Overheard @ Loj

Carful of Colgate males to unidentified females on sidewalk:

Go get a pedicure!

Inebriated suitor, after sucking face with the girl of his dreams for about 5 minutes, several yards away from where we were schmoozing on the front porch:

When did you get so pretty?

Aww!

Also bonus overheard at C Store:

I hate that they're trying to make bottled water go away! Those bitches.

The mysterious happenings of yestereve

I'll let you assess for yourself.



Though I'll admit that general consensus has it that things didn't look like this at least at 1:30 am last night...

Starring: the Loj

A little piece of video art I made months ago for class, featuring my wonderful housey house...

Googlegangers

I love it when I find a copy of the NY Times lying around, still mostly intact. Following such an occaison last week I enjoyed reading this article, Names That Match Forge a Bond on the Internet. The bit about how people might be predisposed to like people with similar names was particularly interesting.

Googleganger: A person who shares your name. Their records are mixed in with your own when you Google yourself. The term is a combination of "Google" and "Doppelganger."

Who hasn't searched for their own name on Google? Nobody. Unfortunately, I do not (yet) have a googleganger. Has anyone else found a good one?

10 Worst Hiking Songs

Top ten worst songs to have stuck in your head while hiking, from the National Geographic Adventure Blog:

10. “We Built This City,” by Starship
9. “Achy Breaky Heart,” by Billy Ray Cyrus
8. “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega
7. “Whoomp! There It Is,” by Tag Team
6. “Who Let the Dogs Out,” by Baha Men
5. “Copacabana,” by Barry Manilow
4. “Ants Go Marching,” by artist unknown
3. “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” by Tony Orlando
2. “My Sharona,” by The Knack
1. “My Humps,” by Black Eyed Peas

I think it's worse if you only know one line of the song. Did reading that list just get one stuck in your head?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

to be a geologist.

It turns out a human brain fresh out of college runs for about $80,000 a year, if it comes equipped with a degree in the earth sciences and no qualms about mining the planet to pieces!

This article elucidates one facet of the demand: Hunters Comb Globe for Hot Metal

It makes one wonder, where are all the hippie geologists? I can only think that they're busy sitting in cafes at Stanford with wrist seismometers drinking kambucha with Cameron Diaz, or taking strikes and dips somewhere in the Rio Grande rift post-rainbow gathering.

A harsh reality for a naive tree-hugger, but an important consideration nonetheless?

You Guys! Cameron Diaz is drinking Kombucha!

Just like US!


Except we brew it ourselves, and it's sunny where we are.

TV is back

For TV fans - a bit different from the typical Loj posts, but I guess that could be my force on this blog. Wahoo, get excited, because this week television shows are finally making a comeback from the writers' strike! In celebration, I encourage you all to watch 30 Rock if you don't already - a funny and quite cutting edge comedy for standard television. Hopefully this clip will convince...

More links

Survival Blog - worried about surviving the effects of the human-instigated fifth mass extinction in the history of the planet (the first one caused by a single species)? Tips abound, some more useful than others.
Treehugger - "Tastemaker of the green aesthetic." Tips for the slightly more casual earth-lover. Debatable: is this a worthy aim or another indication of why we got here in the first place (unwillingness to make major lifestyle changes)? Your reaction to "a place where you can discover how to maintain or improve your quality of life while reducing your harmful impact on the earth" may vary. Either way, this blog is showing up all over Top 25/50/etc. Best Blog lists everywhere...
Jezebel - if, like me, you enjoy sass, pop culture, and other guilty pleasures, this will be your new obsession. It's a trashy magazine without the weight-based value judgments, and updates constantly! Laugh! Get angry!

Dirtbag Diaries

The Dirtbag Diaries is one of my favorite podcasts. You can listen to it on the website (sometimes there are photo enhanced versions) or subscribe on iTunes. I can't figure out how to write a complete and accurate description of the podcast, but it usually features interviews with outdoor athletes/adventurers or stories about expeditions, meaningful outdoor experiences, or sometimes accidents. I figured some of you granola-smugglers might like it.

Fair warning: the most recent episode, The Golden Hour, is not for the faint of heart - it includes a graphic description of a 200 ft. climbing fall.

John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes

Ha! Found here.

Music = Useful

Two internet music tools I've come across.

Songza
Listen to "any song or band!" Well, not quite, even though that's what they say. Still, they have a ton of stuff and it's so much quicker than youtube for when you just *have* to hear Wagon Wheel sans iTunes.

Muxtape
So addictive. Make an online mixtape! Upload up to 12 songs in a visually simple interface. Share with your friends. Make a study mix. Make a romantical mix for your secret crush. Make a Jug music mix and have a dance party anywhere there's Internet Explorer. DJ your radio show off of it. Et cetera. Here's mine.

Make new friends, but keep the old

I feel this requires no commentary.

Just a little word about commodity fetishism

There are no "good" companies. When confronted with that statement, fellow students invariably bring up one of two companies to attempt a rebuttal - Apple or Google, both using bright colors and simple logos, both positioning themselves as tools for hipper, smarter, more eco, and less evil people. That doesn't mean it's true.

For a better take on this tired old rant, see Gawker's inspired diatribe , "Apple Fetishists: Grow Up," which inspired me to post this before breakfast (ugh!). As for Google, you can probably google up their various offenses, just like you can't do in China.

Your favorite propagandists [Karl Rove included] love the sleek design and friendly usability of Apple products. Crypto-fascists—they're just like us! Which brings us to this plea: can we please, please end the tiresome trope of Apple having any sort of hip sensibility?

Apple itself is a gigantic technology manufacturing company. Which means they're killing the planet! Computers, computer chips, computer batteries, cell phones—all are made of poison. And all end up in landfills. Apple will recycle your old computer, btw, if you promise to buy a new one, from them. (Our boss doesn't care for this line of criticism against the technology industry, pointing out that they've reduced paper usage, but paper is made from wood pulp, not mercury.) But Al Gore's on the board! And they had some sort of corporate initiative with the word "green" in its name. Just like G.E.!

[...]

We're just sick of people thinking that because some marketing firm lackey introduced his boss to Feist, or because Apple hired a designer who's heard of Bauhaus, that that makes them a more creative, liberal, or hip company than, say, Dell. At least Dell doesn't condescend to us.

Your Moment of Zen

So disturbing. So... cute.