I am not a Russell Brand fan, and I can honestly say that his comedy just doesn't do it for me, but after seeing this interview I was reminded that you should never, ever, underestimate the intelligence of the average comedian.
This is for my golfing friends who believe they've played a tough course:
Puts Pinehurst in perspective doesn't it?
Celebrating a never-to-be-disclosed-which-number-it-is birthday for my much better half and the thirty somethingth birthday of our brother in law.
There's a bit of a political kerfluffle brewing right now in Greensboro over a recent redistricting vote by the City Council. It's been a hot topic at Ed Cone's blog, which everyone in Greensboro knows is where you go to be seen, er heard, er read when you want to vent your spleen about the goings on in what is likely North Carolina's whiniest city. What's interesting to me is that Ed just broke the news that one of the City Council members announced that she's going to ask that the vote be reconsidered, and she made the announcement via her Facebook status.
It would be easy to just say that this is a sign of the times, and it is, but upon further examination I think there are some fairly interesting ramifications in this simple act. Here are some that have come to mind:
After any event we host at work the most popular person in our office is Rachel, our Director of Communications. She's a Photoshop whiz so people flood her with calls making sure that any picture they might be in is properly doctored before appearing on Facebook. In other words she makes us all pretty, or at least as pretty as possible. In the case of yours truly it's the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig, but I long ago learned to accept the fact that I'll never be asked to be anything other than a "before" model for some faux-plastic surgery scam so it doesn't really bother me much. My attitude is that I'd at least like to be the best looking pig possible.
Before the pictures ever get to Rachel they actually have to be shot and thanks to the camera companies' arms race to make their cameras as idiot-proof as possible we're seeing an explosion of Ansel Adams wannabes and thus an ever rising tide of pictures being submitted. I'd fear for Rachel's sanity (and time) if I wasn't so sure that at some point the camera companies are going to take care of the prettifying of portraits by introducing features that automatically "Photoshop" the pics much like they already automatically adjust for lighting conditions. Think I'm nuts? Check out the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP7 digital camera (found via BookofJoe) with the "Beauty Retouch Mode." From the NYT article that Joe references:
"The FP7, which costs just over $200, has a tool called 'clear skin' that blurs blemishes and wrinkles. Another, called 'shine removal,' is the digital equivalent of powdering your nose. A third whitens teeth. (There are still a few kinks to work out; an in-house test of that last tool whitened only the lower half of this writer's two front teeth.)"
"Another set of tools retouches makeup: digital foundation and lip color can be added, along with rouge and eye shadow. The effect can be surprisingly subtle (but downright clownish if overdone)."
Automated pig lipsticking…I like it.
Nice little Wall Street Journal article about the Carolina's varsity basketball players taking on all comers at the courts outside the campus dorms. Pretty cool but I wonder how long it will last if one of the kids blows an ankle or knee while playing? 'Ol Roy might have something to say about it at that point.
Did any of you catch the interesting play by the town council of Lewisville, NC to annex roads just outside its current borders? You read that right – Lewisville's town council tried to annex roads, but not the land surrounding those roads, and in the process ticked off just about every state legislator from the area. Basically the town was trying to control the access and delivery of services in the immediate vicinity because it wasn't granted extraterritorial jurisdiction and it wanted to prevent a development being put right outside its borders, thus increasing use of Lewisville's resources without contributing to its tax base. You ever wondered what might have prompted this concern? I'd venture a guess that the soon to be completed Lake at Lisarra development had something to do with it:
Construction on the upscale Lake at Lissara residential development in western Forsyth County is slated for completion this month, capping a more than $60 million project.
Lake at Lissara, a 254-acre project developed by Lang Wilcox, Brant Godfrey, Pete Ramey and Beau Dancy, features a man-made lake and 102 lots off Shallowford and Conrad Roads. Homes prices range from the $400,000s to more than $1 million.
Read more: Forsyth development nearly complete | The Business Journal
Befuddled 