Overnight Open Thread

Well CDR M is off having a life and none of the usual suspects heeded my call for volunteers so that means tonight you get all the dross that was unfit for decent days of the week.

Five Bits of Advice That Don''t Make Sense Until later

Okay it's Cracked and all but I still think every 16 year old ought to get a copy of this essay. I wish I had and I still managed to turn out mostly okay. Mostly.

Sure most wouldn't get it, but hopefully it would sink in just enough to keep tickling at their amygdala and hopefully steer them away subconsciously from some of the more regretful life decisions.

On why writing well matters:

Today, you can't function without a PC and every job makes you write.

If you're working in the warehouse at Cockrings International, odds are that every day, you have to send out at least one email -- maybe you have to file some kind of report, or send a request for forklift repairs, or maybe you'll be in charge of ordering, whatever. And I don't care how uneducated the guys in the buttplug department may be, if your messages are full of typos and jumbled words, they are going to make assumptions about your intelligence.

...In an online world, your writing is going to form a shell around you, and most of the people who interact with you will only see the shell.

On depression and mental issues:

But understand this (and if you're in the age group I'm talking about, I hope to God that I'm wrong about you not getting this for years): You have more people who care about you than you think. Back when I was fighting that demon (I like to picture myself using a giant anime sword that's on fire), I swore on my soul that not a single person in the world gave a shit whether I lived or died. As I got older and that smothering black veil lifted, I realized how incredibly wrong I was. There were dozens of people who would have been negatively affected by my early check-out.

You'll find the same. Even if it turns out that number is two, that should mean something to you because it translates to this: Those two people live in a better world simply because you draw breath.

And then there's a whole section on this:

Butterflies in the Stomach is Not Love

The 'Undocumented'
Apparently the WaPo simply cannot bring themselves to use the term illegal aliens and insist on always referring to them as 'undocumented workers'. So Neo-neocon suggests the following addition to the WaPo stylebook:

thieves: undocumented owners

prisoners: unpardoned innocents

rapists: unsanctioned sex partners

embezzlers: unpaid workers

prostitutes: unmarried wives

terrorists: un-uniformed soldiers

Airships Are Back?
Well Hybrid Air Ships has scored two big contracts to deliver their air ships.

"Hybrid Air Vehicles has recently achieved two massive commercial wins that seem to indicate that the airship has a very rosy future indeed. The aircraft's versatility plus an ability to stay airborne for 21 days enabled HAV to win a 517million contract (€370million) to supply a Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) to the U.S. Army for deployment in Afghanistan starting in 2012. Whilst the LEMV is a relatively small vehicle designed for surveillance, HAV has now announced a civil customer for their heavy-lift variant."

Star Trek is 45 Years Old
And in honor of that here is Gene Roddenberry explaining how the original pilot, "The Cage", came to be.

Old Guys Who Played College Football
Well Alan Moore at age 61 is the only Vietnam vet who's currently playing college football. And then you have Tim Frisby who played for SC back in 2004 at age 39. Of course he was a former US Army Ranger, had served in the first Gulf War and Kosovo and apparently still kept his moves:

Stranger still, Frisby wanted to try out for one of the fastest spots on the roster: wide receiver. Luckily, his years in the military had preserved both his NCAA eligibility and his body; Frisby still ran a 4.6-second 40-yard dash. In 2005 Frisby notched his first career catch, a nine-yard reception, and won the team’s offensive GPA award with a 3.6 mark in his journalism major.

Abandoned Disney
Here urban explorers journey into the parts of Disney World they don't want you to see including Discovery island (closed in 1999) and River Country Waterpark.

Back To School With Mr. Rogers
Even decades since I last watched him there's still something infinitely relaxing about Mr. Rogers. I sure hope his show is still being shown on TV.

"He is talented to the point of genius": The Ultimate Recommendation Letter
Here a teacher, Roger Hill, at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois writes a personal and glowing reference letter to Cornell for a young student of his called Orson Welles.

The Yahoo AoSHQ group. Bla bla bla. And don't forget about the Job Bank.

Tonight's post brought to you by unproductivity:

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posted by Maetenloch at 10:26 PM

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