ZOMG… I’m so glad that Piglet, Piss-Piss and I don’t live in New York!

Here’s a fascinating glimpse into the agonies suffered by New York parents attempting to get their 4-year-old children into the city’s best kindergartens. I read a novel about this annual nightmare a few months ago, but because I’m a thicko I’ve forgotten what it was called. This documentary, though, brings it all to life.

The documentary follows 3 sets of parents. One family is applying excusively to private schools, and the other two are hoping to get their wee bratlings into Hunter, the highly regarded NY public school (in the American sense, i.e. state school) that caters for academically gifted children. With 25 applicants for every place, though, the competition to get in is fierce. One of those two families is only applying to Hunter–that’s where the Dad went–and the other (a single mother in a low income job) is hedging her bets by also applying for scholarships at academically high-powered NY private schools.

I’m only half way through so far, so I don’t know how it all pans out. My guess, though, is that the exclusively private parents will get the school of their choice–they’re wealthy, successful and personable, and their little boy is very engaging–and that one of the other two will get into Hunter. If my guess is right then I hope the unsuccessful one gets a scholarship somewhere else.

Fortunately, Piglet won’t be going down this road for some years yet. And she still has to master navigation. Still, though; she’s only 53.5 weeks old, and she does have Piss-Piss as a tutor.

Here’s a link to episode one (of 6–one hour in all, on the ever-excellent YouTube). Enjoy

Das fällt wieder unter Abt. “Man möchte ja immer das, was man schon mal hatte”.

via ClubUltrachrome: 40 Days, official video

via DynamoDoppelkorn: Heart Of Glass (Live Berlin 2009)

The Exploding Boy on Virb.com (dort ist theexplodingboy.se als Homepage angegeben, die funktioniert allerdings nicht mehr… und die Artikel gehen auch nur bis 2007).
Die MySpace-Seite (die ist aktuell).

First try Friday with Yohan

The vids are from SnarkyMawg! Thanks to them!  (  24.11.09 )

Waiting For Yesterday

Some people have fallen in love with internet rendezvous. If you want to meet sexy girls you can definitely find them online. You can go on e-dates and have cybersex and have adult chats and pretty much agree to get married all online. Aren’t 1’s and 0’s sexy?

 There’s still the real world though and most men and women, even the ones that work online, still have flesh bodies. Many of those individuals are interested in meeting other like them. Their all over the place and ready to meet someone just like you… You can find sexy girls that want to meet people. You see the reality of all that connecting on the internet is that people that want to meet in the flesh can be connected with other people that want to meet people in the flesh. You can use a number of different sites that offer these services to individuals.

 Wherever you are, there is probably someone else looking for someone just like you. These services connect people each and every day in locations literally all over the world. There are sexy girls that are looking for other sexy girls or boys for fun and games. You can find sexy girls that want to meet you. All you have to do is use one of these sites and search for whatever you want.

 You don’t have to sit and wonder why you aren’t with a sexy girl. You can do something about it. Did I mention that online services offer a level of privacy and anonymity that many find comforting. When you are trying new things and becoming part of a new community there can be some worries. Many people don’t worry about such things when they set out to find others looking for the same things online. They are comfortable in the security of their homes. They feel free to be themselves and become proactive and search for what they want.

 Many of these sites will allow you to search for free if you want. With no charge there is usually little worry and you can usually search without any charges. You can usually search by location and by other information about the people that use the service. If you are ready to meet sexy girls or at least ready to find sexy girls, and then take a look. The internet can usually connect you with sexy girls in your area or wherever you will be. That’s right you can plan ahead. Many people aren’t searching with last-minute desperation. Sure you might need a spur of the moment date sometimes, but you can plan as well. Whatever you are thinking you can find sexy girls now.

 You don’t have to sit around alone if you don’t want to. If you want to find sexy girls, you can, online. These online searches offer a variety of search options that will help you find sexy girls that are just what you are searching for. There’s a whole community of sexy girls looking to be found and once you begin using the sites they can find you. Connecting like minds, ahh the organization of the technological revolution. It’s at your fingertips and it is how to find sexy girls.

November 26th, 2009

Nigel Marven collects flowing lava!

Hey everyone! We just launched 2 BRAND NEW Nigel Marven webosodes for your viewing enjoyment. Nigel continues his lava adventures in Hawaii by collecting molten lava in “Lava Adventure” and shows off two magnificent Hawaiian volcanoes in “Volcano.” You can view both of these beautiful webosodes at the Carnivorous Cavern, right next to the Lava Rafting game. Enjoy! I know I did.

Nigel shows off the ever-erupting Mt. Kilauea

If you wish to be out front, then act as if you were behind

Please make sure you read the subtitles…

Browsing around on YouTube earlier I came across a series from the 1970s where Marco Pierre White, at the height of his Harveys days, cooks for Albert Roux (then of Le Gavroche), Nico Ladenis (Simply Nico), Pierre Koffman (La Tante Claire) and Raymond Blanc (Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons).

There’s a whole episode devoted to each of the chef he cooks for, and each episode is divided on YT into three parts. In each one Marco explains how he chose the menu, cooks it and then eats it over conversation with the guest at the end.

Gordon Ramsay was working at Harveys at the time, and it’s great fun to see him cooking away–quietly–in the background. That can’t have been easy *g*

Wow, that was great! I wish the Roux Brothers’ series was there too. Still, I think I have it squirreled away somewhere on a dusty video… (Edited to add: Ooooh! It *is* there!)

Here’s one eppy to get you started. Enjoy!

Here’s another. I insisted on singing this for the choir audition in the 2nd year at school, in place of the insipid thing the music teacher suggested, and failed to get into the choir. Ah, well… I was the only girl in the whole year who actually *wanted* to be in the choir, I think, but such is life. Or such was life, anyway, at my most peculiar school…

This recording is a little odd, but I like the arrangement *g*

Nana’s done one too, of course. It’s a little deadly, but WTF… I defo prefer the little girl’s rendition, except for Nana’s lovely resolving bit. (What is it with Nana and her endings???)

Another of my favourite tunes. At this stage in the game I’m not sure which version I heard as a child, but there’s a good chance that it was this one as my aunt was a Nana M. fanatic.

I confess that I like her too, as I inherited a pile of 33s and listened to one of them repeatedly as I read my favourite book of all time, about 30 years ago, so she’s rather stuck in my head… *g*

The ending on that version is dreadful, though, and I’m sure I’d have remembered that, so just in case it was Rolf Harris… *g*

First try Friday avec Antoine Patron

goddam this is a chill vid.. getn me in the mood for winter!

I’ll let the video speak for itself. Click here to watch because I can’t get it to embed. Really do watch it.

It’s funny (sad, pathetic, tragic…) because it’s true.

Some idiot Democratic senator mentioned the other day that Republicans were on the “wrong side of history” (actually, I’ve heard it more than once now) for trying to oppose a government takeover of health care. Perhaps they should require some sort of history class before you’re admitted into the US Senate. The long struggle of humanity has been to get out from under the thumb of the oppressive few. Whether we’re referring to kings, tyrants, despots, an oligopoly, a clan leader, or an oppressive committee of the select elite, the vast majority of people have worked at the direction of others for 99.9999% of human history. Only recently have people come to realize their rights to live freely, as individuals. The Greeks, Romans, British, French, and others have moved the ball forward each in the own way, but all previous civilizations still had their flaws; usually these imperfections stemmed from the basic fact that the rights and freedoms of the people were still granted by the government, not the other way around.

Then, with the founding of American, humanity entered a new chapter in the march for freedom. Our founders recognized that people had certain inalienable rights that no government could abridge; that the government’s right were granted by the people. This intellectual, philosophical, theological, and sociological leap should be right up there with the invention of the wheel, fire, and Mac computers modern medicine. It forever changed the dynamic between the people and their government, not just in America, but around the world. There was a new standard for freedom. A new high water mark for liberty. All of a sudden, millions of people enslaved to their governments saw the shining city on a hill and had hope that they too could someday experience such emancipation.

But now, some people in our government wish for America to regress back towards the mean of human freedom. With every encroachment of government into the lives of everyday people, we cede a little bit of the high ground we had claimed with the founding of our country. With every right and freedom we hand over, we turn one page backwards in the book on freedom. Every time we choose the comfort of another government safety blanket over freedom of choice, we embrace the claws of history dragging us back under the yoke of slavery to our government, and reject every lesson history has tried to teach us.

Either this Democratic senator doesn’t understand history or he understands it all too well. He either doesn’t appreciate the lessons of failing and failed civilizations who fell victim to the temptations of the ever-expanding nanny-state, or he does and believes he is simply smarter than everyone to ever live, and will divine some solution to the problem this time around. He’s either ignorant, arrogant, or both.

And so, maybe this Democratic senator is correct after all. Perhaps Republicans are on the wrong side of history, a history replete with the rise and fall of civilizations who could not support their own extravagance. It all depends on if you believe America to be an exceptional place that can overcome the cycle of freedom which less-free nations succumb to, or if we are just another iteration of failed freedom movements from the past.

I believe America to be an exceptional place, and, therefore, I believe that this Democratic senator is wrong. Instead, I believe that the Democrats, who advocate for ever-larger government, are on the wrong side of history because America will prevail in our experiment for freedom. With this debate over health care, we are at a tipping point in this exercise. We can choose to accept that we are just like every other country, and that we should simply replicate the failing policies of every other country that has enacted some sort of government-run health care program. Or, we can recognize our exceptionalism, and demand something new, innovative, and better – an American solution to an American problem. Our freedom allows for unprecedented ingenuity. Let’s harness that innovative spirit, incubated in liberty, to solve our problems with a solution that maintains, or even increases, our freedom, instead of limiting and rationing it.

Lastly, let me point out that in America the other times people have been on the “wrong side of history” were when the opposed movements for freedom: slavery, civil rights, equal rights for women, etc. I believe in 2010 we will find out who the American people believe were on the wrong side of history during this health care debate, and I don’t think the Democrats will like the answer.

These is words from the Arch Bishop, some call it six up
The Betty Crocker, marvel cake stakes admissor
Wax janitor, black Jack Mulligan from Canada
Slam dance, tarantula style, youse a fan of the
Monopoly king, Slavic poetry
Carnegie Hall’s off the hook, let’s push through the armory

With lyrical quotes like that, I don’t know why I even have to bother explaining this new Slangology theme for any of you. Anyhow, for almost a decade I’ve wondered what the hell GFK was talking about when he mentioned “blackjack mulligan from Canada”.

I had convinced myself it was some sort of clothing or garment brand, perhaps a winter toque, a down vest, or suede leather jacket that Ghost picked up in Canada or stumbled across in the earlier Wu days. 10 years and a quick google search later, I’m pretty sure he’s talking about Blackjack Mulligan, a former pro wrestler (from the WWF), who by the way, isn’t from Canada… he’s from somewhere down in Texas.

Wizard of Poetry, I tell y’az!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsWFFuYZYI

At 4 months, Cooper has quite a lot to say! He discovers new ways to communicate and use his (adorable) voice every day. He generally thinks it’s funny when someone whispers to him, but this was a whole new level! The most hilarious thing this particular time was how many times he repeated the exact same thing. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

R.I.P. Homie. Listening to anything by Dilla is like listening to it for the first time. The catalog is really holdin’ me down today, I’m just in that Detroit mood. Muzaks will never be the same without JayDee! Pay hommage.