Passive Voice

From a fortune cookie last night:

The wise thing to do is to prepare for the unexpected this week.

Dude.  Total passive voice.  Weasel-y language bugs me.  Take a position.  Is something unexpected going to happen?  Good?  Bad?  Or just surprising?  How do I prepare if I don't know the context?  Lame.

Creativity From Structure

Jon Stewart: The Most Trusted Name In Fake News : NPR

Jon Stewart says something really interesting at about 16 minutes in:

I'm a real believer in that creativity comes from limits, not freedom. Freedom, I think you don't know what to do with yourself. But when you have a structure, then you can improvise off it and feel confident enough to kind of come back to that.

I'm working on adding more "planned creativity" to my life. It makes sense to me that structure helps.

An Eggcorn

I came across another eggcorn:

crap chute

Lost Hour - Maybe Not So Lost

I lost a good hour today after rehearsal swapping culture nuggets:

Desaturated Santa (explanations)

Just blown away by the effect.  I love the explanation:

Santa is an immediately recognizable figure, and a Classic Santa has a fixed set of signifiers. The red and white suit, the black belt, the black boots with fur on top, the hat with the pompom on the end. These things add up in our brains to a Platonic Ideal of Santa.

[...]

When I decided to make a Desaturated Santa costume, I realized that to remove the visual cue of Red but still be recognizable as a Santa, I had to maintain as many of the other signifiers as I could. The illusion of a walking black-and-white-photo of a Santa wouldn’t be as effective if I wasn’t wearing a very classic Santa outfit.

Santa Mob

Desaturated Santa, Year 2

I'm taking leave of Santas Follow @sfsanta & #sfsanta

Union Square Santas

black & white santa

#lessambitiousmovies (hash tag on Twitter)

Just completely lost it, laughing.  Take a famous movie, then lower the ambitions on the title.

Schindler's Grocery List
The Girl With The Temporary Dragon Tattoo
Coming To Canada
Thursday Night Fever
Casablanket
The Devil Wears Kirkland Signature
Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Arizona
Edward Fingerhands
Alice in Wallmart
Mission: Difficult
The Quarterback of Notre Dame
I.T. The Extra Employee
Being John Stamos
Jurassic Dog Park
Assistant Manager of the Rings
RoboMallCop

Best collections are:

Paste Magazine

The Huffington Post

Raul countered with Ted Williams - Homeless man with the golden voice

Wish List

Oh, that's what I should have asked for for Christmas.

the Personal Pie™

No, not really.

You might think I'd buy anything from an Australian.

You'd be wrong.

Things That Went Through My Mind When She Was Carried Out

(You've got to understand that I deal with things through inappropriate humor.  Well I guess you don't need to understand it.  Just know that it happens.)

And that's why I don't do pure bal.
And that's why I don't dance shag.
And that's why I lead forward on one.
And that's why I don't go upstairs.
And that's why I take small steps.

And that's why I dance so much: I never know which song might be my last.

A dance friend of mine had to be taken to the ER last night.  She's on my mind.

New Southern California Pickup Line

Hey babe.  I've got central heating.

It got down to 47F last night!!!  And today's high, 63!!!  What's going on, Southland(1)!  I pay my taxes and fuel surcharge!  Give me my sunny and 72!

(1) No one says Southland except for local weather and traffic reporters.