Ploafmaster General

Just read a fine piece of humor at a fine site called the nonist.

Chicky-check it.

Holy crap...It's McSweeney's time again, folks.

Read this collection of food reviews, but take particular note of the description of "oven baked brownie squares."

I know I've really been bitin' off McSweeney's lately, but dang it if that site isn't one of the funniest things I've ever read since Sweet Fancy Moses.

So today I just discovered the "verbal cartoons" of Dan Liebert. He seems to be a more sophisticated Jack Handey (not that there's ANYthing wrong with Jack Handey, Alexis :-)).

Read! Enjoy! Wet yourself with laughter!

How do you react in the face of tragedy?

Yes, it's puerile. Yes, it's gross. Yes, I probably shouldn't link to such a base web page on my site, but here I've gone and done it.

Why? Because my wife has been to a bachelorette party, and so have countless other women out there, and if they'll suffer no worse than some blushing faces at the reading of the article, then everyone else can certainly handle it. Fellas, if you're not familiar with the sort of things that happen at bachelorette parties, then crawl out of your hole, read this article, and laugh your fanny off.

Seriously the most amazing thing I've seen in weeks. The below video was created by a Norwegian bloke using expertly edited video samples of himself playing several individual hits on a drum kit, and notes on a piano. He otherwise doesn't know how to play drums or piano, but clearly has an ear for music. And some hella tight video editing skillz.
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo&w=425&h=350])

Wow...just read a fascinating and hilarious article over on Wired's site.

The columnist describes every nerd/boy's dream toy - a jet pack. While extraordinarily heavy and bulky, the unit should deliver about 30 minutes of flight compared to the typical minute or so that previous efforts have mustered.

The article's highlight, however, is undoubtedly the following passage:

Of course, it's hard not to imagine the test flight. With great ebullience, Andreas soars into the heavens. He sneers at gravity with contempt, a spurned mistress, a whore who embraces all but him. But suddenly he hears a horrifying choke and shudder and a sickening vertigo creeping up from his genitalia and into his bowels as he plummets back down to the ground, strapped to over 200 pounds of highly-explosive rocket fuel and whirring metal blades.

As a follow up to that Weird Al video posted below, I thought I'd link to the Slate article that led me to it in the first place.

Well written and nostalgic, the article reminds me of why I've always respected that man. Maybe I need to watch UHF soon...

You know it's a slow Friday when I'm postin' TWO videos! I just ran into Weird Al's video, "White and Nerdy."

Check it.
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw&w=425&h=350])

Or rather, not denied...Below is one of the best interpretations of Stairway to Heaven I've heard/seen.

And these two, Rodriga y Gabriela, are freakin' amazing. Look for more of thier stuff on YouTube. I'll be looking for their CDs in music shops ASAP.

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNc5o9TU0t0&w=425&h=350])

I remember many months (or maybe a year?) ago, a friend of mine told me about a neat trick on Google's main search page.

If you entered the phrase "miserable failure" and clicked the "I'm feeling lucky" button, you'd be taken directly to the Whitehouse front page.

Well, as of today, it still works the same way.

Tee hee!

I think I'm going to start reading Slate more often. Having read many an article linked by my brother or Jason Kottke, I'm finding that I enjoy they're writing style. The editorial writing style coupled with plenty of real fact and news substance makes me feel like I'm reading The Daily Show, only toned down a bit, and without the studio audience.

You remember the old days of the web when page after page was littered with wretched animated .GIF files? I recall countless web pages that ground my old computer's processor to a halt because of the myriad animations which filled the screen...mostly cheesy graphics of fire burning, people driving cars, or three frames of animation to otherwise give the impression of movement.

Those days seem largely to have passed (unless you dig through MySpace).

Today, however, I was reminded of a hilarious graphic whilst perusing the comment boards on Radio Paradise, and it's too hilarious not to share:

From a brief overview by the fellas at 37signals, I decided to check out Moo - a company dedicated to making your sundry web-ephemera tangible.

Currently, Moo only handles these delightfully ingenious "calling cards" made (full bleed, apparently) from your cropped photos on Flickr. It's stupidly easy to use, works like a charm to set up, and if you have a Flickr Pro account (like I do), you can try it out for free and get a ten-pack of cards made from up to ten different pictures. You can customize the text on the back as much as anyone needs to, and it's a snap. Four main steps, and you're done!

I hope to post an update when I receive my cards "up to ten days" from now.

So maybe nobody read the football post, or perhaps even my friends and brother have stopped reading! Either way, I removed the following from the football post so it wouldn't be lost in the shuffle.

Originally in a post a few days ago:

On an unrelated note - it just struck me that I've been doing this Blog thing regularly for over a year now! It's too late to do some hokey Blog Birthday crap, but I just have to say that I'm amazed I kept up with some pseudo-writing endeavor this long. July 2005, I posted my first entry here, and I've been at it ever since. And still with a readership of about 3 people :-)

So post a comment here if you're actually reading, eh? Just to let me know who's out there.

Alright, the Steve Jobs speech at the Apple press event is starting in a minute...

Go to Mac Rumors for auto-updating second-hand coverage.

What'll it be? I'll update this post when I have a summary...

UPDATE:
So here's what happened:
1. Updated video iPods, better storage, not many new features.
2. New Nanos...multi-color aluminum like ye olde Mini.
3. New Shuffle - little aluminum square - wicked tiny at 1 Gb capacity.
4. Movies on iTunes.
5. HOLY CRAP - SNEAK PREVIEW - New media integration device for your living room...looks like half a Mac Mini...purely delicious, and I want one when it comes out Q1 next year....

Yeah, so I suppose I'm turning into a total Apple nut, but hey, they've been crankin' out slick stuff for several years straight, now.

When I read this article, I had trouble not laughing out loud in my cubicle. This is some seriously funny shiz.

For a nice reminder about how Microsoft (and any company with shareholders, really) operates:

Quickest Patch Ever.

So this is totally nerdy, but hey...I am what I...whatever.

I have a Firefox extension called Sage that lets me keep track of my RSS feeds for websites I read daily. For the longest time, I've had Digg in my list of feeds - Digg, of course, used to be a tech-centered website, peer edited, as it were. Users submit content and vote on it, and that's how the front page stories are decided. Novel idea, really sweet. Excellent for generating buzz over a new product, idea, or news story.

Today, however, I got fed up and dropped it from my RSS stack. Why?

A few reasons...First, I got tired of the horrible commentary. I feel as if 10-year-old children are writing the banter you see on the site. Or the personal attacks. Second, even before they created less tech-centric news categories, the content was sooooooooooo off-topic. Now, with more generic comments, we're treated to countless submissions of blogspam, and inflamitory stories like, "Liberals do this..." or "Religious Right does that..."

I suppose I see it as a failure of the pure methodology of peer editing. I like, personally, more focused content providors. That's why I subscribe to Engadget, TUAW, MaCNN, and Signal vs. Noise, to name a few. That's why I still subscribe to Slashdot, where content is almost entirely provided by users, but carefully edited. Are they slower than Digg? Certainly, but the quality is higher, and the commentary (especially when filtered) is much more useful.

END NerdPost;

Wow, so I must say...

{{sheepishly blushing}}

MySpace has been quite effective in my first few days...I've already found a cousin, some friends from college and high school, and even my childhood home dog from NJ.

I'll just be over there in the corner questioning my Techie Elitism...

Jason Kottke has posted a delightful account of his resistance to recent pop culture hype.