X – Detail, originally uploaded by nate_marsh.

My parents made a fantastic book of ABCs for my cousin in 1975. He was about 6 at the time, but the book is unafraid to venture into more advanced topics. like the xerophytes above.

When I visited my aunt & uncle for Easter they brought out the “book” which is in remarkably good shape, suggesting it was kept safely out of reach from my cousin.

I was able to take some pictures of each page, the detail and humor is a testament to the creativity of my folks and perhaps a splash of Yuengling. I love it.

Here is a link to the whole set or watch the lil’ show below!

I saw this when I was doing the laundry (I am getting pretty domestic!) at the ol’ Laundromat:

Just another crappy commercial for Dunkin Donuts, right?

Wrong, my friends – it is such a ripoff of this awesome sigur rós video:

Go to 3:51 and you’ll see this extend of this crap.

Dunkin Donuts should buy everyone in Iceland a latte & a pair of reindeer slippers for this crap…

One of my friends just returned to school for a masters degree. The university he is attending has a large & active Greek scene that is infamous for it’s douchebaginess. A prime offender is TKE – I am sure it is full of nice people but the sum of the individuals creates a superrdense mass of drunken farts. Part of the fun of being a real frat boy is pretending that you are some type of distinguished men’s club. Anyways, he was mistakenly solicited for membership in this fine institution and responded with an entertainingly straightforward email – the questions that everyone is afraid to ask. Read on:

TKE Informal Spring Recruitment

Dear Sophomores, Junior and Senior Men,

Hope everyone had a good break. Ny name is Rudolph MacGregor, AJ Flacker and myself are the Rush and Recruitment chairs for Tau Kappa Epsilon. We are looking for a few good men for spring informal recruitment. This fraternity has helped me grow in a variety of ways. It has helped me expand intellectually, emotionally and certainly physically. We pride ourselves on love, charity and esteem, this is the backbone of who we are. It has been a truly wonderful experience for me.

Don’t just take my word for it, if you have interest or questions regarding the spring informal recruitment process please contact myself or AJ Flacker. Thanks for your time and good luck with the upcoming semester.

Sincerely,

Rudolph McGregor

Re: TKE Informal Spring Recruitment

Dear Esteemed Gentleman,
Thank you for your kind invitation. I appreciate such a warm offer from what I am sure is a well-respected organization. I am interested in this “secret society”, but I have some questions about the pledge process:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of the pledge process involves binge drinking? I actually have a full-time job so I may have to skip some nights-sorry!

2. How much of the pledge process will involve eating/drinking off other men’s naked bodies? I am kind of a germophobe and I may have to ask for a waiver from these activities, unless some kind of cleanliness certification can be done prior to the activities that involve actual exchange of bodily fluids. Are you Serv-Safe certified?

3. Is there a secret handshake? If so, how hard is it to learn? I always have trouble with that stuff. Is there some kind of mnemonic to remember it (i.e. King Phillip lit a candle in his pledge mate’s rear for dinner)?

4. Are there any animal sacrifices? I am an avid hunter and I may be able to wound some animals, then bring them to the ceremonies. I also may be able to procure a net that could be used to capture animals.

5. Are there mixers with the sororities? I am married, so I will not be able to attend, however I may be able to help with random STD testing at the events.

6. Does the homoerotic behavior end after pledging or are we required to remain with a “domestic partner” afterwards? Is this why you all live together? I support the right of all to be happy and in love, and I would be honored to support your quest for equality and respect. (I think it is terrible what they say about you all on Fox News)

7. In your email you state “This fraternity has helped me grow in a variety of ways. It has helped me expand intellectually, emotionally and certainly physically. We pride ourselves on love, charity and esteem, this is the backbone of who we are.” What do you mean by expanding physically? Beer gut? Water retention? Also, if I already have a backbone can I get some type of refund off my dues?

Thank You for your time in responding to this email, I am really looking forward to joining your Boys’ Club. I know you are probably busy preparing the scrotum twister for next semester and I appreciate your attention! Go TKE!

Re: Re: TKE Informal Spring Recruitment

Dear Fergus

We at TKE appreacite your interest. Unfortunately you can’t get accepted as a grad student. The e-mail was for sophomores, juniors and seniors. But, again good luck with the masters program.

Take Care,

Rudolph MacGregor

I love the fake civility of it all – major points for maintaining the happy charade!

HOme for the Holidays, by nate_marsh.

Recently I was propositioned at a party to help produce a special holiday card for a few of my friends. These talented fellows had wisely procured a collection of matching holiday garb and needed someone with the photo chops and the ability to not feel extremely uncomfortable with them prancing around, tempting everything in sight. I was perfect for the job.

The result is something that still brings a small tear to my eye, view the complete set for more treats!

Credits: Original concept by Asher/Tracy/Ahmed. Photography by N.Marsh and graphic design by E.Roosey

SeasonsGreeting2007, by nate_marsh.

Not much to write here except that Santa’s sleigh is going to pulling a bit to the right this year, based on my calculations and the chart below pulled from Wikipedia (boys on the left, girls on the right):

Kinda sad – how is Vixen going to take care of the babies by herself? Not my problem!

P8312780, by nate_marsh.

I read a fantastic book earlier this year about something I had no idea I would enjoy so much – a complete page turner that I really could not be separated from for long. This book was called: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape. The central point of this book (in my mind) is that we everyday stumble through a complex landscape representing the pinnacle of human engineering, yet we rarely make an effort to understand even the basics of how it all fits together to make up the infrastructure that nearly all of us encounter.

This book doesn’t bash you over the head with superstructures and this complex web, instead it feeds you the different pieces and gives you the tools to better understand how the world seemingly hums along. The book is by no means exhaustive and the author goes to pains to point out that everything he discusses is immensely more complicated. The reason this book is so amazing is the authors ability to break complex systems into interesting pieces. The icing on the cake is that the author has included thousands of his beautiful photos of whatever he is talking about. Much of the greatest photos are of stuff that, post-9/11, would be nearly impossible to access, let along snap some shot. Seriously, this book is nearly perfect in what it provides – my old man even uses it in one of the classes he teaches!

In celebration – I made an infrastructure flickr set of some shots I enjoy, maybe you will too!

This year, a group of my sneaky friends created a very sneaky birthday surprise. Needless to say, I was completely caught off guard:


The “man in the box”? Colorado’s own Degs – up for a surprise visit of the town and many rounds of foosball!

Many longtime readers are undoubtably upset by the change of look & feel on Dr. Thinky – and I assure you, no one is more outraged than me. I updated D.T. to be running then newest Wordpress software and threw on two antispam plugins and then, caught up in it all, I tried to fiddle around with the layout. In a shocking turn of events, I broke the layout for good. So, I have decided to redo the theme. The new theme will be most more “saucy” and should look pretty similar to how it is now, or much different, depending how much bug juice I have designing up this sucker!

The Annual Santa Hunt, by nate_marsh.

My bro & I bagged a big Santa this year on the traditional 47th Annual Central PA Santa Claus Hunt.
I bet all those boys & girls thought they were helping out the jolly man by providing milk & cookies. Fact is, it just slowed him down for us. He weighed in at about 345lb – those poor reindeer could barely keep him in the sky!
I am holding Eli’s new rifle, a gun that, ironically, Santa brought this year! Loaded up some Kringle Stoppers ™ .22 rounds and built the classic chimney blind – fat bastard never had a chance.!
Good eating too!

I’ve been out of touch with society for the last couple months, doing some fieldwork on playing Xbox360 wearing a wifebeater and eating donuts. My sabbatical is over and you should be seeing some really groundbreaking new content here on a more regular basis – for real this time!