15th February 2010

Song for the jilted

I am starting to have the sneaking suspicion that we have been sold a lemon.

Here are the current most popular videos on YouTube:

  • CRASH LUGE ACCIDENT KILLS OLYMPIC STAR
  • COX BLOCKED
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Episode 62 [1/2]
  • The Haul of Plenty
  • LUGE ACCIDENT KILLS OLYMPIC STAR
  • How-To: Kim K Double-Winged Liner
  • Spy & Pyro
  • Woman’s Last Stand: Dodge Charger Commercial Spoof
  • Women have their say about that Superbowl Dodge Charger ad.
  • 139,820 views
  • Most Exciting Job EVER!
  • Pee-wee Gets An iPad!
  • Valentine - Kina Grannis (Official Music Video)
  • Morning Joe Interview on Courting Disaster 2/12/10 Part 2
  • SHOUT OUT SUNDAY #10
  • OUR LOVE STORY!
  • Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas sing “Make a Wave” live in Epcot at Walt Disney World
  • ESPN Boston: Rondo on HORSE competition
  • Modern Warfare 2: The Ken Burton Show Part 43 - Dodge Ball (MW2 Gameplay/Commentary) [HD]
  • 2010 NBA Sprite Slam Dunk Contest (Part 1 Round 1)
  • CRAZY CHIC FIGHT!!! (Vlog #72)

Better step it up, Internet. Your vaunted utility is on shaky foundations with only Wikipedia to buttress it.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes | 0 Comments

29th March 2009

Burp

When I fold my t-shirts, I hold them by the corners of the shoulders and make a snap-and-fold motion, folding them lengthwise in a single movement. I do this with the ease of long practice, even though I have never consciously noted this action before.

This is the sort of nonsense that would end up on my Twitter feed, if I had one. You guys should feel lucky I don’t.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Bloorging under the influence, We're Doomed! | 4 Comments

14th November 2008

The blog, and its ends

Some of you may be wondering, “Why does saurabh maintain a blog and never write on it?” And the answers to that, which, in fact, do exist, are manifold, and could be readily presented. To whit, as it were, ter woo, the provision of, at the very least, the escape tunnel, the emergency exit, the pressure release gasket, ejection seat lever or Monopoly Get Out of Jail Free card. Any time I wish, I may express my opinion herein, and there it is, expressed! Which cannot be undone, just like spilling milk into the carpet: that milk is in there, buddy, and you better just throw out the carpet. You might be able to cover it up with odor eaters, but you’ll know, lying in your bed late at night, that particles of milk still lie hiding beneath the curled nylon fibers and layers of dog hair down there in your living room. Similarly this blog, taking “the carpet” to mean the incorporeal ether, the fabric of society, the zeitgeist. At any moment, any insight of mine can be put “out there”, from the very mundane to the utterly trivial. That satisfaction is enough justification to maintain any blog. Blog about the weather. Blog about my pants. Blog about why Adrian Brody’s nose just isn’t straight, goddamnit.

All of which might be as much as to say, as you are likely doing right now, “Well, you obviously haven’t got anything worth saying anyway.” But that’s neither here, nor is it there. That simple fact has not prevented a long parade of insufferable dullards from foisting their worm-eaten wit on an aghast humanity, and never let it be said that I am too proud to aspire to the company of dullards. I insist on my impressing my logorrhea on an unwilling audience.

Some corners of the incorporeal ether have, in recent days, heard speculation that the “blogosphere” is at an end, made morsel of by the Gargantua of our time, the “M-S-M”. To those mongers of rumor I say, toddle pit, and other such nonsensical utterings, since really that’s the only response that sort of ridiculous prattle deserves. Can we imagine an end to the human desire to vent, to carp, to blow hard? Will there ever be a day when our mothers would not call up our best friend Kenny’s mothers, who they are also friends with, and tell them about what they overheard about the president of the local Lions Club while standing in line at the bank? Heck, no! And so long as this fundamental desire, as basic as our need to sleep and fuck, exists, why, now that we’ve got the bits in our teeth, we’ll shake the reins and let our words stream out across the wind. I proudly declaim the motto of the blogger: “I have nothing to say, and you’re going to have to hear it!”

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Bloorg, Zeitgeist | 3 Comments

7th July 2008

Stop, collaborate and listen

My brother-in-law suggested that interactively produced fiction (i.e., à la Wikipedia) might be interesting and even productive. It seemed to me that such a thing must surely exist already, and of course it does. Wikia.com hosts “Novelas“, a collection of collaboratively-edited stories. It also exposes the principle flaw in this type of endeavor, which is that it appears to be an efficient net for aggregating dross. The main categories of fiction there are “fantasy” and “science fiction”, two genres which have only rarely in their history managed to ascend to any level of respectability. If that’s not alarming enough, the actual text is even worse. Some of the prose is so purple it’s amazing it doesn’t fall off and die, and there’s a good deal of inventive structure that collapses because there’s nothing supporting it. E.g.:

Master Fung: Dear Mastah Fung, hoo are yah, anyways, let me cut tae the chase. If it’s awrite wae yoo, I’d like to come to visit fer a week. Please reply if you hink ah should, your best student. Scottie McCrimson.

Kimiko: Scottie McCrimson? Would he by any chance be Scottish?

Or try this truly astonishing first paragraph:

It is rather strange how the Alkali Metals react to water, if one small chunk of Cesium falls into water, then the entire city can blow up. So imagine what could happen if Francium, an element much larger and more powerful then Cesium falls into water, let’s just say, good by to the state. However, Francium is radioactive, that is to say, it breaks down into smaller, less harmful elements. But what would happen if there was a way for Francium to stop its decay? What would happen if Francium, was evil, will the Alkali Metals destroy the world?

Most of this disaster is forgivable, since it probably originated as scribblings on napkins in high school cafeterias. But I, always on the lookout for ways to dismay myself, must take a tragic lesson from this, which is that there is an unfortunate lack of correspondence between perceived ability and actual skill. Self-criticism is a conundrum for any creative individual. Art must be communicated; private meaning is fine and even valuable, but our lives are brief, and our mental space is narrow. If creation is more than an exercise in self-correction, it’s the judgement of others that becomes the primary determinant of its worth. Thus, I should know whether I’m making something others might see as beautiful or ugly, a difficult task when I am unable to appreciate the work divorced from the scaffolding that I used to assemble it. Probably this is why, my friend Claudio would say, we believe the Creator wants us to worship him - surely even he is insecure about his creation without critical acclaim.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Writing | 2 Comments

21st March 2008

Things I hate about the Internet

1. Spam.

2. Logging in to random websites to post comments.

There is no reason why I should have to register on your dickhead blog or news site if I want to make a casual remark. Other than to allow you to sell my email address to spammers.

3. ‘Social networking’ sites.

Probably this is because I don’t have any friends. Nevertheless it strikes me as criminal to call the sort of activity that occurs on such websites as ’social’.

4. Attention span.

The fundamental unit of entertainment has been broken down further by the advent of the video clip, now averaging less than ten minutes. (Adult Swim demonstrates that this breakdown is creeping back into other media). The half-life of memory is now probably less than a week.

5. Invisibility.

In the internet, our solopsistic nightmare grows deeper and more pervasive. Here you can be anyone, and so you are no one. Are you shouting into the void? Into a hollow bag? Into a packed amphitheater, or an empty box canyon? Does your voice have reach, and influence? Does it move anyone or anything? Are you whispering in your own ear? Who knows? But watch that hit counter go up!

6. Pretension.

On the heels of the former comes the latter - I might be anyone, and therefore I am Siegfried and Enoch and Nestor in one body. And we, collectively, are an invincible army - our words and deeds will change the fabric of history, both past and present.

7. Isolation.

It’s actually just me and my keyboard alone, here, and this unseeing eye that glares back at me.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes | 6 Comments

19th March 2008

Miles to go before I sleep

We are (as of this posting) apparently still only the #5 google hit for “dinosaurs with lasers“. There is much to do.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Bloorg | 1 Comment

20th September 2007

North Atlantic current

Doomu went to the trouble of translating a “message in a bottle” from Le Monolecte, in La France, to the people of Iran, expressing the sentiment that we are not our governments, that “these conflicts they are trying to seed in our minds are not our conflicts.” The least I can do, I think, is help it along on its way. Possibly this is the wrong direction to reach Iran from France, but long journeys are strange ones.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Good People, Magic | 3 Comments

28th June 2007

Our second YouTube post!

I’m stealing this from Bob Harris, because it is awesome and makes my soul sing. The female newscaster (the hero of this piece) is Mika Brzezinski, daughter of Zbig. The cocksucker next to her is Joe Scarborough, MSNBC’s conservative commentator and former House Representative.

My god, there really are human beings out there. Fuckin’ A.

All the comments on the subject you could ever want.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Good People | 2 Comments

28th April 2007

Return of the poll!

Due to popular demand, the poll is back. A probatory poll is to the left. If it proves stable, we’ll replace it with something more robust and full-bodied.

posted by saurabh in A Series of Tubes, Bloorg | 5 Comments

24th April 2007

Cubans can be coffins

Strange. I was reading about the Venezuelan terrorist just freed on bail when I saw this Google Ad at the bottom of the screen that said something like “Coffins for everyone!” I had to click. It was for these mass-casualty coffins, easily folded and stacked and then assembled and stacked again. Clever! Too bad they are 100% tropical hardwood. Boo hiss. What’s wrong with a pine box?

But on the topic of the terrorist, it’s sad to see liberals agitating against Posada’s bail. I agree he should face murder and terror charges at least, if not extradition to Cuba or Venezuela. But bail is ok. I don’t support the hypocrisy of letting a CIA asset right-wing nutjob off the hook for terrorism. But I do support bail for all, even those facing terror charges. Prisons suck.

posted by hedgehog in A Series of Tubes, Ecofascism, Global Machinations, Government, Stackable Coffins | 3 Comments

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