Friday Fun: A Lovely Story About Me

A Lovely Story About Me:

One day, long, long ago, there lived a woman who
did not whine, nag or bitch.  
(That would be me...)

But that was a long time ago and it was just that one day. 
The End

(Thanks to sis-in-law who e-mailed this to me)

Embrace the Fail!

I lurve Felicia Day - she's a geeky girl after my own heart. She posted this interview to her blog yesterday. Near the end of the video Felicia gives her younger self (and us) some good advice:



via Felicia's blog

Sure it's cute when it's little, but I've seen how big those things get!

The video's creator, Patrick Boivin, says "When I was a kid, there are two things I wanted badly and never got... A real dog and a Kenner AT-AT Walker."



via Distracted by Star Wars

The Boy Your Man Could Smell Like

I loved the Old Spice commercial from the Super Bowl and blogged about the making of it here. Hubby recently pointed me toward this spoof:



So adorkable! (and very creative! I love the little clouds that fall down)

Friday Fun: Uh....videos!

Why spelling is important

This commercial made me LOL this morning!

Humor is built on juxtaposition...

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

Found this quite awhile ago, but never got around to posting it:

Wed Pic: My dogs are fired

This rabbit has my dogs figured out. He knows that if he sits still in the shade or a brownish area, my dogs can look straight at him from a few feet away and won't see him. Today, after both dogs looked directly at him and went on their way, he decided to relax and enjoy the day.



"OMG my carrots!" is fighting with "Ooooh, he's so cuuuute!" Those poor carrots...he'll enjoy them...*sigh*

------
UPDATE:

Not five minutes after I posted this, I looked outside and saw this:



Think you're king of the hill, Mr. Rabbit? Oh, it is on!

But, awwww, he's so cuuuute....

Wed Pic: My Poor Peony

I planted this peony two years ago and two weeks later, we had the "not a tornado (yeah, right)" storm. My peony was chopped off about an inch from the ground and I was sure it was dead. Last year, much to my surprise, it grew back but it never got around to blooming. I was so excited when it bloomed last weekend, but then yesterday came.

The largest bloom, Sunday...



...and after yesterday's storm:


Oh, well, I guess we'll see what it does next year, and you know the instant it blooms, I'll be out there with my camera. The top picture is the only good one I got with my cell phone. *sigh*

We've had some interesting BBQ sauce before, but this might win in the "weird" category

We've had some interesting BBQ sauce before, but this might win in the "weird" category
Originally uploaded by mdesive

Friday Fun: But nobody expects the...oh, nevermind

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Yes, it's not much, and at the last minute, but most of my Friday Fun was In Real Life today. It was the first day in months I got to take a day off because I wanted to and not just because life happened. LilGirl and I went to the library, took a walk by a lake, went to the bookstore, then met hubby for lunch and had a super lazy afternoon. It was a goood day :)

The Curse of the Internet, or Ooh, Shiny!

And Mary goes round and round, all night long...

In case you're having #Lost withdrawals

Jimmy Kimmel's got you covered!

Don't Panic - It's Towel Day! #towelday

From Mary's Ramble

I've got my towel today, and so does Quinn Dogga. Do you know where your towel is? You should. 

After all, anyone "who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

If you're wondering, the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is "a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you." So, you wrap your towel around your head, and you're safe!


And if you're still thoroughly confused, you should read, listen to, or watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and check out the sentiment behind Towel Day. Douglas Adams is sorely missed.

This is not your daughter's technology

On the flip side of "rewinding" a DVD, this strip reminds me of my daughter's recent experience with the VCR. I hadn't realized just how long it had been since we'd had one hooked up (probably since before we moved into our house 4+ years ago, and maybe before the apartment before that, so she probably hasn't seen a VCR since she was 4). We were cleaning out boxes one day and she found the videotapes. She wanted to watch some of them, so I hooked up the VCR and left her to it.

After a few minutes, she called me back in.

"It just keeps playing the credits. How do I bring up the menu?"

"There isn't a menu. You need to rewind it."

She looked at me like I'd just told her to walk to the moon. "Re...wind?"

I showed her how to rewind it and told her she'd have to wait a couple minutes for it to get back to the beginning.

Soon, she called me back again. "It won't stop playing the previews. You're sure there isn't a menu?"

"Yes. You just need to fast-forward through the previews."

She raised an eyebrow at this, but turned back to the screen to give it a go.

A few minutes later, she called me back again. "How do I turn on the subtitles?" (We're very big on subtitles in our house, but that's a post for another day.)

"There aren't any subtitles, honey."

She sighed. "Maybe I'll just watch a DVD."

I can just see how it will go when she encounters the Edison Player at her grandparents' house....

(Do you read Unshelved? If you like libraries AT ALL, you should!)

Will Lost give us answers tonight? Sawyer says:

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Congratulations to the lucky man...or Wookie

May 21, 1980 was a Big Day: Not only was Pac-Man unleashed on the world, as Google commemorated today with a logo you can actually play...

...it was also the day The Empire Strikes Back came to theaters. Here's an interesting interview with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford (unfortunately, it's in two parts to remove the clip in the middle). I find it interesting that Mark Hamill hints about the prequels and there is wink-wink-nudge-nudge talk of who Leia will end up with.





(Via LA Times)

Friday Fun: Laundry, I can't quit you!

SIX MONTHS OF DETERGENT! Wait, what?

Stop flashing me!

 

These are all true (I encourage you to click through to read the others). I especially agree with #7. It's gotten to the point that my eyes are like a heat-seeking missile looking for "Skip Intro."



Maybe it's just the combination of "flash" and the guy's stance, but it seems like he should be wearing a long coat and nothing else, don't you think?

I'm planning to make this face again tonight

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Friday Fun: Brontë Sisters, power up!

I love the Brontësaurus!




Watch at YouTube

Happy Jedi Day!

May the Fourth be with you!

Dance-Dance...Stormtrooper? by ~utenafangirl on deviantART

Wrinkled Ladies [Awesome Beyonce Parody!]

I love this!

I do not "Like!" (with 70% less tin foil hats)

Last week Facebook rolled out its new Open Graph (seen as the new Facebook "Like" button across the web). I'm the Queen of Oversharing on the web (maybe in frequency rather than depth) but I don't feel comfortable with Open Graph.

Last night, I wrote a fairly snarky "Put on your tin foil hats!" kind of post, but this morning I found a post by Valeria Maltoni which says basically what I wanted to but in a much more level-headed way, and she links to most of the sites I was going to. So, here it is: Five Reactions Around the Web on Facebook Announcements

Once you've read through all that, if you want to know how to opt out, Mashable has a step-by-step tutorial. For now, I've opted out. We'll see what the future brings.

Unfortunately, there isn't another social media site quite like Facebook out there. It's allowed me to reconnect with friends and family I haven't seen in years, and that's hard to walk away from. So, I won't be going as far as deleting my account, but I will be keeping a weather eye on Facebook's horizon.

Update: This doesn't mean I won't "like" stuff you post directly on Facebook - that's a horse of a different color. I just won't be using the button on sites outside of Facebook.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/pong/ / CC BY 2.0

Happy Birthday Shakespeare!

If you're a little rusty on Shakespeare's bio, the Reduced Shakespeare Company offers a quick version here:

Friday Fun: The iPad, the $500 pet toy!

For your cat...



...or your dog...



...or, maybe not.

Crescent Earth

This is why I lurve Flickr. This picture was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977, but I don't think I'd ever seen it until NASA Goddard Space Flight Center uploaded it to their Flickr account this week. Just gorgeous!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/ / CC BY 2.0

I knew there was magic smoke, but had no idea about the holy water

I've also left a few solder blobs in my time...okay more than a few...okay it was probably the only thing I ever actually did to a circuit. "A blob here, a blob there...hey, it works now!...sort of."

You really have to sit and absorb this one. Every time I glance at it, I notice something I didn't see before. Enjoy!

via xkcd.com

Beautiful Volcano Pic

I came across this last night and thought it was just gorgeous and a bit reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. If you click through, the photographer explains that this is not Eyjafjallajökull (that's on the right, still dormant when this was taken), but the equally-unpronounceable Fimmvörðuháls. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fridgeirsson/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

via ReadWriteWeb

Wed Pic: Seagull tracks

I don't know why, but I think these little trails are adorable - I love how they sort of make a chain of footprints.

Is your favorite on the Fictional 15?

Every year, Forbes publishes its "Fictional 15," a ranking of the richest characters from fiction. Here's this year's list:

1.  Carlisle Cullen from The Twilight Saga
2.  Scrooge McDuck
3.  Richie Rich
4.  Tony Stark from Iron Man
5.  Jed Clampett from "The Beverly Hillbillies"
6.  Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias) from Watchmen
7.  Bruce Wayne (aka Batman)
8.  The Tooth Fairy
9.  Thurston Howell III from "Gilligan's Island"
10.  Sir Topham Hatt from "Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends"
11.  Artemis Fowl from the novels by Eoin Colfer
12.  C. Montgomery Burns from "The Simpsons"
13.  Charles Bass from "Gossip Girl"
14.  Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby
15.  Lucille Bluth from "Arrested Development

Forbes gives more information on each character in their slideshow. 

I have to say I'm surprised by the inclusion of Sir Topham Hatt (does the "Thomas the Tank Engine" show get that specific?) and the Tooth Fairy. I'm glad to see Jay Gatsby holding up (I've had an itch to re-read The Great Gatsby lately). My current fave from the list is Tony Stark.

Friday Fun: Star Wars + Butter = uh, yeah...

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8 (and then some) years later, IT IS FINISHED!

I bet it didn't take David McCullough this long to write the darn thing, but I finally finished reading John Adams. Maybe that should be "reading" because I finished the last third by getting the audiobook from the library.

I got the book as a gift for Christmas 2001, and I don't really know why it took so long to work through it. I would pick it up, read a bit, put it down, not get back to it for months. The story was interesting, but it's not like I was hanging on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened next. I knew the arc of Adams' life, I was reading for details. And details just weren't enough motivation to keep me reading consistently, I guess. I found very quickly that it was not good bedtime reading, since I would barely get through a page or two and fall asleep, and it's a very heavy book to let fall (this does not imply it was boring - if I can fall asleep reading about a dragon crashing through Gringotts bank, I can fall asleep reading anything).

The book had languished on my TBR pile for about a year before I did the Great Book Purge and cleared away the "I'm really never going to read this" books. Those went into a giant "Donate" pile and John Adams went on the "Keeper" shelf as a "I will get back to it, but I don't want it staring me in the face every day" book. (guilt, guilt, guilt)

Then a couple months ago, I was wandering through the audiobook section in the public library. As soon as I saw John Adams, I snatched it up. I started from the beginning, and 26 discs and almost 2 months later, I FINALLY finished the book yesterday while I was cleaning the house for Easter dinner. It felt a little anti-climactic, but I can now move on to other books completely GUILT-FREE! Yay!

What about you? Have you ever had that one book that you couldn't get through, but also couldn't let go?

Why don't you Topeka that?

Google has done some awesome April Fools jokes over the years (CADIE, Virgle and hiring for jobs on the moon, for instance), but I don't think they've ever gone as far as changing their name before.

I especially love their usage guidelines:

Why Topeka? Find out here

Find of the Day: Jane Austen's Will

The National Archives of the UK recently joined The Commons on Flickr, and today I came across this gem:

I haven't dug very far through their photostream yet, but I already found both a note written by Jack the Ripper and the only surviving letter written by Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife. It's not just documents; there are plenty of photos. But it's certainly the documents that caught my eye.

Writer's Block

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Ten years ago today...

...I married my sweetie!

I love you, Dan!

Back to basics with Big Bird

I've had a very crabby, headache-y day (poor Hubby, poor LilGirl). I finally retreated to my cave...I mean, the office, and eventually I tripped across this video (did you know Sesame Street has a twitter account? Not verified, but still).

I remember having a set of these Sesame Street records when I was little (I still have the one with Rubber Duckie on one side and the Sesame Street Theme on the other). The ABC-DEF-GHI Song was in this set. Watching this video gave me a few minutes of childhood reverie.

Even when you're an adult, you can count on Sesame Street to cheer you up. :)

Friday Fun: The only movie trailer you'll ever need

Bleardy bleardy bleardy* St. Patrick's Day!

*my attempt at spelling Swedish Chef's words

WedPic: Photo"Pommed"

Last Christmas, our Pomeranian tried to imitate a famous squirrel.

"It's not a waste of time. Do it."

Like a lot of other people, I watched the Oscars last night. I was mostly unimpressed by the show, the speeches (mostly meh), the dresses (mostly ugly & some which were fine, but not worn by the right person) and the dancing (what was up with that?). The entire show was a bit of a slog.

However, I was especially struck by a couple of speeches near the end of the night. Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech made me cry - it was so very much the sort speech you'd expect from her, with humor and tears, and I'm very glad she won.

Another speech spoke to my heart and was probably missed or ignored by many, since it wasn't one of the big six. Michael Giacchino received the Oscar for Original Score for his work on Up. His words echoed through my thoughts the rest of the night and still do this morning, and I wanted to share them with you. Unfortunately, I can't find an embeddable version of the video, so if you'd like to watch it, you can watch here. I'll also include his words below:

Thank you, guys. When I was... I was nine and I asked my dad, "Can I have your movie camera? That old, wind-up 8 millimeter camera that was in your drawer?" And he goes, "Sure, take it." And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, "What you're doing is a waste of time." Never. And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you're doing is not a waste of time. So that was normal to me that it was OK to do that. I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time. Do it. OK? Thank you. Thank you. [via Oscar.com]

I hope every child can receive this kind of encouragement and support in their life. And it's a good thing for adults to be reminded of, as well, since the world tends to stop telling us creativity is not a waste of time once we're grown.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlastula/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Got some time to kill? Ok, go (wink, wink)

Everyone else has tweeted/blogged/facebooked/shouted about OK Go's latest video, I may as well, too. I mean, it is pretty cool...

Friday Fun: Give Stan Lee an Oscar!

Hot off the...er...presses? Here's a just-released video from Funny or Die. Hey, he makes a good argument. :)

Stan Lee's Oscar Campaign from Stan Lee

How Star Trek should have ended, according to Darth Vader

Darth Vader tweeted this today (yes, he tweets), and I had to laugh...






I've been taking a little accidental-on-purpose break from blogging for the last couple weeks. I've basically been in late-winter survival mode (putting on the oxygen mask), and may be there a bit longer yet. So, instead of any of "real" posts, there will probably be a few lazy "here's something I found" posts for the next few days. Hopefully I'll have my rear in gear by Monday and get back on schedule.

Friday Fun: Muppets try out for Star Wars

It's Valentine's Day, and I only have one thing to say...

Mmmmmmmm, chocolate!

(Oh, that's NOT what the holiday is about? Oops...)

Photo by Darwin Bell / CC BY 2.0

Vancouver Olympics on Flickr

The IOC has set up an official Flickr group where anyone can share their pictures of the Vancouver Winter Games - I love it when an organization "gets" some part of social media. There are so many ways to follow the Olympics this year, whether on Twitter, Facebook, online video, or several other sites (There's a good list at TechCrunch) that I think I'll have more fun following the games than I've had in years. It'll be great to be able to experience the Olympics through the eyes of athletes and attendees as well as "old" media.

Friday Fun: Poor Beaker

Somehow, Beaker's musical aspirations always end in fire...



and...

The Making of a Super Bowl Commercial

Somehow I missed this commercial during the Super Bowl. I'm sure it has nothing to do with me being a big nerd who was madly tapping away on the netbook in the middle of a sports bar filled with people. Apparently, even though I'm generally such a distracte-bunny, if you put me in a distracting enough environment, I come swinging round the other side and can really focus. I got more work done on my work in progress during a few hours in the midst of Super Bowl revelry than I have since NaNoWriMo. Who knew? (and I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with the fact that the bar's wifi was locked down so I couldn't get on the internet)

Anyway, today I came across Leo Laporte on TWiT, interviewing the guys behind "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like." I was fascinated by the work that that went into this commercial. Watch the video to find out if it was one long shot or CGI trickery, while I go clean the drool off my keyboard

Wed Pic: We need more beach

IMG_0863, originally uploaded by mdesive.

We're in the throes of February, so here's some more beachiness.

Hindsight...

A New York Tribune cover from 1910, pondering whether there will be any place to dock the Titanic when she arrives. I guess they need not have worried.

When she saw this, LilGirl, ever the conspiracy theorist, said "Maybe the iceberg was hired!"

(To read the story, click for the large version here)

Vader joint visitation

Warning to all women!

I don't remember who sent me this, but thanks!

A WARNING TO ALL WOMEN!

THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU... 

IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR MOTHER ...

OR TO YOUR SISTER...

The strangest thing happened to me at lunch today. I was sitting at a local outdoor cafe having lunch by myself and two men came and sat down at my table..... I gave them the death look, but they just casually stayed at my table and wouldn't leave me alone. I shined up my ring on my married finger, then placed my hand on the table and I hinted to them that I was married and that I was not interested in them. Luckily for me they got the hint and left, but thankfully the whole thing was captured on the Cafe's camera. I'm including this picture as a warning just in case they try and pick you up too.

Honestly, some men think they are God's gift.

Friday Fun: Cake Wrecks

Today I'm sending you to one of my all-time favorite blogs: Cake Wrecks!. It picks me up when I'm down, and usually makes me spit something on the screen (I've finally learned not drink anything when visiting the site). The site features professionally made cakes. Yes, "professionals" did this:

From A Teaching Moment

and this:

From As We Fumble Along

Sometimes, it's not a lack of talent that makes the cakes go wrong, but great talent led horribly astray (or should I say, ashtray):

Yes, that's a cake. (From Holy Smokes!)

It's not all bad, though. On Sundays, they feature really awesome cakes (it's usually okay to have a beverage during those). Check out the Sunday Sweets. This is one of my favorites, from When Gamers Marry:

Wish I'd thought of this for my wedding cake.

A few weeks ago, Cake Wrecks featured a post that made my daughter laugh so hard, she made me stop scrolling through halfway so she could catch her breath. She still talks about it, always with a snicker. I'll link to it here, but be warned: It involves bodily functions. What else would make a fourth grader laugh so hard?

Have fun! 

Wed Pics: Happy Birthday, Norman Rockwell

Instead of the usual picture of my own today, I thought I'd follow Google's lead and celebrate Norman Rockwell's birthday. He's one of my favorite artists, and was probably my first favorite artist. I can't remember a time I wasn't familiar with his work. When I was little, we had a huge coffee table book of Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers (I think this was it). I could barely lift it, but luckily, the book was usually stored in a low place it could be slid out of, so I could lay it open on the floor and get lost in the paintings.

I always especially loved the covers that involved a whole sequence of events, like the gossips or the "Day in the life of..." ones like "A Day in the Life of a Girl."

I almost put that as "the covers that tell a story" but they ALL tell a story, and that's what's so great about Norman Rockwell. We also see ourselves in them, despite the passing of time, changes in technology, or changes in popular culture. The people in his paintings are humans, and we're all still human, whether it's 1920, 1950 or 2010.

Interesting link: Mathew Brady Civil War Photographs on Flickr

The U.S. National Archives have joined The Commons at Flickr. I haven't had a chance to peruse more than a handful of photos, but I'm excited to see a selection of Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs have been included.

These appear to be straight scans of the plates, not cleaned up and cropped for best effect as you would usually see in a book or documentary. They're essentially raw, and that almost makes it seem like you're seeing something completely new. I'll probably waste an evening in the near future browsing these.

I'm...Lost

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

(I have to say you were rockin' that floral shirt back in the day!)