Tag: videos

Crankypantsing

Not Cool Enough

Shelly

This was posted to BoingBoing Gadgets. I ended up with the very same computer, for exactly the same reasons. There’s the expected Windows-bashing in the comments thread over there, with the same asinine arguments:

  • Windows is too expensive (From people who think you should pay $2000 for a Mac vs. $700 for a PC.)
  • Your PC will be full of viruses in no time (Um, no, some Windows users are actually smart enough to operate anti-virus software.)
  • Macs are great for non-tech savvy people. No, wait, only non-tech savvy fools use Windows. M’kaythen!
  • Use Linux! (As if the OS–the cheapest part of the equation–were the sole reason for buying a PC, and besides, Windows Vista Home Premium only costs me $20 through my job. Twenty dollars vs. a free OS that none of my programs will work with? No, thanks.)
  • And how on earth has a company that sells just a handful of flavors of computer become the icon of hip, cool, diversity, when PCs come in a million different sizes, shapes, and prices?
Music

Sunday Sad Song

Shelly

I’ve been transcribing more letters, and listening to The Decemberists while I work. Again. This is from their new album, The Hazards of Love (the whole thing is available on YouTube). The last song is so haunting that it got stuck in one of my dreams last night.

The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) by The Decemberists

WILLIAM:
Margaret, array the rocks around the hole before we’re sinking
A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking
And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes
So filled with crying
A whisper-weight upon the tattered down where you and I
Were lying.
So tell me now, O tell me this: a river’s son, a forest’s daughter
A willow wand, a will-o-wisp, our ghosts will wander all of the water

W & M:
So let’s be married here today, these rushing waves to bear our witness
And we will lie like river stones, rolling only where it takes us
But I pulled you and I called you here
(Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I)
And I caught you and I brought you here
(Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I)
But these hazards of love
Never more will trouble us

WILLIAM:
O Margaret the lapping waves are licking quietly at our ankles
Another bow, another breath; this brilliant chill has come to shackle

W & M:
But with this long, last rush of air let’s speak our vows in starry whisper
And when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes
And softly kissed her

chorus

Music

Musical Interlude

Shelly

Neko Case has a new album out. I bought it, but haven’t had time to listen to it yet. That will happen this weekend.

What I have been listening to a lot of is Nico Stai. I don’t know much about him, aside from the fact that he’s a wee baby, but I came across one of his songs, then checked out a couple more, and ended up buying everything of his I could get my hands on.

Uncategorized

Cheer-io-ios

Shelly

My mom never bought junk cereal, so we always had stuff like Cheerios and Grape Nuts and Shredded Wheat. If we wanted junk cereal, we had to buy it ourselves.

One of my favorite food commercials from that time period is for Cheerios. I love the little yodeling stick figures.


Cheerios Animated Blackboard Stick Figure Commercial #1 (1978)


Cheerios Animated Blackboard Stick Figure Commercial #2 (1978)

It’s as cute as I remember it. And the packaging hasn’t changed, has it?

I don’t buy cereal very often, and when I do, it’s almost always Cheerios. With milk and a little sugar, it’s a tasty sweet treat. If you want something savory, it works for that, too. When I was a kid, we made buttered Cheerios. You drizzle melted butter over Cheerios, then toast them over medium-low heat until golden brown. We used a sauce pan, but a wok or even a skillet would work. I add a little soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, a little garlic and onion powder, and a pinch of ground celery seed to the butter. It ends up tasting like Chex mix. Mmmm. (I often add the same seasoning medley to my popcorn butter, too.)

Music

Musical Interlude

Shelly


Indigo Girls, Closer to Fine

This song was in heavy rotation on MTV and radio during the summer I lived in Bloomington in the early 90s. For some reason, this, and not one of the hundred other songs that were out at the time, is my Bloomington song[1]. So I get it stuck in my head at odd times. I don’t know what, exactly, invokes it, but I spend an awful lot of time with this song bouncing around in my head. This morning, it showed up while I was walking across the Target parking lot.

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1. Seriously. Why? I played the hell out of Little Earthquakes that summer. The same for REM’s Out of Time and Nirvana’s Nevermind, but I don’t associate any of those with this place. Weird.