The Adventures of Teapot the Cat

Hold Please as We Beat the Crap out of GoDaddy

2006-08-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Your Patience is Appreciated as the old GoDaddy webhost server gets a Kicking and Thwapping from your truly before being tossed into the webhosting dumpster. We will return shortly with brand spanking new webhosting by Site5.

The Boy Who Sees with Sound

2006-08-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

The Boy Who Sees with Sound - friggin amazing Bat / Dolphin-like abilities. See also, and.

Caterpillar Cocoons r Gnarly

2006-08-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

Don't look if you don't like creepy crawlies

Giant Gundam Figure

2006-08-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Giant Gundam Figure for the otaku out there. At $3000, you have to be a serious Gundam nut to pick up this one.

Puma's Mongolian Shoe BBQ v.2

2006-08-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

To my dismay I missed out on my chance to design my own Puma shoes when they had their Mongolian Shoe BBQ last year. Well, they're at it again! And this time wannabe shoe designers will be able to build their dream shoe online. Thinking about it now, this is a great way for a company to both make money and figure out what people are looking for in the market right now. Now where's my wallet?

Coolest Kids' Bookstore

2006-08-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Possibly one of the coolest childrens' bookstores out there is located in Beijing

Joe Nishizawa: Deep Underground

2006-08-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

PingMag has a great article about Joe Nishizawa who does amazing photography of hidden underground spaces in Japan. Wonderful.

Shipwrecks of Alaska

2006-08-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Haunted image gallery of Alaskan shipwrecks. I'd love to check these kind of things out in person.

The Complete Destruction of Planet Earth

2006-08-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

This spine-chilling animation depicts in a fairly accurate way what would happen if a 500 mile diameter asteroid hit the earth. Learn some more about how accurate this is at Bad Astromony and then once you've watched the earth get obliterated, enjoy some humor from Guinness about how the human race would recover from the little impact.

Advertising should always be this good

2006-08-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Why is it that so many advertisements suck? So much money is spent on them, and for many companies they are critical to their brand recognition, and yet they still manage to make crap ads. I can't stand watching commercial breaks because of all the terrible ads. Well, here is a great ad that I would watch.

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

2006-08-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

The website for Rob Bryanton's book, Imagining the Tenth Dimension has a great flash movie on how to wrap your head around living in a 10 dimenional existence. I won't pretent i get it, but it sure makes me interested in buying the book to learn more. There are many books around about string theory and all that sort of super-complex, abstract stuff - but this is one at least makes me feel like i might be able to understand it a little!

Elaborate Pot Growing Facility

2006-08-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

A weed growing operation got busted and the lengths to which the growers had gone to to secure their facility was revealed.

SteamSynth

2006-08-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

If SteamPunk was a reality, I'm sure they would have developed SteamSynths. Check out the audio file for some sonic goodness. Chugga chugga!

Anthony Boudain from Lebanon

2006-08-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

Salon Life has an excellent article called Watching Beirut die written by Anthony Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel's show "No Reservations". I really enjoy his laid-back style and witty, sarcastic comments and irreverent attitude - heck he even smokes on the show! I didn't know smoking on TV was still legal! Anyway, they were filming their show about Beirut, when the shit hit the fan between Israel and Lebanon. Great article, a bit longish, but much recommended.

Suspended Honda F1 Car

2006-08-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Heat Wave = Post Drought

2006-07-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sword Vs Bullet video

2006-07-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Sword Vs Bullet. This looks for real. Impressive.

Feuerwear - Fire Hose Gear

2006-07-23T23:39:00.000-07:00

Feuerwear makes bags and stuff out of old fire hoses. I should start a company that makes bags out of some reclaimed material and it would be instantly popular. Hmmm, bags made out of old moldy shower curtains anyone?

Sanrio Puroland

2006-07-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

Sanrio Puroland looks insane. I think that even the most hardcore Hello Kitty fan would spontaneously combust from cute oversaturation.

Space Cosplaying!

2006-07-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Daisuke Enomoto is set to be the world's next space tourist. Except this trip will be a little bit different - Enomoto wants to float around in space dressed as Char Aznable from the Gundam franchise. I guess when you're dishing out the bucks to go into space, you can do pretty much any zany stuff you want s'long as it's safe! Now this whole space cosplaying drama would be a whole lot more interesting if it was a woman in a cute cosplay outfit.

Japan GT Girls

2006-07-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

Being from Hawaii where there are a whole lot of Asians, and thus a lot of import car racing, I was quite surprised to see a tv news story here in the Bay Area about the "new racing phenomenon" of drifting (Story probably prompted by F&F:Tokyo Drift). Ok, drifting is so a billion years ago! Which lead me to thinking about what other things are different between US & Japanese racing culture. Then I came across the Japan GT Girls page. Asian Import Models. Cue up those Initial-D soundtrack tunes, buckle-in and hit that link!

Science Facts that People Get Wrong

2006-07-19T00:08:00.000-07:00

Science Facts that People Get Wrong. Really interesting how what we sometimes think of as such an easy answer is actually unfounded. What's more fascinating is how society has somehow managed to burn those answers into our brains! * Spacecraft heat up on re-entry because of the friction of the atmosphere * There are seven colours in the rainbow * Everest is the highest mountain in the world

Live Action : Space Invaders

2006-07-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

This video by artist Guillaume Reymond re-creates the game of Space Invaders using real peeps in an auditorium. Very cool. Check here if the youtube clip gets pulled (mmm, yummy copyright!)

Anime Glossary

2006-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

I like to watch anime, but I'm by no means a disciple of the genre. Which means that when I'm trying to figure out what is worth watching, I have to weave my way through a minefield of anime terminology that I don't understand. Which is where an Anime Glossary comes in handy! Now I know that just because some reviewers are raving about something being yaoi, I may want to steer clear :P More terms

White Stripes Video Ripoff

2006-07-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing an ad for Chilis lately on the boob toob that looked like a ripoff of a White Stripes video I'd seen once. I recognized the style and had only seen the White Stripes video maybe twice. Was it produced by the same company? This is again the whole sticky issue of technique / style, and to what degree can does a style belongs to an artist. Lugz sued Apple for the style they used for an ad that was too similar to their own - but it seems to me that the style had already been part of the cultural landscape for quite some time. The Chilis ad however is using the same specific visual technique/trick, as well as the color palette and similar music to the "Seven Nation Army" track. To me, this clearly crosses the line into blatant ripoff-ery.

Speaker Cone Materials

2006-07-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

I recently bought new studio monitors for my rig. Made by KRK, the V6 features a cone made from kevlar. While it doesn't render the speakers bulletproof, the yellow sure looks nice (and the speakers sound great!) This reminded me of something I'd heard a long time ago about speakers cones made from banana fiber! A quick search on the web found this Treehugger article about cones made from bamboo, and in the comments is a link to the Fostex banana cone speakers. They're not yellow, but it's a cool idea! This page has some info on other materials used for cones, such as carbon fibre, paper, plastics and more!

Hello Kitty Fender Strat

2006-07-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

For any aspiring J-pop star (such as my better half who looks the rockstar part once she throws on the feline themed axe), your weapon of choice should be the Hello Kitty Fender Strat. Now I suppose I'll have to be the dork in the back with keyboards while SHE gets all the fame ;) Of course I expect many fine guitar loops to emit forth soon.

Duracell - Retro Game Tune Drummer

2006-07-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Duracell is a one-man-band that plays some insanely cool sets - his drum kit triggers audio/midi sequences, so that each time he bashes the drum the next note/sequence in the song will play. The frenetic drumming is used to play awesome retro game tunes like Space Harrier and Turrican. Check out this video and this one. Mentalcakes.

DIY Camera Crane

2006-07-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Instructables has a diy guide on how to make a 16 foot pan-and-tilt camera crane for $60. Build, then go forth and make awesomely bad movies to post on YouTube.

The Importance of Understanding your Cables

2006-07-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of configuring up my new studio setup since I moved away from the rock (The rock being Hawaii). Anyone that has put together their own studio has probably spend many a late night figuring out the best way to do it. There are so many decisions: amps, speakers, racks, modules, sound stage, keyboards, etc. One of the most important components of any system is often the most neglected : the cables. I'll admit that in my last setup I was woefully uneducated about the finer points of cables. For my new rig I'm determined to learn as much as I can, and spend a bit more money to get the cleanest signal path that I can - after all, the sound is the end product - why settle for a dirty track?. One of the key points I've picked up is to understand the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables. Read Tweakheadz' Everything you were Afraid to Ask about Cables and Setting Up Your Equipment from PeachPit

Click Monkeys

2006-07-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

Click Monkeys is exactly why the click-based ad revenue model is flawed. (I wonder if they'll host offshore web sites/services?) Click Monkeys!!™ is a Ukrainian company and the giant tanker ship click farm we have stationed just outside U.S. waters off the coast of San Francisco is registered at a Ukrainian berth so we're not subject to any U.S. laws!" Click Monkeys!!™ employs a state of the art line of site net access system. We own a light house near San Jose with the equivalent of five T-3 lines worth of bandwidth running to it. The light house is equipped with two dozen microwave transmitters that are pointed at the H.M.S. Click Monkey. The transmitters are kept on target using a GPS system that is centered exactly on the on board transmitter.Even if the Click Monkey were to drift by 3 miles from her stationary position in the roughest weather, our monkeys can still keep clicking on your site!

Cover Flow: Visual Album Browser

2006-07-16T14:59:00.001-07:00

CoverFlow is an neat-o Apple app for visually browsing through your digital albums (read: not intended for individual song listening). Once you've picked an album, the app controls iTunes as well. I don't think I'd ever really use the program, but it holds a certain nostalgia for when we used to actually own physical albums. Well, I guess that's only some of us... I still have records :)

Michel Gondry - The Science of Sleep

2006-07-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Michel Gondry's work. I have yet to see House Party, but I'm definately going to catch The Science of Sleep when it hits the theatres. Looks to be another Gondry classic.

Psst! Pass it on

2006-07-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Psst! Pass it on is a set of experimental motion graphics videos that are based on the idea of the Exquisite Corpse (or the childrens' game Telephone) in which multiple artists create a segement of a work, each continuing where the previous artist left off. It makes for some really interesting - and in some cases plain weird - compositions that cover many genres of filmmaking.

Worst Company URLs

2006-07-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs. Some examples: 1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is www.whorepresents.com 2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com 3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

Time Lapse Froot

2006-07-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

I love time lapse stuff. So this footage of fruits and stuff captured on crisp 35mm is an instant winner.

Jump in my Car

2006-07-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

David Hasselhoff's Jump In My Car video is possibly the best music video in the entire universe (if the universe was extremely small, cheesey, and only allowed to exist in Germany)

PictoOrphanage

2006-07-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

The PictoOrphanage will take in orphaned 2D characters and help them through the process of becoming born as a full-fledged three-dee being. Quite odd.

2006-07-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Flying Lawnmower
It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No! It's a Flying Lawnmower

Star Wars On Earth

2006-07-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Joey Interactive blogged about photographer cedric delsaux, who has some really cool photos of Stars Wars characters set in a modern urban backdrop that works very well.

Faster, faster! Ukelele Madness

2006-07-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Boing Boing posted about the genius ukelele playing of Roy Smeck. It's a wonderful performance! As for contemporary musicians, Jake Shimabukuro is well known in Hawaii for his fast-paced ukelele playing. While I'm not particularly a fan of ukelele music, I was pretty blown away by the speed of his playing, getting faster and faster each time! His hand just becomes a youtubey blur he's playing so fast! (Doesn't quite have the same kooky classy factor as Smeck though)

The Pig and the Box : Anti-DRM Children's Book

2006-07-13T23:11:00.000-07:00

The Pig and the Box is a wonderful children's fable that takes an anti-DRM stance. Created in response to such cartoon mascots as Captain Copyright, it is the tale of a selfish Pig that won't let his neighbor's use his magical 'copying' box. LLLLOLIPOP JONES!

Gez Fry : Manga / Anime style artist

2006-07-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

PingMag has an article about Gex Fry: "In 2002 Gez Fry decided, that he wants to make a living out of Japanese style illustration - without being experienced in drawing. Locking himself up in his bedroom in London he studied big masters like Masamune Shirow and developed enough skill and an astonishing portfolio to jump into the big market - within only 2 years. Here are some of his comments about how he draws, develops characters and why the Japanese Manga market is so tough."

Please Don't Suicide Bomb

2006-07-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how effective this Big Budget Anti-Suicide Bombing PSA for Iraq will be. I can only imagine it will have very little effect, or even perhaps a negative reaction.

Plen the Rollerskating Robot

2006-07-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Shell out $2,200 and a ticket to Japan and you too can own Plen the Skateboarding robot. "Plen the Skateboarding robot is up for grabs in Japan. With a height of approximately 23 cms or 0.75 feet Plen is powered by a 32 bit ARM7 CPU at 33MHz and has 18 movable joints. It connects to the PC via USB and can also be controlled by a cell phone via Bluetooth. It comes with a Lithium Ion battery pack, charger, USB cable and Roller Skates. Plen's battery provides 25 minutes of walking time." Video clip #1 Video of Skateboarding, Roller Skating and more!

JOBY Tripod System

2006-07-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

The JOBY tripod system is a really neat example of a design that challenges the very definition of 'tripod'. Great for stablizing your camera out in unusual circumstances.

Christian Dior Me

2006-07-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Really *ahem* interesting Christian Dior Fall 2006 Collection.

See-Saw Limo

2006-07-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

SUV Limos deserve to get stranded like this.

super etch-a-sketch drawings

2006-07-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

This person has some mad Etch-a-Sketch skills.

cold feet?

2006-07-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Get yourself some USB foot warming slippers. I know I need a pair - my feet are always cold! Hrm, yes, and this IS a ridiculous way to utilize your usb juice.

bumptop

2006-07-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

The bumptop physical desktop is an excellent execution of an alternative method of interacting with files. While not very practical or usable, it's a beautiful mix of real physics and digital organization.

The Art of Espresso

2006-07-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

I own an espresso machine, and making a good espresso definately seems to be a fine art that is a balance of good beans, the right grind, a quality machine, and perhaps most importantly, knowing all the little tricks that help you get it right. I certainly wouldn't pretend to know how to make a truly great coffee (though it mainly has to do with how much I'm not willing to spend on speciality coffee gear!). Check out the Boing Boing story and links and you can see what I'm talking about.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya | Dance Steps Video

2006-07-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

I've started watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I'm a few epsiodes in, and am enjoying it thoroughly - The ending song is really cute and has the characters from the show doing a cutesy dance number. The funniest thing is the SOS-Dan fansite that shows the dance steps so that you can learn the dance too! Then you can teach your socially awkward male friend. And once he's mastered the steps, teach it to his Gundam figures, and also to the random cosplayers from Finland. Go Fin anime fanatics, go!

Modern Empires

2006-07-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Imomus at Click opera has a piece called 'Empires and Dance' which provided a new perspective on what I am used to from living in the USA, offering Berlin as the location where a new model is being worked out. Imomus:

Berlin is in fact a laboratory for future ways of doing things. This city is not just post-industrial, but post-imperial. It's a divergence machine.

Anime Fansubbing & P2P .. or .. Automate Downloads with Azureus and RSS Feeds

2006-07-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

The BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog has a tutorial on How to: Automate Anime Downloads with Azureus and RSS Feeds. This is a pretty nifty way to get your Daily Recommended Dose of Fresh Squeezed Anime without having to check on new torrents (though the true Anime nuts will check daily anyway!). I think it's quite interesting how the Japanese Anime industry has not caused a fuss about the whole p2p paradigm and the efforts of fans (perhaps as part of their marketing strategy?). Until anime series are officially released in the USA, the overseas studios seem OK with groups of fans translating the shows, fansubbing them, and releasing through p2p (Usually BitTorrent) Once the shows are released in the US, the fansub groups cease distribution of the titles - the subs themselves often include a statement to this effect also. Of course, this is all probably far from legal. There has been one US company that sent cease and desist letters to fansub groups. And anyway, torrents don't usually survive until a title is released - that specific p2p delivery depends greatly on the link have a heavy activity. I have watched some great series through seeing fansubbed versions, and then bought the box sets. Though i can understand misgivings by studio execs worried about loss of revenue ... It's a fascinating case that I think only serves to increase the popularity of anime, and must certainly drive up the revenue of the merchandises... An would totally love to read an in-depth piece done on this topic, with proper investigation and interviews with the heads of Japanese and US companies.

Democracy, my Ass

2006-07-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mike Ferner writes: Has This Country Gone Completely Insane?

This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago’s south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "OK, you’ve had your 15 minutes, it’s time to go." "Huh?", I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about. "You can’t be in here protesting," officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt. "Well, I’m not protesting, I’m having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists. Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You’re protesting and you have to go." Read on ...

The McCollough Effect

2006-07-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

As always, I'm interested in the issue of perception and how subjective it is. The McCollough Effect is at first glance *no pun intended* a simple ghostly after-image optical illusion: Stare at two colored gridded squares for a few minutes, and then at some non-colored squares. The non-colored gridded squares will now be surrounded by hazes of those two colors. The crazy thing is that supposedly the effect of staring at these squares for a few minutes can last for hours, even through sleep! And according to the site, coffee and your level of extroversion can also amplify the effect! I say, wtf! Just goes to show how our perception of reality is so easily skewed. I'm going to leave those squares visible on my monitor all day and see how screwed up I can make myself. *grin*

The Loudness of Music & The Oversaturation Gag Reflex

2006-07-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Nick Southall has an excellent (though quite long) article called Imperfect Sound Forever in Stylus Magazine which covers the trend of the music industry to over-compress music that is being released these days. What this technically means is that the tunes we listen to these days have much less dynamic range between the quiet bits and louds bits. One of the main factors for this is that these overly compressed, or 'hot' tracks stand out compared to other tracks that are less compressed. This sells records. This consistently loud (or 'hot') barrage of sound throughout the music we are exposed to makes us less likely to really listen carefully - almost as if the music were produced to overcome the background sounds that are almost assumed in our day and age - the drone of the car engine, the noises on the sidewalk, the hum of the office copier. The article covers the topic from a variety of angles - technological, societal, personal. A fascinating read - I even read the followup as well as a piece on the music oversaturation we encounter these days as downloading music gets so easy and our hard disks are filled with thousands of hours worth of music. What does that mean for that one excellent song? For the music I produce?

Jack in the Space

2006-07-03T00:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what to make of the Jack dude from the Jack in the Box ad campaign having his own myspace page. Oh wait, I know. It means myspace is now so painfully obvious as a marketing strategy tool that even the big corporations have glommed onto it. *barf*

Cool HD Capacity Gauge

2006-07-03T00:21:00.000-07:00

This External Hard Drive from Western Digital has a pretty cool feature - it has a very nice looking gauge on the front that indicates the used/available capacity at a glance. This is a such a simple and useful thing that it's amazing it isn't a standard feature for drives. I've seen it done on a USB Flash drive, but not a HD. At 1/2 a terrabyte, this puppy sure packs alot of storage, but comes with a corresponding price tag....

Reverse-Colorblindness Test

2006-07-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

This page features an interesting switch on the usual colorblindness tests - these tests are only correctly visible to people who are colorblind. It taps into the fact that colorblind people can detect subtle changes in intensity (contrast?) much better than us normies. Of course, they do sacrifice the ability to see certain hues. I'm not sure of the scientific integrity of this test - but the general theory seems sound. I guess you'd need to validate the test images by having lots of colorblind folks confirm they can see the 'hidden' images. Maybe I should make my own anti-colorblind test and it always works because there simply is no hidden image at all! *evil grin*

Strike Witches

2006-07-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Looks like the Mecha Musume figure series I blogged about previously is going to be turned into an anime series called Strike Witches. Using the same character design by Shimada Humikane, it looks like magical girl series will have a fairly weak plot, and feature mostly the characters from Mecha Musume that I wasn't so crazy about - the airplane legs ones (I bought the Sherman figure). Looks like it will probably appeal to a certain niche market of anime fana-tiques.

i saw the pillows!

2006-07-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was lucky enough to check out The Pillows live in the USA! They are the Japanese band that did all the music to one of my fave Anime series - FLCL (Furi Kuri). The venue was packed and I was ready for a good show. LemonDropKick was playing when we finally got into the club - they're a Anime/J-Rock inspired LA-band that turned out to be pretty decent. We had actually seen the lead singer do Karaoke at Fanime Con. Small community I guess. Next up was SecretSecret - which turned out to be a secretsecret weapon of uber-cheesey goth music. Imagine a cheesey Marilyn Manson wannabe crooning lame-o lyrics like "Come to meeeeee, this is a my sanc-tu-aaaaary" and throwing flowers into the crowd every few minutes. Suffice to say we were glad when they were done (Though to be fair, the beats and melodies were pretty phat). Onto the headliners - The Pillows!!! And boy o boy did they kick ass. They played tons of their hits from FLCL as well as some tracks from their new album My Foot. High energy performance, no holds barred, awesome to see them live. If you want to check out their tunes, I'd recommend checking out the FLCL Soundtrack (OST) on Amazon (iTunes suxorz).

500lb Rubberband Ball vs Car

2006-06-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

The car loses. [View vid.]

I am not an Otaku.

2006-06-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to figure at what anime series would be good to watch, so I've been cruising around anime otaku blogs and checking out all the blogrolls. It's made me realize I'm still a totally normal person. I don't understand half of what they're talking about, I'm not ecchi or into loli, and I don't own much anime related crap. Here's a buncha links for your amusement and possibly your entry into the weird wacky world of Otaku: General Anime Info Sites Anime NFO Anime Recommendations Anime Blogs (discussing current series/stuff from Japan) : Anime Nano - blog directory & forum & irc Random Curiosity Yummy Sushi Pajamas Sea Slug Blog Chotto Matte basugasubakuhatsu Loli? Moe? None for me thanks. lolitron lolicontrol moetry Figures are another sub-subculture: figure reviews on Riuva alter-web goodsmile maxfactory kotobukiya R U hook'd? Need to have more J-stuff? Right Stuf Anime Gamers Wizzywig

Utada Hikaru = Tetris Freak

2006-06-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Vids of Utada Hikaru kicking ass at Tetris. Apparantly, she's doing some promotion with Nintendo where you can win the chance to play against her. funfun. Is it me, or does she look soooo different when she isn't in her pop glam get-up? Read more at her blog. (But only if you can read Japanese. Which I can't.)

Bleep Labs Thingamagoop

2006-06-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Bleep Labs has a wonderful video clip of their new 'thingamagoop' synth-toy-robot. It is so cute and funny and bleepy - it had me rofl-ing .

C'était un rendez-vous

2006-06-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

C'était un rendez-vous is a 1978 cult short film by Claude Lelouch in which a 'Ferrari' races at high speed through the streets of Paris in the petit hours of the morning. While probably driven by a professional driver, this was not a closed course - but claims of of going over 100 mph are exaggerated, and the soundtrack with its gear changes and high pitch engine whine is also cleverly overdubbed. See the video. See the 'making of' video which features the much-less-glamorous-than-a-Ferrari Mercedes. Oh the wonderful illusion of filmmaking!

omg

2006-06-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

omg, i actually saw a documentary on the discovery channel!

Entire Book written at Apple Store

2006-06-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Homeless model writes 250 page book at the Manhattan Apple Store.

google maps package tracking mash mash

2006-06-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Want to see where the hell your package is? Using isnoop.net's universal package tracking or www.packagemapper.com (wasn't working when I tried it) you can see the route your precious box has taken with any of the major shipping companies (except UPS has thrown lawyers at some of these mapping sites before, so UPS visualtracking may not be around for long...)

opus

2006-06-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

opus is my sysadmin

Urban Etiquette

2006-06-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

Nancy over at Cultured Girl blogged about a really fascinating article in New York Magazine called The Urban Etiquette Handbook. It details how one should act in certain modern circumstances where the rules of conduct might not yet have been cemented into the social guidelines of our society. Take with grain of salt.

Random Weird Statues

2006-06-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Flash 9

2006-06-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Flash 9 is now available. I'm really curious to see how this (and other macromedia products) evolve after being acquired by Adobe.

The Gillette SIngularity

2006-06-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Are we heading towards an inevitable razor blade black hole that will suck in the entire universe and spit it out again, well shaven?

prayer to the ups guy

2006-06-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

5:16 dear opus please deliver my package from evil and bless my new clothes with a speedy delivery and give me the courage to forgive ups those a-holes and bless the tires on the ups truck and absolve the delivery man of his end-of-the-day-b.o. and guide him, opus, guide him to my door let your undeniable radiance shine upon him in the form of a map a holy map leading him to the salvation of the ultimate deliverance the deliverance of my package forever and ever amen

The Principality of Sealand

2006-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

"Sealand was founded as a sovereign Principality in 1967 in international waters, six miles off the eastern shores of Britain. The island fortress is conveniently situated from 65 to 100 miles from the coasts of France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. The official language of Sealand is English and the Sealand Dollar has a fixed exchange rate of one U.S. dollar." - so sayeth the Sealand website. Quite conveniently, the Sealand site lacks and photos of this glorious offshore data haven / pirate radio base- most likely because it looks like their precious 'principality' is just a tiny offshore platform! And now, it has been abandoned due to fire... Ha!

Weird Conventions

2006-06-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Going to an Anime con is pretty surreal experience. Full-on no-holds-barred otaku frenzy. The weird thing is that by the time your days at the con are done, people traipsing around in Inuyasha & Naruto outfits *shudder* is nothing unusual. It's a strange tolerance expanding experience. Someone unfamiliar with the subculture might think anime con attendees are completely loopy. Here are a few other cons that are a bit on the fringe: Furcon: "Further Confusion, or Furcon is an annual fandom convention celebrating the anthropomorphics genre or furry fandom". Riiiight, you can call it anthropomorphics, I call it dressing up as furries. Penguicon: according to Wikipedia. "Penguicon is the only convention in the United States that brings together the often-overlapping communities of science fiction fandom and Linux User Groups." More geeky, less freaky. Star Trek conventions are not that uncommon, but are themselves quite unusual.

glomp!

2006-06-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

I first heard the term glomp when I was at Fanime Con a few months back. Wiki gives the definition: "Glomping is a form of greeting used by anime fans. A typical "glomp" involves bear hugging someone and latching on tightly, though not enough to intentionally hurt the recipient. Sometimes it includes a running start. It has since expanded into slang amongst otaku, primarily on IRC, chat rooms, and Internet forums as an extended form of greeting." This flickr photo really catches the spirit of a glomp - running up with gleeful exuberance to hug the hell outta someone.

i hate godaddy

2006-06-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

i may as well continue my rants with a "i hate godaddy" entry. Horrible site & navi, hosting that doesn't allow geeks to do geek stuff, and stupid-ass identity system. bleh. got anything to add?

Model Building

2006-06-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

I bought a scale model kit of the Tachikoma from the Ghost in the Shell series. It's a sweet little kit, but since I haven't built any serious models, I'm quite nervous about screwing it up. So I'm thinking I may buy some simpler kits and start with those to practice on. Maybe one day I'll be able to make and customize kits at this level of skill. But by the time I've spent that much effort on building anime figures, I'll probably have turned into a *ahem* hardcore model fanatic. I will not go down that road.

iTunes vs. iTunes JP

2006-06-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

I can't buy music on iTunes Japan Music Store. It won't let http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifme use my US Apple Account, or accept non-Japanese credit cards to create a new Apple account. That sucks. Poop on you Apple. One solution seems to be to buy iTunes Japan Music Cards from some online retailer and redeem them on the iTunes JP store.

i hate myspace

2006-06-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

Aside from my opinion that myspace is generally total crap, the user interface alone is bad enough to warrant not using the stupid service.

internets

2006-06-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

I dont know what's going on with these internets.

Teddy USB Flash Drive mod

2006-06-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Really disturbing but cool USB flash drive mod

J-Video Craziness

2006-06-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

J-Video Craziness
The Japanese are cruel and unusual. No war crimes... just TV. Skip to 5 min into the clip.

The Endless Forest

2006-06-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

The Endless Forest is a fascinating new paradigm of MMORPG. Check out the interview after the link.

"The Endless Forest is a MMORPG where everyone plays a deer. And no, the aim is not to shoot other deers. There's no violence, no particular rule to follow, neither does the game feature any chat-functions. All communication happens through deer-body-language. You can roar, sniff other deers, eat mushrooms from the trees, pick up and carry flowers on your antler, etc. Players do not even get "proper" names, but pictograms that represent their characters. The setting is idyllic, the forest is peaceful, you can wander along the Pond or have a nap by the Old Oak Tree."

Hands Up! Your MIDI or your Life! - the MidiGun

2006-06-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

While researching lately about how to make my own MIDI control box for my DJ setup, I stumbled across the midiGun. I promptly threw my hands in the air and said "I Surrender (all my gear)". This is a so ridiculous, I can only imagine that the peeps that made are jus trying to get some attention. I mean, seriously...

Fire vs. Water : Shiira Browser

2006-06-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

I came across the Shiira Browser through PingMag, and had such a good initial reaction to their funny anime inspired browse logo face-off, that I downloaded and installed it. Initial reaction - pretty fast, some neat features, I'm tempted to switch.

C64 Case based MIDI Box

2006-06-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

This sweet C64 case based MIDI controller is definately an inspiration to make some cool MIDI box. I may have to call on all my engineering resources... (uhhhh, friends from MIT) who can help fab a sweet box. For the MIDI guts, would probably go with a Doepfer Pocket Electronics kit - fairly simple, minimal soldering, up 16 controllers. I'm ready to tweak those phat knobs (that sounds like some nasty gear porn)

Happy Morning

2006-06-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

'Happy Morning is a really wacky but catchy Folgers (!) ad that has such awesome lyrics as "Get up, get out of bed, you can sleep when you are dead" and featured glowing gold singers. Perhaps my favorite part is the golden fellow playing some sort of funky vibraphone! Diggin' it!

Chinese Paper Offerings

2006-06-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

I visited Chinatown recently and amongst the fascinating range of weird things on sale were a variety of paper offerings. I'm familiar with paper offerings - they are typically paper money that is burned in furnaces at a temple in the belief that the offering will be received by the spirits of ancestors in the after-life. In one store I found some unusual paper offerings - a box containing a paper shirt & tie, paper Ferrero Rocher, paper cigarettes, even a paper model yacht. All the comforts of home in the after-life! We've not come far since the days of the Egyptians!

GAP Destruction

2006-06-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

Funny ad by Spike Jonze of a GAP store getting totally messed up. Good fun.

World of Warcraft Addiction

2006-06-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

World of Warcraft Addiction = No Blogging WOW Addiction = Lack of Sleep WOW Addiction = Dreams about WOW WOW Addiction = Stupid WOW jokes WOW Addiction = Watching WOW videos World of Warcraft = Evil. Must.... be...strong! Epic Pizza Order. WOW Plague

hindustani glitchtronica

2006-06-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

jesse stiles' tabla machine freaked out and began outputting crazy squarepusher-like drum rhythms.

Mecha Musume M4A3

2006-06-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

'! (n@men!cht' has some great photosets on Flickr of Japanese toys, including shots of the Mecha Musume characters which I saw recently at Fanime Expo 2006 (Yes, I'm an anime nerd, no I didn't cosplay). The Mecha Musume figures are quite unusual, blending your typical over-sexy anime figurine with parts from military vehicles. Some of them look too weird, and some of them a a little too *ahem* revealing, but I like the M4A3 Sherman figure.

The Lyrebird

2006-06-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

You have to check out this clip of David Attenborough doing a documentary about the Lyrebird. This bird likes to imitate the sounds of other birds, and even man-made sounds. Their elaborate songs are used to court females - this clip has the bird copying the sound of a camera shutter, forestry noises and a car alarm. Very trippy. Puts the noise-making-guy from Police Academy to shame.

consyoumer kultcha

2006-06-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

chris jordan is a photographer that creates great images from the remnants of our consumer culture.

Yoda Plush Backpack

2006-06-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Not everyone would want a Yoda Plush Backpack - but I'm sure people MUST have one.