Cool Shit 7/16

Adventure.com is a site that will inspire you to...well get more adventure in your life. Full of crazy adventure stories from seemingly average people, it's definitely something I have bookmarked. Though they did reject my adventure story of trekking to my mailbox this morning.

As you might or might not know, I'm a sucker for a good numbers station. Late at night, sitting alone with no other distractions, a numbers station can do a proper creep out. Here's an easy way to access them online.

All 171 World Cup soccer goals, ranked. Pretty sure I would have Goetze goal at least top 2, considering its significance, importance and timing.

Jason Alexander gives us an idea what it was like to tape an episode of Seinfeld:



Not sure if anyone is super interested in Jurassic World, the continuing sequel in that franchise, but apparently a brochure to the "theme park" has been released and offers some plot details.

Finally, slightly more melodic than a numbers station, please enjoy this 1972 Can concert footage. I'm pretty sure it has something for everyone, from the outfits to the high school stage like setting:

Cool Shit 3/26

Kind of cool if you're a Monopoly fan. They're looking for suggestions for some interesting, alternate rules, and have turned to crowdsourcing to get them.

Fed up with the American lifestyle? Looking for a change? Read these opinions about the best places to live for an ex-pat.

Some people might find these remote pictures of the arctic desolate; I find them amazing.

If you're older than a teenager right now, chances are you've at least fooled around inside a car. That's what makes this Cosmo article about how to have sex in a car so weird; it was obviously written by someone who has never SEEN a car, let alone rubbed happy places together in one. If you want the Cliff Notes version of why this article is insane, click here.

Where do you stand with Stephen King? It's easy to dismiss him as simply a horror writer, but I think he's surpassed that simplistic moniker tenfold. He has given a generation so many cultural talismans to mark their childhood. This is a decent list of significant King books, though it pretty much just lists his earlier work, like you would expect. And Salem's Lot is still the best. I wish that was the vampire book all the kids read.

Game of Thrones, season 4 is right around the corner. Would you like to get caught up? Watch this summary of the first three seasons!

Cool Shit 2/20

I was hoodwinked by popular acclaim (not to mention a "loosely" defined book club) into reading The Girl with Dragon Tattoo. So when I see a trailer for a foreign film based on a popular novel, I roll my eye slightly. But dammit if this thing isn't the least bit intriguing. Also seems to have some cool shots...



Oh good - it seems there is a "mysterious slime" appearing over in England. Also, the article actually has the phrase "regurgitated innards, which is always pleasant to read in the morning.

Such a small, almost insignificant article from Esquire that is yet still packed with crazy curiosities! Starting with the recent Brussels 50 million dollar diamond heist, it goes on to question whether that was the best heist ever, citing some other recent heists. Some of the tidbits of those heists include identical twins getting off on a technicality, cross dressing, and the apparent unveiling of a group of thieves known as The Pink Panthers!

Honestly though, they had me at the word "heist."

Fan of The Thing? Then maybe you want to check out this completely unconfirmed story about who may or may not have been the alien at the end of the movie. Or maybe you don't want to. Your decision is a simple click away.

Incredibly long, but incredibly crazy story about junk food. We are all just slaves.

Cool Shit 2/12

There's a new Between 2 Ferns out!

Between Two Ferns: Oscar Buzz Edition Part 1 from Zach Galifianakis      

Some movies are so good they don't let you take a moment to question the logic of some of their decisions.

Every year Sony holds a competition for the best photography. Here are the 2012 winners.

Country music, at its heart, its not really about Taylor Swift's ex-lovers. Its history is much more colorful.

Want to see great art but can't stand the thought about not enjoying an alcoholic beverage? Or perhaps you want to get a drink but hate staring at drab, bare walls. Well, if you're in New York, we have ten solutions for your conundrum.

Cool Shit 1/29

Cool list of things you (probably) didn't know about from famous movies.

If you're a Whose Line Is It Anyway fan, you'll want to see who actually won the show. Of course, I don't think this takes the British show into account at all, as Tony Slattery is the obvious true winner. (Paul Merton was my favorite though.) Here's an episode with both Slattery and Merton:



An interview with director Steven Soderbergh.

Original endings to movies. Pretty sure they all made the right decision.

Giving you the best breakdown on sports wagers, read this before you bet the over/under on the National Anthem during the Super Bowl.

New Lost tonight!

After what ABC did to us last week, throwing a repeat into the schedule after telling us Lost was going to run uninterupted this season, I didn't know how to act. The week leading up to Wednesday moved tantilizingly fast, as I repeatedly forgot about the no new Lost. After Wednesday reared its ugly head however, the week slowed to a crawl, and only the NCAA tournament held my interest. Luckily, it seemed like it was on 24/7 so I could get lost (ugh - terrible pun) but now that that's on hold, thoughts can drift back to the two islands (reinforced 2 weeks ago).

The image I included at the top is a scan of some of my notes I began jotting down, trying to wrap my head around just what exactly is going on and what has been revealed this season. As you can see, there's simply no easy way to summarize it, and my head started hurting not long after beginning. But hey, in some weird way, that's why we watch this show.

Anyway, on the flips side...ramblings, predictions and lunacies, in no particular order!



Before going on, I will say I have enjoyed the subtle voice shift in the recent shows. They've toned down the mindfucking, and turned up the adventure yarn. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my mindfucked Lost, but it's cool to get a breather before ramping up to what I can only assume is going to be a great season finale. If there's one thing Lost can do, it's throw an end of the season balls-to-the-wall finale.

But now, as we (mostly) amble through 1977 on the island with the Dharma initiative, we get a chance to fill in some blanks the show has alluded to, and a chance to get back in touch with the characters. And Lost has always done a good job with manipulating our feelings with the characters. Remember when we all loved Kate? She was the rogue anti-hero. Now? I wouldn't mind a boulder falling on her. And Juliet was the exact opposite. Her introduction was clunky and her motives mysterious. Now she's a true adventurer and her motives...well they still might be mysterious to some degree but at least now we can get behind them a bit.

The biggest character change we've witnessed however is of course Sawyer. Given a chance to "rebirth" his life, Sawyer has jumped right in. Nowhere has this been more obvious than the chat he had with Jack about their different styles.

Of course, we'll see where this leads.

Other thoughts/musings/sure to be wrong predictions...

Ben bringing the captured Sayid a sandwich. Is that why Sayid seems indebted to him later? Or is there something more? Will Ben help Sayid escape?

The religious symbolism is all abound in this show. My theory is that Jack was actually the Christ figure, with Locke being John the Baptist (JtB was thought to be the messiah at one point I believe) and Ben taken on the Judas role (especially with the recent revelation JC may have asked Judas to bertay him) but I don't think my theory is getting too much traction.

The Egyptian symbolism is almost as abundant as the Christian symbolism. Is the fact that when you "leave" the island by turning the wheel and wind up in Tunisia a clue that the foundation for ancient Egypt started on the island?

Someone pointed this out to me. I wish I was this observant. Is there a reason why some people on the plane shifted back to 1977 and why some crashed in the present? Sun had Jin's ring, and Locke had a Shepherd's pair of shoes on. Is there significance to this?

Will we get any answers tonight? I'm pretty sure we all know the answer to that is "no." But I'm fine with that, as long as they continue the pace, flesh out stuff they've alluded to earlier and continue on the trail toward giving us all the answers we want.

Links of Interest 5/15

I love top secret places. I'm not sure why, because I'm never going to be able to see them ever (I doubt I'm going to get high lever security clearance anytime soon). Here's a list of top secret bases. No mention of the weird building close to the banks of Lake Cayuga where albino deer ran the fence perimeter.

I always thought there was a book in failed movie scripts from Hollywood. Take for example, Superman. That movie had a bunch of rewrites and different people attached to it. Now that it's been filmed, wouldn't it be interesting to see what it could have been? I'd also like to see what some of these failed movies could have been.

People cursing on live television is funny. I won't pretend to explain it, but it is.

I have taken on a "no spoiler" attitude for this season and future seasons of Lost. It's been tough, but I've been relatively pure for each episode. And since this season has been batshit insane (in a good way) it's been that much more surprising. So I haven't clicked on these videos, but I also don't behoove anyone to spoil things for themselves. You've been efficiently warned.

1 in 10? I've gambled on much smaller odds...so maybe those student loans don't have to be paid off so fast.