Tim and the Tin Titan

31.1.05

High School Confidential
I guess I probably had a rather sheltered time in high school and was not very wild at all. But reading this Metafilter thread about someone mapping the relationships in a student body of 1000 at a high school. Take a look at the graph: That is one huge circle. I mean, I always knew that there was the "Popular" crowd and they mostly stayed within themselves but still...

Also here are some interesting bits:
- I can find two same sex couples (male in upper right of the main group, female in the center of the upper middle group).
Timonera sights a third (male in the lower left of the main group, on the circle)
- There seems to be no circles, indicating that switching couple is not done.
- Male with most direct links: 9
- Female with most direct links: 6

Interesting stuff. It also makes you see how things like the 1996 Syphilis outbreak in Rockdale County can happen. PBS did a great documentary on this called The Lost Children of Rockdale County. They even had a graph (done by the CDC, no less), but did it did not distinguish between male and female.

25.1.05

Feel The Rhythm
dante and I are talking about tastes for music. I am a crazy about it, he doesn't care much for it. About whether his parents had music aroudn the house:

I have a few vague memories of my mom playing classical music when I was a kid. That and showtunes from Cats. And some Kenny Rogers... Come to think of it maybe it explains my lack of interest in music. :)

Awesome reply.

Looking Where The Light Is Good

This post by Jacob is a great take on the strategies used by the MPAA:


[F]irst, I'm going to tell you a joke.
Late one night, a drunk guy is crawling around under a lamppost. A cop comes up and asks him what he's doing.

"I'm looking for my keys," the drunk says. "I lost them about three blocks away."

"So why aren't you looking for them where you dropped them?" the cop asks.

The drunk looks at the cop, amazed that he'd ask so obvious a question. "Because the light is better here."

...

So why do the studios do it? Why do they hassle voters, piss off filmmakers, and risk losing awards (and the financial rewards thereof), just to prevent piracy in a group that isn't likely to pirate in the first place? It's because breaking international piracy rings is hard, and stopping individuals from swapping MPEG files on the Internet is impossible. But hassling people who love movies--be we awards show voters or just ordinary moviegoers--is easy, because they know where to find us. In short, the studios are looking for their keys where the light is best, even if it's miles away from where they dropped them.

A Great Idea
You take a camera, tape it to a cardboard sheet with instructions asking postal employees to take pictures along the way, you get this (from verba.chromogenic.net).

Pretty amazing. Here are two more examples:
Kyle Van Horn
p22.com

And a DIY page:
Camera Mail Tips

Ocean Men, Part II
After some light digging on IMDB.com, I found out that the distribution company for Ocean Men is nWave Pictures. I decided to try my luck and email one of the contacts. I got a very helpful yet response from Antonietta Pennella:

No, unfortunately I do not foresee OCEANMEN being released on DVD. We did
not produce the film, we are only the distributor of the film to large
format theaters and we do not have the rights to put the film onto DVD. The
producers of the film, never released it onto DVD and I don't think ever
will.

Sorry, I wish I could be of more assistance.

So if you were looking for the Ocean Men DVD as I was, here is your definitive answer: It does not exist and likely never will. Sad but at least I have an answer.

I Want It To Be Real
Even if it is not real, this essay is awesome. The kind of thing you wish you had the guts to write in school.

24.1.05

New And Improved
Scenario: Watching television, a commercial for a new, softer brand of toilet paper comes on.
Her: Do you think it makes a big difference?
Me: Don't know, I guess it could, I'd have to try it..
Her: It's what we've been using for a month
Me: Oh, then, no.

14.1.05

Who you calling a Twat?
Alteration of an Atwater metro station sign:






S l o w
Taken when we had been almost completely stopped in traffic for 45 minutes during a snow/ice storm:




Honesty?
Does the food at KFC make you fat? Well, if the pictogram depicting an employee bringing you food to your car is any indication...




Ski or Sex
What is it with the ski hill advertisement and sexual innuendos? In my last serie of pictures, I had one from a ski hill suggesting a foursome.

In this one, it's the double whammy of a threesome and a sixty-nine.




("Trip à trois" is slang for a threesome in French)

Pranks revisited
As I said before, my office is fond of pranks. Here is one of the latest one I help pull off.





Yup, we planted clover in my boss' keyboard...




Don't worry, we got him a brand new one instead.