OK, one more...

Gotye himself compiled this lovely vid of parodists, imitators and covers, a la Kutiman - love both these musicians, and this is an appropriate finale Kutiman's YouTube mixes are brilliant, and I love that Gotye was inspired by him to create this vid. The fact that this song caught so many musician's ears and inspired so many variations is a testament to Gotye's skillful songwriting

Dancing American Soldiers do "Call me Maybe"

There are so many of these syncs/mixes/whatever, but I love dancing soldiers so up it goes

 

 Obama Call Me Maybe

Star Wars Call Me Maybe 

This is probably my last post on this blog - most likely gonna switch to Tumblr. Anyone who reads my crap, see you over there - maybe :)

Ubiquitous Gotye

Two guys try to be cool about not wanting to listen to this song that is everywhere, but can't help themselves

While we're at it, a beautiful, skillfully played acoustic cover of the same song (there are literally thousands of these online, but this one is especially lovely IMO)

Two vids is enough - I'm cutting myself off  :)

a remix
another remix
a star wars parody

Happy Independence Day!

A sweet mashup of some of America's finest "singing" the National Anthem

I really came here today, though, to post this awesome vid of my nieces KICKING ASS at drum major camp last week - out of over 400 participants, they are the last two standing! Make sure you watch all the way to the end - so proud :)

It hurts to let go

The musical artist Gotye is best known for the lovely (but way overplayed on the radio) song "Somebody That I Used to Know." Lately, however, another song of his called "Bronte" has caught my attention. The video depicts a herd of odd looking bison-like animals watching a little girl grow up and eventually leave them, which is tearjerking in itself, but I read later that the song was written about an old family dog that had to be euthanized. The tender, simple lyrics are beautifully sung by him, and you'd better get a kleenex before you click play

Hug your companion animal(s) today, and if you don't have one, adopt one!

Happy Father's Day!

For my husband, one of his favorite "Dad bits" from Bill Cosby



I post a link to this FARK thread every year - What would you say to your Dad today if you could - always a poignant read.

Also wishing my son a Happy FIRST Father's Day! You have stepped up beautifully and I am so proud of you :) At least you didn't have to do this



Sorry (not really ;)

I was wrong

In a previous post I wrote there was a new worst person in the world. According to the New York Post, I am wrong - the Queen still reigns

George Zimmerman isn't doing himself any favors, though. Having two passports (surrendering the one that was expiring while keeping the one that was good until 2014), attempting to conceal funds from the court and discussing moving these funds around in code with his wife on recorded jail phone calls (per the Orlando Sentinel and The Daily Beast) all assail his credibility. He'd be better off sitting down, shutting up and letting the process play out, but he just can't seem to do that.

Ugh. Let's stop talking about that and watch some lambs jumping around in a living room

More Musical Kids

Ballet recital gone wrong



Sweet kid with cystic fibrosis gets his groove on during his breathing treatment



And finally, Children Medieval Band, consisting of siblings Stefan (10), Olga (8) and 5-year-old Cornelia on drums covering "Sonne" by German band Rammstein in their apartment (I love this stuff). Cornelia kicks ass on one drum with two "sticks" - one a regular drumstick covered in fabric, and the second a maraca used to simulate a snare drum



They actually OPENED for Rammstein a week ago (May 20th) in Denver, where they live. They played two songs, "Ich Will" and "Sonne." The crowd ate them up! (Not literally, thankfully)

God Hates No One

A nine-year-old boy in Kansas staged a solo counter-protest of the evil Westboro Baptist Church armed with a notebook, a pencil and a powerful message (pic taken by his mom after he asked her for permission to do this)



Good job, kid. More here.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

What a wonderful job this 22-year-old person living with leukemia did creating this video in one day while in Seattle Children's Hospital. (Late teens and early twentysomethings with cancer often start or stay with pediatric cancer specialists until an appropriate time is determined by all parties for an individual patient to transfer to an adult oncologist if needed, since we all age at different rates and conditions are unique.) This young man, seen in the orange shirt in the vid, apparently lit up the place and captured the joy on camera



Beautiful. Look at those gorgeous faces (including the nurses)!

I picked up this button at a recent oncology nursing conference - love it :)

I thank God every day for the opportunity and privilege to do what I do. It is an honor to know and care for these lovely people.

Behind the scenes of the above video

More here.

The Globetrotters need to sign this soldier up ASAP

This is old, but new to me, so up it goes - American soldier in Iraq makes amazing trick shots (and does cute little dances too)

I wish this was my deck (minus the snow and cold)

Speaking of beautiful animals, check out the livestream of the Decorah Eagles below - the first of three eaglets hatched earlier today - two more to go



Live video from your iPhone using Ustream

The Raptor Resource Project documents the beauty of raptors' behavior in their natural environment via live webcam, educating the public about these lovely creatures in the process.

There's a new "Worst Person in the World" - guess where from?

Casey Anthony has lost her well-deserved title to fellow Central Floridian George Zimmerman. Unless you live under a rock, you know him as the Hispanic/white (i.e., not black) Neighborhood Watch captain who followed, shot and killed 17-year-old unarmed (and black) Trayvon Martin last month without arrest or charge in Sanford, Florida, claiming self-defense. Not gonna tell this whole story here as it is easily found everywhere; will just share a few initial thoughts.

There was a groundswell of support for Trayvon and his family, and disdain for the choices made by the Sanford police department, here in Central Florida as soon as this happened. In conventional and social media as well as face-to-face conversation, people expressed shock and dismay at the lack of not only an arrest, but seemingly any investigation at all. Residents of Sanford, as well as other local black and civil rights activists, put pressure on the Sanford police department for an explanation, and some national organizations such as the NAACP added their voices, which eventually resulted in the Sanford police releasing 911 calls related to the incident to the media on March 18th.

It was after this release of the calls that the national attention truly exploded. The Sanford police chief stated at the time, "I would hope that [the release of the calls would] make a difference, to try to stop or slow down … the high state of emotions." Wrong. (He has stepped down "temporarily" since then.)

All of these emotions and public outrage over this boy's murder are right and just, IMHO. This type of behavior can't be tolerated and has to be addressed at a national level - I have no problem with this discourse at all. What I do take issue with is some of our visitors to Central Florida this past week and their possible motivations, specifically Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Both of these men have accomplished much in the realm of advancement of civil rights during difficult times, and deserve recognition for this. Yet both also have a history (especially Sharpton in the Tawana Brawley case) of grandstanding and opportunism when possibilities for media exposure present themselves. This has happened here, and I, for one, don't appreciate it.

The local residents and activists that pushed these issues forward and insisted this case be covered and discussed are the ones who should be leading the dialogue, rallies, etc. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton have swooped into Central Florida and tried to usurp and direct the efforts of these people seeking justice for an innocent boy walking home from 7-Eleven in order to claim the media attention the local citizens' efforts have generated. I wish Mr. Jackson, Mr. Sharpton and their associates would leave and let those locals who did the heavy lifting here continue on. They got the message out just fine without the help of these "leaders."

Sharpton's example is especially egregious in light of the fact that, while he does not self-identify as a journalist (nor should he), he hosts a show on MSNBC while also appearing at rallies here in the role of activist. CNN's Howard Kurtz led a discussion of this (via Mediaite)



This really bothers me.

In any movement, profession or what have you, we must all be able to recognize when we might not be the best person for the job anymore and allow someone younger or otherwise possibly more able or effective to take over. I believe this should happen here. These gentlemen are conflating the issues with their grandiosity, which is distracting from the true issues that need to be dissected. They both should step out of it, but I know that isn't going to happen.

Their presence and fueling of fires, I believe, led to The New Black Panther Party (all eight of them) injecting themselves into the mix by offering a bounty for the capture of George Zimmerman, which contributes nothing positive. What the hell would they do with him if he was brought to them? They sound like and seem to be recognized by activists and other concerned citizens as the black equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church. Hopefully they and their bounty will fade away and cooler heads will prevail.

Justice for Trayvon.

If my husband snored this sweetly, we'd have no issues

Tiny hummingbird snoring

This generation's Judy Garland has died

I have vague memories as a young child of occasionally watching interviews of Judy Garland on TV with my parents, with them making comments like, "What in the world happened to her? She was so beautiful and talented! What a waste." This could possibly be one of them



Watching Whitney Houston's decline over the years, I was reminded of this memory often. And now it has happened.

Just looked up Judy Garland on Wikipedia and saw she was 47 when she died. Beautiful Whitney was 48.

Rest well, lovely girl



Whitney's vocals isolated on "How Will I Know"

Regarding the Planned Parenthood/Komen fiasco

/captioned and posted by me in yesterday's FARK caturday thread

I have a decision to make...

...not like anyone really gives a shit, but as a longtime Facebook hater for reasons like this, this, issues discussed in this book, etc., I may have to close or relocate this blog, which I enjoy keeping even if I'm the only one that reads it.

Why? Because this is a Google service, and Google is preparing to implement "privacy" policies very similar to Facebook's.

Google Stockpiles Data Ammo Through Privacy Merge, Guns To Win Relevancy War, via TechCrunch

I have taken my little steps to fight the power over the years - for example, I use Mozilla Firefox with the AdBlock Plus add-on for routine web surfing, which eliminates nearly all ads and provides a small measure of protection from tracking, as well as other privacy protections and anonymizers.

I don't surf porn, download pirated content or do anything else illegal online - I oppose online intrusions on principle. I also know I'm fighting a losing battle, but I'll still fight it. Guess I'm becoming an internet curmudgeon.

Anyone who reads this might find it strange that I have a Twitter account with my real name. This doesn't bother me (yet) because Twitter so far has been honest about the fact that everything you do on it is public. Its policies don't change from week-to-week or day-to-day, and they don't seem to have the types of security lapses that Facebook is famous for. If people have problems with it or screw up on it, it's usually their own fault (like this guy). I am a news junkie and use it mainly as a news aggregator, and also follow some comedians who give me laughs during the day. I follow no one I personally know, and no one I personally know follows me (although I wouldn't object to either). Via Twitter, I receive information and laughs all day without "liking" or otherwise engaging with anyone if I don't want to. I LIKE this :-) (pun intended).

Having said all that, I have heard rumblings and grumblings about changes to Twitter that I will be paying attention to. A real dilemma is developing for Internet users who don't want every click tracked by some known or unknown entity.

Five Ways Twitter Is Changing Media Law, via paidcontent.org

Terry Gross interviews Jeffery Rosen, one of the editors of the book linked above, about interpreting the Constitution in the Digital Age - read or listen - via NPR

OMG SHUT UP SUE AND POST A PICTURE


/pic ganked from a FARK photoshop thread

This is also lovely

A professional violist deftly deals with a cellphone during his performance

This is just lovely

The Cancer Sell

Those of us who work in oncology find the charlatans hawking fake cancer "cures" to be the bane of our existence. These predators take advantage of the most vulnerable of us at the most desperate time in their lives, taking their (large amounts of) cash up front and giving nothing in return but shattered hope.

I could go on for pages about this as it angers me so, but instead I'd like to share an impressive 25-minute short film made by Al Jazeera reporter Sarah Macdonald, herself a cancer survivor, about the business of alternative treatment clinics in Tijuana, Mexico. For the investigation, Ms. Macdonald took the extraordinary step of shaving her newly regrown hair to appear more like a patient actively seeking treatment, which can't have been easy.

She points out that many patients actually try these "treatments" when first diagnosed, and seek out conventional treatment only after disease progression, which is often too late. I have seen this thousands of times. I am caring for a lovely woman now who sought some odd treatment in Colombia when first diagnosed with stage I breast cancer (easily curable with conventional treatment today). While under the treatment, her cancer grew and metastasized throughout her body, even externalizing through her skin. Her "practitioners" there told her this was a good sign - that their "treatment" was "chasing the cancer out of her body." This is simply criminal.

Butter's "Ode to Dinner"

CooperDaKat and Mrs CDK are two virtual friends I know from the FARK Caturday threads. They have taken in a few animals, including Butter, a deaf white boxer. I have come to love this silly dog, even though I have never met her or her people IRL.

Recently they posted a video of Butter "singing." This is now my favorite dog video of all time :) She's so ugly she's adorable



A cute pic of Butter captioned by me



P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THERESE!

Happy 2012! (a little late)

Welcome back loyal reader! (That would be me - nobody else reads my crap)

Getting a lazy start to 2012 - hopefully not predictive of the remainder of it - but I didn't run across Dave Barry's review of 2011 until today. Yeah, it's DAVE'S fault!

Also enjoyed the 50 Funniest Tweets of 2011, the most popular passive-aggressive notes of 2011, and the top 10 Photoshop disasters as well.

This blogger annually updates and reposts his Rules of the Gym, and he wants it shared since there are LOTS of new members of gyms every January, so I'll do my part.

And finally, if you missed Kathy Griffin surprising Anderson Cooper with her impromptu costume change on NYE, check it out. It's always funny when Anderson gets the giggles and tries to hold it together



Wishing a Spectacular New Year to any who may stop by :)