The Agrinautica

   Pretend this is on a manila background. Insert reality television reference here. Okay. So. There's not actually a poll in therealljidol this week, but we're all accustomed to poll watching. But there's no poll to watch!! What's one to do? So I decided to post a totally unofficial unapproved unendorsed no-actual-bearing-on-lj-idol poll. Please vote and then obsess over the continuing poll standings. Perhaps discuss in comments which are your favorites, perhaps one is an overlooked underdog you'd like to bring everyone's attention to??

   It occurs to me, that life in an office is as unfamiliar a setting to me as some sort of improbable science fiction. My normal workday consists of working in the forest surrounded by kangaroos, as the kookaburra laughs overhead.

   And I haven't posted a poll in a long time anyway, so here's a poll with some office life stereotypes that come to mind.

[Poll #2079896]

   I'm sure there's other office cliches I'm forgetting at this moment. Please feel free to brainstorm them in comments!

   Okay so for the last two months I've been using a profile picture on facebook that rather intentionally looks kinda like a creepy trucker, and I was thinking its time to change that. Plus, much to the relief of many friends and family, I think I'm going to get rid of the mustache very soon, so I needed to take some good pictures with it first. I've narrowed it down to three pictures I didn't manage to terribly mess up one way or another.

( Three gratuitous self portraits and a poll )

   Most recent LJ Idol poll is up. With 28 people remaining, its easy to read them all. I encourage doing so. And voting! (=

[Poll #1348977]


( FAQ: OMGWTF is that the actual poll? )

   This is my 1,050th entry, which means I've averaged 20.2 entries / month over the last 1,562 days.

   Yesterday we had 30 in 30 updates from xaositecte, ironlioninzion, bartgroks, beastmario, eazyt, pavel_lishin, witless_nerd, abunchofcrap and emosnail. There are a few more that are following along "unofficially" or its unclear whether or not they've joined in (and/or there may be people I'm not aware of). To those who have not yet joined the premier internet related event of the year, fear not! It is not too late to join up.
   Even if one didn't update yesterday, one can still start now and as long as one finishes 30 entries by the 30th one's still good (and thats only 3% harder than if you'd started yesterday)!

   My favourite of yesterday's entries goes to Xaositecte and his list of awards to be earned by one's friend further their social life. So to speak.


   Anyway, to drift into metabloggery for a moment, I thought I'd offer some ideas on what to blog about. A number of you have taken up a challenge to drastically increase your blogging and no doubt are rather concerned about this very question.
   First and foremost, the most optimum subject is of course something original and hilarious. Some examples that come to mind are professor_david's Jesus Cthulhu post of 30 in 30 II, apoplecticfittz's Ten Blogmandments (turns out religion is hilarious I guess), or xaositecte's 30 in 30 Standard Template.
   Remember that even the most innocuous adventures can be made hilarious with a little multimedia a la photoshop.
   Constantly take note of potential ideas. Stockpile them. Let them ferment. Then triple distill them.
   If the spark of creative hilarity just isn't ... sparking, you can probably go off on a philosophical / political rant about something.
   Keep your audience in mind. Speak to them specifically. Try to illicit feedback. Because not getting any feedback feels like you're talking to yourself. You can only truly transcend the blogosphere once you've made it interactive.
   For that matter, most of my best ideas have come from talking to other people. Go forth and have hilarious conversations with people via instant messenger or what have you (or god forbid, real life -- but certainly not myspace).
   Interact with the other 30 in 30 participants. Even if you don't know them! You're both going through the same thing.
   My empirical blogological research indicates there is a strong corrolation between commenting on other people's blogs and receiving comments on your own.
   Build on the themes other bloggers post on.
   Some topics have traditionally been done by several people, such as Five Television Proposals.
   Do something useful like BlogSETI.
   Do some amazing feat in real life and blog about it, such as the legendary time apoplecticfittz spent 24 hours in a greenhouse!

   For more wisdom and the technique and craft of blogology, see this tag.


   And now, if you will, I need to gather some information for research purposes.[Poll #996038]


Meanwhile In the Real World
   I went to a bar at The Block in Orange last night with Nidia & her friend Janice. The end.
   Today we learned that chickens float. One of our chickens was spooked by the dog next door and ran right into the pool. She bobbed there like a duck, only not nearly as graceful.

   Okay finished my paper today, then slept until about twenty minutes ago, and now Kristy and I are about to scamper off to someone's party. So today for the last time this 30 in 30 I'm going to use the excuse of bein acutely short on time.

   After being steeped in 4th & 5th Century history research for the last few weeks I kinda want to write a historical fiction story wherein I fill in the holes in the historical record and craft the whole thing into a good narrative. I think the narrative structure from the paper I just wrote could be broken down into three or four big chapters that once expanded would be a lot more digestable and interesting.
   Apparently there is a historical fiction novel called The Eagle in Snow by one Wallace Breem thats set in around this period. I tried to get it from the school library today but the UC system only has one copy and its in San Diego. d= But this story as far as I can tell completely makes up a major influential storyline.. I think I could make it all interesting without such liberties.

   When I was a wee lad I was fascinated by knights and King Arthur and such things, as wee lads are want to do. However my perception of these things was that they were inextricably tied to chivalry and knights in plate armour, and I was gradually disillusioned to learn that these things in turn were inexorably tied to stuffy aristocrats and the rennaissance. I certainly never imagined these things would take place previous to the year 1000 or so, and especially not overlap with Rome. Rome was a weird fluke with no knights, and military enterprizes that were so efficient and thought out they were actually boring.
   Its only recently that I've begun to realize that not only does King Arthur take place in the 5th or 6th Century, but so do all the norse sagas, which most of us aren't familiar with but they're the same kind of saucy adventuring and dragon slaying, etc. It involved cavalry rather than chivalrous knights, and Roman forts rather than castles, but its a time when the personalities of military leaders could shape the course of history and saucy adventures were to be had. Only now am I realizing that the legends were true! (or at least, not completely a lie about bougousie stuffy aristocrats)


[Poll #748996]*by "updating" I of course mean reloading.
**After posting I realized that there's a flaw in this poll in that it makes no differentiation between those who honestly don't even know what 30 in 30 is and those who just don't care. And this is relevant because if some of you are somehow oblivious I definitely want to blogvangalize to you asap. In the mean time, however, Just vote "30 in 30 what?" if you've ignored it all along.

   In Other News: Justice Harney brought my attention to a recent Court ruling that mandated a dispute be resolved by rock paper scissors. Man, I want to be a judge.


   Okay I've really gotta run.

The Gazebo Incident
   Three years ago today there was no entry. Thats because at the time I was in the hospital due "blunt head trauma" due to getting kicked in the head while unconscious due to a lucky hit one of three guys who jumped me in a park got on my temple.

   We had leads on who these people were, but officer Calvin Chang declined to do anything about it. Needless to say, Officer Chang was fired within a month.

   The ASUCD Senate however decided to proclaim that Calvin Chang had done a good job. I wasn't very popular with them back then. Chang got rehired, its gone back and forth and now he's suing the regents.
   Fortunately UC Regents President Dynes has got my back.
   Just kidding. Sorry to those of you who don't get that one, but its pretty funny really.

   Incidently, in a situation roughly analogous to mine, which Chang termed "just a fight," a guy was given three years in prison for knocking their opponent unconscious and kicking them in the head, and he wasn't even the attacker.


Controvercial Polling
   Many people believe that one should be able to marry whomever they want. If we combine this philosophical tenet with a moral tenet held to be true by a major religion of today (yet forbidden by the dominant religion of the United States and not questioned here), we get an interesting question almost never discussed here:
[Poll #744737]

Picture of the Day

Guess which two people here ended up dating

Previously on Emosnail
   Year Ago Today: Controversial Political Topics! - Estate taxes & the gradual elimination of cigarettes from society


   Pick of the Day: emd, for drawing portraits of fellow bloggists. Keeping in mind there are two hours left of this day, I will still consider anything posted these last two hours, but right now I'm about to go over to Kristy's to work on my paper there so I had to get this done now.