ThingsAmongMany

Learning new vocabulary terms is important for all of us. I mean, how else could we possibly maintain an eloquent repertoire of colloquialisms to share with our brethren during times of conversational bonding? But - as we all recall from out S.A.T. days, learning new vocabulary terms is also one of the more boring things we can dedicate our time to. Or at least it was until now. There’s a new site in town that’s aiming to change that: TheFuckingWordOfTheDay.com.

They take the same lofty words that you’d want to learn elsewhere, and put them in a context that will stick with the perverted, raunchy sense of humor that we’ve all grown accustomed to maintaining these days (after all, is “fuck” really that offensive anymore?). Here’s a perfect example in their own words:

Let’s say you’re trying to learn the word assiduous.

Here’s the example sentence that dictionary.com gives:

But he was a man who by assiduous reading, through his devotion to literature, had become the quintessential successful gentleman, a man who could hold his own with the most cultivated companions.

and here’s The Fucking Word of the Day’s:

He was crippled by her assiduous dedication to the blow-job she was performing on him.

Now, which one do you think you’ll remember in ten minutes?

We (the generic and general “we”) talk a lot about social media and the connectedness of our web-based world. But the artistic side of all the data gathered is something that we don’t pay nearly enough attention to in our discussions, but there’s a ton of opportunity for interesting twists of public data…

Case in point, check out thatwasepic.com. A decontextualized collection of YouTube comments that seem somehow more poignant when removed from the slew of adolescent banter that generally accompanies any YouTube video.

The internet isn’t necessarily the most kid-friendly place in the world. Sure, there’s plenty of content out there that’s suitable, but without some sort of curation, your youngins are certain to run into some less than wholesome moments along the way. Tom (aka meat99) – head POKEr, internet buff, and father of two – has made it his business to remedy the situation by introducing the KideoPlayer.

A mashup of POKE’s UpL8.tv player, the KideoPlayer is a carefully curated selection of videos, handpicked from the YouTube archives to be kid-safe and often educational. In Tom’s words,

I will spend my free time sourcing, identifying and curating the safest, most educational (and most FUN) YouTube videos I can find. This ongoing list of videos will be served up in a simple little interactive package that I can sit down and play with my boys.

So if you’re a parent who’s interested in helping your kids grow up digital in a safe way, definitely check out the KideoPlayer. You’d be amazed at how quickly they’ll learn to slap the spacebar for a new video, and now you can rest assured that the content they’ll see is kid-safe.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard of BitTorrent, that fuzzy definition of grabbing files off the internet that you readily associate with pirated material and difficult user interfaces. Needless to say, it’s not a practice that I’ve delved into…yet. I did get a crash course from a friend the other day with plans to…ahem…explore.

Of course, life might just be a lot easier after Myka’s new BitTorrent box starts hitting living rooms. According to the manufacturer, production is rolling in China with units expected to start shipping in three variations in the next four to six weeks. Based on an open-source platform and an HTML interface, the Myka box brings a Front Row or Boxee style interface to content readily available on the BitTorrent peer-to-peer sharing system. They’ve got an example video here. Pair this bad boy with a Roka box for your Netflix content or an Apple TV and you’ve got pretty much everything you could want at your fingertips.

It does however, beg an interesting question…
I have a Mac Mini at home that I’ve planned to dedicate to media use soon. I’m still not sure I need an additional box, or if I can simply set up the Mac Mini to do all the heavy lifting. Anyone have any insights?

I sat down a few weeks ago to watch TV, always gravitating towards some mindless reality show when I really wanna veg, and decided to see what HBO had to offer. There was this show called Summer Height High. With a quick skimming of the program synopsis, “A reality crew follows the lives of the students and staff at a typical Australian public highschool for one term”, I knew I was gonna love it.

And did I love it — but the joke was on me. I thought I was going to be watching a real documentary. Well it didn’t take long for me to figure it out, Summer Heights High is a Mokumentary (think The Office meets Best In Show). And it captures the hilarity/absurdity/stupidity/awesomness of reality tv drama in the smartest of ways.

Just like the synopsis promised it follows the lives of three students/staff at a public highschool.
There are the three subjects:

• 1. Jonah Takalua: a year 8, 13 year old boy with severe ADD and an attitude problem.
• 2. Mr. G: A 36 year old overly enthusiastic drama teacher, with an affinity for his chihuahua and himself.
• 3. Ja’Mie: An exchange student from a prestigious all-girls private school.

Here are clips from each of the characters if you still need some convincing: Mr G, Jonah, Ja’Mie.