derren brown

i wont take up an entire post- but anyone with 10 spare minutes- please do yourself a favor and put "darren brown" into youtube- he's one of the most amazing performers i've ever seen (has his own show on the BBC)- some really really amazing stuff that you can just watch for hours if you've got some spare time- i've put afew videos on My blog if you feel so inclined- i challenge you to find fault in authenticity of the one about the grocery store (the top video)

SNL

This is from last night's SNL. The show wasn't very good, but then this sketch came on. And you watch it... and you sit there thinking... this is dumb.. and gross... and then it just gets funny. I can't explain it. And then it goes completely random (esp. the very end). But I loved it.

also this...

love this...

The Wig Thieves



Add to My Profile | More Videos

sorry for the low quality

i hope this guy doesn't have a wife.

ESPN map

so.... i was checking out ESPN recently and there was a vote in reference to the fact that South Carolina has a confederate flag flying on the grounds of its capital- it was previously on top of the actual building but in 2000 was moved to the side near the grave of a confederate soldier...

there has been considerable debate about NCAA sporting events being held in the sate- the most recent decision that came down a few months ago was that no conference championships could be held in the state because of the flag-

so they the poll today was:
"Do you object to the presence of a confederate battle flag on the state capitol grounds in South Carolina?" (yes or no)




i found it rather interesting (but i suppose not unexpected) that the vote was pretty close and how certain states fell along a certain line in a certain pattern...

any thoughts?

(p.s.- i voted "no": i think slavery was very very wrong, but i also think that the civil war part of our nation's history is something we should remember-- in order to perhaps prevent such a thing from ever happening again)

Dear Sister

this is hilarious. (man they already took down the first one i put up.)



i'm glad andy and bill are doing so well on snl. it's really impressive being it's their 1st or 2nd season.

did anyone see ATHFCMFT this weekend?

pappert, i'm looking in your direction....



if you did, here are the lyrics to the opening song. (if you havent seen it, the setup is a "let's go out the lobby" song before the movie and it gets interrupted by a very unsavory, pierced, tattooed, heavy metal food item band (Mastodon). they're screaming the lyrics. so much that there are subtitles in the movie for it. it goes like this...)

"Cut You Up With a Linoleum Knife"

Don't talk, watch!
Don't talk, watch!

You came here, watch it!
Don't like it? Walk out!
We still have all your f-ing money!

Do not kick or jiggle the seat in front of you while you are sitting there.
I am everywhere at once and I will cut you up.
If you make out here I will cut your lips and tounge from your head with a LINOLEUM KNIFE!!!!

Do not explain the plot,
if you don't understand then you should not be here
Your money is now our money and we will
SPEND IT ON DRUGS!

Do not crinkle your food wrapers loudly,
be considerate to others
or I will bite your torso
and give you a disease.

Did you bring your baby?
Babies don't watch this.
Take the seed outside.
LEAVE IT IN THE STREET!
Run it over after the show.

If I see you videotaping this movie,
Satan will rain down your throat with hot acid,
and dissolve your testicles and turn your guts into snakes.

This is a copyrighted movie for Time-Warner
If I find you sold it on eBay
I will break into your house and tear your wife in half

Suck it, Scott!

A Gamers' Manifesto

I stumbled across this and thought it was just too funny not to share with the video game lovers on this blog.

A Gamers' Manifesto

The State Easter Eggs

Each year the 50 states (and District of Columbia) select artists to decorate Easter eggs to the send the White House. The artists within each state vote amongst themselves to select their state's egg to present to the First Lady. Here is Tennessee's egg:

Tennessee

Then there's Wyoming:


Wyoming

Not so good, eh, Wyoming? Here is some background on what happened to Wyoming's egg.

Look what we have to look forward to!

A proud Grandma Jess with her hairy, 4eyed grandson(?).

Will Ferrell short film

Have you guys seen the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay short film called The Landlord? If not, click on the link in the title and enjoy. If someone wants to imbed it in the blog feel free. I thought it was pretty funny, let me know what you think.

Oksana and Bryan circa 2050

I found this really cool thing online that lets you submit a picture and it "ages" you. It will also let you see what you might look like as various races and in a few particular artists unique styles.

Anyway, this is supposedly we will look like when we're "older adults" (I estimated 2050, a nice round number... we'll be 68):

Kinda scary, I think, since it looks like my dad + 15 years.

Check it out for yourself: http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Transformer/. The aging is much better than the de-aging in my opinion. You can also do humorous pictures of yourself as a few different races.

Unbelievable

Unbelievable... That's all I can say. This video is unbelievable. At the beginning I'm thinking... yeah, these are cool, but I've seen this sort of thing done before. But then it goes on.. and on.. and on.. and on.. and on.

My favorite two parts are the chess board and the cell phones.

I can't imagine how long it took to 1) build this and 2) get it to work in one run.

Sorry I couldn't find it in a format I could readily embed. Just click to watch.

Also you would think with all that work you'd get the cameras set up to see everything, but there are moments where it isn't exactly clear what's going on.

More Madagascar pictures

So I was bored at work today, and thought I'd share some more of the pictures from my trip. Hopefully you enjoy, and there's always more where these came from, if demand is high.

A small village we saw on the way to examine a patient. Later in the rainy season, all of the terraces will be green with growing rice.

These are the taxis that you use to get around the city. Most of them were made in the 60's in France. They've very likely been in constant use since then. In one of them, the gas tank was a water bottle on the floor of the driver's side with a tube stuck in it. It was always an adventure getting across town.

This was in the rainforest we visited. The snail isn't too impressive until you know it's about the size of a fist.

This is a blank and white ruffed lemur, which is one of the more distinct looking types and one of my favorites.

This is my other favorite type of lemur, the Bamboo lemur. You can probably guess what they eat.

(Hint: It's bamboo)

This is a typical scene in the highlands area in the center of the country. Rice is their main source of food, so there are numerous rice fields, like this one, everywhere.

A schoolhouse in one of the villages we visited. Kids were always curious when we rolled into their town.

A view of Antananarivo (Tana for short) from the top of a hill. This is the capitol city, and where I lived for the 6 weeks I was there.

A really pretty waterfall we stopped to see while on the road one day.

This is the means of transportation between villages in the more rural areas. It's called a taxi-brousse, or "bush taxi."

My New Website

So I finally decided to put my website back together. I have been using Vanderbilt's webspace for a while, but I'll lose that privilege in a few months. I got a great deal on hosing and my domain name from 1and1.com. So far so good.

http://www.cbryancan.com/

You can now email me at bryan@cbryancan.com (or actually anything at cbryancan.com or cbryancan.net will go to that email). I'll continue to monitor my gmail, but I will be phasing my vanderbilt email out.

I am using blogger to host my blog (which will be "part" of my site) but I used my custom domain http://blog.cbryancan.com to point to the blog. It was complciated, but you can't use any of the upgraded blogger features if you host the blog on your own space. So my blog actually exists on blogger, but it looks like it is on my space. Doesn't really matter to you, but it was a complicated thing to figure out.

Its all (site + blog) in very early stages (nothing really on there yet), and I am extremely busy, so it likely won't be much for a while. I'll let you know when I finish and publish the "first draft" of it.

If anybody cares... While putting my new website/blog together, I found a workaround to get rid of the annoying ads in the Haloscan comment box. I applied it to this blog as well, so just note the reason there are no more ads is becuase I did that. If you object, I'll remove the code and put the ads back.

Blogger Issues

Has anyone had regular trouble loading this blogger page? I want to find out if it is something with my computer or everyone. I am using IE 7. I know many of you use FireFox. Basically, when I load the page, it stalls and sits for 5-20 seconds. Then sometimes I get a series of messages informing me the plugins have failed. I have surmised that the plugins it refers to are likely the two embedded mp3s in my Jim Gaffigan Post. Add that to the large number of YouTube embeds that are on here and the system gets overloaded. So I removed those mp3s. If you miss them, I can send you copies.

If others are having this problem, I'd like to know so that I can avoid overdoing the embedded media. If not, I'd like to know so I can deal with my computer's issues.

Thanks!

No, this picture doesn't relate to my question. It's just cute.

The Most Hated Family in America

BBC reporter, Louis Theroux, has a show on British TV spending time with people with extreme views and tries to get to get to know them as people and to find out what makes them tick. This time he spends some time with the Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, the same group of people who picket US soldiers' funerals. (Note: NSFW language and plenty of hate)

The Most Hated Family in America (Part 1)

(Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7)

Bonus Material: Louis Theroux talks about the show.

Forget YouTube

Go To These Sites If You Want Hard Core Copyright Infringing Content

an article on some non-YouTube video sites (for those frustrated with the copyright problems YouTube goes through).

The Reagans on Drugs

Nancy says "Just Say Yes"