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How many words I can fit into the subject line for this post? Aren't you curious too? Is it 100? Or 1000? Could it be 10,000? Could it be 1,000,000? It seems like the title of this post can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on. This is really s
Long title.
No story.
Discuss amongst yourselves. (but do not talk about Dr. Genghis's shirt collar. That is off limits.)
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Comments (123)
I've also wondered how tall an avatar they allow. The max width is 64, but I had one that was 256 tall that was accepted. It was only there for a short time but long enough for someone to complain about it, so I'll leave the further exploration of this limit to others.
April 30, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm guessing there's no limit. This one (for now) is 440 pixels tall.
May 1, 2008 10:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, I should've read the whole thread, first.
May 1, 2008 10:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hats off to our pioneers who aren't afraid to push the boundries and to find the edge of the envelope!
April 30, 2008 11:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was that your envelope? It was tasty.
Meheheheh.
April 30, 2008 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
This goat is eating everything!
PS - Where is my first issue of GoatLife?
May 1, 2008 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I, umm...I ate it.
Buuuuuuuurp.
Meheheheh.
May 1, 2008 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
My little experiment - thanks for indulging my curiosity.
(I'm just trying to distract you all from the pain of following the Democratic nomination process.)
I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of hearing about and reading about Wright, Bosnia, bitter, NAFTA, flag pins, or 3AM phone calls.
So in this thread you have to tell me a movie, song, or other entertainment item that you'd recommend to the TPMers.
I'll start: Check out singer Eilen Jewel - the best singer you've never heard of. If you like folk singers Lucinda Williams or Gillian Welsh, you'll love Eilen. You can hear a sample of her music at: http://www.eilenjewell.com
April 30, 2008 11:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
The preacher thing is sucking my will to live. Is their strategy to bore me to death?
May 1, 2008 12:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Spike Lee feels our pain:
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2277229,00.html
May 1, 2008 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
We have been watching, and very much enjoying, the first season of Friday Night Lights. It's a very interesting peek into the lives of small-town Texans. We just started watching the second season.
May 1, 2008 12:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
All seriousness, that baby is sooo adorable. Will your avatar change as you grow? Or will you stay the same age like Maggie from the Simpsons?
May 1, 2008 12:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's what he looks like today.
May 1, 2008 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eeeew. It makes me wonder what the Anne Geddes babies look like today. She should do a "where are they now" in pictures. Judging from yours it could be catagorized next to the Stephen King section at Barnes and Noble.
May 1, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're not actually small-town Texans.
May 1, 2008 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I heard a rumor that they are all actors. I don't think it's true. I think this show is a documentary.
May 1, 2008 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
In that case, are they Republicans/bitter blue collar workers? (I do hear great things about that show but fear the political leanings of the characters)
May 1, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
In that case, I will confess my love for the new Battlestar Galactica. I usually can't stand the stuff on SciFi, but BSG is seriously one of the best television shows I've ever seen and the final season hasn't been the slightest bit disappointing. I know there must be a few other BSG fans roaming around here...
May 1, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
this season is just awesome.
I'm going to miss BSG2. So much - great writing.
May 1, 2008 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you have any predictions for who will turn out to be the final Cylon? I keep thinking about that and about what the Earth situation will be. Did you catch the obvious constellation Orion in "The Ties That Bind"? They're very close now.
I also came across this recently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylon_of_Athens
May 1, 2008 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean you're not convinced it's Kara Thrace, come to unite the "races" via her great destiny? Seriously, it's gotta be Kara. I agree that the series has tooled right along with excellent eps. The whole torture thing was getting me down last season. I watch shows like that to get away from modern reality, tyvm. (I had the same problem with the last ST series, Enterprise, terrorism as a regular plot line.)
May 1, 2008 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's a possibility, but she also seems to have her own destiny. The Seven are aware of her and this destiny which would seem to contradict their unawareness of the Final Five. Then again, she did seemingly come back from the dead (although this leaves the question of how she would have resurrected). I think she's a possibility, but there's one major reason that I don't think it's her. In Razor, the First Hybrid says this:
At the same time the First Hybrid also has knowledge of Kara Thrace. He knows her by name and says that she is the herald of the apocalypse. It doesn't seem to me that the fifth he mentions here is Starbuck.
My top choice is Baltar. If it's him, everything about him suddenly makes sense and he also fits right in with what the First Hybrid says about the Final Cylon.
My wildcard choice: Tom Zarek. He also could be who is being described here. If Ron Moore is to be believed, then none of the characters in the Entertainment Weekly "Last Supper" photo are the Final Cylon.
May 2, 2008 2:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Consider that Kara is one of the few main characters in tune with "the Gods". I have to think the climax will include some reconciliation of the skin-job's "one God" and the cosmology of the... Galactians? Personally, I'd be disappointed if Balthar were number 12. But the structure they've set up around the different religions and Balthar's vacillating atheism/agnosticism would make for an interesting resolution, if not something of a let down to a non-religious person like myself. I guess I just see more possibilities to wrap up the Cylon/human division by making Starbuck the bridge between the competing societies.
Forgive what may sound like a dumb question, but by Hybrid do you mean the female in the tub of goo who manages the base ships and babbles cryptically? You mentioned a He, so I think I must be forgetting something.
I'm not familiar with the Last Supper thang, so I'll try to find what you're referring to. Btw, that wiki article you linked about the original Cylon is very cool.
Any speculation on what year it will be when the fleet reaches Earth?
And, is this the last season they planned to shoot? Sorry for the silly questions, but I download the show via torrent and don't get much extraneous info about it.
May 2, 2008 3:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Starbuck is definitely my second choice and you can't really rule her out.
The woman in the tub of goo is a hybrid, but the one I'm referring to is the first one ever created. If you haven't seen Razor yet, then you should grab it and watch it. Make you to get the extended version.
The EW 'Last Supper' shot is here:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20169703,00.html
I'm not sure what the Earth situation will be. I was considering the story of the original Cylon of Athens to see if I could spot any parallels. I keep thinking of "This has all happened before and it will all happen again". Where did the humanoid cylons come from? If Tigh is a Cylon then he conceivably was created before the other humanoid Cylons. After all, the Cylons took off at the last Cylon war that Bill Adama fought in and at that stage they were still "toasters". He and Tigh are roughly the same age. The end of the last Cylon war is also when the First Hybrid that I was referring to was discovered. Does this have some connection to Earth? Did any of the humanoid Cylons come from Earth? I don't know, but I think that it's most likely that they will arrive somewhere in our future. I also wonder if there's a correlation with the Greek mythology in the series or if this is just incidental.
They've definitely confirmed that this is the last season. The first ten episodes are airing right now and the last ten will start airing either in the fall or in the beginning of '09.
May 2, 2008 4:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ahh, k. I need to watch Razor again. I don't recall that plot element. The whole Last Supper thing makes these predictions potentially useless. I can see why you might bring up Tom Zarek, and I frankly can't think of any other people who might fit for #12 among the long-standing characters. Felix Gaida? I'm more inclined to think they're going to introduce a new character, like when they did a show with Bulldog.
Tigh and Tyrol both have life histories that make their inclusion among the four strange. Is it more likely that the Cylons crafted their models on real human originals who are now dead or elsewhere? Tyrol's father was a frakking priest! The twists and complications on the Gods front continues to be really interesting to me.
Did you find any other connections to Greek mythology out there? The bare facts of the Cylon story are a good rough analog. Any links to a historic Kobol? 13 tribes?
Thanks for the chat... I dunno anyone who watches BG, so I've never spent time learning about other theories about the show.
May 2, 2008 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't know if you'll check back on this, but here's trying anyhow.
I've thought about them throwing a curveball by introducing an unknown character to be the final cylon, but I doubt this will be the case. I think that it would be anti-climactic. As for Bulldog, it's important to keep in mind that SciFi has pushed Ron Moore very hard to do more "one-off" episodes because they find that it's harder to bring in a new audience to heavily serialized drama. After last season, they saw in the ratings that they just needed to leave Moore alone and let him tell his story.
I'm not sure about any other parallels with Greek mythology. I've seen some interesting interpretations of the 12 lords of Kobol and the colonies, since they're all named after Greek gods, but I don't really know how solid this is.
When you watch Razor you'll see that the humanoid Cylons almost certainly came about as a result of using real humans.
May 2, 2008 9:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will pop on Razor tonight. Silly of me... I watched half of season 3 again to get ready for this season, not too long ago. But I skipped over Razor, which I've only watched once. Of course, it probably doesn't help that the last viewing was herbally enhanced. ;-)
I'll bookmark this and check back in later...
May 2, 2008 10:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hokay... so, I remembered just about everything from Razor, but not young Adama's discovery at the end of the war or the scene on the Hybrid's ship before it's nuked. (Interesting, too, that we saw the brunette version of #6 in this. Wonder if she's related to the other new 6 version who led the revolt recently.) And I see why the happened-before-will-happen-again thing has more importance beyond Leoban's prophecies.
But still doesn't help us figure out who #12 is. ;-) Fun chat! I'm offline for a couple of days... heading outta town. Seeya next week.
May 3, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOVE the new Battlestar! Dr. Who is quirky good on occasion, but I miss the original.
May 1, 2008 8:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I used to watch the original when I was a kid. That show has been through so many incarnations. I've tried to watch the new one a bit, but I haven't really gotten into it yet. It's visually a lot of fun though.
May 1, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lovin' it. Refreshing after the scheisse we've been slogging through here.
May 1, 2008 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eileen Jewel, that is. Remember Eileen Jewel?
May 1, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've totally fallen in love with Ms. Jewell.
She has two albums out and I recommend them both. One of the best singles is her track "Boundary County."
May 1, 2008 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Singer Neko Case's Blacklisted album.
May 1, 2008 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
We came out of the cave. And we looked over the hill, and we saw fire. And we crossed the ocean, and we pioneered the West, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration, and this is what's next.
April 30, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I know we're meant to be explorers.
I *heart* the West Wing...
May 1, 2008 12:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ha! I wondered if anyone would catch it. He's the best character. I'm thinking about going back and watching the first season and pretending it's what politics is really like right now.
May 1, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
If anybody needs someone to talk about West Wing with, I'm your girl.
May 1, 2008 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm. That avatar just doesn't feel right. It's like a betrayal of my former shapeless head.
April 30, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a lovely picture!
May 1, 2008 12:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. I decided just to go with the unoriginal photo of myself for now. But I'm still waiting for that avatar with the perfect mix of irony to come along.
May 1, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ok, how does 500px work?
April 30, 2008 11:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Marvelous work.
April 30, 2008 11:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Strangely, the 1000px version only works in IE, not Firefox. And FWIW, 2000px tall wouldn't upload.
May 1, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was great while it lasted, but what happened to it?
May 1, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Should be back now.
May 1, 2008 12:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm. Salad!
Meheheheh.
May 1, 2008 12:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Most impressive.
I think we are about to destroy the matrix.
May 1, 2008 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ding, Ding, We have a "tall" winner here folks.
May 1, 2008 1:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
The new Dr. Who series on BBC. Christopher Eccleston (http://www.christophereccleston.net/), tall and lanky and homely in a sexy big-eared kind of way, with a manic smile, or David Tennant (http://www.david-tennant.com/), cute in a pretty boy kind of way?
May 1, 2008 8:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Makes me want to smack my forehead and say, "I could've had a V-8!"
May 1, 2008 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. That was supposed to be in reply to reallyreallytall.
Second time this has happened to me tonight, where I click reply but end up talking to a stranger.
I suppose I should stop hitting the bars.
May 1, 2008 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I stopped hitting the bars. It wasn't helping anyway.
I just waited for them to leave the cage door open and zing, I was outta there.
Meheheheh.
May 1, 2008 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you did reply to reallreallytall. Maybe you need to hit the bars harder.
May 1, 2008 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Second that motion.
May 1, 2008 10:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, I'm off to the bar. The one that Genghis is going to on Tuesday night to watch the primary results.
I have to see his shirt in person.
May 1, 2008 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
That would be "Snarkys", right?
Please buy Dr. Genghis a beer or two, get him a little tipsy, and try to get that shirt from him.
May 1, 2008 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid shirt? ;-)
May 1, 2008 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it the same bar from the last primary?
May 1, 2008 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I think Genghis mentioned in another thread that it would be "Revival" again. If you want to be up-to-date and you haven't yet done so, join the the my. barakoabam.com TPM group. Any election-watching events (and other fun stuff too) will be posted there.
May 2, 2008 12:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
On a random note. One of the most interesting TPM explorations to date was the thread in which some brave TPMers dared to see how far they could take on comment thread to the edge of the screen. It was revolutionary.
And music. I'm thinking.
Sick political addict that I've become, I realize I've been listening to mostly NPR in the car. What a sad revelation.
April 30, 2008 11:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since you mentioned NPR, and Yoda was talking about entertainment, "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is one of my favorites.
May 1, 2008 12:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a fan of that and Prairie Home Companion. I empathize with the NPR tuned in on the commute, but it is an outstanding program.
Sometimes, tho, I do tune it out... I get so mad over some of the Bush Admin stuff I probably become a menace on the highway, then I tune in to some music. Preferably soothing.
May 1, 2008 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
I podcast Wait Wait and This American Life every week and listen to them as I walk to work. Both are fantastic.
One of the best radio programs I've ever heard was on This American Life on Chicago Mayor Harold Washington:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Washington
You cabn download it for $0.95 here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=84
It's worth it and has many, many connections to today's Presidential race.
May 1, 2008 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I LOVE this American Life! I love Ira Glass.
I don't think to download them as much as I should.
Think I'll go catch up.
Thanks for reminding me.
May 1, 2008 10:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're free to download for one week -after the show airs on the weekend. Every Monday I download the new episode for free.
May 1, 2008 11:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
For a movie recommendation, I'll say "Children of Men." It was snubbed by the Oscars (which are just a big popularity contest anyway) but I found it to be one of the finest movies of the last decade. Clive Owen is hands down one of the top actors in movies today.
It's a dystopian thriller, if you like that sort of thing.
May 1, 2008 12:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
The book is awesome, too.
:)
May 1, 2008 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, it was good. It featured some amazing continuous shots. I thought No Country For Old Men was one of the best films I've ever seen. It's also a fantastic book. McCarthy's The Road is on my summer reading list.
I'll also throw out a movie called Primer. It's an independent science fiction film, but it's one of the smartest movies you'll find. It was written and directed by a guy named Shane Carruth. He did the whole thing for about $10k, but the result is impressive.
May 1, 2008 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read "The Road" a few months ago. Bleak. Very bleak.
The rooting around for food held my attention though!
Meheheheh.
May 1, 2008 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
My favorite political films, lately?
V for Vendetta
Across the Universe
May 1, 2008 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Across the Universe was amazing... really uplifting, and like a banana split of indulgence for Beatles fans. Get the soundtrack if you loved the movie. Great stuff!
May 1, 2008 11:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
What if Picasso, Keats, and Mussorgsky joined forces? You'd get this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4QRm786nLE
May 1, 2008 12:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm, Ham!
Salty!
Meheheheh.
May 1, 2008 12:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
You'll be pleased to know that many of my friends just received that link.
May 1, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thou fusty dread-bolted hugger-mugger!
May 1, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thou impertinent puisny-tilted ratsbane!
May 2, 2008 12:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dr. Genghis's shirt collar
May 1, 2008 12:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Uh-oh...
May 1, 2008 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
It changes colors! How can you not talk about it!
May 1, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
The trouble, am, is that Dr. Genghis' collar used to a vermillion/dark peach/burnt umber/salmon color (depending on who was looking at it). Before reaching the current variegated state, it was minty green.
May 2, 2008 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is one of my favorite intro clips from the movie "Idiocracy". Ok kind of a cheesy B movie but it really gives a kind of perspective on the future of man (if the political atmosphere of the present is any indication of the future)
Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DECeLkBp1uA
Those damn elitists who won't procreate.
May 1, 2008 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
For quick entertainment, there's always the FAIL! blog: http://failblog.wordpress.com/
May 1, 2008 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Deep thought: How many fingers did Yoda use to put that long sentence into the whatsit to generate that huge sentence?
May 1, 2008 1:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and also, those of you who are Obama supporters, it would be great to involve you in our TPM Fundraiser on June 14th. I think we have house parties planned in about 10 different cities now, but it would be great to have more. And you can always limit the numbers however you want -- or even just call in yourself and not host anyone. Anyway, let Genghis, me, or articleman know if you'd like to join the fun.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/04/tpmaholics-election-fundraiser.php
May 1, 2008 1:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Damn tpm cut off part of your wonderful title. I sure hope they fix that. I'm curious. Did you mean to say, "This is really sublime." or, "This is really stupendous" ???
May 1, 2008 1:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
I actually don't remember what that sentence was - I had at least two or three more sentences.
I like stupendous so let's go with that.
May 1, 2008 7:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
You had me at "How many words I can fit into the subject line for this post? Aren't you curious too? Is it 100? Or 1000? Could it be 10,000? Could it be 1,000,000? It seems like the title of this post can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on. This is really s"
May 1, 2008 8:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
(swallows back laughter to avoid strange looks from office-mates)
May 1, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm, I think that might top, "You had me at 'Barack Good'." We need lbp to weigh in on this.
May 1, 2008 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is also up there... I'll just go by my instant reaction here and, it didn't have the same level of "LOL" as Barack Good did. This is like trying to compare Bill Russell with Shaq- we'll just never know.
May 1, 2008 10:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on. It's Bill Russell all the way. The man defended Chamberlain and Shaq is prolific, but he's no Chamberlain.
I'll also admit a slight bias here: He's my favorite player of all time.
May 2, 2008 3:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Look, I choose Russell too here, but you could definitely make a strong case for Shaq. The top two points, off the top of my head: 1) rule changes 2) actual competition. With loose officiating, and a time-machine, it's possible that Shaq would make Russell look like Shawn Bradley.
May 2, 2008 3:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shawn Bradley?! That's cold, brother.
May 2, 2008 4:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
"This is really s"
Wot?
"Stupid? Sensational? Sucky? Smelly? Snarky? Silly? Stupendous?
I gotta know!
Hey genghis, vera cool, er, gravatar.
May 1, 2008 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, DF did it.
May 1, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
That DF is too clever.
:D
Nicely done.
May 1, 2008 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Whoa! Nasty 80's flashback. Your collar reminds me of the cheap fiber optic lamp thingys. :)
May 1, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm, now that I'm looking at it again I wish I had started with the higher res version from your barackobama.com profile. This one looks a tad grainy to me now, but still swanky. Definitely swanky.
May 1, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are responsible for doing weird things to my head with that shirt.
May 1, 2008 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
The shirt is diabolically designed to shake loose any lingering lysergic molecules you may have lying about your circulatory system.
Your altitude may vary.
Meheheheh.
May 1, 2008 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahhhh. New laptop, new avatar, new name. How liberating.
May 1, 2008 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink