Linkin' to some Kleinballs

One would think that now that I have almost nothing to do every day, I'd be blogging a lot more. And I think that line of thought held true for a few weeks. But now, I've reached a point of (non-)critical mass where I have so little to do, that I just do none of it. It sucks.

ANYWAY, instead of recapping my fascinating week, full of sitting in front of my computer and, ummmm, other stuff, I'll regale you with some of the more interesting links and videos that I've recently come across.

Why are you fat? This is why. There's some ghastly stuff on here -- sadly, about 80% of it still looks delicious to me, with the other 20% generally composed of people just trying to put the most ridiculous concoction of crap together -- but this one takes the cake: "Chicken fried steak, chicken-fried bacon, a country sausage, a fried egg, a fried green tomato topped with cheddar cheese and sandwiched between buns toasted in bacon fat, all served with a gravy dipping sauce." Honestly, I was fine with this right up until the part about the buns being toasted in freaking bacon fat.

For the last few years, I've had this nagging urge to join the Ukranian army. However, I could never pinpoint what so compelled me. Now, I have the answer:*


*Some things are just so absurd that, even when spoken in a completely foreign language, no translation is necessary. But for some more shits and giggles, here you go.

Just because. It's been too long.

Twitter is still a mystery to me. I love how insanely involved Shaq is. I love my feeds from CNN, Drudge, ESPN and MLB. And with the Twitter Influence Calculator, my insignificance on that monster has been confirmed. For according to it, my relative influence is "just emerging."* Whatever.

*Shaq's relative influence, on the other hand, has been deemed "astonishing." And he's ranked as the 59th most influential user on Twitter. I love Shaq.**

**Speaking of how cool Shaq is: Steve Kerr, general manager of the Suns, gave an interview a few weeks ago in which he said that after most Suns home games, Shaq goes shopping at Wal-Mart. Now, that alone is a ridiculous fact. Not just that Shaq goes shopping at Wal-Mart, but also that he does so AFTER games. Which would mean that he generally goes around or after midnight. But what's REALLY great is that after he makes his purchase, he often will tell the people working there that he'll pay for the next ten customers in line. Shaquille O'Neal, ladies and gentlemen.

Words often have different pronunciations in the US and Australia (and many other countries). In the US, for example, oregano is something like oh-RAY-geh-no. In Australia, it's oh-reh-GAH-no. Or garage is ge-RAJ in the US, GAH-raj in Australia. And that's fine. I get that. But what I've never gotten is how brand names often have different pronunciations in different countries. Because if I was the keeper of an international brand -- living in a global economy -- I'd want that brand's name to be pronounced consistently throughout the world. This, however, doesn't always happen. Consider:


It's Hyundai. Like Sunday. But in Australia? Consider:


And this doesn't just happen with Hyundai. Same goes for other brands, like Nokia (noh-KEE-yah vs. noh-KYAH). I don't get it.

Lastly, my newest addiction: sporcle.com. Try any of the games once. Just once. And you'll be hooked.