Category: observations
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And now this …. (what!?!)
I just watched a Superbowl commercial on hulu which was introduced by a TV commercial for Coca Cola. That’s what it has come down to: even the TV commercials now have TV commercials. This blog post is about a blogpost about itself.
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Pens in Bed (the benefits of unloading your daily cogitations)
Last night while in bed I thought of a good idea for a blogging topic. I mentally composed the blogpost but never actually wrote anything down. I remember thinking, “what if I forgot this idea when I awoke the next morning?” My answer was a curious rationalization at the time: I told myself that despite…
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Living without Eating or Drinking
I think I’ve already mentioned that America’s foremost movie critic has now become one of its foremost blogger. Roger Ebert has lost the ability to speak (thus ending his TV appearance), but he also has lost his ability to use his mouth to eat and drink. (Apparently he is still able to be fed in…
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Smarter than you: The Nagle Crackpot Theory
I’ve always found the Dunning-Kruger effect to be an interesting phenomenon (so is the related Downing effect). Gosh, now that I know about these things, that must make me brilliant! See also: the wikipedia article on cranks. If you are still unsure, try the crackpot index . My fave: you receive 20 points for naming…
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Google, you are way too fast (or way too nosy!)
In my last post I requested help for how to prepare my apartment for a new dog. Kind of weird, but that’s the sort of thing you find on this blog. Less than 2 minutes later, I decide to google the words “dogproof” and “computer geek” (in the vain hope that another computer geek has…
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Scary Information – Should I be posting this?
Some psychologists have figured out that women have more orgasms with wealthier men. For female readers of this blog, my net worth at the moment is $1.4 billion. I wonder: does sexual excitability result from the perception that a male partner is wealthy or from the prolonged enjoyment of an affluent lifestyle? An affluent person…
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Random Secrets
From Postsecrets.
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God and Ham Sandiwiches
From a NYT discussion of God (which I didn’t read very closely). Premise 1. Nothing is better than world peace. Premise. 2. A ham sandwich is better than nothing. Conclusion. A ham sandwich is better than world peace.
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You make a mistake when you when say, “make no mistake”
TX Blogger Robert Nagle dissects the strange cliches which US presidents use.
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Wikipedia Follies (Part 29)
It probably comes as no surprise, but the fact that Wikipedia has an article about the musical career of William Shatner but not an article about one of America’s most talented authors underscores the project’s inherent inability to value cultural objects. See also: my takedown of Wiki-deletionists.
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Charles Dickens on Email (1856)
Charles Dickens on electronic communication: O, what a thing it is, in a time of danger and in the presence of death, the shining of a face upon a face! I have heard it broached that orders should be given in great new ships by electric telegraph. I admire machinery as much is any man,…
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Embarrassments of Obscurity (Part 23)
I usually never let it get under my skin when I hear that some young hotshot has published a book or some celebrity has gotten invited onto a talk show to tout a book. I don’t let it get to me because I convince myself that people like Bret Easton Ellis peak early and never…
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Just to let the world know
I’m just writing to let the world know that while sitting down before my computer browser and pouring myself a glass of soda, I accidentally poured a cupful into my lap. I’ll be posting a lot of cool stuff soon.
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Unexpected Occurrences
It is 2:44 AM at night; I am downstairs in my 2 floor apartment catching up on blogs. Suddenly, I hear a shuffling noise lasting about 3-5 seconds coming from my stairs. Turns out that a package of toilet paper has decided of its own volition to tumble from an upper step to the bottom…
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Cable News Obsession
Bill Hicks on cable news: "You ever watch CNN for longer than, say, 20 hours in one day? I gotta cut that out. Watch CNN. It’s the most depressing thing you’ll ever see, man. "WAR, FAMINE, DEATH, AIDS, HOMELESS, RECESSION, DEPRESSION, WAR, FAMINE, DEATH, AIDS." Over and over again. Then you look out your window…
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April 11 Bank Protest Planned in Major US Cities
I don’t know if you’ve heard about A New Way Forward Protest about the bank bailouts. I’m flirting with the idea of attending the protest in Houston . I feel passionately that the bank restructuring was handled incompetently and that lawmakers really don’t have a sense of what voters really want for it. It’s kind…