The Cabbage Patch

Like Flickr, but without the photos

Hello World.

It should come as no surprise that I like language.  I worship words.  I fancy phrases.  It shouldn’t be a shock, then, that a website like Wordie really peaks my interest.

Wordie’s tagline is “Like Flickr, but without the photos”, and this is probably the most apt description of what the site offers.

Wordie is a site for you to collect all the words that you come across that you like, or want to remember for later.  Words such as “pseudonym“, “sanguine” and “catastrofuck“.

Each word gets its own page where users can post comments relating to that word and some links to definitions are provided.

This is a website for a very particular type of language snob nerd, which I presume is why I thoroughly enjoy it.

Tags: Web Sites

But I’m not any of those…

Hello World.

Over on the Something Awful forums, someone has posted a list titled A brief summary of 99% of the people you will ever meet in college [or University].

This is very funny, if only for the fact that it’s extremely accurate.

Some examples:

Intellectual Superhero
Intellectual Superhero is neither an intellectual nor a superhero, but don’t tell him that! The Intellectual Superhero is easily identified by his complete inability to allow a class period to pass by without asking at least 654 questions designed to show how “witty” and “clever” he is. He will attempt to prove the professor wrong in every class with his inane bullshit, regardless of the fact that the professor has a doctorate in the field. If it’s a science course, the Intellectual Superhero will attempt to solve every problem using an alternate method, which is always incorrect. But don’t worry; he’ll still manage to waste 20 minutes of your life with his insane method of solving the problem. At least you’ll get to laugh at him when the professor proves him wrong.

and:

Major Elitist
No, he’s not in the military! Ha ha! All blatantly bad jokes aside, the Major Elitist is generally some type of science or engineering major who looks down on anyone who might even think about getting a humanities or business degree. After all, we all know that the only thing that’s important is science. All that other mamby-pansy bullshit like “History” or “English” or “the world economy” is just a bunch of feel-good rhetorical nonsense anyway. Besides, any jackass can get a liberal arts degree!

There are a few grown-up words and a couple of not-so-G-rated ads in there, so it’s possibly NSFW.

Tags: Web Sites

The (De)Evolution of YouTube

Hello World.

Evolution of Dance is, as of this writing, the most watched video on YouTube.  It has been watched over 36 million times.

The reasons for this video’s success somewhat elude me.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s funny, it’s just not that funny.  New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan says that this video has gained such popularity because it has no English dialogue:

That’s its secret: It’s a silent movie. With a soundtrack… ‘Evolution’ plays in Asia. Remember Asia? Where 60% of the world’s population lives?

(quoted in the Wall Street Journal Online).

However this cannot be the only factor.  The songs in the video are all popular American “hits” from the last few decades, as are the dances that go along with them.  Many of the “jokes” would not necessarily translate into other cultures.

There is also the element of self-propelled popularity.  Many visitors to YouTube will go straight to the popular videos page and watch whatever comes up first.  Consequently, whichever video manages to get to the top spot will most likely stay there.

There is a lot of crap on YouTube, but there are also many videos that are arguably better than this one.  Unfortunately on the Internet, as in much of the popular entertainment industry, “popular” does not always translate to “best”.

Breaking my "No mime, no pop" rule… again.

Hello World.

A while back (in fact, over a year ago) I posted a video of comedian David Armand miming out the lyrics to Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn.

It turns out that there is a sort of sequel to that video, featuring the pocket-sized pop songstress herself, and I dare say it’s even better than the original.  This was performed at the 2006 Secret Policeman’s Ball for Amnesty International.

Therapy for the price of a postage-stamp

Hello World.

Yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting article about PostSecret, a website (and now a series of books) which displays reader-submitted secrets written on home-made postcards.

FRANK WARREN HAS been called many things. The most trusted stranger in America. A unique global guru. Today’s Media “It” Boy. Father confessor of the world wide web.

…

His website - http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com - is now one of America’s favourite blogs, with 3 million visitors a month. Every Sunday, fans log on to see the 20 new confessions he has posted from the 150 he receives through the mail in an average week.

…

Whether it is art, therapy or a vehicle for voyeurs - and the secret of its success is probably that it is a heady combination of all three - PostSecret has obviously filled a void.

I have been a fan of PostSecret for some time, and I have been linking to it in the blogroll for a few years now.  It’s good to see it get some well-deserved media attention.

If you’ve never checked it out, do so.  It makes for some very interesting reading.

[Full article at smh.com.au]

Tags: News Articles

Ebay want their Big Day (Out)

Hello World.

Apparently the people at Ebay have gone completely mad.  From the Triple J website:

In a strange turn of events Ebay is taking action to stop organisers of the Big Day Out selling their tickets - unless they stop threatening to cancel scalped tickets. Sorry – run that by me again ebay wanna stop the bdo selling tickets because the bdo won’t let ebay sell their tickets.

Basically, Ebay don’t like being told they can’t illegally sell tickets, and are adopting an “if we can’t do it no-one can” stance.

As a person who has both bought and sold tickets using third-parties such as Ebay I feel they should all just leave it be.  There will always be scalpers, and there will always be people who will buy third-party tickets - Ebay or no.

Full story at Triple J.

Tags: News Articles

Project 365 getting back on track

Hello World.

Just a quick update to say that I have uploaded a whole bunch more of my Project 365 photos.  I got backlogged for a while there, but I am desperately trying to catch up.

If you want to learn about the Project 365, you can check out my original post.  If you want to see all the photos, the best way is probably to go to the Project 365 page by clicking on the tab at the top of the site.  Remember to read the post that goes with each photo, it will explain what the photo is about or why I took it.  Also, if you have a Flickr account, feel free to comment on any of the shots taken - all criticism is welcome.