28th May, 2004
e:f,b
Benny beat me to the punch by pointing out some webcam shenanigans from down under. My favorite bit from the article:
They are not planning on removing it, counting on the sulphur and high acid environment to deal to the creature.
Here is the link to watch the hapless toy slowly dissolve into a Dino-colored puddle of goo. (click on the White Island crater pic). Oh, and I really hope that someone out there is grabbing a pic each day to compile into a time-elapsed vid.
Posted at 10:34 am | Comment (0)
27th May, 2004
Hornets vs. Bees
A friend of mine pointed me to this truly amazing vid of a group of giant hornets wiping out an entire colony of European honey bees.
Posted at 8:37 am | Comment (1)
27th May, 2004
MP3 Blogs
A really cool post (with lots of link goodness) regarding MP3 blogs. Being somewhat of a music junkie, I’m always excited to find resources that allow me to explore alternatives (you know, since Clear Channel owns almost every radio station in the US and they all have the same sucky playlists) and support the musicians who don’t buy into the corporate BS that is the mainstream music industry. [via BoingBoing]
Posted at 7:24 am | Comments (2)
24th May, 2004
Cops
I’d actually watch Cops if they showed stuff like this.
Also, further investigation reveals that this guy not only writes well but has a great sense of humor, too:
How to Smuggle Grain Alcohol Into the United States by Maciej Ceglowski
1. Purchase a bottle of vodka and a bottle of pure grain alcohol
2. Fill a basin with boiling water, and soak the bottom half of the grain alcohol bottle until the label slides off
3. Clean the glue off the bottle completely with soap and water; pat dry
4. Soak the vodka bottle in a fresh basin of boiling water
5. Once the glue on the label is softened, lift the vodka bottle out of the bath, set it next to the grain alcohol bottle, and slide the label from one to the other in one fluid motion
6. While the label is still pliant, center it, pat dry, and let cool
7. Drink the bottle of vodkaOnce the glue sets, you will have a bottle of grain alcohol cunningly disguised as vodka, and a pleasant warm feeling all through your organism.
Posted at 7:54 am | Comment (0)
21st May, 2004
Oooh, Shiny
This is really freakin’ cool and I must have one. Of course, my car doesn’t have a double slot in the dashboard and this receiver would clash quite a bit with my interior decor, but that’s not the point. [via Gizmodo]
Posted at 8:03 am | Comment (0)
20th May, 2004
I’m Just a Girl
Since my previous dilemma has been resolved, I’ve been able to spend some time playing Final Fantasy XI. In all, I find it to be a well-balanced game with few wanks and actually more than quite a few nice people playing. Cheers to Squeenix for coming out with such a great game.
One thing I’d like to take a minute to talk about is my character selection. The game features five races of peoples, one of which a character can only be male, another, only female and the remaining three races can be either sex. During the character creation process, and more or less on a whim, I decided to make my character a female. This has been an interesting and enlightening experience so far and I think I’m getting some insight as to why there aren’t more online female gamers out there.
The first thing that I noticed when I started my character, and this has held true for almost all the different arrays of clothing/armor that I can choose from, is that the tops of my character’s thighs are invariably exposed. While this looks sexy from a heterosexual male’s point of view, it seems a little impractical, especially if one is doing battle with pointy-toothed, weapon-wielding baddies. In contrast, male characters wearing the same clothing/armor don’t suffer from this exposure at all. Despite this shortcoming, I do applaud Squeenix for giving female characters a realistic body structure – not one with wasp-like waists and exaggerated breasts that tend to be so prevalent in the gaming world.
The other, more irritating thing that I have noticed while playing a female character is this: Apparently since I picked a female character from a race that allows either male or female, a large majority of other players, who are presumably male in real life, make the assumption that, in real life, I must be female as well (I have not noticed this behavior being directed towards those who are playing the female only race). I have been flirted with, given gifts, subjected to and the subject of all sorts of innuendo and even outright ogling (on one instance, I actually wished I could reach through my TV and punch the asshole on the other end). At times, I’ve felt pretty uncomfortable or even angry and I’m just a guy. I can’t imagine how a female would feel like in situations like this, but I bet that it is anything but warm and fuzzy.
Maybe this behavior is due to the anonymity of the Internet, maybe it’s because most of the people playing this game are hormone ravaged boys and young men, maybe it’s because of something else or a combination of all three. Regardless, if I were female and I was subjected to this, I probably wouldn’t stick around for very long. After all, the idea of a game is to have fun, right? I think both the gaming industry as well as the players have a responsibility to help clean things up. A little respect can go a long way.
Posted at 2:31 pm | Comment (0)
18th May, 2004
Nice Hat
A little something for all you recent grads out there: Jon Stewart’s commencement address at William & Mary.
Posted at 1:09 pm | Comment (0)
14th May, 2004
Things That Make You Go Hmm
Pity the poor RIAA who claims that album sales continue to drop due to all those nasty pirates out on the web. I’m sure they’re having trouble even staying in business at this point. But wait a minute, this article shows that while shipments are down, actual sales, as determined by Soundscan, are actually up 10% when compared to Q1 of 2003. So, the record labels are producing less CDs, saving themselves money in the process, and sales are still going up. Hmm. [via Ars Technica]
Posted at 7:01 am | Comment (0)
13th May, 2004
Continued Idiocy
I don’t even know what to say about this, but it’s sure as hell isn’t “proud to be an American”.
Posted at 2:36 pm | Comment (0)
12th May, 2004
Happy Wednesday
Forklift Driver Klaus. The funniest damn thing I’ve seen in quite a while.
Posted at 12:40 pm | Comment (0)
10th May, 2004
Return
After taking some time off for decompression and/or sanity reasons, I’m back… with not much to say. Well, I actually have a lot to say, I just have to compose my thoughts and put them into writing. I know you’ll be waiting with bated breath.
Posted at 7:47 am | Comments (2)
