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xkcd: ‘inside job’ was an inside job
November 19, 2011 — xanthippa
Me too!
Conspiracy ‘theorists’ can be extremely entertaining. I like to play with them.
P.S. The word ‘theory’ in ‘conspiracy theory’ should always be in quotation marks: let’s face it, a bunch of rantings do not a theory make!
Ezra’s Halloween
November 1, 2011 — xanthippaWith Mary Walsh’s early morning ambush on Toronto Mayor Ford which terrified his 5-year-old child still fresh in our mind, this version of the trick is actually funny!
The thing that gets me is how good a sport Mr. Ford is about the whole thing. It casts him in a vastly different light than the CBC commentary – which had subsequently been proven to be an outright lie.
On the one hand – a bunch of ‘professional’ journalists from CBC tell an outright lie (that Mr. Ford called the 9-1-1 operators ‘bitches’). On the othe hand – a Mayor who proves he has a sense of humour, even about himself…
Hmmm…. Form your own conclusions!
Aspergers: the Guild – a fun Aspie show
October 6, 2011 — xanthippaFelicia Day, the creator of the online show The Guild, is a genius.
She herself has degrees in Mathematica and Music (which is really just one form of applied mathematics). I do not know if she is an Aspie herself, but she certainly knows how to portray and entertain us! I would recommend watching The Guild (which is in its 5th season) to anyone who is or loves an Aspie (or who has to interact with us and who would like to get more of an insight into our psyches).
The first season was strictly non-sponsored, made for YouTube. It is so good and has such a following (I suspect that mostly among Aspies)
Here is the first episode of the first season:
Many parents of Aspie kids/teens have asked me if I think it is bad to let them have a lot of online time. I do not.
To the contrary – I think online interactions are an exceptionally useful tools for Aspies (and parents of Aspies) to encourage social growth.
Let’s face it – Aspies mature differently from NT’s (neurotypicals – non-Aspies). In some aspects, we are much more advanced than our NT peers and we find it quite offensive when NT adults treat us as idiots and simplify things to the point of error while talking to us. On the other hand, we are much slower to mature socially – some of us find most social interactions with NTs quite disturbing.
Interaction over the internet is both simpler – the rules are simplified and usually explicitly stated – and more in our control: if we feel a ‘melt down’ or if we want to leave the interaction for any reason, we can simply log off! That is an incredible ‘security blanket’ – being able to remove oneself from a stressful social situation rather than waiting for it to blow up.
When my younger son got a girlfriend (his first) in and MMO RPG, my older son was concerned that this might be wrong or inappropriate for his social development. I explained that I disagreed – his brother was aware that the online persona might hide absolutely anyone, but he was having fun ‘trying out’ flirting in a completely safe environment. When they eventually did ‘break up’, he did not ever have to log onto that particular site again. Ever!
This avoided a lot of awkwardness. Being in the same class/school with his ex and having to interact with her daily would have been extremely stressful and would have stifled his desire to interact with other humans. Like this, it was a perfectly safe (and supervised!) interaction, where he got to practice his social flirting skills without the fear of consequences should he fail.
I see that as a win-win!
On a lighter note…
August 29, 2011 — xanthippaRecently, WordPress had sent out notifications to its bloggers that there is a slim chance some of their passwords might have been compromised, so, everyone, please, change your passwords.
And, as it is a good idea to change passwords regularly anyway, I tought it might be useful to re-publish xkcd’s public service tutorial on passwords:
On a lighter note: “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World”
February 14, 2011 — xanthippaI don’t do movie theaters.
If you’ve ever been in one, you probably know why: the uncomfortably big contrast in lighting between the dim movie theatre and the bright movie screen is enough to trigger seizures, even in people who don’t usuallyget them, the sound is so loud, it is bound to trigger a migrane and spending a few hours in uncomfortable seats with insufficient legroom, surrounded by tens or hundreds of other humans in close proximity, most of whom you don’t even know – I’d rather stick sharp bamboo sticks under my nails that subject myself to that.
The fact that so many people consider this ‘entertainment’ must indicate the surprisingly high number of members of our society who are so self loathing that they would not just permit themselves to be subjected to this demeaning ritual, they would actually pay money to do so…
And, then there are the movies themselves!
Again, one would have to have real self-esteem issues to voluntarily subject themselves to the level of emotional manipulation that most Hollywood-style movies throw at them. And I find it difficult to believe that people would watch Hollywood-style movies for the intellectual stimulation…
Every now and then, however, there comes along a movie worth watching.
This weekend, we watched a movie as a family – it was a breath of fresh air!
OK – it was not your conventional movie.
And, there was music in it – it seems that one can’t get away from that in movies today – but it was not manipulative and, most of the time, it was in places where it belonged (like, when the band was playing…). And it did have Zelda music – which is better than most.
Just for the record – the fact that they referred to Tetris is NOT the only reason I liked “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World”.
The movie just flowed.
It made sense.
Whenever there was a moment that got too emotionally charged, it ‘switched modes’ and made it OK again. (I can’t elaborate without giving too much away.)
Sure, the movie was not perfect. We all agree on how the ending could have been seriously improved.
But overall, it was very fun.
My younger son liked it so much, he watched it 5 times – plus he watched a bunch of YouTube videos of it….
I still wouldn’t go see it in a movie theatre, but I would strongly recommend it as something to watch at home, alone or with family and/or friends.
The movie mocks vegans – for the right reasons. Just like so many others…
And they pay homage to Rowan Atkinson‘s pronounciation of ‘Bob’.
You can almost hear echoes of Silent Bob…
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 