You know what I need? A round Tuit.

November 16, 2009

Ever heard of those? It’s for people who have a hard time committing to following through on things. All those people that say “I’ll do it when I get around to it,” really ought to check out this site that sells round tuits, although I guess you’d have to get around to telling someone else to get it for you because you’d never get a round tuit on your own, would ya?

Even better is this history of tuits with beautiful medallions being offered.

A round tuit

What the hell am I even leading up to, you ask. Last year, way back around Giftsmastime, I was at home in Dial Up Land and found an interesting article I couldn’t write about at the time. Now I have the time and, what’s more, the inclination. It was all about a popular children’s rhyme and how it may have actually been a hate crime to be singing and acting it out. You read that right. Hokey Pokey could be a hate crime.

according to the Catholic Church and some Scottish politicians, singing the popular tune that begins with the words “You put your right hand in, your right hand out,” may constitute an act of religious hatred.

A spokesman for the leader of the church in Scotland said the song had disturbing origins.

Critics claim that Puritans composed the song in the 18th century in an attempt to mock the actions and language of priests leading the Latin mass.

Now politicians have urged police to arrest anyone using the song to “taunt” Catholics under legislation designed to prevent incitement to religious hatred.

I wonder how that went. Since I never heard of mass panic in playgrounds, I guess it went the way of the dodo.

Supporters of Rangers FC have been banned from singing anti-Catholic songs at Ibrox stadium to taunt their rivals Celtic, a club with Catholic roots.

But fans of the club are said to be discussing on internet forums the possibility of getting round the ban by singing the Hokey Cokey at next week’s Old Firm derby between the clubs.

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for Cardinal Keith O’Brien, said:

“This song does have quite disturbing origins. Although apparently innocuous, it was devised as an attack on and a parody of the Catholic mass.

Or it’s about cheap and inferior ice cream and a song invented in 1942.

“If there are moves to restore its more malevolent meaning then consideration should perhaps be given to its wider use.”

According to the church, the song’s title derives from the words “hocus pocus”.

That idea has made the rounds, but Wiki credits Canadian soldiers in WWII for providing Jimmy Kennedy with the inspiration for what later became his Hokey Cokey hit.

Jimmy Kennedy Jr. quoted his father’s writing:

“They were having a hilarious time, singing and playing games, one of which they said was a Canadian children’s game called The Cokey Cokey. I thought to myself, wouldn’t that be fun as a dance to cheer people up! So when I got back to my hotel, I wrote a chorus based on the feet and hand movements the Canadians had used, with a few adaptations. A few days later, I wrote additional lyrics to it but kept the title, Cokey Cokey, and, as everybody knows, it became a big hit.”

According to Kennedy Jr., his father told him “the unusual title was to do with drugs [cocaine] taken by the miners in Canada to cheer themselves up in the harsh environment where they were prospecting.”

That’s even better than 17th century Puritans. It took some hunting to find the National Post’s response to this business, but it’s unclear if they’re reporting on what Wiki has, or if they’re Wiki’s source. Around and around, eh? I can’t find any sites explaining how many prospectors O.D.’d before scurvy got them or anything, but hey. It’s still one hell of a story.

People would rather take offense than do research first. A hoax is just good enough to be believed by one person who tells a few others and soon it’s as real is lemon sorbet. Mmm..sorbet…


How useful is a personality test?

November 16, 2009

I found one via Triangulations I hadn’t heard of: O.C.E.A.N so obviously I had to give it a shot. I’m sure I answered honestly, but still was bummed over results.

ocean results

And I admit right now I altered the colour of this to be a lot more sunny than the original pea soup colour existing on site.

So, to define my results:

Openness to Experience/Intellect: High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.

You typically don’t seek out new experiences. (Your percentile: 59)

Well, I’m working on that at least. That’s part of what the whole Freethinkers thing is about. Get out, do something different and meet new people for a change. My rut is so deep I can barely see over it.

Conscientiousness: High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent.

You tend to do things somewhat haphazardly. (Your percentile: 35)

Yeah, I’ll buy that. I’d prove it with photos of my level of apartment cleanliness but why embarrass myself. I think it comes down to priorities and I don’t see housecleaning as one of them. I could take a lot more care with the stickers I put on books at work and measure just so and carefully apply tape but I have so much to do it’d be a waste of my day to be that focused on identical tape strips and level application. I need to be quick, efficient, and accurate but perfectionism is not required. I don’t tend to be negligent or late, though. And if I say I’ll do something, I’ll follow through.

Extraversion: High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet.

You tend to shy away from social situations. (Your percentile: 27)

And again, I’m working on it. I do spend too much time alone. Growing up most of my social stuff was with family and cousins will put up with a lot more weirdness than kids at school might. And I was a weird bird back then and shy about getting mocked by people whose opinions “mattered” to me in some way. Silly now. I should have just done what I liked instead of worrying about how much I’d be teased over the actors I liked (i.e. Wil Wheaton) or shows I watched (Fraggle Rock).

Agreeableness: High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.

You find it easy to express irritation with others. (Your percentile: 38)

This is the one that bugs me, but more because it’s true, I suppose. But I am good natured and courteous and I do have sympathy and some capacity of forgiveness. Just not enough, apparently. I can also choose to look at this as a good trait, at least in terms of not being willing to take shit from people and call it jam. If I’m bothered, there might be a real reason for it. It won’t be an overreaction every single time. Not by a long shot. And not every thing that happens in a day is going to cause me irritation. I’d get nothing accomplished if I groused about everything to everyone. Some things aren’t worth making a case over and can be dropped without a feather out of place.

Neuroticism: High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy.

You are generally relaxed. (Your percentile: 37)

In this case a low score seems to be good. Awesome. It ties into the previous a bit, too. I could freak out over all the unknowns and unlikes and unappreciateds but why? It doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t make anything better. All it does is eat up time better spent working and it ruins the time I set aside for fun.

Someone else do this test and let me know how it goes. Is it accurate, or do you feel it misrepresents what or who you are? How does it relate to any other tests you’ve tried? I don’t remember what I scored last time I played with the Myers-Briggs. INFJ, ISTP? I’ve been both at different times of my life. Maybe now I’d get something else. Thoughts?


Oh, thanks be to the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

November 8, 2009

Guess what I spotted today: my blog featured on the atheist tag page. Oh, yes, I bless His Noodly Appendage for snagging my blog in his most tenderest of Noodles and resting me upon the wordpress like a treasured meatball. Oh, I must sacrifice tomatoes to his greatness tonight. I must!

And yes I hit Print Screen and saved that image. Skeptics always demand proof eh?

wordpress feature little

Ramen! Ramen!

(k, done. A little humility also goes a long way…)


Quoteable Twitter Bio

November 8, 2009

Nathan Fillion sure has a lot of followers. Anyway, I love his bio:

It costs nothing to say something kind. Even less to shut up altogether.

Good advice, Sir. Good advice.


What’s the deal with ChristWire?

November 6, 2009

Is this for real? Do people really think this way? Until I’m informed of the reality of this site, have a few laughs anyway. It’s a helluva good time.

Start with the bit where emo spirits cause men to have bad hair and buy communist products. Who knew? What’s communist about iTunes? I have to pay for every song. I thought under communism all kinds of shit would be free. Stupid commie bastards who ruined the utopia Marx dreamed of…

If you want to own a cat, you may as well worship Bast, too and then go straight to hell, do not pass Go (but do pass the lint brush. Cat hairs! Evil cat hairs!) On behalf of cats everywhere, I’m offended.

Friendly Atheist gets a finger shaken at him for mentioning the Virgin Mary and a condom in the same piece. Because it IS the same piece:

I wish this were still the days of the Spanish Inquisition, because I would mount my horse and lead the charge to slowly burn all these filth atheist witches at the pyre! There is nothing moral or right about disparaging the mother of our Lord and Savior!

I hope and pray God gives them just punishment for this, it’s so far over the line of wrong. May God strike down their fornicated secret parts with emerods and then let their souls stoke the fires of hell!

Feel the love. I love being loved. Whoever got to be loved with that Virgin Mary condom was very loved indeed. I also love how it says “emerods” instead of hemorrhoids, too. It’s obviously a writer more familiar with King James’ version. Haven’t seen much evidence of smiting yet. God can’t even smite down my fruit flies. Not that I’ve asked him to – I’m an atheist with a soapy water spray bottle. I can deal with them myself.

Apparently there’s a group around that’s given up masturbation for Jesus. I shouldn’t wonder why. You’ve seen how Jesus is hung, right? (Dude’s in need of a dress up party, too. Open this in a new window or tab for later. Don’t leave here yet. There are more LOLs! Read the rest of this entry »


My brain is tired of thinking…

November 3, 2009

But not tired enough to stop thinking about how to rescue these idiotic Vikings. I’m hooked on another little game here. This one is called Ice Breaker and you have to slice the ice and ropes in just such a way as to make sure the little Viking dudes make it into their ship.

frikin vikings

See, there are little pins in the ice in this level and no matter where I cut, I launch my little vikings right into the water. And the viking on the boat just sits there, waiting until I figure out the fucking level so everyone can jump around making Ohh noises like the best orgasms they’ve ever had. Yeah, I want the Ooh, too, guys. At least it’s not timed. I can take all night to figure it out and they won’t get bored of me. I love these little guys…


MyHope is not quite my hope…

November 2, 2009

But considering the crap people will leave around the internet, this would totally be some decent payback. Better than old high school yearbooks, even.


This is not why I’m fat…

November 1, 2009

But I can think of a few recipes I’ve come across that belong in this book, and on this site. My mother is known for some marshmallow confetti thing that requires a whole jar of peanut butter, a whole bag of caramel chips, and a whole bag of baby marshmallows to be heated up and swirled together into rock solid rich sweetness. It’s hard core. I can handle one little piece about an inch square and then I’m good for at least a year.

I think I should put a request in for the library to buy this book…


What I did today instead of blogging

November 1, 2009

I played games:

Flowery Power Pinball is delightful with music that is so pretty it can be left to play forever. Has cool twists and is full of quirky fun.

Golf Ace Hawaii is another game with great music that can just be left on while you make tea or ponder your shots.

Kerixep is easy to play but gets harder every time you succeed. You have to change all the boxes to red, but only one path is going to change them all.

Cover Orange gets a bit dumb, but it’s almost worth it to see the little orange dudes smile when the cloud of pain doesn’t kill them.

And to honour anyone worried about H1N1, have a go with Sneeze and see how many people you’ll infect if you don’t cover your mouth.

One for speedy math lovers – Obechi – follow the instructions to the letter or it’ll make you redo the level every time. Counting is key.


hey girls, they’re kicking our butts…

November 1, 2009

I found out about it here from a guy pointing out the trivial prowess of women but now the guys are winning. Help me out with this. Any one know sports and history? I’ve got literature capped…

Trivial Pursuit Experiment