More Random Referrer Phun

[yikes].woh.res.rr.com (Road Runner Holdco Llc) [Label IP Address] Ohio, Dayton, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
11th September 2008	22:52:56	www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=JYJ&q=raping babies mindset&btnG=Search www.joelogon.com/blog/2007/02/tactical-ninjas-islamic-terrorists.html

I'm just going to assume this is homework for an Abnormal or Criminal Psych course.

[yowza].rochester.res.rr.com (Road Runner Holdco Llc) [Label IP Address]
New York, Malone, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
11th September 2008	14:16:19	images.google.com/images?q=john%20deere%20nude&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi www.joelogon.com/blog/2007_05_01_foo.html

Hot Tractor-on-Tractor Action.

bluecoat2.wood.army.mil (Headquarters Usaisc) [Label IP Address]
Arizona, Ft. Huachuca, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
16th November 2008	00:05:25	No referring link
16th November 2008	00:05:36	www.google.com/search?q=ran over cat%2C now have low tire pressure www.joelogon.com/blog/labels/driving.html

You can haz tire gauge.

[sigh] (Fairfax County Public Schools) [Label IP Address]
Virginia, Alexandria, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
17th December 2008	12:43:39	search.msn.com/results.aspx?srch=105&FORM=AS5&q=Stabbing %2b Reston %3c VA %2bNew Year's eve www.joelogon.com/blog/labels/arlington.html

I'm hoping this refers to a past New Year's Eve, and not an upcoming one.

[foo].proxy.aol.com (America Online Inc) [Label IP Address]
Virginia, Reston, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
18th December 2008	13:26:53	aolsearch.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&query=kneed in the groin by a girl&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joelogon.com%2Fimages_temp%2F110505viagrasofttab400.gif&site=&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joelogon.com%2Fblog%2F2005_11_01_foo.html&width=124&hei www.joelogon.com/blog/2005_11_01_foo.html

Is there really that much to know? Really? And for those men who get off on this -- just google "Krav Maga", that should do it.

[urm].sip.bna.bellsouth.net (Bellsouth.net Inc) [Label IP Address]
Tennessee, Nashville, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
18th December 2008	19:32:05	www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS247&q=pussy%20pictures%20for%20phones&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw www.joelogon.com/blog/2006/10/phone-sex-photos-warning-stupid.html

Because nothing says "class" and "sex machine" better than gynecological photos as your cell phone wallpaper.

Lastly, we're seeing an epidemic of people losing condoms in Virginia. Remember, kids, Virginia is for lovers.

Tags: referrer phun

Things That Are Upcoming; DC Blogger Meetup Tonight, and a Lot of Concerts

Tonight, Wednesday, December 17, 7pm: The final (for 2008, that is) Washington Blogger Meetup at RFD Washington. All bloggers, quasi-bloggers, proto-bloggers, would-be bloggers, blog groupies, and fans are welcome. Just look for some laptops.

Breaking News: I'm told that Christmas occurs on December 25th this year. Please note the new date.

Skipping all other holiday foolishness, there are a bunch of concerts coming up that, shockingly, I'm interested in and know about ahead of time (I just started playing around with Tourfilter -- I need to refine my band list, though I still like checking out the individual venue sites)

* Sat, Jan. 17: The Raveonettes play the Black Cat again (they were there in March 2008 -- also see my March 2007 photos from Rock and Roll hotel)

* Inauguration possibilities: Sunday, Jan. 18: A couple of DC bloggers are renting out the top floor of Bourbon (in Adams Morgan) for a Bloggerational Ball (I assume that's pronounced, "blog-irrational"). It would be an excuse to wear my tuxedo, assuming it fits (I've been slack about the gym lately.) Call it a maybe.

Then, Monday, Jan. 19 is the Netroots Nation YES WE CAN Party at Claredon Ballroom. Corey tipped me to this, not sure about this one.

* Thursday, Jan. 22 is Twin Tech III at Lux Lounge in DC. Pretty good tech networking opportunity.

* Thursday, Jan. 29 is DC Design Babes 3 (Location TBD). Includes a contest aspect. More tech networking, with a design-focus.

Now, here's the burst of February concerts at the Birchmere. Since they're maddeningly clustered in a two-week period, I doubt I'll make all of them. But a couple, hopefull:

* Sunday, Feb. 8: Over the Rhine

* Monday, Feb. 9: The Puppini Sisters -- they also played there back in June, but I wasn't able to go then, either.

* Sunday, Feb. 15: Cowboy Junkies, who I haven't seen in a few years (well, I did catch them in 2007, when they opened for Chris Issac at Wolf Trap, but that doesn't really count)

* Thursday, Feb. 19: Fountains of Wayne, doing an acoustic gig.

I guess I have a few decisions to make. But that's still, like, a year away.

Tags: washington blogger meetup, rfd, birchmere, tourfilter, inauguration

The Return of Late Night Infomercial Cleavage

Last month, I had another bout of insomnia. Actually, it was another bout of waking up at 4am and not being able to get back to sleep, so I checked out the late night infomercial offerings.

For obvious reasons, I paused on one of the Spanish-language stations:

The Spanish-channel game show hostesses, news readers, weather girls, soap stars, and talk show hosts are almost universally hot, so why should their infomercial stars be any different?

This was some sort of pitch for "Karakol Kream," Karakol being a corruption of caracol, or snail. Apparently, their previous infomercial featured a CGI snail, but I guess they decided to focus on the leggy pitchmodels.

The woman on the right is Mexican actress is Maribel Guardia, though I was more focused on the one on the left; it doesn't show in the picture, but the cleavage showing through her strategically-placed boob window was glistening, perhaps from the judicious application of snail snot:

I find that infomercials in Spanish are a lot less irritating; if I focus, and can pick up some of the words and most of the meaning, but I just let it wash over me and concentrate on the visuals.

Surfing on, there's a new iteration of the "10 free Internet Web businesses" scam-thing that I first mentioned in "Big Tits and Bonus Checks" -- they don't mention the previously-ubiquitous bonus checks, and they switched from a living room set, to a pool party for all their successful customers yadda yadda yadda.

More importantly, they switched pitchwomen, and there's no longer any mesmerizing cleavage [Update: more info at the Ridiculous Infomercial Review]:

The success stories they feature and the pitch they're actually making remains inscrutably vague -- just the same "get rich quick with 10 free Web businesses"; I note that Hank Williams (not the singer, the Silicon Alley Insider contributor) also takes issue with the infomercial, though I would still venture that it still presents more of a business model than some Web 2.0 companies out on the market.

(Additionally, I see that he also uses the "Tic Tac (Blueberry)" theme for his Blogger blog.)

One of my goals for 2009 is to shift back into a reasonable semblance of East Coast time, so hopefully I'll be able to drastically reduce my infomercial viewing.

Tags: infomercials, cleavage, insomnia

Washington Monument on a Rainy Night

Last month, I was driving back from some sort of tech event foolishness in DC on a rainy night, when I saw the Washington Monument shrouded in mist.

It looked pretty cool. I pulled over and walked over to take some photos. Since it's raining right now, I guess that's a good enough excuse to post them.

The full set is here: Washington Monument on a Rainy Night, 11/13/08

Trying to catch the red aviation marker lights was annoying.

Low angle, with flag.

Lower angle, on the corner.

Up against the wall, looking up. Didn't they just clean the silly thing?

Since I didn't have a tripod, I propped the camera against my shoe and hit the self-timer. My head accidentally got in the way of a couple of pics, so I decided to do one with me in it on purpose:

Outta the way, you damned fool!

Tags: washington monument

Check Me Out Over at the Network Solutions Blog (with some bonus features for my Twitter post)

For the past few weeks, I've been doing some blogging over at the Network Solutions blog, Solutions Are Power. (I'd met blog honcho Shashi Bellamkonda at a Twitter meetup last year, and stayed in touch through various DC tech events since then.)

I'm blogging about social media and online community topics (naturally), with a particular focus on how it can affect small business. (And I mean real small business, not just social media consultants.) So naturally, there's some potential overlap with stuff I've been known to write about here. (Not the dumb things. Well, not my dumb things.)

For example, a few of the posts I've done over there, started out as drafts in my head that were going to be used here, but I never got around to doing.

Take my "Twitter: I Was Doing It Wrong" entry. I'd been sitting on it for a few months and not getting anywhere with it, when I found a new hook and used it for the NetSol blog. Book it. Done. Well, with a few tweaks:

* Twitter Priority: I left out the idea of Twitter posters prefacing their posts with a number on a set scale (say 1-4), so that recipients could filter to the level of posts they wanted to see from any particular person. (Remember, even if I know and like you, I don't necessarily care about the trivial emphemera of what you're doing right now... or even if I do, I don't need to know it in real-time).

An example scale would be:

1 - Your standard bullshit update of no consequence (that is to say, a normal Twitter post)
2 - Your standard bullshit update, except with your location
3 - An update where you're specifically trying to share information you think might be interesting or useful to others (say, a traffic disruption, celebrity sighting, or miscreants setting off fireworks inside the Metro)
4 - An update where you're explicitly requesting a reply from people (like a question)

Throw in a 5, for truly extraordinary, emergency circumstances (e.g. "help, i'm in egypt getting arrested.")

Since it would depend on people's ability to honestly self-categorize their own Twitter posts -- well, let's just say I'm not holding my breath on this idea.

* On my Facebook/Twitter persona: A while back, one of my Facebook friends asked me why I was out partying all the time. When I asked why she thought that, she said that it was the impression she got from looking at my Facebook status.

My Facebook status comes from Twitter (via TwitterSync) -- I don't update it any other way. And at that time, I only updated Twitter when I was out and about. Which is why my friend thought I was just partying non-stop.

Anyway, check out my entries (and, heck, the other entries, too) on the NetSol blog if you like, and drop a comment and say hi over there.

Tags: twitter, network solutions, solutions are power, shashi bellamkonda

The New York Times Doesn't Want Any Dirty, Stinking Fark Links

I've seen a notable lack of New York Times links on Fark over the past few months. NYT used to be really unfriendly to social bookmarking and linksharing sites (with their login-registration wall), but that changed when they added permalink sharing URLs, which made linking to their stories easier.

Now, though, when you try to submit an NYT link to Fark, it fails -- you get an error:

"Can't verify that link: Throwing away unfetchable URL... 302 Moved Temporarily"

The error message says it's a 302 temporary redirect, though Redirect Checker says it a 301 permanent redirect. Either way, Fark doesn't like it.

I'm not 100% on the timing, but I think it's related to changes that were made when NYT rolled out their TimesPeople social network a few months back. (I already disliked TimesPeople because it adds a persistant Javascript tool bar at the top of the page -- when you page down in an article, it cuts off the first few lines, so you have to scroll back up to pick up where you left off. It's annoying.)

Anyway, that's probably why there haven't been any NYT links on Fark the last few months. (Other social booksharing sites seem unaffected.)

I guess an alternate interpretation would be that Fark doesn't want any NYT links. But the headline on that doesn't sound as cool.

Tags: new york times, social bookmarking, sharing

Fireworks in Gallery Place Metro

Friday night, I headed to Clyde's in DC, to meet up with some folks who were going to the Caps game.

I'd just gotten off the Red Line at Gallery Place, when the mass of people in front of me on the platform stopped abruptly. I looked over and saw an idiot teenager place a firework on the ground and light it. He was laughing as he hopped on the train.

The fuse sparked and smoked for a few seconds. The crowd gave it a wide berth, but didn't move. Then it went off.

The firework was some sort of roman candle thing, shooting off about 6 flaming colored balls. Some of them bounced off the train as it pulled out of the station.

It was all over in a few seconds, leaving just a cloud of sulfurous smoke in the station.

I would have taken a video of it (or the kid) with my phone, but I wasn't fast enough. Also, it was a good thing I saw the kid place the firework, or else there was an above-average chance I would have gone over the side of the platform to be among the Metro ladders and brooms. [Right: Mostly unrelated older photo.]

Now, I know teenagers are stupid, but how amazingly clueless do you have to be to light off a firework in the subway when people are still freshly fearful from Mumbai (to say nothing of London or Madrid), as well as the upcoming inauguration?

And of course, giving more ammunition to the random bag search proponents.

Tags: dc metro, stupid pranks, fireworks

Local Blog Dumbness, or What the Hell Is Going on at Metblogs DC?

I was just looking through some of my Local bookmarks and found two instances of dumbness, one a momentary lapse, the other a whole lot... odder.

First, the Rock and Roll Hotel calendar listings featured a whole mess of Photobucket "Bandwidth Exceeded" pictures (it has since been fixed):

I don't know if it was a technical problem or some sort of administrative glitch (e.g. nonpayment) -- I can't see them actually trying to use a free account for this. But who knows.

Anyway, though not too bad of an incident, it does show the inherent, though usually acceptable, risk in relying on third-party providers for your photo hosting.

The second item is the current lead story on Metblogs DC -- it's entitled "Don't Drive Drunk," and it's pretty... daffy:

Don’t drink and drive also please wear your seat belt.

December is the most dangerous month when most of people get killed or life time injured by accidents.

I do not care where ever you go, when ever you go, we all know time location and our work all is important but think.

Is your life is not important ???

Your children are also important…

When you are at the driving seat, you are responsible of all people who are sitting with you, so tell them WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT OR GET OFF FROM THE CAR !!!!

It goes on to combine some overexcited prose with some near-Engrish, as well as a few nigh-inexplicable photos of a child car crash victim, a potential car crash victim, and more:

The posting over at Metblogs DC has been kind of sporadic ever since the big WeLoveDC exodus, but seriously, come on.

Tags: metblogs dc, rock and roll hotel

The Onion Puts the "The" in "The"

A little while back, I inadvertently did a Google search for the word "the", and discovered that the number one search result for "the" is The Onion:

Maybe this is something that everyone already knows. Or maybe it's something that a few people know, but no one else can find out about it because it's impossible to search for. (How do you query for anything related specifically to the word "the"? It's maddening.)

I just find it amusing that the first search result for the most common word in the English language is The Onion.

I also note that:

* The top result for "I" is Apple (I guess that shouldn't be a surprise)

* The top result for "me" is also Apple -- MobileMe (so it kinda succeeds, even in failure)

* For "this" it's the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Buh? Anyway, This American Life is the second result)

I could run down the rest of the top 100 words or something, but that would be even more tedious and unfunny.

Tags: search, SEO, the onion

Vanilla Ice Isn't Even a Good Punch Line Anymore

I got my 65th Fark headline submission greenlight today:

Deadly, incurable vanilla fungus hits Madagascar. Word to your mother

As you can see (or can you? -- read on), I went with the Vanilla Ice joke. As you can also see by looking at the ensuing comment thread, this comedic choice was met by indifference, even confusion and outright disgust, over the fact that I didn't make a Pandemic 2 joke out of that hanging meatball of a Madagascar/disease reference.

If you're not familiar, Pandemic 2 is a Flash-based, disease simulation videogame. You play the pathogen -- virus, bacteria, or parasite -- and you try to infect and wipe out humanity. Madagascar is often the lone holdout, since it only has one seaport, and if they shut it down, you can't kill the last remnants of humanity to win.

I'm familiar with the game (I've taken to naming my in-game disease-self "Joelogonorrhea"), but since I'm of a certain age (old), the first thing that came to mind was the Vanilla Ice joke. Apparently, the Fark admin who approved the headline was also of this generational mindset (that is to say, culturally irrelevant), so I guess I got lucky here.

I also have to conclude that '90s hit rap artist Vanilla Ice has been overshadowed by a semi-popular Flash video game on the Web.

Sic transit gloria mundi (Latin, of course, for "Drop that zero and get with the hero.")

**********************
Like I've said before, for me, submitting Fark headlines is a way to test my writing chops, and to see if other people find what I find interesting, interesting. (You don't get any recognition for a greenlit headline, except a notch in your greenlight count.)

(Actually, today I also got my 66th greenlight, but that one got taken back. Apparently, Fark has this rule against posting links to snuff films. In my defense, it didn't look in any way real, so long as you define "real" as "the way Michael Bay shows it.")

Tags: vanilla ice, fark submissions, pandemic 2, madagascar

Corporate CYA for Pearl Harbor Day (2001 Edition)

I'm going through some old work files and swag while watching the Duke-Michigan basketball game (second half is starting right now, Michigan is up), and I found this memo, which dates back to 2001, which was the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Since the date of the attack, of course, was December 7th, it's a pretty timely and serendipitous find:

Subj: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: 60th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Date: 11/26/01 5:44:29 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: [redacted]
To: [redacted]
Sent on: AOL 5.0 for windows sub 138

Hi Everyone,

We have a very important issue regarding any promotion of the 60th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, occuring Dec 7th. It is VERY important that ads and promos for Japanese auto partners like Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, and Honda, or any other Japanese product producing partners, do not appear anywhere in Pearl Harbor packages or News packages related to Pearl Harbor. Any Pearl Harbor packages should run house ads to shield these major, major advertisers from any unwanted rotations. As you can imagine, this is a very sensitive topic for those companies, and we want to make sure we cover our bases.

If you are planning to promote Pearl-Harbor related content on any of your screens and have questions, please let Edit Ops know. Your diligence and cooperation are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
[redacted]

Tags: pearl harbor, advertising

Joelogon's Theorem of Turnpike Conservation, and More Notes From the Road

Posited: Any time you save by avoiding the Delaware Turnpike, you will lose on the New Jersey Turnpike.

This Thanksgiving, I skipped the nighttime drive and came up from DC on Thursday morning (leaving later than I'd wanted, naturally). I also decided to try out the Washington Post's suggestion to skip I-95 and most of Delaware by taking Route 50 across the Bay Bridge.

I even cut through DC to skip the Beltway entirely. I almost got away clean, but made a wrong turn and ended up spending more time than I would have liked going through Capitol Hill neighborhoods at 35 mph.

Route 50 was fine, save for a left-lane Scion that decided at the last moment that he needed to exit to 495, cutting across 3 lanes, almost causing two accidents (me being one of them), and still missing the exit. Last I saw, he was sitting on the shoulder past the exit, no doubt getting ready to shift into reverse.

Confession time: I'd never driven over the Bay Bridge before. In fact, I don't think I've ever spent any time on the Eastern Shore. It, and the drive on 301 was uneventful -- I spent a little too much time going 35 through small towns, though on the plus side, I did accidentally avoid the Route 1 toll.

The Delaware section was mercifully brief, yet even then, I ran into some congestion at the splitoff for the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

Some other observations -- for a time, traffic was moving too fast to Twitter, so I recorded some voice memos for later transcription and further elaboration:

12:00 noon: Cherry Hill. The Cherry Hill water tower used to have the town name marked in big, red, block letters (all caps, of course). To be honest, it was kind of ugly, but now, as part of the ongoing march to a universally-branded America, it's also marked with an "American Water" logo.

Also, it was at this time, along the 4-lane stretch of the southern NJ Turnpike, that I restated my preference of surfing into those strange, empty stretches that sit in between two long packs of cars. They never last.

12:10 pm: iPod Isolation. In the old days, after we got tired of talking and ran out of music (which happened), we were forced to listen to the local radio landscape (corporate radio homogenization notwithstanding... but that came later).

With the iPod and satellite radio, now, you can travel in your own little audio bubble, with a soundtrack that's the same from coast-to-coast, north-to-south.

Would I go back? Probably not, though I did get perverse pleasure driving that stretch of the North Carolina/Virginia border that, due to geographic and atmospheric anomalies, only allowed you to get one country music station, and one Christian evangelist proselytization station.

12:51 pm: In full crawl mode. When you get old and resigned, you realize that, in a traffic jam, with rare exception, all advantages are momentary: It really doesn't matter what lane you're in -- you can't hit just the peaks of the traffic waves, and you end up seeing the cars over and over: The Cadillac SUV, weaving back and forth in its lane like a Formula One racer warming up its tires; the dirty Durango; the Nissan Versa; the Scion with the rear fender panel pushed in.

1:23 pm: Sign of the Times. The DJ, looking for contest winners, asks for, "The 92nd texter," not caller.

There were also a couple of Twitter posts with a florid lack of consequence (though, in a correction, the Fountains of Wayne TV ad song I mentioned isn't actually a Christmas song -- it's just used in LL Bean's holiday ad. I was probably conflating it with Alien for Christmas.)

Tags: radio, texting, New Jersey Turnpike

The Prescience of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Went to go to see the Washington Psychotronic Film Society's showing of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! at its original time (Tuesday nights) and new location, the Meeting Place.

The bar is kind of a weird -- it's literally a dive (underground), pretty no-frills. The regulars at the bar were mostly black, contrasted with the mostly-white hipster archetype movie-goers. (Apparently, there's also a goth-y dance party on Saturdays to throw in the mix, too.)

Movie turnout was pretty good, between 30-40 people. The movie was shown on a flat screen in the corner; at times, it was kind of hard to hear, especially with noise from the bar (there's no separation between dining room and bar), though outside a few laugh lines, this isn't really a dialogue kind of movie.

The movie itself is... well, I've seen it before (years ago, at a theater in New York, also with a crowd of urban hipsters). The plot is laughable and serves only as a vehicle for Russ Meyer's visual titillation -- the eye candy started out as pure exploitation, but time has pretty much tempered it down to schlocky camp (with go-go boots, as well as hepcat talk and bad Italian accents). And Tura Satana's karate *CHOPS* to the ribs are more Austin Powers than Austin Powers.

Anyway, here's the laugh line of the night:

"Women! They let 'em vote, smoke and drive - even put 'em in pants! And what happens? A Democrat for president!" - The Old Man

Tags: wpfs, psychotronic, faster pussycat kill kill

Things That Are Upcoming: Blogs and Boobs

A few things coming up that are upcoming:

* Wednesday, 11/19, 7pm -- a two-fer at RFD near the Verizon Center: The November Washington Blogger Meetup (in the front room, look for me with my iBook), for socialization and knowledge transfer. Then, in the back room, there's the November Web Content Mavens meeting, on "Why Every Organization Should NOT Focus on Creating Communities."

* Friday, 11/21, 8pm -- After a long hiatus, it's the return of the DC Blogger Happy Hour, at Bourbon in Adams Morgan. Bring all your pent-up DC blog scene drama.

* Tuesday, 11/25, 8pm -- The second Washington Psychotronic Film Society showing in its new home, The Meeting Place, featuring Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! A must-see for fans of really bad karate, Russ Meyer, camp, and huge boobs.

* Thursday, 11/27, all-day -- Thanksgiving. But you knew that. (Also, if you're going to be around, Friday, They Might Be Giants will be at the 9:30 Club, playing Flood in its entirety.)

Looking out a little further (January), the Raveonettes are playing the Black Cat again. Other than that, all the bands I currently follow are either dead, skipping DC, or broken up, so... yeah.

Hook 'em, Pixels

Earlier today (just like I'd Twittered), I discovered that, at maximum extension, my "hook 'em horns" fingerspan is about 550 pixels wide (inside edge to inside edge).

Here's the photographic proof (reading the numbers off of the MeasureIt Firefox extension):

Knowing this is almost, but not entirely, useless.

Tags: hook 'em horns, fingerspan

Things That Annoy Me About Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

[Spoilers for Episode 2.8, Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today, airdate Nov 10, 2008]

I've been trying to like Sarah Connor Chronicles. Really, I have. And I do like certain things about it. But a few things about the plot are really starting to get to me:

* Too much time travel. Yes, of course it's a time travel show. But there are so many resistance fighters/Terminators traveling back to the past, there must be airport-style TSA check-in queues at the time machines. (Though, to be fair, time travelers go naked, which we don't have to do. Yet.)

Instead of being an insurmountable barrier, time travel is now a minor inconvenience. It turns "I came across time for you, Sarah," into "I went a couple blocks out of my way for you, Sarah."

* Too many Terminators. Just like the Borg in the Star Trek series, Terminators are best used sparingly. (Understandably, this is especially a problem for the Terminator universe -- in Star Trek, there were plenty of other villains to use. Which is why it was extra grating when they kept bringing out the Borg whenever they needed a ratings kick.)

If you go to the well too many times, you water down the... water. Because you have to keep figuring out ways to escape, or beat, what is supposed to be an inexorable, unstoppable foe. Which means that an unbeatable foe not only becomes beatable, but routinely beatable. Which means that...

* It's too damn easy for the good guys to kill Terminators. In tonight's allegedly-climactic, far too John Woo-ish church shoot out, Cromartie, who we've previously seen take out 20 heavily-armed FBI HRT guys without breaking a sweat (in what was, admittedly, a very cool scene), gets taken out by Sarah Connor, David Silver, their two submachine guns, and River Tam's three, count 'em, three, shotgun blasts.

(Though to be fair, Cromartie did have to expend considerable effort maintaining his Jesus Christ pose.)

Earlier, we've seen Terminators locked in a bunker, steamed to death (or was it electrocuted?) in a nuclear power plant, taken out by a .50 caliber sniper rifle (presumably, why California, pandering to the Terminator lobby, banned them), stiletto-heeled and pretzeled by River Tam, and given the Chromartie Kali ma! One-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.

Pretty soon, they'll just go *bing* and fizzle out when the warranty expires.

* Regular Terminators should not be sent back to impersonate specific people. If Skynet can cook up T-800s (or T-888s, whatever) to send back to specifically impersonate specific people at specific points in time (the nuclear plant guy and Agent Ellis), it really knows too much. Impersonation is supposed to be done by the shapeshifter models, like Shirley Manson and Bloodrayne.

* Enough with the future factions. Man, everyone is stealing from The 4400 these days. First it was Heroes with that ripped-from-promycin "Everybody gets a power" storyline; now it's Sarah Connor Chronicles with the dueling future factions sending machines back. Pretty soon, it'll be Temporal Cold Wars and Evil Leapers and the future High Fructose Corn Syrup faction sending back Terminators.

Lastly, a few secondary annoyances:

* Until tonight, I thought that Cromartie was played by that guy from Sports Night. (He's not.)

* Terminators are too gun dependent. Way back in the original Terminator, T-1-0-Ahnuld could have just punched Linda Sarah Hamilton Connor's heart out in the Tech Noir club, but nooooo, he had to stop to reload his Uzi. Same with the Sarah Connor Chronicles pilot -- Chromartie could have just been Inappropriately Close in the Classroom Teaching Terminator and then just whipped out the Super Soldier Billy Miles-patented Denogginizing *JUDO CHOP*, instead of having to pull out the inconveniently-holstered quadracep Glock.

* The Fox Terminator Wiki (a WetPaint wiki & discussion board) is overloaded with crap widgets. It's really annoying and takes forever to load.

Tags: terminator, sarah connor chronicles

Tales of Kickball Glory, Part XXVIII

We had a kickball playoff game tonight. It was kind of iffy for a while, seeing as how we dug ourselves into a 4-0 hole after the first inning. But we stuck with it, held on, and went into sudden death rules after 6 innings. And we won.

(Also, it managed to stay comfortably over 60°F, which is nice for the first week of November in Virginia.)

My own performance was somewhat lackluster on the offensive side -- I had a fly out that (unintentionally) became a sacrifice RBI, as well as another fly out that just... sucked.

However, on the defensive side, one play that didn't suck, came when I was fielding at first base. The kick went to third, and the throw to first went slightly... wide.

I dove and managed to stop the ball, but I ended up hitting the deck, with my head was closer to the base than my feet. So, I cradled the ball to my body with my right hand, then with a fervor (I was told, later) seen only in Press Your Luck contestants giving their best "Big Bucks, No Whammies!" slap, reached out and tagged first base -- with authority.

I made the play, and (I was also told, later) took some of the wind out of the other team's rally.

Plus, I later made the last out of the game.

Adult kickball, as I like to say, is 30-45 minutes of light- to moderate-physical activity, followed by 3 to 4 hours of heavy drinking.

But every once in a while, it offers a bit of redemption.

Tags: fxa kickball, spitzer swallows

Things I Don't Want to Deal With Right Now

Just a partial list of things I should be dealing with, but choose not to:

* Raking the leaves.
* Repairing the roof [Basically, just choosing between proposals and signing on the line that is dotted.]
* Adding more insulation to the attic.
* Fixing my credit rating.
* Saving the date for my 20-year high school reunion next year.
* Damage controlling my 401k.
* Taxes.
* Dealing with my fear of dying.
* Dealing with my fear of dying alone.
* Thanksgiving.
* Fixing personal e-mail schema.
* Relaunching my blog in a fashion that distinguishes my silly catless cat-blogging from everything else.

Tags: procrastination

Wearing My Homemade Blackjack Dealer Costumer (Part 2 of 2)

I built a wearable blackjack table for Halloween. [See Part 1, the build.] Then I got to wear it:

Me, behind the finished product.

I already owned the tuxedo shirt and bow tie. Same with the red vest. (I'd originally sized the harness for a black vest I had, but the red one was wider and hid the harness better, and besides, when you're wearing a 3.5" wide green table, restraint should not be the objective.)

The Wearing
I met a bunch of friends to pre-party before we headed over to Carpool in Herndon, for the Fairfax Athletics Midseason/Halloween Party.

This was actually the first time I'd actually worn the entire, completed costume. It seemed to work okay, once I made it in the door: At about three-and-a-half feet wide, you have to go through sideways (and carefully).

This also makes navigating crowded rooms interesting. The padded rail and a firm voice helps. And when you order a drink, it's best if someone can pass your drink from the bartender.

Observations:
* My costume was very well received. People wanted to know where I'd gotten it. (It was only later -- like, today -- that I found you can buy a cardboard version for $40, but mine was much cooler.)

* Since the harness is almost completely hidden, folks asked how it was held up -- since the platform is at waist level, there's a built-in "I'm just happy to see you" joke.

* Wearing a blackjack table is a good icebreaker -- everyone wants to play:

Hey, sailor, new in town?

I dealt a lot of hands to random people over the course of the night, though as time went on, my counting skills (with both chips and cards) deteriorated.

Oh, and to keep things simple, I didn't do insurance, and I was paying blackjack 2-to-1. We weren't playing for real money (didn't want to have to deal with that headache), so who cares?

* It's not really heavy, especially at first, but I definitely started feeling it in my back (I'm still recovering from a mild strain from a few weeks ago). I was a little sore the next day.

* It's pretty easy to take off and put on again, which is an important consideration since I wouldn't want to try taking a leak while wearing it. It would be... messy.

* Initially, I was concerned about sturdiness, but it's pretty solid. The pipe clamps were tight, and the triangle frame supported the platform pretty well. And no one tried leaning on it, thankfully.

* People (myself included) will want to set their drinks down on it:

Dealing to Harem Girl Michelle

Since the platform is attached and moves with my body, being a drink tray is a potentially dicey situation. I'd thought about adding cupholders, but besides being extra work and having to work around the frame -- hey, people can hold their own drinks.

There were a couple of minor spills, nothing too bad.

* Minor design flaw: If you have short arms, it can be hard to pick up cards at the edge of the platform.

* Happily, even though I'd pre-emptively written off the chips (I only brought half from the set), I didn't lose a single card or chip.

* Lastly, remember: The house always wins:

Jeremy "Cobra Kai Johnny" preparing to sweep my leg.

Enhancements and Conclusions
I had a lot of fun with this costume, primarily because it's interactive and fully functional. Oh, and with it, I also won $100 in the costume contest. (Which basically covers my material and tool costs.)

Unfortunately, outside of a party this Halloween night (and maybe Saturday), there doesn't seem like I'll have any excuse to wear it, which is a shame.

I guess I could rent myself out to be a roaming blackjack dealer at parties.

Last week was something of a dry run. In preparation for this weekend's Halloween activities, and after seeing some of the photos, I decided to spray paint black the exposed bits of the frame, because the bare wood looked pretty cheesy. (Incidentally, I found my black spray paint -- it was next to the laundry detergent. No idea why).

I also painted the lower part of the PVC harness -- against black pants, it should be even harder to see. (You can see the PVC poking out in a few of the photos. Well, it's PVC, as far as you know.)

Other enhancements I'm considering -- cutting in a casino-style money drop slot, and painting more decorations on the felt ("Joe's Casino" and such). Though I'll probably just leave it be. I might still extend the bumper around to the back of the frame -- it'd be a quick fix.

You can see the full photo sets here: Halloween Costume Build 2008 and Fairfax Athletics Halloween Party, 10/25/08.

Lastly, thanks to Cockeyed.com's Rob Cockerham for the inspiration and instructions on how to build the harness and platform.

Tags: blackjack dealer costume, halloween, fairfax athletics, carpool

Building My Blackjack Dealer Halloween Costume (Part 1 of 2)

Unlike most previous years, I actually had an idea for a Halloween costume this time around, with enough time to actually follow through on it. [If you want to skip the build and go straight to the finished costume, well, I pity you.]

The Inspiration
A few weeks ago, listening to Zydeco music at an Oktoberfest celebration in Reston (note there are several things not quite right with that statement), I got to idly thinking about Texas Hold'em (I don't play Texas Hold'em -- I was probably being thankful that the fad is dying out), when I had a flash of inspiration: "Poker table Texas Hold em costume." (Oct. 11, 9:40pm -- I texted myself so I wouldn't forget.)

The idea was informed by (alright, stolen wholesale from) Cockeyed.com's Rob Cockerham's American Idol Judges Costume -- I'd been revisiting the site looking for costume ideas, since he usually manages to put together some great ones, and I wanted to make something wearable.

The Preparation
The very next day, I started gathering materials. In a fortuitous coincidence, Michael's had sheets of green felt and fabric paint on sale. (I also bought some foam core board, though I didn't end up using it.) Then, I went to Home Depot, and got some 1/2" PVC pipe, plywood and hardware.

Only after starting my shopping, did I decide I needed to plan out my concept. For design inspiration, I did some searching for poker and card table images:

The red vest photo figured in pretty heavily -- I actually own a red vest I never wear (it makes me look like an Ace Hardware employee), but it was colorful and wide enough to cover a harness.

I also switched from poker to blackjack, since I know the rules better and it's less involved to play (this was going to be a functional costume).

I followed up with very precise technical drawings.

I'd started with a donut-half platform, but after looking at the photos, switched to the easier half-circle, supported on a triangular frame:




Then, following Rob Cockerham's lead, I sketched out the PVC harness. Originally, I thought I could bend the PVC arms underneath the platform to support it, but I couldn't see that working too well with the frame, so I'd connect the PVC to the back of the frame using pipe straps:









The Build
Over the next few days, I started building the frame and platform. One of the good things about having so much clutter around is having building materials and tools on hand. I built the frame out of some spare 1"x3" boards (left over from making bed slats):






Then, I used my Rotozip to cut the plywood in an arc (first drawing a circle with a pencil on a string).

I'd originally used a 2'x4' sheet of 3/8" MDF, but switched to 3/16" plywood to save weight.

It was my first time using the Rotozip as a plunge cutter (I've used it with the flex shaft as a big Dremel tool), and it was pretty easy to control.





After that, I bent the PVC. I'd bought a heat gun and welding gloves just for the occasion:









The bending went a lot smoother than I'd expected. Granted, it wasn't perfect and you can see a few scorch marks, but it didn't kink and it was close enough for a first try:










After that was just assembly. I didn't feel like hammering, so I just used wood screws to finish the triangle frame and mount the plywood to it (using a stud finder) -- I did a rough miter box cut to get the angles (This photo is from this week, when I decided to paint some of the exposed parts of the frame. Also, you can see the PVC harness is a little crooked):




The Embellishment
I glued and cut the felt directly to the plywood without any problems.

One thing that I had been concerned about was how to build a cushioned bumper -- I'd been going around to hardware and auto supply stores looking for vinyl to make cushions, with no luck.

But then I remembered I had some extra foam pipe insulation sleeves -- they're long tubes, split down the middle. You wrap them around hot water pipes -- they even have self-adhesive strips, so they were perfect for the job.

In an inspired moment, I also remembered I had some electroluminescent wire (it's battery-powered and glows -- I'm always trying to find a reason to use it), which I stapled (carefully) along the edge of the new rail -- it's an eye-catching touch, especially in a darker room.

The most annoying part was masking and painting the card outlines. I used the fabric paint I'd bought, but my first try using the glow in the dark paint looked pretty bad in the light. I ended up mixing in some white paint, though it still glows a little bit.

The first cards were easy, but for the second cards (which touched the first cards), I ended up taping off the outside edge, then using a shiny business card to mask the inside edge. It worked well enough.

I wanted to do a sunken chip tray, but I would have had to cut into the board and frame, so I ended up using some shoe molding (also laying around) to build a frame. (I'd bought a 300-chip poker set at Target for 20 bucks -- the flimsy plastic chip tray lifted right out of the case, and I built the frame around it.)

I couldn't find my black paint, so I spray painted it navy blue (close enough) and glued it to the felt.

So, that was the build. Stay tuned for Part 2, to see how it all worked out. While you're waiting, here are the materials and tools used:

Materials

One 2'x4' sheet of 3/16" plywood [tabletop]	$5
Four 1'x3' boards (max length 3.5') [frame]	On hand
One 1/2" PVC pipe, 8' [harness]	$1.77
Two 1/2" PVC end caps (for neatness)	$0.49 each
Pack of 20 1/2" 2-hole pipe straps [I used six]	$2.13
Two 1-1/2" Angle brackets [frame]	$.51 each
Assorted wood screws [all over]	On hand
One 8' 1/2" pipe sleeve [bumper rail]	On hand
Six sheets of 12"x18" felt [playing surface]	$0.33 each
Fabric paint [playing surface]	$0.99 each
Shoe molding [chip tray]	On hand
300 chip poker set [duh, though you can get by with less]	$17.99
8' battery powered EL wire from IKEA [optional]	On hand

Tools Used
Heat gun ($24.99), leather welding gloves ($9.99), Rotozip cutting tool, hacksaw (to cut the PVC pipe), cordless drill driver, stud finder, measuring tape, cross cut saw, miter box, 4-way file, staple gun, wood glue, spray paint, masking tape.

Tags: halloween costumes, diy

Washington Psychotronic Film Society Moves Back to Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

Just saw in the City Paper that the weekly Washington Psychotronic Film Society showings are moving back to DC in November (to The Meeting Place, near Farragut North Metro).

This, from its current home in a side room at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse, which is probably a good thing. The space was okay, though a bit on the small side (especially in comparison to the entire back room of the now-demolished Dr. Dremo's), but it was not particularly convenient to Metro.

Plus, it'll snag all the DC citizens who hate crossing the river.

As for me, I used to be a fairly irregular attendee when it was at Dremo's (Tuesday nights), though I'd dropped off once it switched to Wednesdays, which are my usual Galaxy Hut nights. And it was really lineup-dependent, since as I keep whining, there's that whole "aging Gen-Xer turns against schlock" thing.

But I figure that I'll try to attend a few and see what's going on.

Oh, and as to what's going on -- the article links to the WPFS Psychotronic Zone Blog, which I had no idea existed, as it's not linked from the main WPFS site.

Tags: wpfs, psychotronic

The Joelogon Facepalm Strikes Again

The Industry Standard blogger Jordan Golson has an item today taking bigshot tech bloggers to task (or, more accurately, taking bloggers at bigshot tech blogs to task) for committing attempted journalism without actually doing any of the "journalism" bits -- "A lesson for bloggers: go to the source or look like a fool" [link via Fark].

It's about some "OMG, Congress wants teh iPhones!!!" misinformation that was primary sourced at an article on TheHill.com, then batted around the tech media blogosphere with lots of punditry and very nonexistant fact-checking.

Anyway, that's not the important bit. The important bit is, the article uses my facepalm photo:

D'oh! I mean, woo-hoo!

This is the first media use of it I've seen since I noticed the photo made it into Wikimedia Commons (and it's properly attributed too, at the end of the article).

Additionally, here are the Fark tie-ins: I saw the article where it was greenlighted on the Fark main page; it quotes Drew Curtis (and mentions his book); it links to Fark, and it uses the creative commons-licensed photo from (and of) a Farker. So it's like a quad-damage bonus that's worth... precisely nothing.

Oh, as to the rest of it?

BoingBoing updated with a correction, but of the other linked tech blogs -- all of whom originally reported the story with varying degrees of righteous indignation and/or wish fulfillment -- none of them did a correction or followup that I could see (from the article, Ars Technica, Wired Gadget Lab, Gizmodo, ZDnet, CNET's iPhone Atlas, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, PC Mag (via Gearlog), a quickie mention in the LA Times Technology blog, Cult of Mac, and iPod Observer).

This is just using a citation as an appeal to authority, and it's nothing new, of course: It's how things like the Super Bowl domestic violence myth perpetuated itself, and it's gone on in academia forever (who traces a citation all the way back to a primary source? If you see something cited enough, it becomes its own source, very much how a lie told enough times becomes the truth.)

Of course, me: I didn't do any fact-checking either, but I'm not a journalist, and I'm not much by the way of media -- I'm just a cat-blogger (sans cat) who just wanted to brag about one of my photos.

However, looking at some of the blogs in that list, that are either associated with "real" tech journalism or trying to make a case for legitimacy in that space -- how many of them can make that claim? Folks, if you want to play journalist, you have to act like one. Just saying "I'm just a blogger" isn't going to work unless you want blogging to forever stay the junior varsity dumping ground of media, somewhere above tabloids and below the main stream (or was that the other way around?)

I know, it sucks -- having to do all the new media stuff like transparency, authenticity, and responsiveness, then having to do more traditional media stuff like "sources," "requests for comment," "factchecking," and "ethics" (such as they are) -- that's a pain in the ass, as opposed to just snark and punditry.

But, if you're going to make it a profession, you're going to have to be more... professional.

Tags: facepalm, jordan golson

A Double Fistful of Worms

Going through the recent memory cache, here's an item I bookmarked last week (I have some interstitial time right now, waiting for some chicken to cook before I head out to a Halloween-y party): It's about the science behind worm fiddling, where people harvest worms by vibrating poles stuck in the ground, driving the worms to the surface.

Researchers figured out that it works because the worm fiddlers are imitating vibrations made by moles, scaring the worms to the surface. But that's not important. What's important, is the horrifying picture that accompanies the article.

To blunt its impact, I have taken the liberty of contextualizing it as a Lolthulhu:

"Ai! Ai! Cthulhu, Fhtagn!"

I'm not particularly squeamish when it comes to wormy things (I can bait a hook), but that's just creepy.

I'm also not particularly steeped in the Cthulhu Mythos, but I thought it was somewhat fitting. (A Flying Spaghetti Monster treatment would also have been acceptable.)

In the interests of enhancing calm, here's a "Hay guise!" pic, made from a cute-ish pic of a worm-nemesis mole also in the article:

"Hay guise! Wut's goin' on in this thread?"

The Internet. Serious business.

Tags: worm fiddling, lolthulhu, hay guise

Men Should Wear Gym Shorts When They Work Out

My sleep schedule has been really whacked out lately -- I think I'm running on Anchorage time. So I was on the fence about going to the gym after work, but a few good traffic omens found me in the locker room, changing.

Until I realized that I'd forgotten my gym shorts.

Damned if I was going to be forced into another course of action simply because of my stupidity, though I couldn't wear jeans for a leg workout, and I wasn't going to go all the way home and come back.

Fortunately, the Fitness First in Plaza America is right next door to a Modell's, so I picked up a couple pairs of gym shorts (On sale, 2 for $12. Now, they were boys' shorts, but I'm not that tall, and kids' shorts these days are cut dress-length, anyway, so a youth medium basketball short is like an adult small soccer short, so it worked out.)

Also, I found that the Stairmaster that looks like an escalator is a lot more challenging than the other kind, since it's a lot closer to actually climbing stairs.

An Appreciation of Sex in Mylar

Flickr photo by user MikeWade. Used under Creative Commons.

The news that Madonna is getting divorced (again) gives me an excuse to tell a story that has an almost (but not entire) lack of relevance.

Back in college, Dave, a friend and dorm mate, was, for a time, pretty obsessed with Madonna's Sex book. (Dave was a man of many obsessions, though one at a time. He was a serial obsessor.)

He bought two copies of the book, at $49.95 apiece. One for, um, reading, and one to keep sealed in mint condition to save as a collector's item.

"Collectors item?!" we scorned, "it's going to be on the bargain remainder bin in a few months. You're crazy!" Dave ignored us.

Now, as I recall, I actually did see the books a few months later, heavily discounted in remainder bins. But time passed, and a funny thing happened:

They actually did turn into collectors items.

Now, searching on Madonna sex book on eBay, a sealed, mint copy will get anywhere from $150-$250 (with at least one deluded optimist setting a Buy It Now price of $499).

Dave, I don't know if you still have your sealed, mint first edition Sex, but I salute you.

Tags: madonna, ebay

Revisiting a Spectacularly Unfortunate Ad Placement, 12 Years Later

In preparation for my 1-year layoff anniversary (this Thursday), I was going through some of my old AOL files, when I came across a news item from October, 1996, that I'd saved and forgotten. It's about a 12-year-old kid who killed his mother, then himself, because he'd run up a big AOL bill.

Tragic story, of course -- even moreso, because AOL went to unlimited pricing two months later.

However, the reason I'd saved the HTML file and accompanying graphics (it's an AP story, but it was on the Washington Post), was because of the intersection between commerce and news -- check out the ad:

Go to Main Story Go to Today's Top News		Online Bills Lead to Tragedy Tuesday, October 1, 1996; 10:50 a.m. EDT CALIFORNIA, Mo. (AP) -- A 12-year-old boy may have killed his mother and himself after the two fought about the boy's extensive time spent using a computer online service, investigators said. The body of Ann Hoffman, 42, was found Thursday at her home with six gunshots in her head, Sheriff Kenny Jones said. Her son, Brad Hoffman-Parker, had a single gunshot to the head, and a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol was found nearby. A day earlier, Hoffman's ex-husband, David Lee Parker, visited her and his son to discuss the seventh-grader's use of an Internet access service, Jones said. The parents shared custody of the boy. The father claimed Hoffman "was upset over the bills, because of America Online" and that the boy spent "long hours" using a personal computer in the home, Jones said. Investigators had not determined how much time Brad spent online and the amount of his bills. California is 110 miles east of Kansas City. © Copyright 1996 The Associated Press Back to the top

***************************
Yes, in a story about a kid who committed a murder-suicide thanks to AOL and hourly metered Internet access, the ad is for a "Why Pay Hourly?" Erols Internet unlimited pricing plan.

The ad, which I assume was served up because Erols had targeted AOL keywords, is either spectacularly inappropriate, or spectacularly appropriate, depending on your point of view.

So, a Rabbit Walks Into a Bike (and other events)

It's been unseasonably warm for October, so I ventured this afternoon into the weekend sunlight to skate. I preceeded this with a trip to the gym for a bonus beach muscles workout, which is a necessity if I'm going to complete my Michael Phelps Halloween costume.

(I'm not actually going as Michael Phelps. It'd be a simple costume, but I don't want to shave my bikini line. Also, I get cold easily. And, while I do have pectorals again, it's a long way from here to there. I did, however, get a costume inspiration Saturday night, so I've been shopping around for materials. Though I haven't actually, you know, formulated a plan yet, which is always a winning strategy. But I do know I need to buy a heat gun.)

Anyway, conditions on the trail were good. I started on the W&OD trail in Reston and headed east, which of course meant hitting the annoying hill at Buckthorn Lane (which features my favorite sign):

Actually taken coming back (westbound)

Nothing too eventful on the way out, and I turned around at Vienna. On the way back, I saw a bunch of vultures perched on a power tower, though the most notable thing happened back in Reston. There was an oncoming biker about 50 feet ahead of me, when all of a sudden, a rabbit darted out from the side of the trail and ran smack into the guy's back wheel.

For a bad moment, I thought the critter was going to get caught up in the works, but it just bounced off and scampered back into the brush.

I made it back without further incident. Afterwards, I went to Home Depot for some materials (did you know a 10-foot length of PVC pipe will bend just enough so I can fit it completely inside my car?), then to Harris Teeter (always a good idea, food shopping when you're ravenously hungry).

*********************
Saturday, I went to Oktoberfest Reston in Ye Olde Reston Town Center -- as noted, I didn't quite get how Zydeco music fit into the whole "Oktoberfest" thing.

Afterwards, we went to Jackson's Mighty Fine Food, which I didn't even know was there -- it was a parking lot a few months ago. It's a Great American Restaurants joint, so it's done up by the same folks who do Sweetwater Tavern and such (and looks it).

It was muy crowded -- we were surrounded by Stiflers (and the cougars who hunt them) -- though don't wear a baseball cap, else you'll be told to remove it (I suggested using it as a strategem to get a drink order in faster).

I think I packed it in before midnight, so I missed the excitement just up the street -- according to the Post, just down Sunrise Valley from me, a driver went off the road, hit a tree and flipped, killing him. Owwie. I predict more speed enforcement, and maybe another DUI checkpoint, in the neighborhood in the near future.

As to the rest of it -- the costume will involve some crafting, some engineering, and some construction, so we'll see how that goes.

Tags: w&od trail

How Do Stalkers See Other Stalkers?

Saw an item today, Inside the Mind of Celebrity Stalkers (link via Fark) that resurfaced an idle question I ponder from time to time:

How do stalkers react when they hear about somebody else's stalker?

Do they say to themselves, "Man, that guy is messed up -- does he really think she's sending him secret signals through the TV that only he can see? What a total psycho..."?

Or, do they think, "Man, he's just misunderstood -- I'm sure that if she gave him a chance, things could be really cool"? [That's a callback to a Tina Fey SNL Weekend Update bit involving Courtney Love, by the way, though I remember the line differently.]

I do, truly, wonder this. And it's not just because of my own latent stalker tendencies.

Tags: stalkers

John is NOT my friend.

Here's a freebie for the Obama campaign -- "John is NOT my friend" t-shirts:

Somewhat subtle here, but for "JOHN," I used Optima, the same font the McCain campaign uses.

It's a take-off that works on two levels -- the first, obviously, is for anyone bothered by McCain's overreliance on the phrase "My friends" (going by some versions of the presidential debate drinking game, you'd be completely hammered on this one alone).

The second, deeper level is for the MySpace-savvy (playing to younger folks, one of Obama's strengths), who would know about the "Tom is NOT my friend" parody t-shirts that came about as part of an anti-Tom Anderson/MySpace backlash (I know Busted Tees had them, though I don't know if that's where it originated. They don't carry them anymore, though. Here it is.)

*******************

I did watch (well, listen) to the debate. I giggled at Obama's "green behind the ears" comment, but I'm a fan of mixed metaphors. Especially purposefully mixed ones, though I don't think that's the case with Obama here (Especially since that kind of nuance is, at best, wasted in a debate setting. Yeah, I'm an elitist.)

Also, I was amused by Tom Brokaw having to tell a candidate (Obama, I think W0zz says it was McCain), to move because he was blocking the teleprompter during Brokaw's closing script.

Tags: john is not my friend, parody, myspace