Angry Otto

High on my list of animals not to make angry in my lifetime is the Octopus. They look mean, and have a lot of arms to back that up. Here is a story of one Octopus named Otto who has been acting up lately. This is just an odd story... he causes electrical failures, damages his tank, rearranges his tank to suit his desires, and even juggles the hermit crabs. I wish there were some videos of him juggling the crabs, but for now I must imagine.

Seattle Zombie Walk

Happy Halloween!

Now that that is done, here is my Halloween story for the year (they'll probably be something funny and Halloweeny I find that I'll put up tomorrow, but for now, this is all). Seattle did their Annual Zombie Walk the other day and it appears to be a success. This seems like a great thing to participate in. I'm not too sure how many people participated, but it looks like a lot of fun from this slide show. A zombie costume has to be one of the best and easiest costumes to put together. Tear some old clothes + fake blood + sleep hair + creepy stare and optional makeup, and you're a zombie.

SNES Quiz

Were you a kid during the late 80's and early 90's or just love old school games? Here is a really great quiz on SNES, strangely enough, there were a lot of these I didn't know. I spent several hours play'n the SNES, but many of these I just couldn't remember. Anyway, it's something that brought back some memories. I believe I got 7/13 of these, but I had to refresh the page to get the link and couldn't remember exactly.

Breaking Presidential Election News

I've came to the conclusion this election that I'm not smart enough to choose a good presidential candidates. If only I were psychic I could probably make a good choice based on the potential outcomes four years later. It's a major decision that I'm willing to bet many Americans are undecided about still. If you are unsure, here is a safe bet for your vote.

Surfing Makes us Smarter

Here is an interesting study showing that surfing the Internet may make us smarter. If you are a huge Internet user like myself, you'll notice that surfing has had some effect on you... probably ADD. The article shows pictures of a brain while reading a book as compared to your brain while surfing. This study is interesting, but it begs the question "Is it making us smarter, or just overwhelming us to the point of being inefficient?". It is true though, now our minds do not need to and probably cannot remember things like the pre-Interneters. Now all we need is our Google-assisted memories and we have all the information we need.

Geek Masquerade

It's once again time for Halloween. Geeks usually don't need a huge reason to dress up (movie debut, major release of anything, etc.), so they already have a costume available for Halloween, it's just which one. They'll probably be a whole bunch of these sites around in the next few days, but this is one of the first Geek Masquerade's I've seen this year and Wired did a great job of putting it together.

How many Countries

43
Here is a really nice site to play around on... it's a game of how many countries can you name in five minutes. When I was sent this, it was unexpected, so I completely was caught by surprise and started. I only got 43, but my spelling effected a lot of them. I like to think I'm at least average in my Geography skills, but this test probably doesn't really prove that. Anyway, I enjoyed this... hope you do as well, feel free to post your results here, stomping mine :).

Thanks Axl for the Free Pepper

I blogged in May about how Dr. Pepper issued a challenge to Guns and Roses to release their new album and they would give out a free Dr. Pepper to everyone. GNR has announced their new album due out next month, so the Dr. is good on their word. Make sure you check the Dr. Pepper site on November 23 so you can get yours if you want it.

Cylon O Lantern

Here's a post for my Battle Star Galactica fans out there. I kind of like a traditional Jack O'Lantern for decoration, but this would be something cool to do for a secondary carving. Unfortunatley, it uses a lot of batteries, so it's not a very "green" cylon. I'm a fan of Make magazine and have thought many times of getting a subscription... I'm not really sure what's holding me back.

Virtual Murderer Behind Real Bars

When you mess up someone's gaming character, it's highly annoying, but it's not going to be detrimental to society as a whole. Here is a story about how a lady in an MMORPG virtually killed her virtual husband and is now possibly facing time in real life (RL). From personal experience I understand how much time people put into these games and how much they can mean to people, but five years in prison for something like this is a little extensive. The lady did do wrong, but I wonder what the real punishment for something like this should be. I'd be interesting to be in the courtroom for this trial.

Cadbury Gorilla

My brother and I like to share YouTube videos with each other. Tonight he came over and showed me this gorilla video. I believe I think it's funnier than it really is, but you be the judge. There are several of these on YouTube if you wish to watch them.

Running Game

Last night I got caught up in playing this really addictive flash game with a running thing. The character kind of looks like Kirby from the Nintendo games. The point is to run down a path and not fall into space. It's really frustrating, but yet wonderful at the same time.... one of the best flash games I've played since the helicopter game.

Can't Buy a Championship

Currently I'm watching game 1 of the World Series. Although I'm sad about the conclusion of the season, I'm enjoying the good game. Earlier today my wife sent me this article comparing the payrolls of the Yankees vs. the payroll of the Rays. As a reminder, Yankees didn't even make the playoffs, the Rays are playing tonight in the World Series. The Rays are a special case, they have a great "worst to first" story, so it's hard not to pull for them in this series. There are several teams this could be done on, but I'm glad it was done vs. the Yankess because I don't like them.

Video on Vampire Energy

I must admit, if you make content and it has zombies or vampires in the title of it, it has a good chance of getting mentioned here. This video is fairly interesting and informative, but the vampire got it the extra cool points for a spot here.

Origami Dollars

For some reason, I like silly crafts I find on the Internet. I guess just something to keep me occupied. Earlier today I saw this origami site to make stuff with dollars. With the financial crisis I'm sure not many people have money to play with, but if you somehow come across one of these billions of dollars that have just vanished due to the economy, maybe you can make it into some cool art... Perhaps this is a way to even stretch your dollar, before you get that Big Mac, you have about 15 minutes of dollar folding entertainment. Some items on this page have instructions on how to make them, some leave it up to you to take the challenge.

Geek Coffins

Not a good topic, but sooner or later, we must all kick the bucket. Here are some ideas of geek coffins. I guess the whole idea of being buried in an SNES controller is a little morbid, but I'm just lett'n you know it's out there. I don't think I'd want one of these, but it shouldn't really matter at that point anyway. Odd conversation piece though, but I'd rather be the one remembered, not the geeky coffin.

Syncing Screen Savers

When in the IT industry, you have a lot of computers, which can often equal... lots of toys. This is a great video showing some guys who put together a great display of sceensavers.

Decorating With a Sharpie

Here is a story of a man not too far from where I live who decorated his basement with $10 worth of Sharpies. My parents always got mad if I wrote on the wall with crayons or markers, but fortunately, if this guy had the same discipline, it didn't stick. He did an excellent job on this basement. The link has a great 3-D view of the entire basement, it's very unique.

Man Eats Monster Size Burger

The title of this entry may have been better as "Man Eats Entire Cow", because by the size of the burger, it sure looks like it. This fairly small guy ate a 15 lb burger (after toppings and buns it was over 20 lbs) in less than five hours. I wonder what kind of training was involved in this "Marathon". The article doesn't mention if he has a history in competitive eating, but I wouldn't be surprised. This reminds me of the "Cool Hand Luke" scene with the boiled eggs.

Cat Deterrent

As mentioned several times before, I'm not fan of cats. Here is a great site showing how a guy made a cat deterrent for when his cats decide to climb on his counter. While growing up, my family had cats and I was highly annoyed when this happened as well, so I can feel this guy's frustration. I got quite a bit of amusement out of it, but I believe cat lovers would probably enjoy it too. The cat just doesn't learn.

Funny Food Photos

It seems like these comical food photos are getting popular lately, but they haven't gotten old to me yet, so I keep linking to them. Here is one my wife sent to me, that I felt was really creative. Who says it's not good to play with your food.

10 Geeky Proposals

Here is a blog posting for all the true romantics out there looking for ideas. Here is a list of 10 Geeky Marriage Proposals. Mine was not so impressive, but it was still special for my wife and I (and it's a good story which I'll not go into on here). I think I may have blogged about a few of these stories here, I'm not too sure though. Anyway, see if you can beat these Geeky proposals and perhaps get your proposal story here on my blog (I guess that's not really a reward for you, but it'd give me something to blog about that night).

Is Your Car Angry Look'n

When looking for a vehicle, and considering looks, what traits do you look for? Here is an article about how people like Angry-Faced Cars. When I think of this, it's seems very true. I specifically remember back in the early 90's when Dodge changed the looks of their Ram and Dakotas to look meaner and remember thinking how cool they looked. Think of the cars you like the looks of, are they more angry looking or friendly looking?

Funny Newspaper Postings

I've seen it a lot on Jay Leno and have always gotten a good chuckle out of it, it's messed up news paper articles. The link is to a site that is made up of really odd newspaper postings. I really enjoyed this site, some of these (OK, most) are really ridiculous.

Lobster Smuggler

Other than sharing this story with you, there's not too much to say. A guy thought it was a good idea to smuggle out 6 lobsters in his pants. The lobsters didn't have pincers, so he didn't get any wounds from the lobsters, just a mention on my blog.

Google Maps -- Columbus Style

If you didn't notice, yesterday the banks and government offices were closed for Columbus day. In celebration of it (a day late) here is a link to "What if Columbus had the Internet". Chances are he would've gotten lost, but if not I'd love to have seen the Wikipedia entry he wrote on the new land.

Kevin Rose on Some Digg Improvements

About two years ago I switched from Slashdot to Digg as my main source of tech news (I still frequent Slashdot, but it's secondary). Recently Digg has gotten really bad for political junk, so I've switched from it to reddit. The other day I read an article from Computer World featuring an interview with Digg's Kevin Rose on some of their future improvements. I was surprised that some of his concerns were the same as mine. I just stopped caring about a lot of the stuff that was getting "dugg up", to the point of having to go several pages in to find stuff I was interested in (which emphasizes further my theory of "the majority is always wrong"). So far I'm fairly happy with reddit's filtering system to allow me to filter out stuff I don't care about (such as political stuff).
If anyone has any other sites they can recommend for tech news feel free to let me know, I'm always looking for more stuff.

Dark Knight Toy Story Mashup

You can go out to YouTube and find all kinds of movie trailer recuts like this, but this is one of the better one's I've seen in a while. It seems these were made for each other... very well done.

Altoids Can Versatility

Today, my "How To" of the day featured the Altoids can and it's versatility. The title in my RSS feed showed 30 uses, but a lot of these are just storage as opposed to actual mods. Either way, some of these are really cool uses. One of my coolest how to's in a while.

Data Leak Survey

I'm always dubious as to how secure my personal data is once I hand it over to a company. Whether it's my bank, a credit card company, or even from my car I recently purchased, I'm just not too confident they're keeping my identity secure. Here is a study that shows that 75% of data loss is due to negligent insiders. Fortunately, I work in healthcare IT so we're very strict on our employees in regards to data security and do regular inservices on HIPAA regulations. I'm sure banks and other companies have their standards to uphold data security as well, but I worry about it nonetheless. I just found the article interesting... hackers are getting too much credit it appears.

Pumpking Paddl'n for Charity

Here is a great story about a guy who is paddling a 760 lb pumpkin through water for charity. On the link there is a video of not only him taking this thing out in the water, but of him carving it out. I wonder, just where you get such a large pumpkin, and what gives you the idea to make a boat out of it. Some may say he's out of his gourd, but he's doing good deeds with it.

Stuck Animals

This person's blog entry is titled "Stupid Animals", but it looks as, even though stupidity may have been involved, the better description may be Stuck Animals. I feel kind of bad laughing at some of these, but I'll assume all these animals got out of their predicaments safely.

Mouse PWNs Snake

If you're a fan of underdog stories, here's one 4 you. I've seen this linked on several sites tonight, so I must've not been the only one who liked it. A mouse bested a venomous snake, when he was put in as a snack. The mouse is a little big for the snake, but not by too much. He must've been quite a scrappy mouse.

Baby Lobster Costume

While I'm talking about Halloween costumes, my wife sent me this baby lobster costume a few weeks ago. It's nothing spectacular, but I liked how they fit it in a metal pot... pretty funny stuff, thought I'd share.

Storm Trooper Hoodie

Halloween is just a few weeks away. I'm not much of one to dress up, and really the reason why is, "Why buy and expensive outfit, when you can wear it only once a year". Here is a good solution, it's a hoodie/stormtrooper costume. A very practical Halloween outfit.

Great Nintendo Facts

Here's a great Nintendo video done in true Ferris Bueller style that points out many facts you may not have known. Most of these were news to me. Now if I'm ever in a Nintendo trivia contest, I may be able to appear knowledgeable.

Zombie Harmony

Are you lonely, have a computer, and just happen to be a zombie? If so, Zombie Harmony may be the perfect site for you. These online dating services are growing more and more popular, but they've left out one important genre (zombies).... until now. A friend sent me this site earlier. I tried to go to it from my workplace and it was blocked due to being a dating site.... At least WebSense (our web filtering software) has already evaluated it and categorized it correctly. It ensures no zombies try to find the ghoul of their dreams while on the clock.

I love their disclaimer:
" Disclaimer: ZombieHarmony is for zombies only. We advise signing up for ZombieHarmony only if you lack a pulse, have limited motor skills, or feel an intense desire to feast on human beings. We are not responsible for lost or ingested loved ones. If you go on a date with a zombie, we cannot be held liable for contributing to the apocalypse.
Please date responsibly: bring a baseball bat or crowbar."

V8 Lego Engine

I've always had a fascination with motors and how they work. I've actually rebuilt a few car motors (with the help of my Dad), so this video was quite interesting to me. I like the lights indicating it's firing.

Monkey Waiters

There are some jobs it seems like you could train a monkey to do. Waiting tables doesn't seem like one of those jobs, but it is in one Japanese tavern. I thought this was an enjoyable story of monkey see monkey do. The monkeys working at the tavern learned what they do simply by watching other waiters. I can really believe the article when it says "The monkeys are actually better waiters than some really bad human ones". It'd be something interesting to see what "monkey business" really looks like.

Competency Test Before Email

Here is an interesting idea that may make you think before sending an email. It's a "feature" that will make you answer 5 math questions before you send something. It's the whole "think before you speak" concept put into real life. I'm not sure that it's such a breakthrough idea and will be useful for their means, but I wouldn't mind doing it anyway, it may make me better at arithmetic.

SNL VP Debate

I missed both Saturday Night Live the other night and the VP debate. Fortunately SNL's skit is online... actually everywhere. It's been very popular, so I thought I'd share it here as well. It's still crazy to think how much Palin and Tina Fey look alike.

If the video doesn't show up, here's the link.

A Different Iron Man

I saw this image a bit ago and found it pretty funny. It's Iron man, if he had taken it more literally. You don't want to make him angry or he may press your clothes. Obviously his alter ego is Tony Starch, and his theme song is ... "Iron Man, Iron Man, does whatever an Iron Can...". Such a great character to flatten crime.

Ukulele Shaft Theme

I enjoy videos like this... Ukulele music kind of has a cult following, you just don't seen it enough in the main stream for some reason. I've seen a lot of great ukulele music online, but I found this one quite enjoyable.

Brat Feeds Lots of Reptiles to a Croc

This isn't something I would normally put on my blog, but it's just something I had to share. At an Australia zoo a 7 year old boy goes into the reptile cage (somehow), gathers up reptiles and throws them over a barrier to a crocodile for lunch. I'm not sure how or why this was able to happen, nor what his parents thought he was doing. Perhaps my favorite line from this story was : "At one point, he tried scaling the outer enclosure himself to get to "Terry", the 11ft (3.3m) saltwater crocodile".

On The Bailout Bill

I'll be the first to admit that I know very little about the economy. I'm not really sure what is going on currently with the loan companies going under and such. I'm also uncertain as to what purpose this bailout bill will serve and if it was the right thing to do. It seems almost like they're throwing money at the problem, which reminds me of one of my favorite IBM commercials of all time. I imagine this is a little how this whole proposal went.

An Intelligent Heist

From time to time I'll post something I've found out of dumb crook news on here. Tonight I'm posting one of the best heists I've heard of yet, involving a very intelligent crook. This sounds like something straight out of a movie. The guy goes into a bank, robs it dressed as a construction worker, then leaves. Prior to the robbery, he posted a Craig's list article saying he'll pay people to stand in front of the bank dressed as construction workers. He has decoys and a clean get away. I don't advocate crime, but if this was well thought out and if crook deserves to get away from a crime, it's someone with these creative skills. Too bad he couldn't put them to better use.

Snake Massage

I don't really consider myself squeamish around snakes. This video got to me a little... if you have a fear of snakes don't watch it. It's about a technique a lady came up with using snakes to massage. First of all... poor snakes. Secondly, does she sanitize the snakes after each use... she had them on that guys feet and then his face. It appears to be the same group of snakes each time.

Scare Joke gone Wrong

Before you plan some kind of trickster scare this year for Halloween, you may want to consider this video. I don't know what it was, but I laughed quite some time after watching this one. The guy seemed legitimately sorry for his reaction, and as for the trickster.... out cold.

Custom My Little Ponies

The other day I came across this site where someone took the old "My Little Pony" toys and customized them to be a little less girly. These are really well done, and if you're not ashamed to say that you own My Little Pony toys, you may want to try to make some of these yourself (or not).
I enjoyed the site and the work, but there's just no masculine way to say My Little Pony in a sentence.

October Question - Method of Gaming

It's that time again, the polls are in and it now I have a better idea of how you found this blog. I've heard the best method of getting news out is word of mouth and apparently that is true.... 52% of those polled, I told and 12% were told by a friend.... most excellent. I get between 50-80 visitors per day and I thought most of them found me through blogger.com, if so, none of them voted. Anyway, I appreciate the votes and I'm glad to know a little more how people find this blog. Next step is to hire a plane to pull a flag across the sky with my URL.

Now, onto the current stuff. This months question is... What is your Preferred Method of Gaming?? Console PC Handheld Console Borad/Card Games Who has time?? With the revive of the consoles lately, this should be an interesting poll. My audience on this blog mostly have PC's so the response could be skewed a little toward PC's. Let's see how this one goes. Thanks in advance for voting.