Question Everything

But more importantly, right now, question me.

I think I am at least a couple weeks, if not more, behind the Formspring curve, but I'm jumping on it anyway. Hopefully this will serve to jumpstart my creative genius (<--creative arrogance) (<--creative internal dialogue), which has apparently left me.

I know people claim they will do something but then drop it after a while, but I solemnly promise that I will answer each and every [appropriate] question you ask. When I hop into things like this, I don't do 'em halfway.

So ask me something: formspring.me/tjschley

Three Things That Make Me Laugh

More specifically, three webcomics. These three are part of a select few of webcomics that make me laugh almost every comic. And they each post at least three times a week.

Here, I am giving you something else to distract you:

1. Toothpaste For Dinner--updated daily, simple art, sarcastic and random humor:


Also this and this.

2. Strangegods--updated three times a week, featuring good jokes and a groundhog:


3. Wondermark--another three day a week webcomic, this one has old-timey illustration style while focusing on much more timely issues (see below) and featuring some fantastic creatures:



Tell me what you think!

Also, are there any webcomics or webcomicesque things you subscribe to?

The Second Coming

I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't just put that comic there because I thought it was hilarious, and it's only tangentially related to the substance of this post. Now, on to the post.

What's this? "OhmyfreakinggoshT.J.isthebiggesthypocriteever." Why, you may ask? Actually, you're probably not. Either because

A) You know why.

B) You don't care whether or not I am on Facebook.

That's right, after all of my ranting and raving about how evil this social networking entity is, and how if you use it you probably hate everything that is good and pure in this life (I'm pretty sure I said something like that), I'm coming back.

You see, the thing is, it's been one year since I deactivated my account, and it has therefore not been a waste of my time and "just something to do"--the two main reasons I got off in the first place. Plus there are some things that are appealing to me on Facebook:

1. The sheer number of friends I can connect to on Facebook greatly exceeds the number I can connect to just about anywhere else, especially over long distances.
2. I can't tell you how annoying it is when someone says "Did you see that picture on Faceboo---oh, no you didn't." No, I didn't. So, seeing pictures is a plus.
3. Seeing upcoming birthdays and events, instead of hearing about them the day of is a definite plus.
4. Hopefully I will be able to direct people from my Facebook to this blog, and increase the readership. Maybe. Probably not, but it's worth a shot.

So, to review, I am coming back for people, photos, events, and blog. Just singular blog. I am going to start calling this blog "Blog" now. I will ask people "Did you read Blog today? Blog was funny. I worked hard on Blog." That is all.

Do you think I am hypocritical, or an idiot, or both? Or some other combination of negative monikers?

Twitter (A Reconsideration)

Long story short, although not 140 characters short, I've joined Twitter. @mrtimothyjohn if you want to follow me. My justifications for this are severalfold:

• I can update from anywhere, which is nice whenever a thought strikes me. Even in class.
• It's a place to dump thoughts that aren't quite long enough for this particular venue of communication (my blog).
• It's a practice of weening thoughts down to the 140 character maximum. Which is good poetic technique.

The funny thing is I'm wasting a day's post on this blog on something all 7 of you mayhaps don't care about.

What do you think? Are you pro or anti-Twitter, or neither? If you do have a Twitter, hit me up.

Mousepoint Tracker

This is a picture of the path my mouse took while I was writing an annotated bibliography this past weekend. (Which, I might add, was one of the worst experiences of my scholastic career).

The lines represent wherever my mouse went, and the dots are wherever it stopped. The bigger the dot, the longer it rested there. A few of those big ones were restroom breaks. And another was when I went downstairs to make a few copies.

It is pretty interesting to see all the points you hit. I did it at work the other day and by far the highest traffic was along the tabs bar in Firefox.

If you want to give it a go, then right click this link and "save target as." Wherever you want. The picture file will save in the same folder you put the above file.

[Tip o' the Hat to Brandon Oxendine and Ryan Hollingsworth]

Stop Animation FTW

It makes me sad that in the 1+ year I have been in possession of this blog (by Title, at least) I have yet to share with you the wonderfulness that is Rhett and Link.

In this particular video we have a wonderful display of high quality comedy juxtaposed with immaculate stop animation, a particular form of artistry of which I am very fond. [ponder with me, for a moment, the various implications the previous sentence would have if I had typed "found" instead of "fond," an action that almost happened]

Also, the t-shirts are up for grabs at their website, if you want one of the actual t-shirts from the actual video. Cheers.

Marc Johns' Answer

Marc Johns, an artist who I have lauded before, has provided society with the answer to a seemingly impossible question:



Bravo, good sir, for providing us with the answer we've always hoped for.

Related:

• Bathroom Towel Graffiti
• Hardcore Mittens
• Antlered Eggs

Stapled To My Face

With a good friend undertaking No Shave '09, and my recent visit to Boone, NC--a town I can never visit without appreciating the prevalence and quality of facial hair, I found this particular comic from the webcomic Strangegods especially hilarious:



And it's true: while I must agree with Mark Driscoll that there are a number of "men" in our society that are really just "boys who can shave," I must also concede to Mr. W. Shakespeare when he said "He that hath no beard is less than a man, and he that hath a beard is more than a boy."

Advertising Fail

I did not make this advertisement. I actually saw this ad on an actual site. I think they company got their picture files switched up when they were writing the code for this particular ad.

All I gotta say is, while that is an impressive beard, I'm just glad that's not my mom, and I'm extra glad that whoever it is is not returning to school at Winthrop.

Jehovah Loves Java

That's the title of this particular strip of the webcomic Max vs. Max:

Now, this is some funny stuff. If you aren't laughing there is some serious stuff you need to work through. Don't believe me? How can you not think that God, the Living God, showed up in Max's bed to talk to him about their relationship? That's high quality entertainment there.

And God pulling the typical God line of "I'm not bound by your concept of time." That is comedic gold. Right now Max just got out of a relationship and is looking to stay out of the dating game for a while....oh, dating.

I first heard about Wes Molebash and his webcomicing adventures through his role in clothing Zakk, the metrosexual worship leader over at Stuff Christians Like.

Auto Complete Me

I've come to realize that a good bit of this blog is dedicated to the awareness of internet hilarities. That is, I use the blog very often to just share things I find on the internet and think are hilarious. This is one such thing.

Autocomplete Me is a website dedicated to odd auto complete suggestions in the Google. These things are seriously funny, else I would not be sharing them with you. Some responses that got me guffawing:

• do midgets have night vision
• if i ate myself would i become twice as big or disappear completely
• why can't i own a canadian
• help a bear is eating me

Granted, most of these were not the first suggestion available, but still. "Wha!?" Was my reaction (amid suppressed chuckling) at seeing most of what was there.

I do find it interesting that these types of websites, that share some funny, strange, or odd internet occurrence, are becoming more and more widespread in their implementation. Another I've come across: Jerks In Your Area (Craigslist posts).

[Tip o'the Hat to Tyler Stanton]

Google is Good

In a recent Good Magazine article that lists 100 good things (some of which I disagree with. They list Hilary Clinton, for goodness sake) Google was listed as a good thing.

They gave several projects that give us reason to believe Google intends to stand by it's "do no evil" inentions:

Online energy consumption readings for your house and a project attempting to make Renewable energy cheaper than coal (aptly named RE < C), but the one that struck me the most was Project 10^100.

Google took submissions for ideas that would "change the world," and they've been weeding them down since last year. Right now they're at the final 16, some of which are less inspirational than others, but I find it really encouraging that a major company is offering $10 Million to help 5 of these projects.

$10 Million! That isn't enough to solve each one, but that's a huge starting point and hopefully others can find it in their hearts and wallets to give similarly?

Facebook Farmville Fail

I am currently sitting in the computer lab in the library working on a paper. Upon glancing up from my work, I look across the room to a girl sitting in the computer lab, headphones in, playing Farmville on Facebook. Sometimes I have no difficulty at all remembering why I left that crap.

Of Dr. Horrible

If you have not already seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, you should. I say this for your benefit. It is a very vital piece of you entertainment, I assure you.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was an alternative musical written, directed and produced by Joss Whedon during the writer's strike. It contains a plentiful amount of witty lines such as "It's not about making money, it's about taking money! Destroying the status quo, because the status is NOT quo."

In addition to the hilarity of a musical about an aspiring evil scientist who want to join the Evil League of Evil and get up the courage to talk to the girls of his dreams/co-laundromat user, the three-act musical speaks sincerely and pointedly to a number of profound topics. Many of the songs consist of intense and direct dialogue about everything from the real nature of evil to social change to a time-stopping freeze-ray.

Honestly, you should go watch it. Now.


Neil Patrick Harris is making that face at you. Because you have not seen it yet.

There. I gave you two different ways to watch it. Now go.

Of White Ninja

I while ago, I stumbled upon a number of interesting and hilarious web comics. The first being Dinosaur Comics, which consists of the same images for every comic, with different text, an interesting and dynamic and often hilarious concept. The second, and more favored, is White Ninja Comics:


The humor is dry and random and genius.

Of A Collaborative Exodus

Not that I am trying to force or drive anyone to quit Facebook, as I have done, but I found this interesting article about the recent Facebook exodus. It says that "while people are still joining Facebook and compulsively visiting the site, a small but noticeable group are fleeing — some of them ostentatiously."

I guess you could define my leaving as ostentatious; I created this blog a few months before I did it to maintain some sort of "online voice," although the need for that is somewhat questionable. I wrote a note, made event, the whole shebang. It is a little vindicating to see that some people are of a like mind and are considering or acting in the same manner that I have.

I have even been considering returning recently, so you made consider this post to be mildly irrelevant and hypocritical. But that is your prerogative.

Oh, and I dislike coffee.

Of Twitter

I am halfway considering joining Twitter. I have become somewhat opposed to seemingly nonsensical technological fads, as is evidenced in my now two-month absence from Facebook.

Again, as with Facebook, Twitter has attracted my attention because of the possibilities it presents. For me, I had a lot of fun coming up with witty, poetic, or deep status updates¹ and Twitter would be an excellent avenue to continue to do this.

In addition to that, it would a halfway decent way to keep up with some of my favorite bands, authors, etc., including but not limited to Prodigal Jon, Derek Webb's new CD, and C28. Not to mention some of my friends as well.

My concessions include the following:

1. It could easily become as engrossing as Facebook was.
2. Blogging in and of itself has become somewhat tedious² and tweeting could easily add to the hassle.
3. It could become, just as Facebook or blogging, a crutch to prevent the necessity of actual communication.
4. I've existed perfectly fine without its intrusion into my life so far, so why start now?

We'll see how it turns out. Any thoughts on Twitter and whether it's a legitimate venture?

¹ You have no idea how many lines for poems originated in this manner

² I currently have 101 items from my various subscriptions in Google Reader that I need to read.

Facebook Consideration

I just read this article that I found through Joshua Harris' Blog. It points to the exact same three reasons that I left Facebook. I'd encourage you to take a look at it, it's really short.

I am not saying that everyone needs to leave Facebook in order to be better Christians. I am saying that Facebook's effect on your life and especially your Christian walk is at least worthy of consideration.

And the same things he says could go for blogging too. So I'm not pointing any fingers.