No words could express how great this is

This is all via Kottke. (BELIEVE ME, it's worth every second of it.)

It all started here:


...so they responded...


...and this is the sequel.


I love you, internet.

Another movie post about movies

Yesterday I went to the movies thinking that I was going to watch Spiderman 3, which really is not my kind of film, but whatever, I figure I might as well watch it so I can see if it's really worth the buzz. And I also wanted to see what Minus' apartment looks like on screen and if it the fiction version resembles her real living conditions, but it turns out that the movie theatre I went to was not showing SP3 because it's the only theatre in the city that's got some sense.

So because I was already there and because I had already bought a strawberry smoothie that cost me 4 whole dollars, and because that theater has the most freaking comfortable chairs I have ever seen in the whole entire universe, I stayed and watched Year of the Dog - just because I really liked the poster.


The website is pretty awesome too. Turns out that it was a lovely movie, funny but very charming with a bit of sadness that made want to run home and hug my dog as tight as I could. (which I did later on in the evening, right after going to Outback and eating chicken wings. Apparently my sympathy for poor little murdered animals didn't last too long.)

By the way, I googled Year of the Dog so I could find a link to a good review and post it here, and this what I found first. So in case you were wondering about DMX latest CD, it is filled with "hyper-aggressive flow and straightforward, barklike chants". But if you want to read a review about the movie, here it is.

And oh, about that Spiderman, here's the real version from MSNBC (the video makes it extra special):
"What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy’s ear — “like Rice Krispies” — ended up as an earache, and the doctor’s diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear."

nobody puts baby in the corner

Exactly. I'm going.

I already bought my ticket online just in case other cheeseballs like me decide to show up and then it'll be sold out. We don't want that.

I am soooo excited! I remember the first time I watched Dirty Dancing back in Brazil, on my parent's VCR, and then the other 500 times that came after that, which is why I know at least 90% of the lines in the entire movie and every facial expression Patrick Swayze makes. Then I actuallty saw him in Chicago about 4 years ago and seeing his wrinkled old face just crushed by dreams, but memories of beautiful Johnny Castle still live inside of me. It's going to be amazing watching it at the theatre, I might cry. I know I will.

Now go carry a watermelon.

PETS

I know I'm not allowed to post things I haven't created in this blog anymore, at least until I get my credibility as a blogger back, but I couldn't resist it. I got this from a co-worker this morning.

PETS

Adam and Eve said, "Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with us every day. Now we do not see you any more. We are lonesome here, and it is difficult for us to remember how much you love us."

And God said, I will create a companion for you that will be with you and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves."

And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve.
And it was a good animal.
And God was pleased.

And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and he wagged his tail.

And Adam said, "Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal."

And God said, " I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG."

And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and was a companion to them adored and loved them.

And they were comforted.

And God was pleased.

And Dog was content and wagged his tail.

After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said, "Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. They strut and preen like peacocks and they believe they are worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well."

And God said, I will create for them a companion who will be with them and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations, so they will know that they are not always worthy of adoration."

And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam and Eve.

And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes, they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings.

And Adam and Eve learned humility.

And they were greatly improved.

And God was pleased..

And Dog was happy.

And Cat didn't give a shit one way or the other.

I will become a decend blogger

Ok, so officially it's been a month I actually posted something here that wasn't a link to a video, a photo or an external link. On March 20, I posted about not posting. But a month before that I, on February 23, I had already posted again about not posting, so clearly I have developed a bullshit cycle so that my readers (???) won't completely leave me and so that my mom can see I'm alive. I am obviously full of it, and if I were the president of blogging, I would totally ban Legally Normal by lack of commitment and originality.

So in the spirit of trying to become a better blogger, and therefore a better human being, I have decided that I will be posting more regularly and I am not allowed to post videos or pictures anymore, unless I have something to add to them. And by adding, I mean at least a paragraph or something that I created with my very own brain.

I am pleased to say that I have officially made the list of links of Minus, and I need to live up to that.

So here are my first bits of original thoughts.

My roommate and I are no longer in good terms. He hasn't even cooked for me in like, 3 weeks. It all started with the day he called me from his car asking me if he could bring some girl over. Of course I said no. And you may think I'm an asshole, but believe me - he's been well aware that one of my main "rules" around here is that there is no sex-having at the spare bedroom of apt 112, which would be mine. I don't know why, and I really don't care if anybody else agrees or not, but I hate when I know people are having sex on the other side of the wall, and it's just not happening. So he made a big fuss about it, tried to yell at me over the phone, we argued, and I've been giving him the silent treatment since then. I don't even know why anymore, but I just want to make a statement, because you HAVE GOT to be crazy to try to yell at me. I mean, fucking crazy. I'm kinda over it by now, it's just that I'm just being lazy. I'll probably start a conversation sometime this week or ask him to bake me a cake.

In other news, I now have cable TV, which is totally and complete ruining my life. I am obsessed with I Love New York, and also the Flavor of Love girls, especially Becky Buckwild. You can see her in the following video, after 2:30 minutes. Actually I will soon have a post dedicated to her. Here's the video:


I don't know how to end this, so I'll end it by leaving with this beautiful piece of footage. Good night peeps, and enjoy the music.

Let's all pretend this is true

http://www.myheritage.com So according to them, these are my celebrities look alike. I don't want to look like Kelly Clarkson! Now it's your turn.

This is what the Minus' hiatus has done to me

Yay! Minus is back.

they've made my day happier

"Choice of Diseases" by Hal Sirowitz, from Father Said.

Now that I'm sick & have
all this time to contemplate
the meaning of the universe,
Father said, I understand why
I never did it before. Nothing
looks good from a prone position.
You have to walk around to appreciate
things. Once I get better I don't
intend to get sick for a while. But
if I do I hope I get one of those diseases
you can walk around with.

Employed

She just wants to be employed
for eight hours a day. She is not
interested in a career; she wants a job
with a paycheck and free parking. She
does not want to carry a briefcase filled
with important papers to read after
dinner; she does not want to return
phone calls. When she gets home, she
wants to kick off her shoes and waltz
around her kitchen singing, "I am a piece
of work."

The Invention of Fractions

God himself made the whole numbers: everything else
is the work of man.—Leopold Kronnecker

God created the whole numbers:
the first born, the seventh seal,
Ten Commandments etched in stone,
the Twelve Tribes of Israel —
Ten we've already lost —
forty days and forty nights,
Saul's ten thousand and David's ten thousand.
'Be of one heart and one mind' —
the whole numbers, the counting numbers.

It took humankind to need less than this;
to invent fractions, percentages, decimals.
Only humankind could need the concepts
of splintering and dividing,
of things lost or broken,
of settling for the part instead of the whole.

Only humankind could find the whole numbers,
infinite as they are, to be wanting;
though given a limitless supply,
we still had no way
to measure what we keep
in our many-chambered hearts.

"The Art of Disappearing" by Naomi Shihab Nye from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems.

When they say Don't I know you?
say no.

When they invite you to the party
remember what parties are like
before answering.
Someone telling you in a loud voice
they once wrote a poem.
Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.
Then reply.

If they say We should get together
say why?

It's not that you don't love them anymore.
You're trying to remember something
too important to forget.
Trees. The monastery bell at twilight.
Tell them you have a new project.
It will never be finished.

When someone recognizes you in a grocery store
nod briefly and become a cabbage.
When someone you haven't seen in ten years
appears at the door,
don't start singing him all your new songs.
You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your time.

(all of them via Writer's Almanac, a current favorite)

NYC

Just got back from a few days in New York. You can check out new photos here!

why you should keep crack away from grandma

Unwise Purchases

"Unwise Purchases" by George Bilgere from Haywire.

They sit around the house
not doing much of anything: the boxed set
of the complete works of Verdi, unopened.
The complete Proust, unread:

The French-cut silk shirts
which hang like expensive ghosts in the closet
and make me look exactly
like the kind of middle-aged man
who would wear a French-cut silk shirt:

The reflector telescope I thought would unlock
the mysteries of the heavens
but which I only used once or twice
to try to find something heavenly
in the windows of the high-rise down the road,
and which now stares disconsolately at the ceiling
when it could be examining the Crab Nebula:

The 30-day course in Spanish
whose text I never opened,
whose dozen cassette tapes remain unplayed,

save for Tape One, where I never learned
whether the suave American
conversing with a sultry-sounding desk clerk
at a Madrid hotel about the possibility
of obtaining a room
actually managed to check in.

I like to think
that one thing led to another between them
and that by Tape Six or so
they're happily married
and raising a bilingual child in Seville or Terra Haute.

But I'll never know.
Suddenly I realize
I have constructed the perfect home
for a sexy, Spanish-speaking astronomer
who reads Proust while listening to Italian arias,

and I wonder if somewhere in this teeming city
there lives a woman with, say,
a fencing foil gathering dust in the corner
near her unused easel, a rainbow of oil paints
drying in their tubes

on the table where the violin
she bought on a whim
lies entombed in the permanent darkness
of its locked case
next to the abandoned chess set,

a woman who has always dreamed of becoming
the kind of woman the man I've always dreamed of becoming
has always dreamed of meeting.

And while the two of them discuss star clusters
and Cézanne, while they fence delicately
in Castilian Spanish to the strains of Rigoletto,

she and I will stand in the steamy kitchen,
fixing up a little risotto,
enjoying a modest cabernet,
while talking over a day so ordinary
as to seem miraculous.

via The Writer's Amanac

proof that I too can change

A beautiful description of what I consider indescribable. It's not about religion - something I greatly resent. It's about knowing you don't always need to carry the weight of your world on your own. Not because we shouldn't, but because we can't.

"At first I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited Heaven or Hell when I die. He was out there sort of like the President. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn't really know Him.

But later on when I recognized my Higher Power, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride; but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that God was in the back helping me pedal. I don't know just when it was that He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since . . . life with my Higher Power, that is. God makes life exciting.

When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at breakneck speeds. It was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!"

I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are You taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure; and when I'd say, "I'm scared, " He'd lean back and touch my hand. He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me their gifts to take on my journey; our journey, God's and mine.

And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away. They're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him at first, in control of my life. I thought he'd wreck it. But He knew bike secrets, knew how to make it bend to take sharp corners, jump to clear high places filled with rocks, fly to shorten scary passages.

And I'm learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion.

And when I'm sure I can't do any more, He just smiles and says, "PEDAL!"

Me lately

I haven't blogged in a while because I really just don't feel like it. Lots of good stuff have happened. Here's a list:

1. Things with my new roommate are gravy. He's the sweetest thing and we're hitting off really well. I like him.

2. I got MVP of the month at work and a small cash reward. Woot, woot, represent!

3. I met someone. I'm getting back in the game. But I'm still nervous and very careful about it.

4. I went to Detroit a couple of weekends ago to see Justin Timberlake. Don't fucking judge me, I took one for the team. (I kinda liked it, though)

5. I'm going to NY in less than two weeks to meet with my brother and my dad. I'll be there for a couple of days. Yay for NYC!

That's the news from me. Please, pray that men won't suck again for me. I need all the help I can get. Amen.

Cartoon Laws of Physics

Cartoon Law I
Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation. Daffy Duck steps off a cliff, expecting further pastureland. He loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to look down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over.

Cartoon Law II
Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly. Whether shot from a cannon or in hot pursuit on foot, cartoon characters are so absolute in their momentum that only a telephone pole or an outsize boulder retards their forward motion absolutely. Sir Isaac Newton called this sudden termination of motion the stooge's surcease.

Cartoon Law III
Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter. Also called the silhouette of passage, this phenomenon is the specialty of victims of directed-pressure explosions and of reckless cowards who are so eager to escape that they exit directly through the wall of a house, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of skunks or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction.

Cartoon Law IV
The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken. Such an object is inevitably priceless, the attempt to capture it inevitably unsuccessful.

Cartoon Law V
All principles of gravity are negated by fear. Psychic forces are sufficient in most bodies for a shock to propel them directly away from the earth's surface. A spooky noise or an adversary's signature sound will induce motion upward, usually to the cradle of a chandelier, a treetop, or the crest of a flagpole. The feet of a character who is running or the wheels of a speeding auto need never touch the ground, especially when in flight.

Cartoon Law VI
As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once. This is particularly true of tooth-and-claw fights, in which a character's head may be glimpsed emerging from the cloud of altercation at several places simultaneously. This effect is common as well among bodies that are spinning or being throttled. A `wacky' character has the option of self-replication only at manic high speeds and may ricochet off walls to achieve the velocity required.

Cartoon Law VII
Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. This trompe l'oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall's surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him into this theoretical space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to follow into the painting. This is ultimately a problem of art, not of science.

Cartoon Law VIII
Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent. Cartoon cats possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives might comfortably afford. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed, accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self pity, they reinflate, elongate, snap back, or solidify. Corollary: A cat will assume the shape of its container.

Cartoon Law IX
Everything falls faster than an anvil.

Cartoon Law X
For every vengeance there is an equal and opposite revengeance. This is the one law of animated cartoon motion that also applies to the physical world at large. For that reason, we need the relief of watching it happen to a duck instead.

Cartoon Law Amendment A
A sharp object will always propel a character upward. When poked (usually in the buttocks) with a sharp object (usually a pin), a character will defy gravity by shooting straight up, with great velocity.

Cartoon Law Amendment B
The laws of object permanence are nullified for "cool" characters. Characters who are intended to be "cool" can make previously nonexistent objects appear from behind their backs at will. For instance, the Road Runner can materialize signs to express himself without speaking.

Cartoon Law Amendment C
Explosive weapons cannot cause fatal injuries. They merely turn characters temporarily black and smoky.

Cartoon Law Amendment D
Gravity is transmitted by slow-moving waves of large wavelengths. Their operation can be witnessed by observing the behavior of a canine suspended over a large vertical drop. Its feet will begin to fall first, causing its legs to stretch. As the wave reaches its torso, that part will begin to fall, causing the neck to stretch. As the head begins to fall, tension is released and the canine will resume its regular proportions until such time as it strikes the ground.

Cartoon Law Amendment E
Dynamite is spontaneously generated in "C-spaces" (spaces in which cartoon laws hold). The process is analogous to steady-state theories of the universe which postulated that the tensions involved in maintaining a space would cause the creation of hydrogen from nothing. Dynamite quanta are quite large (stick sized) and unstable (lit). Such quanta are attracted to psychic forces generated by feelings of distress in "cool" characters (see Amendment B, which may be a special case of this law), who are able to use said quanta to their advantage. One may imagine C-spaces where all matter and energy result from primal masses of dynamite exploding. A big bang indeed.

via here

Hamster Dance

Jobs vs. Gates

via Chris Brown

HOW Design Conference

This is one of the reasons why I want to be there.

And this too.

There's more where that came from.

I'm alive

I know haven't had a real post in a while, with more than 10 words that came out of my own brilliant mind, but things have been good. Here are some good things I can tell you about my lately:

1. I got a new roommate. He's nice, he's neat and he cooks. He cleaned my refrigerator. He buys groceries. Plus he has the type of face I like to look at.
2. I got a flat tire and was stranded on the highway coming back from a photoshoot out of town. I know, that's bad. But a really nice man stopped for me and changed my tire and the next day I had to pay less than 60 bucks to get it all fixed.
3. Medication is still doing wonders for me.
4. Work has been a little better. Tiny, tiny bit. But maybe it's just my mood. Yeah, that's probably it.
5. My co-worker Nancy brought me today some goodies from Bath and Body Works and a sweet, sweet card, just because I came by the office on Tuesday at 9pm after she called me and told me she had left her space heater on. People like her make me happy.
6. I'm moving to a gorgeous new apartment with my new roommate.
7. Tax refund, baby!
8. I have been updating my portfolio.
9. Past 2 Grey's Anatomy: freaking awesome.
10. I feel like I could date again. Someday. Soon.

best valentines poem ever

Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I know I'm a pain in the ass,
but so are you.

via fussy.

2006