Wednesday warm and fuzzies

Here’s a video of Lenny Kravitz randomly hearing and joining a teenaged choir who were performing one of his songs. I found this link via this Metafilter thread, which features several people questioning whether this occasion was staged. My take: no. The production values were pretty…rough, and the circumstances seemed less than ideal for a truly awesome outdoor performance. I mean, it shouldn’t matter anyway, but why not take something like this at face value? What does it hurt us to go out on a limb and trust sometimes? What would one lose by believing that this was real, and having it turn out not to be true? Even if watching this video added nothing to your life, it certainly didn’t subtract anything.

Anyway, another reason I liked that Metafilter post was because through the comments I got to read this story about Mel Tormé (if that name is not familiar to you, just know that Mel Tormé was awesome), and I found it enjoyable and moving for no particular reason at all.

Happy Wednesday!

For Pete’s sake

Silly senators. The Supreme Court justice nomination process generally goes better when the substance of your criticism is about the person being confirmed. Jeez.

Anything can be turned into a horror film

Simply by changing the order in which events occurred, redirectig the focus, and adding some ominous music, Office Space becomes a thriller.

About the new theme

I liked my previous theme, whose monochromatic look really made me happy, but I got sick of the lack of line returns. It looked like I was bunching my text and photos, which wasn’t. Promise! So I’m going to find a theme that I like and that looks good and that lets you know when I pressed enter during a post. This current theme is temporary.

Luckier than I knew

I’d like to thank Apple’s overloaded web site and AT&T Premier for preventing me from ordering an iPhone 4 last week. I was initially pretty bummed out, especially when I learned how long I’d have to wait to get a phone if I ordered online any day after June 15 (and AT&T isn’t taking new orders until June 29), but now I’m feeling pretty okay about “missing out.”

A lot of iPhone 4 owners have experienced a loss of signal or dropped calls when they hold their phones in the left hands. I’m left-handed. This means that I generally hold things in my left hand. It seems that using this phone would not go well for me.

Steve Jobs is all over this one, promising that Apple will do everything they can to fix this problem ASAP. Just kidding. Actually, he’s telling people that it’s not an issue, or maybe it’s not much of an issue, or that they just shouldn’t hold the phone that way. Because now there’s an Apple-endorsed way to hold a cell phone? Madness! Real Steve Jobs is starting to sound more and more like Fake Steve Jobs.

If there was a Webby for best art accompanying blog posts, Engadget would have to win it:

Finally, here’s Apple’s official response:

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

Beer bad

You’d think that a nickname like “Black Superman” would mean that you were pretty much the most awesome thing ever. You’d be wrong. There’s something so sad about overcoming so much to obtain your dream, only to allow your personal demons to take it away from you.

Meercats are adorable.

I have no idea why meercats make me so happy, but they do. Link goes to Jezebel, from whence I stole that adorable picture. The accompanying writeup is awesome, especially if you imagine the meercat saying it in a British accent.

If you have a moment

Please be a pal and sign this petition to get the funding of the Englewood Public Library restored. You’d be even more awesome if you passed this along to everybody whose email address you’ve ever learned. TIA!

Because I’m so big on apologies

Joe Barton would like to apologize. Since, you know, the GOP made him apologize for the apology that he issued to BP.

Remember kids: pandering will only get you so far.

Why didn’t I know about Perry Bible Fellowship comics before?

I’m really getting a kick out of these.