Category Archives: life

10 minutes, 2 ideas, 1 man, and a whole lot of political change

With my academic background, I am quite familiar with the writings of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and the author of such books as “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” “The Future of Ideas” and “Free Culture.” He writes about what I’m most interested in: how technology (ie, the Internet) impacts society (in his case, through a legal lens).

So I was quite surprised (and somewhat intrigued) to read the other day that Lessig is considering a run to replace recently deceased Congressman Tom Lantos of California. Lessig may not have much of a political background, but the man is damn smart and has some great ideas about what is wrong with DC. It might be refreshing to have someone like him stirring the pot in Washington.

Lessig has launched a website devoted to his campaign consideration and his “Change Congress” movement. He’s also posted a 10-minute video (seen below) which summarizes his beliefs on the inherent problems of the current system and why he’s considering this run for Congress.

Dear childhood, Why can’t I come stay with you forever?

Have you ever had one of those moments of overwhelming nostalgia? You know, when you smell a favorite food from your childhood, see a cartoon for the first time in 15 years, or read your nephew a book that you had forgotten was one of your favorites as a child?

If not, it’s quite a powerful moment. And I just had one. In fact, my stomach clenched, my eyes almost teared up and I experienced a powerful wave of sadness for the briefest of seconds as I realized I had forgotten an important part of my childhood. It certainly is trivial by adult standards, but I remember it being a very crucial component to me at age 7.

What could have caused this response, you ask? Why it’s no one other than Spot the Dog!

spot21.jpg

I saw this picture today in one of the blogs I regularly read, and was immediately transported back to my childhood when I owned this exact stuffed animal. I somehow had managed to get a piece of gum stuck in Spot’s fur and was bemoaning the fact that he’d never been 100% clean again (as I tried in vain to pick out all of the offending gum). I remember he always had a little spot on the back of him where a small amount of hardened gum remained.

Now, I’m not the type of person who remembers my childhood with much clarity – in fact, there are whole portions of my adolescent years I’ve tried to block out – so this came as quite a surprise. Spot had been out of my head for years, and suddenly I was assaulted by a specific memory within an instant of seeing that picture. I just wish there were easier ways of harnessing all this data stored deep in the depths of those filing cabinets in our head.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with childhood memories?

Picture of the day: I think I need to drop out of grad school and start a Nintendo-based baking business

vidgacuppies.jpg

First I found my dream wedding cake (that is if I ever actually got married – ha!). Then I discovered how to make “8-bit cookies” like Tetris boards (see my blog post from last month). And now, well, I only have one word for my latest discovery: W-O-W.

As you may know, I am an avid baker, even going so far as to contemplate a career if I hadn’t decided to sink my life savings into adding a “Dr.” to my name (I mean, really though, who doesn’t want to be called Doctor? And Dr. Vitak has such a fabulous ring to it.).

Well, all these delicious baked good based off Nintendo games I keep finding online could give me that push I need to change careers. Well, not really, but I do want to try to make these cupcakes. It actually wouldn’t be too difficult — more time-consuming than anything else. Maybe in four months or so, when I actually have a minute of free time, I’ll give them a whirl.

[Thanks Boing Boing!]

Picture of the Day: Possibly one of the weirdest mashups ever

So mashups. Usually, this involves taking two complementary items, whether it is software or music, and squishing them together to form a new item. For example, as I mentioned yesterday, Google Maps and Twitter mashed up for Super Tuesday. Pretty cool, eh?

Sometimes, however, mashups can occur between two completely unrelated items. This usually doesn’t work out. Peanut butter and dog food, for example, do not equal a delicious mashup. Here I present you with one of the few examples I have ever come across that successfully mashes two unrelated items so well that the person decided to ink it on his/her respective body FOREVER.

Hello Kitty, meet Darth Vader:

Now the only question that remains is what to call this adorable little death-bringer. Hello Vader? Darth Kitty? Decisions decisions.

NASA must have seen my blog and decided to copy me…dirty bastards

My inner science geek is doing a happy dance, as I just discovered an awesome website hosted by NASA that features a picture of the day (not unlike myself, when I feel so inclined to post my pictures of the day). Anyway, as expected, the site uploads a new celestial image each day, and I must say, some of them are mind-blowing: exploding stars, solar eclipses by other planets, distant galaxies, and the like. When I see pictures like this, I tend to think space is much better looking than Earth (sorry Captain Planet).

Here’s the picture of the day from Saturday, where you can see Venus *and* Jupiter on the horizon at dawn. So awesome.

Picture of the Day: This is how I feel about children (in a nutshell)

turd-baby1.jpgAhh, children. Such joyful creatures aren’t they? Hah! In my opinion, anyone who holds such a sentiment needs a mental health evaluation stat. Since a young age, I have been compiling a list of reasons why I shouldn’t have children. I’m currently at #13,267: “I’d rather be spending that $300,000 on myself!”

Needless to say, I’m not too fond of the little buggers. However, just in case my dear sister happens to be reading my blog, please note that I do love her little buggers (although that is primarily because I have to).

Today I came across this glorious image, and thought it summarizes my opinion of children quite succinctly. Thanks to List of the Day for the image.

Who’s getting busy and who’s wearing chastity belts?

I came across this rather interesting world map today that looks at the average age in which citizens lose their virginity. Looks like those crazy kids in Greenland, Iceland and the Scandinavian countries have figured out that sex is a great form of exercise that doesn’t require you to go outside in the -20 degree winters. Meanwhile, I am not at all surprised that Brazil also includes some of the youngest kids gettin’ busy, as I am convinced Latinos are born with a heightened sex drive. And I must say, I’m happy to see that the U.S. isn’t the biggest whore on the block for once. Although that might not be an accurate statement. Now what we need is a map of the world showing the average number of partners people have. Then we’ll really see who the whor…I mean, “free love” believers, are.

virginitymap-world2.gif

Picture of the Day: An MP3 player to encourage criminals to rob you + a taser gun to render them unconscious

Mashing up two typically unrelated products is a relatively common occurrence as lazy people lacking the creativity to invent new products get bright ideas that people will want to buy a 2-in-1 product, even if they already own the two individual products. An easy example of this is the increasingly common appearance of music players on cell phones. Why carry around an iPod and a cell phone, these companies ask, when you can have a cell phone that stores significantly less music and offers a much poorer quality of sound?

itaser.jpgAs silly as I find this, it can’t compare to the product I discovered today, which combines an MP3 player with a TASER GUN. Offered in a stylish leopard print, this gun is (obviously) geared toward women, who are more likely to get jumped while walking down a dark alley in a short skirt while listening to Celine Dion’s greatest hits. I understand what they’re aiming for with this, but haven’t we gotten a little taser-happy in the last year? There are women who have taken to selling taser guns to other women much in the same way they sold tupperware during the 90s. There’s been extensive media coverage over police and security being too trigger happy with taser guns. And now we’re turning tasers into a fashion accessory no women should be without.

What’s next? Maybe there’ll be a product that helps silence friends and relatives who talk too much. It could be a pen on one side and a blow gun on the other, coming with five free tranquilizer darts. Hmm, I wonder if I should work on the patent before someone steals it from me. Gotta run!

And you thought the rats outside Burger King were big…

rous.jpg
If you were born between the years of 1970 and 1985, you should have seen the movie Princess Bride at least once (and due to its popularity on cable networks, you have most likely seen in approximately 1,257 times). In fact, this movie is one of my favorites. So think about the plot line, when Wesley and Buttercup are traipsing through the fire swamp and Wesley fights with the ROUS (rodent of unusual size). That was a pretty big rat, wouldn’t you think? Probably much bigger than a rat could even get here, where they sometimes reach the size of a small housecat in the big cities, but no larger, right?
Wrong. At least in South America you’d be wrong, where scientists recently unearthed the fossil of a ONE-TON rodent. To put this into perspective, the average horse weighs in at about a half ton. Now that is quite a rat, if you ask me. Said rat could probably eat a grown person and still be hungry for dessert. Can you imagine life with these bad boys roaming the streets? Mobsters could hire them to run jobs; fast food staff would be equipped with rifles and heavy artillery; women would have yet another reason to avoid walking alone late at night. The world would plunge into a deep, dark despair (I picture Gotham City in Batman Begins).
Well, that’s one thing we should be happy we don’t have to worry about today. I mean, yeah we have wars and guns and disease pandemics and poverty and all that stuff, but at least we don’t have giant, man-eating rats. Hooray!
 (Check out the AFP article here.)