Warning

P1000333
Originally uploaded by nekosoft.

"Warning - Civilian Personnel Not Allowed on Range During Firing"

Cabool, MO

Marty Robbins Greatest Hits

Marty Robbins Greatest Hits
Originally uploaded by nekosoft.

Checked out an abandoned house today and I scoured the floors and drawers for any abandoned photography. Found just this one.

Seen at the sale barn

04_29_06_1342
Originally uploaded by nekosoft.

"Not Responsible for Goats that Get Out Before or After Sale"

Mountain Grove, MO

Spring is the busiest season

Haven't had much time to spend on the internetwork lately, but this caught my eye: Ode Magazine has a short, but idea-packed, article on storytelling.

The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.

I'd be hungry all night long

Nifty takeout container lamp for around $20 from Pearl River.

(via Lighting Ideas, a great lighting blog. Why not a lighting blog?)

Everyone is crafty

Awesome! There's a new magazine/book hybrid coming out... It's like Make for crafts. And look what's on the cover:

Free Internet

It's business as usual in America: corporate interests seek control of whatever they currently don't. This week's target is our internet. The short explanation is that internet service providers, telco companies, and the "big pipe" or backbone providers currently transmit our data without heeding who it belongs to or where it's going. It's a system that's worked well but it could all come tumbling down this week, as Congress votes to revamp the Telecommunications Act. The current version of the bill would allow ISPs to block or slow access to sites or traffic for any reason they desire.

Our friends at MoveOn.org have organized a petition they'll submit to Congress but if you like more direct action (and who doesn't?) savetheinternet.com has all the phone numbers for the members of the Energy & Commerce Committee. Take a minute to call them up and let them know how you feel.

No, really. It's easy and fun. If we lose the internet we lose an important tool for future revolutions.

This American Life on Showtime.

According to Robot Wisdom, six episodes of This American Life will be shown this fall on Showtime, of all places. I won't watch it (maybe I'd do it In The Pit style) because I hate seeing who these voices belong to.

Seeing someone in real life that you know only by voice is worse, yes I said worse, than a movie adaptation of one's favorite book. I was accidently exposed to David Sedaris and now on top of that I've seen Ira Glass too! Thanks to this link.

Curse you, link!

Found in the woods

turtle
Originally uploaded by nekosoft.

A friendly male three-toed box turtle.


Edit: This turtle is ten years old.

In The Pit: audio gaming

Since Apple pushed back their dual-booting MacBooks to June, I won't be able to play In The Pit for a while. I suppose I could play it on the computer hooked to the big screen, but it's a bit of a waste, as the player controls a monster at the bottom of a well. Hence, there are no graphics. Auditory cues and a force-feedback controller are all the information a player gets. Looks (well, sounds) fantastic!

Edit: Played it on the big screen (turned off) with headphones. A little variety in the breathing noises (and other sounds) would be welcomed but the concept is awesome and it's neat to be able to determine where "I" am spatially without visual cues.

Review: Brain Age

Picked up the oddly titled Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day for the Nintendo DS the other day, and Nintendo keeps cranking out the unusual titles. Starring the disembodied head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, this game promises to "make your brain feel fresh and sharp!" Less a game than a collection of minigame-like challenges, Dr. Kawashima guides the player through a number of simple, but still challenging, tasks like reading aloud, doing simple math problems and connecting numbered and lettered dots. These tasks may not sound fun but they've got the single thing to challenge any gamer: a high score you can beat! The gimmick of the game, the Brain Age, is a series of tasks that one can attempt. At the end of the run, the software totals up how well the player's brain is working and assigns it an age, twenty being the ideal "brain age". After two days, I'm down to 28 from 45, but this may be a matter of getting used to the games unusual interface.

The most recognizable thing about Brain Age is how one holds the DS: like a book rather than the normal "Game Boy" style. This is because the game ignores the button and keypad inputs completely, favoring handwriting and voice recognition. Every task in the game is accomplished by saying a color or number out loud, writing a word or number or drawing on the screen with the stylus. In my experience the voice recognition worked very well and while handwriting recognition was fine when it came to numbers, I still can't get it to understand the letter "K". Admittedly, most humans can't recognize my handwriting either, but unlike many recognition systems, the DS doesn't learn as time goes on.

Nintendo is clearly targeting non-gamers with this one, with the friendly interface and inclusion of everyone's favorite: Sudoku! Stylus-based Sudoku is great, but there's only a hundred puzzles on the game pak (rumor is that Nintendo is releasing a fuller Sudoku experience later this year). Like many other games I've mentioned, Brain Age is best played for a few minutes a day, rather than long stretches. This is seeming more and more common in gaming, at least for the games I've been buying. Casual gamers, weigh in: is this appealing? I'll report more on this game as my brain age starts dropping.

Closet Theater Vol 4

http://www.selectparks.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=442
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjaEFg6kGPE
http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/146898main_viz_shiftingall_21.320x240.mpg
http://www.fleshbot.com/sex/video/lets-sexy-english-168394.php (NSFW)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM
http://www.stillfree.com/
http://funwithstuff.com/dswmedia/airport.html
http://bedazzled.blogs.com/bedazzled/2006/04/the_cowsills_fu.html
http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/media/2006/04/10/escaped_murderer/index.html
http://boingboing.onlinestoragesolution.com/out_of_milk_and_butter_blues.mp4

(all via Boing Boing and as of yet unwatched by me)

Fear and Loathing in the Kingdom of Loathing

I promise, not all Kingdom of Loathing players are murderers and cannibals (stomach-turning CNN link).

He wrote that he rarely left his apartment for long stretches, except to go to work and to buy food. "I just sit here at the computer every minute of the day, when I'm not at work. A week or so ago, I spent my day off sitting here at the computer, barely moving from the chair, for 14 hours."

He said one of his main interests was the online role-playing game "Kingdom of Loathing," in which stick figures battle one another.

Awful, awful, awful.

(via Perfect Duluth Day)

I Stand Corrected

And here I thought she was just another psuedo girl-power party girl being pimped by the music industry mafia.

My apologies, Pink.

And yes, those are the Indigo Girls singing in the background.

PS I don't know why the link won't work. Here's the cut and paste version:
http://www.radionewsamerica.com/media/kynd/president.mp3

Edit: Fixed link -Erik

Get ready to re-rock!

As aforeblogged, Guitar Hero is pure, unadorned rocking goodness. Even though I still haven't rocked my way through the first one, the sequel has been announced.
Guitar Hero II has been slated for a November release with 55 songs and two player co-operative mode. One player can play lead and the second player can play bass. Or rhythm. Or whatever: two players playing together is the bottom line.

That leaves seven months for me to perfect my skills.

Edit: Forgot about this Guitar Hero as an instrument sampler (video)

Things I Learned Today

How To Build a Catapult

Tape a plastic spoon to the edge of your desk. Face the concave part of the spoon towards your co-worker's office. Loop a rubber band around the spoon. Tape the rubber band to your desk, so that it's taut enough to stay in place but not acutally stretched out. Load the spoon with an appropriate projectile. (Recommended: erasers, paper clips, and aspirin.) Pull it back. Let it go. Move your coffee cup, or other camouflaging device, in front of the spoon. Maintain the "I'm far too busy to deal with this today" attitude during the ensuing investigations.

Sampler Platter

Sampler Platter
Originally uploaded by nekosoft.

Here's the appitizer sampler at a local tavern that we occasionally frequent. It can't be cost-effective to make and sell because it consists of eight food items and six different kinds of dipping sauces.

Pictured here are Cheese Sticks, Jalapeno Poppers, Onion Rings, Onion Fries, Potato Skins, Chips and Artichoke Dip. Sauces include salsa, marinara sauce, sour cream, guacamole, buffalo sauce and, of course, nacho cheese. All for around six dollars. Yes, the bar is made of pennies.

Hyphenated words as blog-summerization

I'm of the opinion that one can get the feeling for a written piece solely by viewing the hypenated words that appear in it. The following list consists of words that appear in this blog:

8-bit
ad-free
Al-Aqua
arch-enemy
artfully-lit
avant-garde
block-related
cake-a-mari
chain-smoker
Ch-ch-ch-Chia
choose-your-own-adventure
Chronic-what-cles
day-to-day
deli-style
do-it-yourself
east-west
ever-awesome
far-flung
get-together
gut-wrenching
hand-tint
heart-rending
higher-than-dialup
high-speed
hip-hop
how-to
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
liquor-soaked
list-making
lo-fi
long-time
LOR-di-est
Maid-Rite
mole-encrusted
mo-pho
mucking-about
multi-hundreds
never-before-added
non-cadbury
non-grammatical
non-measuring
non-Newtonian
non-rare
non-recurring
non-science
Non-scratch
non-soapy
non-stop
north-south
not-so-artfully
not-yet-drinking-age
now-antique
old-fashioned
page-a-day
php-based
pop-y
quick-and-dirty
self-imposed
self-limiting
semi-coherent
so-called
still-runs-fine-in-classic-mode
sugar-coated
top-forty
Tron-like
well-designed
what-have-you
wi-fi

Let's fill an aircraft hanger with foam!

Awesome.

Return of "interesting" science facts: Cilantro

Coriander and cilantro come from different parts of the same plant: Coriandrum sativum.

Julia Child said of cilantro: "I just can't stand it. It tastes like dirt." In fact, a large segment of the population perceives the taste of cilantro differently due to genetic factors. For these people, the "normal" or "non-soapy" taste can be approximated by sprinkling a bit of ground coriander over fresh parsley and subsitute for the offending herb.

Shattered Dreams

Before today, I wanted to be a hippopotamus in my next life.The hippopotamus is the second largest land mammal, can run faster than a person (even a really fast person), sweats antibiotics and sunscreen, and hangs out in a river all day. And I like the phrase "a pod of hippopotami." But for me, the icing on the non-cadbury cream egg cake is this: I watched a nature program in which a baby hippo stumbled into the midst of a bunch of starving crocodiles in the middle of a feeding frenzy. The crocs stopped tearing their dinner and each other to bits immediately. They all moved back a few feet. The baby wandered all over their bleeding, still kicking food until it got bored, and then went back to mama. After the baby was a safe distance away, the feeding frenzy continued. So I thought, “Hey, I’m gonna come back as a hippo in the next life. Then nobody will mess with me!” and I was happy, because nobody fucks with a hippo…until I saw this picture .

I don’t want to be a hippo anymore.

An easter cake

Can a person bake a cake substituting Cadbury Creme Eggs for the traditional eggs?

Yes.

Should it be done? Probably not.

Paint poisoning means picture post

You know how on paint there's all kinds of warnings like: Don't Let This Stuff Get In Your Eyes. Keep Paint Off Your Skin. Paint Means Not For Eating. Baby, You're A Fool To Inhale These Fumes. Those kinds of warnings? The ones I didn't heed. Anyway, I'm a little paint poisoned and if I were to post something it probably wouldn't make any sense.

And so I point out my flickr.com link over in the left hand page and mention that I've uploaded almost a hundred pictures in the last few days. Fans of me can see me sporting a handsome mullet. Also there's a gallery of just arm's length photography. Flickr account holders may tease me regarding my hair at their leisure.

Movies made of letters

Stumbled across YØUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES ages ago, loved it, promptly forgot about it and restumbled the other day. It's just words set to music... in the same sense of the word "just" as in the sentence "Cool Hand Luke is just people pretending to be prisoners". I can't describe it properly without some jazz in the background. Even if I figured out how to put music to this post I wouldn't be able to do it

as stylishly
 as perfectly
  as effortlessly
  
as Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES
does.

See, that was pretty cool, but it's utter rubbish in comparison. My favorite is SAMSUNG MEANS T0 CØME, a story of "sex, multiple orgasms and, of course, money". It's a bit dirty, but not graphically so. Safe for work unless there's someone reading over your shoulder and utterly perfect for Closet Theater.

Another favorite is the plea for donations: URGENT REQUEST. There's no dirty parts at all, and it's almost as good.

That's YØUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES. Accept no substitutes. Especially not me.

What's G.E. Smith up to?

Former Saturday Night Live bandleader George Edward Smith is currently fronting the band "The G.E. Smith Band", which plays at Cleveland Browns home games. He also helped roast Jeff Foxworthy on Comedy Central. Each summer, he hosts a guitar workshop at the Fur Peace Ranch.

Alright, to be fair I don't make it sound like he's doing much right now. But that Fur Pass Ranch belongs to Jorma Kaukonen, guitarist for Jefferson Airplane. And G.E. is busy as hell. He says, "I haven't slept since the sixties." He was the musical director for Dylan's 30th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden and has been cited as encouraging Dylan's musical exploration in the late 1980's (also he's got a great story about commuting to Brazil from New York to play with Dylan and SNL and Dylan). He was the lead guitarist for Hall and Oates and was married to the late Gilda Radner for two years.

And he wrote the "Wayne's World, Wayne's World, Party Time, Excellent" song. What more could we ask?!

Good (?) stuff from the dollar store

These frankensteinish gloves are made from crazy bits of leftover vinyl, all stitched together. Perfect to go with a coat of many covers. Also potentially good for restoring the interiors of vintage autos.


Despite costing a dollar, this knife is very, very sharp and might securely lock open depending on which one of the ones I bought it turns out to be. One in three chance of finger mutilation? I like those odds!


The first Lilith Fair CD and a disc full of music from German television ads, including a Gorillaz cover. They had dozens of the double disc Lilith Fair CD and I was going to clean them out and make a killing on the internet but Amazon is selling them for eight cents apiece.


A CD-rom about sexual harrasment. I was expecting a early 90's training video, but there's just six PDFs on this disc and 60 ads for more of the company's products. That's ok, I just bought this for the image on the cover:


Now, sexual harrasment is never funny but this picture cracks me up. It's an iconic image of harrasment, but what exactly is going on? "I'll give you that raise if you let me touch your hair?" Furthermore, if this is a picture of harrasment, how did they take it without running afoul of the very laws about which the disc is supposed to protect and educate? "I have to touch your hair for this picture or else you're fired."


Dinosaur Growing. I'll post pictures of the promised 400% growth. The cage actually has clear plastic between the bars so one could clip it to a belt loop or that bottom vest button that is always left unbuttoned.


The Tron Storybook. The text explains everything in the movie (in this sentence, italics indicate tedium). Half the pictures are of mundane scenes, like people climbing stairs and working at now-antique computers, and the other half are shit like this:


It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, but I think I would have remembered a scene like a neon lady chatting with... shoot, I don't even have words. I did buy a $1 black light bulb and a $1 laser pointer to make my life more Tron-like.


Self explanatory.

Yet again: tales from the bar

What kind of bartender doesn't know how to make a Stoli and Baileys?

"What's in that?"

"That'd be, uh... Stoli and Baileys."

"Huh?"

"Vodka and irish creme."

Finally, I have a story to top the bar that couldn't make a Black Russian.

Dawn of the atomic age

As aforeblogged, United Nuclear is indeed great. As part of my last order, I obtained a sample of Trinitite, the mineral formed by the intense heat of an atomic blast.

Here's an artfully-lit picture of my sample as it appears at United Nuclear.



It was shipped to me in a plastic deli-style container, presumably to protect against gamma radiation. While this sample is radioactive, smoking a pack of cigarettes will expose a person to just as much radiation as a lifetime of handling this sample.



Here's my not-so-artfully lit picture of the Trinitite. The sample is somewhat small, and fused sand rather than the glass that I've heard other samples forming. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic thing to have sitting on one's bookshelf. I'm fascinated by atomic testing and I've been dying to visit the original Trinity test site. Problem is, it's only open two times a year: the first Saturday in April and in October. Just missed the last one, but Joshua Ellis was there. Interesting thing, Josh soliticted donations from internet folks to finance the trip in exchange for the pictures and essay he would write. Folks stood up, funded his trip and his end of the bargain is available to all:

http://www.zenarchery.com/trinity/

Net-funded journalism is one of those things that makes me really appreciate the internet.

(via Boing Boing, via Street Tech)

Ch-ch-ch-Chia Chair

A chair made of earth, covered with grass. How cool would a set of four around an earthen table be? An outfit
in the UK sells a cardboard kit and Readymade tells you how to do it for free (and shows a most excellent sod couch as well).

(via Gizmodo)

More on Glaciers

One of my favorite journalists, Molly Ivins, has more to say on the subject of global warming and glaciers:

“Global warming turns out to reinforce itself by a number of feedback mechanisms. For example, when the polar icecaps start melting, there's less blinding bright ice to reflect heat back into the atmosphere -- over 90 percent of sunlight simply bounces off ice and back into space. Whereas the dark water left behind by melted ice does the opposite, pulling in more warmth and accelerating the process.”

I suggest reading the whole thing. Erik, you’ll especially love the part about Canadians.


And here's the old fashioned, cut and paste link.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/34474/

Deer skull

Deer skull
Originally uploaded by nekosoft.

The skull of a deer I found out in the woods. I'm always glad when the bones I find in the wilderness are easily identified.

A casino, a bomb and three million dollars: August 26, 1980

I've never heard this story, even though it was national news: a team of three men dropped a bomb containing 900 pounds of explosives off in the Harveys Casino in Lake Tahoe. They demand three million dollars in unmarked hundred dollar bills in exchange for the information on how to move, not disable, the bomb. The bomb cannot be disabled; it will explode.

The Reno Gazette Journal did an eight day series on the events to mark the 25th aniversary last summer. Fantastic reading.

(via Cardhouse)

Super Mario Day Revisited

Back in February I posted about Super Mario, including a link to DIY Question Mark Blocks, urging folks to put them up around town. I must now retract my gentle suggestion: in these fearful times those who have not played many 8-bit video games may misinterpret the intent of these boxes.

For example, 5 young women in Ravenna, Ohio could be facing criminal charges for making and placing question mark boxes around town. The bomb squad and HAZMAT team were called out and the empty cardboard boxes were found to be harmless.

If normal citizens can't make our world a little more like Super Mario World, then the terrorists have already won.

Edit: The ever-awesome Chris Yates of Reprographics weighs in. Yes, that's the Boulder Creek he's hanging them over. I've got Chris's Super Fun Combo Pak Deluxe on its way to me even as we speak.

More "Interesting" Science Fact

An ant's terminal velocity is never actually "terminal."

Due to the unique properties of its body shape and mass, an ant will survive a fall from any height.


*Please don't try this at home. Or from the top of a tall building.

Numeric proof of geekiness

According to a study done by the Consumer Electronics Association (via Gizmodo), the average American household has 26 consumer electronics devices. Reading this, I thought: I bet I have that many in my bedroom.

After a quick count I show 29. Granted, a lot of the stuff in my bedroom ought to be in storage, but then again a lot of the stuff in storage ought to be where I can get at it so it balances out. It seemed like bragging to put the list in the content of the actual blog, so it can be found in the comments.

Also, burglars take note: we live a block from the police station and they respond very quicky when the silent alarms go off (as I found out myself one night).

"Interesting" science fact

In the Ozarks, it would take one well flowing at a paltry 10 gallons per minute 2.44 days to raise an acre of water one inch. After evaporation, this equates to 11,127 gallons/day.

And now you know!

Even more yet bookmarks from my bookmark page

I just wish they did them in the classic "The More You Know" format: The Office AFD PSAs

Turns out Calvin and Hobbes has everything to do with Fight Club.

$30 rainbow LED array

"I'm Zoe, I'm 15, and this is my radio show"

The Sneeze is on Rob Cockerham's internet circuit so now it's on mine too. We're going to need the lordiest of help if Rob ever decides to use his powers for evil.

USB hard drive in an NES case.