Remember when they used to have the SuperFriends and the Justice League of America? And there were all your favorite superheroes in one place and it was awesome?
Turns out there are real-life SuperFriends. They become such because they know I'm obsessed with them.
Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis with Jake Gyllenhaal
Explaining the fact that I am colorblind is usually annoying. Therefore, here is a brief tutorial on what it means to be colorblind. Hopefully, you’ll understand that colorblind people don’t see in black and white. Very few people actually do.
This is a good site about colorblindness. It says, “Color blindness (color vision deficiency) is a condition in which certain colors cannot be distinguished, and is most commonly due to an inherited condition. Red/Green color blindness is by far the most common form, about 99%, and causes problems in distinguishing reds and greens. Another color deficiency Blue/Yellow also exists, but is rare and there is no commonly available test for it.”
What do you see here?
Apparently, there’s a 45 in the circle. I, however, see nothing but spots.
What about here?
See a six and an eight? Again — all I’ve got is spots.
“There is no treatment for color blindness, nor is it usually the cause of any significant disability. However, it can be very frustrating for individuals affected by it. Those who are not color blind seem to have the misconception that color blindness means that a color blind person sees only in black and white or shades of gray. While this sort of condition is possible, it is extremely rare. Depending on just which figures you believe, color blindness seems to occur in about 8% - 12% of males of European origin and about one-half of 1% of females.”
My brother is colorblind too. So was my mom’s dad. It’s usually inherited from the mother, who’s a carrier of the colorblind gene. So if you’re a colorblind male, any grandsons you have from a daughter run the risk of colorblindness.
Go here to do a little colorblindness test.
I got the new album by Bloc Party on Sunday, rather than getting the Stars album. It was a surprising decision.
I walked into Tower intending to purchase the Stars album, but got distracted on the way by the listening stations. There's always the one good listening station — the “developing artists” one — where they have all the cheap indie releases that are all ten bucks or less.
I had heard of Bloc Party and gave them a whirl. They got off to just the right start because I was in a slightly aggressive mood and the first track begins with quiet rumbling guitars and bass before the drummer comes in and beats the shit out of his kit. Then the singer has a kind of urgent-sounding yelp that is unique because it's emotional without being whiny. And then the second track has these jagged guitars with the same propulsive drumming (if I were a hip kid I'd call them “angular”).
And so I made the decision to buy the album on the spot, which is highly uncharacteristic of me. I normally have a deliberation period before buying an album at full price (even though it was 10 bucks).
Then I picked up the Stars album and it was 16 or 17 bucks and I was all “fuck that shit.”
True story.
But I listened to the album a few times and it didn't really register. It's only in the past few days that I've really started to dig it. Besides the first two tracks, there's this song called “The Pioneers” that is kind of wrenching (in a good way) melodically. And lyrically too, I guess. There's also “Positive Tension” that builds to a pretty cool climax.
The band is really British. The singer is really charismatic and his accent is definitely not lost in his singing — which I like.
I don't really have anything else to say about them. They're kind of Franz Ferdinand-y with a bit of U2 thrown in.
Today I took a field trip with a co-worker to Capitol Hill. Ben and Jerry's was sponsoring a protest of the drilling in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) by making a 1,140 pound, four foot wide baked Alaska. It was made from 3,600 four ounce scoops of Ben and Jerry's Fossil Fuel ice cream (a chocolate cookie/chocolate chip affair), 90 pounds of cake and 150 pounds of marshmallow “creme”.
I took pictures with the digital camera from work. It looked like this.
There were a ton of media people there, so maybe I'll be in the background of some photo somewhere.
1. He's engaged.
2. He's Mormon.
My brother, me and my cousin Morgan — circa 1986.
As Belle noted, look how tan we are! It’s freakish!
1. What breed is your pet? If it's a mix, what's your best guess as to the mix?
I think that my hamster's lineage is probably one half brother and one half sister. That equals all sorts of ornery inbred fun!
2. What is your pet's given name? What nicknames do you have for your pet?
My pet's given name is Pedro. His nickname is Pedro. Occasionally I will call him “You fucker! Stop biting me! He broke the skin!”
I previously had Nigel Kate, Titus (Mama Titus to some) and her four babies Tybalt, Fool, Banquo's Ghost and Ophelia.
3. What's your pet's motto or philosophy on life?
“Keeping biting on the bars or your teeth will grow too big for your head.”
4. What's your pet's favorite toy? Favorite game?
“Run around in the ball until you get caught on furniture or an indentation in the carpet. Have Dan remove you from your trap and then immediately run back into it.”
5. If your pet could eat anything it wanted, what do you think it would be? What's the strangest thing you've ever caught your pet eating?
I would imagine most anything with moisture, given that his food is primarily the dehydrated craziness. I have given him chicken before and he immediately stuffed it all into his cheek pouches. Very exciting for him.
6. What's the quirkiest habit your pet has? List more than one if you like!
Mainly the bar-chewing. He has two getaways in his cage. One is a little pod that is attached to the cage by one of those hamster tubes and the other is basically just in alcove in the cage (called the “Petting zone” for those of you familiar with the hamster community). He takes all of his food and hordes it in the pod. He defecates in the alcove.
7. What's the funniest thing your pet's ever done that you wish you had caught on video? For example, a friend of Krista's once told her about her Jack Russell accidentally doing a back flip into a plate of fettuccini!
Krista needs to be more careful with both her dog and her fettuccini. Seriously, that is disgusting.
8. What famous person, living or dead, does your pet most resemble physically? What about personality-wise? Feel free to elaborate.
Ulysses S. Grant? I don't know. They're both furry.
9. Can your pet do any unusual tricks?
If you consider biting everything unusual, then yes.
10. If your pet went to college, what would he/she major in? Feel free to make up a major if you like!
If my hamster went to college, he would major in being angry and inbred with a minor in Russian literature.
I was in the car with Ben and Abby when we heard what is probably Frank Sinatra's worst song. It's called “I won't dance.” You can read the lyrics here. http://www.elyrics4u.com/i/i_won_t_dance_frank_sinatra.htm
When it's delivered in his smug croon, you can imagine the single's b-sides were called “Have You Gained Weight?” and “Is That What You're Wearing?”
