The Flatland Chronicles

Random Link O' the Day: Bad Plastic Surgeries Part 2

< Get "Atia" by Damozel  | As long as we're on the subject, I found this site via Stumbleupon and I've never been able to get it out of my head.

Physical vanity is not a major fault of mine, but I admit that I recently looked into the cost of repairing extensive sun damage on my shoulders and around my neck.  The laser surgery would eliminate the blotchiness and even restore the collagen (be damned if I know how that words).  Anyway:  $800 a go, and I could maybe rise to that, but it would take five goes.  For $4000 my husband and I could do a lot of things we'd like to do.  It would buy a couple of  tickets to England  and---with the current exchange rates---maybe pay our expenses (for example).

Random Link[s] O' the Day: The World's 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts/"Out of Place Artifacts"

<Get "Ancient Lamps" by Damozel | First, check out "The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts."  The one that interested me most was a stone discovered near Ica, Peru.   The stone included with the article shows---quite, quite clearly---a man riding a triceratops.  Yes, I know: nonsense.  Nevertheless, my husband, not the most patient man, sat entranced while I read them aloud.

Random Link(s) O' The Day--Spook Hill in Lake Wales, FL

<Get "Cute but Scary Little Ghosts" by Damozel | According to this article, Spook Hill---where "gravity goes gonzo"---used to be a major Florida attraction.  Now it's just a sign on an unremarkable street in a very typical Central Florida town.  But I've been there, and I can assure you that the phenomenon occurs as described, and is pretty eerie.  I don't believe in car-pushing ghosts ancient Seminole ghosts---for one thing, the Seminoles were a people of great dignity who wouldn't bother with silly pranks---or in ghostly gators but it definitely is a little weird.  (continues...)

Random Link O' the Day: Valhalla, I am Coming!

Today's random glimpse of awesomeness:  VikingKittens.com.

They are your OVERLORDS!

Random Link of the Day. "A Stifled, Drowsy Unimpassioned Grief": The Paintings of Edward Hopper.

Today's link is something really good: a slideshow from Slate Magazine of the paintings of Edward Hopper called "The Secret World of Edward Hopper."  I fell in love with Hopper in college.  I even wrote a poem about the poem called "Morning Sun"  Sadly, the picture isn't included in the slideshow, but at least you'll see when you look at Sun in an Empty Room that few could paint sunlight like Hopper.  Later on, when I started making photographs, I used to try for similar effects. 

RANDOM LINK OF THE DAY. God's Hamster. An Argument to Show Why You Can't Completely Rule Out Intelligent Design.

<Get "Madame Sosostris" by Damozel | I am the creator of a little hamster world, inhabited by a single dwarf hamster called Ezzeray (a name bestowed on her by the beloved stepdaughter, Emma).  Hamsters, unlike other rodents, do not care for the company of others, including other hamsters.  But they are capable of having a very limited sort of personal relationship with their human lovers.   

I love my little hammette, but could she ever love me? Answer (of course):  No. 

Random Link of the Day for 7 May 2007. Tornado Footage Posted on YouTube.

AMAZING TORNADO FOOTAGE ON YOUTUBE---by Reed Timmer of Stormchasers Net Team.   I've seen tornadoes in the distance when I lived in North Carolina, but never like this.   It looks so strangely purposeful and it's amazing to watch it pick up and fling aside trees while things immediately outside its range seem barely affected. To read about it, go here.

Random Link of the Day. Exemplary Insults.

The art of whiplash repartee is mastered by only a few people and perhaps the age for it really is past.  At Dane Bramage, you can be reminded of  13 scorpion-like insults, each of which is superficially polite and each of which carries a lethal sting in the tail. 

Random Link[s] O' the Day. About Jack Donaghey.

Think of what we stand to lose if NBC releases him from his contract!

From YouTube:

Why Alec Baldwin Won the Golden Globe.
Jack Donaghy's Words of Wisdom.
Baldwin and Colin O'Brien.

Random Link O' the Day for 27 April 2007. Swiftian Literary Criticism ("I Have Not Actually Read this Book But...")

Though Mr. J. Swift  modestly concedes that his book reviews "have been quoted throughout the blogosphere"[links in original], I say you can't link to a good thing too often.   

Alas, Amazon didn't appreciate the unique merits of the Swiftian review style.