cool links, squeeful things, and questions about links

I don't know how many of you actually read the reply threads to stuff I post here, but the other day, in response to my disgruntled toad GIP, pedanther gave me a link to the Disapproving Rabbits blog It's sort of like Cute Overload's bunny pages, but with added snark, and a good handful of scorn. In particular, he wanted me to see this. And I want all of you to see it, too (I fear, at this rate, I may end up collecting a passel of bunny icons, if I'm not careful).

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In other news, I've become addicted to dominoes. There's a site on AOL that links to Pogo Games, and one of the games is "Dominoes" (I suspect they're using a version of the game called Muggins, except, for some reason, this computer version doesn't count the points in a double domino if it's in the middle of a line, even though that is allowed in the official rules.

But anyway, the neat thing about this is that you can play against actual people, not just a bot, and if the person has to leave, a bot can take over, or, if you're playing with a bot, a person can take over. It's kind of fun knowing there's a real person on the other end, and you can trade congratulations for a particularly good move. Though once, I got a guy who answered my "hello" with an "F--- You," and "You Suck." so I got up and left that table to play at another one.

It's all bringing back memories of a set of dominoes I used to have -- I kept them well into adulthood, though they are probably lost, now that the house on the mountain is torn down. They were made of wood, not plastic, with a Chinese Dragon design carved on their backs. They were painted black, and the pips were colored coded: yellow for sixes, blue for fours (iirc), and so forth, so for a kid who might not be able to count yet, you could still play by matching the colors. And they looked great laid out on the table. I now want to buy myself a new set, especially since I've found rules for domino solitaire games on the Web.

Cards have always been tricky for me, because they are so easy to drop, and so hard to pick up. But dominoes are more likely to stay where you put them, and if they drop, I can pick them up fairly easily with a grabber.

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Tonight is the Tony Awards (Broadway, live theater). And over the last few days, NPR has been airing pieces in celebration. On Friday, they had an essay from someone about how, yes, he does break out in song in the middle of the day, spontaneously, in real life, and you should too, because singing out loud is good for you (it was very pro-fun). And this morning, there was a piece in celebration of the Overature, and how modern musicals tend not to use them, because they can't afford a full orchestra to play them.

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And now, a poll:

[Poll #1205280]

That link from NPR that I've been itching to share with you all...

(And it's a text transcript -- so you don't have to worry about dealing with any media player)

Those who disdain musicals say they don't like them because "people just don't burst into song in real life."

But I do.

[...]from the beginning of recorded time until the advent of recorded sound, lots of people burst into song. Literature, for instance, is full of merry wayfarers warbling as they, y'know, merrily way fare.

So do I... Or I used to, more often, in the past.

I'd sing: "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to work we go!" when I was in college, on my way from the dorms to the academic building, in the morning (this was before I got dependant on coffe; it got my brain going). Others probably thought I was completely mad.

And when I was stuck at grad school, while my dying at home, I'd get through the day without a breakdown by singing "The Sailor's Prayer":*

I will not lie me down, this rain a-raging,
I will not lie me down, in such a storm!
And if this night be unblest,
I shall not take my rest
Until we reach another shore!"

So this piece made me tingle, in my brain and heart.

*It's a modern, copyrighted song, but a Google Search of "Sailors prayer" copyright song isn't giving me the name of the author. My sieve-like memory wants to say it's by Stephen Lee. If anyone reading this knows better, please correct me.