Thursday, March 29, 2007

New Links and Tips

Other hot sites. Loved this pic from Daily Young Guys. Everybody's naked in 5 Minutes.

We interrupt this message to bring you late-breaking news of alcohol free vacations. I wish I could enjoy myself more sober, but I dance better drunk. Really do. Not totally shiker, but a few beers to loosen up. However, there are many fu things you can do without drinking. Check out Straight Edge, a growing group of dry hipsters. Also, I love visiting museums and stuff which don't require intoxication (in truth, they actively discourage it). If you do hit the clubs, find one with an "anyone can enter, 21 to drink" policy and leave your ID at home. Okay, maybe not such a good idea.

Random site: Shoutwire

Up and Running

Perseverance pays off. See, we got that dropdown menu up and running after all. Please check out our partners in the menu to your right (right under the links column on the sidebar). Many thanks to a magnificent help site, DevelopingWebs.net for making this a possibility. Their site may not look so pretty, but it's a powerhouse of helpful information.

Another interesting idea about what to blog about I found here. And Wyndham surely knows what to blog about at Mad About the Boy! Check out some great examples here and here.

While we're on the subject (what subject was that? You're confusing me.) I want to thank KC for maintaining a great site Closet Conundrums that unfortunately, I can't view too often because of anti-freedom software that is becoming increasingly popular and parading around under names like "SafeKids", "Safe Eyes", or "CyberPatrol", like they are doing a good thing. Filtering tools I believe they call it.

Anyway, check out our partners. L8terz.

You Win Some, You Lose Some





Web Site Optimization

I totally lost what I had written here. It was probably a cool blog entry, but I hit the back button by accident and it was gone. Something about oh, it's no use...

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Up Next: Passover

A dvar torah?! From this sewer mouth? Any Jewish readers that I haven't managed to isolate yet? I learn in yeshiva, spend Shabbos in yeshiva, clean for Pesach, wear tefillin (though I do unfortunately miss when I get very busy or am running late in the morning), daven, sometimes with minyan. You're laughing. My point is, when you ask, "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" You never know who might stand up - every single person is a Slim Shady lurkin, haha, Guess there's a Slim Shady in all of us. Fvck it, let's all stand up. (Em)

But no, you say. My [son, daughter, sister, brother, father, mother, friend] isn't like that. By us frum yidden everyone is an angel. Things are different in our community (how do you draw that emoticon for :snort: ?). We aren't like those filthy goyim. Please! Can't we treat all people like people?

The Haggada has a hava amina, yachol meirosh chodesh. Why? We ask the 4 questions about food. Why? We blunt the teeth of the wicked son. Why? We tell the wise son about the law of not eating after the afikoman. Why?

Why did the five scholars remain up until their disciples reminded them to pray the morning shema? Did the disciples not want to remain awake discussing the tales of the Exodus with their masters? What is the meaning of kol hamarbeh lesaper sipur yetzias mitzrayim harey zeh meshubach?

Rosh Chodesh is proclaimed by the av beit hadin (or av beis din, just practicing my accents) and then everyone answers after him mekudash mekudash. Why?

All answer after him because rosh chodesh isn't something that is declared in heaven (shomayim). It is decreed by people, and each person must decree it for himself. Yachol meirosh chodesh, from the time of personal control over time, that we begin to feel the freedom of individual control and redemption from slavery.

The four questions pertain to what and how we eat on seder night because food gives each person a unique enjoyment. Al taam varei'ach ain lehitvakei'ach (lehisss'vakei'ach for the snakes and yeshivish people. Ow sorry that was wrong. I really like you, just like the 't' sound better in this phrase). This uniqueness in our sense of freedom is paramount to the night's special quality.

It doesn't say the action of marbeh lesaper is meshubach, but hamarbeh lesaper is himself a meshubach. The scholars' disciples would have loved to spend the night with their masters, but they didn't feel it. Only one who is on an exalted plane will be able to feel his personal yetzias mitzrayim.

The wicked son who generalizes all the stuff you do doesn't understand the significance of an individualized sense of freedom that each person can experience his way. So we blunt his teeth, the key to enjoyment of food. Anyone can get generic nutrition from a liquid diet, but the flavors and textures of food are released by the teeth. This quality the wicked son lacks.

The wise son, who appreciates the distinction between eidot, chukim, and mishpatim is reminded to savor the unique flavor of the afikoman and enjoy his personal sense of freedom from Egyptian bondage.

The message of seder night, isarusa dele'eyla, is without overly corrupting the Rabbi's message, that we should enjoy the special gifts Hashem has given to each of us and not look with envy at what our neighbor has. Appreciate that God took each and every one of us out of slavery in Egypt. It isn't just a yetzias mitzrayim for the klal, but a yetzias mitzrayim for the prat, for the yachid. I was a slave. He led me to freedom. He didn't just sign the Emancipation Proclamation, he signed my get shichrur. Nobody else can appreciate what I went through in captivity, so no one can truly share in my bliss upon release. But I thank you, God.

Spring Break is in the Air

With midterms behind us and warm weather back at last, a sense of revitalization sweeps the nation. Sun is shining, people are smiling, that spring scent in the air. Flowers popping up from the ground, not quite worth winter to experience its end, but magnificent nonetheless.

If a not-so-impressive 30-ish guy offers to buy you a drink and you have no intention of anything with him, is it taking advantage to accept the drink? I said no thanks, but he ordered anyway, so I drank. We talked for a while, and then he was ready to leave and I wasn't coming with him. He asked for a kiss goodnight, and I gave him a light peck because I saw he really wanted it and it didn't cost me anything. Then he said, sounding hurt, "If someone asks for a kiss a little tongue would be nice." I didn't want to laugh in his face, and I'm not known for controlling my laughter, but I held it in and kinda mumbled some sort of apology. I'm a nice guy.

Then went upstairs to the dance floor and found an interesting pair. One of them was really cute, so I went over and asked for a dance. The other one responded, but it was just as well. The cute one said he wasn't quite gay, but then he took off his clothes and got in bed and it didn't matter. I can't believe I didn't read his last name when he showed me his GI ID.

My mind has taken to pairing songs with guys. So one is from Greenday, "My fingertips have memories, I can't forget the curves of your body, so when I feel a bit naughty..." Another will be, "There's something 'bout your body. Something 'bout your body, baby..."

Eadem Mutato Resurgo

Service Our Servicemen

Suck a Soldier, Support the Troops

Try it, you'll like it. Many of our boys are quite fit. And so tasty, too!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

What Is Your Political Iama?

You know what's funny? It's all the same people who want to end the war in Iraq and save the residents of Darfur. These people claim to be humanitarian and peace-loving, but leaving the huge mess we made in Iraq may permit as much bloodshed there as we've seen in Sudan.

Then again, maybe the civil war in Iraq has to happen, and will happen regardless of any intervention, before the new republic matures. I prefer to believe there are other ways.

There is a zeitgeist that sweeps people up and directs them as to what to believe. Why is politics divided in to Left and Right? There are more than two dimensions. Nobody talks about the political Up or Down. I guess those terms, like Forward and Backward have too much baggage. So come up with new ones. Point is, there should be more than 2 if it were about the issues. I's not. It's about the group. I am a - this. And I am a - that. You identify with your iama, and choose your positions to match.

Obscure Literary References (Don't Look)

Got my penis stuck in the vacuum cleaner the other day. I think it's like a rite of passage or something. I was vacuuming cobwebs around the dryer and all I had on was a robe, and it just seemed an interesting thing to try. It sucked me harder than anyone I've known, but not better - it's missing the tongue, the lips. I pissed into the thing to lube it up, and it slid right out. I hope I'm not being too graphic.

"In the case of a praying mantis, necrophilia may also take place as a form of reproduction. The larger female will often decapitate or otherwise kill her mate during copulation." ~Wikipedia

Anyone up for Snow Patrol at the Garden?

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Not Much Going On

I've been so frustrated about not being able to watch Skins. First they took it off VEOH, then they took it off YouTube. And I can't get into P2P or DailyMotion because of restrictions on my computers.

Google's speedy growth has finally caught up with them. They don't have the bandwidth to serve all their customers (read: everyone in the world), and as a result many of their services have begun to run more slowly. I've experienced serious slowdowns in gmail and google video. And I'm beginning to expect more than we're getting from the search engine as well. Google is just no fun anymore.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

PDAs and other Ambiguous Abbrvs

Personal Digital Assistant?
Public Display of Affection?

How about APA:
American Psychological Association or
American Psychiatric Association

Or EPA:
Environmental Protection Agency or
Eastern Psychological Association

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Quotes on Innocence

Your verdict will be “Guilty” or “Not Guilty.” Your job is not to find innocence.
~Russell R Leggett

The innocent and the beautiful
Have no enemy but time;
~William Butler Yeats

Yes, Lord, you are innocence itself: how could you conceive of Nothingness, you who are plenitude? Your gaze is light and transforms all into light: how could you know the half-light in my heart?
~Jean-Paul Sartre

You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, re-creating the world, and you ... feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten.
~Henry David Thoreau

Old Laws Die Hard

§ 18.2-361. Crimes against nature; penalty.

A. If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, except as provided in subsection B.

Although the Supreme Court has declared it unconstitutional, this archaic law remains on the books in Virginia.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Please Apply Six Months In Advance

Been looking for some summer work, finding it hard to break into the job market. Great school credentials, but little in the way of practical skills: Quark, Excel, SAS, Molecular Biology, etc. Got back my LSAT score. A bit disappointing, but maybe good enough for some of the schools on my list. Might have to take it again.

On a brighter note, I got accepted to a top science internship in a Molecular Genetics lab. They sent me a form-letter acceptance letter where they fill in the blanks: I am pleased to inform you that. . . Your host will be Professor so-and-so. . . You will receive a monthly subsistence allowance of ~ $US0 per month. . .

So I'll be raking in the dough if I take this offer. But it's a great opportunity to do some exciting work and pick up valuable experience.

So it's like Law, Journalism, Natural Science, or Social Science. Or something else. Do I seem confused? This is the short list.

Thats the update.

Thanks to Mad About The Boy for maintaining a wonderful blog and referencing mine here.