raleighnet.org

After seeing Ze give a lesson in communication skills, I’m afraid I may need to go back and reread a few of my e-mails. It may well be that people weren’t saying what I thought they were saying with all those emoticons.

You know, if Bill Cosby hadn’t sent House of Cosbys a cease and desist, I never would have seen these short cartoons. So, thanks Bill Cosby for making sure I see what you didn’t want me to see.

Oh…My…God! The scary thing is that they practiced this. You know they did. Holy Cats! OK Go’s Video, A Million Ways To Be Cruel (QuickTime).

Wow, just pushing the red button made me feel uncomfortable (like I was responsible for starting it or something). The map though is a very effective visualization that for me at least really seems to personalize all the statistics:

Iraq War Fatalities is a chart of US and coalition military fatalities that have occurred in the War in Iraq since the onset, mapped across the dimensions of time and space. It is an ongoing project that is updated regularly, and will continue to go on as long as the war does. The animation runs at ten frames per second–one frame for each day–and a single black dot indicates the geographic location that a US fatality occurred. Each dot starts as a white flash and a larger red dot that fades to black over the span of 30 frames/days, and then slowly fades to grey over the span of the entire war. Accompanying the visual representation is a soft ‘tic’ sound for each fatality, the volume of which increases relative to the number of fatalities that occurred simultaneously that day. More deaths in a smaller area produces visually deeper reds and audibly more pronounced ‘tics.’

via

Today (or I guess actually yesterday), Venice Beach was having a street party to celebrate their centennial or something like that. Street vendors, bands, costumes, and just more craziness to add to the carnival that is Venice beach.

I did take my camera, and I did get a few photos, but not as many as you’d think (or I’d have hoped).

Is it possible to make a hammock out of toilet paper? Near as I can tell, that seems to be the question that this site is attempting to answer. I wish I spoke German (or whatever crazy language the site is written in). The pictures are kind of funny, but I’m betting the text is even better.

I was driving in my car this afternoon listening to the radio, which is already unusual as I usually listen to my iPod while driving. Anyway, the DJ has an in-studio guest who I hear doing a swing version of Van Halen’s song “Jump”.

It was awesome because it works on the comedic/ironic level of “Oh my god. Is that? It is. That’s ‘Jump’!”, and it also worked as a really well done song (actually, I greatly prefer the swing version of that since I never did like the original very much).

I tried to figure out who the guest was, and they never did really say. I later came to learn that it was Paul Anka who has a new album out called Rock Swings. He also did an in-studio version of a swing version of “Black Hole Sun” which I thought kind of sucked.

Anyway, it might be worth a listen at least as a lark. Also, I love all the one star ratings on Amazon from old-school grunge kids who are deeply offended that Anka would dare to mess with a classic song like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I mean, I liked Nirvana well enough at the time, but come on. Let’s have a little perspective here.

Wow! David Nightingale’s images on chromasia are stunning. I really need to try harder.

You know, I love my job. I know some people who don’t love theirs though. They should really go see the video on Really Bad Jobs.com. I think it would provide some needed perspective.

It’s a viral for a phone company (which I must say I was not expecting and don’t understand). It’s pretty funny though.

I’m pretty much done with anything Star Wars, but I have to admit that after watching ops and getting the back-story on one of those storm troopers, I now see things in an entirely different light. I could have done without the Pulp Fiction reference though since I’m pretty much done with that one too. It takes a while to load, so be patient.