Today's best PostSecret

From PostSecret, with the following response attached to it:

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 9:46 AM
Subject: Baby daughter duck postcard

I’ve never been told I’m a beautiful woman, but when someone tells me my daughter looks just like me, it makes me feel beautiful because in my eyes she’s the most gorgeous little girl in the world

brooklynvegan: Technics 1200 turntable watch

DOPE!

brooklynvegan: Technics 1200 turntable watch: "This turntable watch is modeled after the classic Technics 1200 down to the tiniest detail, so much so that you'd swear you could spin some wax on it if only records came in such wee sizes. It's available now for $65 and a small shred of your dignity."

Call of Duty #1 in Worldwide Sales

Of course, it was all due to my voiceover work on the world leaders spots... 8)

"Activision today announced that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the number one title in unit sales worldwide for calendar 2007. The game sold over seven million units worldwide according to statistics garnered from The NPD Group, Chart Track and The GFK Group, respectively. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare also recently topped Halo 3 as the most played Xbox Live title.

"We're very excited about this achievement especially given so many competitive titles this year," said Will Kassoy, senior vice president, global brand management, Activision Publishing. "Consumer and critics agree that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best games ever created and further establishes Call of Duty as one of the premier brands in the industry. This ground-breaking game and franchise continue to establish new standards by which all other action games will be judged."

Rodents of Unusual Size?

I believe then that the Fire Swamp is in South America:

Long Ago, a Rodent as Big as a Bull Lurked in South America - New York Times: "LONDON — Imagine a rodent that weighed a ton and was as big as a bull.

Uruguayan scientists say they have uncovered fossil evidence of the biggest species of rodent ever found, one that scurried across wooded areas of South America about four million years ago, when the continent was not connected to North America.

A herbivore, the beast may have been a contemporary, and possibly prey, of saber-toothed cats — a prehistoric version of Tom and Jerry.

Its huge skull, more than 20 inches long, suggested a beast more than eight feet long and weighing between 1,700 and 3,000 pounds."

LAist: Burning Man Reveals the New "Man"

Not going to the Man this year, not that any of you believe me. 8)

Tickets on sale tomorrow, though I won't be buying one.



LAist: Burning Man Reveals the New "Man": "Burning Man has revealed the design for the new Man. The design was created by Larry Harvey and Rod Garrett, and illustrated by Jack Haye and Rod Garrett, and will be the centerpiece of the Burning Man Arts Festival in the Black Rock Desert. The American Dream is the theme to this year's festival.

This year's Burning Man will be the tallest ever, and will stand on top of a four-story obelisk. The monument will be draped with flags of countries from all over the world. Inside the obelisk, a double-helix like strand will create a spiral staircase that will resemble DNA. The 'Man' will be burned on Burn Night on Saturday, August 30th.

The Burning Man Festival takes place on August 25th to September 1st 2008. Tickets for Burning Man will go on sale on January 16th, please remember there will be NO tickets available at the gate, tickets must be purchased before the event."

From

Add'l reading

Some great stuff lately:

A piece in Slate takes an economic approach to marriage, sex and relationships. Especially the second half, with regards to how the pill has changed women's choices in regards to marriage, sex and careers.
http://www.slate.com/id/2182089/entry/2182090/

And this piece of amazing journalism and amazing, erm, humanism, about Pete Carroll, coach of the USC Trojans. He's fucking insane and on some way-positive stuff. As maniacally happy and enthusiastic as I was post-Burning Man in 2002. Times about a 100.
http://www.lamag.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=14D5B253DB1D499F9AD38F459D8E926A&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=FBED63DFDC694D699DA4EAF13E24562D

You Ain't No Picasso

Nice post over at You Ain't No Picasso. (In a slight twist, I'd include the Gears of War commercial with "Mad World.")

We're also working on a project which would include a "One Shining Moment"/violence juxtaposition...

You Ain't No Picasso: "The Best Happy Music/Violent Image Scenes

I enjoyed my film classes so much last semester that I decided to take the second part to one of them. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to make a list of all my favorite scenes in movies where there is violent imagery shown while happy, upbeat or otherwise ill-fitting (in the conventional sense) music is playing. Some I disqualified because the music wasn’t exactly “happy” to begin with (”Goodbye Horses” in Silence of the Lambs, “Where is My Mind?” in Fight Club). So if it makes you winch while tapping your feat, it’s probably here."

Today's quizhttp://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?StoryID=12581how are you doing so far in 2008 on the happiness factor?

Via k8 via Captain Erotica's blog:

how are you doing so far in 2008 on the happiness factor?

The year is already 1/24th over...and how we are in the beginning of the year can echo through the rest of our sun-cycle...

"happy" both by it's use and definition, is a subjective descriptor...but one I have chosen to represent the bell-curve apex of positive linguistic descriptors...

The bloggist admits that this test is skewed by his perspective of what makes a person Happy...Thus, as with all tests, take it with a grain of salt, or at the very least, in the Spirit of Fun

to wit, here is a survey of how you are doing:

~5 points for each yes~

~A~Are you taking time to communicate clearly with those you are intimate with?

~B~Have you done at least two days of athletic activity during 2008?

~C~Have you given yourself or an other an orgasm during 2008?

~D~Have you considered any travel during 2008? (give yourself an extra 5 points if you've already booked a ticket)

~E~Have you eaten or cooked a delicious meal during 2008?

~F~In this moment as you read this, are you relaxed overall? Even if you are not relaxed overall, can you take a deep breath and tap into relaxation somewhere inside you?

~G~Have you done anything creative thus far in 2008?

~H~Do you feel that you have been nice to other people so far during 2008?

~I~Have you given any thought towards the manifestation of an erotic fantasy thus far this year?

~J~Have you spent any time in nature this year?

No Pants 2K8 - a photoset on Flickr

A group after my own heart, Improv Everywhere, had their annual "No Pants" subway ride this past weekend, and here's the Flickr photoset to prove it.


No Pants 2K8 - a photoset on Flickr: "(more photos coming!)

Improv Everywhere's 7th annual No-Pants Subway ride. Is it a protest? Is it a performance? Is it a mind-boggling coincidence?!

'I don't know, I'm not from around here. I guess it's just a warm day for January. Why do I have these cameras? Well I was just on my way to a shoot but now I'm late and all my memory cards are full...'

if you just can't get enough, here's some from last year"

From

Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests

Alright, a little levity from the Times. Call it Weekend at Bernie's 3: Hell's Kitchen:

Even for the once-notorious Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, it may have been a first: Two men were arrested on Tuesday after pushing a corpse, seated in an office chair, along the sidewalk to a check-cashing store to cash the dead man’s Social Security check, the police said.

When Virgilio Cintron, 66, died at his apartment at 436 West 52nd Street recently, his roommate and a friend saw an opportunity to cash his $355 check, the police said.

They did not go about it the easy way, the police said, choosing a ruse that resembled the plot of “Weekend at Bernie’s,” a film about two young men who prop up their dead employer to pretend that he is alive.

“Hell’s Kitchen has a rich history,” said Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, “but this is one for the books.”

There was no sign of foul play in Mr. Cintron’s death, he added.

The roommate, James P. O’Hare, and his friend, David J. Dalaia, both 65 and unemployed, placed Mr. Cintron’s body in the chair and wheeled it around the corner, south along Ninth Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, the police said. The men parked the chair with the corpse in front of Pay-O-Matic at 763 Ninth Avenue, a check-cashing business that Mr. Cintron had patronized.

They went inside to present the check, but a clerk said Mr. Cintron would have to cash it himself, and asked where he was, the police said.

“He is outside,” Mr. O’Hare said, indicating the body in the chair, according to Mr. Browne.

The two men started to bring the chair inside, but it was too late.

Their sidewalk procession had already attracted the stares of passers-by who were startled by the sight of the body flopping from side to side as the two men tried to prop it up, the police said. The late Mr. Cintron was dressed in a faded black T-shirt and blue-and-white sneakers. His pants were pulled up part of the way, and his midsection was covered by a jacket, the police said. While the two men were inside the check-cashing office, a small crowd had gathered around the chair. A detective, Travis Rapp, eating a late lunch at a nearby Empanada Mama saw the crowd and notified the Midtown North station house.

Police officers and an ambulance arrived as the two men were trying to maneuver the corpse and chair into the check-cashing office.

The two men were taken into custody and questioned. The police said they were considering charging them with check-cashing fraud.

Mr. Cintron’s body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner’s office said its preliminary assessment was that he had died of natural causes within the past 24 hours.

Sex and the Teenage Girl

Exhausted and still not sleeping well, I'm close to tears as it is.

From the NYTimes, about the movie Juno(which I've yet to see):

Los Angeles

THE movie “Juno” is a fairy tale about a pregnant teenager who decides to have her baby, place it for adoption and then get on with her life. For the most part, the tone of the movie is comedic and jolly, but there is a moment when Juno tells her father about her condition, and he shakes his head in disappointment and says, “I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when.”

Female viewers flinch when he says it, because his words lay bare the bitterly unfair truth of sexuality: female desire can bring with it a form of punishment no man can begin to imagine, and so it is one appetite women and girls must always regard with caution. Because Juno let her guard down and had a single sexual experience with a sweet, well-intentioned boy, she alone is left with this ordeal of sorrow and public shame.

In the movie, the moment passes. Juno finds a yuppie couple eager for a baby, and when the woman tries to entice her with the promise of an open adoption, the girl shakes her head adamantly: “Can’t we just kick it old school? I could just put the baby in a basket and send it your way. You know, like Moses in the reeds.”

It’s a hilarious moment, and the sentiment turns out to be genuine. The final scene of the movie shows Juno and her boyfriend returned to their carefree adolescence, the baby — safely in the hands of his rapturous and responsible new mother — all but forgotten. Because I’m old enough now that teenage movie characters evoke a primarily maternal response in me (my question during the film wasn’t “What would I do in that situation?” but “What would I do if my daughter were in that situation?”), the last scene brought tears to my eyes. To see a young daughter, faced with the terrible fact of a pregnancy, unscathed by it and completely her old self again was magical.

And that’s why “Juno” is a fairy tale. As any woman who has ever chosen (or been forced) to kick it old school can tell you, surrendering a baby whom you will never know comes with a steep and lifelong cost. Nor is an abortion psychologically or physically simple. It is an invasive and frightening procedure, and for some adolescent girls it constitutes part of their first gynecological exam. I know grown women who’ve wept bitterly after abortions, no matter how sound their decisions were. How much harder are these procedures for girls, whose moral and emotional universe is just taking shape?

WCBS NEWSRADIO 880 - New Jersey Cat Free From Bottle Stuck on Head

I find this ridiculously funny. Up in LOLcats in notime i'm very sure.

WCBS NEWSRADIO 880 - New Jersey Cat Free From Bottle Stuck on Head: "New Jersey Cat Free From Bottle Stuck on Head

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Good news this afternoon about the stray cat we told you about yesterday seen wandering near Flemington with its head stuck in a bottle.

The stray was caught this morning by Raritan Township Animal Control Tom Dodd with the help of ASPCA.

It was near death when they snagged it under a porch. Its head wedged in a jar, which was wedged under a porch.

They brought the scared stray to a vet... a little bit of crisco and off it came!

Dodd says the cat was first spotted on New Year's Eve and eluded capture until this morning. For ten days it was unable to eat or drink.

Within the next day the cat will be the shelter for adoption. If you want to give it a home, call the Hunterdon ASPCA at (908) 996-2525 and ask for Eva.

By the way, Dodd says the first thing to do if you see an animal in distress is call the police. Do not attempt to rescue yourself. The professionals are trained to make a quick capture."

old

old, originally uploaded by ideateller.

My parents¹ dachsund Cedric is getting really old. 15 years+. He¹s a great
dog, but he can¹t really control his bladder anymore, and he¹s got a super
hard time with stairs. He¹s also deaf and mostly blind.

My parents love him but realize he¹s on his last legs. I¹d be shocked for
him to be around next Christmas.

Along with my parents talking about retirement, the whole trip left me a
little melancholy, worried about the mortality of the people in my life.

puns

puns, originally uploaded by ideateller.

amuse me. they really do.

NYE at the house of dr. joi

NYE at the house of dr. joi, originally uploaded by ideateller.

NYE at the house of dr. joi

NYE at the house of dr. joi, originally uploaded by ideateller.

NYE at the house of dr. joi

NYE at the house of dr. joi, originally uploaded by ideateller.