trp0

Mini Grand Tour: Part 3 - Eyjafjallajokull...Gesundheit!

2011-10-30T20:17:00.000-05:00

After spending a way too short amount of time in Italy, it was time for my sister Coral and I to jump back out of our comfort zone and head to another country where we couldn't speak or read the language: the Czech Republic. From Florence, Italy, we took a night train to Vienna where we would switch trains for the rest of the trip to Prague. It was our first night train experience and was interesting. We shared a four-person sleeper cabin with a priest and another guy. Since it was towards the end of the evening, everyone prepared for bed and settled in. I'm a light sleeper, so every time we pulled into a station to pick people up throughout the night, I woke up. Most of the ride was uneventful except when the priest's suitcase fell from the upper berth during a bump and sent it's contents pouring out all over the floor and scared everybody. My initial reaction was to help the guy gather his things back up, but he insisted that I not worry about it and go back to sleep. As the light of very early morning started to shine, we pulled in Vienna where we would have a short layover while we awaited our train to Prague.

Malá Strana and Staré Město

It was a brisk morning and since we were at a smaller station in Vienna and not the main station, there was really only the platform to wait on which luckily had a little enclosed glass room to hang out in until the train arrived. In a continuation of occasionally meeting unexpected people (eg Sammi at Gad in Cairo) during our travels, the older couple waiting in the glass room with us on the platform turned out to both be school teachers from Connecticut who also owned a KFC. Chatting with them allowed us to pass the time quite nicely. When the train pulled in, we gathered up our stuff for the few hour trip remaining to the Czech capital. Thankfully, we had bought bread, juice, and a few other things at the market in Florence before we left, so we had snacks to hold us over until we reached our destination.

Knowing that we were going to a city we didn't have a good idea of how to get around in, we had scheduled a ride with a driver affiliated with the apartment rental we had reserved. If we'd known how amazing easy it was to get around in the city and how close our apartment was to everything, we could have easily walked it, but it was nice to not have to worry about that upon arrival. After a quick ride from Praha hlavní nádraží (the main train station in Prague), we arrived at our apartment located at Pštrossova 33, Prague 1 on the northern edge of Nové Město (New Town) just steps from Staré Město (Old Town). The driver dropped us off and not longer after, our contact showed up to let us into the apartment and give us a quick rundown of how to get in and out and use the various amenities. One of our favorite things about the place was the notebook that people who had previously stayed in the apartment wrote various tips and tricks in. It was full of hints about places to eat (or not), things to see and do, and general advice about things like how to use the shower without accidentally hosing down the entire bathroom. Being famished by this point, we tossed our bags in the wardrobe and did a quick cross reference between the apartment notebook and one of the guidebooks I had brought to find someplace local to eat.

Church of St Lawrence

As it turned out, there was a pub called U Zpěváčků (Na Struze 7, Praha 1) right around the corner which had gotten favorable reviews from past travelers and met our requirement of having food. In preparation for our trip, well-traveled friends had told us about how wonderful Czech beer was, but how bad the food was. We made our way down the block to the pub and, wanting to continue our "tradition" of eating local cuisine on this trip, ordered up some Czech pilsners and Czech food. I had the traditional Czech plate which consisted of three different types of dumpling, a nice slab of roast pork, some sauerkraut, etc. In the States, I've never met a sour kraut that I haven't despised, since it's typically closer to rancid than fermented. The sauerkraut in Prague was so amazingly good. It was a mix of sweet and sour and was what I had always thought sauerkraut was supposed to be. All the food was wonderful; however, the beer was a let down.

Neighbor

After dinner, we decided to explore a little to check out our neighborhood and find the closest public transport stop. At the metro station, we stared uncomprehendingly at the sign posted on the automated ticket machine. The letters looked familiar, but the combinations and accent marks made it indecipherable to us. Luckily, a passing student leaned in and said, "It says it's out of order." After getting a ticket around the corner at the little ticket window, we headed back towards our place to relax; stopping briefly at a little grocery to grab some juice.

The next day was go, go, go. We started off by taking the advice of friends and got breakfast at The Globe, a hip, english-speaking book store/art gallery/cafe/brunch spot that had been recommended by a friend. From there, we headed toward the bridge to cross over into Malá Strana to the foot of Petřín Hill. On the way, Coral needed a pitstop, so we attempted to swing by the public one under the performance hall, but as we descended, we witnesses an english-speaking gal screaming "get off me you crazy bitch" as she wrestled herself away from an older Czech woman who appeared to be the bathroom attendant. After that episode, Coral thought she'd rather not go in there. We walked across the bridge to the foot of Petrin Hill to take the funicular railway up to the top (grab a day pass for the public transportation system across the street at the tobacco shop) and wandered around for a while, coming across the observatory, the tower, a walled garden, lots of walking paths, and some nice views of the city along the way.

Old Town

Next up, we walked down the hill and across the Charles Bridge (lots of touristy crap going on and near the bridge) over into Old Town. We were going to go to the old Jewish Ghetto and cemetery, but the entrance fees were really steep, so we skipped those and got a picture of Coral with the Franz Kafka statue across the street from the Franz Kafka cafe before stopping in a bakery for a quiche lunch. From there, it was an nice winding walk through the middle of Old Town to check out the Astronomical Clock. While wandering around in the central area, we stopped in several shops to look around and found a little phonograph museum tucked away back down a little side street.

Wensaslas Square

One of the things Coral wanted to do was find this photography gallery mentioned in one of the guide books. It was supposed to be located off of Wensaslas Square (where the velvet revolution occurred just before the fall of the soviet union) which is a huge, modern shopping area in New Town. The amazing thing about this area was that the shops weren't just along the street like in many cities, they extended back into the interior of the city blocks like malls, forming a labyrinth and making it difficult to figure out where a particular address might be. Coral's determination paid off though and we found the gallery by going through the giant, three level camera store we came across, out the back into an interior courtyard area, and into a house-like building. The exhibit at the time was hundreds and hundreds of photography books, magazines, and other print media stretching back years. We browsed for hours looking back through the history of photography before getting hungry and deciding it was time for dinner. While completely unnecessary for the distance we were going, we thought we ought to at least use our day pass once to ride the metro (which is deep, deep, deep underground) to the station close to our place which was only one stop away.

After a little rest, a few walkable blocks away from our apartment, we had dinner at the Lemon Leaf, a fusion restaurant with really fantastic food and wine, which put us in a great mood for a night walk along the river where we saw Frank Gehry's dancing building, Prague Castle and the Cathedral, and other folks out enjoying the brisk, but fantastic evening. Having made our way up to and across the Charles Bridge, we decided we were done and headed back to get some sleep to prepare for flying back to London the next day.

St Vitus Cathedral

Up early, we headed back down to The Globe for breakfast again and then gathered up our things, finished writing in the apartment journal, and made our way to the metro to take the trip out to the airport. The metro gets you pretty close, but doesn't quite get you all the way there. You have to get out at the last metro stop and go to the bus stop to catch a bus the rest of the way to the airport. At the airport, we saw a couple of long lines at some of the airline windows, but since we already had our confirmations, we went to the ticketing area to get our boarding passes. When we got to the front of the line, we were greeted with a "sorry" and handed a piece of paper which informed us that due to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland and the ash cloud that had spread over northern Europe, all flights were canceled. Not knowing what to do at first or realizing the scale of the travel disaster, we got in one of the long lines for the airline window where they really just told us that they could reschedule us for another flight two days later. After a running around to the windows of some of the other airlines and finding expensive prices, we grabbed a quick bite in an internet-enabled cafe to figure out what to do next. There just wasn't any way to get on the last flights out, so I looked at Coral and said "We've got to get back to the central train station as fast as possible before everybody else figures out that's the only way to leave."

The Globe

We hurriedly made our way out to the bus and then the metro and upon arrival in Hlavní Nádraží , we sped to the travel agency to see about a train ride. At the first travel agency, the guy was incredibly helpful and found us a really inexpensive two-person private cabin on the night train to Cologne (I was amazed at how much less expensive it was than the night train tickets we had bought at the Florence train station which goes to show you should always use the little travel agencies near the station rather than the station itself for this kind of travel). When we asked about getting the rest of the way to London, he told us we'd have to go around the corner to the other travel agency because trains leaving from Cologne were by a different company. As we made our way to the next agency, it was getting a bit more chaotic as the scope of the problem was becoming more clear. The next agency had quite a few people in it, but we patiently waited our turn. The gal that helped us was very nice and managed to get us a connecting train from Cologne to Brussels, but she wasn't able to get us any further than that because the last legs across the channel were filling up with all the travelers returning to the UK from their Easter holidays. With as many train rides as we were able to secure, there was nothing left to do but kill some time before our night train, so we stopped at a restaurant at the station where we met an Irish/English guy that used to be a security consultant (he was pretty cagey about the particulars of what that meant) who was in the country looking to buy some rural land to build a house on. We learned that while the land is incredibly cheap, the building materials are super expensive in the Czech Republic. He was quite the paranoid guy and several times told us how we needed to be really careful on the night train and how if anyone knocks on our door during the night, we should position ourselves thus and so and put our foot in a particular place, so that the door couldn't be forced open. Interesting guy.

Petřín funicular

After several hours of waiting around and bumping into an older English couple who were trying to get back to London as well (they had managed tickets as close as Calais), it was finally time to board the train. We ended up getting bad information from the porter about when the dinner car was available and ended up missing it, so we had to eat the last of our travel bread. I'd love the go back and take the train going from Cologne into Prague because the river valley would be gorgeous in the morning light.

We arrived at Brussels South station which was packed with people trying to figure out how to get to wherever they were going that had now been made incredibly challenging by the volcano which the news revealed was still erupting with no signs of letting up. Searches online for buses, trains, cars, planes, etc all came up as full for many days into the future which made us start to freak out a bit because all the hotels nearby were filling up and getting expensive quickly as well and my flight back to the States was leaving in a couple of days. All the ATMs we could find at the train station an in the surrounding neighborhood were either out of money or out of service which didn't make us feel any less stressed. The only solution Coral and I could think of was to try to get in contact with our relatives that live in Belgium to see if they had any ideas of where we could stay or perhaps put us up until we could get back to England. The only problem was that we didn't have any of the contact information for any of them. After attempting contact via an old email address to no end, we decided to use our last Euros to get a phone card and see if calling information would yield anything. When we were last in Belgium, Coral and my mom had stayed with one set of relatives and my cousin and I had stayed with another. Luckily, I remember where they lived and information was able to give me a telephone number. While not being able to get in contact with anyone, we felt a little better just having at least some bit of hope for assistance.

The City and The Thames

After trying a few more times, we got in contact with Connie (who knows a little English) who told us we could get hold of Patrick (who is fluent in multiple languages) at his parents' house if we called back in about a half hour. Woohoo! We now had a lifeline! Giddy from how close we were to getting to see some of our favorite people, we decided to stop in at the ticketing office to see if there was anything at all available (bus, train, car, large dog, we weren't going to be picky) and how long we would be in Belgium. To our surprise, the agent informed us that the Eurostar has just added another train for the next day, so we snapped those tickets up and heaved a sign of great relief. We then got in contact with Patrick who told us to grab a ticket for the local train that would take us to Hasselt where he and Connie would pick us up and take us to Remi and Rachel's to stay for the night. Our relatives took fantastic care of us, even having the next door neighbor come over to translate for us while Patrick was gone until his Johnny and Frieda could come over. We had a great time talking to everyone, seeing Russel (the dog) and enjoying some awesome St Petrus Belgian beer (dubel, tripel, and blonde and all terrific) which made us sad that we had tickets to leave the next day because we would have loved to have stayed longer to enjoy our relatives.

Trafalgar

A lovely breakfast and packing sack lunches (and an attempt to pack us dinner as well just in case we needed it) preceded Johnny giving us a ride back into Brussels to catch our train. The train trip was fast and uneventful and Coral felt a lot of relief being back in Hatfield where she had exams and homework coming due in a couple of days. While she felt relief, the next couple of days got more and more stressful for me because of the volcano and the continuing havok it was playing on air travel which caused me to start worrying about bills and rent coming due and other stupid things like that. My original flight got canceled as well as two rescheduled flights that they had put me on which initially made me wonder if I was ever going to be able to get back home. Eventually, I stopped worrying about it, since there was nothing I could do about it and settled in to enjoy where I was. Coral and I went to London to see some sights and walked the Queen's Way (which is really friggin' long) when the subways stopped working. I also got to meet several of her study-abroad friends, see Hatfield and St Albans (where we had an amazing real English breakfast) and have a good time just hanging out with Coral.

Millenium Bridge

Eventually though, the volcanic ash cloud had shifted a bit and the MetOffice stopped being overly-cautious which allowed me to finally catch a flight home after an additional week of being "trapped" in England. What was really disturbing about returning home was how absolutely ridiculous and assinine "Homeland Security" and the TSA are. Going through the horrendous lines at customs at the Chicago airport and all the unnecessary and ineffective security that exists at US airports these days made me pretty angry. During all our travels and going through heavily-used hubs in many different countries, airline travel in the US is by far the most frustrating and sad experience. Even in places where there are far more security risks than in the US, the security process is much more humane and reasonable.

Upon getting home, it seemed like I had been away an awfully long time due to the number of places I'd been, things I had seen, people I had met, and adventures I had had with my sister Coral. If anything, this trip made me want to go to even more places that put me out of my comfort zone and experience many more different cultures and countries.

Mini Grand Tour: Part 2 - Buon Giornno, Italy!

2010-09-13T11:12:00.006-05:00

Forum Romanum

Leaving Egypt, we flew from Cairo to Athens and then Athens to Rome. Wandering through the airport in Athens was a bit of a jarring experience after Egypt. Things were calm and eerily quiet compared with the hustle-and-bustle of the places we visited in Egypt.

While a bit tired from the travel, arriving in Rome was exciting, since my last visit was in 1999. Coral and I grabbed a couple train tickets and a local calling card and then hopped the train from the airport in Fiumicino into Rome. After arriving at Roma Termini, we phoned to let the B&B know we were on our way via the metro.

Monument

A short time later, we arrived at Vacanze Romane B&B (found via Cross-Pollinate) just off of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and met our host Anselmo, a pretty cool older gentleman. Anselmo showed us around the B&B, which is decorated with interesting vintage posters and toys, and got us acquainted with our keys, timed light switches, and our vouchers for breakfasts at the Piccolo Bar across the street. There was a catch though: Anselmo only speaks Italian and French. On the plus side, those are the two non-English languages that I have some basic knowledge of, so by using both of them, we were able to figure things out. It had been a few years since I had been in Italy, so it took a few days for me to really get my ear back and start being able to form responses quickly enough in Italian. What sucked was that by the time I was really getting in the groove, it was time for us to leave Italy.

Ego Animadverto Tu

Our first day exploring Rome was pretty much a whirlwind. Up at a reasonably early hour, we started our day with a pastry and juice at the aptly named Piccolo Bar - a sliver of a cafe run by a nice, young Chinese couple. Then, it was off see the sites. We hopped on the metro and took the A line up to Termini and the B line down to Colosseo where started off by walking over to Trajan's Column, which depicts his victory over those pesky Dacians, and the Imperial Forum. Next, we walked across the street and up the back path to the Capitoline to grab our Roma Passes and back down to the Roman Forum where we used one of Rick Steves' audio tours to learn about the site. From there, we moved up to the beautiful Palentine Hill and over to the Colosseum.

Rome

After lunch, we caught a bus (it's ridiculously easy to get around Rome on the buses and metro) over to St Peter's Basilica, went through the security cordon, and got in a long line to go up to the top of the dome. It is well worth the cramped and slanted trek up the several hundred steps to get to the top as the view of Rome from up there is incredible. I debated whether to take Coral there on our first day or on a later day after we'd seen more, since it's fun to pick out all the places you've been, but it's also just a stunning introduction to the city. Once we'd had our fill of being packed together with a bunch of other people all competing to see, we descended back down to the interior of St Peter's to take in all the amazing art and architecture. By the time we were done, we were almost completely exhausted from our very long day of walking, but not quite exhausted enough that we couldn't make a slight detour on our way to homebase to get Coral her first taste of the best gelato ever at Giolitti's.

Fresco

With our first day being so exhausting, we decided to mellow out a bit for our second day. After catching breakfast at Piccolo Bar, we made our way down to Piramide station, so we could take the train out to Ostia Antica. The weather was beautiful and Ostia was really nice. Once again, we used an audio tour by Rick Steves as our initial guide to the history of the place. When we finished with the audio tour and had some lunch, we spent most of the day just wandering around and exploring the nooks and crannies, which are full of interesting mosaics and other signs of ancient life, that you find when you leave the main path behind.

Trevi Fountain

After a leisurely day in the parklike setting of Ostia, it was time for us to head back to the city. If you're ever in Rome, I suggest you make time for an evening stroll across the Centro Storico. Jumping off the metro at either Barberini or Spagna station, we started by the Spanish Steps and walked over to the Trevi Fountain. Coral and I spent some time people-watching, since I wanted to wait until the sun set and get some evening pictures of the fountain. On our way from the Trevi over to the Pantheon area, we encountered Bartolucci: a really nifty shop selling a variety of whimsical items made from wood as well as some incredibly intricate larger works of wood craftmanship like a full-size cruiser motorcycle. We also found a great little supermarket just off the Piazza Rontunda by the Pantheon which we used whenever we needed supplies. Our energy reserves were getting a little low, so we took a break and hung out at Piazza Navona, which used to be a circus (the chariot race kind, not the elephant kind), while we decided what to do for dinner.

Bartolucci

After looking through some of the information we had on restaurants in the area, we settled on Trattoria Der Pallaro over by Campo de Fiori, since it sounded like a more "local" place than a lot of the other stuff around. The part of the description that really caught our eye was that it was a place that doesn't have a menu, you get whatever the lady that runs the place has decided to make that day. Talk about a great decision. This is where we relearned how to eat the European way and love it. It was a complete five course meal filled with amazing delights: fantastic jug wine, yummy appetizers, one of the best garlic lentil dishes we've ever had, pasta course, meat course, desert, the whole shebang. At first, we were idiots and were eating like we would in the US, wolfing down whatever was set in front of us. That was a mistake and we quickly found ourselves nearly full before we'd even made it through the appetizer course which was huge. This led to a hushed discussion about how in the heck we were going to make it through the rest of the meal without exploding. Then it dawned on us, we were in Rome, in Europe, where you're expected to hang out and take your time and not only enjoy your meal, but also enjoy the people you are with because they aren't going to rush you out of the place in order to reuse the table. Once we figured that out, the rest of the meal was something to enjoy rather than a mission to be conquered. We were perfectly happy to continue to sitting there even after desert, but it was getting late and we needed to catch a bus to get us to the metro in time for the last run of the night that would get us back to homebase.

Laocoön

Day three was filled with the Sistine Chapel, where our disgust for tourists grew when the idiots packing the place refused to respect the simple "no talking, no photography" rule, and the massive Vatican Museums which have one of the most amazing collections of statuary you'll find. The most amusing part of the day was the look of horrified disappointment on Coral's face when we stopped on the way back to homebase and she got some of what most shops in Rome try to pass off as gelato. I had tried to warn her. She grudgingly finished her cone and then demanded that we go back to Giolitti's at least once more before leaving Rome. That evening, we had some fantastic pizza at a tiny trattoria between the Pantheon and Bartalucci's and to my dismay, Coral had enough room left for us to fulfill the Giolitti's requirement.

Park Like

Our last half-day in Rome, we stopped in to visit the Bocca della Verita, were stunned by how gigantic the Baths of Caracalla are, and then bid farewell to Anselmo as we headed off to board the train for Florence.

Il Duomo

After checking into a great little place (Hotel il Bargellino) owned and operated by a Bostonian expat (Carmel) and her Italian husband (Pino), it was time for a quick bite and then some pictures of the Duomo and it's gorgeous pink, green, and white marble exterior. There was a groovy outdoor sculpture exhibit between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery that we checked out before crossing the Ponte Vecchio where it was time for some gelato and a stop at a little shop that sold porcelin masks.

Veranda

Day two in Florence was marked by one of the stupidest things we ran into on our tour: some genius decided that during the Festival of Science was a good time to remodel the Museum of Science. It was pretty disappointing that so much of the collection was unavailable during the construction, but we made the best of it. Next up, a look at the tombs of notable dead people at Santa Croce and some confusion as we tried to figure out what else we were going to be able to see, since it turned out to be a day when many of the awesome museums were closed for the day or for some other temporary reason. We made the best of it and went to the botanical gardens and then spent some time just sitting on the veranda back at the hotel while waiting for our night train which would take us to Prague via Vienna.

... next episode, the Czech Republic and Volcano fun.

Mini Grand Tour: Part 1 - Egypt

2010-06-19T13:23:00.008-05:00

Juxtaposed
Originally uploaded by trp0

My sister Coral did a studyabroad semester in Hatfield, England this year and for her Easter break, we decided to do a mini grand tour. Our first stop was Egypt (Luxor set / Cairo set).

It was pretty interesting to be so far out of our element. We went to a country where we don't speak the language and weren't familiar with the culture. We did do this on purpose, so it wasn't as big a shock as it might have been. Instead, it was a pretty fascinating learning experience.

Our first stop was Luxor in the south (Upper Egypt). We stayed at the Nefertiti Hotel where we took advantage of their sister company Aladin Tours to take a couple of half-day tours. Coral and I both really liked the Nefertiti. Both the night and day staff were very helpful with any questions we had or tour arrangements we wanted. At no point did it seems like they were more interested in selling us something than simply being helpful and wanting us to have a good time which wasn't the case at our Cairo hotel.

Temple of Hatshepsut
Originally uploaded by trp0

First up was the West Bank, or the land of the dead, where we got to tour Hatshepsut Temple, the Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens. We hadn't had time the night before to get any Egyptian pounds and our tour was leaving early enough that there wasn't an open ATM around, but the day manager at the hotel amazingly lent us the money needed to get into the sites for the West Bank tour. The temple was pretty amazing and our guide, Alladin, provided a wealth of information about the site as well as pointing out the bullet holes from when 60 tourists were gunned-down by terrorists in the early 2000's. Alladin was great at giving us not just the shiny side of things and talked about how devastated the local economy was by these attacks. Over 80% of the people in the Luxor area are employed either directly or indirectly by the tourist industry. When the attacks occurred, tourism went from over 6000 people a day to below 800. Even today, things haven't fully recovered and they are only seeing around 3000 people a day.

Ok, Ok, We Get It. You Rock As A Pharoah
Originally uploaded by trp0

We weren't able to get any pictures of the two Valley's because cameras are not allowed in the tombs. Unfortunately, we were there on the hottest day they'd had to that point in the year and instead of the 80F temps of the previous weeks, it was about 106F. Not particularly comfortable for traipsing about in narrow passageways where the breathing from all the tourists substantially raises the humidity making it ridiculously hot. When we went in a couple of tombs that the other groups weren't going in, it was much more bearable.

After the sites, we got introduced to haggling at the alabaster "factory". Unless you specify otherwise, tours in Egypt will inevitably stop at a local factory of some sort. Alabaster, rugs, papyrus, etc. While the products were interesting, it was our first day in Egypt and we weren't quite prepared for the experience. We came away with a handmade alabaster vase, a scarab, and a pyramid for probably about one and a half times what we could have gotten them for, but that was ok.

Supports
Originally uploaded by trp0

After lunch, we did a half-day tour of the east bank sites which included the Karnak temple complex and Luxor temple. Our guide for this part of the tour was Mohamed Ali who also provided great information about the sites. The Karnak temple complex is amazingly huge and what struck us the most was how the ancient Egyptians managed such feats of engineering.

The next day we headed for Cairo for a couple of days and stayed at the Windsor Hotel which was a bit of a disappointment. My next trip to Cairo, I'll probably stay somewhere over on Zamalek. The front desk seemed more interested in making a buck rather than being useful.

Bab Zuwayla
Originally uploaded by trp0

Our first day in Cairo was a holiday (Spring Day), so not much was open. This ended being a good thing as it allowed us to more casually wander around in what we learned the next day is normally a VERY crowded and bustling city. We walked down towards the middle of the downtown on Talit Harb road and had a great fatteh and kebab lunch at Felfela. After a brief stop back at the hotel, it was a walk through Islamic Cairo over to the Khan el Khalili bazaar. Weird but interesting to be the only "white people" we saw during the entire trip over and back. We did encounter some westerns at the bazaar, but the best parts were Coral getting a chance to talk to some local girls about their studies and then her haggling with the scarf vendor.

Preservation
Originally uploaded by trp0

The next day was radically different. Cars and people EVERYWHERE. We booked a van and driver and went to see Saqqara where we got to see the experimentation with mastabas and other early structure which were the precursors to the "true" pyramids.

After a stop at the papyrus "factory" in Giza and a misunderstanding between our Canadian van mates and the driver about whether they wanted to rent camels or not, it was off to see the Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. They were great. Pretty pushy touts (vendors) at the Giza plateau, but other than that, amazing stuff. Again, the feats of engineering are just stunning. They're having some trouble preserving the sphinx due to the water table and encroaching city, so it was good to see it before it disappears in another few thousand years.

After our grueling tour it was time to head back to Cairo for a quick nap and then some lunch at Gad which was quite the experience. The young guy working the cash register knew enough English for us to order a kebab sandwich and a chicken sandwich. If not for that, we'd have been pretty screwed. The menu was entirely in Arabic and the place was completely packed with people. While waiting for our order, we met Sammi, a super nice, half-Egyptian, half-Canadian petroleum engineering student who was in town to visit family. He stopped in off the street after seeing how badly we stuck out in the crowd and wanted to see if we needed any help. The most amusing part was when the three of us got to look disdainfully at the stupid American who stopped in and asked us if the place took US dollars.

Now _That's_ A Lot Of Garlic
Originally uploaded by trp0

The end of our stay in Egypt was characterized by a couple of unfortunate events. My stomach decided to go dodgy which kept us at the hotel for the last night in Cairo and then the next day, the taxi driver our hotel hailed for us took us to the wrong terminal at the airport. However, the ride to the airport was totally fun. Our driver was a master at weaving in and out of the "lanes" which is to say, there aren't any lanes and it's just a river of vehicles heading in the same direction which our driver took advantage of every little bit of space to squeeze his way between other vehicles to keep us moving forward.

My next trip to Egypt, I will probably want to either stay with locals or at least meet up with some local folks to explore with to make it a bit easier and to also get to see more of the local culture. Coral and I made a pretty good go of it, but it was definitely a little tough not speaking the language and not quite having enough time to really grok the local culture.

TEDxKC

2009-10-06T13:53:00.001-05:00

Urban Noise Camp
Originally uploaded by trp0

TEDxKC was wonderful. The event was well-attended at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City and there was a variety of excellent speakers, performers, etc.

Now, they just need to get another one organized!

Sparkley

2008-08-04T21:27:00.002-05:00

Sparkler
Originally uploaded by trp0

The fourth of July was fun. Hung out with friends, played games, watched the city fireworks display, and played with sparklers.

Disturbing: Speaking of sparklers, here's a wonderfully disturbing flickr collection, and the dude's site is here.

The dollhouse photos over here are pretty nifty too.

Car: Getting ready to put one of these in my car. Taking apart the dash was pretty darn easy, so we'll see how it goes once I get the part in. Just could stand the static when using the FM transmitter with the iPod.

Bridge

2008-02-20T19:03:00.007-06:00

Bridge
Originally uploaded by trp0

Went to San Francisco a few months ago (check out the pictures hee) and loved it. I recommend everyone check it out. Got to see quite a bit while I was out there. Some of it was the regular touristy stuff, but I also got to see one of my favorite bands play an amazing show: Rilo Kiley. Man, that was a great show. One of my friends found a taper copy of the show online somewhere and the fidelity turned out great.

Besides the concert and touristy stuff, I also went and had a look at Berkeley (which was also very cool), and just kind of hung out soaking up the atmosphere. If it wasn't so friggin' expensive to live out there, I wouldn't mind living there for a while.

So, here are some links...

I was so disappointed that these button over at Etsy sold out.

A couple of these t-shirts were kind of amusing.

Definitely check of this friggin' cool pocket synth.

Hilarious

2007-06-21T10:04:00.001-05:00

Heroes

2007-05-02T18:52:00.000-05:00

Badges?! Badges?! We don't need no...oooo...neat.

2007-04-26T15:52:00.000-05:00

More badges from the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique that I qualify for:

-- The "totally digs highly exothermic reactions" badge.

-- The "I'm into telescopes astro" badge (LEVEL I).

-- The "I've set fire to stuff" badge (LEVEL I).

-- The "works with acids" badge.

-- The "non-explainer" badge (LEVEL I). Where the recipient can no longer explain what they do to their parents.

-- The "astronaut" badge (LEVEL I). Whereby the recipient has used a spacecraft simulator.

-- The "astronaut" badge (LEVEL II). Whereby the recipient has actually been aboard a spacecraft.

Baby Got Back - Gilbert and Sullivan Style

2007-04-25T16:47:00.000-05:00

So hilarious.

Obvious Findings

2007-02-16T11:53:00.001-06:00

The Frozen Shore
Originally uploaded by trp0.

If you don't already read Seed Magazine, you really should start. It's fantastic.

Anyway, in the Dec/Jan 2007 issue, there's a fun list of the year's five most obvious findings (which could have come right out A.I.R.). These were presented mixed with several impostors. Here's the list. See how you do (answers at bottom of post).

looking at the sun hurts your eyes

fat kids picked last for sports teams

women like funny men

marijuana gets you high

cat's breath smeels like cat food

partisans are irrational about politics

cheeseburger-and-whiskey diet causes weight gain

being poor is stressful

obese smokers have high risk of death

brown is world's least-favorite color

fiber keeps you regular

Badges? We Don't Need No Stinking Badges.

Continuing in the science-related vein, here are the badges I qualify for from the Order Of The Science Scouts Of Exemplary Repute And Above Average Physique site. The badge images are linked to their descriptions.

The "I'm pretty confident around an open flame" badge. - Never once did I set myself or any part of my clothing on fire when I was in the lab. It's not hard people, just remember, fire burns.

The "I may look like a scientist but I'm actually also a ninja" badge. - I decided I qualify for this one, since I'm also into Kung Fu.

The "I can be a prick when it comes to science" badge. - Being from Kansas and thinking that the fuckers trying to have so-called "intelligent design" (aka creationism) taught in science classes is fucking insanity can easily earn you this one.

The "I've touched human internal organs with my own hands" badge. - Internal organs are pretty cool, but they do feel a little gross.

The "has frozen stuff just to see what happens" badge (LEVEL I) - Come on, who can't at least achieve this one.

The "has frozen stuff just to see what happens" badge (LEVEL II) - Sometimes dry ice is just necessary.

The "has frozen stuff just to see what happens" badge (LEVEL III) - I love how brittle things get when you freeze them in liquid nitrogen.

The "I bet I know more computer languages than you, and I'm not afraid to talk about it" badge. - Getting into an argument about computer languages is soooo geeky. Unfortunately, it's happened more than once.

The "pharma shill" badge. - There are some seriously cool compounds available.

The "I've done science with no concievable practical application" badge. - Making banana oil in the organic chemistry lab that smells more like bananas than bananas do is fun, but completely impractical.

The "I know what a tadpole is" badge. - Who doesn't?

The "experienced with electrical shock" badge (LEVEL I) - Severed frog legs can still kick pretty good when you apply an electric current.

The "experienced with electrical shock" badge (LEVEL II) - Sometimes you have to punish people for the wrong answer.

The "experienced with electrical shock" badge (LEVEL III) - It's only a matter of time really before you end up shocking yourself.

answers to obvious findings: 2,3,6,8,9 are the real findings

Klingons and Vulcans

2007-01-13T15:39:00.001-06:00

Jack and Paco
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Legislate Long and Prosper: As if I wasn't already frightened enough by the "leaders" of our country, at least one Trekkie has invaded Congress.

Death Star: Here's a clip from adult swim about what happened after the death star blew up.

Sandy: If you like sand sculpture, here are some incredible ones from Lommel, Belgium.

Images: Have a look at a few incredible photos of various things. The first three are really cool (lighthouse, storm front, and fire) and I also like the one of the peacekeeper missile launch.

Food Mood: Here's a short piece on how food effects mood.

Candy Goodness: Check out this pretty rockin' candy version of the Battle of Helm's Deep from The Lord of the Rings.

Ye Olde Blacke Sabbathe: I haven't had a chance to listen to this yet as the samples on the site were broken, but this group called Rondellus from Estonia has an album called Sabbatum on which they do medieval covers of Black Sabbath songs on period instruments and sung in Latin. I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Win, Lose, or Draw: I came across this drawing site earlier.

You Want Thighs With That Order: The Playboy Girls Of McDonald's is just wrong wrong wrong.

Amazing Portraits: Check out these amazing portrait shots. The link is to the nyud.net mirror of the original site because the original site was getting thrashed by digg.

Verbal Kung Fu Generator: Just found this name generator that spits out fun kung fu names.

Milk....Milk....Lemonade...

2006-11-30T09:06:00.000-06:00

I came across this a while back, but it's just gotten better, since I last looked at it: Amazon.com has been selling food items and such for a while now. One of the things they sell is Tuscan brand milk. Someone belonging to a web sites with lots of rambunctious users posted a link to it on their site which drew a horde of people to make some of the most hilarious reviews you'll see on Amazon. Have a look at the reviews and enjoy.

Another item with some pretty funny reviews is this book of random numbers.

Civic Duty

2006-11-07T11:58:00.000-06:00

Civic Duty
Originally uploaded by trp0.

I know it's childish, but the word "duty" sometimes makes me snicker. I don't remember which show or movie it was that kept making the joke "heh heh, you said doodie", but it stuck and now when I hear people having discussion about duty, I can't help but think that to myself.

I feel sorry for all those people around the country that seem to have such a hellish time voting. I've never had any problems in either Kansas or Oklahoma. The ballots are easy to read, easy to understand, easy to mark, and easy to submit. The polling places I've been have always been easy to find with helpful and friendly workers.

Voting shouldn't be hard. If it's hard to vote where you live, your state public officials are screwing you and you should force them to make change. If you constantly have to deal with long lines, force them to pass a law making vote day a holiday. Make your "leaders" listen to you.

Here in Oklahoma, I avoid ever voting straight rooster or straight Rodan [2] (see this PDF sample ballot ). I try to find out as much as possible about individual candidates and vote based on qualifications, candidate position on issues, and other relevant data which apparently makes me weird or something, since the media and politicians seem to think I should be voting based on party affiliation, knee-jerk reactions, orthogonal moral issues, and who can repeat their disingenuous slogan the most.

This site has great information about state-by-state laws regarding photography in polling places. In Oklahoma, the relevant law is 26 Okl.St.Ann. § 7-112.

Waiting

2006-11-02T09:34:00.000-06:00

Waiting
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Just a few items I came across recently. I have several more things I'll post later.

The Worst Congress Ever: Just when I thought I couldn't get any more disgusted with how our "leaders" in D.C. are running things, I came across this article in Rolling Stone magazine. It is simply ridiculous that we have a bunch of arrogant children making decision that will determine the future of this country. Oops...wait...not....they don't think about the future, they think about the next couple months or years and what they have to do to get re-elected rather than what's best for their grand children.

Adopt A Microbe: I absolutely love these microbe personifications by Emma Lurie. I wonder if they are the by-product of drinking all that tequila (see the picture in her profile....cute, intelligent, talented, and occassionally drunk).

Soooo cliche: My favorites from this list of reviews from amazon.com are Romeo and Juliet, 1984, and Brace New World. Weep for our future.

Godless Money: I need to get one of these stamps as well as the FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster) version.

Pac-graph: graph

Cool Building: The Ministry of Transportation in Tblisi, Georgia (note for Americans: the former Soviet republic, not the state) sure is a groovy building.

Protein Synthesis Orgy: This is a hilarious live-action representation of protein synthesis. Looks like a good time though.

Campaign Finance Reform

2006-10-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

PBS NOW Campaign Finance Reform

Some great stuff on PBS NOW this evening about campaign finance reform. A discussion about "clean elections" in Arizona which are funded by public dollars collected from parking and speeding tickets and also by voluntary check-offs on state income tax forms. It then moved on to discuss proposition 89 in California which is another public funding of elections initiative. After that, they talked to some other folks who are working on campaign finance reform like "Just $6" which is a bi-partisan effort to get federal elections publically funded to get our government out of the hands of the lobbyists and corporations and allow our elected official to focus on getting the job of running the country done rather than constantly worrying about funding their reelection campaigns and to level the playing field for average Americans to have their voices heard in how this country is run rather than just the rich and powerful. The show finished off with a story about an 89 year-old woman who is walking across the country from Pasadena, CA to Washington, D.C. in support of campaign finance reform.

Sunset

2006-10-10T17:16:00.000-05:00

Sunset
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Here are a few jokes I've heard lately that I liked:

What's worse than finding a worm in your apple?
The holocaust
--
What's red and shaped like a bucket?
A blue bucket painted red.
--
How many Emos does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two. One to change it and one to write a poem about how much they miss the old one.
--
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?" He said, "Baptist church of god!" I said, "Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?" He said,"Reformed Baptist church of god!" I said, "Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off. -- Emo Phillips
--
Jesus is hanging on the cross and John approaches.

John says: "Jesus, its John. How may I serve thee ain thy time of need?"

Jesus replies: "YEEEAAAAAAAARGGHGGGHGGHGGGHGGHGGH!!!!!"
--
Why did the blonde get fired from the M&M factory?
Repeated absences and stealing.

Naked

2006-09-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

2372
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Action Figures: These 'Horrified B-Movie Victims Figures' are pretty funny. I'm thinking of getting a set of them, so that I can go around town placing them in various situations. It's always handy to have an eager-to-please cast available.

Top 25 Censored Stories: Project Censored has their yearly Top 25 Censored Stories up. The link provides the individual story details. Here's a quick list for perusal:
#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

TSA Employment Screening: If you're thinking of getting a job in the US airport security industry, you may want to give the Bomb or Not site a try. You'll find that not everyone agrees on what constitutes a threatening package. (Note: I've had spotty luck, from time to time, reaching the site.) (Note2:

MMO Art: These folks can draw. Really nice, pretty darn nerdy/geeky, game-related art.

Hummmmmmmm: These guys are pretty pissed at McDonald's for glorifying the gas-guzzling, environment-spoiling Hummer by putting toy version in Happy Meals. On the upside, their site allows for making some pretty amusing signage.
If you prefer your signage to be of the religious variety, this site should provide you with what you need.
If you'd rather communicate your message via cassette, this site is for you.

Che-ney: There are several different version of the Che ney shirt out there. Some are better than others.

Compulsion To Shop: Ever felt compelled to buy something at the store? Turns out there are some interesting tricks employeed by stores to get you to buy buy buy.

One Sheet Zine: How to make a zine using one sheet of folded paper.

Dumpr: Some fun tools to play with for your flickr images.

Skeletoons: Cool, Korean gallery of the skeletons of various cartoon characters.

Bedjump: The bedjump site is pretty amusing. A collection of shots of people jumping on beds.

Sudo: If you're a computer geek, you'll get a kick out of this comic. Although I'm sure I've mentioned it before, xkcd is one of my favorite web comics.

Kickass Periodic Poster: Theodore Grey has a terrific poster of the periodic table. His periodic table table is also sweet. The sodium party story is pretty entertaining. I'd like to have a lake in which to blowup elements.

Miscellaneous Clips: Here are few clips I've found interesting over the past few weeks:

16 Buildings Demolished At Once [youtube]

Closer Star Trek mix of NIN tune "Closer". This mix portrays the complicated sexual tension in the Spock/Kirk relationship [youtube]

Eastenders FX - Time Trumpet [youtube]

Me, Me, Me

2006-09-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

tshirt: The tshirt idea I sold to tshirthell.com is now available on their site. I got some free shirts and some cash out of the deal which was pretty cool.

inc: inc.com requested to use one of my photos on their site (I have no idea why). Supposedly for some sort of slide show that they'll let me know about when they post. I'm actually kind of hoping that it ends up being used as an example of people taking horrible, stupid pictures :)

schmap: schmap.com has requested to use several of my pictures for a couple of their guides. They requested use of a few photos of Milan as well as couple handfuls of photos of Tulsa which might be included in their guides coming out at the end of September.

fan: The owner of aarondouglasgans.com asked to use a pic I took at a trek fest here in tulsa earlier this year.

It Was Delicious

2006-08-15T18:08:00.000-05:00

It Was Delicious
Originally uploaded by trp0.

It really was. ------------>

Giant Girl: Spooner found this crazy clip of a giant girl puppet. The puppet is pretty amazing as well as seeming slightly sinister to me.

Now, That's Sharp: I love this image of the world's sharpest manmade thing. The atoms are just really cool.

Sexy Party: One of my favorite things on Family Guy is Stewie's sexy parties.

Mmmmm....Milk: A lot of the comments on the Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz over at amazon.com are just hilarious.

Upside-Down-Ternet: I'm very tempted to set up an upside-down-ternet on my home network and open my wireless access. Rather than simply locking up his home wireless setup, this guy decided to put in place a proxy and some scripting that allows him to mess with people using his wireless access point by doing things like turning all the images upside down for webpages, blur images in web pages, and other fun stuff.

Drive Thru Lubrication Ad: This ad, as well as others on The Cool Hunter, are interesting and/or entertaining.

Flickr Corner: Here are some interesting things I've found on flickr, or related to flickr, lately...

Chinglish pool has images of the chinese equivalent of Engrish.com (which I've been a fan of for years).

Tiny Animals On Fingers set

Flickr Leech (allows you to view all the images in Explore in a single page).

Flickr Hacks group is a place to see and talk about various uses of the flickr API.

fd's flickr toys - if you haven't seen these yet, you're not a real flickr user.

e-zombie.com allows you to spell things using zombie images off of flickr.

Spell With Flickr allows you to spell things using various individual letter images from flickr. The quick way to use it is to simply add what you want to spell to the URL.

Bubblegum Cards: Bubblegum Fink makes bubblegum cards for things that have not had, or should not have, bubblegum cards made about them, like "A Clockwork Orange".

Top 10 Grossest Candies: Some of the top 10 grossest candies are pretty funny. 2 out of the 10 are toilet related. As a fan of Harry Potter, I was so happy when they started making Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (which made the list at #4).

Background Images: Interfacelift has some nice images for use as background.

Highspeed Photography: High Speed and Photoinstrumentation Photographs is a neat collection of images.

Star Trek Inspirational Posters: Some of these Star Trek Inspirational Posters are pretty hilarious...even if you're not a fan. And if you're really a geek, you'll probably find at least some of these Linux distribution inspirational posters amusing.

Vid Links

2006-08-05T21:45:00.000-05:00

Here are a few quick video links to amuse:

Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager (Episode 2) continues to be quite funny. If you haven't seen part one, you can check it out here.

Continuing on in the Star Wars vein is this clip of Darth Vader being a smartass by opening and closing his pod. Create editing job.

OK GO has a new video out for "Here It Goes Again" that is making the rounds. Not quite as good as the one for "A Million Ways" (which you can see here), but there are several moves that I really dig.

Fishtacular

2006-08-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

Fishtacular
Originally uploaded by trp0.

BAD BAD BAD: There sure is some interesting stuff showing up on YouTube. This clip has to be one of the worst recruiting videos of all time. I'm hoping this was a student project from someone at Appalachian State University and not something professionally done.

Robot: It's only a matter of time before the robots rise up and destroy all us meatbags. Manoi Robot looks like a sweet bot....even if it is a precursor to our doom.

Ew + Bike: Jess posted a link to this lovely pic from an ebay auction. If it were on flickr, it would definitely be right at home in the accidental ass crack pool.

Crash and Burn: Spooner suggested that it looks like the voice recognition in Windows Vista isn't quite ready yet. Quite amusing. I feel the demonstrators pain though. I've been up in front of a group and had everything that could go wrong go wrong.

fd's flickr toys: fd rocks with the flickr toys. It's very easy to blow through several hours playing around with the various tools.

A Career Without Boundaries: Do you have a problem with boundaries? Perhaps a career as an actuary is right for you.

Helpduhsk: Bill sent over this link to The Chronicles of George today. It's a collection of horrible/amusing/etc helpdesk tickets written by some dude named George and collected by a former coworker of his.

DP: Design Public has some interesting items on their site. Some are a little pricey though. Their mission: "Design Public’s mission is to sell fresh and inspiring design with a continued commitment to educate, inspire, nurture, and celebrate great new design."

Dot Matrix: I kind of like this dot matrix wallet.

Keep Your Beliefs Off Of My Education: T h i s is such a ridiculous situation. I feel sorry for all the non-creationist kids and families that are being forced to endure what amounts to the state imposing religious education on them. There's a reason they're called "beliefs". I don't care what you decide you want to believe in your private life, such beliefs are non-testable and, therefore, do not belong in science curriculae. You want to teach your kid your beliefs, go right ahead at home, in home schooling, or send your kid to private religious school. Public education is supposed to be education for people of all backgrounds and our government is supposed to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. I don't want the government telling me how and what to believe. And I would rather that the scientific community fight it out amongst themselves about whether macroevolution faces testable challenges to its validty from new research results. If new evidence contradicts current hypotheses, then the scientific method (NOT public opinion or preachers or pandering politicians) will sort it out and any changes will percolate into the education system as needed AFTER the evidence has been judged. [/rant] (damn it, bill. I know you riled me up on purpose.)

Hummer Fun

2006-07-31T16:07:00.000-05:00

My friend Jack was in town this weekend and while we were standing around in a parking lot waiting for him to finish sucking down a cancer stick, we noticed a Hummer a few stalls over and started talking about how lame they are. I asked if he'd ever seen the site with pictures of people flipping the bird at Hummers (which he hadn't).

So, today, when I came across this site called 'I Humped Your Hummer' I started cracking up.

Here's the site with the Hummer salute pictures.

Let's Try That Again

2006-07-23T19:05:00.000-05:00

It's Been Stupid Hot Lately...Oooo...Look!...Shiney Bug!
Originally uploaded by trp0.

I've got quite the deluge of links this time:

Oh, SNAP!: Dr. Burn's Corporate Snap Seminar gives you the training you need to effectively construct a snap that will devastate your opponent.

Parasite: Here's a cool video for the song "Sheena Is A Parasite" by The Horrors. Parts remind me of the movie Alien.

Airport Snooze: Sleeping In Airports is a site with reader-contributed information about which airports are the best and worst for sleeping in. If you are on a budget and need to catch some z's, you might find staying at the airport an attractive option.

WTF.com: Some choices for company URL can seem ok at first, but turn out to be a bad idea. Here's a list of the top 10 unintentiionally worst company URLs

About Time!: They are finally releasing DVD collections of Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Vader, Chad Vader: Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager is a hilarious clip about Darth's younger brother. Not everyone can be the right hand man of the Emperor, so Chad had to find other work.

Spore: Spore looks like it will be an awesome game. I'm just amazed at the depth and breadth of the thing.

Scatter Chat: If you need to communicate securely and anonymously, you might look into ScatterChat.

Famous: I really like I Wanna Be Famous by Jessy Delfino. After you watch the video, make sure to check out her site as she's got some funny stuff. I dig the joke about the trains.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphis: I discovered It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia a couple weeks ago and have been watching it every week since. I find it pretty darn amusing. My favorite episodes so far have been the one where Dee and Dennis try to get wellfare, but end up getting addicted to crack instead and the one where the group falls in with a highschool crowd.

Biro: The Biro-art Gallery has some nice work done with ink pens.

Blurb.com: Blurb is free book publishing software, so if you are thinking of publishing your own books, you might give it a look to see if it can help you out.

Math Humor: xkcd is a fun web comic with a math/language/relationship slant. Some of the jokes can be pretty deep, so come prepared. I really liked this one about Computational Linguists.

Get Your War On: I've been a fan of Get Your War On for quite a while. If you haven't ever checked it out, start at the beginning and read through. The dialogue is so hilarious when paired with the graphics.

Human Space Invaders: Check out this really cool stop-motion video of Human Space Invaders.

Chico Play Piano: Chico Marx sure could play the piano. I particularly like how clean his runs are and when they're all bouncing around.

Technical Virgin: Pay attention ladies, this and this are humorous clips that will help you maintain your virtue.

Israel/Lebanon

2006-07-20T11:21:00.000-05:00

what's left of their homes in suburb safir.jpg
Originally uploaded by arabist.

What a crazy situation going on in Lebanon right now. Seems a little lopsided when you have several hundred Lebanese killed and only a handful of Israelis. Destroying the Lebanese infrastructure (airports, roads, bridges, ports, etc) is really only harming the civilians and will have long-term economic impact on the Lebanese people. If Israel really wanted to get rid of Hezbollah and respond in a sensible manner, seems like they should have teamed up with the Lebanese and other armies in the region to go in on the ground and wipe them out.

Here are some photos from the area from someone on Flickr.

Catching Up

2006-07-09T18:59:00.000-05:00

Pez Pile
Originally uploaded by trp0.

It's been a while since I last posted, so I have a variety of links and such to pass along...

Zenvironments: Up first is a link passed along by Spooner to some pretty sweet illustration by a place called Zenvironments.

Hitlerific: I always felt there was something missing from the web...and now that hole has been filled in by cats that look like hitler.

Yawn, Bunny, Yawn: I'm actually a little creeped-out by yawning bunnies as they remind me of the killer bunny from the holy grail.

Micro Art: Amazing sculpture in very very miniature.

Stormy Weather: Some awesome images of storms.

This one goes to 11?: It's crazy that this girl is only 11 and can belt out a tune like nobody's business.

World Domination: Dr. Steel is pretty cool. I just wish the stuff on the site was actually for sale.

The Cool Hunter: There are some interesting ads over at The Cool Hunter site.

French Weirdness: This site has some odd, yet interesting images of covers from an old French magazine called Hara-Kiri.

The Robot: Weird video from Polysics called "I My Me Mine (Strong Machine)".

Plaster Casters: If you don't know who the Plaster Casters were, don't bother checking out this site where Cynthia is selling some of the casts they made.

Sex Aid: Need help getting your condoms on? Check out the Condom-On.

Knitted: Here's a handy how-to for making a sock monkey. Or, if you prefer, maybe you like knitted nautiloids.

Expensive Living: Is it expensive where you live? A couple weeks back, a list of the top 50 most expensive cities came out.

It's All Relative: I like having a sense of proportion when trying to visualize things like the planets. Check out this cool set of models which will give you an idea of how things in our solar system compare to each other and other stars.

Dust to Dust: Scott Wade does some amazing art in the dust on the windows of his mini cooper.

Wakarusa

2006-06-12T21:25:00.000-05:00

Hurra Torpedo
Originally uploaded by trp0.

NOTE: Clips and image links are at the bottom of this post.

Update: Added some footage of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. See clips at bottom.
Update2 (2006.07.03): Added footage of The Flaming Lips. See clips section.

I spent this past weekend in Lawrence at the Wakarusa Festival and had a fantastic time at the festival and visiting friends. There were a lot of interesting and/or nice people at the festival as well as many cute chicks.

Some friends graciously allowed me to stay at their new place and didn't even mind that by my third day at the festival, I totally reeked of Deep Woods Off, sunscreen, sweat, hippies, grassy field, and other festival-related odors. Their kids even waited up (or at least tried to) to welcome me home each night. Eventhough I've had a shower now, I still smell like festival. I've a feeling it's going to be several more days and showers for me to get back to my normal odor.

Sunday morning brunch was with some other friends who also have a new place and were having over a bunch of friends who all happened to be in town last weekend. Good fun, good food, good people.

Friday:
Temperature -- Really Fucking Hot (nearly 100F), but really nice after the sun went down.
Bands Seen: Michael Franti & Spearhead, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Disco Biscuits, The Reverend Horton Heat
Notes: The Rev put on one of the best live shows I've seen.

Saturday:
Temperature -- Fucking Hot (about 97), gorgeous after the sun went down.
Bands Seen: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Gabby La La, Keller Williams and the Keels, Buckethead, Les Claypool, The Flaming Lips, Keller Williams
Notes: Gabby La La was pretty tweaky, but quite interesting. She played "Somwhere Over The Rainbow" on the therimin!

Buckethead can play the hell out of the guitar. He must be about 7 feet tall, wears an upside down bucket on his head, and a silver mask on his face. Every once in a while during his show, he'd stop, the electronic music would come on, and he'd start doing the robot. At one point, he also did the nunchucks. He was just as good playing metal licks, jazz licks, classical licks...pretty much all styles.

The Flaming Lips put on such a party of a show. Just so many things going on, including a great crowd sing-a-long of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Wayne's (the lead singer) banter between songs was pretty entertaining. He would talk about a variety of things or perhaps talk about the next tune coming up. At one point while he was discussing the next song, he noticed one of the mud people in the crowd which completely interrupted his trail of thought. In mid-sentence, he stopped and pointed and said "...uh..are you covered in mud? *chuckles and smiles* Whoa! That kind of threw me there...*to the audience* there's this guy up here totally covered in mud....dude...you look like sasquatch..."

Keller Williams, when playing alone, creates loops, and other samples, on-the-spot to accompany his guitar playing. Darn groovy and quite the guitar player.

In the afternoon, as we were going back through the entrance to the main stages' area, some guy had something in his backpack that he wasn't supposed to (probably glass bottles), so he tried to jog away from the security guys when they said "hey wait". He apparently thought that there were too many people going through the gate for security to follow him, because he didn't really run all that fast. That was bad for him because one of the security guards went after him and flying-tackled him in a ditch. I snapped a picture of the guy as security was hauling him out :)

Sunday:
Temperature -- Darn Hot (about 92), but then cooled off around 6pm and was gorgeous the rest of the evening.
Bands Seen: Yonder Mountain String Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, STS9, Hurra Torpedo
Notes: The guy that got tackled and kicked out on saturday was back on sunday. I saw him again as the bus stopped to pick up people at the day parking entrance. While on this bus ride, I also heard a few conversations similar to others I'd heard over the course of the weekend. It appears that a certain segment of the festival-goers were upset that security was tighter this year than in the past and that the Kansas Highway Patrol had setup car check points on thursday while people were coming to the show because these things lead to there being far less drugs available at the festival than in the past. All I can say is that if this year represented less drugs...there must have been a crapload there the two previous years. The unhappy drug hunters started referring to the festival as "Wack-arusa". With all the great music and interesting people all over the place, I'm not sure why so many people felt they needed to enhance their experience.
Jack wanted to check out the disc golf course set up for the show. It was stupid hot, but the view from near hole 16 allowed us a great panorama of the main stages' area, the secondary stages' area, the lake, the camp grounds, etc. I'll have the clip and images up at some point.
All the bands we saw on sunday were great.

Yonder Mountain String Band drew a huge crowd to the main stage and played a terrific set.

Bela and crew definitely know their audiences. When I've seen them play at regular venues, they play to that crowd. At the festival, they definitely put on their "jam band" hats to play to that crowd. Before they started, my friend Jack and I got to talk to a guy Jack had earlier bought a disc golf disc from. He travels around from festival to festival selling discs and playing local disc golf courses. It was an interesting discussion of religion, politics, and society. Then the music started.

STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9) played a nice trancey set which ended up being a nice transition from Bela to Hurra. We got to see some flame spinners, some light rope jumpers, lighted hoola-hoops dancers, and other crowd fun.

Hurra Torpedo (a norwegian kitchen appliance rock band) was so friggin' hilarious, I couldn't keep myself together enough to shoot clips. When we got to the tent, they had just started playing and finished what the called a "hoedown". They said they had heard how crazy people in Kansas are about square dancing and so wanted to play one for us. The crowd was cheering them on and they said "no no...really...we simply couldn't play it again...you people sure are crazy for square dancing though....well...ok...maybe one more time." At that point, they played the tune again. At the end of that, the crowd again clapped and such like they normally do after a band finishes a song. Hurra chimed in with "thank you...thank you....you people are sure liking the square dancing......no...no matter how much you shout, we can not play it again......no...it just wouldn't be right......wow...you people really like your square dancing.....ok..maybe one more time." They proceeded to play the same song again.

During their show, we were treated to a cover of "Toxic" by Britany Spears, a cover of "Let My People Go" by The Rainmakers (a band from Kansas City from back in the late 80s), their cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart", as well as several other highly entertaining numbers. During the "Toxic" cover, they lead the crowd in some screaming. To encourage the crowd, one said "scream like Britany when she gave birth". Another then said, "scream like Britany did the first time her husband hit her."

The main stove and freezer player came down from his perch, pulled his jumpsuit pants waaaaay up, and showed us how to be sexy while the other guys played a flaminco-like song. At the end of that, he grabbed a glass of water, poured it down his pants, and said "I'm so sexy, even my penis needs a drink!"

As with other shows, one of the guys pointed to one of the others, told us his name and said "how about a big hand for him.......ok..now, how about a bigger hand for me....come on, is that all you've got?..I was pretty damn good....give me a hand."

After their cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart", the guy who beats the crap out of the stove kept going after it and kicking it like he was in a fight with it. One of the other guys had to pull him off a couple of times and then carried him off stage. When they came back on for their encore, he went after the stove again and said "Look at that shit. I won, right? I totally kicked its ass."

If you ever get a chance to see these guys live, I highly recommend it. And, yes, they let their butt cracks breath the whole time they performed; just like in the video.

Images: Wakarusa set on flickr.

Video Clips:

Hurra Torpedo

Dancing clown during Buckethead

Fire dancers

Gabby La La

Dancing hula hoop during Keller Williams and the Keels

Pretty lights

Jumping crowd during Michael Franti and Spearhead

Buckethead

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Victor Wooten Bass Solo

Wayne Wants Us To Lie

The Flaming Lips Take The Stage

Light Stick Rain

Sing-Along To Queen

The Most Perfect Breeze

The Singing Nun Creeps Me Out During Yoshimi

She Don't Use Jelly

The End

Photography And The Law

2006-06-08T00:47:00.000-05:00

Another Bush Supporter
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Read some interesting articles and such today regarding the legality of photography in public places, what rights folks have for taking photographs in public places, and some people that have had shitty experiences taking pictures.

Hawk: Thomas Hawk has had at least one or two run-ins with security guards trying to tell him that he's not allowed to take images in places that it appears he's quite okay to take pictures.

NPPA: The National Press Photographers Association has a blurb about the rights of press photographers as well as a link to a downloadable memorandum from a law firm that provides some basic information.

JPG Magazine: JPG Magazine has an issue called "Photography Is Not A Crime".

Krages: An attorney named Bert P. Krages II has some info about laws and rights regarding photography as well as a downloadable flyer called "The Photographer's Right" that discusses "...your rights and obligations concerning confrontations over photography." On his site, Krages also mentions the ACLU Bust Card which might be handy to have as a companion to Krages' flyer.

Permit: Photo Permit is a site about "keeping photographers out of trouble".

War: Although this set over on flickr doesn't really have anything to do with the legal aspects of photography, it's got some pretty neat shots from WWII that the flickr user's grandfather took.

Art

2006-06-08T00:22:00.000-05:00

Mayfest Youth Gallery
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Youth Gallery: The image on the right is one of a series I took at this year's Mayfest Youth Gallery during Tulsa's Mayfest. The Youth Gallery has art done by local elementary and secondary students. A lot of what I saw was really terrific.

Monkey Love: This blog has a funny series of "Monkey Love" paintings.

Fantastic: Cornell has a cool collection called 'The Fantastic In Art And Fiction' which has some nifty stuff in it.

Arf: Arf Lovers is a nice site labeled as "The Unholy Marriage Of Art + Comics" that you might find interesting and/or entertaining.

Wal-Mart Carnival / Link Dump

2006-06-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart Carnival
Originally uploaded by trp0.

Yo Gabba Gabba: Yo Gabba Gabba! looks like it might be an entertaining show. I love the picture on the main page.

Appliance Decoration: Vincon has some neat, magnetic, appliance decorations. A little something to spice up appliances that are typically a little unexciting.

Dime Store: Here's a little slideshow of some nifty old packaging from bygone days.

100 Best: PCWORLD has a list of what they consider to be this year's 100 best products.

Colbert Commencement: Stephen Colbert gave the commencement address at Knox College. He has some good and hilarious stuff to say.

Sweet Prints: reddingk has some really cool prints available over on their site.

YoLinux Security: This tutorial has some decent security tips for configuring your linux server.

Web Tutorials: I've found HTMLSource, the w3c, and w3schools to be helpful for quick reference on a variety of web-related topics.

DVD Media: If you want to know more than you really want to know about DVD media, check out this page over on digitalFAQ.com.

Chicken And Egg Problem Solved

2006-06-02T17:16:00.000-05:00

Chicken & Egg
Originally uploaded by Vanderlin.

In case you missed it a couple weeks back, the age old "which came first" problem has been solved.

Spelling

2006-06-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

I was just watching the final rounds of the National Spelling Bee. It's amazing the words that these kids can spell. The winning word was "ursprache" (which basically means "proto-language"). I also discovered that I suffer from weltschmerz.

I watched "Spellbound" last year and really dug it. It's a documentary about several teens and their pursuit of the national spelling bee title.

Wipe Your Drive

2006-06-01T17:41:00.000-05:00

MAXTOR HARD DISK
Originally uploaded by renxo_kuken.

Need a tool to destroy the data on your hard drive before you sell your old laptop of system? Have a look at Darik's Boot and Nuke.

Japanese Students Do Penny-Arcade

2006-05-31T22:55:00.000-05:00

A teacher in Japan needed something for his students to do, so he came up with a project of having them od their own dialog for some Penny Arcade strips. Some of them are hilarious.

Mmmmmm...Chili Sauce

2006-05-31T17:07:00.000-05:00

Mmmmmm...Chili Sauce
Originally uploaded by trp0.

It had been a while since Spooner had taken a look at my flickr stream, so when he was browsing around, he came across this image I had taken of that yummy chili sauce often found at asian restaurants.

The thing that he likes about the image is how it provides a good example of bokeh. I said the same thing..."what the hell is 'bokeh'?" The above link provides a good description.

I was able to find a set on flickr called "If it isn't bokeh....don't fix it.". Although it's kind of a witty title, Spooner pointed out that it was also amusing that pretty much none of the pictures included in the set were examples of bokeh.

Love Will Bring Us Together

2006-05-31T15:50:00.000-05:00

Grasping At Straws: You don't even have to make stuff up anymore. Apparently, Tom DeLay's defense was using a bit from Stephen Colbert to support their position.

Cool Covers: Check out the cool classical music cover art over at Classical Bytes.

Superhero Fine Art: Worth1000 has some interesting photoshop works where superheros and/or villains are done up as pieces of classical art.

The Power Of Football (Soccer): A friend pointed me to this article titled 'Arabs and Israelis united against World Cup TV fees' which demonstrates how even if their respective governments can't agree on anything, the people sure can.

Vote Pedo: Another friend sent me a link to this amusing article about pedophiles set to launch a political party in The Netherlands. Looks like all that hash and shrooms just isn't enough to keep them entertained.

Night Lights

2006-05-26T15:51:00.000-05:00

Night Lights
Originally uploaded by trp0.

I've passed by this PSO facility many times at night and had wanted to grab a shot of it for a while, so I finally got around to it. Not terribly interesting, but one of many facilities around that has something to do with energy in one form or another. There are at least two refineries just a bit north of this location which consistently produce peculiar odors every couple of months. I'm told that when you can smell them that it means something is going wrong with their processing and that such events require reporting to various governmental agencies.

Book Review: A Feast For Crows

2006-05-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

I finished reading the latest book by george R. R. Martin called A Feast For Crows. George is such a tease. Unlike the previous books in the series, in this one, he only tells the stories of half the characters. Now, I must wait for the next volume to find out what's been going on with the other half of the characters.

Overall, this book continues to keep me very interested in the story and ravenous for more. As has been the case with the previous books in the series, there continued to be many unexpected turns of event which took me completely by surprise. It's just amazing how many plots within plots within plots go on and how just when you think you have started to get a handle on where things are going, here comes the monkey wrench.

Yes, this "review" is pretty much completely devoid of anything from the book. This is because there are plenty of other places to find such information, I don't want to give anything away, and this blurb is simply to let my friends know that I continue to heartily recommend this series of books.

Dump O' Stuff

2006-05-24T15:11:00.000-05:00

Gabe's pictures and description of Tycho's work environment over at Penny Arcade is quite amusing. Tycho has one of the weirdest mixes of desktop detritous that I've ever seen. While you're there, this comic is pretty hilarious.

Aside: I'd like to take a moment to point out that I just today realized that using the contraction "you're" only saves you one character's worth of typing: the space between "you" and "are". Otherwise, in terms of visible characters, there's no savings. OH! Look! There's another minimal savings in "there's". If you really want savings, you should start using contractions like "y'all're" in place of "you all are" to maximize your contractiness.

The national report card has the latest data out regarding U.S. students' performance on stanardized science tests. Looks like things are improving at the lower levels, but apparently by the time they get to 12th grade, our students are a leaving a bit dumber than they used to be.

I built a poor man's steady cam a few weeks back and that went pretty well, so when one of my friends pointed me to the plans he used to build a work bench today, I'm feeling like I want to build one of those after I move to my new apartment (which I haven't found yet). Seems like it would be handy for a variety of things.

Worth1000 has a couple entertaining, manipulated photos.

My bench friend also pointed me to the Nabaztag Wifi Smart Rabbit which provides some "useful" features.

Butterfly

2006-05-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Spooner came across this pretty cool clip of a girl becoming a butterfly.

Drinking Problem

2006-05-17T15:36:00.000-05:00

Drinking Problem
Originally uploaded by trp0.

It was really odd to be walking down the sidewalk and come across this pile of miscellaneous beer bottles and other debris just sitting there.

I guess I shouldn't really be surprised though, some people here in Tulsa were never taught that the ground is not a trash can. I've seen several instances of people driving down the street, roll down their window, and toss a fast food bag, or other trash, out onto the ground. How the fuck can you be in _that_ much of a hurry to throw something away that you can't wait until you are by a trash can?

Chalk / Mount Merapi / Fox "We're Crazier Than You" News

2006-05-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

You've probably already seen this in emails traveling around the interweb, but this guy's 3D anamorphic illusions are just cool as heck.

Mount Merapi continues to smolder. Good thing the gold course is still in good shape.

Oh, Fox News. Do any of your "reporters" still take their meds? All sorts of crazy talk (example) has been coming out of so many people over there lately. It does make wonderful fodder for montages on The Daily Show, but it doesn't do the public, or the country, any good to be providing such volumes of disinformation. When they simply report the news without inserting their usual, hysterical, ranting "analysis", Fox isn't too bad (I thought Shepard Smith did a great job reporting on Katrina). Unfortunately, they seem to have about 10 seconds of actual news per hour with 59 minutes 50 seconds of skewed "analysis" where people just scream at each other. I like my news to give me the facts and provide objective, educational information. I don't want speculation and hearsay. One of my favorites was when there was a problem with an unruly passenger on a plane. They spent about 1 minutes giving us the facts about the situation and then the rest of the hour was speculation like "if he had had a bomb, how bloddy would the crash have been?" or "if he snuck a weapon on the plane, how many people could he have killed before air marshals intervened?". I'm only slightly exaggerating. Their "analysis" gets quite fantastical and jingoistic.

Animations

2006-05-16T16:56:00.000-05:00

Spooner pointed me to some sweet animations from one of his "competitors". I've only watched the showreel so far. Based on that, I'd have to give the edge to Spooner whose stuff is just incredible...even when he's being a corporate whore.

Anti-Abortion Pill Kills Mother / New Black Macbook

2006-05-16T16:38:00.000-05:00

New 'Anti-Abortion Pill' Kills Mother, Leaves Fetus Alive

I love The Onion. Their addition of radio news blurbs is just darn amusing. One of my favorites was when the letter 'D' dropped its support for Sesame Street. The Onion recently added weekly "radio addresses" as well.

Looks like Apple has finally completed their transition in the laptop line to the Intel chips by shifting from the old iBooks to the new 13" Macbooks. The black version looks quite tasty. I'm hoping that the move to Intel chips will bring the price of their hardware down a bit. Probably won't happen, but I can still dream.

Macbook page over at Apple.

Toys / Anti-Censorship / Wakarusa

2006-05-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

I was poking around a site that I buy instruments through from time to time and came across a link to one of their partners sites which had some nifty musical toys. A couple examples are the BeBop Kidz Sing-Along CD Player and the Schyilling One Man Band (which reminds me of the One Man Orchestra weapon that the musician guild was able to wield on NannyMUD).

Are you tired of the NSA, FBI, mom, dad, cable company, etc spying on what you're doing online? Boing Boing has a guide to defeating censorware available that you might find interesting.

I was reminded the other day that the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is going to be happening in Lawrence again this year. I'm currently trying to decide whether to go up and crash on some friends' couch and take it in this year. There are five or six groups I'd like to see. One of my friends went last year and said even with the tornados and other bad weather, it was quite a good time.

Kung Fu and Taiji

2006-05-10T16:58:00.000-05:00

above image from about.com

I've been taking Kung Fu and Taiji lately. It's pretty interesting, fun, and a good workout. One of the best parts is the variety of styles, techniques, etc that I get to study. Currently, I'm learning the following:

Northern and Southern styles of Shaolin Kung Fu

Chen and WuHao Taiji

Qi-Gong

Tai Chi Weapons
Spear

Nunchucks

Push Hands

Update: I've now also tried WuHao Long Staff and straight sword. Both of which are pretty cool. There are a few different staff forms and I've started learning at least a couple.

American Dad vs Family Guy

2006-05-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

Need to take a break or waste some time? Here's a little online game to check out:

http://www.americandadvsfamilyguy.com/

What's Your Name?

2006-05-05T13:58:00.000-05:00

Was looking for a name generator I had come across a while back as it came up with some interesting "words" that could be used for businesses and such. In the process, a couple friends were interested in some other generators, so here are some of the more interesting generators and a couple interesting names that got generated:

DJ Name Generator

My friend Jack ended up with the best, and most apropos, so far: DJ Tastes Like Chicken

Mine was pretty good too: DJ W.M.D.

My sister Coral's was pretty nifty: DJ Aural

Some are better than others...

Pimp Name Generator

Louis Farrakhan African Name Generator

Pirate Name Generator

Barrow-Downs Middle-Earth Name Generator

Goth Name Generator

Porn Name Generator

What's Your Pokéname?

Visited

2006-05-05T09:21:00.000-05:00

Well...I've apparently been slacking and have only visited 2% of the countries in the world and only 25% of the states in the U.S.:

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

2006-05-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

Saw an amusing clip called The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny today. It was linked from a poll where people were discussing who would win between ninjas, pirates, robots, or monkeys.

Ascending Curve

2006-04-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

Ascending Curve
Originally uploaded by trp0.

As I was walking around the grounds at the Philbrook Museum of Art this weekend, I snapped this pretty cool curve.

Lately, I've been trying to find different angles for images.

Knock Knock Joke

2006-04-27T09:52:00.000-05:00

Came across the following knock knock joke today:

Knock-knock.

- Who's there?

Under the Patriot Act, we don't have to tell you that.

OMG!! Ponies!!! 1

2006-04-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

OMG!! Ponies!!! 1
Originally uploaded by trp0.

In response to the slashdot's april fool's day theme, I created this set on flickr.

When I drove by this pony farm, I just couldn't resist stopping and grabbing some images.

Why I Can't Go Out With You

2006-04-25T11:24:00.000-05:00

My latest login fortune amused me:

Your login fortune:
Why I Can't Go Out With You:

I'd LOVE to, but ...
-- I have to floss my cat.
-- I've dedicated my life to linguini.
-- I need to spend more time with my blender.
-- it wouldn't be fair to the other Beautiful People.
-- it's my night to pet the dog/ferret/goldfish.
-- I'm going downtown to try on some gloves.
-- I have to check the freshness dates on my dairy products.
-- I'm going down to the bakery to watch the buns rise.
-- I have an appointment with a cuticle specialist.
-- I have some really hard words to look up.
-- I've got a Friends of the Lowly Rutabaga meeting.
-- I promised to help a friend fold road maps.

retrievr

2006-04-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

"spooner" wrote in with this find: a another pretty fascinating project based off of utilizing flickr images: retrievr. It lets you draw a sketch which it then uses to look for things on flickr similar to what you drew. Warning: Time suck!

What's Your Cyborg Name? / Which Colossal Death Robot Are You? / Linux Switch

2006-04-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

If you've always wanted to know what your cyborg name is, just us the Cyborg Name Decoder.

Who among us hasn't wanted to be a Colossal Death Robot? Now, we can use this handy quiz to determine what kind of colossal death robot we are.

If you're gonna be a villian, make sure you switch to Linux.

Emo Joke / Motion / Spell

2006-04-21T13:57:00.000-05:00

Saw this joke today:

Q: How many emo's does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None. They just sit in the dark and cry.

"spooner" pointed me to this motionographer site yesterday as a follow-up to sending me a link to this pretty cool bird clip.

Spell with Flickr is a pretty nifty project that can occupy your time for a while.

Random Clown

2006-04-21T11:22:00.000-05:00

Random Clown
Originally uploaded by trp0.

I was over at the Riverwalk in Jenks just hanging out with some friends and this clown happened by.

I really haven't seen all that many clowns in Tulsa, so it was a pretty random happenstance.

William Burroughs' House For Sale

2006-04-19T17:34:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine sent me this link to an ebay auction for William Burroughs' old home outside of Lawrence. It's a little weird seeing the place up on ebay.

Atlas Life

2006-04-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

Atlas Life
Originally uploaded by trp0.

If you ever want to take pictures of the downtown of a city without fear of being molested, come to Tulsa. I wandered around for about 45 minutes and the only people I saw were in the few random cars that went by.

I went downtown to grab this pic of the Atlas Life neon sign because it had been bugging me to do so for a few days now. I also took shots of a couple other buildings and managed to step in a big pile of dog shit. Luckily, it was pretty creamy and the shoes I was wearing don't have much tread, so it pretty much just wiped right off in the grass.

Unofficial Flickr Badge / Sand Art

2006-04-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

While poking around the other day, I found this page for making your own unofficial flickr badge.

I saw this clip on vSocial the other day and thought it was pretty nifty. Here's the artist's site.

April Fools Brings Web Fun

2006-04-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

Lots of fun web stuff happens during April Fools and people find and report interesting links. Here are a few:

Cute Overload

Google Romance

How To Make Your Own 'OMG Ponies!!' Sign

Barbie USB

Penis Unicorns

My Little Pony Role-Playing Game

Sushi USB

Build Your Own Web 2.0 Application Using Fluff and Hot Air

And Wikipedia has a tracking page.

Web Irony

2006-03-31T14:58:00.000-06:00

This is one of the funniest things I've seen this week:

http://www.da.ks.gov/itab/was/resources.htm

That page is totally jacked up in safari and firefox and isn't even right in IE.

Just in case it gets fixed, here's a screenshot:

I was considering sending them a note suggesting that unless they are attempting a bit of irony, this might not be the best way to attract people to their training resources.

AOL Throne / Street Fighting

2006-03-30T18:10:00.000-06:00

I don't think I've received enough AOL disks yet to make one of these, but maybe you have.

One of my friends sent me a link about how to win a street fight. I had to ask if he was planning on walking around roughing people up in some new bid to rule downtown Lawrence. I didn't get a response to that question which makes me even more suspicious.

Book Review: A Storm Of Swords

2006-03-28T15:45:00.000-06:00

I finished reading "A Storm Of Swords", by George R.R. Martin, this weekend. It's the third volume in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I've really gotten into this series and love GRRM's story-telling style a lot. The story is broken up into chapters that follow individual characters (referred to as POV [point-of-view] chapters on GRRM's site). However, the timeline is always moving forward, so when you get back to a character you followed earlier, things may be quite different than how you left them. As you read, you really don't know much more than the characters that you are following do, so you end up being surprised by certain things just like they would be which I find draws me more into the story than I usually get with other books. There's so much treachery and schemes within schemes within schemes going on all over the place that other than a general overall sense of where the over-arching storyline is headed, don't think you know what is happening, or is going to happen, down at the individual POV level. It keeps things interesting and makes you thirst for more. I won't go into plot or anything because I hate when people give things away, so you'll just have to get the series and read for yourself.

Eventhough I've read that the fourth and fifth books diverge a bit from how he's been telling the story in the first three books, I'm looking forward to getting started on it.

I definitely recommend this series.

V for Vendetta / Safety / Lil Brudder

2006-03-20T22:12:00.000-06:00

Just got back from V for Vendetta. I had read the graphic novel a few years back and really liked it. The movie was pretty well done and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There have been a bunch of morons protesting the movie as "glorifying terrorism" which probably just means that they've never seen it and/or never read the graphic novel. Ignorant assholes. They need to take a ride in their SUVs and get out of their sheltered suburban lives every now and again and take a look at the real world.

If you need a laugh, check out this educational safety video or this clip over at homestarrunner.

Spore / Stuff On My Cat / Battlefront II

2006-03-20T11:25:00.000-06:00

Spore looks like a pretty interesting game coming out this year. Check out this video presentation of what the game is like. I'm warming up my "close encounters" music/lights chops for communicating with other civilizations.

A friend pointed me to StuffOnMyCat.com earlier. It's pretty hilarious.

I was introduced to Star Wars Battlefront II this weekend. Talk about an addictive game. I'm very tempted to buy it for my PS2, but then I would never get through the book I'm reading and would rarely see the sun for a few weeks.

Big Stuff

2006-03-13T13:06:00.000-06:00

If you often find yourself, as I do, needing a giant pencil, coffee mug, or pair of boxing gloves, then you might want to take a look at:

http://www.greatbigstuff.com

Hack / Cowboy Guy, Karate Guy, Gorilla or Our Game Is Better Than Yours

2006-03-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

The hack-a-day site always has some amazing/disturbing things to check out. Like this guy that converted an optical mouse to a scanner. I mean, seriously, that's just nutty. fon looks kind of interesting and they've been putting up a lot of great links to some podcasts as well lately.

WireTap Pro looks like a cool OS X app that a friend pointed me too. I've used Audio HiJack Pro in the past. I'll have to check WireTap out to see how it performs.

The World Rock Paper Scissors site is pretty entertaining. However, the system implemented by myself and some friends a few years back is much more entertaining: Cowboy Guy, Karate Guy, Gorilla. Maybe if you're good, I'll introduce you to it. So, yeah, fuck you, rock paper scissors.

Media Guide

2006-03-09T11:19:00.000-06:00

Found this guide over at digitalFaq.com a while back regarding the quality of DVD discs, the differences between the various formats and a variety of other information.

Deal Sites

2006-03-09T11:13:00.001-06:00

Came across some sites to help find deals:

Deal Hunting

Coupon Cabin

Sales Circular

eDealInfo

Fat Wallet

GottaDeal

Slickdeals is another great site that typically has some great shorter-term deal information. Woot also has daily deal type stuff.

Don't forget the deal search sites:

Best Book Buys (looooove this one) / Best Web Buys

Fat Wallet

Pricegrabber

Pricewatch (focused mainly on computer components and networking, but has consumer items as well lately)

Froogle

Also, I was pointed to gotapex which has some amazing deals.

Update: 02.05.2010 - Came across retailmenot the other day which provides coupon codes and searchable online coupons.

Make Yourself A Simpson's/South Park Character

2006-03-08T16:19:00.000-06:00

Impress your friends. Amaze your neighbors.

Create a Simpson's character or a South Park character of yourself.

ARG! Damn Birds!

2006-03-02T19:42:00.000-06:00

This is exactly why I don't hunt. I just can't take the return fire from the snipers in the bushes.

DuckHunt 1945

Soviet Posters

2006-03-01T21:19:00.000-06:00

I had forgotten about these until one of my friends told me this week he'd been reading The Communist Manifesto. I love a lot the posters on this site. I like to look at them and come up with my own slogans. About halfway down the page are the links to the good stuff: soviet posters 1, 2, 3, etc.

Burning Beard

2006-02-28T20:22:00.000-06:00

I love the burning beard video by Clutch. How can you go wrong with robots and a burning beard?

Degree Confluence / Black People Love Us

2006-02-28T20:15:00.000-06:00

I really dig the degree confluence project. Check it out and if you're near a confluence, get yur ass out there and get a picture.

And if you're needing a good laugh, you should definitely visit black people love us.

Bush Jokes Over At McSweeney's

2006-02-28T20:11:00.000-06:00

A while back, this fun list of amusing bush jokes titled "Although I Like A Good George W. Bush Jokes As Much As The Next Guy, Some Of Them Seem Gratuitous And Mean-Spirited" showed up in my inbox.

After laughing at those, you might as well check out other stuff on the McSweeney's site. You'll find some decent entertainment there.

Things To Do With A Dead Badger / PVC Flamethrower

2006-02-28T20:06:00.000-06:00

Have a dead badger laying around that you don't know what to do with? Maybe you could try installing linux on it? This article has a nice howto to get you started.

And who among us doesn't find themselves scratching there head about a problem on a daily basis and wondering "If I only had a flamethrower....". Well..maybe this site that shows how to make a PVC flamethrower will help you out.

Genpets / Lambuel

2006-02-28T20:04:00.000-06:00

Genpets is a hilarious hoax. Quite well done. There are several places as you're reading through the information on the site that will crack you up.

Pretty sure Lambuel is a hoax too, but also very well done.

CDs make crappy presents and will make little girls cry.

If the Genpets and such didn't freak you out, have a look over at Strangeco for some odd gift ideas. Maybe you could use a klong?

Smart Stuff

2006-02-28T19:55:00.000-06:00

Some of the stuff on Smart Stuff just rocks. For some reason, I really like the liquid electrical tape from december. From this month's page, I really like the 'sock-o-matic' and the spatula with a backstop...I mean, come on! It's got a backstop! How is it that it took this long for someone to think of that?

Creepyass Monkey / Instasong

2006-02-28T19:48:00.000-06:00

They were talking about holiday gift ideas on NPR before the holidays and mentioned a pseudo-realistic monkey that, aside from looking really scary, makes all sorts of creepy and frightening noises. They also pointed people to Instasong which is sort of amusing.

Pandora

2006-02-28T19:46:00.000-06:00

A friend in NYC discovered Pandora a few months ago. It's a site that allows you to enter and artist or song name that you like and it will help point you to other artists and songs you might like based on the one you submit.

Grabowskis

2006-02-28T19:44:00.000-06:00

The Grabowskis is just wrong wrong wrong. The friend that assaulted me with it may just have to pay with his life. It's a horrible 80's......shit...don't even know what to call it. See for yourself...if you dare.

R.P.S.

2006-02-28T19:41:00.000-06:00

The World Rock Paper Scissors site is pretty entertaining. However, the system implemented by myself and some friends is much more entertaining: Cowboy Guy, Karate Guy, Gorilla.

Maybe if you're good, I'll introduce you to it.

Can't Everybody Just Get Along

2006-02-28T15:33:00.000-06:00

Penn Jillette (who has a magic act with his partner Teller, named his daughter Moxie Crimefighter [how cool is that!?!], and has a patent for how to stimulate a woman using a hot tub) has a thoughtful piece, over on the NPR website, in which he discusses his philosophy regarding religion and god. He puts things in a nice perspective and provides a nice counterpoint to the "do as I say, not as I do" credo that so many supposed "people of faith" appear to live by these days.

Speaking of relgion, they definitely need to get a much better sense of humor. To help out, here are a couple links to some amusing info:

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Church of the SubGenius

Also, the Kansas Teachers Guide to Intelligent Design on this site is pretty funny and the links to information attempting to debunk some of the statements used by the "religious right" are pretty good.

And who can forget the good ole Landover Baptist Church for a hilarious good time.

Sometimes it makes me feel kinda dirty that I'm from Kansas, but then I look around me while I'm stuck here in Oklahoma and dream of how wonderful it was in Kansas.

Yeah, it's pink. You wanna fight about it!

2006-02-28T14:19:00.000-06:00

Yes. I know it's pink. This seemed like the least likely template I would normally choose, so it's the one I chose. I'm sure it will probably change later, but for now, you're just going to have to deal with it.

No, seriously. Shut up about the color.

I mean it.

I had another blog, but it wasn't quite right, so I've started this new one.