raleighnet.org

I saw an Australian movie called The Castle tonight. It’s pretty funny and definitely worth seeking out. The humor feels sort of British to me. It’s a little like The Office or Are You Being Served. It’s not Mocumentary or anything, but it sort of has that feel.

Something about this seems so cool. They’ve built a program that tweaks CSS to create machine generated web design. Keep refreshing, and you’ll keep getting a new design. Yes, it’s totally pointless. That’s what makes it neat. Thanks Matt

Wow, Ellen Golla’s Paper Mosaic Collages must take forever to create. Hard to tell on the web, but they look really nice.

I was talking to my mom the other day, and she mentioned taking a short day-trip up into Canada this summer. Well, I don’t have a passport, and I’m fairly certain that with all the fear mongering and terrah™ BS that’s been used to desecrate the constitution these past few years that even to go up into Canada you probably need one.

So, I decided to look into getting one. Couple of things. First, they say you have to give them a Social Security Number or risk a $500 fine. What? What!!! What part of not to be used as a national tracking ID do they not understand?

Then, I come to the fees. It costs like $85 to get a passport. That doesn’t include the cost of getting one of those pictures taken and whatever else you have to do. For all I know you probably have to buy some goofy flag bumpersticker and swear allegiance to George before they let you out of the damn country. No, $85 just for the government fees related to getting the passport.

I mean Canada seems like a nice enough place and all. Heck in a lot of ways, it seems a whole lot better than the US these days. But, for $85 I could get Strange Brew, Canadian Bacon and still have money left over for beer. If you have Bob and Doug McKenzie and Beer, then what do you need Canada for?

These posters from contemporary China are fantastic. The site also features designs from the 20s and 30s and the Communist era, but I don’t like them nearly as much as what’s currently happening over there.

(via GirlHacker)

Halley seems to have learned all our secrets.

This discoveries from modern science post seems like the kind of thing that must have been making the e-mail rounds for the past 10 years or so. Surprisingly, this is the first I’ve seen it though. Anyway, worth a click if you haven’t seen it. Pigs, 30 minutes if you’re not sure if you have.

OK, now why do the power supplies for my PowerBook keep burning out? I’m obviously computing beyond the normal safety parameters.

Now here’s the question … do I anticipate that this $60 power supply is a lost cause and go buy a new one before my battery drains completes (already down to 34%), or do I wait to see if giving it a chance to cool down (the transformer is really hot to the touch and features the delightful smell of burnt plastic/metal) will bring the poor thing back to life.

You’re right — get a new one. If the other one comes back to life, I can always use one at work to keep me fully charged where ever I take the computer.

I find Broken 1000 Faces to be strangely compelling. (via iconomy)

I went for my first professional massage today. I’m not sure how I feel about the experience. I didn’t hate it or anything, but I was expecting to have one of those why did I wait so long kinds of experiences. I didn’t get that though.

To begin with, there was just an awful lot of ass-play. It was a one hour, full-body massage, and for something like 20 minutes of that time, her hands were all over my ass. Don’t get me wrong. If some woman wants to fondle my butt, I’m generally not going to complain too much. But, I’d really rather it was a friend or some random stranger or anybody really except somebody I’m paying because the money just makes the whole thing feel weird somehow.

Plus, that’s not really where I carry most of my stress, so I’m not sure I really see the point. As in most situations like this, I’m just going to pretend that it was because she found me irresistible and figured professionalism be damned. If you’ve been for your own massage/grope session, and that’s really the way those things go every time I’ll thank you to not disillusion me.

Now, the whole nudity thing really wasn’t that big a deal to me. I hate changing in men’s locker rooms or showering or really just standing there at the urinal even. But again, if some random women wants me to strip down my attitude is pretty much yeah, OK — whatever.

But, the pressure points (she was an acupressurist as well) creeped me out to no end. I studied martial arts for a few years when I was a kid, so when somebody starts seeking out my pressure points, particularly the ones around my throat, my body views it as an attack and wants to defend against it. Fortunately, I can generally get my head in the way of my body, but it requires an awful lot of effort to not reverse out out it.

Also, once she started flapping my arms around and sticking her fingers in my ears it was all I could do to keep from laughing uncontrollably. I’d like to just lay there and relax with a whatever kind of attitude, but really at some point you start wondering if you should ask where Allen Funt is because it’s really just getting past the point of absurdity.

Afterwards, I did feel kind of relaxed for a few minutes. It didn’t take long though before the old stresses and pains (mostly pains) started seeping back into my lower back and shoulders. I kind of live with this low-grade pain in the back of my head all the time. It just becomes a part of you, but take it away, and then when it comes back you’re like 1000 times more aware of it. It’s actually sort of a drag.

Plus, she coated me with these massage oils, and I’m leaving a sticky, smelly trail of slime on everything I’m touching. It’s like I’m a giant snail or something. A giant, Nancy-boy smelling, sticky, slimy snail. I think I need a shower or a squeegee.