Emptybottle.org

This is a nice idea, actually. Whack a slider up there at the top of the search results, help you to filter out the omnipresent webshill crud. Shopping versus research, the infotainment revenue-generation cage-match of our times.
One of the things that annoys me greatly, every time I search for some information on an author or a book, is the way that Amazon (and the dense cloud of parasite associate gnats it trails behind it, all buzzing and jostling for a sip of the great beast’s blood) pops to the top, without fail.
Sometimes I even sigh quietly to myself, give in, and click through, hating myself for letting the shopping mall win.
So this Yahoo thing seemed like it might be right up my alley. Until, of course, I noticed that even with the bar slid hard a-starboard, pedal to the research-metal, the first (paid, placed-ad) result, helpfully highlighted, was for E-bay.
Ahhh, go screw yourself, Yahoo.
The irony of using a Yahoo-owned service to host the image I’m showing you is delicious, though. So there’s that.

Because I am a bad person, I have not been scouring the permalinkosphere for nuggets of excellence with my usual steely-eyed vigor this week.
Despair not, though, gentle readers, for I have nonetheless come up with a Single Link of such Power and Glory that it will make up for the notable lack of the Other Four, and quite possibly melt your Snatch Hairs.
Smoke ’em if you got ’em.
And so [drum roll please] I give you… the Friday One! Do not operate heavy machinery while using this blog.

Yes, it’s Friday again in Korea — the first time it’s been Friday in, like, a couple of months, thanks to new legislation outlawing Friday in Korea in favour of having Thursday twice to reduce alcohol consumption (you read it here first!) — and so time for the Other! Friday! Five! in which I provide precisely 5 hard-won links to some things that I quite enjoy, and you click on them, and everybody’s happy.
Some of our lovely contestants you may know, some you may not. It’s all good.
So without further ado, join me down in the government yard in Trenchtown, friends, and revel in the linky goodness.

• John Scalzi
• Long story, short pier
• Ludic Kid
• Ming the Mechanic

and, because I’m an old-school geek at heart,

• tinyapps.org

[Post postscript : I’ve been daydreaming about The Before Times (™DV Polymedia) lately, and if the delicious frosty beverages I plan to consume this evening treat me right, I may have a tale or two to tell of those times when I should have (in the immortal words of Moe Berg) ended up dead in a ditch somewhere with a mind full of chemicals like some cheese-eating highschool boy. But didn’t.
What’s the point of doing stupid things unless you get at least a few amusing anecdotes out of it, right? Stay tuned to this channel!]

Yes, friends, I’ve actually done something I said I was going to do, and on time as well. It’s the dawning of a new era, I tell you, and nothing on God’s green earth can stop me now! I’m bristling with barely contained power, the sparks are fair flying off me — his floating eyes, his flashing hair! — and the very earth beneath my feet trembles and groans and heaves in fast thick pants. Dearly beloved, it’s time once again to unleash the chthonic power of this internet, and reveal unto you : The Other Friday Five. These are things I like, and I am showing them to you.

• Strip mining for whimsy
• Satan’s Laundromat
• Yule Heibel’s Post Studio
• Laughing Knees
• My Korean Language Study Journey

Share and Enjoy.

Item the First : Anne Craig is going through some surgery for cancer. I join Rageboy in encouraging you to send her a note of support. He says : ‘I have personally seen pure concentrated freak power save a life,’ and I say if you’re reading this weblog, you are a freak of some kind, clearly, and you’ve got to come to terms with that, damn it! Now let your freak flag fly and go do something constructive with the unholy power with which you’ve been blessed†.
Item the Second : In lieu of reading any new rantings and ravings (rockings or rollings, babblings or banterings (somewhere between Bantu warrior and post-Bruce Banner hulk-smashology)) from yours truly, I offer you this tale of bitterness and disappointment and the inexorable deterioration of mental health from a new arrival to the ESL Mines Of Korea. It’s long, but well worth the read.
Sad and a little horrible to watch it unfold – an old battle-scarred vet like me can predict most of the hammerfalls this poor guy endures – but hilarious nonetheless.
Reminds me in many ways of my first six months here. It is in no way an exaggeration, I should note – if you’re thinking of coming to Korea to teach, and this gives you pause, well, good.
Enjoy.
†Well, OK, you don’t have to, but it would be a nice thing to do.
Edit : Something’s gone goofy with comments on this post. I’m trying to track it down. Please do not adjust your set.
Update : Fixed. Comment away!

Stupidity : The Documentary.
Any clip that can juxtapose interview footage from Drew Curtis (el Farko Supremo) and Noam Chomsky, and manage to poke Dubya with a stick while including both nudity and senseless violence….
…well, that’s a keeper.
See also : ‘you begin to realize that there is no hope.’ But who gives a sh-t? It’s a riot!