For millenia mankind has sat and pondered the mysteries of the universe. Today, we close the book on one that has captured our imaginations: Predicting the Future!
As you can clearly see from the unedited image below, at exactly 12:00am TOMORROW, I will post this Facebook message! Simply incredible. My friends, we must work together to answer the obvious question that follows: How does Facebook know the future? Perhaps the collective social forces of humanity combined with the processing power of our computers through the internet has spontaneously generated a subtle link to the future.
The question remains in our minds, "How can we tap this new resource?" as we sit here now, like our ancestors before us, and ponder the mysteries of the universe.
Since cold weather is coming the annual garden only has a month or so left. She got a good mulching today to prepare for reseeds next spring and to keep them alive as long as possible.
Garden in late July on the left, and in October on the right.
Thepentas really beasted out with a lot of dead heading. Cleome looks sweet too.
In another spot, I planted some perennials and evergreens so they could establish strong roots for spring. At which point they should be blooming with awesome. The Agastache in the middle smells incredible.
Last but not least, Miss Boo requested her own garden. So we got down and planted some creeping rosemary, catnip, lemon verbana, and allysum.
I put in some bolds and italics cause this post looks so boring in thumbnails.
So I gaffed when I asked both Garvey and Kizi to post. The offer is still up for you, Kizi, to unleash your creative potential upon this site and it's ... many ... readers. Of course, standard rules apply. One of those rules posits the requirement of interesting and not really weird or utterly useless content. Sorry Garvey. Your last post violated all three of those stipulations, and thus you're not allowed to post anymore. Just try to sign in. You can't!
Kidding. Garvey, we miss you. Just know that if you post something inexplicable, you will get trashed in the comments by the authorized bloggers on this site and it's ... many ... readers.
Musak
I recently obtained access to the Kings of Leon's new album, "Only by the Night." Rolling Stone awarded it 3 stars, but as Jon pointed out, "yeah; those reviews are becoming suspect though; The Jonas Brothers get 4 stars? wtf?" I've heard only two songs off of the album - "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody," and enjoyed both. Can't vouch for the rest of it, but hopefully it has some hidden gems. Note: "Sex on Fire" is currently the #1 single in the United Kingdom, so I mean ... if the Brits like it, it's probably good. They're more sophisticated than we Americans, and thus everything they like is better than what we like, unless the two likes are identical.
Secondly, I've been listening to Kasabian, a fairly popular British band. They've got two albums out so far, one self-titled, the second one called "Empire." The only song I can recognize is "Club Foot" from their first album - good driving music. With fairly limited experience with these albums (I know, it's like I just listened to a few songs and then recommended three albums ... cough), I suggest Kasabian sounds like a cross between a modern-Beatlesish sound, Linkin Park, The Clash, and the Dandy Warhols. I emphatically point to their song "Me Plus One," off of their second album, Empire. It lacks the Linkin Park elements of their other work, but I dig the harmonies. Old-School meets New-Skool.
Sleep Study!
So two nights ago I travelled to Baptist Medical Center in downtown Jacksonville to spend the night covered in electrodes. As some of you might know, I've been struggling to sleep for the last three months. Trouble falling asleep, trouble staying alseep, no energy, the works. Interesting experience. I get out of the elevator, and walk into a dimly-lit room with two chairs. A sign reads, "please ring the bell." There is no bell. I idle confusedly for ten seconds, then a voice booms, "How may I help you?" I state my purpose. "Ah yes, Joseph, here for the sleep study! We'll be right there." A nurse shows up and directs me to my hospital room. It looks like a hotel room - hotel bed, hotel table with hotel chair, hotel television with a hotel-like number of channels. My own bathroom and a window I can't open. For roughly an hour I sat at the desk, studying for my Torts midterm next week, until the nurse reappeared. 6 electrodes were placed on my scalp to read brain waves, 1 electrode was placed on either side of my eyes to detect REM, 1 electrode was placed on either side of my mouth to detect jaw grinding, 2 electrodes were placed on my legs to detect leg movement, and a breathing monitor was placed just above my mouth. All the while, a camera watches you while you sleep.
Creepy moment: At around 1:30 in the morning I woke up, fumbled with the wires next to me so I could turn to my side. A minute later, the nurse booms in on a microphone by my bed. "Is there anything wrong, Joseph?" Negative. "Okay, just checking on you."
Finally, they woke me up at 6:30 with a free-breakfast voucher. Free grits and fried eggs!
I should get my results within a couple of weeks. They can't come too soon. I'm desperate.
I was online looking at some stuff about the South Pole for my class on the South Pole, and Wikipedia had a space reserved on that site to broadcast their descriptions of applicable search terms. It was already the top ranking result for every google search I have ever made, but now they have injected their knowledge straight into my other interweb resources. Thank you Wikipedia, I couldn't have passed high school U.S. History without you. On a sidenote did you ever resolve the issue of you-know-who being a hermaphrodite? I do not wish to mention you-know-who because if it's not true, I do not wish to propagate the rumour. Thanks again!
Kizi? Garvey? Where are our contributors? We need you guys to keep up. Not that I'm a specimen of consistent posts, but what gives? I want my hetero-life-mate and my Monkey back. So come back! I took all this time to photoshop your heads onto the same google-searched milk-carton image.
In other news, I heard a tidbit from this band called Beach House. Retro-sounding. Sort of reminded me of the Dandy Warhols, maybe with a smidgen of the Mamas and the Papas, a spot of some other bands, and some other influences and such. I forget the name of the song I heard - maybe it was called Gila.
In other news, 4 days until Florida State plays Western Carolina.
Revised Prediction: Florida State 27, Eastern Carolina 10
You gotta figure our defense will give up something stupid.
Disclaimer: This post is directed at Kizi though you may also find it entertaining beyond your wildest dreams.
You may have heard of this "joke" band from their self titled HBO series or the groups stand up specials. The thing that sets them apart from other parody groups is that the band members, Bret and Jemaine, can actually play. Not only are they talented musically, but the lyrical humor is both subtle and painfully evident. For example, this passage from the song, "Business Time":
"Oh, you don't know what you're doing to me.
I remove my jeans but trip over them cause I still got my shoes on. But I turn it into a sexy dance.
Next thing you know I'm down to just my socks and you know when I'm down to just my socks what time it is...it's time
for business. It's business time.
It's business.
It's business time.
You know when I'm down to just my socks it's time for business that's why they call it business socks."
Throw in songs like, "Busdriver Song," "Humans are Dead," and, "She's so Hot, Boom," and you've got yourself the start of an album. In addition to the musical humor, you get a sense that Bret and Jemaine are really enjoying themselves throughout. I personally enjoy listening to music more when I feel the artists are having fun making it.
Here's a link to a dating song parody, "If You're Into It." If you want to hear more send me a message and I'll see what I can do for you.
I was temporarily restricted from Battle.net this afternoon while playing Diablo 2. I had no idea why as I'd done nothing wrong. During my investigation I found an official Blizzard thread on the topic and checked some of the reasons.
For your convenience, I will touch on some of the more interesting points. The first punishable offense is
- "Scrolling through skill selection using the mouse wheel"
The only thing wrong with this rule is that it doesn't result in a permanent ban. Players committing such a heinous act as "scrolling through skills" should be immediately removed from the playing environment. It pains my heart to know that skill scrolling fiends are back on the block after such a cursory dismissal.
The next crime against humanity is
- "Repeated requests for a new screen to see what you wish to gamble for."
I mean, obviously you're not supposed to do this; that's why you get everything you're looking for on the first screen. This rule is practically written on the game box below the giant face of The Lord of Terror. Trying to see more than one list of items is just plain gluttonous. I, for one, know that Gheed would never wait twenty-eight screens to show me a pair of gauntlets.
The final unforgivable behavior is
- "Repeated use of a spell with no cast delay such as Amplify Damage or Glacial Spike."
Show me a monster that can survive more than one Glacial Spike (17-26 damage) and I'll show you Uber Diablo. Clearly, the game was designed so that casters would only need to execute a spell once (twice for you hedonists) in order to bring down any lumbering foe. Also, Ampify Damage last eight seconds and if you need any longer than that to bring down a boss you're just doing it wrong.
Just think about these rules next time you decide to log on to Battle.net and go wild. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to bring down Baal with an Ice Bolt.
Worked a lot more on my mom's garden. Yeah I like flowers.
Most of the Vincas I originally planted in the front row died. I think it was root rot so I planted everything else with a nice padding of perlite under it to drain better. Anyway, we gots in thar (middle out):
Front row - Melapodium, Zinnia, Vinca, Mexican Heather.
2nd Row - Zinnia varieties
3rd Row- Butterfly bush, Pentas
4th Row - Purple cone echinacea, Cleome.
Also, butterflies chill here all freakin day.
Really crappy example, but there's one.
Anyway, the gnome needs a name. He's jolly and sullen. Yeah that's right. Any suggestions?
About damn time! Looks like they already have a good bit of work done on it too.
Pretty pictures and videos - www.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/index.xml . The game play trailer shows just how polished the game already is. Impressive how secret blizzard has been about it while already having this much production finished.
After much incubation, bug-fixes, theme tweaks, and other neat things that I don't even know about, Firefox reached it's third iteration yesterday, June 17. I must say, it was sad to let my Minefield (Mozilla's name for pre-release nightly builds) go, but it'll be nice to use a finalized browser for the first time in months. Some fairly significant changes under the hood should hoist this browser as top dog for the foreseeable future.
Maida's favorite new features (aka the only new features Maida has noticed, uses, or understands):
1) It's prettier.
The Vista theme looks way nicer than the default ugly-as-shit Firefox 2 and 1 themes. It's more integrated into Vista's native look, and frankly, it's just shinier. No word on whether Mac, Linux, and XP users are pleased, but I have a feeling they prefer this to earlier native appearances.
2) It just runs faster.
Firefox clearly loads web pages with greater speed, beating previous firefox versions and Internet Explorer 7 in just about everything. I'm not sure if it beats Safari 3 in Javascript, however.
3) It uses way less RAM.
Maybe I should lump this guy into point #2, but then I'd have a smaller list.
4) Add-ons Manager way better.
Like way better. I can check which ones I'm using, disable/enable them, and find new ones within a much more streamlined interface. Maida cheers silently.
5) A Password Manager that actually works the way it should!
No more saving of wrong passwords! Hurray!
Today was a good day. This morning, around 9 o'clock, my dad and I set out for a river adventure. We had decided the night before that it might be fun to try a long ride in the kayaks (weather permitting). The forecast looked good so we packed lunches and set off to paddle around Grindstone island. This was to be an adventure in three legs.
Leg 1 was fairly uneventful and fell between the hours of 9 and 10. We started off from the house and paddled straight across the channel to Picton island. Hugging the eastern shore, we made our way North and completed the first leg of our trip by stopping at Canoe Point for a banana. Hurray for potassium.
The second leg proved equally as calm as the first. We came around the North-East point of Grindstone and made our way West through crystal clear water. We'd started to develop a steady rhythm in our strokes that made miles pass without notice. We ended the second leg by beaching the kayaks at Potter's Beach to enjoy our sandwiches in the sand.
I wish I could say the the rest of the trip was just as pleasant and peaceful but I'd be lying through my teeth. After we left the beach, the wind had decided to ride in from the West. To clarify, the westernmost edge of the St. Lawrence is bordered by Lake Ontario which is very large and provides many miles of open water for wind to build up speed. We did not anticipated the difficulty of our next challenge.
The last leg was one hell of a paddle. We turned the South-West corner and met rolling white caps in the channel. Since we weren't going exactly with or against the waves, the boats kept turning off course. The two boats have a skeg and rudder but we were afraid to deploy them should the waves grab hold of either and tip us over. We put the meat to the paddle (as they say) as we navigated our way down river to Bluff island. We got to Bluff well after noon and the midday boat traffic was in full swing. Now, in addition to maneuvering the waves, we were constantly reminded of the speedboats, cruisers, and barges flying past our bows. Upon reaching Bluff, we rested for a moment, turned the corner, and started the last section home.
Minutes after 3 o'clock we reached the dock for a total time of just over 6 hours. The round-trip distance was estimated at approximately 14 miles. We cracked open a couple beers at the water and rested for a few moments before heading back up to the house. The next feat of strength (and arguably the toughest) was entertaining extended family for a father's day dinner.
Been planning my garden a while. Landscaping is finally over so I started getting my plants this weekend. Didn't actually put anything in the ground today because of the rain.
Anyway, Ma' wanted a nice annual flower garden in this strangely barren spot in the back yard. So yippee I get to plan and plant.
Here's the before pic -
And I've picked out the flowers for the 1st row so far. Here's an idea of what they'll look like.
From center out - Melapodiums,(sore spot for the sprinkler), Zinnias, Vincas. I plan on having it kind of layered so each rowish/clumpish thing will be taller than the one in front of it. Friends come in all sizes. For my awesome garden, we had the landscapers plant the Butterfly Japanese Maple. Before-
This is what I have so far-
Bougainvillea's and some Fernleaf Hedge Bamboo. One old school azalea budding in the corner too. With some luck from mother nature I can get this all planted tomorrow and spend the rest of my week ruminating about what to plant next. Spaghetti
Some of you guys know Molly and I went to Tennessee a little while ago but I never posted any pictures. If you're the depraved type who likes to live vicariously through other people's enjoyment you might take a look (Flickr).
I would display them on this site using my custom image gallery code but Flickr is just so handy. The free photo sharing service doesn't allow porn (or does it?) but it is very intuitive and works well enough. Plus, I wouldn't want everyone feeling left out since I haven't implemented an easy way for people-who-didn't-build-the-site to do it.
As a reminder to anyone who is interested or simply forgot, I'm coming back to Tallahassee from June 23rd to the 30th.
Finally finished up this sucker. Need to touch up the claw a little and then add some flora, but it turned out decently. I broke about 4 of my feathers today ><
How many times have you been going about your own business of shamelessly cheating on your current girlfriend or wife, only to have the little lady annoyingly ask questions about where you have been, what you have been doing, and why you staggered home last night at 3 am with lipstick on your collar. For the modern cheater on the go, you certainly don't have the time or energy to come up with excuses concerning such trivial matters.
With 24/7 email and phone support, your Alibi agent will work with you to maintain your privacy. They will provide fraudulent documents and make phone calls on your behalf. Fake tickets, fake receipts, they will even arrange for discreet parcel deliveries. Arrange for hotel rooms and make phone calls without any incriminating information appearing on your statements!
This resource is truly an innovation for the 21st century. Take that, honesty!
Dearest Robots, I've finally begun streaming content from my PC onto the television in the Media Room upstairs. Glorious, glorious, glorious. The Xbox 360 can stream only WMV and MPEG-2 video, which pretty much eliminated my entire collection of videos. Then came Xilisoft! All Hail Xilisoft and their grandiose video conversion software! Next up, .mkv files (which house my HD movie content, like Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, and No Country For Old Men). Since my Xvid Avi files can be converted quite easily (though it takes some time), I should have all my videos ready to watch in no time. South Park and Family Guy marathons abound!
There are officially five, yes five, days remaining before the first chance of "correct taste" for our latest homebrew beer. Maida has insisted on opening a bottle after one week of waiting (tomorrow) and I can only pray that we are not disappointed.
We have followed every direction as precisely as possible and yet I have a growing suspicion that something will go (has already gone) terribly wrong. With our anal-ity for directions in mind, I can only assume that any misfortune is a direct result of God personally damning us both.
I will comment/repost when the abomination has had time to fully mature. Please put us in your prayers.
On side note, I saw There Will Be Blood for the first time last night. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day and I don't expect tomorrow or the next to be any different.
Edit 3/23/08 - Jon just told me that an inside source informed him that Porters and Stouts need to sit in the bottle for around 2 months. So... T-Minus 1 month and 21 days?
Scott inherited the genetic gift of quantum leaping at an early age. You may know him from his feature role in a documentary series where he spent one leap day every four years in someone else's life. Since he only exists for one 1/4 days a year, scientists put his birth date somewhere between the Mesozoic era and the Age of Enlightenment. The latter is currently held in higher regard as it is believed that the birth of Bakula was directly responsible for the subsequent period of intellectualism.
It is said that he achieved omnipotence through a telepathic bond with his cell phone Ziggy. Few have survived direct encounters with Sam but many claim to have "felt" his presence in common household objects.
No one knows what happened to the hunk and part time actor, but many believe that he comes out every leap day to feed on the employed. Others speculate that he last left Earth on a rocket ship, shot off as if from an archer, into the cosmos.
Bakula is the tinkle in your eye and the pie in the sky. Next time you see a shooting star, just remember that it's Scott sending you a special message from space.
When everyone else has abandoned you in life, he will be there. Just remember, when you get down on your knees to count your blessings, be sure to Count Bakula.
Earlier this month, a Virginia Tech student created a floor lamp that generated light through the power of gravity. The student produced the concept for the lamp, named "Gravia," for a competition led by the Greener Gadgets Conference. Somehow, he only took second place. This is probably due to the fact that his lamp is currently theoretical and works based on the assumption of what future LED innovation will bring.
The inventor estimates that the current design would produce the equivalent of a 40 watt bulb and stay on for four hours at a time. Oh yeah, and the lamp is powered by a two ton falling weight (that you lift). The upside is that the hardware of the lamp is projected to last 200 years if used 24 hours a day every day.
Obviously, due to the technical limitations, we aren't going to see this in Walmart any time soon. However, the foudation has been laid for an intriguing technology based on an unlimited source of energy.
Plus... it looks fuckin cool right? I want one but I'm not sure it offsets the forklift needed to start it.
An already troubled Toshiba announced today that it will officially abandon the manufacturing and marketing of it's HD DVD format. This comes as no surprise to informed buyers as the data medium had been lagging behind Sony's Blu-Ray format for some time.
Major turning points in the format war included the adoption of Blu-Ray by Blockbuster (June 2007) and Netflix (February 2008). The industry giants brought an installed user base that overwhelmed the already struggling competition. In the end, it was too much for Toshiba to resist.
Away from the movie industry, the demise of HD DVD raises questions regarding video game consoles. Most of us are aware that Microsoft's Xbox 360 currently uses HD DVD while Sony's PS3 uses their in house Blu-Ray format. Now that Sony has won, it will be interesting to see what affect this has on the ongoing console war. Sony still has a sizable distance to close in their library of games, but it's built in Blu-Ray player is looking more and more like a good investment.
Since Microsoft doesn't actually use HD DVD for games, we will wait and see if they can eat crow and include a dongle for Blu-Ray support. One can only imagine the difficulties they'd face if games suddenly become so large as to require data storage greater than that of a single DVD. Either way, continued support and use of the HD DVD format by Microsoft would seem to hurt 360 owners*, IMHO.
*If nothing else, it would cost 360 owners more since you have to purchase the external HD DVD drive for $129.99
Tired of an inaccurate kill-cam, host-quits, and a plethora of other fuck-ups and bugs in Call of Duty 4? Well ache no more, for a patch is on the way!
From N4G.com:
"The new feature patch fourzerotwo talked about last week (with new Kill Cams, Host Migration, and other new features) for the Xbox 360 has finished it’s internal testing and development and has officially been sent off to Microsoft for Certification. It’s only a matter of Microsoft putting it through the certification paces and it will be available for download for all Xbox 360 players."
Hopefully the download should be available soon.
2:00 PM Update, Exclusively from Maida:
The Update will include:
1) More Kill-Cams (like viewing your untimely demise from the aerial perspective of a bomb dropped from an airstrike
2) Host Migration to preserve games when a host quits
3) The ability to quickly mute an annoying player within the game (instead of having to mull through the Dashboard)
4) Improved Sniper/ACOG accuracy ... not sure how I feel about this one
5) Much better spectator view, including full 360 view while in 3rd person mode, and the ability to switch to a 1st person view
I have no idea if this will show up as pictures or just crazy text. I am only medium computer savvy, not all like Bear and stuff. Luckily I have a sincere lack of interest in the outcome which gives me the confidence to go forward.
Also, Bear, this thing won't let me upload photos saved on the harddrive. Fix that now. how the hell do computers work anyway? can somebody tell me? it's really just magic, screw you, science.
Some days there are 10,000 phonecalls, a million kids with infections who all want my attention, and tons of "real" work to do. Some days there are lolcatz
Most of you out there reading this - perhaps all of you out there, in fact - know me as one hell of a lazy mother-fucker. Call it malformed genetic execution within the womb, call it an egregious environmental background. Whatever you want to chalk it up to, the empirical result is the same: I sleep 14 hours a day.
Anyways, like most people, I clamor for tidbits of self-validation every so often to keep the engine purring and the transmission, well, transmitting. If anyone feels the same as I, then avail yourself to two fabulous links:
God, what a miserable title. Almost as miserable as the movie "Jumper," staring emotionally flat (how does he get work? Actually, how the fuck did he land the role of Anakin Skywalker? Oh, wait...) Hayden Christensen and a slowly-decaying-as-a-worthwhile-actor Samuel L. Jackson. Anyways, I digress.
A few things I'd like to talk about today.
Number one, I've purchased a book by Todd Perkins, called Adobe Flash CS3 Professional. I'd like to get proficient, or at least somewhat useful, with Flash and ActionScript in order to provide all you readers out there with some interesting multimedia content. Right now I'd be happy with a working button, but as it stands I have a beautifully shaded (thank you, gradient tool!) circle and nothing else.
Secondly, iTunes 7.6 has been on my proverbial nerves. The latest edition has brought even more bugs into an already-slow application. I've always noticed that the sound-quality on iTunes lagged behind Winamp, at least on my system, and today I switched back over to Winamp. The latest version, build 5.52, runs smoothly, and sound reproduction is superb - far better than iTunes, and I'm not sure why. How come iTunes lacks the beauty and elegant functionality of the iPod and iPhone? Can't say I'll be switching for good; I don't trust 3rd party applications with my iPod.
I feel like a poor man's Andy Rooney right now.
Finally (and the reason behind this post), I stumbled upon a fantastic physics-based game, reminiscent of the "falling sand" and "crayon" games I've played in the past. It's not really a game, per se, since the only goals are those you set for yourself. I wouldn't say it's as addictive as SimCity or Counter-Strike, but it is, well, phun.
Please buy me a PS3, 12 gunblades, and a pre-ordered FFXIII for Valentines day. I need to kick imperial ass and protect my magical crystals on a daily basis both fantastically and realistically.
At approximately 10:15 this morning, soon after a relaxing hour spent learning the intricacies of "poor girls" porn, I discovered that I too had become a victim of the all-too-famous phenomenon known as ... Identity Theft (for those who play cymbals, please crash them now). Sure enough, someone out there made the decision that they really liked my name and, especially, debit card, and yesterday afternoon they began to make use of both of these. As it is part of my morning Jew routine (Jew-tine, if you will) to check my bank balance and cackle with glee over my hoarded wealth, I saw that I was being charged a sizable amount from a nationwide retailer of car stereos and accessories. As I am prone to forgetting rather lengthy periods of time, I had to think hard for an instance where I had made such a charge. After much deliberation, I reasoned that I would not have EVER purchased an accessory of any kind for my vehicle (Exhibit A - Price of a new tag light on car = $3.99 to 5.99. My alternative = leave broken tag light in place for over 2 years.) So, over the next hour, I canceled the order with the retailer, closed my account at the bank, and attempted to contact local law enforcement.
The day continued much as you would expect and I soon found myself bound with twenty yards of rope to the outside of the utility shed (thank you Mistress). My thoughts wandered and I was soon thinking of the upcoming tax season. With some quick mental math I determined that I will be forced to pay the federal government over one hundred times as much money as was stolen from my checking account. I don't want to do it. When I was in trouble when my debit card was stolen, I had someone to call (local authorities). When I have the federal government stealing money from me, who can I call on to help? It's too late to avoid the disaster coming this April 15th, but I've made the decision that as a big "fuck you" to the IRS, I will earn no money in 2008 and therefore have zero taxable income. Anybody with me?
I write this post both as a site update and as a celebration of Poppy's first post. This is a wonderful day for those of you that have long lamented the lack of monkey media. We are sure to be in for a treat.
As for the site, I have finally completed the transition from the previous design. I'll continue to expand the available sections of bigevilrobot including (but not limited to) interesting links, photos, and tunes. There have been some murmurings about the plainness or "over minimalism" of the design so I'll also be tweaking things as we go along. Hopefully we'll be getting some good concept art from Maida that we can display somewhere.
As Chris requested three and one-third minutes ago, I have upgraded the threat level of the "Author a Post" page to orange. You can expect to enjoy better image uploading, text styling, and all around quality of life. Most of you should recognize the toolbar buttons due to their similarity with MS Office. If anyone is having trouble I will post a small tutorial explaining how to perform simple tasks.
Due to backend changes, I will need everyone to logout once before you use any of the comment or posting features. If you don't, you won't be able to use anything.
I would like to thank Mark James for his free web icons over at famfamfam.com. They serve as a nice accompanyment to the different sections of the site.
Well, ladies and germs, this is it. My first real, official post. Bear has been trying for some time to get me to contribute, which I have flatly refused to do. My job is to inspire behind the scenes. Whenever you see a great new page design or a hilarious post, you can rest assured that it all began with me.
Monty, I tried to upload a photo with this, but it didn't work. I went back and tried to edit it, but I can't find any place to edit the photo options. (See, I have just inspired him to improve the admin interface.)
I've shown this around in the past but I recently dredged it up for a few front and backend improvements. I came up with this baby back when I started learning a bit of Javascript. Play around with it and tell me if you think we should incorporate it into this site.
Some features to play with: (1) navigate through the images by using the left and right arrow keys, (2) going left on the first image takes you to the last and going right on the last image takes you to the first, (3) clicking the large image will take you to the original image file for downloading or bookmarking, and (4) in order to leave the gallery you simply slick the back button once. Suck it down Facebook.
As many of you readers out there know, we've been working long and hard on a new logo for Bigevilrobot. Something catchy. Something beautiful. Mostly, something totally fucking sweet. As the Lead Art Director of this site, let me promise you that we've dedicated over 100 hours to this project, and you shan't be disappointed.
What shall our new logo be? Stay tuned to find out ...
Earlier this month, social networking giant, MySpace, deleted the 35,000 member, "Atheist and Agnostic Group," for the second time since November 2007. What's especially interesting about this group is that it was the largest collection of Atheists and Agnostics in the world. It even has its own Wikipedia page. The group was awarded the "Excellence in Humanist Communication Award" in 2007 from Harvard University.
MySpace admits that the group was not in violation of the Terms of Service but that other users found Atheism, in general, to be offensive. Unfortunately, the minor trim ended up being more of a clear cutting. One affected user writes:
“My personal profile was deleted as well, and despite weeks of emails to customer service, plus a petition signed by 500 group members, MySpace won’t budge."
It remains to be seen whether the group will reorganize for a third time. Either way, it's a shame that a mainstream media outlet like News Corp would display such intolerance of the millions of godless Americans.
Restless creator here. I've been fiddling around with some style ideas for the site. I know, I know, I haven't even finished coding the real sections of the site yet and I'm already redesigning it. It's an addiction.
I just love the process of seeing something develop from nothing. Every element can be aligned and shaped in countless permutations. Of the new mockups, the one I'm leaning towards is Version 4. It's fairly similar to how the current design is laid out in terms of the header, content area, sidebar, etc.
Take a look and let me know in the comments anything you particularly like/dislike. The site is currently just a mockup and the only pages you can visit are the main weblog and the admin page. You can also click on the sticky for a hidden reveal.
Tail feathers done. Mixed the medium blue yesterday but just got too tired to finish up the wings/body. Took like 3 and half hours for the feathers so far.
SQUAWK or QUACK.
Whatever noise flamingos make, this baby can. Tip of the beak will be covered by feathers. That shit was just too tiny to make look really polished.
I said shit, because I'm listening to Classic Rap, ho.
The goose is loose!
Yeah, it kinda looks like a goose, but I haven't done the face with the trademark flamingo schnoz yet. At least it's coming to life. I left a groove in the face for the eyes and beak attachment so that part shouldn't be too hard.
Late Breaking News: Marion Tinsley, aged 68 years, dies visiting his sister in Humble, Texas. Tinsley, regarded as the best Checkers player ever, lost only nine times after winning his first World Checkers Championship in 1955. To be clear, nine times means nine games, not tournaments. Several of these losses came at the end of his career when Chinook, Deep Blue's Checkers counterpart, burst onto the scene with the promise of superiority. In the first ever Man-Machine World Championship, Tinsley defeated Chinook four games to two, with thirty-three draws.
In 1994, Tinsley was diagnosed with cancer. During his last tournament, he forfeited the championship title to Chinook after only six draws due to health concerns. Normally I wouldn't need any other reason to write about a master of board games, but, as it turns out, Marion Tinsley was also a professor of mathematics at Florida State University.
"Checkers can get quite a hold on you, Its beauty is just overwhelming -- the mathematics, the elegance, the precision. It's capable of wrapping you all up." -- Marion Tinsley
So anyways, a few days ago I was forced - due to circumstances uncontrollable yet entirely foreseen - to move out of my apartment. Well, it wasn't exactly my apartment, and I was living there for free. Anywho. I'm currently living out of my car and sleeping on a couch, with my computer and tv/xbox set up ... well ... just check out the picture below. As it stands, I'm operating out of the most ghetto set-up known to mankind. It's a real dandy, and I'm proud to say I sit in that lazy-boy every day. At least for the past few days. Figure A) Maida's new porn drive Figure B) Maida's TV sits atop a minifridge Figure C) Ping-Pong table. We made it ourselves. Congratulations, Maida! You graduated from a highly respected institution of learning! Way to go! Here's your new life!
This last New Years was an exciting adventure down at Papa Jason's new property in Rosemary Beach. The house was a gorgeous, five bedroom palace with all but direct access to the sandy shores.
There were plenty of photo opportunities along the way and I did my best to capture the essence of each moment. I've compiled some of the better ones in a ZIP file for everyone that would like to relive the precious moments.
Sounds good enough to be a code name. Bear and I were talking about some polymer clay (like Sculpey) sculptures on a WoW site, World of Raids. Exhibit A -
For a while now I've been working with sculpey, making decent, albeit highly cartoonish figures for my mom and gifts and stuff. Exhibit B - Anyway I figure it's time to bring the quality of the work up a notch, but I really didn't know how, and still have very little idea how to make the figures so sleek, since the clay is often too soft and deformable to get too detailed with. Drawing most of the new techniques I'm practicing from Elvenwork. I started with making an armature from copper wire (not ideal) and aluminum foil. They were too hard to glue together so I tried to bond them with some trash clay. It worked out alright. Here's the result -
I wicked some clay over night to make the base ready to shape. I think I used too much paper cause it took a ton of kneading to make it workable. The clay was much less impressionable than right out of the wrapper, but a bit dryer than I wanted. This picture is from before I baked the base, which is now set pretty well and looks sturdy. Base -
I plan on trying to get the body done this weekend, and maybe the neck. P.S. Tiptup bitches!
Apple Unveils New Product Unveiling Product! The Apple God in the Sky, Steve Jobs, recently unveiled a new "product unveiling product," which should revolutionize how products are unveiled. I'm excited. Are you?
For millenia mankind has sat and pondered the mysteries of the universe. Today, we close the book on one that has captured our imaginations: Predicting the Future!
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Scott Bakula, man or myth?
I said shit, because I'm listening to 
Humble, Texas. Tinsley, regarded as the best Checkers player ever, lost only nine times after winning his first World Checkers Championship in 1955. To be clear, nine times means nine games, not tournaments. Several of these losses came at the end of his career when Chinook, 
Anyway I figure it's time to bring the quality of the work up a notch, but I really didn't know how, and still have very little idea how to make the figures so sleek, since the clay is often too soft and deformable to get too detailed with. Drawing most of the new techniques I'm practicing from 
