Swine

Great visual representation of the ridiculousness that the swine flu has become.

Lego business card

Article here. More here.

Soundwave message as a bracelet

More here.

Parked Car Fail

Monocular

We went skiing a few weeks ago. Saw a guy at the lodge using one of these, watching his kids come down the mountain. Who does that?

Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg

World's largest train model. Here.

Snowplow vs. Bike Rack

Advantage: Snowplow

Word of the day: snark

I was reading the comment section of this post on Apartment Therapy, where the writer was asking for suggestions to fix-up their bathroom.
The reader's comment was: 'The first thing to do would definitely be straightening the floor to horizontal position.'
I thought it was mildly humorous, and later in the post, I found out what that type of comment is known as.
Snark- definition: combination of "snide" and "remark".

The Vader Project

100 artists' renditions of the iconic Darth Vader helmet on tour.
Website here.
Pics of all here.

R2-D2 Boom Box

Light-up door handle

"...or car door handles that illuminate upon touch to help you open them at night." Um...how does lighting up after you've touched it help you to use it? I'm pretty sure that if I touch the door handle, I can probably figure out how to use it without it having to light up for me.

Daylight Saving Time

Turn ahead the clocks 1 hour- March 8th- just over a week away.
More daylight after work; I can't wait!!!!

failblog.org

At-At Boom Box

Procrastination

How to get work done in 2 easy steps:

1. Find your internet browser of choice.
2. Close it.

So true, rocketjumper, so true.

Hit 'shuffle'

Got this idea from my friend Luke, who swiped it from someone else.
1. Turn on your ipod
2. Set it to play your entire music collection
3. Hit 'shuffle'
4. Write down the first 10 songs that come up

To quote Luke: 'That’s right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It’s time for total musical honesty.'

Give it a shot. Here's mine.

Wheel in the Sky- Journey
Carousel- Buckcherry
When a Man Loves a Woman- Percy Sledge
Empty Garden- Elton John
The Curse- Disturbed
Glycerine- Bush
Don't Ask Me Why- Billy Joel
Belief- John Mayer
Sweetest Goodbye- Maroon 5
Territorial Pissings- Nirvana

Yikes, that's a rather sissy playlist. But, that last one made me laugh. :)

My setlist for biking at the gym:

Bad Habit- Offspring
American Badass- Kid Rock
Devour- Shinedown
You're Gonna Go Far, Kid- Offspring
Animal- Pearl Jam
Indestructible- Disturbed
State of Love & Trust- Pearl Jam
B.Y.O.B.- System of a Down
Porch- Pearl Jam
My Apocalypse- Metallica

Look familiar?

Found this on Etsy via thechnabob. My brother had the Return of the Jedi sheets, and I had the Star Wars ones. I still have one of the Star Wars pillowcases. I take it on all my field trips for school. Just trying to show my students that you're never too old to be a kid. :)

for Dave

Characteristics of Students Today

This one is from 2007, but still relevant. I'm sure the #s have increased since then.

Did You Know?

A presentation on the growth of the internet and technology. Amazing facts.
This one really stood out to me: 'For students starting a 4 year technical degree...this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.'

Guitar Hero: Metallica setlist

All Nightmare Long (THE best song off of Death Magnetic)
Battery
Creeping Death
Disposable Heroes
Dyers Eve
Enter Sandman
Fade To Black
Fight Fire With Fire
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantic
Fuel (can't wait for this one)
Hit The Lights
King Nothing
Master of Puppets (needs no introduction)
Mercyful Fate (Medley)
No Leaf Clover
Nothing Else Matters
One
Orion
Sad But True
Seek And Destroy
The Memory Remains
The Shortest Straw (from my favorite Metallica album)
The Thing That Should Not Be
The Unforgiven
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Wherever I May Roam
Whiplash

* March 29th release date for PS3/360. May release date for PS2. I won't hold my breath though. I'm sure that'll get bumped twice.
* go here to see the list of songs from other artists that will be in the game.

Bumper sticker

So, this guy was in front of us yesterday in his beefed up Ford F350.
Huge tires? Check.
Loud muffler? Check.
Taint sticker? Check.
Seriously, what the hell is the matter with you? What went through your head when you were shopping for this holy grail of automobile aesthetics?
"Hmm. The truck looks good, but, ...it's missing something. NASCAR sticker? Nah. Calvin pissing on the Chevy logo? Nah. Wait! There it is! 'Got Taint?' It's perfect!"
Mmmm...yeah. That'll get you the ladies.

'Flapping' ad

Have you seen this new online ad style? They're about 1.5 in. wide and the bottom right corner 'flaps'. When you hover your mouse over the ad, it 'flips open' like a page in a book- thus expanding the ad to 3x its size. Clever, but a little obnoxious.

Time lapse logo design

The development of the 'O'

For those of you interested in marketing and design, here is how the Obama campaign's signature 'O' logo came about. The logo creation process went through many drafts as seen below.

Then it was narrowed down to the final three.


With a small tweak, the final logo was created.


Below are two videos describing the creative process and the launch of the logo.
Video 1- The Development
Video 2- The Launch (see the 1:45 mark- 'going viral')





You can view the article here.

That's a cake

This guy creates some amazing cakes.

NES casemod

Some guy took apart an NES and a cartridge, stuffed the NES into the cartridge, and can now play NES games...through an NES game.

Death Star cost

How much would it cost to build the Death Star?
15 septillion dollars.
That's $15,602,022,489,829,821,422,840,226!
Article here.

Creative water collection

A company called Playpumps International is helping to solve water collection/distribution problems in third-world countries. The Playpump is 'essentially a windmill on its side, driven by children, not wind'. That's some great outside-the-box thinking. Here's a short article.

Toy-A-Day

Head on over to the Toy-A-Day blog to print off everyone from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to Mr. T.

Oklahoma Action Figure Museum

Action Figure Museum with thousands of figures
= Nostalgia Awesomeness

Same Action Figure Museum with 'superhero changing room'
= Pedophile Creepiness

To Dave, from 'The Office'

IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY.

Rubik's Cube

I want some.

Time w/the prez.

Senator Susan Collins (R) from Maine got 1/2 hour yesterday with President Obama- alone in the Oval Office to discuss the bailout package.
She said in a radio interview that usually there are aides and other staff in the room, but not in this case, which very rarely happens. She argued that $900 million was too much and it needed to be cut to $650.

joke of the day

One of my students told me this one today.

"Don't you wish your lawn was emo?"

. . .

"so it would cut itself."


It reminded me of this video.

Biggest Loser

Ok, I've posted some fun and/or interesting things today. Here's one a little more serious. I have a TV show that I've become hooked on since last season: The Biggest Loser.

Now before you jump up and down calling me a loser for watching it, let me say what I have to say.

In my profession (teaching), I interact with students from a wide variety of backgrounds. There are many days where it can become stressful- just trying to imagine what some go through at home- verbally/physically abusive parents, alcoholism, lack of food/heat, etc. I come home at the end of the day and after dinner and the gym (1 month and counting, yeah!), I relax with some TV.

Flip through the channels on any given night. The programming on 9 out of 10 stations have some mix of the following: police, criminals, yelling/screaming, fighting, drugs/alcohol, and/or violence. Oh, and don't even get me started on the wing-nut, neglectful parents Dr. Phil has on his show.

How is any of this relaxing in any way? Watching people yell/fight/etc. just makes me stressed. Don't get me wrong, I like blood and guts just as much as the next guy, but not when I'm trying to wind down.

* side note: The premise of The Biggest Loser is this: Couples enter the show, hoping to lose the most weight and become 'the biggest loser'- winning $250,000.*

One of the main goals of my profession is to build self-esteem. This is what The Biggest Loser is all about. Along the way, the contestants discover a lot about themselves and what they can accomplish. For most of them, the $$ becomes secondary. They're losing weight for their health and for their families. One competitor lost 30 pounds in one week. IN ONE WEEK! For some, they end up weighing less than they EVER have.

Watching these men and women (ages 18 to 63) work their tails off and then step on the scale at the end of the show and feel proud of themselves helps me relax. The 'where are they now' segment is always uplifting as well.

If you're tired of the same old stuff, check it out.
The Biggest Loser airs weekly on NBC- Tuesday nights from 8-10pm.

Jackson Pollock's Birthday

Today was Jackson Pollock's Birthday. I found a neat link where you can create your own 'paintings'. Just click the mouse button to change colors.
I made my creation above into my desktop wallpaper. I thought I was going to have an original post, until a few minutes later, I found this one online. Damn you, RocketJumper for finding all the cool stuff first.
Wait a minute...dammit! He (or she) posted the SuperFriends too.
I blame this guy.

Super'Friends'

My fiancee and I just watched this scene the other day. :)

22 most used free fonts

Go here for the article.

no more floppies

If software were still shipped on 3.5' disks. lol

The White House website

The White House website (www.whitehouse.gov) got an overhaul on January 20th at noon. The new Administration is embracing technology and the online world. The new website includes a blog, executive orders, bios, and much, much more. Very cool stuff and an easy way to keep track of what's happening in DC. Go here to view the first blog post describing the changes.

The Dark Knight video game for 8-bit NES

Cool logo designs

Go here for more.

Happy 25th Anniversary, Mac.

Here's to another 25! (listen to the crowd go crazy at 2:52)

Let freedom ring

At 12:00 today, I sat in our school library with my students. The lights dimmed, the TV perched atop its cart. On the screen, the camera panned across the estimated 1 million spectators.

A lone woman screamed 'We love you Obama!'

As we sat there in silence, Senator Obama was called forward. His hand was placed on the Lincoln family Bible, and he uttered the 35 word oath.

The crowd came unglued.

For the next 15 minutes, the audience and I hung on every word. This dream of change finally became a reality.

Welcome home, Mr. President. We've been expecting you.

Guitar Hero: Metallica- article

"Hey, look, maybe you are thinking Dad is a complete dork, but he's got his own video game."- Lars Ulrich, drummer.

"Blame it on Ice Cube...

... because he says it gets funky
When you got a subject and a predicate...'

(NWA- 'Express Yourself')

Argh

I really need to upgrade my video game system. I just read that Pearl Jam- Ten is being released for Rock Band downloadable content in March. One of my top 10 albums ever.

'Is Poppy-cat a toothbrush?'

I wasn't sure if I should feel sorry for the sad cat (28sec. mark) or laugh my ass off. Nevermind. I just watched it again. I chose the latter.

It's coming...

Holy freakin' crap. I've been waiting for this for 2 years.
It's too bad that it's made by Guitar Hero (since Guitar Hero: World Tour was so horrendously designed- the PS2 version at least). But, it'll still rock.
Coming for PS3/360 in March. For PS2 in May.

2 turntables and a microphone

It's been a while since I've had such a good day. My students were awesome, my meetings went really well, and Gaming Club was a lot of fun.
As I drove home, this song from Beck came on the radio (89.3WHSN). It was one of those, 'wow, I haven't heard this song in forever' and brings you back to where you were when you used to listen to it kind of songs.
Today was a good day.


*note: I wanted to have the original video here, but it has been removed from youtube.

Movie Poster Remakes

Very clever. You can see more of this guy's artwork here.

Cheat

Monday

Well, my thought of completing 5-10 more items on Sunday didn't happen, but that's alright. I still feel like I accomplished a ton of work around the apartment last week. :)

Screw it.

I had no idea there were so many different kinds.

Sunday

It's noon on Sunday, and I've crossed off a total of 50 items on my 100 item 'to do' list!
Not bad for a week's work.
The day just started, so I'm hoping to cross off 5-10 more before the end of the day.
Then, it's back to reality on Monday [work].

I had one

I totally forgot about this. I used to have one when I was a kid. Doesn't get much geekier. :) (photo courtesy of RocketJumper)

Happy New Year!

We went out to a local casino last night for a little while before heading downtown. It's new to the area, and we thought we'd give it a shot.
It's all slot machines- no table games, which is good, because I figured I'd blow through less $$.
In 2 minutes at the $0.25 slots I lost $10.
But, in 5 minutes at the $0.02 slots I won $400!!!!
My fiancee suggested that I cash out.
That was probably a good idea.
Happy New Year!

Wednesday

11 items completed.
53 to go!