It's no secret that I'm a fan of Jonathan Coulton. Hmm...well, maybe it is kind of a secret, because I've only mentioned him once before, and that was years ago, and it's not like all of you have access to my MP3 files, do you? (You don't, right? Cuz that would be kinda creepy.) Anyway, most casual geeks can claim to be fans of Code Monkey or ( Read more... )

Normally, when I get behind in blogging, as I have been lately, I just let any events slide that I didn't get the chance to write about. But as the purpose of this journal shifts from "things other people might want to read" to "things I may want to read later," I'm going to break that rule. So I'm rewinding a couple of weeks to cover the things ( Read more... )

elora_c and I were talking this morning about "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana, which led to a discussion of Ominous Latin Chanting in movies. (Warning: That's a link to TV Tropes; if you click the link, you assume responsibility for any lost productivity.) Which led, tangentially, to a discussion of how "Ride of the Valkyries," in a movie, now means " ( Read more... )

That's actually not news...frankly, "Elora was right" is pretty much the definition of our relationship. However, in this particular case, she was prescient. Check out this entry in her blog -- the very first one she ever made, in fact. In it, she considers the possibility of Karaoke Revolution expanding to include musical theater, specifically ( Read more... )

The following statement is mostly true:

On the second day of December, Amazon sent to me:
Two purple thumb-drives
and a cartridge full of blue ink

The challenge to you, Friends-list: Finish the song. Each commenter take one round and add a line to the one before. Can we get it to twelve?

I have friends who think I'm too cynical. I also have friends who think I'm not nearly cynical enough. That seems a nice balance to me. This morning, I found the following video affecting, even inspiring. Which either means I'm less cynical than I thought, or it's a darned inspiring video. (If you don't have sound right now, wait and watch it ( Read more... )

Elora, Sparky, and I went to see Stomp today; they have a limited engagement this week at the Merriam Theater, and I didn't want to miss it. Which makes for a great experience, but rather poor blogging, because there's no way to describe Stomp in words and hope to be even slightly adequate. If you haven't seen Stomp, see it at the soonest ( Read more... )

Last weekend, elora_c was putting together a CD of Christmas songs for kids, for Sparky's use, and she was using this site for ideas. I glanced over her shoulder at that long list of songs, and burst out laughing at "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." We listened to it for a few seconds, concluded that we'd never heard it before, and there was ( Read more... )

Is it close enough to Christmas that I can talk about Christmas music now? I like Christmas music. In fact, most of my customary good taste goes right out the window when it comes to Christmas music -- yes, that means I even like Mannheim Steamroller, in small doses. Not Jingle Dogs, though; I have limits. Of course, I don't have to work in a ( Read more... )

That was an unusually busy weekend for me.
( I'm going to ramble, and you're going to pretend you care. )