Wednesday Purples

So I wore purple. So did, I think, 98% of my friends. Woo for colors symbolizing the 2-seconds you devoted to thinking about a cause!

Anyway, links.

If you must: The Cool New Shit from Apple. But remember Why Not To Buy A Mac.

People paint roofs white in NYC to help with heat-island issue.

I haven’t posted anything Star Wars in awhile. Anyway, here’s an awesome R2D2 swimsuit.

New Lego sets for the autumn. Were your parents the type who didn’t buy “sets” but rather those 1500 piece buckets so you could be creative and shit? Yeah…I really wanted a Millenium Falcon or a pirate ship like my friend had. But instead I  had to make a dystopian third-world village and periodically have a plague sweep through. Much better play for your child. I think the people in my fake village worshiped goats, too.

Photo contest results: Rorschach Blots.

Switching from Cable to Net-streaming your fave shows: A comprehensive, show-by-show chart. As we’re moving over to Roku in my house as soon as I get around to talking to our local DSL provider, this is rather pertinent.

I love Meghan McCain. I dislike Christine McDonnell (she of not understanding the 1st amendment fame). Ergo, when the former calls the latter on her shit, I am pleased. Go.

In the same vein, why the Tea Partiers get the whole “worship of the constitution” thing wrong.

And it’s probably better for you that your mom worked when you were a kid, 50 years of research shows.

Army uniforms finally come in a more flattering cut for women. This doesn’t mean I’ll join up, but is good for recruitment (?).

Why are people even surprised anymore when we find out that giving women (at any stage of life) more estrogen/progesterone than their body produces to “normalize their estrogen flow” causes serious problems?  (aka don’t take post-menopause stuff cause it causes deadly breast cancer.) Also, what the hell is a normal estrogen flow anyway? Hint: something made up by men in the 1940s. Related: I wrote a wicked long paper about this. Ask me about it sometime.

Awww, and all I got for my graduation was some pearls instead of this “abstract representation of semen” silver necklace.

If you’ve checked textsfromlastnight or a few other sites, you’ve seen American Apparel’s ideas for Halloween costumes. Here are some rejects.

And finally: decorating with animals. Like Moose Heads and Owls.

Slainte!

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she’s 21

Chillaxing in the Montague Book Mill, combating with the sun over the glare on my screen, covertly observing the spiky-ink-handwritten notes the guy next to me is taking, left-handed, on a book called “Miles and Me.” He’s also wearing a courduroy jacket with elbow patches. The rest of the room is full of college students on laptops wearing leggings and thick sweaters. Also, today is my birthday (woo!) So as a party favor for the world, here are some links:

Passive-aggressive tweeting ahoy! Manchester England police are tweeting every incident report for 24 hours. The only thing I know about Manchester I learned from reading Harry Potter, so I presume all the incidents are related to Pettigrew befouling the water supplies with his rat dropping and small children crying from that time they tried to ask Snape to support their local school charity.

More british things: I want this scooter. It is pimped out to go >69mph.

Even more British things (hold onto your crumpets): Heathrow employees (fine, upstanding people who offered me tea before forcibly escorting me in a paddy-wagon off the premises) pranked the announcers.

On the other side of the pond, Americans take shit from nobody. Not even God, as seen here.

Why college made you fat, other than that pizza take-out. You weren’t getting a lot of sleep! Annals of Internal Medicine found some kickass results when people slept.

To counter this point, here’s a menu for low-income (ie college) students.

Airlines are starting to have “cuddle bookings,” with seats that relax you and your significant other into a pile of obnoxious that everyone else in your section hates. I think we need to queer this up, add to the excitement.

I love old barns. I love old farmhouses. I love power tools and (theoretically) love carpentry. This photo-diary of an old-barn restoration therefore makes my day.

Cupcakes filled with pumpkin pie seem finicky, yet awesome.

OMG. Cross-dressing (inasmuch as skirts are an appropriate item of femininity…blegh) child is still loved by parents, accepted at school. Will wonders never cease?

A reminder of the “Bechdel Test” for women in movies.

GROSSS! Indulge your squick and read these awful stories/pics of gross things that have happened to Jezebel readers.

There’s a whole gender-dialog behind these pics of women dressing/posing in traditionally men’s poses. Or you could just like looking at pics of women dressed like men, as I do.

Right-Wing Radio Donald Duck. It’s creepy when you mix 50 Donald episodes with excerpts from Glen Beck.

I love feminist (ahem, sorry, egalitarian) men.

The US military, in the wake of the possible repeal of DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell), may be offering optional housing for straight service members who feel uncomfortable sharing air with their GLBTQ counterparts. Because that option doesn’t lead to “separate but equal AT ALL.”

To make you feel better, here is Feist, counting to 4 on Sesame Street. Here is why that is amusing/touching.

Quote of the day: “To get back to my youth I would do anything, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” –Oscar Wilde from The Picture of Dorian Gray. His birthday was yesterday.

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Ni Hao!

So I’m taking Chinese now. I can count to ten and ask you your name and stuff. But let’s get to some links, eh? But first, a picture from my Awesome McAwesome Smallpox-is-your-friend-no-really-love-columbus Weekend:

The middle bit is a pumpkin. No really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chrome Browser Tweak: Have that right-click option to “Set as Wallpaper.”

The Battle of the New-Fangled Blankets. (My snuggie is somewhere, I’m sure).

I love it when OKCupid crunches data. This time they looked at gay people, who, strangely enough, are pretty much like straight people, except for the whole liking the same gender part.

The Geekiest acts from Improv Everywhere.

Pretty examples of smoke-photography.

Please god stop posting these types of pictures.

Things you do that annoy the chef. It is a personal philosophy to never annoy the chef unless you are actually better at making that thing on my plate, which I never am.

Wallpaper made out of your photography? Narcissism or awesome? I say both.

More cool stuff to put all over your walls.

Ways to keep that old Windows machine keep on plugging, without having to pay me $25/hr to do it. (Related: I’m starting a consulting business; this advice ain’t free.)

I hate getting out of my PJs to do work. Luckily, I write well. Some Freelance Job Resources. And another.

Images of the Toxic Spill in Hungary.

Also, once again the SAT appears mostly to show the aptitude your parents have to pay for college.

Flowchart of female characters in Hollywood. Srsly, this is what we watch. Eff this, I’m gonna go grab some Edith Wharton and a glass of cider.

Apparently women don’t do start-up businesses (mostly tech) b/c they are crazed baby-making machines. Thankfully, Jezebel provides a rebuttal.

I’m not a huge Mother Jones fan, but this amusing/depressing infographic which sorts the Senate/House by type of funding made me laugh/cry.

On the horrible trend of “Compulsive Heterosexuality,” among young men, in which the mantra of “If I beat up fags, I can’t be one” is repeated often. It later appears in politics, methinks. An excellent article on a seldom-discussed issue.

I want to be read these authors.

Another Plus-Model trashes the model industry. Frankly I like her better his way.

This blog looks delectably academic and cartographic.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the Grover Old Spice Ad Parody will make you chortle.

 

And a current fave quote from Giullermo del Toro: “If you get bored with nothing to do, you are not a writer.”

Zai Jian!

 

 

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Two Days Strong

My town is going to pumpkin-craycray for the coming weekend. This basically sums it up:

Anthrolinguistic Geekout: New language discovered in India! And it’s unique!

Phone that uses your body heat to always be charged. (concept only) Problem, requires copper, an increasingly rare metal. Solution? Stop it with the pennies. I hate pennies.

Pretty British Bird Pictures. The Pictures are British; dunno about the birds. They might be some other nationality.

100 Funny People to Follow on Twatter, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I love alternatively energy. I love gadgets. This solar-charger is an awesome mix of both of them.

You’re done? Well, I’m not done hearing about your sex life, so keep writing, honey! Also, writing smut doesn’t make you slutty. Nor does capitalizing on an experience make you a cheap writer. Um…write what you know? Anyone?

Pasta. Sun-dried Tomatoes. Bacon. Can we have this for dinner now?

I actually really enjoyed this book. (Basically, drink champagne & have a lot of soup. Also stand up straight).

Working on that post-apocalyptic skill-set again. Here are some edible wild plants.

 

ANNNDDDDD….Joke Time! How many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb?

….Well, it’s a really obscure number and you’ve probably never heard of it, sooo…

 

Quote Time! (new idea I’m trying to work in) From the new movie Howl, as said by Ginsberg: “There is no beat generation, just a bunch of guys trying to get published.”

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October’s Here!

Have some [a lot, take a couple days on these] links. They are not grouped.

The Basics of Feminism, De-mystified for Clueless Folks

Why Women’s Colleges are Still Relevant, Yo.

Some Facts about Sex from a Recent, Well-Done Survey. For example, Anal/Oral (sometimes both?) are getting more popular and guess what? Women masturbate. Frequently. Also, people of color are more likely to use a condom than white people.

Creepy Vintage Ads. I find it interesting the source page. I thought they still believed in these things?

GoogleInstant: “No Lesbians for You!”

If I were in the 19th century, I’d want to be a whore. Also, first person to snag me a copy of a A Renegade History of the United States get a cupcake.

How much did your taxes pay to the military last year? To old people on dialysis? To the arts? Here’s a handy site to tell you just that!

See? I’m not a failure by dint of living with my parents in my 20s! (not having to cook, not having to pay rent, not paying for internet access, banking everything I earn = this is a failure?)

The results from this year’s James Dyson Award. Neat, helping-people inventions, like bazooka-launched expandable flotation foam & UV sterilization water bottles.

Cool shit to do with your under-used printer. Mine takes up desk space when my little brother isn’t printing out AP-Bio work-sheets.

Silhouete Photography. Simply Beautiful.

I am never eating chicken nuggets again. Ever. SQUICK Warning!

Instead of eating a turkey this Thanksgiving, adopt one. And if me telling you to didn’t make you want to do it, then do so because Ellen DeGeneres thinks it’s a good idea.

The worst thing about this is that there’s no space on my extensive ball jar collection to etch a whale onto it.

However, said ball jars would look great on a sewing-table-turned-dining-room-table.

Being an adult sucks. However, it’s now okay to have a House with a Built-In Slide. Next up, ball pits.

I can tweet about Twitter’s new Fibonacci design scheme. Math geekness + meta-social-commentary-on-social-networking = win.

I am starting up a little business in which I charge old people money to set up new gmail accounts, attach their printer to their laptop, etc. Also, to fix some of these mistakes.

You know that cliché, about there being “other fish in the sea”? Well, how many? The Census of Marine Life took 10 years to figure that one out.

Please ignore the new StarWars3D one-person orgy that Lucasfilms is trying to start. Just watch this instead!

Yet another reason not to go to China: Fine Particulate Matter. Related: Ni hao! (I started my Chinese lessons today at my local library).

3, 2, 1: Awww! Male model and his toddler don matching attire for the Chanel Spring/Summer show.

50 Important Queer Women in Music. Not all of them are named Tegan or Sara.

And in news just today, have you heard about that radio-active red mud sludge that engulfed a town in Hungary? Yeah.

 

That’s all folks! Off to go work more on mah novel, now that there’s some motivation (being unemployed) under my butt.

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