The Best List

No intro can adequately explain this if you weren't there, but I want to share it.

Best Best List: Theo's Best List

Best Star: The Sun
Best Cluster of States: The United States
Best Sweatshirt: Red-hooded
Best Color in a Dark Room: Black
Best Combination of a Pen and a Pencil: Erasable Pen
Best 'so ugly/it's cute' animal: The Sloth
Best Basketball Player: Wally Szczerbiak
Best Wedding Band: Diamond Ring
Best Birthday Song: Happy Birthday to You
Best Patriotic Chant: The Pledge of Allegiance
Best Color for an Alien: Green
Best Canine: Dog
Best Part of Turkey: Gizzard
Best Spanish Partner: (tie) Luis and Wax Luis
Best Wizardry Movie: Harry Potter
Best Round Sphere: Ball
Best Hot Lunch: Calzones
Worst Grass: Crab Grass
Best Thanksgiving Food: Turkey
Best Substitute for a Swear Word: (tie) Smurf and Ropebue
Best Old Movie Character: Jem Finch
Best Ice Cream Serving Restaurant: Dairy Queen
Best Tree: Christmas
Best Snow-Involving Sport: Snowboarding
Worst Piano Player: Emily
Best Burger: Cheese
Best Space Business: NASA
Best Grandpa/Math Teacher: Dahlberg
Best Phone: Cellular
Luckiest Rodent: Possum
Best Neutral Color: (tie) Black and White
Best Normal Place to get Pierced: Ear
Best Cat Toy Store: Delca Cat Toys Co.
Best Doll: Wax Troll
Best thing of Anything Idea by Emily: Dead Sheep Eating a Bucket of Wax
Stinkiest Animal: Skunk
Worst Whale-Tagger: Bruce
Best Frickin' Beam: Laser
Best Dad Smurf: Papa Smurf
Best Camper/House: Trailer
Best Food: Hot
Best Teeth Decorations: Braces
Best Juice: Orange
Best Blood-Sucking Insect: Mosquito
Best Blood Sucking Animal: (tie) Bat and Wax Bat
Best Blood-Sucking Person: Dracula
Best Posture: Leg-leg
Best Day: Saturday
Best Way of Beating a Team in Basketball: Burying Them
Best Moldy Cheese: Blue Cheese
Best Time-Keeping Device: Clock
Best Protable Bathroom: Port-a-Potty

Best Thing of Anything: Mr. Dalhberg trying to jump wax hurdles with a troll wig on

Jonathan Lebed's Perspective on the Stock Market as a 15-Year-Old

"Whether a company is making millions or losing millions, it has no impact on the price of a stock. Whether it is analysts, brokers, advisors, Internet traders, or companies, everybody is manipulating the market. If it wasn't for everybody manipulating the market, there wouldn't be a stock market at all..."

Modern Journalism According to Ira Glass

"While this is the golden age of this kind of reporting and writing, it's also a golden age for crap journalism. And for some of the most amazing technological advances for stuffing it down your throat. A lot of daily reporting and news 'commentary' just reinforces everything we already think about the world. IT lacks the sense of discovery, the curiosity, the uncorny, human-size drama that's part of all these stories. A lot of daily reporting makes the world seem small and stupider." - Ira Glass

Alphabet Playlist - "Sounds Like Hallelujah" - The Head and the Heart

Current obsession:

And I'll miss you, someday.

Alphabet Playlist - "Somewhere Only We Know" - Keane

Privacy Tips from TED

Want to protect your privacy? Here, some resources:

• Collusion. This Firefox tool, which Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs introduced in the TEDTalk “Tracking the Trackers,” records the breadth of companies capturing data about you as you search. Collusion developer Atul Varma spoke to the TED blog in February about the tool, its uses, and what inspired it.
• Tor Project. This free software protects your privacy by bouncing communications all around the world, via a network run by volunteers.
• Do Not Track Plus. This app goes beyond browser-based controls and blocks data collection as you search.
• Lookout. A mobile security app that is available for Android and iPhones.
  
• European Digital Rights. Founded in 2002, this organization is a clearinghouse of news when it comes to digital civil rights, including telecommunication data retention.
• American Civil Liberties Union. This organization is dedicated to protecting rights in the United States, and considers civil liberties in the digital age one of their key issues.

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The New Kings of Nonfiction Introduction Quote

"I have this experience when I interview someone, if it's going well and we're really talking in a serious way, and they're telling me these very personal things, I fall in love a little. Man, woman, child, any age, any background, I fall in love a little. They're sharing so much of themselves. If you have half a heart, how can you not?" - Ira Glass

A Baby and a Baby Waterfall

via

Aqualung - "Thin Air"

Aqualung, you've done it again!

("it" = created a beautiful song I can't stop listening to on repeat)

Kari on the Olympic Opening Ceremony

I've been meaning to document this for a while, and figured with the closing ceremony tonight, this is my last chance.

My mother is quite possibly the sweetest woman I know. But every once in a while, she has a snarky side that comes out that I absolutely love. I got a quick glimpse of it the last time I was home when the two of us watched the Olympic opening ceremony (it was On Demand) and I quickly learned that she had a lot to say about it. In case you missed it or wanted a different perspective, here is a quick recap from the eyes of Kari:


Chronologically...


"These people sound boring, probably because they are." - Mom on the announcers.

She wasn't the only one annoyed by Matt Lauer. Check out Shut Up Matt Lauer for more. Image credit.

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"Look at that frightening baby, what is that?!?!" - Mom

Giant Voldemort Image Credit

In response to the announcer saying "[JK Rowling's] books made it cool to read again"

"No they didn't. Goosebumps did!" -  Mom

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"Yea, right." - Mom

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"This is just weird." - Mom

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"Looks like a mess." - Mom

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"Probably could've used a little less grass." - Mom



And my personal favorite:

"What are they gonna do with all that grass after this?" - Mom

Excerpt from the Steve Jobs Biography: Jobs on Fox News

[Steve] Jobs got [Rupert] Murdoch to hear him out on Fox News...

"You're blowing it with Fox News... the axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive [and] destructive. And you've cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is gonna be your legacy if you're not careful."

Alphabet Playlist - "Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit

Alphabet Playlist - "Sometime Around Midnight" - The Airborne Toxic

A depressingly resonating song about the painful, intoxicated decomposition that inevitably ensues when you combine exes and alcohol.

Alphabet Playlist - "She's On My Arm Now" - Cinema

This whole album (My Blood Is Full Of Airplanes) is one of my favorites. Check it out.

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours Album Art

Wish I could say I took this - via

"A Good Man" - Third Eye Blind

I may have posted this before, but I think this lyric is beautiful:


How do you do it? 
Roots in the soil, untangled; releasing in sweet summer oil
Still I recoil like mace
In all the little moments I pushed you away that I can't erase 

Alphabet Playlist - "She Came Along" - Sharam ft. Kid Cudi

Lesson learned: always have a gun in the bathtub.