Random

[urbpan]

I know there are zoo themed videogames out there, where you design exhibits or group animals together by type or whatever. But a realistic zookeeper game would essentially be a floor cleaning simulator. And then I could say, hey man, that isn't realistic! Where's the different textures of animal poop? Where's the stench?

Horrible icy morning today. I stepped out onto my sidewalk and just barely avoided falling on my ass. I minced my way (sorry Alex, I was wrong, swaggering on ice doesn't work) the half mile or so to the city lot to get to Alexis' car. At one point Charlie wanted to abandon the mission, but we were past the pnr. Then I hacked my way into the car, and v-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-r-y carefully backed out of the skating rink I mean parking lot. I didn't want to reenact this well worn video from a Portland ice storm:

So about this Facebook thing. I haven't totally figured it out, but it really seems like livejournal is more intuitive. Or maybe since I've been on lj for more than 5 years it just feels that way. It's neat to contact people you haven't seen in a while, but what if you were trying to avoid them? Also, are there really things that you want to scream to the world, your coworkers, your drinking buddy, your boss' wife, and your grandma? I suppose that applies to lj too, but at least I know how to make a post friends only.

Saw Master and Commander last night. I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought it was. The naturalist stuff was cute (taking measurements of tortoises that were completely ignoring them) but not much else grabbed me. I felt like the message that "surgery was painful back then" was repeated unnecessarily. Two surgeries: a limb amputation on a child, and a bullet removal done by the surgeon on himself. Oh, and some brain surgery, too. There were more surgeries than naval battles. A one armed ten year old boy leads a decisive defeat of French privateers! And it ends as though we'll tune into another episode next week. (I realize that it's based on a series of novels.) My mother in law loved this movie, also Apocalypto. The only thing I can think they have in common is that they are period pieces with scenes of surgery without anaesthesia. Make of that what you will.

Edited to add: Here's a fun toy for aracnhophiles.

Comments

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

i am careful what i post on facebook now...had some random people contact me from the past...but some people i wanted to sort of keep in my view from work...and posting pics for relatives is nice.

I don't really want to talk to them just wave at them...facebook is good for that.

I must say i suck in general at the whole friendly friends thing and even on lj i feel like i'm talking to myself mostly... but your real aren't you?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I would have to be a very elaborate hoax!

[almeda.livejournal.com]

That's because they're not zookeeper simulations, they're zoo-MANAGEMENT simulations. :->

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Interesting. And yet in Rock Band the manager is a non-player character...

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, in Rock Band your (virtual) financial rewards are directly linked to the excellence of your technical performance, so we know it wasn't written as any kind of a real-world music-business simulator. :->

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

True enough! Also, you start as a Boston band and proceed in short order to world stardom. When was the last time that happened?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

What is happening in that vid? Do those cars have people in them or have they just been left with the handbrake off on a slippery slope?

I've only ever been in a car in snow once, and that was an Aussie blizzard, we had chains and I wasn't the one driving.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Those are people on a very slippery road on a hill, who apparently have been caught by surprise by how icy it is. I don't know why they don't stop doing EVERYTHING and just get out of their cars and walk home.

[agelena.livejournal.com]

What variety of animal poop is the worst?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Well, today I spent an hour in vain scrubbing eagle shit. It's like someone splashed paint around--nothing will get it off, short of steel wool. At least it doesn't smell very bad. Pound for pound I'd say opossums and house cats produce the worst smelling crap. Then again, ever smelled a pig farm?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Giraffe shit and piss is bad, especially from the virile males. I had to clean up after the breeding male at Perth Zoo (he now lives over east, impregnanting new females). Massive puddles of giraffe pee in the night quarters and bits of poo ground into the concrete by a 3 tonne beast. Much fun.

Oh, and NEVER stick your head near the bin used to dispose of carnivore poo, and especially don't breathe. I made that mistake once, never again.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Giraffe pee is surprisingly rank, but I find it to be one of those smells (like skunk spray or horse manure) that is pleasant in very small amounts.

Carnivore crap is the worst, agreed.

[morgi.livejournal.com]

I found Master and Commander to be extremely long and tedious. Even the presence of sailing ships didn't provide interest.

There's supposed to be a way to make friends groups on Facebook, but I've never taken advantage of it... I just only announce/do stuff I don't mind my boss seeing. :)

Facebook v. LiveJournal

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

Despite having my facebook account "locked" so that only people I have friended can see it, I still only post things that I would not mind my boss (if I had one - let's be hopeful!) seeing. Got burnt pretty bad once on LJ - learned my lesson - and I thought I was being pretty careful even then. As for making it so that only certain friends can see stuff on facebook, I only friend people who I don't mind seeing my posts. You can unfriend people, too, and they will not be notified of this, which is very nice to avoid teh dramuh (I'd friended some classmates in a fit of nostalgia, then later unfriended a few when I remembered why I never hung out with them back in school, lol). You can make friends groups, but I'm not yet sure of the purpose of this - I don't think you can post stuff JUST to certain friends groups. (I admit I'm still learning all the bells and whistles there.)

Definitely there are differences between LJ and FB. At the moment, FB is suiting my needs/wants more because I can post little snippets of my day-to-day life, like what books and movies I'm obsessed with, mundane things I'm doing, photos, etc - and I'm back in contact with friends and family members I haven't spoken to in 20 years in some cases, which is cool. I know many more of my FB friends IRL than I do my LJ friends.

LJ is better if I want to write whole paragraphs, wax poetic, go into long narratives about my day, etc. I find I'm less likely to whine (lol) on FB than LJ, because the limited space of status updates on FB makes me want to stay positive/interesting. On LJ, otoh, I am free to whine at length. ;) Not a good thing, for me personally. Actually, I think my LJ posts are going to improve, quality-wise, now that I have a FB account, because I'm more likely to post mundane, day-to-day stuff on FB and use LJ less often but with better quality posts - like my poetry and the best of my photography.

Of course, ymmv. This is just my own experience of the two sites.

Re: Facebook v. LiveJournal

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

I have heard that there is a way to create a FB page that only certain people can see (e.g., coworkers or your grandmother) that shows a "cleaned up" profile, etc, but I don't know how to do this. Perhaps this is what the "friends groups" are for - I still haven't figured that out.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Have never seen Master & Commander, but I'm still enjoying the soundtrack!

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

that video from one of our ice storms is hilarious and terrifying. my friend lives next to the balcony from which this was shot, and indeed, to call it a treacherous hill is to make the understatement of the year. i could barely get up it ON FOOT; i had to sort of claw my way up while holding onto branches of the shrubs growing along the sidewalk. and going back down was worse! i fully expected to fall and ZING! all the way down to the twisty bottom. good times in hilly spots when ice storms come a'callin....

[shellynoir.livejournal.com]

That spider website is so much fun!