sysop's New Writeups

Jason Falkner (person)

2002-07-30T03:07:34Z

Jason Falkner is a virtually unknown pop musician, solo artist, session man, producer, and according to as-yet-unsubstantiated first-hand reports, an all-around right jolly fellow.

His music is adored and worshipped by a variety of people from all corners of this great planet we call Earth, though the chances are high you don't know any of them, unless you're one of them, in which case, you obviously know at least one.

I first became aware of Falkner's existence when I bought a copy of the Jellyfish album "Bellybutton". He played guitar on it and was the only happy looking person on the color group photograph on the back.

The mid-90s featured Falkner in power-pop band The Grays. Their work is unavailable through conventional outlets unless you want to scam a copy of their album, "Ro Sham Bo", from an online auction or used record site or local used record shop. It will be well worth your time.

After The Grays disbanded (too soon after…

Rolling joints (idea)

2002-04-19T13:18:04Z

Complicated set of instructions I learned from an old Brit in a coffeeshop in Amsterdam. He then gave me a rolling mat, which I lost right before a road trip. Sad me!

The best rolling mats are made from antique Chinese tea coasters, which can be found at Chinese tchotchke stores nearest you (they're not all antique, after all) If you can't find a Chinese tea coaster, get yourself a maki rolling mat used for making California rolls and the like.

Now you must ensure that if you're using bud you crush and crumble it throroughly. Make it into a powder. Just use your fingers and pretend you're making flour. The substance you end up with will not exactly be a powder but it'll be right close. If you have good hash, you need either tobacco or this crumbled bud powder, and you fluff up the hash with a lighter and then crumble it in. You may wish to ask your hash supplier for a demonstration.

Cup your non-dominant hand slightly and hold the rolling…

Microwave Cup Biscuit (thing)

2001-11-16T10:06:44Z

Easy food for crackheads. Basic bachelor chow.

For this recipe you will need:

Impatience
Coffee Cup
Microwave Oven
Krusteaz, Bisquick, or other instant breakfast bread powder
Water

How to make a microwave cup biscuit:

Mix the baking powder with the water, in the coffee cup. It should form a stringy, slightly grainy, sticky gelatinous paste.

Throw the coffee cup in the microwave for a minute and a half.

Top with butter, peanut butter, honey, whatever. I've also found that it's kinda nice to mix these ingredients right into the batter before I bake.

Religion is a crutch for weak people (idea)

2001-11-09T22:59:43Z

Organized religion mostly likely came about to fill a void in human societies. The void was most likely a workable paradigm for daily life and human interaction. This, as I see it, is the base level.

The way to enforce the life and interaction paradigms, to me, seems to be dragging one's spirit or soul into the mix. "This is what your spirit is and this is where you came from and this is where your spirit is going when you die so this is how you have to live" seems to be the most common feature in religions. As soon as a person first loses someone in their life to the reaper, the religion is put to the test. The individual's level of comfort with the prescribed afterlife will forever alter their relationship with the religion. In the vast majority of religious texts I've read, or religious ideas I've been exposed to superficially, the bait seems to be the promise of the afterlife spent in paradise, whether or not you have to go through several incarnations to get to…

Detroit, Michigan (place)

2001-11-07T02:25:16Z

Downtown Detroit is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The layout of the town is classic, the architecture is beautiful, it has an automated train running a loop around the town for a pittance, 50 cents. There are festive little parks and squares pretty much everywhere. There is a riverfront.

The most incredibly impressive thing about downtown Detroit, however, is the complete and total lack of inhabitants. I don't have my cards with me, but one figure I've seen bandied about is that a full square mile of early to mid 1900's skyscrapers sits completely abandoned. All windows are shuttered up, boarded up, or broken. Aside from a strip of modern steel-and-glass structures along Woodward Avenue, the town is completely empty at 8 o'clock in the morning. No cars, no suited office workers rushing through intersections flapping newspapers, no visible sign that a city of close to a million is just waking up.

It is also worth noting that the only other passenger…

Alcohol vs. ecstasy (idea)

2001-11-07T00:47:19Z

One of the reasons the "e-culture" hates alcohol might have something to do with the fact that partykids (the colloquialism I'm most accustomed to for ravers) tend to get started way before they're even 18. This of course is not the case for everyone -- the first time I ever took any ecstacy I was 23 years old and had been drinking for years already. But the first rave I went to I noticed the dizzying number of 15 and 16-year olds, and this is very common in my experience.

I think the reason the partykids love the E and don't so much love the booze is simple to explain. It is much easier to go to a rave and dance all night to loud music under the influence of a little festively colored pill if you're under age than it is to go to a bar or club, get in, order drinks, and dance all night.

While we're throwing out "in my experience" type things regarding E, I would have to say that domaindudu had a rather common first roll. Subsequent rolls will often leave people a little sad…