this past week was, shall we say, not the easiest week i’ve ever had.  i’m not going to complain about it.  i just wanted to note it.  sometimes everything just pours down at the same time.  work was tough.  finances are tough.  life just doesn’t always play nice.

but what this eventually leads to is epiphany, closure, elation, or discovery.  in this particular case, i had a little of each.  as the week came to an end, i felt as though i had explored some new part of my life that i had thus far failed to recognize, and i’ve come to realize that although it may not be exactly what i imagined it was, i always have the ability to change it.

for fear of being even more vague and introspective, i’m going to change the subject (as i said, i only wanted to mention the tribulations of this past week as a means of record).  you see, after a long week at the office, when everybody is ready to just call it quits, it sometimes helps to lighten the mood a little.  here’s a sample:

that, my friends, is how you have a little fun at the office.

the good news is that after a week of busting my ass, i actually have something to show for it.  the northrop grumman lunar lander challenge is officially ON.  it’ll be held october 24-25 in las cruces, new mexico, and i’ll be there to supervise the webcast and any technology issues we have.  it should be a blast, and if nothing else i’ll get to see some rockets fly.  and there is very little cooler than flying rockets.

here’s a preview:

and just because i feel like it, here’s a little song i’ve been enjoying recently.  hope you like it too.

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My pets in HD from mike fabio on Vimeo.

What can I say?  I have lots of pets, and I love ‘em.  OK, well, Mingus is the only one that’s mine (he’s the big fat one), but the other dogs and cats are lovable as well.  So long as they keep their urine off my carpet.

Click through for the HD version, recorded on the Canon HF-10 we just got at work.

A few weeks ago I came across an odd little piece of musical cinema, the video for “Jerk It” by a group called Thunderheist.  Without little more than a mention in the indie trade behemoth Pitchfork, this group popped up in my FriendFeed and the video instantly caught my attention.

Now let’s cut to the chase: cute girl + slow motion + jiggle = hot.  You really can’t beat around the bush here, this video is sexy.  But sexy is really only the beginning.

She’s shaking a chicken (if you don’t get the metaphor, my explaining it won’t do you much good).

I am obsessed by absurdity.  The frogs in Magnolia.  Tom and Jerry cartoons.  Tristan Tzara.  Dada in general.  How about David Lynch?  This is the stuff I live for.  That moment when things go from utterly plain to utterly insane.

I came across the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels recently, and instantly fell in love.  Scott Pilgrim actually has a narrative technique named after it (i.e. “pulling a Scott Pilgrim”).  Like all other beautifully absurd works, the idea here is that normalcy can be utterly transformed by a simple twist of reality, a detour into the realm of impossibility or of the bizarre.

And so, my friends, the delicate absurdity and uneasy sensuality of “Jerk It”:

thunderheist – jerk it from thatgo on Vimeo.