Caption Contest Winner

Apohle comes through this week. Good job!

See the original image here.

Calling All Gamers

There be an indie movie afoot! It's called The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. View the trailer, which is also available on their web site.

Activity Corner

• Your car doesn't have a sunroof, and you can't afford a real one? Then get a fake sunroof.


• Real-time updating of interesting statistics on the world clock.


• A tutorial on how to make your own cool t-shirts using bleach stenciling.


• There's something for everybody on the internet. Including hot chicks doing tongue tricks.


• Cute! Chipmunk versus peanut!


• Remember Groovy Dancing Girl? Well, she's back.


• They're such a retail juggernaut, they're even taking over Broadway.


• More nerd fantasies realized: have (presumably) hot women moan your IP address.


• Just what every future podiatrist needs, anatomically correct bone socks.


• The Star Wars Simpsons intro.


• You know vodka. You know Kalashnikov rifles (AK-47s). Put them together and you have a killer vodka bottle!


• Country crazes. Germany's Gummi Bear song, and Japan's Butt Biting Bug song.


• Has anyone not seen this? The Miss South Carolina maps question. I include it here to make sure the internet is completely saturated.


• The screaming frog.


• An interesting list of retronyms, which are terms that became necessary to distinguish originals from newer alternatives.


• One man's theories behind the meaning of Don MacLean's American Pie.


• The Village People's classic song "YMCA" is truly international, with versions in Korean and Finnish.


• Not for the squeamish: the top ten physically modified people.

Gwenspotting

Shoutouts to Hurley182 for hookin' me up with some hawt secksay pics of The Goddess on vacation in Hawaii. Time to make some new posters for the mancave.

Geekspotting

I swear, those geeks will customize just about anything.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Sips

Not from Seattle? Not familiar with all those espresso combinations? Or both? Then echeck out Coffee Drinks Illustrated.

Caption Contest

"That's not exacly what we meant by free thinking exercise."

Caption Contest Winner

Congratulations to Andy for capturing the Arrested Development flavor.

See the original image here.

Getting a Grip

After my post about door handles, I came across a new doorknob design that actually gives you a hand:

Note the obvious righty bias. Check out the full-size here.

Activity Corner

It's Friday once again, so here's a load of stuff to keep you busy on the most productive day of the week!

• Thinkgeek has lots of cool stuff, but now they're selling an actual chain mail t-shirt.


• If you've got time for some reading, check out this forum thread. All you need read is the initial post, and then the masterful story told by "blu-tone". (He posts in multiple parts, just scroll down and read those, ignoring the rest. It's spellbinding.)


• Top Gear is a British show about cars. They have a website too, where they've asked for pictures of the horrible things people do to their cars, just because they can. What's better, the pictures themselves or the snarky comments doused in English colloquialisms? Check out Carbage.


• Just ride the meme, baby: Drop Kick Big.


• Do you worry about home invaders in the night? But do you dislike firearms? Then what you need is a handy convertible bedside table. I wonder if the top comes in "bulletproof"?


• From the Too Much Time On Their Hands department: Using the entire script of the movie, all hand lettered, a poster of The Godfather.


• Those little carts that Flight Attendants roll down the aisle are being recycled for you to purchase at bordbar. Unfortunately, with shipping to the US, they cost around $1700.


• Cats watching ping pong.


• Spotted by NASA: the Death Star!


• You'll be asleep at your keyboard in no time once you start playing with the sleep/relaxation mixer.


• Hardcore rollerblading.


• For Ash: Turning a VW bus into a pool table.


• For Raggs: the vegetalien.


• Funny bathroom signs.


• Take the graphics from the lawyer game Phoenix Wright, add the 1986 audio routine by The Frantics, and you get Phoenix Boot.

It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature

Quite literally.

Helpful Advice

The guy in the next office has been playing the game Bioshock a lot, and it typically draws a crowd. It's funny to hear a group of guys react the same way at the same time when something happens that I can't see. And some of them tend to backseat-drive a bit. I laughed out loud, though, when I heard the following, delivered in a calm monotone:

"Jim. You're on fire, Jim. You should probably do something about that."

Blogfinitions

The word "blog" is already a verb, and the "blogosphere" refers to the collective universe of blogs. But what other words can apply to, and be co-opted for, blogging?

• bloggership – The people who read your blog.


• blogsponsibilities – The things you have to do to keep your blog going and please your bloggership.


• blogcrastination – Putting off writing a new post for your blog.


• blogsourcing – Having someone else write a blog post for you.


• blogtrospection – Making a personal, soul-searching post about yourself on your blog.


• blogment – A comment on a blog post. Also, making a comment on someone's blog post.


• blogversation – Carrying on a dialog with your bloggership in your blogments.


• blogument – Using one or more blog posts to answer or reply to someone else's blog post.


• revisionist blogstory – Going back and editing a previously published blog post.


• blogitalism – Using your blog to sell stuff for personal gain.


• blogcess – Having your blog (or its subject) made into a book or a movie.


• blogcycling – Re-using a blog post from one of your previous blog sites on your current blog site.


• blogurbation – Constantly checking your blog for new blogments, making blogments about your blog on other blogs, and generally pimping your blog to the blogosphere.


• bloogle – Googling for your blog. A subset of blogurbation.


• blogor mortis – A blog that hasn't been posted to in over a year. It's dead, Jim.

What others can you think of? Dazzle us with your blogtelligence in the blogments.

Caption Contest

Introducing a magician named Gob...

Caption Contest Winner

This week a come-from-behind victory by DK!

See the original image here.

Activity Corner

• The folks behind the Official Meeting Facilities Guide apparently never talked to people on the internet before putting out their magazine or website URL.


• Happy birthday, compact disc! The CD turns 25 today.


• What do you do if you're taking a test and don't know the answer? Fake it.


• I'm a type/font geek, so I've watched this video a dozen times already. Old school letterpress printing.


• The worst slogan translations ever.


• When Douglas Adams reminded you to always take a towel, he might have patterned the idea after furoshiki, a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. I mean, you can use it to wrap anything.


• Take the old school video game Q*bert, add some mad quilting skillz, and you end up with QuiltBert.


• It may be a pool, but there sure isn't much swimming! Make sure you watch the video too. Tokyo Summerland Pool.


• More weird signs.


• Bride, groom, family, reception... what else does a Russian wedding need? Oh yeah, a fight.


• Regular tattoos are too boring. Try some anatomy tattoos.


• When it comes to Monkey Suicides, I don't want to know how many ways their stuffed monkey can die, but where I can get one.


• Now you can learn stuff while you're taking a shower.


• Videos: the no-longer mysterious sailing stones of Death Valley; the future is now with MS Paint; walk versus don't walk; "popper" (Japanese hip hop street dancing) duo Hamutsun Serve; pop-up book music video; and President Bush's zombie press conference.

See How They Roll

Finally, a celebrity gossip blog that I can read without feeling dirty. Instead, I can just feel jealous keeping up with the Celebrity Car Parade.

Getting a Handle On It

Most new doors these days don't have knobs on them, but actual handles that you turn. All the doors in the building where I live and in the office park where I work are like this.

Raggs pointed out that when I use these doors, I don't do it the usual way. Instead of the palm-down-turn-down method, I use the palm-up-turn-up way. I never even thought about it until she mentioned it. So why does it seem natural to me?

After I broke my wrist, I learned to rely on my leverage a lot more, since I was doing everything left-handed. There's better leverage when you turn the handle up and pull; it's more unnatural and unbalancing, to me, to turn down and pull.

But I did discover something: Not all handles are created equal. Some will only turn down. That's a problem when you're in a hurry and expect to walk into the doorway, but instead walk into the door.

A Gentlemen's Duel

An exceedingly well-done CGI short (about 8 minutes long).

Irony Overload

I got a spam message this morning (one among the hundred or so) that had the subject line, "Hey - Don't get ripped off!"

As I deleted the email, I wondered if that means I'll now be ripped off.

Caption Contest

Area man waits for his parents to kiss so he can get back... to the future.

Caption Contest Winner

Go weebat!

See the original image here.

Activity Corner

• What happens to spiders sucked into a vacuum cleaner?


• Everybody loves ice cream. But you might not after reading these 101 frightening flavors of ice cream.


• If you're really bored at work, you can play Faceball.


• Based on the sheer number of items in this mutated fruit collection, I'd say the "artist" should move away from the radiation.


• How can people that designed this basketball chair not realize what it looks like?


• Remove scratches from a CD with a banana.


• A guy is eating Spam, for every meal, for 30 days. Some of the recipes look really good! (Bonus points: His new wife is a vegetarian!) Check out 30 Days of Spam.


• There's already an NES emulator for the iPhone. Code and see it in action.


• The world's best combover.


• Astronomy update: Sunday, August 12th is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Tuesday, August 28th will have a total lunar eclipse.


• Pictures of some amazing sand sculptures.

The "Red Shirt" Phenomenon

Fans of Star Trek know about the Red Shirt phenomenon, which says that crewmen wearing red shirts, tend to die. A lot. Now a statistician has taken an in-depth look at this perception in Analytics According to Captain Kirk.

(I know this is all over the intarwebs, but it's too cool not to share.)

Tiny Ninjas

I laughed my ass off at this. It illustrates how important sound editing is to making a fight seem realistic, and how funny it is to kick little kids.

The Pain

How do you make an entire building of computer nerds and geeks scream in agony? By shutting off the power for one second.

That'll teach you to depend on electricity for a living.

Waterfall Killed the Video Star

Video Game Movie

There have been many feature-length movies based on videogames, but none have really done that well. Perhaps it's because they cater to a limited audience. Or perhaps they just suck. But now there's a movie that everyone can relate to.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Pictures

A collection of gripping pictures showing the aftermath of the tragedy.
Bridge collapse gallery.

A Perfect Foil

Keep yourself safe from mind control by making your own foil hat.

When Cell Phones Fail

Most people (like me) depend on their cell phones for communication. But that can be a problem during a disaster (like the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse) when a flood of call attempts overloads the system. The solution? Text messaging.

An important article that may help you keep in touch if the unthinkable occurs.

Caption Contest

I'm so hungry I could eat the big toe of a bloody rubber foot!

Caption Contest Winner

Raggedy Angst swoops in for the kill this week!

See the original image here.

To The Person That Lives Above Me

I'm sorry you're moving out. I feel like I'm losing an old friend. I don't know what I'm going to do now late at night when I'm trying to go to sleep. Your frantic, frenzied footfalls will no longer keep me awake as you suddenly decide you must do, whatever it is you do, NOW, as fast and furiously as possible. I can only hope you'll endear yourself upon your new neighbors as you have to me. Or maybe they'll just buy you a clock so you won't be surprised. Every. Single. Night.

But you know what's weird? I won't miss you. Because, you know, I'll be asleep and all.

All A-Loan

Raggs asked in her post what we have that we won't loan out.

First, I understand her pen thing. She's obsessed about fountain pens. I heard a monologue about how fountain pens wear according to how each person writes, so they can't be used by more than one person without affecting their character. Also, we've gone into countless stores just to stare longingly at fountain pens in glass cases. The girl's got it bad.

But loaning things to people? I don't loan anything because of a weird combination of factors. One, I'm obsessively possessive, so I don't like others to use my stuff. Two, I don't know that many people, so it reduces my pool of loanees. And three, I don't have anything that people I know would want to borrow anyway.

As always, there can be exceptions. Like that antique rotary mower, weebat; you know I want it back now that you have a real mower. And I loan t-shirts to Raggs all the time. You guys know what I mean.

Actually, there is one thing I give out freely, all the time, even when it's not asked for: my opinion. So there!

Instant Communication

In our ever-connected world of cell phones, it can be hard to let go when you're on vacation. And, in my case, it became a weird paradox.

First of all, pretty much the only people I might talk to on the phone were already there with me. So what's the point of calling them, right? But on the other hand, it's a big cruise ship, and it's hard to keep track of everyone. Trying to make plans for dinner? Call them. On their cell phone. On the cruise ship.

Even on vacation, it pays to have your cell phone with you. Especially when you take a taxi to a beach away from the ship, and have no change to use a payphone.

Man, how did people survive in the old days?