Friday Timewaster: The Shipping Room Podcast

Last weekend I drove to Chautauqua to meet with a freelance client about our next project, and while it wasn't a long drive, I was unsure of the ability of Sirius XM to satisfy my aural urges. It seems like lately I just flip through all 30 of my preset stations without finding anything I can tolerate for more than a song or two, and that gets old quickly.

Rummaging through the bin of physical CDs that I kept after the Great Purge of 2013 (Drink!) and/or firing up my big laptop with the iTunes library and curating the perfect playlists seemed like too much work, so: Podcasts to the rescue!

The problem there is that I only listen to three podcasts on a regular basis (Car Talk, The Rachel Maddow Show, and The Big Podcast with Shaq) and I was already pretty much caught up with all of them before I finished backing out of the driveway. I had to cast my nets upon the pop-culture waters and see whether anything I could snare would hold my interest while navigating around the parade of orange barrels on I-90.

Luckily, while working through my backlog of Entertainment Weekly magazines over at my parents' place a few days before my trip, I came across a reference to The Shipping Room Podcast.

It seemed to hit a few of my personal sweet spots -- which include but are not limited to watching a lot of television shows, having definite feelings about what does or doesn't happen on said shows, and talking about fictional characters at length and in great detail. (Once a co-worker interrupted a discussion I was having with another co-worker to ask if what we were talking about had happened in real life or on TV. I think that was the line, anyway -- it's been a while. You know how a piece of something that happens now reminds you of a tiny snippet of something you remember from almost twenty years ago and you laugh or otherwise react but if you have to explain to a third party why/how you made the connection and had that reaction it all falls apart because you can't quite supply enough of the context to make the remembered incident relevant/meaningful? Yeah, it's like that.)  

I'm only maybe ten or twelve episodes in to the podcast archives -- for whatever reason, I keep picturing them as the Delicious Dish duo on Saturday Night Live -- and I've got about 40 episodes to go until I'm caught up. So, even though I'm listening to them at double-speed, I should have more than enough material to get me through any jaunts around town/impromptu road trips in the foreseeable future.

Tuesday Timewaster: Know Your States

I spent most of this morning posting info about an OU alumni event I'm organizing to the walls of a bunch of people I know on Facebook. I should be finishing a manuscript assessment, or finishing proofing an online edition of a social studies unit, or __  or __ or ___  <--- fill in the blanks with any of the sundry tasks on my never-ending to-do list, but instead I'm fiddling around on Know Your States.

Hmm. Maybe geeking around and playing games is why nothing ever gets crossed off of my to-do list? Perhaps I should block certain sites from my work computer? I could  usher in a new era of productivity and inspire everyone else in the office to meet our project deadlines!

Naaaaaahh!

Friday Timewaster: The Living Room Candidate

It started with this tweet:

poniewozik: Prez ad champions environmentalism, regulation, social spending over military. Look at this socialist! http://t.co/lbXfaArY

I followed the link and watched the video, and: Wow. Just wow.

I mean: If you updated the images and the names of a few countries and issues, you could almost run the same ad today for Obama. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?

Anyhow: My penchant for all things vintage is at war with my hatred of all political ads right now. Living in Ohio (aka ground zero for the 2012 election) means being inundated with attack ads; even though I watch most of my tv online, Hulu still knows where I live and manages to target the limited commercial breaks accordingly.

However, watching these is going to be more interesting than actual work . . . even though I have a new high-priority assignment that involves compiling a variety of massive spreadsheets, and ordinarily I do heart compiling massive spreadsheets, so: This is a tough one. But since yesterday felt like Friday, leaving today as a horrible Friday/Saturday mashup that is known in these parts as Schmiday, I'm going to go with the goofing off and leave the database analysis until Monday. Yeah . . . that's the ticket.

Friday Timewaster: Frisky Commercials

Bow-chicka bow-wow...

 

Wocka-chicka wocka-chicka . . .

I saw the Ragu one a lot when I was watching some stuff on Hulu this week, which was good because multiple viewings really helped me analyze it. Initially, I couldn't unravel the logic behind the timing of events in the video. I mean, if, as the lyrics say, it's 8 p.m. and the parents are in bed, why is the next scene of everyone having dinner? Was that a flashback? A flashforward to the next day? The kid at the dinner table looks much happier there than when he was walking toward the steps with his shattered innocence. (It's a great face, though — very expressive.)

Beyond that, I was interested in the underlying message about making yourself feel better emotionally by eating carbs, plus the use of imagery associated with another potentially dangerous form of self-medicating: drinking. To wit: having the jar of sauce slide in from offscreen and stop like a drink being slid down the bar in an old Western movie and using "a long day" in the tag line to bring to mind the idea of having a tasty adult beverage (or three) after a rough day at the office.

The Sealy ad seems to get late-night airplay; I've seen it a few times while watching the last few weeks' worth of episodes of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — sometimes I lose track of the remote, or I forget that I'm watching a tape and not Hulu: I can fast-forward the tape, but not Hulu.

Anyhow, that was another ad where repeated viewing helped me follow the plot. Side note: Am I just becoming an idiot in my old age (My Oma used to get confused between what was the commercial and what was the show.), or was it the aspect of using sex to sell spaghetti sauce (there's a fetish) that startled me?

The mattress one just made me laugh, but I didn't see all of the first scene the first time, so I was confused because I thought the old guy was living downstairs from the first couple. Also, I'm trying to decide if the guys with the glasses against the wall are a gay couple. It doesn't matter, but I like to think they are.

In conclusion, this is way too much half-assed analysis for this time of night, but I'm kind of wide awake and I'm taking Friday off of work anyhow, so there you have it.

Friday Timewaster: Frisky Commercials

Bow-chicka bow-wow...

 

Wocka-chicka wocka-chicka . . .

I saw the Ragu one a lot when I was watching some stuff on Hulu this week, which was good because multiple viewings really helped me analyze it. Initially, I couldn't unravel the logic behind the timing of events in the video. I mean, if, as the lyrics say, it's 8 p.m. and the parents are in bed, why is the next scene of everyone having dinner? Was that a flashback? A flashforward to the next day? The kid at the dinner table looks much happier there than when he was walking toward the steps with his shattered innocence. (It's a great face, though — very expressive.)

Beyond that, I was interested in the underlying message about making yourself feel better emotionally by eating carbs, plus the use of imagery associated with another potentially dangerous form of self-medicating: drinking. To wit: having the jar of sauce slide in from offscreen and stop like a drink being slid down the bar in an old Western movie and using "a long day" in the tag line to bring to mind the idea of having a tasty adult beverage (or three) after a rough day at the office.

The Sealy ad seems to get late-night airplay; I've seen it a few times while watching the last few weeks' worth of episodes of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — sometimes I lose track of the remote, or I forget that I'm watching a tape and not Hulu: I can fast-forward the tape, but not Hulu.

Anyhow, that was another ad where repeated viewing helped me follow the plot. Side note: Am I just becoming an idiot in my old age (My Oma used to get confused between what was the commercial and what was the show.), or was it the aspect of using sex to sell spaghetti sauce (there's a fetish) that startled me?

The mattress one just made me laugh, but I didn't see all of the first scene the first time, so I was confused because I thought the old guy was living downstairs from the first couple. Also, I'm trying to decide if the guys with the glasses against the wall are a gay couple. It doesn't matter, but I like to think they are.

In conclusion, this is way too much half-assed analysis for this time of night, but I'm kind of wide awake and I'm taking Friday off of work anyhow, so there you have it.

Tuesday Timewaster and/or Freakout

I had to click on this 11 Points link in Facebook because it was midafternoon and I'd done almost fifteen minutes of actual work.

I can't recommend following the link to the Creepiest Ventriloquist Album Covers Ever if you are easily creeped out by clowns, dolls, or clown-like dolls. Or gratuitous quotation marks. 

Wednesday Timewaster: Cover Smart

I could have called this "Miércoles Timewaster" or "Mercredi Timewaster," because one of the handful of things that I remember from my high school Spanish and French classes is the days of the week.*

COVERSMART

Anyhow: I found Cover Smart a week or two ago via the Woot blog because I was reading some other entry about Ken Jennings and a BOC.

I prefer to play the past quizzes because I get the instant gratification of knowing all the answers — as opposed to today's quiz, which I will have to wait until tomorrow to read the correct responses. Although I know some of the groups, I don't remember the album names. For example:

The others... pfft. No clue. Although I have some guesses for a few of them. And I could waste even more time by doing some Google Image searching to figure out the answers. But someone just dropped an incredibly complicated reprint on my desk, so I suppose I will devote my puzzle-solving energy to that instead.

* And the words for colors. And for pieces of clothing. Okay, maybe just the word zapato, which I mostly mumble to myself in the phrase "Donde esta mi otro zapato?!" when I'm rummaging through the pile by the front door at 8:05, searching for the mate to whatever I just put on one of my feet so I can get out the door and only be about a half hour "late" for work. (Laying everything out neatly the night before is for suckers.)

Friday Timewaster: Wednesday and Thursday

I was, uh . . . less than one hundred percent productive  on Wednesday and Thursday, so this is my last chance to really buckle down and power through the major items on my to-do list.

Or I can go for the trifecta and while away the hours playing Wonder Putt.

Yeah, the smart money's on Wonder Putt.

Wednesday Timewaster: Gum

I was semi-working just now when the other proofreader came to the cube to hang out during our semi-official break time. I decided to take a break from semi-effective cough drops and break out some gum in hopes of perfection.

Unwrapping the new pack of Stride 2.0 reminded me that when I bought said gum at the grocery store last night I saw some packages of the same brand with labels spouting some nonsense about vitamins added to the gum. The other proofreader had never heard of such a thing before, but some quick Googling made it clear that the New York Times was all over this issue six weeks ago:

New Gums With Vitamins, Herbs and Varied Claims


Perusing the article led to the discovery of the Gum Alert blog, which I can't believe I never heard of before. I'm totally subscribing, if only to see what gets the dreaded one-gumball rating of  "Foul. Repugnant. Gross."

Now that I've been chewing the gum for about five minutes, I'm this close to giving Stride 2.0 the "Foul. Repugnant. Gross." rating. The flavor is the same as before, but the consistency is off. It seems too slippery/slimy somehow, like it's going to disintegrate at any moment. It reminds me of the Straight Dope column about disintegrating gum except that I'm not eating anything greasy/buttery, nor am I making out with anybody while chewing the gum. It's a little off-putting, actually. I wonder if I can still get Stride 1.0.

Wednesday Timewaster: Being Sick

Urgh. Sniffle, hack. On Monday, I was hoping against hope that it wasn't what I thought it was, but I was right after all. Stoopid cold.

I ditched work around lunchtime, went home, and had another crazy dream. Before the alarm went off this morning I was dreaming  that someone at work was fired and the rest of us were thrilled. This afternoon I dreamed that I was a chaperone on a bus full of elementary school kids.

Both of these scenarios are somewhat rooted in reality (I have a job; I did chaperone a bus trip a few weeks ago) but then my fevered brain took a random left turn into fantasy land.

Speaking of fantasy land: I found (via kottke.org, of course) a fun online game that puts my vast movie knowledge to use. Presenting Famous Objects from Classic Movies, which is pretty much just what it sounds like.

You get a basic drawing of an item, plus some Hangman-style blanks underneath. If you don't recognize what it is right away, you can use some classic final-round-of-Wheel-of-Fortune strategery to fill in a few slots until you can guess what it is. It's hard to mistake this for anything else, though . . .  It's a major award!

 

I'm only batting about .600 so far, but I'm hoping to raise my average in the next few hours.

Friday Timewaster: Being on Time

Thanks to WTAM promising an interview with Joe Tait  at 7:45 this morning, I was motivated to get my butt in gear and on the road so I could listen to it on my way to work.

I was the first one here (by about 90 seconds) and had the joy of almost creaming another car in the parking lot thanks to the giant sheets of ice conveniently adjacent to any accidentally clear space in the parking lot. (Long story short: Whoever "plows" our lot is an idiot.)

In other news, I was feeling a touch of the winter blahs yesterday, so I bought some bright Flair pens and Post-it flags in hopes of cheering myself up enough to face the impossibly dull task of reviewing one of our economics units and flagging sections that need to be updated because it was written ten years ago.

Mission not accomplished, because here I am typing away at my list of grievances instead of applying hot pink flags to pages with statistics from the olden days (i.e., 2000) and/or sentences like the following: "For the past ten years, our economy has experienced unprecedented growth without interruption." Doh!

Too bad I didn't bring my iPad with me -- I bought World of Goo yesterday when it was on sale for 99 cents, and this screenshot shows one of the levels I am stuck on.

Friday Timewaster: Being at Work

I kind of zoned out/went on auto-pilot this morning while I was driving to work — so much so that I followed the car in front of me into the left-turn lane, even though I needed to go another block before I turned left. I snapped out of it just in time to get back in the lane I needed, but it made me happy that vacation starts at 4:30 this afternoon. (Well, okay, 5 p.m., since I was running my customary thirty minutes late.)

Anyhow, I don't have what one would call exciting plans, but I have plans for my time off. Saturday I'll be at a game watch party for my Ohio University Bobcats when they appear in the New Orleans Bowl. (Memo to OU football team: You can hit Bourbon Street after the game. You already looked like you were sleepwalking through the Kent State game, and you certainly don't need to be hungover for this one!)

Sunday afternoon is reserved for making cookies with my cousins' kids. I've been instructed to bring my camera — apparently my mom's old 35mm has bit the dust.

On days that have yet to be determined, I'm going to visit my sister for a bit, plus get together with some old friends while we are in roughly the same geographical area.

I may or may not be working on some freelance projects — right now I'm too fried from my day job to say yes to a possible assignment that was offered to me yesterday, but I think I should say yes because I'll need something to do in the twenty-three hours a day that I'm not watching The Price Is Right.

So, yeah: Add some reading, crafting, and Web surfing, and that's my pretty much agenda for the foreseeable future. Woo hoo!

Monday Timewaster: Sane or Not?

I'm admitting defeat: I will not accomplish anything much at the office today, so I'm putting my limited attention span to work at Sane or Not?

In this case, I have to deduct points for not sizing the image correctly so that all the letters would be visible (Or wait, is that a commentary on how even this slogan about the inability of cramming one's complex views onto a sign can't fit onto a sign? Meta!) and add points for Photoshopping Beohner's head on the Coppertone girl's body. (Click and embiggen; it's worth it!)

Same concept — I'm too complex for this cardboard — in the sign on the right, but a much better execution.

Also worth clicking/embiggening? The fine print in the call-and-response rally chant in the sign on the right.

If you don't feel like rating the signs, at least check out the Sane and Take It Down a Notch sections for the best/worst signs.

Tuesday Timewaster: Dear Blank

My latest way to keep productivity at bay  . . . 

Dear Blank, Please Blank

Thanks to Nikki for sharing this.

Friday Timewaster: Actual Work

I've been forced to delegate all the fun stuff I actually like doing (verifying the sources quoted in the history books; final checking the Shakespeare units) and am down to the lame stuff I'd rather put off (creating an outline for the poor programmer who's been forced to build a database to organize all the information in all the books; proofing the second history book) but which is due ASAP. Bummer.


In the meantime, some things that have amused me recently: 

"The Friendly Period" — Wisenheimer 

Friday Timewaster: Charlie Is So Cool Like

Last night I was reading the behind-the-scenes on American Idol recap on the Entertainment Weekly site, and being in a time-killing kind of mood (Okay, to be honest: When am I not?) I followed some link that seemed as though it would supply ample mockage of the tween trend that is Bieber Fever.









I ended up spending at least forty-five minutes watching YouTube videos posted by Charlie McDonnell, because they are hi-larious and pretty awesome. I was intrigued by the Stephen Fry audio tag at the conclusion of each episode, so that led to more link-clicking and interwebs-stalking via his Web site and Wikipedia entry and Twitter feed and whatnot.


I'm actually super-swamped at the office today, but thought that I would share this for anyone who is not similarly buried under mounds of paper. (Literally: Around 4 p.m. yesterday we devised a scheme for splitting three U.S. history books — each of which is 400-plus pages when printed for editing — into four U.S. history books, and I'm in charge of reconfiguring the three piles into four piles, then giving two of the new piles to layout and the other two to editorial . . . because we don't even have all the parts of those books in from the authors yet. Cue a Charlie-Brown-esque Auuugghh! howl here.)

Ahem. 


At least it's Friday, and I have a super-short week next week because I'm going to Athens on Thursday and then spending the rest of the long weekend with my sister. So, yeah: I got that going for me, which is nice.

Tuesday Timewaster: Kinetic Typography

What Marcellus Wallace Looks Like - The Oatmeal

Read the poster, then check out the videos of typographic interpretations of famous movie quotes/comedy bits.

This is especially recommended for anyone who can appreciate the use of Cooper Black on a t-shirt.

Friday Timewaster: Computer w/ an Internet Connection

Mostly I just need to complain about how I received the gift of two full days of peace and quiet at the office but have pretty much squandered both of them by geeking around online. I know it's all my own fault, but I still want to bitch about it. 


I can almost see the finish line for one of my tasks, which has to be ready for somebody else to pick up on Wednesday, and I already know that I'm going to lose pretty much all of Tuesday to an all-day all-staff meeting so I really need to buckle down and power through (and insert more clichés about putting my nose to the grindstone joined by the word and ) but I keep getting distracted by the usual suspects (checking for new items in my seven e-mail accounts,  FB, and Google Reader) and haven't finished a page. Guh.


There are other petty things on my mind — not the least of which is that I bit my lip earlier and it rilly, rilly hurts — but I will suspend my whining for the nonce.




UPDATE


And then Cathy sends me a link to this ... 

which is so not helping, because I would much rather listen to that while giggling about the words buttery  and deep in relation to Mike Rowe than figure out whether the column headings in the t-chart are aligned properly. 


Is it 4:30 yet?


FURTHER UPDATE


The video has been removed, but here's a screencap proving it once existed:

Friday Timewaster: Gloating

As I was telling anyone who would listen last night, the person in the cube next to me went to Kent, so we've been trash talking all week in anticipation of last night's basketball game. She was all, We're the #1 seed, you guys have a sucky record, we're gonna mop the floor with you, blah blah blah. I strenuously objected by noting that (a) we had a strong finish to the regular season, giving us a lot of momentum going into the tournament, and (b) OU rules, Kent drools. 


So, when Bobcats Roar Past Kent State, 81-64 happened, it was totally awesome. I was actually looking forward to going to work today so that I could rub it in and be all, Cats eat birds, you know.

Last night at the Q I was sitting with someone who also knows my coworker; while OU was totally stomping all over the Golden Flashes, he's telling me, Text her about how we're winning and Kent sucks! I held off, though, because I didn't want to do any premature celebrating and jinx the victory. Wise move, especially when Kent closed the gap to three or four points — I was biting my nails for a little bit there.


Meanwhile, the 110 was in the house, completely blowing the Kent band out of the water. (I mean, music stands? Really? Lame!) Oh, and our section won free wings from BW3s, so I guess I know where I'll be having dinner next week. What else? I saw a ton of people I knew, including a few whom I met at last year's tournament, and made some new friends — all in all, an excellent evening.


Tonight we're playing Miami, so I'm glad I found that vintage MUCK FIAMI t-shirt when I was cleaning up my apartment the other day. It's subtle, it's classy, it says it all.


In the meantime, I think I'll be watching this video a lot today:

Bazinga!

I heart The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper, Sheldon Cooper's attempt at a catch phrase, silly little online puzzle/strategery-type games, and silly little online puzzle/strategery-type games that use Sheldon Cooper's attempt at a catch phrase.

Witness my love for Alphabet Shoot — discovered via kottke, of course:

A close runner-up to the best Bazinga ever: