Well, the spiffy thing that was supposed to happen two weeks ago never happened. I was going to post it now before I left for Indiana. Sadly, it would appear one of the roommates got to it first. Am I rambling? Yes! Let me explain. Two weeks ago I realized that I had forgotten The Mutant Strawberry in a zip-lock bag. Not only had it started molding, but it was oozing out too. Hence, I thought I would snap a picture, post it on this stupid web log and let it be remembered by history. Sadly, work has gotten the better of me and tonight when I go to dig it out: gone! So, just imagine that a picture of the most hideous moldy and oozing strawberry is here. Be grossed out. Or, if not sufficiently grossed out, just watch the Connie Chung video again. That rotten stomach Justine Henin-Hardenne Australian open feeling is what I'm going for. Feeling queazy now? Good!
Next topic is the surprising answer to what song did I listen to about 50 times today? If you answered that it's a song about Adlai Stevenson then you'd be correct. No, I'm not kidding. (Sounds like a dream right up there with Nicole's dreams about running William F. Buckley's presidential campaign.) This is definitely going on the next time I drive down the Stevenson Expressway. Thanks, Bob Boilen! (Also thanks for Tilly & the Wall) I've decided that if I ever have kids they will only be allowed to listen to three things: opera, baseball games, and NPR.
Roger Ebert gave the first Garfield movie 3 stars. Although this is troubling wtihin itself, his review of the second Garfield movie is even more troubling.
There will be malcontents who claim I am not the real author of this review, because how could a cat know that after you mention a character in a movie, you include the name of the actor in parentheses? Do these people believe a cat lives in a vacuum? I read all the movie reviews, especially those of Ebert, a graceful and witty prose stylist with profound erudition, whose reviews are worth reading just for themselves, whether or not I have any intention of viewing the movie. I need to read movie reviews because Jon watches DVDs all the time and likes to have me within petting distance, and I need advance warning about movies I will want to avoid, so I can slink off for a snooze under the sofa. Last night, for example, he watched "Cat People" -- which, judging by the soundtrack, had no cats in it.
Hmm ... writing from the point of view of Garfield. Well, I give up. What did you think of your own movie, Garfield?
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is actually funnier and more charming than the first film.
To wrap up French Open coverage on this web log, here's a video of our two favorite Belgians having some fun. This includes Kim Clijsters lip-synching Tom Jones. Yes, you read that correctly.
Plus, stay tuned to this web log on Friday when something spiffy happens. You have been warned.
So the plan will be to release WWC sans appendices for now. I'd say when but I've already given readers so many fake handshakes that I will refrain.
Until then, here are some random cool things.
Swarm: A new way of "browsing" the net and damn cool, though I haven't actually found anything usful via it. It reminds me of the way they browse websites in Cowboy Bebop and Futurama. What it does is show you the most browsed web sites in small windows that float and are connected to each other. Okay, that made no sense at all. Just go and try it. It's quite an experience. (Note the Adult Thumbs Off function. Just another reason why Futurama is right.)
Movable Type Styles Contest: The default styles for Movable Type blow goats. What's a company to do? In this case, it's introduce a "contest" where people will spend tons of hours working on styles better than the default ones and where Six Apart will pay the winner considerably less than it would have cost to pay someone to write all of the hundereds of styles submitted. My favorites so far.
Note Taking. I did a similar paper theme a long time ago. (I can't prove it, but I did!). This one doesn't take it too far and is quite tasteful.
Make My Way. I'm generally a fan of the metallic themes. This one has a neat little ray thingy (it's hard to think this morning!) and the borders match perfectly to the theme. One of my favs.
Soleil. At first, I didn't like it that much. The green is a little "too" green and generally I hate themes based off of the seasons. However, the images are tastefully done and it's grown a lot on me.
WatchTV. Nice use of color. I could do without the TV image in the upper left.
Oriental Dream. Great border, use of colors, and I don't even mind the search graphic. I like it a lot. Hey, I'm biased!
Dark Style. I could do without the graphic and the text is too small. But I like the colors.
The Late Show. The best "black background" theme. The orange makes for a vivid contrast which is much better than all the "goth" default Movable Type themes. I could do without the movie images, however.
Honestly, this is hilarious! The first three or four minutes are boring — but they do set up the rest of the hilarity. At the very least, try to watch up to the You Shall not Pass scene. It totally did it for me.
Hat tip to Dear ol' Dave:
Imagine this:
People dressed up in middle earth clothes, walking (some are even
barefoot!) across new zealand.
The particular scene i am describing starts off with two people
sitting together, a short man who is supposed to be a dward or gimli
or something. And another man, who is supposed to be an elf or
legolas.
There is the buzzing of an insect and suddenly the dwarf strikes,
slapping the insect on his wrist. Then he leans over to legolas and
sneers: TEN!
