Oh, that was unexpected...heh

Cam Newton just won the Heisman Trophy.

How long does he get to keep it before it is stripped from him?

Edit at 8:57 pm EST: He just thanked the troops.

I love her...

No, seriously...I think she is wonderful.

But...she says that she doesn't use the internet?

Is it because she is a Luddite or that it is difficult to shoplift online?

Music for a Friday Night

While looking over a list over critics' (and others) favorite (or best) albums of 2010, I noticed that Sasha Frere-Jones had selected The Budos Band's III as his favorite album.

This was surprising because...well because I didn't know the album existed.

So, using the power of iTunes, I was able to purchase the album.

It is as amazing as the last two.

Now, some of you are asking yourself, who are these people?

Just give a listen. It is a wonderfully retro sound, with horns and funk and Afro-Caribbean rhythms.

2010: Google's Year in Review

I love that Jimmy McMillan made the list.

I think the largest faux pas I made this year was asking publicly on the morning of January 13th asking if the media wasn't making too big a deal about this earthquake. Yes, I was the a**hole on that one.

Via Gawker

I can tell you the meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown

"Lights, please..."

Who thought this was a good idea to show to young children? Charlie Brown is depressed. Lucy is a bossy c**t. Linus is a head case. Peppermint Patty is like a cocktail party guest who corners you and talks to you until you want to slit your throat from ear to ear.

Via Deadspin

Aaron Sorkin on Sarah Palin

I'm able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don't watch snuff films and you make them. You weren't killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I've tried and tried and for the life of me, I can't make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I'm able to make the distinction with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.


Read it at the Huffington Post

I was talking with a friend about Sorkin and is purposely douchey attack (via the writing) on Larry Summers in The Social Network, and I thought that I couldn't love him more then.

This makes me so very very giddy.

Because it does nothing to add to the discourse, it is just there to taunt Sarah and a Palinites (TM pending) and that is a very good thing.
Via Vulture

Good morning , Wednesday

1) More awful terrible no good dreams last night.

Why would I be smuggling heroin and why in little baggies in my stomach and colon?

2) I don't understand QC today. Could it be that I am too old?

3) Could this be the most awesome combination ever? I think so.

4) Continuing after last nights' Strange Days Indeed post, the listening to of John Lennon increased.

I give you:

Strange Days Indeed

I am not a fan of the Beatles (no, I do not hate them, though this is a good guide to hating them) but (and this is largely because of my mom) I am a huge John Lennon fan, and I think one of the reasons I don't like the Beatles as much as I should is because Paul's tracks are so much better produced and it makes me believe that the Paul, George and Ringo were being "mean" to John.

I was thinking about this the other day when some blog (and I can't find the damned article now) was writing about the now iconic Lennon NYC t-shirt photograph from 1974 and the conditions under which it was taken. (Damn, I wish I knew where the link was.)

I remember when Lennon was shot. I remember my parents reaction. I remember it well.

I have hated Catcher in the Rye since I first read it when I was eleven or so. It hasn't gotten better as I have gotten older. In fact, I find adults who consider this novel to be their favorite or an example of great literature to be vapid and ultimately dismiss all their opinions.

Maybe it is because the book is a piece of trash, or maybe it has to do with Mark David Champman but that is off topic. I just hate the book, and there could be underlying reasons why.

Anyway, my mom and I were talking about John Lennon and his role after one of the insipid Beatles/iTunes advertisements came on during The Chris Matthews Show and she believed that John Lennon mattered because he had transcended his role as a pop star and had become a political leader, a proto-Bono if you wish, and the was a real reason that the FBI was always following him.

He would be 70 now, and tomorrow is the anniversary of his murder, and I wonder what he would think of the world he helped create. Would he love Julian's art? What would he have thought of Cibo Matto?

Would he have an iPhone?

Strange days indeed.

Outside, there's a box car waiting

Is it wrong that I love this song?

More to the point, is it wrong that I love how non-rockstar like they all look in 1990?

The App that you need to have

Hey, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users.




The greatest App ever is available today.

Yes, it is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart App and it is free for now.

Quotes, videos, and general Stewartness.



Get it today!

They keep coming

The they referenced in the title are my dreams. I was afraid to go to sleep last night because of what my subconscious was going to do to punish me. (Yes, sometimes my dreams bother me so much that I put off sleep.) I should have listened to the voice of fear and not slept but no, my body requires it for six hours or so per night and I needed to listen to my body.

That doesn't mean that I was able to turn off my mind.

These dream as a series of vignettes where a person I care about decided that it was in her best interests to torture me using various methods and in several locales.

It was awesome.

Then adding injury to insult, I decided to go for a run this morning and (because I am a idiot of the highest order) did not warm up properly. No, I didn't cool down properly either. Somewhere along the way I did something to my right thigh and now every time I cough of laugh a not so nice feeling runs down the inside of my leg.

I will try to avoid both coughing and laughing.

Everyone else is doing it...why not me?

My Year in Facebook Status Updates

I had an...interesting year.

I have a vision

I have a vision that one day there is going to be a biopic made of my life.

(As a matter of full disclosure, it is probably because I have done something so terrifyingly awful that the public takes some sort of fascination with my rather pathetic life, and I become, for a moment, a person a interest. Yes, even my fantasies are chock full of doubt and self-loathing)

As I was explaining to Teacher Dave last week, I have an introduction scene in my head...it is me, in jeans, a black sweater, black sports coat, and Doc Marten's, smoking a cigarette, walking down a side-lit hallway, with an indie cover of Gimmie Shelter playing loudly over the credits...and yes, I want it to be a long shot.

This may be the version of the song that I want.



Yes, I know it is odd but there is a rawness to it that makes me...well, want it as my introduction.

But who plays me?

My ideal would be Philip Seymour Hoffman (he can do pudgy sanctimonious douche nearly as well as I can) but he may be too old by the time it comes out.

Oprah, Freedom, and the Great Unwashed Masses

donya34 : I started this book thinking WHY; why did Oprah think this was a good choice, why should I spend my time reading this, why does this author feel it necessary to use every word he knows, some of which aren't even in the dictionary on my Kindle.

(Via The Awl's Best Comments from Oprah Book Club's Online Discussion of "Freedom")

I have made it clear that I loved this book in spite of it being an Oprah selection (and spare me the "She is getting people reading argument", I don't care.), and I was hesitant about how the people who Oprah is adored by would react to it.

It is better than I ever imagined!

*Squee*

My Year In Pictures

Ashley and I did the Polar Plunge up in Lake George.






Ryan and Dorayne got married!






Anya taught TEA how to Hula Hoop at Pinksterfest!






TEA chose to be Christened a Roman Catholic, and to celebrate, we played laser tag!






I had a thoroughly awful Memorial Day weekend, but I learned that my sister can smoke with her feet.






The Great Beer Walk of 2010 went off with out a hitch.






TEA broke his arm in a Wii related incident.






Paige and Allison came to visit (and they had to see Sesame Street)!





They also had to go to the Biergarten and the Lionheart!



TEA's arm healed quickly and he was cast free for out vacation in Maine.





Shauna was back east, so we were required (Is that a state or local law?) to laugh and drink craft beer.






I met JMFJT and introduced her to kayaking, as well as the wonders of the Rum and Coke.






I had a great birthday (until it wasn't) and TEA was even there to handle the Boot for me.






I continued to do Habitat for Humanity, even on crappy Autumn Days.






I did have to say goodbye to my dog, Curly.






And two weeks later, I had to say goodbye to my grandfather, but the family pulled together and I had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat.







It has been a good year, a bad year, and an interesting year. Here is to surviving 2011.

Music and Memories for a Monday

1)I love Sia. I think that "The Girl You Lost (to cocaine)" is strong and powerful and yet still listen-able.

Here is her new video:


What do you think?

I, for one, think that it is beautiful and the song is heart achingly touching. I also believe that if you don't like it you (redacted) and (redacted).

(via Pretty Much Amazing)

2) Big Ben's broken nose makes me happy. Yes, I am wishing pain on another human.

3) I had a series of opinions about the GOP taking the NYS Senate back and while they were similar to what FAU and I talked about before the election, I have a fear that both of us may have been to generous to the Western New York contingent of Senators. Yes, they are about equal in the moderation to Roy McDonald, but there are more of them and a number of then have agendas that fit more into the "Guns Good, Gays Bad" caucus that reflects the general mood of establishment Republicans in other areas with similar flyover features. FAU, help me. You're my only hope. Help me come back around to divided government being good for New York, because I am thinking Guam as the place to relocate to.

4) Even though the last nine minutes of the game was difficult to watch, I did enjoy the Union vs. Yale game yesterday. It reminded me of being an undergrad.

Oh, I shouldn't have eaten that

Even though my stomach had been off all day, I decided that some of my mom's goulash (which was in the freezer) would be a good idea.

It was very tasty but it also affected my dreams.

In the longest most vivid one, I was looking online and I saw that the town that I was living in was offering a brothel/meeting place/dating site (but a physical location) and that some people I know were members/clients/working there.

Dream me apparently thought this was a brilliant business plan because i rode my bike down to the location.

When I got there, and pushed open the swinging saloon hall doors, I saw a number of friends hanging out at the bar. As it was my dream, I knew everyone there and some of the couplings were odd (and strangely hilarious)(and some people were talking while others were engaged in full on coitus) and then one acquaintance came over to me, grabbed me by the hand, led me to a table in the other room and kissed me on the mouth. I kissed back for a moment but stopped myself because...well...dream me doesn't have a great reason for the stoppage, but it felt like the right thing to do. I asked her what this kiss meant and she told me what ever I wanted to make of it, from a fling to something that could "last forever".

Way to turn something into a nightmare.

Anyway, we sat and talked, and dream friend said something to me that a real life friend told me Friday night, which then led me to the realization that this was a dream and that I should wake up...

And I did.

Then came The Walking Dead inspired dream in which I was forced to kill a zombie who is a friend but not until after she had bit TEA, who I then had to put down as well.

Lessons learned?

1) Don't trust anyone in real life or the dream world.
2) Don't let people near your children.
3) No goulash after 9:00 pm.

Surviving the Nuclear Apocalypse

There are four things you have to remember:

Forward Thinking
Understanding
Caution
Knowledge

Ducked and Covered: A Survival Guide to the Post Apocalypse from Nathaniel Lindsay on Vimeo.

Via io9.com

Something I can get behind...

The campaign to get Cookie Monster to host SNL. (Facebook page)

The video is fun as well.



Monster GaGa and "Cookie Face" is hilarious in absurdity.

That's a new type of cheese

Last night, a friend and I went to Holmes & Watson for some beer and light fare.

Now, I have written about my love of poutine before and I am always willing to try someone's version of it.

However, being me, I had to ask what cheese they were using on their gravy, cottage fries, and cheese combo.

We had a very nice server and when I asked what type of cheese was being used, she happily responded with:

I don't know. I think it is Monetary Jack.

Yep, folks, that's what she said. Not a typo above. My friend and I looked at each other after the server had walked away and did the only thing we could.

We gave each other a high five and then giggled.

Now that makes me think that I should head to Monetary for my next getaway. Or maybe I should get Larry Summers to give a talk about Monterey Policy and the China problem.

I know that this could be seen as catty, but it was so very funny at the time and will continue to stay that way.