I'll dust you too, pokey.

24

Also, this should come as no surprise.

77% Geek

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

You know how there are different cloud types, like cummulonimbus, right?

And you know how they let famous people name little variations in species, like how Gary Larson has a species of louse named after him, right?

Well, if I ever get really famous, I want nothing more than to have a type of cloud named after me. And I'd want them to call it:

Clearlynothummus.

Courtesy of this page, I discovered why Garfield is so good, even after 83 years. To wit (click to enlarge):



Jim Davis (or whatever goo-in-jar that is keeping his brain alive) is a freakin' genius!

Actually, that strip is a mashup of actual strips. The link above takes you to a script that randomly takes three Garfield panels and randomly assigns them a spot in the sequence. Most of the time the results don't make any sense, but occassionally it's comedy gold. You can, as I did, prevent certain panels from being replaced (whatever the lead-up to it is, something about Jon asking nervously about a blender is funny). You can't, however, save your strip or in any other way preserve it for posterity unless you capture your screen and trim the fat in your favorite image editor. But whatever.

Hat Tip: Boing Boing.

Piping hot coffee. Check.
English muffin smothered with cheese. Check.
Sunday's Post. Check.
Dave Brubeck. Check.

I honestly can't think of any better way to start a week.

Occasionally I'll save good bits of IM conversations and revisit them when I'm feeling particularly vapid. Tonight I came across this gem, a conversation clearly growing out of the overwhelming boredom with my job that I was experiencing. Bourgeois Deviant is the other party here.

Checkypantz (1:31:48 PM): bongiorno!
BourgeoisD (1:32:42 PM): Are you Romanian?
Checkypantz (1:32:57 PM): i am a russian woman
BourgeoisD (1:33:12 PM): Or are you Bulgarian?
Checkypantz (1:33:27 PM): we cannot call them bulgarians
BourgeoisD (1:33:42 PM): Why?
Checkypantz (1:34:23 PM): because that would make the Master of Kittens angry
BourgeoisD (1:36:56 PM): You would be the master of Kittens?
Checkypantz (1:37:08 PM): HEATHEN!
Checkypantz (1:37:21 PM): you cannot see the Master of Kittens.
BourgeoisD (1:37:52 PM): *sees Master of Kittens and giggles*
BourgeoisD (1:40:30 PM): Would the real Master of Kittens please stand up?
Checkypantz (1:41:03 PM): the Master of Kittens casts no shadow in direct sunlight.
BourgeoisD (1:42:12 PM): *Just wants the real Master of Kittens to please stand up*
Checkypantz (1:42:35 PM): the Master of Kittens dances beside itself on the head of a pin.
BourgeoisD (1:43:03 PM): (what the hell IS the Master of kittens?)
Checkypantz (1:45:33 PM): the Master of Kittens has three faces. The first, completely unobscured, represents Reality. The second, partially obscured, represents Justice. The third, completely obscured, represents Equality. Then there is the fourth face, which is not really anything, and represents that which we cannot understand, and cannot be touched by mortals.
BourgeoisD (1:50:34 PM): are you making this shit up?
Checkypantz (1:50:41 PM): yes

Extra Credit: What fictional character am I referencing?

• Inside humor for the DCers: The panda over at the Zoo just got its name: Tai Shan. That's Mandarin for "Feel lucky you weren't born a giraffe at the Zoo."
• Inside info for the NYers: Trapped By the Mormons, the Cherry Red film, is gonna be in your neck of the woods this week! Info is over here. The dilly: This Wednesday night, 7:00pm at the Pioneer Theater - 155 East 3rd Street (betw. Aves A & B). Tix are 900¢, are available at the link above or at the door. This is a one night engagement only. So get there.
• For the Bostonians: Sorry... I got nuthin' for yooze guys.
  

I) My favorite moment in a video game? When you had to figure out a base-25 counting system in Riven.

II) I tape Breaking News. It's a weakness. I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours of news on VHS from the past 15 years. (My first news-taping event? The first Gulf War.) One day, one halcyon, gold-encrusted day, I will have it all converted to digital for posterity. But you know what's missing from my collection? The first eight hours of 9/11 coverage on CNN. I was trapped in DC and far away from my VCR in Alexandria (where I was living at the time). I wasn't able to get home until 5:15 that afternoon, and didn't get the VCR rolling until a few minutes after that, as Judy Woodruff was saying

...and Aaron, this may be another point. We want to say God bless the souls of those who have lost their lives today or are dying or are dying as we speak in hospitals and in places where they cannot be reached.

I mention this only as a bookmark that's sort of embedded in my head - because that's where my first 9/11 tape starts - rather than any sort of notation of the poetry of the moment (that whole day was a horrible, eloquent poem).

Point being this: Does anyone know where I can fish up those missing 8.5 - 9 hours from CNN that I missed? It has been a gnawing thing at the back of my head off and on for the past four years, but I never have the $500 I'd need to get the official video from CNN (yes, $500... I've checked many times). I hate that I'm a completist about this, but I am, c'est la vie. I have about 100 hours of the 1991 Gulf War (I taped it myself) to offer in trade, if you're interested or know someone who might be.