Roshambo, Embellished

I imagine the imaginary audience is familiar with the game Roshambo... known to us little people as Rock-Paper-Scissors. It's fairly simple to understand:
Rock crushes scissors,
Scissors cut paper,
Paper covers rock.
Yeah, that last one never made sense to me, either.
However, since I've discovered The Big Bang Theory, I've found a variation of Roshambo: Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. It's the same idea, with two additions.



Didn't quite catch that?

The Rock-Paper-Scissors part is the same. Here's where it's different:

Spock crushes Scissors, and vaporizes Rock.

Paper disproves Spock, and Lizard poisons Spock.

Lizard eats Paper.

Rock crushes Lizard, and Scissors decapitate Lizard.

Y'get it?

And, according to the Rock-Paper-Scissor page on Wikipedia (I know, reliable source, right?), there's an "Ultimate Rock-Paper-Scissors Chart."

I swear, I can remember a multitude of pages of music, but for the life of me I have no clue who would go to the trouble of remembering all of those symbols. I'd prefer to remember the combinations of RPSLS, truth be told.

Curiosity Augmented to Point of Impressive Discovery

It's kind of odd, going out of one's comfort range. But sometimes it can be rather rewarding.

Last night, whilst I was out and about, I decided to go see the movie Coraline with a relative. Now, I'm not usually a fan of "weird" movies, but I was curious. I'd heard from several people that this was a good movie, but most prominently from my good friend OrangeOreos. Besides his blog post on Coraline, we'd discussed it a few times. He suggested I look into it.

I must admit, I was extremely impressed. More than a couple parts were "odd," border-lining "creepy," but I think that was the charm of it. But if there were only two things that were good about it (there were more, but for the sake of conversation), it would be the visuals and the music. Music always adds an emotional layer to any performance of any kind, and this movie's soundtrack really enhanced the action. And the visuals, in 3-D I might add, were absolutely astounding. There was charm in the twitchiness of the stop-motion, and the level and amount of 3D used was absolutely perfect. It wasn't overdone, but it wasn't underdone either; just enough and subtle enough to go for a lifelike quality.

Perhaps I should yield to my boundless curiosity more often.

That, and maybe I should go to the library today to check out original book...

Public Radio+YouTube=Visual Radio!

Ah, the wonder that is NPR.
I know, most people groan at the acronym, mostly associated with repeated news stories, culture segments, and absolute boredom. But in the mind of a geek or nerd such as myself, it's one of the greatest things to happen to the media. One of my personal favorite shows? Garrison Keillor's weekly variety show A Prairie Home Companion, with its musical acts, the highlight that is The News from Lake Wobegon, and the radio drama. You don't hear that much anymore.
Likewise, I say this: ah, the wonder that is YouTube.
If I were to mention this among the same group of people who shuddered at public radio, I'd probably get a totally different response. This is perhaps a staple of pop culture, a sponge of free time, as millions watch clips or vintage TV shows, or stop-motion Lego adventures, or even sneezing pandas.
Some may think, "Man, I wish I could see a radio show." I know that sounds stupid, but I don't blame those who have that thought. I myself have seen Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and A Prairie Home Companion live, and it is quite fascinating, watching the people you couldn't pick out of a crowd by face alone, but upon hearing his or her voice there would be immediate recognition do their radio thing.
Now, you may be wondering: how could NPR and YouTube be intertwined? Is this even possible?
Oh, it is, my friend, it is!
Relatively recently, Prairie has been posting videos of some of their skits and/or acts on YouTube. Now you can actually see a radio show, without leaving the soft glow of your computer screen!



This here's the Guy Noir segment from the 1/30/09 show.

Or, if you're looking for something much shorter:


But don't be afraid to poke around the actual website!
http://www.prairiehome.org/
If you're a sworn "enemy" of public radio, but you're dying of curiosity, I won't tell anyone you visited the site.

A little-known fact: NPR actually interviewed Cookie Monster. I kid you not.
Need proof?



I'll leave you with that, my friends.
Isn't it fun to watch radio?

Half-Asleep Greetings from the (Very, Very Sleepy) Music-and-History Monk

Alright, due to a hugely immense, insanely ginormous history project, I've pretty much had time for eating, sleeping, homework, two hours of practice (if I'm lucky), and The Project. So I've been living like a monk, essentially.

The Brother of the Piano and the Brother of History have been keeping me on a stringent schedule: waking up around 5 or 5:30 am, working until school, then practicing (if I can manage it, this week's been absolutely brutal to be honest) or working on other homework. And then I must toil away at the mountain of a history project, armed only with my strength, wit, and what feels like an applique needle.

Which isn't all that big, folks.

According to my initial calculations, most of the rock that made up the mountain were comprised of quartz.

Quartz is a pretty tough rock, my friends.

It ain't easy to pick away at that with a sewing needle.

But, now I am finally on the home stretch. I hand in the project tomorrow, once I finish it, of course, and it will finally be out of my hair!

-cue Hallelujah Chorus-

But for now, I must depart, for the monastery bedtime-bell is tolling, and the Book of Foner is gnawing at my ankle. I shall hold my tongue from crying out to the book: "Give Me Liberty!"

-pulls up hood, picks up Book of Foner-

"pie Jesu Domine..."

-THUNK-
"...dona eis requiem..."

-THUNK-

Early Morning, Last-Minute Research

Top o' the mornin'!
Another reason people probably think I'm out of my mind: Unfortunately, I forgot to do some of an assignment last night (-gasp in horror!-)... so what do I do to correct the problem?
Hit the sack early to wake up at five a.m.
No, I'm not joking you. I'm a morning person, what more can I say? I salvaged some sleep, and (hopefully) saved part of a project. I plan on knocking out the rest of it as quickly as I can... here's hoping that goes well!
But, what research I kinda didn't do last night in history I made up for in research of the pop-culture variety: I TiVoed and watched a couple episodes of "The Big Bang Theory."
That's right. I actually recorded and viewed a tv show not on PBS or Discovery Channel.
-more gasps!-
I'd heard about the show from two friends and my physics teacher, and figured it was worth a shot. I swear, it was absolutely great.
A short demonstration can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J43lAESftPs


Intelligence and humor... along with a pretty sweet theme song by the Barenaked Ladies. How could it not be awesome?

Upcoming Attractions

(I'm not entirely sure how many people actually read this blog, but no matter. If I inform empty space, dangnabit I shall inform empty space!)

Before the fall of Ficlets, I joined the writing site protagonize.com. After a few days, a rant, and a bit of acclamation (which is ongoing), someone suggested that I bring over something familiar from my past. It didn't take me too long to figure out what I had to do.

On Ficlets, I had collaborated on a rather excellent series with the ever-wonderful OrangeOreos. I'd published some random bit one day, not expecting too much out of it. The very next day I found a sequel attatched to it. It provoked me. I had to add on. It just kept building, and building, and building into a rather great project over the course of many months.
You can read the "Accursed Necklace" series, in its original form, from this link right here:
http://ficlets.ficly.com/stories/42054

After joining Protag, I consulted Orange and told him of this idea I had: what if we were to repost the Necklace series? But! We decided to take it one step further. If you're not familiar with ficlets, it'd probably help to know that there was a more-or-less (in)famous character count: no more than 1,024 characters, no fewer than 64. But with Protag, we didn't have the same boundaries. What if, instead of merely reposting, we expanded on the story? It was decided: we would repost the Necklace series, but an extended version.

But the inspiration bug bit me once more. I asked my friend, an excellent artist, if she would consider illustrating various parts of the Necklace series. She agreed, to my great satisfaction.

So! It boils down to this: In the coming weeks, I plan on posting "Accursed Necklace," in its new entirety, with illustrations.

Can't wait that long to read what we have so far?
http://www.protagonize.com/story/accursed-necklace

Ficleting Address

Four score & 12 weeks ago, Kevin L. brought forth into this Internet a new website concieved in creativity & dedicated to the proposition that collaboration will spike creativity.

Now we are confronted by a crisis, testing whether the idea of this website, or any website so concieved & so dedicated, can continue to endure. We meet in this part of cyberspace in the midst of this crisis. We’ve come to pay our respects to this site, to recognise those who here poured out their souls that this website or the idea of this website might live. It is altogether fitting & proper that we should do this.

But, in a greater sense, we can’t dedicate, we can’t consecrate, we can’t hallow, this site. The brilliant writers, newer and die-hards, who’ve struggled here, all have consecrated it, far above our weak power to add or detract. The virtual world probably won’t remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we did here. It’s for us, rather, to be dedicated in continuing the effort we’ve so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here, dedicated to the great task ahead of us, that from these great writers, we here greatly swear that these pieces of writing shall not have been typed in vain.

That this website, under the heavens, shall have a new beginning for us, and that a writing website of the writers, by the writers, for the writers, “...shall not perish from the earth.“

~g2 (la pianista irlandesa)
December 10th, 2008