Haunting the Web Since 1999
The picture in the top left was getting kinda stale (and I’d lost the beard a few months ago), so I pulled out the digital camera today and took a few shots of me and Berkeley. Here’s the results:
Two fun links stolen from Quiddity today: Star Wars celebrity yearbooks and Skippy the Goth Kangaroo. “What’s that, Skip? Lord Oberon, Darkness of the Night, has fallen down the well?“
Enjoyed a new experience today – my first beard trim at the barber’s. At this point, the whole beard experiment is at a strange stage. I’m not sure if I really like the look (Despite the grad student thing, I just don’t feel like a beard guy), but, like a long relationship gone to seed, I’ve got so much invested at this point that I might as well keep it going. Besides, I do in fact look closer to my age now, which was part of the point, and I have gotten some very enthusiastic compliments from some corners – it’s like I now appeal to a completely different female demographic (although some cats now hate me.) At any rate I suppose I’ll keep it up at least until the warm weather sets in – and given that it’s currently snowing outside, that could be longer than it seems.
Nike receives some bad press for paying homage to dogfighting in its new basketball ad (“The Battle: Speed,” available here once you get past the flash.) My reaction was much the same as the guy from Slate: I generally liked the ad and liked the music (even if I thought Gary Payton would kill Steve Nash in 1-on-1), right up until the shot of the pit bulls going at it at the end. Since my own dog was mauled by a pit bull owned by some dumb-ass kids aspiring to this side of street life (4/15), I also found that shot to be in very, very poor taste. I would say I’d boycott Nike for it, but I pretty much already do – I generally buy Sambas or Pumas for my daily gear, and the And-One Sprewells for my basketball kicks. (In fact, I used to have a pair of the Nike GP’s, and they fell apart on me.) At any rate, a bad call by the boys in Beaverton.
So I just got back from a rather lucrative 1-hour “dog psychology” marketing session in Uris Hall (a.k.a. the Columbia business school), which I signed up for after seeing a flyer earlier in the week. For one hour of hypothesizing what Berkeley would say in various situations, I got a free lunch, $50 in cold, hard cash (we’re going to have to make a trip to the pet store), and a coupon for a free (and somewhat goofy) $120 Bowlingual dog translator, to be redeemed when they arrive Stateside in August. Apparently they’re trying to come up with a stock of English phrases for the US release. So, if you happen to buy one of these and it tells you your canine is saying things like “I defy you,” “The madness has come upon me,” and “Your coming here is as the footsteps of doom,” you’ll know why.
Slate examines the psychology of racist dogs. Fortunately, Berkeley doesn’t have this problem – he barks madly at anybody with the temerity to knock on my door, regardless of race (along with any random forces of evil passing through.)
A very happy birthday to Berkeley, who turns three today. Since that’s 21 in dog years, I expect all kinds of shenanigans in the apartment this evening while I’m out tutoring.
Hmmm…let’s see how Zen this dog is once we get some bacon in the room, or for that matter, when Berkeley starts yelping at him for absolutely no reason in particular. Then I’ll be impressed. (Sent via High Industrial.)
It is very, very cold.
The Village Voice scrutinizes the social habits of the military-industrial complex. (Not to judge a story by its cover, but this article, interesting on its own terms, also features a cartoon of dogs playing poker, which I must admit is a trope I’m particularly fond of.)
