Dan Savage: Savage Lovecast

Check out the Savage Lovecast - the free audio advice column which I am subscribing to FOR LIFE. It is queer-tastic and straight-a-licious & I can't get enough ;)
Dan claims it's easy dispensing advice to strangers, but I have never met a person I agreed with so wholeheartedly on that many consequent issues. The man has... talent!

You can listen for free on The Stranger website here
or subscribe to it on iTunes right here
 

The Savage Saves!

Let's talk about having kids...

... ride motherfucking alligators!

via the EXTREMELY entertaining Vintage Child Abuse blog

Radiolab

It's time to share one of internet's best kept secrets: the Radiolab archives! THE MOST inspiring, interesting, accessible, science-flavoured story telling action around!

These days I spend a few hours a week crossing the Wiltshire countryside by bus and unfortunately, it seems I have lost the pleasure of reading books on these proud motorised stallions.

I think my car sickness issues began when I was 13 and I spent most of my summer holiday in France playing the gameboy in the back seat of my aunt's car. Ever since I found reading in cars nauseating, but buses were blissfully exempt up until now. My vestibulocochlear apparatus is just not what it used to be... So, to distract myself from the overpowering fragrance of chemically-enhanced industrial strength manure and to be able to appreciate the lush green rolling hills said manure helps to sustain, I turned to listening.

I stream Radiolab podcasts onto my iPhone and tune in just as I get on the coach. It is my secret to coping with infrequent, overpriced, slow and unreliable public transport. In fact I am the only one at work who does not commute by car, and yet I seem the happiest upon arrival.

Radio Lab is why!

Here's just a sample:

Loops

Limits

Please let us know what you think!

Creativism

I have mastered 7, I'm proficient at 8, 9 and 11. Not too bad at 19 and even 24;)
I suck at 33.
You?:)

Re-fried beans via the lovely Design Crush.

Hyperbole and a Half: Adventures in depression

The most recent post from the dangerously poignant and witty Allie at Hyperbole and a Half. Click HERE to read through the complete painfully brilliant story of her depression, then spend the rest of the day binge-reading all her previous posts.
It's one of those blogs that will have you glued to your computer screen for hours, make you laugh with your mouth full and repeatedly shout "this is SO true" at the Internet.
An absolute *must*! :D

Quote of the day :)

Roses are red
And ready for plucking
You're sixteen
And ready for high school.

- Kurt Vonnegut

David Shrigley

also there's this, if you haven't seen it yet:

David Shringley is my new personal hero!:D
Ok, enough frivolous posting... must get back into the honest solid mindset for memorising lots and lots of usefull crap!

Another song about the Daily Mail! How splendid!

XD

For the improvement of self and pants

Yoinked from my favourite dinosaur comics site ever:)

"You know you're not in high finance when you're considering secondhand underpants"

- Flight of the Conchords

Yesterday I happened to be reading a (secondhand;P) issue of The Guardian and came across this article:

Secondhand pants, anyone? by Patrick Barkham

Should you wish to read this fine piece of contemporary journalism, you may find it quite a talking point. That it was. A lunchtime discussion sprung along the lines of "would you..?" and "well, I'd never". So there, it was entertaining - maybe not as much as the photots of somebody's baby dressed up as the world's most notorious dictators, but still...
Patrick went away for 4 days and forgot to pack pants - I can sympathise with that. A hostel bed sheet has been a makeshift towel for me many a time for similar reasons.
Anyway, what did irritate me about Patrick's story is that he bought secondhand pants to, effecively, combat his carbon emissions ("frivolous bit of personal comitment" for "the 10:10 campaign"), which makes him a bit of a self-richeous... git.
But what really eludes me is why on earth didn't he just wash the pair he was wearing?! A bit of soap and water every evening, hang it out to dry overnight on a chair and... taadaa! Your carbon footprint is where you left it.
On the other hand simple solutions probably don't make the best of articles.

Here, have a baby dictator:

Joseph Stalin
by Nina Kleivan

Currently reading

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Loaned from the local library - how "green"(cheap:) of me!
Ever since the success with which Still life with Woodpecker exploded into my life this December (pun unintended;), I've had an unshakable craving for more fantasticaly bizzare racy philosophical adventures. Robbins is a story-telling guru, a pacemaker for the heart failure of modern writing, and a blunt raunchy son-of-a-gun. Serious and delirious. Read him now and never look back.
And should you develop a sudden longing for the smell of jasmine on a wet hot New Orleans night, I reccomend L'Occitanne's Green Tea with Jasmine Eau de Toilette. I was on a mission this weekend, dying to find a bottled message that would explain to my nose what the business of a certain Madame Devalier was all about. I think that's the best translation I've got so far;)

More on this later, if and when I discover the significance of beets.

Indexed

Goodmorning! Here's something to be had with coffee:)

by Jessica Hagy
flook through more on her blog Indexed

69 Across

From a "blacklist" file included with the latest edition of Crossword Compiler, a British computer program for designing various word puzzles. The file prevents blacklisted words from appearing randomly.

bawdyhouse
bollocksing
bonk
catamenial
clitoridectomy
diddlyshit
effing
fanny
fornicatress
gobshite
harlotry
hermaphroditism
nooky
paramour
pissoir
psychosexual
pyroclastic
rat-arsed
rogering
ruttish
sapphic
sexy
shtup
smooching
spermary
stiffy
tribadistic
trollop
wee-wee
whoremasterly
zooerastia

I spotted this frivolous piece of random news in Harper's Magazine Feb 2010 pg 24 & since it made me smile after a pretty tough day I just had to share it:)

Haiku of the day

Haiku are easy,
But sometimes they don't make sense.
Refrigerator.

Scenes in suspended animation

On the dangers of blending in with other medical students:
Between tutorials I grab a seat at a table with people in my year I loosely know. They kind of ignore me, but then somebody breaks the silence remarking on the impressive size of an orange I’m eating & I take this opportunity to start a conversation:
- Hey guys, you know how when you go to party and you’re the only medic there, people just start showing you their their freaky abnormalities and skin diseases and stuff? Isn’t that weird?
(a slight pause, then a young woman speaks):
- I never go to parties where there are no other medical students.
(Everyone sips their drink. I give up.)

***

On the dangers of living in the library with your life pushing the lower limits of boring:
Sitting in the library I occasionally check my facebook. My friend recommends a game. I join and get instantly addicted. It’s a superhero role playing game and my character is called Thunderwoman.
When she fights duels the layout looks a bit like Street Fighter. I can’t find any instructions on which buttons to press to make her attach/kick/whatever so I vigorously press any and as many buttons on the keyboard as I can. I keep winning but can’t figure out how. People are giving me looks (it is the library).
P. passes me a small folded piece of paper.
- Can you take this piece of paper, read the instructions and follow them? (a witty reference to the Mini Mental State examination we were practicing earlier)
I open it. It reads “DO SOME WORK”.
I eat it.
I actually put the paper into my mouth, chew and swallow it. I’ve never eaten a piece paper in my life.
P. is baffled. So am I.
Also at this time I realise that my game plays itself out. The battles are just short clips and I don’t need to press anything.
I feel retarded.
I do some more work. But not before signing up to a free trial on lovefilm.com in order to receive 260 merit points for which I purchase Thunderwoman a bracelet which gives her +65 to defense. Yeah.
Then I read about heart attacks.

***

***

Mr. Tea!

"Make me some damn tea fool" & "I pity the fool that don't drink tea" are available originally from Tee and Toast website here
£8.95 plus shipping (many shipping options available)

Ok, so it's been a few days since I added the "daily Mr.T quote" application to the bottom of the blog (just above the playlist:) and I dare say it's a keeper! So far my favourite quote is: "I believe in the golden rule. The man with the gold rules." but "Growing up my family was so poor we couldn't afford to pay attention" is also pretty good;)
And now, combining the two great passions of my life (hot beverages and Mr.T) I bring you only THE awesomest mug on the internet! It is also the ultimate gift for a loved one: ingenius, funny and practical. Look no further.

Mr. T - how can you not love that man!? His phenomenon is forever perplexing. I remember my first days in elementary school - the A team was literarly ALL we talked about. It was my whole world at the tender age of 7. And then, more recently, I met somebody who set up Mr.T's first webpage! And met Mr.T in person! And even left a cement bust of Mr.T at Mr.T's house! And this post is dedicated to you Death Vegetable!;) Have a good safe trip back home, & don't forget to put some flowers in your hair.

What's there not to "like"?

Get a load of this guys!

I recently listened to a story on the linguistic properties of the word "like". It seems that a good few years ago teenagers have kidnapped it and abused it until there was nothing left of the old "like". The new "like" was depraved and ignored the duty to describe similarity or order of affection. Instead it became a tool for pause to the over-firing teenage brains. But it doesn't end there! The new "like" also brings a meaning to the sentence it's used in, the monster! It affects the context and brings an overall element of uncertainty. It underlines the fact that something is guaranteed maybe in 99.5% but never 100%. So there is always a chance it won't pull through.
For example you could say: "the lecture notes will be available on our webpage on, like, Monday". That is to say you've arranged for them to be put up and there is no obvious reason it shouldn't happen but still you are aware that the server might crash or the IT guy might show up for work without his pants... again.
Brain disease or a manifestation of a maturing system? I'll let you decide. One thing's for sure: the new "like" reflects the uncertain and self-doubting condition of its creators. It is contagious but amusing to watch. To be fair, everything is funny about teenagers as soon as you're not one.
Anyhow, now that it's recognised as a linguistic phenomenon and maybe even a right of passage into the eloquent domain of the twenty-somethings (hahaha...ha!), I'm happy I got to be a part of it.

Oooh Arrr!

Just a bit of geeky humour to brighten up the oxymoron Sunday here in Leicester... I love the credits bit at the end. Is it wrong that I SOOO GET IT!? My youth ill spent - I don't repent... ;D

created by the guys at the For Tax Reasons studios

LEICESTER MERCURY FUNNY IT HURTS

Oh Leicester! People often ask me: what's Leicester like? Well, maybe you can get an idea from these killer local newspaper headlines. They are awesome.

The images were taken from a facebook group set up in awe of these daily doses of journalistic genius. The Leicester Mercury Gallery of Responsible Journalism welcomes new members.

Don't judge a book by its cover - hopefully!

UK:_____________________________US:

Nick Hornby's new book is called "Juliet, Naked", which is fair enough. What isn't fair is the cover - sadly both the US and the UK edition look... cheap. I think the UK one is worst - like some soppy love novel set in Paris and written for middle aged single mums whose daughters are called Shanel and Princess. And what is with that anyway??? Why do they need to have different covers? Couldn't they make just one but half as bad??

Bottom line, however, remains positive: Nick Hornby is back! And, it appears, not writing for teenagers. I really missed his pitch-black dark side in the last book (Slam). Having said that, it might have lurked in the second half of the pages I never muscled through...
"Juliet, Naked" is out in September.

Meanwhile, I recommend "A long way down" and "How to be good". They are gems in my book collection. Available in paperback from a charity shop near you (my kind of recycling).

And no Mr. "Some Guy", I haven't finished High Fidelity yet... XP