I thought this was a particularly fun thread over on Serious Eats... Where would you throw an impromptu, perhaps illegal, dinner party?
I thought folks would be interested in the current comments:
Someone said Center Ice at the Shark Tank... that would be a different viewpoint of the arena for sure, and intimidating, having all the empty seats looking down at you!
I've had plenty of picnics on the beach, but an actual dinner party next to the ocean waves would be a blast, if you can put up with the wind.
However, I think my favorite place would be to have a dinner party in the underground caverns in Paris.
I've already written this once and somehow lost it, so this time is much more brief. Check out this post on peculiar instruments - it includes sounds clips. The only one I'd ever heard before was the didgeridoo. I particular enjoyed the glass armonica, as it sounds like running a wet finger over the rim of a crystal goblet.
If you haven't heard of them, Moo prints personalized calling cards, note cards, and stickers from your Flickr (or any other) pictures. I had a sticker book printed for $10, and I love it. I included some macro shots I've taken, as well as some scenic shots. The stickers are vinyl and quite high quality... my laptop is now adorned.
America's Favorite Architecture: Allegheny County Courthouse came in 35! San Francisco City Hall came in 49; I know it's beautiful inside. There's a lot of buildings worth looking at on this site, if their web server would quit being so fragile.
My latest bookmark... Listpic! This is inspired... it pulls all of the photos from Craigslist listings so you can browse by the photos instead of clicking on each listing, viewing the image, clicking back when you realize that it's ugly...
Seriously, what would we do without YouTube? Giant Magazine posted the 50 best 80's commercials, and then a sequel of 50 more.
Wow, I'd forgotten about a lot of these...the annoying nerdy kid from the Encyclopedia Britannica commercials... Popples...
Guidelines for Platonic Friendships: "Punishable by instant sex" hahaha
Why Women Don't Care About HDTV: This article makes me feel a little violent. But maybe I'm just offended by the idea that I have to belong to one club or the other (geek girls or girly girls). I can own my Coach bag and HDTV at the same time, dammit. I sincerely hope the article was written as satire :)
"[Gay children] are less likely to get into a fight and less likely to date rape people. I'm straight but I've grown up around gay people and gay clubs. They are superior to straight people. If you have a gay child you're more inclined to be a prouder parent."
What?? Can we say stereotyping? And having lived with a couple gay men, superior is not a word I'd use (sorry guys :P) I mean, I won't be caring what orientation my children are, and I'll be proud regardless. Is he afraid if he has straight children that they'll be out fighting and date raping? Imagine how much therapy his poor children are going to need!
I thought this headline was a joke: Heineken to Track Beer By Satellite. No really, it has practical applications.
Since I previously mentioned a Firefox 2 tweak, I thought I'd also point out the newest extension I've downloaded. I'm a tab whore, and always leave tons of tabs open between sessions. Aging Tabs fades older tabs and highlights your current tab. Just a bit of useful eye candy :) [Via Lifehacker]
Also, a WTF link... "Fourteen percent of those [Indian men] surveyed said they had had sex with a member of their own family." I hope they were at least second cousins...
Just for kicks... carve yourself a virtual pumpkin.
I didn't do too terribly much for Halloween this year. TiVo had their annual party yesterday, so today feels anticlimactic. One year ago today, I moved into my new apartment, and didn't get a single trick-or-treater. There was however, a dead body found in a neighbors' apartment. So yeah, I'm guessing no trick-or-treaters tonight. I should acquire candy just in case :)
We went to the Winchester Mystery House Flashlight Tour over the weekend. Not so much a haunted house, but certainly a little creepy, and a different perspective of the Winchester House.
Star Trek Inspirational Posters, via Jon.
CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.
EXPENDABILITY: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet. Guess who's not coming back.
Thanks, Cindy and Autismlink, for the cute jewelry :)
I gave up on using a desktop news aggregator, because it became a hassle when using multiple machines, or after reinstalling an OS. I recently started using BlogLines, a server based aggregator, and I love the folder organization, as well as the recommendations feature. Sadly, based on the 94 feeds that I currently subscribe to (some are redundant like news feeds, or sparse like LJ subs), BlogLines has yet to have a single recommendation.
You can view my subscriptions here: http://www.bloglines.com/public/starjewel/
So... what feeds/sites do you read... news, weblogs, or otherwise?
* April Fools... Slashdot is ugly (nothing new there) and pink
* Zawodny is leaving Yahoo for Google
* ThinkGeek has its usual round of products, including a USB Desktop Tanning Center
* Gizmombo and Lifehacker are preparing us for the zombie apocalypse
* Homestar Runner and crew are upside-down
* Google introduces Google Romance, which wouldn't be surprising if they really did
* My favorite... The Economist reports that scientists in California are close to genetically synthesizing mythical creatures
Flickr album from a Yahoo employee showing some really inconsiderate parking. Much more amusing than it sounds.
This ones great: http://flickr.com/photos/ycantpark/25751237/
Makes this photo taken not too far away not seem so bad: http://photos.starjewel.org/Random/compacthummer
SFW, endless amusement. http://www.thechump.com/neverendingfall.swf
Just some quick linkage, an interesting article I found while web browsing: Evolution of the Starbucks Logo.
Just a few mobile related links...
I used to have T-Mobile and they swore up and down I should have coverage at least within a mile of my parents house, as the map said good signal. "It must be your phone," the said, as they encouraged me to spend more money. They've released a street level coverage map. Lo and behold, a huge cloud around my parents' house is a black hole of no signal.
Sprint also has a tower map, though their service is fairly ubiquitous around here, save for spots in Monterey that I've noticed.
You know you've neglected your blog when you email a link around and it doesn't occur to you to blog it.
This video is extremely cool... it's an a capella group doing Nintendo themes. I love the visuals :) Be patient, it took a while to load, but it's very worthwhile.
I was making a post to Craigslist, and noticed a new option. Below the checkbox for "ok for others to contact you about other services, products or commercial interests" is ok to transmit this posting into outer space. oddly, it's only March 1, not April Fools Day.
Made me just a little homesick... I understand and embrace the Pittsburgh left. I still don't understand the Bay's phobia to driving in the rain. Link thanks to kcm.
Because Valentines is just a commercial holiday invented by Hallmark*: Be my anti-valentine.
* I know it's really not, but us bitter single folks like to say so :)
MJ from Target? I wonder how long it takes Target to notice these hacks...
The page is gone, but here's a screen cap.
In response to Sorry Everybody, our apologies are accepted.
Someone doesn't like Bush. Go here and right click on the photo of the Bushes. Either view the photo or look at its properties... it's titled 'asshole.jpg'.
Raise Your Hats is a project to benefit the Victoria Persons With AIDS Society, in which crafty people donate hats they've made. I bought an extremely nifty and unique hat as a gift for my favorite faeriegirl, so I thought I'd point out the site for anyone else interested in taking a look. They've got a few matching scarves as well.
Found Item Clothing has reproduced some of the tshirts Val Kilmer was wearing in "Real Genius" and they're available for $18.95. Very cool.
Stolen from Skittish... submit your photo to this site and see which celebrities you resemble. I used a bad picture of me, but hey, Alyssa? Works for me...
What is up with Burger King's marketting department lately? Someone smoking crack over there? First there was the Subservient Chicken, and now there is Ugoff and his pouches. I've only seen one Ugoff commercial, but it definitely left me with a "WTF?!" kinda feeling.
I left my laptop idle with miniusa.com open in Mozilla and came back to this. Cute.
My latest fun way to pass time is reading the Missed Connections on Craigslist. "Missing my cherry". So wrong.
Re: Breedster
You have 3 egg(s).
A sexually transmitted virus has affected your reproductive system; all eggs are infertile.
You cannot invite any friends.
Fornication will transmit the virus to your partner.
Breedster is a social networking site where all the users are bugs. You move around on the map, eat, shit, and sleep, until you get enough energy to turn into an adult. Then you fornicate with other bugs to produce eggs. You email the eggs to other people, and they hatch if the person joins Breedster. If they join, you're one of their parents, and you show up on each other's copulograms.
Pace is my mom. Leave a comment if you'd like one of my eggs.
It's all very bizarre.
Subservient chicken. I fear the fact that this is sponsored by Burger King. Tell him to destroy, fly, kiss, poop, moonwalk, dance, have sex, masturbate, pray, sleep, watch tv, eat, chickendance, catch fire, kung fu, die...
w00t. Got an invite to Orkut. I'm a dork, but yay. Social networkking junk.
p.s. Way better than that Friendster crap.
Bill has posted the photographic evidence of the debauchery at the Heaven and Hell party. That's all.
Japander.com - Western Celebrities in foreign commercials. My favorite is the Honda commercial starring Anthony Hopkins.
Also, some beautiful fantasy art.
It was on MeFi, so you might've seen it, but how could I not mention elf sex? Someone wrote a paper about what Tolkein had to say about the subject.
BTW, please don't mention Orlando Bloom, because people seriously need to get over him. My elf fixation goes back much further than that, so flame away Doug.
And speaking of LOTR, I'm waiting to see ROTK because I hate crowds, but this was an interesting read about the battlefield AI.
This was too funny not to link. A salesperson for Passion Parties faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted on obscenity charges for selling an erotic toy to undercover narcotics officers. The officers actually posed as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid... so they were looking for a bust. WTF. Narcotics officers are *that* bored that they can't be bothered with, say, getting drugs out of schools.
NYTimes article about business' possible intentionial "oops" overcharges. I'm still fighting with Verizon about the DSL I've cancelled twice since I moved 8 months ago. In a time when everything is automated, I still don't understand how service got shut off and billing didn't. And the double billing just because new DSL was started on the same phone number under a different name. I still haven't seen the credit, and I've called once more, they said be patient.
Via Badly Dubbed Boy: Customer's Advice on MJ's "Number Ones". So wrong... so funny...
As heard on WDVE this morning, and the link via Doug... a gentleman is auctioning off a lease on his life, including his place in Mt. Washington, while he's out of town. He's since pulled the auction, probably to up the price, but it's worth a look. Auction has been relisted at the same starting price, $1000.
Swiped directly from BoingBoing, but too funny not to post.
Mike from SOCALWUG shares an actual email from the Los Angeles County Purchasing and Contract Services Director, asking technology vendors to refrain from using the terms "master" or "slave" to refer to interrelating parts -- for example, a "master" hard drive controlling a "slave" client device. Perhaps Dom/Sub/Switch would be more apropos. Talk SCSI to me, baby: who's your (hard drive's) daddy? Snip:
The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived. As such, it is the County's expectation that our manufacturers, suppliers and contractors make a concentrated effort to ensure that any equipment, supplies or services that are provided to County departments do not possess or portray an image that may be construed as offensive or defamatory in nature.
One such recent example included the manufacturer's labeling of equipment where the words ''Master/Slave'' appeared to identify the primary and secondary sources. Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label. We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment or components thereof that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature before such equipment is sold or otherwise provided to any County department.
Iowa University has an official recognized, student-government-funded bondage club, called Cuffs. That's great.
Which is why they fired a blogger for posting a picture of a shipment of G5s at his workplace, Microsoft.
Conspiracy theories aside, it is a little funny, but I don't entirely blame them for firing someone, especially a temp, for posting unauthorized pictures of a workplace online. Especially if he had to sign an NDA.
I think I mentioned it before, but just to remind you and myself, the Nova special on String Theory is on tomorrow at 8PM EST. Also, the new Sims expansion, "Makin Magic" comes out just in time for Halloween.
I can't stand romance novels, but personally, I think the one with the man receiving the obvious hand-job should have gotten first place in the 2002 Worst Romance Novel Covers Contest.
I just downloaded iTunes for Windoze Windows. I am a happy camper. Now to find that OS X theme for XP and I can be a full fledged Mac user wannabe.
Chief Wiggles is doing a good thing. He's running a toy drive for the children of Iraq. Read the comments for more suggestions on what is useful and appropriate. If anyone local wants to help out, we can put together one package to send instead of a number of little ones.
Upcoming.org What is Upcoming.org? Upcoming.org is a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you're attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.
It's pretty neet. Join your local metro, add events or comment on listed events, check out what your friends are doing...
Click to enlarge it. I already speculated this may be an urban legend, but it's still a pretty picture. If it's a fake, it's well done. Via Luke via Kevin.
[Update] Yup: From Snopes: According to a Web page of the National Weather Service, the photo, credited to Steve Todd, actually documents a tropical cyclone in the Pacific Ocean six months earlier named "Graham."
Though we have reason to suspect the information on the National Weather Service site isn't perfectly accurate either (it lists Graham as a 2002 storm, when in fact it struck in late February 2003), it puts the lie to the email's claim that the photo depicts Hurricane Isabel.
From the same guy who brought you the credit card signature prank, comes prank phone calls about the RIAA. The first few were amusing, but they got old. Still, it's something to read on a boring Tuesday morning.
I know I linked The History of Michael Jackson's Face before, but check out what an age progression artist thinks he'd look like if he hadn't had all that plastic surgery.
Aliens are trying to create a new hybrid race by mating with humans, but at least they aliens give you orgasms when they abduct you. It's true! Children's drawings don't lie. Be sure to look into making a thought screen hat to protect yourself from the aliens.
The science of patronizing Starbucks. *giggle* Having a Starbucks right across from where I meet carpoolboi, and often stop into while waiting, I can appreciate some of this process.
Via MeFi, a LED sign webcam that allows you to input text to the sign. Dig the Homestar Runner characters in front of the sign.
Nature.com is running a fascinating article on the policing and anarchy that happens in honeybee hives. Normally, if any other worker lays an egg, other workers will detect it, eat the eggs, and torture or kill the anarchist. Scientists selectively bred a hive of anarchist bees without a queen and discovered that they do strange things.
In these hives, breeding workers neglect their chores and the hives become decadent to the point of collapse. "They can barely feed themselves, and they do weird things like trying to raise queens out of male larvae," Oldroyd says.
This cracked me up... English lessons. Be sure to have your sound on.
So You Want to Learn Japanese...
Someone needs to send this to Ahlers please...
A history and also, a how-to involving apples.
I especially like the disclaimer: Keep in mind that the "story of shrunken heads" is history, not how-to, and that it is considered very bad manners indeed to shrink another person's head, so don't try this at home.
78 differences between women and men.
"Women do not get turned on at the thought of two men together."
"Men cannot watch sports and talk to their wives at the same time."
"On being told that someone has bought a new car women usually what colour it is - men ask what sort is it. "
Like BlogAmp, but for Windows Media Player.
Playstation3 logo revealed... and speaking of PS, how did I miss this? Can't find much more about it elsewhere though.
Send a trackback, even if your Blogging tool doesn't support it.
Some insightful stuff about Trackback.
Airlines may monitor your butt? Seat censors to monitor your movement and propensity to being a threat.
Science song lyrics... songs parodied with scientific lyrics.
Jenny, what is this number?/Tell me how it's defined./Jenny, plug in this number:/Three point one four one five nine.
80s Tarot, featuring Ferris Bueller as the fool, David Bowie from Labrynth as the Emperor, Boy George as the Ace of Cups, and Robert Smith as Death.
They really are pursuing a Sims-based television show. No surprise that it's on FOX.
Move Your Feet, a cute pixel video...with squirrels.
How much do cashiers care about your signature on a credit card receipt? My debit card is signed "See I.D." and I only get asked about it 5% of the time. It's written in very clear print in sharpie marker. I wonder if they would even notice if I had written it in cursive. See how far this gentleman pushed the limits to see if anyone noticed.
K5 has a great intro to Otherkin... people who think they're elves, faeries etc. trapped in human form. Creative or psychotic? Found someone i know irl on one of the otherkin forums... never knew that about them. While my alter ego (Starbreeze) is an elf, at least I realize it is all fantasy.
So there was this kid, who won a contest with Mattel, but never got his idea for an action figure made into a prototype, worked for a video game company, and now his life is a shambles. It's a big conspiracy theory... did Mattel ruin his life? ;) Via MeFi.
Watch it. Yeah, it's work safe, just turn down the volume :P
Also, Mickey Mouse b00bs.
Final Easy game. I've only made it so far as the first rest point. Good luck!
Yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a stereograph, sometimes know as Magic Eye. I've never been able to see one in my life. There are stereograms for beginners available, if you're in the same boat.
So this might work sometimes, but I can tell you it's not consistant. Having dated someone with a size 16 foot who was off the charts shoe-size wise, he was not off the charts elsewhere. Well at least not off the high-end of it ;)
All insulting aside, width does not make an appearance into this chart, and it should, but it was at least funny to think that someone actually spent the time to come up with this.
Since Starbreeze is an elf and elves are (ground) faeries, I thought it appropriate to point out at today is apparently Wear Are Your Wings Day. I usually keep my faerie wings tucked away, as they can become obtrusive in a human world ;) If you're curious, I did show off my wings at one point in time.
Via Lalaranel.
I have to meet 1,402 heterosexual males who are between 21 and 31 years old who are living in my city or are willing to move there, to find my soulmate.
They base these figures on the US census and some weird theories. It's an advertisement for a dating service, but I was amused at how picky I appear to be. That's *after* I expanded the age range because the number was ridiculously high before. I guess that's a good thing.
Via MeFi.
OMG... i a, *so* purchasing this tshirt.
Several copies of the new, unpublished "Harry Potter" book were found in a field a quarter-mile from Clays Ltd., a publishing company. [Update:] The suspected culprits are in custody.
What happens when you drink absinthe, try to get laid, and hang out with friends. Fucking hilarious. Warning: Beyond R rated.
The longest bird penis ever... just not right.
A sonic boom from the NASA Astronomy picture of the day site.
Dwarf chameleons that are just adorable!
When I Was Little, a project for adding your baby and adult pictures.
Have some poetry generated by Cmdr Taco's neet cgi program, from my site.
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Today is No Pants Day 2003! I wish I would have known this earlier, but that's ok, because I didn't wear pants yesterday. (I wore a skirt ;))
Funny thing... I belong to the 'no pants' club in There Online as well.
has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. I'm frightened. Next it will be 'ain't' or some other horrid non-word.
I didn't bother to post about yesterday's free scoop day at Ben and Jerry's, because the closest one is the Pgh Nat. Airport. However, today from 6-10pm is free scoop day at Baskin Robbins, and those, we have nearby.
Take the quiz! I scored a 23, making me A Uber-Cyber-Veteran? I get the feeling that should be higher, given the fact that I am currently sitting in a chair at Ed's, leeching his bandwidth via my laptop on wireless, and IM'ing him while we are in the same room. Via Firda.
Some lucky kids with a geek dad got a BattleMech tree-house. There are a number of pictures at each step of the building. Via BoingBoing.
Revoke the Oscar from Michael Moore. This campaign is based on the fact that "Bowling for Columbine" isn't really a documentary. I had been wondering about that... I kept reading about th