Amusing Video of the Day: "Twilight" Performed By Puppets

Oh, I do hate "Twilight," but puppets amuse me! (Via the Thompson on Hollywood blog.)

Holiday Cheer: Unusual Christmas Trees

Christmas at Nerdworld

Take a look at Neatorama's delightful collection of unusual Christmas trees!  It includes the "tree" above.  I wish I'd thought of that idea!

I must say, though, one year (a looooooong time ago when I was an undergrad and actually had time for such things) I made a fake fireplace from posterboard and put it on my living room wall.  It had a fake fire (yellow, red, and orange paper) and all, but the stockings and string of lights were real.  The whole project cost about $20 and made a great conversation piece for the holiday party!  Hmmm, perhpas I should try making a flat paper Christmas tree?

Literature Humor: "Casey At The Bat" and Baseball Cards

LOOK!

Holiday Silliness: Mistletoe Mania

This utterly frivolous post is for my Evil Enablers La Parisienne and Kamikaze Editor, both of whom will appreciate #1 in this silly list of mistletoe targets (even if some of the other names are -- ewww, yuck!).

Holiday Satire Alert: Santa Wants Bailout

Iowahawk is feeling festive with a new satire for Christmas. 

Here's the start of it.  Hilarious!

WASHINGTON - Flanked by officials from the United Elf Toytinkerers union, SantaCorp CEO Kris Kringle today told the House Ways and Means Committee that without immediate government financial help, his firm would be forced to declare bankruptcy, lay off thousands of elves and reindeer, and potentially cancel its annual worldwide Christmas Eve toy delivery.

Now who's been naughty?

Nerd Journal: Snow-Blogging Part Deux

The horror, the horror!

As the temperatures plummet, another massive snowstorm arrives, and it's covering Nerdworld with a blanket of white doom.  I moaned about the last snowstorm, and I am (predictably) moaning about this one too.

Oh, I have plenty to do at home (a nerd's work is never done), but there's something really depressing about being snowed in with piles of work when Christmas is so close.  I really just want to leave, but I won't be able to do that for a few days -- and anyway the entire region is under a nasty Winter Storm Warning.  (I am now morbidly addicted to the Weather Channel.)

Here's a related note.  Alessandra and I were talking about food for snowstorms.  Everyone knows that in the winter here, you should have a nice little stockpile of non-perishable food in your pantry in case you get snowed in and can't leave the house for a few days.  I was looking at my cupboards while talking on the phone with Alessandra, and we were both doing a mental check-list of our caches.  

We came to the same conclusions:

1. We have plenty of "emergency provisions."
   
2. We actually don't want to eat them.
3. They are depressing to look at.

What does this mean?  Well, by their nature such stores are non-perishable: they're dry goods or cans or boxes or packets or packages.  (Or frozen.)  None of it's that appealing, really.  Come on, they're in BOXES.  The stuff is practically indestructible.  Call me crazy, but to me "real food" is kind of . . . well, er, perishable.

Friday Fun: What If the "Peanuts" Cartoon Were Japanese?

From Dirty Harry's Place comes this playful look at cartooning styles:

It's the Great Manga, Charlie Brown!

I *Heart* Nature -- in Photos

This is delightful!

Note the one from Taiwan, too.

Nerd Journal: Sleepless, Cynical, and Sassy

Latest nerd update: my universe now consists almost solely of coffee, my laptop, and the endless piles of papers and exams scattered willy-nilly all over the living room floor. It's not just squalor. It's nerd squalor.

WILL THIS NEVER END? I can't wait to flee from Nerdworld and rush home to my native climes (and fellow evildoers), but right now that happy moment seems centuries away.

To make my joy complete, I'm still coughing up my lungs, I can't sleep, and now winter weather is here with a vengeful fury. How is my general outlook on life, you ask? Well, how about this little visual summary of my mood:

Fire bad, tree pretty.

Nerd Journal: Sick of Books, Papers, Exams, Etc.

Yep, it's that time of year again. The expressions and the piles of books in the following image say it all:

Diagnosis: bibliophobia.

Quirky Euro Files: Italy's Great Parmesan Cheese Bailout

OK, this is possibly the only government bailout I could even think about supporting! Yes, we're talking about Parmigiano Reggiano, the undisputed king of cheeses -- and a 50 million euro bailout.

Link via Serious Eats.

In all seriousness, though, I would buy more of this glorious cheese, but it is so dreadfully expensive.

(At least the online Parmigiano cheese game is free. Oh, those darn Italians!)

Monday Therapy: Coffee + Wi-Fi + Humor = ?

Dedicated to Il Barista and Noli Me Tangere!

Would you like some humor along with your free coffeehouse wi-fi? Check out a clever approach by a Dutch coffeehouse -- playing with the name of the wi-fi network! (More here.)

Nerd/Geek News: Vassily Ivanchuk and the Great Chess Doping Scandal

Doping in chess?

Advent Soundtrack: Track 14: "Ave Maria"

Here is your daily dose of holiday music, with today's song performed by the late, great Luciano Pavarotti.

Che and Celebrity Communist Chic

Fashion faux pas.

You know how I feel about "Communist chic" and about the stupid celebrity-cult of Che Guevara. Rich celebrities (and whining undergrad poseurs) can't seem to get enough of glamorizing and romanticizing this bloody-minded, murderous thug.

A recent film about Che has been released (see Fausta disassemble it here, with more from Cuba-blogger Babalu). In response, Reason has a very good video about Che and Communist chic. Pay particular attention to the testimony of two people who lived under actual Communism -- Paquito D'Rivera of Cuba and Kai Chen of China. Both managed to escape their Communist hellholes; both are now living in the US.

Watch it here:



I won't even burden your patience by ranting about "Mao chic," a phenomenon of sheer idiocy and historical denial that makes me want to scream.

UPDATE: Awesome!

Taiwan: More on Chen Indictment; Investigators Go After Lee Teng-hui Also?

You all know about Chen Shui-bian's indictment. Michael Turton has more, including a link to this disturbing report by AFP that investigators are now going after Lee Teng-hui.

Corruption charges aside, is it not rather ... odd-looking that the targets are the two Taiwanese politicians whom Beijing hates the most?

Cool Photos of the Day: the Splendors of Coincidence

Never estimate the entertainment value of perfect timing and perfect placement.

Kitchen Notes: Chocolate Ginger Slump Cake

Hey, here's a dessert with a name that suits the economic climate!

Take a look at Chocolate Ginger Slump Cake. It's a great name, though not quite as amusing as Il Barista's Flying Shrapnel Death Pie.

Quirky Asia Files: China's Pajama Police

Leave it to China to have actual fashion police, of course. Local officials in Shanghai are trying to stop people from wearing pajamas in public.

FYI: on campus, it's not that unusual to see undergraduates show up to early morning classes in their nightwear!

Cute Critter of the Day: Meet the Frank Sinatra of the Koala World

His name is Logan, and you must see his photo! This blue-eyed furball is the pride and joy of Australia's Dreamworld.