weblog.lowpro.ca

I haven’t been here in a while. I’d apologize, but there are like 2 of you out there, so I’m not worried about it. Anyways, here are a few things…

I just watched the first episode of Flight of the Conchords. I’m really glad that my roommate Sara has HBO. It’s OMG-hilarious, and I don’t use three letter internet acronyms lightly. In fact, I never use them, so this is serious business. It’s a really strange show about two guys, in a band, from New Zealand, who live in New York City and are trying to make it, sort of. But mostly just about strange interactions between them and the world and between the two of them. It also has musical sequences that are actually funny. It made me laugh out loud a lot, which TV rarely does. Right, enough about that. Watch it if you get a chance.

One of the two guys in the show also made a movie recently, Eagle vs. Shark, that I managed to catch a sneak preview of. It’s pretty funny, but very strange. I recommend the show over the movie, but it’s worth seeing.

I ran into an interesting article on recontextualizing a couple of daily comic strips that’s worth checking out. [via Statistically Improbable Phrases] The highlight for me was in a linked forum:

More at Truth and Beauty Bombs.

Once upon a time there was a genre of music called Cantopop. Really, it’s still around, but it sounds better to say once upon a time. My friends Stu and Becca combined their forces to re-discover this song. I guess as a kid Stu listened to it a lot. It’s by Sam Hui, called 半斤八兩 (I’m told this translates as some obscure measure of weight). I’ve never heard it before today, but it is very funny, very catchy, and the music video is great. Enjoy!

Sam Hui’s Working Class Song:

We, the working class,
Roaming the street everywhere, ruining our digestive system,
Earning so little, of course we don’t have enough to spend at the end of the month (thin like a stick),
This really sucks.

The worst is the boss who gets pissed constantly (crazier than a chicken),
Doesn’t matter what the reason, he/she just barks and barks (inserts barking noise),
Makes a mean face at the sound of a salary raise (nag and nag),
That surely increases your appetite.

You work hard like a Jack, *as in Jack in playing cards*
How can a wet firecracker make a sound,
If you have the guts, grab a gun and go rob,
Giving my all, thinking that I’ll receive plenty,
But with the shitty working environment, of course this is only a fantasy. (I’m defeated)

We, the working class,
Become slaves for money all our lives,
That arduous work can be used as a ghost story (dare me to die),
Don’t say that it doesn’t matter.

Even if there’s profit, it’s not yours,
More horrible than hot water boiling pig intestines,
Meager as bits of chicken feed, you still want to peck,
Giving my all, thinking that I’ll receive plenty,
But with the shitty working environment, of course this is only a fantasy. (I’m defeated)

We, the working class,
Become slaves for money all our lives,
That arduous work can be used as a ghost story (dare me to die),
Don’t say that it doesn’t matter.

I know Ben, at least, will appreciate this one.

How great of a shirt idea is this?

It’s called Biggie Was Right, from Threadless T-Shirts.

My friend Cecily received her master’s degree in linguistics from Gallaudet last week. I wasn’t able to make it, but she was selected to give the graduate student graduation speech (say that ten times fast), and from what I hear it was great. The text of the speech is available online. Cecily pointed it out and I’m going to post the link here, too, but before I give it to you let me give you some background on the article and comment thread you are about to read.

The speech is good. It’s about multilingualism and how everybody should try to be multilingual. True. But the real meat of the page is the comment thread that follows. Go take a look at Julie Hochgesang’s entry, Speech, Speech, Speech! at the DeafDC blog. It’s a long page, but much of it is worth reading, and it becomes increasingly funny as you read through the comments.

One commenter in particular, a guy named Bert, had me about ready to respond. I thought better of it, however, and simply took a screenshot of what I wrote. Once you’ve read the thread, or even before if you want, take a look at this picture.

It’s been a while since a syndicated comic (other than Get Fuzzy) made me laugh out loud. I like this one, though.

There’s an official website, but I read it using the unofficial Pearls Before Swine comics-only feed.

I’m eating paella right now. It’s from the cafeteria here at work, and it’s surprisingly good. I like seafood paella.

In other news: I’m going to New York this weekend. Get this: I’m going for no particular reason. A good thing about living a reasonably short and cheap bus ride away from a very cool city. I think we’re going to go the Mets game tomorrow, and maybe we’ll see a play or something. Who knows! That’s the beauty of it.

I have two very dead camera batteries with me, so I’ll try to get them charged up and take some pictures.

If you like weird/funny internet history then you should check this article about internet jargon and funny pictures out. If you don’t know much about crazy internet memes then watch out — you have lots to learn here.

I found a cool weblog, called Strange Maps. It looks pretty interesting in general, but I found it because of this funny comic/map at xkcd:

Somebody talking about the first one linked to the following two maps:

Funny stuff, eh?

References:

• Reagan Map
• Dubya Map

I wish I was there:

The Honeymoon’s Over:
Girl #1: Well, this is cozy.
Guy #1 from the back: Let’s get to know a little about each other. Hi, my name’s Aaron*. I’m a Pisces, non-smoker, but a heavy drinker.
Girl #2: Hi, I’m Becca. I’m a Taurus, and I really like Chinese food.
Guy #2: This is the best elevator ever.
Girl #3 as door opens: Get the fuck off of me.

–Track 3 elevator, Penn Station

via Overheard in New York, Feb 18, 2007.

From Zoe Bond’s facebook page. I think it’s funny. I need to watch Eddie Izzard again.

God: “Well ok, who am I? Oh, ok…I created the world in 6 days. On the 7th day I rested, on the 8th day I rested…again, 9th day rested-Cuz i had just made a FUCKING world…ya know? 10th day rested…on the 14th day I decided to smoke all the marijuana I had created (just to test the first batch)..then on the 15th day I decided to smoke all the opium I created (just to test the first batch)…and on the 309th day-I woke up again and decided to create 500 Huuuge monsters that i had seen just the night before.” -eddie izzard on dinosaurs

P.S. Mostly, this post is for Molly (my internet stalker?), and I have no idea who Zoe Bond is. But apparently I have a friend who is her friend.
Update: I found a different and maybe better version of this at some random site.