Don't forget to try

I'm making the self-serving addition of lists of sites I frequent. My blogging efforts have been weak, but if there is one belief I live by, it is this: better to do something flawed than do nothing at all.

Tumblr

I'm trying out Tumblr. Check it out:

http://JordanLyons.tumblr.com

Rudolph's Revenge

Just to follow-up on that last post a bit. I was disappointed at the clunkiness of embedding the Google Map in my blog. I figured that since they're both Google, it would be no sweat, but the embedded map was unwieldy, and it's still stuck on Lexington, Massachusetts.

Here are some other permutations: "like Lincoln!" "like the president!" and "like Pinocchio!"

"You'll go down in history (like _________)"

On my Thanksgiving trip to Michigan, I found out that my when my girlfriend (and her fellow Michiganders) sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with the extra schoolyard lyrics, they end it like this:

"You'll go down in history (like George Washington)"

I had never heard of that. Where I come from (Boise, Idaho), Rudolph went down in history "like Columbus." In my bias, I still favor that variation. I think it fits the meter better, and it conveys a sense that, like Columbus, Rudolph will be a problematic and divisive figure. On the other hand, I can see where Rudolph's adventure fits neatly into the same historical narrative with our first president chopping down cherry trees and wearing wooden teeth.

Taking a cue from the Pop vs. Soda page, I have started a google map, showing Columbus and Washington's spheres of influence:


View Larger Map

More on this as I develop it. Also, I want to register my disappointment that Rudolph's wikipedia entry makes no mention of the time-honored schoolyard lyrics.

It's nice to feel wanted

I'm sorry for my unannounced hiatus. I have been so busy between my new job and LSAT preparation that I let the blog go by the wayside for a bit. Zach and Drew, thank you for your comments.

Zach, it's funny to hear about your dreams, because I have been having my own batch of strange anxiety dreams. I hope that putting things to rights here will help to put my subconscious at ease.

Also, thank you Miriam of Wrathofblog.com for your comment. I'm glad you can see that ripping off the name of your blog was just a pathetic kind of flattery. You're much better than I am at this.

Here is "Patrick Swayze Christmas." The title is a reference to the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

I'm short on time right now, but later I'm going to try to find a video of that bit, as well as clean up this exceptionally sloppy post.

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Patrick Swayze Christmas

Woohoo! Christmas vacation officially kicked off today as I jumped on a Greyhound from rainy old Olympia to sunny Seattle (haw haw). I met up with my old roommate Joel, who has the most knowledge and best taste in movies of anyone I know. So, what have we watched tonight?

NATIONAL TREASURE (2004): This movie is beyond ridiculous. Beyond redonkulous. But embarrassingly enough, it was really entertaining. You're a clever bastard, Jerry Bruckheimer. Oh well, at least I didn't pay.

ROAD HOUSE (1989): Even after all these years, Swayze is still the hardest. The last time I saw this, I think it was on TBS, which is no way to see a movie this violent/profane/full of Swayze ass. Don't quote me on this, but I think it's actually the sequel to Footloose.

posted by Mind of Shatner at 1:55 AM

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12:46 PM

Anonymous said...

i thought it was "redunkulous"...

very strange thing - i, too, have a friend whose name is Joel... and he has the most knowledge and the best taste in movies of anyone I know... whoa. Was your Joel ever a child star in Turkey?

-Tanya

12:46 PM

Anonymous said...

Man, I hope I have a Patrick Swayze Christmas. We'll make Santa Claus are regular Saturday Night thing.

Later Mon Frere, that means brother in French. Don't know why I know that; I took four years of Spanish.

2:05 PM

Dinking. Just dinking.

It's remarkable that our hero was at once reduced to talking about the weather, and not yet over remarking on the blog's features.

Patience. We are yet in the 'inauspicious beginnings' phase.

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viernes, diciembre 10, 2004

Let the dinking begin

This blog is like a goddamn loose tooth. All I've done tonight is dink with it. And I made plane reservations for a roundtrip flight to Madrid and back. Ilea iacta est.

also: FEATURES! FEATURES! FEATURES!

As I write this I'm using, like, 8. The neatest is this secret email address that makes posts. I guess it's kind of practical, which makes it slightly less cool. Oh well.

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Holler.

It's pretty damn sweet that you've started your own "Captain's BLOG." Indeed, nobody is more deserving of one of these nerdy time capsules to the future than the one and only William Shatner. I am also the first to post a comment, which gives me so much street cred it's incredible.

-Zach

5:26 AM

I really think this is sweet. Though I agree about the crappiness of the rain. Ithaca has decided to skip winter and go straight to wet and depressing spring. We're all gonna be holed up here too...

Nat

6:55 AM

Sorry, Zach. "First comment" bragging rights were already grabbed by yours truly with the deliciously convoluted comment to the entry entitled "Boredom of Biblical Proportions."

-Connor

1:52 PM

Boredom and embarrassment

viernes, diciembre 10, 2004

Boredom of Biblical Proportions

It's always kind of raining in Olympia. Drizzling. But it's been coming down hard for several days non-stop. I have the distinct feeling that it will never end.

Meanwhile, I'm spider-holed in my apartment on a Friday night, waiting for a phonecall from my parents. Life in the fast lane, and all that.

So, in the interim, I went ahead and set up this blog. This March I'm going to Spain, and this is going to be my principle means of communication with my loved ones in Oly, Boise, Philadelphia, etc. Good planner that I am, and plenty bored, I thought I would acquaint myself with blogging starting now.

OK, the rain has stopped now. How embarrassing.

posted by Mind of Shatner at 5:31 PM

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1 Comments:

Actually, it was still raining when you posted this. I know because it was out in it. Which I suppose is even more embarrassing. Still more embarrassing is that it then later stopped raining and turned into a perfect-weather night for donut deliver, thereby recreating the original reason for embarrassment without aleviating the intermediary embarrassment. Or some shit.

-Connor

4:36 AM

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I used the phrase 'spider-holed.' How 2005 is that? It's a pretty gross-sounding phrase, I can see why it didn't have staying power.

I didn't look back at weather reports to clarify these conflicting accounts. Maybe in the second round of re-runs.