Songs from the Little Bird

Yesterday, the Dodgers lost by stranding 16 men on base.

On the bright side, I felt a small earthquake (probably one of these) from the top deck, and a Star Destroyer menaced the field during a lengthy pitching change:




The only way I want to see Los Angeles:


EDIT: Fooey, some of those earthquakes are big enough to have done structural damage locally. I shouldn't let myself enjoy the ride when someone else's house is getting cracked.

 I need to make an animated gif of this. Somehow.

.

So I was reading about how the Philadelphia Free Library system is closing due to lack of state funding, and how this may well start happening in many cities, despite the fact that free libraries' computers are where many of the unemployed go for job hunting and info about federal assistance, and seniors go there for info about social security (much of this info only available online).

And I thought, "Well, at least we now have a president who cares about education, who may realize this is a problem and kick somebody with a view to doing something about it."
And then I thought, "Oh, I'm being unfair to W. His wife is a schoolteacher, after all!"
And then the little voice in my head said, "Yeah, but she looks like Dolores Umbridge."
And then I scolded myself for judging someone by looks, when she actually DOES care about education!
And then I went and did this anyway, because I couldn't resist:


Now, back to work...

I am back from Pennsic, attempting to slot back into dissertation, and finally healed enough from aches/pains and near-sinus-calamity to THINK.
Except dang, I really did nearly break my shin over the rocks in Rivendell Roseland. It's a beautiful, beautiful encampment down in the valley with gorgeous standing stones and paved pathways, but WTF WITH THE BIG ROCK near the firepit where people sit around being drunk and/or bardic until 3AM?!

I killed someone's ceramic drum with my fall. He was so gracious about it, but I still feel horribly guilty, like I ran over someone's pet. I must bring a weregild next year to atone.

On a COMPLETELY different topic. The following is ganked from flist. I find it painfully funny, even though I've managed to avoid MMOs. The selection-screen poses are great.



And just to reiterate, ONE MORE TIME, for old time's sake:
"There is no sex on GarouMUSH."

Some of you have probably seen these videos before, but you probably haven't seen them all.

This was organized by a theater group.

The Sound of Music



The rest are organized by Improv Everywhere, a nucleus of pranksters who use email and the web to gather groups of volunteers and dispatch them on "missions".

(If you only watch one, I recommend the food court musical for hilarity and/or the very last one. Note that Jim Gray really IS a sports broadcaster for NBC.)

Frozen Grand Central Station
(their most famous prank)



No Pants on the New York Subway



Food Court Musical
(For this one they contacted the mall upper management to get permission and rig up cameras and a sound system, but none of the regular mall employees knew what was going on.)



Best Game Ever



Go to ImprovEverwhere.com for more. I also recommend "Look Up More", "High Five on Escalator" (notice how the mood of the commuters changes by the time they reach the top), "Abercrombie and Fitch" (shirtless guys), and the "Human Mirror".