Questions of the Week

1. If you are sexually active, does your sexuality look anything like porn movies?
Added by: Abzurd

2. Would you feel safe walking around your neighbourhood alone at 3AM?
Added by: killyr.idols

3. Do you display your country's flag anywhere in your home/school/workplace?
Added by: chips2001

4. Is there person from history you would LOVE to hook up to a lie detector to see if they were telling the truth?
Added by: falconwing

5. Would you be scared to live in a hotel underwater?
Added by: Ramen_gurl13

1. What does your locker say about you?
Added by: mb333

2. What breed of dog are you?
Added by: Thaliarox

3. Which season are you?
Added by: chocobar

4. Which kind of cookie are you?
Added by: skittlekitty

5. How do you think of yourself?
Added by: SeaWeedle

Funniest Comments of the Week

Q: Do you think Pac-Man is hard? :
snowbdr88: Only when Ms. Pac-Man is around.

In the movie thread for "Disaster Movie", which received a 42% "I want to see it" rating:
Hael: buddy can we please publish the names of everyone who voted "see it" on this so I can remove them from the genepool? Thanks.

In the "Nominees and snubs for Rock n Roll Hall of Fame" thread in Music: :
SoFistMe: Run DMC belongs in there. I thought Jeff Beck was already in. Iggy Pop - yes. Stooges - no. Metallica definitely belongs in the hall of fame. War doesn't belong in but Eric Burdon does.
le_berger: And who are you? St Peter or something?
McGoodness: Perhaps St. Anger?

Random journal:
moryaco: ok then..... Dont think i have to worry 'bout that for a wile because we both are the weirdest ppl in the school and no one realy like eather of us
DoYouWash: You're not going to be in high school forever, you know.
Raphael: with her spelling?

In a thread titled "Elephants dont know how to cross the road":
twisebaker: Elephants are proven to have long-term memories and post traumatic stress syndrom if they were abused in their early lives.
mudassar: well it's dead now so it wont be remembering much.
thh: If only there had been a chicken there to teach it how to cross the road properly.

Joke of the Week

Yo Mamma

What do the economy and your mom have in common?

They both went down on me.

Member of the Week

The member of the week is JayY. A member since January 2002, JayY recently gave away a YT key to someone who could find him a Turkish instrument. He's also infused some new energy in the music forum with his "Random Gem" series, introducing many folks to new music. Thanks and Congrats!

JoeInterview's Member Feature

This week's interview features Malletman. This interview was conducted by travbowman.

JoeInterview: First off, how did you find YT?

Malletman: I wish I could say something more interesting, such as being brought in by another member, but, alas, no. I know it was through bored.com, but at over six years ago, I can't give much more detail. I don't exactly have the most keen autobiographical memory.

JI: What's the biggest reason you keep coming back for more?

MM: That would definitely be what used to be Generals, now News. I've always kind of liked the debate structure. Forcing myself to look up a topic, figure out what's going on, particularly delving deeper than simply the news article in question... It's just fun to me. Doesn't hurt, either, that the same people that seem to fight in those threads can joke casually in other threads, too. In person, that's a lot harder to pull off, since it seems people all too easily get caught up in the emotional part of debate.

JI: You list your occupation as "aspiring doctor". Are you currently in med school?

MM: Undergraduate, pre-med. I'm actually scheduled to take the MCAT later this month. I still have a long way to go, unfortunately.

JI: What branch of medicine fascinates you the most currently?

MM: For the past couple of years I've mostly been interested in neurology. Partly the cause is my grandfather: he had multiple sclerosis (although that now is classified as an autoimmune disorder). Partial credit is also due to Oliver Sacks for his wonderful novels. The overlap with psychiatry is also fascinating, as well as the connection with cognitive studies. There's just so many different (and fun) ways to go with neuro, studying cross-discipline even, as opposed to something like cardio or OBGYN where you're kind of limited.

JI: What's the story behind your username?

MM: It's kind of random, actually. On my early days online, my favorite show was Animaniacs (and it's still one of my favorite animated shows). LiveUniverse I think was the chat site that I was using, and while I had the character of Wacko on my mind, I decided on the username Malletman. I liked the ring of it and stuck with it since.

It's gotten me in a mixup, though. A month ago (if any OS-ers recall) I made a note that my username is the same as the stage name of a percussionist in Seattle (Ben Thompson is the performer's name). I use this username for one email account, and Apple screwed up the domain of the guy's email address and sent me his electronic iPhone receipt. It wasn't much of a problem, really; we both thought it was pretty funny.

JI: What's the best Animaniacs sketch ever, in your opinion?

MM: "The Great Wakkorotti" (Wakko belching classical tunes) sketches stick out most in memory, and were probably my favorites, if only for the sheer absurdity of them. In close second would probably be Buttons and Mindy. Even today, I still say "Ok lady," to my mum all the time.

JI: What's the best thing about living in Kentucky?

MM: I have to mention two things: vineyards and horse farms. I wasn't exposed to that part of Kentucky until college, however, and I still have to admit I don't like the truly rural lifestyle that's more common throughout the rest of the state; it's really just a little boring for someone who's not yet settled.

JI: Is everyone as crazed about basketball there as it seems?

MM: It's a little crazy; the first practice of the year brings lines a few blocks long in the middle of campus. I can't say I keep up with the craze that much, though, and I think I'm here at a bit of a lull in the program; with the relatively poor performance the last few seasons, it's not nearly as fanatical as I expected it to be.

JI: If money were not a factor, where would you want to travel more than anywhere else?

MM: I'd probably follow Oliver Sack's footsteps in visiting Pingelap, the titular Island of the Colorblind. About one in ten of the islanders has complete achromatopsia (complete colorblindness), and just learning how those affected perceive everything around them would be fascinating.

JI: What word or phrase do you use entirely too often?

MM: Certain conjunctions I use far too often. "Though," "although", and "however" I've all caught myself repeating in speech and writing within the same paragraph or thought-train.

JI: What sort of music has been getting the most spin from you lately?

MM: Some of the Cardamar record label releases have gotten my attention in the past, and I've been revisiting them lately. Easily Embarrassed's "Idyllic Life" has perhaps been the album with the most spin time. That one's actually gotten a reputation for being the theme music for a specific vehicle in the household, as I've left that disc in that car for a few weeks now.

JI: You list yourself as "dating" in your profile. Describe your significant other to us.

MM: For two years now, I've been with an HVAC/R tech. Very practical to have around, as he's got experience all around in construction and mechanics. He's a nice foil to myself, actually; whereas I'm sometimes overly analytical and definitely like to look at the smaller principles of working parts, he's good at bridging between that and the actual practical working level. On house projects, I end up doing some of the finer calculations, with him directing what I need to be calculating for.

He's also a good foil because he's a just a bit crazier than I am. Offroading is just the tip of the iceberg there... It's fun, but I need someone to push me out of my comfort zone.

JI: What is the last good movie you've seen?

MM: You know, I really can't recall. I've gotten so caught up in my studies lately that it's been a few months since I set aside a good film. I should know better; my best friend just switched to film studies and I hear from him all the time. I guess this is a sign that I need to clear out my schedule a little more.

JI: What's been your toughest undergraduate course so far?

MM: Intro to Sociology, but only because I was butting ideological heads with the teacher for the whole of the class. She wrote a book on alternative medicine (hardly relevant to class material) and threw it at us as an assignment, cited it often out of context, and really did little to teach a proper Introduction to Sociology class.

The material wasn't particularly difficult, by any means, and it was, to a degree, amusing to tear into the book once reviews over it were due. I just hated it, and really had little motivation for the class.

I did incredibly well in the class, in the end. I think I may have been the only person in the relatively small class to get an A grade on the review, but I was also the only one who really dissected her book instead of BS-ing the paper and trying to stroke her ego. So the one motivating factor that put me ahead in the grade books was my drive to point her out as a quack.

... I still didn't learn jack about sociology.

JI: How have you changed the most in your 6+ years at YT?

MM: I really can't say that only one or two things have changed; most people change a lot in the late teens. That stage is, for a lot of people, a complete reevaluation, and I was no exception. Probably going off the words of others, I've had a lot of people tell me I've become more assertive and "grown into myself," whatever the hell that means. As far as on YT, though, I'm not sure that's shown; I've always been a little brash online.

JI: You list your religion in your profile as "other" Do you care to elaborate?

MM: I list it as "other" because I tend to sympathize most with the pantheist mindset. In other words, I find that a certain aspect of the holist account, specifically the entanglement of, well, everything in a crazy-awesome causal system, is nearly undeniable. Well, as long as the Bohm interpretation remains tenable.

Anyway, I find my sensibilities somewhere on the axis that included Einstein and Spinoza. I'm definitely not a fan of theology, but rather taking joy in the intricacy of nature (in the grander sense that encompasses the physical and mental events) itself.

JI: What do you find most awe-inspiring about nature?

MM: Am I allowed to say everything, or is that a cop-out?

If I have to specify anything in particular, I guess it would be people, or even more specifically, behavior and quirks in behavior. I say quirks because I don't like to throw the word "disorders" around when I'm talking about things that may not necessarily be maladaptive, like synesthesia or Aspergers, but really I guess what it comes down to is that I find myself most often caught up in the world-modeling part of behavior. Frankly, I'm amazed even at the ability to model the world for practical purpose by any given individual on a daily basis.

JI: What's the best way to spend a weekend?

MM: I can't say I'm big on weekend partying or anything, so really the best weekends for me are those when I have a lot of time to myself and a lot of time to catch up on reading. Even if it's for class, I feel refreshed not having to keep up with the pace of the weekdays. It makes for a particularly perfect weekend when, weather permitting, I can sit outside all day, overlooking from a high vantage point (be it a tree, a wall, or rooftop) and read from there.

JI: What's the best thing you've read lately for pleasure?

MM: Hahaha, oh dear. Here goes nothing:

Self-Representational Approaches to Consciousness, Editors Kriegel and Williford. Is my nerdiness showing yet? I'm not completely through all the articles and selections in it yet, but I've gotten thought most of it. Again, this is the sort of thing I find absolutely fascinating.

JI: Can you give a layman's version of what it covers?

MM: Self-reference is basically a sentence or statement referring directly to itself. For anyone not too heavily steeped in logic, linguistics, or programming, probably the most obvious examples of self-reference are paradoxes, like "The statement on the other side of this card is false." or breaking the fourth wall in fiction.

A self-representational approach (in consciousness), then, is one that incorporates the ability of some things to refer to themselves, and supports that as a necessary property of consciousness.

At the time of print, the editors thought the self-representational models in consciousness weren't getting enough showing in print yet and compiled a bunch of articles for, against, and detailing the implications of such models.

JI: Can you give an estimate to the percentage of YT newsletter readers whose brains just exploded while reading that reply?

MM: Is only 20% too optimistic a guess? ... Sorry. I'm a lot better at explaining things when in person, with gestures, and with a bit of spare time, I swear.

JI: Any final words of wisdom to share with your fellow YTers?

MM: I know I may be confusing, perhaps a bit confused, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I have fun with it. I thoroughly enjoy being this confused, over-thinking, sometimes silly person. And that's my advice to anyone: Have fun with what you do. Enjoy those traits and quirks that exemplify yourself, particularly if they're good traits (or at least, not bad traits). There's general limits, of course, to that sort of advice, but put simply, we're simply too sort-lived to try to mold ourselves too much.

This week's article is titled 'Governor Terminates Texting While Driving', and the thread was posted by tulip.

This week's link is titled 'Unfair Traps', and the link was posted by Run_its_Anna.

Best Avatar of the Week	Best Profile Design of the Week
S916Dave	"D: Foam Monster" by HushLove

Featured Article of the Week

Expect of you nothing.
Excerpt: Closure. What a word. The exact definition of closure is 1. permanent end of business: the permanent ending of a business or activity 2. barring of access: blocking the access to a place or blocking a route 3.

Written by Courtney63

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