food for thought

Canned meat virgin no longer

R. Batty — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:14:33 +0000

You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. It begins with a little taste at a local restaurant with a good friend. Then it escalates to touring museums and learning all about its glorious history. Eventually, you know what’s going to happen. You’re going to bring it into your own home. You’re going to cook with it. You’re going to like it. There is no turning back, is there?

Mmm, spam musubi :-)

R. Batty is a dark, twisted individual

R. Batty — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:45:06 +0000

Ah dear readers, you surprise me! Who knew that you’d reject my grim darkness and call for color and flowers and pink things? I thought you all knew me better than that. Well, well, you learn something new every day…

That being said, I make no promises to permanently colorize/happify the site any time soon. It does still need work (mainly links), and I will consider adding some tasteful highlights of color, but it’s supposed to evoke gray, ugly, “Communist Russia” feelings–that’s an electric chair in the header, you know?

::sigh::

Would y’all prefer it with flames instead?

As my old boss used to say…

R. Batty — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:46:11 +0000

“It’s good enough for government work.”

I am not entirely pleased with the current layout, but this is just going to have to do for now. If nothing else, this redesign has taught me that I really hate stylesheets. At least everything is legible now, so that’s something. Maybe I’ll putz around with making the text pretty some other time.

The most significant change, you will notice, is the addition of a blogroll to the right. I suppose it’s not properly a blogroll as much as it’s a cast of characters–not everyone listed has a functioning website. Maybe I’ll do more with it in the future, such as link descriptions to it somehow. But for now, this is what you get.

Oh, yes. One other thing. I don’t want to hear any whining about your avatars, people! I was working with limited photographic resources over here. If you don’t like what I gave you, make a better one and send it to me.

change is coming

R. Batty — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:11:20 +0000

A site overhaul is in the works. It’s been long overdue, I know. I think the last time I really redid the layout was back in 2003. And everyone knows the best time to redesign yoour website is when you should be working on anything *but* redesigning your website. Expect something by the end of the week!

**UPDATE** The site is currently in a transitional phase. I know there are bugs that need to be worked out (ie the site looks like ass in Firefox). I’m getting to it.

**UPDATE** Went back to the old version for now. Stupid Firefox.

Fortune Cookie Says:

R. Batty — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:48:36 +0000

“A surprise will titillate you and frighten you but you will accept it.”

Seriously, why do I get all the crazy fortunes?!

Whoa

R. Batty — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:19:02 +0000

Today a good friend is leaving for France to become a nun.

Today another good friend just got engaged.

Separately, I think neither of these would have seemed all that strange. But together they just kind of blow my mind.

An Open Letter to the People of Munich

R. Batty — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:21:28 +0000

Dear People of Munich,
You know I love you dearly. I love your weißwurst and your Englischer Garten and the sexy pre-recorded voice that calls out the stops on your trams. But, speaking as a friend, I must say that you folks need to cut back a little on your crack consumption. Seriously. Because I assume that you all had to be on crack when you decided that this interpretive dance thing was the way to debut your new soccer uniforms.

Warning! Do not attempt to eat, drink, or operate heavy machinery while watching this video. You will laugh (a lot) and I will not be held responsible for any laughter related injuries produced as a result of viewing this video.

Fcb trikot the musical
by goalbumbum

Discovered at http://www.faniq.com/blog/

Zombie love

R. Batty — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:31:16 +0000

My favorite Rockstar Librarian sent me this website today:

I think the thing is brilliant, both as parody and as a truly unique spin on the rather trite world of online dating. Alas, the site disappointingly doesn’t follow through and actually match “zombies.” Instead it’s just a front for a regular old dating site. Now how am I ever going to find my slow-moving, somewhat rotten soul(less) mate?

The Great American-Canadian Road Trip: The Conclusion

R. Batty — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:14:21 +0000

While the road trip could have been considered officially over once Dr. Tsou and I arrived in Vancouver, the vacation didn’t really end until today. Just twelve hours ago, I was squeeing like a little adolescent fanboy at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. They don’t let you take pictures inside the museum, so there’s less to show than usual. But the museum was still highly entertaining and it made me realize that I’ve still got a long way to go before I can consider myself a true sci-fi fan. Too bad that catching up on my sci-fi isn’t going to be at the top of my priority list any time soon. Now that I’m back in Chicago, I’ve got plenty of academic work to catch up on. Speaking of which, I seem to have inadvertently convinced the 10 year old that I was sitting next to on the plane that she wants to read a book on the history of the electric chair called The Executioner’s Current. Um… whoops?!

Klaatu barada nikto.

The Great American-Canadian Road Trip: Day 8-9

R. Batty — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:09:58 +0000

At last, we have made it to Vancouver! We successfully crossed into Canadialand yesterday afternoon, despite a slight hang-up at the border because a certain Dr. Tsou didn’t have the title to the Canadian car with American license plates. The border guard also felt it necessary to tell us that our little car should not have been pulling a trailer in the first place, which is probably true, but was obviously of no concern to the U-Haul people when they installed a trailer hitch. Good old U-Haul! Anyway, whether the car was meant to do that kind of hauling or not, it did it just the same and without incident. And now, after being in the car for 8 days and traveling through 9 states, all I got to show for it is a ridiculous number of freckles on my arms and these three totally awesome t-shirts :-)

My wardrobe gets sexier by the day.

The road trip is quickly coming to a close. Later today we head to Seattle, and tomorrow I fly (gulp!) back to Chicago.