Everytime I do some perfectly innocent search through flickr (in this case the word used was “DUH”) I get the unconnected weirdness.
Saturday Random Flickr Pics, the “In honor of Habeas Corpus” dub
Saturday, October 14th, 2006I concur: This IS a massive time sucker
Saturday, September 23rd, 2006The seal maker has claimed another victim. (via) (more…)
MTV once again leads competitors in finding ways to make teens even more vapid
Monday, September 18th, 2006When I first saw MTV’s the Real World I thought, “God, this sucks.” I know, who could have called it? Well, 17 seasons have vindicated me yet the series still seems to be going strong (seventeen fucking seasons? Could I be that old already?)
Well god forbid something as artificial and predictable as The Real World be allowed to wither and die, and since there is only one direction in reality TV (that would be down) of course MTV would need to follow up with something that offered the same artificiality and predictablity, but without any of the scary psuedo-diversity or chance for issue awareness that the Real World occasionally offered. After all, today’s teens don’t want to run the risk of going to see thier favorite almost-stars in person only to be lectured about substance abuse or even AIDS. That shit’s a drag.
Enter three seasons of Laguana Beach, a show where a bunch of boring rich white teenagers with improbable names do boring rich white teenager shit. How boring? Meet Cameron:
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I’ll think of a title later
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006I so do not want to write something right now. I should totally put it off till tomorrow morning; what’s the difference, anyway?
Ah, blogging. It’s the only place where thoughts about not wanting to do work can become the work itself.
Sometimes, I don’t like to do stuff. Shocking, I know. My idle hands frequently become the devil’s tools (provided the devil is a PS2 game, a mash-up sample, or Entertainment Weekly).
It turns out that, until the dumb ol’ Industrial Revolution came along and gave me those things, a propensity for futzery might have been a quality to celebrate:
Ferrari, Johnson, and McCown (1995), in their book, take a similar though somewhat softened stand. They contend that procrastination has existed throughout history but that it only acquired truly negative connotations with the advent of the industrial revolution, that is circa 1750. Before then, procrastination was viewed neutrally and could be interpreted as a wise course of (in)action. Accordingly, they find examples from ancient Egyptian and Roman civilizations where the authors use the concept of postponement or putting off as being useful or wise (DeSimone, 1993 as cited in Ferrari et al., 1995). These examples include avoiding unnecessary work or demonstrating patience. Also, they note that procrastination, according to the OED (1952), did not have negative connotations until the mid-18th century. Consequently, they conclude, “that as economies become large and more complex…words related to the concept of task avoidance become more negatively imbued with meaning” (p. 5).
Having risen to prominence during the Age of Industry and insisting we be nicknamed The Land of Opportunity by other countries, America is particularly scornful of the idea of procrastination.
[Aside: nothing is lamer than a self-proclaimed nickname. I knew a guy in college who, I swear to god, insisted everyone call him TP -- as in "total package." You can be certain we called him many other two-word phrases beginning with T and P, but never ever ever "total package."]
Clearly, though, our bark is bigger than our bite. Fantasy football alone costs us over a billion dollars a week in productivity, and that’s assuming players only spend 50 minutes a week on the habit (which I can assure you is hella conservative).
I’m sure we all read blogs as part of our procrastination routine, too, dodging work or ironing or coversations about the birds and the bees with the young’uns. I mean, if I’m screwing around writing this post, god knows there’s something else you’re supposed to be doing right now other than reading it.
Before you go and beat yourself up over that, just remember: the Romans would celebrate you for it.
A lazy Tuesday MSN link farm.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006It’s been a nice day for me, and I’ll pass the feeling on by blogging some nice news.
First up, from MSNBC, an article on eco-friendly travel. I didn’t know what carbon-offsetting was until I ordered some stuff online from a company that offered it as an option. I’m still hazy on how it works, but so far it looks like an idea most of us can get behind.
Visiting an eco-lodge in a rainforest somewhere may sound appealing. But when you consider that carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes are a major contributor to global warming, you might do more for the environment by staying home. While you’re at it, cut out the road trips in that gas-guzzling car.
If staying home isn’t an option, however, here are three things you can do to start traveling in a more environmentally responsible way.
It’s great to see an article like this in such a bland, lazy site as MSN. I see it as a sign that people are ready to start thinking green, and that they are realizing that being enviornmentally friendly does not mean giving up our precious, precious liesure or living in a hippie commune without electricity or running water. After all, MSN wouldn’t print it unless it was as safe and conventional as possible.
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The Conflict Escalates
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006I think it was Hemmingway who first said; “War is hell, and a naked woman standing on a whale.”
Such is the nature of war that escalation was inevitable, but little did I suspect that Hezbollah’s crack CosPlay troops would launch a surprise attack: (more…)
Zidane is better than Oasis, which is better than Queen which is better than the Beatles
Thursday, July 13th, 2006This is nice:
This is better: (more…)
Prostrastinatory Aid: Monday Flickr Pick
Sunday, June 4th, 2006Sorry I’ve not bloged for a few days, have that remedied by tuesday at the latest (just found a text file with what I think is a drunkle attempt to live blog oral sex, I can just about remember typing it (and the head), and the spelling is…haphazard, even for me, if anyone knows what “u shud jkliust mi dn teh nekaps crtn!LY” means, please let me know).
Anyway, for your monday morning procrastination pleasure, here’s my Monday Flickr Pick: Welovepandas, found using the search word “Muff”, so turn on, sign in and flckr off… (more…)
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