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I always loved Calvin and Hobbes. In particular, I always loved Calvin’s psychotic snowman creations. Some guy has been recreating them with actual snowmen. It almost makes me miss the snow. No, that’s a lie. It doesn’t even come close to making me miss snow. It is pretty sweet though. And, by sweet I mean totally awesome!

I just got done watching the pilot for the show, NUMB3RS. The always lovely Sabrina Lloyd was in it. I have a Tivo Wishlist set up for shows she’s in, so Tivo was kind enough to record it for me.

OK, first things first, the name is just God awful. Seriously, that alone almost guarantees this thing won’t make it past a half a dozen episodes. And, it is pretty clearly trying really hard to follow the CSI formula for TV. I can almost hear the pitch meetings now — it’s like CSI, but math instead of science. The premise feels pretty thin even for a single two hour movie, so I just can’t see them stretching it out for an entire TV series.

All that said, I did sort of just barely like the pilot episode. There are a lot of known names involved with this thing including Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure), Peter MacNicol (Ally McBeal), Judd Hirsch (Taxi) and Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) to say nothing of the always lovely Sabrina Lloyd.

I doubt it will last very long, but there’s never much good to watch on Fridays anyway, so I’ll watch the next one and see if it gets better or worse. My money’s firmly in the worse camp.

Man, NUMB3RS — what a stupid name.

Paul Graham tells it like it is in What You’ll Wish You’d Known, a speech to high school students. He’s partially right. I think there’s other stuff I would have rather known, but he certainly seems to hit the mark around the center. I couldn’t help wondering how I’d have received this speech when I was in high school. I feel so far away from being that person that I don’t even think I can remember or know.

When Louis is giving the weather, he looks about as awkward and uncomfortable as I’ve ever seen somebody look. I mean, I love me some bad TV, but Wow! This moves past right past laughter and well into tears.

The signs are illegible for all but the 3rd set of photos, but I still really like the idea behind These are the People in my Neighborhood You walk around your neighborhood and take pictures of people holding signs with the lyrics from Sesame Street. Very interesting and probably a good way to actually meet your neighbors. via

I’m pretty sure that Everything I Need To Know I’ve Learned From Iron Maiden is a complete put-on, but I don’t care. When I get in my car today, I’m totally going to cue up Alexander the Great. His name struck fear into hearts of men you know. When I was listening to that song as a 17-year-old nere-do-well, I thought that at the age of 19 he became a wrestling king. Macedon probably makes more sense though.

Klonek — cutesy illustrations and animations with sort of a retro feel. I liked the Woodcut section the best. via

I took a tour of Rancho Los Alamitos today. It’s interesting, and parts of it are very beautiful. It’s also kind of weird. It’s been there since Mexico owned California, but at some point a gated community grew up around it. So, to get to it you have to drive through a ritzy neighborhood, and then all of a sudden — bam, you’re on a historic ranch that’s open to the public.

They won’t let you take photos in the house which is sort of a drag, but I did take a whole bunch of photos of the gardens and surrounding property. The gardens are nice with all of these tucked away, hidden little corners. There wasn’t very much blooming though. I’ll bet it’s a lot nicer in the spring or summer.

I have to remember to go check out Photo L.A. 2005 next week. It looks like an amazing and surprisingly comprehensive show.

I was pointed to the A World of Invisibilia by Waxy, but there is lots of fun stuff on this site