best worst movie ever

this title officially goes to 1984's "breakin'" (until i see something more awesomely bad)

i mean, this movie's got it all: bad acting, horrible fashion, lame plotline, breakdancing (of course) and the thing that sets it above all else...

jean-claude van damme as "passerby in first dance sequence". hee.


now we discovered this because we were watching the dance sequences, and one of the guys shouted out "oh my gosh, that was jean-claude van damme". we went back and paused the movie, and sure enough, there was a dude that looked an awful lot like mr. van damme. another guy didn't believe it was him, so we imdb'ed it and sure enough, there he was. so awesome. made my night really.

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auto adventures

So yesterday, Holly went into the garage to move Jen's (roommate from last year who went to China for the summer) car so that we would have room in the garage to put boxes etc. during The Big Moveout/in. Only turns out Jen's car won't start. (We were supposed to take it out and drive it occasionally, so really this should've been discovered sooner). So today, Ashley decides that she's going to try and jump start the car so that we can move it. After a few minutes spent hunting for the key, Ash goes down to the garage and attempts to put the car in neutral so we can push it out of the garage.

This is where we run into problem #2: The shifter is locked. But we are Tech students/graduates, we can figure this out. Ash gets a screw driver and pries open the cover of the lock, then I took the key and pushed it down in the hole and got the shifter to move. Excellent. So we push the car out of the garage (much easier than expected), and Ash brings her car around to jump it. After consulting the instruction on her cables and her dad, Ash hooks up the cables and we try to start the car. No dice. (It should also be noted that the batteries on Jen's car are rather corroded and her car hasn't been moved in several months - we were a tad nervous). We decide that maybe Ashley's car is too small, so we bring my car (boat) and it's V8 engine around back and hook it up. The car starts on the first try. And there was much rejoicing.

But see, the story does not end here, no indeed. Ash decides we should take the car out for a spin since it's been sitting in the garage all summer. It needs gas and maybe a car wash. So we head to Ponce and drive along looking at gas prices. Now when we got in the car, I rolled down my window. As it turns out, this was not the best of ideas as I discovered a little later that the window would not roll back up. I was of course concerned because this not only eliminates the car wash objective, but I don't want to have broken Jen's window. Ashley didn't seem very worried, which I wondered about, but then she realized that the car wash was no longer a possibility - heh.

So anyway, we pull into a gas station and fill up. But when Ashley tries to restart the car, nothing happens. (It was pointed out by Lauren later on that we should have let Jen's car run off of mine for longer.) We look for Ashley's cell phone to call Lauren to come jump us, but turns out she left it at the house, and I don't have mine, and neither of us knows Lauren's number. Oh, and during this time, Ash opens the change drawer and it falls off. By this point, we are laughing partly out of frustration and partly because this situation has become a bit ridiculous.

So I go inside and ask the manager if he can jump us. He pulls around his truck and the engine starts. So we head back home and pull the car in backwards into the garage, because we'll probably have to jump it again. And the window still won't roll up. So the whole point of getting Jen's car to work (so we can move it out of the garage) has just become moot. Oy.

(But we did get the change drawer back in at least).

just who is this dave?

so the radio station formally known as Z93 has changed their name to 92.9 davefm, and accordingly their format has changed as well. now, i'm not entirely sure how i feel about this switch. well, i know exactly how i feel about the name change, it sucks. it ranks right up there with the "don miller morning show" - totally lame. but they do play good music. from what i've heard so far, it's a lot of 80s and 90s tunes that occasionally air on 99x (mostly in the retroplex), and they're good songs, it just that, well, the Z93 format was good too. they had some overlap with 96 rock, but they were a quirkly blend of jazz, funk, and classic rock. that's great stuff right there. i mean, no other station would play like 5 U2 songs in a row on saturday mornings. (i dont' know that they did this every saturday, but they did every saturday i happened to be listening.) and they had certain times they just played jazz, and they ran excerpts from comedians' stand-up routines during rush hour. people, i've said this before, and i'll say it again: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

drinkable doughnuts

so krispy kreme has come out with iced drinks that are supposedly like drinkable versions of their dougnuts. this is one of those ideas that has the potential to be really great or really horrible. i'm tempted to go try one, you know, in the name of science.

although, the have more calories in them than the doughnuts, which i didn't really think was possible. maybe i'll just stick to the actual doughnuts after all.

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whaaa?

bbc article about a church set up in the name of spongebob squarepants. i kid you not.

though i looked up the group and found their website. seems like it's probably a hoax, but a fairly elaborate one. they really put a lot of effort into it. if you want to give it a look, it's www.churchofspongebob.org (i don't know how to do more that one link per post, you'll just have to copy and paste). i think my favorite part is that the supposed followers are called "Absorbants." hee.

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do you hear the words coming out of your mouth?

so todd hamilton, who won the british open today, commented that the experience was amazing and made him "feel like everything around him was in 3D"...

um, dude, that's cause it is.

science link of the day

dr. hawking has made a complete reversal in part of his theory of black holes. even the smartest man on the planet can be wrong sometimes.

i actually had the priviledge of hearing dr. hawking speak at an astronomy convention in atlanta when i was in high school. it was amazing. i don't remember much about the topic of the talk anymore, and to be honest, a lot of it was probably over my head at the time. but it was absolutely amazing. and not only is he completely brilliant, he is really funny. and get this - he loves the simpsons. (that's why he appeared in that one episode).

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science link of the day

again, this science link is courtesy of the good people of the bbc online news. excellent news source.

anyway, this article is meteorology-related, and is entitled "monster raindrops delight experts." i'll leave it at that and let you read the article.

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science link of the day

this is an article from the bbc about the gender split in attitudes about science (and no, it's not boys like it, girls don't). i'm particularly interested in the part where they talk about science curriculums, and how many are boring and are turning students off of careers in science. it's funny because i think our perspective on this topic at tech is understandably skewed - by and large we're scientists and engineers, and even if we're not, we still get a better education in these areas than most. but it's still an important problem to be aware of, because soon we're not going to have enough people to fill the jobs in the technology sectors. in the article, they talk about couple proposals of new approaches to take in teaching science, particularly emphasizing discussion of the ethics involved in many scientific endeavors.

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what's great for a snack?

and fits on your back? it's log! log! log!

that's right, from the good people of VH1, we finally have "i love the 90s", and it is totally rad. that's right, my friend rad. i don't know why, but i love remembering all this crap:

ren & stimpy, which brought us the wonders of powdered toast man and the log song, which was simply stroke of genius. looking back though, it does amaze me that for awhile this show aired on nickelodeon, and during times that little kids watched. might explain a few things about our generation though.

the x-files, one of the frickin greatest shows ever. steve urkel and his hiked up pants. the blind melon video with the "bee girl" - awesome song, greatest video ever. barney - the bane of my existance in my baby-sitting years, and as they say, the downfall of good children's programming. it's just never been the same. stupid barney. jurassic park - scared the crap out of me when we watched it at my 13th birthday party. shortly after viewing it, i dreamed i was being chased by raptors.

and you can't forget the power rangers. my favorite is dee snider talking about how his kids were obsessed with them and he had to hunt down the dolls for them. that is just a great image: dee snider pushing aside all the soccer moms to get at the last box. heh.

and oh so much more...

oh and the commentators are hilarious. especially micheal ian black and hal sparks. i love hal sparks.

i can only hope that one day in the next decade, they will do a show about the 2000's (or whatever) and i will be a minor celebrity and get to commentate. that would be awesome.

a-men

a rant against the low-carb diet craze. and i couldn't have said it better myself.

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resistance really is futile

my little borg pony. heh.

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science link of the day

this is a really interesting article in the bbc about prince charles's article expressing his concerns on the use of nanotechnology. but the really interesting part to me isn't really what the prince said so much is that it shows the influence that figureheads can have in society with regards to scientific matters. and it hints at how important it is for the general populace to take part in scientific debates, which i completely agree with. (that's one of the reasons i put these links up here, in the hopes that someone will read them, and they're interesting of course).

it bothers me that people might simply take a statement like the prince's at face value without looking in to the matter further. these are the kinds of statements that create a backlash against science, when sometimes the matter has simply been misundertood. i know that's a bit vague, but it's happened before. i read rachel carson's "silent spring" for a public policy class in the fall, and it is the most disturbing book i have ever read. it's amazing how long officials denied the side effects of pesticides and continued to dump them in amazing quantities and cause so much damage to the people and environment in the area. it's these kind of situations where the people don't get a voice and often don't know enough about the science to have an arguement that are so unfortunate.

anyway, i'll get off my soap box (for now) and get back to work.

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please get off my foot

so i went to see reel big fish at the roxy with my brother and his friends. they are excellent live i must say. one of their members can play the piano, trumpet, and the guitar and has a great voice and amazing range. and he was really funny. (but what do you expect from a band who has a song titled 'she has a girlfriend now"?) so yeah, super fun show.

it was the first ska concert i've been to, and it was quite interesting to watch the audience. they do this "dance" that half dancing, half moshing. really funny to watch... until they bump into you and step on your feet that is. i spent most of the set of one of the opening bands with my hands up in front of me trying to keep people from knocking me over. and it didn't help that most of the people were sweaty. eeew.

it also kind of sucked that we had to pay $15 to park at the roxy. that's just obscene. because of that there wasn't enough money left to get a rbf shirt that i liked. it had arnold schwartzeneggar's face on it and it is said "stop laughing. seriously."

as good a time as any

i should've posted this a few days ago when i first found out about it, but i didn't, so yeah.

basically, because of the success of iTunes, apple is giving away iPods and stuff as the count up to 100 million songs download. that is a lot of songs. they have a big counter on the main apple page, which is what the link is too. there are more details on the contest there and you can download iTunes for free. (works on PCs too because apple is cool like that).

so this is as good a time as any to start downloading. i've downloaded a couple of songs, but sadly no free iPod.

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science link of the day

success continues for the cassini-huygens mission

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fingers crossed

so if you're not living in a cave (or are a tech student), you've probably heard that john kerry named john edwards as his running mate yesterday. excellent move mr. kerry. politcally, he'll help pull in some of the southern votes, he's young and charismatic (which, let's face it, kerry really isn't), and well, he seems like a pretty nice guy. obviously i don't know him, but the few times i've seen him speak, i liked what he had to say. some experts are saying his lack of political experience is a hindrance, but really, i sort of prefer it. i mean, who really likes politicians. and anyway, he's a lawyer, so he, you know, knows the law. sort of important for one of the nation's leaders.

i'm just really hoping the democrats can run a good campaign and get mr. bush out of office. i don't hate the guy or anything, i just don't like the direction he's taking our country in and what he's done for our foreign relationships. and he is, quite possibly, the worst public speaker i have ever heard. that in and of itself isn't enough to warrant him not being re-elected, but i do think the leader of our country should be a bit more articulate and shouldn't reinforce the "dumb american" stereotype overseas. john kerry isn't exactly enthralling, but he can sure as hell string a sentence together.

anyway, i should stop ranting and actually do some work. but here is a link that i think makes some excellent arguements in mr. kerry's favor. in the meantime, i'll have my fingers crossed that the democrats win in november.

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conversation snippets

my brother: i want to see "alien vs. predator"

his friend: i heard it doesn't have much plot

my brother: it's "alien vs. predator," do you really expect much plot?

heh.

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(from the daily show)

stephen colbert: who wants more cheese on their cheetos?

ralph nader: who wants more garlic on their fried eggs?

i think that speaks for itself.

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and the ultimate funny conversation, the girls bike club series (see link below):

Sarah: Tom Cruise is definitely in the GBC, though.

Wing Chun: But he's convinced that his girls' bike is actually a boys' bike, and he will not be dissuaded. He's super-defensive about it. And whenever Vince Neil is like, "That's a chick ride, T.C.," Tom Cruise sues him for slander.

Sarah: Heh. Vince Neil. Vince Neil fully would not care, either. He'd just be tooling around the neighborhood in sweat-shorts all, "Would anyone care for a frosty-cold beer from my basket-slash-cooler?"

Wing Chun: Totally. And he'd be smoking.

Sarah: And Miss August 2002 would be riding bitch on the back wheel.

you really should read it if you haven't - so funny.

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the sky is falling

in the form of crazy amounts of rain. seriously, this is getting ridiculuous. not that i don't know that we need it, i'm sure we do, but c'mon. it's had rained for the past 17 days. 17!!!! And it doesn't look to be letting up any time soon.

I know, I know I'm the meteorologist, but it's really no good asking me why. Just one of those things really.

science link of the day

it's always amazing how sometime the more we research, the more questions we come up with

when i worked as a volunteer for fernbank in high school, i got to come down and observe sunspots one day. it was beyond cool.

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run like you stole something

Well, I made it through the Peachtree road race. And I didn't do too bad if I say so myself. I ran the first 3 miles, which I'm pretty proud of, and I finished with a time of 1:24:08, my best yet. (For point of reference, the people that are actually running to win finish in about 23 minutes - they are done before I even start running. Crazy.) Anyway, it was still really fun. It stayed relatively cool out and there were frequent breezes, which was a blessing. Speaking of blessings, there was a priest outside of a Catholic church sprinkling holy water onto runners as they passed by.

One of my favorite things about the race is that it's a really fun place to people watch. Some of the runners have funny shirts or crazy costumes. (One girl had a shirt that said "I hate running", and a man had one that said "Kick some asphalt." Heh.) There are people on the sidelines with signs, my favorites this year were: "run like you stole something" and "BEER... made you run faster didn't it?" Hee. It's nice to have stuff like that to watch.

There are always lots of people lining the route cheering you on (which is really only fun for awhile, and after about the fourth mile when people start shouting "c'mon keep running" and "only _ more miles", you want to shout back "if it's that easy, why aren't you out here"). I also get pissed when runners who have finished come back and stand on the side of the route and show you the t-shirt. Assholes. I want to see it when I finish the race, not anytime before. (For those who aren't aware, the Peachtree Road Race t-shirt is highly coveted and you get to vote each year on several possible designs, and you don't know which one wins until the end of the race.)

But all in all, a fun time. If you get a chance, the link at the bottom of this post goes to the ajc coverage of the race, and has some neat pictures. Especially the overhead ones of all the runners.

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peachtree road race

so i'm about to go to sleep so i can wake up insanely early and go run 10 km. because i'm crazy. but i'm in good company, as there will be 55,000 other people out there with me. if you want to come cheer us on, all the bars and restaurants on peachtree will be open - it's really quite fun. (i won't hold it against you if you don't)

i was reading through the "peachtree road race magazine" that they send out each year, and there were a few things that made me giggle. on one page they have a description of the race route and things to look for. mile 2's blurb starts out: "as the race winds through old Buckhead, it's in the city's most noted bar district, where the, ummm, "spirited" spectators will be found. hee. spirited is definitely the right word. over the years, the "spiritedness" has found its way into the race as well. there was a big group behind me last year that were happily winding their way along the route with beers in their hands.

on another page, they have written several handy types for race day, such as: "Don't each much... come start time, you want your body giving energy to your legs rather than derailed digesting bacon and eggs. no one had ever starved to death during a 10K race." heh. i've always like that part. and i would like to add that not only does eating divert your body's energy, it also makes you more likely to, well, "lose your lunch" (or breakfast as it were). as my dad reminds me every year, there's one rule for eating before a race: you can eat it as long as it tastes as good coming up as it does going down. yeah, my dad's weird, i know.

hooray for hubble

more good news for nasa. hope they figure out a way to keep hubble up and running.

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excuse me, i believe you have my stapler

i was doing some errands back in the burbs today, and i drove past what used to be the hermann miller plant (where ashley's dad worked actually. a new company has since moved in, and it is called (i am not making this up), innoplex. hee. office space is one of the best movies ever.

science link of the day

something finally goes right for nasa.

see, i love astronomy, and i think we have learned so much from our forays into space exploration. but it's kind of funny if you think about it from the perspective of someone looking down (or up really) at our solar system: here's this tiny blue planet, maybe the only one with life for a good distance, that every so often chucks a big hunk of metal out into the vastness of space. i dunno, it always make me giggle to think about in that way. but i maybe i'm just weird. it's entirely possible.


(oh, there's a fairly neat animted graphic in this story)

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whaaa?

the city is shutting off our water tomorrow to repair a pipe or something. and they're doing it between 8 and 10 am. um, yeah... now is it just me, or does this seem like quite possibly the stupidest time they could do this?