Catching Ducks

When I was a teenager I knew all the words to this song:

Labels: cartoons, title sequence

Seen here:


"Snowflakes are actually the perfect metaphor for people. Each one IS unique, but we all have the same structure and are pretty similar in spite of our differences. And really, with as many around as there is, ain't no one gonna notice your differences unless they care enough to look closely.

Also people are also similar to snowflakes in that it is difficult to drive when there are too many of them piled up on the road."

Labels: random weirdness

UConn is going to DC this week to meet the President. Reporter John Altavilla tweeted:


"Just bumped into Breanna Stewart in DC helped her find the place she was looking for. She grew over the summer"


She was 6'4" last year -- I guess she wasn't done growing?!?!

Labels: UConn basketball

Labels: The Wizards of Waverly Place

From "Pie and Prejudice" (5.3):


Hal: Lady Mary is a ghost, who died some years ago.

Alex: Wait a minute... You know a ghost [other than me]? Another female ghost? And you didn't tell me?!?

Hal: Because I knew there was no point. You really wouldn't get on.

Alex: Well, I think that's for me and my new best mate Mary to decide, don't you?

Hal: Absolutely not. Lady Mary is a shy, fragile creature, with an innocence I am determined to protect.

Alex: What, you think I would corrupt her?

Hal: I think you'd corrupt Keith Richards.

Labels: Being Human

From here:


"Elements and birthdays have been intertwined for me since boyhood, when I learned about atomic numbers. At 11, I could say 'I am sodium' (Element 11), and now at 79, I am gold. A few years ago, when I gave a friend a bottle of mercury for his 80th birthday — a special bottle that could neither leak nor break — he gave me a peculiar look, but later sent me a charming letter in which he joked, 'I take a little every morning for my health.'”

Labels: random awesomeness

The WNBA All-Star Game was today. It was actually pretty entertaining, and a close game.

There was lots of respect and love for Tina Thompson, which was nice to see.

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

Seen here:


"Petition for Nathan Fillion to be the new Doctor and for Joss Whedon to take over as showrunner and for Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk to be companions and for the Tardis to be replaced by a spaceship and know what let’s just bring back Firefly."

Labels: Doctor Who, Firefly

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Labels: poetry

Swish Appeal has a great photo of Tamika Catchings blocking Elizabeth Cambage.

Labels: WNBA

From "Need To Know (2.02):


Peter: Our new case: potentially corrupt politician [sarcastically] Need a moment to recover?

Neal: I might, actually. [He's] Gary Jennings, state senator.

Peter: You've heard of him?

Neal: I am politically aware. He's popular. Even Mozzie voted for him.

Peter: Mozzie votes?

Neal: More often that you'd think. [pause] Or would approve of.

Labels: White Collar

From today's Jayda Evans article:


"On the floor, [Tina] Thompson is a coach and referee, not shy to calm teammate Temeka Johnson from jawing with an opponent or belting 'stop being lazy!' to Shekinna Stricklen on defense."

Labels: Seattle Storm

From SI.com. I thought this part was particularly interesting:


"On the way to establishing those towering records, Thompson made another less heralded but no less influential contribution to the league: She provided young players with a template for how to be a successful female professional athlete, even when mom gets added to their résumés. After Thompson's son, Dyllan, was born in May 2005, the two traveled together wherever Thompson played, Stateside and overseas. 'I took a chapter out of Tina's book when I became a mom,' says 2008 league MVP Candace Parker, who took her own daughter, Lailaa, on the road with her soon after she was born in May 2009. 'It's been great to have my daughter share that experience with me and get to be a little worldly. Tina showed me that was a good idea.'"

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

Seen here:


mom: What did you learn in school today?

kid: Obviously not enough, I have to go back tomorrow.

Labels: random silliness

Who else remembers these?

Labels: random awesomeness

From today's post about this Scarlett Johansson outfit:


"LOVE this. It’s our favorite Scar look in a really long time, which isn’t saying much, because she’s a terrible dresser roughly 70% of the time.

Backhanded compliments, darlings! It’s a lost art form."

Labels: Tom & Lorenzo

From "Dead or Alive" (4.16):


Michael: I thought you hated the idea of me working for the government again.

Fiona: Oh, I do. But I want you to have a choice.

Michael: You want me to have the choice, but you want me to choose to turn it down? Either way, don't we end up at the same place?

Fiona: Michael, I hope you're never in a situation where your survival depends on your ability to understand relationships. You'll be dead in seconds.

Labels: Burn Notice

Labels: Veronica Mars

WNBA contracts became guaranteed this week, and the Storm cut Nakia Sanford. Those in the know predict that she'll be signed to a seven day contract tomorrow, and that Coach Agler just wants some flexibility in case someone gets injured later in the season.

Sanford came to tonight's game, though, and tweeted:


"I'm about to get a tech from the stands...these calls omg..."

Labels: Seattle Storm

Every night I watch ~20 minutes of TV before I go to sleep. Right now I'm watching Battlestar Galactica. I'm over halfway through the the fourth (and last) season. At 20 min/night, it's taken me a couple months to get through the first three and half seasons and the two mini-series. It's an excellent show, but it is dark and depressing and bleak. At this point, Gaeta's lost his leg, Dualla killed herself, Roslin is dying, it is just a big mess of despair. I keep reminding myself that regardless of all the bad stuff happening right now -- and that I know will happen in the last few episodes -- I know that Athena and Helo have a happy ending. And sometimes, that's all you can hold on to, you know?

Anyway, the reason I mention all this is that this quote is about Supernatural, but could easily apply to Battlestar Galactica, too:


"you can’t buy happiness

but you can watch Supernatural and that’ll make you forget happiness exists."

Labels: Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural

Labels: iCarly

I heard this song on the radio yesterday for the first time in ages. I had forgotten what a sweet, catchy song it is! From "Bus Stop":


Bus stop
Wet day
She's there
I say
"Please share my umbrella"

Bus stop
Bus goes
She stays
Love grows
Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine

Labels: music

Last season Tulsa had a good chance of beating any team in the league -- except Seattle. This season Seattle is the only team that Tulsa can beat. (This is barely an exaggeration. Tulsa has four wins, and three of them are against Seattle.)

Anyway, this quote is from a month ago:


"Tulsa were headed to overtime for the fourth time this season, in just their eighth game. [...] They’ve now tied the WNBA record for overtime losses in a season. And still have 26 games left to play."

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

Twice in recent weeks I've come home from work, checked my twitter, and discovered that Storm players were on "New Day Northwest". I really wish they'd announce it the day before, so I could set my DVR to record! Luckily the videos are available online:


From late June, Sue Bird and Alysha Clark:




From today, Shekinna Stricklen:

Labels: Seattle Storm

I could have sworn I've posted this before, but it's not showing up when I search.

The Bechdel Test is not a measurement of whether or not a movie is good. Rather, it's a tool to examine gender bias in movies. These are the requirements:

1) It has to have at least two women in it,

2) who talk to each other,

3) about something besides a man.


Quick, name a movie that passes this test! I'm going through my favorite movies in my head and the only one that's coming to mind is Thelma & Louise. Serenity must pass the test. I'm sure it does. Right? The Princess Bride? Nope. Little Miss Sunshine? Maybe...? Star Wars et al? Pretty sure not. The Bourne Trilogy? Ha.

Post in the comments if you can think of any!

Labels: movies

From the NPR discussion "Casting Call: Hollywood Needs More Women":


"My theory is that since all anybody has seen, when they are growing up, is this big imbalance - that the movies that they've watched are about, let's say, 5 to 1, as far as female presence is concerned - that's what starts to look normal. And let's think about - in different segments of society, 17 percent of cardiac surgeons are women; 17 percent of tenured professors are women. It just goes on and on. And isn't that strange that that's also the percentage of women in crowd scenes in movies? What if we're actually training people to see that ratio as normal so that when you're an adult, you don't notice? We just heard a fascinating and disturbing study, where they looked at the ratio of men and women in groups. And they found that if there's 17 percent women, the men in the group think it's 50-50. And if there's 33 percent women, the men perceive that as there being more women in the room than men."

Labels: movies

From the surprisingly enjoyable movie Pitch Perfect, Anna Kendrick singing "When I'm Gone" (aka "the cup song"):




Cute, right? But watch this... she recreated the performance live on Letterman:

Labels: movies, music

From tomorrow's Retail comic strip:


Josh: You promoted Cooper to stockroom supervisor?! Why would you do that?!

Marla: He's the most qualified employee for the position.

Josh: You should have hired someone more qualified from outside the store!

Marla: Who would train that person?

Josh: Cooper!

Marla: Do we really need to have this logic lesson right now?

Labels: comics

I'm still cranky about Jasmine M. being eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance. This was her dance this week. Why did they cut her?!?!?!

Labels: So You Think You Can Dance

Seen here, and not funny to anyone who doesn't watch Supernatural. Which I know you don't. But trust me, it's super funny to Supernatural fans:


And thus God spoke to the people:

Hoard toilet paper. You understand me? Hoard it. Hoard it like it’s made of gold. Because it is.

Labels: Supernatural

From twitter:


Mechelle Voepel: Do post players give each other copious grief when one of them gets a shot blocked by a point guard? :)

Rebecca Lobo: Everyone gives a post grief when they are blocked by a PG!

Labels: WNBA

Seen here:


"The collective noun for a group of books is a 'damn, I'm never going to get around to reading all of these.'"

Labels: books, grammar

Last night was only the second elimination of the season on So You Think You Can Dance, and the bottom three girls were all dancers I liked and -- even worse -- the one the judges sent home was one of my favorite dancers of the season. I loved her dance from week one (below) and week three, and thought her week two dance was good. How did she end up in the bottom????

Labels: So You Think You Can Dance

The Veronica Mars movie is filming now. Here's a story from set from writer/director/creator Rob Thomas:


Last week I was stressed about one detail on our schedule. I needed a man dressed like a gorilla for a scene in the movie. More specifically, I needed a man dressed like a gorilla to dance in the foreground of one of the shots, while Kristen and Ken Marino played a scene on a bench behind said dancing gorilla.

The problem was, unless you hire an actor who has auditioned (as opposed to using an extra), you never know what you're going to get. I was afraid we'd end up with someone who had no dancing ability — or, more importantly, no willingness to go for it, to really cut loose and dance.

Where to get a dancer? Where to get a dancer?

It was at this point that I thought of Ryan Hansen. He'd just wrapped his last scene of the movie a few hours earlier, and he committed the cardinal sin of hanging out on set afterwards.

I can't begin to tell you how short the list is of actors I've worked with who I'd feel okay walking up to after they've wrapped, and saying, Hey, I know you’re not working tomorrow, but do you mind coming in, dressing in a heavy, old, smelly gorilla costume, and dancing in a scene as glorified background?

Come to think of it, Ryan may be the only person on that list.

And naturally, he agreed to do it, because he's a better person than you or I or anyone we know. After he agreed, I went back and sat in my director's chair. I thought about it for a little longer, and I had another idea.

Well, what if we don't tell the other actors that it's Ryan in that gorilla costume? And what if, during the second or third take, I just come storming onto the set from my chair and just start screaming at the gorilla for upstaging our actors, throwing an absolute tantrum?

Naturally, Ryan was game for this as well.

The next day, we put the plan in motion. Ryan was dancing with abandon in the gorilla suit. After the first take, I barked that "the monkey needed to tone it down a bit." After the next take, without yelling cut, I came out from behind the monitors with a full head of steam. I started yelling, The movie is called VERONICA MARS! Not MAN IN MONKEY SUIT!

Kristen and Ken stared at me wide-eyed. I'm not really a tantrum thrower. The 30-some Kickstarter extras who were working as extras thought I had lost my mind.

It was at this point that Ryan sheepishly took off his gorilla mask and told me he'd try to do better. Laughter and relief all the way around.

Labels: Veronica Mars

From this post, regarding the hapless Chicago Sky:


"[They] finally seem to have amassed enough talent that even they can’t avoid winning basketball games."

Labels: WNBA

Exerpts from his review of the Battlestar Galactica episode "Guess What's Coming For Dinner?" (4.07):


You have to stop this, Battlestar Galactica. You have to stop doing this to me. You are playing with my emotions. You are making me feel things about a television show that I barely feel for some members of my own family. You are taking all of these characters that I love and you are doing awful things to them. You are hurting my heart. You are hurting my brain.

What are you doing, Battlestar? Why are you making Lee confront Laura Roslin? I still remember in season two when they were like best friends, and now it’s almost as if they are enemies. Do you simply not want me to experience joy? You don’t want me to be happy, do you?

Oh, god, BSG – can I call you that? – why did you just make the basestar jump by itself into the fleet? You are taking even basic operations and making them terribly fucked up. Do you want me to have a functional brain at the end of the day? Do you? Oh, you’re going to have Colonel Tigh order a weapons hold at the last moment, which might be explained away later, but looks terribly suspicious in the moment? No, what are you doing? What are you doing to me?

[...]

BSG, you have taken all hope from me before. I am weary to believe you, but... but I just love you so much. Oh, I love you, BSG, but you are doing such terrible things to my heart. I do not want Kara to be the harbinger of an apocalypse, so please make this happen.

Oh, god, Adama is thanking Tigh. He has no idea. HE IS GOING TO BE HEARTBROKEN UNTIL TIME CEASES TO BE. How am I supposed to have a normal day after watching this, BSG?

Oh. It’s Gaeta. I can’t deal with this, BSG. I thought you were my friend. I thought you cared about me. Oh, Gaeta, I just want to reach through the screen and hug you. Why can’t I do this? This is what you have turned me into, Battlestar. This is what you’ve created. Gaeta doesn’t deserve this. And now I hate you. I hate you, BSG. You are destroying everything I love. YOU’RE THE HARBINGER OF DEATH NOW. How does it feel? HOW DOES IT FEEL, BSG?

Oh god, I’m sorry for getting mad at you. Because now you’re having Tigh argue for destroying the Resurrection Hub. The ironic terror of this is not lost on me, and yet again, I am faced with the desire to hug fictional characters through a screen. You know, sometimes I want to appear to be an adult, BSG. I really do. Sometimes, I am okay with simply acting as if a fictional world is totally real. I honestly do. You, however, do not give me that choice. You are controlling my emotions, BSG, and I don’t think that’s fair.

Oh no, please stop it. Now the Quorum is upset at the announcement of the Cylon alliance. Oh god, Lee, please. Please stop antagonizing Roslin, you used to be friends, why can’t you just hug and give her a puppy and then everything will be perfect. Right. This is you I’m talking about, BSG. There hasn’t been a single puppy on this show in three and a half seasons. Not one. What kind of life do you expect these people to have without puppies? There aren’t even Cylon dogs. I can’t talk to you right now, BSG. I can’t.

[...]

No. No. BSG. You... you can’t do this to me. You can’t. Felix Gaeta is singing to cope with his amputated leg. And his voice is one of the most gorgeous and haunting things I have ever heard.

You can’t do this to me. You can’t expect me to watch this and then function at all for at least 24 hours afterwards. My heart is not going to heal from this moment. Why? Why does this entertain you so much? Can you only subsist on broken dreams and shattered hearts?

Oh, Roslin and the lead Six meet with the Quorum and they are shocked into silence. I’m laying on the floor right now, just so you know. I can no longer handle the very idea of sitting upright. My very motor functions are abstract equations to my mind. How am I even typing anymore.

Why did Hera just tell Athena “Bye-bye”? You can’t. BSG, stop it. Stop it. I am begging you. Please.

OH. WAIT. IS THIS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? Are you seriously going to have Starbuck help Roslin find out what the Opera House visions mean? BSG, eventually, you have to provide us with an answer, so….could this be it? Could this be the moment? Oh my god, I love when Starbuck and Roslin work together. You’re not going to ruin this, are you? Oh god, you are going to ruin it because you are a life ruiner, Battlestar Galactica. You’ve just added Gaius Baltar to this trip to the basestar? Is he going to ruin Roslin’s moment? EVERYTHING HURTS.

BSG. Oh, BSG. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with the final minutes of “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner?” I don’t know how I am supposed to go to work tomorrow and focus on things that have nothing to do with the Cylon’s internal conflict over trusting humans. I don’t know how I am going to think about anything other than Athena’s horrifying choice to MURDER THE LEAD SIX because she thinks she is the one who will take Hera away. I don’t know how I am going to think about anything other than the horrifying fact that once the Hybrid is turned on, SHE ORDERS THE SHIP TO JUMP AWAY IMMEDIATELY.

And I don’t know how to get the image of Felix Gaeta in his bed in the sickbay, sweating profusely, singing that sad ballad of his, out of my head. Forever.

Battlestar Galactica, what have you done to me?

Labels: Battlestar Galactica

"I make it my business every day to try to get the worst song I can stuck in everybody's head. If they're all singing it by the end of the day, then I know I've done my job."

Labels: White Collar

From "studying stones"


I am out here studying stones
trying to learn to be less alive
using all of my will
to keep very still
still even on the inside
I've cut all of the pertinent wires
so my eyes can't make that connection
I am holding my breath
I am feigning my death
when I'm looking in your direction

'course numb is an old hat
old as my oldest memories
see that one's my mother
and that one's my father
and that one in the hat, that's me

it's a skill I'd hoped to abandon
when I got out on the open road
but any more pent up emotion
and I think I'm gonna explode

there's never been an endeavor so strange
as trying to slow the blood in my veins
to keep my face blank
as a stone that just sank
until not a ripple remains
I am high above the tree line
sitting cross legged on the ground
when all of the forbidden fruit has fallen and rotted
that's when I'm gonna come down

'course numb is an old hat
old as my oldest memories
see that one's my mother
and that one's my father
and that one in the hat, that's me

it's a skill I'd hoped to abandon
when I got out on the open road
but any more pent up emotion
and I think I'm gonna explode

Labels: ani difranco

From "You Smell Like Dinner" (4.02):


[Eric bought Sookie's house when she was missing-presumed-dead.]

Sookie: Stay away from me.

Eric: This is no way to treat your new landlord.

Sookie: I am not "yours" and I want you out of my house, now!

Eric: Funny thing about ownership, isn't it? A little piece of paper and the only power you have over me is gone.

Sookie: What do you want from me?

Eric: Everything.

Sookie: You can't have it.

Eric: I bought it.

Sookie: You bought my house. The inside of the house does not come with me in it.

Eric: Well, then I seriously overpaid.

Labels: True Blood

This map shows the most famous corporate brand from each state. (Click on the map to make it larger.) What's fascinating to me is that I don't recognize ~10 of them. And, of course, there are lots of brands that I know that aren't on the map.

But McDonald's and Target and Pepsi must be like Microsoft: they come from a state where something else is more famous.

Labels: random weirdness

Seen here:


Quoted text:

It is perfectly grammatical to have two "thats" or two "hads" in a row for that matter. With proper punctuation, you can have even more. Robert Day offers the following example: "He said, in speaking of the word "that", that that "that" that that student had referred to was not that "that" that that other student referred to."

Comments:

omfg I am so sorry to all you non-native english speakers that need to learn this shit.

Welcome to english, here's your bag of 150 wtfs, use them wisely

Labels: grammar

From today's Retail strip:


Cooper: I wish I had today off.

Josh: Why? We're manning the helm of commerce to keep the economy strong while others celebrate. I can't think of a more patriotic way to spend the 4th of July than working in retail.

Cooper: There's a fine line between positive spin and the rantings of a lunatic, Josh.

Labels: comics, holidays

This song was free on iTunes a couple years ago. It's one of those songs that I can listen to on repeat:

Labels: music

Seen here, this describes me pretty well:


Person: Have you seen that episode where ...

Me: I have seen every episode, go on

Labels: random awesomeness

Since we were talking about this poem the other day.... "The Second Coming":


Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Labels: poetry

As someone in the comments says, "This was highly entertaining for some reason":

Labels: random silliness

I've used this before, but it seems appropriate, given the weather this week:


"Anyway, it's hot here. It's hot. That's all I got to say. Florida's hot. There's hurricanes, and it's hot. There's thugs, and muggers, and fourteen-year-old kids on bikes with guns. [brightly] Come on over some time!"

Labels: music, weather