people with way too much time on their hands...

I've recently re-discovered the splendor that is fark.com. If you haven't been there, it is a surprisingly thorough news type site, that lists almost anything of interest, with a little tag next ot it to denote the type of story. What I recently discovered was that every day, or several times a day even, someone posts a particularly fertile picture and challenges people to "photoshop" it.

...see what this guy did to an ordinary mushroom...

if you haven't seen what people do already, you should check it out. a lot of it is really funny, especially when you follow the photoshops for several days, and start to see recurring themes. its almost like an exclusive clique of techno-savvy dweebs who perpetuate their own mutated form of inside jokes.

click here to visit fark.com

when liberty succumbs to "logic"

am I the only one who finds THIS the most Orwellian evolution in our society to date?

sure, the people that drink and drive are going to get drunk somewhere, but that's like giving people a guy who drives a Porsche a ticket as he steps into his car. It defies the principle that the police must provide evidence of a crime. Apparently, it is now a crime to go to a bar and get drunk.

newfound pet peeve: peeing into pee

call it xenophobic, but I just can't stand peeing into a strangers pee. I don't know who that was, and seem to be troubled by the very thought of my pee mixing with a strangers. I'll flush first, so that my pee can enter fresher water. You should try it, its satisfying.

what better way to procrastinate ...

.... than to write a poem about procrastination. like to hear it - here it goes.

i will kill time
with the power of my mind
surrender to ceaseless minutia
let euphoric minutes fly by



its no whitman, but its better than grading exams...

For whom will they mourn... ?

This past weekend saw to the death of Serbia's infamous authoritarian "president" Slobodan Milosevic - whose death was shrouded in mystery. The pieces of the puzzle include accusations that he was being poisoned, an autopsy report that he died of a heart attack, and reports that his system had remnants of "non-prescribed" drugs. This is just what Milosevic-loyal Serbs need to continue the "victim" claims and perpetuate a mythologcially benevolent dictator.

The day after Milosevic's death came the 3rd anniversary of the assassination of Zoran Djindjic, the man who most would consider singularly responsible for Milosevic's overthrow and eventual extradition to the Hague.

Zoran Djindjic

The more I think about it, the more I can't help but feel like if Milosevic were to intentionally go, it would so predictably be under such auspices ... conspiratorial rumorings, intentionally misleading medications, and all done a day before Zoran Djindjic's death - almost so as to steal away any thunder of his commemoration.

Thus, this last weekend, the Serbs had a choice of who they would mourn. Either Milosevic, a dictator who fed their freshly post-communist need for strong leadership, and their lifelong addiction to nationalist rhetoric that glorifies defeat - or Djindjic, a man who didn't stoop to sugar coating the dismal reality of Serbia's chances for a prosperous future (a reality he and the other Serb people were handed by Milosevic)

The irony is thick, and whether the story has a happy or sad ending will eventually be decided by the Serb people in their decision of who to mourn for.

Slobodan Milosevic R.I.P.

This last friday marked the death of one of the most ruthless (and misunderstood) dictators, Slobodan Milosevic. He died while being tried for war crimes at the Hague, at the age of 64.

Slobo - giving himself a hand...

Amazingly, he is still considered by many Serbs as a national hero. Sadly, it is the perpetuation of such sentiments that continue to dileneate the Serbs as stubbornly caught up in some of the most pervasive myths to ever be passed off on a population.

Milosevic used the cause of Serb nationalism to catapult himself into power, and he exploited nationalism's emotive grip over the people to stay in power. Yet sadly, when his postition of power came into question, it was the Serb people themselves that he was most willing to sacrifice. Throughout the Yugoslav civil war, and especially during the Kosovo debacle, he demonstrated not only an overt nationalistic disingenuity, but a loathesome lack of concern with the well being of his own people.

Hopefully, his passing will mark the closing of a horrendeous chapter of Serb history, and see to a redefining of Serbian nationalism as a spirit that promotes Serb cooperation with the rest of the world, rather than stubborn role playing of victim and agressor.

Are things getting a bit out of control?

Today I stumbled upon this random yet provocative story of a guy who recieved a credit card offer, tore it up to tiny pieces himself, taped it back together, and sent it in. Here's what it looked like....

.... click the picture to proceed to the story....

You'd think that the person who opened that letter would have some mechanism to channel that particular application through a potentially fraudulent account, or something like that. But then again, you probably think that most buildings are built to proper code because developers and workers just inherently want to do the very best job they can. We should all think again... and go buy a shredder!

newfound splendor: vault soda

as a grad student, nothing fosters creativity more than semi-lethal doses of caffiene. however, caffiene can get pretty expensive, especially with the new onslaught of energy drinks - most of which cost between $1.50 and $3.00. its not hard to imagine why I have been relishing the emergence of coke's latest attempt to hack into mountain dew's market: vault.

its a dorky drink, but for $.50 per 20 oz. bottle it gets the job done. In fact, you get 40 oz. for just $1 - a total amount of approx. 200 mg of caffiene. I'm no mathmetician, but those numbers add up to vault caffiene satisfaction. It actually tastes pretty good too, like surge used to taste like, with even a subtle strand of grapefruit, which bring to mind the ill-named soda SQUIRT.

Knowing that the promotional prices will only last so long, I just stocked up on nearly 30 bottles ($15 worth) to supply my needs against the impending price surge.