Tuesday, October 28

Fetishizing Insight

Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson from NPR did a sweet conversation remembering Robin Williams and Linda got me thinking about how culture in the United States "fetishizes insight."  Yet mental health isn't about being the smartest.  Some reflections, after the jump.

Tuesday, October 14

A Love Letter to We Are Scientists

I wrote a crazy fan e-mail to We Are Scientists, because I love them. Be weird with me, after the jump!

Tuesday, September 23

Celebrity Crushes OR A Really Long, Scientific, Impassioned Defense of Being Joyful

This is a companion post to something that the illustrious ShortAndAngry1 wrote.  You can read it here.  Or you can be a less read person and just read what I have to say about crushes.  Learn about love, after the jump!

Saturday, August 9

GISHWHES 2014 (Part 2)

Part 1 is here.
 

#80 Supernatural nail art. With Glitter. On hairy toes.



#84 Send a military care package. One image is the box with all the items in it; the other image is you delivering it to the post office. (Here's an example of but one link that can help you find out how to do this: http://www.military.com/spouse/military-life/military-resources/how-to-support-our-troops.html.)
 

#90 Gingerbread Villages are always so cute and quaint. Make a gingerbread village that shows urban blight: needle exchanges, prostitution, heavy police presence, etc.

#92 Forgive someone with whom you have been holding a grudge against.

#99 Zombies need to buy toilet paper too, right? What does that transaction look like?

#100 Provide visual evidence that unicorns really do fart rainbows. No photoshopping!

#101 Submit a TRUE story (less than 50 words) of something nice a stranger did for you to https://podio.com/webforms/8915166/658998. Screenshot the form preview after you submit.

#104 Create a geoglyphic sock monkey in a public space at least 15 meters across.

#106 Let's see a fully dressed, face-painted geisha mowing the lawn.
 
#109 Obviously, everyone’s favorite Captain of the USS Enterprise was Jean-Luc Picard. Create a heroic Captain Picard using condiments (mustard, relish, ketchup, etc.) for paint.

#113 Pressure wash something you really shouldn't pressure wash.





#115 Get NPR to do a story that’s NOT super boring on “All Things Considered” or “Morning Edition” or "Weekend Edition." The story must mention your team or your name to prove that you inspired the story.








#117 Collect fruit from a tree on from which the fruit hangs over a public sidewalk. Make jam from the fruit. Eat it.








#118 More Youtube videos should be close-captioned. Using YouTube’s close-captioning, close-caption one of the videos you submitted for another item. It must have significant dialogue in it. [Close caption is a YouTube setting, now available for #8!]




#119 “Jump the shark”. You will be penalized if you are bitten or eaten by a shark, so plan accordingly. (Liberal interpretations of this item are encouraged.)









#120 Feed your demons. You are not permitted to submit an image of you eating desert.





#124 If Jensen Ackles, Jared Padelecki, Misha Collins, or Mark Sheppard were part man/part animal, what would it look like and what would its name be? Example: “Jensen Catkles” would be ½ cat, ½ Jensen. Tweet the image with the twitter handle of the actor your hybridizing and the hashtag: #GISHWHESspecieshybridization. You only have to amalgamate one of the aforementioned men. Edit the tweet and photo into one image.




  
#130 An angel made from feminine hygiene products.





#132 Launch a protest outside a McDonalds claiming the superiority of post-and-lintels to arches.








#133 Draw a New-Yorker-style cartoon for the caption "I told them he was half-elephant!"




#134 You or your pet, in period costume, seated on a Game of Thrones-style kale throne. Make it so good that GOT producers would want it as a marketing poster. [We decided that 'naked' was period dress for GoT.]







#135 Choreograph and perform The Dance of the Acyclic Graph.



#136 The NSA staff has been outed as sharing inappropriate photos discovered during Internet surveillance. Submit the photo you think is most likely to have come from Misha's computer.



#137 Lots of new Internet shorthand has evolved: “LOL,” “IMHO,” “OMFG” Come up with the meaning for the Internet abbreviation "IDGHP" and use it in social media. If you get it to catch on, extra points.



#146 Create an image of the Elopus and Wooster in an epic battle for mascot supremacy.





#147 It’s summertime and everyone loves a lemonade stand. But then again, every Tom, Dick and Harry is setting up a lemonade stand in the summertime and the market is flooded. Respond to consumer demand and carve out your own niche. Let's see two children manning a “Hot Pasta With Jam Sauce” stand.





#148 GISHWHES rock band album cover including one, some or all of your teammates.









#158 A novel life form.





#166 Re-enact the 1980’s “Pepsi Challenge” with a twist. Take two human molars and put each in a glass. Pour Pepsi into one glass and coke into the other and allow them to sit for 72 hours. Remove. Which is better for discoloring/dissolving teeth? Coke or Pepsi?















#169 Jared Padelecki does not love Excel Documents. Post one to him on twitter that might change his opinion of Excel.



#170 Trolling for fish is when you drag your line slowly through the water hoping to fool a fish into snatching your bait. On your favorite social media site, create a new user. Your profile avatar will be a photo or drawing of Orlando Jones. Your user name will be evocative of "Orlando Jones." Now, masquerading as Orlando Jones, troll for--and hook--at least 400 followers.


#173 You see people holding up signs from time to time that say “free hugs.” I have always been wary of those people. I don’t know what it is they’re after. Are they trying to cop a feel? Get me to buy a timeshare? I avoid them. But your “free hugs” sign won’t leave any doubt in the readers’ minds… Wearing a bathing suit, cover every inch of your exposed skin with honey, peanut butter, syrup or jam. Hold a sign on a busy public sidewalk that reads, “Free Hugs.” Enthusiastically attempt to recruit hug-victims.



#178 Birds have style too. Create an architecturally-significant GISHWHESESQUE birdhouse. Hang it on a tree in a public park. On the photo, write the name of the park and the city and country in which it is installed.


#184 Design a sci-fi movie poster with the stars played by Misha Collins and the Queen of England. You may not use existing altered media images. It must be drawn or painted (digitally painted is acceptable).

GISHWHES 2014 (Part 1)

I paid $18.90 for a really bizarre list of things and it was the best investment I could have made.  Here's what our team, the Lunicorns, did.  Laugh with us, after the jump! [Very graphics heavy.]

Sunday, July 20

For the Love of the Drive


The idea of a road trip has always been romantic, unless you’re Hunter S. Thompson (a different kind of romance, anyway), and I love driving.  I just drove up and down California’s Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and so it seemed an apt time to talk about how great driving is.  Please, let me drive there. Don't make me take a plane.  I'll drive all over God's green earth and you can have your convenience of flying. Let. Me. Drive. Buckle up for the jump!

Saturday, May 24

The Bitter Taste of Memorial Day

Jasper Johns Flag (Moratorium), 1969
As a Quaker, I feel deeply conflicted and, more often than not, extremely upset by the prospect of Memorial Day.  You can start drafting me your hate mail after the jump.