popplers

Novus Ordo Seclorum

I suppose that I should have suspected as much.

Ack.

I went to the grocery store today. I just needed to pick up one item. Imagine my shock when the first item that I saw when I came through the sliding doors was… Russell Stover Valentine's Day candy in heart-shaped boxes. For the luvva Pete, people! It isn't even @#$%ing Christmas yet. Bah, humbug.

This is so cool!

Haven't you always wanted to make your own paper model of a coelacanth? Yamaha's Papercraft models of motorcycles were linked to on slashdot.org (and lots of other places), but I think that the Rare Animals of the World series is even niftier. How about a model of a Cape Penguin? Or a kiwi (the bird, not the fruit)?

Also, check out the Rare Animals of Japan series. The Hondo Stoat is especially cute.

Wait Wait…

We just listened to NPR's Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me. I am happy to announce that I won Carl Kasell's voice on our answering machine. What I didn't realize is that we have to come up with what we want Carl to say. Some of the messages that he's done for other contestants are really funny.

Mmm… doughnuts.

Poor Satchel. It'll be okay.

I am the Pusher Robot, DO NOT trust the Shover Robot…

Via slashdot.org, footage of exceedingly cute robots playing Dance Dance Revolution. (Requires Windows Media Player.)

On the second day of Christmas…

My true love gave to me: 1,600 pairs of prosthetic Hobbit feet… and a huge boost to the New Zealand economy.

Perhaps in an attempt to atone for my geek sin of being the last person in North America to watch The Two Towers, we went to see Return of the King yesterday afternoon. Wow. Kick-ass. Words fail me. Yesterday's PvP cartoon pretty much summed it up. So, why are you still reading this? What are you waiting for? Go see it!

Ick.

Good thing they don't have opposable thumbs.

Woo-hoo!

I just got a telephone call this afternoon, and I'm going to be on NPR's Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me this weekend. Wait Wait… is a funny and entertaining news quiz show where listeners compete for the chance to get Carl Kasell's voice on their answering machine. (If you've never heard the show, check out last week's quiz to get the flavor.)

If you're in the area, you can listen to the show on WBUR 90.9 FM on Saturday, from noon to 1:00 p.m. If you're not in the area, you can find your local affiliate or listen online.

Fruitcake amnesty!

The Food Bank of Western New York offers a Fruitcake Amnesty Campaign:

[…] Fruitcake recipients are being urged to mail all unopened fruitcakes, "no questions asked," to Buffalo, where Mayor Anthony Masiello has offered amnesty. On Dec. 30, the world's top competitive eaters will arrive to consume as many of them as they can in a 12-minute span.

"I have speculated, based on absolutely no data whatsoever, that we will receive 100,000," said George Shea of the competitive eating federation. "I believe there are 100,000 neglected fruitcakes in the U.S.A."

Drew Cerza, a Buffalo events promoter, said the idea is to get people to give not only fruitcakes but also more palatable fare in danger of going to waste to the Food Bank of Western New York. […]

(Who knew that there was an International Federation of Competitive Eating?)

I love The Onion.

Great headline: Network Pushes The 'Dumbing It Down' Envelope.

LOS ANGELES—Already home to Extreme Makeover, Trista & Ryan's Wedding, and According To Jim, the ABC television network is now looking to develop some really, really, really dumb shows, network sources announced Monday. "With all the competition in television, we have to make the ABC brand stand out," said Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment. "That's why we want a slate of projects that will out-dumb the dumb shows like Whoopi, The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and The Next Joe Millionaire." ABC's pilot orders for Fall 2004 include The Naked Ladies, Extreme Explosions, and America's Shiniest Objects.

Life at home

Spent over an hour outside, shoveling and trying to get things clear before everything froze into a skating rink. After we finished, I saw a few juncos hanging around, trying to scrounge something to eat. I opened the door to throw a handful of seed out into the snow (and some corn for the dang tree-rat), and scared them all away. A little later, I looked out the window and noticed that there were 6 or 7 juncos feeding and flying around.

As you can probably tell, it's been a pretty uneventful day. Watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (brilliant!), wrote out some Christmas cards and thank you notes, and uploaded some new photos. The latest: our trip to Florida and a recent family get-together.

Tweet. Tweet.

Finished setting up the Christmas lights this morning, so we won't be trying to string lights during the impending snowstorm(s). It's 20 degrees outside-- brrr. Stocked the bird feeders and the corn gizmo that we've been using in an attempt to appease the squirrels. Today was the first day in recent memory (possibly ever) that we've actually seen a bird using the birdbath! A mockingbird came for a quick drink, then flew off-- I guess that heated birdbaths do bring birds to your yard in winter. Thus far, it seemed like the only use it was getting was squirrel hot tub parties.

Plate of Shrimp

It's not exactly a holiday classic, but it is a classic nonetheless. A friend loaned us a copy of Repo Man because Chris hadn't ever seen it. It's been years since I've watched it (long enough that I forgot much of the "plot"), but it rapidly started coming back to me. My favorite quote: "It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes."

Great soundtrack, too: Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Burning Sensations... scary memories of high school. <shudder>

Is it just me?

Now, I realize that we've been watching a lot of the Food Network lately (and quite a few episodes of Good Eats in particular)... But why do I keep getting Winter Wonderland stuck in my head, with these lyrics:

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Alton Brown...

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!

Alert reader Iwan warns us of another impending Microsoft lawsuit, this one from the distinguished firm of Azathoth, Nyarlathotep and Hastur.

Amusingly, this same joke has been circulating since 1997, when it referenced Windows '95 instead of Windows XP.

As an aside, I find it incredibly funny that when I typed "Cthulhu fhtaghn" into Google, I got this:
Did you mean: Cthulhu fhtagn

Perhaps I should have used Cthuugle!

Go, Santa, go!

Don't miss the Santa Speedo Run, starting at Daisy Buchanan's (240 Newbury Street, Boston), 2:00 p.m. Saturday. Seth Frye, race co-founder, comments: "It's the weirdest thing standing in a bar with nothing on but a Speedo and a Santa Hat. You have to have some kind of buzz to do it. I myself do a couple of shots in the two-hour window before the race begins. The spectators in the bar can't contain themselves. It's a free for all."

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Via Neil Gaiman: a Jack Chick tract, if Jack Chick worshipped Cthulhu. And from those fine folks at The Onion, this news report: Poor People Pretty Much Fucked.

Seussian pentameter

Watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas last night. (Did not play the drinking game.) I love Chuck Jones... Max is the best. From this week's Backfence, Lileks's take on Seuss:

Yes, it's a classic. But I was mildly exasperated by the scene in which the Grinch enumerates the Whoville Christmas, with all its elaborate musical devices. It demonstrated Seuss Rule No. 1: it's easy to make the rhyme and meter work when you're making up all the words. Let me try:

"They come with their foofles and fimtingletanglers / Their boombuls and brambels and buzztidlymanglers/ Their kramamaramzas and krovas and groodies/ And then they sit down for a feast of Who foodies! / With rumikin cupcakes and hot spumco krumkakes"

Day of the Triffids

While we were in Florida, we picked up a small plant that had fallen out of a tree. I called it a triffid, but it is apparently an epiphytic perennial bromeliad known as Tillandsia argentea. We've got it in the shower right now, but it seems like that won't provide enough light. Maybe it will do better in the kitchen, provided that it gets misted on a regular basis. Air plants... how weird is that?

Winter Wonderland

So, we tried to go to Orlando last Tuesday... We left our house at 5:40 a.m. and didn't get to Manchester airport until after 10 a.m. (Yes, you read that correctly.) It took us over 4 hours to go less than 60 miles, because there was an unexpected snowstorm. The forecast was for flurries, but this was a full-on snowstorm (albeit quite short in duration). Visibility was pretty much nil, people were spinning out left and right, all kinds of fender-benders. Then, 30 minutes later, it was over. Sun came out, everything was fine. Right? Wrong.

Every road, highway, and cowpath into or out of New Hampshire and Massachusetts was a parking lot. We called a friend to tell her that we were almost to Exit 2 in New Hampshire, and that we'd be there soon. We called her 90 minutes later to report that we had moved less than 5 carlengths. So, we missed our flight. Happily, we managed to get booked on a flight that left at 8:30 p.m. that evening, so we did get to Orlando around midnight...

Spent the week visiting family and doing some Christmas shopping for the Florida contingent. I took a few photos with Bruce, but nothing tremendously exciting. Didn't go to Universal or Sea World this trip-- maybe we'll find a cheap fare in February and head down again to escape the snow and cold. Came back to over a foot of snow here in Maynard. Some kind soul had shoveled a narrow path to our front porch, so we were able to get inside and retrieve our snow shovel from the basement. Thank you, shoveling fairy. May Santa bring you lots of nifty goodies in your stocking!