Hot on the heels of my assertion that I would like a MacBook Air — eventually — here are some incredibly compelling reasons to rethink this decision and get it much, much sooner. You never know when a situation will arise, and I, for one, like to be prepared.

[joyoftech via newlaunches via gizmodo]

I understand the cracker concern.

I’ve been noticing a few blogs/sites lately that have been posting images of old-time advertisements that are pretty damn creepy. The focus of the creepiness seems to be overt misogyny (hmph - like that’s ever been a problem), but a baby with a razor is rather disturbing as well. At least it’s an illustration and not a photo.

Mental_floss just linked to a selection of ten of the creepiest including these (click for full-size - really, do):

And the gossip blog Jezebel has a collection of what they call “oldies but goodies” with these horrifying examples:

There’s some overlap on this Daily Mail (UK) page entitled, “The outrageously politically incorrect adverts from the time equality forgot” but a few additionally crazy ones (which were collected in a postcard book called “You Mean A Woman Can Open It?: The Woman’s Place In The Classic Age Of Advertising” - seems to be out of print as it’s selling for $35 via sellers on Amazon):

Everything’s heading over to 3D again these days. Like TETRICAL - 3D Tetris!

I’m calling this volume 1 because I can’t imagine that I won’t do some sort of post like this in the future - a summary of stuff that’s been helping me occupy my time lately. So here goes:

White Dwarf : a fairly addictive (simple) Flash game. You gather green circles with the white circle, while avoiding the red circles. Blue circles bank green circles and are OK.

Project Prostitute: utterly NSFW warning. So this person had the idea to ask random people to draw prostitutes. It’s spread and people are submitting their own illustrations to the site. Some are raunchy, some are wrong, some are funny, some are surprisingly lovely. When I’m not laughing at the stick figure renditions (I guess some people really can’t draw) I can even recognize this for what is really is: a supremely interesting sociological project/experiment capturing how people view sex workers… some with disdain, some with disgust, some with degradation, but some with sadness and even a certain kind of admiration. Interesting to say the very least, once you get past the surface.

A Selection of Perfect Ads: These things inspire me. I’m sad that way.

The Hype Machine: It’s been a few months since a friend told me about this site. At first, I looked and wasn’t all that impressed with the look and feel so I didn’t return for a while. What was I thinking? I mean, really - a music blog aggregator that lets you search for freely and legally shared mp3s from bloggers who are reviewing music and introducing you to new music you might not stumble across in your daily travels? How on earth could that be cool or useful?

Yeah, I was a bit slow on the uptake, but I’m pretty officially addicted (thanks, Kofi!) You know how you can go to Wikipedia or IMDb and look for one fact or actor and end up going on a fantastic voyage for 45 minutes, adding books to your Amazon wishlist and DVDs to your Netflix queue? (Or is that just me?) Well, the Hype Machine does the same thing but with music. Search for an artist or a song and then see how your trip unfolds as you discover them on a lists bands someone saw this year, along with another band who made their list of top albums of 2007, then listen to an mp3 from that band, link through to a post about who they’re touring with… etc. etc.

CHA MA GU DAO: “(ancient tea and horse trail) is a contemporary tea house offering 250 of the world’s finest teas, herbal and fruit infusions.” OMG. Best new place ever. Located in nearby Montclair, NJ - a teahouse from the heavens. Tons of teas and tea blends and tisanes to choose from, and cookies made with tea to boot (the lemongrass-ginger cookies were the favorite of the variety my friend and I tried). Perfect for an afternoon or evening of tea and conversation and cookies. And you can order the teas online, too - ship a bit of Jersey home to you?

For those who aren’t grammar and punctuation nerds (albeit a bit free-thinking when it comes to blogging), here’s a definition of the Oxford comma from Wikipedia:

“The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always and or or; sometimes nor) that precedes the last item in a list of three or more items. The phrase “Portugal, Spain, and France”, for example, is written with the serial comma, while “Portugal, Spain and France”, identical in meaning, is written without it. There is no consensus among writers or editors on the use of the serial comma. It is closer to being standard use in American English than it is in British English.”

I don’t generally use the Oxford comma in a list of items, but I do before a grammatical conjunction. I need to deal with this inconsistency. It’s simply unacceptable.

In the meantime, though, there’s a good song by Vampire Weekend called “Oxford Comma.”And really, I think the first line of the song speaks for most people and their stance on the Oxford comma issue.

Vampire Weekend - “Oxford Comma”

If this was a test, I’d have gotten a B. And that’s on being able to distinguish quotes from “existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, uber-politician Bill Clinton, Jedi master Yoda and Radiohead frontman/lyricist Thom Yorke.”

The one that tripped me up was “Success is not the measure of a man but a triumph over those who choose to hold him back.”