Catapraxis

Merry Christmas (2008 & 1994)

2009-12-19T18:10:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

This Year's Christmas Lights Extravaganza

2009-12-17T19:05:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

10 Must-Have Google Chrome Extensions

2009-12-16T19:38:00.001-07:00

Written by Sebastian Anthony

With the Chrome Extensions gallery now fully up and running, the number of awesome extensions is multiplying at a rapid rate. What I’ve tried to do here is offer up the best, the most useful and the must-have extensions for Google Chrome.
To use the extensions you will need to install the Beta if you’re under Windows, or the Developer build for Mac. Linux users will also need the Beta version. Google has a quick walkthrough that I suggest you read, if you’re new to extensions — but mostly, it’s just a matter of installing the Beta (30 seconds), clicking the links in this article and hitting ‘yes’. Easy enough, right?

The main thing you’ll notice from this list of extensions is that all the big Firefox add-on developers are now on-board with Chrome. It’s still very early days but the offerings are already surprisingly extensive. There’s something for everyone in this list, I assure you.

1. WOT (Web Of Trust) — Direct Install Link

From what I can tell, this is like your usual ‘link scanner’ that’s present in most security suites… only it’s faster, and a lot more informative. WOT is a huge community that rates and appraises a vast majority of the popular Web. This is one of the many add-ons that has made the (quick) transfer from Firefox to Chrome — it was incredibly popular over on Firefox, so I think you’ll find this an invaluable extension if you’re now exclusively using Chrome.
For every page you can view its ’scorecard’ using the extension’s icon in the top right of your browser, pop open the extended details (as you see in the screenshot above) — and of course, you are encouraged to add your own ratings to the web of trust! Also of note, when you install the extension, you can choose default security settings — this extension is ideal for protecting your kiddies from the dangers of the world wide web…!

2. Evernote Web Clipper — Direct Install Link

This is an odd one, but cool. Basically, it allows you to annotate and tag any page on the web — a bit like Delicious or Stumble Upon, but it’s not social. It attempts to differentiate itself from the social bookmarking services with a few features. For a start, you can take clippings of entire pages, or just blocks of text that you like. There’s also Twitter integration — Evernote can be set to stalk your tweets — and also easy access to the website (and your clips) from any Internet-connected device. Good for taking notes at home and then reading them on the move!
It’s worth noting that the service could definitely be a bit quicker though. I imagine it’s just a teething issue, with so many new users suddenly using the extension.

3. Feedly — Direct Install Link

I’d never even heard of this extension until today, and it’s totally unlike any other extension you’ll install. Instead of directly interacting with how you surf it… does some clever stuff. From what I can tell, it sniffs out your Twitter and Google Reader login details and collates everything into a ‘magaziney’ homepage.
Seriously, it’s as cool as it sounds. I guess it does it via my cookies or something clever like that — but really, the first time you install this extension and hit that icon in the top right corner… you are suddenly looking at a web page that feels strangely familiar, but also not. Then you slowly realise it’s your RSS feeds from Google Reader… and recommended items from Amazon… and shared Reader items from your friends! It’s really quite odd, rather daunting, but very, very neat — and well worth playing with!

4. Google Wave Notifier — Direct Install Link

You probably know by now that I’m a bit of a Google Wave fan — I’m one of those nutcases that thinks it’s the key to Google’s continued world domination — and this extension is another neat way of keeping up to date with Wave, but without leaving its the resource-intensive monster open in another tab. Now you can close that CPU cycle-hogging behemoth and just keep an eye on the notifier in the top right corner.
It even shows you which waves have been updated, and links you directly to them. There are a few configuration options too, such as update frequency, and the colour of the icon (it’s important for some people, damnit!)

5. Shareaholic — Direct Install Link

No list of extensions or add-ons could ever be complete without the wunderkind that is Shareaholic. It’s like… a social sharegasm, in an extension. It’s all right there, in a single drop-down menu: share it, save it, email it, tweet it… you get the idea — Shareaholic is really all you need, instead of pesky and bloated application-specific extensions.
As far as options go, pickings are pretty slim. All you really have to do is choose what services appear in the menu… and that’s about it! Oh, it also automatically generates a shortened bit.ly link too, so no need for any of those pointless URL-shortening extensions either.

6. LastPass — Direct Install Link

This one I’m lifting straight from Lee’s excellent ‘pre-release’ list of Chrome Extensions that he did last month. LastPass is the password manager — no other tool or add-on even comes close to LastPass in its functionality or usability. You can import password databases from almost every other similar service, and the developers say that it picks up more password fields (AJAX forms for example) than any other password-scanning tool.
LastPass has other neat bits too, like the ability to store secure notes and generate secure passwords. This is one of those vital extensions that every security-aware user should download.

7. Mouse Stroke — Direct Install Link

I always love reviewing mouse-gesture tools; I revel in anything that can give those five remaining Opera users a reason to join the Chrome or Firefox revolution!
Mouse Stroke is about as good as gestures get in Chrome, at least so far. It can be a bit tricky initially, using gestures, but after a little bit of training you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them. I guess there are two ways you can go: either keyboard-only, with something like Gleebox, or mouse-only with a gesture extension like Mouse Stroke. Either solution is going to save your fingers and hands a world of RSI pain, so I suggest you pick one or the other!
Getting to the Mouse Stroke options screen is a little harder than usual: you have to hit the spanner, then Extensions and then ‘options’ next to the Mouse Stroke entry. Documentation is pretty slim, so the options page is your best bet — U, D, R and L are the four directions. That should be enough to get you started with gestures (and if not, there’s a rudimentary FAQ on their Google Code page).

8. AdBlock, FlashBlock, FacebookBlock et al. (Direct Install Links below)

Talking about the vast variety of ‘block’ extensions seems a little bit of a waste. If you want to block ads, or Flash elements or anything really, there’s an extension that will do it. Yes, they have white lists for specific sites, and some are better than others, but at the end of the day… you all know what they do, so what’s the point in me telling you something you already know?

But in any case, here are some links to the most popular Chrome ‘blocking’ extensions:

FlashBlock — Direct Install Link — this one blocks Flash! (there are two FlashBlocks with the exact same name on the Chrome Extensions site, doh!)
AdBlock — Direct Install Link — I’m told this one blocks ads… (and it has some neat in-line black- and white-listing functions — take a look at the options page for more info)
Facebook Adblock — Direct Install Link — if you just want to block ads on Facebook… (why?)

9. Speed Tracer — Direct Install Link (requires the ‘–enable-extension-timeline-api’ command line flag)

We actually covered Speed Tracer in its own article on Download Squad; it’s that neat — at least if you’re a developer! This isn’t a tool for the average user (unless you’re the curious type), but I’m including it because it really is useful if you’re a website admin or designer — or even an executive type that wants to smack down your tardy webdesign department with great vengeance and furious anger.
It basically gives you a wealth of information about where your web pages/apps are being slowed down, be it in the Javascript execution or the AJAX callbacks. There’s a cool video on the extension’s page too, which is worth a watch so you can see just how much this extension does.

10. Chromed Bird — Direct Install Link

Ladies and gentlemen, the customary Twitter extension. No! Don’t throw rotten tomatoes at me! Really, this is quite cool. Think about it — how often do you navigate to the Twitter website, or alt-tab to TweetDeck? Fairly often, if you’re a contemporary social-networking nerd like me. Chromed Bird lets you send tweets and watch tweets as they come in from your friends in real time.
It would be nice if there was an ‘automagic’ button that tweets whatever page you’re currently on — you have to copy and paste at the moment — but other than that, this is a very concise and cute Chrome extension. It even changes colour and notifies you when new tweets come in — it lets you view @replies and direct messages too!

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

List of Top 50 free applications for Windows

2009-12-16T19:37:00.001-07:00

Written by Nidhi

Are you tired of buying utilities or renewing license to your utilities on your already expensive Windows system? Here is a list of 50 such applications that are free to use. Furthermore, these applications do not require any fees and are available absolutely free.

1 Advanced SystemCare Free

Helps to protect, repair, clean and optimize your PC.

Owner : IObit

2 Wise Registry Cleaner Free

Helps you speeds up your PC by cleaning up your registry. Basically it provides windows registry clean up features with pretty easy to use interface.

Owner: WiseCleaner

3 Ccleaner

Helps you optimize your system by cleaning up the system. Cleanup includes Browser history, Trash Files, Temporary files and Log files. Further, it features un-installation of unused application and the registry cleanup.

Owner : Piriform Ltd.

4 Adobe Reader 9.1

Adobe Reader lets you

• Open up and interact with all PDF documents.

• View, search, digitally sign, verify, print and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

Owner : Adobe Systems Incorporated

5 PDF-XChange

PDF – Xchange standard features includes

• Add Comments and Annotations

• Add & apply Custom Stamps

• Mark-up pages with text and objects

• Type directly on any PDF page

• Extract text from a PDF page and few more.

Owner : Tracker Software Products (Canada) Ltd

6 AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

Protection against viruses and spyware

• Compatible with Windows Xp or higher

• Light weight and less overhead on OS.

Owner : AVG Technologies

7 avast! Home Edition

Simplest of application in terms of usability.

• Daily automatic updates

• Continuous data protection against all types of malware and spyware

• Available in 30 different languages.

Owner : ALWIL Software

8 Avira AntiVir Personal – FREE Antivirus

Provides Basic protection

for your computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans.

• Available in 5 different languages

Owner : Avira.com

9 Avant Browser

Its salient feature include online profile storage to let user save users’ bookmarks, RSS Feeds, configurations or web passwords etc, in Avant Online Storage.

Owner : Avant Force

10 Open Office 3.0

Open office is an open source office suite for Windows. This is available for free download and serves as good alternative to well know Microsoft’s Word & Excel. It has full-featured set of office applications for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs.

Owner : CollabNet, Inc., Sun, Sun Microsystems

11 DropBox

This application lets your share files with an account and you could use up to 2 GB (greater space requires paid accounts). This is quite handy tool for sharing your file over internet.

Owner : DropBOX.com

12 SKYPE

This popular freeware is VOIP based application which helps you voice call and is available for free download. You may make computer to computer calls for free. Moreover, Skype is one of the cheap VOIP service available to make computer to Phone calls.

Owner : Skype Limited

13 Smart Defrag

Smart Defrag helps defragment your hard drives more efficiently.

• Ease of use along with Data Safety and Reliability Guaranteed

Owner : IObit.com

14 Download Accelerator Plus

Provides Mirroring Speed Boost to download from the fastest sources.
Available in 38 languages
Built-in Twitter integration to Tweet directly from DAP

Owner : SpeedBit Ltd

15 Flash Player

Plays multimedia design made with Flash.

Owner : Adobe Systems Incorporated

16 VLC Media Player

• It supports various audio and video formats which include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.

• Further, it is handy for use with DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Owner : Videolan.org

17 YouTube Downloader

• YouTube Downloader is software that allows you to download videos from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and many others

• This lets you convert them to other video formats for Ipod, Iphone, PSP, Cell Phone, Windows Media, XVid and MP3.

Owner : Biennesoft

18 Irfan View

• Fast directory view (moving through directory)

• Batch conversion (with image processing)

• Multipage TIF editing

• File search

• Email option

• Multimedia player

• Print option and many more.

Owner : Irfan skiljan

19 Notepad++

• It is a very good source code editor with support for several programming languages.

• Very good search and replace option.

• It has good Bookmarking and Multi-document support feature.

Owner : sourceforge.net

20 Textpad

• Huge files can be edited, up to the limits of 32-bit virtual memory.

• Good search and replace files in huge files.

• Warm Start feature lets you restart exactly where you left off.

• And many more.

Owner : Helios Software Solutions

21 Word Web

• Provides Definitions, Synonyms and Usage for 150000 root words.

• Includes audio pronunciations

• Light-weight to the system

Owner : WordWeb Software

22 Applian FLV Player 2.0

• Play FLV Files on any PC

• Zoom to 2x or full screen.

• Includes free audio/video recorder & converter option.

Owner : Applian Technologies Inc.

23 Easeus Partition Manager 3.5

• Resize/Move partitions without data loss

• Extend system partition easily and safely

• Create, Merge, Split, Delete and Format partitions

• Support up to 2TB partition or hard drive

Owner : CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd.

24 Free YouTube to MP3 Converter

• Lets you convert the YouTube video and download it as MP3 or Wav format.

• Automatically fills the title tag and the artwork in the downloaded mp3 files.

Owner : DVDVideoSoft Limited

25 Undelete Plus

• Restore accidentally deleted files

• Image recovery from Compact Flash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards.

Owner : Phoenix Technologies Ltd

26 Video mp3 Extractor 1.8

• Convert Video Files (AVI, ASF, WMV files) to mp3

• Fast audio extraction algorithm

• Easy to use interface.

Owner : GeoVid.

27 Diagram Designer 1.22

• Creating flowcharts, UML class diagrams, illustrations and slide shows.

• Import/export WMF, EMF, BMP, JPEG, PNG, MNG, ICO, GIF and PCX images.

• Consists of slide show viewer and Simple graph plotter to plot mathematical expressions.

Owner : meesoft.logicnet.dk

28 Real Temp

• Reads temperature information for all inter Core processors.

• Keep track of the minimum and the maximum temperature of the processor.

• Provides calibration features for each core of your processor.

Owner : www.techPowerUp.com

29 Pidgin

• Free chat client with support for Msn, Yahoo, AIM Google Talk and other chat networks all at once.

• Supports more than 60 different languages.

Owner : pidgin.im

30 VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.1

• Easy connect and use remote computer screen.

• Easy to install and use.

• Supports loading and saving of .vnc a file which contains a set of connection options.

Owner : RealVNC Limited

31 Free Video to iPod and PSP Converter

• Helps convert full video or the part of video to Apple iPod, Sony PSP, BlackBerry and mobile phones MP4 video format

Owner : DVDVideoSoft Limited

32 LimeWire

• Helps user connect to P2P network and share the file they want to share.

• Faster starup and less waiting time.

• Better memory usage

• Free download and usage for basic usage.

Owner : Lime Wire LLC

33 FrostWire

• Completely free and open source.

• Provides Faster Torrent Speeds, I-Tunes compatibility, Friendly online chat rooms, easy navigation and many more.

Owner : frostwire.com

34 JetAudio

Even though plus Vx cost but basic version is absolutely free. Features it consists are as

• Audio CD ripping

• Voice recording

• File conversion between various formats and

• Audio CD buring.

Owner : JetAudio Inc.

35 Sql Tools

• This tool is for Oracle 8/9i/10g PL/SQL development.

• Provides good basic editor services

• Easy to install and connect to ORACLE server

Owner : Aleksey Kochetov

36 Tortoise SVN

Tortoise SVN is Subversion client having features such as

• Atomic Commits

• Directory and File versioning,

• Versioned Metadata

• Consistent Data Handling

• Reliable and quick tagging and branching and many more.

Owner : subversion.tigris.org

37 7 Zip

• High Compression ratio

• Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format

• Supports multiple formats such as 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, CHM, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB formats

Owner : Igor Pavlov

38 The Gimp

The GIMP is a more of the complex image editor like Photoshop available for windows platform. This application is free for download. It is quite good alternative Adobe’s Photoshop with similar features available for use.

Owner : The GIMP Team

39 iTunes

ITunes is a freeware that helps you play your digital music and video. It helps you synchronize your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.

Owner : Apple Inc.

40 JCreator

Jcreator is a light weight IDE for Java Programmers. Project management, project templates, code-completion, debugger interface, editor with syntax highlighting, wizards and a fully customizable user interface are some of the functionality that it provides.

Owner : Xinox Software

41 Eclipse

Eclipse is Software Development environment with support for multiple programming languages such as Java, C++, perl, PHP and others.

Owner : The Eclipse Foundation

42 MySql

MySql is a free open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). This is the most popular open source RDBMS and offers free download and usage. Further this has adequate features needed by small to medium scale database.

Owner : Sun Microsystems, Inc

43 Cygwin

Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows.

This provides a DLL which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.

Owner : Cygwin

44 Apache

• This is free/open source http web server.

• This provided Server-side programming language support to authentication schemes.

Owner : Apache Software Foundation

45 Xampp

• Xampp is a comprehensive set of web development resources under a bundle.

• This is integrated package that consist PHP, PHP myAdmin, Mysql RDBMS, Apache Web server, Filezilla Ftp Client and few more.

Owner : Apache Friends

46 HTTrack

• This is freeware that you download the full website into your local folder.

• Arranges the file in the same directory structure.

• Further, lets you browse the pages with offline browser utility.

Owner : Xavier Roche & other contributors

47 AVS TV Box Free

• AVS TV Box Beta is a FREE universal software TV viewer and comes along with Personal Video Recorder functionality (PVR) .

• PVR allows you to schedule TV recordings.

• It works with any windows video capture device like satellite, TV and DVB cards, miniDV cameras, video capture cards and others.

Owner : Online Media Technologies Ltd., UK

48 Mozilla ThunderBird

• This is good alternative to Microsoft’s Outlook. This is an email client email and Usenet client.

• Provides features such as easy mail setup, attachment re-minder, One click Address Book and many more.

Owner : Mozilla

49 Free Guitar Tuner

Free guitar tuner provides features for tuning acoustic and electric guitars. It provides few set of tones to tune it.

Owner : GCH Guitar Academy

50 mTorrent

mTorrent is free to download and use torrent client. This is one of the finest, speedy, efficient, and free torrent clients. Ease of installation and use along with user friendly GUI makes it quite popular.

Owner : BitTorrent, Inc.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Fishing Show Bloopers (very shallow gene pool)

2009-12-14T19:17:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Why Men Should Not Write Advice Columns

2009-12-12T11:40:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

I Am SUCH The Geek For Airstream (and TED)

2009-12-09T21:00:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Most Unfairly Overlooked Movies Of The Decade

2009-12-09T19:43:00.001-07:00

Written by Josh Tyler

When people look back on the early years of the new millennium they’ll remember it for movies like The Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings. Or they’ll geek out with their friends about the cult classics they discovered together, rewatching copies of the original version of Donnie Darko or spreading around copies of Idiocracy and laughing at its accuracy. Or we’ll remember the prestige movies, the big Oscar winners like No Country For Old Men and Chicago.

But in a better world, maybe we’d remember these movies. These are the other guys, the great films you missed through circumstance or stupidity, through studio stumbling or simply bad timing. The best movies don’t always get seen, the best movies don’t always win the awards. This isn’t a list of critically acclaimed indies which didn’t do well at the box office, or films with huge fan followings which couldn’t get anyone else to turn out (sorry Serenity). Nor is this a list of movies which flopped at the box office but later found cult success. These movies fell between the cracks and never really found the audience they deserved. When you’re thinking back on the aughts, you won’t think of these films, but maybe you should. Consider giving these movies a second chance. Unique and strange, funny and weird, challenging and sexy; they’re the most unfairly overlooked movies of the past decade.

Black Snake Moan (2007)

Samuel L. Jackson will be forever remembered for Pulp Fiction but he gives the best performance of his career as Lazarus, an aging, god-fearing blues man in Black Snake Moan. When he finds a half-naked, whored-up party girl (Christina Ricci) lying in his driveway, he carries the beaten up, high, and unconscious hottie into his house, nurses her back to physical health, and soon decides the writhing, sexed-up, drugged out girl’s mental health is his responsibility as well. His southern hospitality goes a little too far when he chains the girl to his radiator to keep her out of trouble, but despite the chains Black Snake Moan is a movie about healing and redemption. Writer/director Craig Brewer’s film is smart and savvy but the movie’s also a big bomb of sensuality and southern grit. Soulful, down and dirty blues grinds its way through the movie as the soundtrack of Lazarus’s life. It’s sweet sound that stitches this underappreciated, brazen film together. Why didn’t anyone see it? I can’t explain it as anything other than uptight Americans skipping it based on the posters which featured Ricci scantily clad and in chains. Ironically, it’s a deeply spiritual film, one with a lot of good things to say about the religious fervor which likely kept audiences away in the first place.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Shane Black’s wicked script and the spot on timing of Robert Downey Jr., and most especially Val Kilmer as the hilariously named detective Gay Perry, made Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang the most badass piece of film noir since Fred MacMurray dropped dead in Double Indemnity. But this was before Robert Downey’s big return to the limelight, back when he was still in recovery mode and everyone still seemed to be boycotting him. So this murder mystery went unwatched and what should have been Robert Downey’s coming out party ended up on dusty, video store shelves where it was eventually shoved out of the way to make room for more copies of Iron Man. But it’s better than Iron Man and ten times more fun. The chemistry between Kilmer and Downey is spot on, they’re a classic on screen duo the kind which deserves a whole series of movies. Now the continuing adventures of Harry Lockhart and Gay Perry will never happen and all I can do is plead with you to hop on to Netflix and give Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang a chance.

Zack and Miri Make A Porno (2008)

It was supposed to be filmmaker Kevin Smith’s breakout hit but whether because of bad timing or bad titling Zack and Miri barely managed to tread water, bringing in the same, limited crowd which show up for all of his films. But this was the Kevin Smith that deserved to be seen by the masses, a raunch-comedy of Apatow proportions which kills with out of control laughs and adult sincerity. It features stellar performances from Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, who, come together in one awkwardly perfect moment to create what is almost without question one of the greatest, most strangely moving fully-clothed sex scenes ever captured on screen. It’s also sweet, really sweet and romantic in a way the title probably doesn’t suggest. Most of all though it’s funny, really funny, in a way we’ll probably never see from Smith again. The movie’s failure has prompted the indie director to abandon his more personal filmmaking style in favor of taking on big studio projects. The next time you see his name on screen, it’ll be in the closing credits of a buddy cop movie.

Frailty (2001)

Bill Paxton is at his absolute freakiest in this little seen horror movie about fundamentalism gone awry. At first he’s father to a happy little family. Father and two sons, they live in small-town Texas minding their own business, until of course Dad gets a message from God. God says there are demons in the world and it’s up to Pop and his sons to destroy them. One catch, the demons look like normal, every day humans. Older brother Fenton is skeptical but his young brother Tommy has a case of hero worship, and does whatever Dad says. As the kids are perverted and twisted into serial killers and as the body count rises, the movie becomes a spine-tingling thriller of the highest order; a slow, creepy build with a mind-blowing twist ending that would have left you shattered if, of course, you’d seen it. Paxton is brilliant and sympathetic… even while scaring the hell out of you. Most of all it’s the subtle little touches that make it so goddamn disturbing. There’s a moment when Dad threatens a supposed demon with an axe and in the background, if you listen closely you’ll hear Tommy whisper, “kill him” off camera and in the background. It’s a small touch, but one that sticks with you in the dark ride on the way home. Is that Tommy whispering for your death in the seat behind you? Maybe you’re a demon. Maybe you deserve death.

The Girl Next Door (2004)

The Girl Next Door had the gross misfortune to be released at the height of America’s religious fervor back in 2004. The Passion of the Christ was the biggest movie in the world and covering up Janet Jackson’s nipples was our new obsession. So it’s no surprise that a no holds barred teen raunch-comedy would slip out of theaters with barely a notice. That doesn’t make it right. Sure The Girl Next Door is down with nudity and sex as entertainment and sure a lot of it takes place at a porn convention. But Emile Hirsch plays the lead and makes it something special beyond that, with a character that it becomes impossible not to identify with while whatever crazy hijinks ensue. It’s legitimately hilarious and beneath the movie’s tits and ass veneer is a movie that John Hughes would have been proud to call his own back in 1984. Timothy Olyphaunt steals scenes as a porn king and the movie’s soundtrack kicks ass. Even now it seems like somewhere along the way there should be some sort of cult audience for a movie like this. Maybe it’ll find it yet.

City of Ember (2008)

We’ve been awash in second-rate fantasy movies since the very first Lord of the Rings, so perhaps it’s understandable that audiences would give this one a pass, assuming perhaps that it’s another lame entry in the vein of Legend of the Seeker. City of Ember is anything but. It dared to be different. The story of a lost, steam-powered city buried deep beneath the ground after the apocalypse should have been a crowd pleaser with stunning, eye-popping set design and a big stars in Tim Robbins and Bill Murray. Unfortunately 20th Century Fox seemed to forget to advertise it and its detailed set design and complex world of decaying civilization unspooled unwatched in theaters. Still there’s never been anything quite like City of Ember, a complete picture of a dying civilization and the struggle of a scant few to find a way to escape it. It’s ambitious and smart, and nothing like any other fantasy movie you’ve seen.

Jet Li’s Fearless (2006)

While over the past decade other aging action stars like Jackie Chan abandoned their ass-kicking ways in favor of Disney-style babysitter comedies, Jet Li delivered one of the biggest roundhouse kicks of his career. Jet Li’s Fearless embodied everything that has made Li, Li. As so many of these movies are, it’s set in China’s past, but in a way that’s utterly grounded. There’s no fantasy here and the fight scenes are gritty and feel completely real. They’re even more eye-popping because of it and it contains some of the best fights this side ofDrunken Master II. But more than that, it’s a deeply personal film for Li and it shows in his performance which is, easily, the best of his career. It’s based on the life of Huo Yuanjia, a real person who changed the path of Chinese fighting away from killing towards a simple battle of skill. He made it dishonorable for fighters to kill their opponents in the ring, and started the Jin Wu Sports Federation to ensure that future generations would learn from his mistakes. Apparently one member of those future generations was Jet Li who delivers a movie of deep honor, style, and intensity. And you missed it.

Below (2002)

Take The Hunt for Red October and turn it into a ghost story and you’d have Below, the scariest movies ever to take place below the waves. In the midst of World War II the submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark prowls the ocean on a rescue mission. But below the surface, the sub’s walls are closing in as the ship’s shell-shocked crew falls prey to sensory delusions and mental madness which send them over the edge. Or is it real? The ship could be haunted or cursed and they could be a damned crew sinking rapidly toward their doom. It’s a psychological thriller and a war movie and a study in what happens when men spend too much time in confined spaces all at once. Or maybe it really is the story of a horrific underwater haunting. Below keeps you guessing and wondering and scared shitless throughout it’s entire running time. For some reason though, this taut little thriller never got a decent theatrical release. It was dumped in a couple of theaters without advertising where, it never had a chance. Now’s your chance. Grab a copy on DVD, if you can find it.

Choke (2008)

Vile, seedy, and morally bankrupt Choke didn’t contain any fight scenes so no one bothered to see it. Sex doesn’t sell, apparently, but a good decapitation does. Amoral and filthy in the most glorious of ways, Choke starred Sam Rockwell as a sex addict and historical re-enactor who wanders through life screwing everyone he knows. Based on a book by Fight Clubauthor Chuck Palahniuk, it’s viciously funny and, in a dark and twisted way, even a little poignant. But a confusing theatrical release pattern made it nearly impossible to figure out where or if it was ever playing and so Choke just sort of passed everyone by. Deep conversations about relationships are had during handjobs and true love is uncovered while trying to convince a stripper she has cancer. It’s the film’s seediest moments that seem the most real,when Victor’s life is at its most despicable and unstable Choke shines. With the help of one of the coolest soundtracks you’ve never heard (Satan Said Dance!) it creates something unlike anything else you’ve never seen on screen.

Ghost Town (2008)

Do mainstream audiences know Ricky Gervais? Ghost Town proved rather definitively that they do not. Geeks know who Ricky is, but there simply aren’t enough nerds left out there anymore to matter. They’re all on the internet or they’ve morphed into Twilighters or something. But Ghost Town was a surprisingly smart, funny, and emotional movie. The premise seems stupid (A man talks to the dead? Doesn’t seem fresh does it?) but Gervais was too brilliant to let it stay that way. He makes magic out of thin air. If only anyone had shown up to see him do it. What if Jesus had turned water into wine in an empty room? Would we still have Christianity? If people had bought tickets to Ghost Town, would we be praying to Ricky Gervais? Maybe we should be anyway.

25th Hour (2002)

In 25th Hour Edward Norton gives what is perhaps the best performance of his career in what is easily one of the best movie’s of Spike Lee’s filmography. Norton plays a convicted drug dealer headed to prison for seven years. Before he goes Monty Brogan has twenty-four hours to say goodbye, and he spends most of them coming to grips with his father and friends while venting his anger and frustration at the path he’s taken. Anyone who’s seen it will particularly remember Brogan’s massive tirade against New York, America and everyone in it. “Fuck you all,” says Monty Brogan as his anger pours out of the screen. It’s Lee’s most compelling and thoughtful film, one that puts a new spin on the types of choices we’re all faced to make. You’ll identify with Monty Brogan, or you would have, if the movie had gotten enough attention to talk people into seeing it. A little movie like this needs support from critics and awards givers and somehow, 25th Hour never really got it.

Open Range (2003)

The Western has been dead since Lonesome Dove and shows no sign of returning. When they’re attempted we tend to instantly dismiss them, and usually with good reason, as yet another carbon copy of the hundreds of Westerns which have come before. Maybe that’s why so much of the world missed out on Open Range, easily the best Western sinceUnforgiven and perhaps even worthy of being listed as one of the best ever made. Opening with a beautiful and irresistibly realistic portrayal of trail riding life, Open Range eventually morphs into a balls to the wall, shoot-em-up save the town flick. It’s the chemistry between Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall that sells it, their interplay coming easy and slow, with a sometimes humorous and sometimes touching chemistry that would normally seem impossible to achieve with two such staunchly stoic characters. I suppose it also doesn’t hurt that Duvall blows a guy to hell through a wall, with the rumbling blast of a killer shotgun. It’s a visually stunning, gripping film. One which probably deserves to have been seen on the big screen, but since you missed that, just make sure you see it.

Spartan (2004)

David Mamet’s films are usually an acquired taste but Spartan is a rare Mamet effort that works on slightly more accessible level. Nameless special operations soldier played by Val Kilmer, at the forefront of a massive manhunt for a kidnapped VIP. Who Kilmer is and just who it is that he’s hunting unfolds as a part of the events swirling around the film, never as a piece of obvious exposition that awkwardly lays things out for you. Mamet never really explains anything and the movie just sort of happens as if we’ve really stepped into the middle of something. And since it’s a Mamet movie, yeah sometimes it’s talky. But it’s also an action packed, gritty thriller. An intense military puzzle which doesn’t wait around for you to figure out the answers and leaves you with plenty to ponder later.

The Lookout (2007)

Scott Frank’s brilliantly written and directed heist movie should have earned, at the least, an Oscar nomination for star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Instead, in part because it was released too early in the year to stick with Oscar voters and in larger part because it never received any real promotion, almost no one seems to realize it exists. The Lookout stars Levitt as a young man with brain damage. He’s not exactly stupid he just has trouble keeping things straight. Through circumstance he finds himself involved in a complicated heist plot and things spiral out of control while Levitt tries to remember brush his teeth. Jeff Daniels co-stars as a blind roommate and delivers one of the best visually impaired characters this side of Scent of a Woman. But Gordon-Levitt is the film’s anchor and he’s stupendous in his portrayal of a former prom king reduced to disability assistance and a janitorial job at the bank after a reckless accident. The heist plot is just the icing on the cake as Levitt’s Chris Pratt gets in over his head.

Eagle vs. Shark (2007)

This is the movie Napoleon Dynamite wanted to be. Funny and quirky but without the vicious hatred for its own characters that seems to seep throughout Jared Hess’s cult hit, Eagle vs. Shark is a beautiful and delicate where Dynamite is clumsy and stupid, an awkward film about awkward people looking for someone. It’s the performance of unknown New Zealand actress Loren Horsley that really carries it. Lily is a completely magical character. Shy and uncomplaining, Lily says little but somehow says everything. Horsley makes her incredibly alive for a woman of so few words. On the outside she’s a façade of almost painfully shy reserve, on the inside she burns with passion and bravery unmatched by any woman you’re likely to see in any other film.

The Woodsman (2004)

It’s a testament to just how good The Woodsman is that everyone ignored it. The topic is pedophilia and we’re not talking about some revenge fantasy in which a pedophile gets his due. Instead it stars a pedophile and what’s more a nearly sympathetic one. Kevin Bacon plays a man struggling with his own inner demons, as a recovering molester who served his time and now desperately wants to reintegrate into normal society. But he’s at odds with himself, fighting to resist the urges inside him, his own lust for little kids. It’s a compulsion. one which he doesn’t want to give into but almost can’t resist. The Woodsman tackles its topic with unflinching determination, showing the true face of what is definitely a sickness, without in any way condoning it. Bacon deserved and Oscar and the film deserved accolades, but awards givers and critics mostly refused to touch it, scared away by just how raw and real The Woodsman is. Without anyone to champion it, most audiences never even heard about it, and so what may be Kevin Bacon’s greatest and most horrifying performance sits on a DVD somewhere, unwatched and underappreciated.

Grindhouse (2007)

Grindhouse was the most fun to be had in theaters in a decade, so of course no one bothered to show up for it. Audiences were confused by the premise and intimidated by the four or five hours necessary to sit through two movies back to back. But those who took the plunge had a blast. Sure Tarantino’s half, Death Proof, is talky and slow. There’s a decent car chase, but he spends most of his running time wandering around the rural areas outside Austin with annoying coeds. But the fake movie trailers shown during intermission are comedic gold and Robert Rodriguez’s zombie film, Planet Terror, is as insane and over the top as Tarantino’s movie is not. It’s more than enough to compensate for Quentin’s inexplicable naval gazing. He has a stripper with a machine gun leg! What’s not to love? The real tragedy here is that it’s just not something you can properly experience at home on DVD. Grindhouseis all about atmosphere, and you can’t get atmosphere at home on your couch. If you missed it in theaters, then you missed it.

The Weather Man (2005)

Nic Cage’s complicated character study The Weather Man is downbeat and dejected, by design. So maybe it’s understandable that no one showed up to see it. Sure it’s not the quick and easy gratification we’re used to but there’s something emotionally connected about Gore Verbinski’s movie. Cage has taken a lot of crap for making, well, crap over this past decade. But this is one of his true gems. It’s the story of a weatherman named Dave, but not a meteorologist, who’s good at his job but finds no satisfaction in it. He only spends two hours a day doing actual work, the rest is spent looking awkward and unimpressive while the real meteorologist figures out what Dave is supposed to say. Sometimes people throw things at David. His life is going badly and that’s just one of the symptoms. Weirdly, it’s so downbeat it’s actually funny. The jokes and the misery play off one another, amplified by the contrast between them. At some point Dave’s unhappiness becomes so profound it becomes intentionally hilarious.

The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

In an era of sexual repression Bettie Page got out the whips and chains, but there’s more to her biopic than the kink you’ve seen on posters flaunting the iconic pin-up. Gretchen Mol delivers an epic performance as Page, who, didn’t really understand the impact her pictures had in a time when sexual repression and censorship fought with freedom. She challenged the establishment, but almost inadvertently. For Bettie, it was just a good time playing dress up. The story of America’s first sex icon is compelling and yeah, of course, also sexy as hell. But mostly it’s the story of a beautiful, purely innocent soul and a love for life which made her sometimes dark pinup pictures endure and end up on your bi-sexual girlfriend’s t-shirt. Unfortunately awards voters overlooked Mol’s performance and, of course, general audiences were scared off by nudity. Oh the irony.

Stardust (2007)

Stardust was really weird, but knew it and seemed to have no problem poking fun at itself and the fantasy genre for just how strange it all is. That wickedly sarcastic sense of fun made the story of a boy’s quest to save a fallen star (which happens to be a woman) with the help of unicorns and gay air pirates one of the most inspired bits of filmmaking in the last decade. A lot of the credit has to go to director Matthew Vaughn who took an 80s story in the vein of Willow or The Dark Crystal and used his own sense of style to make a completely unique fantasy film. So of course no one saw it. As funny and engaging as the movie was, it proved too challenging for the average moviegoer. Stardust was another flop. Let’s hope Matthew Vaughn’s next movie, the equally inventive looking superhero movie Kick-Ass, fares better.

Open Water (2003)

Open Water is the exact opposite of almost every horror movie you’ve seen lately. A couple on holiday goes scuba diving and through accidental circumstances gets abandoned out in the ocean without a boat, all alone, with sharks circling around. What follows is pure, gut-wrenching terror as they float together, waiting for death as sharks circle and clouds form and things go from bleak to certain doom. It’s an exercise in stripped down restraint, almost the entire movie is spent on these two people. It works because they seem so real, they’re any couple you’ve known. Maybe they’re you and your mate. Open Water is Jaws on a much more intimate and personal level. Its unflinching, uncompromising approach not only makes you afraid to go in the water, but makes you question all sorts of things about the way you spend whatever amount of time you have left on rock hard earth. It’s the kind of movieParanormal Activity was supposed to be, and wasn’t. So of course no one saw it, preferring instead to watch the same horror movie over and over again, in which a large man with a knife chops off pretty girls’ heads.

Death at a Funeral (2007)

It’s getting remade with Chris Rock in the lead but before you bother with the redo you owe it to yourself to catch the original, one of the funniest movies no one has ever seen. Directed by the great Frank Oz, Death at a Funeral takes an ensemble cast and drops them into the funeral from hell. There’s a blackmailing midget and a drugged out Alan Tudyk. The body in the casket isn’t the family’s beloved father and the oldest son is trying to keep it a secret. Cranky uncles and insane family members abound. The only reason you haven’t already seen it and pronounced it one of your favorite movies is because, for some inexplicable reason, MGM never bothered to market it. Even surprisingly few critics saw it. There’s literally no way the remake can top it, so why settle for second best when you can pick up the original comedic insanity on DVD?

The Wackness (2008)

The Wackness, despite a lot of buzz from blogs like this one, was another victim of Sony Pictures Classic. They’re the indie distributor you don’t want buying their movie. They release the occasional Rachel Getting Married but for the most part, SPC is where good indies go to die. And The Wackness is a good indie. Those who have seen it know that it’s a special little film, a perfect homage to growing up in the 90s, even for those of us who didn’t grow up in New York dealing pot. Josh Peck, who till now had shown no aptitude for well, anything, acts his ass off and Ben Kingsley does the most strangely effective and affecting Robin Williams impression I’ve seen since Williams did one of himself in Aladdin. Oh and it has one of the Olsen Twins! Wait, that may not seem like a positive. But really she doesn’t suck. A movie where an Olsen Twin doesn’t suck? Come on, that has to be something pretty dope doesn’t? Seek it out. Watch it. Itunes the soundtrack and imagine the Fly Girls dancing in your living room while you listen. You’ll thank me for it.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

His and Her Reactions to Awkward Roommate Situations

2009-12-09T19:26:00.001-07:00

Written by Emily

Situation: Not Doing the Dishes

Hers: “Someone left their dishes in the sink! Someone who eats Lucky Charms! Didn’t you buy Lucky Charms? I really don’t want to point fingers, I want to share the responsibilities of living together, but it just upsets me when people don’t respect my space and thus, don’t respect me. We can all be adults about this and talk it out. If it doesn’t change, I’m going to schedule a mediation with the RA.”

His: “Whoa, check out this mold! Cool!”

Situation: Keeping the Lights/Music on Late

Hers: “Hey, um, so, I noticed your light is still on, and it’s, like, 3AM.”

“I’m just having a hard time falling asleep.”

“Oh my God, is there something you need to talk about?! Is this about Brad? It is, isn’t it.”

“I don’t understand why he doesn’t want to be with me!”

“You’re so much better than him! I’m coming over there and we are spooning until you feel better!”

His: “Shut off that fucking light or I will smother you to death with this pillow once you do finally fall asleep.”

Situation: Not Cleaning the Bathroom

Hers: “Help! The tub isn’t draining because of all of this mold! I don’t understand how it happened, I cleaned the bathroom last Saturday and then this Saturday…as long as you cleaned it…this shouldn’t be happening! Maybe we have an extreme drainage mold problem and we need to call maintenance! That is…if you cleaned on Saturday like the bathroom chart said you were supposed to…”

His: “Isn’t your mom visiting this weekend? Do you think you can get her to clean the bathroom?”

Situation: Using Your Stuff

Hers: “Someone is using my bath towels because I keep finding them folded a different way. I really don’t want to make things weird, I’m sure it’s my problem, but it bothers me…I don’t want to resort to writing a passive-aggressive article on College Humor so you get the picture!”

His: “Dude, seriously. Is that my towel?”

“My bad. Wanna play XBox?”

“Sure.”

Situation: Bringing Home a Special Friend

Hers: “Nice!”

His: “Nice.”

Bonus: If I Had One Hour to Live

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Just say NO

2009-12-09T13:27:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

I Want What These Guys Are Having For Breakfast

2009-12-08T20:10:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Tiger Woods' Gatorade "Focus" (now 11 to a pack)

2009-12-08T19:42:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Tramp Stamp-B-Gone

2009-12-06T19:30:00.001-07:00

Download now or watch on posterous

tattoo.wmv (3555 KB)

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

15 Brand Names Decoded

2009-12-04T14:05:00.001-07:00

Written by Olivia Putnal

Learn where these popular company names originate from

Some time or another, you’ve probably contemplated how the name Walmart came about, or how a name like Starbucks became so popular. We’ve wondered the same things, so we set out to learn the origins of 15 popular brand names. Check out how some of the most-favored brands began their corporation and who or what sparked the inspiration for its name.

Sephora

One of the most well-known beauty stores actually began in France in 1969 and later opened its first US store in 1998 in New York City. Sephora gets its name from a blend of two words. The first is the Greek word “sephos,” which means “pretty,” and the second is the name “Zipporah” who, according to the Bible, was the wife of Moses known for her beauty. Photo courtesy of Nelson Cupeles.

Banana Republic

This popular and classic clothing store began in 1978 with founders Mel and Patricia Ziegler. The name was meant to reflect the originality and travel theme that the store wanted to maintain. Photo by Retna.

GEICO

Have you ever wondered what these letters stand for? At the start of the company, founder Leo Goodwin’s first goal was to attract the U.S. government employee and military personnel demographic. “Government Employees Insurance Company” was the initial slogan. Photo courtesy of Geico.com.

Google

Believe it or not, the word “Google” was a play on words by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997. They longed for a name that would reveal the wide range of information that lives on the Web; the word “Google” was derived from the mathematical term “googol,” meaning a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Photo courtesy of Google.com.

Yahoo

Another brand name that originated as an acronym, Yahoo stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” Creators Jerry Yang and David Filo transformed “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” in 1994 into the search engine site that we have today, claiming they also liked the actual definition of a yahoo meaning “rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.” Photo courtesy of www.yahoo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 99, 171);">Yahoo.com.

LEGO

Created in 1934 from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” which means “play well,” the name LEGO was later found to mean “I put together” in Latin—the perfect description for this beloved children’s toy company. Photo courtesy of Lego.com.

eBay

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar originally started a website called AuctionWeb for listing, viewing and placing bids on the products. When his wife mentioned she wanted to find other PEZ collectors to trade with, the process began for a new and improved site. At that time, Omidyar’s web consulting company was called Echo Bay Technology Group, however, when he tried to register the domain name EchoBay.com—it was already taken. So he settled on a shorter version: eBay.com. Photo courtesy of ebay.com.

Wendy’s

We all know and love the familiar face of the owner and spokesperson for this American fast-food chain, Dave Thomas. When challenged to create a business could compete with Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1969, Thomas came up with Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant, naming it after his daughter Melinda’s nickname, Wendy. Photo courtesy of Nelson Cupeles.

Walmart

After touring the country in order to become familiar with everything discount retail, Sam Walton began the Walmart phenomenon with his wife in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, gaining inspiration for the name from the couple’s own last name. Photo courtesy of Walmart.com.

Gap

Gap Inc. was started by Donald and Doris Fisher with the dream of a clothing store that bridged the generation gap. The store was meant to target a younger generation, but in a classic, yet casual way. Creator Don Fisher “couldn’t find a decent pair of jeans that fit him, so in 1969 he solved his problem by creating the Gap brand.” Photo courtesy of Nelson Cupeles.

Target

In 1962, the first Target store opened its doors in Minnesota. The Director of Publicity, Stewart K. Widdess, described his thinking behind the creation of the store name and logo: “As a marksman’s goal is to hit the center bull’s-eye, the new store would do much the same in terms of retail goods, services, commitment to community, price, value and overall experience.” Photo courtesy of Target.com.

Borders

This reliable bookstore was named after the original founders, Tom and Louis Borders, who opened an 800-square-foot used bookstore in 1971, calling it simply Borders Book Shop. As the company expanded over the years, the name has remained the same. Photo courtesy ofBorders.com.

McDonald’s

The world’s largest chain of hamburger fast-food joints was founded by none other than Dick and Mac McDonald in 1948. The only items originally served were the classic hamburger, cheeseburger and an assortment of drinks, potato chips and pie. The hamburger was first priced at only 15 cents! Photo courtesy of Nelson Cupeles.

CVS Pharmacy

When this retailer opened its doors in 1963, selling only health and beauty products and later adding the pharmacy departments in 1967, the letters stood for “Consumer Value Stores.” Now, present CEO, Thomas Ryan, likes to say the letters represent “Convenience, Value and Service.” Photo courtesy of Nelson Cupeles.

Starbucks

Surprisingly enough, this well-liked coffeehouse got its name from the first mate in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. Originally called Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices, it has since had its name shortened to Starbucks Coffee Company. Photo courtesy of Nelson Cupeles.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

How to Stop Yelling at Your Kids (would Po Bronson approve?)

2009-12-02T19:30:00.001-07:00

I love a line I read in a book once. It went something like this: “If it isn’t life threatening, if the house is not ablaze, if it is not an emergency, or if the child you are yelling to is not half a mile away, then yelling is the wrong choice in parenting.”

Yelling negatively and directly affects the way children see themselves and how they feel about their life and their place in this world. Yelling is also bad for the parents’ self-esteem since it is usually a behaviour that one regrets or is ashamed of.

It is important to realize that when a parent yells they are not editing what they say the same way they would if they were speaking in a calmer moment of discussion or conversation.

The first step one must take to stop yelling is to understand what triggers the yelling. Yes, one’s child is probably doing something naughty, however, it is important to think about what makes one choose to yell instead of speaking matter-of-factly.

Ninety percent of the time, the reason people yell is that they were yelled at as children. Even though they may have hated being yelled at it is all they know and simply fall into that same pattern during times of stress with their own children.

The second step is to realize what response is most likely to occur after one finishes yelling. Because yelling makes a child feel badly about themselves they will often lash back in order to protect themselves, and then become revengeful. They may, out of fear and sadness, stop the behaviour for a short period of time, however the anger and humiliation they felt will build up and soon enough they will lash out. A good example here is when parents think yelling works when their children are small, but are shocked when they experience severe disobedience when their children get a little older.

So, if one knows that they are yelling simply because it is what they have learned and they understand that the result of yelling never achieves the desired result, what is the alternative? What is the solution?

Instead of yelling one must train oneself to take a deep breath and then state the behaviour they want from their child in a matter-of-fact, assertive tone of voice.

If one’s child is begging them to watch TV when it is homework time, one should simply say, “You need to stop whining and go do your homework.” If the begging continues say, “You can stop begging right now or you can go to time out. What is your choice?” If the child is used to yelling, they will probably continue, so the parent should take the child by the hand and walk him/her to a predetermined time out spot. The amount of time the child should spend there is one minute per year of age. After the time is up one should go back and state what they expect from their child again – to begin their homework.

With this these new tools, one should feel more confident that they have the knowledge now to change from what they have learned from their own parents to what they now know is the better, more effective way to handle discipline.

Erin Kurt, B.Ed, spent 16 years as a teacher and nanny around the world. Now, she applies her expertise as a parenting expert and author of Juggling Family Life. You can learn more about Erin and her simple, loving parenting method, and subscribe to her weekly parenting tips e-zine at ErinParenting.com.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Mom is Santa

2009-12-02T19:11:00.001-07:00

Download now or watch on posterous

Mom_is_Santa.wmv (2692 KB)

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

It Is Time To Start The Withdrawal From Afghanistan

2009-11-30T19:46:00.001-07:00

An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?

Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.

Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.

We're counting on you.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or email the President.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

10 Small Ways to Make the World a Better Place (do this every day in December!)

2009-11-30T19:13:00.001-07:00

An important part of our growth and motivation as people lies in contributing to the greater good, being part of something greater than ourselves. While “making the world a better place” often calls to mind images of great leaders at the head of mighty social movements, white-coated researchers developing new medicines or energy sources, or geniuses dreaming up theories that explain the world around us, there is plenty of room for less lofty acts that create small measures of happiness in the lives of those around us. Little gestures can create or strengthen our sense of community and of shared humanity, lightening our burdens for just a moment and giving us something to smile about. And that’s no small matter.

Here are ten little gestures, all of them easily within our grasp, that can spread goodwill in our own communities, as well as increase our own sense of mindfulness about the people around us and our relationship to them.

Tip generously: As often as you can afford, leave a tip of 25%, 50%, 100%, or even more. (Obviously this applies mostly in countries where 15% tips are the norm.) Unless the service was simply awful – and even then, it might pay to consider what your server goes through – leaving as large a tip as you can afford not only puts a little extra extra money in your servers’ pocket, it tells them that they’re appreciated, a message that often slips our minds in our demanding, service-now society.
Compliment someone: Tell someone how much you like the job they’re doing, their outfit or new haircut, their singing voice – whatever. Be honest and sincere. I like to practice “drive-by compliments”, sending an out-of-the-blue email to someone whose website, post, or comment on a post I really liked. Don’t expect anything in return, just let someone know that something they’re doing works and move on.
Be totally open with someone: Let someone know exactly how you feel about something on your mind (though not something negative about them – there’s a different “protocol” for that sort of thing). We often keep too much to ourselves; letting someone into your confidence can be a great way to show your trust and appreciation of them. Of course, you have to judge what is and isn’t appropriate – it is possible to move past openness to dragging others into your problems, and that’s not making the world a better place.
Give someone a book you’ve read: Making a gift of something you’ve read and enjoyed is more than just a nice gesture, it’s a way of showing someone that a) you think of them, b) you understand them, and c) you want to share something with them. The moment doesn’t end when they take the book – once they’ve read it, you can talk about your reactions together. Don’t do this with people around you who don’t read, though – you’ll build up an obligation that will be painful for them to discharge.
Make something for someone: Bake an extra batch of cookies, draw a picture, decorate an extra Christmas ornament, and give it to someone for no good reason. Like giving someone a book, it tells them that you were thinking about them and wanted to do something nice for them, and that it’s something you made adds a nice touch. Give without expectations – whether they return the favor or not, whether they like it or not, whether they’re nice to you or not, these are all irrelevant.
Send a letter, email, tweet, or text message out of the blue: Email someone you haven’t spoken with for a while, or text someone you see every day just to be nice. Maybe they’ll respond, maybe not – it’s beside the point. They just need to know that they’re important to you.
Commend an employee to their manager: It’s one thing to tip or compliment someone for their service, it’s another to contact their manager and tell them what a great job they’ve done. If you don’t have time at the time of service, note the employees name and call, email, or write a letter later.
Teach someone how to do something: Share your skill or talent with someone by showing them how to do something. Not so they won’t bother you with it, but so they can move a little bit towards improved mastery of the world around them. Have patience and respect for the person you’re helping – you’re giving them a gift, not compensating for some lack in their character.
Let someone shine: Put a spotlight on someone else’s talents by letting them take over a presentation, deferring to their wisdom, asking them advice, or otherwise flex their “talent muscles”. Especially if they are junior to you, giving them a chance to strut their stuff shows that you trust them and appreciate them, as well as allowing them to get the attention they deserve (and which might often be obscured by your own shadow).
Connect like minds: Introduce two friends or colleagues who you feel have something to gain from each other. You’ll be letting them know you value them – and maybe creating a partnership that will make everyone better off.

You’ve probably heard the saying “Practice random acts of kindness”, and that’s basically what I’m talking about here. Anything that shows people you care about them – something we can be mighty stingy about most of the time – has the potential to make the world, or your small corner of it, a better place.

Dustin M. Wax is a freelance writer and project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.

Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

The Cutest Video Of All Time. Period. (how to go viral in under 30 seconds)

2009-11-29T08:55:00.001-07:00

Download now or watch on posterous

video.flv (1454 KB)

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

The Best Books of the ’00s

2009-11-28T19:16:00.001-07:00

Collected by avclub

Anyone looking for trends in our selection of the best books of the ’00s might have a hard time finding them amid the wizards, 19th-century serial killers, dysfunctional families and such. Narrowing down our decisions was pretty tough, and the process required a number of back-and-forths about what was significant as well as beautifully executed, which book from a given author represented his or her best of the decade, and so on. So consider these alphabetically listed selections 30 of the many, many memorable books published this decade, and as always, let us know what we missed.

Non-fiction:

Devil In The White City (2003), Erik Larson
It’s easy to imagine Devil In The White City as a historic true-crime novel, devoted to telling the chilling story of the serial killer H.H. Holmes, with the Chicago World’s Fair simply serving as a backdrop. But what makes the book so remarkable is the level of detail provided by Larson’s research into the setting and the protagonists. Architect Daniel H. Burnham wanted to parlay the fair into a forum that would make Chicago a global city; his quest gets as much page time as the grim details about how Holmes murdered more than 27 young women, and it’s just as compelling. The result is a non-fiction thriller, a tale of creation and destruction filled with bizarre facts and stories that expose the best and worst of human ingenuity.

Fargo Rock City (2001), Chuck Klosterman
The trouble with High Fidelity is that it’s a great book about relationships and a miserably anachronistic one about music: Nick Hornby’s steadfast, monolithic devotion to the super soul hits of the ’70s fails to get anything right about the intersection of ’90s music and love. Enter Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City, the most trenchant book ever written about that ’80s punchline, “hair metal.” Over the course of his engaging, infinitely quotable discursus, Klosterman unpretentiously maps what music can mean, both within its own imposed narrative, and once it reaches the outside world. He veers all over the place: one moment he’s giving readers a detailed analysis of Guns ’N Roses’ Use Your Illusion video trilogy, and the next, he’s talking about why metal turned him into an alcoholic, and why it’s weird that Pavement never talked about the beer they were drinking. His passion is contagious: You don’t have to like (or even be familiar with) the music to be sucked into a world of beautifully argued, casually hilarious passion. In terms of books about what listening to music can mean when you love it to the point of idiocy, few are better.

Freakonomics (2005), Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner
There’s often profit and acclaim in writing books that make abstruse fields of study accessible to the layman: Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time, for instance. But there’s even more glory in writing books that make those fields fun. The bestseller Freakonomics, co-authored by journalist Steven J. Dubner and “rogue economist” Steven D. Levitt, is an excellent example. By defining economics as “the study of incentives” rather than anything specifically tied to money or commercial interests, Levitt freed himself up for economics-style analysis of everything from dropping crime rates to the outcomes of sumo-wrestling matches. Like any mass-appeal, pop reevaluation of a scientific field, Freakonomics was controversial, with detractors questioning Levitt’s premises, processes, and conclusions. But just opening up the field to a wider consideration and discussion was a victory, and Levitt and Dubner’s lively prose and intriguing conclusions were icing on the cake.

Nickel And Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America (2001), Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich’s exploratory journey through the struggling underbelly of American society, undertaken when she realized how many women were being forced into minimum-wage jobs, and decided to try some herself, is emotionally draining but intellectually illuminating. Now, after the great financial collapse of 2008, the work reads more and more like prophecy, as untold millions struggle to scrape up enough change to just make rent, to say nothing of trying to buy food, or care for their kids. Ehrenreich’s travels take her from waitressing to Wal-Mart, and at all turns, she feels desperate and belittled, a feeling many people rudely tossed atop the unemployment line now share. It’s rare that a social-issues book becomes more prescient as time goes by, but Nickel And Dimed is an urgent exception.

Nixonland (2008), Rick Perlstein
The long 5 o’clock shadow over American politics gets his due in Perlstein’s exhaustively detailed tome on how the 37th president shaped his country. Richard Nixon’s long-building resentment toward the privileged, plus his conviction that disadvantaged men like himself deserved to be in charge, allowed him to exploit a widening gap between the counterculture and the counter-counterculture, invoking the cues that built a majority to carry him to the White House. Rejecting facile explanations of the aftermath of the 1960s, Perlstein redraws the map of two turbulent decades and picks apart the faux-populism that still inflects political discourse today, drawing those parallels without emphasizing them.

Pictures At A Revolution: Five Movies And The Birth Of The New Hollywood (2008), Mark Harris
This account of the making of the five movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar of 1967—Bonnie And Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?, and the winner, In The Heat Of The Night—is one of the great Hollywood books: deeply reported, sharply nuanced, and hugely entertaining even when ping into production minutiae. Harris doesn’t caricature subjects even when the temptation must have been overwhelming, such as drunken, racist Dolittle star Rex Harrison, soft-liberal Dinner producer-director Stanley Kramer, and haughty New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, whose one-man crusade against Bonnie And Clyde cost him his job. And the great stories are innumerable, as when The Graduate director Mike Nichols breaks down the skepticism of producer Joseph Levine over Nichols’ multiple uses of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds Of Silence” in its first 40 minutes: “I ran it, and he said, ‘I smell money!’” says Nichols, “thereby endearing himself to Paul Simon for all time.”

Them: A Memoir Of Parents (2005), Francine Du Plessix Gray
In a decade marked by the memoirs of angry children determined to mine some authorial gold from their unhappy early lives, Du Plessix Gray’s chronicle of growing up as an immigrant in mid-century New York relates history rather than agony, building subtly toward judgment while still acknowledging a debt of gratitude. Francine’s mother and stepfather, Russian émigrés who fell in love in Paris while they were both married to other people, were artistic geniuses and unrepentant social climbers, too exhausted or indifferent to be proper parents. With her eye to the keyhole, Du Plessix Gray weaves her early recollections into a riveting biography of two strangers she happened to live with, balancing memories of their often-irrational behavior with a sparkling account of their talents as celebrated by the world.

The Tipping Point (2000), Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller looked to epidemiology to explain how ideas and phenomena blew up, and ended up becoming its own proof for the theory. Who doesn’t know what a tipping point is now? Who could have said that a decade ago, before Gladwell started playing with the idea, then saw others popularize and spread it? While some of Gladwell’s example have been challenged—The Tipping Point’s view of declining crime rates contrasts sharply with the one found in Freakonomics—the concept seems not only solid, but downright prescient, arriving as it did before talk of Internet memes became a part of casual conversation.

The Wisdom Of Crowds (2004), James Surowiecki
Crowdsourcing would have remained an empty dot-com buzzword if James Surowiecki, the perceptive New Yorker business writer, hadn’t put real-life example and surprising science behind it. His persuasive book shows how properly constituted groups outperform inpidual experts, even on tasks where no member of the group seems to contain the relevant expertise. From the very first example—a county-fair guess-the-number-of-gumballs-in-the-jar contest—through the much-maligned terrorism-predicting “markets” set up by U.S. intelligence in the wake of 9/11, Surowiecki cuts through common-sense solutions to show that our reliance on pundits and geniuses is misplaced. Together, we know more than Alan Greenspan knows separately, which reveals our culture of overpaid technocrats to be thoroughly backasswards. Pair this book with Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and you have a blueprint for a truly enlightened democratic capitalism.

The World Without Us (2007), Alan Weisman
The environmental-writing market boomed in the ’00s, as more and more people became convinced that climate change would doom us all within the century. But few environmental books have the terrific gimmick or evocative writing of Weisman’s The World Without Us. Weisman starts from an irresistible premise—how long would it take the planet to erase all traces of human society if we all disappeared tomorrow?—but bolsters it with a tremendous feel for place, sticking readers in the middle of the quiet solitude of the last old-growth forest in Europe, or the controlled chaos of an oil refinery, with equal ease. Weisman managed the rare feat of getting readers to consider their impermanence while also thinking about how it might be a good thing.

Fiction:

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay (2000), Michael Chabon
By the end of the decade, it had almost become a cliché for authors to wed pulp influences to the sorts of epic family sagas that defined American fiction. But when Michael Chabon tried it with Kavalier & Clay, it felt fresh and new. Though he wasn’t the first to dabble in blending these influences, his was the breakthrough novel that made the technique safe for others to try. And even now, after all the imitators, his book still feels alive in a way that few pulp novels or epic family sagas do, as it follows two boys in Great Depression New York City who invent a comic-book superhero. While the book’s occasional trips off into pulp adventure can seem a little goofy, its wistful, romantic heart and longing for Golden Age archetypes to chart a course for truth and justice remain potent.

Atonement (2001), Ian McEwan
On paper, it sounds like the most boring novel ever: yet another examination of repressed Britons on the eve of World War II. Instead, Ian McEwan turned the story of a forbidden love affair and a young girl on the edge of comprehending adult interaction, but not quite there yet, into a moving examination of guilt, forgiveness, and the power of fiction. The novel’s opening passages—where said young girl makes a terrible mistake and accuses her sister’s lover of a crime he didn’t commit—are written with keen psychological insight and leisurely pacing that nonetheless remains tense. But in the book’s following sections, McEwan’s games with narrative structure and unreliable narrators become something else altogether, an increasingly sad look at how little power stories have over real life.

Bel Canto (2001), Ann Patchett
In December 1996, a group of Peruvian revolutionaries began a hostage crisis in the official residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima that ended violently more than four months later. Ann Patchett was paying attention, and her novel finds a bittersweet lyricism in a fictionalized take on the same event. Stuck together, hostages and hostage-takers find the factors piding them—politics, language, and in one of the central relationships, the distance between a famous opera singer and a devoted fan—matter less than the needs that unite them. The grace they find can’t last, however, and like the music that helped inspire the novel, Patchett earns her novel’s heartache by suggesting the possibility of a sweeter, more beautiful world.

The Blind Assassin (2000), Margaret Atwood
Canadian author Margaret Atwood has shown a career-long interest in gender relations and generational changes, particularly how the past gives way to a present that only dimly and incorrectly remembers what came before. That obsession gets worked out in a number of absorbing ways in one of her most ambitious, artful novels to date: The Blind Assassin follows several interlocked threads, as Atwood plays games with identities, connections, parallels, and altered histories. In one thread, she explores the childhood of two sisters, Iris and Laura; in another, Iris is a cantankerous, elderly widow, and Laura is an apparent suicide whose posthumously published novel became an enduring classic. Atwood only gradually reveals what happened between these bookends, and she keeps readers guessing, as it becomes clear that what the world remembers about Laura has very little bearing on what actually happened. Like many Atwood novels, Assassin is a puzzle box, but luminous writing, well-drawn characters, and the keenly melancholy theme of generational amnesia have more to do with the novel’s success than the series of reveals Atwood puts her readers through.

Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao (2007), Junot Díaz
It’s lonely on the corner between Hispanic slang and geek culture, but this 2008 Pulitzer-winner’s “lovesick nerd” Oscar de Leon can only dream about hanging out somewhere else. The frenetic multi-generational saga of family curses and the legacy of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is a hero’s tale and a fantasy homage rising out of a thicket of bilingual wordplay and a glorious stew of cultural references. Oscar’s determination to overcome his fate, set into motion when his grandfather runs afoul of Trujillo’s wishes, captivates even the jaded sometime narrator Yunior, faithful to his memory even though he was unable to be to his sister.

Carter Beats The Devil (2001), Glen David Gold
Popcorn fiction and historical fiction were both sneered at more often than not in the ’00s, as poorly written tales of the secret history of everything overwhelmed the bestseller charts. Enter Gold’s debut novel, a romp through early 20th-century San Francisco and the world of vaudevillian magic that makes few claims to historical veracity, and rockets along like the best page-turners. But Gold’s novel is about more than how a sad magician finds love and constructs the ultimate illusion while avoiding assassins and those who suspect him of killing the president. It’s also about moving on past crippling loss, overcoming depression, and learning how to feel again. Gold’s pacing makes Carter easy to read, but his sense of emotion makes it take up space in the heart.

The Corrections (2002), Jonathan Franzen
The Tolstoy-esque family novel got its 21st-century upgrade early, and has withstood all comers since. The Lamberts’ disintegration under the pressures of work, illness, and love unfolds with a cynical humor that strips the family’s pretensions away until only their most craven selves survive as they struggle to break free. As these unsympathetic characters go through the wringer, Jonathan Franzen outlines the symptoms of modern malaise, whose only cure is being able to see through the layers of protective self-delusion. The modern dysfunctional family wriggles under Franzen’s microscope, but its features are all too familiar. Oprah, take note: His next book, Freedom, is due to arrive next fall, just in time to inform the next decade.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (2003), Mark Haddon
Written from the perspective of an autistic boy obsessed with detective work, Mark Haddon’s astounding tightrope act portrays his protagonist’s richly odd inner life and places it in the context of a suspenseful journey outside his comfort zone of numbers, routines, and maps. Plunged into an unfamiliar world of train travel and self-reliance, Christopher tries to find out who killed his neighbor’s dog, emulating his hero Sherlock Holmes, and trying not to be fooled by fake phantasms like Holmes’ creator. Not merely the finest fictional depiction of the autistic brain yet produced, Curious Incident is also among the best page-turning thrillers of the decade.

Empire Falls (2001), Richard Russo
Much of America made it out of the 20th century badly equipped to deal with the 21st. Richard Russo’s Empire Falls is set in just such a place, a rust-belt Maine town that’s kept going even though the industry that led to its creation can no longer sustain it. Russo brought his by-then-familiar command of memorable characters and comic moments to a novel more ambitious than any he’d attempted before. The book captures a time and place unnerved by a future that offers no reassuring promises of a better tomorrow beyond the comfort its inhabitants can give each other.

Fortress Of Solitude (2003), Jonathan Lethem
Maybe Jonathan Lethem didn’t set out to create a magnum opus with Fortress Of Solitude, but that’s what he ended up with. The novel ties together a lifetime of obsessions—with music, art, fathers and sons, comics, and more—and grounds them in the 1970s Brooklyn of Lethem’s childhood. It’s a place of sadness, peril, and racial unease, but it’s also overflowing with the imaginative possibilities of childhood, at least until crises and looming adulthood start to shut them down. It’s a novel immersed in the past, but deeply distrustful of nostalgia and fully aware that the pain of youth has a habit of lingering, and even the presence of magic does little to secure happiness.

Gilead (2004), Marilynne Robinson
Twenty-three years after the luminous Housekeeping, Robinson proved herself one of the greatest American writers of her generation, winning the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for literature for her equally heartbreaking Gilead. Few could have predicted that the same pen that channeled orphans Ruth and Lucille coming of age in rural Idaho could so masterfully evoke an aging Congregationalist minister, looking back over his life with wonder for the grace given him but regret for his namesake, the son of a good friend who never took the path his elders would have chosen for him. Replete with references to Calvin, Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach, and other thinkers with whom Reverend Ames takes respectful issue, Robinson’s novel serves as a gentle theological treatise, but it never loses the glow of human relationships.

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (2005), J.K. Rowling
Arguments for and against its place in the Great Western Canon aside, the Harry Potter series was undeniably the biggest literary phenomenon of the ’00s. Though the first installments from the ’90s were inarguably children’s books, beginning with 2000’s Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, the series began to morph into something decidedly more complex, reaching its apex in 2005 with Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. The penultimate entry in the seven-part series is most notable for the shocking death at its climax, probably the series’ most unexpected, harrowing moment. But even more remarkable is the fact that it spends 650-plus pages basically filling in backstory and moving pieces into place for the series’ conclusion without sacrificing momentum or character development. (Though it perhaps attempts to cover too much ground at times, giving some elements short shrift.) In spite of whatever other limitations she has as a writer, J.K. Rowling is at her best in Half-Blood Prince, capably unspooling her epic yarn in the straightforward yet enthralling manner that accounts for the series’ unprecedented success.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), Susanna Clarke
It’s the kind of literary mash-up that’s simultaneously strikingly original and comfortingly familiar: Take a sort of idealized version of the Victorian-era novel, with all its drawing-room manners and morally repressed emotions, and insert some magic. And not the symbolic kind, either—actual magic, with rules, mysteries, and all kinds of difficult-to-fathom but impossible-to-ignore dangers. Susanna Clarke’s first novel is the warmly readable study of a frequently chilly world, a story to get lost in about the seduction of being lost, and an exhaustively researched tome on a subject whose research is entirely fictional. Ten years in the writing, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell still feels as light as a feather, and its tale of the friendship and rivalry of the two greatest magicians of their age has the ageless quality of all truly great fantastical fiction, reassuring without being entirely trustworthy, and utterly intoxicating.

Middlesex (2002), Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides’ long-in-the-making follow-up to The Virgin Suicides adds layer after layer around a kicky, potentially sensationalistic premise. Cal is born Calliope to a family of Greek descent, and spends years living as a girl, unaware of the intersexed condition that makes him genetically male. Jeffrey Eugenides follows the path of the gene that leads to that surprising revelation, tracing it back to Old World conflicts between Greece and Turkey while considering its place in the novel’s sharply realized 20th-century New World of 1970s Michigan. The past doesn’t die, it just mutates, and maybe, hopefully improves, on its way from one generation to the next.

Never Let Me Go (2005), Kazuo Ishiguro
Mainstream authors of literary fiction self-consciously slumming it in genres of ill repute ended up being one of the surprising movements of the ’00s. While most of these novels and stories were too aware of their genre roots, Kazuo Ishiguro’s tale of two girls who slowly realize the true nature of their existence keeps what’s best about his writing—his sense of the world as an ephemeral place that could pop out of being at any moment—and weds it to the best dystopic science fiction’s sense of raw humanity breaking through in a sterile world. Like the similar literary science-fiction experiment The Road, Never Let Me Go ends up becoming a testament to the many ways love finds to stay alive.

The Road (2006), Cormac McCarthy
A father and son travel through a post-apocalyptic America, half-starved, choking on a never-ending stream of ash sifting down from the sky, and with no hope for an end to their suffering beyond dissolution and death. Much has been made of the bleakness of Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel, but given its subject matter, the bleakness isn’t all that surprising. What is surprising is the way McCarthy manages to find a modicum of purpose in all that despair, creating a world in which all normal reasons for living—accomplishment, social structure, the possibilities of the future—have been ruthlessly stripped away, then showing how existence still struggles onward, in spite of all barriers against it. It’d be a stretch to call The Road uplifting, and the book has more than its share of horrors, but what makes it such a powerful, wrenching experience isn’t the aftermath of society’s collapse, but the suggestion that, even removed from sentimentality, the basic forward momentum of a dependent and his protector remains. Things don’t have to be good to continue, but they will continue, and sometimes that’s all that’s left.

The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle (2008), David Wroblewski
Wroblewski’s first novel retells the story of Hamlet on a farm in northern Wisconsin, and with some of the characters replaced by dogs bred by the Sawtelle family for extraordinary intelligence. And not a word of this lengthy, immersive journey into the struggle of young Edgar to break through the dangerous relationship between his uncle and his mother feels like a gimmick. Full of detail about the training methods that make the Sawtelle dogs special, and anchored by a fugitive quest for justice with only adolescent and canine wits to sustain them, Edgar’s story has the mesmerizing quality of great literature. It’s a world that feels found by accident, unknown to outsiders, and so beautifully tragic that readers will beg the pages to turn more slowly.

The Terror (2007), Dan Simmons
In 1845, Captain John Franklin led two ships on a hunt through the Arctic for the fabled Northwest Passage. Both ships became icebound in the Victoria Strait, and all 128 men were lost. It’s hard to imagine a more horrible way to die, starving slowly as the temperatures plunge and scurvy drives shipmates to contemplate murder and cannibalism, but Dan Simmons decided to make things worse in his 2007 novel, throwing a monster out on the ice and letting the blood flow freely. Telling the story through the perspectives of various real-life crew members, Simmons creates a tense, unrelenting narrative about survival pushed to its extremity, where an inexplicable dark god lurking at the edges isn’t nearly as upsetting as the dwindling food supplies and an actively hostile environment. As grippingly detailed as a true-life adventure narrative, with all the symbolism and tragedy that fiction can provide, The Terror is a rewarding, haunting read. Just make sure to check the thermostat before opening the cover, whatever the season.

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003), Audrey Niffenegger
The decade was kind to debut novels of powerful imagination, and none were better poised to seize the American reading public than Audrey Niffenegger’s artfully constructed romance. Only in novelistic form could the emotions of her time-crossed lovers be fully appreciated. As readers proceed linearly through the book, Claire travels from birth to death in the normal way, while her husband Henry is yanked unpredictably through time. Told from their alternating perspectives, the story builds on the yearning and regret that comes from knowing the end before the beginning, and from being given glimpses of the future that others cannot know until it arrives. The Time Traveler’s Wife earns the tears it so copiously extracts, and creates an epic love affair perfect for the turn of the millennium.

White Teeth (2000), Zadie Smith
From one of the most original talents this decade produced, White Teeth follows an unconventional friendship that becomes a portal into a world where every character’s story sounds truer than the last. The chance meeting of Archibald Jones and Samed Iqbal, fellow World War II veterans who reunite in 1970s London, are just the first brushstrokes in a richly detailed portrait of a neighborhood changing faster than its inhabitants can understand as they struggle to find meaning in a world radically altered from their forefathers’. In spite of its Dickensian spread, Zadie Smith’s debut novel never feels overstuffed or self-consciously stylish. Instead, its assured tone guides readers through genetic controversy, radical Muslim groups, and past-as-prologue, toward a profound commentary on

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

In Case You Ran Out Of Things To Be Thankful For

2009-11-26T17:47:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

My Favorite Dumb, Very Old Animated Gif (and I hope this works)

2009-11-24T19:29:00.001-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

9 Ways to Give — Even When Times Are Tough

2009-11-24T19:22:00.001-07:00

9 Ways to Give — Even When Times Are Tough

via Get Rich Slowly by J.D. on 11/24/09

This post is part of the “The Spectrum of Personal Finance”. In this one-day event, comic-book nerd Brian from My Next Buck, will discuss eight different emotions (taken from the Green Lantern comics) and relate them to personal finance. Here at GRS, Brian looks at Compassion.

One of the most rewarding parts of personal finance is being able to give back. Giving is powerful, and it’s contagious. But maybe this year times are too tight for you to give in ways you’ve done before. That doesn’t mean you should disregard the needy this year. Let’s talk about some alternative ways to give.

Here are some ways to give back without having to dig deep in your wallet:

Donate clothing. Goodwill is a great place to make donations, but also look for local clothing drives that give items directly to the homeless. Don’t forget things like hats, scarves, and gloves; it is nearly winter after all.

Keep small bills in your pocket. If you live in a city, you likely pass by homeless people on your commute to work each day. Carry ten $1 bills, and pass them out until they’re gone.

Host others for Thanksgiving. Have a neighbor who is out of work? Open your door to share Thanksgiving with her family. This is the sort of act of kindness you usually only see in movies, but it’s easy to do.

Clean out your cupboards. Sort through all of those canned goods that haven’t been eaten for months, or that your children decided they didn’t like after one sitting. Donate them to a food bank.

Make room in your budget to donate $25 or $50 to charity this season. Then, when you’re asked to donate an extra $1 for a cause at the grocery store, or asked by girl scouts to buy cookies, you can say yes.

Even when times are tight, there are always opportunities to give back that don’t cost you a cent. Here are some free ways to help you give to those in need this holiday season:

Volunteer at a local soup kitchen. There are scores of ways to volunteer, but soup kitchens always need a lot of help, especially during the holidays. I volunteered at a soup kitchen with my family one Thanksgiving; it’s probably the most memorable turkey day I have had.

Become a Big Brother or Big Sister. I’ve wanted to do this for a while now, but my life just doesn’t allow for it yet. It’d be awesome to be able to mentor (and hang out with) a little buddy, and to help them grow.

Start a food or clothing drive. Maybe you don’t have spare food or extra clothing to donate. Others might. Maybe they just need an easy outlet to donate them through. Starting a food or clothing drive at your church, synagogue, or local school can be easy and rewarding.

Donate your body. Donate blood, bone marrow stem cells, and plasma. This type of giving can make a huge difference in people’s lives and costs you nothing that can’t be replenished.

Are you still giving despite the down economy? What other ways do you contribute to charity or community that make an impact without draining your budget?

For further reading of the Spectrum of Personal Finance Event, please see:

Fear at Bargaineering
Hope at Budgets are Sexy
Avarice at Consumerism Commentary
Willpower at Debt-Free Adventure
Death at Free Money Finance
Compassion at Get Rich Slowly
Love at Mrs. Micah
Rage at Poorer Than You

To view a recap of the event, check out the Spectrum Roundup at My Next Buck.

---
Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Games for Thinkers

2009-11-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

[Go belongs on this list. - Ed.]

Pastimes to Challenge and Entertain

Thinkers relish the challenge and stimulation of brilliant games. They enjoy games for the pure thrill of exercising their minds and judgments in pursuit of victory. You can take pleasure in any number of great games. Here is a selection of recommended pastimes. Add them to your Christmas list:

1. Chess

Chess is the king of games. It represents a pure cerebral struggle between two minds. It teaches strategy, tactics, positional play and the benefits of absolute concentration. Every home should have a set. Every child should learn to play. Everyone can enjoy the challenge.

2. Scrabble

Scrabble is the classic word game. You can play it with 3, 4 or 5 people but it is ideal for couples. Luck plays a small part. You have to make the most of whatever letter tiles are in your hand using the available resources on the board. Skilled players see remarkable possibilities and know a range of obscure and short words that they use adroitly.

3. Monopoly

This is the game that Fidel Castro banned when he came to power in Cuba because he saw it as a model for capitalism. There is a large element of luck but the skilled player will often triumph because he or she has focussed on the right resources and developed a set quickly. It teaches trading skills and probabilities.

4. Bridge

There are many great card games but surely the finest is bridge. The bidding and the play of the cards represent two different skill sets, with the play having amazing subtleties. Good players remember all the cards played and can quickly deduce the lie of the hidden cards. Most players learn whist first before graduating to bridge.

5. Cluedo (Clue in US)

This is a popular family game which is great fun. Can you put the clues together and figure out who is the murderer?

6. Backgammon

Backgammon is an excellent game for two players with its own mixture of luck, skill and gambling. You can choose risky or cagey strategies and double the value of game on occasions.

7. Poker

Some people wrongly think that poker is all about bluffing. It is a highly demanding intellectual exercise in which the skilful players read their opponents. You need nerves of steel and excellent understanding of the probabilities to succeed. This is a costly game to learn and it can be dangerous but surely it is one of life’s greatest pastimes.

8. Dingbats

Dingbats are rebuses or visual word puzzles where you have to figure out the common phrase or word represented by what you see. The advice is to say what you see – but can you look laterally enough to see the answer?

9. Articulate

This is an entertaining word game for friends and family to enjoy. You have to describe words quickly to your team members without any miming.

10. Trivial Pursuit

This the daddy of all quiz games. This will test your general knowledge and your ability to think in the same clever ways that the puzzle-setters use.

11. Pictionary

You have to draw the words in order to explain their meaning to your team mates. This will test your graphical thinking skills. It can be both frustrating and hilarious.

12. Charades

Charades is a well-established game in which you have to mime the meanings of names, phrases or titles. You have to think quickly and find clever ways to get the message across without speaking.

13. Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Lateral thinking puzzles are strange situations where one person knows the solution and others have to ask him or her questions (for example, 20 Questions). The quizmaster can only answer, ‘yes, no or irrelevant’. You have to come at the problem from different directions, check your assumptions and put the clues together. Good fun with friends and family.

Paul Sloane is an author and speaker on leadership, innovation and lateral thinking. His most recent book is The Innovative Leader. He helps organizations improve innovation, creativity and leadership. He is the founder of Destination Innovation. He has written 15 books of lateral thinking puzzles and hosts the lateral puzzles forum.

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities

Lady Gaga (Stefanie Germanotta) Vintage - At NYU - Great Piano Playing AND Singing (terrific!)

2009-11-23T20:08:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from A Collection of Curiosities