Tag: Burst of Weirdness

Not a whole lot this week, but here’s some stuff:

:: Something I never thought about: Pac-man’s need, given all that dot-consumption, to void his bowels.

:: Why I Avoid Objectivists If At All Possible, entry #47382: I wandered onto the FilmScoreMonthly message boards, as I do once a while, just to see if there’s any nifty film music news in the offing, and against my better judgment, I checked a thread devoted to the question of who might score the upcoming movie of Atlas Shrugged. Sure enough, the incredibly creepy fellow (initials ‘DH’) with whom I used to cross swords when I used to post there, is holding forth in grand fashion. He’s apparently planning to tell John Williams personally that he hates his approach to film scoring (an act which, given Williams’s years of success and reported high level of graciousness as a person, will likely be forgotten by Williams within minutes of its occurrence), and some, well, self-massage of the ego. A representative quote:

Objectivism inevitably separates the men from the boys, so to speak. I’d rather just speed up the process. Fact is, my no-nonsense–yet completely fair–attitude, along with the wisdom I’m able to wield, will draw most people [i.e., honest people] to Objectivism all the more. To those it repels, I say this: leave that copy of Atlas Shrugged on the shelf; somebody else deserves it, and you don’t.

That’s what talking to Objectivists tends to be like, in my experience, folks.

:: China’s reputation, as far as respecting intellectual property, isn’t very good. Here’s the latest example of it. Wow. (Via Warren Ellis.)

Share This Post

Weirdness abounds….

:: Remember that Stuff White People Like website? And remember how lots of us found the concept goofy (but still good for a quiz-thing)? Well, the joke’s on us, because that guy’s got himself a book deal.

You know, you’d think there would be a market out there for a book of George Lucas hero-worship. I’m just sayin’, folks.

:: On a related note, we have Stuff Nobody Likes. Where’s this guy’s book deal? Huh? Huh?!

:: Via Warren Ellis, we have Russian skydiving. This cracked me up.

:: You may remember that the Soviet Union was crafting its own space shuttle during the 1980s, with said program being scuttled when the USSR collapsed; the Russian space program since has continued to rely on capsule-like craft. But if you’ve ever wondered what became of the prototype orbiters the Soviets built, Jason’s got the goods, along with a terrific photograph. Check it out.

Yup, I love me some weird stuff. Thank God we’ve got Teh Interweb!

Share This Post

Here we go:

:: From the “Our school principal may be a moron, but he’s our moron!” file, we have the tale of the eight-year-old kid who was suspended for three days from school (later reduced to one day) for the transgression of sniffing a Sharpie marker. Despite a toxicologist’s testimony that one cannot get high from a Sharpie marker, this Bold Administrator of Staggering Backbone is sticking to his guns, and is banning permanent markers from school. Thank God this fellow is seeing to the needs of the children!

(via)

:: It appears that the world record for underwater ironing has been broken. I’ve been wondering when that record was going to fall. All that’s left is DiMaggio’s streak, and all the records of old will be gone!

:: Hockey playoffs without the Buffalo Sabres. That’s pretty friggin’ weird, I must say. Harumph.

:: Found yesterday at The Store, in our Bulk section: Gummi Army Guys. I can’t tell you how much I think this rules.

All for this week. More next week!

Share This Post

I didn’t see a whole lot of outright weirdness this week, but there were some choice bits….

:: Jason has a fun post that culminates in a lo-tech version of the lightcycle sequence from TRON. Do check it out. (I’ve always considered it a badge of geek pride that I loved TRON right from its initial theatrical release, when I saw it twice.)

:: Oh, those crazy kids and their keggers…with kegs of root beer. (I once got carded when I bought a six-pack of IBC root beer. That cashier, at the grocery store in my college town, was legendary for being dumb; everybody I told this story to responded “Oh, that was Brandi, right?” Wow.)

:: Not the standard kind of weirdness for this series, but it’s definitely weird in the “out of the ordinary” sense: All four Number One seeds in the NCAA tournament have made the Final Four, which has never happened before. Once again I find myself wishing I liked watching basketball (it tends to bore me to tears), because the NCAA Tourney yields more great sports stories each year than any other major sporting event. (Of course, in the “great stories” department it pales next to the Olympics, but those aren’t annual events.)

Share This Post

Aieee! Somehow I got the idea that I’d done the Burst this week, but then I looked and saw that I hadn’t. And somehow I managed to miss the thundering outcry that resulted from my omission of this feature, so eagerly is it awaited throughout Blogistan.

Ahem.

Anyway:

:: A friend of mine sent me this video, which is the type of thing you often see on Funniest Home Video shows: it’s a reporter who gets knocked off his feet by a marauding snow-tube. But it’s one of the more impressive feats of knocking a reporter off his feet that you’re likely to see.

:: Scotty e-mailed me this article about how, um, thin-skinned Apple fans tend to be (hot on the heels of last week’s adventures in Apple satire).

“Last year,” Mr. Manjoo writes, “I praised the iPhone in something of the way Romeo once praised Juliet: The device, I said, is revolutionary — ‘it marks a new way of life. One day we’ll all have iPhones, or things that aim to do what this first one does, and your life will be better for it.’ ”

But because he mentioned that the phone was a bit pricey, “several readers alleged that I was an Apple-hater.” One wrote him to ask, “Does Salon actually pay you or are you being paid under the table by rival companies?”

Anybody who has ever written about Apple products will tell the same story — introducing even a hint of negativity into a review or article will bring down the wrath of Apple’s most fanatical fans.

Hmmmm…fans reacting harshly to the slightest criticism? Fans demanding unflagging admiration for their pet love? Are we talking about Apple fans here, or…New England Patriots fans! Har har har!

(No one is allowed to point out my tendency to fly off the handle at people who say anything mean about George Lucas.)

:: Had this been around twenty years ago, surely New Coke would not have failed. (Embedded sound at the site; be warned.)

OK. Next week I’ll try to have the Burst of Weirdness up on Sunday.

Share This Post

Here’s some odd stuff:

:: John Scalzi cites the worst invention of all time. Sure, but if you consider making something similar for small children….

:: I just figured out a big reason why I don’t watch LOST: it lacks a funky theme song. Oy!

:: Rejected Star Wars tie-in merchandise. Yes, some of it’s incredibly goofy, but damned if I don’t find myself really wanting that Cloud City desk lamp! (Incidentally, the Star Wars ramp-up of the late 1990s, especially the release in 1997 of the Special Editions, coincided in part with my tenure with Pizza Hut, then a PepsiCo franchise. When the SEs came out, our big tie-in thingie was…posters for the movies. Yup: buy a Kid’s Meal, get a poster. That was pretty lame, I have to admit. But then, Pizza Hut is pretty lame. I’m glad I’ve held on at The Store for more than four years now, because I’ve hated the fact that Pizza Hut is the place where I’ve worked the longest.)

:: Line Rider. First noted via Shamus. Wow, what a time-waster. I love it.

Share This Post

Time to get weird!

:: Down with “Danny Boy”! You know, I’ve yet to hear a vocal version of “Danny Boy” that I like. But Percy Grainger’s setting of the tune is wonderful. I’ve heard that setting for strings, wind ensemble, and, most hauntingly, wordless chorus. It’s one of the most beautiful melodies ever created in Western music, but the words? I can leave ’em, I suppose. (via)

:: Did you ever try to buy beer in Pennsylvania? If so, and if you might have cause to do so again, breathe a sigh of possible relief.

:: Well, it looks as if I’m not the only overalls-clad hippie around. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Time to cut the hair and start wearing Dockers.

(Kidding, of course.)

Share This Post

Here we go….

:: I don’t know what it is about cars versus being on foot, but I can totally see myself hiking this trail, whereas you couldn’t pay me enough to drive this road. (First link via Lynn. Oddly, these pages are hosted at a site for a dance studio in Texas!)

:: Need a protocol droid, but all you have is paper? No problem! (via)

:: Save the abandoned shopping carts. This hits me close to home, I must admit! Once in a while, a person will come into The Store with their own cart, rather than using one of ours; and occasionally it will be a cart from a store that has long since gone the way of the retail dodo-bird. That’s always interesting, and possibly a little sad. (via)

Keep the weirdness coming, folks!

Share This Post

Not a whole lot of weirdness on display this week, and I may even have linked this before, but here are the opening crawls to all six Star Wars movies, superimposed on top of one another. Why? I have no idea.

And here’s the opening crawl to A New Hope, read “dramatically”:

Funny thing is, I could swear that years ago I saw a brief animation online that pondered what becomes of the opening crawl, and shows these big yellow letters crashing down onto the surface of some planet. I’ve not been able to find that anywhere, though, so I’m wondering if I imagined it.

Share This Post