Hannah B. Murray, a J.D. candidate at the University of Michigan Law School, & Jason C. Miller, Esq., Law clerk to Circuit Judge Deborah L. Cook, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, have posted Wikipedia in Court: When and How Citing Wikipedia and Other Consensus Websites is Appropriate, on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

“Practitioners and courts are relying more and more on Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Hundreds of court opinions, including at least one from every federal circuit court, and thousands of law review articles cite Wikipedia. Some opinions have relied on Wikipedia for technical information, although others only turned to the consensus website for background information on minor points.

“This practice has generated controversy, with newspapers, professors, practitioners, and judges weighing in. Wikipedia in Court examines the controversy and the history of Wikipedia in court opinions before proposing a framework to determine when it is appropriate and inappropriate to rely on Wikipedia for authority in legal writing. Given the inconsistency in the legal community’s use of Wikipedia, courts and practitioners will benefit from this framework.”

Inspirational Quotes

This became a credo of mine…attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.
            — Bette Davis

There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen.
            — Sean O’Faolain

Help others get ahead. You will always stand taller with someone else on your shoulders.
            — Bob Moawad

Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.
            — Dr. David M. Burns

Charge less, but charge. Otherwise, you will not be taken seriously, and you do your fellow artists no favours if you undercut the market.
            — Elizabeth Aston, The True Darcy Spirit, 2006

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.
            — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

That best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
            — William Wordsworth

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.
           — Arthur Rubinstein

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.
            — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Urban Dictionary

man chair

A man chair is the chair that men sit in while their partner is shopping for long periods of time. They can be found in almost any clothing or shoe store. What can we, as men do while our gf’s or wives are shopping, we can sit in a man chair.

Honey, Ill go over here and sit in a man chair while you go shop around and meet me here when your done.

This Friday, I point you to some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. Last week during all the hullabaloo surrounding the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I wrote a piece for PoliticsDaily.com about why East Germans feel somewhat differently about the Wall. Here’s a spectacular slide show on the Wall from The Guardian.

2. I was delighted to stumble across Wikipedia Files by some of my old colleagues at Chicago Public Radio’s sister site, Vocalo. It’s a show where the producers interview people about the accuracy of their Wikipedia files. Be sure to listen to the entry on John Hodgman.

3. If you’re a wordsmith, you’ll enjoy this zany brainteaser that lets you construct your own academic sentence. (Hat tip: @cmmayo). I also enjoyed this entry on the meaning of the new verb “Stupak” from Urban Dictionary. (Hat tip: Salon’s Broadsheet.)

4. Here’s an interesting analysis from the Christian Science Monitor about why voters’ age mattered so much in the latest elections.

5. I was also intrigued by this analysis in Forbes about why green jobs won’t save California’s economy.

6. Finally, if you’ve ever fantasized about tossing it all away and running off to start a commune, here’s one writer’s justification for doing just that in The Guardian.

Oh yes. And please do follow me on Twitter.

Overseas they are up on something called gash.  If you know what that means, let me know in the comments so we can share the true meaning with this side of the world. Enjoy!.

The definition is too raunchy for my site so i will link it from the urban dictionary for you.

One for the road. Not quite gash, but it is hard to deny the prevelance of the word in this flick.

Twitterpated, according to the Urban Dictionary can be defined as:

• to be completely enamored with someone/something.
• the flighty exciting feeling you get when you think about/see the object of your affection.
• romantically excited (i.e.: aroused)
• the ever increasing acceleration of heartbeat and body temperature as a result of being engulfed amidst the exhilaration and joy of being/having a romantic entity in someone’s life.

The word was used in the movie “Bambi” by the owl to help explain the feelings people have in the Spring. More recently the word has gained a new definition:

• A mildly derogatory term for those obsessive communicators who use the online medium Twitter to tell their friends every small thing they’re doing with their day.

I must admit that my opinion of Twitter was affected by reports of people sharing the most intimate details in their life for the world to see. Why would an author want to do this? Unless you are a J. K. Rowling, would anyone care if you had oatmeal or eggs for breakfast? You can imagine my dismay when at our San Diego SCBWI October meeting they discussed the importance of social media namely; Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

It was with some trepidation that I jumped in both feet and joined the “Twitter Revolution”. I had only been on for a short time before it became apparent to me that Twitter was its own world, with its own language. I needed help, and fast. Help came from a series of wonderful articles on Inkygirl.com. Author Debbie Ridpath Ohi has managed to help demystify the coded jargon and tweets that make up the wacky world of Twitter. Through her insight I now see how an author can use Twitter to gain connections, learn new information, find people who share your same goals. You can also use Twitter to spread the word about events in your life, book related or not.

While I don’t think I will ever get to the point where I am sharing my breakfast menu on Twitter, I now see it for the valuable tool it can be, especially  for authors.

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

Happy Monday! As you are sitting at your desk, on your couch or just meandering around the world in a daze due to your liquid weekend, I would like you to turn on your radio. Yes, turn it on. Music is writing and it is getting a bad rap on your local radio.

The current radio sensations are all deprived of creativity and have resorted to sick lyrics littered with sexual innuendo and sour metaphors. Who is the biggest felon? The poorly flamboyantly theatrical Lady Gaga. Her music is enormous, a hit, so it must be falling on deaf ears, correct? How could anyone possibly accept this poor attempt for creativity?

Let’s not just bash her on the surface. One must look deeper to get a true sense of the “artist”. Love Game, the radio hit with the ever-popular line, “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick.” Lady Gaga, what is a disco stick? According to Urban Dictionary this is the thing you so desire:

2. A sex move – a man snaps glow sticks of various colors and pours the liquid on his genitals, producing a ‘psychedelic’ effect during intercourse in the dark.

Do your creative reaches only go that far? Whatever happened to expressing your love through the beauty of a summer’s day? Was that not enough? Obviously not since you have come to pour over the radio your disgusting attempts of sexual innuendo. No, Lady Gaga, you will not be riding on anyone’s disco stick tonight or anytime in the near future.

It is disheartening to know that all over the United States, people’s ears are being subjected to the poor writing of pathetic “artists” looking only to capitalize on the ability to fill our heads with annoying tunes. Lady Gaga, 3OH!3, and the band with that poisonous firefly song. They all do it, yet they all fail to have the writing talent or the musical talent to have received the fame they carry with them. Their writing is not what writing should be known as; boycott it before your ears begin to bleed and become a faithful listener to the harmonious and captivating music and lyrics of the talented.

1. Im in my mid twenties.
2. I study art.
3. I am addicted to coffee.
4. I like to talk. a lot. about life and stuff.
5. I like music, films, art and books. In that order.
6. I have a closet full of clothes yet I wear different versions of the same outfit everyday.
7. I dye my hair.
8. I wear tight fitting jeans.
9. I like to thrift shop.
10. I look up what a hipster is in Urban Dictionary.

You Might Not Really Have Haters IF….

 You are constantly walking around saying it. 

 I probably should have posted this as one of my pet peeve blog entries because this irks me to the 10th power, but nevertheless it had to be said.

In case you didn’t know, the majority of the population is being hated on in some form or fashion…if you let them tell it. They have tons, I mean oodles and caboodles of people who care so much about what they are doing 24/7, 365 days a year that they have labeled them as their fan club of haters. They claim these “haters” are jealous of their success and that each aspect of their lifestyle gives their haters a reason to gossip about them and start drama.

sidenote: oftentimes the success mentioned is nowhere to be found and cannot be recognized. It is only acknowledgeable to the person being hated on.

I for the most part am amazed by the nerve of some of the people who are constantly screaming that they are being hated on. It may be just me, but when you look at them you almost giggle because the first thought that comes to mind is, hate on what? You give them a quick once over and you say to yourself again “Hate on what?” Because for the most part, the main people who claim to have a gang of haters on their trail don’t really have anything hate worthy about them.

If you have all day to walk around acknowledging these so-called haters, what does that say about you? If your Facebook page, Myspace page and Twitter account all consist of you shouting out your haters telling them how much you love them for hating on you, what does that say about you? Im glad you asked It may be a sign that you have too much free time on your hands and that you…not the haters….care a tad bit too much about what other people think and do.

Honestly I belive that hater and the variations of it (hatas, hateration,haterade,hatin) is the most abused word of the decade. It is tossed around aimlessly by people who either desire the attention of others who don’t give a damn about them or by people who just want attention. In my opinion people who are the most hated on are oftentimes attention whores.  They wish they had people’s undivided attention. They wish that they were something to talk about, and since they aren’t they have come up with all kinds of idiotic reasons why people are hating on them such as:

They have a nice-looking boyfriend/girlfriend (ok plenty of people have nice-looking boyfriends/girlfriends and yours even cheats so now what??)

They drive a nice car (ok the car lots are of full of nice cars and also a lot of people who have these nice cars have jacked up credit just like you)

They dress nice (ok, everywhere you go you see people dressed nicely, and didn’t you borrow that shirt from your sister anyway??)

They look good (do you really? okaaay if you say so)

…and with my comments they would probably label me as a hater too..whatever!

These are just a few of the lame reasons that the most hated on people of the world give when they go into very descriptive detail as to why people love to hate on them. They have to give a lot of details because it is the highlight of their day to tell others how they are being hated on…AGAIN

insert extra hard eye roll here.. 8-|

BUT…are people really hatin on you or are you just wishing people gave a damn. Think about it.

You might not really have haters if you have to constantly make it the topic of your conversation every chance you get. If you feel the need to say it so much, it might not be true.

It’s that time again! I’ve learned ten new things. I’m spreading the trivia wealth! (And those of you who have been with me from the beginning, we’ve learned 150 new things. How smart are we?)

1. It’s true, champagne does go straight to your head. Scientists think it’s the bubbles. (I tried to conduct some j-science experiments to confirm those findings, but after the first glass I sort of forgot what I was doing. I might have confirmed that champagne makes you much more likely to attempt river dancing on the coffee table, but if so, it’s not something I would write about in my blog.)
2. The Wisconsin Tourism Federation changed its name after bloggers had a field day with their initials. They will be known, henceforth, as the Tourism Federation of  Wisconsin. (Behold the awesome power of the blogosphere!)
3. What to get for the woman who has everything… how about a gas mask bra? Seriously! (My birthday is in December.)
4. There is a website that tells you how many insect parts and rodent hairs the FDA will allow in your food – peanut butter, popcorn, orange juice and more. (I can’t quite bring myself to recommend visiting the site; it’s enough to simply know that there IS an acceptable level of insect parts and rodent hairs. And by “enough,” I mean “too much.”)
5. In the American Museum of Natural History there is “a spectacular and extremely rare textile, woven from golden-colored silk thread produced by more than one million spiders in Madagascar.” The tapestry is amazing, but the hardest part about the project, according to Nicholas Godley, one of the men who conceived it, was finding weavers willing to work with spiders. (Well, duh. *shudders, runs off to take a shower*)
6. Another favorite urban dictionary word for you. Fornever. It means a) Never occurring, nor having the potential to do so (as in, Hanson will fornever be the greatest band this country has ever known). Or b) A nonexistent period of time (as in, I could watch reality television for never and never).
7. If you lose your wallet, your best shot at having it returned to you is to have a cute baby picture inside it. According to a study done in Edinburgh, Scotland, “the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any heart: only one in 10 of the strangers who retrieved such wallets neglected to return them. In contrast, the second-most successful image, a puppy, boasted only a 53 percent return rate. When the wallet included no photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner.” (I’ve got some pretty cute Caption This babies you can use!)
8. There are such things as immortal jellyfish. (I have nothing to add. Immortal jellyfish. That’s cool.)
9. At long last, someone has invented an electric anti-swine flu holy water dispenser. (Rest easy, sweet Catholics!)
10. Bats have oral sex. (I know, I should have resisted. I wanted to. But bats. And sex… I was weak. Forgive me. And now, when I want official forgiveness, I can be absolved without risk of contracting swine flu!)

Oh, c’mon. Don’t blame me about the bat thing. You didn’t have to click it!

Read the debate intro and the arguments from Loyal Homer and Bleacher Fan.

The catchall “sports media” is responsible for creating hype, and therefore value. The Sports Debates is guilty of it as well. Each week the writers here contribute what we believe will be the best game of the coming weekend, and present our arguments backing up that presumption. It is less overt hype, but hype nonetheless.

I have no problem with hype. However, there is value to the comment in the argument from Bleacher Fan that the hype machine tends to overinflate value. That is, rather than excite for a coming reality (the upcoming New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts game will be excellent, for example), hype has been twisted into a warped tool designed to create false value, driven by inherent bias. While Loyal Homer is correct that eyeballs see the details – the eyeball test evaluates teams based on intangibles like hustle and headiness that a computer may never grasp – they also come with bags of unavoidable bias. Therefore the best method for evaluating a college football team involves computers, and a debate win from Bleacher Fan.

In theory the eyeballs seem to be the best method to judge a college football team. The polls seem to get more right than they get wrong, regardless of Bleacher Fan’s astute observations about recent poll missteps. However, it is really not just eyeballs being used to judge a team, who those eyeballs belong to matters as well. A lot. One expert is better at evaluating teams than another. For example, I trust Sports Illustrated writer Stewart Mandel much more than I trust ESPN’s Lou Holtz. Duh. The voting and polling system is fraught with errors from voters who do not deserve the vote (many of the voters on this list of the original voting cast from the 2005 Harris Poll do not deserve a vote because they do not watch and follow college football), do nothing to retain the vote, are not screened for football knowledge to evaluate if they deserve a vote, and in some cases still get a ballot sent to them after they have died, as was the case with the Heisman trophy.

It is not that college football is just wedded to an antiquated approach to things – hence the reason eyeballs are still thought of as a legitimate way to judge the best teams in college football. It is that the entire organization seems immune to criticism when making blatantly obvious mistakes.

Bleacher Fan makes an excellent point, too, about the various types of bias that ultimately obscure the vision of voters. Size matters. Er, rather, MARKET size matters. The more mediums, locations, and distribution channels content can be bought, sold, and distributed, the better for the sports media organizations. Eyeballs exist in this paradigm as well… as in, “how many eyeballs are watching the game, reading the story, or telling their friends to tune in?” And, the more money a sports media organization has, the more biased nimrods they can include on college football hype shows. It is a vicious cycle.

Loyal Homer’s basic argument – that humans are able to be more objective than computers – does not hold water with me. While it is true that eyes can perceive hustle plays that demonstrate why a team goes from good to great, human eyes are never alone. They are unquestionably accompanied by history, bias, geography, allegiance, friendships, appreciation for that coach that always returns your calls or gives you the soundbyte you need, etc. I remember covering a high school baseball team one rainy Spring. After making an in-person visit to practice to grab some quotes and get the low down on the team, my car got stuck in the mud trying to escape the rainy baseball facility. The head coach, coaching staff, and a number of players ran over to push my car out of the mud. I will never forget it. Their kindness was the focus of my next column. While I am not communicating that their kindness bought them long term favor in my eyes, that team got the benefit of the doubt when rumors floated past my ears.

While I do not agree that numbers “cannot be influenced by bias or self-serving interests” as Bleacher Fan stated, computers do offer a certain level of objectivity that lends itself to a better overall product. Sure, people program computers… and computers often reflect the human bias. But, that is why the world has committees!

Weirdly, I personally still believe in the bowl system as being a good thing for college football. I also believe it is a legacy that started small, but has compounded and is – short of an act of Congress – a permanent part of our sports culture. But, when it comes to determining the national championship contenders, perhaps some things ARE better left to machines.

Read the arguments from Bleacher Fan and Loyal Homer about what the best criteria is to judge the ability of a college football team – computer rankings or the “eyeball test.”

The Luckeyes never passed the eyeball test used by fans and savvy members of the media. The method is simple – watch a team and surmise if the team is talented enough to make an impact in the conference or national title race. Does the team do the “little things” well? Does the team play with consistency? Does the team control the line of scrimmage and make key catches to get beyond the stick on third down? The 2002 Luckeyes did… and the computers do not measure that. Until senior quarterback Ricky Stanzi was injured last week, the 2009 Iowa Hawkeyes did as well.

Iowa is a curious case this season. Until the surprising and unfortunate loss at home last week to Northwestern the team was ranked fourth in the country. The computers were very fond of Iowa because of the strength of schedule from its opposing teams. Iowa opponents have tallied a combined 49-35 record this season. While on the surface it may appear as though the Hawkeyes luck through some wins – like many believe the team did in week one versus Northern Iowa – the truth is that the team has played some very talented teams and won more than it lost.

Like the Luckeyes, the Hawkeyes (Lawkeyes??) simply did not pass the eyeball test. But, the computers did love the Luckeyes, and even gave the team a shot against Miami in the title game – eventually. The Luckeyes finished up as national champions. The Hawkeyes’ final chapter from this season is yet to be written, but the team has played excellent opponents and still has the opportunity to make a BCS game with a win over Ohio State – of course – this coming weekend. And, the computers love the strength of schedule.

OR, do the computers have it all wrong? It seems, watching the Hawkeyes play, that the team is just downright lucky against some vastly inferior opponent. Stanzi threw five interceptions against Indiana a week before the Northwestern loss, but the team still managed pull off an incredible come-from-behind victory. The computers just evaluate the wins and losses and strength of schedule. Fans and media can use their eyeballs to determine if a team is able to play with the other elite teams in the country. Many believe teams like the Luckeyes and Iowa are not up to the test.

Therefore, what is the best method for evaluating the quality of a college football team?

Loyal Homer will argue that the best method for evaluating a team’s quality in college football is with the old, tried and true eyeball test. Bleacher Fan will argue that the objective computers more fairly and accurately evaluate the quality of a team.

Perhaps more than any other debate or any other commentary about the BCS, this debate captures true insight into the value of the old way college football functioned and the new way college football now functions.

Fans, media – what is to be trusted more, your eyeballs or the computers? Let the debate commence!

From Urban Dictionary
Platypus Rock
1. (v): to do something so shockingly awesome that even you are breathless at the prospect of your own awesomeness. Massively impressive.

2. (v): to do or participate in something that attains such a level of awesomeness because one (the platypus rocker) was involved in its creation or progress.

Example: Dude, you platypus rocked that shit!
Synonyms: awesome platapus cool impressive unimpresive
by Stan_the_Man! Mar 3, 2009

The results of the pussy campaign are in!

Thanks to the hard work of readers of this blog, in just six days, the following definition of pussy was voted #24* out of 121 definitions of pussy in urbandictionary.com:

Pussy

Cool or awesome; exciting and new

“That band’s totally pussy, dude! They rock!”

This new definition of pussy fits with the trend of urban slang to reverse the connotations of words. Pussy as “tough” and “cool” works well in a lingo that has changed bad, phat, bitchin**, dope, sick, gross, and ill all into positives expressions of praise.

In related news of our changing slang, I found the following definitions on urban dictionary, none of which I wrote!

Hella Pussy

totally awesome! really cool…

wow! that tennis serve was HELLA PUSSY!

you’re lookin’ hella pussy today

damn…this carrot cake is hella pussy.

Retarded

Having really good qualities about yourself; havin a banging body; somethin that is just that thang!

“He so retarded wit it!”

“Them shoes is retarded!”

Retarded

In this day and age, “retarded” is just another word for cool, dope, tight, chill, or whatever you say when you like something.

Retarded

In music, a down-tempo beat that is beyond ill: It is retarded.

“Mutherfucker’s beats is retarded!”

Retarded

an adjective used to describe something or someone that is pleasing to the eye, or looks good.

“Yo! Check out that honey… she’s retarded/”

“Man your car looks retarded, them 21 inch rims are really retarded.”

Gay

Cool. Awesome. Wicked sweet. Anything positive.

“Wicked gay!”

“This casserole is so gay!”

Pussy Awesome

Urban slang used especially by members of the straight edge hardcore punk rock subculture. It has also spread to extreme sports enthusiasts.

“We’re going to snowboard off the wings of a Cessna on to the peak of Mount Rainier. It’ll be pussy awesome!”

OK, I wrote that last one. But it seems that others out there have similar plans to covertly remake our language.

All of these can, of course be voted for repeatedly, which will help to bring them to prominence over the semiliterate, sexist, homophobic, and ableist diatribes that dominate the submitted definitions.

While you can continue with me to keep voting “thumbs up” for our definition of pussy at UrbanDictionary.Com as well as these other culturally subversively definitions (you are allowed to vote every 8 hours or so), the next phase of our operation is to casually insert this new, positive definition of pussy into blog posts, YouTube comments, and ordinary speech. Try to look perplexed if the person you are talking to hasn’t heard the word in this light before.

Together, we can make the world a more positive place, or at least confuse the squares!

*UPDATE: now #11! (11/23/09)

**thanks to Cyn M for that one

]]> http://thescaleblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/the-magical-white-board/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:51:55 +0000 Brian Battle http://thescaleblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/the-magical-white-board/

Where it all happens…

We measure our arm lengths vs our height.

The Hipster Test. Steph: 7, Brian: 10+

My girl, Mia, is totally sick. I’m not exactly how she got sick but she’s sounds like me when I’m ill and I don’t mean “ill” in a good way.

Wait, I’m gonna go off on a tangent for a sec. I was gonna post my killer soup recipe that Frippy asked me for but then my thoughts decided to run sideways so you’re coming along for the ride.

When and why did the term “ill” become a way to describe something fantastically awesome? Like the word “sick”. How is it ever a good thing when something’s “sick”?

Maybe it’s the nurse in me talking but here’s what I think of when I hear the words “ill” and “sick”.

ILL

According the Urban Dictionary, (the cousin of my best friend dictionary.com but with much more street cred because he’s urban) says :

A word used to describe something that is both “sick” (amazing) and “chilling” (relaxed). Synonomous with “epic” and “legendary” although with a somewhat more relaxed connotaion.

Huh. Sounds like this word was born when they chopped the “c” and “h” off of the word “chill”. Aaaanyways….

When I think of the term “ill”, I usually think of sniffles and I don’t mean the Gund bear. Oh wait. That’s Snuffles the Bear. Ooops. Yeah, well, I think of snuffles too.

Sniffles. Snuffles.
To-may-toe. To-mah-toe.
Whatever. Close enough.

SICK

My favorite definition on Urban Dictionary :

OLD VERSION OF SICK

Now used as the newest word to replace cool. Something that you’ve never seen before.

When I say I’m sick, I mean I’m coughing up green crap from my lungs the color of nuclear waste. Not that I know what nuclear waste looks like but I’ve seen enough episodes of The Simpsons to know that what I’m hacking out of my lungs and blowing out of my nose resembles the stuff Homer has riding on his back when he’s leaving work.

I feel like crap and I sound like a frog crawled down my throat and died. I hurt in places I didn’t know I could hurt. My lymph nodes no longer are the size of miniscule peas because they’ve blown up to the size of friggin’ baseballs. This means I can’t eat or swallow anything that isn’t the consistency of water. On the plus side, this means I get super skinny at the speed of sluggish light. Not the best way to lose weight and I don’t recommend it…although my girlfriends are always like “Hey, Bonnie! I have a wedding / birthday / special occasion coming up. Come here and cough on me!”

I have special friends. ^___^

To get to the bathroom, I roll out of bed, fall flat on my face and inch along my floor on my belly like a 5′7″ worm until I reach the bathroom. ….actually, if you must know, I pretend I’m Scarlett on a crazy recon mission for G.I. Joe because that makes me feel a lot better than thinking I look like an inchworm trying to make my way to the bathroom or, if I can actually stand up, like a zombie staggering my way to wherever it is I’m trying to go.

Sexy, I know.

So do you see why I’m confused as to why people think the words “Sick” and “ill” are a good thing? I’ll be honest and admit that I use words like “sick” and whatever because it just fits. You know what I mean.

Like when you want to come off as all super sexy and vaguely dirty-but-in-a-come-hither-now way, you whisper everything you ever remember learning in 8th grade French into the hopefully receptive ear of whoever it is you’re trying to bring sexy back with. It doesn’t matter if you’re reciting the lyrics to the Les Poisson song in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”. All that matters is that it’s in FRENCH!

Why French? Because we all know that everything sound sexier in French, especially if Olivier Martinez’s the one doing the whispering. Makes you feel just a little dirty and in need of a silky bubble bath complete with chilled champagne, strawberries and chocolate…oooh yes…

And now I’ve completely forgotten the rest of what I wanted to say. Thank you, Olivier, you delicious delicious man.

Being “scozzafavaed” has been added to the Urban Dictionary.

No, I’m not talking about some indie-pop-rock band from Sweden. I refer to that magical time of the year when we put down our razors and stand up to the social oppression of all things fuzzy. Urban Dictionary defines No Shave November as thus:

The month of November in which you don’t shave any hair of your body but instead you grow more bestial, brutish, and manly.

The months of December, January, February, and so on follow and may also be included in this celebration of masculinity.

December = (“Don’t Shave December”)
January = (“Just Don’t Shave January”)
February = (“Forget to Shave February”)
March = (“Masculine March”)
April = (“Atrocious April”)
May = (“Manly May”)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=No%20Shave%20November

I shall be participating in this glorious celebration of the fuzz all month long (sorry Mom). I will post regular photo updates here on the blog to archive just how wild the fluff gets.

Here’s me, 4 days into No Shave November:

No Shave November - Day 4

Ok, so I don’t have the most manly folicles… But I do have hair thicker than the La Brea Tar Pits (suck it, Male Pattern Baldness!).

More to come in the future. Stay tuned!

Because I am an avid reader and browser of fashion & design blogs & I am studying Graphic Design, I often get in contact with HIP PEOPLE. It’s quite hard to pinpoint what *exactly* makes them SO HIP, but there is this overall feeling you get…and you know they belong to the hipster group.

A very hilarious hipster definition(s) can be found at Urban Dictionary. Here:

HAHAHAAAA!!!

Credits to TheMovableBeast.WordPress.Com *click*

The article omits one thing a true hipster MUST have in his/her apartment – TAXIDERMY. Or ANTLERS at least. Any. It should be preferrably from some thrift shop but if the said hipster can afford this Swarovski antlers that sparkle beautifully on the dead skull, then he/she should definately go for it.

I have noticed that lots of Graphic Designers end up being hipsters and I hope that is not going to be my future too, even though I really enjoyed reading Nylon while I was in Malaysia…hihihiii…*

Now, let’s revise what are the essential HIPSTER STYLE items:

• ripped dirty canvas shoes, OR (if the said hipster is rich) anything by Balmain
• liquid leggins, either black OR in any insanely disgusting neon color (80s style patterns are accepted too)
• jeans so skinny one’s legs are being deprived of blood circulation
• a very long t-shirt OR something baggy made of tartan
• tortoise OR black geeky glasses worn even if the hipster’s eyesight is perfect
• a long cardigan of a color that clashes with the other colors in the particular outfit
• fingerless gloves are acceptable
• black kohl/liquid eyeliner is OK, must be slightly smudged (“after a long & wild partynight filled with indie music”)
• if sunglasses are to be worn, they should be Kanye West-esque because He is THE Rich Hipster & He knows His thing
• anything VINTAGE but not pin-up looking

(Goood. Are we satisfied with my list? Am I missing anything??? If so, please comment here & I will add it! This is some serious sociology, I have to be as correct in my informations as possible. )

I was listing all this because I have realised that I am SO NOT HIP…and that has to be changed, at least for a day….at least for TODAY.

Teh Kitteh is a hipster!

With THREE taxidermies, not just one! Pffftttt, beat that you losers!!!

I am so hip, even my Graphic Design skills are like...so vintage! xD

Do you like my HIPSTER STYLE?

I am sure you do. No one beats Teh Kitteh in HIPSTER STYLIN’!!!!

And now if you will excuse me, I need to go & fold all my leggings nicely into my cupboard that smells like cigs from that indie club. Kthxbai.

* I am definately making fun of hipsters, because like emos they are pretenious lil’ kids to me but they are cute neverthless & I really wanted to be a hipster for a day….and Photoshop came to help me. No hipster has been harmed during the styling of myself. No hipster can get angry at me!

My Graphic Design lecturers also can’t get angry at me because this whole design is an IRONY.

Artistic Quotes

I do not want to die… until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.
            — Kathe Kollwitz, O Magazine, September 2002

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.
            — Pablo Picasso

We all need to have a creative outlet – a window, a space – so we don’t lose track of ourselves.
            — Norman Fischer

Urban Dictionary

 no offense

A phrase used to make insults seem socially acceptable.

"No offense, John, but your mom is frickin’ ugly."

apparently,

Held in November, this is the month in which people gather together to grow and compare mostaches. Participants begin the month clean shaven and cultivate their mostaches throughout the month. The month climaxes with participants comparing and appeciating each others mostaches in a manly, non gay way.

– this is from a very reliable source.

I may not like a lot of things like nosey neighbors, Guy Fieri, or vampires, but there’s one thing that I do like, rap music.  So when G wrote about some of her favorite top 40 songs last week, I knew that I had to add to this list of musical genius with some rap.  Now, I must say, that most rap is highly inappropriate.  But not everyone knows about the inappropriateness of rap music because rappers are very clever and use words that Middle America is unfamiliar with.  Well, guess what rappers?  There’s this nifty little website called www.urbandictionary.com and I have utilized it on many occasions to decipher your rhymes (feel free to check it out should you ever have any questions about rap terminology).  Anyways, I still like the tunes regardless of the meaning behind the lyrics and you should, too.  Here are some of my favorites.

Get Low- Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz

This video has everything that you would think a rap video would have:  grills, girls, and stripper poles.  The video and lyrics totally objectify women and I won’t even tell you what skeet (hint:  Urban Dictionary) really means.  But I can’t help it, I love this song.  It was even played at my wedding reception, clean (debatable) version, of course.  More than anything, I love that this song and Lil Jon’s popularity gave us this gloriously funny Dave Chappelle skit.

Simply put, the next three songs are about booties; booties that dance, swing, and dip low.  And I love them because I have a booty; why not own it and celebrate it with catchy rap music?

Ms. New Booty- Bubba Sparxxx

I became known for this song in graduate school.  My birthday cake in 2006 even said in icing “Happy Birthday Miss New Booty.”  Also, I love how Bubba spells his last name with triple Xs, smooth, Bubba, real smooth.  Does that help you pick up the ladies?  Does it?

Swing- Savage

This song never got enough play on the radio and it’s awesome.  This song is so awesome, they made a second and completely different music video for it.  (Wha? Why?)  I also like this jam because I like diversity.  Savage was born to Samoan parents in New Zealand, this makes him my second favorite rapper from New Zealand.

Drop it Low- Ester Dean featuring Chris Brown

Currently, my new jam.  Oh, you haven’t heard it yet?  I’m so hip?  I know and you’re welcome.  My favorite part about this video is a brief appearance by Nelly.  Whoa Nelly, where have you been?  Hanging out with Tim McGraw? Anyways, nice to have you back.

Hey, remember when Kayne West released really good singles?  Neither does he, because he’s a singer now, not a rapper.  Oh and did you know that singing just means vaguely singing a melody into Auto-Tune?  Yes, it’s true, as evidenced by this video clip of Kanye and his “singing” abilities.  I have faith in Kanye though because thus has been his pattern of an awesome album and then a terrible album with a few decent singles, and so on (The College Dropout (2004) = AWESOME, Late Registration (2005) = MEH, Graduation (2007) = AWESOME, 808s & Heartbreak (2008) = MEH).

Here are a couple Kanye singles to help us remember the good times.

The New Workout Plan- Kayne West

Jesus Walks- Kayne West