Dr. Pamela Takayoshi, Associate Professor of English at Kent State University, is claiming that IM speak is not just slang but represents a whole other language, separate from English. From the press release:

Instant messaging, or IM, is not just bad grammar or a bunch of mistakes. IM is a separate language form from formal English and has a common set of language features and standards.

While I agree that when you understand the rules of IM speak there is some standardization to it, it is still at its root IM based on English words. I think this becomes a semantical debate as to what constitutes a language. I'd accept that IM speak is a separate and unique dialect of English, but I'm not sure it qualifies as its own unique language. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise, though.

Posted by ironic1 at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went to see Iron Man yesterday with my buddy, Russ, and was pleasantly entertained. It was a nice rendition of one of my favorite comic book heroes. Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow was... sigh... so beautiful. Probably my favorite scenes in the movie were between these two actors, especially the one in which Stark needs his personal assistant, Pepper Potts, to assist him personally with a delicate, little life and death procedure.

But here's the thing you have to know. If you go to see the movie stay until the very end. There's a fun scene after the credits. I will say no more. Trust me. It's totally worth it.

Posted by ironic1 at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This looks like an amazingly cool way to learn chemistry. Elementeo is a collectible card game where each card is based on an element or a compound and has an action appropriate to the element or compound. There are also alchemy cards which are like action cards.

And if that wasn't cool enough, the game was designed by a 14 year old. I tip my geek king crown to you, Anshul Samar.

Posted by ironic1 at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night at Geek Prom I was honored with the coveted title of Geek Prom King. My reign will last until next year's Geek Prom.

It was a really fun evening. One of the best parts was to have people come up to me who have only known me from this blog and start to talk with me. Thanks all of you. Last night was amazing. After the coronation when people were congratulating me it was really odd. It was like being congratulated just for being myself because, as you know dear reader, I am a geek.

Thanks to Starfire for the photo above and other Geek Prom photos.

Continue reading "King of the Geeks" »

Posted by ironic1 at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

NASA is really branching out!

Posted by ironic1 at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm intrigued by this trailer for the documentary Second Skin, which chronicles the lives of 7 online gamers whose experiences vary greatly.

And for those who keep on telling us gamers to get Outside, well the review of that game isn't that good. Apparently while the graphics are phenomenal and it is purportedly "free of charge" playing the game involves a lot of grinding and the economy is kind of arbitrary and confusing. Further the PvP system is flawed to the point of unplayability. Also you are pretty much required to get the "job expansion pack" which involves a lot of pointless, repetitive tasks.

Thanks to Fuzzy for pointing me to the review.

Posted by ironic1 at 7:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MIT students created this giant d20 (that's a 20 sided die for the uninitiated) in a common area on campus to memorialize Gary Gygax. The plaque reads:

Posted by ironic1 at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hulu now has Buffy seasons 1 & 2 up and ready for viewing for free! Season 2 is a favorite of mine, what with Spike and Dru and evil Angel. And the season finale contains what I think are the funniest 15 seconds in all of Buffy.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

or shoes for that matter, but I'd love to have a pair of these socks made by Sue Grandfield. They would be precious to me. My preciousssssss...

Posted by ironic1 at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Allow me a bit of a geek out moment. I was watching an episode of Torchwood and in the split second when they showed the clearance code to the Torchwood computer I saw 5 digits that are seared into my memory. Yes, the code to Torchwood is the zip code I grew up in which is, therefore, also the zip code of the hometown of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Is it a coincidence that this particular postal code should be the password on a sci-fi program? Maybe... Maybe not...

Posted by ironic1 at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone sing along!

Posted by ironic1 at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obi-Wan Kenobi 68% Han Solo 64% Luke Skywalker 63% Princess Leia 63% Qui-Gon Jinn 63% Chewbacca 61% R2-D2 60% Padme 58% Yoda 57% Mace Windu 56%

You are civilized, calm, and have a good sense of humor, even when those around you don't. You can hold your own in a fight, but prefer it when things don't get too exciting.

Posted by ironic1 at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

MMORPGs may just be the place to find potential terrorists, according to the Reynard project. The goal is to detect "suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."

As an admitted WoW addict (though I'm in a 6 week withdrawal right now) I have to ask... what would count as aberrant behavior in this admittedly violent game? I'm supposing it would have to be something completely anarchical and against the intended social structure, like, for example, a pacifist!

Here's an excerpt from the proposal:

The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.

If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.

To which Charlotte, who pointed out this whole absurd thing to me, said:

Some nerd just figured out how to get Uncle Sam to pay his Verizon bill and justify his 19 hour/day WoW habit. I salute you, unnamed nerd!

I, too, salute you unnamed nerd!

Posted by ironic1 at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hulu is now live and open to the public. Now you can watch all of Firefly for free on your computer. Shiny!

Posted by ironic1 at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to a recent article there may be a lot more habitable planets in the galaxy than we had thought. In fact, it's thought that more than half of stars like our sun are likely to have earth-like, water-bearing, temperate planets like our own blue celestial island.

If this is true, of course, it greatly expands the possible number of potential intelligent extraterrestrial species that we might encounter according to the famous Drake equation.

Further, Javiera Guedes at UC Santa Cruz suggests that, according to computer models, Alpha Centauri is prime to have one of these habitable planets in the Goldilocks zone. Alpha Centauri, as any geek knows, is one of our closest stellar neighbors and so is the most likely candidate for humankind's first interstellar jaunt.

In light of all this political scientist John Hickman's latest article in Astropolitics entitled "Problems of Interplanetary and Interstellar Trade" might be considered more than merely an academic study. An excerpt...

Economic exchange itself might be "alien" to the aliens. Members of an alien species may not experience the same intense sense of self that is exhibited in rationally self-interested economic exchange among humans. Instead, a collective identity could be dominant. Money might not exist and without it neither would complex markets or banking. If they do engage in economic exchange it might take a form akin to potlatch, the competitive gift-giving for status solely among members of the same tribe traditional among societies in Melanesia and the Pacific Northwest. Moreover an alien species might not live in separate societies and could thus have no conception of trade between different societies with different cultures.

Then again, maybe they are Ferengi.

For my fun speculation on a possible first encounter, feel free to read Signs of Intelligent Life.

Posted by ironic1 at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons, passed away today at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Thank you, Gary, for all the worlds you've permitted me to travel through.

Posted by ironic1 at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yeah, those guidelines are perfectly clear, understandable, and acceptable to me.

...

What?

Posted by ironic1 at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Derrial Book (Shepherd) 85% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 70% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 65% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 60% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 60% River (Stowaway) 50% Inara Serra (Companion) 45% Wash (Ship Pilot) 45% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 30% Alliance 25% A Reaver (Cannibal) 15%

Even though you are holy you have a mysterious past.

Posted by ironic1 at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

[Click to enlarge]

This is the Adam Hughes cover for the upcoming Firefly comic three parter - Better Days. The plot occurs before the movie and it involves a heist where, for once, everything goes right for our heroes and how they deal with success. The above picture will be used in segments for the three covers for the series.

Posted by ironic1 at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You can own a piece of the Firefly legacy. Adam Baldwin, who famously portrayed Jayne Cobb, is auctioning off the hat.

Not just a replica, no, the hat.

The California Browncoats have announced that this cunning hat is going up for auction this fall (Sep 24 - Oct 4, 2008) with the proceeds going to support the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, which sets up higher education scholarships for the children of fallen marines and law enforcement agents. A worthy and noble thing and thus something that Jayne would never have done, but you can still own his hat.

Continue reading "A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything." »

Posted by ironic1 at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I Miss Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Megan Gogerty (playwright and self described wordsmith) wrote and recorded this nostalgic ode to her halcyon days with Buffy and posted it on her website as a free download.

I just really discovered Buffy last year and ran through the seven seasons in about nine months. I bought the series as my birthday present to myself and now I'm rewatching the series with my teenage (gasp) daughter.

Here are some great lines from the song for those too technologically challenged to click on the link or need some encouragement to do so:

A friend of mine met the guy who played Xander at a party and in real life she said he was kind of disappointing. I said, "Of course he's disappointing. This is real life and he's an actor. And in real life everyone's disappointing."

I want metaphorical mythology coupled with ontological authenticity. I really don't think that's too much to ask of a show.

I'm this close to reading fan fiction but writing this song is pathetic enough.

I feel your pain, Megan. I really do. Thanks for the laugh.

Posted by ironic1 at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Green Lantern 80% Spider-Man 80% Superman 75% Hulk 65% Supergirl 58% Catwoman 50% The Flash 50% Iron Man 50% Robin 43% Wonder Woman 43% Batman 35%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination. You are the Green Lantern!

Posted by ironic1 at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

This "blog" is "great" and I "really" like it a "lot." It makes me "laugh."

Posted by ironic1 at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Imagine trying to play World of Warcraft without killing anything.

Charlotte sent me to this blog of a person trying to do just this. "Reinisch" is a pacifist undead priest on The Venture Co., an RP/PVP server. For those who don't know World of Warcraft this is very very difficult as most of the quests require killing something or another and there are very few ways other than killing things and quests to obtain experience.

This seemed so ludicrous and impractical I had to try it. So meet "Peacewalker," a peaceloving tauren druid who is already level 5 without killing a thing. Most of the experience has come from discovering new geographic zones, which conveys some minimal experience, and gathering or courier quests which require no killing. Come meet him on The Venture Co. server. He's in Reinisch's guild, "The Pacifist."

Posted by ironic1 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My friend, Maria, said she couldn't really understand what was funny about some of my recent posts, so I thought I should post this primer for her and others.

Continue reading "A Leet Speak Primer" »

Posted by ironic1 at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tomasz got these stickers and decided to go to the local Target and have some fun. Good times. Good times.

Posted by ironic1 at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Note how many screens Veggietales opened on? Think it's coincidental? I really doubt it knowing the wry and silly humor behind Veggietales. I'm pretty sure it was a great joke for them.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had no idea Maine driving was so uber. Better have leet skillz.

Continue reading "Watch out for the N00B drivers!" »

Posted by ironic1 at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I will. It's the comic book movie I've been waiting for. I just hope they don't let me down.

Watchmen is the comic book I always hand to people who don't think they like comic books. It's gritty, smart, relevant, and real. What I loved about Watchmen when I first read it was how seriously it took its subject matter. What if masked vigilantes and caped crusaders were real? What would the world look like? How would that affect their psyche? What kind of person would put on a cape or a mask? What if they, like us, had their own agendas, their own foibles and fetishes, their own sins and virtues?

I'm hoping that the movie is at least a fraction as good as the comic book.

[Picture from the backlot of the film as it starts production.]

Posted by ironic1 at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My geeky crafty friend, Maria, sent this to me. The pattern is available for purchase on etsy.

Posted by ironic1 at 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Michael Fleming is in the midst of making a whimsical Star Wars ABC. He's gotten as far as R is for R5-D4 and he took a break for Halloween.

You can see his work so far on his site - Tweedlebop - or on his flickr site and see it as a slide show.

Posted by ironic1 at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This was made by some friends of Fuzzy and, just for the record, I've never done costumes. No comment on the body paint.

Posted by ironic1 at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've always been a math geek. I love helping my kids with their math and, in fact, lately I've been doing math for fun.

So I really appreciated this proof. I found it on msxnet.org.

Posted by ironic1 at 6:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Ever try to have a serious conversation with your dying father and he decides now would be a good time for a harmonica solo?

Man, Sith Lords just have no sense of dignity.

Thanks again to fanboy.com for this.

Posted by ironic1 at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, how about a government job? NASA is hiring 10 to 15 new astronauts. You may be required you to wear adult diapers, though.

I have to admit, since the Apollo missions when I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. And why not? Neil Armstrong, a boy from my own hometown, was the first man on the moon. If he could do it, why not me?

So, seeing this, I'm kinda wistful that my life has taken me in such a different direction. But I can't be sad. My life is good.

Houston Chronicle article

Thanks to fanyboy.com and Adam from perfectduluthday.com for pointing this out.

Posted by ironic1 at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just spent a few days taking in the finest of geek culture at the foremost gaming convention in the world, GenCon, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. It was interesting to me to note some of the trends in gaming culture, some of which surprised me.

Critical Hits

• Pirates were omnipresent. I'm not sure how many piratical games I saw but I counted at least 3 different Jack Sparrows wandering the halls.
• Lasses in Corsets were a hot comodity this GenCon. But then again, when aren't they?
• Goggles seemed to be the must have accessory for the manga wannabe crowd.
• Germany still rocks the gaming world as far as the best original board games. Tribune was the best of these I demoed this year.

Success

• Firefly paraphenalia was everywhere. Clearly you can't stop the signal.
• Stormtroopers and Jedi Knights walked the corridors as well as at least one Darth Maul, an Imperial Fighter Pilot, and an Arc Trooper. Star Wars, in spite of everything, still captures people's imagination.
• Blizzard just gets more and more popular it seems. Warcraft and Starcraft games and related material were all the rage.
• Tolkien is still the one writer to rule them all.

Critical Miss

• Star Trek was conspicuous in its absence. The franchise seems to have waned in the imagination of gamers. I saw a couple people dressed up as klingons, but very little else. There were a smattering of games and nothing new. I saw no t-shirts with Trek references.

Posted by ironic1 at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So on the 10 hour trip between Two Harbors and Joliet today we had the requisite "what's with that?" discussions in the car. Emma started randomly singing "That's Amore"...

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.

First of all, neither of us have ever been hit in the eye by either a naturally occuring satellite or a doughy comestible with cheese and tomato sauce.

Second of all, when we extrapolate what we know of pizza and the moon we doubt that the experience of being hit in the eye by said objects would be at all comparable. The first would be mildly inconvenient while the second would be undoubtedly fatal.

Third of all, whether pizza or moon, we can't figure out how being hit in the eye by either of them would be even roughly analogous to the state of being in love.

This whole conversation caused my daughter to sing:

When something from space hits you in the face, that's like love.

Continue reading "Yeah, Love's a lot like that" »

Posted by ironic1 at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Simon is away at camp this week and over the last two days I've received two calls asking if he can come on-line to play World of Warcraft. And I realized, no one ever knocks on our door and asks if Simon can come outside to play.

It's not that he never goes out to play, but it's always scheduled or people call. No one just shows up at the door and asks, "Can Simon come out and play?"

Is this the new norm?

Posted by ironic1 at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

After about 4 years of competitive play on-line I finally won the honor of being the top ranked player in Settlers of Catan on-line. This community of about 1000 players, at any given time, is very competitive and tough to crack and they have honed my skills at Catan greatly.

For those not familiar with this board game, in Settlers of Catan you start with two settlements, collect clay, ore, wheat, sheep, and lumber, and build roads, more settlements, and cities to achieve supremacy on the island of Catan.

A board game with experienced players can take an hour to an hour and a half to play. On-line a game takes about 10 to 20 minutes because the computer does all the dealing and figuring for you.

It is also a very social game, with the chat box, and I get to communicate with players from all over the world, particularly the US, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands. Those seem to be the big Catan playing countries.

Continue reading "All Hail the Lord of Catan!" »

Posted by ironic1 at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A couple years ago I was giving Simon some fatherly advice which started "If I were you..."

He listened patiently and informed me that I was incorrect because, "if you were me then you would think like I do and act like I do."

Can't argue with that logic.

Similarly I realized the other day that in any conditional (if A then B) if the antecedant (A) is false then the consequent (B) may or may not be true.

Therefore, when someone begins a sentence with the patently false antecedant "If I were you" you can pretty much ignore anything they say because there is no truth value to it.

Now there's logic you can use.

Posted by ironic1 at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with my kids this afternoon. It was a good film and a very decent adaptation of the book with several stand out performances and a jolly good fight scene to cap it off in the end.

That said something happens in the opening scene that could make my blood boil, or nearly so. The opening shot is of suburbia not too far from Number 4 Privet Lane and a voiceover of a British announcer with the weather, letting the audience know it's a hot hot summer with temperatures in the 90s and may even hit 100. Really? In Britain? 100 degrees is way past hot, it's boiling... literally. The British, as well as nearly the rest of the world, has been using Celsius for temperature readings for over 30 years. So why is this opening voiceover using Fahrenheit? It would be like Harry going into a shop and pulling dollar bills out of his pocket instead of pounds.

I expect the answer is that this is the U.S. version of the film and that people in the States are, apparently, too dumb to understand that the rest of the world uses Celsius, or at least the film industry thinks so. This kind of pandering is just infuriating to me. It perpetuates the idea that the world will conform to our point of view and simultaneously dumbs down the American audience by refusing to rock their boat.

Frankly, our boat needs rocking.

Okay, end rant.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

It's not often I get to indulge two geeky pleasures at once. I found this on the Monty Python Video Wall, a treasure in itself.

Posted by ironic1 at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Enterprise has survived the Borg, Cardassians, and Romulans, but will they survive the Blue Screen of Death?

Posted by ironic1 at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was watching a Doctor Who episode entitled Bad Wolf tonight and I loved this exchange:

Dalek: We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.

The Doctor: No.

Dalek: Explain yourself.

The Doctor: I said "No."

Dalek: What is the meaning of this negative?

The Doctor: It means "No."

Dalek: But she will be destroyed.

The Doctor: No, because this is what I'm going to do, I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky.

Dalek: But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan.

The Doctor: Yeah, and doesn't that scare you to death?

This is more than just bravado. This sums up for me the essential spirituality of Doctor Who - Resistance Is NOT Futile. In the face of false dichotomies and overwhelming odds there are always choices, and accepting the ones offered to you is often just plain stupid. Life is seldom "either or."

Further, the powers that be will always threaten to take away the things you love if you fail to obey. Don't believe them. They can't take what they can't comprehend.

Posted by ironic1 at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I got a Netflix account a few weeks ago and I've been using it to catch up on pop culture I've missed over the last few years. Presently I'm watching the first seasons of "Lost," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and the revamped "Doctor Who." I haven't really watched television in about 10 years, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

People I love keep talking about Buffy in rapturous tones and it was made by Joss Whedon of "Firefly" fame, so I needed to give that a shot. Yes, I know most people know him the other way around, but I always was contrary. Buffy is great so far. Smart writing and fun characters. I'm loving it.

"Lost" was also a show that seems to be widely loved by people, so I'm trying that out. So far it feels like "Northern Exposure" meets "The Prisoner" and I'm liking it all right. There are some very smartly written characters.

My kids and I are especially enjoying "Doctor Who" which they have never seen before in any incarnation, but it has become part of their lore about their mother and me and our college friends.

"So you guys used to stay up until midnight on Sundays to watch this?"

"Yep, on WTTW. Though it wasn't as cool as this. The effects were bad. The writing was often ludicrous. And the sets looked like they were about to fall down. We loved every minute of it. And we'd get liter pops from Brad's Bagels and sometimes a Warm 'n' Sticky."

"A 'Warm 'n' Sticky?'"

"Yep, that's a cream cheese brownie with ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. That makes just about anything bearable."

Ah yes, those were the days.

So, that's what's on my summer pop culture watch list. What are you watching?

Posted by ironic1 at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Since the site is in Russian I'm not sure on the details of the exhibit, but the pictures speak for themselves.

Posted by ironic1 at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Little Golden Book about ZOGG is a parody of an insipid children's book about God that I actually remember from my childhood.

As I remember it, it was pretty creepy then. The rewrite is even creepier.

Prepare yourself for the "powder scented Final Solution of our enemies from beyond..."

Posted by ironic1 at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This video is very helpful in visualizing dimensions from 1 to 10. This is from the website tenthdimension.com which has more related material. Part Two is below.

Continue reading "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" »

Posted by ironic1 at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by ironic1 at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Much has come to light since the incident at Yavin 4. The Empire blames a poorly equipped and badly organized band of rebels. The uncomfortable question is: Can we believe what the official news agency tells us? Could such a small force really perpetrate an attack with such lethal force? Or is there an alternate explanation?

Uncomfortable Questions: An Analysis of the Death Star Attack delves into these issues. Is it treasonous to want to know the truth?

Thanks again to BadCat! for pointing out this to me.

Continue reading "Death Star Conspiracy - Uncomfortable Questions" »

Posted by ironic1 at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Math is everywhere.

An excerpt from π.

Posted by ironic1 at 1:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I may not have a jetpack but, by golly, I have a robot.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Klingon Proverb
(It loses a little something in the translation.)

Back in the mid-nineties I was very involved in on-line interactive fiction on newsgroups. One of these was a Star Trek based universe where we created characters, ships, worlds, and stories whole-cloth from our imaginations.

One of the things I loved about this group was their sense of humor. This fabricated proverb was offered up in a story thread by Celia Fox, a very talented writer.

I love this line because it is absurd and it points to the truth of trying to translate anything from one culture to another... something is lost in translation.

At any rate this struck me so much that I had a banner made up to put in the hospital room for Charlotte to look at when Simon was being born. In my haste I left it at home, of course, but it was oft repeated as we waited for Simon's arrival, let me tell you.

Q'apla!

40 for 40, #21

Posted by ironic1 at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Say it isn't so, Chewie!

Chewbacca was arrested this weekend in Los Angeles for headbutting Brian Sapir, a tour guide, after Sapir tried to get him to stop harrassing Japanese tourists. The enraged wookiee was heard to exclaim, "Nobody tells this wookiee what to do!"

Superman, nearby, witnessed the whole exchange, and used his superpowers to call the Jimmy Kimmel Show so they could get footage of it.

Captain Jack Sparrow was not surprised by the wookiee's behavior. "Things like this happen around Chewbacca all the time. I saw him in a fight with a music vendor. They knocked over a baby stroller," Sparrow said.

Posted by ironic1 at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "Someone set up us the bomb!" »

Posted by ironic1 at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I love the geeky cool people of Duluth, Minnesota. Debbie hand knit this wonder and a cream pie as well. She said on her blog that she was also working on a brain, a Ferrari, and the digestive system, but I didn't see photos of them. Debbie, I salute you.

Posted by ironic1 at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pass the Stuffing
by Grant Baciocco & Doug Price

The turkey is done; the potatoes are mashed,
but you're not here so my holiday's thrashed.
The candied yams, well, they're ready to eat
but the marshmallows on top of them, well, they just aren't as sweet.
Since you walked out of the door
I just don't feel like giving thanks no more.

So thanks for nothing.
Please pass the stuffing.

The TV is on in the living room.
A broken heart would be my parade balloon.
And all I want to do is just sit here and cry
and watch my tears fall down into my pumpkin pie.
My cranberry sauce heart has lost its canned shape.
Dumped on thanksgiving, well, that's something I just can't take.

So thanks for nothing.
Please pass the stuffing.

Thanksgiving holiday comes every year
but you aren't ever coming back, so to you, my dear, I say:

Thanks for nothing.
Please pass the stuffing. (repeat and fade)

Continue reading "My New Most Favoritest Thanksgiving Song Ever" »

Posted by ironic1 at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Every so often one writes a script that you know you will want to share with your great grand children some day. Something that will stand the test of time. Something that, when you finish it, you feel as if you actually transcended your own ability as an artist and have gone to another plane, another level.

This is not one of those scripts.

My prompts for today's script were:

Who: Victoria’s Secret Salesperson
What: A Dripping Faucet
Where: A Glass House
Opening Line: “Watch out!”

and I was writing for two women.

So naturally I wrote a script about World of Warcraft.

Part of this script was inspired by a game my daughter and I do in which we take a sentence or phrase and repeat it over and over with as many different interpretations as possible.

Continue reading "Again" »

Posted by ironic1 at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm writing for Out of the Hat again, which is a 24 hour project where the writers draw out of a hat (literally) a who, what, where, and, this time around, an opening line and have to write an approximately 10 minute script overnight. My prompts for today's script?

Who: Oprah
What: Gummi Bears
Where: Elmo’s World
Opening Line: “Oh… I see.”

Oddly, three of these prompts were placed in the hats by my daughter. What are the odds?

So, lucky you, you can read my play before it's performed tonight. I remind gentle readers that all writings on this site are under a Creative Commons License.

Continue reading "Signs of Intelligent Life" »

Posted by ironic1 at 5:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've posted this before, but I thought it was worth revisiting since this is Powers of Ten Day.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 19 be International Talk Like a Pirate Day and here be an instructional video fer ye land lubbers who don't be knowing how ta talk like a pirate. Yarrrrr!

Posted by ironic1 at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I remember seeing this short film, Powers of Ten, as a child in a science museum and it profoundly changed the way I looked at the world around me. It is such a simple premise and it speaks deeply to both my scientific and spiritual understanding of the universe. The film's website has some interesting commentary and additional resources.

Posted by ironic1 at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Generals John Abizaid and Peter Pace delivered a sobbering report to the Senate on the state of affairs in Iraq. (Can we call it a quagmire yet?) They described increased sectarian violence and said that not only could we not withdraw troops, we may need to increase them and redeploy those that we have there to supress those wiley insurgents in a military strategey that Senator John McCain called "Whac-a-Mole."

In other news, the Bush administration has declared war on Space Invaders warning against marauding Asteroids and has alerted the Missile Command to prepare the Battlezone. Critics call this nothing but "a Tempest in a Tea Cup" and that the administration has finally gone Berzerk. Bush, however, claims to have special intelligence from his head Spy Hunter and the Vanguard of the Moon Patrol living high above the earth in their Star Castle.

On another note, awash in funding scandals, the Republican National Committee has decided to hire Pac-Man as their new PAC... person.

Posted by ironic1 at 5:11 PM