Public service announcement: You can buy external hard drives in 1TB sizes now.
Author: fledgling otaku
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Rainbow disconnection
The deconstruction of childhood continues apace. Weep.
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Kid Fusion
What’s a normal teen like 17-year old Thiago Olson to do nowadays? play video games? hang out at the mall? build a working fusion prototype in his parents’ basement?
My favorite part:
“Originally, he wanted to build a hyperbolic chamber,” [Thiago’s mom] said, adding that she promptly said no. But, when he came asking about the nuclear fusion machine, she relented.
A hyperbolic chamber, eh? Yeah, right. Mom, you got rolled. Kid: ask for a DeLorean next.
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let us not talk falsely
I am probably too young to be as familiar with Bob Dylan as I should be. However, thanks to Ron Moore and Battlestar Galactica, I am now introduced to All Along the Watchtower, and the song just blew my mind. I haven’t had as visceral a reaction to a song like this since I first heard Hotel California. The only other band that gets my brain raccing like this is They Might Be Giants, but they go for the relatively straightforward symbolism; this song in contrast is more amorphous, lending itself to far richer interpretation. It’s akin to a religious text or a prophecy.
“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief,
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke,
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.And here’s the song on YouTube, performed by Jimi Hendrix.
When I discover a new song like this, it takes a while for it to seep in. So I have nothing profound to say. I’m just going to consume it.
frak me though, what else is out there under my nose that I don”t know about?!
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Chai
First, define your “cup”, be it a coffee mug, a ceramic teacup, a styrofoam glass, whatever. A good rule of thumb is three tea bags per “cup”, which might seem excessive but actually works out just fine because we will use one cup of water and one cup of milk per “cup” of chai. Chai is best shared.
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the girl who leapt through time
This writeup at AICN immediately caught my interest:
titular heroine Makoto Konno gains the ability to physically leap and land in a chosen point in her past. Initially she uses the ability as an instrument of escapism, spending her time pursing inconsequential activities and goals. As chaos theory, unintended consequence and the momentum of life conspire to confront Makoto, she is forced to make more significant alterations. What was light hearted, laugh out loud, slapstick hardens into gut twisting drama. As the compounding repercussions become evident, the film taps into powerful emotions felt either in retrospect or in anxiety when concerning the effects of action and inaction in the pivotal moments of one’s life.
The review also raves about the fluid quality of the animation. Has anyone seen it? I’ll look for it on BT tonight…
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no one knows my plan
This They Might be Giants song is off their John Henry album. Lyrics courtesy of TMBW:
In my prison cell I think these words
I was careless
I can see that now
I must be silent
Must contain my secret smile
I want to tell you
You my mirror
You my iron barsWhen I made a shadow on my window shade
They called the police and testified
But they’re like the people chained up in the cave
In the allegory of the people in the cave by the Greek guyNo one understands
No one knows my plan
Why the dancing, shouting
Why the shrieks of pain
The lovely music
Why the smell of burning autumn leavesI was always fascinated by the reference to the allegory of the people in the cave, but never moved myself to investigate until recently. It turns out that it’s a reference to (obviously) the Allegory of the Cave, in Plato’s Republic. The implication is that the narrator of the song possesses the key to reality (Plato’s Forms).
How is this significant? I don’t know. Do you? leave a comment and speculate.
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counting flowers
Moved by the discussion at astro’s place, Nick went flower-counting in Cat Soup.
As I mentioned at astro’s: (spoilers)
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They’re made out of meat
I read this short story by Terry Bisson when it was first published in Omni. It’s possibly the greatest scifi short story ever written. A teaser:
“They’re made out of meat.”
“Meat?”
“Meat. They’re made out of meat.”
“Meat?”
“There’s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”
“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?”
“They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come from machines.”
“So who made the machines? That’s who we want to contact.”
“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.”
“That’s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You’re asking me to believe in sentient meat.”
It gets better. Much better. The phrase “singing meat” is used. Bisson has made the full text of the story available on his website and if you haven’t read it before, now’s the time. Seriously. NOW is the time. Go on. Go.
What, still not convinced it’s worth your click? One more excerpt, then: (more…)
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Spring
Today is the first day of Spring.
Garrison Keillor has a poem for the occassion on today’s Writer’s Almanac (audio link), appropriately titled, “First Day of Spring”. As always, his reading on the air brings the poem alive in a way that mere reading online or in print can’t achieve.
And he throws in this great quote by Emily Dickinson, too boot:
A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King.