Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

The Gospel is here! Check out this customer image to see how they pulled pulled off making it look like a hard-bound book with a noodley page saver on Amazon (also note the "shoddy construction" review). Maybe if it does real well they'll put out a quality edition. But then again, at this cheapass price I wouldn't mind giving a few copies to a friend who travels for her job and having her place them on top of the bibles in the hotels where she stays.

stock.xchng is no longer free

The last remaining high-quality high-volume free stock photography site is no longer free. Figured it was just a matter of time, but it's a shame when an open community gets bought out and they immediately begin charging money for photos that people uploaded without intent to sell. You know somebody's getting ripped off. Not that the photos are that expensive, but working as I am on internal facing projects there's zero budget for such things, so even $1 is $1 too much.

Update: I was decieved. Between the evil that is Websense restricting what I can see at work, and the Stockxpert.com pages that I ran into during the v.6 upgrade, stock.xchange remains free even though it didn't appear that way last Thursday.

The Typography of Girls' Asses

'tis a shame.

Orgasm Girl

OK, even though this isn't blocked at work I think I'd better save it for later. The game's official website is www.orgasmgirlgame.com, but websense has that blocked from here.

Oglala Sioux Tribe on the South Dakota Abortion Ban

A truly righteous response.

Couples Cribbage a.k.a. Dove's Cribbage

Do you enjoy playing cribbage, just playing the game itself, the rhythm of the counting, the flow of the game from stage to stage? Is cribbage as much a social occasion as a competition? I myself have said yes to these questions, and having grown up with the my dad and his best friend chanting out the scores of their hands in the background while us children played in the other room, I suspect that my dad would say the same. But, while our significant others may know how to play the game, and indulge us by playing, they eventually tire of losing every game.

I have come up with a solution. It is a cooperative version of cribbage where both players peg using the same track. It's like team cribbage, minus the other team, and with 6 card hands. I made Cybil a board specially designed for Couples Cribbage that is shown above, shaped like a dove (my pet name for her).

Since it's a travel sized board (7" by 7¹/₄") it'll be flying all over the place this year. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in May, Napa Vally in July, Vegas I don't even remember when (we don't drink or gamble, but catching a show and staying in a hotel is definitely a good time), and York, England in November.

Might as well throw in a couple construction notes. It's made of red oak and hand polished with teak oil. The entire project was completed while hanging out of the back of my hatchback, sitting on the tailgate. The pegs are brass with sparkly colored glass caps (sparkly being the operative word when talking about Cybil's taste in jewelry), bought them at thegamestore.com.

What's My Line?

Last night Cybil and I went to an ACME comedy theatre production of "What's My Line?" where a panel of pseudo celebrity guests try to guess the contestant's profession by asking yes or no questions. Vint Cerf (one of the founders of the internet) was a contestant. Brilliant guy. He talked a bit about Google Mars, but I didn't get a chance to ask him about the rumor that Google is buying Sun.

Oh, and for any fellow character actor fans, our celebrity sighting for the evening was Greg Germann.

How to spot a baby conservative

"Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative." (emphasis mine)

Remind you of anyone?

AskOxford: Frequently Asked Questions

Have a grammar question eating away at your soul? I know I did, but not anymore!

And for you typography geeks out there, here's a shorter version of "quick brown fox…" that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet in 28 letters:

brick quiz whangs jumpy veldt fox.

PostSecret - Pinky

I forget what reminded me of this site, PostSecret, but the above linked little slice of Vegas I find especially poignant. And hot.

The New Yorker: Troublemakers

If you're going to read this article don't be a jackass just read the first two paragraphs. As any good essayist, Gladwell begins by eloquently summarizing the opposing view.

Bottom line, if I had to give one regarding the dog breed issue, would be that dog temperments are more a reflection of their owner's personality than the dog's breed. The lesson regarding the ban on pit bulls in Ottawa is that generalizations based on prejudice make crappy laws, but that generalizations based on facts, followed up by preventative actions (also based on facts) make meaningful laws.

The New Yorker: Million-Dollar Murray

This "power law" distribution approach to solving society's problems is a hard one to wrap your political beliefs around. It's big government handing out special favors to a select few. It's effeciency over fairness. Placing fixing the problem above the American dream of rags to riches. But more than anything I think it's cold rationality trying to fight the hot emotions of politics. And clearly it is emotions that rule the current political environment in the US.

darice.org * got everything - Grey's Anatomy

Found this blog via a liquid layout site (of which it is a prime example, check out how the photo is handled). I'm not usually a fan of black on white, but this site puts content first so effortlessly that I don't mind the stark contrast. I think the meatiness (the proper term escapes me) of the serif font helps. Oh, and the "ColorZilla" plugin informs me that that's not black, it's #222.

I'm linking to this particular post to save myself the effort of linking to all three Grey's Anatomy blogs. We just started listening to the podcast last weekend, and last night I watched all the special features on the Season 1 DVD. It really is the best show on television right now. Put it this way – Battlestar Galactica we only watch each episode once.

Jason Gaylor » Blog Archive » Fresh Foliage Photoshop Brushes for High Resolution [Part I]

Never can have too many killer hi-res photoshop brushes, even if they don't work in photoshop 7.

Rakehell Review: Never Seduce a Scoundrel

Let me just say that writing is damn hard work. It doesn't help that I wouldn't let myself cop-out and just write a plot summary style review, but still, it was more difficult than it should have been. Maybe I should get in on some writing project like the "zombie wikipedia" thing that Josh is participating in, to keep my writing skills fresh.

New Scientist - Eyes are fooled by spinning, curving balls

an evolutionary explaination as to why side-spin fucks with people so delightfully. can you tell i've got that table tennis itch?

Northridge Table Tennis

It's going to happen. I'm going to play for real, and get my ass kicked by pre-teens.

Confessions of a Car Salesman

Read this and you might be able to put yourself in the shoes of a car salesman. This empathy thing is hard for those of us with autistic tendencies, but at the very least we can use the inside information to our advantage, and just buy the damn car online. Understanding that it's not the salesman's fault that he is the way he is doesn't make him less of an asshole, it just lets us understand why he sucks. And maybe, just maybe, the internet can force the car sales industry to change, or at least re-build itself better after online sales have destroyed it.