And I thought I was busy...

The Angel of Death must've accrued serious OT over the last week. Here are just some of the big ones:

Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's sidekick and hander-outer of the Publisher's Clearinghouse check for umpteen years;

Farrah Fawcett, the iconic model/actress of the 70's and beyond;

Michael Jackson. If you need any sort of description at all of this man, you have been in a cave for the last forty-five years. His album, Thriller, is still the best selling of all time;

Gale Storm, who has THREE stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--one each for recording, radio, and television;

Billy Mays, one of the best-known Home Shopping Network Pitchmen of all time. (My father even liked him, for crying out loud--said he 'trusted him'. If you knew my father, this news would make your jaw collect the dust up from the ground at your feet);

Fred Travalena, famous comic/impressionist. He used to do all the presidents from JFK to W in one part of his routine;

Tomoji Tanabe, the oldest man in the world. Passing away at 113 years of age, Tanabe didn't smoke or drink, and is survived by more than 80 offspring;

and finally:

roughly 2,000 Nebraska cattle.

Rest in Peace, all.

Clip of the Week...

For all you who said President Obama wouldn't hurt a fly (all right, that's an obvious joke, and I'm sure you've seen this by now, but I just love it):

Clip of the week...

From Cirque du Soleil's "Midnight Sun":



Not only is this one of my favorite jams all time in the music department, the performer is just incredible--and he looks like he is having SO MUCH FUN!

Clip of the week...

The people at Microsoft, in their continuing effort to take over the world, have started their own search engine, Bing.com. Their ad campaign speaks volumes about our society (and, ironically, their own effort to create even more information overload). Here is a medley of their first three ads--the last one (starting at 0:48)is the best, in my opinion:



My friend Skate wrote about this phenomenon almost a year ago. In her blog entry "Wait, I'll Just Look That Up", she talked about how it feels to go crazy. And/or become totally dependent on ADD-style information referencing. You should read it.

Yesterday's 'moment in history'...

So, I logged on to Google yesterday--they often have some sort of artistic treatment of their logo as a nod to something significant that day. Here is the splash page from Saturday, June 6th, 2009:



It was apparently the 25th anniversary of Tetris yesterday. Now, I am a big fan of that game (if you don't believe me, you must not have read the blog entry I wrote about my addiction to the little blocks). But June 6th also happened to be the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy to save the Europeans from the Nazis. (Still waiting on that 'thank you' note, France.)

Of the two, I would have thought that the latter would have gotten the nod. But I guess it says something about our society that a video game was considered more significant than the liberation of Europe. Or maybe that the number 25 is more important than 65, in terms of anniversaries ("Silver" versus "ten more years until diamond"). Or maybe a Tetris version of the Google logo is just more visually interesting than a Normandy version. Whatever the reasoning, I thought it a little weird. Ah, America.

This might be too obscure...

...in a Dennis Miller, overly-cerebral sort of way. This is a classic case of "if I have to explain it, it will take too long and it won't be funny any more." But here is the thing that cracked me up this morning:

Clip of the week...

Twenty years ago? It seems like only yesterday:



A not-too-badly-done video here was made in 2007 as a memorial. It includes this text:

Though all records differ in their statistics, an estimated 5,000 people died. Thousands more were injured. The topic is still a political taboo in mainland China. Any public discussion of it is regarded as inappropriate. As a result of the strong Chinese government censorship, the news media is forbidden to report anything related to the subject unless it takes the Communist Party of China's view. This part of history has disappeared in most Chinese media.

There is a special on PBS called "The Tank Man" that is all about the continuing fallout of this event. If you click here (and I highly recommend you do), you can watch the entire thing online. It is essentially a program about how information is controlled in China, even to this day. It includes some footage of college students being shown photos of Tiananmen who, when asked what they think the photos represent, answered, 'I dunno...a parade?'

Hard to believe that, even now, a Google image search on the US page yields this:



While the Chinese Google image search produces this:



I wish I had a solution for Times Like These.

Time to Character Up...

By Rudyard Kipling:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

By Anonymous:

IF - you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
IF - you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
IF - you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
IF - you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
IF - you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
IF - you can overlook it when people take things out on you,
IF - when, through no fault of your own, something goes wrong,
IF - you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
IF - you can face the world without lies and deceit,
IF - you can conquer tension without medical help,
IF - you can relax without liquor,
IF - you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

THEN, you are almost as good as your dog or your cat.

Good words.