Ramblings
March 16, 2008
Embiggen is Becoming a Perfectly Cromulent Word
While looking at a slideshow on Flickr, I clicked the Options link on the page, just to see what was there. Turns out there's an option to "Embiggen small photos to fill screen," a clear reference to The Simpsons episode Lisa the Iconoclast :
Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.How long before this fake word becomes considered a real one?
Edna: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield
Ms. Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.
March 12, 2008
Album Cover Meme
Jeff pointed out an album cover meme that's pretty fun: Just follow these rules to create the cover. The results can be pretty bizarre, but sometimes things oddly work out, like my cover (which, if I had to guess, would probably have a 70's folk-rock sound to it):
February 21, 2008
Read Later: Instapaper
If you're like me, you often come across an article, blog post, YouTube video, or other web page that you want to read but don't have the time at the moment. I've wanted some way to be able to mark a page to read later...something better than my current method of dragging a bookmark to a folder on my desktop.
I recently came across Instapaper, which is a very simple site that lets you mark things to read later. Add a simple bookmarklet to your browser, and whenever you're on a page you want to mark for later reading, click the bookmarklet and it adds the link to your Instapaper list.
(And if you're a NetNewsWire user like me, someone wrote a "Post to Instapaper" AppleScript.)
I recently came across Instapaper, which is a very simple site that lets you mark things to read later. Add a simple bookmarklet to your browser, and whenever you're on a page you want to mark for later reading, click the bookmarklet and it adds the link to your Instapaper list.
(And if you're a NetNewsWire user like me, someone wrote a "Post to Instapaper" AppleScript.)
Labels: random
October 10, 2007
August 7, 2007
Stuff
Paul Graham has a good article about owning too much stuff. It's good for me to read something like this every so often to inspire me to clean out a lot of things I really don't need.
Labels: random
June 6, 2007
Fortress of Solitude
Hey, they discovered Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Turns out it was underground. And in Mexico.
Labels: random
April 12, 2007
March 19, 2007
Killer Kites
Remember several years back when we ("we" being the United States) got word that the Taliban and/or other radical Islamic groups had outlawed kite flying? And how ridiculous we thought that was? Turns out that the kite flying methods they have in that part of the world isn't the "let's get this thing as high up in the air as we can" kind of fun that I remember as a kid:
Pakistan: 11 dead, 100 injured in kite flying festival
Pakistan: 11 dead, 100 injured in kite flying festival
At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colourful kites...
The festival is regularly marred by casualties caused by sharp kite strings or celebratory gunshots fired into the air. Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cross and cut a rival's string or damage the other kite, often after betting on the outcome.
Labels: random
February 1, 2007
Mooninites Invade Boston
"Gentlemen...behold! I have shut down a major American city!"
What drives me nuts about this whole thing — besides the fact that these have been posted around the city for at least 2 weeks before this whole thing (figuratively) blew up — is that TV and newspaper reports keep referring to these small light-up billboards as "packages" (they're clearly not) and calling the whole thing a "hoax." Jeff summed it up best:
These guerilla ads are not hoaxes. Perhaps they are graffiti. Perhaps they were poorly planned and executed, but there is absolutely nothing "hoax" about them. A hoax is something designed to look like something else. These were battery powered illuminated signs designed to look like battery powered illuminated signs.Also, I find it hard to believe that there are no college interns -- i.e. somebody who would recognize the Mooninites -- working for the Boston city government or any of the Boston TV stations or newspapers...
Labels: random
October 18, 2006
No Tag For You!
Though I didn't go to Willett (I was a St. John's kid) this surely is a proud moment for my old hometown:
Attleboro elementary school bans tag
Attleboro elementary school bans tag
Officials at the Willett Elementary School in Attleboro have banned playground tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chasing games over concerns about the risk of injury and liability for the school.
Labels: random
March 24, 2006
Stop. Doing. This.
I can't wait for the trend of repeating something for effect with each individual word written as its own sentence to go away. I. Can't. Wait.
Labels: random
March 16, 2006
Advice for expectant dads
New father Todd Dominey has compiled some advice for expectant dads. Good stuff for me to review, although we're lucky enough that much of it is irrelevant since we're having another home birth (damn hippies):
One tip he didn't mention: prepare meals ahead of time. Buy some plastic containers, cook up a bunch of food, and prepare homemade "frozen dinners" to have in your refrigerator. Since you'll have very little free time to prepare and eat meals, you'll be happy to have plenty of microwave-ready food at your disposal.
- rule of thumb: whenever the baby sleeps, you sleep (though this will be more challenging when the baby sleeps, we're tired, but Amelia is wide awake)
- Have shopping for the next few weeks and any home projects done ahead of time
- now's a good excuse for a new digital camera (hmmm, good idea...)
One tip he didn't mention: prepare meals ahead of time. Buy some plastic containers, cook up a bunch of food, and prepare homemade "frozen dinners" to have in your refrigerator. Since you'll have very little free time to prepare and eat meals, you'll be happy to have plenty of microwave-ready food at your disposal.
Labels: random
Syndicated RSS Feeds
