Hello Becca.
I am concerned you may be missing and if I don't hear from you within 24-48 hours I will have to consider you missing and will report you to the Police and our Realty Watch network which fans out to all members of the Real Estate Boards in Canada.
Alan the building manager and I have discussed that this seems very un-characteristic of you therefore we must follow our suspicions.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
So I was reminiscing on one of my most popular posts - reviews of animated gifs of cats, and was inspired to log a similar entry. This time dragons.
This was an interesting project, because it highlighted a clear lack of understanding in our culture of what exactly a dragon is. Let's start with
Yes. Dragons are flying, fire-breathing badasses. If this gif included some burning villagers, it would be pretty much perfect.
Turds with faces.
Sexy alligators.
Interested in world events, sports, editorials or comics. In fact, I'm pretty sure that dragons can't read. Period.
Bats with pants.
This is a gyrating freak show. 
And then we have my personal favourite. Again... WTF?
...But her testimony quickly turned into a play-by-play of a fantasy basketball game in which Kelly was the star player. Kelly had a hit with "I Believe I Can Fly," from the soundtrack to the animated movie "Space Jam." According to Guerrero, Kelly also believed he could play ball.
Guerrero described--and prosecutors provided photos of--a mural on the wall of a half basketball court in the lower level of the home. In it, Kelly is a Michael Jordan doppelganger, bald, shiny, muscles rippling, committing a flagrant foul against the Tasmanian Devil. Jordan himself is the referee. And the audience? A cast of Looney Tunes characters, from Elmer Fudd to Sylvester, cheering on the one-on-one game and holding signs that read "Go R. Kelly!" and "Go Taz!"
- source
Are you kidding me? This is unprecedented.
Jamison also got a few laughs out of the court, such as when Adam asked her about the possibility of the tape having been altered with special effects. Had she seen the Wayans brothers movie "Little Man"? "It looked real, didn't it?" Adam asked. "Not really," Jamison replied with some sarcasm.
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The Wayan Brothers defense?
Kelly's attorneys suggest that a prayer group called "Midnight Missionaries" often came to the studio in the wee hours to pray about topics such as "sin and adultery."
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It's a hard time to be an R Kelly fan. Don't get me wrong, it's never been all that easy to be an R Kelly fan. But the infamous urination video seems a lot less funny in the cold light of the courtroom.
I, like the rest of society it seems, have inconsistent opinions about both the criminally famous and the sexualization of children. I only need to cite some first names - Britney, Miley, Jon-Benet - to make the point. Let's be clear - sexual activity with young teenagers, as a forty-year old man, is repugnant and appropriately criminal.
But my R Kelly love has never been about reason or ethics. It's a lawless love born of ego and delusion. And thus, I follow the trial. R Kelly, you never cease to amaze.
TURTLE POWER!
You will watch this video because:
a) you were with me when I was one toe over the line outside of the Astoria after the completely amazing Clips/Woodhands show, yelling this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme line and having people call back the Turtle Power! part;
b) you've ever seen the original version;
c) you wish to finally settle the question of whether any words can sound soulful and sincere with the right delivery;
d) you deserve a mellow, turtle-powered jazz break (which, obviously, you do);
e) you are willing to indulge me in a musing on media;
Quod erat demonstrandum - you press play now.
0:54 to 1:20 will blow your mind and break your heart simultaneously
Friends, meet David Choi. He's a moderately talented aspiring singer from LA playing mainly acoustic covers of popular songs, and his own saccharine ballads. But what strikes me is that David Choi is so 2.0 it's 2.econd nature.
Witness davidchoimusic.com - re-launched recently, it includes a member's community, links to multiple networks (he has about 15,000 myspace friends) an active text blog, video blog and Twitter feed, a (currently empty) store and even a LIVE DAVID CAM. Yes, you read that right. He even accepted my friend request on Facebook within twelve minutes of sending.
Hidden Website Secret! You can softly caress David's pet hamster in real time by pressing control-shift-e repeatedly on his homepage!
I've recently the pleasure of hearing two of today's most relevant digital thought leaders speak: Chris Anderson at this year's Vidfest keynote, and Richard Edelman at our offices (full disclosure - both Vidfest and Richard Edelman are connected to my current place of employ.)
Both made speeches which included an identical statement: If you're under 25, you know this already.
The need for this sentence is interesting. It isn't necessarily generational, but the gap between those who are using the digital space and those who are learning from slideshows about it has never been more important.
Social media is so specifically about interaction, I wonder if it's possible to understand it without actually participating in it.
Long-time readers will remember that this site used to have a '10 reasons why this blog is better than your myspace page' sidebar. Then I registered an account for personal reasons. I loved it, and am now active there and on Facebook as well as peripherally on some other sites. Being open to new social networking ideas helps create smart strategies, organize life, and have a lot of fun.
But, if you're under 25, you knew that already.
This little iTunes questionnaire comes to me by way of Sean Klassen via Kevin Broome, and is a cute little 'why not' meme.
This is my work iTunes library, which is fairly different from the one on my home laptop. I will repeat this exercise from home, and use it to draw over-stated conclusions about the difference between homeBeckstar and workBeckstar.
Here goes:
TOTAL LENGTH: 814 items, 2.2 days, 3.42 GB
FIRST AND LAST SONGS (BY TITLE):
-Abaixa E Pega :: Brazilian Funk Compilation [noted: the Alta Vista translator translates this as 'It Lowers and it Catches'. My hunch is that it translates more accurately to 'Drop that Booty and Get Yo' Man']
- 3030 :: Deltron
SHORTEST AND LONGEST SONGS:
- Vault Character :: Calvin Harris - 0.08
- Avalanches Mix for the BBC - 1:04:18
FIRST AND LAST ALBUMS (BY TITLE):
- The Action Packed Mentallist Brings You the Fucking Jams :: Kid 606
- 6 Feet Deep :: Gravediggaz
- (Z by Gonzales if we go by alphabet only)
FIRST AND LAST ARTIST (BY TITLE):
- Aesop Rock
- 1337 G33K B3AT
- (Zookeeper if we're going by alphabet only)
TOP FIVE MOST PLAYED SONGS:
Follow the Light :: Dungeon Family
Paper Planes :: MIA
I'm a Slave 4 U :: Britney Spears
Sweet Jane :: Cowboy Junkies
Tribulations :: LCD Soundsystem
SEARCH FOR THE FOLLOWING WORDS. HOW MANY SONGS SHOW UP?
Sex: 5
Death: 3
Love: 31
You: 76
Home: 4
Boy: 16
Girl: 55
Robot : 4
Nerd: 23
FIRST FIVE SONGS THAT COME UP IN PARTY SHUFFLE:
- Side Effects (featuring Young Jeezy) :: Mariah Carey
- Solstice :: Pit Er Pat
- Civilization Day :: Quasimodo
- The Undercover (Remix) :: Encore & G Luv
- Crazy On You :: Heart
Daaaaamn. Was Marina's stagette on Saturday night some ridiculous good times? Witness the following:
You want to touch the bride? Nobody touches the bride.
Megan and I emit alien light vectors.
Rhy, Rhy, Rhy. How can you be so very awesome?
Meena works the crown. Note the careful placement of capuchin monkey and green pepper. All Beckstar, baby.
If it were anyone but KT, I would be all 'Greatest! Photo! Ever!'. Instead, I'm all 'What's that? Katie took another totally amazing party photo? Cool, now who wants toast?'
Gorgeous D, displayed by gorgeous M.
Lady E and the Bridesmaid Power Squad. represent. whut.
Beckstar and Bridestar. Woot!
Cupcake addiction? Let's not go there.
My girl Marina is getting married next weekend and, as one of the bridesmaids, my job this weekend was to send her off in a drunken, hedonistic fever. Obviously, to the Beckstar, this means a cupcakestravaganza.
For you, woeful readers... I document it all in a photo essay.
The all-important 'pretend the fructose is a huge pile of cocaine' stage.
The setup for candying edible flowers - lazy variation: use of feather in place of paintbrush. Hey - whatever works, right?
The beautiful end result of project flower candy.
Mixmaster Beckstar.
Tasting of batter is extremely important at regular intervals. This is all entirely standard, and should not be questioned.
Enjoying a fresh warm batch of cupcakes. Is there any finer pleasure?
My signature recipe - cheesecake cupcakes. Drooooooool.
Batch 2 - Pineapple Coconut Cream Cheese Cupcakes. Fuck yeah!
And the gorgeous vanilla sisters. Can I get an amen?
So last night we went to the Harry Potter book seven launch! Woohoo!!
I've just finished the book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - and witnessed memorable characters and worlds find their fate written, their destiny sealed. I'm going to discuss it in full, spoiler-y detail right now - but I'll mask the text. Highlight it with your cursor if you're sure you want to read it:
Loved it! The resolution of many of the plotlines happened along the lines I expected, but wasn't sure. Some key points:
1. That Snape betrayed Voldemort out of love for Lily. Plausible. Awesome. As we saw in Book Five, his worst memory may not have been the day he was humiliated by James and the boys, but rather the time he called Lily a mudblood. And this explains why Dumbledore trusted him so deeply. And his death was pretty much a given. Poor, poor Snape. In many ways, I'd consider him the real hero. And the epilogue? When Harry admonishes his son (Albus Severus Potter!) for speaking against Slytherin? So good.
2. That Harry was a horcrux. How you like that? This one was ultra-controversial. The pottercasters were sharply divided over this question, although the scarcrux theory, as it had been called, explained so many things it seemed like the right fit. To whit:
3. Harry Lives! Of course he does. Puffaw. Seriously.
Good book, poor Snape, yay Harry. I also liked it when Neville kicked ass at the end. Woot! I did think it would be cool to know more about their lives at the end - like what jobs they had - but it was pretty awesome overall, most definitely.
Who rules the cupcake kingdom? I do, and this is the evidence of my mega-dominance.
BOW BEFORE ME AND EAT DELICIOUS CUPCAKES!!!
So today, the Beckstar turned a Wednesday into Wednfunsday!!!! Let's pretend that wordplay worked nicely and move on.
While in Portland over the weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Powell's Books, which was just as comprehensive, enormous and treasure-filled as its reputation suggested.
If you get a chance to go, be sure to visit the Technical Books Store around the corner. It's full of scientific/applied/instructional/awesome things of all sorts. Like this Magic Garden I bought. I enjoyed its growth all through my workday!
9:15am - Where it all goes down.
9:25am - Secret solution added. Muah ha ha!
9:55am - Baby crystals are the cutest. Look at their miniature little geometries! Awwwwwwww!
11:40am - If I'm ever fired, I think I will meditate on this photo for a little while.
3:20pm - Or maybe this one.
5:00pm - The view from day's end. Sweet!
If I've learned anything in the years I've walked this Earth - it's that this was totally awesome.
*
I will never forget the sight. The crystallisation vessel in which it (the chemical garden) exhibited itself, was three quarters filled with slightly slimey water, namely dilute water glass, and out of the sandy bottom sprung a grotesque small landscape of differently coloured growths, a confused vegetation composed of blue, green and brown spikes, reminiscent of algae, fungi, sessile polyps, but also mosses, then shells, fruit, treelets or branches of trees, here and there even limbs – the strangest thing I had ever seen: strange, not so much because of the, albeit wonderful and confusing sight, but because of its deeply melancholy nature.
