at freestyling, and then I watch something like this, and I realize what a long way I have to go. Crap, just remembered, I haven't done News In Rap in too long. See supra, re: to do list. Should sleep now. See supra, re: bedtime.
I really like liverwurst. I don't know why, and it's one of those foods people use when they need something prototypically unappealing. But man, I find it tasty.
Is it crazy not to want to cook sweet potatoes alone? I want to wait until we have something else in the oven. Don't waste heat.
Then again, I also dislike putting the heaviest blankets on the bed until January, or I feel like we'll have no response to the real cold snap. I want to be able to fight back!
People talk their craziest and most honest during late hours of the night. It's my favorite time. Although I'm overdue for sleep. See sleepra.
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| Monday, November 2nd, 2009
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5:34 am - music and mayhem
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This was a good weekend for musical nonsense. The Halloween party was amazing, because people came dressed in D&D garb, and we even got a few shots for a little music video project I'm working on. Much thanks to everyone who was there for their patience and assistance, and I'm really hoping we get a fun video out of it. I think we will.
Speaking of music, I've recently discovered the best music website ever. Yes, I know, some of you probably found out about it last year because I'm not always at the front of the pack on new Internet trends. Still, there's this site called the61, and it is amazing. Perhaps some of you remember Pandora radio, that site that let you make your own Internet radio stream that recommended songs for you based on your likes? Well, this site is vaguely like that, in that similar songs to what you like will be recommended. And you can also tag friends or listeners with similar taste and listen to a "station" made up of songs they've recently ranked highly.
But the real genius in this site is the achievement system. Just like XBox live, or terrible flash games, or World of Warcraft, or hell, lots of games. Only they've managed to turn listening to music into a game. You get quests, and then earn reputation (exp) and hearts by fulfilling them, listening to new songs or hot songs or a fellow listener's playlist. Then you spend hearts to rate songs you like, and earn more reputation if those songs become popular. It's pretty damned addictive, and I've found some great music I never would have found otherwise, as well as a random guy whose stuff I'd just been listening too on YouTube.
This seems like a great way for independent artists to put a few songs out there too. Perhaps those of you who make music will want to make an account and put a few songs up. I joined as Ham-STAR, but frankly, the artist profiles aren't as fun. The quest system for listeners is just totally awesome. So even if my current quest didn't tell me to invite a friend through a link, I'd still totally tell you to check it out.
Normally I wouldn't write such a long entry at arse-o'clock in the morning, but I was working on an article that is due in a few hours, and when I realized I hadn't saved in a while and tried to save, Word crashed and ate everything. So I figured I'd write a rambly LJ post about music as catharsis, because screaming loud curses would wake Debbie and my floor is too dirty to cry on.
Guess I'd best go write that article. Again.
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| Sunday, October 25th, 2009
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4:01 am - I swear it's midnight, and I blink, and then it's 4am
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| Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
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12:47 am - Political rant
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| Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
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3:42 am - Which would you rather be called, Geek or Nerd?
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My computer screen and program windows are all starting to look like non-rectangular parallelograms to me. This is slightly troubling, but not so much as to be worrisome. Or perhaps the other way around. I find that there are some pairs of words where we want to say that one is worse than the other, but it's hard to know which is which, since people disagree over which word is the superlative (or at least, greater intensity) form. I always think of "geek" and "nerd" as a great example of this; many people seem to prefer one of these words as indicative of smarts without being too freakish, but which word they prefer tends to vary. I can't post a poll, but trust me, it varies. (ETA: pallasathene82, however, has posted one.)
This all came up because the_star_fish mentioned that a friend of hers had posted something about being "happy" versus being "content". And I think depending on the day, I might say contentment is a base state of settling, while happiness is a loftier, higher goal. Or conversely, that being happy is a small transient thing, while being truly content is about one's life as a whole.
Conveniently, these days I'm mostly both. the_star_fish and her flair for delicious international cooking (we had pad thai, bulgoki, bibimbap, and mole chicken just this week!) keep me very content with my life as a whole. And this weekend was good too, with my improv show attended by a full house including avagrrl, lynnini, and my old freshman year advisor from college. Why, if I just had people to pay me lots of money for creating humor, life would be well-nigh perfect. (Contrary to what some foolish hobgoblins would have you believe.)
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| Thursday, October 8th, 2009
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4:14 am - New contest entry song: "Feature Creep"
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I wanted to post a really long rant, but I'm way behind on writing again, so it'll have to wait.
Instead, you could go listen to my new song, although you have to click the "play full song" link rather than play, otherwise it only plays the worst 10 seconds. Also, you should read the lyrics after you listen, otherwise you'll miss some features.
Oh, and also it's a vote-driven contest, so if you enjoy the song, feel free to vote for me. If you do not enjoy the song, feel free to vote for someone else instead.
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| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
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8:14 pm - This one appeals mainly to the Venn diagram cross-section of D&D players and smokers
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| Sunday, October 4th, 2009
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12:06 am - I can't believe it's already October
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This weekend's humor column is about cell phones, and how Wolverine doesn't like them.
I love my humor column, but I'm still not fast enough on less interesting assignments. Ah well. Hopefully I'll get better with practice. I imagine a large part of it is not stopping every 10 minutes out of boredom to read forums or post to LJ. Hroom...
I had another food plan tonight. We had sausage to use up. And there were some apples sitting on the table. So I thought: Sausage Apple Onion Pie. the_star_fish, as usual, was skeptical. But she bought me some pie crusts anyway, because what do you do with a comedian? You humor him. Anyway, I made two pies, and now we have one pie left, and two bellies filled with delicious, delicious food.
Thursday night I had a shideem come to see me at the monthly open mic comedy night at the Alley, which was lovely. I made fun of Roman Polanski and Sarah Palin, and then rapped about pickles and hookers. (What can I say, I give the audience what they ask for.)
I had a weird dream about ethicsgradient and I needing to de-shell a large number of pistachios. I think it probably means.... I'm nuts.
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| Monday, September 28th, 2009
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7:27 pm - Meta-rap
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So, I just recorded another episode of News In Rap, and felt like it was of insufficient quality. But it's freestyled, so it's not like I can go back and edit it and do better. The whole point of News In Rap is that I sit down, open the news page, and rap. If I'm not good enough, then I just need more practice so I can get better next time. But I was still dissatisfied, so while I was uploading the episode I decided to put on a different beat and freestyle about how I didn't like the episode I'd just recorded.
I briefly considered freestyling while uploading that freestyle, but decided to avoid the infinite loop.
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| Saturday, September 26th, 2009
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2:02 pm - The inexorable march of technology
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Any time you're talking about computer memory/storage space, the amount that seems obscenely large today will not seem large at all in 5 years, and will seem laughably small in 5 more. I know this, and yet I find it interesting that email services used to have a 100 MB limit, and then Gmail launched with a 2 gig limit, and I thought to myself "Wow, that's more than any human could ever possibly need, unless they were backing up their computer on Gmail." And sure enough, although I am not using gmail to back up my computer, or even store movies or mp3 collections, today I have exceeded the 2000 MB mark. So I'm glad they've kept the limits trending upwards so I still have 5000 MB more of space.
Also, I should probably be better at dealing with email.
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| Sunday, September 20th, 2009
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10:19 pm - quiet again
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after a whirlwind week of travel and houseguests, things are finally quiet here again. lynnini and B. were in yesterday to see the improv show, which was marred by constant inappropriate audience suggestions (such as "adult diapers" and "torture porn"), but still seemed to leave the audience laughing. Seriously though, I appreciate anyone who comes out to see my improv show, but would it hurt so much to make better suggestions?
Now I finally have a few quiet days at home with the_star_fish, which will be lovely. As soon as I finish these articles I'm procrastinating on writing by posting this.
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| Saturday, September 19th, 2009
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4:21 am - the more things change the more they stay the same
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Back from NY, a state which in spite of myriad bumper stickers, I do not <3. I do, however, <3 pallasathene82, so I was glad to stay with her and sir_graeme and fry lots of things in tortillas. Getting to see kimberkit and entropicangel was a lovely bonus, especially as their ridiculous collection of movies makes me feel better about my ridiculous collection of board games. 2h2o pointed out that I missed both Rosh Hashanah and Talk Like A Pirate Day, so a late L'Shanarrrrrr Tovarrrrrrrrrrr*. And an early Eid Mubarrrrrrrrrak.
Tonight I had some seafood saffron risotto. the_star_fish made it a week and a half ago, and it was really, really, really good. I was surprised any was left in the fridge, so I ate it gleefully. As it turns out, that was probably a bad idea, as I've been feeling somewhat ill for the past five hours. To be fair, she did tell me that it might not be good any more, but it smelled good, and it tasted good, and oh god do I not feel good. Really, it's a wonder I've survived as long as I have.
Improv show at Main Street Stage tonight at 8pm, if you're around and I'm alive.
*(as a rhode islander, putting r's at the end of words isn't a new idear.)
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| Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
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12:05 am - I >4 NY
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| Sunday, September 13th, 2009
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4:57 am - Hello 5am
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| Thursday, September 10th, 2009
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1:37 am - Down and Up
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Spent most of today being ill. Note to internal organs: Quit it.
Negotiated a trade to get rid of some board games we never play in exchange for some new ones we hope we might. BoardGameGeek is awesome.
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