February 03, 2006
fantastic four
My symptoms of a meme virus transmitted by Taylor McKnight:
Four Places I've Lived:
* Charleston, West Virginia
* Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* La Jolla, California
* Hillcrest, California
Continue reading "fantastic four"
January 23, 2006
i am internet famous
Not really, but my entry in the Mashup Camp logo contest was chosen to be the official logo. Yay! (Not bad for half an hour's work on the bus.)
December 16, 2005
this old gingerbread house
Finally we have an answer to the age-old question: How would Bob Vila build a gingerbread house? [Thanks to erich for the link.]
October 22, 2005
Snickle Chickenlips
Stolen from the GVSU livejournal site - find out your true name! Instructions in the extended entry. BTW, Chris and Karen have the exact same name.... And Glen gets to be Crusty Hubblebutt. Which amuses me to no end (pun intended).
Continue reading "Snickle Chickenlips"
September 29, 2005
the poor things
What can we do? Stick figures everywhere are in severe danger!
September 10, 2005
Something Light (and bouncy!)
You're Tigger. Playful and fun-loving, you enjoy
hanging out with friends even though you don't
always have to be the center of attention.
You're never pessimistic or sluggish. Your
enthusiasm is at once endearing and
over-the-top. You're the quintessential
extrovert.
Which famous feline are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
August 14, 2005
Wonders of the Waters
I found this today. I had no idea it was possible, but perhaps we'll work this into the Radcliffs' visit to Michigan this fall!
p.s. Yes, I know, but it's fun to pretend.... (and it's not April, so I couldn't use the April Foolishness category)
July 03, 2005
overheard on slashdot
...in a discussion about Neon Genesis Evangelion:
Unless you can actually enjoy having your mind twisted like a towel and thwacked against the ass of Jesus Christ, don't watch this anime.
June 28, 2005
More Gay Square Dancing
I can't help it. These things just find me. Like when I'm driving around listening to NPR. Enjoy the audio!
April 19, 2005
Family Vacation?
We should all go to Kernie's Family Park in Germany, mostly because it's built on the site of an abandoned (never used) nuclear power station. Where else can you free-climb a cooling tower? The site is in German and Dutch only. Sorry.
An actual quote: Hey Kids, eine echt unglaubliche Geschichte!
April 13, 2005
Fundamentalists Flee In Terror!
I may have found a group to believe in: Unitarian Jihad. I found myself drawn to them, my world-view altered, my spirit lifted, when I read such charismatic phrases as, "We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public." I could do with a few more trout and a few less lobbyists. Maybe that's just me.
April 07, 2005
Counting Sheep
I know y'all have been jealous that I get to work with sheep as part of my job. Well, now you can join in! (You gotta enable pop-up windows for this one).
January 21, 2005
Act your age, Mama, not your shoe size
Thanks to Prince for that. Turns out that I'm actually 29! Woot! (and no, that's not my shoe size)
This is what I'm talking about:
December 10, 2004
Going Green
Finally an answer to that age old question: Why is your poo bright green?
December 03, 2004
if we don't laugh we'll cry
I like my news on the funny side. Humor makes the pill a bit easier to swallow. In that vein, Eric pointed out The Borowitz Report. It's funny, it's timely, and it's served in small daily doses.
October 19, 2004
dungeons and dagrons
Oh, the geekiness. As stolen from Boing Boing :
Dungeon Majesty is a cable-access TV show in which four young women play Dungeons and Dragons -- the show is intercut with Z-grade green-screen masks of them staging D&D fights in front of fakey caves or deep in spooky woods, and illustrated with flip-book animations fo D&D monsters drawn in pen on lined paper. This is really fantastic stuff -- it's got nerd pride to burn, and production values that make MST3K look slick.
September 17, 2004
Imaginary Places
My cousin Carl sent me another way cool link - a map of Springfield, USA. You know, where the Simpsons live.
I love that the map can never truly be accurate because the landscape changes from episode to episode...
Boxy Jewels
I'm such an artist wanna-be. I'm desperate to find something, anything, which would justify buying these jewel cases. Of all the times I needed a band!
September 11, 2004
Follow That Rabbit . . .
. . . and take a vacation! This is what should have been through the looking glass.
Anyway, it sounds like a cool bed and breakfast. Think they have an opium room? Oh, so it's not that part of the book . . .
September 04, 2004
Birth of a Blog
Hey, Everybody!
Chris encouraged me to set up a blog and I kind of went, "Hum." Then I get the Anthropology News yesterday, and they're encouraging anthropologists to set up blogs, just to put our voices out there. And I thought, "Oh." But since they had a link to a free site I decided to check it out, and gave in and Ethnograblog was created. And there was much rejoicing (or something).
My motto is: Expect Lameness! (I do enjoy saying "Ethnograblog" though.)
August 25, 2004
Travelling with tots
I just (re)discovered that a flight to Barcelona from San Diego would take 14 hours. The flight back from Milan would take 16, and neither is counting the extra time due to security, check-in, and delays. Even the 7-hour flight to Hawaii was a challenge for Ben. Luckily, the Berkeley Parents Network has a really informative page on surviving long flights with small children.
August 23, 2004
Is it Bigger than a Duck?
Look! It's an online version of Twenty Questions. You come up with the object and the computer guesses. It's fun!
August 09, 2004
Watch This!
July 21, 2004
MacGyver would be proud
I don't know how many times I wish I had a tripod along, even for my pocket-sized camera. Now that won't be a problem, because I can carry a home-made bottle-cap tripod and pop it on a handy water bottle.
To the Ace Hardware, Robin!
July 10, 2004
Tales of Future Past
Please excuse me if this is a duplicate, but I honestly don't remember where I found out about it. (If it was you, let me know and I'll update this entry.) Anyhoo, Tales of Future Past is a cheeky site with lots of pictures and text from old sci-fi magazines, books, shows, and articles, with commentary from our post-ironic perspective.
June 11, 2004
Unexpected Knitting
Karen sent me this article on Debbie New, a woman who creates unusual artwork by knitting.
When two of Debbie New's grandchildren visited Upper Canada Village, a park depicting pioneer life just east of Cornwall, Ont., a lady in period costume spinning wool asked them, "Does your grandma knit?"
...Their grandmother knitted teacups, a lace coracle (a small seaworthy boat), a 20-by-12-by-7-foot labyrinth, a 'cellular automaton' shawl and -- the latest project taking up space in Ms. New's dining room in Waterloo, Ont. -- a free-standing grandfather clock, which ticks.
May 10, 2004
The Origin of Verses
Sorry. Having trouble coming up with a pun that fits the intersection of Darwinism and poetry. The authors of the site just call it Darwinian Poetry, and write, "The goal of this project is to see if non-negotiated collaboration can evolve interesting poetry using (un)natural selection."
It's very interesting!
April 22, 2004
Rocketman awaaay!
It's very 1960s, I know, but seeing a jet pack in action must be very cool indeed. Imagine having this guy as your dad on show-and-tell day.
April 01, 2004
Homestar Random
Looks like someone forgot to update their domain name registration...
March 26, 2004
Just like visiting England
The choice of category here was questionable...
For all you fry-up fans, here it is--the Jackie Annual 1979 stylish fried breakfast hat and handbag. You too can Knit Your Own Fry Up!
Just so you know, Jackie includes a Portion of Peas, not technically a fried item but that's what it says in Jackie so we won't argue.
...because Joyce is enough.
I'm thinking of giving Craig his own author password on the site, because he keeps coming up with great sites like the 10 worst album covers of all time.
March 25, 2004
Our Robot Masters
I'm finding all kinds of stuff today:
So, er, what's your cyborg name?
March 13, 2004
Have Book, Will Travel
From the Really Keen Concepts department, there's this: Bookcrossing is a site that encourages "losing" books for others to find. The fun part? You mark your book with an ID number from the site and track its travels. You can also go find books others have left somewhere, and leave reviews on the site. It's a scavenger hunt and lending library and reading group in one!
February 26, 2004
Catprin, tailor for cats
http://www.petoffice.co.jp/catprin/english/
I really want to know what happened to the poor cats' ears.
February 25, 2004
The Onion to the rescue
For a fresh take on marriage in Massachusetts, you must read an article in this week's Onion. That link might not work past next Tuesday, but I had to post it.
As an aside, I just have to add a rant...
Continue reading "The Onion to the rescue"
February 20, 2004
Bush Yoga
I can't stop giggling at this: http://www.bushyoga.com/. I think it's the best use of a Bush doll yet, and so informative, too! Who needs a yoga video? :)
February 14, 2004
Miss Lonelyhearts
My boy may be down in Texas (land of that immortal phrase, "How 'bout that country breakfast?"), but I have my Valentine's Day census data to keep me warm. Some of it's pretty interesting!
February 04, 2004
Forced perspective
I was just perusing Jaime's blog, and found some of the most amazing chalk drawings I've ever seen. A lot of work went into them, especially since they only "pop" when viewed from a specific angle. Neat stuff!
Update: Deana found out on the Snopes site that the creator of these is Kurt Wenner. His site has more images and a Q&A with the artist.
January 21, 2004
Educate Yourself!
Remember those 16mm educational films they used to show in class to teach you about periods and things? A site called the Prelinger Archives (thanks, Glen!) links to some you can download and watch with Quicktime or Real. Included in their list of the most downloaded are "Are You Popular?", "As Boys Grow" (featuring a rather creepy coach), "Molly Grows Up," and "A is for Atom." People even post reviews!
I learned from "Molly" that when I'm on my period, I should only square dance in moderation. Very good to know.
January 15, 2004
Trump Toupee?
It's probably mean, but I can't help but wonder if Donald Trump has a bad comb-over that looks like a hairpiece, or a bad hairpiece that looks like a comb-over.
Seriously. It's a stumper. Can you tell?
January 14, 2004
On the Road
Boy, you can get directions to pretty much anywhere these days...
January 09, 2004
Oooh....Satisfying!
I don't know if popping bubble wrap gets to you all the way it gets to me, but if so, check this out! Thanks to Glen for sending this my way....
January 08, 2004
Curses, Foiled Again
Why you should never, ever let friends stay in your apartment when you're away....
January 07, 2004
Call to action
Help out our own Jaime Ryan by voting for his incredibly cute dog in a photo contest. If the photo wins, Jaime gets a nice framed print of it.
December 09, 2003
Happy Birthday Chris!
Not that Chris will take time to look at global spin any time soon (how's that for a useless link?), but I thought I'd just announce that our dear boy (and new dad!) is 30 today!
I bet he's enjoying today immensely.
We love you, Chris! Happy birthday (and a big hi to the family, too)!
December 04, 2003
That Popular Planet
Mars is so popular - so fetching in red. Here's a really interesting link to a NASA site on Mars in Popular Culture. It's actually got some real history and educational stuff worked in, but doesn't skimp on the bad Mars movies.... I snagged this link from the most recent edition of Natural History.
November 26, 2003
Happy Thanksgiving!
And here's a holiday greeting for you all. I know, Chris and Karen, but I had to...
November 25, 2003
Laughing on the inside, too
Deana sent this to me, but I thought it should be shared with a wider audience:
November's Laughter images from Happiness Across Cultures, the topic on Margaret's Walking Stick.
See, we find things to make people feel good, too! :)
October 21, 2003
And a one, and a two...
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, dear Kerrigan,
Happy Birthday to you!
October 20, 2003
An off topic
The strangest thought occurred to me today. If your descendants held a convention (with you as the topic) in your town this year, would you go? What do you think they'd talk about?
UPD: Apparently, posting from a hiptop impairs my spelling ability. Fixed the typo.
October 11, 2003
I'd Rather Be Fat . . .
If this doesn't make you run screaming from any whiff of a diet, I don't know what will.
October 07, 2003
Happy Birthday, Deana!
Our very own Deana turns mumble mumble today! Let's all wish her a...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
~chris the subtle
UPDATE: As it turns out, our very own Jaime will turn twentymumble this upcoming Saturday!
Happy Birthday, Big Guy!
October 06, 2003
Eddie Izzard as Doctor Who?
Fun! It looks like the BBC is going to revive Doctor Who in 2005, and a previous Doctor has said that Eddie Izzard will get the role. I wholeheartedly approve.
Between this and the greenlighting of the Hitchhiker's Guide movie, it looks like an interesting stretch of British humor is upon us.
September 19, 2003
Put the Star Wars Kid in Episode III
I just signed the online petition to put the Star Wars Kid in Episode III. There are 99,000 signers so far, so who knows if Lucas will take our advice.
September 05, 2003
Me and the quiz thing again -
I'm breaking from all the political stuff to demonstrate a very accurate quiz. I'm well nigh obsessed with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and I took yet another quizilla quiz that pegged my favorite from the fab five with extreme precision. The Queer Eye guy who is my type is:
Ted: Food & Wine Connoisseur
And it is, too! Yay! (Even though I find Kyan very, very attractive as well...)
August 15, 2003
Athens 2004 (or so)
According to an in-deptharticle in the Union-Tribune, Athens is having a particularly Greek time getting ready for the 2004 Olympics.
I love that they find ancient artifacts whenever they dig. "History? Yeah, we got history lyin' around." You can't build a thing without hitting a 2500-year-old Temple of Aphrodite complex, complete with brothel. Great stuff. I hope they can pull it off.
August 12, 2003
Action... um... Dubya?
You're not going to believe this. I have no response to it, other than picturing thousands of kids acting out this Onion article. Or something.
Sigh.
UPDATE - I just realized why the action figure's head looks wrong. They gave him eyes.
August 09, 2003
Canadianisms, eh?
If, like me, you read For Better or For Worse this morning and wondered what Pogos and poutine are, here's a handy American's Guide to Canada. It'll help you tell the difference between a klick, a pop, and a Beep.
August 08, 2003
The Journey Explain'd
Just to bring everyone up to speed:
Deana is moving to Michigan this week. She starts her new job as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology (yay!) at Grand Valley State University this fall.
Karen is helping Deana drive to Michigan by way of Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Cheyenne, mumble mumble Nebraska something, and Chicago. They have a pair of digital cameras and a laptop, so they're armed and dangerous.
August 07, 2003
The Journey Starts
This will make sense to no one, but so far the drive to Michigan includes lots of lightning, elk warnings, alternate air conditioning (on then off) and the "Hey young ladies. Beautiful evening." scary guy at Denny's.
This is the desert, near Yuma:
And this is us, finally at the Fairfield Inn in Flagstaff:
Exciting stuff! We'll keep you posted...
I moved the images to the globalspin.com server and reduced their file size. ~chris
August 02, 2003
Arr! What's your pirate name?
As you can tell, I'm going through a Pirates of the Caribbean "thing" right now. It's like my 11 year old self has taken over. Anyway, I found a rather fun quiz that asks you a bunch of questions then finds your pirate name for you. Here's what I found out about me:
Your pirate name is:
Dirty Jenny Flint
You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!
August 01, 2003
Come glide with me....
Oh, this looks like fun. Austrian guy Felix Baumgartner (who, of course, speaks English better than we do) jumped out of a plane in the skies above Dover, England. But he didn't just plummet to earth, or even parachute down. Felix was wearing "an aerodynamic jumpsuit with a 6-foot (1.8 metre) carbon fin strapped to his back" and glided...glid...glideded...um, whatever...22 miles across the Channel to Cap Blanc-Nez in France. And THEN he opened his parachute. And it kind of messed up, but he managed to fix it just in time. Whew! (According to a news report I saw on TV yesterday, he named his wingy thing Icarus. If he'd fallen, the irony would have been too great, eh?)
BBC news has got a terrific article about it, featuring nice photos and even a pretty cool graphic of the historic glide. Of course some of you will immediately start thinking of this as a promising new form of earth-friendly transportation, but some of the rest of us aren't sure we're willing to try it...
July 30, 2003
I told Chris he'd regret this...
See, the thing is, I find weird stuff out there. And then I want to share it for some unknown reason. And my current obsession is with Pirates of the Caribbean. So I took a test to find out which of the characters' unhealthy fetishes I am. And... As it turns out...
You are....
Ragetti's dress fetish. Okay, so you like dressing
up. Frilly things are fun! There's no shame in
being who you are, and you DO look rather
fetching in that strawberry number. Oh yes, and
you encourage your friends to come along.
After all, no one likes to look ODD, do they?
Which Pirates of the Caribbean Character's Unhealthy Fetish are YOU?
brought to you by Quizilla
July 18, 2003
83 Calories an hour
Here's something random: a person who categorized everything he ate by calorie content, then compiled a sorted list with pictures. It's worth reading for the bizarre meal choices (like hot dog water) and humorous notes on each meal, like:
Coke (without ice) contains 1,493 kilocalories per gallon, Gasoline (without ice) contains 31,000 kilocalories per gallon, so the energy density of gasoline is 20 times greater than Coca-cola.
Um, yeah. Just like that.
July 03, 2003
Eh, Steve!
If you've wondered how it is that Homestar Runner gets produced (and paid for), Wired News has just the interview for you. I'm glad that the Brothers Chaps are able to fund the whole thing themselves; it looks like they have the right attitude toward it.
Thanks to Deana for the heads-up.
June 24, 2003
More funny stuff
I guess everyone's in a silly mood today. Thanks to Manuel for this one:
Don't worry, it's not a flash comic of the situation. It's just a transcript of a funny SNL skit.
Stuffed microbes?
Look at the cute little rhinovirus!
Sorry, no other updates lately. The world just hasn't been interesting enough. :)
June 13, 2003
Engrish for fun
That's just plain funny.
June 12, 2003
Awwwww, geek out!
I can't wait for the extended version of The Two Towers to come out! December 17... that's too late for my birthday, but not too late for a Yule present!
So let's see... if FotR is 3 and a half hours, and TTT is 3 hours 45 minutes... who's up for the 12-hour Extended Marathon at my house in 2005?
May 30, 2003
Humor?
Is it just me, or could this Onion article be viewed as not a parody at all? I mean, if you saw it in your local paper, would you even think twice about it?
May 28, 2003
Ha!
Seriously, folks, this is funny.
(If you don't get it, catch up with the rest of us.)
May 19, 2003
Hint to all applicants
If you're hoping to impress your prospective employer, don't start your cover letter with:
Dear Perspective Employer:
Hint: if you get it wrong, the prospect of your future employment isn't good.
Sincerely,
~chris the nitpicky bastard
May 13, 2003
The Gospel According to Neo
The Matrix Reloaded comes out tomorrow, so it's a good time to review the original. Josh Burek has written an interesting take on the religious overtones of The Matrix, with a decidedly Christian bent. It's a good read, and the "glossary" at the end has some great tidbits.
May 09, 2003
Um...
Not dead! I just got back from a week-long vacation. I'll be posting more soon...
April 28, 2003
Nyaaarh! Rrraaauugh.
Looks like Chewie will be back in Episode III, along with C-3PO and R2-D2. Specifically, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker have been signed to star in the next (and final) Star Wars prequel. Go Chewie! (Thanks to Deana for the scoop.)
April 17, 2003
A sci-fi mecca?
Looks like Paul Allen wants to create a Science Fiction Experience multimedia museum in Seattle. I'll reserve comment until it opens, but it should be interesting to follow.
(Nitpick note: it's Heinlein's "Rocketship Galileo" that inspired him as a kid, not "Spaceship Galileo". Ya-hey.)
April 15, 2003
See the Pretty Sproutses
I'm glad I waited to put up photos of our sprouting seedlings. Three days later, they're reaching for the sky! Only a few of the seeds haven't burst forth from our hi-tech Seedling Growth Pods (tm) (T.P. tubes to the uninitiated) .
Apologies for the blurry close-ups. It's hard to see 'em when the dirt pieces are bigger than they are. ;)
April 14, 2003
Wow.
If you haven't seen the new Honda Accord commercial yet, you have to see it to believe it. Note that only one small part of the process was computer-generated; it took 606 takes to get it right. That must have been so much fun to make...
April 11, 2003
Spring!
Our basil plants are sprouting! I'll take a picture or two once they're big enough to show up on film. :)
14 Apr UPDATE: We're also seeing tomato and snow pea shoots! I took pictures over the weekend, but I haven't uploaded them yet. Soon, I swear!
April 07, 2003
Please hold...
I'm busy catching up with work today, so this probably won't be updated until tomorrow. Feel free to go read The Onion until then.
April 01, 2003
The K.o.T.!
iCk.
Get it while you can, the USB network-enabled George Forman iGrill!
Look oooout!
Peter Jackson is going to re-make King Kong! Who will save New Zealand?
March 31, 2003
Bend it like Beckham
We saw a really neat film on Friday, Bend It Like Beckham, which is as much feel-good fun as a movie can get without being formulaic.
Ignore the title if you're not versed in English football. The film is like "Greek Wedding" in tone (living life among a smothering-if-vibrant family) and "Billy Elliot" in theme (following a 'crazy' dream because of exceptional talent), with a great soundtrack and lots of girl-power goodness.
What about the leg warmers?
It looks like the musical is jiggling back to life. Appaarently the producers of "Chicago" are making a new version of Footloose.
I think they should cast Kevin Bacon as the baptist minister this time. ;)
March 28, 2003
The Core sucks rocks
Q: What happens when you put Stanley Tucci, Alfre Woodard, and Hillary Swank in a really crappy 50s-esque sci-fi movie?
A: Roger Ebert has a field day with it. I'm guessing that the Ebert piece is more entertaining than the movie, but that's just me. (Thanks, Deana.)
March 26, 2003
Panda pr0n
The San Diego Zoo has streaming video (requires RealOne player) of Bai Yun and her new suitor Gao Gao... er... gettin' it on. You just have to play Barry White when you watch it.
Apparently this is a great success for the Zoo. They're hoping that Bai Yun will conceive naturally this time, even though artificial insemination worked well with Hua Mei.