She looked over his shoulder
For vines and olive trees,
Marble well-governed cities
And ships upon untamed seas,
But there on the shining metal
His hands had put instead
An artificial wilderness
And a sky like lead.

A plain without a feature, bare and brown,
No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,
Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down,
Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood
An unintelligible multitude,
A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.
Showing posts with label Cute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cute. Show all posts

Monday, March 2, 2009

Humans: A species on the brink

You know how national geographic and animal planet always have programs with this title? Well it turns out that like 20,000 years ago they could have made one about us. The average population of humans during the pre-Neolithic era (I don't actually know what that means, but it's before 12,000 years ago) was fucking 2,000 adults! throw in some old people and babies and we're at maybe 5,000 worldwide. Holy shit! There are many endangered species with numbers in this range. Granted that we didn't have a huge population of intelligent and selfish super-primates fucking with us. But still.

Oh, and it turns out that this fact explains why babies are adorable.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Babies are crazy

This be some crazy shit. If found myself drawn into this saga thoroughly. Good mental health break.

Introductions

A chain Facebook note has put unbearable pressure on me to post a "28 things you may or may not know about me" list. I'm posting it here instead. Enjoy.

1. I love pickles more than pretty much anything. Specifically Clausen Dill Minis (with or without extra garlic). I hate sweet pickles though.
2. People often object that pickles are not a valid favorite food. If forced, I will tell you that my favorite non-pickle food is spaghetti. Observe:
3. I have been to 41 states. Every state except Connecticut , Vermont, Maine, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Alaska. I would like to visit all of these at some point, except Oklahoma. That state is pointless.
4. I have never been to Europe. This is something I'm pretty embarrassed about.
5. The reason I haven't dealt with this travesty is that I got hooked on snowboarding a few years back. So now my travel money goes to that. I haven't decided yet whether this makes sense.
6. Until recently I had a beta fish. My roommate moved to Australia and left it with me. I named it Reggie but he died last week. This probably had something to do with me being bad at life.
7. Talking about politics is lame and annoying.
8. I'm a complete junkie for politics. Like hours per day disappear to this shit.
9. I am known far and wide as a shitty driver, with good reason. I've never gotten a speeding ticket, but I've had 5 at-fault accidents. When I tell people how much I pay for car insurance, the reply is invariably "Holy shit." Either that or "Sweet baby Jesus."
10. I don't really like the Facebook. Sometimes this makes me feel like an outsider.
11. My mom has always had this weird disdain for salt. I grew up under the impression that is was wildly unhealthy. As a result, I never once put salt on an item of food (unless a recipe called for it) until about a year ago.
12. My very low sodium consumption results in me not retaining any liquid, so I have to pee like 12 seconds after I drink anything, alcoholic or otherwise. Or anyway, that's what I tell people is the cause of my pregnant-woman bladder.
13. I eat out a lot and feel guilty about it all the time.
14. I'm a damn good cook and want to do it more, but I work too much and so I'm lazy. So if you want someone to cook for you, just ask. I will be stoked.
15. When I was 17, I enrolled briefly at the United States Naval Academy. Drinking was not allowed there. After two months, I transferred to the University of Wisconsin. Drinking is all we did there.
16. I work for a software company. No, that does not mean I can fix your computer.
17. I hate wet socks. So. Much.
18. Allow me to elaborate. I keep a spare pair of socks at my office, principally as insurance against the very minor chance that the socks I'm wearing get even slightly wet.
19. I secretly want to have very carefully matched and fashionable outfits. Instead I have like 20 t-shirts that I wear in various mostly-random combinations with two pairs of jeans. This seems to work well.
20. I listen to music approximately 37 hours per day. My tastes are divided pretty evenly between heavy metal, hip-hop, nerd rock, and roots/folk rock (or in rare cases a combination of these). Hip-hop is the big deal right now. Common especially.
21. My favorite band is The Mars Volta. I have three framed concert posters on my wall from this band, and each probably decreases my chances of getting laid at any particular moment by about 30%. You do the math.
22. I have the ability to dislocate my shoulders at will. Do not ask me to do this, because it is intensely painful. Unless you're into that, I guess. I probably won't though unless you have boobs.
23. My favorite part of a woman is her waist. Mmmmmhmmmmm.
24. I have read Ender's Game at least 15 times. I once read it 5 times in a row.
25. On a related note, I recently cried at the end of The Road (by Cormac McCarthy). I really want to read it again (or maybe 15 times), but I keep putting it off because its so upsetting. The book is seriously fucking badass.
26. Returning to nerd-dom, I've read The Wheel of Time fantasy fiction series (grand total of about 5000 pages) 4 times. Then the author died of a weird blood disease without finishing the series. Fuck.
27. I was serious when I mentioned before that I love pickles. I drink pickle juice on a fairly regular basis (especially during or after drinking, it being the only real hangover cure).
28. I used to be a dog person and looked upon cats with mild disdain. Then I was introduced to these little buggers, and I'm completely and totally hooked:

Friday, January 23, 2009

It's official

This is the cutest animal on earth. It is the cutest animal the will ever exist. Case closed.

The slow loris

Also here, and here.

Unfortunately they are not good pets, or so Yahoo Answers says.