Blogthings - How Do You Communicate?

You Communicate With Your Ears


You love conversations, both as a listener and a talker.

What people say is important to you, and you're often most affected by words, not actions.

You love to hear complements from others. And when you're upset, you often talk to yourself.

Music is very important to you. It's difficult to find you without your iPod.

Extortr!

Extortr: online blackmail for the masses

(Announcement: this is a joke... this is only a joke!!)

(via Hot Links)

Astrology when Uranus is backward...

Yes, you heard right! According to an email I received from Astrology.com today, "On June 19, Uranus turns retrograde, bringing his flair for the unusual to a planet near you. Until the ruler of rebellion returns to direct motion on November 20, you may notice an increase in personality transformations or oddball news reports; indeed, the conventional wisdom for the next few months is 'Expect the unexpected.'"

So, I was offered a free "Revelations Reading" to reveal what might be hidden aspects of my personality (or at least that's what I hoped it was, and nothing having to do with four horsemen or anything!) Likely useless, but, hey, it's free!! The results...

Your Free Sample "Revelations Reading":
"Chapter 1: Planets in Signs

Sun in Gemini:
Your humorous outlook on life and your entertaining ability to paint a picture with words make you a delight to be with...

Mercury in Gemini:
You use humor in your self-expression and make each story an anecdote...

Venus in Cancer:
Your love nature is nurturing and protective. You are happiest when creating a cozy nest...

Mars in Libra:
Partnership comes first to you, and you give 100% to your meaningful relationships... "

Nothing earth-shattering, you say? For twelve bucks, I could have learned more. But I figure that ignorance is bliss... and certainly more cost-effective! :-)

Today's Sidebar Feature: Take Five!

Composed way back in 1959, "Take Five" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet may well be the best American instrumental in the entire second half of the twentieth century!

Today in the sidebar is a clip from 1961, when Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Morello and Gene Wright performed on jazz columnist Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual public television series. It totally swings!

(Fear not if you get a message saying that the video's content has been flagged as potentially inappropriate. There's nothing troublesome here... unless you're easily disturbed by guys in black suits and hornrimmed glasses looking so inexplicably cool!)

Newsflash: Testdriving a Ferrari in *Venice*??

How about taking a Ferrari for a float around Venice?

One did yesterday, in preparation for the opening of the world's 12th Ferrari store in this *roadless* city! (???!)


Want more surreal images of cars in Venice? Try here (oops!), here, here, here... and - kind of - here!

Men... 80% slashed off!

Ah, the things one finds when looking for bedding sales on the internet! Like, Overstock.com, save up to 80% every day!

Now, even if he is only $20, I cannot help but wonder what happened to the other 80% of this guy!

I can't quite decide if this is thoroughly macabre or just plain sad. (Bedding fashion tip: if you must, go for a teddy bear instead, which exudes cutesy and adorableness rather than, say, "this was the only part I could fit in my trunk..." Yikes!!)

I guess clients however really appreciate that more complicated male parts are not actually included, and some folks actually seem to like it better that way. (Either that, or they're shopping in the way wrong catalog!)

Really. Don't miss the customer reviews. With accolades like these, I wonder how they're actually able to keep these dismembered torsos from flying off the warehouse shelves!

Aiiieee.... sounds like a movie! "Freddy does Overstock.Com", or maybe just "Scary Movie 5"... What do you think?? Why, the DVD sales alone could keep me up to my neck in these disembodied arms! (On second thought, AIIEEEEE!)

Newsflash: "Venice under a cloud as Rome predicts rain, whatever the weather"!

"Venice and Rome have squabbled for centuries over taxes, trade routes and artistic supremacy. Now the two former rival city states, have discovered a new issue to divide them: Italy's national weather forecast..." (more from Telegraph News Venice under a cloud as Rome predicts rain, whatever the weather)

No joke! Now, if they could only predict the weather accurately in Maine (although these days, "rain," "rain," "rain" is rather a no-brainer... *sigh*)

Newsflash: "Venice for Venetians"

Venice for Venetians: How to Save Houses Glimpsed in Canalettos

The Wit & Wisdom of Stephen Colbert, redux

How I wish that a comic would someday address our college's graduates! (That would rock!)

2006 Knox College Commencement Address

UPDATED - Today's Sidebar Feature: Soda Fountains!

Ah, the internet was made for this!

Most folks know that I'm easily entertained, but - truth be told - there's nothing easy about these diet coke and mentos experiments, bringing a sticky version of the Bellagio fountains directly to your own computer (without all the mess!)

(Surely, our civilization - such as it is - will go down in history as having developed the most intricate yet mindless forms of entertainment ever known to man! Oh well... In the meantime, enjoy!!)

UPDATED: If you didn't already, go ahead and "refresh" this page, and then click "ok" to running an "ActiveX" control. It will then begin to load the video, which you can start by just clicking the small "play" button at the bottom of the mini-screen! Enjoy!!

Top 500 Songs?

Ever try to figure out something simply and entirely just for the hell of it?

After a long day of house packing, I was in the mood for some mental work, but it was going to have to be pretty darn mechanical at this hour of the night...

So, as a lark, I went to see how many of the top 500 songs ranked by listeners of our local radio station were also included in the Rolling Stone ranking of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Not that this discovery is going to change the course of human history or anything, but the results are nevertheless in and the answer is... (ta da!)

Less than 20%. Now, of course, the RS list isn't limited by genre, but even so, only one of the songs in the local version of the top ten even show up in the Stone's top 100, and three don't even make the list at all.

On the heels of others' detailed analysis of the RS 500 greatest, here is the local top ten (with its Rolling Stone rankings)...
1. "Sweet Home Alabama" (198)
2. "Dream On" (172)
3. "More than a Feeling" (500)
4. "Taking Care of Business" (not ranked)
5. "Freebird" (191)
6. "Satisfaction" (#2!)
7. "We Will Rock You" (330)
8. "Go Your Own Way" (119)
9. "Don't Bring Me Down" (not ranked)
10. "The Joker" (not ranked)

For some inexplicable reason, I find it interesting that eight other songs besides "Satisfaction" are - despite all these differences - ranked within ten spots on both charts. Heaven knows I'm no math whiz, and that may well be completely statistically probable, but still it would seem that layfolks' tastes in these few, rare occasions coincide more or less with those of music industry cognoscenti!

They are:
11. "Born to Run" (21)
21. "Layla" (27)
87. "Every Breath You Take" (84)
96. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (100)
121. "Honky Tonk Woman" (116)
137. "Maggie May" (130)
222. "Fire and Rain" (227)
268. "Something" (273)

What is this all supposed to mean? In the immortal words of Pee Wee Herman,

"Supposed to mean? Supposed to mean?! I think everyone here knows what this is supposed to mean. When you've gone over something again and again and again and again, like I have, certain questions get answered.Others spring up! The mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back! It's like you're unraveling a cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting..."

UPDATED: And at least four of these songs have intelligible backmasking. (Coincidence?!) Enjoy!

The Perils (and Pleasures) of Venice

"Venice enchanting, despite surly servers" recounts the standard complaint about Venice, where a city absolutely shell-shocked by tourism tends to treat foreigners with distrust at best and distain at worst.

But the splendid photo accompanying the article says it all about why it pays for visitors to be intrepidly patient (or patiently intrepid) in order to see the breathtaking beauty of this rare city!!

Blogthings - What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be


Anything worth taking seriously - is worth making fun of