Random Thing #9

Saw this today, laughed a bit self-consciously, and as a prologue to my post, I thought I'd share it (post continues below embed):

Watch Real Life Twitter on CollegeHumor

Yes, I am on Twitter. I Tweet, Re-Tweet, follow and am followed. No Twibes yet, but I know what my Twitalizer scores are (need a glossary - start here with a fun post about Twitterspeak: 66 Twitter Terms You Don't Need to Know).

I have a #BlameDawno hashtag. I signed up for Twiggit, have TwitThis (no jokes about who's the twit, ok?) on my browser toolbar, and use Ping.fm to post statuses on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I use cli.gs to track people clicking on the links I Tweet.

If you are a psychologist or psychoanalyst, please don't comment, or send me an urgent email with your phone number for an appointment. I know I'm sick.

I'm on way too many social network sites. Ones I'm pretty much never on include MySpace, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog...haven't been to CoComment in ages, is it still up? I was enticed to join Vox and Discus, but haven't used them. I've Dugg some stuff (and that's what I got Twiggit for). I believe there are dozens of other sites I've signed up for out there, long forgotten, as well.

I just added my beading blog to Technorati, so I'm visiting there again after a long hiatus. I've also registered at a number of forums but only frequent one, (Absolute Write) and I haven't been there that regularly lately, even after a 3 month furlough.

I follow over 100 blogs on my Google Reader, on top of that, although I admit that I don't read every one - sometimes I peek at the first few lines on the feed, othertimes I skip over them. Never miss opening up my daily webcomics though.

So, my obviously serious internet addiction is hereby offered as today's Random Thing. Thank you for reading. Now let's all go to this place called "outside" and look at that bright thing shining up there in the "sky" - they tell me it's "the Sun" and the "light" it emits is good for you - except for "ultraviolet" and you should wear your "sunscreen" when you go "outside".

Random Thing #8

There's a conversation on Making Light (that started off*) about a NYT obit for J. G. Ballard that includes a quote saying “His fabulistic style led people to review his work as science fiction,” said Robert Weil, Mr. Ballard’s American editor at Norton. “But that’s like calling Brave New World science fiction, or 1984.” My reaction to that quote is rather rude, but that's not the point of this post.

There's discussion going in the comments at ML about about shelving books. Some have light-heartedly recommended shelving by color; others share how they shelve their books. Got me thinking about a new random thing to share.

In the past, when we had room for inside bookshelves**, I've shelved alphabetically regardless of genre, also mixing hard back and paperback books on the same shelf. The only exception is my rather large collection of Star Trek novelizations.

While those books are written by many different authors, they are all about Star Trek, so I feel they should all be shelved together (and so do the bookstores I buy them in). They all go in publication order, by show order. So the TOS books, then the TNGs, the DS9 and the VOY (very few). Never bought any Enterprise.

Then there are the ones that don't fit by series (SCE, Excalibur, Titan, etc.) those are by publication order, but each spin off story is in its own group. There are a few other series of stories (Captain's Table series, for example) that also don't fit into the main categories, those too are grouped separately.

And that's #8. At this rate it'll take me years to get to 50.


*many start on one topic and delightfully wander off into fascinating diversions
** right now the shelves and 80% of my books are in the garage

Happy Earth Day

My favorite clip discussing all the hoopla leading up to this year's Earth Day:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Kids' Earth Day
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Happy Belated Anniversary to Elements of Style & Random Thing #8

Somehow I missed that April 16th was the 50th anniversary of Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Required reading in my Freshman English Comp class in college and a handy thing to have lying around in general. I know some disagree, but I'd rather go wrong using Strunk & White's advice than try to muddle through improving my writing on my own. At least I think it sounds better to say "But that's what Elements of Style suggests." than "uh, well, it looked ok to to the MS Grammar check".

NPR did a radio commentary in honor of the anniversary - you can click on this link for the audio (you may need to click again inside the player to start it) or this link to read it - but I think it's more fun to listen to.

Random thing:

When I was younger I went to night classes at a Bible college, taught at a private Baptist Church school and was one of my church's teen group's adult leaders. I loved the Biblical Archeology class best - the whole history of the Middle East region and shards of evidence of the historical lives of the Bible figures was fascinating - and the professor had spent extensive time doing digs at places like Jericho. I also was active in various Bible studies for many years before and after that. So when I heard about a TV show that was loosely based on the story of David and Saul (the story is told in the books of Samuel and others in the Bible), set in a present, but alternate universe, timeline, I thought I'd watch. I rarely catch it on TV, so I watch the full episodes on NBC.com during lunch break or after work. I was chatting about the most recent episode with my husband today:

DH: kings?

me: it's a mini-series

you'd hate it

me: sort of an alt-history loosely based on the story of David and Saul in the Bible and has a slight "homage to Dallas and Falcon Crest" feel to it

DH: i misread that initially and thought it said "david soul", not "david & saul"

and i was very confused

me: heh

DH: an alternate history based on david soul in the bible?

wtf?

jesus & hutch?

me: Jesus & Hutch...you're gonna get hit by lightning

DH: so long as it's cold lightning, i'm ok with that

it's HOT

And that's my random thing.

Thinking about buying Elements of Style? Click here and a few pennies go into Dawno's beading fund...

just signed up and am testing ping.fm

Don't Ever Give Up

Nearly 48, gray hair, matronly figure, never been married, lives with cat Pebbles, currently unemployed and from a 'collection of villages' - nobody expected to be amazed...but they were. Brought tears to this nearly 52 year old who stopped singing back in her 30's eyes, I'm not ashamed to admit.

Three big w00ts! for Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent. Embedding disabled on the YouTube for this, please, though, do click through and listen, you'll be happy you did.

Amazon Fail

I am appalled with Amazon's censorship tactic brought to light this weekend on various blogs and Twitter.

So, click this and add the link on your blog, too. Send Amazon a message.

Editing to add: Digital Medievalist's post "Amazon Rankings Reek of Homophobia and Puritanism"

Damn corporate idjits.

Random Thing #7

Found via an article about Vimeo on Slate.


powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

I've stopped and watched similar displays (with fewer birds and wires, though) and there's something fascinating going on. I don't want to know the science behind it; I'd rather apply an imaginative reason.

Watching this with the music the video creator chose (per Slate: "Johnson sets the video to Yann Tiersen's "L'autre Valse d'Amélie," from the Amelie soundtrack, laid down with startling synchronicity to the images. ") - does it make you think these are living musical notes moving and changing, creating the tune as we watch? Or maybe it reminds you of the holes on some huge organic roll of player sky-piano music?

Random Thing #6

First seen on Whatever, the blogger of which saw it at Gizmodo - the Peekaru.

I have to say, when I had little ones, I probably would have bought this version. It would have looked nicer than the weird slings and carry-things I wore back then - they never matched anything I was wearing and always created a huge mess of wrinkles either on the front or back of my blouses.

That's my random thing for the day.

Dawno Recommends Some Blogs - Photography

If you love photography, I would like to recommend following Nikon Sniper's blog. I think his pictures are simply lovely and cover a wide variety of themes.

Another blog of beautiful photography is The Smitten Image - lots of pictures of the beauties of nature up in Canada and the occasional Jack Russell Terrier named Benny. I've been watching the seasons change up there through her photo essay posts.

On Live Journal user pecunium (Terry Karney) posts about his photography, he also has a website with an image gallery.

Since most of my photography consists of pictures of my jewelry and the occasional family photo, I've only otherwise got a few flower pictures I'm particularly proud of:

Tiny bloom on a flower growing out of a stone wall in Ireland

Flowers at a lovely nursery I visited when I met with a friend in North Carolina:

A blooming barrel cactus at the same nursery (which was more like a private botanical garden with flowers planted all over and walkways and little streams flowing through it.

Closeup of a teal colored flower (I was amazed that there was a teal colored flower anywhere so I had to take a picture - I'm very glad I did) on a plant at the UCLA botanical gardens (this one was right in front of the chain link fence between the gardens and the street, so it must be very hardy.

I used the pictures of the cactus and the teal flower to make calendars on Cafe Press in 2007 & 2008. Didn't make one for this year, though.

Do you have a blog to recommend for beautiful photography?

Mom Song

You've probably seen some version of this (or maybe even this one) but I saw it for the first time today. Must say I grinned through the whole thing.

Random Thing #5

I'm married to a pool player. He hasn't played a lot in the last few months, but he loves the game and was active with a league for a while. Once they made it to regionals (in Bakersfield of all places) but, unfortunately, no further.

I think the mathematical aspects of the game appeal to him, he's very adept at all that math stuff. Me, I liked geometry but was miserable at algebra and got no further than the basic stuff in both. I had to take algebra 1 twice. I got one of the lowest scores in the college math placement - I remember my counselor saying that. I wonder why she felt it was necessary, I already knew I was going to have to take something remedial to get my general ed credits in math. Fortunately there was a great class that covered the requirement created especially for non-math students. We even got to go to the Huntington Library on a field trip.

Anyway, here's an amazing little clip (first seen at Suburban Guerrilla)of a pool playing prodigy.

Billions and Billions...

About an hour ago I read on Whatever that Carl Sagan's brilliant Cosmos is now available to view on Hulu. So if I seem to have disappeared, it's because I'm watching. I don't think I saw much (if any) of it live when it was running and I'm thrilled to have this opportunity. If you want to watch, here's ep. 1 - then go to Hulu to see the rest.

The Big BSG Finale's Unanswered Question...Debated by Spike and Angel

Forwarding on from Organized Chaos, who linked to this io9 post Spike and Angel Debate the BSG Finale



In other news I finally got my new beading work table set up, I'm exhausted but really happy it's done. Posted about it over on my beading blog if you're curious.

BSG Finale & Random Thing #4

Watched the BSG finale last night with DH. Other than finding the heavy handed moralizing annoying, the 'tribute' to the old show's theme song sappy, too many flashbacks (just had to go 2 hrs for a "proper" finale, so let's film some flashback filler), and a mild case of wtf with Starbuck, I enjoyed it.

Now here's the question I bet you're all been wondering about: what season passes are on Dawno's TiVo? Even if you're not, I'm posting them. It's Random Thing #4 (at this rate I'll get to #50 some time in 2014)

ETA: 30 Rock
Bones
BSG
Castle
CSI (only the original one though)
ETA: Chuck (thanks for the reminder, Alby)
Dollhouse
Eureka
Heroes
House
Lie to Me
Lost
Mad Men
Monk
My Name is Earl
NCIS
NUMB3RS
Psyche
Reaper
Trust Me

Things I watch online because they're not TiVo'd for one or another reason

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Damages
Raising the Bar
Smallville

Lots of speculative or science oriented shows with some police-type procedurals thrown in and a couple lawyer dramas. Did I ever mention that until I realized I'd never "get" the math, I wanted to be a scientist? I didn't care what type, but from about 3rd grade I wanted to do something that entailed lab coats and beakers or better yet, a space suit. Then in college I thought about law. Although I didn't end up in either, at least I work in tech now. I may not design or program the stuff, but I do get to see lots of cool tech in action every day and use a lot of it, too.

Money is Flying Out of the Windows of the Pickup in Front of You - What Would You Do?

My daughter called me a bit after 5pm tonight. "Mom, I can't believe people! I mean, they were putting themselves and others in such danger! They were even running out on to the freeway!" She was headed home on the northbound 805 in San Diego. Suddenly she noticed cars stopped on the median and the breakdown lane (possibly in the freeway too, but I can't remember exactly). It took her a moment to figure it out - they were crouching and sitting and stooping. Then she saw some paper fly by - they were stopping to pick up as much money as they could as it fluttered down the freeway.

Yep. The details aren't all in yet, but apparently just a little ways ahead of her there was a pickup being chased by the police with money being flung out the windows. The police recovered $18k. The news story said "It was unknown how much money was collected by passers-by or how much money may have been thrown out in the first place."

I'm proud of my daughter for driving straight home and avoiding the freeway later on her way to her evening class.

Extreme Sheep LED Art - Another Brave Astro(bat)naut

I watch a Live Journal group, Discworld, and a member, mama_hogswatch posted this today (it's fitting for the Discworld group because she references Granny Aching and the Aching clan are shepherds) - it's rather amazing, not too long, do watch the whole thing.



Wow. The sheepdogs are the truly amazing part of the story - that they can take the commands and control the sheep to produce these amazing movement patterns.

And my DH just sent me the link to this clip (via Gizmodo)



Enterprise fans will recognize the theme song...

Lastly, I won't go into details, but I'm very happy right now with BofA's credit card customer service. Several things were frustrating me and now I've finally gotten to the bottom of it and they're fixing it all up. *whew*

Noted Scientist Agrees With Me - Excel Sucks

See, Chad Orzel, noted scientist guy, professor and owner of a very cute dog who understands physics, and who (Chad that is, not the...well, sometimes his dog does, too) blogs at Uncertain Principles for Science Blogs.com, agrees with me about Excel!

Miscellaneous other thoughts and random stuff:

Did you notice my Star Trek movie countdown widget in the sidebar? Well, I'm more impatient than before for that to reach 0:00:00 - saw the new trailer this weekend while waiting for Watchmen (which I really enjoyed) to start. Some of the same scenes as past trailers, but a few new bits. Too bad they don't have an embeddable clip on the official site. You can go to Apple.com and watch it - click on Trailer3.

Watched the new mini-series Kings on the web the other evening, as I hadn't heard about it in time to either have it TiVo'd or watch live. Think "Dallas" or "Falcon Crest" but with alternate reality New York-type metropolis as a setting, monarchy instead of republic as the form of government, but everything else seems rather 21st Century US-ian, down to the cars and clothes. I'll give it another episode or two to prove itself - the CGI and other photography is pretty well done, pacing was ok, plot - just read I and II Kings in the Bible for spoilers, I guess...

Lastly, I watched Colbert Report again to hear the interview of David Grann. While Colbert interrupted and took off on tangents so David was barely able to give a coherent account of his book, I did hear enough to decide I wanted to read it. Now. Not wait for it to arrive via Amazon or even drive to the store, NOW. So I went to the publisher's page, Random House, and saw there was an eBook option. Not just Kindle or Sony, but other distributors and one of them was Mobipocket, which I have. Mission accomplished!

Am a few chapters in, and really, really enjoying it (click the link above on David Grann to see some great stuff about the book on his website or scroll down to see the Colbert interview) - it's not only the story of the original explorer Fawcett, but a modern exploration that tried to follow in Fawcett's footsteps and possibly find out what happened to him, but also the story of the author's exploration of the explorers...all interwoven and skillfully written. If you want to get the book through Amazon, (this is the only paperback edition available) please use the link below and I'll get a few pennies for it. Also available for the Kindle.





Here's the Colbert interview:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

David Grann

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Mark Sanford
NASA Name Contest

He Gets it!! Graveyard Book - Gaiman Interview on Colbert Report

I don't watch the Colbert Report much - used to, just fell out of the habit - but I was always astounded with how many of the interviewees on his show didn't seem to be clear the show's concept (same goes for people being interviewed by Daily Show correspondents)...that being, "it's satire you dolt - why are you looking [puzzled, insulted, upset, stunned like a wack-a-mole]?"

Neil Gaiman was interviewed the other day. Now, here's someone who clearly gets it, and because he does, it's a great interview:



If you want to read the book, it'd be cool if you'd click here and Dawno gets a few pennies for her recommendation:




And continuing on a satire kick - Onion Radio News Alerts You May Have Missed
Part 1


Part 2

Lead, Follow or ... Oh, Nevermind, Just Tweet Something

If you see yourself in any of these 10 signs, you may need help. Is there at Twitter 12-step program? I may need it. I've been finding and following a lot of crafters, and then following some folk they follow...it's addictive. I'm trying to keep my balance of # of follows to # of followers within about 40 or 50, knowing that a number of people I follow won't follow back, so I probably won't ever have equal numbers.

Why? Because for some reason it bothers me to see folks following thousands and only having a few they follow back. Well, it bothers me when it's not Scalzi or Wheaton or Gaiman...

I have been surprised by a couple of follows - dipnote (Department of State), NPR tweeters, Stephen Fry (squee!!! *ahem* sorry)

Interrupting this post for breaking news: Just heard on BBC news on my radio: A British soldier has crashed 2 tanks in Germany this evening. Crashed one, went back for another and crashed it, too. For some reason, I find myself applauding his moxie... yes, he was drunk, and it was *bad bad* someone could have been hurt, yes... but really, two tanks? It is funny.