Georgia Pok Guy

Apparently I should just go with my first instinct when it comes to gift ideas.  Questioning myself for reasons beyond my comprehension, I queried my brother about what he might be wanting for his upcoming birthday.  Lo and behold, it turned out to be the very thing I was thinking of getting him in the first place.  Stupid brain, quit second guessing crap!  Also, going through my e-mails, I found that my manner of asking my brother what he wants for his birthday seems consistent from year to year: it involves the words “anything”, “particular”, and “hankerin’”.

Yesterday I saw a woman “walking” her dog by driving after it in her car.  The dog was not on a leash, so this involved driving down little side streets as it wandered about the neighborhood.  And you have to wonder, at what point does being lazy end up involving more work than just getting off your duff?  Because I believe this woman had passed that point.

Today I was reminded of something that I had learned in the past year or so: people in my profession are shy.  This initial thought brought with it a bevy of similar thoughts, like that being shy around equally shy people makes dealings a lot harder, and that even people in management can be, god forbid, shy.  As someone who is, euphemistically, taciturn, this was quite the epiphany.  For one, it became painfully clear that if I wanted to interact with these people I would have initiate things.  Not just in terms of water cooler banter, but with actual work.  And this means operating outside, what is scientifically termed, el zona de comfort.  Fortunately as I’ve aged this has become easier, or at least, less nerve wrecking.  But it still isn’t something that comes naturally, and so requires a good deal of kicking myself in the keister to get me going.  Yet, while I recognize this condition, and see it making life more difficult for all involved, I find it amusing to watch older people of a higher station struggle with it.  Of course, that’s just what I get to look forward to by that age.  Hopefully I’m better able to handle the twinge of anxiety by then.  Stupid genes…

Why does Ben Fold’s “Kylie From Connecticut” remind me of a heaping bowl of staple sauce?

The nesia, from the Greek nesos (νῆσος), meaning island, is a unit of measure for the number of ridiculously large stone coins in a certain area.  Historically, the unit was defined in relation to micronesia, which is 10^-6 nesia.  One nesia is equivalent to 6.8 * 10^9 ridiculously large stone coins scattered over an area of 3.114 * 10^9 square kilometers.  The symbol for nesia is n (never capital N).

SI prefixes are often employed to denote decimal multiples and submultiples of the nesia, as follows:

• 10^24 n - yottanesia: a wicked large number of ridiculously large stone coins over an equally wicked large area
• 10^21 n - zettanesia
• 10^18 n - exanesia
• 10^15 n - petanesia
• 10^12 n - teranesia
• 10^9 n - giganesia: not to be confused with a famous kaiju villain from the 1960s
• 10^6 n - meganesia: a prominent example is the Meganesia planetary system, the planets of which are speculated to be covered in ridiculously large stone coins
• 10^3 n - kilonesia
• 10^2 n - hectonesia
• 10^1 n - decanesia
• 10^-1 n - decinesia: approximately the land area of Earth, with one ridiculously large stone coin per 10 people.
• 10^-2 n - centinesia: think Africa covered in 68 million giant stone coins
• 10^-3 n - millinesia: approximately equivalent to the area of India; fun fact, India is currently working on creating 6,800,000 ridiculously large stone coins to meet the criteria of being approximately 1 millinesia
• 10^-6 n - micronesia: a prominent example is Polynesia
• 10^-9 n - nanonesia: Gibraltar can be approximated as 2 nanonesia after the eccentric English adventurer, Sir Cecil Raffles, brought 7 ridiculously large stone coins to the territory in 1802
• 10^-12 n - piconesia
• 10^-15 n - femtonesia
• 10^-18 n - attonesia: the number of ridiculously large stone coins that can fit on the head of a pin
• 10^-21 n - zeptonesia
• 10^-24 n - yoctonesia: along with the other nesia brother and sister, Wakko and Dot

Along with the SI prefixes, there are a number of non-SI units expressed in nesias:

• Indonesia: approximately 6 * 10^-4 nesia
• Melanesia: approximately 3 * 10^-4 nesia

See also:

• fiche
• phone
• soft

Recently I stumbled upon the webcomic Wasted Talent, and all I can say is that reading the archives for days on end has wrecked havoc upon my language.  Not in a I’m-cussing-like-a-sailor way, but in an oh-the-noes kinda way.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed reading the comic, and its overt adorableness is part of its charm.  The protagonist, Jam (or JAM?), reminds me a lot of Yukino from Kare Kano (without the mean streak and duplicity).  But, dagnabit, if I didn’t start slipping in various cutesome Internet neologisms after each session of reading the archives!  It doesn’t really help my street cred!

Also, why do I find the line “It’s called a keffiyeh, and I wear it to support Palestine, ACTUALLY!” so friggin’ hysterical?  Probably because it’s spoken by a guy pretending to be a hipster (NSFW link).

Oh, and the nexus between these two things is Questionable Content.  I finally caught up on that as well.  I’ve probably been reading more webcomics than is good for me recently…

Inspired by something I overheard at the grocery store today:

Separate bags for everything!

Boo!

OK, separate bags for nothing!

Boo!

Alright, separate bags for some things, miniature American flags for others!

Yay!

I think this comic best explains why we are so despondent in our adult lives…

Laughter truly is the best medicine!  I just watched two episodes of Arrested Development and have noted a marked improvement in how I feel!  Or maybe it was the acetaminophen and ibuprofen that I took beforehand?  No, definitely Arrested Development…

Today as I was parking at my dinner destination I noticed that the car in front of me had Missouri plates.  My train of thought was, verbatim, as follows: “Cool, Missouri!  The Show-Me State!”  For some reason I find this reaction strange, mostly due to my inclusion of the state nickname.  Of course, it’s probably stranger still that I find my own thoughts strange.  And I won’t escalate things from there…