boredom leads to repetition

Created by The Oatmeal

word association

netflix, your search engine beguiles me with its stunning accuracy.

i guess it's focusing on the 'of' part in my search?

failure.

Great comics and quizzes

Created by The Oatmeal

Delicious

Cheese and Burger is a rolodex of culinary softcore porn.
sorry for the brand name mention, but i honestly don't know what the generic name is.
rotary address book?
flippy information desk thing?

helpful reviews

I usually enjoy reading reviews of new albums because the writers are frequently fans of the band and can offer educated insight into the artist's progression.
Sometimes, however, we get reviews like these.
Portugal The Man is a great band and I was happy to acquire their 2008 album - Censored Colors - when it came out, but two of these reviews are just hilariously useless.

Robot Wars!

i love nerd arguments on digg.


Oh, and the Iron Giant would demolish Optimus Prime.

slimmed down packaging

i understand this packaging is only 3mm thick, but come on, amazon.
is all of this flimsy cardboard really necessary for a single cd?

character confusion

harrison ford stole my headphones.

there is a han solo action figure on my desk at work. he usually guards the small items i bring on a daily basis. sunglasses, cellphone, notes to myself, personal music devices, all under the careful watch of the notorious inter-planetary smuggler.
yesterday morning i decided it would be funny to coil up my earbuds and place them in his open left hand so it looked like he was holding them. i did quite a good job because he faithfully grasped them through the entire day.
apparently the joke was on me.
when the clock struck 5:30 i powered down my computer displays, grabbed my sunglasses and phone, shut off the lights and headed out the door. i had that uncomfortable feeling that i was forgetting something, but i shrugged it off and went to the train. suddenly i realized i didn't have my headphones and i knew exactly why.
nothing on my desk had looked strange so i didn't even consider the headphones as part of the day. i had glanced at han solo, noticed his gun and coiled rope and mistaken him for indiana jones.
after all, both characters sport a ratty light brown shirt, a gun holster of some sort, and the rough misogynistic charm of harrison ford.

fool me once, shame on you.
fool me once with my own film toy, i'm an idiot.

morality versus mortality

upon further contemplation, recent regrets have turned out to be the right choice. so why have i been unhappy with the choices?
did i really want to make the wrong decision?
perfect example:
last night, i saw the movie public enemies, which was quite enjoyable. throughout the majority of the movie, over 140 minutes, two flanking groups of patrons decided it was perfectly acceptable to talk at almost full volume. the couple in front of us openly discussed the ongoing phillies game, frequently opening their blindingly bright cellular devices, but then would ask each other what dialogue had been spoken or what was going on in a scene. it seems to me that if they were quiet, the movie would have been much more enjoyable for everyone.
the group of people behind us, three guys and three girls, frequently talked during scenes, commenting on various things - including the constant repeating of dialogue two seconds after it has been spoken - and two girls even started to complain that the movie was boring and too long when there was over an hour left.
i was left with two choices. i could try to ignore the selfish douchbaggery and focus on enjoying the movie, or i could say something aloud in an attempt to drive some common courtesy into their thick skulls. i contemplated various scathing remarks i could make, with varying degrees of animosity.

"shhh"

"hi, sorry, could you keep it down? it's hard to hear the dialogue."

"are you really going to talk through this entire movie?"

"please be quiet. thank you."

"how much did you pay for this movie? oh, me too. so shut the f up."

"hey, sorry to bother you. is this movie interfering with your conversation?"

"if the phillies game is so important to you, please go home and talk about it."

"maybe if you'd shut your mouth you could hear what was happening in the movie."

i didn't want to be too nice about it and get ignored, but i didn't want to be too mean and start some kind of physical fight. i also briefly pondered my own sanity after a fleeting thought about stabbing one guy in the neck and then nonchalantly continuing to watch the movie. after a minute or two i realized i wasn't even paying attention because i was so furious with the high ratio of fecal matter to brain matter in these people's heads, so i decided to just try to enjoy the $11.50 movie and $4 sour patch kids. mmm, sour patch kids.

good movie. 1930s gangsters were badass.

once the credits rolled, i wished i had said something, anything. i enjoyed the movie but i was left with the rotten taste of regret for not doing my part to tell these audience members to have some respect for their fellow theater patrons. i heard one "shush" during the movie, but it did nothing to quell these monsters. more drastic action needed to be taken, and my friends agreed. we should have told them to shut their mouths, but it was too late. our small prize for our painfully acceptable restraint was that we witnessed one of the offending loudmouths fall down the stairs. he seemed to have injured himself pretty badly for such a short fall, and we had a good hearty laugh about it.
nice one, jerk.

nerd poll

i had a question rolling around my gray matter this afternoon, so i decided to ask a few people about their take on the situation. these are all male humans, between 18 and 28, who i hold in high regard in terms of their knowledge of technology and current gadget trends.
i asked this question to a number of these friends:
know any semi-foolproof ways to make a Zune a worthwhile purchase for a mac user?

here's something for those of you who don't understand the question.

for the rest of you, here are a few of the more memorable responses i received.

"hahahahahahah no"

"i don't even know wtf a zune is other than a windows ipod"

"no dice"

"i only buy mac products. i sold my soul to them a while back"

"ummm. aren't they basically ipods?"

"why do you want a zune? do you have brain worms?"

"just get an ipod you jerk"

"throw it through a mac store window and steal an ipod?"

i think i should probably get opinions outside of my friends in my industry...

funky algorithms

i was perusing cnet and amazon for a new set of 2.1 computer speakers since my personal speakers are broken and not produced anymore. actually i'm not sure if the company even exists anymore. i've had two sets, both of which have lasted over 5 years with no problems. my speakers in philly only stopped functioning because of a fatal run-in with gravity and a wood floor.
sometimes i just don't understand where these recommendations come from. you're usually so good, amazon, but not today.
i don't usually shop for audio equipment and dental hygiene products on the same day, but that's just me.