Boom

this is also my brother's fault

granted, it's more indirectly his fault than everything else. But, thanks to him I ended up googling around for mashups of Rick James and Sesame Street. I didn't find. But this is what I found instead. It's one billion internet years old, and I hadn't seen it. Meanwhile, I still don't have a mashup of the Sesame Street theme song with Superfreak.

word association

There is a house between my home and the light rail station that plays a small boombox from...well, I've heard it at 8:30am and I've heard it at 10pm. And at all hours in between. It's not that loud, and the music is frequently cool 70s soul, so I think it's kind of nice, but I'm glad I don't live right next door. At any rate, Sweetie and I walked past the other day and a particular song was playing.

 

We walked for a while, not saying anything, until this exchange:

Me: I wonder how many other people who hear Brick House think first of Muppets from Space?
Him: WHAT? Um, probably just you and like maybe two other...insane...muppet...weirdo...freaks. (these last words were muttered.)
Me: [long pause as I was utterly surprised.] Wow, really?
Him: YES. Really.

 

earth first

Sweetie asked me to watch some of Cosmos with him. As far I remember, I never really watched it when it was busy filling the brains of my generation--I thought it boring, and either left the tv room to go read or simply tuned out if my parents made me sit there for educational purposes. We watched one episode the other night--it was the one that was primarily about astronomers and scientists of the past, focusing a lot on Huygens and glossing over the existence of the Inquisition to a degree I would not have believed possible. (And, you know, utterly ignoring any non-Western science, but that I expect, even as it annoys.)

Aside from a new curiosity about the senior Huygens, one fairly minor point stuck with me out of the hour-long show: our moon doesn't have a name. All the other moons get cool names--Titan, Calliope, Io--and ours is just "The Moon". I would think they would've tacked on at some point in the last several centuries since the recorded discovery of some non-Earth moons. But no: and I'm thankfully not the first person to wonder what's up with this. (That astronomer's answer: "It's the most important moon!" strikes me as what I can only call earth-ist, which is not surprising in a human but is still striking in an astronomer.)

If we had given the Moon a name when what's his name walked on it, I like to think it would've been Lisa. (I checked popularity lists for the 60s and 70s, and that's the highest-ranking name shared between the two decades. Also, if you want to get all Latin-ish about it, smush up Luna and Selene and Lisa isn't far off the mark.)

finally

My stupid two-year internet service contract was finally up about a month ago. Today, I made a long-resisted switch to Comcast, and it was painless, politely managed, and so much insanely faster than Qwest's maximum possible service it's stupid. I had to invest about $125 in new equipment, which will pay for itself in time saved by the end of the week. And I'm signed on for the one-step-from-the-bottom service with Comcast.
It's nuts. Slightly more expensive per month, once the package deals wear off, but I'm sure if I had a cell phone or a tee-vee that one of those services would be essentially free.

I had to call tech support for Linksys, and experienced an entertaining mistake when my name was heard (and spelled back to me) as Chill. Why did I never think of that?

ceci n'est pas une vielle dame

Well, heavens to Pete, I think Pew Charitable Trust is full of beans!

I just took the Millennial Quiz and scored a 17. This puts me right around the age of, say, your grandmother. Or at least it makes me about 20 tech years older than I really am.

Sweetie's comment, after taking the test and scoring like a normal urban Gen X person: Did you...um, read a daily paper yesterday? I was moderately huffy: NO, of COURSE not! Harrumph!

Back in my day, sonny, a movie actor named Ronald Reagan was the president! And we had to cart our recycling to a recycling center! And ATMs didn't exist! (And, a link for those who don't remember/weren't alive: the scary airplane terrorists were Canadian.)

Tweenbot

I want to help a robot. Especially one of these Tweenbots. Go robot, go!

Safety First

Last night, Sweetie was playing GTA4. He attempted to answer the game-phone while driving, and promptly had a game-car accident.

In other news, not game-news: Republicans are dumb!
In other other news: Nuclear pork!

Science Fair

A kid I know is preparing his science fair project. He was running behind schedule, because his first several ideas were shot down and it took a bit of extra effort to come up with a workable idea. The first one, I admire for many reasons--this sixth-grader suggested he determine whether there is life on Mars.

His parents were all, "uh-huh, so how are you going to learn that"?
I said: It's easy!
Step One: Build a spaceship.
Step Two: Go to Mars.
Step Three: Check around for lifeforms.
Step Four: Use some poster board and/or Styrofoam to make your Science Fair project.

In ParentingSpeak, I believe my four-step plan is known as "Not Helping."

Anti-sleeping Pills

Last week, I had a party in my head: One night on some prescription I'm calling "troglodyte", only because it's vaguely similar to its actual name and I can't be bothered to look it up for the correct spelling. It was intended to put me to sleep; instead it got me all spazzed out about prime numbers. I have never cared about prime numbers before in my entire life. So I should actually call the pill "nerd pill."

Ultimately, I decided they--the prime numbers, that is--were disappointing. Not that they care what I think, but still--they're just like acid for nerds. (Which I expect will lead many of you off into the realm of developing new math-related pictures for blotter acid sheets. Have fun with fractals!)

My brother's hesitant-yet-funny suggestion, when I told him I spent four hours thinking about/yammering about prime numbers instead of sleeping: "Um, so maybe you should use those pills for something else?" Which I think means "join me on a delightful vacation in Mathematics Land." Way to let the freak flag fly, man.

Now that I am back to sleeping normally-for-me, I have more sensible things to think about, such as:

It what nighttime low temperature will the neighborhood hummingbirds freeze to death? [answer: don't want to know.]
-and-
Why do real giant squid seem so disappointing? [answer: I want my squid to be diploducus-sized. The one on display at the Smithsonian is a measly 24 feet.]
-and-
Is Sea Shepherd as strangely incompetent as they appear on the reality show Whale Wars? [answer: please let this not be the case. I have supported them for years.]
-and-
When will TV references to The Art of War stop? [answer: 2009. Even if I have to throw my shoe at some tv people to make it happen.]
-and-
Can we please mash up inauguration and the Oscars into one giant politically-themed musical? [answer: can do!]

On Beyond Wiki

The email thread went something like flying robot spy bugs - flight of birds with supposedly weak feet - bloodsucking louse - rehabilitation of injured swifts.

Thus ends the day.