According to a scientific study, alcohol makes you commit to goals while ignoring the reality of whether you’ll attain them. Clearly scientists need to get out more.

So very true:

August is that last puff on the cigarette of your 10am smoke break, before go back to work; the final few gulps of your drink after the bouncer yells says “closing time!”; the turning down of the car stereo as you pull into work, the sigh as you turn the hot water off on a cold morning. It’s not the end, but the realization that an end is coming, whether you want it to or not.

Came across the following question on a website and decided to write out the answers.

If you can’t prove that you exist, why do you try?

Because there’s this movie I want to see later today.

Because it’s beautiful and sunny out.

Because a pretty woman just smiled at me.

Because there’s a game of touch frisbee going on in the park on this beautiful day.

Because I showered with peppermint and rosemary soap and now I’m tingly all over (Note, don’t get it in your eyes!), while smelling of peppermint.

Because I open my eyes and see the world and experience it instead of pondering such meaningless questions of whether I exist or not. Everyone second, my senses are telling me I do, so I’ll proceed with that hypothesis. When the senses stop doing that, then I’ll consider the question.

A robot in Japan. I have the feeling that is just the first step

Saw the new Star Trek flick, was good and fun, you should go see it. I can’t remember much about the day after, it was that silly at times, but who couldn’t use some more silliness in their life? Mini skirts in the military? Wionna Ryder as Spock’s mom? The universe saved by Abercrombie & Fitch models? It’s what heaven would look like if God was a 16 year old boy with an unlimited budget. Which might explain the shape of the world…

Craig Kanarick makes collages out of candy. I just want to know how he avoids eating his materials!

Just finished reading “We” this morning. It was an odd read, translated from 1921 Russian, so some of the phrasing is awkward, but overall quite good. Retro poeticism intermingled with the struggle of the individual vs society in the name of rationality, it isn’t something most modern people haven’t read before in Brave New World, Clockwork Orange or 1984, but “We” was one of the first, if not the very first novels to tackle the subject. That it was written by a man in the aftermath of the Russian revolution which formed the Soviet Union gives the novel an unexpected weight and a wide-eyed (but not starry), glimpse of one of the major themes of the 20th century.

It was a fun read, with a good amount of weighty material to geek out over. Thanks to Robin for the unexpected gift.

First reaction: that should have been better.

Battlestar Galatica was a good show. It was not a perfect show, but at times it was extraordinarily great. The final hour of it was an exercise in navelgazing fanboy wankery that not only jumped the shark, but turned around and ran the boat over it. That last hour it stopped being a show and became a long rambling love letter by that ex you really, really wanted to stay in a relationship with, but they were just too crazy and you got tired of the rollercoaster. The show stopped being a show and tried to be something more, Something Deep and Meaningful and it failed, while turning into a joke. Then you found out that the past 5 years was just angels mucking around in celestial version of Trading Places and you realize how terrible the joke is.

I had thought that 2 hours wasn’t enough time to wrap everything up. It was actually too much, giving the writers time to pad things out and seeing how much they could screw with the audience.

Second reaction, after sleeping on it: That was really terrible, see previous paragraph.

These are from Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii.