Do the opposite
December 19th, 2007Not a bad strategy. Or at least, visualize doing the opposite.
George decides to do the opposite
Watching George on the old Seinfeld is like watching a young Larry David. So awesome.
Some choice snippets from the script
Elaine : Ah, George, you know, that woman just looked at you.
George : So what? What am I supposed to do?
Elaine : Go talk to her.
George : Elaine, bald men, with no jobs, and no money, who live with their parents, don’t approach strange women.
Jerry : Well here’s your chance to try the opposite. Instead of tuna salad and being intimidated by women, chicken salad and going right up to them.
George : Yeah, I should do the opposite, I should.
Jerry : If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.
George : Yes, I will do the opposite. I used to sit here and do nothing, and regret it for the rest of the day, so now I will do the opposite, and I will do
something!
———–
George : Hey, I just found twenty dollars! I tell you this, something is happening in my life. I did this opposite thing last night. Up was down, black was white, good was -
Jerry: Bad.
George : Day was -
Elaine : Night.
George : Yes!
Jerry : So you just did the opposite of everything?
George : Yes. And listen to this, listen to this; her uncle works for the Yankees and he’s gonna get me a job interview. A front office kind of thing. Assistant to the travelling secretary. A job with the New York Yankees! This has been the dream of my life ever since I was a child, and it’s all happening because I’m completely ignoring every urge towards common sense and good judgment I’ve ever had. This is no longer just some crazy notion. Jerry, this is my religion.
——–
George : Hey! ( to Elaine, who doesn’t look too cheerful )
Jerry : Hi Elaine.
Elaine : Hi.
Jerry : How’re things going?
Elaine : How’re things going? You wanna know how things are going? I’ll tell you how things are going. I am getting kicked out of my apartment!
Jerry : Why? Why are they doing that?
Elaine : I don’t know! They have a list of grievances.
Jerry : The jewel thief?
Elaine : Yeah, the jewel thief.
Jerry : What else?
Elaine : I put Canadian quarters in the washing machine. I gotta be out by the end of the month.
George : Well, you could move in with my parents.
Elaine : Was that the … opposite … of what you were going to say, or was that just instinct? ( She squeezes G’s mouth between her fingers )
George : Instinct.
Elaine : Stick … with the opposite. ( Slaps G on the forehead )
Saturday morning YouTube-ing: Back Dorm Boys “Don’t Lie” lip synch the Black Eye Peas
November 17th, 2007This is awesome
h/t Christy from FDL
information revolution
October 22nd, 2007who would’ve thought that tags could be so cool
h/t TechCrunch
Al Gore using his Current TV site to post short videos on key issues
October 15th, 2007Al Gore just posted 3 nice, short, clear videos on key issues. Love to see that he’s “eating his own dog food” as we say, by using his own site to post these videos and start a conversation.
I do wish that Current vids had embed codes (do they, and I just can’t find them??).
Hopefully Mr. Gore will be raising these same issues on the campaign trail soon.
(cross-posted at The New Down, my all-politics blog)
new Yahoo! Health Beta looks great
October 13th, 2007Wow. Just browsed to Y! Health to check out the blogs, and saw the new Health Beta. On first glance (it’s Sat night, I really need to get off the computer..) it’s cleaner, the community features look more integrated with the content. The site looks freaking great. Congrats to the whole team over there. But, I have to ask the perennial question: when will those Groups get integrated??? Still, this new site looks really nice.
Kucinich on people-powered politics and the blogosphere
October 7th, 2007Kucinich and his wife talk about the blogosphere, and how the people actually have power, they just need to realize it.
The blogosphere has provided so much meaningful coverage and criticism of the Bush administration, while the corporate press and Establishment Washington has lined up to defend Bush and Cheney.
Funny how the truth can effect public opinion.
The majority of U.S. voters want the next president to protect civil liberties and the Constitution, according to a recent survey of 738 registered voters conducted for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
h/t C&L for the Kucinich video.
Nice crystal
August 24th, 2007
Congrats to Aurora, Annie, Karen, Nilesh, and Sridhar for the Yahoo platform excellence award. Well-freaking-deserved.
The internets vs. the Glorious President-for-Life
August 21st, 2007Will the internet and social media defeat top-down conservatism?
We are fast becoming a bottoms up media society where all the information people need to make informed decisions is becoming more readily available to them. With the power of YouTube or Google or a simple website, you can learn all that you would never have learned years ago. And this is devastating news for conservatives.
Imagine what would have happened in 1968 or 1972 if the media had done its job and played the video or audio clips of Richard Nixon’s McCarthyist rantings?
Well, maybe… other circles are using the internet to argue for, um… less than Democratic ideals
President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.
When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended.
Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.
If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.
He could then follow Caesar’s example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.
President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
Fear not, the former head of the CIA and associate of Dick Cheney is… on the Board of Directors of the organization that published this essay. Why are they so busy scrubbing their site? Don’t they need support for the Glorious Plan? Or would too much discussion of it just botch things up?
TechCrunch & DailyKos: an accidental 2-fer
August 1st, 2007I’m driving across the Bay Bridge at about 10:30pm when I get a text from my buddy Greg. “dude you are on techcrunch!”. Funny, I’m thinking, my startup hasn’t released our alpha/beta/whatever-we’ll-call-it. What’s up?
I get home, pull up the Crunch, and apparently Scott Beale took this photo which aroused some interest. In fact, someone put an ad on craigslist looknig for the “cute”, “tall blonde guy” in the pic.
So here’s the screenshot from TechCrunch, and I’ve added a little callout:
It’s good to know that love, or lust, or whatever, can blossom at a tech networking event. In other news, a diary of mine made it to the front-page of Kos thanks to the fantastic Rescue Rangers’ diary rescue. It was a PowerPoint expose of Gonzales’ Senate testimony. I think I’ll do more of those. It was fun to apply some bullet-point basics to political analysis, which as my diary points out, is what the DC stenography press corps needs these days, since they so often lack a clear grasp of basic facts.
Anyway, it is always amazing how gratifying it is to receive online kudos.
The power of community is incredible. Just as nice was receiving a phone call from my friend Molly this morning. “Hey, I was on DailyKos and saw your diary on the front-page. So funny that you laid that out in PowerPoint!”. Which makes me think: two totally unrelated appearances on totally unrelated blogs leads to two messages from unrelated friends.
Who needs tall and blonde when I have friends lookin’ out for me online?
Decision-making
July 18th, 2007How do you make decisions?
This way
Or this way
Just asking. Sure, the pictures are about more than just decisions. But I think they are illustrative. Compare/contrast. Discuss. Enjoy.
Gore pic h/t Thor Muller, which got me looking for a “Bush” at work pic, found via the White House.
(Kind of cross-posted at The New Down)