KLIKRUNK GLINK CHAKUNK!

broderic on October 8, 2010

Let’s keep it light hearted for a little bit.

Fashklork! Foomp! Glank! Kapooshishish!

These are all sound effects by the hilarious Don Martin of Mad Magazine fame.

I just think they’re some great words, and they sound completely awesome as non-sequiturs in your twitter timeline or facebook page. Throw some on their and watch people stare quizzically at their screen until their inner geek kicks in and recognizes Don Martin. Have fun and stay safe with these.

Now, where did I put my Sergio Aragones mini sketches?

“I am. I am. I am Superman. And I can do anything.”

broderic on October 8, 2010

25 And Living Large: I'm an alcholic!

If there was flickr in the 90s, I would’ve favorited this photo.

The funny thing about this photo is that it was taken on September 18, 1996. It’s my birthday! Happy birthday, BrowserMetrics! You’re 25!

Now take a look at who’s helping me to celebrate. They are co-workers from Ruby’s, fellow servers. For my last birthday, it was just my family. I can’t believe that I had celebrated a birthday not with family. It’s been a long time.

The other aspect of this photo is that the girl I was crushing hard on at the time is also there to celebrate it as well. That’s why I’m ducking out of the picture. This can’t be real. Someone pinch me. The problem though is that I was a drunk at the time. So it was hard to figure out what happened on this night.

When I pulled this photo off the floppy, I didn’t know any of these facts. I had to search my memory for it. I had to look at the date on the files just to be sure that I had the right year. This time of my life is a drunken blur. I must’ve been having too good of a time to chronicle it. And yet I wish I had.

Currently, I like to chronicle my life with social media. Blogs, flickr, twitter are all contributing to making my memories indexable by google. Yet, these formative years of my twenties weren’t and they make it a big, black hole. So I look at this photo, and smile as it’ll help me recover them.

Here’s how I think the night happened. Drinks at the Harryman House. More drinks at one of these guys’ house. Passed out drunk. What a birthday! As I look back on it, I wish I wasn’t a drunk and I had put the moves on that girl. Some things are still the same with me.

So what I have here is an artifact of funness, something which I’ve been missing these last few months. I’ve been in a funk. I just need to get my drunk on and just have a good time. Like that bastard in the photo.

Link of the Day [10.07.10]

broderic on October 7, 2010

Yes. It is very personal. It is part of who I am, and who I am is a sucker. It is a large part of my identity — wrapped around me like a Patagonia better sweater. I have to peel it away, and let myself understand that it isn't me. It is my job. Now if I can only get over the fear of looking for a new job. Or being jobless. Or the new day. Or the new place. Or the new people. Or the interviews.Once again, Peter Gibbons will describe me in a succinct, brilliant quote: "I'm gonna end up doing it, because, uh… because I'm a big pussy, which is why I work at Initech to begin with." http://pieratt.tumblr.com/post/977179815/in-praise-of-quitting-your-job

Shagging Batting Practice in the Sunshine

broderic on October 7, 2010

Tigers @ Orioles: No Here!

Ain’t the girls at the ballpark awesome? She wasn’t even the prettiest. As we left the Yard, there was a girl riding her bike home. Be still my beating heart. Baseball. Bikes. Babes. Nice.

Get ready! Get set! Oscar!

broderic on October 6, 2010

Last year's race for Best Picture was considered a two picture race between Avatar and The Hurt Locker even though the category had ten nominees. What's it gonna be like for this year's show?If this New York Times article is accurate (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/movies/06oscar.html), it should be wide open. The race is heating up, but should start getting good real soon. Besides The Social Network, Inception, and perhaps Scorcese's Shutter Island, I think the Oscar-worthy pictures aren't bound to show up in theatres until winter, their usual schedule slot. I haven't heard much about some of the films mentioned in the article. I've only just seen the Coen's True Grit trailer, and even then it does nothing for me. This year has been the suck for movies. I wonder if they're as terrible as last year. Anyway, this post should also be a Link of the Day because embedded in the NYTimes article is a nice site, http://incontention.com/, that tries to handicap the Oscar race. I read a few posts there and it reads very cool. Looks to be a great resource in the next BrowserMetrics' Oscar Pool.

“Who are we? What we see? Whoa, I can’t comprehend.”

broderic on October 5, 2010

25 And Living Large: I'm an alcholic! 25 And Living Large 25 And Living Large

Remember this? I had promised a few posts related to these pictures in which I look back to who I was back then. Before doing so I want to get into the technology of these pictures, because it struck me as funny as to how far computing has progressed. And it was in thinking of how old these photos were that made me realize that even though I am in these pictures that person is not anything like the me of today and neither is the technology.

You already know I pulled these pictures from a 3/4″ floppy disk, but you don’t know that they were formatted as a gif file. That’s funny because the best way to store pictures onto storage media would be jpg. Why are they gifs? Who in their right mind would scan photos into gif files. What year is it again?! I remember when and where I got these photos scanned. It was a camera store in Hunt Valley by the Giant, and according to the time stamps of the files, they were created on Saturday, October 12, 1996. That’s just about 14 years ago, when the Internet was barely walking, the floppy drive was the favorite removable storage media, Windows 95 was within its year of release, and you didn’t own a scanner. Plus, cameras were still using film.

Look at it today, October 4, 2010. Our storage media contain 1000 times more floppy disks. The Internet is in its unruly teens. I don’t care anymore about Windows 95, because OS X kicks its ass, and Apple still rulez. I have a scanner and could scan those analog film pictures on my own into jpg files if I wanted. And my camera is pure digital.

We change. So does technology. What happens when we try to go back? It becomes somewhat of a hassle because things may not be compatible anymore. All the trouble to update outdated things, is it worth it?

The Social Network

broderic on October 4, 2010

The Social Network purports to describe the rise of Facebook. You’ll wonder how much is real and how much is made up in order to expedite telling the story. Then you’ll wonder at the digital technology that made one person into two — Lindsay Lohan eat your heart out.

The Social Network starts off with pure Aaron Sorkin dialogue. The banter between Mark Zuckerberg (not Michael Cera) and his soon to be ex-girlfriend would give clues to why he builds Facebook. They talk in multiple threads, and if you aren’t quick enough you’ll get lost in which they are talking about. She hates it, so do I. Eventually, I start to understand what they’re talking about, and what’s happening. It sets up the break up which as the movie unwinds is what ultimately was the impetus: LOVE and women.

He’s a social misfit. Awkward when he interacts because he’s in his own world. He can program a website, but he can’t make friends. Ironic that he created the one website wherein friending is the unit of exchange. Then the true psychopath shows up in Shawn Parker. Paranoid and fast talker he pushes to the max being a social misfit. Parties and girls. Girls and parties. Trouble follows him. I recognize these type of geeks. Driven by their own ambition but can’t really express it.

I was pretty geeked out when they did the geek stuff. I also recognized some of the old high-flying dot com days from my own days of yore.

4 of 5 stars.

Quote of the Day [10.03.10]

broderic on October 3, 2010

“This, then, is the future of the Republican Party: Angry white voters hovering over their cash-stuffed mattresses with their kerosene lanterns, peering through the blinds at the oncoming hordes of suburban soccer moms they’ve mistaken for death-panel bureaucrats bent on exterminating anyone who isn’t an illegal alien or a Kenyan anti-colonialist.”

Matt Taibibi Tea & Crackers

How to get a ball

broderic on October 2, 2010


How to get a ball
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
Came early to OPACY for batting to snag a ball. Stood in centerfield bleachers as Tigers’ right handed batters hit it into the left field stands. Waited until Damon and the left handed hitters came up but the Tigers don’t have any jackets so balls weren’t falling into the stands. The fans were pleading with the players who were shagging flies for balls. Justin Verlander was generous tossing balls into he stands. I acted nonchalant so he wouldn’t throw directly to me. His final toss into the crowd went slightly to my left. I reached up and snagged it from the guy behind me. I’ve got another ball to add to he collection.