Wheels within Wheels

Well, actually, last week was National Procrastination Week.

Here’s some advice about dealing with procrastination. I’ll have to read it sometime.

I want to see a parody of one of those Broadview Security commercials. You know the ones … a woman is at home alone or with a small child when someone breaks into the home. The intruder runs away immediately, and the phone rings with the security company calling to see if everything’s ok.

Would you stop to answer the phone in that situation?

I want to see the woman pick the phone up, only to hear, “Hi, Marge? It’s Betty. I just heard that Liz and Barney are getting divorced, and …”

Meanwhile, the camera cuts the to the security company’s office, where we hear a busy signal over the image of a phone operator.

I’ve written about memory before. I have a number of memory books, also. This site is about, and has links to other sites about, mnemonics and memory techniques. It emphasizes the use of mnemonics in learning other languages, which is another of my interests.

Update: This is an interesting report whose author claims to have verified the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, perhaps even in the strong form, if I read it correctly. The strong form of the hypothesis was the major plot device in The Languages of Pao, by Jack Vance.

Also, this looks like a book I’d find fascinating. I’ve studied both Esperanto and Loglan (the original and the Lojban varation), and own a couple of Klingon dictionaries, although I’ve never tried to learn that language.

Updates via Lambda the Ultimate.

Slow day so far. This expresses my feelings about it:

I’ve heard of saving yourself for marriage, but this is ridiculous.

Bohemian Rhapsody has never been a real favorite of mine, but there’s something about this performance …

Two music reference sites.

Two resource sites for learning foreign languages.

How effective has the stimulus been? Not at all. Why? Because there’s been no stimulation yet. Looking at the graph at the first link, it’s obvious that we have two choices:

1. We can believe that the Obama administration has absolutely no idea how an economy works.

2. We can believe that the Obama administration (and the media) have been lying their asses off about the economy.

Personally, I’d try to get a look at the seat of their pants, but I’m not ruling out #1, either – they’re not mutually-exclusive options.

Apropos of that, two sites for freelance work (one general, one specifically software). From what I’ve seen over the years, a lot of people expect really cheap work out of freelancers. For example, one job offer I noted at Guru.com is to develop a multiplayer poker game for between $500 and $1000. I can’t link it directly, because I haven’t signed up for a membership yet. Not to mention that I’d expect project links like this to have a short “shelf life.” I don’t expect them to get too many responses – you might get such a game for that price if it’s already been developed, but I wouldn’t expect exclusive rights.

Yesterday’s breakfast bonus (See also: Buy 2, Get 1):

… who this man is? Scroll down slowly, so you don’t get the second photo too soon.

I did not recognize him.

Why, yes, it’s a 2004 Molotov (click for larger).

Saw it yesterday at lunch.

The person your mother warned you about (not necessarily work-safe).

Via David J.

This showed up on BoingBoing a little while ago, and it looks like useful information to keep around.

… the next time I travel anywhere: How to find out why your flight is really delayed.

I never drove there during rush hour, but I remember getting directions on the order of, “Well, you take Peachtree Avenue to Peachtree Street, then head north until you hit Peachtree Circle. Continue past that until you hit Peachtree Lane, then turn left onto Peachtree Way and it’s just on the left.”