The notorious Jon Lajoie has written an additional Everyday Normal Guy rap, and this one is even better then the first. The best part? He has some lyrical skills. I love the fire truck bit, listen starting around 1:40.

Nor is it like that 6 band shooter you had as a kid. Meet Anthony Smith’s “Disintegrator” - this hand carved dual barrel badass features 288 rubber bands and a firing rate of 40 per second. See the video below, then check out the website. There are hobbies, and then there are obsessions.

I must admit, I’m not taken in by well written missives pining for the past, but this one over at Wired really spoke to me.

Lore Sjoberg of Wired’s Alt Text column writes a wonderful article about the noises our computers made back in the day - to quote:

In particular, I miss the warm, grumpy sounds of the floppy drive. I remember sneaking into my grandparents’ computer room — that’s right, my grandfather got me into computers; he is an awesome man — at 6 in the morning, unable to wait until everyone’s awake for another round of greenish videogaming. I extract a floppy, an actual floppy that flops, from the treasure-trove of pirated games and slide one into the drive. I switch it on and I’m greeted with a startled beep and a clatter from the hard drive, followed by a series of mechanical grunts as the machine wearily rummages for data.

I think I might just have to subscribe to the Alt Geek Podcast and learn about what else I’ve been missing!

National Geographic has an eerie article about how the prairies of North Dakota have been seeing a rapid decline for decades now. The eeriest part though, are the pictures. Great piece.

Last night I watched the pilot episode of FOX’s newest show, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles”¹²³.

There may be spoilers in here, I’m not sure - be forewarned if you’re that kind of person. The first half already aired, and I’m not sure if it’ll air again soon, so it really doesn’t matter since you won’t see it - but I’ll be kind and place it after the jump anyway.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Official FOX Terminator website. [↩]
2. Wikipedia entry [↩]
3. “Official” Wiki [↩]

Now this is a hockey fight!

David Lynch, master of Twin Peaks, comments on watching films on your phone.
“You will never in a trillion years experience the film. You’ll think you have experienced it, but you’ve been cheated. “

This weekend Mishka and I went to see Stephen Sondheim’s version of Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton¹.  It was an excellent film, and I encourage you all to go and see it, but be forewarned - there is, at time, an extreme amount of blood.

Sweeney Todd is a barber, who was exiled from London from 15 years because the local judge fancied his extraordinarily beautiful wife and child. He returns, to learn that she poisoned herself and that the judge was rearing his child and vows revenge.

Even though I knew the story, I was still surprised by how extremely graphic Burton depicted the slitting of the throats of his victims. I had assumed it would be a tight shot of Johnny Depp’s face as the blade slices - but I was extremely wrong. Still, once I got over the initial shock, I quite enjoyed it.  So I do recommend you seeing it, just keep that in mind.

1. Damn it all, I will see I Am Legend next week now, guaranteed. [↩]

HDR How To - HDR stands for “High Dynamic Range” and is the process of combining multiple photos of the same image, but with different exposure settings, to create a final result that more accurately resembles what we see with the eye. $8 for the PDF, and well worth it.

PointUI - If you have a Windows smart phone, you need to check this out¹. It’s an entirely new interface, and makes your phone very fluid and iphone-like. Toss that stylus, as this gorgeous UI is setup for your fat fingers! I’ve been using it for a couple days now and once I figure it all out I’m sure I’ll love it.

Another cheap light tent - A friend asked for a few hints on capturing shots without all the glare, and I found this link to send to him. It’s an inexpensive light tent - made with some paper and a cardboard box.

Cop Tasers Himself - I’d include a link, but embedding the actual video is better:

How To Wake Up Early - Tired of hitting that snooze alarm? Here’s a site full of tips and tricks to help you get your ass out of bed early. Try it and let me know what you think, I still have 9 more minutes of sleep².

Zen and the Art of Item Replacement - The Simple Dollar tackles the old problem of when to upgrade. Needing it vs wanting it. As usual, another excellent post of tips for us trying to save up cash³

7 Habits of Bad Digital Photographers⁴- This is turning into a photography link-o-rama, but people take more photos around the holidays, so I end up with a lot more links about it. Regardless, here’s a short list of helpful things to keep in mind the next time you dust off that dSLR.⁵

And I end this Friday’s link-o-rama with a comic from the greatest stick-figure webcomic ever, Randal Munroe’s XKCD.

1. View a YouTube vid of it in operation here. [↩]
2. Speaking of 9 minutes, here’s why all clocks are like that - now you know. [↩]
3. Even though we just bought a 46″ LCD HDTV. But c’mon, have you ever tried to play the XBOX or Wii on a small TV? It’s hell. [↩]
4. I hate the ‘Photographer’ vs ‘Digital Photographer’ - the end is the same. It’s just ‘photographer’, damn it! [↩]
5. I’m guilty of them all. [↩]

Go to Google maps, enter in the address “1272 17th Avenue North Minneapolis, MN” click on “Street View” and look around and you’ll see the following - a Mercedes E-class that met a tree. Or just click this link. Via Jalopnik.