Ramblings of an Anonymous Coward

Pacific Division Champions

the san jose sharks have just captured their 2nd pacific division title in 3 years and with the colorado avalanche losing in OT to minnesota, they also have clinched the #2 seed in the western conference. and to think my seat mate didn't think we'd have to be forking over money for playoff tickets. GO SHARKS!

Seymore Butts Goes to Nigeria

ever get that friggin' nigeria spam? you know, the one that is willing to give you millions if you help them get their money out of the country. wife of a dictator or some other such bs. well, it looks like some people are having fun messing with these people. imagine following up and playing "skeptical"... so perhaps you might ask for them to send a picture of themselves in a unique position or a custom message that only you could have thought of. you know... so they can prove they are for real and all. ha! enter 419 eater. some of them are so 6th grade (like this and this)... which is probably why i'm still cracking up. oh yes, there are some losers in the crowd. some are just too funny. go have a look.

RIAA, No Way Eh.

a canadian judge has ruled that having files available via p2p does not violate canadian copyright law. that never did make sense to me -- the riaa going after people that had files available rather than those actually doing the downloads. those hosers!

Don't Have A Cow

fling the cow and score points. you get 10 turns and you can get between 50 and 10 points if it hits the bulls-eye and zero if you miss entirely. i managed to get 430 points once, but like a twit i failed to save the screen. i did; however, save a picture of my 420 score in case you don't believe me.

Argumentation

If he calls me passive-aggressive one more time, I'll get back at him in ways so subtle that he won't have any idea why.
-- Matt Groening

What Does It Mean?

i really hate it when i'm filled with lots of small thoughts that i can't seem to join into something at least semi-coherent and eventually start to question why i want to share something at all. i mean really, what is the point? well, there is the sharing part, but sometimes doing so makes people wonder why and they start forming assumptions and next thing you know you are trying to explain something you don't understand yourself. yes, yes, i'm rambling with no point to make here at all. just a bunch of fucking text that may or may not be read, that has no real purpose except to document what was running though my mind this very moment. funny thing is, i don't think it really does a very good job at doing that either.

seeing as i expect i'll be posting very little for a while -- which probably means i'll be posting twice as much -- i want to share with anyone that reads this a blog i ran across about a week ago. it is called secondhand suicide. why am i sharing this? well, it is a good read if you like honest emotional writing. as a person who has experienced the S word from a number of different angles let me just say that the writing seems honest. there was some debate over at metafilter about it, but i think the widow's response summed things up nicely.

...
And I'm sure it either reads like it didn't actually happen, or like I don't care, or like I just can't write what it feels like. And you know, it feels like it didn't happen. Sometimes I don't care because of that. And I can't write what it feels like, because I don't fucking know.
...

yup.

Passion of the CSI

this falls squarely in the "i've now heard everything" pile....

TV show, film play part in man's killing of girlfriend, confession
His devotion to a TV crime show helped Dan Leach II kill his pregnant girlfriend and avoid suspicion, police said Thursday. But a movie led him to confess, they said.

Reflections

i'm hopelessly stuck currently on level 21 23 of reflections. i even, [gasp], used the hint for the first time and it was of no help. for those cheaters others stuck, read on for the passcodes for levels the levels i've completed.

update: seems like the flash app is screwy once you get past level 20. i have to exit out and then go to it again and enter in the passcode to get back to the next level in a configuration that can actually be completed.

cheater! heh. ok, well, you'll have to highlight the text in the box so you can see it. just in case you didn't mean to get to this page.

1. bios
2. cpu
3. usb
4. rdram
5. w2k
6. macos
7. irq
8. pcm
9. svga
10. os/2
11. tcp/ip
12. ascii
13. input
14. io
15. cdrw
16. dma
17. csma
18. ccd
19. sdsl
20. ps/2
21. rambus
22. acpi

Throw Me A Bone

we all have those days don't we? it seems like such a simple request, but we still end up with illtempered sea bass. oh well, that's a start.

You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
-- Dr. Evil

i have no sea bass nor sharks, but here is a frickin' flash based game with lasers. seriously, it's pretty cool. i've managed to get through level 10 while i nibbled on lunch. it's a bit geeky, but i'm determined to beat this damn thing. mu-wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Grey Vibes

Your Energy is Grey. Your thoughts are unclear, muddled, and confusing. Dark thoughts or depression may be clouding your true colors. It may be that you have been hurt and rejected, or maybe you are just manipulative, dark, and evil.

What color is your energy?
brought to you by Quizilla

Is It Just Me?

is it just me, or is my blog getting terribly boring? i suppose asking that makes the assumption that at some point in time it wasn't. as you read this, ask yourself "why am i here?" and feel free to share your answer.

Thursday Three

Onesome: Computer- What was/is your first computer? A clunky old Commodore or something a touch more modern?
first one i owned was a commodore-64. then i got 2 1541 disk drives and modified them a bit to allow me to write on the back of 5.25" floppies without notching them.

Twosome: Anti-Virus- Have you ever had a computer virus? How bad was it? Or are you one of the lucky ones who have managed to avoid them?
nothing active. i've bumped into a few java-based virii and have had people send me infected files, but my virus detection software has always caught it. now other family members are another story...

Threesome: Software- What piece of software really made you more productive on your computer. ...or, as in my case, less productive? *g*
yikes. so much! what allowed me to switch from a unix based operating system to windows was a nice app called secureCRT. the reason for the switch to windows was to more easily deal with documents and a wider variety of applications i was expected to be familiar with and have available. i still have about 10 windows open to a variety of unix boxes. i still consider myself a bsd zealot. my windows box is simply a fancy terminal.

Color My World

one more excuse shot. i've been jonesing for an iPod for some time, but i always have had a good reason not to get one. those reasons are slowly going away, though price is still a roadblock, the color barrier has now been broken. a company called colorware will sell you a color iPod or color the one you have. even niftier, they do laptops and game consoles!

Lies, Lies, Lies, Yeah

over at collision detection, clive thompson has mounting evidence (pun not intended) that we lie less online. sounds counter-intuitive to me, but hey what do i know? go read for yourself.

Sharks 5, Red Wings 2

i schlepped off to the sharks game tonight and watched them down the redwings 5-2. despite the score, detroit really carried the play, but san jose scored 5 goals on just 20 shots and made legace look like he belongs back in the minors. nabokov on the other hand stood on his head and kicked aside 37 of 39. again, i took a few pictures; however, my camera batteries flaked out so there really are just a few. they managed to let me take two more shots at the end and that was it. that's what i get for not putting in fresh ones. then again, i had 2 pretty tall people in front of me, so it was hard to get a good view with the camera, so perhaps it was for the best.

the game had vincent damphousse's 1,200th nhl point tying him with good ole dino ciccarelli for 38th on the all-time list. jason marshall got his first point as a shark, and the team clinched a playoff spot plus moved into a tie for 2nd seed in the conference with the av's.

Night of the Living Dead

it was said on boing boing that night of the living deads copyright has lapsed and the whole film is now legally downloadble and available via archive.org. guess i'll do the zombie dance in honor of this.
[archive.org link for the movie, including download]

icapture, you capture

iCapture lets you see your website in as a mac user sees it through the safari web browser. it's very useful if you are creating a website and don't have access to a mac/safari to see how things look.

want to know how it looks on a pc? well, there is also ieCapture. not only can you see your site through the eyes of ie (5.01, 5.5, and 6), but it also provides you a look via mozilla firebird firefox and opera. adding to the usefulness, you can also select from three different resolutions on the target screen.

One Hundred And One Movies

i wrote back in january about watching a lot of movies -- 73 at the time, and now i've just broken the 100 mark. seems like a good time to list out the new flicks i've seen. i'll stick with rating them 1-5 where 1 sucks and 5 really is one i'd watch more than twice.

• The Musketeer (2)
  i was disappointed. it had exactly one good fight scene and there was really nothing to set it off from similar movies.
• Cabin Fever (1)
  the trailers had me thinking this movie was going to be cool. bzzzzt!
• Tortilla Soup (2)
  chick flick. not that there is anything wrong with that. nice story, but nothing to get your blood pumping or really even much to say "aw." about.
• Radio (3)
  i liked it. wasn't great, but it was a good story.
• Johnny English (3)
  just plain silly. but did you really expect anything different from rowan?
• Pink Floyd: The Wall (5)
  it's all about the music!
• Grind (3)
  a better story than i expected, and less cool skateboarding like i hoped for. since the story was good, i'll give it the three.
• Once Upon A Time In Mexico (3)
  i really should watch this one again. i was sleepy and i think i really didn't get the whole gist of the movie. depp did a good job in the movie!
• Lost In Translation (4)
  i've had my say about this one. it's not a 5, but i would watch it again.
• Intolerable Cruelty (4)
  well done and with nice plot twists. predictable for the most part, but even so leaves you with some doubt.
• Under the Tuscan Sun (2)
  i was hoping/expecting so much more from this movie. dunno why, i just was.
• Sylvia (5)
  you either get it or you don't.
• Partymonster (2)
  i have no idea why i actually rented this movie. it was plain stupid. oh yeah, i guess it gave me a chance to laugh (again) at the time period.
• Nirvana Live Tonight Sold Out (3)
  now don't think i've turned a new leaf or anything, it just wasn't what i expected. i really wanted to see more interview and alike. if i simply wanted a concert, i'd watch their MTV Unplugged in New York.
• Just A Kiss (1)
  another case of what was i thinking. i'll give it no more than that.
• Lost in La Mancha (3)
  funny. sad. lets blame the french. i wish they could have finished this movie, but i've covered that before.
• Runaway Jury (2)
  yet another over-hyped movie. it was ok.
• Thirteen (3)
  parents of teens should watch this movie. so true.
• Taboo (1)
  i judged this movie by the cover, rented it, and well... i got what i deserved, a bad movie.
• Cold Creek Manor (3)
  it was worth renting, but like many movies these days, they make it sounds so great and then... well, you get an ok movie.
• Duplex (4)
  a lot of silliness, but in the end it was an excellent movie to sit, watch, and giggle. entertaining is the word i'm looking for.
• School of Rock (3)
  i was expecting something really really stupid. it wasn't half bad and one of the better jack black films i've seen.
• My Boss's Daughter (1)
  admittedly i got this because it said it was un-rated and had stuff that wasn't in the theatre. i was expecting to see a little T-and-A, a little extra innuendo. nope. not worth the rental at all.
• Mona Lisa Smile (3)
  it was a pretty good story and spending 2 hours watching julia roberts really isn't such a bad thing.
• Matchstick Men (3)
  good movie. nicholas cage did a great job playing a con man with ocd. i caught the ending twist early, but honestly wasn't 100% positive until the end. i put this into the i've seen worse category. given nothing better, give it a watch.
• The Missing (3)
  way too long for what the story was about. they should have left about 20 more minutes on the cutting room floor i think.
• Swimming Pool (1)
  my attempt to find a "sexy" movie failed again. once you've seen the cute blonde topless, you may as well put the dvd back in it's case. maybe if i knew french it would have been better?
• The Fisher King (5)
  watched this last night and i'm still trying to wrap my arms around this one. why-o-why didn't i see this earlier. actually, i had, but only a small bit. robin williams puts in yet another excellent performance. i may need to add this one to my collection.

so there we have it. gothica comes out tomorrow... i'll be looking to watch that one.

She Said "Yes"

if memory serves me, it was about two years ago when rusty (founder of slashdot.org) proposed to his girlfriend via the site. [ok, i verified it]. talk about really putting yourself out there. these sort of things happen periodically at sporting events, and now it looks like it is picking up on the net. steven denken proposed to his girlfriend michelle via a blog post and she responded in kind

frankly, i thought rusty's girl had a much better response, but that's me.

so is this the new way of the world? gone are the days of asking a woman's father for her hand in marriage. has the clothing industry lobby gotten so weak that they are willing to allow smitten men to spare the knees of their pants or is the technology lobbys getting stronger and we'll see e.mail, blogs, and instant messages rule the day? but hey, it works both ways, in malaysia one can divorce via text message which is faster than nuptials in nevada.

so i guess it's true that all is fair in love and war.

RonCo ACCo

maybe i really should look at getting into product development. the thought has occurred to me from time to time over the years when i see products and wonder how on earth they ever made it to market. novelty items i tell you, they can't possibly be any more than that can they? are people actually making money off this?

it hit me again when i saw jeremy's linkblog entry this morning for the the pussy snorkel. someone, please, tell me this is a gag. the concept is amusing, but quite frankly i don't think it would work very well. perhaps i'm just being too cynical?

products like climatique and vazoplex that are advertised on late-nite television bring up the same thoughts. seriously. so they have a product which helps get a woman excited. it's a fucking (pun not intended) cream she rubs on her clitoris... of course she'll get excited. helps her achieve an orgasm. duh! what's next? a cream for a man. hmmm... just rub it on and it will make his penis larger? never mind that we also call that reaction an erection.

i'll give the pussysnorkel people some credit... it's creative. given that they want $12.95 for a little bit of rubber tubing, they could have at least thrown in a pair of rose-colored goggles. or optionally beer goggles for $0.99 more.

now where's that credit card......

Thirteen Eighty Six

i finally got my settlement check from the cd map antitrust litigation -- $13.86. now what to do with my windfall? blank cd-r or dvd-r? heh.

iTunes

ok, so i've managed to get 12 pepsi itunes winner caps so far. not bad for a person that doesn't drink pepsi. i redeemed my first one today. just because it felt right on so many different levels, my first ever iTunes download was a nora jones' song titled don't know why. i followed that up with a few more tunes from her -- she has a fantastic voice and now being in the jazz/blues mood i headed straight for eric clapton and snagged stormy monday and more.

to finish it off, i went for a miles davis tune (recommended by branford marsalis) called sanctuary. i'll have to listen again, but i'm a bit disappointed in this one. generally i like davis' work, but even despite the most excellent album title (bitches brew). oh! in the process of looking for some new tunes, i stumbled across an artist named joss stone. give her a listen sometime.

now to figure out how to turn these eff'ing acc files into mp3... i suppose i can burn 'em to cd then rip them, if push comes to shove.

Margaret Thatcher Illusion

to demonstrate the illusion, they fittingly used george w. bush.

The illusion illustrates the fact thate rightside-up and upside-down faces are processed differently, which some people take as evidence that parts of our brain are specialized for (normal, rightside-up) face perception.

Intentionally Left Blank

The Untitled Project is a series of photographs of urban settings accompanied by a graphical text layout. The photographs have been digitally stripped of all traces of textual information. The text pieces show the removed text in the approximate location and font as it was found in the photograph.

Giving Headlines

ernie finds some of the nuttiest stuff including one of the funniest headlines i've seen in a while.

What Kind Of Thinker Are You?

honestly, often i have no idea how i stumble upon some things, this time i can tell from my trail of tabs. i wondered what memes were going for fridays and noticed a new one called free for all and took a peek. hmm, interesting.... seeing as it is friday, lemme go peek at some of the participants sites to see how they go and i started with orangehairedboy who apparently started the thing. nothing going on and i'm interupted by a phonecall (to find a hockey rule of all things) so i scroll away while listening to the issue and then stumble into this what kind of thinker are you? quiz. i'm a sucker for quizzes.

My Results

seems you can be a thinker of multiple types... in fact it states: This test gives you an idea of what your current thinking style or styles are. But remember - the brain is a very adaptive organ. You should be able to improve your performance in any one of these categories with practice.

You are a Logical-Mathematical Thinker

Logical-Mathematical thinkers:

• Like to understand patterns and relationships between objects or actions
• Try to understand the world in terms of causes and effects
• Are good at thinking critically, and solving problems creatively

Other Logical-Mathematical Thinkers include
Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Albert Einstein

Careers which suit Logical-Mathematical thinkers include
Physicist, Chemist, Biologist, Lawyer, Computer programmer, Engineer, Inventor

---

You are an Intrapersonal thinker

Intrapersonal thinkers:

• Spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to understand themselves
• Reflect on their thoughts and moods, and work to improve them
• You understand how your behaviour affects your relationships with others

Other Intrapersonal thinkers include
Sigmund Freud, Gandhi, Grahame Greene

Careers which suit Intrapersonal Thinkers include
Psychologist, Teacher, Pilot, Child care worker, Explorer, Drama therapist

Frame Of Mind

mindframes is a free online personality test based on research in brain science. it measures how often you use each of eight distinct patterns of thought and action. find out which mindframes are the foundation of your unique personality!

my results were pretty boring and as expected and seen via my mindframe (right). logic and insight rule while sociability, charisma, and control brought up the rear.

originally found at book of life.

No Fit For Print

i have lots of little bits and pieces of writing laying around, many of which i've been unable to complete and others i simply don't want to. it was suggested to me today that i should submit some writing to fiction bitch. not having heard of this person before i googled it; hence the link, and now i'm not so sure it was a complement. ok, ok, i'll admit it -- it was meant as a complement which i still feel is undeserved; however, i'm not so sure i'm ready to hear some other than myself be brutally honest about my drivel.

he sits silently, perched upon the cliff with his feet dangling along it's jagged walls listening to the waves crash against the rocks below while writing in his journal...

i find myself shackled to the chains of confliction which bind me to a desperate life of uncertainty. why dream, why hope? is my salvation to be found in the madness they bring? for so long i have held onto my sanity, like i do my pen now, loosely. inevitably it will fall and be lost forever.

A Dream Within A Dream

by: Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Sum Of All Quizzes

i think that this quiz just sums things up perfectly. don't you?

Word Association, Week 58

1. Old Navy:: spanish armada
2. Out:: eat at in -n-
3. Indecent:: proposal
4. UPN:: 44
5. Pupil:: dialated
6. Toothpaste:: toothbrush
7. 1999:: party like it's
8. Passion:: fruit
9. Social security:: number
10. Cliff:: clavin

ps: i had 2 goals, 2 assists, but our team still lost 8-7. *sigh*

Sharks 3, LA Kings 1

it's been a good day so far, despite the last minute change of plans with me going to the game. so anw and i headed for the tank for the noon start -- sharks .vs. kings. jason marshall played his first game as a shark, curtis brown his second while over on the other bench luc robitaille was playing his 1,000th game as an la king (1,353 overall).

the game was televised on national television (abc sports), which means they didn't do many of their silly things during tv time-outs. no fear of the kiss-cam today! sharks won 3-1 which brightened everyone's spirits. i've got some pictures to share again. after the game it was a late lunch at johnny rockets, a quick stop a fry's electronics, then home. next up... my game. we're out of the playoffs and just playing the last game for pride now. game on!

King Me

busy day ahead (thankfully) i'm off to watch the kings .vs. the sharks -- a noon start time no less. so i'll leave a few musical links here.

from boingboing
Korn's new video damns the music industry
Korn's new video for "Y'all Want a Single? Fuck That," consists of the band trashing a record store, screaming the chorous, while a suprisingly eloquent rant against the recording industry's treatment of artists and the radio oligopolies' top-40 mentalitity scrolls past. The band reveals that they released the video against its label's wishes and urges you to "steal" it. Streaming WMV Link (via MeFi)

Comfort Stand Recordings
A not-for-profit community driven label where all releases are free for download with artwork and liner notes. Having no business model or profit motive we strive to bring you recordings that we find interesting, compelling and downright enjoyable. Everybody needs free music.

Kid Games

amuse yourself with childhood games like lite brite and hangman.

WWJD

there was a bit of a craze going on a while back which i was just reminded of a few moments ago. wwjd -- what would jesus do?

my gardener?

no!, jesus. you know, the carpenter... often referred to as son of god. the guy that got nailed to a cross as if he'd been downloading mp3's illegally or something. that guy.

ok, so what made me think of that? apparently some chick decided to get a new cell phone and number and ended up getting the chris rock's previous number. to make things better, it was only about 3-months old and the phone was still getting his calls. spike lee, adam sandler, and others just weren't in the loop when the popular comedian changed his number. hmmmm. tell ya something fellas? laura tells all about her chris-calls. what would be really funny now is to prank her at that number. heh.

so if you were in her shoes, what would you do? i think i'd have had a lot of fun with it too. i'm not sure i'd pull a danny devito and give it the 'ol -- sorry she can't come to the phone right now, she's got my dick in her his mouth. he is a comedian afterall, they'd just figure it was a joke. i'm sure, however, that i would have fun with it all.

to answer my original question: what would jesus do? somehow i think that would come across as funny too.

caller: hi, is chris there?
jesus: i'm sorry, you have the wrong number.
caller: who is this?
jesus: i'm jesus of nazareth
caller: from the band? sing me "love hurts" then.
jesus: no. jesus, son of god.
caller: yeah right, and this is george w. bush calling for your support on allowing same-sex marriages.
[click]

Sharks 5, Islanders 4

the sharks .vs. islanders game was quite entertaining last night. it was about damn time most of the scoring was down on our end -- 4 sharks goals in the second period plus micheal peca's shorthanded goal for the islanders. i was really hoping the isles were going to wear their kick-ass third sweaters, but alas it wasn't to be. i haven't shared much in the way of pictures lately, so dusting off the 'ol camera i snapped some pictures at the game.

while i didn't get a picture of it, one amusing moment during the game -- at a stoppage actually -- it was late in the third period with the teams milling around waiting for the commercial time-out to end, big dave scatchard of the islanders asked one of the linesman for a little equipment help. the official lifted up scatchard's jersey and began re-tying his pants. scatchard stood there like an obedient five year old mini-mite, waiting patiently until his pants were securely cinched back up. what was up with that?

a slightly better picture of the islander's third jersey for those interested.

WTF and more

• i've updated my radioblog only 3 tunes from before remain -- go have a listen. i've put up my favorite matchbox-20 and finger eleven tunes.
  
  
• wtf: what the font lets you upload an image and tries to identifty the font.
  
  
• planet earth is sexy? ok, how about earth erotica. phallic or fallacy?
  
  
• excellent article on the perils of googling.
  
  
• national post article

  A man who advocates polygamy and marriage with robots wants to be the Conservative MP for a Nova Scotia riding.
  [...]
  Mr. Boyd said revisions to marriage laws are overdue. "We must allow for same-sex marriages, multiple-people marriages and android-human marriages,"...

• a deadman's switch for people on-line? diedonline.com is a mildly interesting idea, but has it's problems. there's got to be a better way. hmmm.

Hit Somebody

the nhl season is winding down... tonight i'll be at the sharks v. islanders game. san jose is looking to break their season high 3-game losing streak. the isles have yashin back and will be looking to end their 5-game drought. should be a good match-up. go sharks!

regarding the todd bertuzzi incident -- i think the nhl has handed out a just punishment. the vancouver organization was fined $250,000 and buertuzzi has been suspended for the remainder of the 2003-04 season including the stanley cup playoffs. his eligibility for the next season will be determined prior to training camp. ouch! this was no slap on the wrist for a change.

it was refreshing to see the nhl take such a firm stance. we can debate whether fighting is part of hockey or not, but clearly what bertuzzi did was not part of the game by any standard. i have no problem if two willing combatants square off and drop the gloves; however, sneaking up from behind and sucker punching a guy is cowardly. this wasn't a little shot to the head/back to get moore to turn around, it was an all out attack, plain and simple. the word cowardly comes to mind.

Me? A Quaker?

over at enigma's i saw the belief-o-matic. hey! i'm almost always game for a quiz. i haven't even heard of some of these. amusing none the less.

1. 	Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. 	Unitarian Universalism (100%)
3. 	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (96%)
4. 	Secular Humanism (95%)
5. 	Theravada Buddhism (86%)
6. 	Nontheist (82%)
7. 	Mahayana Buddhism (76%)
8. 	Neo-Pagan (71%)
9. 	Reform Judaism (65%)
10. 	Taoism (64%)
11. 	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (62%)
12. 	Bahá'í Faith (59%)
13. 	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (58%)
14. 	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (54%)
15. 	New Age (54%)
16. 	Jainism (53%)
17. 	Jehovah's Witness (48%)
18. 	Orthodox Quaker (47%)
19. 	Hinduism (46%)
20. 	Sikhism (46%)
21. 	New Thought (44%)
22. 	Seventh Day Adventist (40%)
23. 	Islam (38%)
24. 	Orthodox Judaism (38%)
25. 	Scientology (38%)
26. 	Eastern Orthodox (27%)
27. 	Roman Catholic (27%)

Popped Bubbles

finally! jwz scored 130,920 and i was determined to beat that score and i did! my best score is now officially 160,730. i got down to my two last colors (blue and orange no less) and the five minute timer started. as you can see it took me about half that time to clear the board and end the game. boo-ya! for those that didn't notice, colors clear when you eliminate all of that color on the board and the eliminated color isn't in your canon or "on-deck". eliminating colors helps alot and lets you prune sections of the board more easily racking up bonus points at the same time. bubbels is a nifty flash based game, but i think i'm done with it now.

Oh iGod

i saw this image and just thought -- now that's someone with a good sense of humor! i couldn't help but think of all the tag lines that could go with such a masterpiece... i'll keep 'em nice. :-) Keep Talkin' I'm Listenin'... Just Hanging Around Listen'n To Tunes Can You Hear Me Now? Good. Prosecuted by the RIAA

image credit goes to www.empty-handed.com.

So This Is Proper English?

this video clip is from a kids show in england?!? oh my!

Still No Linkblog

• Belkin iPod Media Reader
  if you own an ipod and like to take lots of digital pictures, this might be just the right device for you. offload pictures to your ipod so you can shoot some more.
  
  
• It's A Jungle Out There
  pricenoia.com compares prices at every amazon store available, adding shipping costs to your country. i know i've had to buy some things via amazon.ca because it wasn't available from amazon.com, and here's yet another reason to check out the non-US amazon stores.
  
  
• Northern Lights
  this link is for the first private worldwide live webcast of auroras! i still want to see them with my own eyes, but this will hold me over until i can do so properly.
  
  
• Coming To Terms
  tim bray gives a glossy overview of the vc process, something i wish i had known more about prior to going through it the first time. live and learn.
  
  
• Life's an Illusion
  i stumbled across a bunch more optical illusions over at mathworld. it includes things like the traditional young girl/old woman both as line art (as normally seen) and in what seems to have been a print ad. then there is also necker cube (seen it in q-bert?) and the infamous kanizsa triangle. funny how most illusions are doing by pyschologists. hmmm, a conspiracy theory yet to be brewed.
  
  
• Subways, not subs
  pretty nifty, albeit i'm quite bummed they didn't included b.a.r.t..
  
  
• yarmulkabra
  oy vey! 'nuf said.
• Half Time Janet Barbie
  heh.

Word Association, Week 57

1. Dogma:: , the movie
2. Spirit:: world
3. Voodoo:: chili
4. Demon:: seed
5. Digital:: camera
6. Ceremony:: awards
7. Research:: and development
8. Career:: path
9. Penis:: envy
10. Film:: silent

Hobbit-ual Problems

i was just saying not too long ago that i suspected they might make a movie of the hobbit, given the success of the lord of the rings trilogy. AP reports that peter jackson is definitely interested in doing so, but will let the lawyers fight out the filming/distribution rights while he is working on the king kong remake. yes... king kong. this time the big guy will be going ape over naomi watts rather than fay wray.

Tiny Bubbles

the bubbels game is absolutely, positively, and tragically addicting -- it is very much like the game bust-a-move. my best score is 35,485 so far. i will, however, pull myself away for my men's league game tonight -- playoff implications abound!

perhaps i should make one of these blog radios to keep up, eh? WLOL FM/IP, this is les nesman. today's top story...

Sorrow's Lonely Ride

trailing the mighty roars of silence
sorrow joins me with delight
'tis the opus of my life.

t'was said dying is an art
i do it exceptionally well
i do it so it feels like hell
i do it so it feels real
you could say i've a call

dissatisfactions arrive with loving regularity
for it is with this i have found
in myself, sorrow, my trusty friend
the one i can be alone with together

Silver Screen

i just don't get some of these quizilla things -- this quiz thinks i'm more like jimmy stewart. ladies... you'll want to take this quiz instead so you can be a katharine hepburn instead of a jimmy stewart.

Which Silver Screen Actor are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Red And The Blue

grab the red block and dodge the blue ones. simple and silly. my best time after playing for the past 10 minutes is a mere 23.078 seconds.

also on the game front is this little gem where you have to seperate the red balls from the blue balls. [heh, heh, heh ... he said blue balls]. i've only played once and my time was 64 seconds.

I'm Nicola Tesla ?!?

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

You are Nicola Tesla, inventor of the Tesla Coil!

A minister's son from Simljan in Austria-Hungary, you were precocious from an early age. At three you could multiply three-digit numbers in your head and calculate how many seconds visitors to your home had lived. In awe of your older brother Dane, you shot a pea-shooter at his horse, causing it to throw him and inflict injuries from which he later died. This tragedy haunted you ever after. You frequently suffered bouts of illness with hallucinations throughout your life. During one affliction of cholera, you encountered the writing of Mark Twain, with whom you were later to be close friends. Later, another, this time mystery, illness inexplicably heightened your senses to a painful extent, only relenting when you hit upon the idea of the alternating current motor.

You developed an aversion to human contact, particularly involving hair, and a fear of pearls; when one would-be lover kissed you, you ran away in agony. Later, you insisted that any repeated actions in your day-to-day life had to be divisible by three, or, better yet, twenty-seven. You would, for example, continue walking until you had executed the required number of footsteps. You refused to eat anything until you had calculated its exact volume. Saltine crackers were a favourite for their uniformity in this respect. In the midst of important work, you forgot trivial details such as eating, sleeping or, on one memorable occasion, who you were.

Your inventions, always eccentric, began on a suitably bizarre note. The first was a frog-catching device that was so successful, and hence so emulated by your fellow children, that local frogs were almost eradicated. You also created a turbine powered by gluing sixteen May bugs to a tiny windmill. The insects panicked and flapped their wings furiously, powering the contraption for hours on end. This worked admirably until a small child came along and ate all the creatures alive, after which you never again touched another insect.

Prompted by dreams of attaining the then-ridiculed goal of achieving an alternating-current motor, you went to America in the hope of teaming up with Thomas Edison. Edison snubbed you, but promised fifty thousand dollars if you could improve his own direct-current motor by 20% efficiency. You succeeded. Edison did not pay up. It was not long until you created an AC motor by yourself.

Now successful, you set up a small laboratory, with a few assistants and almost no written records whatsoever. Despite it being destroyed by fire, you invented the Tesla Coil, impressing even the least astute observer with man-made lightning and lights lit seemingly by magic. Moving to Colorado Springs, you created a machine capable of sending ten million volts into the Earth's surface, which even while being started up caused lightning to shoot from fire hydrants and sparks to singe feet through shoes all over the town. When calibrated to be in tune with the planet's resonance, it created what is still the largest man-made electrical surge ever, an arc over 130 feet long. Unfortunately, it set the local power plant aflame.

You returned to New York, incidentally toying with the nascent idea of something eerily like today's internet. Although the wealthiest man in America withdrew funding for a larger, more powerful resonator in short order, it did not stop you announcing the ability to split the world in two. You grew ever more diverse in your inventions: remote-controlled boats and submarines, bladeless turbines, and, finally, a death ray.

While whether the ray ever existed is still doubtful, it is said that you notified the Peary polar expedition to report anything strange in the tundra, and turned on the ray. First, nothing happened; then it disintegrated an owl; finally, reports reached you of the mysterious Tunguska explosion, upon which news you dismantled the apparatus immediately. An offer during WWII to recreate it was, thankfully, never acted upon by then-President Wilson. Turning to other matters, you investigated the forerunner of radar, to widespread derision.

Your inventions grew stranger. One oscillator caused earthquakes in Manhattan. You adapted this for medical purposes, claiming various health benefits for your devices. You found they let you work for days without sleep; Mark Twain enjoyed the experience until the sudden onset of diarrhoea. You claimed to receive signals in quasi-Morse Code from Mars, explored the initial stages of quantum physics; proposed a "wall of light", using carefully-calibrated electromagnetic radiation, that would allegedly enable teleportation, anti-gravity airships and time travel; and proposed a basic design for a machine for photographing thoughts. You died aged 87 in New York, sharing an apartment with the flock of pigeons who were by then your only friends.

Ridiculed throughout your life (Superman fought the evil Dr. Tesla in 1940s comics), you were posthumously declared the father of the fluorescent bulb, the vacuum tube amplifier and the X-ray machine, and the Supreme Court named you as the legal inventor of the radio in place of Marconi. Wardenclyffe, the tower once housing your death ray, was dynamited several times to stop it falling into the hands of spies. It was strangely hard to topple, and even then could not be broken up.

Movie Alphabet Game

prepare yourself to be very annoyed, but i'll save you as well. the movie alphabet game takes letters from the titles of movies and you have to guess what movie it came from. none of the movies are particularly obscure and i'm sure you'll find yourself going... "i've seen that before" as you dig into the memory banks.

being the nice guy i am, i'm including the answers here and am trusting you not to cheat. hey! no cheating! oh yeah... this was found over on asmallvictory.com.

A: Apocalypse Now
B: Das Boot
C: The Nightmare before Christmas
D: Dracula
E: Deep Impact
F: Forrest Gump
G: Gremlins
H: Sleepy Hollow
I: Aliens
J: Cujo
K: The Rock
L: Life of Brian
M: The Mummy
N: TRON
O: Apollo 13
P: Robocop
Q: GalaxyQuest
R: Tomb Raider
S: Silverado
T: TopGun
U: Cube
V: The Fugitive
W: Pretty Woman
X: TAXI
Y: Labyrinth
Z: ANTZ

Books, Movies, and Games. Oh My!

while watching a few minutes of the academy awards last night (aka, lord of the rings awards banquet) i remarked how lotr:rotk was going to win yet another award. bm then said -- "yeah, because it was a good movie. well, i haven't seen it, but i've played the game". heh!

it left me thinking -- my how things have changed. i've certainly heard people say how they haven't read the book, but have seen the movie. now it seems that if you haven't read the book or seen the movie, you can still relate to the story via the video game. i shudder to think what's next, yet at the same time look forward to the experience.