Semiproductive Boredom

Come On! Come On!

2004-10-22T20:22:00.000-06:00

Who will win presidential erection, Cheeky Kerry or Shrubby Bush? Cheeky Kerry or Shrubby Bush? Who will it be? Prace Bets Now! Come On! Come On! Betting... I mean voting ends!

Banzai Man
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Jon Stewart On Crossfire - Video Torrent!

2004-10-15T17:53:00.000-06:00

For all those who are kicking themselves for missing Jon Stewart's apearance on CNN's Crossfire, here is the transcript. For those of you with a lower attention span, but a good mix of patience and bandwidth, here is a torrent of the file, in WMV, or uncompressed AVI. Watch Jon Stewart tear Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala a new one. (Thanks Nathan)

Debate Drinkin

2004-10-11T20:24:00.000-06:00

This is a great idea. Why we aren't doing this on Wednesday along with Presidential Debate Bingo is beyond me!

I thought I would share with you the highly successful (as in we got fuqed up) rules to debate drinkin we played with for last friday's debate.

You must take 1 large drink whenever any of the following are mentioned by either candidate:

“Swift boat”
“Flip-flop”
“God”
“September 11th”
“Terrorists win”
"Outsource"

You must take one large drink whenever a candidate mentions a swing state or a city in a swing state. A swing state shall be defined as:
Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota, or Maine.

You must take one large drink when Kerry raises one eyebrow and not the other and gives a cheesy grin.

You must take one large drink when either candidate refers to insurgents in Iraq as “terrorists.”

You must immediately finish your beer when:

Bush makes a major verbal mistake

Bush says “Durn”

Either candidate says “Poland”

There is one cup that rotates. Whenever the word “Iraq” is said the person holding the cup pours approximately 1 shot into the cup and passes to the next person. The person holding the cup must drink what has amassed when “Saddam Hussein” is mentioned.

I recommend the game. It proved to be quite fun... but I have no idea what happened in the last 30 minutes of the debate.

(Via octopus dropkick!.)

2004-10-05T02:05:00.000-06:00

This sounds like something I'd do just on a whim. Plus, the apples sound quite delicious...

I Heart Honey Crisp Apples (and really hate ham): "I'm not one to overly-praise produce. I like trying new things, but hey, half the time if I'm trying new fruit its to see what kind of milkshake I can get out of it (hint, mango + rum + ginger..."

(Via DrunkenBlog.)

'Daily Show' Viewers More Politically Astute

2004-09-26T19:42:00.000-06:00

This backs up what I've been wondering all along. Ever since I started watching the "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", I've been wondering, I've noticed that almost everyone that I know and respect watches it just as religiously. This gave me cause to wonder; is the Daily Show just incredibly popular, or is it that people who watch it are more politically astute? Now I know. The Daily Show IS just another cable TV "fake-news" program, its just my friends who are strange...

Interestingly enough, it also proves my theory that The Daily Show is one of the better news programs on television. Not necessarily because it reports quickly, and in depth, but because it is truly fair and balanced. Of 83 political jokes told by Jon Stewart, half were directed at Bush, and half at Kerry. The remainder were of course accidentally made in the direction of Ralph Nader...

Abe Vigoda Status

2004-09-15T01:12:00.000-06:00

I'm glad I stumbled upon this site. Finally, I can find out at a moments notice, whether or not Abe Vigoda is alive.

Abe Vigoda
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Everybody Wins!

2004-09-10T21:40:00.000-06:00

With the US Presidential elections coming up in November, and poll results looking more and more like a stalemate, I'm going to hedge my bets that we'll see 4 more years of Shrubbery. But don't fret, fans of reason and decent government, I have a plan that can please everyone. Lets face it, with all the damage that Bush has done in the past 4 years, the United States is a lost cause. Here in Canada though, not only are we slightly left of center in terms of government, but our current set of politicians are boring. So here is my solution; All you 'failed' democrats, Al Gore, Howard Dean, even Richard Clark -- you're invited to, come up here to Canada and run for our public offices. Admit it, we could do much worse; some countries already have...

Woeful Inadequacies of the English Language

2004-09-10T21:36:00.000-06:00

Why does English have no way of properly writing out the sound make by the forcing of air between two fatty bodies pressed together. We have words like "Phhhhft" or "Brrraaap" or even "Fart". I've even read the use off the word "Poop" as onomatopoeia! However, speak any of these words out; do any of them sound remotely like the real thing? Yes, its ingrained in our cultural minds what sound these refer to, but only through direct condition by speaking of the act that has just taken place. What will happen, thousands of years in the future, when hyper-anthropologists unearth our internet fart-joke archives, only to have the humour pass by them, as they have no idea what they mean...

Why You Should Go To 4-chan /b/

2004-08-12T01:06:00.000-06:00

1092292856177
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Oh Captain, My Captain

2004-08-12T00:52:00.000-06:00

You are the captain of the starship Enterprise. Apparently, you are also a very skilled country/western guitar player. Bravo.

Oh Captain, My Captain
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Farfield

2004-08-12T00:43:00.000-06:00

Awhile ago, I'd heard about a project online to take random panels from Jim Davis' "Garfield" comic strip, and splice them together into new 3 panel strips that were in many ways, a zen experience of humour. Unfortunately, due to the immense asstacularity of the Universal Features Syndicate, I was unable to view any of them on the original site before it was taken down. However, thanks to some furious Googling, I was able to pull up this. A link to someone who has replaced Garfield in the strips, with a "real" cat, that does not converse in though bubbles or otherwise. Result? Funny!

David Byrneing Man

2004-08-08T11:12:00.000-06:00

So here I am down at the Edmonton Folk Festival, making my big entrance into the world of the "Big Fat Road Manager". I was roused at 0800 this morning by Nathan to become an honorary "Nerd on Site" to fix the computer of David Byrne's manager, Todd. Thanks to this, I'm nerding it up in the middle of the festival, enjoying complimentary coffee, brunch, and the after party. More will come, or not, as the day progresses. For now though, courage!

ASAPA Hanko Prototype

2004-07-29T02:14:00.000-06:00

A Prototype Hanko Design for the back of Happi Shirts for the Alberta Faction. With a group of 5 people walking into a room, carrying banners, this could look nice and intimidating.

Fear the Alberta Faction

ASAPA Hanko Prototype
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Animethon 12 & typoGenerator

2004-07-20T01:57:00.000-06:00

This image was made in less than 7 seconds with typoGenerator. Perfect for making last minute little posters or backgrounds for promotion.

Animethon 12
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Animethon

2004-07-19T00:30:00.000-06:00

This weekend, ASAPA put on the Animethon festival for the first time. This eleventh incarnation of the festival was by all accounts a raging success, and coupled with 8 hour shifts at work afterwards, ending at midnight, has left me tired as a dog...

ASAPA Logo
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

The Mothman Prophecies

2004-07-16T00:32:00.000-06:00

About a year ago now, Kristen and I spent a day at her workplace, helping moths to hatch, for the purposes of categorization. The prophecy for this little guy? Death. Within days. They have no mouths.

Happy Belated Bastille Day!

Mothman Prophecies
Originally uploaded by ihorner.

Little Dutch Boys, and Dashboard Dykes

2004-07-02T00:17:00.000-06:00

If you've read any blogs recently, you'll have noticed that there is quite a bit of contention over the issue of widget legitimacy in the Apple world. A lot of people feel that the authors of Konfabulator should have been given the keys to the Apple castle for their work. Daring Fireball has recently posted a rather well done article on why apple has not really done anything wrong by not buying up Konfabulator as the basis of their new technology "Dashboard". Read it, and you will get a better picture of what is going on here.

But some people still disagree, so I do what I always do whenever there is a contentious issue on a topic I am passionate about, drudge up an obscure metaphor. The thing that is most missed in reading the Daring Fireball article is that when you are creating a solution that Apple could create themselves, and doing it in a way that meshes perfectly in the Apple environment, you are treading on unstable ground. Konfabulator is a solution to a supposed hole in the Mac OS, and like the little Dutch boy, they stuck their finger in it. Its a good solution for now, it keeps the water in the dyke. But when the dyke-maker comes around to plug the hole with brick and mortar, the same brick and mortar he used to build the dyke, which is going to be the better solution. When you plug a hole that looks just like a dyke-makers job to the peasants, people will ask why we need dyke-makers to put these entrepreneurs out of business. But unfortunately, they don't have access to the dyke's plans; their patches may leak (in Konfabulator's case, quite a bit). The dyke-makers is going to do the repair right, so that the patch will hold; otherwise, they'd take on the amateur as a dyke-maker as well. Apple isn't trying to take customers away from Konfabulator, Apple is trying to plug the holes in the Mac OS. Konfabulator isn't a brick in the wall, it doesn't fit quite right, otherwise Apple would have slathered it over, and called it part of the dyke.

And also, there is the issue with the mixup of terms at the Stevenote. Unfortunately, it is true that Steve did get the terminology wrong (gadget vs. widget), and forgot to mention the rest of webcore in his keynote (webcore minus java), I can't really blame him for that. First, while it is a developer conference, Steve is a showman, and as demonstrated elsewhere in the keynote, he doesn't like spitting out streams of three-letter-acronyms, which is basically what webcore is. Secondly, Steve is a big fan of sexy buzzwords, and widget is a much sexier word than gadget, any day of the week.

Yosaku, Your Wife is a Hard Worker!

2004-07-01T23:47:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Todd in Japan, one of our favorite Japanese karaoke songs is ruined forever. Yosaku with official Japanese english lyrics.

Don't turn off your sound after the horrible midi starts, as a Japanese Man will soon sing the words for you!!!

Seven tricks that Web Users don't know

2004-05-23T19:32:00.000-06:00

Wow, this is a really great look into the world of the average computer user. I went through this list, able to think of at least one example of each from every day on my job at technical support If more designers, and technical support analysts were aware of these points, the world would be a better place.

Things I Have Argued About With My Girlfriend

2004-05-22T18:27:00.000-06:00

The title pretty much says it all. Not me, but it could be. ^_^ Perhaps its just German wormen?

http://www.mil-millington.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/things.html

2002-10-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterdayland

Ahh, nostalgia... We've all felt it, and it seems that lately, its coming back into the vogue. This wonderful site allows you to relive the memories of your favorite toys from years gone by. Going from the present back into the 60's and beyond, you can relive not only your own youth but that of your siblings and parents as well.
Journey with me, and get a healthy dose of "what the hell was I thinking?!?!"

2002-10-27T01:44:00.000-06:00

Free Culture

This is an excellent presentation that I'm not even going to pretend that I can sum up.
Frankly, if you care about the public domain, and the over-extension of copyright in any way, you need to listen to this...

2002-10-22T14:57:00.000-06:00

Black People Love Us

I'm Sally. I'm Johnny. Black People Love Us!

2002-10-22T14:17:00.000-06:00

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day

Once the source of casual amusement, now the source of wonderful desktop background images!
If you've got any interest in astronomy, the earth, or just space in general, this site will provide several years worth of daily eye candy, with just enough information to keep the die-hard geeks satisfied in their data lust. Remember to click on the image, as they like to get bigger...

2002-10-13T00:18:00.000-06:00

I Used To Believe

This is an interesting little site; a repository of the stories that adults told us as children that we 'used to believe'. Cute.

2002-10-08T00:55:00.000-06:00

MeFi Swap

So to those of you whom I haven't raved to in person yet, this is MeFi Swap, the MetaFilter Mix CD swapping program. Once a quarter, after you've signed up, you make up a Mix CD, burn 5 copies, and sent it to 5 people who are assigned to you. Likewise, different people will send you 5 different mix CDs. This looks like a great way to expand my musical horizons. Eli and I are already signed up, why aren't you!?!