2. The Guardian featured a series of portraits of people while alive and then while dead, shortly thereafter. It isn’t quite as gruesome as it sounds.
3. Have you seen Creature Comforts? Basically, they took audio clips of things people said and animated them…Wallace and Grommet style. In this one, they asked people about their self image.
The first 25 seconds of this one (below) makes me grin.
4. I am going out to dinner on Tuesday night to a particular restaurant, specifically to try sweetbreads.
5. There’s a company that makes hidden passageways in your home. Gallery here.
1. Did you know that the price for a prostitute in Chicago goes up roughly 30% for the 4th of July holiday? This from An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution by Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) and Venkatesh. Levitt praises Venkatesh in this blog entry for his work on Gang Leader for a Day. If you’re in Chicago and would like to hear a reading by Venkatesh himself on life in the inner city of Chicago, head over to the Hyde Park Borders store at 7 p.m. tonight. C-Span will be recording. See you there.
3. I’m not sure what I’d think if I walked into a woman’s bedroom and this was on the bed. This review from someone in Virginia weirds me out: “For those of us committed to staying sexually pure and who still want to feel loved at night, this is a Godsend…!! And my compliments to the designers for not making it too “anatomically correct.” I can sleep without temptation! Praise the Lord!!!”
Then there’s this review by Robert: “I had never spooned before until i recieved my new fluffy companion.”
Ever since I have known Boss, we have remarked about the number of times a movie features someone throwing up. It is amazingly frequent in movies. Even if you can’t think of a movie off the top of your head that shows someone getting ill, chances are that if you think of five relatively recent films, you can’t be certain that someone wasn’t throwing up in at least one of them. It’s everywhere.
I started to wonder what they use in movies for vomit so I did some poking around and found this page which gives instructions on whipping up a fresh batch. It looks like it was written by a middle school kid because the author suggests adding green food dye…and he then suggests spreading it all over the bed so that you can enjoy a day off from school. I love the warning that comes with it: “Make sure you don’t get the food colouring on your clothes, it stains!” But go ahead and spread that all over the bed, kids.
Frighteningly enough, there is a link on how to make fake diarrhea, as well. Ingredients include coffee and maple syrup. The author notes that it won’t smell like diarrhea, so “your acting will also need to be convincing.” I’m not sure I’d believe that my kid had to stay home from school if it smelled like he made me breakfast in the bathroom. Maybe it’s one of those fine line smells. Again, the best part about this entry is the warning:
“Don’t put too much coffee in the mix. Too much coffee will look like blood and earn you a trip to the doctor rather than a day off of school.”
If I had a kid, he wouldn’t be allowed on the internet.
Imagine a portly fellow of 18 or so, hosting his very own cooking show out of Palatine, Illinois. He cross contaminates, does impersonations, scolds himself and sometimes slurs his words…all while sincerely excited. You get Merrill Howard Kalin. Someone took the time to edit some of his shows to provide you with some highlights. Below, see a re-mix of his show that someone did to “I feel good.”
I like that enthusiasm when he cuts his tomato. I’m pretty sure the noises he makes while putting ranch dressing on his salad are rated NC-17.
1. Check out the iStraw - it filters your water. Great for travel. May need to get one for Boss before Vietnam/Thailand.
2. I’ve noticed that on some blogs, there is a button that says something like, “Like my blog? Buy me a Starbucks!” and the reader can click and donate via paypal. Interesting. If I had one like that, it would say, “Like my blog? You must not be autistic.” I know that is rather offensive but I find that I often refer to autism in less than flattering terms. It’s a problem, I know.
3. Have you ever heard someone say this? That something “needs washed” or “cleaned” or something like that? Instead of “needs to be washed” or “needs to be cleaned”? Is this a midwest thing?
4. Do you love steak like Little Filthy and I do? Try this method - coat your steak heavily with kosher salt…very heavily. Like mascara on a whore heavily. Here, even better, look at this website that describes how to do this and why it makes your steak taste like heaven.
Lifehacker asked readers to take a picture of what they take with them to work each day. It’s making me re-evaluate how much I tote back and forth daily. (Part I and Part II) I’ve noticed that almost everyone carries some particular things - aside from laptop, Treo, Blackberry, and iPod: chapstick, mints/gum.
Things I’m surprised I did not see more often: Purel, cigarettes and lighters.
Here’s a rough list of what I bring to work with me each day:
Laptop, Levenger Leather Circa Notebook in black (which has proven to be worth the investment for me), iPod with audio books from Audible, pack of travel kleenex, Leatherman Micra, Nalgene water bottle, small bottle of Purel as well as some pre-packaged anti-bacterial wipes (I use the Purel as I exit the train), wallet, keys, business cards, and a Timbuk2 ID wallet where I keep my train pass and some extra cash so I don’t have to dig around for it, small bottle with Advil and Claritin in it, portable wireless mouse, and finally, a piece of fruit a lot of times. That’s the bulk of it.
And today, I considered this thing - the LiteRide - …I’m just not sure I can picture myself on it.
Mental Floss had an interesting story and link to a blog in which the author ate foods based upon their color - One color for each day, for seven days. Pictures of what she ate are here. I could have helped her out by allowing her to follow Boss who, in a past phase, ate only white things. This is a sharp contract to myself as I like to eat as many colors as possible. Eating only one color is…well, one might say it’s boring. I might say it’s autistic.
Again, it occurs to me that I am offensive while meaning to be sincere. Not that they are mutually exclusive. I suppose perhaps I am sincerely offensive. Which reminds me of when I told Boss that “Nothing is sadder than a fat girl getting her nails done.” I must take that back. I’ve decided that nothing is sadder than a fat girl shoe shopping. It came to me last night and I got the same melancholy feeling. Yes, perhaps I am just sincerely offensive.
Ever since finding this forum post which I wrote about here, I’ve been a bit fascinated by this website monsterfishkeepers.com. I wonder if that’s just some made up name or if “Monster Fish” is some sort of term-of-art. Would my local fish tank guy think I was nuts if I said, “Yeah, I’m here for some monster fish”?
“My puranha are pussies!!! helps!!!” I suppose if you buy a piranha, you might like to see it tear open some flesh. This guy is clearly disappointed that his fish are the lesser known sub-species, pussy puranha.
This stingray is out of the movie Alien. This catfish must be hundreds of pounds. You’d have to noodle with your head to get that thing.
Since you can clearly read, it is quite possible you may not have heard of “Noodling.” Noodling is when some guy goes into the water and sticks his hand in all manner of dark places where he thinks a catfish might be lurking. The catfish basically bites or swallows the dude’s hand and he yanks out the fish. I am assuming it is a guy for the same reason that women do not find it a worthwhile activity to roll down the window, hollar and peel out.
Here are two great Noodling videos:
Noodling video: complete with guys screaming in pain.
Noodling Porn. I stand corrected on the female noodlers. This is like…backwoods porn. It includes female noodlers, *cartoon* noodling, and an original song out how the law doesn’t understand catfish-grabbin’. I couldn’t make this stuff up.
What I like about finding this forum is that it is a completely different world to me. Someone posts a picture of some ridiculously huge fish and the first thing someone responds is, “Yo, how much?” I love it.
Okay, I found this website forum in which a fish keeper posted pictures about his 50,000 gallon tank! These people keep BIG FISH. I’ve never so much as considered keeping a fish that, if it bumped me in the wild, might make me jump out of my skin a little.
I know this shouldn’t crack me up but there is a question posted about a fish having an eating disorder because it gets intimidated by the other fish at dinner time. Some icing on the cake in the form of a very sincere response which suggests lettuce, bits of orange, or some shelled peas …coupled with an icon of a fake fish preparing to swallow a bottle of Jack Daniels. Awesome.
Holy Crap. This post has the subject “One of my piranhas died. WHY?” and it comes with the warning: “*graphic*” The thing is, as soon as you see the picture, it will be obvious how it died. I’ll be damned, it’s like Fish CSI over there. Be sure to scroll down for the decapitated head. I love that one of the responses suggests it was a hate crime. People crack me up.
Stumble it!
Just a random attorney writing about daily life with Little Filthy, my rotten dog.
