It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Bettis will retire after tonight as the No. 5 career rusher in league history, 13,622 yards. He plans to develop a blighted 43-acre site on the Detroit River, constructing residences, a hotel and an entertainment complex. He reigns supreme as a humble Motown hero, in odd contrast to the last individual awarded a key to the city: Saddam Hussein, 1980 version.

The deed prompted Father Jacob Yasso of Detroit to contact Mayor Coleman Young and arrange a Detroit key for Saddam Hussein.

Winston-Salem Journal | Super Bowl has come a long way in 40 years

Link via MetaFilter

The concept of celebrity took another hit in my world today, when I have now twice heard jokes at the expense of Kevin Federline, yet I still (without Googling) have no idea what (not who, mind) he is or where he came from. I will not increase his dubious fame by typing his name into a search engine. Only by printing his name on my blog.

However, I do know comedy when I see it, and Conan O’Brien has never let me down in that arena. The arena of comedy where CONAN is king! Let me tell you now of the days of high laughter!*

DevilDucky – Conan O’Brien: James Lipton reads Federline [link via BB]

* – You see that? I made an oft-unheard reference to Conan O’Brien having the same name as a certain barbarian.

Carina wanted me to hear this Italian pop song to get my opinion. My one-line review was “I feel like this song should be charging me $4.95 a minute.” Carina then explained that the translated lyrics amount to a man apologizing that he won’t take his lover in a manly fashion because she is only seventeen. My review stands.

Vorrei Ma Non Passo – Tiziano Lugli

I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.0. From your perspective, gentle reader, the change is unnoticeable, but I assure you it’s done.

To celebrate, I intend to implement the new design in the next month or so, since I’ll be doing all kinds of web work anyway. I also hope to have it sort of CSS Zen Garden style, in case you prefer the Ronald McDonald theme, or some other themes I may or may not produce. For now, courage.

if youve ever dealt with… well, anyone… thenthis site is for you. Although it can actually make you physically ill to be in the face of such stupidity, even third-hand. Such is the power of ignorance. Enjoy!

Clientcopia : Coping with stupid clients : Top 20

Every geek who’s read Marvel comics knows that he has to show up in every new premiere comic, sort of as a seal of approval. As a Spiderman fan since I was a kid, I never had any problem with it.

Apparently, movies are no exception to that rule.

YouTube – X-Men the Movie – Spiderman outtakes

This learned little device made my day. I’m reminded of that old Monty Python skit where the customer comes for an argument, but first must listen to Graham Chapman call him a “vacuous, toffee-nosed (?), malodorous pervert.”

Abuse-a-tron

While picking apart some lovely salads at a restaurant the other night, Most-Honoured Girlfriend had this to say.

MHG: It’s funny to me how adding orange slices to a salad suddenly makes it “Oriental.”

SB: It’s just because the oranges are from that part of the world. I don’t think any other part of the salad is related to Asia in any way.

MHG: I wonder if there’s such a thing as a Cantonese orange. They have Mandarin orange slices, why not Cantonese?

SB: You’re making an excellent point. They must have oranges. Where are the salads based on that regional dialect?

MHG: If the movies from those regions are any indication, the Cantonese orange slices would always be getting into fights, anyway. The Mandarin oranges just have a lot of high drama and dialogue.

SB: Yeah, they’re a bit easier to put into salads and eat when they’re not flying about on the tops of trees and the like.

I am in the running for MKE Online’s Blog of the Week, (and right before I was about to start implementing a redesign, too.) If you’ve got the time and inclination, please send a vote my way.

As far as a mission statement goes, my blog is mostly just for aggregating links of interest to tech-heads, geeks and anyone with a sense of humour similar to mine, infrequent heavy-handed reviews of a performance or movie I’ve seen, public diary entries that tend to cause controversy among my readers and the occasional screed just to get something off my chest.

The categories pages pretty much spell this out:
Best of the Buddha – Things I wrote here that I think are most worth reading.
Ennui – General snarkiness and a catch-all for posts that didn’t fit elsewhere.
For the Geek in You – I am a huge nerd, and these link entries prove it.
Found Art – Links I found simply by surfing.
Link Larceny – Links found at other people’s blogs or sent to me by friends
Self-service – Diary-style entries, sometimes funny. Internet voyeur urges satisfied.
Too Little, Too Late Movie Reviews – Untimely opinions on performances.

Want to know more about me as a person? You could start with Who is this Steelbuddha?, Seven Things, and Four Things.

With all that said, welcome. I’ve got some posts lined up for this week, so if you are withholding your vote, I may sway you with fresh content.

I am aware, from WoW mostly, that the Chuck Norris thing is long over the shark. When he appeared on the Tony Danza show and answered questions about the Chuck Norris facts website, that was a major blow to the dynasty.

Still, this SNL send-up recaptures the spirit of when the Chuck Norris jokes were young, by singing about when Chuck Norris himself was young.

YouTube – Young Chuck Norris – SNL