YouTube Tuesday supplemental: It's not TV

Well we all know that The Sopranos is winding down on Sunday, and with the death of Tony there will be one less watchable program on the tele.

But, I'm pretty stoked about a new series featuring Flight of the Conchords, New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo.

When we saw the promo a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't wait for the show to air. It turns out, I don't have to. HBO has released the first full episode on their website in advance. Here it is embedded for your entertainment.


tagged: HBO, Sopranos, Flight of the Conchords, TV, video, pop culture

Random photo

I shot this pic of our house last week after one of the many rainy nights.


UPDATE: Based on advice from the photographically gifted Gnade, I've adjusted the contrast a little. I think it's an improvement.



UPDATE 2: The aforementioned Bill Gnade graciously sent over his interpretation, converting to black and white and really capturing the highlights of the water droplets. Thanks again, Bill!


tagged: photo, picture, rain, morning, siding

Friday Blogthing: Equal time

I think I took the questions on these quizzes a little too seriously, but I'm okay with the results. I think if there were one more quiz, it would find that I'm about 75% Drunkard.

You Are 12% Democrat

If you have anything in common with the Democrat party, it's by sheer chance. You're a staunch conservative, and nothing is going to change that!

How Democrat Are You?

You Are 16% Republican

If you have anything in common with the Republican party, it's by sheer chance. You're a staunch liberal, and nothing is going to change that!

How Republican Are You?

tagged: quiz, poll, Republican, Democrat, politics

What we pretend to be

Some of Tony's recent posts reminded me of this quote I saw on the AV Club a few months ago when Kurt Vonnegut died...

"We must be careful about what we pretend to be."

In Mother Night, apolitical expatriate American playwright Howard W. Campbell, Jr. refashions himself as a Nazi propagandist in order to pass coded messages on to the U.S. generals and preserve his marriage to a German woman—their "nation of two," as he calls it. But in serving multiple masters, Campbell ends up ruining his life and becoming an unwitting inspiration to bigots. In his 1966 introduction to the paperback edition, Vonnegut underlines Mother Night's moral: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." That lesson springs to mind every time a comedian whose shtick relies on hoaxes and audience-baiting—or a political pundit who traffics in shock and hyperbole—gets hauled in front of the court of public opinion for pushing the act too far. Why can't people just say what they mean?

tagged: Kurt Vonnegut, race, blog, blogging, Tony's Kansas City

The More You Know: Lebanon, Kansas

Here's a fun Kansas fact: The geographic center of the "lower 48" United States is just a couple miles outside of Lebanon, KS.

We visited the village of Lebanon during our road trip last weekend to pick up our yearly supply of beef. For the last few years, (I discussed this in a previous post) we have been buying our own, custom-grown beef.

I just feel better about avoiding the corporate feedlot industry. You know, cutting down on the risk of residual growth hormones and estrogen, antibiotics, mad cow disease and the like. Check out this article and you'll see what I mean.

Plus, at about two bucks a pound, it makes economic sense. And I don't think any illegal aliens will lose their jobs because of little old me.

Anyway we picked up our beef in Lebanon, which I discovered from the picture on the grain elevator is also known for growing wheat and corn dogs.
tagged: Lebanon, Kansas, beef, wheat, corn dogs, mad cow, hormones

3A.M. Poll: What is your most recently seen roadkill?

We spent a lot of time on the road last weekend during a trip to western Kansas.

It gave us a chance to do a little family bonding, part of which was a game we called "Name that Roadkill".

Kansas roads and highways are rife with many different species of roadkill this time of year, and that's the basis for this week's poll. What is the species of roadkill you've seen most recently?

As always, feel free to add an answere into the comments if you don't see an appropriate one in the list above.
tagged: poll, vote, Kansas, roadkill, animals, wildlife

The payoff

We travelled west last weekend and stopped in Chapman, Kansas (home of astronaut Joe Engle) to visit my grandmother and wait out the storm.

The reward, in addition to spending time with family, was this amazing sunset as the storm passed. These pictures don't do it justice.

(click to embiggen)


tagged: Kansas, Chapman, storm, sunset, rain, weather, pictures

Creepy update

This is an update to this post about a recently discovered and evicted tenant of my basement.

As you recall, I snapped this image of the uninvited guest shortly before crushing her in the iron grip of my household totalitarian regime.
In keeping with my own personal modus operandi, I smashed the little bugger first and asked questions later. The question: What manner of spider is this that insists upon nesting in my laundry room?

Thanks to some great comments from people wise in the ways of insects, and thanks also to Google and Wikipedia, I have come to the following conclusion.

The specimen in question was a Steatoda triangulosa, also known as the triangulate cobweb spider (because of the triangular markings on its back, get it?).

Note the similarities in the markings of this specimen presented by the University of Arkansas entomology department:So now I have a dilemma. As Jane noted in the previous post, this spider belongs to a group of spiders commonly known as "false black widows" because they are sometimes mistaken as such. They also tend to share the same kinds of habitats and, Jane suggests, where there are false black widows, the real things tend not to be far behind.

But according to the wikipdia article and a few others I came across, this particular species includes the black widow and other "harmful" beasties on its dinner menu.

The triangulate cobweb spider is known to prey on many other types of arthropods, including ants (including fire ants), other spiders, pillbugs, and ticks. It preys on several other spiders believed to be harmful to humans, including the hobo spider and the brown recluse.

So on the one hand, I don't fancy sharing my home with any bugs. But on the other hand, if this thing is going to keep away the "bad" spiders, maybe it's not so bad.

Better the devil you know than the one you don't, right?

tagged: spiders, spiderman, creepy, arachnid, arachnophobia, false black widow, triangulate cobweb spider, Steatoda triangulosa

YouTube Tuesday: Speaking of Etch-A-Sketch

I never had the patience to do more than my initials or some dopey blocks on the Etch-A-Sketch, but artist George Vlosich has noting better to do than spend 70 to 80 hours etching out these incredibly detailed portraits.



tagged: movies, YouTube, video, Etch-A-Sketch, George Vlosich, art, pop culture

Friday Blogthing: Sketchy

Ah the '80s. A time of great music, relevant television programing, cheap gas and a well-defined and universally hated enemy.

How I long for those halcyon days of yore when life was simple, phones had cords and MTV still played music videos.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?

You're an Etch-a-Sketch!! You're the creative, artsy type who doesn't need to actually utilize a single muscle group in order to have fun. Doesn't matter though, you're still cool. Take this quiz!

tagged: quiz, meme, game, 80s, 1980s, etch-a-sketch