You can get with this, or you can get with that

The "Make John McCain Exciting" Challenge vs. Oliver Laric's "Touch My Body" Challenge.

Don't make me choose! Who's going to mash them up together?!

MySpace asks the hard-hitting questions

Q:


I love targeted advertising! Enjoy this jewel... (and who are those green people?)

How you get here...

Just finished looking at the viewer data from Google Analytics. This blog gets a lot of hits from people looking for more information on D.E. Shaw (a hedge fund I used to work for). I knew that bit of info already. But what I didn't know about was the weird search terms people are coming up with. For example...



Buh?

Some News, and also, the best spam EvER LOLZ

Hello non-existant reader! Hello future generation!

As you may or may not know, I'm working on a big project: I'm producing a TV show on PUBLIC ACCESS! It's cooler than it sounds.


It's called Share.tv, an hour-long program modeled off of the Share collective in NYC (and in several other locations around the globe). The point is, people get together with stuff that makes noise and/or video, and they improvise off of one another. Sometimes the results are mesmerizing, and sometimes they're deplorable, but it's one experience where the process that matters as much (if not even more) than the product, and it's a good time. If that doesn't make for good TV in-and-of-itself, picture that stuff going on with pre-taped segments featuring really prolific new media artist where they're showing off their material. Then, also, I'm going to try to get some animations and music videos interspersed between segments. That's good TV! Writers strike be damned! If you're interested, and would like to help out, cheer, or give me some tips, have a look at the project's website! Or join my Google Group!

On a completely different note, OMG did I get the best spam in the world today! (Now, before you ask me why I felt like going through the spam folder, I'll tell you: I was waiting for one of those confirmation emails you get when you join some service, but it wasn't popping up, so I figured it didn't get past my spam block. I was right.) I can't believe I almost deleted the whole contents of the folder! I would have missed out on such gems as these 5 emails, which I actually rescued from the spam folder, they were so good:



And yes, I couldn't resist the compulsion to open them. I know, I know, it's bad, and I shouldn't be doing those things (bad Harlo! Didn't they teach you ANYTHING at the UNIVERSITY?) but it was SOOOOOO WORTH IT:




Can i borrow someone else's computer to actually pay www . trarnies . com a visit? What's a trarnie? (A cross between a tranny and a carnie, natch.)

No, I wasn't making fun of you, Andrew Boch

Saturday night, Noah and I went to go see Ernie and the Automatics, this ca-razy blues cover band who I can picture playing at someone's wedding (not mine), and whose line-up consists of two members emeritus of the band Boston (Barry Goudreau and Sib Hashian), an event photographer who actually hands out her business card at the gig, and Ernie Boch, Jr., the Northeastern automobile industry giant. (Come on Down!)

I actually never heard anything by the Automatics, and the only song I know from Boston ("know" being used in the loosest of senses) is Forplay/Longest Time because it's the Imposible Song on Rock Band, which is a game we like to play in the living room at Park Street. Really, I just like the idea of Ernie Boch, Jr. He's a guy who has the balls to create his own aura of superstardom and foist it upon us. I can respect that. (Also, one of my friends is his nephew, a fact I did not know until after my little Ernie-crush was kindled.)

The concert was at the Middle East, with the Automatics playing the downstairs venue, and White Williams playing upstairs. When I went to go get our tickets, the girl behind the counter could not find my name on the will-call list. Turns out, she assumed I was on the will-call list for White's show (since according to some sources, I am a "hipster"). I corrected her, and she actually apologized, saying "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stereotype". In all fairness, I did want to see White Williams, so I responded "It's okay, we're trying to be ironic." I was kind of pressing to go upstairs after the Automatics played to see White Williams, too. But that didn't pan out.

Anyways, we got to meet Ernie later that night; he was a really chill guy. We thought that talking about knowing his nephews could be a great ice-breaker, but turns out, Ernie was so nice and kind of jazzed to talk to fans that we didn't need the way-in. Also, we had the impression that he only vaguely recalled who Andrew is. Somehow, the night ended with me, Noah, my roommate Emily, and some guy she met on the Something Awful forums piling into Ernie's limo to listen to a hot new unreleased single by the Automatics. This was monumental because (1) it was the first Automatics song that isn't a cover, and (2) we noticed that where most rock stars' limos would be filled to the hilt with liquor of all kinds, Ernie's limo held ONLY CANDY, leading us to realize that Andrew's extraordinary dependency on sugar is indeed hereditary. And a good time was had by all.

Chinese DNS error

(thx eli!)

Drunkorexia?

Defined as "the practice of replacing meals with booze" (thx Buzzfeed).

This is funny only because they don't acknowledge the one inevitable pitfall: when you drink a lot and don't eat, you ultimately get to the point where you'll eat ANYTHING the pub is selling (like 2 orders of buffalo wings) or stumble out to get burger king afterwards, harking down a whopper in the cab on the way home, getting ketchup all over yourself. It's not pretty.

An odd wikipedia entry

I was wikipedia'ing William Jennings Bryan this morning, and caught a funny defacement that will most likely be corrected soon.



Oops.

UPDATE Order has been restored, two hours later.