As a teenager I was incredibly precocious at times, spouting big words to make myself feel older and more worldly in high school. Later on, as my vocabulary developed at University, I dropped these intellectual bombs into conversations to make myself feel better in the company of people more middle class and posh than I was.
Put the kettle on and start eating some water crackers with lard on them. Just to get in the mood for this one... Nincompoop: Is said to come from the Latin legal and medical term Non Compos Mentis meaning 'not of sound mind'. This evolved into nincompoop meaning a stupid or dumb person. Flibbertigibbet: A flighty…
In the past I've showcased Scorpion Dagger's Renaissance era GIFs. This takes the classical art mash-up one step further with hilarious results. B4 XVI (Before Sixteen) explores the often overlooked visual and cultural similarities between hip hop poseurs and medieval aristocrats. Hey it's all got to be referenced from somewhere, right? One from the deep…
This amazing explanation of narrative arcs by Kurt Vonnegut had me laughing out loud. To actually be present at this lecture would have been totally awesome. This video is great starting point for narrative structures and point of view, although really only the tip of the iceberg of a very gigantic topic. I hope other…
Continue reading ➞ Narrative arcs: a funny and simple explanation by Kurt Vonnegut
Recently, while working away on a project, I discovered that the only way to actually grow followers on Instagram in any sort of meaningful scale above 300 or so is to either buy these followers from China or Russia, or to enlist the help of an infamous Instagram Bot. These are regularly banned from Instagram for…
Continue reading ➞ Words of the Day: Shit-Ring & Bubble-Butt Bot-Net
"How long does it take to make the woods? As long as it takes to make the world. It is always finished, it is always being made, the act of its making forever greater than the act of its destruction." (Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir, 1999)
I'm in the middle of reading the brilliant travel book Ryszard Kapuściński 'Travels with Herodotus' in which the author talks about his travels as a young journalist through Mao's China of the 1960's. Kapuscinski sets out the politics of China in such a poetic and intensely profound way that it resonates across the decades. His reasoning is resonant…
Continue reading ➞ Comparing the Great Wall of China to the Great Wall of Trump
Gemma Correll is the high priestess of wry, cute and amusing cartoons that are compassionate to women's bodily woes and emotional complexities. Her cartoons are sweet, sassy and charming and I'm totally in love with them. Also she's an aquarius, an INFJ and pretty much loves all the same things I do, so I have a…
Back in the 'noughties' there was a landmark book (Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander) which lampooned all of the pop culture stuff that white people like. Of course, six years on some of these things have changed. Yet a lot still remains the same and speaks volumes about how race, nationality and class all inter-relate.…
David Foster Wallace combined his phenomenal intelligence and gift for writing with a high level of self-awareness, and a deep awareness of the brutality and enormity of the world. He had an almost omnipotent ability to understand and communicate about what it means to be human in his iconic books. Like most highly sensitive people…
Continue reading ➞ The Soul of the World: David Foster Wallace
Prepare to enter a truly surreal and fantastical realm. These stock photos were created by people who had the most noble intentions of using these images in a myriad of situations. Although just how many people purchased these stock photos I wonder? I'd mortgage my house and sell my family to bet that nobody has…
Melbourne artist and game developer Andrew Brophy has developed a wonderfully therapeutic game to play when you come home in a huff needing to bitch about your job. Knuckle Sandwich is a role playing game/adventure game that follows a male protagonist on his move into the Big Smoke to realise his dreams. Pretty soon said…
Continue reading ➞ Finally! A tongue-in-cheek game that pokes fun of working in a crap job
I'm sure you're familiar with the trend of indecipherable menu items that's sprung up all over the world recently, right? it's also known as hipsterising a menu. Suddenly there's a whole new world of pretentious sounding menu items that you've never seen in all of your years prior, living on our planet. Who knew that…
Continue reading ➞ Hipster menu generator: get ready for culinary darts of displeasure
Everyone's favourite yellow-bodied people in The Simpsons inhabit a world of biting satire and strange congruences to our 3D world. J.J. Jones is the creator of the underground Tumblr blog Signs of Springfield. He has collected stills of billboards and signs in Simpsons episodes and posted these onto his Tumblr blog. These blink-and-you'll-miss-it signs reveal…
The mysterious green cat of Varna Bulgaria has baffled people all over the interwebs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHXM8DqqSgs Many have asked, is green cat real or was he simply shaded that way in photoshop? It seems that he is indeed real and scientists have been unraveling the mystery of this pea coloured puss ever since. In truth he…
Continue reading ➞ Cats These Days With Their Trendy Hair…What Can You Do?
So...the Blood Moon last night: I'm sure that this is the perfect time to segway into The Moon from the Mighty Boosh. This white and marshmallowy looking bastard did annoy me last night during the biggest harvest/blood moon in the past few decades. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWTd3oW-HOE I swear it would have been far more enjoyable to…
Although akin to smutty words, this collection of innocent-until-proven-otherwise words come from a forum post on Reddit. I hope you enjoy them and can contribute your own slightly smutty sounding words to the list. If you find your skin crawling a little bit then refrain from using them or at least think of this silly…
Continue reading ➞ Twenty Two of the Most Dirty Sounding Non-dirty Words in the English Language
Some words in English inexplicably have a defined meaning and then also mean the exact opposite of that meaning. These are known as contronyms or Janus words - the latter derived from the Roman god of beginnings and endings, often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions). 1.Sanction To give official permission or approval…
Continue reading ➞ Seven Curiously Contrarian Words in the English Language
Unsure about this new thing called The Internet that all of your friends are using right now? Well cowabunga dude, don't have a cow! Just login and take a look at what's new right now in 1994 on The Internet. The long-ago defunct dotcom start-up Netscape has a live and working website that still allows you…
Continue reading ➞ What’s cool and new on the Internet in 1994
Oh right so that's why people drink it! 😉
