Taken Seriously Amusing » Humor, Science, Technology, and General Commentary

You win if you have artichokes in your garden.

#AskSisyphus – How to plant a successful vegetable or herb garden

Alright, I know this is a day late and yesterday was relatively silent and for that I apologize. Hopefully the usefulness and instructive nature of this topic will partially make up for that. JT’s Question #4 today asks the following: What are the tentpoles of planting a successful vegetable or herb garden? Thank you again …

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I can see clearly ... I swear ...

The Convoluted Filter

Dealing with people is challenging. I have this image in my mind of those old diving helmets where your head is stuffed into this massive copper dome type thing with tiny flip-back bolt on windows and you can’t see for shit or breathe real well … and you’re basically just doing the best you can …

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(Not actual footage)

The End of the World

Well that was a night spent avoiding all forms of responsibility big and small. As expected, I spent the vast majority of my time outside of work driving today so I have very little to give you but perhaps something to think about. I listened to this weekend’s This American Life which was about Global …

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Yep, we danced up there.

A Cameo by City Sisyphus

Swanky City Sisyphus made an appearance this weekend with not one but two trips into San Francisco for evening plans. The young lady I’ve been seeing gave me this fantastic wool jacket for my birthday a while back, and we finally got it tailored last week. I picked it up from the tailor on Friday …

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Dry Cheekiness

Today’s Friday and I needed more sleep than I allowed time for last night so … consider this if you will and I’ll leave you alone until Monday: I sat here for a while and tried to come up with something cheeky and I came up dry, and nobody likes dry cheekiness so I’m just …

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#AskSisyphus – How to plant a successful vegetable or herb garden The Convoluted Filter The End of the World A Cameo by City Sisyphus Dry Cheekiness

May 24

#AskSisyphus – How to plant a successful vegetable or herb garden

Categories:

AskSisyphus, Nature

You win if you have artichokes in your garden.

You win if you have artichokes in your garden.

Alright, I know this is a day late and yesterday was relatively silent and for that I apologize. Hopefully the usefulness and instructive nature of this topic will partially make up for that. JT’s Question #4 today asks the following:

What are the tentpoles of planting a successful vegetable or herb garden?

Thank you again for the questions JT, this one takes us in a different direction and it’s been fun to learn about. I’ll save my personal history with gardening for the very end and jump right into it. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: #AskSisyphus, Garden, Gardening, Gardens, Herbs, Nature, Vegetables

May 22

The Convoluted Filter

Categories:

Personal, Relationships

I can see clearly ... I swear ...

I can see clearly … I swear …

Dealing with people is challenging.

I have this image in my mind of those old diving helmets where your head is stuffed into this massive copper dome type thing with tiny flip-back bolt on windows and you can’t see for shit or breathe real well … and you’re basically just doing the best you can with what you’ve got. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everything you see and experience is what’s there. What you get from other people, is what’s really going on. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Personal, relationships

May 21

The End of the World

Categories:

(Not actual footage)

(Not actual footage)

Well that was a night spent avoiding all forms of responsibility big and small.

As expected, I spent the vast majority of my time outside of work driving today so I have very little to give you but perhaps something to think about. I listened to this weekend’s This American Life which was about Global Warming and some of the people who are advocates for change, Republicans, state officials, and people in general. One gentleman said that at the current rate of CO2 creation we will raise the earth’s temperature by 2 degrees celsius in 14 years. Two degrees sounds like a piddly amount, and an odd number to quote, but it’s the number that is touted to represent the end of things as we know it. Read the rest of this entry »

May 20

A Cameo by City Sisyphus

Categories:

Yep, we danced up there.

Yep, we danced up there.

Swanky City Sisyphus made an appearance this weekend with not one but two trips into San Francisco for evening plans. The young lady I’ve been seeing gave me this fantastic wool jacket for my birthday a while back, and we finally got it tailored last week. I picked it up from the tailor on Friday and quickly raced to meet her before we drove to Millbrae and then took BART into the city. I’m relatively new to public transportation so it was an experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: City Sisyphus, Dancing, Personal

May 17

Dry Cheekiness

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Today’s Friday and I needed more sleep than I allowed time for last night so … consider this if you will and I’ll leave you alone until Monday:

I sat here for a while and tried to come up with something cheeky and I came up dry, and nobody likes dry cheekiness so I’m just going to bed.

Have a great weekend everyone!

May 16

#AskSisyphus – Does Thunderbolt technology have what it takes?

Categories:

AskSisyphus, Tech

Thunderbolt, the once and future port that nobody uses or knows about.

Thunderbolt: the once and future port that nobody uses or knows about.

Happy Thursday! Today’s #AskSisyphus brings us into the technological field with JT’s third question:

Does Thunderbolt technology have what it takes to become a successful technology?

I think this is one of those subjective questions, or rather it compels a subjective answer, so hopefully you will allow me to speak from personal opinion as opposed to sheer scientific theory and research. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: #AskSisyphus, computers, Tech, Thunderbolt

May 15

Karmic Retribution

Categories:

This was almost me today.

This was almost me today.

You remember how I saved a dog from certain death on 101 a few weeks back? It looks like Karma’s working in reverse on that one. I do something nice and then something not-so-nice happens to me … well … okay it happened to the man who bounced off the front of my car, but I was terrified so I think it counts a little bit for me too. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Driving, Karma, Personal

May 14

Moral Conundrums: Light vs. Dark

Categories:

These two dudes are fighting for your relationship! Wait, what?!

These two dudes are fighting for your relationship! Wait, what?!

Young Sisyphus would be extremely upset with Current Sisyphus for saying this, but life is a myriad of greys, many of which falling no where near a clearly black or clearly white area. This is true in life, and is often never depicted very well in video games. The decisions you make are clearly good or bad, and the results very obviously align with one or the other and depending on the game your story progresses according to your decisions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Video Games

May 13

I’m Just Tired

Categories:

Exercise, Personal

Two comments: 1. I need one of these for Lucy 2. You need to be careful image searching "hot"

Two comments:
1. I need one of these for Lucy (is that a hovering bird bath?!)
2. You need to be careful image searching “hot”

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I don’t know how life is where you’re at, but out here in California things have been pretty nice lately. It’s been too warm and too sunny, which if you live anywhere but here sounds like I’m being obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious, but it’s really been unseasonably warm and while that’s nice (or at least nicer than when it’s unseasonably cold) it represents two things to me: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: exercise, Mother's Day, Personal, weather

May 10

Butt First

Categories:

Load them butt first. Trust me.

Load them butt first. Trust me.

Yesterday we learned about mosquitos, bugs, and bug repellents. We thought about spiders earlier this week and now I want to talk about Nerf gun mechanics because I know some of you are keenly interested in such things. Physics and science are awesome and amazing things, so follow me on a little journey down the road. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Humor, Nerf, work

May 09

#AskSisyphus – What’s the best bug repellent (and why do mosquitos prefer some people over others)?

Categories:

AskSisyphus, Science

From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204660604574378933761528214.html

From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204660604574378933761528214.html

Week two of the JT series of #AskSisyphus brings us a question about bug repellent:

“Question 2: What is the most effective mosquito/bug repellent for a mid-summer BBQ?” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: #AskSisyphus, Science

May 08

An Evolutionary Ponderance

Categories:

... and then we had Easter.

… and then we had Easter.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

In the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson: The egg, but it wasn’t laid by a chicken.

Evolution is a wonderfully amazing and intricate thing. I was just standing outside chaperoning Lucy’s outdoor activities when I noticed a spider crawling along the screen door next to me. I looked around and noticed a fly or two, and a moth, some old spider webs hung all over and it got me thinking. Read the rest of this entry »

May 07

Grammar, Apps, and Monitors Oh My

Categories:

Too many monitors my ass! (oh and ditch the Change poster for a 50" TV)

No such thing as too many monitors. (oh and ditch the Change poster for a 50″ TV)

Here are some thoughts and comments to take you on your way.

Grammar is important. As some of you saw when I tweeted it last night, a comma can mean all the difference in the world. Grammar and spelling anyway, I think this example is more of a spelling tool than grammar but here it is.

It’s the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Tech

May 06

New Phone, New Case?

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I picked up a new phone on Friday and even though it took me almost two full hours of standing around in the store, bugging the shit out of my Dad while he was at work since he’s the main name on our shared account, it still seems like it was worth it. They gave me an unexpected $100 for my old phone. When they told me they would do that I couldn’t get it out of my pocket fast enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: cell phone, Galaxy S4, Samsung, Tech

May 03

At least it’s Friday … and there are video games to escape in

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Well, we made it to Friday again. Accomplishing that this week has been no small feat. I went out this evening with the young lady I’ve been seeing and after being with me for ten to fifteen minutes she said I just looked and sounded defeated … and I couldn’t have put it any better myself. This week beat me soundly.

I did manage to get some good multiplayer gaming in though on Tuesday and Wednesday. I don’t know if any of you are actively following me on Twitch.tv or on Youtube but if you’re not, let me give you a taste of what you’re missing. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Video Games

May 02

#AskSisyphus – Why does Honey Smacks or Golden Crisp make my urine smell like the cereal?

Categories:

This week’s AskSisyphus question (and possibly the next nine weeks as well) comes from @JTIPhotos on Twitter. I’m not sure he meant this first one to be taken seriously or not but I figure even silly questions sometimes have interesting answers. JT sent me eight questions so far today and I think he’s planning on sending two more before the day is out. I want all of you to take note. His enthusiasm is something I want all of you to emulate.

Jumping right into it, JT reveals his breakfast preferences and a personal fact about his bathroom experiences in one simple question:

https://twitter.com/JTIPhotos/status/329634450671554561

“Why does Honey Smacks/Golden Crisp makes your pee smell exactly like the cereal? #AskSisyphus @SrslyAmusing”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: #AskSisyphus, Cereal, Urine

May 01

No More Jury Duty!

Categories:

This Sisyphus has served his civil duty to the town where he grew up in by checking a website twice over the course of two evenings. I was summoned to serve Jury Duty back home for Tuesday of this week and when I checked the website on Monday night it said “Come in on Wednesday, but check the website first!” … so I checked the website tonight and voila, I’ve completed my Jury Duty for the next two years. Thank you, come again … later. Read the rest of this entry »

Apr 30

Piece of Shit

Categories:

Like this. (only with a computer ... without the ocean or the beach ... just some shitty tile and carpet from the early 80's)

Like this. (only with a computer … without the ocean or the beach … just some shitty tile and carpet from the early 80′s)

You ever have those days where you have a bad experience and it sorta ruins everything else for the rest of the day for you? And when you get home you think you’ve escaped it and you can forget about everything and relax? And then you try to move some furniture around at home, because you got this little stand that would be perfect for propping your computer up off the floor, and you smash your finger while doing it? And then when you get your computer moved down onto the stand, which sticks up a good 10-12″ off the ground, you give it a push to move it closer to your desk only to have the screws holding on one of the two legs tear out of the shitty wood (apparently it’s made of wood, this stand) and have everything slide back with a pathetic sigh? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Anger, Frustration, Humor

Apr 29

Lesson Learned (Both early, and too late)

Categories:

Humor, Personal

Like this only without the frosted glass.

Like this only without the frosted glass.

There are moments in life where you learn valuable lessons. Sometimes those lessons come before they’re really truly needed, and sometimes they come at a very inopportune moment. This weekend both of those happened to me in the same instant. You might be wondering how that might be possible, but if you follow me for a moment I’ll explain.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Family, Humor, Personal

Apr 25

Site Unity and Design (and how Stress affects us)

Categories:

Something like this maybe

Something like this maybe

I have grand plans to go to BlogHer 2013 with a friend in July. It’s being hosted in Chicago this year and I’m told I will need vast quantities of business cards to hand out to pretty much everyone I meet. I’d like to include the video game streaming bit, along with the logo I’m using over there, and I want to incorporate everything into a unifying theme between my blog and my Twitch channel and perhaps, if possible, the Youtube channel as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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