Christmas, Santa Claus, etc.

It's that time of year again... when we ponder the age-old question: "What does Santa Claus have to do with Jesus?"

What will it be this time?

Decided to get lunch earlier today... and wouldn't you know it? My car won't start. Cranked it several times, it just won't turn over. There was a faint smell of burnt plastic coming from under the hood. Never a good thing.

Can't be the battery, as I had just gotten a new one a few months ago, plus all the electronics in the car still seem to work fine. It's might be the starter, but that was also just replaced only a few months prior to the battery...

I guess it might be the alternator? I've had the battery and oil indicators flash on and off from time to time while I was driving, and I'm told that such is the typical indication of a bad alternator.


I'm gonna have to jump it later and pray that the car starts. After that... I hope the car shop is open tomorrow.

Last-minute Christmas shopping

Did my annual last-minute shopping today.

First, I went to Fry's Electronics. Long line of cars waiting to turn into the parking lot was really the only thing that was markedly different from usual, and an indication of other people also doing their last-minute Christmas shopping. I was able to find a good parking spot almost immediately after turning into the lot, so things were good.

I didn't find the exact things I was looking for, but acceptable substitutes were available, so that was that. The checkout line was only slightly longer than usual, thanks in no small part to them opening up many more checkout stands than usual.

Next stop, Bed Baths and Beyond. Not as many people come here looking for Christmas presents, apparently. Although I've pretty much been getting the same things for my mom and my sisters for the past three years... without any real idea if they actually like these gifts or not. Hopefully they do. Luckily, we mostly subscribe to the idea of "it's the thought that counts," so no major problems there.


So, despite getting my shopping done at only a few days before Christmas, it was relatively painless. Whee.

On the Run

These are music videos for Jay Chou's recent album, "On the Run" (literal translation is "I'm very busy").

1. 牛仔很忙
2. 彩虹
3. 陽光宅男
4. 我不配
5. 扯
6. 最長的電影
7. 青花瓷
   

Jesus in the Himalayas

I caught part of this documentary on Discovery HD yesterday. It seemed interesting enough, so I recorded it on DVR, and watched the full program today.

It investigated the possibility that Jesus may have travelled through the silk road to India and Tibet before he began his ministry, and after his crucifixion. Nothing conclusive was reached, but it offered up some possible evidence, chief among them were:

1. A tomb in Kashmir purported to be the tomb of Jesus after his crucifixion, because a small cross was found within it, and there was a food sculpture that seems to depict wounds on the foot that could correspond to Jesus' wounds from the crucifixion.
2. An ancient manuscript that detailed the life of Saint Issa, whose story was very similar to the life of Jesus as depicted in the Bible (except the part about traveling to India and Tibet).
3. The similarities between the Buddhist prayer beads--the Japa mala, and the Catholic rosary beads. Both have 108 beads, and these are the only religions with prayer beads.
   

The most important of these arguments is the ancient manuscript, according to the program. Unfortunately, it has long since vanished, not long after its translation was transcribed by Nicolas Notovitch. This document is what sparked the idea that Jesus went to India and Tibet. Without it, there is no way to prove that any of this actually happened. I don't know that even with it, would it offer irrefutable proof that this Issa is the same as Jesus.

The problem I have with the tomb theory is that it had a cross. The cross didn't become associated with Christianity until the second century AD, so there's no reason why Jesus would be buried with one.

The program then states both the Japa mala and the rosary have 108 beads. But this is not true--while the Japa mala traditionally does have 108 beads, rosary beads typically have 150.

It then further states that Christianity (Catholicism) and Buddhism are the only religions to use prayer beads, implying that Jesus brought the idea of using prayer beads to his followers due to influence from Buddhism. Yet this is also untrue, as there are several other religions that use prayer beads. Also, it is said that rosary beads were brought to St. Dominic by the Virgin Mary, not Jesus.

I'm in love with...

Warning: Porfanity

Not geeky at all

Found this picture while looking for Spaceballs pics online. That can't be comfortable.

They spinnin, they spinnin'!

Due to the nature of Blogger's image upload function, you'll have to click on the above image to see the animation. But when you do, take note of which direction she is spinning. It's supposed to tell you if you're looking with your creative (right) brain (if she spins clockwise), or your logical (left) brain (if she spins counter-clockwise).

Where's the magic?

If You Come Back to Me
Bowling for Soup

You were right
All along
You know I hate that--admitting I was wrong
So I don't answer the phone
When it's you
It's funny when I see
The caller ID that shows the phone line's still in your dad's name

So hey
I'm doing okay
And I'll get back to you if you come back to me
Your voice is so
Marilyn Monroe
It's funny how that
Makes me wanna smash the phone
I wonder if JFK ever felt this way

All alone
Like summer when it snows
So out of place
So out of those fake smiles
I used to do so well

And here's the part of the song where I start
To break down like my broken heart
But it's not gonna matter
The lines are all down
From a hurricane they should've named after you
Maybe I should get a Scorpions ringtone
To remind me of you

And hey
I'm doing okay
And I'll get back to you if you come back to me
And oh
Here we go
Just like a broken record skipping apart
That we both oughtta know by heart

We were right there, and now it seems so tragic
No happy ending, now this whole thing seems so drastic
You ask me twenty times where we could find our magic
Ask David Copperfield or even Ric Ocasek

David Blaine (Where's the magic?)
Lance Burton (Where's the magic?)
Harry Potter (Where's the magic?)
I used to think pop rocks were magic
Siegfried and Roy (Where's the magic?)
Shaquille O'Neal (Why'd you leave the Magic?)

You asked me twenty times, or was it twenty-eight?
And then your greatest trick ever was your great escape

So hey
I'm doing okay
And I'll get back to you if you come back to me
And oh
Here we go
Just like a broken record skipping apart
That we both oughtta know by heart
And I still can hear you singing along

Computer virus

My ex-girlfriend's work computer has been infected. I only know this because this virus is trying to propagate itself through her MSN Messenger contact list, and it tried to "contact" me.

We haven't really "talked" much after our breakup, so naturally I was suspicious when I received a send file (photo.zip) request from her Messenger, along with the following message in IM:

Hey just finished new myspace album! :) theres a few kinky ones in there!

Given that I'm her ex-boyfriend, there were only two possible explanations for such a message:

1. She meant to send the message and file to someone else, but accidentally sent them to me, instead.
2. It's a virus.

Not that I would mind if she did want to send me "kinky" pictures, but obviously a virus is the much more likely scenario. So I accepted the file, then had Symantec AntiVirus scan it when the transfer was complete. It didn't find anything.

Opened up the zip file, and sure enough, it had the tell-tale sign of being a virus: A command file (.com) thinly disguised as a JPEG.


So I IM'd her about the virus. But apparently she does not have administrative access to her computer at work, so her virus removal options are quite limited. I also remember her telling me while we were going out that she was not supposed to install any IM software, so that's probably preventing her from getting their office tech to fix it for her, since I still got a random message from her Messenger earlier today, although it didn't try to send me any files.

Al sandwich

I've read transcripts of the Weird Al/Avril Lavigne "interview," but have only recently got to watch it on YouTube. He usually has these on his Al TV stuff, when he has a new album out.

The interview below is pretty good, too. He basically made Eminem eat his own words.

Popstar

'Cause we all just wanna be...

Missing

When You're Gone
Avril Lavigne

I always needed time on my own
I never thought I'd need you there when I cry
And the days feel like years when I'm alone
And the bed where you lie
Is made up on your side

When you walk away
I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missing, too
When you're gone
The words I need to hear to always get me through the day
And make it okay
I miss you

I've never felt this way before
Everything that I do
Reminds me of you
And the clothes you left
They lie on the floor
And they smell just like you
I love the things that you do

When you walk away
I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
And when you're gone
The face I came to know is missing, too
And when you're gone
The words I need to hear to always get me through the day
And make it okay
I miss you

We were made for each other
Out here forever
I know we were
Yeah yeah
And all I ever wanted was for you to know
Everything I do, I give my heart and soul
I can hardly breathe, I need to feel you here with me, yeah

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
And when you're gone
The face I came to know is missing, too
And when you're gone
The words I need to hear will always get me through the day
And make it okay
I miss you

Time Warp

Enjoy the music from The Rocky Horror Picture Show with footage from the various Star Trek shows. It doesn't have much to do with this post, but I thought its subject matter was appropriate.

Anyway, I just watched the pilot episode of NBC's new series, Journeyman. It's about a guy who, inexplicably, travels through time. His former fiancée, who died when the plane she was on for a business trip crashed, is portrayed by Moon Bloodgood, who I recognized from the TV show Day Break, another show that dealt with tripping time.

I just thought it was interesting that she's on anther show that deals with a similar subject. At least this time it seems there will be more of an explanation about the whole time warp thing.

Jumbotron Proposals

Spam on YouTube

If you have your own YouTube account, and have uploaded your own videos, then chances are you've received spam in the comments sections of some of your videos.

I've gotten quite a few of them in my videos, and initially I thought just clicking on the "spam" link for the comment would be enough.

It isn't. For some of the comments you mark as spam, YouTube might "hide" the comment, while for others, it won't. The majority of the ones I clicked on did not become hidden.

I also thought that clicking on that link would make them more active in checking them. It doesn't. So I tried to contact them in a more direct way, through the "contact" link at the bottom of each YouTube page. I expected to see a form to send my comments, but I was not persistent enough to get to the correct form six links in.

So anyway, here's how you can report those users. Not that it'll help that much, though, since they already have multiple accounts from which they send out their spam, and I assume they'll just sign up for even more, once YouTube deactivates their accounts. YouTube really needs to set up a better system in dealing with spam.

Maybe she was reading Mad Libs

So, as part of the Miss Teen USA 2007 competition, Miss Teen South Carolina was asked about many Americans' inability to location their own country on a world map. Confronted with such a difficult question, she begins rambling about... WTF?

Dead battery

Woke up to find my car's battery dead this morning, as I had suspected it would be (though I didn't know when it would die, just that it would probably die soon).

Since I couldn't find my previous battery's receipt and warranty info, I got a new battery from AAA, instead. Checking my blog, it looks like I last replaced the battery in January, 2005. So it's been about 2 1/2 years.

This new battery has free replacement for three years. I'll have to remember that.

Biggest Liars: Men or Women?

I thought this clip was available on YouTube, but I couldn't find it.

Hey There [...]

You've probably heard this song playing on the radio. Well, not this exact song, because this is a parody of what's playing on the radio.

And this is another.

In case you haven't heard the original, or just want to hear it again for the heck of it, here it is:

I am so proud of you mother****ing ****suckers

I pretty much haven't watched any commercials, since getting a DVR. So I don't know if this has been playing on TV, and if so, for how long. The oldest one I found on YouTube is two months old, though.

I will wait for you

From Futurama, on New Year's Eve, 1999, pizza delivery boy Fry was accidentally cryogenically frozen, and was not revived until 1000 years later. Before he left for his last delivery, he told his dog, Seymour, to wait for him outside the pizza shop. By accident, Fry finds Seymour's fossilized remains, and tries to clone him, as well as transfer the dog's memories to the clone.

The story of someone awaiting the return of a loved one is very common. Jesus told of the parable of the prodigal son. In Takahashi's Mermaid Saga, there's a story of a girl (Nae Kogure) who thought she was going to meet with Yuta, but he never showed up.

And in the music video of Days Go By by Dirty Vegas...

Blast Off!

How did you do it?

Would you like a bigger butt?

An online friend brought this to my attention:

I have a really flat butt. My boyfriend read that anal sex will help make it bigger, but only if he shoots his sperm deep inside. We used to have anal sex sometimes. He always wore a condom before. Now we have anal sex and he shoots really deep inside me and i keep it there.

I think I like this even if it doesn't make my butt biggerer. He says my butt does look bigger, but I can't tell. Has anyone else heard of thjis? Will his sperms in my butt make it bigger?

That's right. It's medically proven... because I said it is.

Youg Man

Once again you're reminded of a certain summer, the bustling shoreline
Memories of a young man and his proud proclamation
Extend both arms, and the whole world can be embraced
Believing that all dreams will certainly be fulfilled
Everything seems like they're not too far away
In the blink of an eye, a few years have passed

The frivolous words have slowly subsided
Despite the inevitability of harsh experiences
We've never compromised

That's a past none of us can return to
Luckily, the conviction from then has prevailed
The world attempted to change
The young man from so long ago

That's a past none of us can return to
When you're standing on that summer's shoreline
We are still, in our hearts
That opinionated young man

Hitler is emo

Here's why:

Most. Frustrating. Mario. Game. Ever.

Edit: I embedded the wrong video before. This is the one I meant to embed.

What do women want?

"I told you that bitch crazy!"

Curiosity

Now I know why they say that "it was curiosity that killed the cat."

OMG I have to do this

So I surfed over to YTMND, and fresh in the "recently created" section, I found this site. It's quite simple--Hillary is asking online supporters to suggest a campaign song for her. Just go there, and in the "enter another song title" field, copy and paste in "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air Theme by Will Smith" and click on the "Submit your vote" button. You can do so multiple times.

If you need it, you don't have it

I've seen this commercial a few times, and when I first saw it, I wondered if it was Bruce Campbell. But I never saw the full version, which I guess must've aired during something like the Super Bowl.

If you have it, you don't need it. If you need it, you don't have it. If you have it, you need more of it. If you have more of it, you don't need less of it.

You need it to get it, and you certainly need it to get more of it, but if you don't already have any of it to begin with, you can't get any of it to get started, which means you really have no idea how to get it in the first place, do you?

You can share it, sure. You can even stockpile it if you'd like, but you can't fake it. Wanting it, needing it, wishing for it... The point is, if you've never had any of it, ever, people just seem to know.

Classic Eddie Murphy

For some reason, I felt like watching some classic Eddie Murphy bits, back from his days on SNL...

Always

Whenever I hear this song, I always think of her...

Always - Bon Jovi

This Romeo is bleeding, but you can't see his blood
It's nothing but some feelings that this old dog kicked up
It's been raining since you left me, now I'm drowning in the flood
You see, I've always been a fighter, but without you, I give up
Now I can't sing a love song like the way it's meant to be
Well, I guess I'm not that good anymore, but baby, that's just me

And I will love you
Baby, always
And I'll be there forever and a day
Always

I'll be there till the stars don't shine
Till the heavens burst, and the words don't rhyme
I know when I die, you'll be on my mind
And I'll love you, always

Now your pictures that you left behind
Are just memories of a different life
Some that made us laugh
Some that made us cry
One that made you have to say goodbye
What I'd give to run my fingers through your hair
To touch your lips, to hold you near
When you say your prayers, try to understand
I've made mistakes, I'm just a man
When he holds you close, when he pulls you near
When he says that words you've been needing to hear
I wish I was him, 'cause those words are mine
To say to you till the end of time

And I will love you
Baby, always
And I'll be there forever and a day
Always

If you told me to cry for you, I could
If you told me to die for you, I would
Take a look at my face
There's no price I won't pay
To say these words to you

Well, there ain't no luck in these loaded dice
But baby, if you give me just one more try
We could pack up our old dreams and our old lives
We'll find a place where the sun still shines

Yeah, and I will love you
Baby, always
And I'll be there forever and a day
Always

I'll be there till the stars don't shine
Till the heavens burst, and the words don't rhyme
I know when I die, you'll be on my mind
And I'll love you, always
Always...

Family Guy vs. Street Fighter

This is pretty impressive.

The Story

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you

I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the roads and I broke all the rules
And baby, I broke them all for you
Oh, because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do, I was made for you

You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that don't come out
All of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through
Like you do, and I was made for you

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
Oh, but these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you

Oh yeah, well, it's true
That I was made for you

十七歲

十七歲
陶喆

她是個十七歲的小女孩
她不知道自己有多可愛
她眼中只有相信和依賴
好像未來就該那麼好
讓我的心也跟著搖擺

我是個十七歲的小男孩
我不怕面對世界變多快
做過自己覺得好傻的事
那是多麼純真的年代（多麼純真）
那是多麼純潔的相愛（愛…呀伊…呀伊）

不知我怎麼變了　不知她怎麼變了
我慢慢知道什麼叫作忘記
是一種成長也好　是一種悲哀也好
不管我多想留住回憶
它依然隨著時光淡去
Our love

不再是十七歲的我和妳
最好還是想念別再相見
我將永遠記得那一段情
就算有一天我們變老（不要忘記）
想起彼此還有著微笑（笑…呀伊…呀伊）

因為我早已變了　因為妳早已變了
我也許不會愛上現在的妳
是沒有緣份也好　是沒有感覺也好
不管我多麼想念著妳
卻知道再也無法回到那年紀

因為我早已變了（我已早已變了）
因為妳早已變了（嗚…妳早已變了）
有一天我偶而再說起了妳
是一段往事也好（往事也好）
是一段感情也好（感情也好）
永遠將它寶貝在心底 whoa yeah
記憶著那時候的我和妳
Our love

Our love, and our love
那一段十七歲的愛情

Will this sweep the nation?

For when regular seat belt pads just aren't enough.
For when you want a cute little stuffed bear to sit (or lay, as it were) suggestively on your girl's bosom.

Hitler has only got...

On this week's Lost, Hurley, Charlie, and Jin were whistling the Colonel Bogey March from The Bridge On the River Kwai. This led me to find certain lyrics that were added to it during the second World War... and on a whim, I decided to do a search on YouTube.

DO NOT WANT

In case you're wondering where the title of this entry originated, take a look here.

Random weirdness

The title says it all...

Happy Easter!

"This one's an oldie, but a goodie."

SPARTAAAAAA!

Is this madness?

Need a new car?

Then hurry down to...

How sad...

Let's go for a burger

Are you bad enough?

Scientologist weasels

Wow. Just... wow.

These people sure love to change the subject and accuse other people of doing bad things. What a peace-loving, fun "religion."

Trapped In the Drive-Thru Part II

The official music video for this song is up.

Road to the White House

300

This has bothered me ever since the first time I saw the trailer. Now, I get that when he's riling up the troops, why he might be screaming--even 300 people is a big crowd, so you have to scream to make yourself be heard--but one Persian emissary? The conversation certainly doesn't seem like it warrants the level of screaming that can be heard.

That just seems like over-the-top acting to me. And I guess I'm not the only one: The folks at YTMND have also made several sites regarding the screaming.

• NES Version
• Dine in Hell
• Geography Lesson
• Big Trouble in...

Digital cable

I decided to look for a DVI to HDMI solution, to hook up my cable box through the HDMI port on my TV, and thereby freeing up a component video channel for my new DVD player (it has freeze problems with certain DVDs, but can play DivX-encoded videos on data discs).

Found a 6' long DVI/HDMI gold-plated cable for 5 bucks on MonoPrice, so I ordered it, along with a Toslink audio cable--since DVI doesn't transmit sound, and the Toslink input on my TV is right next to the HDMI, I was hoping that it would be "smart" enough to figure out that there was no sound coming into the HDMI, and would switch to the Toslink.

DVI

HDMI

Unfortunately, it doesn't. So when I switch to the HDMI input, I get picture, but no sound. Which means the only way I get to keep using the DVI/HDMI is to hook up the sound to the receiver only. I had hoped that I could do both, that way I don't always have to turn the receiver on to watch TV.

I also had to turn off the box's 420i/p and 720p support, since it seems to take a long time to switch between resolutions for digital outputs, while the lag is much shorter through analog. Maybe they'll fix that in a firmware update... or at least, I hope they will.

Wacko Jacko!

I went to my sister's place this weekend, and found that she and Howard had bought a Nintendo Wii. So I played all of the games that came with Wii Sports. While playing the baseball game, there was a "M. Jackson" who looked very much like Wacko Jacko. My sister tells me that that one of Howard's friends created this Mii.

The resemblance is astounding. What's also funny was that I scored two home runs with Wacko Jacko, and eventually won the game under mercy rules (I was up 9-1 by the end of the second inning).


Oh yeah, the Wii is very fun to play. The boxing game also gave me a good workout. My right arm is sore.

Wheel of Fortune

New season of South Park just started this week.

Seeing Wheel of Fortune reminds me of when Darth Vader was on Wheel of Fortune.

Down with scammers

Scammers, along with spammers, are some of the lowest scum of the earth.

Um... wow.

Apparently my posting of Tickle's "IQ report" got flagged by Blogger's anti-spam robot. Now I can't "publish" any new posts, nor edit any of my previous posts...


(Of course, if you're reading this, it means I've got the blog back--I had to send a request for them to review my blog to make sure that it was just a mistake by the robot, and that I'm a real person, not some spam-posting robot myself.)

Detailed "IQ report"

When I logged into Friendster last week, I saw a link for "How smart are you" (or something to that effect), so I clicked on it, and it took me to Tickle.com, from which I had already taken many tests before (last year, I took their "Super IQ Test").

They had a more "in-depth" analysis of my test results, but it was a pay service, so I never bothered with it.

Today, as I logged into my email account that I used to register with Tickle, I found that they had sent me a link for the complete report for free. Since I don't know how long I'll be able to have access to it, I'm going to copy it to my blog for archival purposes.

Your Super IQ Report

Your IQ score is 147. This means that you are smarter than 99.0% of all other Super IQ test takers.

This number is the result of a scientifically-tested formula based on how many questions you answered correctly on the Tickle Super IQ Test.

But there's more to intelligence than a single number, a single score, or a single label. Tickle uses 8 distinguishable dimensions of intelligence in the Super IQ Test. By analyzing your individual scores on those 8 scales, we are able to look beyond the raw IQ score into how you process information, and which intellectual strengths you're best at.

Your test results indicate that the way you process information makes you a Creative Theorist.

You are a highly intelligent, complex person. You process all kinds of information easily, using the power of both your creative and analytic abilities. In any situation, you know how to extract the most valuable details and use them to understand the larger picture. Most people do not have your talent of being able to spot both numerical and visual patterns.

Your highly imaginative mind allows you to be innovative, and conjure up notions of what could be. In some circles this is called "thinking outside the box" and is considered an extremely valuable asset. However, not everyone is prepared for such an active imagination and you may find you have to spend time convincing people of your great ideas. It might behoove you to find others like you, who are able to understand how your mind works.

Here's an example of your Creative Theorist thinking skills at work in a real-life situation:

You go to a symphony with a bunch of friends. The way the conductor moves his arms during the performance makes you think of patterns you have studied in physics. You remember the movement of a pendulum and how a cradle rocks back and forth in the same motion, and you tell yourself that you are going to dig up your old school books just to brush up on other related concepts. When the concert ends, you feel compelled to tell your friends about the beautiful intersection you witnessed between science and art. They'll most likely see what you mean, but they would never have come up with the association on their own. Thank goodness you think the way you do!

Your Super IQ Dimensions

Now that you know about how you process information, let's drill down to see what your specific intellectual strengths are. None of the intellectual abilities is more important than any of the others. And it's your unique scores on each of these scales, that makes you an interesting addition to any group, office, or family.

These intellectual strengths color your world and the way you perceive it, and also allow you to contribute your original perspective when solving problems and coming up with ideas. No one intellectual dimension can define you. It's the original combination of your intellectual strengths that makes you special.
As you can see, your top scores are in the areas of Reasoning, Spatial, and Logical. This is a very unusual combination — only 6 in 1,000 people have it. Want more proof? Then pay attention to the percentages of people who scored higher and lower than you on each of the 8 intellectual strengths.

Abstract Reasoning Ability

Your score is 99 out of 100. With abstract reasoning you can think on multiple levels and see relationships between ideas that are not easily apparent. When you're using your abstract reasoning skills, you draw on both external logical and creative sources of information to come up with your solution.

Here's a question that required high abstract reasoning ability to solve:

What comes next in the sequence?

Here's the answer: The progression from one figure to the next is the addition of 1/2 of the previously added box. So the first figure is one box; the second figure is the first box plus a box 1/2 of its size; the third figure is the previous two boxes plus a box 1/2 of the last added box's size. Therefore the final figure (the question mark) should be the third figure plus a box 1/2 of the last added box. The correct answer is B.

In every-day life, abstract reasoning ability is used to understand complex, multi-layered situations, sometimes involving the associations and relationships between two seemingly different sets of information. For example, imagine someone who has taken piano lessons and was taught that the skill was more easily obtained when she pointed out her struggles to her teacher. She was able to learn from them and improve. This same woman then takes writing lessons and again makes her mistakes obvious so that the instructor can suggest changes and she can improve.

Compared with others, your abstract ability is very high. This means that you have a very strong abstract ability.

Spatial Ability
You scored 99 out of 100. You use spatial ability to judge the relationship between objects and physical space, like a parked car and the width of the road. It is also what helps you visualize a room when you are decorating or rearranging furniture.

Here's a question that required high spatial ability to solve:

Which is the odd one out?

A
B
C
D

Here's the answer: The thunderbolts in A, B, and C are all going in the same way, but the one in D is actually a flipped version of the rest.

In every-day life, you use this ability when you drive or even when you are walking through a packed crowd (so that you don't run into other people!). Some people actually use this ability to help them with non-physical things. If they are trying to understand a situation, they might think of the words as shapes that they need to negotiate.

Compared with others, your spatial abilities are very high. This means that you have a very strong sense of how things exist in physical space.

Logical Ability
Your scored 99 out of 100. Logical ability is what you use when determining whether or not something makes sense. You rely on logic when analyzing an argument, step-by-step. This ability also contributes to your aptitude for recognizing underlying patterns.

Here's a question that required high logical ability to solve:

Mary loved pink flowers more than she loved red ones. She didn't like orange flowers at all, and while she liked yellow flowers, she couldn't say that she really loved them. Which of these is true?

A. She liked red flowers less than orange flowers
B. She liked yellow flowers more than red flowers
C. She liked pink flowers more than yellow flowers
D. She liked orange flowers more than pink flowers

Here's the answer: She liked yellow flowers but didn't love them; however, she did love pink and red ones - pink more than red. Thus far the order of preference is pink, red, yellow. But she liked orange least of all, which means the new order is pink, red, yellow, orange. This means that she liked red more than orange (which makes option A not true). She liked yellow less than red (which makes option B not true). She liked pink more than yellow, which makes option C true, and she liked orange less than any of the flowers, which makes option D not true. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

In every-day life, you might use this ability to figure out the best route to the store, or to figure out the best deal when choosing between a couple items to buy. Everyone has a certain ability to use logic to solve problems. Some are better at it than others, however.

Compared with others, your logical ability is very high. This means that you are an extremely logical person.

Mechanical Ability
You scored 99 out of 100. Mechanical ability is what helps you understand how machines and tools work. Someone with a good amount of mechanical ability probably has an innate understanding of physics. High mechanical skill is also associated with a high degree of precision and practical thinking.

Here's a question that required high mechanical ability to solve:

Which object will fall faster? A 8 x 11 piece of paper or a peanut? Both weight the same amount.

A. The piece of paper
B. The peanut
C. It is impossible to know

The paper will encounter more resistance than will the peanut, and so it will fall more slowly. The peanut will fall faster and so the correct answer is B.

In every-day life, mechanical ability comes in handy when anything in the house breaks, or when you have to purchase something that requires physical assembly. It is also helpful in finding solutions to physical problems, such as determining how to build a pulley to bring water out of a well.

Compared with others, your mechanical abilities are very high. This means that you have a very strong mechanical ability.

Numerical Ability
You scored 99 out of 100. You use numerical ability when you spot a numerical pattern or solve a numerical equation. Here's a question that assessed your numerical ability:

Which number completes the series? 1, 3/2, 2, 5/2, ?

Here's the answer: 3

In every-day life, you use the ability to calculate a tip at a restaurant, or estimate taxes on a purchase. Everyone has this ability to a greater or lesser extent.

Compared with others, your numerical ability is very high. This means that you have no problem processing numbers.

Verbal Ability
Your verbal ability score is 99 out of 100. Verbal ability means having an expansive range of vocabulary, being able to use it, and feeling a desire to add to it. It is also what allows you to comprehend the relationships and subtle difference between words.

Here's a question that required verbal ability:

The opposite of acute is:

A. Severe
B. Incisive
C. Dull
D. Flamboyant

The opposite of the word acute, meaning sharp or finely tuned, is dull, so the correct answer is C.

In every-day life, verbal ability is essential to being able to interpret written materials. It's also valuable for communication — the more vocabulary words you know, the more precisely you may be able to convey your point.

Compared with others, your verbal ability is very high. This means that you have a very strong verbal ability.

Visual Ability
Your score is 99 out of 100. Visual ability allows you to accurately visualize all aspects of an object for the purposes of recreating it, the way painters do. It's also what you use to imagine a scene from a novel or a story someone tells you — the ability to accurately reproduce reality in the mind's eye.

Here's a question that required high visual ability to solve:

Which of the images below is a perfect square?

Here's the answer: Eyeballing it, you can see that image A is the square with identical length and height, and so the correct answer is A.

In every-day life, visual ability is what you use when creating original art. In order to reproduce an object on canvas (as painters do) you have to be able to accurately represent the dimensions of those objects in the picture. Getting the accurate perspective and depth is easiest for someone with a strong visual ability.

Compared with others, your visual ability is very high. This means that you have a very strong visual ability.

Organizational Ability
Your organizational ability score is 88 out of 100. Organizational ability is what allows you to organize and arrange information effectively, be precise, and proofread carefully.

Here's a question that required high organizational ability:

Which of the following character strings is the closest match to 8,392,211,109?

Here's the answer: The correct answer is B. Try reading each of the answer options not as numbers, but rather as a string of characters; when you do so, you will find that B has the fewest mismatches, position for position, in the string of characters. See below (mismatches highlighted in red):

In every-day life, organizational ability is what you use to proofread a paper or organize a messy desk. Coming up with an organizational system for keeping track of things comes easy to those who are high in this ability. It is a highly practical skill.

Compared with others, your organizational ability is high. This means that you have a strong organizational ability.

Tips for Improving your IQ

Want a higher score next time? Here are some activities you can do before taking your next IQ test.

Get more oxygen to your brain. You'll be able to think more clearly. To do this, go for a walk, or simply take deep, long breaths. Practicing yoga is also good. Some even claim you can get more oxygen by swimming underwater, and holding your breath for longer and longer periods of time. This increases the amount of oxygen in your brain and will allow you to focus better on the test.

Take time to relax. If you feel anxious, you'll probably make more mistakes. Practice peaceful visualization, imagining scenes that are calming to you. Meditate or do whatever it is you know calms you down, before taking the test.

Listen to Mozart. It may sound like a stretch, but some researchers have found that listening to Mozart actually increases your spatial IQ. They call it the Mozart Effect and believe that the music stabilizes the neural connections necessary for spatial-temporal abilities

Practice, practice, practice. Take a range of different types of IQ tests. The greater the range of problems, the more ready you'll be to tackle the unexpected on a new IQ test. Why not take Tickle's Ultimate IQ test, if you haven't already.

Black Snake Moan

So what's with that chain?

The gateway crime

You don't wanna mess with the R-I-double-A
They'll sue you if you burn that CD-R
It doesn't matter if you're a grandma
Or a seven-year-old girl
They'll treat like the evil, hard-bitten, criminal scum you are

You're Pitiful

This has been around for a while, but it's not available in any of Weird Al's albums... because while Al had gotten permission from James Blunt to make a parody of his song, he was later contacted by Atlantic Records, James Blunt's label, which asked Al not to publish the song in his album. So instead of publishing the song in his album, Straight Outta Lynwood, he has the MP3 available for free download on his webpage.

This is why in Al's later video for White & Nerdy, in the part what he sings, "I edit Wikipedia," you can see him editing the entry for Atlantic Records to say "YOU SUCK!"


You're Pitiful
"Weird Al" Yankovic

My life is brilliant...
(What, was I too early? I'm sorry, should I... do you want to start over, or? Keep going? OK. Now? Now?)

My life is brilliant
Your life's a joke
You're just pathetic
You're always broke
Your homemade Star Trek uniform
Really ain't impressing me
You're sufferin' from delusions of adequacy

You're pitiful
You're pitiful
You're pitiful, it's true
Never had a date
That you couldn't inflate
And you smell repulsive, too
What a bummer being you

Well you just can't dance
And forget romance
Everybody you know still calls ya--"farty-pants"
But you'll always have a job, well, I mean
As long as you still can work that Slurpee machine

You're pitiful
You're pitiful
You're pitiful, it's true
You're half undressed
Eating chips off your chest
While you're playing Halo 2
No one's classier than you

La la la la
La la la la
La la la la Loser

You're pitiful
You're pitiful
You're pitiful, it's true
Your dog would much rather
Play fetch by itself
You still live with your mom, and you're 42

Guess you'll never grow a clue
Well, it just sucks to be you

Happy Singles Awareness Day!

In honor of Valentine's Day, Google has temporarily changed their logo to include a chocolate-covered strawberry. As have many other large sites. (MSN changed their personal page scheme to an ugly red one, for instance.)

Now does that logo look like it says "Google" to you, or "Googe"?
And if you don't know what "googe" means, consider yourself lucky.

Groundhog Day!

No, this is not really about the festival that's celebrated on February 2. It's not about the movie with the same title, either.

Nope. This post is about Day Break, a drama series that began airing on ABC last November, as a midseason replacement for Lost, and deals with the concept of a time loop--that is, the protagonist wakes up each morning to find himself reliving the same day (hence its connection to the Groundhog Day movie). It differs, of course, in that it's a much more serious story. Also, the person experiencing the time loop retains all of his injuries from the previous day.

The show was on hiatus shortly after it began to air, and I had followed each episode that aired. As it turns out, while ABC will no longer air the show on TV, it has decided to continue the series on the web. I only found out about this as I was reading the TV-specific blogs on TV Guide.com.

Over-the-Air HD programming

So I've picked up this 32" LCD TV from Howard, my brother-in-law, who happens to know someone with a great deal on these TVs. Since our old TV in the livingroom was in dire need of retirement, I decided to take the plunge now, instead of waiting to get a larger one later.

After reading the specs, I realized that this TV has a built-in HD tuner, so I went out to CVS Pharmacy and picked up a $10 antenna (it was late, and they're open 24 hours). I figured it would be a good alternate to the HD programming I'm going to get from Charter--who'll be here to install a HD-DVR next week. I had been talking to Joyce earlier, and checked out her HDTV (with a powered antenna), and it seems she's only getting HD from three networks (NBC, ABC and the CW, plus the several extras you apparently can only pick up with an HD tuner). Imagine my surprise when I found that I could not only pick up all the major networks in HD, but also several others...

1. Channel 2 (CBS), broadcast in 1080i

2. Channel 4 (NBC), 1080i

3. Channel 5 (The CW), 1080i

4. Channel 7 (ABC), 720p

5. Channel 9 (KCAL, local station), 1080i

6. Channel 11 (Fox), 720p

7. Channel 13 (MyNetworkTV), 720p

8. Channel 28 (KCET, PBS), 1080i

9. Channel 50 (KOCE, PBS), 1080i

The TV's autoscan actually found other PBS stations, but when I switched them I either got "no signal" or bad reception, so I don't know if they're sending HD signals or not. It's also picking up a bunch of sub-channels, which cannot be picked up with a standard tuner, although the broadcast signal for those are only 480i.


Since the TV also has picture-in-picture, I decided to see how the HD signal compares to the regular signal I'm getting from Charter. At least for now, it seems that the signal from Charter reaches my home a second or so faster than HD.
(HD in the main picture, cable-SD in the sub-picture.)