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The Oatmeal: How to Suck at Facebok

To all my Facebook friends out there, here’s a humorous rant about the typical Facebook types. If you’re easily offended, you may not want to read this. It’s a little bit o’ smartass, but I like it. I’ve started following TheOatmeal’s posts since reading “How to use an Apostrophe“. I think his illustrations are fun and [...]

The Passenger

This animated short by Chris Jones is a dark and humerous style that I love. “Beware the Goldfish” is an apt description from io9.

Meet the Eigenharp

These guys remind me so much of my days in college as a music major. Not to mention the crazy-cool Eigenharps they’re playing. And if you like Moby and James Bond themes, definitely have a listen. Thanks Boing Boing and Alan.

Take the Yellow Lane to Dallas

Here’s a fantastic Disneyland video from 1958, “Magic Highway USA” that explains all the wonderful technology we should be seeing today. This includes, color-coded lanes (apparently, yellow leads to Dallas), Ceramic keels that creates bridges as it traverses the crossing, and escalators for cars for crossing difficult or steep mountains. Unfortunately, it seems that we’ve only [...]

How NOT to use Apostrophe’s

It’s just one of those minor annoyances, but every day I see apostrophes used where they’re not needed. Apostrophe.me is a simple and easy to follow “flow chart” explaining when and how to use apostrophes. The parent site, TheOatmeal.com, has several fun reads including “How Web Design Goes Straight To Hell” Thanks to Lifehacker.com Current Mood: Awake

At Angles for my Birthday, 1995

I moved to Oklahoma City in the summer of 1993, and spent most of my “coming out” years at Angles on 39th Street. Angles was (at the time) the coolest dance club in OKC, with DJ Checkerz (Michael Chechoratti(sp?)) at the helm most nights. Checkerz got most of his music from Oaklawn Records, formerly at [...]

ATU Marching Blast From the Past

I’ve recently been doing a little cleaning up of boxes from my college years at Arkansas Tech University and ran across some marching layout/designs from 1991-1992. For all you band geeks out there, this may be a little bit of cool. Unknown Show, 1991-1992 Here’s a show from before our director made the switch to computer-based show [...]

Halloween Came Early This Year

Cedar Springs’ Halloween street party was this past weekend, and friends Jeremy and Tician came down from OKC to join the party. A great time was had by all, even though Ticia lost her cell phone and her ID. Since all my friends that are waiting with bated breath can now see the photos. See the [...]

Black Tie: A Formal Engagement

When our friend Jeff invited us to the Black Tie Dinner, I had heard about it but didn’t know much. I kind of expected a dinner with a bunch of guys in tuxedos. What I didn’t realize is that the Black Tie raises over $1 million dollars a year for North Texas charities. This year, [...]

You Gotta Hear This: Passion Pit

I stumbled across “Little Secrets” by Passion Pit today and instantly fell in love with this song. It’s a bit of 80’s fun with just a little Mika mixed in. I can’t but help moving to it. Here’s a video by Jay Diaz featuring the song. CARPOOLIN’ – watch more funny videos at funnyordie.com Current Mood: Silly

Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy Shows of all Time

Prepare your Netflix accounts, the gang over at io9 has posted the top 100 sci fi and fantasy shows of all time. It’s a stroll down memory lane for us dorks… I had a Max Headroom t-shirt myself. I added several series to my Netflix que, especially shows I never got to watch consistently. Thanks to io9 Current [...]

Blue Devils take 2009 DCI Championship

Well, we made it back from Indianapolis, and had a great time. While the Blue Devils have never been my favorite corps, I was impressed with their show this year titled “1930″. They performed an encore after the event and we came down to get a closer view (pictured). Check out the entire series. Current Mood: Happy

Off to Indianapolis

We’re off to Indianapolis for the Drum Corps Internationl World Championships tomorrow. It’s are annual “thang”, and I’ll get to try out my new camera this year. Out of the 12 corps that perform, I usually take 200 or so pics that I’ll share here and on flickr. This will be our 7th year, and [...]

Are We Hard-Wired with the Pentatonic Scale?

Boing Boing posted a video of Bobby McFerrin creating a musical piece from audience participation and Pentatonic Scale. The interesting part is that it’s completely unrehearsed and spontaneous. There seems to be something about the scale that is almost mystical and pervasive in music throughout the world. I’m pretty sure the audience isn’t made up [...]

Stare Into the Sun

As a lover of funky illustration and good music, I was happy to find this video illustrated by Ian Stevenson with music by James Scott & The Town. Thanks to Alex over at It’s Nice That Current Mood: Moody

Have Camera, Will Travel

My Nikon D70 has been a great camera, but I haven’t taken a single photo since I started having trouble with the shutter release a few months ago. Since then, I’ve been exploring the new cameras from Nikon. I was fixated on the D700, but the new FX full frame format wouldn’t work completely with [...]

A Future Message from the ADHD Council

io9 has shared 3 hilarious future public service announcements: from io9: Don’t Talk To Robots, Use Caution With Hyper Speed and Look Out For Time Machines. The more you know, right? Check out these super-informative commercials from the future, and heed their message to you. Current Mood: Amused

Ah… Cool, Cool Halloween

Last year for Halloween we sat on our front porch sipping wine while the neighborhood parents strolled by with their kids. One of the advantages of living in Dallas is the weather in October. However, with temperatures in the 100’s here in Texas for what seems like years, I’ve forgotten how nice the winters are [...]

Susan Boyle, eat your heart out

Music theater and science…. what more could you want? Here’s everything you need to know about Nano technology. The Nano Song

Barbie Swimming Champion

Barbie Swimming Champion, originally uploaded by oerendhard1. Ok, not much to say here. Just thought this pic was a hoot. Nothing better than a giant swimming Barbie for an after-holiday pseudo-Monday. Happy Tuesday! Current Mood: Energetic

Finally, I’m a Man

Do those noisy-ass Harleys always drive me nuts. Every time I hear one, I wonder what those guys are trying to prove… Maybe the same thing those balding middle-aged guys driving V12 Mercedes convertibles are trying to prove… Well I bought a Harley. A V-Rod to be more specific. It’s a new generation [...]

45 Minutes of Genius

Got 45 minutes? It’s the approximate length of this video, but it’s also about the amount of time it takes Daniel Tammet to recite Pi to the 3300th decimal. And that’s just a fraction of the 22,000 decimals of Pi he can recite. And he doesn’t recall it from memory, but actually sees numbers as [...]

You Can’t Have It All

If you haven’t heard of Jay Brannan, he starred in the film Short Bus and is a song writer who’s easy on the eyes. He fits the independent artist genre, so support him if you like him. (Warning: there are four-letter words in the video; shocking!) Tags: music,, artist,, gayCurrent Mood: Impressed

New Pet Shop Boys – Love Etc

I’ve always like the Pet Shop Boys, but after seeing them in concert in Oct 2006, I’ve been a fan. The latest release from their soon-to-be-released album “Yes” is entitled “Love, Etc”. The video is a romp through the video game world of love. You can find a limited edition version of the album at [...]

If You Haven’t Seen Star Wars…

Here’s a summary of the original 3 movies. From someone who hasn’t seen it (with visuals added for entertainment). Thanks, io9 Current Mood: Hyper

Halloween on Cedar Springs

Halloween is one of the biggest parties of the year on Cedar Springs in Dallas. We’ve been the last thee years, but haven’t dressed up. The last two years, I kept thinking I should bring my camera and get some shots of all the amazing costumes. So this year I decided to take my [...]

Haunting Castles

Dark Roasted Blend has posted a series of beautiful and haunting castles, just in time for Halloween. I’ve been following Dark Roasted Blend for awhile, and while the posts are photo-intensive, they have some really great and often funny posts. Current Mood: Okay

7 Deleted Battlestar Galactica Scenes

For all my fellow Battlestar Galactica fans, io9 has posted 7 deleted scenes from Battlestar’s 4th season that help clarify some loose ends. Whether you’re seeking enlightenment from the church of BSG, or just looking for some geek trivia to share with your friends when the show (finally) returns next year, these are a must [...]

The Sultan’s Elephant

The only thing more mesmerizing than this giant puppet is the music. This little girl was created by by the Royal de Luxe theater company for a show called The Sultan’s Elephant. The show has come and gone, but check out the video and the talent that went into creating the show. Thanks to the Make: [...]

Red Nose Curiosity

Thanks to Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing, I’ve been enjoying some great photography at Red Nose Studio. I just love the odd little worlds they’ve created in these images. Of course, I love anything odd. I often wish I could just escape into these little worlds. Oh, and check out “The Look Book”; I’ve added [...]

Teach the Controversy!

I’m all about teaching alternative theories to evolution, so I bought a T-shirt to prove it. (Hey, if you buy the T-shirt, it makes it so). Wearscience.com has some great designs promoting “Teach the Controversy”, including the aliens-built-the-pyramids, the-devil-planted-fossils-to-trick-us, and the earth-as-center-of-the-universe. They even have a design of the Great A’Tuin for you Discworld fans [...]

The History of Spaceflight

I’ve started collecting a few books on “futurism” from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I love the illustrations and ideas about the future from a time when mankind was just going to the moon. It seems there was no limit to where they thought we’d be 100 years from now (then). Matt over at Paleo-Future [...]

A Better Way to Browse Amazon

Our friends over at Lifehacker have shared a great new way to browse Amazon.com just like browsing shelves at a bookstore. Zoomii displays books on “shelves” grouped by Bestsellers, New Arrivals, Science Fiction, etc. You can drag around the bookstore or even create your own shelves by using the search feature. And when you [...]

The Norwegian Meets the “Reverend”

One of my favorite flickr-ites, “The Norwegian” has posted a great story (along with photo, left) about his experience of a recent visit to the Church of Scientology. I agree with his opinion of “The Church”, but read it for yourself. He also makes a great suggestion for those seeking enlightenment: Venganza.org. Of course, [...]

Flickr Video: A Good Thing?

In case you haven’t heard, flickr has added video capabilites. Of course there are plenty of nay-sayers, and being a fan of great photography, I can understand how adding video could dilute what makes flickr great. Of course, there are lots of talented artists out there on flickr who can make motion an [...]

Ecards That Are a Bit More…. Heartfelt

I remember a series of cards at Jungle Red in OKC that all had small illustrations of bugs on the front, and contained such witty messages as “I want my stuff” and “You’re old, Happy Birthday”. I can’t say I ever actually gave one to any of my friends, but I secretly wanted to. Well, [...]

A Science Fiction Legend Dies

Arthur C Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, died yesterday at the age of 90. Though he wasn’t my favorite author, anyone who loves science fiction should at least have read some of his work. I’ve read the entire 2001 series (2010, 2061, 3001), as well as the Rama series. Another lesser-known [...]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I loved the Muppets when I was a kid, so how better to say Happy St. Patrick’s Day… Thanks, Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing Current Mood: Energetic

Nathan Ota – Another Fine Artist

I’ve started following “Right Some Good”, the art blog of Kirsten Anderson . She writes about artists she likes, and I’ve found I agree on many of them. One recent recommendation is Nathan Ota, who illustrates curious creatures like robots, eyeless birds and monster tree trunks. His art often has a [...]

Curious World of Toys

I’ve recently stumbled across a wonderful photographer and storyteller on flickr. Michael (aka “frogmuseum2″) has kindly given me permission to share one of his photos. As you can see here, his characters come to life with their own little oddworld personas. Since quirky is my favorite kind of art, this is right up my [...]

Frozen in Grand Central

I want to be a part of something like this. I’ve followed their exploits after I first heard about them on “This American Life”. Ira Glass interviewed the organizer of a “stunt” where they picked a guy out at random at a bar and threw him a birthday party . They brought [...]

Mathematical Chaos

I’ve been playing around with a very cool 3D rendering software called Chaoscope. It has some pretty mathematically intensive settings, but also a “search” function that randomly creates “viable” combinations. You can then tweak away at the criteria until you get the perfect imaginary universe. Here’s a few of my creations; (click to view [...]

Robot Art

Kirsten Anderson over at Right Some Good has posted some great art by fellow artist Brian Despain. His work has the sort of tone I love (a la steampunk/Myst) and features another geek fav – robots! What more could you ask for. I’d hang this on my wall. Perhaps I should check into that… Meanwhile, check [...]

Tiny Houses I Want

Wired.com has posted a series of photos of small modular houses sure to please the eco-friendly minded. But more than just environmentally conscious, these houses have a certain Zen that I want when I think about building a vacation house. I mean, how much more escapist can you be in a house sitting [...]

Strung out on science fiction.

Being a dork, I love all things sci fi – be it movies, books or technology. Browsing my newly-subscribed RSS feed, I read about the upcoming Indiana Jones movie, an interview with the horned-rim glasses guy from Heroes, a article lamenting the USA’s lack of futuristic vision when it comes to architecture, robots [...]

Dutch Graphic Design from Around 1900

BibliOdyssey has posted some great examples of Dutch Advertising from around 1900. My first exposure to Dutch design was at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. I’m attracted to the simplicity and clean lines. This particular example is especially interesting, since I worked for Holland-America in Alaska during my summer between high school [...]

Old Time Christmas Radio

If you’re a fan of old time radio, or just wanna get in the mood for Christmas, then check out this selection of free public domain MP3s of radio shows over at OldRadioFun.com. From the classic 1947 “It’s a Wonderful Life” to the more curious “Batman Christmas”, it’ll get you in that nostalgic Christmas [...]

It’s Christmas, Why Not?

I’m getting a little bored with my old K2 based theme. I just upgraded to Wordpress 2.blah blah blah and decided to take the opportunity to try out a canned theme. It’s kinda fun, so I think I’ll keep it until after the Holidays. And then no more excuses… i have to design/implement that idea that’s [...]

The Road Ahead

Thanks to Jeff Pepper over at 2719Hyperion for sharing this clip from the 1958 Disneyland “Magic Highway USA”. You can read more background from his earlier posts here and here. Apparently, we aren’t as advanced as predicted. It would be cool to have my car wash and refuel itself.. I really hate [...]

I Just Like Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Not sure why, but I just like Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I can’t pinpoint a particular performance as an actor that impresses me (although Mysterious Skin was pretty good – and a little disturbing). I just think he’d be very cool to hang out with; like a regular guy. And just for fun, here’s another one… Tags: [...]

Thinking of Switching (again)

In my office I have a PC & a Mac G5. Even though I do most of my work on the Mac, I just can’t give up my PC for gaming and Quicken. But with the new Intel-based Macs, and Parallels , I can run Windows XP as a 2nd OS on the [...]

SeatQuest Visual Ticket Finder

If you love shows and concerts, this is the best tool for finding tickets. It’s a visual map of the venue with available seats indicated as blue dots. Just find your seat and click buy. This is the biggest pain I find with “other” ticket sites; I have to find the seating chart which [...]

Pseudo-Decay Becomes Decay, then Pseudo Again

Pruned has posted a series of photos (with commentary) about the curious and fascinating “Broken Column House”, built just before the French Revolution by François Nicolas Henri Racine de Monville, an aristocrat with lots of time and money on his hands. Built to appear as a decaying broken column, the house [...]

The Dragon Queen and The Wanderer

Wanderer of Space, Vargo Statten, 1950 Scion / Planet Stories, Summer 1941, Love Romances I just finished reading Worlds of Tomorrow – The Amazing Universe of Science Fiction Art by Forrest J Ackerman. I picked it up at Half Price Books a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been trying to learn more about design [...]

Simpson, Michael Simpson

What better for a Friday afternoon than to imagine myself a Simpson? (Not of the OJ flavor, of course). You, too, can re-imagine yourself at Simpsonizeme.com

DCI 2007 Highlights

Just a few of my photos taken at this year’s Drum Corps Championships in Pasadena, CA. You can see them all, including scores, here. I made this with animoto, the best slideshow generator out there. You can upload your own photos or import them from photo sharing sites like flickr. You can also [...]

I Guess I Love LA?

Well, we made it back from our LA trip, and I must say that aside from the smog and traffic, I loved LA. There’s some great architecture and the weather can’t be beat. We really explored the area and got a flavor for the city as well as the beaches and burbs. [...]

Rosetta Project – Download Vintage Children’s Books

I find I’m more and more interested in vintage design, having recently purchased a few vintage books containing some beautiful illustrations (more on that later). Thanks to Lifehacker and Wendy Boswell for sharing a great archive of vintage children’s books at childrensbooksonline.org. It’s a huge collection of downloadable books, some including audio and multimedia. [...]

Plan59.com: 100% of Recommended Daily Retro

I’ve been looking more and more lately for vintage ads and illustrations to satisfy my new-found love of design from the turn of the century (the last one) through the 60’s/70’s. My most recent find is Plan59.com, thanks another of my favs, Paleo-Future. It’s full of vintage images well organized into categories like [...]

You Won’t See This in the US

This would most likely start a boycott of Guinness in the US. So of course, I love it! Tags: guinness, commercial

Where Do I Sign Up?

I want one of these… remember Tom Cruise manipulating graphics in The Minority Report?

The Paleo-Future is Here (or not)

There’s a certain class of design I’ve always been attracted to; I find it fascinating to see how the past saw the future, either the one that has come and gone, or is still yet to be (or not to be). My favorite sci fi reads are those heavy with scientific speculation on [...]

Funny Bones

PK at BibliOdyssey has shared a series of great illustrations by Louis Crucious, a St. Louis printer’s apprentice, pharmacist and finally physician. While studying and working in a pharmacy, he began creating the illustrations and displaying them in the store window. He sold several of the drawings to Antikamnia Chemical Company who used [...]

The Next Step

Well, we finally took the leap! (again) We put a contract on the empty lot above. While this will be our second house, it will be our first “build from scratch”, so wish us luck! We’ve heard good things about the builder, and they’ve been great so far. The neighborhood has [...]

American Ambition

Santiago Calatrava has designed an impressive 2,000 ft tower for the Chicago water front called the “Chicago Spire”. It’s 150 floors will house 1200 condos; and would be the world’s tallest residential building (and most likely the world’s 2nd tallest building overall – eclipsed only by the Burj Dubai, rumored to be over 3,000 [...]

Vintage Illustrations: Space Needle

Thanks to some good digging by pk at Bibliodyssey, here are some great old illustrations of the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle. I love the color and aging of the paper, and the time and effort that went into creating these images by hand. When these concepts were presented straight from the mind [...]

It’s Easier Than You Think

One Man’s Blog has written an enlightening post about how easy it easy to crack passwords. I never realized how much a difference a single letter (and using upper and lower case) can make. Here’s a table from his post reflecting how much (or little) time it takes to crack your password. It looks [...]

And the Oscar Goes To…

I’m not really into following the Oscars thing, but one overlooked category I always love to check out is the animated and short films. Atomfilms has a “Hall of Fame” featuring Oscar-nominated shorts. If you’re into design and especially animation, check these out. Here’s the most recent nominee, “The Cathedral”, which is [...]

The (Oval) Office

If you’ve ever seen “The Office”, and you’re not a fan of the Bush administration, you’ll love this. However, if you ARE a fan of the Bush administration, then what the heck are you doing here? Tags: Bush, theofficeCurrent Mood: Okay

Men are Crotch-Watchers

A recent study by the Annenberg Center for Communication at USC has revealed some interesting habits of the human male. Eye tracking technology tracks where the participant’s eyes spend more time on a particular image. It’s interesting to see how adding a little white space and organizing information helps the user navigate a [...]

That’s Good Poulton

Here’s another great drawing from Eric Poulton, the re-imagined Death Star from Star Wars. I guess I just like this style so much I had to share. As I’ve said, it’s so reminiscent of the Myst style of Robyn Miller. And I love this footnote from Eric’s post: “[1]As it has not yet been discovered a [...]

Eric Poulton’s Re-Imagined Star Wars

Stumbled across a very cool series of drawings by Eric Poulton of Star Wars in the “Steam Punk” style. Now, being neophyte that I am to the Steam Punk style, I had never even heard the term before. But seeing the drawings, I realize I’ve seen it many times, and it apparently is [...]

RocketDock (you’ll always be…)

If, like me, you’re a Mac and PC user, then you’ll probably love RocketDock. It’s a freeware (!) Mac OSX dock for Windows (including Vista). Here’s are just a few of the features (from their website): Minimize windows to the dock Real-time window previews in Vista Running application indicators Simple drag-n-drop interface Multi-monitor support Supports alpha-blended PNG and ICO icons Icons [...]

Holiday excuses have never been so good (or funny)

If your looking for a good reason to escape that invitation to a holiday party, check out this Holiday Excuse Generator at Enlighten.com. It’s alot of fun even if you don’t get invited to parties. Just answer a few questions about your relationship with the host and how honest you want to appear [...]

Springfield, USA

If you’re a fan of The Simpsons (as I am), you have to check this out. It’s a map of Springfield complete with Evergreen Terrace. It’s best viewed on flickr, so you can see all the notes. You can view a much larger version on flickr as well. Guide to Springfield – The [...]

En Tus Brazos

“In Your Arms” according to altavista’s translation, is a great animated short worth checking out. Even though the site is in French, it appears that the short has won some awards. Alot of work has gone into the film and I love the tone and style. Check out the “Contacts” link… the [...]

Stewie Gone Wild

I love Stewie of Family Guy fame and think Seth MacFarlane is incredibly talented. So I wanted to share this video. If you’ve seen the show, then you’ll understand the idea of “sexy party”; and if you remember the skit from the show, pay attention the attire of the singers. Tags: StewieGriffith, FamilyGuyCurrent Mood: [...]

Online Desktop?

In me never ending search for a solution that will keep my contacts up to date on my laptop pc, my home pc and my Mac, I stumbled across a very cool Web 2.0 site. DesktopTwo is a web-based app package that looks and acts like your personal desktop; complete with email, address book, rss [...]

My first HDR

Magazine Mountain, Arkansas I’ve been trying for some time now to get around to making an HDR image. I first learned of HDR when I started following Arnold Pouteau’s work on flickr. He’s posted alot of amazing HDR images of NYC. If you’ve never heard of HDR (High Dynamic Range), it involves combining 3 different [...]

For Music Lovers

One invaluable find for a music lover is Pandora. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. It allows you to specify a favorite band/artist as a starting point, and plays music in the same genre. It learns your tastes and is a great way to learn about new artists; [...]

Am I a Pethead?

I went to the Pet Shop Boys concert here in Dallas on Sunday (Oct 22), and had a great time. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, since I was hung over. While I’ve always been a fan, and I love that Neil is openly gay, I haven’t always been overwhelmed with their [...]

Another Awesome Year at DCI

I finally posted our photos from our trip to DCI World Championships in Madison Wisconsin, Aug 12th. First time I’ve ever been to Madison, and it’s a nice city. Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin had some amazing acoustics. I definitely enjoyed the sound, but the photography angle was further [...]

Desolation Row

Originally uploaded by CantikFotos. Fascinating set of photos of an abandoned housing project in Taiwan. It’s too bad the’ve fallen into such decay. It reminds my of some of the modern designs of today, especially many of the flatpak or modular modern designs available. These are haunting and beautiful at the same time; and it [...]

Calling All Readers

I love to read (mostly Sci Fi), and have been selling my books to Half Price Books after reading them. But I just found out about a new creation from ::wikipedia(“John Buckman”, “John Buckman”):: called Book Mooch. You can earn points by offering your own books for trade, and in return receive books [...]

This Ad is so Gay

And I don’t mean “gay” like some straight people say to mean “lame”, but “gay” as in “I can’t believe they marketed this to straight women”-gay. But seriously, it’s amazing to me that some people think America is out of control, that we need to increase censorship of the media; but sexuality has been in advertising [...]

UFO Photoshop Contest

Worth1000.com has some great Photoshop contests. A recent one was for UFOs, and I think this is one of the best. It as a bit of a Myst feel, which has some fantastic art. Check out the rest of the contest entries; and if you don’t already, check back at Worth1000.com for other great Photoshop [...]

To the Stars

I look forward to the day when we step off our little blue sphere and begin to live in space. Of course, this won’t happen in my lifetime, but maybe in my grandchildren’s lifetime. NASA has a series of artist’s renderings of space colony concepts from studies conducted at Ames in the 70’s. Being a [...]

Hear me Now and Listen to me Later

I’ve found a very cool interactive listening service at pandora.com, where you can build your own radio stations simply by suggesting an artist. I suggested BT, and they began playing similar music. As you listen, you guide them by indicating whether you like what you hear or not. And they don’t just [...]

Love For Sale

We’ve come to a crossroads at which we’ve committed to moving to Dallas. To that end, we’ve put our house on the market. It was our first house and we’ve put so much into it (a new roof, new plumbing, had large trees planted, painted and painted some more, refinished and restored hard [...]

Download & Print a Pinhole Camera

I’ve always wanted to try out a pinhole camera, and now you can download, print, and make your own for free at Linatree.com. There’s even a contest to get your work published! If any of you try this, I want to see the pics! (Jenn & Melissa, I’m looking in your direction) Tags: pinhole, cameraCurrent [...]

Don’t Try This at Home, Kids

Or apparently, for $30, you can. Flickr user tesla1000 has posted a series of home made Tesla coils. Woudn’t you love to greet your friends with this for your next party? More than likely, they’d be afraid to come too close to your house. They’d be smart. Tags: tesla, coil, DIYCurrent Mood: Shocked

On Target

Returning from our recent trip to Dallas, someone pointed out a complete rainbow in the clouds during our descent into Kansas City. I scrambled for my camera and managed to catch it just before ducking below the clouds. I realized that the shadow of our plane appeared to be entering the perfect circle [...]

Finally, A Smart Fuel!

It seems they’ve finally found something useful for all the BS in the world. No, really!Scientists in New Zealand how made biodiesel using algae floating on sewage ponds. The company claims to be producing 1 million litres of fuel by the end of the year!Now, if we can just build windmills to capture [...]

That’s One Angry Liberal

I recently read a post on Boing Boing of C.B. Shapiro’s “Hark, the Angry Liberal Sings”. Here’s an excerpt; you can read the whole thing on Boing Boing. When listed all together like this, it kind of puts things into perspective and does make a little angry… I feel like I need [...]

Napoleon Who?

I know this is floating around the internet, but he’s pretty amazing so I just had to share I think he’d make a pretty good drag queen, as long as he could do all this in 6-inch heels! Tags: dance, evolutionCurrent Mood: Amused

Stephen Colbert is a Genius

If you haven’t already heard, or if you’ve heard but haven’t watched it, you should check out ThankYouStephenColbert.org. Stephen Colbert is one of the funniest and most brilliant comedians around. I loved his completely straight faced delivery of BS on The Daily Show and now on The Colbert Report. He spoke at the White Correspondents [...]

What If?

What if I could put Nancy Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Hasselhoff, and LaToya Jackson in a White House sanctioned music video? Oh, wait, it’s been done! Current Mood: Amused

Frackin’ Awesome!

Ok, you sci fi geeks will know what I mean by “frackin’ awesome”. It looks like Sci Fi is creating a mini-series prequel to Battlestar Galactica based on the creation of the Cylons on Caprica. I know, I know those of you who haven’t seen it are thinking “you mean that cheesey show [...]

Housewives Tarot

Found a fun site, housewivestarot.com, where you can get your very own Tarot reading. And you don’t have to be a housewife! The graphics are great, and it’s fun to see how they’ve created images for the traditional tarot deck using that great style of the 50’s. Even if you’re not [...]

Recent Dallas Trip

Just thought I’d post one of my fav photos from my last trip to Dallas. This is a temple in Thanksgiving Plaza in Downtown Dallas. Sometimes the simple lines and color are just as moving as complex shapes. This building is really pretty amazing, and has a stain glass window in the spiral. Thanks to BrianBlevins, [...]

Ever wanted to talk to HAL?

I found an amazing site at www.a-i.com today. It’s a artificial intellegence site where you actually interact with “Alan”, a programmed “intelligence”. You can also help train “HAL” to learn to return approriate responses to your questions. Just a bit of my conversation with Alan went something like this:Me: Do you have a soul?Alan: [...]

Extra Greasey Monkey

If you’re not using Greasemonkey and Firefox, you should be! Well, maybe you shouldn’t be; but for a geek like me, it’s the coolest thing since CSS… Greasemonkey is a plugin for Firefox that allows you to add your own scripts. For example, while del.icio.us is also an extremely cool site, I’ve always [...]

Will Wright’s Spores

If you’re a big sim geek like me, then you’ve heard of Will Wright. He’s the genius behind SimCity and The Sims. Here’s a video of him demonstrating his latest invention, possibly the coolest Sim game yet… you can take it to the galactic level! [...]

Disney is Pro Condoms ?

Found this funny and yet disturbing video from the early 70’s. It’s a Disney cartoon on the woes of VD and why you should use a condom. I know you don’t exactly think of sex-ed when you think of Disney, but, well, just take a look…. Current Mood: Shocked

Cartoon Ads

Here’s a series of cartoon-ads from yesteryear that are fun. Even if you’re not a graphic design enthusiast, the nastalgia is still worth taking a look at. Thanks, leifpeng for sharing these on flickr! Current Mood: Amused

VW & Google Develop Real Nav System

Being a VW owner, I’ve been waiting for them to come out with a Nav system in their new models. Well, I guess they were saving the best for last.Together with Google, they’re developing a nav system that combines Google’s 3D satellite maps (Google Earth) with real-time traffic. So you’ll see a 3-D [...]

Toys for Boys (and Girls)

I’ve stumbled across more than a few new software gadgets and websites lately, so I though I’d share them. Kristopher Tate, a 17-year old programmer has created a competitor to flickr in 3 months. I visited the site and found that since word has gotten around, it’s currently being moved to handle the volume. [...]

View of Tomorrow (from Yesterday)

Being a sci fi geek like myself, I’ve always been fascinated by the ideas of the future from those who lived in the past. It’s always interesting when I’ve read ::wikipedia(“Asimov”,”Asimov”):: or ::wikipedia(“Zelazny”, “Zelazny”):: ; sometimes they were right on, and sometimes they weren’t. Here’s a great posting on Tinselman.com, an great [...]

Simpsons Alive!

This is a live-action version of the intro to the Simpsons, part of a marketing campaign by UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Being a hugh Simpsons fan, I know they’ve gone through alot of trouble to make this. Now, when will we get our live action movie? Current Mood: Impressed

Tilt Shift

playing 2 Originally uploaded by J.L.B.. My pal Jenn (JLB on flickr) has has posted a cool pic using a photoshop trick that gives photos a kind of model-like depth. I read about this coincidentally and thought it was kinda cool, so when I saw that my psychic overflow had affected her easily-influenced mind, I had [...]

Microsoft-ized iPod

This is great… especially for all you graphic designer-types! BTW, found this on YouTube.com, a very cool site. Current Mood: Impressed

Fun with Anagrams

I’ve recently seen alot of subway maps of major cities converted to anagrams. In commemoration of my recent trip to Dallas, I found one! I don’t know all the stop names, so it’s fun to figure them out. I’m sure Lisa Simpson would love these… Thanks, Silon and codeman38 on livejournal.com for your [...]

Search Engine for Coders

I read about a new search for coders on Slashdot called Krugle. It is set to launch in March, but upon visiting the site, I was able to sign up for a preview. It sounds like a very cool idea, so I’m looking forward to trying it out! Tags: krugleCurrent Mood: Hyper

Pardon the mess…

I’ve just upgraded to Wordpress 2.0 and haven’t got all my plugins working again… so if you run into a brick wall while browsing my site (all two of you), please check back later. Or leave me a nasty message; whatever. I’m more familiar with ASP, and am new to PHP, so it’s a learning [...]

Homemade LED Art

I read about this easy way to make LED’s that can be thrown on to any surface, like a building, to create public art. Apparently they’re called “throwies”, and here’s a pic of the art in action: I think we need to do this here in Kansas City! Thanks to Q-Branch on instructables.com [...]

I am a SciFi Geek

I took this quiz to determine what sci-fi crew I would be best as a member of. Apparently, I fit in best with Farscape. I never watched the show, but I do watch Stargat SG-1, and the captain in Farscape is now on SG-1 (Ben Browder). So for all you sci-fi geeks out there, [...]

HDR (High Dymanic Range) Images

Ice rink Originally uploaded by mazhewitt. I just read about HDR images, where you take three different exposures of the same setting and combine them using HDR software (or apparently, Photoshop CS2). It will pull the best detail in dark areas from one exposure and that from light areas of another exposure. [...]

Site Hickups (Okay, more like convulsions)

The photo plugin for my site hasn’t been behaving lately. I’m using Wordpress, which has just released a new version, so I’m expecting to upgrade soon. So to all of my faithful fans (all 2 of you), I’ll hopefully have a new improved site up soon. I also need to change my fall [...]

Fun with South Park

Fun with South Park Originally uploaded by Scutter. Killing a little time with the South Park charachter generator. I have my coffee and my iPod… what else would I need? Current Mood: Happy

First Snow

Beer Filter

I was watching Family Guy and having a beer when I decided I kinda liked the view through the glass. Coincidentally, when I ran to grab my camera and returned, Stewie was using a camera in the scene. Turned out kinda cool. Current Mood: Hot

Fall Color

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to capture the allusive “perfect shot” of fall color. When I started two weeks ago, I thought the color was peaking, but found it to be even better this past weekend. We went to Loose Park here in KC and took some shots of the maples. Even though [...]

New Beginnings

Alright, I started with Drupal, but found it lacking with integration into Flickr. I could post my flickr photos on my site, but clicking them would take you out of my site to flickr.com. I found that Wordpress has some great plugins for Flickr, including the ability to have all my photos available [...]