84 - Seatle Sandfest

Went to the Seattle Sandfest with Quiana and Jason.

This was Jason's favorite:

This was Quiana's:

This was mine:

My favorite part was the little bird on the hat.

More pictures here.

I am even more scared for out future

Microscale Transformers

From MicroBricks

Where do most tigers live?

In the United States it turns out. There are 4,000 tigers residing in captivity in Texas alone, where private ownership of tigers is legal. The number of tigers left in the wild is perhaps no more than 5,100-7,500.

From Marginal Revolution

Breakfast of Champions

So for breakfast, I like to have a pack of Pop-Tarts. My favorites are Brown Sugar and Cinnamon, Frosted Strawberry, and Wild Berry. Wild Berry is not a standard flavor. It is only available with licensed product of the month. This is the latest version of Wild Berry Pop-Tarts:

I fear that I will soon have my sexuality questioned.

Jason Bourne is a Dick

Latest Lego Project

Sunday and Monday night I worked on my latest large Lego project: A 1:300 Eiffel Tower.

It has 3,428 pieces and is really, really big. I have no idea what I am going to do with it.

Achievement Unlocked

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:

Strange Room

So I have moved to a hotel closer to the airport since I have a 6:05 Eastern time flight and I did not feel like getting up 45 minutes earlier to make the drive into Boston. I was kind of shocked when I opened up my room and found this:

A freaking conference table smack dab in the middle of my hotel room. It makes me want to call a meeting so that it wont go to waste. In all seriousness I have used my hotel room as a work area many times in the past and a big ass table like this would so come in handy.

Update: I was just saying to myself sometime over the last week that I was surprised that hotels had not started putting iPod docks in them. Well low and behold this room has one on the clock radio.

Yes I have seen this..

but thanks for the forward(s) none the less. :)

From the Brothers Brick

The funny thing is that on my first trip to the Netherlands I said at a resort hotel in Zandvoort. It was off season so my recollection is of the very cold wind and not the topless beach.

Happy Birthday Lego

Master carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen started the company on August 10, 1932 in his studio in the town of Billund in Jutland

From Earthtimes

71a - Take a walking tour of Boston

Instead of just taking in one tourist site I decided to take in a bunch by taking a walking tour of Boston.

My day started by going to the start of one of the spurs of the community rail. While this was very convenient, I was kind of surprised at the cost. A round trip ticket was $15.50. The trip in to Boston took about an hour but rail travel is always fun and relaxing. The train ended up in South Station which is also a subway stop. I took the subway to Fenway Park. I must say that the subways of Boston are very confusing. Has I not been following a family that I overheard saying that they were going to the Park, I could have very easily gotten lost. My adventures at Fenway Park are covered here.

After my Fenway Park, I went back to the subway stop and headed to Faneuil Hall.

Faneuil Hall is a very historic location but has been turned into a giant commercial market. It reminded me a lot of Pike Place Market in Seattle but with a giant Cheers Bar.

From there I got a free map and headed towards Paul Revere's home.

My biggest surprise was that his house was 90 years old when he moved in and it was in better shape then parts of Fenway.

From there I walked to The Old North Church.

Fun Fact: The church is still in use as a church.

Outside of the church, there was a band and a float. At this time I had no idea what this was for but I was surprised that they actually had a float with a Saint with money pinned on it.


After the band moved on I headed down the street. Along the way I noticed that I was following a trail:

Turns out it is called the Freedom Trail and goes from historical landmark to historical landmark. I found out more information as I was using the free restrooms at the Freedom Trail Visitor Center. While I was there I checked out the brochures on the rack I discovered what maybe the greatest tourist attraction of time: Codzilla. Yes you read that correctly Codzilla!!!! Well Codzilla was back where I started so I decided to throw out my original plan and head back to One Long Pier.

Before I headed back I thought I should go a bit farther and check out the USS Constitution.

I decided that I did not want to spend an hour waiting to get on the boat so I would just live with pictures from the pier. I was really impressed with museum. They have a book called Six Frigates that I plan on checking out when I get home.

After that I headed back to my starting point. On the way I found out what the float was about.

Turns out it was Saint Agrippina Day and there was an actual Italian street fair.

After checking out the festivities I headed to Codzilla!!!

It was to bad that they broke the boat the day before. I wonder if they had an encounter with a Large Mothra Bass?

On the way back the there was incident on the train where an older lady was having heart issues but did not want emergency service until she got to her stop. Lucky for her the train crew called EMS and they arrived and took her to the hospital before she got any worse.

More pictures of the day here.

99 - Visit Fenway Park

So I am currently in Massachusetts for work. Originally I was scheduled to be there a couple weeks ago. This schedule was pretty firm so I went on-line and purchased a ticket to the July 22nd game between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox in historic Fenway Park.

Of course nothing ever goes as planned and the trip was pushed back a week and a half, the day before I was scheduled to fly. So now I am the proud owner of an unused ticket that I paid $105 dollars for and of course my rescheduled trip ended up during a long road trip for the Red Sox.

Well yesterday I did the next best thing to seeing a game at Fenway Park by taking a tour of Fenway Park.

The picture below is from the same general location as my ticket would have been, except on the first base side instead of the third.

This one shows the seats that I would have been in. According to our guide they are not the original seats but were a part of the renovations in the late 1930s. They are also the smallest seats in baseball.

The condition of the seats bring to mind my overall feelings of the park. It is a rundown poorly maintained and poorly planned facility. While I can forgive the planning because I can tell they are constantly trying to squeeze more seats in to a very small space. But I can't really forgive the walls that do not appear to have been painted in over 20 years or the brick walls that are crumbling or the seats that are falling apart. To get to many parts of the stadium you actually have to walk on the roof. In some places they have put a haphazard array of mats, but there are quite a few places where you are actually walking on just the roofing paper. I really would not have been surprised if I had found places that were just held together by duct tape.

So in conclusion I am sure I would have been more impressed had I actually seen a game, but without thirty thousand others the flaws of the stadium really stand out.

Well anyway here are more pictures.

101 Things in 1001 Days

After a false start last year, I have finally got my 101 list finished and posted. I am breaking "the rules" a bit by adjusting my start time and including items that were completed before the official posting date. I assure anyone reading this is that all of the items that are crossed off would have been on the list had it been posted on April 2, 2007.

The reason I selected April 2nd is that it was the start of the Mariner's baseball season and the first step that is needed for completing thing 28. Over the next couple weeks I will be doing post for all of the completed items.

The items marked with Redo: are things that were on my list the last time I tried to do this mission. I completed the tasks then but felt that since it happened before I officially started I would need to redo the tasks to get credit.

Demolition from the ground up

As found at Gizmodo

When the P&O building was constructed in 1965, each floor was hung from a huge beam at the top of the tower and supported by the central core. According to Matthew White, project director, the weight has to be removed from the structure from the bottom up. "Eventually the beam will be deconstructed at roof level, leaving the core, which will be demolished from the top down."

PS3 Quote of the Quarter

Actually, because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our original expectation.

From Kotaku

Lego Jones Trailer

Everyone I know fromTennessee has been a dick

From Bits and Pieces

Puzzle Quested

From the Folks at Ctrl+Alt+Del

Apology NOT accepted

Funny Sign

Funny signs are everywhere on the internet. So I guess it is not that big of a deal too add my own picture of on I saw in Everett, WA

An apology to Jim

How to make your own Power Ring from Instructables

Thanks Gizmodo

Steroids Scandal Hits Major League Superheroes

Wired has something to say about Superheroes.

My favorite quote:

All other members of the league, including the Batman, have come out clean in their tests, although it was discovered that what Elongated Man was calling "Gingo juice" is actually 180-proof grain alcohol, and has nothing to do with his powers. He is currently in rehab.

Let us not forget the much needed Green Lantern slam:

"You have to understand here," he said, visibly weary from the ordeal. "The rest of the guys, they're always running and punching and lifting things. They get a workout just by doing their jobs. Me, what do I do? I think. I just hover there and whatever I think of, my power ring does. I may be flying around, but I have the superhero equivalent of a desk job. If I didn't watch my figure, I'd end up putting on so much weight I'd have to change my name to the Green Lighthouse. Given a choice between spending half my time in the gym and actually, you know, saving the world, yeah, I did a few 'roids."

That's right Jim. The entire Paralax saga was because of 'roid rage.

Lebron Etch-a-Scetch

Did Pirates really say Arrr?

Apparently not. Damn you Explainer and you dream shattering.

Mr Potato Head Jumps the Shark

I was OK with Darth Tator

I was OK with Spider Spud

But Optimash Prime just goes to far.

YouTube Video Killed the Radio Star

The Wrong Trousers covering first video shown on MTV by the Buggles.

PS I still have the 8 track of the original.

Who is right the writer or the reader?

First a post taken from Dave Ex Machina

Ray Bradbury seems to have caught a bad case of Intentional Fallacy.

Bradbury still has a lot to say, especially about how people do not understand his most literary work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953. It is widely taught in junior high and high schools and is for many students the first time they learn the names Aristotle, Dickens and Tolstoy.

Now, Bradbury has decided to make news about the writing of his iconographic work and what he really meant. Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands.

This, despite the fact that reviews, critiques and essays over the decades say that is precisely what it is all about. Even Bradbury’s authorized biographer, Sam Weller, in The Bradbury Chronicles, refers to Fahrenheit 451 as a book about censorship.

So tell us, Ray. What’s it all about?

Bradbury, a man living in the creative and industrial center of reality TV and one-hour dramas, says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.

You know what else might harm reading literature? Telling people who’ve read, enjoyed, and thought about your book for decades that it turns out they don’t get it. Why even write a book, Ray, if fifty years later you’re just going to stand up and say, “TV is bad. Oh, and you’re all wrong.”

No, Ray, we’re not all wrong. See, that’s the great thing about art: it’s not a quiz. There’s no right answer, not even yours. You wrote the book, you got it published, and then it went into the great big world on its own. For fifty years it’s made its way through the minds of others and now, suddenly, you want to write it again? You want “backsies” on fifty years of interpretation? Sorry, Ray, it doesn’t work that way.

This is not to say that Mr. Bradbury doesn’t have some worthwhile thoughts on the damaging influence of television. And it’s not to say that there isn’t a good dose of anti-television material in the novel. but to say any different or additional interpretation is “wrong”?

Next thing you know, you’ll be saying Guy Montag was a replicant!

I am so torn because I hate when the "critics" find deep meaning in works that don't have them. But then again I read Fahrenheit 451 and I thought it was quite obviously about the evils of government censorship. I have become that which I most hate.

New Favorite Word

Ambigram
An Example:

A place with a bunch.

Also from Neatorama

Cool Picture

This may look like a paint by numbers but is actually a photo. From Neatorama

If kids today don't learn from Tom...

They will end up making viral videos.

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

History Lesson

This is what I was missing in my History classes... Fancy Graphics.

I am getting too old

From Across-the-Board

84% of women say they've met new men by ass grinding

A new survey was conducted by a medical resident at Queen's University, Kingston 143 women in clubs between the ages of 18 and 28 about what works when a man is trying to get their attention at a bar.

While most women in the survey said they preferred a man introduce himself and start a conversation when they first meet, about 30% said "grinding" is an acceptable way to pick someone up.

"Grinding" is exactly what it sounds like -- a man introduces himself to a strange woman by coming up behind her on the dance floor and rubbing his pelvis against her. In case you think this is a bit exaggerated, 84% of the women in the survey say this is how they have personally experienced new men introducing themselves.

Another startling finding in the survey is 3.5% of the women asked said touching their breasts was an "acceptable alternative to hello". Now, 3.5% is not very high, but if you're in a bar with 200 women, that means statistically somewhere there are seven of them who will let you shake more than their hands when you introduce yourself. Full article here.

Angry Video Game Nerd's Spider-man Trailer

Work related funny

Sonic Screwdriver

From Gizmodo:

Cool note of the day:

The most recent incarnation of the Sonic Screwdriver, as used in the most recent Doctor Who series, was a lot smaller than this one. Then, when the producers of the show saw this one (which had to be large enough to accomodate 3 AG13 batteries) they took the toy mold and cast an identical one.

Sex

From Across the Board

How does America rank sexually? Not high according to a global sex survey conducted by Durex condoms. In a country that's practically made porn a national pastime, and where releasing a highly embarrassing, "stolen" sex tape is the key to fame and fortune, the U.S. came in a dismal 23 out of 26 countries - beating out only Japan, Hong Kong and Nigeria.

On average we have sex just 85 times per year, way lower than the global average of 103 times. And when we do, we average 18 minutes per session. Not surprisingly, less than half of Americans (48%) are satisfied with their sex lives. via

• The least sexually satisfied people in the world are those in the Asia Pacific at 35%

• The most satisfied? Africans at 66%.

• People having the most sex - Greeks at 164 times per year, followed by Brazilians at 145 times.

• Africans spend the most time per session at 24 minutes, and Western Europeans spend the least time, 17 minutes.

• The age group most likely to achieve orgasm comes in at those aged 65 and over. Which is why grandma is always smiling.

Good news for the Brothers D. I guess.

When Ninja's Attack

From Dwight Schrute's Schrute-Space by Dwight K. Schrute

Every year, when spring comes, my mind goes to one place and one place only, Ninjas.

Every time you read about Ninja’s attacking somebody or assassinating some public figure, it seems to happen in the spring. I’m not sure why, it’s just the way it is.

Maybe it’s the fact that the spring is traditionally the new year in most pagan religions. It is also the Persian festival, “Naw Ruz” or “New Year”.

Whether it is a throwing star to the neck at a bowling alley, a poison spike that sails through an open window and lodges itself in the fleshy part of the leg, or a mysterious black-clad figure with a bo staff, perched up on the ceiling of your garage as you pull in your car from your awesome job, ninja attacks can and will happen anywhere and anytime.

And they happen to the best people too. Just ask my cousin Heindl. She has lost 12% hearing in her left ear from one.

Things to remember:

Be alert. Everybody loves a lert. (Ziggy joke)

Check ceilings first, when doing your safety inspections, that’s where they like to ‘hang’.

The best defense against a ‘shuriken’ or throwing star is a good offense. Also, armor.

You will never beat a ninja at a sword fight, one on one. When the Ninja draws his sword, fire your taser ™. A well placed taser ™ will take out even the most deadly of ninjas.

Show them that you know they’re there. Shout out, when entering a new locale or a suspicious locale, “I know you’re there, Mr. Ninja. Your element of surprise has now been taken away” [I’ve gotten many ‘funny’ looks for this kind of preparedness, but so be it. That is a risk I’m willing to take. Are YOU!?]

But most importantly, remember that a Ninja is only trying to kill you if someone has hired that ninja to do so. So for every ass-kicking Ninja trying to take someone out there is some alienated girlfriend, some enemy rival at the workplace or some Japanese feudal lord who has paid that Ninja to kill. Or worse.

I hope this web log has made your spring a more beautiful and restful time. That was the author’s intent. Also, fear.

Dwight Kurt Schrute, Assistant Regional manager, Dunder-Mifflin Paper
Chairman and Founder, Lackawanna County Ninja Preparedness Council

Zombie American

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Not a real cool product

But is still kind of cool.

Cool Video

I have never heard of these guys before but this video is Awesome.

The S is for Shakespeare

From Chris's Invincible Super-blog

Cool Product

This is such an obvious idea. Why is this the first time I am seeing this.

Why Heroes is going to ruin next years TV season.

So if you are reading this then you know that I am a huge fan of sci-fiction and fantasy and I am always excited when a genre show like Lost and Heroes is successful. The problem is that Hollywood is notorious for trying to recreate successes by looking at the surface of show instead of what actually makes it good. What that means is that the 07-08 television series is going to be very heavy on genre shows.

NBC:

Bionic Woman - Remake of the original by 1/2 of the team that recreated Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck from Battlestar is the bad guy in the pilot.

Journeyman - A time travel show staring the Lucius Vorenus from Rome.

Chuck - A nerd gets a spy database downloaded into his head. The second clip is great, Chuck vs a Ninja. Clips were very funny.

Heroes: Origins - A Heroes spin-off that will air while Heroes is on Hiatus. It will be stand alone episodes with none of the main cast.

CBS:

Moonlight - Vampire detective. Link is just to schedule but you can click on the schedule to see a clip. Looks very soapy.

ABC:

Pushing Daisies - A detective that can bring the dead back to life. My favorite of all the clips I saw.

Eli Stone - An attorney that hallucinates. Ally McBeal but with a male lead? George Michael!?!?

Cavemen - Geico Cavemen in a half hour dramedy. May actual be able to talk about race issue without people getting fired.

FOX:

New Amsterdam - An immortal cop in New York. The clips make this show look HORRIBLE.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator spin-off. Can this really work as an on-going series?

The CW:

Reaper - A bounty hunter for the Devil. The pilot was directed by Kevin Smith.

Lady Liberty may be in trouble

I am not one to believe in omens and that might be a good thing. Last month my cleaning women accidentally knock the arm of my micro-scale Statue of Liberty Lego sculpture. Not a big deal easily repaired.
Then a couple of weeks later, I closed my freezer door and the arm fell off of my Master Builders Statue of Liberty Lego sculpture.

As you can see it fell it to a bunch of pieces. So this is going to take a little more time to fix. I will probably even need to find the original instructions.

I am just hoping the trend does not keep up the food chain.

Go to one game in every M's homestand - Take 2 - 2

Still on my Quest to catch one game during each homestand.
April 28th Against the Kansas City Royals. Went with Jason "Duece".


Unfortunately Weaver was pitching for the M's, so the final score was 3-8.

On the plus side it was Rally Towel night.

It was the hottest day so far this year and Felix was pitching so I made a solo trek to Safeco on May 15th (Super Tuesday!) to watch the Los Angeles Angels.

Final Score 11-3

Blog-a-rama

I have been busy at work and not wanting to touch a computer when I got home so I am WAY behind on my blogging. So I have set aside today to get caught up on the Stuff To Say. Let the flow begin...

Top Ten Surprises In The "Heroes" Season Finale

As read by Masi Oka (Hiro) on 5/15/2007 Late Show With David Letterman

10 - One of us gets whacked by Tony Soprano
9 - Show's slogan changed to "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World, Save 15% on Your Car Insurance by Switching to Geico"
8 - Judges go nuts after the pulse-pounding rumba I do with Billy Ray Cyrus
7 - We use our powers to lower gas prices, am I right, people?
6 - Devote entire show to figuring out what the hell is happening on "Lost"
5 - The telepathic cop wins a new car after reading Pat Sajak's mind on "Wheel Of Fortune"
4 - New hero has the ability to reduce acid reflux
3 - I beat the crap out of Spider-Man
2 - The invisible man gets caught sneaking into dressing rooms at J.C. Penney
1 - I use my teleporting powers to bust Paris Hilton out of the slammer

Ego Search

So I found this article on Lifehacker. It is about using a MonitorThis to build an opml file that can be upload in to you RSS Reader. With this opml file you can now monitor a group of RSS feeds that check for new instances of your name in the Interweb. I created one for my name and it found articles on my Uncle Jerome and Rugby player named Chris. Apparently Chris is actually a stud of a Rugby player and will be representing the US in the Rugby World Cup. Yeah I was surprised that there was a Rugby World Cup too.

This is just for people named Jim

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Things to Avoid

Listed in no particular order

1. The Plague
2. Stick in the Eye
3. Spider-man 3

How Many of Me

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Apparently 332 people share my last name in the USA.

Update: I just did a little playing around with this site and Jim and George will be sad to learn that they don't live in the United States. I will miss them.

Rant

Do you know what I can not understand...

Chocolate Covered Altoids.

I like chocolate. I like Altoids. But these are not two great tastes that work great together. I feel that chocolate is best chewed and Altoids are best sucked. So when I put a chocolate covered Altoid in my mouth, I want to bite down but I know if I do I will miss out on the curiously strong flavor. Food should not be confusing.

On a side Altoids Note, I discovered that I have three different collector's edition Altoid tins.


From looking on Wikipedia and eBay, it looks like I am missing Strong Man, Devil Pinup Girl (same image but with horns), Abominable Snowman (Rankin and Bass) and Ralphie (A Christmas Story).

Return of the Typing of the Dead

I am so psyched. One of my favorite Dreamcast games has a sequel coming.