Nathan's Blog

Nothing much, this and that

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:39:00 +0000

I just came across one of the best sentences I have read in a long time and had to post it here:

"Looking at the brains of orgasming men using a PET scanner".

- from this article: "Women Have "No Emotional Feelings" During Orgasm, Say Neuroscientists".

My legs are really, really sore from walking around Rundle Mall today for a while so I think I will stop now and sit on the couch.

I got attitude from a middle-aged woman today while ordering a cappuccino, it was really great.

Here are some pictures I have been collecting and meaning to post for a while now:

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Music I Like: Printed Circuit, Leslie & The Ly's

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:35:00 +0000

Printed Circuit

My last.fm friend, spagyricus recommended an artist to me tonight, "Printed Circuit". I love it.

Here is a video of Printed Circuits song, "Movements".

Printed Circuit - Movements

Printed Circuit - myspace
Printed Circuit - last.fm

Leslie & The Ly's

While checking out spagyricus's last.fm journal I found out about "Leslie & The Ly's". Pretty fun.

Leslie & The Ly's - How We Go Out: version two

Leslie & The Ly's - myspace
Leslie & The Ly's - last.fm
Leslie & The Ly's - Leslie Hall's YouTube channel

MySpace Song Ripper
On a related note, tonight I visited my favourite myspace ripping tool, File2HD.com and noticed that they now support ripping Original Version (High Quality) mp3s... yessss!

More Music I Like
If you like this sort of music or even if you don't, here are some other songs that I am really enjoying at the moment:

My Muxtape

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Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:18:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend who is always up on good comedy and I asked him if he had found any good "tv show comedies" lately. He told me about this show called, "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!". He explained a few of the skits and they seemed funny. On Thursday my brother bookmarked a website in delicious about this show which reminded me that I needed to check it out.

I have just finished watching all of Season 1 of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!". It is such a good show.

Synopsis
"Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" is a surreal sketch show created by Tim Heidecker [wp][pw][gi][imdb] and Eric Wareheim [wp][pw][gi][imdb].
The show consists of sketches, songs, and mock commercials. The Wikipedia entry for "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" lists Andy Kaufman and Monty Python as a major influence on the comedy of Tim and Eric, their humour is comparatively offbeat and surreal.

Each episode goes for roughly eleven and a half minutes (11:30).

Here she comes

The show premiered February 11, 2007. Stylistically, the show has been created to look like a late 80's/early 90's production. The graphics, audio, fashion, make-up and subject matter all hark to former years. The graphics are reminiscent of the (now outdated) instructional/educational videos that they showed (still show?) in schools. Video transitions popular in these decades give the show a great DIY feel with accompanying music and soundscapes popular in the same decades. A lot of the sketches spoof public access televisions' poor quality and often emotionless dialogue of its participants.

One sketch is a commercial where a family is listening to (and highly enjoying) midi files being played by the father on an old computer. MIDI file based sketch! brilliant!
I found this sketch on youtube, it is show here in this video following a sketch about "sports".

Sports Sketch / Midi File Organiser Advert Sketch

S01E08 (0:07:01)

The Doo Dah Doo Doo Sketch

(Low video quality), S01E02 (0:01:24)

Celebrities
The show features appearances from celebrities such as:
- John C. Reilly
- Bob Odenkirk
- David Cross
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Michael Cera
- Neil Hamburger
- Jeff Goldblum
- Rainn Wilson

Brule's Rules with Dr Steve Brule: An inept news reporter (played by John C. Reilly)

Season 1 is now out on DVD (US), coming soon to (AU)

Tim And Eric - Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 1 - EzyDVD, AU$29.83 (Coming Soon! Pre-Order Now - Available Wednesday, 11 June 2008)
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 1 - Amazon.com, US$14.99 - IN STOCK

More Information
Tim and Eric.com - Official site
Tim and Eric Show - Adult Swim website
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Wikipedia

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Dion McGregor - Sleep Talker (AWESOME!)

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:11:00 +0000

I talk in my sleep. Last night, to my absolute horror at the time I had 2 dreams in a row where my macbook pro was destroyed. In the first dream I dropped it, smashed the screen and bent the case, in the second I came back to my parents home and I found my macbook pro had been scratched with a compass all over the case and the insides by my sister, to the point of being destroyed. Very unsettling dreams. In the morning I was telling Sara about them and she mentioned that I was sleep-talking too as I often do.

Today I decided to look up "sleep-talking" on wikipedia to learn more about it.
I found out that sleep-talking is very common and is reported in 50% of young children, with most of them outgrowing it by puberty, although it may persist into adulthood (about 5% of adults are reported to talk in their sleep). It appears to run in families.

While browsing the wikipedia page I noticed this line about a famous sleep talker and was intrigued.

One famous sleep talker is Dion McGregor, a man who became something of an underground celebrity when his roommate Michael Barr recorded his nightly soliloquies (which were often hilariously detailed), which were then released as a series of albums in the 60's.

This would be sooo great to hear I thought and googled his name and found a myspace page for him here, yesss!

Dion McGregor - look at this picture as you listen to his sleep-talking

I listened to this first recording, "The Food And What to do with it" and LOVED it!
In this recording he tells someone to get various fruits, prepare them and then RAM THEM UP THEIR ASS! His pitch and tone is captivating, he is often mean. Sometimes he laughs like a lunatic. While listening to the recordings I picture the scenes as he narrates what is happening.

The Food And What To Do With It (mp3)

The Food And What To Do With It - Lyrics
Brown that banana
Brown it
Brown it
Crust it all over with sugar
Dip it in the sugar pot
Dip it in the sugar pot
Okay, now bend over and ram it up your ass
That's right
Okay
Cut that grapefruit in half
Cut that grapefruit in half
Alright
Sprinkle it lightly with sugar
Okay, now lean back and ram it up your cunt!
Take that honeydew melon
Slice it from stem to stern
Salt it a little bit
Stick it down in your tits
Take that dish of strawberries
Put a few drops of cream in it
Alrighty
Pour it over her head
Take that huckleberry pie
Heat it in the oven
Stick it on a plate
Mash it in his face
Take that mango
Cool it
Peel it
Jam it up your ass
Look at that red rug on the floor
Oh, little dog dancing
Puddles here and there
Puddles here and there
Look out pussycat
It's a pussy
It's a pussy
Do turkeys have tits?

All lyrics from this "The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep)" here.

Another, more manically narrated sleep-talk is this one, "Don't Break The Mailman".

Dont Break The Mailman (mp3)

I went back to the Wikipedia entry on him which said this about him:

Dion McGregor (1922–1994) was a New York City-born songwriter, whose main claim to fame is that he was a voluble dreamer, or somniloquist.

As a songwriter, McGregor's biggest success came when his song "Where Is The Wonder" (cowritten with roommate Michael Barr) was recorded by Barbra Streisand on her hit album My Name Is Barbra (1965). He was unable to find much success afterwards, however, and by the 1980's had given up on songwriting. Critic Joslyn Layne writes that "Despite his lack of success as a song lyricist, McGregor's narration of his vivid dreamlife provided a more unique artistic contribution than any usually recorded."

McGregor talked in his sleep. Not in quiet, barely-comprehensible mumbles: while he slept, McGregor would essentially narrate his dreams at conversational volume. As a narrator of his (often terrifying) dreams, Dion adopted various personas but frequently established a fey, argumentative, insolent approach to the subject at hand – be it a hot air balloon trip to the moon with a group of multi-ethnic children, a frantic journey around New York, or a tattooing job on a woman's tongue. As Phil Milstein notes, the Tzadik LP could just as well be called Dion McGregor Screams Again, as most of McGregor's dream narratives end with him shrieking in terror.

An LP of his dream diatribes – The Dream World Of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) – was even released to minor acclaim by Decca Records in 1964. A book of the same name, containing the transcripts of a wider selection of McGregor's dreams, and with illustrations by Edward Gorey, was also published in 1964.

McGregor died in 1994, but researcher Phil Milstein gathered recordings of McGregor's dream-speech considered too risque to be released in the 1960s and assembled them for the 1999 album, Dion McGregor Dreams Again, released on Tzadik Records. A third album, The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor: More Outrageous Recordings of the World's Most Renowned Sleeptalker was assembled by Toronto poet Steve Venright and released in August 2004 on the Torpor Vigil Industries label.

Some more web searches returned more interesting information about him:

Dion McGregor was a homeless gay bohemian from NY. He wanted to be a songwriter for Broadway musicals, and while waiting for his big break in show business, he couch-surfed with his friends, lovers, and acquaintances. One of his hosts was fascinated with Dion's habit of talking in his sleep and attempted to document it.
You can hear New York street noises in the background of his recordings, as he slept by an open window.

Taken from here.

The above post also links to an upload of his 1964 recorded album title, "The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep)".

The cover of "The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep)"

Download Link - MEGAUPLOAD

I really, really want to here his 1999 album, "Dion McGregor Dreams Again" and his third album, "The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor: More Outrageous Recordings of the World's Most Renowned Sleeptalker". I imagine they would be incredibly dirty.
So if anyone has these albums, could I please get them from you?

Dion McGregor Links

Dion McGregor - MySpace
Dion McGregor - Last.fm
The Dream World of Dion McGregor + Shut Up, Little Man! - Blog Post
Dion McGregor - Wikipedia
Dion McGregor Dreams Again

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Middle-Aged Men In T-shirts

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:19:00 +0000

Tonight a middle-aged man got on the bus I was on, he had grey hair and was wearing a loose-fitting white t-shirt. For some reason it did not seem right.
Then I began to think about another older man who I used to work with and how whenever he would wear a t-shirt, I would find it off putting. When I say "middle-aged" I am referring to ages 45-70, so middle-aged plus a decade or so. The man on the bus would have been anywhere from 50-60.

I don't know why it unsettles me so much to see a middle-aged man in a t-shirt (especially an ill-fitting t-shirt). I have the impression that a man comes to a certain age when it is only acceptable to go out in public in a shirt or polo top. A shirt or polo is dignified and respectable. Whenever I wear a dress shirt I feel great and confident, so when I reach the age when I farewell the t-shirt from my daily out of home attire: I will welcome it with open arms.

On the bus tonight I was trying to pin-point why seeing this middle-aged man in a plain white t-shirt made me feel so weird. I was doing that thing where when you want to look at a person but not be rude you look into the bus window at their reflection. So I was looking at this man's reflection in the window and trying to figure out why I was reacting in this way. I did not figure it out. I also thought that maybe "the older a man is, the weirder he looks if he wears a t-shirt". Then I thought of this man who I see in the mornings whilst walking to work, who wears yellow shorts and t-shirts. He would be about 60 I reckon and he does not look weird. I am going to start noticing what middle-aged men wear more from now on. Maybe middle-aged mens spouses have a lot to do with their out of work attire, most probably. I think that without wives dragging their husbands into going clothes shopping then it might be more of a common thing to see a middle-aged man in a tee-shirt out in public.

Bouncer-tee. Badass displays of gut -wrenching masculinity.

Middle-aged man at home
Surely though at home is a different story for the middle-aged man?
When I get home, one of the first things I do is change into my comfortable nike track pants (or second skins as I have affectionately come to call them), a comfy tee and kick off the shoes. When you get older you should not lose this comfort and so an older man at home in a t-shirt is acceptable.

Occasions where it is acceptable for a middle-aged man to wear a t-shirt would be:

On Vacation

Exercising/at the gym

At home

Playing sport

At the beach

Richard Dawkins - Great scientist, great example of vacation tee.

I find myself thinking more often now, at the age of 25 that I should gradually fade out my wearing of t-shirts and start wearing more shirts and polos for work and out of the house occasions. I have noticed that as a man, when I wear polo shirts or dress shirts then people - especially females - treat me well, I get glances where there would not usually be glances and service seems that little bit more respectful.

Before I know it I will be a middle-aged man and will know first hand "the rules" if there even are any to begin with. Sara says I make up and have all these "rules" about things which don't matter, maybe so, maybe so. Maybe no one else finds middle-aged men in t-shirts off putting and I am reading into it too much.
I would love to hear from any 40-60 year olds about how they feel about wearing t-shirts out in public. Do you feel any pressure to don a shirt or polo when you would much rather be comfortable out in a tee?
I also hope this did not come off as mean or ageist, that was not my intention. My intention was to explore my own curious reaction to this middle-aged man who I saw on the bus tonight wearing a loose fitting white t-shirt.

Oh, oh, another thing I have noticed quite a bit which relates to public transport is that "hot women" or often "women who think they're hot" will usually choose seats that face the opposite way to where the bus/train/tram is heading, so that they are facing the passengers. I absolutely HATE facing the opposite way (facing the passengers) on a bus or tram so I tend to notice people who by choice choose those seats. Please take notice of this next time you are on public transport and see if you find this also. Once again, there is probably nothing too this but speculation.

I get a kick out of thinking up things like this, finding connections, making predictions, theories (in layman's terms of the word) and then testing them for validity when I get the chance. This is what I am about and do all day long. Thinking a lot like this in life makes it easier to predict what the outcome will be in various situations because of the mass amount of connections, predictions and testing which have been built up over the years. This is how I think and this interconnected, built up model of reality can be summed up well in a quote that I LOVE and put on my facebook "favourite quotes" bit which is, "Information and observations are logical pieces in a bigger jigsaw".

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YouTube Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:17:00 +0000

I just came across this youtube video (below) of a korean drummer stealing the show, it made me wet myself so thought I would post it and a few other youtube videos I have been enjoying lately.

Korean Drummer Steals The Show

The Ultimate Drunk People Compilation

Call Center Salesman Goes Insane

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The Guild

Watch all episodes here: http://www.watchtheguild.com/episodes/

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I am in Todays Advertiser - pg. 18 (10/03/2008)

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:22:00 +0000

"My View"
Question: Should the Adelaide Festival be an annual event?

Click to enlarge

So yesterday I was in Rundle mall sitting down waiting for Sara when a journalist and a photographer came up to me and asked if they could take a few minutes of my time and ask me some survey questions. Sure, why not I said.

Here is how the conversation went.

Journalist: "Hi, how are you going?".

Me: "Pretty good thanks".

Journalist: "I was wondering if you could spare a few minutes to answer a few survey questions".

Me: "Yeah sure, go for it".

Journalist: "Okay, so do you think the Adelaide festival should be a yearly thing?".

Me: "Yeah".
(I was thinking but did not get time to say, because that would bring more artists/comedians/shows to Adelaide giving me more choice in Entertainment).

Journalist: "Alright cool and just one more question, do you think that having it every year would make it less special?".

Me: "Yeah, it would".

Journalist: "So if I could just get your name, age and suburb".

Me: "Yep, my name is Nathan...." *I pause as he writes my first name* "Kowald...", I say ending in a high note as if I was unsure. *This meets the usual puzzled expression requiring the letter by letter spell out*. "So that's, K O W A L D", I say.

Journalist: *writes down K O W A L V*

Me: "Oops sorry, no, D, K O W A L Deee not V".

Journalist: *makes the changes*

Me: "My ages is.." *I pause to think about it* "25", I say hesitantly while I confirm in my head that yes I am actually 25. "And my suburb is Goodwood".

Journalist: "Oh, I just live around the corner in ________" (a suburb I forget).

Me: "Oh cool", I reply. *did not know how to respond*

Journalist: "Okay, that was easy wasn't it. Now just the last bit we will take a photo of you".

Me: "Yep".

Photographer: *takes 2 shots* then says, "A nice big smile like before". *Like before? I think.*

Me: *Smiles*

Photographer: *takes 3rd and final shot then shows me the photo he took in his camera's view finder*.

Me: I nod at the picture of myself and give an obligatory, "Yep, nice".

Journalist: "Thanks a lot, this will be in tomorrows paper".

Me: "Cool, thanks for that".

Journalist: "Thanks, enjoy the rest of your weekend".

Me: "Thanks, you too".

So as you can see, what made the paper was not a direct quote. But then again, you need to add words when the responses to your questions are just yeah and yep. Also, I would never use the expression, "It would probably take the shine away from it". My general view however was portrayed. The journalist was youngish, well dressed, cool and easy to talk to.

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Password Revealer - JavaScript Bookmarklet

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:23:00 +0000

While organising my bookmarks in Firefox I found this handy bookmarklet which I had forgotten about.

This bookmarklet, when clicked will pop-up any password which has been saved in your saved passwords list. It can be useful if you ever need to quickly find out the human readable text version of any password.

To use, simply add a new bookmark calling it whatever you like, I use "Reveal Pswd" and then copy this code into the Location, where a website's URL would normally go.

*Above code may not render correctly in feed readers, view blog article for correct code.

Enjoy.

Since posting this
I have found out that the Firefox Add-on "Web Developer Toolbar" has an option to "Show Passwords" so this JavaScript bookmarklet is redundant if you use this.

If you have the Web Developer Toolbar installed, to reveal passwords in a saved form all you have to do is this: "Forms -> Show Passwords" and what appears as circles or asterisks will change to normal text, revealing the saved password.

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Quizzes & Tests are Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:01:00 +0000

I just did a whole bunch of tests on this awesome site I came across: http://www.justsayhi.com/bb

Here are my results.

I actually only got a C at 73% the first time I did it, this was the second times results because I did not save the HTML code the first time.

67%

54%

I actually wish my score on this one was higher :)

I Scored a 87%!

0
This should say 42

I am 56% Addicted to Coffee

I ate a packet of jelly beans and now I'm hypo

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:19:00 +0000

I just ate a whole packet of "Jelly Belly" jelly beans and now I'm hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo. hypo.

I have nothing to talk about so I will make this brief.

Get it? Brief. Oh lol Nathan. What a funny joke that was.
I know what you're thinking, "Dude, that has got to be the most homoerotic picture you have ever posted on here and.... thank you."
Well, you're welcome. If you look closely you can see the darkness of his uncircumcised penis knob, but if you stare for more than 5 seconds then you are gay.

Such a joke as the one I just said would be common among guys. I think that it would be offensive to a gay person as it is portraying being gay as something that is wrong, using it as a pay out. I feel out of the loop sometimes as to what is offensive and what is not. It is because, in regards to sexual preference I happen to be in the majority (heterosexual). I know what heterosexual men think but I can not fully understand how a gay person would feel about jokes like this. I hate not fully knowing and not having a gay persons perspective on these things. A great south park episode (With Apologies to Jesse Jackson - 1101) touched on this sort of thing. A show about not really knowing what it is like to be Token (black). At the end was the excellent summary which went like this:

Mr. Nelson:
There! Now you all see that I am not limited by my size. [Cartman comes alive again and laughs] I have proven my point! My work here is done! [waddles away. The kids begin to disperse]

Stan:
What was his point?

Kyle:
I have no idea.

Stan:
Dude, I don't get it.

Kyle:
I don't get it either.

Stan:
[comes to a certain realization] Wait a minute. That's it! I don't get it.

Kyle:
...Huh?

Stan:
Don't you see, Kyle?? I don't get it! [smiles, then walks up to Token] Token, I get it now. I don't get it. I've been trying to say that I understand how you feel, but, I'll never understand. I'll never really get how it feels for a black person to have somebody use the N word. I don't get it.

Token:
Now you get it, Stan. [smiles]

Stan:
[smiles] Yeah. I totally don't get it.

Token:
Thanks, dude.

full episode transcript here

This is how I feel sometimes.
Obviously I know what is black and white offensive, rude and anti-gay but the point I am laboriously trying to make is that I (and many heterosexual guys) will never FULLY get what it feels like when an anti-gay joke is made. Education is needed. It is all too easy to become familiar and comfortable with the views, experiences and generalisations that we all experience in our day to day lives. This familiarity can have the effect of making us less aware of the validity of views which oppose our own.
I think that maybe by following these trains of thought I am digging myself into holes and then trying to repair them with band aids (yeah like band aids will repair a hole! whatever....I have faith in your intelligence that you will get my flawed - train of thought - metaphor). I like cashews.

I guess that is one function of tv right? It shows us how to behave, how to think about things. It shows us that some things are "wrong" while other things are "right". It is important. It allows us to step into the shoes of someone different from ourselves. Shows like Neighbours crack me up as whenever I watch it I always think how it is just basically a show which functions to teach people how they should think and behave towards things. Shows like this teach us how to react to certain situations, how to think about say a "relationship consisting of an adult and a minor" for example. You know, the hard, in your face topics.

If you would like more pictures of soft core johnson you can click here, once again, you're welcome.
I naturally picked the most disgusting briefs from my Google image search for the above picture. These briefs are soooo disgusting. I can't believe they are for real.

Hmmmm.. Sara made me (no I didn't) watch Brokeback Mountain last night. Are you feeling me? Are you putting 2 & 2 together? (answer: the above pic and this blogs theme). It was oookay I guess. My favourite bit is at the start(ish) when Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are in the tent for the first time and they are really getting into the moment, animal passion as it were, then Heath Ledger spits into his hand and I guess (they did not show this bit) rubs the spit on his erect penis before entering Jake. Haha, it was so raw and real and in my face. It was so dirty and new and interesting.
One thing I did think about the movie was that maybe they were displaying a prejudiced view of homosexuals. A view that all gay men have bad relationships with their fathers and this is what "turns them gay". I have heard this (non-evidenced based?) "explanation for homosexuality" before which is the reason I even picked up on it in the first place. I think it is unfair because from what I know about people and animals, homosexuality is not a learned behaviour, not a product of environment or upbringing. It is a natural preference. Lots of animals are gay, lots of people are gay, it's normal and natural. Both the main gay characters in the film had bad relationships with their fathers, not just oh they didn't get along with the guy but more than that. Their fathers were both very masculine and expressively anti-gay. While it did make the film more interesting (parental conflicts) I could not help but think it was an unfair generalisation? I don't know. I would love to know what a gay person thinks about this, is it indeed an unfair generalisation?. I am also aware that the film is initially set in the late 60s? which was a time where this sort of anti-gay attitude was more socially accepted and where a more masculine father figure was more standard.

I have thoughts. Sometimes I don't know how to validate or check them for errors. I want facts, I want to know what is true and real. This is one of the reasons I am so interested in science, critical thinking and logical fallacies etc, so I have the tools I need to help me think about things and avoid wrong conclusions/assumptions. Nothing should be taboo or out of the realm of discussion.

I am 25 now so am finding I am less WOWed by pieces of information (that I never knew) less and less these days. This moment when I saw Heath spit into his hand was one such moment. Well, that makes sense. Another such moment happened a month ago when I found out that it is not uncommon for pregnant women, when giving birth to shit themselves in the process. So to prevent this, a lot of woman take laxatives before hand and eat food that will keep them "blocked up" so to speak. How did I not know this I thought to myself when I found this out?

I am no longer hypo anymore. I have a cramp in my arm and I need a coffee. A good time as ever to stop writing.

Please only leave a comment if you have something positive to add.

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Best Photo Ever!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:13:00 +0000

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Homebrew for DS

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:33:00 +0000

For anyone who has a modded Nintendo DS here is a list of Homebrew apps (courtesy of Craig).

Homebrew:

Beup - MSN Messenger client for DS.

DSOrganize - Kind of like a PDA app. Features: Calendar, Day Planner, Address Book, Web Browser, File Browser, Ability to download homebrew and demos via WiFi straight to your card, To-Do List, Scribble Pad, Calculator, and IRC Client.

DS Notes - Designed to provide a way to quickly jot down and save notes or small sketches. The program has been designed for lightning-quick saving, browsing, and loading of notes (stored as black and white bitmaps, each only 6kb in size).

Colours - It's an app that uses the DS touch-screen and it becomes a perfect portable digital sketch-book. You can then email your image to anyone you'd like, straight from your DS :)

DSMIDI - Turns your DS into a MIDI keyboard for creating music.

NitroTracker - Music making app for the DS.

Pocket Physics - Game/App...really fun :)

You should take a look around this site too, has lots of homebrew apps and stuff.

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noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:37:00 +0000

To everyone who has ever told me not to flatter myself; I present you with this post.

Moustached Celery Eater, a healthy kind of wrong

Mouthercising

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Dreams: Night School

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:05:00 +0000

This is a great article about why we dream.

Here are a few good lines from the article:
(They are best read in the context and flow of the entire article)

"Dreams, he contends, are a training ground in which animals and people alike go over the behaviors that are key to their survival."

"Revonsuo believes that by providing rehearsal, dreaming helps us recognize dangers more quickly and respond more efficiently. We don't need to be aware of this rehearsal, just as you don't have to recall exactly where you practiced your tennis serve in order to reap the rewards.

"The single most pervasive theme in dreaming is that of being chased or attacked. Just as athletes in training repeat parts of their performance, we may, in our nightmares, be attacked and chased over and over again, not to solve a particular problem but to actually practice efficient escape behavior."

"The dreaming brain, explains Revonsuo, scans emotional memories. When it detects a memory trace with a strong negative emotion, it constructs a nightmare around that theme. The more traumatic the event, the more intense the nightmare. The brain's system for detecting threats is sensitive and flexible: Anything the brain tags with a strong negative charge gets thrown into the threat bin and dredged up at night."

"If dreams evolved to simulate the threats in our environment, then being exposed to more dangers in real life should activate the nightmare function, overstuffing our dreams with threats. This is precisely what happens. Even a single exposure to a life-threatening situation can plunge a person into an inferno of post-traumatic nightmares, dreams in which the threatening event—the attack, the rape, the war—is repeated over and over in every possible variation."

Read the entire article here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20071029-000003&print=1

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Holy shit! My BookCrossing blog post made it onto BuzzFeed.com!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:43:00 +0000

OMG!: http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/BookCrossing

I was just checking my feeds in Bloglines then when I noticed the topic of BookCrossing in BuzzFeeds latest buzz topics. Cool, lets see what people are saying about BookCrossing (I got into it a few months ago). I opened the top two highest buzz links in new tabs. As I was scrolling on through the other BuzzFeed posts I noticed that my website was opened in one of the tabs, I could tell by my little nipple favicon. Hang on a second, I didn't open my site I thought so I went to check the sites that BuzzFeed was linking to and I'll be fucked if my BookCrossing blog post was not the number 1 in the best 7 links!

This is a screenshot of me discovering my blog post in Bloglines > BuzzFeed
(Click to enlarge)

This is great, great, great :) To come across it like this too, seeing it featured on one of my favourite feeds out of the blue, this has made my day.

This is a screenshot of the BuzzFeed BookCrossing page.
At the time of taking it my post was #2 but it is now #1 :)
(Click to enlarge)

It was my "most commented" blog post. People, mainly BookCrossers were getting to it from a Dutch BookCrossing forum I found out a bit later. Everyone that commented on it was really nice and cool, they pointed me in the direction of good BookCrossing resources for things like good labels to use and gave their own experiences with BookCrossing (see the comments).

Read my full BookCrossing blog post here: http://www.nathankowald.com/2007/10/bookcrossing.html

I love BuzzFeed. I read it regularly, it is always really informative and entertaining.

Here is a description of the BuzzFeed site from their "About" page.

Our Mission

1. Find Good Things

We use technology and human editors to find the hottest buzz on the web. Each weekday, we publish ten stories that highlight the best stuff emerging from the Internet popularity contest. Find your new favorite thing on BuzzFeed.com, via RSS, and from our extended network.

2. Promote Great Sites

We strive to send as many clicks as possible to the bloggers, journalists, and fans who are creating buzz, driving the conversation, and making the web exciting. And we pay special attention to the quality sites who join our network by displaying the BuzzFeed widget. Are you a blogger or publisher? Join our network now!

3. Web-ify Advertising and PR

We developed a new form of PR and Advertising designed for the new networked world where consumers have the power. Instead of press releases and canned ad copy, we work with partners to amplify the voice of the most interesting bloggers, fans, journalists, and buzz makers. Inquire about BuzzFeed PR and Advertising Services.

YAY! Thank you BuzzFeed! :) So happy right now.

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noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:08:00 +0000

Its all fun and games until someone puts a hole in the wall.

This is Josh and myself reenacting the Exercize Ball Mayhem - YouTube video.

http://www.youtube.com/v/xBvQz0tkVHc

This is the aftermath. I put a hole in the wall in my office hallway. Felt so bad.

http://www.youtube.com/v/hRr1SFiHm5

Unrelated: I just noticed that I have now written 365 blog entries. A years worth of blog entries.

Is: Needs A Way To Manage Tv Shows

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:11:00 +0000

I love those moments when you notice something and it now seems old and outdated.

I really want a tool/site/software to manage what tv shows I have and have not seen, does anyone know of anything which does that?
These days downloading a whole season of a show is commonplace. I often get a season, start watching eps, then forget about them. When I next come back to watch an ep I will have to manually open the vid that I "think" I am up to.

Does anyone know of anything that lets you mark a file in windows with say a colour or tag or something?

I would love to be able to enter in a tv show then get a list of every episode which I can then check a box or something to say that I have seen it and have the ability to give it a personal rating/add tags. What would be cool would be something like a last.fm but for tv shows. Each episode is linked to its own page where people can comment on the episode. It could list actors (which have their own page), trivia, all the things which IMDB might list. The actors bit would be good as it would probably become an online forum for whatever gossip/photos are currently in the public arena. It could show you related tv shows. It could list the top rated movie by an actor as voted by the fans. It could have its own facebook app.

Another thing which I would LOVE is to have my iCal calendar on my wall behind my computer. I use my iCal calendar because it has the ability to sync with my phone and iPod and has the very handy functionality of allowing you to set recurring instances of events which is handy for things like "paying rent" or "getting paid" events.
But yes, I really, really want to have my iCal displayed on my wall where it is only A glance away, as opposed to a click and look away.
This needs to happen! I need a digital calendar! Hurry up future!

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Head Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Kowald) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:40:00 +0000

I need a way to manage my head lists.

All day I add things to different lists I have in my head and I would love an easy way to add/delete/order/display these lists.

Here are items which I added to my lists today/lately.

Things which annoy me

- Guys (mostly 17-30) who wear thongs in the city/mall. I hate the stupid sound thongs make as they slap against the back of their feet and the god awful walk that is the result of wearing thongs. Your walk automatically becomes 5x shitter when you put on thongs.

- Round black lensed glasses. I have seen 2 guys in town wearing these and both times they looked terrible.

- Any fruit which requires you to spit out the seed

- Super Walls/Fun Walls on facebook. They are ugly, cluttering, inane and if you have one you are guaranteed to get messages/images analogous to horrible email forwards.

- Any tv show with single character narration especially when an "echo" is added to said narration for "realism". Shows which come to mind are Scrubs, Sex in The City, Grey's Fucking Anatomy which also gets the prize for worst named tv show ever, ever. Single character narration should have ended with "The Wonder Years".

Things I like

- The word analogous

- The excellent formatting of tv shows: S00E00 (S01E12)

- $5 Fruit Salad Tubs (when they don't contain fruit with seeds)

- The sound Azureus makes when a download has finished

- JavaScript

- Over using the forward slash in blog posts/IM conversations.

- Listening to callers on talkback radio talk about trivial things which make them happy.

Words that have appeared a lot in DIGG lately

- Waterboarding
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