A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
You know what kind of letters make you the happiest? The kind that tell you—hey you’re kind of smart.
The Université Laval sent me my marks today. I got an A in CORRECTION PHONETIQUE (Phonetics) and a B- in LANGUE ORALE ET ECRITE (Oral and Written Language). La langue française est très facile.
The world’s most expensive game of Rock Paper Scissors was used to decide which of two art houses would hold an auction valued at $20 million.
I think tomorrow I’m going to find someone to have a match of paper rock scissors and will I choose rock? Too obvious—scissors all the way.
I heard that there was something like a 4% jump (I can’t remember the exact percentage—so sue me!) in the amount of times people were using rock after the Simpsons episode where Bart is thinking about his Rock Paper Scissors move against Lisa, “Good old rock, nothing beats rock.”
I didn’t even remember to spell-check it, but a few minutes ago I entered the Blogger SAT challenge.
We’re especially interested in finding out if bloggers, because of their regular practice in short-form writing, might be able to perform well on the test. On the blogger’s side, they’re used to cranking out pointless rants on a moment’s notice. But highschoolers are well-practiced at responding to their teachers’ inane writing prompts. Bloggers get to choose their topics, so blogging may not transfer well to the SAT’s writing prompt. Who can perform better on the SAT test? There’s only one way to find out.
So, without further ado, we present the Blogger SAT Challenge. We’ve prepared a (relatively) controlled environment where our
victimsvolunteers can respond to a sample SAT question.
I just want to mention that 21 minutes goes REALLY fast when the pressure is on.
Depending on my “grade”, I’ll decide in the future whether this particular essay ever sees the light of day.
Sleeping with a partner can save your life. From the author, Dr. Paul C. Rosenblatt,”It surprised me how many people thought they were alive today because they shared a bed”.
Did I mention that _I_ am a lifeguard?
I’ve been saving this little gem of a video much like a pirate hoarding gold. Today is the day I was planning to link to it and I almost forgot!
Enjoy: Pyrats, a swashbuckling animated short from those talented scallywags at Gobelins animation school.
An able-bodied seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns recounting their adventures at sea. Noting the pirate’s peg-leg, hook, and eye patch The seaman asks “So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?”
The pirate replies, “We was caught in a monster storm off the cape and a giant wave swept me overboard. Just as they were pullin’ me out a school of sharks appeared and one of ’em bit me leg off”.
“Blimey!” said the seaman. “What about the hook”?
“Ahhhh”, mused the pirate, “We were boardin’ a trader ship, pistols blastin’ and swords swingin’ this way and that. In the fracas me hand got chopped off.”
“Blimey!” remarked the seaman. “And how came ye by the eye patch?”
“A seagull droppin’ fell into me eye”, answered the pirate.
“You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?” the sailor asked incredulously.
“Well,” said the pirate, “it was me first day with the hook.”
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One day, while sailing the seven seas, a look-out spotted a pirate ship, and the crew became frantic.
Captain Bravo bellowed for his red shirt. The First Mate quickly retrieved the captain’s red shirt, and, after donning the shirt, the captain led his crew into battle and defeated the pirates.
Later on, the look-out spotted not one, but two pirate ships. The captain again howled for his red shirt and once again vanquished the pirates.
That evening, all the men sat around on the deck recounting the day’s triumphs, and one of them asked the captain: “Sir, why did you call for your red shirt before each battle?”
The captain replied: “If I am wounded in the attack, my crew won’t notice my bleeding and will continue to fight, unafraid.” All of the men sat in silence and marveled at the courage of their captain.
As dawn came the next morning, the look-out spotted not one, not two, but TEN pirate ships approaching. The rank and file all stared at the captain and waited for his usual request.
Captain Bravo calmly shouted: “Bring me my brown pants!”
Banksy is in the news for painting a live elephant as an artistic way to raise poverty awareness. A video of the elephant in question is available on Youtube.
While painting an elephant may have irked some animal rights activists, the video showing what he did with 500 of Paris Hilton’s CDs is much more interesting.
Remember what Banksy says, “Leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.” Something I should be taking to heart more often.
I’ve been spending some time with my family in Medicine Hat over the last week. While I was here, we received some very bad news. A cousin of mine, Michael Scoville, passed away last Friday at the age of 26 years old.
Of all my cousin’s, I hung out with Mike more than any other. We lived in the same city for most of our lives and were pretty much the same age. We never went to the same school at the same time for very long but I was always amazed at how many people knew Mike all over the city.
Growing up we had our share of fighting between us but within the last ten years, or so, we made up and I enjoyed running into him at his parents house on the many occasions when they would invite us all over for dinner. It’s sad that he’s gone.
I may be headed for an involuntary hiatus from posting because my hard drive is beginning to act like it has Alzheimer’s and files are beginning to disappear. Each time I start my computer is worse than the last. Pretty soon I won’t even be able to boot the thing up. I should have started to migrate my photos and songs as soon as I saw it happening, but alas it looks like I might lose everything. C’est la vie—in the meantime I’m at least I’m enjoying the week visiting my sister and her family. Here are some photos of my cute nephews.
In the tradition of making movies out of Saturday Morning Cartoons from the 80’s, some folks in Hollywood are producing a feature length live-action Transformers Movie (flash site with teaser).
I haven’t actually decided whether or not I’m going to see this movie, but I’m posting this here because hearing the transforming sounds and seeing my childhood imagination being transformed into reality brought on some great memories and if nothing else, I think we could all use a little science-fiction nostalgia to brighten our day.