Dr. Paul and Horse Chase Scene

Posted by MajorLB


I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Paul. I was gonna send you into Friday night with some awesome tips on how to attract girls, how to compliment them, and how to get them to like you. then I found this gem from him for people who already have a girlfriend. I think his advice on how to stop fighting with your girlfriend can be boiled down to four points, but I wouldn't want to deprive you of listening to him so I won't summarize.

Someone posted this on twitter at some point today. I wish I could remember who, but I have a terrible habit of clicking links and not visting them until later. This is a little long but stay to the (nonsensical) end. I can't really decide if this is an action movie or a slapstick comedy.

Whew! I made it to April 2nd

Posted by MajorLB

Everyone can exhale because we've officially made it to the second day of April again. That's right, we survived another April Fools day - one of my least favorite days ever.

Now you might be saying, "But Laura, you love the internet, good pranks, online videos, and general funniness. How can you dislike April Fools day so much?" And you would be right because I DO love those things. However, April Fools is like New Years Eve at the bars.

All of the people who don't regularly go to bars decide on this special occasion to go out. They don't understand bar/bartendar ettiquette, they don't know which bars best fit their style, and they don't know their alcohol limits. Not only that, but now something special happens at midnight so they feel obligated to stay out that long even if they should have poured themselves into a cab hours ago. If there were any cabs available, which of course there aren't. So instead of that nice evening with your friends at a local bar, you're now standing in line with a bunch of idiots who are gonne puke all over and then steal your cab.

This is what April Fools has turned into thanks to the internet: Amateur Hour. Sites and companies feel obligated to do something, so you get half-assed attempts that aren't that funny. Oh look since Topeka pulled a publicity stunt awhile back by changing its name to Google while trying to get the Google-provided high speed fiber optic cable network thing, now Google has changed their name to Topeka. Did you laugh at that? I hope not. Now if Google had done that the day after Topeka did their thing I might have chuckled, but two months later it is a poor "prank" for April 1st.

A joke on April 1st should pass a bar of quality that includes being funny on every other day of the year. Like, this one - well executed, would have been a clever and funny at any point of time, and its audience would have known it was a joke. There were actually a lot of jokes yesterday that I enjoyed (techcrunch has a solid list), but they were surrounded by a lot of complete crap.

I think what I'm trying to say about April Fools is STOP PUKING ON MY INTERNET and please call me a cab.

Two Girls, One Bike

Posted by MajorLB

File this one under "How the Hell haven't I heard of/seen this before?"

Part figure skating, part BMX, and part circus horse acrobat show. Somewhere around the 3 minute mark they move to just one bike.

A Camel Up A Hill

Posted by MajorLB



Yes this is juvenile. Yes, this isn't that well made. No, I do not care.

Music from last year

Posted by MajorLB



All of December you pretty much can't get go to any website with running smack into some top ten or top 20 list of the year. This year was particularly bad because it was the end of a decade. While I never do one myself I enjoy the music lists because I either discover good music I missed or I have my opinions/tastes validated. A good friend of IR's @BryantBone provided a top 20 songs list that I quite enjoyed. In the comments, however I told him that he was missing two things on the list.

1) Seattle Hip-Hop but I think I may have already shared some a couple of times


2) David Bazan

He's been around awhile, formerly with Pedro The Lion, but this year he release Curse Your Branches and toured with a full band. I was lucky to see him at Neumos earlier this year with Say Hi and Sea Navy. I'm beyond stoked to see him this Friday in some stranger's living room.

This is my favorite song at the moment, but you should really check out the whole album and his myspace page (even though only the first song on there is from Curse Your Branches). Side note: I'm quite sad Myspace has taken over imeem

I Heart Seattle A Lot

Posted by MajorLB


I may not be a native and I may not have lived in Seattle very long, but as I sit here I'm trying to figure out how I can get back to Seattle (and out of Ogden) as soon as possible. Even if it's only a few hours earlier than planned. I love Seattle and it's home. I love the weather (no, seriously - most of the time), the views, the food, the music, and of course most of all the people. It shocks me to think about how many people weren't part of my life last year this time. I can't wait to get back to Seattle where I can breathe again.

Luckily someone put some of my sappy Seattle-loving thoughts into a song and made an awesome video:

Learn more about the video by Zia and Macklemore

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to dammit

Posted by MajorLB

I could go on and on about how I don't like birthdays. Actually I love birthdays as long as their not mine. It has nothing to do with getting older or anything, I just hate the whole awkward day. I'm not much of a crier. I don't cry in movies or at sappy stuff and generally don't get emotional in front of other people. However, I realized today that I have cried on a disproportionate number of birthdays.

Since I have no shame here is a breakdown of the ridiculous reasons I cried since I was 8:

8th - I had to wait until I turned 8 to get my ears pierced, so on my birthday we went to the mall. I chickened out though and then was so pissed at myself that I totally broke down and the day was pretty much ruined.

9th - I had a sleepover with cupcakes that went pretty well until the morning when one of the other little bitches was mean to me. Not only did I cry but I hid in my closet for an hour hoping that everyone would go away. True story.

10th & 11th - I don't remember so I'm gonna go ahead and say I didn't cry. +2 points to me

12th - At least this one wasn't for bullshit emotional reasons. I had a horrible case of foot fungus (so gross) that was making the skin totally fall off and was really painful. Luckily we were in Thailand so my uncle bought some mysterious prescription cream and it cleared up. :)

13th - Technically not on my birthday, but I threw a bday/NYE combo party coming off my success of a Halloween party that year. It did not go well. Food was thrown. There was yelling.

14th - I was sorta emo that year so I probably cried...

15th - I found out we were moving to Nebraska. J/K I don't remember this birthday at all.

16th - I failed my driving test. The guy was an asshole.

17th-20th - I don't remember my birthdays during college. Infer what you wish.

21st - I don't specifically remember crying but I did have the lamest 21st birthday ever.

22nd - For no good reason I cried in the middle of a Banana Republic Outlet store. Hey, everyone reaches a breaking point after 8 days in Ogden, Utah.


Now just try to get this song out of your head:

Merry Christmas from IR again

Posted by MajorLB


This video is of Kseniya Simonova from Ukraine's Got Talent. Usually these foreign American Idol knockoffs are a really good source for a laugh, but this one not so much. This women manages to "paint" or tell a story with sand, creating something amazingly beautiful and also sad. So, yeah, Merry Christmas...

H/T Roger Ebert who is a surprisingly good follow.

Hugs are the Devil

Posted by MajorLB

So much goodness in this song and video. First off, they are completely serious. And I'm glad they are here to warn me of the evils of frontal hugs. All these years I've been hugging my parents and friends without really knowing the dangers. Also, please note that it's always the girls that come at you with open arms and a look in their eyes, so please leave room for the holy spirit because Jesus never hugged anyone, apparently.

(H/T Tabitha)

My Missed Chance at Stardom

Posted by MajorLB


I hate posting two music videos in one day, but if I had known this video was coming out I would have totally skipped the cover this morning. I could have been one of those people in the crowd if I had just gotten out of bed that Saturday. Alas, without finding someone else to go with I didn't have the motivation and have now forever missed my chance to be in a rap video. DAMN

If you liked the song (I do) you should check out more of Fresh Espresso, my favorite local Seattle hip hop that I'm most excited to see at GO! MACHINE this weekend. I know their CD is on iTunes and CDbaby. They were also the inspiration for this amazing t-shirt.

Who doesn't love a cover?

Posted by MajorLB




Sometimes I really need a pump up song to get me going on a Monday morning. However, after a long holiday weekend and 2 weeks away from my physical office, I'm not quite ready for a real pump up song. Therefore I present an upbeat song (Get into the Groove by Madonna) performed in a much less upbeat way by The Solvents.

(H/T to Sound on the Sound)

Halloween PSA

Posted by MajorLB


With Halloween approaching and on a most fortunate day of the week (please tell me you know it's this Saturday) I wanted to remind you about the rules of Halloween:

1. Wear a costume
2. Hand out treats
3. Never blow out a Jack-O-Lantern
4. Always check your candy

5. Stay alive

Blu and David Ellis COMBO

Posted by MajorLB


I'm pretty sure DWheezy has shared some stuff from Blu before, but I'm too lazy to link to it and just want to share this video where he teamed up with David Ellis to make this sweet animation video. Oh and it's a loop!!

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

Archrival Interns Do It Again

Posted by MajorLB


I almost didn't post this because most of my Nebraska friends will see this through Facebook and Twitter today and the next few days, but then I remember that the majority of you Hop Ons aren't affiliated with Nebraska.

IR has seen these guys before and they deliver another funny, well-produced video to help you get to know them a little bit better.

Personal Things from Dan Sheppard on Vimeo.

goodspaceguy Might Be My Hero

Posted by MajorLB



Yesterday was an election day for King County (Seattle's county), but it's not a big deal because elections are done by mail. Part of the thing that comes in the mail is a pamphlet explaining each candidate. Amongst the candidates for King County Executive (no, I have no idea what this position does) I found a real gem: Goodspaceguy


Click to read (highly recommended)




As seen in the above his blog is http://colonizespace.blogspot.com/ which contains this blurb:

Question 1: What are your priorities, especially as they relate to parks and green spaces in Seattle?

Answer: I, Goodspaceguy, want to increase access to the parks by increasing free parking, and I want to increase access by keeping the parks always open, (for example, for lovers and for gay astronomers) and by providing showers for users of the parks.

Seriously try to read the 1st and 3rd paragraphs of the pamphlet entry outloud and not laugh. Impossible!

They Practiced This

Posted by MajorLB


I'm hoping to see DoubleM and RossAM demonstrating this move at Wheezy's wedding.

Air-dersh

Posted by MajorLB

Lately, I've been very nerdy.

I'm reading this book for the second time and it's awesome. Seriously, if you like history, math and intrigue this is your book. And then somehow I spent 20 minutes of my life trying to find a audio pronunciation of Erdős because pronuciation keys utterly confuse the hell out of me. I could rant on and on about pronunciation keys but the title of this post is my interpretation of the pronunciation. I think it would be totally awesome to have an Erdős number, but it's never going to happen (nor am I trying).

Anyway, I wanted to share this website with you. Sixty Symbols. It explains a variety of math/science/physics/quantumstuff symbols in the form of a short video. To be totally honest the videos can be a bit boring even if they are about sweet topics like black holes (see below).

I think you just can't change the nature of the people in the video. But this lady's hair is awesome. And it's by far the best symbol anyway.

And one more for the pretty vortices.

My latest obsession: The Lonely Forest

Posted by MajorLB

No, not The Lonely Island although they are indeed funny.

I didn't have internet at home for 3 weeks. It suucccked, especially since I'm kinda like the very beginnging of the Web Site Story musical. It appears the rest of IR has been pretty busy with their real life as well. I mean Ross got married, Wheezy is planning a wedding and DoubleM still has that son.

I can't let us go a full week without posting though so I'll share my current music obsession. I found out about them through Sound on the Sound which provides some awesome coverage of Pacfic NW music happenings and great photos from @musicandmoxie. They also happen to be semi-local. They're from this place called Anacortes, WA. The other thing Anacortes is known for is a strait that besides being gorgeous has a BA name.

Anyway, here's their album on imeem. If you're only gonna listen to one song then start with We Sing in Time.

The Lonely Forest

Even "GraphJam" can be made dirty

Posted by MajorLB


Through the joy of the Facebook news feed and a tethered phone with unlimited data plan I found this website called GraphJam. It's part of the icanhazcheesburger family so maybe this is totally old news. Whatever these two graphs made me laugh. This first one is for everyone who maybe enjoyed Twilight (book or movie) but really doesn't understand the obsession.


see more Funny Graphs

The second is for pretty much all of my friends from college and my friends that read this blog.


see more Funny Graphs

Pretty accurate.

I saw Sasquatch and lived!

Posted by MajorLB




No, not that one. This one. 3 days, 2 nights of sweet bands and sleeping on the ground. It’s AWESOME. Except for the sleeping on the ground part. I’m not that prissy it’s just really cold and uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, the lineup was too good and I had to make some tough decisions that not everyone appreciates (no I did not see NIN, sorry). These are the bands I saw at least part of:

Saturday: Kings of Leon / Yeah Yeah Yeahs / The Decemberists / Animal Collective / Bon Iver /  M. Ward / Doves / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band / Arthur & Yu /  Crystal Castles

Sunday: Jane's Addiction /  TV On The Radio / The Murder City Devils / of Montreal  / M83 / The Walkmen / St. Vincent  / Fences / Aziz Ansari

Monday:Erykah Badu / Silversun Pickups / Fleet Foxes  / Santigold / Explosions In The Sky / Girl Talk / Blitzen Trapper / The Knux / Monotonix  / Beach House  / School Of Seven Bells / Horse Feathers

Music ended pretty early (before midnight) so there was plenty of time for camper-sponsored raves and property destruction. Check back tomorrow for my highlights, but in the mean time enjoy Spin’s photos by the very talented Alex Crick and this little gem that occurred during The Decembrists. I wondered why everyone stood up and clapped mid song…

Yeah, the security guard does give a fist pump to the crowd.