2002 February❮❮prevnext❯❯
2002.02.01
"Pink Office Park", my submission to the very cool Mirror Project.
More info about the shot on the entry page. (I also thought 'submission' was a funny word for this kind of stuff. I use it all the time on the loveblender but it seems kind of funny.)
Movie Line of the Moment
"I like your nurse's uniform, guy."John quoted that last line out of the blue the other day, and it has been rattling around my head ever since, just how the kid who speaks first is kind of trying to cover for himself. Thanks a lot John.
"These are O.R. scrubs."
"O, R they?"
2002.02.02
Link of the Moment
Drokk.com has been sitting in my back log since July. There's a lot of good stuff here...trouser ads from the 60s, creepy cards, and disgusting homestyle food. I think my dad (who came in second in the men's division of a national counter cross-stitch competition) would have appreciated the dungbeetle cross-stitch project.Quote of the Moment
When turkeys mate, they think of swans.
2002.02.03
Continuing through the backlog, on August 12 I grabbed this link to a salon.com piece, "Life from the terrorist point-of-view." Both sides in that area, they really know how to run a country! As time goes on, they seem to deserve each other more and more.
Video Games of a Past Moment
Last week, images from the
Atari Art Collection on safestuff.com were getting some publicity on slashdot and the like. They were pictures of Atari's image for the future of arcades. Many were on target, though there were a disproportionately high number of women. (like this curvaceous lady to the left) What I found more interesting than the image collection was the Atari Document Library. A lot of behind-the-scenes information about Battle Zone and the beloved Star Wars the Arcade Game. I thought the coolest part was summary of a February 1980 Brainstorm
Session (two parts). It's interesting to think of what might've been: (especially in terms of early 80s technology.) "13) 1st Person Cockroach - like wack-a-mole, but using feet",
"25) Green Peace - player manuevers between hunters and whales" and "27) Water surface skipping bomb - attempt to 'skip' bomb into hole across link" are some of the more "out there" ones. Others made it into full videogamehood: I think "5)1st person Space Invaders" eventually became Tempest, for instance.
2002.02.04
Alright! My 14-point-underdog hometown team kicked some superbutt. GO PATS! It's
really cool; even as they were coming on to the field, the starters weren't
individually announced; it was just The Team. That's style. They dominated the first half, held a "line in the sand" against a powerful Rams offence that tied it up, and got a terrific final drive in to end with a winning field goal in the final 7 seconds. It was one of the best games ever to watch with some friends and chips and beer. And salty pork...mmmm. Actually, we set up two
TVs, one for some video gamin', the other for the game, but it was more football than otherwise.
(Incidentally, today's title shamelessly ripped off of Fox News.)
I like the "new" Pats logo, up there to the left, though I understand why some have called it the Flying Elvis. The classic logo below was a pretty mean lookin' fellah.
Quote of the Moment
"If I knew the meaning of life, would I be sitting in a cave in my underpants?"
2002.02.05
USA! USA! The Fox pre-game show, with rap stars, former presidents, the patriotic and commercial mixed--the flashing FREEDOM! sign next to the BUD LIGHT sign--was quintessentially American. That is, poignant and ridiculously excessive at the same time. TMQ thought two things:I'm not sure if I buy the "one cannot defeat what one doesn't understand"--after all, we hope to defeat the terrorists without fully understanding them--but I think it's a good thought anyway.
1) The enemies of freedom hate this sort of display because they cannot understand the notion of letting people decide for themselves which part of a dream to believe.
2) Because the enemies of freedom cannot understand it, they can never defeat it.
Image of the Moment
At one point during the 1980s, American Pop Culture almost achieved critical mass in California. The resulting explosion would have destroyed the "right coast", leaving only a smoldering ruin of mediagenic debris. A picture of that event can is displayed below:
2002.02.06
From the July backlog...the four videos linked at the very bottom of the danger.com about page are really funny. They used to load randomly with reloads of the danger.com frontpage. I think the third one's the best, you might want to save that one for last.
Book Recommendation of the Moment
9-11: Emergency Relief is a collection of personal exeriences by many different comic artists. I went to a signing with 9 of the artists at Cambridge's Million Year Picnic, to meet K. Thor Jensen. All proceeds to the Red Cross, the book is worth picking up, both as a historical document, and
to see the work of many artists, including some really big names.
Evil Joke of the Moment
Q.: What's worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm?
A.: Crib death.
2002.02.07
Drolly Funny Trivia of the Moment
Before the falling-Pinto scene could be filmed, the filmmakers had to get certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for the Pinto. This was done by conducting preliminary drop tests to ensure that it would not behave as an airfoil and drift from its target line when dropped from a great height.That's a pretty cool mental image, actually.
Line of the Moment
Peter Marshall: What are "dual-purpose cattle" good for that other cattle aren't?
Paul Lynde: They give milk... and cookies, but I don't recommend the cookies.
Link of the Moment
Now this is funny: Brunching Shuttlecocks Rates The Powertools.
2002.02.08
Personal Rumors of the Moment
So I think my job might be in trouble. Despite the fact that my company made 97% of its projections last year (despite the WTC tragedy), and that the Boston office has a huge amount of knowledge about our legacy systems, rumor has it that the home office in the midwest has been looking for a justification to shut this (admittedly somewhat expensive) location down and may have sought out-placing "consultants" who will give them just that, leading to either a relocation to India (clearly suicidal, I think) or back to the midwest (just mostly suicidal).
Anyway, yesterday they opened up the large unfinished area where they keep a ton of old crap (ancient 17" monitors, some well-past-their-prime office chairs, giant old computer racks, etc) and let the employees take what they wanted. Remember in Empire Strikes Back, and the Millenium Falcon is stuck on the back of the star destroyer, and they manage to escape because they know dumping garbage is standard imperial procedure before going into hyperspace? That's what it reminded me of. (Another possible spin is that they've meaning to get that space renovated and subletted for a long while, and it could theoretically be only that. Still, I have my doubts.)Geek Quote of the Moment
"If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is."via this page, which also has a quote I've enjoyed for a long time:
"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random numbers is, of course, in a state of sin."
Link of the Moment
Slate.com had an informative Flash piece, The Enron Blame Game. Very well done, though I wish there was a way to see a bunch of blame arrows at once.
2002.02.09
O trumpetman, unswallowed song
your yellow-down bluesound dogface to confound,
sing sweet what you knew aloud,
sing your very funeral shroud-
the death of you, you know?
Known to now.
Sing.
O saxman written on your reed
history shades of black and awhile,
purr the pregnant, poignant prose and call me home.
purple-rich tone at home and roam
you're ash in the kingdom
rubbed to sooth word-struck wounds
Soothe.
O drummerman solid boatsman mighty armed
steadfast slip over cymbal stream and
scythe in your hand, you can.
back bone of a notion
spine of the time
fertile ground for the sound.
Sail.
Breathe as the trumpetman breathes.
Blow as the saxman blows.
Beat as the drummerman beats.
--A poem I wrote in college, I should look up the season. I think the instructor (Peter Richards) thought it was about the best that I produced that semester, but to me it seems a bit contrived. The discrepancy between other people's idea of which poems of mine were best and my own is one of the reason I consider myself mostly a prose guy.
Incidentally, I found a stash of old papers and things I had saved, so there will probably a bit more of the selfindulgent navel-gazing on this site for a while. I'll try to keep it lively.
Quote of the Moment
If you could understand it, it wouldn't be poetry.
2002.02.10
"I've seen pornos that show less."--Feb 9 2002
2002.02.11
Quote of the Moment
"I want you in the worst way...
...which is standing up in a hammock."
Links of the Moment
I was requested by some guy to link to his site Toast In A Can. I would've ignored the request, since I'm not a big link exchanger, but I wanted to contrast this Hillary Clinton bashing picture that I found on the site, which plays on her reputation as an unlikable witch, with this New York Times article that says even the Republican senators find her quite likable in person. Yay Liberals.
2002.02.12
(Man, I have a real love/hate relationship with the gallows humor right before and after a layoff. On the one hand, it sucks to be in a situation like that. On the other hand, it can be really funny, and help a lot.)
So to prepare for today, I went home a little early yesterday (just a tad) and played and finished Luigi's Mansion. Cute little game, pretty much a very cartoony take on Ghostbusters. Full of nice touches...Luigi tends to hum the main spooky theme as he wanders through the haunted house, but the lower his health is, the weaker and shakier the humming becomes.
Backlog of the Moment
"Decay is inherent in all compound things. Work out your salvation with diligence."I had seen these before, but also in the article The true Buddhist. It touches on a lot of interesting topics, from how we tend to judge our own prosperity strictly in relative and not absolute terms, to the idea of a sense of self being an artificial construct.
Link of the Moment
An interesting piece on how Deaf People in the U.K. are really taking to cellphone-based text messaging. Too bad systems over here are more primitive and less universal. (via Camworld)
2002.02.13
We have two options:I wrangled the lines just a bit to rhyme, but I really like the playfulness inherent in these lines. And then we found poetry...
(a) hide under the bed (b) run and scream in fear
the a turned into an angel, and the b into a mug of beer
Link of the Moment
Take a look at this guy's cover letter page. As Portal of Evil put it, "He may have all kinds of computer experience, but he lacks a certain something when it comes to putting together a resume that does not make your head explode." I think he must've formed his sense of visual design from NASCAR.
Oh yeah, speaking of all things résumé-ish...I'll be out of work in 2 months... time to take this weak job market head on.
2002.02.14
Valentines of the Moment
|
--From The Onion's Valentine's Day Kids Page...I love these, though they don't change much from year to year. |
Quote of the Moment
People who don't let themselves get talked into something new every once in a while have dull, dull, dull sex lives.
2002.02.15
Sure, yesterday other people couldn't stop talking about
playing Barry White for sharks to get them in the mood, but Ranjit found something that has more solid science:
Dinopuke!
Quote of the Moment
Just before someone gets nervous, do they experience cocoons in their stomach?
2002.02.16
Making the rounds is this amusing riverside sequence of images of a boat that finds a new way to get past a bridge. (That link is a mirror (thanks david), the original is supposedly here but it never works.)
Funny of the Moment
The story went that the whole effing family went over to Greece and there were several effing days of feasting and effing celebration. On the last day, the narrator's effing sixteen year old sister went effing missing, so they looked all effing over for her. The effing party was still going on in an effing big hall, and when every-effing-body was there, they noticed effing movement behind the effing curtains. The effing curtains were drawn back to see his effing sister with her effing knickers round her ankles and the efffing priest cousin and they were, and I quote, "You know,... doing it!"
2002.02.17
This has to be one of the cleverest Flash-based Intro Pages I've ever seen. Some interesting little flash things if you follow the pages it links to as well. (via Bill the Splut)
Quote of the Moment
"What's worth succeeding in is worth failing in."
Net Meme of a Previous Moment
If
you weren't online in 1996, you may not have been around for the
Dancing Baby video, one of the earlier really big net memes. (This
was the same baby that later made it even bigger on "Ally McBeal")
This page claims to be
the originator of it, though they insist on slapping their ugly
"Burning Pixel" signature all over their videos. This other page features
the canonical "oogachaka" version, though I had a little trouble
viewing the file in QuickTime, I had to drag it to IE in order to see it.
2002.02.18
This Wired.com piece on Why surfing is like smelling, that we forage for information like other animals forage for food, caught my imagination back in August. (via camworld)
Interesting to compare its main point to this quote from the KHftCEA, "When I'm clicking through the hundreds of E-mail messages that await me each morning, sometimes I imagine I'm a mighty information whale, sifting through thousands of tiny (but nutritious!) krill bits. Yum!"
Idea of the Moment
This Slate.com piece had high praise for Fred Bernstein's idea for a WTC monument; two horizontal bridges, representing (depending on your viewpoint) the towers' reflection, shadow, or the fallen towers themselves. (I think the last interpretation is a little cartoonish.) One would point to Ellis Island, the other to the Statue of Liberty. Actually, I think I liked the idea of making standing "Towers of Light" idea a bit better.
2002.02.19
I've been thinking a bit about Cockney Rhyming Slang, where the speaker substitutes some common word with a word or phrase that rhymes with it, like "he hit him right in his Chevy Chase" instead of "right in his face". You can hear a bit of it in Guy Ritchie's movies, Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. I found a pretty interesting English/Cockney Rhyming Slang glossary. (click on "View Dictionary") It's interesting trying to see which ones are just rhymes and which ones might have another layer of meaning.
Reminds me of my old boss who would sometimes say farewell with "esca-lator". Later I realized a lot of phrases would fit that pattern: "mashed-p'tater", "some ice skater", "that Ralph Nader", etc etc.
Dialog of the Moment
"They're armed."
"Armed, armed with what?"
"Err, bad breath, colorful language, feather duster... what do you think they're gonna be armed with? Guns, you tit!"
2002.02.20
Links of the Cold War Moment
Slashdot had a reference to a story on the CIA showcasing some spy gadgets at Reagan Presidential Library. They have an even more interesting online museum (love the minicameras and the tire spikes). Not to be completely out in the cold war, the NSA also has a online exhibit of cryptography stuff.
Quick Link of the Moment
Wow, it's the power of what you don't show in an image that sometimes makes all the difference in a visual presentation. (Thanks John.)
2002.02.21
I'm not a security threat: I'm CanadianThe worker is writing this Really Interesting Weblog on his experiences. (via Ranjit)
Nostalgia of the Moment
I never watched enough Robotech when I was a kid, (mostly I could never figure out when it was going to be on) but I always liked the look of their giant fighting machines. This reference page for the roleplaying game has a lot of cool images of the "mecha" . One of my perennially favorite office toys is a model of the Invid Trooper, I like its big claws. Oh, not too long ago Lego released a very cool Mech-like set for its "Life on Mars" theme. I think it's still available in stores, though I don't know for how long. I think it's the coolest Lego prebuilt I've ever seen, very well articulated and good looking.
2002.02.22
Mystery of the Moment
So last night Brooke came over and asked the age old question,
"What the hell is Grimace?" Well the Straight Dope answer was
a good start. But according to the alt.mcdonalds faq, he was originally the Evil Grimace, and he was associated with the McDonalds Shakes (heh, sounds like a withdrawal symptom.) But now he's so happy and dumb. I thought maybe he was busted by Mayor McCheese and that cop Big Mac, incarcerated and lobotomized, but Mo suggested maybe it was the result of brain freeze from drinking those shakes. (I had another theory that the name "Grimace" might be a subtle joke about the face people make when trying to drink a too thick shake through a straw.)MonkeyCube points out that McDonald's is downplaying the overweight Grimace from its current campaigns. And I'm trying to figure out when they rewrote Hamburglar as this little evil guy into this cabbage patch lookin' jerk who says "rubble rubble" clearly and cutely rather than kind of grumbling
I was hoping to find something clever on the possible connection between Grimace and Barney, but this old Space Moose Cartoon was all I could find.
Jeez, I hope I find a job soon.
Link to Avoid of the Moment
It's all the Internet themed cartoons from the little known South Asian country Unfunnystan! Truly awful, but you gotta give 'em points for tryi...well, maybe you don't. (via Portal of Evil)
2002.02.23
Baked Stuffed Chicken--great recipe 6-7 lb. chicken, 1 cup melted butter, 1 cup stuffing, 1 cup uncooked popcorn, salt/pepper to taste; Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush chicken well with melted butter, salt and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan in the oven. Listen for popping sounds. When the chicken's ass blows out the oven door and flies across the room, the chicken is done. ......And, you thought I couldn't cook.
Link of the Moment
Kind of funny but not hilarious, it's the Freak Watcher's Textbook, a guide to the various freaks of Royal Oak, Michigan.
2002.02.24
Open Photo Gallery
puppy
birthday
route 128
land of layoffs
2002.02.25
This is one of the coolest online clocks I've seen, though it's a bit too busy too use regularly. (humanclock is pretty cool as well.) (via Bill the Splut)
Cartoon of the Moment
Sitting in the backlog since August...I've been a fan of Too Much Coffee Man for a
long time. The site doesn't have my single favorite cartoon, which goes into the ritual and worship of the coffee pot, but the archive is pretty generous.
He's at turns
heroic and
and playful. (But tying
into the time piece theme is this cartoon, which has the strip's more typical sense of existential wackiness.)
I've e-mailed back and forth with the artist Shannon Wheeler, back when the site was in a rougher state to talk about some broken links, nice guy. Go out and buy one of his books.
2002.02.26
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last?
116 years
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
Ecuador
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
Sheep and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
November
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
Squirrel fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
Dogs
7) What was King George VI's first name?
Albert
8) What color is a purple finch?
Crimson
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
New Zealand
--from The Comics I Don't Understand "last week" page.
Methinks They Do Protest Too Much
This was one of those "XCam2 camera" ads from a long while back (You can try seeing it here but you may have to cut and paste into a browser before it autodestructs the window.)
I love how it tries to protest its innocence, while at the same time promoting its obvious use..."QUIT SPYING ON PEOPLE!" in big type, and then a smaller parenthetical reminder "(we never told you to do that)". And the "better uses" use it suggests are pretty sad: "monitoring sleeping baby" (I think this version doesn't have sound, so you'd need a baby monitor as well), "watching nature without intruding" (in a grainy little window), "throwing a candid camera party" (What?? A "party"? Isn't that just group spying even if you could somehow work up a social event around it?), etc. And what the heck does the back of that naked woman have to do with any of those "better uses"? Luckily, since I went to this popup disablers page I haven't seen these particular ads...are they still around? (I can't find this one link that compared various cameras like these...they aren't as wireless and portable or useful as the ads indicate, surprise surprise.)
Quote of the Moment
Boy, life takes a long time to live.
2002.02.27
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.News of the Moment
Clearly, 20-somethings are not drinking enough.. Since this story came out, I've heard the figure is more like 11% then 25%, but hey. Clearly 21 is the perfect sacred number for a drinking age...jeez. Now that I'm safely on this side of the number, it still seems stupid that a guy could be drafted but still isn't considered responsible enough to have a beer.
Brave New World of the Moment
More on the booze-and-sex front: Consent Condoms. Your lips say "no no", but your eyes say "yes yes", along with your careful tearing of the date, month, and year on the specially laminated-to-preserve-fingerprints condom packet. (via Cruel Site of the Day)
2002.02.28
Bill pointed out this amazing
comic book from the 1940s. I think we would have had an easier time fighting the Nazis if we had trained our troops in the art of drilling through solid rock with their heads. Be sure to check out the Link labeled "Minit Mystery" near the bottom of the page. They just don't make 'em like that anymore, for which we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
The Wonder of the Internet
Here's a Fetish that I wouldn't've known existed if it weren't for the Internet. (PG-rated link, for the most part.) They seem really into women with headphones on. That's it.