Quote of the Day: A Soviet newspaper reports: "Last night the N. Nuclear Powerstation fulfilled the Five Year Plan of heat energy generation in 4 microseconds."
-- Russian joke

Word of the Day: air hockey

Phrase of the Day: offer void where prohibited

Esperanto Sentence of the Day:
La akvo malaperis!
The water disappeared!

LJ's Stupid Thought of the Day: This isn't a stupid thought, but I just did something that qualifies me as the biggest internet-addict loser geek in the world. I logged into a chat room for Bones, and nobody was there, so I just talked to the empty chat room.

Quote of the Day: "I know things that would curdle your blood... including a formula that literally curdles blood!" --Dr. Hodgins

Word of the Day: viscous

Phrase of the Day: postage due

Esperanto Sentence of the Day:
Kie estas la akvo?
Where is the water?

LJ's Stupid Thought of the Day: Hitting a federal mail truck with your car is considered a felony, I guess because the mail truck is federal property. Is it a felony to hit a mail MAN? What if you're the mail man's girlfriend, and you hit him, you know, as a domestic dispute, when he's out of uniform?

Quote of the Day: “If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.” --Jack Handey

Word of the Day: cuddlebug

Phrase of the Day: trigger-happy psychopath

Esperanto Sentence of the Day:
La homoj lernas.
The people learn.

LJ's Stupid Thought of the Day: Today I sat for a long time at the stop sign, waiting for it to turn green.

Quote of the Day: "But you know, I've learned something today. You see, the basis of all reasoning is the mind's awareness of itself. What we think, the external objects we perceive, are all like actors that come on and off stage. But our consciousness, the stage itself, is always present to us." --Kyle

Word of the Day: astigmatism

Phrase of the Day: frightens small children

Esperanto Sentence of the Day:
La fisxajo estas mallarga.
The fish meat is small.

LJ's Stupid Thought of the Day: Before the invention of sunblock, did people who had to work outside all the time, like farmers, just keep getting badly burned all the time?

When Michael Jackson died, I was disappointed that his death wasn't as freaky as his life, until I read this headline:

Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him

Full stories here, here, and here.

In short:

- TMZ, the website that broke the news, crashed. It didn't help that it broke the news 2 hours before reputable news sources were comfortable with their facts enough to post.
- Twitter crashed.
- AIM crashed. Nobody could use AIM for 40 minutes.
- Google got so many queries it thought it was under attack and started giving error messages. Deliberate attacks have been coordinated on Google in the past, BTW, and haven't caused a blip.
- Wikipedia's entry on MJ got edited hundreds of times and was finally locked by the administrators.
- Major news sites slowed down significantly.
- The internet in general slowed down.

Also, Michael Jackson was the top 15 best-sellers on Amazon and took up half of iTunes' Top 20, with Thriller making number one.

This article on Micheal Jackson's death caught my attention: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/26/michael.jackson/index.html

I noticed how, instead of referring to him by name, the article called him different things, like, "the music idol," "the singer," "the superstar," "the troubled idol," etc.

It reminded me of something.

It reminded me of the way Greek myths represent gods.

I think it was when we read the Iliad that it was explained that the gods are seldom referred to by name; they have several standardized epithets by which they were also referred. For example, "Shining Eyes" was known by everyone to refer to Athena, along with several other names, like "Hope of Soldiers" and "The Wise One" and "The Chick with the Owl." (I'm pulling all those names out of my ass, BTW.) So the author of a myth wouldn't necessarily say "Athena," he'd say one of her epithets and expect everyone to know who he was talking about. When you're reading, you see "Hope of Soldiers," "Bright Eyes," and "The Chick with the Owl" all on the same page.

The press probably does this just to avoid being repetitive, but still. I think it makes the article look like a passage from Homer.

Quote of the Day: "Darkness falls across the land: The midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorize y'all's neighborhood. The foulest stench is in the air: the funk of forty thousand years. And grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom. And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver, for no mere mortal can survive the evil of the thriller." --Thriller

Word of the Day: Elephantiasis

Phrase of the Day: fire hazard

Esperanto Sentence of the Day:
Mia haro estas incendia!
My hair is on fire!

LJ's Stupid Thought of the Day: Is Michael Jackson's ghost black or white?

Quote of the Day: "Surrealism is rarely seen on TV... but you know it when you see it." --AFV

Word of the Day: tulip

Phrase of the Day: makes men cry

Esperanto Sentence of the Day:
Vi estas dommustelo.
You are a ferret.

LJ's Stupid Thought of the Day: If you went to a techno rave and danced like you were doing DDR, would you be cool or lame?

... What if your steps were accurate?

... But then, what if the DJ puts on a DDR song and everyone on the dance floor starts doing synchronized steps? That doesn't ever happen, does it?

... No, it wouldn't happen, because you'd have people doing Beginner, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert level steps.

... But if a DDR song DID come on, and you DIDN'T do the steps, would everyone think you're a loser?

Dad: "LJ?"
Me: "Yeah?"
Dad: "Can you stay in your room while I walk around inappropriately?"
Me: "Yeah."

... I got a really nice jacket. It's going to be my new Favorite Jacket, I just know. Every time I agonize over losing that skirt, I remind myself, "At least they didn't take this coat from me!" And then I hug it and rock back and forth a little.

Do most of you recall my pink and purple jacket? Do you remember how at some angles, the pink fabric looked green? This coat is made out of the same kind of material. It's rust or green, depending on how you look at it-- red in the shadows and green in the highlights. This is a truer green than the olive green that was in my pink jacket. It has a removable liner in same kind of fabric, only purple/green. This coat is an appropriate color and weight for fall, spring, and moderate winter. It has a detachable hood edged with real fur in just the right shade of brown. It has a nice, deep set of pockets for my hands that are big enough for Oliver to fit in, and a pair of pockets on the chest that are the right size for a cellphone. It has a flap that goes over the zipper that attaches with nice, big metal snaps. The dangly things are metal, not plastic, and there are six of them. The zipper is plastic, though, but a greenish red plastic that goes perfectly with the coat. So are the buttons for the hood. Another great feature: It's made by Fleet Street, as in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." The jacket fits perfectly and goes wonderfully with my complexion and reddish hair. It was $7.99.

I fear the day it becomes too stained, torn, and faded to wear. This coat is going to suffer a long, slow death, like my pink and purple one did. The day will come that it is so faded, you can't see the green part of the fabric. The day will come that I wear it to all occasions despite the irremovable stain on the lapel. The day will come that the sleeves are torn and the stitching is coming undone. My poor coat and its inevitable fate. Unless I leave it on a train and lose it forever, in which case I will kill myself.

I'm going to sew a label inside with my contact information and offer of a large reward if found and returned.