Is it just me, or does Yul Brynner look suspiciously like Johnny Depp? Maybe he’s really an immortal super man who gave up his crime fighting career back in the fourties to become an actor, and when people started to get suspicious that he wasn’t getting any older after playing the King of Siam 4626 times, he faked his own death just in time to come back with a new identity to land a starring role in 21 Jump Street! Hmm. Maybe a little far-fetched. LINK
“When he finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads, which releases sperm in response to hormones in the female’s bloodstream indicating egg release.” Ugh. Just……ugh. LINK
I have no idea how a bizzare story like this got under my radar all these years. She dressed like a man to blend in and help her career as a jazz performer and then thought, “What the heck, I’ll just be a man from now on, and a famous one!” WHA??? Dude (…ette?), it’s the 50s!!! LINK
Something about Cyndi Lauper just makes me happy. Maybe it’s that she sang the theme from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, maybe it’s that she dresses like a nutjob like I like to do. Either way, if she’s good enough for the Goonies, she good enough for me. LINK
This is the first article I’ve read that makes me wonder a little bit about Wikipedia. I mean, they don’t actually make day trading seem all that bad. There are few to no uses of the words: DANGER! WARNING!: IDIOTS AHEAD!, and it is lacking in case studies done on homeless people who claim to have once been day traders, or tales of logging onto your new $45k stock tracking software and actually hearing the water being sucked out of your pool just before the electricity is turned off. Seems like the accuracy might actually be a little off.
Hmmm….. maybe I should…. nah. LINK
As if I needed something else to worry about when I go SCUBA diving. LINK
Reason number eight hundred seventy-five why I’m better off not being a rock star: drowning in a river, totally sober, while swimming with your boots on and singing Zeppelin songs. Really, rock stars are just doomed from the start. LINK
This essentially breaks down to a list of all the coolest possible things you could find stamped on an almost-empty container in a dump that you were exploring when you were twelve. But my favorite has to be the one for Hazardous Materials: Environmental Hazard. That seriously-evil tree just commited cute-fish-murder! Probably in an environmental-hazard-induced violent rage!! LINK
This is definitely going to be near the top of my vacation destination list. Stopping for directions may be totally fruitless, but at least all the people on the road are helpful and kind! LINK
I’ve discovered a force that can unify all of Earth, creating peace among all its peoples. Making fun of mullets!!! Apparently, every region has its own unique way of putting down this persistent hair-”style”. Urufu hea or “wolf hair” (Japan), vilon or “curtain” (Hebrew), MacGyver style (Korea), na debila or “asshole-style” (Czech Republic), and my personal favorite and new term of choice, the Dutch “nekspoiler”. Long live the mullet! LINK
If you wanted to send a fax in 1922, this was the way to do it! The fun part is: YOU CAN STILL SEND TELETYPE! It’s on my list of things to do if I’m ever in the UK. LINK
Ah finally it all becomes clear; people devote their lives to becoming high-level yoga masters with dreams of eventually learning the hallowed skill of drinking water and shooting it out your nose. LINK
What would ever posess you to name your daughter Greg? Regardless, I will be very politely throwing my hands in the air tonight at the Varsity. LINK
*UPDATE* So, apparently, that’s not actually of a picture of the Bird and the Bee. It’s just the Bee and some other chick. Or, possibly, the Bird. I’m not a zoologist.
Ligers are Real! I’m going to have a bumper sticker made that says that, to keep other poor suckers like me from going through life not realizing this amazing fact. Not only are they bonifide, but they’re friggin awesome! What do you get, you ask, when you cross a lion and a tiger? Probably something with faded tiger stripes and a lion tail, right? Yes, but get this: it’s also going to be twice the size of a friggin lion and enjoy SWIMMING!! I know. Awesome. I’m still checking weather it shoots lasers out of its eyes, but I’m going to have to assume that it probably does. LINK
I must have torrented her album in my sleep recently, because I have no idea where it came from. But I have it. And it’s good. LINK
Big hair, big voice, big money, regret-nothing-non-stop-binge-suicide-pact lifestyle… What’s not to like??? LINK
Ever have one of those things that seem to be ingrained in your brain from some distant point in your childhood, and you’re not really sure they were ever real until you hear somebody make a really obscure reference to them? Sleestak are that for me. One of my favorite websites painted a hilarious picture involving them today. A glimpse at this picture, combined with the one of Grumpy the T Rex finally helps me identify the precursor to an eventual mortal fear of velociraptors. LINK
Taking art classes, while certainly enjoyable from the viewpoint of the opportunity for an outlet and to use some really cool resources, is serving mostly to convince me that I really don’t know anything about art. I feel like I’m supposed to know this and this and this and this and be excited about all the meanings behind as many different bodies of work as I can put myself in front of. The problem is, I don’t personally see much value in art simply as an embodiment of political or social statements. I like art that conveys emotion, raw emotion, and leaves the specific experience up to the person experiencing it. At least I have Wikipedia to reassure me in the first paragraph that art is arranging things “in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium”. Phwew! I do know what art is. LINK
This cat has done everything. I mean, read this article. It’s….. long. And no, his real name isn’t Victor. It’s Prince. LINK
I’m recording a webcast for work, and they’re talking about… digs around for description… seismic wave attenuation and water in the lower mantle. I’m a little to scared to raise my hand and ask, “Are we really just floating around on a giant glob of lava??” so I went to the next best source. Turns out we are. Freaky, man. LINK
Quiet Riot, A Flock of Seagulls, Scorpions, Billy Squire…. ASIA???? This could maybe be better if they released an all Eagles/AC-DC/Zeppelin version that came with a flammable gong, but I doubt it. LINK
Wow. It’s a new world when Elbow Lake has its own Wikipedia article. Finally, something I know enough about to edit! Let’s see… best place to see how fast your car goes… best time to do doughnuts on the airport runway… LINK
So we’re blowing stuff up with remote control planes. THE FUTURE IS NOW!! But NASA has one too? I’m glad NASA’s getting back into stuff. I miss the space race. LINK
My theory: If you keep going up high enough from parent company to parent company… Pepsi owns everything. LINK
I thought I was so smart because I recognized the song Homestar was singing in the bathtub full of gold coins as the Duck Tales theme song, but hrwiki.org already had it well documented by the time I got done watching. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?? Subsequent research on the Money Bin revealed it to be three cubic acres in volume, which would mean that Scrooge McDuck’s wealth necessitates storage in six dimensions, which is also documented in wikiworld. Again… WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?? LINK
This is very interesting… considering it’s a scientific treatment of a very specific problem surrounding fictional time travel. Hello, McFly!! LINK
Third Sunday in June, third Sunday in June, third Sunday in… oh wait, I’ll just put it in my phone! LINK
I’ve always said that my last words on this earth are going to be, “Hey guys, watch this!” So, natually, this caveonaught is one of my heroes. He was THIS CLOSE to the bottom of the hole when he was immortalized as the guy tangled in his own dive line. LINK
Talk about the incarnation of 80s fervent get-rich-quickery: this guy just happened to be the first to realize you could predict the Big Board, flew his broke ass to LA, begged to get on the show, won a hundred thousand dollars, got sued by CBS, sued CBS, lost half his money in a pyramid scheme, whithdrew the rest in one dollar bills over and over to try to win another contest, had it stolen off his kitchen table, went BACK to CBS to ask if he could challenge them again, became a Wal-Mart manager, and eventually died of cancer. What am I doing with my life? LINK
Wow, that really demystified this whole thing for me! I thought this stuff ate half your brain and made the other half glow purple, or at least allowed one to see through time. Looks like I’ll just have to be satisfied with my magic eightball. But at least now I can make some in my bathtub! Come on over! Bring sugar cubes! LINK
I wrote this song down in my handy dandy list of songs that I need to download that I keep in my pocket, and expected it to be an Otis Redding song or something (I tend to forget what they were by the time I get around to searching for them). Turns out, it’s just another rockin Zeppelin tune to add to the collection. I’d better keep diggin for that Redding. LINK
This is just about the coolest thing ever: some dudes built a nuclear rector in a day from scratch! Although, contestants should get 500 points for reading the entire list- it’s huge and nonsensical. LINK
After seeing Spiderman 3 (which I thought was cool) my friend Pete wanted to know all about what happened. I asked if he was sure he wanted me to ruin it for him, and assured me he knew all about what happens already, because Spiderman lore is, apparently, “common knowledge”. While I refused to be swayed by that remark, I thought it would be a good idea to brush up on this confusing but cool villain. He IS confusing! And, again, comic book writers have way too much time. LINK
Didn’t those crazy ancient Chinese dudes realize that the South Pointing Chariot is only useful if you want to go SOUTH? LINK
I was PRETTY sure I knew how this worked. And I pretty much did. Pretty much. I’m pretty. LINK
Turns out my Wikipedia Blog is so impressive and awesome that my girlfriend copied my idea. First the LCD piano book, now this! This Kobayashi dude apparently wanders the globe insearch of children to rescue through hotdog eating feats. He must pass up a lot of children in distress before finding some he can actually help out. LINK
My friend Pete added a picture of himself and his car to the Burnout_(vehicle) article. He also added a picture of an OSX kernel panic to the Apple, Inc. article, pretty much for the sole purpose of sticking it to the Apple-loving hippies. He’s a legend in his own mind. LINK
The Jonses moved in next door to my girlfriend today. She didn’t know who they were and she’d never heard of them, but suddenly she’s really starting to want an RV. LINK
I needed to be prepared to answer any and all vague questions during my presentation on Nicola Hicks for my art class, and was absolutely thrilled to see that the pickup line, “Wanna come up and see my etchings?” is pop cultury enough to have made it into this article. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve creeped out with that vague 70s shag carpet style phrase. LINK
Somehow I find it a little disappointing that they dish out knighthood to people like Elton John, who’s pretty much never going to joust anybody (in the literal sense, at least), and others that are severely lacking in the chivalrous horseback warrior department. I was heartened, then, to find that there are a few categories of Sir- and Dame-wannabes that can be doled out to the people who need to be honored in a stately, queenly way for things like… sculpture. LINK
A moment of pride today as I was able to fill in the “who sang this?” blank for Kung Fu Fighting in about 2.4 seconds at work. Sadly, when asked if he had any other hits I had to head to the Wiki to find such gems as Dance The Kung Fu and Blue Eyed Soul. LINK
I saw her in that pic of Lyndon B-ing sworn in. What a great name! Only for a person though. Naming a pet that is way too Hank Hill. My girlfriend says people used to call her that when she was a kid, because she used to put “lady” in front of animals’ names. You know, lady bird, lady caterpillar, lady… ladybug. LINK
Someone at work mentioned this, so I read the article. Yeah… turns out I’m not a programmer. LINK
Jack Valenti died today, according to Slashdot. They linked to this (apparently) famous picture. So sixties! LINK
I figured Wikipedia would reference some popular blogging software. This was actually the day I put up the blog, if you want a hint. Go WordPress! LINK
I wanted to make fun of Henry for always talking about post-modernism even though he admits that no one really knows what it is, but it’s hard to make up funny examples of it if you don’t really know what it is, so I looked it up, and the definition is pretty much “we don’t know what it is, either”. I made the joke anyway (enter the rice krispies through straws), and I don’t think he got it. LINK
I skimmed this one in hopes to find something about where I could get good help on stuff at work. It turns out, if you don’t already know a ton, the people who do don’t want to help you. Jerkholes. LINK
I’m finding that in order to to my job, I’m having to learn way more about Active Directory and DNS that I’d ever hoped to know in a relatively short amount of time. Start with the Wiki-basics, I guess! LINK
Alright, so while I’m not enough of a dork to read comic books, and hopefully will never get sucked into that realm of I-really-need-something-better-to-do-ness, I figure Wikipedia is an acceptable way to glean a little information about something I’ve heard of and was a little curious about, like the Phoenix from X-men. This sucked me into what I can only guess is a small scale version of what eats these poor people’s souls that are unfortunate enough to read a little at a news stand somewhere; I followed one article to another to another through Phoenix to the Phoenix Force to Eternity to the Infinity Gems to Thanos to The Living Tribunal to The Stranger until I finally realized that the whole world of Marvel comics was like a ninety hour long episode of Dragonball Z (the only thing more powerful than that is THIS, and the onlything more powerful than this are THOSE), and that I’d just lost an hour of my life I could never get back. I’m a little scared. LINK
Someone refered to this as being the opposite of duplex (like printing on both sides). I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. I decided to forgoe using it because it sounded like something I’d have to be tested for. LINK
I constantly struggle to not look like a complete idiot at work when talking to the Unix peeps. The main problem I face is that, when it comes to Unix, I’m a complete idiot. I looked up this utility during a “how do I, uh, print?” episode. LINK
Dude, some guy FOUND Kryptonite. He was trying to figure out what it was, and stumbled upon its chemical makeup on the internet, and it was totally Kryptonite. And just where did he find that reference? You guessed it. LINK
I was happy to see that an entry has even been made for my all-time favorite video game ever!! Seriously, does someone sit down and write an article for every video game ever made? Who has time for that?? Oh wait… LINK
I was looking for an explanation of 420 as a drug reference, but ended up visiting 420 the year (Pharamond leads the Franks across the Rhine), a list of highways numbered 420 (talk about stolen road signs!), the number 420 (the sum of four consecutive primes), and “time” before finally reaching the cannabis culture article. I smell conspiracy theory… Turns out 4:20 was the time a group of kids called “The Waldos” used to smoke pot under a statue of Louis Pasteur back in ‘71. There’s some underground celebrity status for you: “Dude I was one of the original Waldos!” As you can see, it was coming right up on 4:20 on April 20th… LINK
One of the few times where Wikipedia actually failed me. I was trying to figure out if it was really common for a city to make homeowners pay ungodly amounts of money for improvements that seem like their responsibility to provide… like water! Unfortunately, the word “assessment” means a lot more than just that. (And it turns out that yes, it’s very common- usually against the homeowner’s will! What a joke.) LINK
I was a little unclear on how this worked, but now I know. And while I’d never actually want one in me, I don’t get why all women don’t have these? Oh wait… pelvic inflammatory disease…. okay, yeah, nevermind. LINK
This is a very fascinating identification system used by the Department of Defense that left me rivited for hours. (What I really meant to click on was IUD.) LINK
This was the point where I realized I had to back out and start figuring out just what server virtualization actually WAS before picking a software. I felt like Homer Simpson going from “Advanced Marketing” to “Basic Marketing” and then “Dictionary”. LINK
This is a software for running multiple virtual servers on one physical server. And it’s free. So that’s a plus. LINK
Some people were taking offense at implications that Sri Lankans are a bunch of terrorists (I think they were Sri Lankan?). Somehow this came up in there. I really hope that “Liberation Tigers” sounds a lot cooler before being translated out of Tamil. LINK
This handy dandy little device was referenced in a review article for a secure USB flash drive as something that could burn out RAM modules, so I HAD to check it out. The reviewed device didn’t have one, by the way. Don’t buy it. LINK
This one was linked from the Cotard delusion, becuase some guy thought he’d already died from this (again, weird and sad). The article reinforced my conviction that being a medical professional, for me at least, would be boring as all getout. My sister would have known what this was. LINK
Again from T-rex, and sort of the same as solipsism, only more weird and sad. LINK
As with many of my Wiki forays, this one began with Dinosaur Comics. The punchline was only mildly funny, but oddly enough, I used to contemplate the idea that I was the only person who really existed and that everyone else was in my mind, all the time when I was a kid! This has a name! And now I know. And knowing is half the battle. LINK
I was just using Google to check my spelling for an email (a stalking email?). It starts with Olde English etymology, so I didn’t read it. LINK
I saw on Slashdot that she was scared to leave her house becuase of some threatening comments on her blog. After investigating it for a while, I still don’t really know who she is or why anyone would threaten her… LINK
This is a very confusing program for distributing site licenses for software. If you don’t know, trust me, don’t ask. LINK
I just wanted to see how old she really is, and see a picture of what she looked like when she was young. I saw her at Moondance Jam a few years ago and she was still hot! LINK
I pretty much just looked up Blondie because I had a moment of anti-clarity and couldn’t remember “Blondie”’s actual name. (Debbie Harry is not Blondie by the way. Bondie’s a group. They made buttons that said that. Themselves.) LINK
Okay, after as many times and I’ve said, “You know, it would be fun to keep track of what I look up on Wikipedia every day!” there’s been a nexus of events that have all come together to give me the cosmic motivation to start this blog. Some of it involved a ridiculous conversation with my friend Henry about eating rice krispies through straws, to give you an idea.
I’ll do my best to keep abreast of what I’ve been learning on my learn-filled learning spree. It’s learnutainment!
Eew. Please strike that last comment from the record. Anyone know how this blog works? Anyone?
