May 2013
13 posts
“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare...”
– Bill Watterson (via mikekarnell)
The Economics and Hyperinflation of Diablo 3
If historical cases of hyperinflation — real, and now virtual — have one thing in common, it is the instinct among its victims to blame the symptoms rather than the disease. The Austrian economist Hans Sennholz noted that during the German hyperinflation, “intrigue and artifice” were believed to be at work. Similarly, a handful of Diablo 3 players, frustrated about the decimation of their...
Hyperbole Is My Middle Name!: Improv Coaching... →
khealywu:
I’ve been thinking about making one of these for awhile. This first section is how I think indie teams and practice groups should interact with their coach.
24 hour notice for making any changes / cancellations. If you’re cancelling day of, you and your team owe your coach their standard fee.
2…
2001, A Space Odyssey: Howard Johnson's Children's...
This is from a Howard Johnson’s children’s menu that explained the first 30-45 minutes of 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Kids are smart.
(via Dreams of Space)
Curtis Retherford, the character
JZT and Fe$h wrote a spec script for the Bill Engvall show. (Because, of course they did.) They emailed me to ask if I’d read a part in it. I was told I would be reading the part of “Curtis Retherford.”
This was JZT’s description of my character:
He’s a manipulative man. Quiet. He waits until he sees an opportunity to intervene. He has really been planning to...
“According to Rolf Reber, a psychologist at the University of Bergen, in Norway,...”
– Math as Myth, Samuel Arbesman
April 2013
18 posts
“You are working on a first draft and small wonder you’re unhappy. If you lack...”
– Draft No. 4, by John McPhee. The New Yorker, April 29, 2013, p. 32.
PKD's next show! Sat Apr 27 at 10:30pm! →
halphillips:
patbaer:
pkdimprov:
After a long run at Under St. Marks, Improvised PKD has moved to the Producers Club Theatre! We hope you’ll come see us. Tickets are $6 as always.
Philip K. Dick is the sci fi mastermind whose work inspired Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall.
Come see PKD improv create a brand new universe featuring alternate realities, dystopian governments,...
3 tags
Hotspur
So, I’m finally on a Lloyd team. This post is only sort of about that.
In June I will have been doing improv for 7 years. I lost track of how many times I auditioned. My best guess is somewhere around 8-10. (Basically, every open and invite-only audition from summer 2007 until now.) I got lots of callbacks, but was never put on a team.
There are two reasons I kept auditioning and kept...
2 tags
Originally an Osborne Brothers song.
Benjamin Apple: Thought-terminating clichés →
benjaminapple:
Today on Reddit someone made a post defending someone else. Then another person accused that person of “white-knighting.” Then a third person commented:
“White knighting” is what is called a “thought-terminating cliche.” A TTC is essentially a word or phrase of a sort that is used to shut down…
Cognitive dissonance is a model that I wish I knew about a decade ago.
“As they narrated to each other their unholy adventures, their tales of terror...”
– Moby-Dick, “The Try-Works” — Melville’s description of the sailors sitting by the pots that burn blubber. This is one sentence. I think American children should recite this in the morning instead of the Pledge of Allegiance. (via williebhines)
Catherine O'Hara on The Best Boyfriend Ever: Dan... →
This is an outtake from Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. Dan Akroyd is one of the most fascinating men on the face of the planet. Someone write a biography of this man.
Columbia, 1912: The First 4 songs
Old-Time Religion, traditional, 1873 (but using Charles Tillman’s revised lyrics, 1891, as recorded by Polk Miller, 1909)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, 1907
God Only Knows, The Beach Boys, 1966
Goodnight, Irene, standard, as recorded by Lead Belly, 1933
I think this game may have been written specifically for me.
March 2013
33 posts
SATURDAY NITE: THE QUEENS BALL @ QSIC →
chamberlain:
Guys, THE QUEEN’S BALL is turning into one exciting fucking night.
We’ve got:
-Couple’s improv -Dancing -Music by Chambaland -Couple photography by Breukellen Photography -Spiked punch and more alcoholic type beverages -And WAFFLES.
That’s right. You read that correctly. Craffles food truck will be there serving the finest crepes and waffles this side of the Atlantic.
I do...
connorratliff:
antisequiturr:
Elvis Costello...
Hollingsworth v. Perry.
JUSTICE BREYER: Assume that you could distinguish California. Assume that we accept your argument -- or Mr. Scalia's version of your argument. And that distinguishes California. Now, let's look at California: what precisely is the way in which allowing gay couples to marry would interfere with the vision of marriage as the procreation of children, that allowing sterile couples of different sexes to marry would not? I mean, there are lots of people who get married that can't have children. So take a state that does allow adoption and say, there -- what's the justification for saying "no gay marriage"? Certainly not the one you said, is it?
COOPER: Uh, y-y-y-you --
BREYER (interjecting): Am I not clear? Look: you said that the problem is marriage, as an institution that furthers procreation --
COOPER: Yes, Your Honor.
BREYER: And the reason there was adoption. But that doesn't apply to California. So imagine I wall off California, and I'm looking just there, where you say that doesn't apply. Now, what happens to your argument -- about the institution of marriage as a tool towards procreation? Given the fact that in California too, couples that aren't gay but can't have children get married all the time?
COOPER: Yes, Your Honor. The concern is that redefining marriage as a genderless institution will sever its abiding connection to its historic, traditional procreative purposes. And it will re-focus, re-focus the purpose of marriage a-and the definition of marriage away from the, uh, uh, raising of children and to the emotional needs and desires of adults, of adult couples.
(Crosstalk.)
KAGAN: Well, suppose a State said, "Because we think that the focus of marriage really should be on procreation, we're not going to give marriage licenses any more to any couple where both people are over the age of 55." Would that be constitutional?
COOPER: No, Your Honor. It would not be constitutional.
KAGAN: Because that's the same State interest, I would think. You know? If you're over the age of 55, you don't help us serve the government's interest in protecting procreation through marriage. So why is that different?
COOPER: You, you, Your Honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that both couples -- both parties to the couple -- are infertile.
(Laughter from the gallery.)
KAGAN (interjecting): No really, because the couple -- I can just assure you if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage.
(More laughter.)
[ed, Taylor - Gotta love the Supreme Court, the only place in the world where bad formal logic produces a roomful of laughter. It's the ultimate nerd's revenge fantasy: the bullying, confident bigot is ridiculed because he is not good at thinking. This is my Superbowl.]
sebsational:
I am obsessed with this album,...
5 years.
One of my many jobs at my company is to train new SAT teachers. As part of the training, the trainees watching online videos of other teachers teaching different parts of my company’s SAT course.
About 5 years ago, they recorded a video of me teaching a mathematics lesson, on functions. So, part of the training for all teachers in my company is to watch a video of me teaching that lesson,...
One more.
Iris DeMent is one of my favorite agnostics. (My...