There is a website named Circlemakers which calls itself 'the home of England's crop circle makers'. They have an archive of some of the best crop circles of various years, going back to 1998. I started at the bottom and worked my way upward/forward to the latest post, 2007. People have made some amazingly beautiful circles, even using fractals as their inspiration. Go take a look at these wonderful artworks.




A commencement address:

This is your big day -- the day when you jam four years' worth of unlaundered underwear into a Hefty bag and leave college, prepared by your professors to go out into the Real World. The first thing you'll notice is that your professors did not go out there with you. They're not stupid; that's why they're professors. They've figured out that college is a carefree place where the most serious real problem is finding a legal parking space. So your professors are going to stay in college until they die. Even then, they'll go right on teaching classes. This is called ''tenure.'' But you have committed the grave tactical blunder of acquiring enough credits to graduate. So now you're leaving college and embarking upon the greatest adventure -- and the biggest challenge -- of your young lives: moving back in with your parents.

Decades ago, when I graduated from college, my friends and I would rather have undergone a vasectomy with a fondue fork than move back in with our parents. But times have changed, and today many graduates don't want to go straight from college into a harsh and unforgiving world fraught with unbearable hardships, such as no free high-speed Internet. And so many of you will return home, hand your Hefty bag to Mom for processing, and move back into your old room, which is filled with your childhood memories, not to mention the faint aroma of gerbil doots.

Is this a bad thing? Does the fact that you, a grown adult, are moving back in with your parents mean that you're a sponging loser?

Yes. You are SpongeBob LoserPants.

No! Sorry! I mean: No. It's fine! Your parents don't mind! They're thrilled to have you back home! Even from way up here on the podium, I can hear their teeth grinding with joy.

Besides, it's only temporary, right? In time you'll get tired of living with your parents, with their constant nagging about how you need to find a job, or at least help with the housework, and could you put gas in Dad's car when you borrow it, and can you explain the Mystery Thong that Dad found in the backseat cup holder, and MY GOD IS THAT A TATTOO, and could you not play that music so loud at night, or could you at least play some DECENT music, we're not ''squares'' you know, we like GOOD rock 'n' roll, we like The Mamas and the Papas, the Beatles -- though not the later Beatles -- but this music today, you can't even call it music, it sounds like angry men clubbing a yak to death with electric guitars, and HOW COULD YOU GET A TATTOO THERE, and there are 15 Starbucks -- no wait, now it's 16 Starbucks -- within walking distance of this house and surely one of them would be happy to hire somebody with a degree in anthropology, and here's an article I found in Women's Day about tattoo removal that you might want to . . . DON'T YOU WALK AWAY WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU ...

Yes, graduates, as much as you love your mom and dad, you're realistic enough to understand, deep down inside, that they are the two most annoying human beings on the planet. And so the time will come -- I give it six weeks -- when you realize that you can no longer continue living with them. And so, you will summon your courage, take a deep breath, and ask them to move out. It's only fair! They've had the house practically to themselves for years! Now it's your turn!

Of course, eventually, you will want to have a career. You may think you'll never find your ''dream job,'' but trust me: If you set your goals high, and you never, ever give up, I guarantee you that one day you will find yourself working for a huge impersonal corporation run by morons. Everybody does!

It's not so bad: You get a little cubicle where you sit all day doing some tedious corporate thing that has absolutely nothing to do with anything you learned in college. On your break, you'll go buy a mocha latte from Dad. You'll settle into a comfortable routine, and before you know it, you'll have kids of your own. And one day, you'll send them off to college.

When that happens, change the locks.




'Big Trouble in Little China' is a fun little 1986 John Carpenter film starring Kurt Russell. Action, fantasy, silliness and a battle of good vs. evil, it has a lot of wonderful lines, though perhaps some of them are better in context. The movie has humor, martial arts and camp galore, and it gets a rating of 83% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes.


Jack Burton: What's in the flask, Egg? Magic potion?
Egg Shen: Yeah.
Jack Burton: Thought so, good. What do we do, drink it?
Egg Shen: Yeah!
Jack Burton: Good! Thought so.


Jack Burton: You can go off and rule the universe from beyond the grave.
Lo Pan: Indeed!
Jack Burton: Or check into a psycho ward, which ever comes first, huh?


Jack Burton: Where are we?!
Wang Chi: Hell of the Upside-down Sinners!


Jack Burton: [pointing to Chinese writing on elevator] What does that say?
Wang Chi: Hell of Boiling Oil.
Jack Burton: You're kidding.
Wang Chi: Yeah, I am. It says 'Keep Out'.


Eddie Lee: Anybody who showed up was going to join Lim Lee in the Hell of Being Cut to Pieces.
Jack Burton: Hell of what?
Eddie Lee: Chinese have a lot of hells.


Wang Chi: You ready, Jack?
Jack Burton: I was born ready.


Jack Burton: Well, ya see, I'm not saying that I've been everywhere and I've done everything, but I do know it's a pretty amazing planet we live on here and a man would have to be some kind of FOOL to think we're alone in THIS universe.


Jack Burton: Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we're not back by dawn... call the president.


Jack Burton: [tapping on the walls] Two, three feet thick, I'll bet. Probably welded shut from the outside and covered with brick by now!
Wang Chi: Don't give up, Jack!
Jack Burton: Oh, okay, I won't, Wang! Let's just *chew* our way outta here.


Jack Burton: You know what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like this?
Thunder: Who?
Jack Burton: Jack Burton. *Me*!


Jack Burton: Ol' Jack always says... what the hell?


Jack Burton: You just listen to the ol' Pork Chop Express an' take his advice on a dark and stormy night when some wild-eyed eight-foot tall maniac grabs your neck an' taps the back of your favorite head up against a barroom wall. An' he looks you crooked in the eye an' he asks if you've paid your dues. You look right back at that big sucker an' remember what Jack Burton always says at times like that. "Have you paid your dues, Jack" "No, sir, I just charged 'em."


Jack Burton: Okay, I get the picture: White Tigers, Lords of Death, guys in funny suits throwing plastic explosives while poison arrows fall from the sky and the pillars of heaven shake, huh? Sure, okay, I see Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu and a hundred howlin' monkey temples, and that's just for starters, right? Fine! I'm back! I'm ready, goddammit, let me at 'em!


Jack Burton: Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes and the poison arrows fall from the sky and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol' storm right square in the eye and he says, "Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it."



Someone created a video where they used bits and pieces from the real movie as well as from old movies to create a 1936 serial version of Big Trouble, with John Wayne as Jack. They kept original lines from the movie. For those who know the movie, you may find this version amusing.

Here are a few scenes [link] from the original movie, including some scenes which were recreated in the 1936 'remake'.