Ooh, nifty. I’ve been Memepooled. A fitting link, too, since most of the search requests I see in my logs are for video game fonts…

Two interesting links from today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Shyness Trap — “Evidence is building that he’s right, that brain biology may explain why at least 30 percent of people are extremely shy, so introverted that many choose careers or just naturally evolve into jobs and lifestyles that suit their personalities and let them avoid situations that can literally make them squirm: like meetings, making presentations, giving speeches or just interacting with others.”

‘Toon Bros. — “Somewhere in Free Country USA, Pom-Pom is being quietly intelligent, Strong Bad is answering e-mail from his adoring fans, and Homestar Runner is doing . . . something. Probably something stupid, for all Internet users to see. This is the world of Homestarrunner.com.”

I just got a spam for one of those keychains that light up and beep if you whistle within a reasonable distance. I’ve seen these things in stores before, and honestly, I think that they’re a great idea for those of us, like myself, who are absent-minded and frequently lose such things as keychains. And I might even buy one, except for one slight problem: in my nearly 21 years on this earth, I’ve never quite been able to get the hang of whistling…

Of course, there’s also the fact that I’d probably end up losing my keychain several rooms, if not several blocks, away… but that’s another rant entirely.

Hm. I just got up from about an hour-long nap, and… ::blink:: I can’t remember everything about what I was dreaming, but I know I had been dreaming, and it was very odd.

For one thing, the dream was a recursive one, with multiple levels at that: a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream, et cetera. In each dream, I was at home, but it was a surreally different version of the house; perhaps my room was rearranged or painted a different color, or perhaps everyone was standing outside and talking in the middle of the night. I distinctly remember that in one of the levels, some of the living room furniture had been moved into the bathroom, which had been remodelled to look more like a living space, and in another, the door to my dad’s bedroom instead led outside the house (and had inexplicably been left open).

(more…)

The flavor of the day at a local ice cream shop which shall remain unnamed:

How do they not notice these things when they’re putting up the signs?

Wow. Here’s an interesting bug I discovered tonight: translate some form of the word “occasional” into Portuguese and back, and the resulting English word will start with the number zero rather than the letter O. Yes, 0ccasional!

Even more amusing, though, is this translation which is solely the result of an ambiguity in the French language: “I feel fine” translates into French as “je me sens très bien”, which in turn translates back to English as “I smell myself very well”! Yes, for those who haven’t taken French, the same reflexive verb, se sentir, can mean “to feel (an emotion)” and “to smell oneself”…

Well, I’ve been in Orlando since this past Wednesday, finally having returned home this afternoon. Besides playing DDR in my sandals, much to the discontent of my feet (as mentioned in the previous post) and taking the trolley down International Drive to browse all the touristy shops and restaurants, yesterday I went to Disney World for the first time in my life. Yes, really, I’ve been culturally deprived for 20 years… it does seem rather strange, doesn’t it? 😉

And yes, I enjoyed the attractions with a childlike sort of wonder, even at the age of 20 (I’m still very much a child at heart!); say what you will about the company that bears his name, but the attractions of the Magic Kingdom prove that Walt Disney himself was a creative genius. Space Mountain is an unusual, though unforgettable, experience; the illusions in the Haunted Mansion, virtually unchanged for years, are still impressive even today; and of course, the animatronic attractions are amazing in their realism. If only we’d had time to see Epcot and MGM as well…eh, maybe the next time the family goes down to Orlando, we can work that in. Even then, I had quite a good time wandering through the Magic Kingdom in itself, in spite of the miserable heat and humidity.

In other news, I met up with Kat, whom I hadn’t seen in several years, earlier this morning. I’ll admit it, as she’s already done on her own blog: though we may at some point in the past have been “significant something-or-others” (a term used by both of us, incidentally), we’ve both moved on; the whole long-distance thing just wasn’t working out too well, and we both realized it. Even still, we’re really close friends (yes, even alter-egos at times), and I doubt that will ever change– and despite what my parents seem to think, even the most platonic friendship is something to be cherished when one is such an introvert and an outcast…

Anyway, I enjoyed the trip to Orlando, though I will nonetheless admit that I’m glad to be back home, finally able to get a good night’s sleep in the peace and quiet of my own bedroom and to get online with something better than advertiser-supported dialup. Yes, I know, I know, I’m a geek and I’m lazy… ::grin::

Note to self: If, at any time in the future, you’re wearing your Birkenstocks and come across a Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine, don’t try to play it…

…oww, my feet are still aching from that one, though at least they’re feeling somewhat better after several hours of rest.

Well, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest results are in; surprisingly, I didn’t find out about it until late this afternoon, and of course it was neither dark nor stormy at that. Nor was it night, for that matter, but that’s not important; granted, it’s not as if anything is all too important when it comes to purple prose, since only the truly dedicated will slog through murky mires of horrid writing in the first place. But alas, though the day isn’t dark and stormy, my mind is, and my own attempts at writing really purple prose for this weblog entry are going over like a cloud of pure silver, not just silver-plate…

(Incidentally, typographical geek that I am, I love the runner-up entry about the flock of geese. Hee.)

Ooooh. As if the recent screenings of Spellbound in Atlanta weren’t enough, it’s also been picked up by the Douglass Theatre in Macon! Though the date was originally listed as June 8 on the Douglass site, it now reads July 13, and official sources confirm that the Macon showing of the film is this weekend. (Edited 11-July-2003 to point out that the erroneous date on the Douglass site had been corrected. –codeman38)