The Pittsburgh Penguins' slogan this season is "defy ordinary".  Might not be all that great of a sports team promotion, but this little video they put together is a pretty good ad for Pittsburgh life in general.  CMU, Andy Warhol, South Side Works, Consol Energy Center, and a bunch of other key landmarks are highlighted.

 

 

The list comes from CNN, but I went ahead and got the youtube links for each track.

 

1. "She Blinded Me With Science," Thomas Dolby
   
2.  "Dare to Be Stupid," Weird Al Yankovic - Of course Weird all has to be there.  I'd actually put something like "All about the Pentiums" or "White & Nerdy" on the list instead of this one.
   
   Weird Al Yankovic - Dare to be Stupid
   Uploaded by bolton. - See more comedy videos.
3. "Nerdcore Rising," M.C. Frontalot - There's actually a pretty cool documentary called "Nerdcore Rising" with a lot of cool information on the genre of nerd core.  Certainly worth checking out.
   

 

It's been a while since I posted a personal update.  Things in married life go well.  New job goes well.  Thinking about going back to school in the fall.  That might be the level of detail you get in the updates going forward...not really sure.  I don't really want to write about my life with Kallie without her involvement.  What you might see this category turn into would be a opening of the way I think or the way I act, or who I am despite my surroundings.  We'll see how that works.

One thing that bothers me sometimes is that Kallie will get bunches of people reply to facebook status updates for her.  Sometimes, it's people that she's connected through me, but I don't even talk to on facebook.  It's not that I want the attention, it's that I don't understand why people are compelled to post to her messages in such volumes and so quickly too.  It lead me to believe it's her.  Some how, people are connecting with her through her update.  She's reaching them in a way that I'm not.

So we give science a try.  I put the blinking cursor in my status update field and told Kallie to post something as me.  Post something that she would say, if she were me in that moment.  She wasn't allowed to reveal it was her.  We'd test if it was the content of the status updates or Kallie's "aura" that people were drawn to.  Within seconds, we had a reply to "mmm, my house smells like freshly baked bread.  I love my wife."  Then another.  Then another from a person I barely know.  I think we found our answer.

It's me.  I don't know how to connect with people, or I don't give them a clear path to understanding me to be more precise.  I wrap things in metaphor, vague allusions, or esoteric references.  Recently, my mom replied to one of my facebook status updates saying she didn't understand my messages, and she wanted to know if it was her or even her age.  I'm fairly certain it's actually me.  With this post though, perhaps I can shed some light on to how my mind works and even give some examples to help you better understand what I mean when I say or do something.

We'll take it back to the days when I first started to post away messages on AIM.  I constantly got asked what they meant.  Well, I'll tell you now and perhaps it will help you to predict my behavior.

Most of my messages were drawn from lyrics --

"I dream that she aims to be the bloom upon my misery." - This comes from a Soul Coughing song called "I Miss the Girl".  That's basically what I was saying.

"I feel as if i'm looking at the world from the bottom of a well." - This comes from a Mike Doughty song.  It just meant that I was sad, or I felt trapped, away from the world.

"Getting lost in the fall, glimmer, sparkle, and fade." - This came from Everclear's album, Sparkle and Fade.   I thought it was a pretty sentiment to describe moods where I felt like a life of a star; people were lucky to catch a glimpse of a falling star, marveled at it's glimmer and sparkle, and then it fades away.  I used it to express that I had just done something I enjoyed but probably won't do again.

  "True dreams of Wichita." - More Soul Coughing.  Meant I wanted to travel or that I had a weird dream.

"I'll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake." - lines that follow "can I lay in your bed all day?" by Fallout Boy.  Usually meant I liked a new girl.

"Need more friends with wings, all the angels I know put concrete in my veins." - Billy Talent lyrics.  Means I missed people or felt crappy without friends.

"Looking at the man in the mirror and telling him to change his ways." - Michael Jackson, but taken quite literally when used.

"the world through a windshield is callous and cheap.  i toss and i turn but i can't get to sleep.  counting the hours the days that turn into weeks" - The New Amsterdams lyrics.  Usually meant that I felt like I was just waiting for life to happen.

"Some times, it causes me to tremble."  - My favorite hymn, "Were You There?".  Usually an Easter away message.

"I'm shoulder high in crap and my water wings are flat." - President of the United States of America lyrics.  Usually meant I was stressed about something.

"I remind myself of some body else's song." - Lifehouse lyrics.  Tongue and cheek mostly.

"Awake and dreaming." - Finger Eleven lyrics.  I was being reflective.

"This is the part where we start to feel better." - Gratitude lyrics.  something was making me sad.

 

 

A lot of my messages were my own creation --

"I'm allergic to the sun.  It makes my skin change color."  - This message was usually used when I didn't want to go outside.

"I'm a pretty shallow guy deep down."  - It's true.

"Warning:  This aoler may be potentially unstable.  Proceed to message with caution." - I was probably livid about something.  "Livid" was also used as an away message.

"projectiling a bee of fris across a botanical plane in attempts to approach and ultimately arrive at the X axis' limits, while not offending the Y axis' limits, at which point those efforts are reciprocated by an opposing force." -   I was playing ultimate frisbee.

"Let's go get stoned.  Just like how they did in the Bible." - Just thought it was funny.

 

 

Some were direct quotes from movies or literature--

"The moments we shared are lost in time, like tears in a rain storm."  -This comes from the movie "Blade Runner".  I found it profound and quite beautiful.  It's deep, thinking that there's no use to cry when it's raining.

"Closing my eyes and opening my mind in the clarity of passion."  - I'm not certain which source this came from, but it may have been from the movie "Atonement".  I usually used this one when I was falling asleep content to ponder life's questions.

"Cheyne Stoking." - This comes from an excellent movie called "Dead Man Shoes".  At one point in the movie, the main character paints those words on an apartment wall of some "bad guys" while they're not there.  It's a medical term to describe periods of irregular breathing; most commonly the last grasps for breath.  I liked the phrase, so i put it up.  Possibly meant that I thought I was going to die sometime/eventually/inevitably.

"In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo." - This is from T.S. Elliot's poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  I just used it to say I was talking to my smart wiminz.  Another away message I used, partly inspired from Keren's song and the poem, was "Measuring out my life with a coffee spoon."

When I'm with you, %n, we stay up all night, and when you're gone, I can't get to sleep.  Thank God for these insomnias, and the differences between them."  - Remember, %n was replaced with the viewer's screen name.  That was fun.  Anyway, I saw a performance at Heinz Hall of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and in between pieces, they would have readings and this was one of them.  I have no idea of the origin, and can't seem to find anything through google.  It means I was in love or at least infatuated.

"James 4:8 " - The verse is "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."  This was my personal motto.  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.  Life is that simple.  When I was searching for why I felt so disconnected from Christ, I simply have to [go to church, volunteer, call a friend to talk, pray] etc.  I needed this scripture during that time of my life.

"Super perfundo on the early eve of your day." - This comes from my favorite movie, Waking Life.  It's a phrase that one of the characters has said to him in one of his dreams, but even he doesn't know what it means.  It's basically used as just a greeting/farewell.

"Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods.  I do not know how far my experience is common.  At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all.  - H. G. Wells" - Pretty much the only good line from War of the Worlds.  I resonated with this deeply.

 

 

The rest were either weird, boring, or a mix of the above categories -

"He's a maniac, maniac, on the floor, and he's cleaning like he's never cleaned before." - This meant I was cleaning.  Taken from the Flash Dance theme song.

"This away message is fleeting human contact.  both of us lost, but for a moment we're lost together.  I wonder who you are." - I believe this to be an internet meme, but I can't nail the true source.  It may have been that simply substituted "away message" in for grafitti.  see XKCD.

"Falto Algo." - Spanish for "Something is missing".  My boss used to say this. 

"Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house I go." - I was visiting my grandmother.

"Home again, home again, jiggity jig." - I went home.

 

 

Ofcourse, there are the ones that meant I was sleeping...

"Dead.  At least to the untrained eye."

"Sleep with all the lights on." - Dashboard Confessional lyrics.  Most appropriately used when sleeping during the day  ie: night shift.

"some where between the sacred silence and sleep." - System of a Down lyrics.  Usually meant it was really late and I was still up for some reason.

"Under the Tahitian moon." - Porno for Pyros lyrics. 

"Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan" (SLEEP)" - own of my originals.  Paired with:

"Stress Induced Narcoleptic Seizures (S.I.N.S.)" - another original that I still use.

 

 

So, I hope this provides you with a little bit of a road map on being able to predict what I may be trying to convey in my own mysterious way.  Default to it being lyrics for something.  Then think that I just saw/read something that imbued me.  I'm not all that hard to figure out or predict.  I think.  Did this help?

Anything taken too seriously is stupid.  Take Star Wars for example.  While it does have redeeming qualities, it's still taken way to seriously.  If there is a made up language, it's taken way too seriously.  Hear that, James Cameron?

"Approach tough problems like a dog  - If you can't hump it or eat it, pee on it and walk away."

 - Unknown

When you're engaged in a group discussion, and someone makes an allusion to a person whose name you don't recognize - assume it's a football player.  The accuracy of this assumption can be increased when you hone in on context clues like the gender of the reference, the male ratio of the discussers, as well as the time of year (ie: draft season).  Let the rule also state that the afore mentioned "draft season" does not imply awareness due to social responsibility, but rather awareness by previous conversations around the same chronological period.

When the most beautiful words I never spoke

Are at the tip of my tongue and then I choke

On the possibility that you might respond

And then we’ll meet, and I’ll grow fond

Of the way your hair slowly covers your eye

Or the way your hand gently brushes mine

Or how the blood from my heart rushes

At every one of your sparking touches

Forcing my eyes to shut and body stilled

A quick deep breath and my lungs are filled

I can’t move.  The only thing moving is my mind

And all the images of you that it can find

Projected onto the back of my eyelids as a screen

Debuting a movie that no one else has seen

Or ever will, because once I regain sight

And start to gaze at the most beautiful thing in my life

The movie goes back into production inside my head.

But maybe I’ll get to catch a sneak peak as I sleep in my bed.

All this goes on in the matter of seconds

And when it’s all over, my heart beckons

For another moment just like it

A moment where my body won’t fight it

How your touch invokes something so intangible

So much beyond anything imaginable

And all I can do is imagine us there

At that same table, at that same restaurant

At the same time, and our bodies in the same spot

Your eyes focused on mine, and mine on yours

And we stop time around us for what seems like hours

Just you and I continuing our lives without the world around us

And we’ll continue talking about how love found us

And put us together for the very first time

How everything was easy as it just fell into line

I never knew what I was looking for until I met you

I never knew how to act until I watched what you do

When you talk to people that you don’t know

How they walk away after with a certain glow

And as for me, I’m a lighthouse shining bright

Protecting your shores from lost ships at night

Letting them know that I am guarding your beaches

And that tonight, land will be out their reaches

They’ll have to set anchor in the ocean as blue

As the eyes I’m staring at; the eyes of you.

 

 

 

This was a poem I wrote back in February of 2007 I was reminded of it when I watched this short film:

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

 

 

The internet is a place of free information by people just like you and me.  Sure, the quality of that information varies greatly, but it's still information.  As they say, Human knowledge belongs to the world!  So here are the top 100 documentary movies free to watch online.  There are some real gems in there. 

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/01/100-best-free-science-documentaries-online/

we decided to jump from our second story window into our pile of snow.

 

 

For some reason, CNN only posted 9 rip-offs, so we have to come up with the 10th on our own...

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/news/1001/gallery.americas_biggest_ripoffs/index.html