Call Me Waldo

Work is... um... aggravating/draining these days, and much to my surprise, I've had a bit of a social life in the after work hours lately. So... Yeah... Light on the posting. Nothing much going on worth reporting anyway. I have continued to post junk to del.icio.us in the mean time, though. You can spy those under the "Link Dump" tab.

I get to go to my first NHL playoff game tonight, though. Sadly, it may be to witness my Avs get swept by the Mighty Ducks.

For the record, my Viva El Papi KinTee got good reviews at last night's poker game.

The Book/Movie Meme

Well, well... I guess it's meme time. (All the cool kids are doing it... Or something.) Kottke posted a link to the Guardian's list of 50 (51, actually) best film adaptations of books. Now folks are marking which they have read and/or seen.

I can dig it...

  1. 1984
  2. [M] Alice in Wonderland (Disney)
  3. [M] American Psycho
  4. [M] Breakfast at Tiffany's
  5. Brighton Rock
  6. [M] Catch 22
  7. [M] Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Both)
  8. [M] A Clockwork Orange
  9. Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
  10. The Day of the Triffids
  11. Devil in a Blue Dress
  12. [M] Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
  13. [M] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
  14. Doctor Zhivago
  15. Empire of the Sun (I think I have seen bits of the film)
  16. The English Patient (The movie put me to sleep)
  17. [BM] Fight Club
  18. The French Lieutenant's Woman (Seen parts of the movie)
  19. [M] Get Shorty
  20. [M] The Godfather
  21. [M] Goldfinger
  22. [M] Goodfellas
  23. [M] Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now) (Seems like I've read at least some of this)
  24. [M] The Hound of the Baskervilles (I also bet I've read this -- I think I tore through Doyle's collected works when I was young, but I can't say for sure.)
  25. [M]Jaws
  26. [M]The Jungle Book
  27. A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
  28. [M] LA Confidential
  29. [M] Les Liaisons Dangereuses
  30. [BM] Lolita
  31. Lord of the Flies (Only seen part of the movie)
  32. [M]The Maltese Falcon
  33. [M]Oliver Twist
  34. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Seen parts of the movie, but not all. I own it though...)
  35. [M] Orlando
  36. [M] The Outsiders
  37. [M] Pride and Prejudice
  38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  39. The Railway Children
  40. Rebecca
  41. The Remains of the Day (Seen parts of the movie)
  42. [M] Schindler's Ark (aka Schindler's List)
  43. [M] Sin City
  44. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
  45. [M] The Talented Mr Ripley
  46. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
  47. Through a Glass Darkly
  48. To Kill a Mockingbird
  49. [BM] Trainspotting
  50. The Vanishing
  51. [M] Watership Down

As with the others, I marked it if I'd seen any movie adaptation of the given title. I'm a little embarassed by only having three books checked off, but I will say they are three of my faves.

I'll Systemize Your Systemization

So... Remember the Autistic Quotient thingy? Well, that post got a trackback from this post discussing it in comparisson to a couple of similar personality tests called EQ (empathizing quotient) and SQ (systemizing quotient). I took those, and here's what I got:

Here are your EQ SQ results: EQ: 33 SQ: 86

The important factor to consider is not your absolute score, but the difference between the two. This indicates whether you have more natural ability as an Empathizer or a Systemizer. If your scores are about the same for your EQ and SQ, then you have well balanced empathizing-systemizing capabilities.

Holy crap, yo! I guess I'm about as lopsided as I thought all along, eh?

For reference, here are the average scores:

  Males Females
Average EQ: 39.0 48.0
Average SQ: 61.2 51.7

It's interesting to note that my EQ test answers mostly fell in the middle of the grid (agree/disagree slightly), whereas I had much stronger feelings about the statements on the SQ test. It almost felt like the thing was rigged: the EQ test is shorter (obviously, because that empathy junk is dumb!) and the SQ test has all kinds of questions about my CD collection (I swear!)...

Where's my tinfoil hat...?

The AB in the OC

Monster's Ball: Feds, Aryan Brotherhood come to paint the OC courthouse white

Based on claims by prosecutor Emmick and Smith, the AB—though much smaller than the Dirty White Boys, Nazi Low Riders, Mexican Mafia and Black Guerrilla Family—is the elite prison-based criminal organization in America. The Brotherhood recruited people who were fiercely loyal and street-smart; more than anything they were “psychopaths,� according to Smith, not excluding himself from that category.

An interesting peak through the window at the Aryan Brotherhood (You all know how fascinated I am with hate groups and gangs...). Purely coincidentally, I watched American History X last weekend while The Wife was away at work. Effing fantastic, that movie.

Also note, this OC Weekly site always seems to have some good stuff. I think I need to add it to the regular rotation.

30 Boxes, on the Hillside

30 Boxes has taken its beta public, so if you're looking for a Web2.0-hipster-compliant online calendar with a crazy feature set, check it out. In truth, I was hoping Google would have something like this out by now. I have a hard time imagining them doing a better job than 30 Boxes has already done, though.

(I'm signed up with my Gmail account, if you want to make me a buddy, yo.)

HOTTness

Amina Munster: Redefining Beauty

I like SG because it shows that you don't have to conform to the blond bombshell standard of perfection to be beautiful, and Amina Munster truly exemplifies this. Amina is a gorgeous, heavily tattooed amputee who lost her leg and the tips of her fingers due to lack of circulation and oxygen after nearly drowning as a child. You can read more about her experience in her BME interview. Since her debut on Suicide Girls in 2002, she has never shown her missing leg in any of her photos. That is, until today.

Some knockout content at Needled (compare with the standard promo at INKEDblog, which has been a pretty steady letdown since I found it).

Of course, I had to forward the article on to my tattooist, Fish, who has been known to have a bit of an amputee fetish... ;)