Hi Folks.
This page is a sorta info center for my students.


Mr. Seezen's Choppin' Blog

Monday, June 30, 2003

New studies show that native speakers of Mandarin use both sides of the brain while listening to Mandarin, while native speakers of English listen with only one hemisphere.

1) What are some possible explanations for this phenomenon?

2) How could the field of medicine benefit from these new findings? [more]

Posted by Daev @ 06:27 PM CST [Link]

Sunday, June 29, 2003

Seems that the most written about tech topic for the weekend was the one about the RIAA going after file sharers, which is too bad because I am getting a little tired of reading about that kind of stuff as of late. But it's the token potential material for today.

Garden gnomes, on the other hand, now that's good reading.

Planning on taking a trip to the states this Summer? Don't waste your time bar crawling in Manhattan. Pick out a few "castles" to visit, or go to a tilthouse before they all vanish.

Another online ref.

America is, after all, a very beautiful land full of aesthetically awe-inspiring culture.

Posted by Daev @ 08:18 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Boilerplate, as mentioned today in class.

Posted by Daev @ 06:26 PM CST [Link]

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Don't be too surpised if they start serving 'roo steaks again in the Mensa...
...

Deformed puppy walks like a human. Don't eat anything while watching the video.

Happy birthday to George Orwell. He would be 100 today.
Thursdee is the 40th aniversary of JFK's visit to Berlin.

Posted by Daev @ 09:57 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Apple G5 unveiled. Article complete with crappy pictures.

And elsewhere...
Alternate Internet Universe. Not as interesting as it would seem, but nevertheless interesting enough.

Posted by Daev @ 08:51 PM CST [Link]

Listen to and read part of the transcript of an interview with the Brothers Chaps and Missy, creators of Homestarrunner, which is a fantastic little online cartoon world.

Thanks again Toph.

Posted by Daev @ 08:33 PM CST [Link]

Sunday, June 22, 2003

As mayor of my own little world, I hereby proclaim this day to be Gas Face Victims' Day.



Thanks to Basementalism.com for the jams, and for having such a fun online show to listen to. [more]

Posted by Daev @ 05:37 PM CST [Link]

Friday, June 20, 2003

Woody Allen said, (I believe in "Sleeper") "I'm like a cat; I always land on all fours," thus inadvertently altering the meaning of the expression. But it does nonetheless seem to be true that cats can survive really really high falls, according to these readers of New Scientist. That does not, however, mean that you should test it out.

The Visual Thesaurus is ... a thesaurus.
But it employs a crazy tricked-out Flash actionscript-powered navigation remeniscent of . It's sweet.
Thanks to Topher Seezen for the link.

Today on my way to the laundrymat, I saw a streetcar waiting at the light. No, not the 45 meter long one I mentioned last week in class, nor was it one with tinted windows and a wetbar in the press-conference section as I would envision some kind of Dresdnor Cidizen Gääne would have. But along the length of the left side of the tram were these words: "Heartfelt greetings-- You are riding in Dresden's 60th streetcar!"
"You" was capitalized, so you know they meant "you" and not "they".
I am much too small to have a decal of my own as to answer the tram's said greeting, so I just said to the streetcar, "no, I am not". I was, indeed, not riding in any streetcar at the time. I was walking down the sidewalk. Furthermore, I said that the decal was on the left side, where there are no doors. It was as if the train was taunting me. Schadenfreude is the word we use for that kind of thing in English because we don't have a word for that.

I was nevertheless shocked and appalled, so I first tried to find some way to rationalize my way out of the fact that the tram actually enjoyed that I had to schlepp my oversized dufflebag of dirty laundry all the way down to the salon, several hundred meters yonder. So I thought:

Frist, Maybe I really just mistook the capitalization. "Welcome! They are riding Dresden's 60th tram!"
That couldn't be right, though. It doesn't interest me what people inside the streetcar are doing. And it would also underscore my non-inclusion of the privilege of riding along ol' number 60. DVB can be so cruel...

But I should mention that I am loosly translating here, as there is no continuous tense in German. So, "you ride" could mean "you are riding" in some contexts, but it can also mean "you will ride".
That would make sense as to why it was printed on the non-door side. You will ride streetcar number 6-0 when it comes back the other way in about 30 minutes. If it were on the door side, though, it would have to say that you are about to ride the 60th streetcar Dresden has ever known.

That, of course, would make the decal words too long, so then you would have to bring in that 45 meter long streetcar. Then you could put up a decall saying "you would be about to be riding Dresden's 60th streetcar, but this sentence is much too long so we had to put it on me, the only 45 meter long streetcar in the world. Hop in, pardner!" The last sentence would of course would only be added in case of some kind of Karl May Tage tie-in.

Posted by Daev @ 09:46 PM CST [Link]

Wednesday, June 18, 2003


Bullfighter is a program that basically flags vague puffy business-speak. You can download it yourself.

Posted by Daev @ 06:45 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Today is bathroom appreciation day. So says I. And here are two great articles to proove it. I call it:

Nature's call -- in the past and near future.

The first link is to a fascinating article at BBC online, the second is classic Onion.

Speaking of getting proverbially crapped upon... Of course the figures I had to learn in college were different, as were the circumstances. But who gets the least money and who the most is pretty much the same. And while those with the most power and money will blame the consumer and the new technological conveniences afforded to them, somehow we choose to remain blind to the simple fact that until this industry overcomes its identity crisis between commodity and service, its current form will always remain at odds to reconcile itself with the ever-updating economics of this world.

Posted by Daev @ 09:55 PM CST [Link]

Monday, June 16, 2003

Welcome back, monkeys.
I had a great week off. I slept until my back ached. I thumped tubs all weekend long in the Talstrasse. The children loved it, as did them hippies, and joined in. Neither groups seemed to have any particular natural sence for music, but late in the night when dozens of people played together the arhythmical cacophony seemed to take on a sort of rolling cohesion of its own. Kind of like crickets.

I did some translating this morning for the subtitles in a Rammstein video presskit. My contact person seemed adamant that I hyperbolize everything with superlatives, which I resisted. The argument was that since the presskit is meant for American contacts, that's the kind of bullshit they want to hear.
Like I said, I resisted and did good work. Now, through my years as a musician, a student of music, an intern for BMG I've learned a thing or two about PK's and the language they use. Of course, no one will put down their own act in the presskit, and everyone knows who wrote those little info blurbs. So if you are an act with a great emphasis on good lyrics, you write "weaving thoughtful lyrics..." and if your band likes them roots, "...in and earthy, soulful sonic tapestry". Then you have some decent copy. If you get a PK, on the otherhand, which writes such puffed up claims like "mixes incredible lyrics with impossibly brilliant musicianship" or "the most earth-shaking, revolutionary music ever!" chances are no one will even bother to listen to the tape. No music industry person would ever fall for that kind of rap, and is likely just to get the impression that some amateur band thinks they can play him for a chump.

Unfortunately there are plenty of folks out there in that industry who firmly believe that the public is inherently stupid and ultimately exploitable not by effort and quality, but rather by hype and novelty.


Which brings me to my first link this week, which I decided to add after hearing Ms. S's dynamic presentation on spam. Spam, like telemarketing, canvasing, etc. are, I argued, symptomatic of a much larger, more nefarious and parasitic form of business practice.
Here is an article from a personal website about unauthorized signposting in Sacramento. It is already a year old, and yes, there is also a translation in German. So you may have already read this before. But if not, read it, and see how everytime you get a spam for diet pills chances are the sender got duped himself into 4000 dollars debt just to have the privelege.

On a lighter note, look everybody, it's the air car!

This "game" is just a shameless promo for a new book which I intend to buy after I have read part one in the series (I ordered it two weeks ago, but has not yet arrived). It's nothing that clever or original in this day and age (the link, I mean) but it is absolutely adorable.

This story reminded me of Chancellor Karl Toffel's suggestion to save the planet in "Raumschiff Erde": "turn the books back into trees!"

Like I always say, start with stupid, end with stupid.

Posted by Daev @ 10:19 PM CST [Link]

Monday, June 9, 2003

Looky here what I found.
It's a magazine about stuff people have found. The founder (ech bad pun) of the mag read aloud some recent scores on this week's episode of This American Life, which is a most interesting radio show. Go on down there and listen online. Really.

I won't be doing so much writing for Pentacost break, but if you have a free hour or so then go have a listen to one of the shows in the archive. Listen and comprehend, get the picture?

Which brings me to another point. Some of my students have questioned my motives for putting up this here little blog which you are reading right now. It is a sort of experiment I started this semester. I don't try too hard to be eloquent or clever; mostly I just put up links I find amusing. The whole point, if you are still wondering, has the primary Zweck of giving my students a good idea what kind of material they will be encountering in the final tests. There are not only links to written articles, I have listed plenty of good links to the spoken word which you would hopefully find more interesting than the standard learning materials faire.

And speaking of the final exams, which were originally set for the last two lesson dates, I may just move them forward to leave the last date free. Maybe then I could even have your grades for you before class lets out. Besides which, I am in an aweful hurry to get home. I haven't seen my family in a year and a half, and I haven't sunk my heels in the red clay mud of Clark Hill Lake and gone waterskiing in two years.

I really hope I get some entries on that caption contest. It's actually a tried and true method, having your students fill in the dialog bubbles. You'd be surprised in the results as to the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the students to put together viable real-life converational dialog onto paper. It's quite the learning experience. Anyway, bring 'em in next week. Voting will be online, which will be an exercise for me in writing a little php or something. We'll see...

Have a good week off, and maybe we'll see each other at the BRN.

(new jam)

Posted by Daev @ 12:37 AM CST [Link]

Sunday, June 8, 2003

The caption contest ends in the week after the break, starting June 16. Voting will be online, I suppose. Don't be a Zeke, hand it in next week.

Posted by Daev @ 12:06 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, June 5, 2003

Posted by Daev @ 06:25 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, June 3, 2003

according to this article, Herman Hesse is the Bill Gates of West Africa.

And he seems like a nice guy, too.

Posted by Daev @ 10:51 PM CST [Link]

Monday, June 2, 2003

Update on Salam Pax:

Althought I haven't seen him with my own eyes, my suspicions about that mysterious Iraqi blogger have turned out to be for nought. Salam Pax is, apparently, exactly what he claimed to be, if we are to take this article at face value. And that is good, too; he is a most interesting read.
I am still wondering, though, if the phrase "book deal" truly hasn't entered his mind yet...

Enough of that, let's us scrape up the loose change under our couches and buy a big boat! Just four and a half million USD. But don't worry; if we all go down there and make clucking noises at the poor detail work, we can surely shave off a hundred bucks.

Posted by Daev @ 11:11 PM CST [Link]

Sunday, June 1, 2003

oops... this entry had a bad link to the ttf data. I done fixed it now, and it is here. A thousand pardons.

Posted by Daev @ 04:11 AM CST [Link]

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