Emptybottle.org >> Random Silliness Archives

June 22, 2007

Weird and Fractured

It's all weird and fractured. It's all electrical and chemical. It's all bump and grind. It's all cheese and mustard. It's all time to drink and go to work. It's all fuck you buddy and love your neighbour. It's all speak truth to power and hunker down. It's all shitstorm and cherry blossom. It's all shits and giggles. It's all 2.0 and it's all in beta. It's all primal scream and raised eyebrow. It's all therapy and meds. It's all beer and skittles. It's all anger and love. It's all young things and old farts. It's all permalinks and permagrins. It's all disappointment and hope. It's all pimples and slipped discs. It's all be, it's all do. It's all epistemology and metaphysics. It's all cigarettes and beer. It's all desire and it's all thirst and hunger, it's all middle way and eight-fold path, and it's all a sacrament. It's all beginnings and endings, and ends of beginnings, and beginnings of ends. It's all dying young and cheating death. It's all cancer wards and Pringles. It's all rock and roll. It's all good fun.

It's all Cheap Trick at the Budokan. It's all strungout sunrise, it's all smell of night air. It's all champagne Caribbean surf and acid artifacts. It's better than the alternative. It's all guitar and drum. It's all night and all day. It's all that you touch, it's all that you see, all you taste, all you feel, it's all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal. It's failing flesh and willing spirit.

It's all too hard, it's all too goddamn easy. It's all better than the alternative.

It's just a kiss away, it's just a kiss away.

January 1, 2007

Coke, Pepsi, Anal, Fork, Spoon, Saddam

Google, despite the fact that they are clearly the evolutionary precursor of the Borg or Skynet or the Matrix or whatever Evil Tech Hive Mind your dystopian leanings favour, can be instructive and educational as well as entertaining and terrifying.

From the inquiry into the global zeitgeist below

Google%20Trends%20coke%2C%20pepsi%2C%20anal.png

we learn, for example, that

  • Bermuda goes positively apeshit over Coke, but has no interest in Pepsi
  • New Zealand is also a Coke Nation, but hasn't yet completed the Pepsi drinker genocide
  • Canadians don't care much about the minute differences between sugar water brands, but are fond of bum
  • ...but not nearly as fond of it as the Kiwis
  • Suprisingly, perhaps, Commonwealth nations are keener on the buttsecks than Americans

In today's globalized economy, borders become transparent to markets, and death is once again a spectator sport, with images shot 'round the globe in realtime to Feed The Need™. Civilization is sooo cool, man! It's mashup time, and you get to choose whether you want to eat that mash with fork or spoon, because the Customer Is Always Right.

Google%20Trends%20fork%2C%20spoon%2C%20saddam.png

Of course, it is entirely possible that there is no Spoon, and we're all Forked.

Share and enjoy.


December 25, 2006

Rumours of My Demise

Rumours of my demise have been much exaggerated. I haven't been eaten by the hogs, I haven't sold out to the Man. I haven't quaffed the hemlock, I haven't screwed the pooch, I haven't jumped the shark. OK, maybe those last two, but that's it, officer.

What has happened, apparently, is that I've been killed, cooked, and incorporated into a delicious sandwich.

Kids, let this be a lesson. Live right, or it could happen to you too. [via]

Update: Apparently the marketing team that made the ad had never heard of my nom de blog, but thought it was pretty funny once they had. Cool.

August 21, 2006

Bullshit, Dugg

Well, it only took 7 months, but my Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator™ toy from January got dugg, and seemed to inspire much jocularity.

It's been interesting, because the page has been one of the most-linked bits of the site for the last 6 months, almost exclusively amongst weblogs in Europe and Asia, for some reason. Then, a few days ago, (near as I can trace it), after I dropped it into a comments thread at Metafilter, it was picked up by milov.nl, then automatically showed up on Hot Links, then Daring Fireball (kablooie went the visits), then Reddit and Digg almost simultaneously.


Happily, the server shows absolutely no signs of melting down (er, so far). Like I said recently, Dreamhost has treated me well.

Share and enjoy.

Update: Whoops, now Techcrunch and de.licio.us and Blue's News and Dvorak and O'Reilly Radar, too. Memetastic! Now it just needs posting on the front page of Metafilter, and the circle of life will be complete.

[Note: should not be posted to the front page of Metafilter]

February 26, 2006

The Stavrossian Accord

Whiskey, cocaine and hookers! Announcing the Stavrossian Accord™, an alternative to the SFcompact. The SFcompact made a small but measurable ripple in the text torrent recently. Compacters vow to eschew purchasing anything new other than food, health products and underwear for a year. Secondhand, though, that's OK. Poor folks are going to suffer for their ideals, aren't they?

Accordians, on the other hand, are expected not only to stop wearing underwear entirely, but to spend money on nothing other than whiskey, cocaine and hookers for a year. New or used, it's all good. And to do it, wherever possible, with stolen money.

It may seem a bit mean to make fun of a group of people whose hearts are, when it comes down to it, in the right place. Making an 'accord' and announcing it to the world, though, seems a little ripe for mockery. Particularly when some of the participants are marketers themselves.

Sarah Pelmas, a dean at University High School in San Francisco and one of the original Compacters, said she's amazed at the extreme responses the Compact has provoked. "People seem very threatened by it," she said. "But people all over the world live this way all the time. It's not like it's some revolutionary, or even consistent, thing we're doing. But I have been furiously questioned by some people about it -- one person said, 'I bet you still buy gas.' "

That sort of response is exactly why the Compact is needed, Perry said.

"If it's national news when a small group of professionals decide not to buy anything new, and it bothers people so much, it really speaks to how deep we are into consumerism in this country," he said.

Penetrating insight. I'd venture that people aren't bothered (or, god knows, threatened) by a cadre of self-absorbed assclowns forming a support-group tribe because they're watery-bowelled at the daunting prospect of not actually buying all that unnecessary crap (or *shudder* buying it secondhand), so much as they're amused. It doesn't 'speak to how deep [Americans] are into consumerism', it tells us that there are at least some folks left who know shit from shinola.

Me, I haven't bought any underwear for 5 years.

Join the Stavrossian Accord™. It might not save the world, but not buying a new iPod every six months wasn't going to do that anyway.

February 10, 2006

Completely Idiotic

I said the other day that the daily news is my number one source of the Big Laughs. The Big Laughs are the therapeutic ones, the ones that blow out the cobwebs and release those endorphins, that make you fart uncontrollably, which in turn starts you (well, me) laughing even harder. For this reason alone, I enjoy watching and reading the news these days.

To expand my endorphin and flatulence release program, I have invented a new game. My wife believes me to be moderately deranged as a result, but that's not really anything new. You can play along at home, too, dear reader, and I guarantee it'll be even better for your mental health and general well-being than constricting your anus 100 times a day. Malarkey? Or effective way? You get to decide.

It's simple, really, and in its simplicity resides its demonic cleverness. Merely add the phrase '...which is, of course, completely idiotic' to all news items, preferably political, that hove into your view. Fun for the whole family!

Here are some examples that I've prepared earlier in the clean and well-lit kitchens of wonderchicken Industries™:

  • Mr. Gonzales claimed that the warrantless surveillance program is consistent with protection of civil liberties, which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • Iran's best-selling newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in retaliation for the publication in many European countries of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • President Bush explained that the new budget, which cuts funding to health care, environmental protection and education while increasing defense and homeland security spending, will help to protect the American people, which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • Telecom companies, "including AT&T, MCI and Sprint," are allowing the NSA to spy on calls, "on the basis of oral requests from senior government officials" which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • 'Merkel likens Iranian president to Hitler' and 'Chavez says Bush worse than Hitler,' after 'Rumsfeld compares Venezuela's Chavez to Hitler' and 'Likens bin Laden to Hitler' which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • Most state and local health departments reportedly "expect to be unprepared" for a bird flu epidemic "for at least a year," during which time, says one expert, social distancing "is likely to be all we're going to have as a strategy" which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • The president reportedly "didn't mean it literally," when he vowed to cut Middle East oil imports by 75 percent: "This was purely an example," explained Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, formerly known as 'One of Texas' Top Five Worst Polluters' which is, of course, completely idiotic.
  • The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator" which is, of course, completely idiotic.

(some items lifted from Cursor.org, because I'm exhausted from all the farting)

Share and enjoy.

January 11, 2006

Web Two, Wonderchicken Zero

The Web 2.0 horse is pretty much dead already from all the flogging it's been taking, I know, and it's probably just cruel to take another swing at the poor bugger.

Nonetheless, I had an irresistable brainfart and an urge to play, so I put together the Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator, a ripoff of homage to the legendary dack.com Web Economy Bullshit Generator.

Share and enjoy, tag and remix, monetarize and sell out to Yahoo†!


† selling out to Yahoo! is not compulsory.

July 9, 2004

A Political Dream

I had a dream last night. A glorious technicolour dream. A political dream.

In my dream, Candidates Kerry and Edwards realized that Dim George and Snarling Dick were going to pull Osama Bin Laden out of their asses at some opportune moment before the election, and crucify him on the White House lawn. Plant the cross in a pool of scented oil to keep the saudi cooties from spreading, invite the bloodclan and Fox News and Dad, and rouse the tribes to a tumescent, frantic headline-crawl apogee of Republican vote-lust. But in a tasteful way, with very little mention of anyone having to go and f--k themselves.

My dream-representation of the light dawning in the Johns' minds was a tableau of them making cute anime 'O's with their mouths while rolling their eyes upwards toward a shared thought balloon in which Dick Cheney was holding the severed head of Osama up by its hair, letting the blood drip onto a Diebold voting machine. It was way cool.

So Franken-John and Pretty-John decided to go proactive. Winning, Kerry declared in his endearingly halting, tone-deaf way, is as much about kicking... some... mother...f--king ass as it is about proactively leveraging mission-critical paradigms in a time-sensitive fashion. Edwards popped up in front of him to declare that the only way to make America strong, to unite America again, and to preempt an October Suprise that would make America unstrong and disunited, was if the two of them were to hunt down that bastard OBL themselves, and beat the chickenhawks at their own game.

Yeah! said the crowd. Woo!

And so, enlisting the aid of a bionic monkey named Limbaugh (because robots and monkeys are funny, and a robot monkey wins by default (until the bionic monkey pirate shows up, at least)), the two boarded a Black Hawk helicopter and departed from an undisclosed location into the free and democratic mountains of America's Newest Ally, Afghanistan. This wasn't just any helicopter, mind you. This was way better than the Campaign Bus they figured on using off the get-go. Yes, this was a stealth chopper, and its shiny new Kerry/Edwards vinyl appliqués were replaced with other shiny new ones, ones shouting stuff like 'Death To America!' and 'Jihad or Bust!' (but with barely-legible disclaimers underneath in tiny little print, just in case somebody got the wrong idea). These guys were clever, canny combatants, and they had good media advisors!

With Lurch resplendant in Ramboriffic headband and shiny plastic nippleless muscley-torso, and co-John working his best assets and looking simply stunning in his floor-length silk gown, they combed the arid hills of the Afghan-Pakistan border in their OsamaChopper, setting down each evening as Allah's sun sank into the dusty haze to lay traps for the Bad Guys. Candidate Breck Girl strutted his silky stuff while bandolero-strapped Candidate Kerry lurked in the shadows with Limbaugh and waited, guns akimbo, frowning for the film-school interns with the digital video cameras. Waiting for their quarry to strike the bait.

Waiting, and drinking whiskey, because that's what men do when they're hunting outlaws with a bionic monkey at their side.

That's when I woke up with a start, all sweaty and disoriented. I hope I never have to see that look on my wife's face again.

June 21, 2004

Fahrenheit 452

So, I'm writing this post. It is called Fahrenheit 452.

It is mostly about itself, although it's about this too. And it's about Ray, who has given me some of the most peaceful, pellucid, connected moments I've ever had while holding a book in my hands.

I read my first Bradbury in perhaps 1973, and revisited some of my favorites just in this past year and found their lustre undiminished. As middle age approaches, the kind of nostalgia for a time that never was is stronger than ever, and there are greater pleasures to be found in some of those stories than the ones a younger me was able to fathom.

But he's still being a tool. In the spirit of...well, of sh-t-disturbing, I guess, I offer this humble suggestion: that anyone who feels similarly post something silly -- even better, something silly in the Style of Ray -- and title it 'Fahrenheit 452' or 'Fahrenheit 911' or whatever. Now that'd be some big blog hijinks!

Like Cory said

Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, so we know he loved the First Amendment. I just wish he loved the First Amendment enough to share it with the rest of us.

Peace.

June 4, 2004

sh1t Happens

I really was going to tell a story of Terror on The High Seas, as promised, but I fell down and a couple of litres of beer somehow splashed into my mouth, and well, it all went to hell, basically, and all I could recall of my past while listening to AC/DC's High Voltage was the unseemly enthusiasm with which my first girlfriend performed fellatio on me those several decades ago, thereby ruining me (in at least one sense) for most of the other women with whom I had sexual relationships in later years.

But you don't wanna hear about that stuff.

Or maybe you do, I guess, but that's not the story I wanted to tell tonight, so here's an amusing image that I've stolen from one of the talented goons at the SA Forums, to make you forgive me for the notable lack of blowjob and/or saltydog stories this evening, instead.

here.

March 23, 2004

Type, Type Everywhere

Although I'm not really too exercised about it one way or the other, I tend to think more along the lines of Mark than Shelley on this whole TypeKey furor. I must admit TypeKey seems a little like using a hammer to turn a screw to me, but we shall see.

In the meantime, though, I have taken it upon myself offer some more superterrific BumpyCase product enhancements for Six Apart to continue building out their weblogging product line. It is with great pleasure that I submit these modest proposals to leverage the brand, exploit synergies, capture market share and monetarize conversation. TypePad and TypeKey are only the beginning! We have nothing to lose but our privacy!

  • TypeVote - More accurate than Diebold (MS Access backend optional), and totally free from hanging chads! If you're a voter, get yourself a TypeVote weblog, and really make an Emergent Democracy©™ difference! One blog, one vote!
  • TypeShop - Route all your monetary transactions through your blog! Blog about that sandwich you had for lunch, and ask your grocery store to subscribe to your RSS (Really Simple Shopping) feed, and leave that shopping list at home. Get people to buy diapers for you! The possibilities are limitless!
  • TypeONegative - Cluetrain Item #3172: Healthcare providers are conversations! Or goth metal bands, maybe.
  • Still fleshing this one out.

  • TypePod - You're not an A-lister until you have an iPod, and what better way to build brand synergy and leverage the design-fetishizing metrosexual music pirate demographic?
  • TyppelGanger - Buy out the drunkmenworkhere autogenerated weblogging technology and let the code write you into existence. No need to do it yourself anymore! That's so 2001!
  • TypeFire - Hit a button, generate a comments-thread flame. Why waste valuable mental CPU cycles trying to come up with another way to say 'You're a donkey-raping sh-tweasel' in yet another post that includes political commentary with which you disagree? TypeFire will reduce your fifteen-minute-nemesis to charcoal at the click of a button, and get those valuable clickthroughs happening too!
  • TypeAzon - Plug your weblog and yourself straight into the bookflogging mainline! Webloggers read books, right? Well, Google is already useless for finding anything other than Amazon-affiliate clicksinks when you're looking for information on books, and shifting units is what it's all about, kids, so why not jump into the moneypool?
  • PadThaipe - Damn, that Thai food is yummy.
  • TypeUp - Want to hold a pomo-moblog-emergent-market-journospam-osphere conference and maybe soak the blogrubes for a few simoleons while you're at it? A TypePad/MeetUp mashup is the ticket for inviting people who are guaranteed to breathlessly validate your wildest techo-utopian blather!
  • TypeZilla - Serving no other purpose than to piss off IP Lawyers Who Don't Get It yet. Lessig-approved and somehow licensed under Creative Commons, so it's got that street-cred every hip weblogger so craves.
  • TypePoint - Taking a page from Microsoft, throw together some leftover code and half-baked ideas and call it a Knowledge Management system. Or portal. Or workgroup document storage. Or something. Hell, we don't quite know what it does, but it stresses the server something fierce, so it must be good, right?
  • TypeSpam - Hey kids! You know those other webloggers got them some dollars, right? The internet's awash with disposable income! Use TypeSpam to generate targeted-demographic, GeoURL-enabled, realtime book-sales monitoring, results-oriented weblog comment-thread advertisements for your online drugstore! It's viral, it's centrally managed, it's smartly styled, and it'll get your Googlejuice flowing!

Kombinat is just the beginning, my friends. This is not your father's blogosphere.

Now put me on the payroll, already.

December 14, 2003

Fluffy Bunnies

Fluffy Bunnies. Playful kittens. Romantic sunsets. Warm spring breezes. Crisp cotton sheets on a cold winter night. Happy puppies. Burbling babies.

Oh, and Saddam Hussein. What a wonderful world!

I've turned over a new leaf, I swear. Nothing but Happy Fun Times from here on in, campers.






[Update : Nah, f--k that.]

May 22, 2003

At It Again

I was watching another Carlin video this evening, and made this for no readily apparent reason, other than one of his bits that I've heard about 114 times made me laugh.

Sleep-Fuuuuck. Sleep-Fuuuuck. Sleep'n'f--k! Sleep-Fuuuuck.

Sleep'n'f--k!

May 15, 2003

WARNING! THIS IS A JOKE

Q : What does it mean when a pirate coughs?

Click here for the senses-shattering punchline!

A : He has SAARRRRRRS.

I stole this joke, but if I told you from where, I'd have to kill you. See also : this.

May 7, 2003

Eater of Meaning

Emptybottle.org - Empire.Organism : A liter songbook, a liter dan, a litmus selfridge downloaded your pantomime.

This will probably be all over Daypop if it's not already, but I love it, and couldn't resist. Instant Finnegannifier. I'm seriously thinking of changing the navigation items at the top of the page to "HOMEOMORPHISMS | ME | BLOOMERS | ARCLIKE | LINGUISTS | PICK | LODGED FORAY SALLYING" as it suggests.

The Eater of Meaning, via MeFi.

April 1, 2003

A Doodyhead, I say!

Dick Cheney is a big doodyhead, and so is his wife! And their dog is funny-looking too, I'll bet.

OK, I'm done.





No wait. There's this too :

Oily doodyhead

February 6, 2003

The Funny

In keeping with my '00-stylin' (thanks Phil) linkfest, there are some very funny ones (
like this
) in this Fark photoshop thread.

I chuckled, I chortled, I nodded in a wry, knowing fashion. You might too!

January 29, 2003

The Floggies

Ed takes the piss.

[this is good]

"On Thursday, January 16, a panel of 50 prerigged voters received an e-mail. It listed the weblogs that the Weblog Conspiracists wanted you to link to. They had only 45 seconds, time measured on the Gregorian Calendar, to privately give us five favorite weblogs that they had never read, but that they had linked to (six for Weblog of the Year, twice removed) for each category. The five (or six of two possibilities, for Weblog of the Year) receiving the most votes, the ones that managed to link to Jason Kottke, became finalists. I (Nikolai Nolan, Head of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.), having long since lost track of the intricate rules, attempted to conduct this elaborate ceremony on my spare time. That was when I began receiving the hate mails. It wasn't by accident that I had set up the Floggies Headquarters in a giant volcano and began stroking my cat on a regular basis."

January 24, 2003

Fun

What I don't need is another shiny thing to distract me, but this is some kinda fun, pilgrims. I know it's been around for a bit, and the alpha is almost over, but it's new to me, and it's very cool, and scary addictive. Reminds me, in a good way, of IRC (to which I've never been that attracted), crossed with the mind-expanding, imagination-tweaking, eyestrainy old days of all night text-adventuring on my big grey TRS-80.

Zork.jpg
>READ THE SIGN

"Warning! These are poisonous oranges, not meant for human consumption.
- Farmer Bozbar"

>EAT AN ORANGE

Aaarrrr! It burns your tongue and your throat!

***You have died***

I really sucked at text adventures.

October 4, 2002

Drugs

Drugs, and lots of them. Whacking great quantities of mind-expanding and mind-croggling chemical treats. Monster Scarface-style piles of snowy uncut columbian cocaine on the desk. A cut-crystal bowl full of pills, in all the colours of the rainbow. Monster doses of dimethyltryptamine and d-lysergic acid diethylamide to make my mind ripple and flap like a flag flying in the breath of god. Musty peyote buttons and foil-wrapped grams of psilocybin mushrooms. Opium to smoke and heroin to snort. Alcoholic beverages in all their gem-like hues. Sweet stinky tobacco and marijuana, dark brown hashish in both chunks and oil. Mescaline and methamphetamines. That's what I want.

jaded3.jpg

I feel the urge to clear the carbon out of the valves, dust off the mental cobwebs. I feel the urge to self-trepanate, sprinkle lighter fluid on the exposed ridges and folds of my cerebral cortex, and light 'er up. I feel like slipping the surly bonds of earth and touching the cruel, elusive face of god, that old bastard.

But I won't, because I'm a responsible member of society. I'll just write a little weblog post about it instead, and hit the button clearly marked 'SAVE'.

August 21, 2002

Questions of Poop

Have you ever been caught out in the middle of the night in a park with a runny bum and a convulsing bowel, had to squat and squirt like a beast behind a bush somewhere, and in lieu of paper or leaves or pretty much anything that could be profitably employed for the wiping of the soiled starfish, come up with the brilliant idea of dragging your bum along the dewy grass a bit (learned from the childhood observation of your dog 'Boomer' when he had worms) to clean off any klingons?

No, me neither. I was just checking.

August 7, 2002

Board Meeting

I found this on the site that dare not speak it's name. It's funny.

A C / D C : THE BOARD MEETING

BY JOHN KENYON

- - - -

Angus: Well then, I see that everyone is here. Shall we get started?

Brian: Might we call the roll, at least for the sake of the minutes?

Angus: Good point. Malcolm?

Malcolm: Oh, right, right. I'm secretary this fiscal year, aren't I? All right, then. Angus Young?

Angus: Present.

Malcolm: Brian Johnson?

Brian: Present.

Malcolm: Phil Rudd?

Phil: Here.

Malcolm: Cliff Williams?

Cliff: Present.

Angus: Thank you, Malcolm. Now, as I'm sure you know from reading the memo e-mailed last Tuesday, we're meeting to begin conceiving our next album. Sales of our latest, Stiff Upper Lip, have tailed off, and tour revenue will only sustain the corporation through the end of fiscal 2002. Our back catalog, interview discs, live collections, and the box set helped the bottom line, but these are signs of a brand treading water. We need new product to assure continued growth through fiscal 2003.

Malcolm: All right, then. Should we review and approve minutes from the last meeting or jump ahead to item no. 4, "Brainstorming new song titles."

Angus: Let's not mess with Robert's Rules this once. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes?

All: Yes.

Angus: Then if there's no further discussion, can I get a motion to approve and file said minutes?

Phil: So moved.

Brian: Second.

Malcolm: We can do this on voice vote. All in favor?

All: Aye.

Angus: Should we move on?

Brian: Can we break for a few minutes? I need to check with the nanny to see that the kids got to school.

Angus: Okay by me. Any objections?

All: No.

[10 minute recess]

Angus: Now remember, the only bad idea is one that isn't shared. Remember Ballbreaker? I wouldn't have believed we had never used that album title, but there it was 1995 and it was fresh as ever. Or "You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll"? That's a classic title, undiscovered until our last album.

Brian: That was a nice one, Phil.

Phil: Thanks.

Angus: All right. Don't be shy; just throw them out there.

Brian: Well, I've been toying with something called "Flirt in a Skirt."

Phil: I like it! That's a keeper.

Cliff: How about "Snowball?"

Brian: That's a good one, but we already went in that direction with "Snowballed" from For Those About to Rock.

Cliff: I should have known it was too good to be true.

Brian: That's a good reminder to do our homework before we meet.

Angus: What do you guys think of "Pole Position"?

Brian: That I can work with.

Angus: Malcolm, what are you giggling about? Do you want to share it with the group?

Malcolm: Yeah. "Put Your Glove on My Love."

Phil: Boys, we might as well pack up and go home. We're not going to do better than that.

Cliff: That is a moneymaker.

Angus: Malcolm, this may be inappropriate, but I'm going to hug you.

[Rustling sound on tape]

Angus (to Malcolm): I seem to have wrinkled your coat. I'll pay for the dry cleaning. (To the group) OK, that one is going to get the juices flowing. Does anybody...

Phil: Angus, pardon the interruption, but what about that?

Angus: Sorry, but you've lost me. What do you mean?

Brian: He's right. "Got My Juices Flowing." Is that what you were getting at, Phil?

Phil: Exactly.

Angus: This is why I've come really to value these meetings? I was going to suggest, before being so productively interrupted, "Wired for Rock."

Cliff: Kudos, gentlemen.

Angus: OK, we're halfway there.

Brian: I notice we haven't dealt much with liquor yet. I love the sex-based titles, but need I remind you all that AC/DC thrives on variety. I keep coming back to the word "jigger." Your thoughts?

Malcolm: What about "Two Jiggers of Love"?

Cliff: That just adds to the sex thing.

Angus: Right, right, but we could address that in the lyrics, juxtaposing images of alcohol with those of sex, a compare/contrast construct.

Brian: I think I can make that work.

Angus: Okay, moving along. Brian, you're shared only one idea.

Brian: Well, I wanted to give the other guys a chance, to cultivate diversity of opinion.

Angus: Certainly, but we're on a schedule.

Brian: All right. "Depth Charge," "Rocket Launcher," "Smell of Love," and "Eat My Fist."

Cliff: I'd say we have an album, gentlemen. I move that we accept this slate of titles for our next album.

Brian: I second the motion.

Malcolm: All in favor?

All: Aye.

Angus: Excellent work. A final reminder: we've scheduled a meeting tomorrow at 3 p.m., to commence the songwriting process. If you'd like, we can also hold an informal session this evening at my house.

Brian: Sounds great. I move we adjourn.

Cliff: Second.

Malcolm: All in favor?

All: Aye.

July 24, 2002

I Invented Weblogging!

In case you came in somehow other than the front door, Weblog : The Movie. A wonderchicken joint. I don't know what that means, but it sounds good.

July 21, 2002

Pure Genius

Somebody get this man some first-round venture funding!

Oh yeah, they don't do that much anymore, do they? Nonetheless, this idea r0x0rs (that'd be hackeranian for 'amuses and impresses me greatly, in no small part because of its counterculture philosophical underpinnings, my good man'. (Why start speaking 133t now, you ask? Because I have recently shaved off most of my beard, and now have a lone skateboarder-esque tuft on my chin. It's shot through with grey, of course, but that's just makes it r0x0r all the more, says I!))

[via the dogdoorofdeath, whose animated gif of the spread of code red also r0x0rs my b0x0rs]

July 4, 2002

Public Service Announcement

And now, as a special public service announcement, here's some stupid sh-t that was running through my brain this afternoon as I made some chicken cacciatore :

Since it seems we've been saddled with the monicker 'warbloggers' for the forseeable future, I thought we should open up some more niches for folks, you know, so they don't feel left out. You can have hours of fun, if you're so inclined, assigning your friends and neighbours to the right Tribe, a la the Harry Potter thing. If I had the energy, I'd make one of those stupid f--king quizzes. But I don't. So... onward!

I propose the foundation of the following new BlogTribes :

  • whorebloggers : only in it for the money, heart of gold or not.
  • were-bloggers : tried it once, didn't see the attraction, went back to reading Fark
  • werebloggers : only blog by the light of the moon, have trouble with getting their claws caught between the keys
  • wearbloggers : fashion victims
  • wiredbloggers : learned all their html from Webmonkey
  • whybloggers : what's it all about, Alfie?
  • whoahbloggers : Dude, Keanu says : 'Whoah.'
  • warebloggers : just like playing with the tools
  • wherebloggers : huh? wha? who did what where now?
  • wartbloggers : ugly as sin In Real Life, beautiful flowers online

    and my favorite new Wonderchicken Approved™ Blogtribe

  • wheebloggers : fast, loose, enthusiastically voluble, and probably drunk

  • Any additions?

    June 26, 2002

    Ftagn!

    Anybody else out there have recurring dreams about Godzilla? I'm askin'...

    June 22, 2002

    Led By The Nose

    This amused me a great deal, and I'm grumpy as hell today, too! Go, look, chuckle.

    June 20, 2002

    Everybody knows

    I don't know why I thought this was so funny, but I'm tellin' ya, I almost peed myself.

    June 2, 2002

    No security clearance for you, dogfcuker!

    Via MeFi, of course, this gentleman was turned down in his application for Military Security clearance because of his slighty excessive fondness for our canine pals :

    "Applicant admitted the factual allegations of the SOR; accordingly, I incorporate Applicant's admissions as findings of fact.

    Applicant--a 25-year old employee of a defense contractor--seeks access to classified information.

    The allegations of the SOR revolve around Applicant's zoophilia--his sexual attraction to animals and his sexual activity with dogs from approximately 1987 to June 1996. On 13 August 1998, Applicant described his zoophilia to a special agent of the Defense Security Service (DSS)(Item 5):

    I would like to take this opportunity to explain that I am a zoophile, sexually attracted to animals. I fantasize about sexual activities with anthropomorphic (cartoon character types) animals, friendly big cat like a lion, any medium to large size dog, horses, cows, etc., but to actually engage the animal must be a dog. The reason I state it must be a dog because a dog is the only animal who has the closest personality to a human being."

    I don't really know what to say about this. I'd like to say "Homo sum; nihil humani a me alienum puto," but this just pushes the envelope a little too much for me, ya know?

    Dylsexic Accuntants

    Some amusing if sporadically sophomoric Google searches, via NTK :

    dylsexia
    accuntability
    type_Document_Title_here
    Welcome to Adobe GoLive
    "Do not reveal to Non HOLLi"
    "please delete this slide"

    Google as ad-hoc IQ test.

    May 29, 2002

    It's Official : I'm outta ideas.

    belushi_big_chicken_lo.jpg

    Someone stick a fork in my ass and turn me over, I'm done.

    May 16, 2002

    That's a lot of gas.

    Returning to the ovine digestion theme of earlier in the week : "The 45 million sheep and 10 million cattle in New Zealand make for a lot of burped methane—about 90 percent of that country's methane emissions, according to government figures."

    May 13, 2002

    ALL MODALITIES OF THIS TRANSACTION

    STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

    WE ARE MEMBERS OF A SPECIAL COMMITTEE FOR BUDGET AND PLANNING OF THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HOUSING(FMWH). THIS COMMITTEE IS PRINCIPALLY CONCERNED WITH CONTRACT AWARDS AND APPROVAL. WITH OUR POSITIONS, WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SECURED FOR OURSELVES THE SUM OF THIRTY ONE MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US$31.5M). THIS AMOUNT WAS CAREFULLY MANIPULATED BY OVER-INVOICING OF AN OLD CONTRACT.

    BASED ON INFORMATION GATHERED ABOUT YOU, WE BELIEVE YOU WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO HELP US IN TRANSFERING THIS FUND (US$31.5M) INTO A SAFEACCOUNT. IT HAS BEEN AGREED THAT THE OWNER OF THE ACCOUNT WILL BE COMPENSATED WITH 20% OF THE REMITTED FUNDS, WHILE WE KEEP 70% AS THE INITIATORS AND 10% WILL BE SET ASIDE TO OFFSET EXPENSES AND PAY THE NECESSARY TAXES.WE INTEND TO USE PART OF OUR OWN SHARE TO IMPORT FROM YOUR COUNTRY AGRICULTURAL AND
    CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY.

    THIS IS BECAUSE THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT OF MY COUNTRY IS EMPHASISING ON PROVIDING FOOD AND HOUSING FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS BEFORE THE NEXT ELECTION. HENCE, AGRICULTURAL AND CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT ARE IN HIGH DEMAND OVER HERE. WE SHALL ALSO NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE IN THIS REGARD ON A COMMISSION TO BE AGREED UPON WHEN WE FINALLY MEET.

    ALL MODALITIES OF THIS TRANSACTION HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY WORKED OUT AND ONCE STARTED WILL NOT TAKE MORE THAN SEVEN (7) WORKING DAYS, WITH YOUR FULL SUPPORT. THIS TRANSACTION IS 100% RISK FREE.

    IF THIS PROPOSAL SATISFIES YOU, PLEASE REACH US ONLY BY EMAIL FOR
    MORE INFORMATION.

    PLEASE, TREAT AS URGENT AND VERY IMPORTANT.

    YOURS FAITHFULLY,

    ISIOMA PROSPER.

    The above is an amusing spam message I received today, which was send to a shell mail account I used a couple of months ago to leave comments on a Radio-based weblog. A variation on an old theme, of course, but the amusement factor almost makes the annoyance of dealing with crap like this worthwhile.

    Anybody know if Radio has fixed its vulnerability to email-harvesters reading comments threads yet?

    (The return email address for this piece of crap was isiomaprosper@qrio.com, by the way. Harvest away, spam-robots!)

    May 12, 2002

    Pirate Riddles for Sophisticates


    Q: What's a pirate's favorite aspect of computational linguistics?
    A: PARRRsing sentences.

    Q: Of which concept shared by Jungian psychology and Northrop Frye's literary theory are pirates especially fond?
    A: ARRRchetype.

    [more...]

    May 6, 2002

    In the Interests of Fair Play

    I offer these Canadian facts as accompaniment to the post about America earlier :

    Canadians are more likely to than any other nationality to eat roadkill. In fact, Canadians refer to dead raccoons found on the highway as "Toronto Bologna." (Source: McMillan's Culture Guide 1999-2000)

    Canadians lead the world in per capita binge drinking. The average Canadian drinks an average of 16 beers on an average day. Seven of them are normally consumed while on the job.
    (Source: Wild World Of Booze Facts)


    Canada is the world's largest supplier of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and back bacon.
    (Source: Gene Raphael's Big Book Of Canucks)

    Canadians are more likely than any other nationality to spit in public, especially on the windshields of other people's cars.
    (Source: New York Times - June 15th, 1998)


    If you try to order a quarter-pounder in a Canadian McDonald's, you won't get a quarter-pound hamburger. You see, Canadians use the metric system for units of measurement. If you ask a Canadian for a "quarter-pounder," he will kick you in the knee and take your wallet and any jewelry you are wearing.
    (Source: America West Airlines travel guide)

    These shocking facts and more can be found here. Once again, I leave my gentle readers to draw their own conclusions about this hateful, evil nation and its unpleasant denizens, with their incessant foul language and their flip-top heads. [via boingboing]

    April 19, 2002

    Enron explained : Now this, I like.

    Cunningly crafted to appeal to the refined, erudite Wonderchicken sensibilities : monkeys, poop, humping, and random violence, all at the service of sticking it to the corporates. Heavy with goodness.

    ...What, in layman's terms, actually happened at Enron? Perhaps the best way to explain to the average reader (one without an economics degree) is to use a metaphor. Say there is a troop of monkeys and their day consists of seeking out bananas. The head monkey orders all the other monkeys to collect their bananas in a pile, which will be eaten at the end of the day and not a moment before.

    Only not many bananas are found.

    One of the monkeys starts screeching, voids his bowels and flings his excrement at another monkey. Soon all the monkeys are flinging monkeysh-t at each other and smearing it all over themselves. This arouses one monkey, who begins masturbating frantically. Other monkeys start mounting each other and a sh-t-stained orgy ensues. Monkeys hump violently, crushing those on the bottom of the pile. The head monkey grabs a stick and flails around at random, whacking his compatriots. He bares his teeth and screams a defiant message.

    "REEEEEEEP! RREEEP! REEEP! REEEEP! Ooh ooh ooh. REEEEEAAAAAAAP!!!! REEEEEEEEEAAARRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEP!!!!"

    While this analogy is perhaps simplistic, it contains the essence of the problem posed by Enron.

    Rumproast.

    March 30, 2002

    New tagline candidates

    New tagline candidate #1 : Abandon Hope All Ye Who CTRL-ENTER Here.

    New tagline candidate #2 : Lift and separate.

    OK, those are just dumb.

    March 27, 2002

    Falling Down


    Comments? comments.

    March 21, 2002

    "Someday your ship will come"

    "Someday your ship will come in. Today is not that day."

    March 18, 2002

    SPACE GHOST: King like that

    SPACE GHOST: King like that don't need hair. Speaking of hair, what's up with your 'do?

    GEORGE CLINTON: Oh, my 'do. Well, what comes around, went that way. And I can get around, you know what I'm sayin'?

    SPACE GHOST: No. I wear a hood.

    GEORGE CLINTON: You wear a 'hood? I, I live in a 'hood. You have a 'hood, yeah, but how would I wear a 'hood?

    SPACE GHOST: It's not hard. I take an entire neighborhood, put it on my head and dance around where the neighborhood used to be. The people who live in the neighborhood are terrified by my hopping, and some of them fall off my head and are trampled. It is then that the dance becomes a dance of sadness.

    GEORGE CLINTON: Why are you tellin' me this?

    SPACE GHOST: Because I care about the innocent victims of my ill-advised dance of joy.

    GEORGE CLINTON: Oh...

    SPACE GHOST: Fries don't come with that deadly shake.

    That is all.

    March 13, 2002

    Wheeeee

    Because there may be (one or two) People Still Living who still haven't seen this, and because I've emptied a few bottles this evening (spot the telegraphing of the thematic whatchamacallit! Yes! I am win!), and because every time I see it, it makes me giggle like a Robotic Giggling Machine from the Future, I give you Gonads and Strife. Enjoy. Again.

    (And if ya liked them apples, be sure not to miss the epic Schoolbus!)

    Edit : Unrelated flash oddness - Why is the dog being pooped on, and why does Panasonic™ think that's a good thing? Only the Japanese public knows.

    March 6, 2002

    Møøse bites

    Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...

    No realli!

    No realli! She was Karving her initials øn the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink"...

    March 5, 2002

    Møøse

    A Møøse once bit my sister...

    February 22, 2002

    META BLOG LEVEL 9

    META BLOG LEVEL 9

    This is beginning to scare me.

    Now I just need some frickin' lasers or something to go with the 40-foot Killer Robots.


    Or sharks with lasers strapped to their heads... comments.

    February 18, 2002

    Have a yen...

    Have a yen for some public defecation, coprophagia, bestiality, and a peppy soundtrack? The wonderchicken is happy to comply. Is it the latest from stileproject or one of the other net.cesspools? Nope, it's a new Korean flash cartoon - cute, but somewhat disturbing. (Warning : don't go there if you're easily offended.) I think it's kind of amusing, in a twisted way, but then I'm evil incarnate, me. Almost as much poop-oriented fun as this good old standby : Chil-la - The Ass Shooter Game (which I originally marvelled at here.)

    The mind would boggle if it weren't taking a year off.


    That is odd, isn't it? comments.

    January 24, 2002

    I'm getting softheaded

    I'm getting softheaded in my old age, but I found this greatly amusing, if perhaps a bit MeFi obscure. Edit : How is this Korea-related? Well, it's not. That's twice in two days I've broken my own rules. Bum.

    The numbers are out to get me, doc...

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