My Gift to You

Well, during my internet travels today, I happened upon quite a gem, that I will now share with you...and the WORLD!!!

Songs To Wear Pants To is a site that you should visit. It may take a while to load, initially. Don't worry, it's worth it. It is important to note that everything on this site is created by ONE GUY with a great deal of musical talent, a quirky sense of humor, and apparently, a lot of free time.

If you're too lazy to go check out the site yourself (you know who you are), I have included a few of my favorites here for your perusal and enjoyment:

The Sweater Song - Not what you think
Napoleode - Inspired by Napoleon Dynamite
Beware the Sea Anenemones
Beware the Sea Anenemones Remix
Polka Loca! - The new party dance!
Reverse Escargot

These last two are covers of songs by They Might Be Giants. If you don't know TMBG, hang your head in shame. You are not a true geek.

Birdhouse in Your Soul
Experimental Film - This one sounds like The Pogues.

It is important to mention that ALL of these songs were just random requests by normal people. Some people paid for the songs, but many of them were composed for free. That's right. YOU can request a crazy song by this guy, and he will focus his creative energies on your hair-brained idea, and you don't have to pay him a red cent, you cheap bastard!

Anyway, enjoy.

The Path to Enlightenment

Okay, so now it seems clear that my friend from the previous post still hates me. I thought things ended well, but it looks like she doesn't see it that way. I'd love to apologize and try to make things better, but I can't. I still stand by my opinion. My aunt is, once again, so right. Discernment sucks.

In other news, I have 2 large-ish papers due on Monday. Gotta love that end-of-the-semester crunch. One paper should be pretty easy, it's just an MMPI profile for one of my classmates. MMPI = Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. It detects psychos. Disappointingly, my classmate is completely well-balanced and normal. And just in case you're wondering - I know you are - I came out normal too. Finally! Proof that I'm not certifiably crazy - yet. At first, it looked like I was a bit nutty in one area, but it turns out that I'd just written the number down wrong! Math is hard!

The other paper will be a royal pain in the butt. I started it yesterday, and it became clear that I have NO IDEA how to write a paper like this. I have to critique these 6 articles I've reviewed over the semeser, but I can't critique them individually. I have to critique all the articles as a single body of information. Well, like a genius, I went out of my way over the semester to find diverse articles (more or less on the same topic, at least) with varying degrees of validity. I thought it would be great for the critique when I could compare and contrast the good research with the bad. Little did I know that the good research and the bad research would now have to be treated as a single entity. Incidentally, this single paper counts for 20% of my grade in the class. This could get interesting.

I've determined that I will draw upon the mighty powers of BS to see me through this, The Challenge of the Impossible Paper. Every good high school gifted student knows how to harness the powers of BS for papers and projects. In college, BS is further developed as an essential skill. (This is how gifted programs prepare you for college. It's not the accelerated course content. Gifted kids have a head start because they've been BSing for years!) Graduate school is at once the continuation and culmination of this training, where students are transformed into finely honed, well-oiled BS machines, before being unleashed on the world. BS is the universal lubricant.

I view this Challenge of the Impossible Paper as yet another test on my path to BS nirvana. I will not fail!

Modus Operandi

It has recently come to my attention that some people use blogs as a form of indirect comminication to their friends and associates. Typically, such bloggers will post hurtful or defamatory comments specifically directed at (usually unnamed) individuals, for the sole purpose of being read by the target individual. This is basically a way to talk smack about one's friends and get away with it, for if hurt feelings arise, the blogger can always parry with "I don't know what you're talking about. It's just my blog. And besides, I wasn't talking about you, anways."

This is immature, passive-agressive, and counter-productive. And, it's annoying. Here at Farrago, it is not "how we roll". Allow me to explain.

I view my blog as a personal journal, of sorts. I don't post a lot of juicy, personal details (sorry, pervs!) because a) it's not my nature to write about such things, and b) I am also aware that this journal is public. There is nothing in here that I don't want you to read. So, by my personal journal, I mean it contains my thoughts, opinions, frustrations, little life updates, and interesting tidbits I've found in my internet travels. Hopefully, you find it at least mildly interesting. However, I must stress that your entertainment is not my goal.

This blog is incredibly egocentric. I am allowing you to peer into my ear and see inside my head a little. In short, I write here what I want, and if you read it, great; if you don't, that's fine too. The point is that this is my space (actually, it's blogger. Hey, look! A pun!). I will never write anything directly aimed personally at you, whoever you are, as an individual or as a group. This one post is the exception to this rule. That's right, buddy, I'm talking to you. ALL of you.

Anyway, this is not a news flash. Those of you who know me know that I don't have a problem telling you what I think of you and your actions. And usually, I even wait until you ask me! For example:

Friend: Hey, I've got an idea! Maybe I'll go jump off that cliff! What do you think?
Me: Have you gone insane?!? No, don't do that. It's a bad idea.

This is my preferred method of communication. It's known as being "direct" and "honest". On the downside, it also makes me solely responsible for my statements and opinions. But I'm really okay with that. For the record, I am also okay with being solely responsible for all the things in my blog.

So, why all this clarification and ranting? I offended someone. A friend and I had a phone conversation in which she asked for my opinion/advice, and I gave it to her. And she didn't like it. She got upset that I didn't agree with and endorse her chosen course of action. (You would not BELIEVE how often this happens to me, with everyone I know....)
I got frustrated that she was making what I saw as a wildly bad decision that would end up hurting her, and there was nothing I could do about it. We discussed this, too. However, my frustration and sense of powerlessness was such that it gnawed at me all day. Hours later, I made a small comment on my blog about ME being frustrated. (I told you, this blog is egocentric!) The friend read the comment, thought I was making a veiled jab at her (I wasn't), and got hurt.
But then, she did the right thing. She confronted me about it. For this, she earns tons of maturity points and my greater respect. She was calm, rational, and frank. We discussed it like adults. No fingers were pointed, no mud was slung, and I think that overall, it was a very positive experience.

Moral of the story? My friends are great people. (Even if they don't always make great decisions. Who does?)

Bonus moral? I'm not trying to offend or hurt anyone (except Jack Thompson. I hate that guy.) in my blog. If you are not Jack Thompson, and you are hurt or offended by something I post here, or heck, anything I say or do, please talk to me about it. You won't necesarily get a complete retraction and apology (although you might), but you will almost certainly feel better for having handled the situation well, and we may come to a greater understanding of each other. And that's always good!

Steve, Don't Eat It!

In her comment on my last post, Olivia kindly linked me to a time-lapse video of Magic Rocks. This was worth viewing for two reasons. One, Magic Rocks are cool. Two, it led me to The Sneeze, wherein I found Steve, Don't Eat It! This is as disgusting as it is eloquent. I literally laughed until I cried. There are, at present, 9 installments. They are all gross, yet highly amusing. Like a train wreck, you don't want to look, but you can't look away. (Okay, that's not true. You DO want to look, but you can't because you're laughing too hard. You're also really glad you're not Steve.)

Captain Capitalism

I just watched this Captain Capitalism short, "Piggy Bank Pinko", and it's hilarious! Go see it. You know you wanna.

Distraction

So. I was really making some headway in a class that I absolutely HATE, but then I got a phone call and it totally derailed my train of thought. And my motivation, for that matter. Not that I really mind - like I said, I hate that class. It annoys me to think about it.

So I decided that now is the time for something completely different!

My sister posted a Christmas list on her blog, and recommended that others do the same. Feasibility and/or realistic expectation of getting the items on the list is unimportant, according to her, and I tend to agree. So, merely for the edification of mankind, here is:

My Wishlist

to become engaged (this has been on the list for about 4 years - I'm not holding my breath.)
a sewing machine
to not live with Bill
a Nintendo DS
an Audobon Society book on North American birds
more free time
a thumbdrive (you know, those little USB thingies)
We Love Katamari
various articles of geeky clothing
a trip to Japan
one of the many iterations of DDR and the accompanying peripheral
to laugh till I cry (tickling does NOT count)
a new wardrobe. Mine is sadly dated.
Typing of the Dead for the PC (not the Dreamcast!)
a digital camera
more money than I can count (hint: I can't count that high. Think in pennies.)

What do you want?

The Funny Papers!

I got this from the PvP site, but it isn't Scott Kurtz's work. It's still funny, though. If you click on it, you'll get a larger image.

Real Live Girl

So, the 21st birthday party for my little sister turned out to be a pleasant evening after all. Everyone behaved themselves, and we all had some really good beer. At The Flying Saucer in Addison, (the party site), they offer "flights". These are like, beer samplers. Sort of like wine tastings. They are grouped by location, offering a selection of beers from, say, Texas, or Around the World, or The UK and Ireland. I went with the Germany flight. It was a wise choice. Those people know beer. My sister discovered that Massachusets produces a beer that tastes vaguely of bad prune juice. My mother happened upon a beverage that can best be described as "Scottish Band-Aid Beer". All of my 5 oz samples were delicious. I am a particular fan of Erdinger Dunkelweisse. Those good folks in Addison can expect my continued patronage.

The Halloween soiree went well. I'm sure that many "cooler" people were/would have been bored by it, but I enjoyed myself. There was no alcohol for two reasons. 1) There were under-agers present that I didn't want to exclude, 2) I'm a cheap host. This may have put some people off, as some form of alcoholic beverage is traditionally offered at these types of gatherings, but this is not my concern. We played a variety of games, and consumed copious amounts of candy, brownies, and pizza. It was fun. The overwhelming majority of my guests arrived in costume, which was awesome. Hopefully, I'll post a picture of it one of these days.

There were other events in the evening that I would like to share with you, but this will have to wait until another time. Real life becons, and I have no choice but to comply.