The evils of the suckle...

Little article in the West Chester Pulse-Journal pointed out a semi-typical story for a smallish-town paper - a local inventor done good.

Seems there's a guy near us in Hamilton, Ohio who's invented the Honeysuckle Popper a little device for - as the moniker suggests - popping out honeysuckle bushes - an invasive species (with all the pejorative connotations that go with that term.)

I especially recommend playing around on the Honeysuckle Popper website. It really reveals the designer's sense of style, honesty, and humor. I'm hoping that the guy makes a decent bit of coin from his invention.

To make up for the other post...

To make up for the post about the horrible movie just a few minutes ago, here's a link to the devil's dictionary - repairing the English language since 1998.

Entertain yourself, folks...

Pain and suffering...

Ah, a birthday celebration...near-perfect steaks, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, sauteed mushrooms and onions, homemade tiramisu...all followed with a viewing of a movie that I've been wanting to see for most of the past year or so...

If only the movie hadn't been horrible...miserable...no fun at all...obvious...thin on character...episodic...just absolutely painful to watch...so bad we had to give up after an hour...I finished it this morning and saw no more value by the end than I did at the beginning...

Please, do yourself a favor and stay away from Match Point. What I really don't understand is how so many critics gave it great reviews. In the entire two hours of the film, there's about thirty seconds of enjoyment - one simple flirtatious scene - and the rest is pain and suffering...miserable crap which apparently fooled critics because it's an almost average movie compared to Woody Allen's other recent stuff (nothing good since 1999's Sweet and Lowdown).

This movie looks great the same way that fat people look thin when hanging around with fatter people.

It's still a ham-handed piece of crap.

Caricature is the sincerest form of flattery...

Mike Luckovich just won his second pulitzer prize for political cartooning. His blog - which has all of his cartoons posted daily - is excellent to check in on.

Or you could go more local with you cartooning...

What does Tierversuche mean?

This lady is one bad mamma-jamma-crocheter...

And I actually do know what Tierversuche means...I just think it's the sickest of the crochet pieces...

Show what god gave ya...

Way back in the middle ages - scientifically speaking, that it - everything atomic was cool. People would trek out to the desert to watch atomic bomb tests, drink atomic cocktails, and hang out at the atomic bar. Heck, the desert was blooming with atoms.

Nowadays, however, it's all about genetics. Everything DNA-related is cool. There are DNA necklaces, DNA art prints, DNA t-shirts, ways to preserve your kids' DNA, Lego DNA kits - both large and small, and even DNA stock quotes.

It's crazy, I tell you...

My recent media consumption...

As the other blog is now dead and I know J-Ged Ruff Rider is always curious, I thought I'd catch you folks up on my recent media consumption...

• Roll Bounce - entertaining period piece...good music...likable characters...one weird moment in the middle where the main character takes a dramatic turn and bashes things with a baseball bat...my advice is to just ignore that scene and enjoy the rest of the light-hearted film...
• Ice Age: The Meltdown - fun family night with the Heckman crew (represent, IBBecky)...not as good as the first one...still pretty good though...admittedly, I had trouble suspending disbelief with some of the geography involved in everybody running from the upcoming flood, but I'm crazy...the animation of the fur was phenomenal and again just continues to amaze me...
• Howl's Moving Castle - not the equal of either Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke but few are...animation's nice...the story's a little too predictable...the ending's way too neat and tidy...much more a love story than the other two films...not one to introduce yourself to Miyazaki's work...
• The Sopranos - season five - probably not their best season, but I've seen the ones before this...still a great series...without cable, I've watched them all via DVD - thanks, Chris D for most of them...excellent series...worth watching, but start way back at the beginning...
• Daredevil: Decalogue - phenomenal storytelling...six collected issues without much in the way of Daredevil until the last issue...nice morality play...excellent comic from a great series...one of the better ones being published by the big two...
• Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits - short masterpiece...only nine songs long...four of them were big radio hits in their day...first CD to sell a million copies...the other five songs aren't quite as good, but the mood from start to finish is what's worth the listen...very nice...
• (What's the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis - I'd forgotten the knockout power of some of the hits here ("Wonderwall", "Don't Look Back in Anger", "Champagne Supernova", "She's Electric", "Don't Look Back in Anger")...it's a period piece from the mid-nineties, but the riffs are pretty timeless...they had a great high point, and they didn't stay there too long, but it was a very nice high point...now I need to track down Definitely Maybe...
• Just subscribed to Discover, Popular Science, and Wired, so hopefully more new stuff will start coming in that way once the subscriptions start...
• Just restarted Diary by Palahniuk...excellent book...this'll be my second read through...
• Also started I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League...revisiting some funny comic book pasts...

'Cause I need the caloric intake...

I scream, you scream, we all scream for free ice cream.

I'll be taking advantage of tomorrow's (4/25) Free Ice Cream Day at Ben & Jerry's at the Montgomery location. Seems the two closer to me aren't taking part. Stinky poos...

Buddha's near-infinite time wasting powers...

It's so simple. This other blog - TransBuddha.com - has a bunch of videos and games that are entertaining.

That's all.

I'm currently working my way backwards through the archives and hoping to someday get out of the morass of time wasting skills that Transbuddha clearly has.

Wish me luck as I wish you the same.

Reduce, reuse, recyle...even holidays...

Sorry, I was out of town for most of yesterday (big day at the race track) and didn't get a chance to properly celebrate Earth Day, so today is honorary Earth Day here at IDTMI.

First, a bit of speechifying before the links. My general view is that change is inevitable. The world as it is isn't the world as it was. That's life and the effects of life. We shouldn't automatically assume that the world is currently worse off than it ever was because it isn't. By the same token, though, we shouldn't assume that things will automatically get better without us working toward that goal.

So, take a little bit of time and do thing - even small things - to make sure that the tomorrows aren't worse than today.

• Some background about Earth Day - the US and international versions
• The US Government's Earth Day portal
• One of the most comprehensive Earth Day sites out there
• Ten easy things to do to make a difference
• An article about fifty ways to live greener

So, do us all a favor and do what you can to be a better world citizen. Start small if you need to and replace your incandescent lights with compact fluorescents or even LEDs. Reduce your water usage just a little bit here and there.

All in all, just be aware of the issues and do what you can to be environmentally conscious.

Hey, Rube...

Clearly, the introductions to this Asian show (or the segments or it or whatever) are amazing Rube Goldberg machines. I sat in slack-jawed amazement for probably twenty minutes watching the video.

And if anybody can translate any part of it for me, please do. I've got the stupid tune stuck in my head now.

And Transbuddha has a bunch more videos on their site.

German engineering at its finest...

Peter Stormare - as pointed out by my good buddy GRob - makes the best German...

Check him in the VW commercials in which he unpimps that auto...in case you hadn't seen 'em already...

Commercial #1
Commercial #2
Commercial #3

Sadder news...

A fraternity brother of mine - not one I knew, admittedly - was the victim of a brutal beating recently.

The quick version is that Ryan Smith, Wabash Lambda Chi & CBS news producer, was attacked in St Maarten. All signs point toward the attack being because of Ryan's sexual orientation.

Never good to hear...never good to hear about someone you have a connection to...even worse to hear that the police didn't appear to respond at all...

More info if you're interested...

• CBS 4 coverage
• ABC News's coerage
• A Wabash blog entry about Ryan
• Wabash's reportage of the story

Huzzah for the hometown nine...

Root, root, root for the home team.
For if they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two...
Crap, Griffey's hurt again.

I've been a fan of the Reds for decades now, having grown up listening to Marty and Joe relate the Big Red Machine's exploits while I shot hoops with my dad. We talked about what a great catcher Johnny Bench was, but we never did any analysis like JinAZ's blog does. The blog is a great balance of simple, hometown fan rants and raves along with much more studied, rational sabermetric studies.

I came across JinAZ'd blog through links to hit three-part study trying to find a way to determine a way to predict MLB attendance based on a number of different factors. Check out any of the parts...one...two...three...

And in Reds-related news, Ken Griffey, Jr. is on the disabled list again. Oops, that link was an old one. Sorry, that was an old link, too. Oh, here's the current news and a bit of fanciful commentaries.

High five, folks!

It's National High Five Day. Celebrate ya bastages...

Represent, ya pansies...

It's been 'bout a week since anybody posted a comment 'round these parts, and I'm kinda wondering how many folks are just lurking out there. Give a holler if you're in the hizzouse...

Happy 300th post, Lonnie!

You just never know when you'll need weird inventions in your life. At the AmericanInventorSpot website, there are actually a bunch of useful products, too, but it's the stuff like wackiest dog products that are really fun.

The when and where...

To quote Michael Chabon in The Google Story...

Writers of the past had absinthe, whiskey, or heroin. I have Google. I go there intending to stay five minutes and next thing I know, I've written 43 words, and all I have to show for it is that I know the titles of every episode of 'Nanny and the Professor'.

And now Google has released a beta version of Google Calendar. I haven't tried it just yet but have logged in via my gmail account (which I'm not using yet but am always considering shifting to.

These folks just might be writing the future of the internet and computers, so I'd suggest learning a little more about the company if you could. The book - The Google Story - is excellent. It's a fairly quick read, and it's well-written.

Disappointment reigns...

Another trip to the Jungle, another impulse buy. Please hide your shock...

Today it was Chocolate-Covered Nutter Butters - clearly a masterstroke from the people at Nabisco. Nutter Butters are nearly a perfect cookie, and I don't know anybody who doesn't like a little chocolate in their peanut butter.

Sadly, however, the product is very much underwhelming. At twelve cookies per package, the inside looked like a standard rip-off Girl Scout Cookie box rather than the wonderfulness that is the standard thrity-two-cookie package of Nutter Butters. Strike one...

The cookies aren't even the traditional nutter butter peanut shape. Dipping those in chocolate would be wonderful. Instead, we get plain round cookies in chocolate. Strike two...

Then comes the taste - the all-important factor. It's not good. The chocolate overpowers the peanut taste, and the chocolate's not a great quality chocolate. It's the sort of chocolate that comes in chocolate coins that cost a dollar for a little net bag. Sure it's tasty, but it's not exactly Godiva. Strike three...

My advice is to steer clear, folks...

Much better, though, is the newly-released chocolate Payday Good stuff...

The crap I'll do to avoid working...

Got home from Easter with the family - I know, I'm not religious and yet I/we celebrate Easter, deal with it - at 'bout ten Sunday night (no school Monday or all week for me). I've got to drop a post on my Kent State class because I'd been procrastinating all week on discussing the topic of group dynamics (blech). While trying to wade through the tutorial (actually reasonably well produced, but I'm biased because I hate the topic), I watched the new ABC show What About Brian. Surprisingly entertaining for a show starring one of the 7th Heaven kids. I'll likely never see the show again because it'll be on Tuesdays at 10pm, just after my bedtime.

Obviously, though, the show already has some fans.

Jay & Silent Bob Had it Right...

In case you weren't aware, the Easter Bunny hates you.

(Warning, though, that there is a minorly spicy word at the end of the video. If you have sensitive eyes, you may want to stop just before the end.)

Not just a little back...way back...

We need more throwback jerseys like we need another hole in the head.

That being said, though, clearly what we need is a throw-really-far-back jersey. I'm thinking that I need an Amos jersey. I will admit, though, to some doubt as to the officialness of that whole proud sponsor thing up at the top of the page.

1 in UK = 0.8318 in US

I don't understand how 113 mpg in the UK translates to 94 mpg in the US. Why would there be any difference at all?

Either way, though, with gas being like $2.75 a gallon today, I'd be happy.

I'm beginning to repeat myself...

I'm beginning to repeat myself.

In a previous post I discussed my running list of inherently funny words as well as the fact that wikipedia has an article dealing with just such a subject. Today I wandered across the same article in my interweb travellings and found a few other along the same vein.

There's this page of quaint or quixotic words. I especially recommend the list of quaint words.

There's Michael Leyedon's list of funny words some of which overlap with mine.

And there's a page of how to be funny which includes mention of some words that you just need to know because they're funny.

And just because I can, here's my list of words that I particularly enjoy...feel free to drop a comment if you can think of any that I might want to add in...

alka-seltzer   archetype
banana   broccoli
cacophony   cavalcade
chainsaw   chicken
crossmojonation
Cucamonga   dastardly
duck   enthusiasm
epenthesis   eskimo
fluctuate   fluffy
frugal   gob   grunion
guacamole   gubernatorial
infarction   keen   keokuk
kumquats   lisp   lollygagger
ludicrous   malice   metonymy
moist   monkey   mutant
omnibus   oomph   oy
parenthetical   pester   vacuum
phlegm   platypus   pleonasm
polytheism   polytheism   poodle
poot   prune   punctuation
rancor   ruckus   schadenfreude
smorgasbord   snub   spleen
strudel   succotash   superfluous
syllepsis   synecdoche   thingamajig
tint   tmesis   tomfoolery   triumph
turtle   underpants   varoom   waffle
weasel   wonky   zealous

I'm thinking of Moxie Crimefighter...

If any of you wins the Name the Goodyear Blimp contest and gets to hang in the blimp for a day (defined in the official rules as eight hours), I will be coming to your house and smacking you down until I get to pretend to be you and fly in the blimp.

Oh, and when the nomination phase is over, don't forget to vote for my sure-to-be-winning entry...which I kind of need to think of...

Jokes not meant for you...

Every profession, every hobby, every prediliction has its own little weirdnesses and quirks, which is why every one of them deserves its own cartoon site. We open today with Unshelved, the cartoon devoted to librarian humor....Next up is Order of the Stick probably the most entertaining of the Dungeon-and-Dragons-themed cartoons - and the only one I'm mentioning today that I read regularly.We also have La Curaracha focusing on humor that might take an Hispanic bent to really enjoy.There's also Alex a cartoon for the British office worker.Does anybody know of a cartoon strip focused around teachers and/or schools? Funky Winkerbean isn't what I'm looking for, by the way.

It's not football or even basketball...

I don't care how much the ratings of football and baseball climb, baseball is the game that truly lies in the heart of America.

A recent column on the Baseball Analysts speaks beautifully to this, reminding us of the simple joy of watching a baseball game without thinking of statistics and numbers and fantasy games, of the beautiful wonders of the most perfect of games. It's an amzingly well-written piece, and it does a great job of reminding us of the esence of the sport.

There have been other, differently poetic ways of relating this simplicity. George Carlin - in sound or print - has taken his swing, as has W.P. Kinsella via James Earl Jones's voice.

I'll probably get out to my first ball game in a couple of weeks - Astros at Reds April 30th - but the smell of fresh cut grass, the shine of brilliant green along the roadside, the chill of a spring morning fading into the warmth of the afternoon, and all of spring screams for us to turn toward the most beautiful of pasttimes.

He's just too good...

There are a lot of times when I wonder why the Republican party manages to hold such a stranglehold over politics in the US, and I know that The Daily Show isn't exactly the definitive news source, but I'm starting to think that the Democrats just might not find success again until stop doing stupid stuff like this.

How can I if I've got XY?

It's just via flash - and I wish I had the skill to make an egg. The egg, a symbol of life...

Nothing good for you...

Who needs anything more than entree and dessert?

I ask you, who needs vegetative matter, who needs side dishes, who needs anything but meat and sweet?

Today, let me recommend the burger and the tiramisu. Both look pretty excellent based on their websites. So does this one, though...

I never woulda thought of that...

I love the blogsphere...love it, love it, love it...

Where else could I get regular updates from people who will willingly tell me about Strange New Products like a portable urinal for truckers, a spray to spice up my food and keep deer from my garden, diamonds made from human hair, and dity, dirty iPod accessories.

Better cartoons through minimalism...

Way funnier without Garfield's thought bubbles...

This fact was pointed out by Websnark and MackJ - on Truth & Beauty Bombs.

On Truth & Beauty Bombs, I'm intrigued by the avatars that some of the posters (in particular - Forsyth, Randy Johnson, and Darthkittenlover. Anybody know where I can go to make such funky icons?

That's gonna sting...

Admittedly and sadly, I am a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly. I'm thinking about letting the subscription lapse because I just tend to feel like I'm contributing to the celebrity culture by subscribing. I think I'll go back to Discover.

But...

On the back of this week's EW is a great add for The Learning Channel showing The Life Lessons Collections, little Hummel-esque statues with important life lessons such as Your kid doesn't care that it's fourth down and Sometimes when she asks for a backrub, she just wants a backrub.

And on their website, you can create and send your own life lessons, customizing their statues by skin, hair, and eye color and making the message your own.

Have fun, folks...

Oh, and Saw II is actually grosser then the first one. Probably less disturbing but grosser...

What rhymes with Nantucket?

Help celebrate National Poetry Month in April. Possible activities

• Try to rhyme with orange
• read, write, enjoy dirty limericks
• pretend songs are poetry
• overdramatize things
• wear black and snap
• slam somebody
• ramble and rant and howl
• exagerate rhythm
• adopt a personal rhyme scheme

My musical radar (revisited)...

Quick hits through what's been banging into my brain over the past week or two...

• Mystery Girl by Roy Orbison - good album...two high quality songs ("She's a Mystery to Me" - written by Bono & Edge, "You Got It")...sounds timeless...the rest of the album's ok but didn't make the iTunes cut
• Life in Slow Motion by David Gray - slow, boring...makes me wonder if I know of any other artists who have one album that shines so far above the rest of their catalog as does his White Ladder...does anybody know of any one-album wonders?
• Spider-Man: Breakout - nothing to see here, boys...some decent artwork, but totally second-rate villians and a complicated story...it wasn't painful, but it wasn't much worthwhile either
• Green Arrow: Moving Targets - first half good...nice, meaningful story with supporting character getting HIV...good talk to her class/readers...nice character development...second half story good...revenge from previously seen villians...decent help from Outsiders...second half artwork horrible...really, painfully atrocious...
• Superman: The Journey - again, eh...nice artwork throughout...the story skips big parts of the tale so those other issues can be collected in other Infinite Crisis trades, and this one suffers for it...we miss a lot of the story in the process...
• Wonder Woman: Land of the Dead - interesting plotlines between WW's blindness, continuing issues with the Olympian Gods, fighting with a suped-up Cheetah...nice read...I'm still missing the one that came before, though...PLCH doesn't seem to have it...
• Superman: Sacrifice - Supes is the ultimate weapon, and here he kicks Batman's backside...we don't see it, however, since Supes doesn't see it...not bad...rather confusing here with three versions of the fight and events happening or not happening depending on whether we're in Supes's POV or not...essential to understand Infinite Crisis, though...
• JLA: Crisis of Conscience - horrible artwork on the cover and in a couple of issues inside...good story about the League continuing to deal with the mindwipes that were retconned to have happened long ago...needed to be read to bridge from Identity Crisis to Infinite Crisis...I'm gonna have to read Infinite Crisis when it comes out
• Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut - reprinted stories from his earliest published works...hit or miss...some are nice portraits of people...others show the early ticks of a man who would become a great writer but isn't there yet...probably only for fans...

What's the rest of the phrase?

NBC has been running The More You Know - their public service campaign with their television actors - for at least a decade and a half now. Heck, they've even won awards and gotten an imdb.com entry for the campaign.

Sure, it's a pretty simplistic campaign and one that's been spoofed by NBC shows before (and poorly by Fox shows, too), but the spoofs from The Office last week are absolute comic genius.

Thank, by the way, to my next door neighbor for pointing out the link to all of The Office spots online.

Cover yourself up...c'mon!

Clearly, we should wear our political positions on our sleeves. If you're not comfortable doing that, however, might I suggest wearing your opinion on your chest.

Clearly, the correct way to live is to force everyone to see how you feel about any issue at all times. Get a bumper sticker, a conservative t-shirt, a liberal t-shirt, a religious t-shirt, or just a cover for your shuffle.

Whatever you do, though, don't let a single moment go by without announcing your opinions of some issue to the world. No more funny t-shirts that just tell jokes.

It is absolutely imperative that we know your opinion at all times...

Schweet...

It's a lovely Spring morning here, and that means we're in need of something a little sweet to tempt the tongue. Might I recommend what the company describes as All Our Stupid Candy. If you're on a diet or something - congrats, by the way, if you've lost more than thirty pounds and are reading this - you can just look at their Weirdest Stupid Stuff.

On the other hand, you can to choose to go on full Cute Overload - a blog that posts pictures that make you want to go aaaaawwwww...

Either way, I hope you enjoy the day more than I'm planning on. It's to the Y to work out this morning and then into the car for six hours of driving to Good Ol' Wabash and back...yippee...

At least there's a birthday party for the evening hours...