Year End 2008

If you've been keeping track of this blog for a few years, you know that on New Year's eve (today) is the day where I say out with the old bookmarks. I take stuff I've saved over the year and give it to you with nothing other than a vague title. These are links that I saved, but couldn't think of anything to say about them, or for some reason or another didn't blog about them, but they could've made it. To be honest, this is probably my favorite blog entry of the year. Without further delay, I give you my lost bookmarks of 2008:

Top 10 Oddball News Stories - News - TIME - Why not start with a 2007 list
Urban Legends: How They Start and Why They Persist | LiveScience
Jan. 2, 1860: 'Gentlemen, I Give You the Planet Vulcan'
Big Profits in Back Yard FROG Raising
Cory The Legend continues... Video - This was just weird
Google Rejected Logos | thecontaminated.com - Why did I not blog about this
The Internet Is Down -- Now What? - Seriously what would we do??
Ready to Ware: Clothes That Look Hip and Track Your Vital Signs, Too
The knights who say "nerd": 20 pop-cultural obsessions even geekier than Monty Python | The A.V. Club
Finland's roadside toilets: now accessible only by SMS - Engadget - Can you hear me now??
The best new Internet hoaxes - Why didn't I blog about this???
Survival Tracking Guide - Click on this at least, you'll laugh
the varieties of the BALLOON HAT experience
Flickr Photo Download: Microsoft FINALLY buys Yahoo!
New Doctor Who Regenerates Fan Base
The Next 25 Years in Tech
For wasps, spotty faces equal killer Kung Fu
A Space Divided: The World’s Craziest Fences - Elite Feet
Vapourware: The tech that never was - Crave at CNET UK
Ten ways to get kicked off a plane -Times Online - I must not have read this
idle.slashdot.org | What's Your Favorite Monster?
IGN: Star Wars Mimobot Collection Review
Tunnel Harry - This is just cool if you like history
bookofjoe: Beyond Thunderdome — The Rise of 'Smart Poo' - I honestly don't remember this
What Will Life Be Like in the Year 2008?
Top 10 April Fools' Day joke Web sites
Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico- ???
High-Tech Team-Ups That Changed the World
Texas hooch seized due to its illegal contents: rattlesnake - Slashfood
30 tech myths debunked - Network World
http://www.askpalpatine.com/ - I never was sure about this
Floyd inflatable pig is recovered
Evil Monkey’s Guide to Kosher Imaginary Animals - If you're into Leviticus
Asperger's and IT: Dark secret or open secret? - Self Diagnosed ;)
End User: Denon Releases $499 Cable
How to torment telemarketers with one word - Snotr
Man dies in spitting contest plunge - Yet another that makes me wonder why I didn't blog about it
Opinion: Top how-to tech videos that won't cost you a dime
The 10 Best Lightsaber Mash Ups
watermark.php (JPEG Image, 800x542 pixels) - Rock on Luke, Rock On
Pentagon Researcher Conjures Warcraft Terror Plot
Prosecutors Drop Charge Related to "Passing Gas" in DUI Case - some local news that made it national
Woman gets extra coffee jolt: Fresh bat
'Creepy gnome' back on prowl | The Sun |News|Weird
10 power-saving myths debunked
489.gif (GIF Image, 527x508 pixels)
Brandon Crisp: ABC News Broadens Search For Missing Teen Gamer - Sad Ending :(
Claremont parents clash over kindergarten Thanksgiving costumes
Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks
Prayers from reflections-online.net - I really enjoyed this one
W.Va. mom accused of burning 'wimp' into child - yet another stupid local story
10 Inspiring Last Lectures and Commencement Speeches Everyone Should Watch | OEDb - This was emailed to me... I couldn't think of anything to say about it
The Food Issue - Why Tip? - NYTimes.com - Straight from Mr. Pink's book
How to Turn Your Car Into an Unstoppable Murder Machine
Diabetes causes more amputations than landmines
World's First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years
Print Article: Octopuses give eight thumbs up for high-def TV - I immediatly asked my wife for a pet Octopus
Flickr: The Far side Reenactments Pool - u saw this on Digg, I'm sure
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Nottinghamshire | City hit by 'legal to pee' prank

And that was what else I looked at in 2008. Happy New Year.

50 Cent's Fifty Cent Slimjim

I'm sure you've been there. Your doors are locked and your keys are in your car. Unfortunately for you, this probably didn't happen to you in your Rolls like it did to 50 Cent. The ghetto solution, of course, was the infamous coat hanger. Hey Fiddy, get you some On Star in that thing. It's not funny when it happens to you (especially if your car is running), but it's hilarious when it happens to a celebrity. The pictures in this link are priceless.

Sparebots

Here is a link I came across a few moments ago about a guy who creates "Sparebots" from extra tinkering parts. These are really creative, and he does a great job on them.

Chased by a Polar Bear

Fortunately, this story ended up humorous instead of tragic, but a man managed to give a polar bear the slip in a chase. This seems like something straight out of a bugs bunny cartoon. Strangely enough my Dad escaped a bear in a similar fashion. Went to the other side of the car, then jetted for the house. The bear wasn't in an active pursuit as in this case, but apparently this is the way to escape a bear. Unfortunately polar bears aren't as cuddly as they appear.

Great Year in Review

I'm not saying that it's been a great year, actually probably far from it, but this is a great article on the year in review. Normally I'd save this for New Year's eve, but if you've been following my blog for a few years, you know I do my really long year end blog that night (you'll see, check back Wednesday night). Anyway, this is a fairly long review, but I enjoyed it. If you don't plan on reading the whole things, at least look at the bullet points at the beginning and the comics. It has surely been a strange year.

Child Gaming Expert

Here is a video I just came across of a 1 year old who truly is a gaming expert. She knew a lot of these characters I had no idea who they are. This is what happens when the gaming generation grows up and have kids.

Human Fat Powered Car

Here's a story that's a little weird. A California Surgeon used human fat to power his car. Once you get past how disturbing this is, it's really innovative. This brings to mind a few questions. First of all, how much human fat does it take to power a car? I guess I'm asking What's the MPPHF (miles per pound of human fat)? I wonder how many jobs he had to do per day to get him home and back. Like I said, it's a little weird.

Bing and David Bowie - Little Drummer Boy

I know it's past Christmas now, but we're in that odd time between Christmas and New Years, so this video is fair game. I really did mean to post this video a few days ago, but it slipped my mind. This is a great piece, a little creepy, but great nonetheless.

Radio Flyer Gets a New Design

The Radio Flyer Wagon is undergoing a redesign which includes padded seats, a music player, and cup holders (of all things). I'm gonna guess that they're not going to get rid of the classic model, but something just seems wrong about having so many features in a wagon. What ever happened to kids using them to haul dirt and push their brothers down hills an ATV shouldn't go down. I guess it goes right along with a lot of the other things from our childhood that are being changed to fit the new generation..... These kids and their Rock'N Roll (shakes fist).

MegaMan in Paper

I purchased the Megaman 9 game from the Wii Virtual console, but so far I've only managed to get past two levels. When I first played it, I recalled how much I love and hate Megaman games. They're very frustrating, but very fun, so I usually take them slow. Anyway, now that I've gotten off subject a little... this video was very well done.

Wonderful Life -- Just in Case

About 3 or 4 years ago, a friend and I were talking online and he mentioned the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". At that point in time I had never seen the movie. He told me I had to stop what I was doing and watch it now. He sent me the following link. I wasn't doing too much at the time, so I followed his advice and was very glad I did. It's a truly great movie to watch around Christmas time. If you haven't ever watched it, click on the above link and watch the entire movie via Google Video... you'll be happy you did.
Merry Christmas!

Nerf Dart Railgun

If you're ever going to have a Nerf gun fight, and you're brave, you may want to consider making this Nerf railgun. Looks like they just cranked up the juice on it, but it's very cool nonetheless. This looks like it'd be really sweet to try, but perhaps a little dangerous. Once you have it created, I'm not sure how practical it'd be other than being cool to show to your friends.... but since when did toys have to be practical. Mana potion did have a few shameless plugs, but when you make something cool like this, you deserve a few plugs. Go buy some mana.

PostaCrime.com

Last night while surfing, I came across this site called "PostaCrime.com". The point of it is to have kind of like an online neighborhood watch. It's crime fighting made a little more clever. If a store gets robbed, they can post their videos of their robberies hoping that someone will be able to identify the culprit. It's a great idea, so I'm hoping it gets some attention and catches on.

Wii Hospital Admits

I'm going to go ahead and invoke my rule of "If it's on the Internet it must be true" on this story. Here is a link claiming that 10 people are admitted to the hospital per week due to the Wii. I must admit, I've been a little sore while playing the Wii for excessive amounts of time before, but nothing too bad. Now, of course I usually take a few laps, do some shuttle runs and air raids to make sure I'm ready before I play.

The True Story of Mario

As I was checking the reddit linked articles today I came across a well written blog entry by someone who had just read the Super Mario Bros. manual for the first time. He has typed out the storyline, and it was a pretty good reminder. I have read the manual before, but it's been years. The writer of the blog has some interesting points that he brings up. The blocks are really people from the mushroom kingdom, so Mario is a killer. If you look at it though, if Mario had just stayed away, everyone would still be trapped. I guess he could have been a little more careful with the blocks though. I know there are all kinds of comics and videos online about how cruel Mario's means of killing are (squashing by jumping on things heads), so here's another good point to follow those.

Coldest Place on Earth

Friday night while surfing I came across this video about Siberia being the coldest place on Earth. It took me until the end of the video to realize they were talking about Celsius temperatures instead of Fahrenheit. It is hard to believe a place on Earth gets this cold and harder to believe that it is inhabited.

... We made Brownies and I think We're Dead...

Here is a short, but great video.... it's a news report about a cop who baked brownies from confiscated marijuana, the thought he overdosed. The 911 call is priceless. Moral of the story: Kids don't do drugs.

Goth Kittens for Sale

Earlier today my wife sent me this article about a woman who sold goth kittens. I don't mean to make light of an animal cruelty case, but honestly, what kind of market can their be for this. When I think of goth people, I don't think.... "they really need kittens". The lady would have been much better off training war kittens.

*Side note.... the story is out of Wilkes-Barre, PA. I spent last Saturday night there, it's a pretty nice place.

Crazy Animal Kaleidoscope

What do you get when you combine a lot of mice, birds and mirrors? A really weird kaleidoscope. It's very cool to watch, but as with a real kaleidoscope, I get distracted by just the real scene and only pay attention to whats going on there, not the whole picture.

Creepy Beach Sculptures

Earlier today on Digg, they had this link featuring the 5 Creepiest Beach Sculptures. The purpose of these is to keep the crowds away, but it seems like after a while, they'd do the exact opposite. They are correct, these are pretty creepy. My favorite was the beached whale.

Bearded Obama

While looking for stuff to blog about, I came across this article title "Why Barack Should Grow a Beard". It'd be cool to have a bearded president.... I don't know why, but it would be. Anyway, to be honest, I didn't pay too much attention to the article, but the slide show of different Obama beards was really funny.

Playing with Food

Here is a really good link shared with me by a plurk friend featuring food made into art. Not all of these look delicious, but they sure are creative, and once I got past the destroying art part of it, I'd still eat them. Once again it features two of my favorite things, food and creativity. There was a lot of time and detail put into these.

Very Smart Mouse

If you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you probably know the second smartest animal on the planet is the dolphin, but the mouse is the first. Here is a video that shows a smart mouse in action. The video starts off a little slow, but is very much worth watching (it's only a little over 2 minutes).

FW: Flow Chart

Everyone has them. Someone on your contact list who sends you forwards. I've found a few I like, but for the most part I don't care for them... especially if they have the whole email headers and junk that I have to scroll through. Anyway, I came across this really good flowchart which should be followed if you want to forward an email.

35 Albino Animals

Tonight while looking for stuff to blog about, I came across this article featuring 35 albino animals. When we go to a city for the first time, my wife loves going to the zoos. Strangely enough, I've seen many of these. If you got to the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green, KY there are many albino squirrels. I'm not sure if it was a genetics project or something, but when I was there, it was crawling with them. I've also been able to see the albino buffalo in Baghdad, KY (near Louisville, KY). From what I understand the Native Americans saw the albino buffalo as a bad omen. I didn't read the article, but the pictures sure were nice.

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

I came across this video the other day and found it ... well inspirational. Pretty good mashup, I might add.

Chuck E Cheese Fights

The other day, I came across this article that reports the insanely high crime rate at some Chuck E' Cheeses. It seems like an unlikely place for fights, but I guess parents can get carried away sometimes. They mention the biker bar near the one Chuck E' Cheese that doesn't have many complaints. I can imagine the biker's saying "I'll not go near that Mouse place, it's pretty rough down there" while hopping on his hog and peeling out.

Ridiculously Priced Geek Gifts

If you're looking to buy your favorite geek a Christmas gift and have money to burn here is an article featuring 10 Ridiculously Expensive Geek Holiday Gifts. Unpractical gift options, but it's always nice for a geek to say, "hey, that's cool, but I'll never have it even if I had that kind of money to spend".

Tea on the Rise

I'm a fan of caffeine. It keeps me awake, and many caffeinated beverages are just tasty. I often debate coffee or tea. Of the mornings when I need to get up and get to business quickly, I grab some coffee. Of the evenings, when I get a chance to relax while blogging, I brew some tea. I'm one of the only people I personally know that brews their own tea, but I know it is hugely popular. Here is an article about how tea is making a comeback in the US.
When I was a teenager, my Dad and I would share tea. Back then, he'd place the teabags in the coffee pot instead of coffee and brew it that way. I remembered wondering why our country didn't enjoy tea more. Eventually I kind of forgot about tea, until I watched an Alton Brown "Good Eats" episode on loose leaf tea. I remembered how much I enjoyed it, started brewing my own, and have been enjoying it around 2-3 nights per week every since.
I don't mean to reminisce about my childhood, but it happened anyway. One tiny tidbit about tea that I learned from touring a tavern in Charlottesville, VA is that the Chinese would once compress their tea into bars (that kind of looked like Hershey bars), and would use them as currency.
The moral of the story is, if you haven't ever brewed your own tea, try it out. If you don't know how, Google it, or look for Alton Brown's episode about tea somewhere.
Oh yea, if you're interested... I brew Earl Grey mostly. I've tried most types of tea, but prefer mainly black teas and dislike green teas the most.

Helicopter Game

This Helicopter Game is one of the most addictive games I've played. When I worked at a call center several years ago, from time to time we would play some flash games. This was one of them. It doesn't matter if you have 5 minutes or an hour to kill, you can keep yourself entertained with this simple, yet, great game. If you haven't seen this thing before, check it out, if you have, I'm sure you'll enjoy playing with it again.

Mr. PotatoHead Linux

It seems like one of the badges of pride for a geek is to install Linux on something that you wouldn't commonly think to find it. This time LOA (Linux on anything) group has overdid themselves by installing Linux on a potato. This should be a real eye-opener, that you can put an Operating System on anything. Too bad they didn't install the kernel on some corn.

Revised Company Logos

In these times of economic uncertainty, several companies just aren't thriving like they should. Here is a list of revised company logos that indicate some of their economic problems. Hopefully our economy rebounds soon, but until then, these logos can be used.

Simon's Sister's Dog

I'm not sure if you remember or not, but several months ago I blogged about a video called Simon's cat. Earlier today I was made aware of this embedded video of a new video by Simon called "Simon's Sister's Dog". The purpose of this video is to help tackle pet obesity. I feel the video gets the point across while at the same time is captivating.

50 Skills All Geeks Should Have

I saw this article earlier today called "50 Skills Every Real Geek Should Have". I went through this list and I'm lacking some of these, but for the most part I have them down. I'm actually typing on a computer that I build about a year ago, and would "tomato" my router if it wasn't the 2MB flash version. I just really enjoyed this list and some of the nerdy things it had in it that I deal with on a day to day basis. I would add on to this "how to use and interpret a packet sniffer", but I'm not clever enough to make a list like this so I'll let their list stick.

Shave My Yeti

As I look around for stuff to blog about, I find some really weird stuff. This page called shavemyyeti.com gets filed under that category. With that said... I like it. When you click on the link, make sure you thoroughly shave your Yeti and you'll be rewarded with a song and a story about how you've helped the Yeti.

Salmon with a Side of Sideshow Bob

Here is a creative, awkward, but delicious looking dish involving one of the most underrated Simpon's characters Sideshow Bob. The skill it takes to do something like this surpasses my craftiness, especially when it comes to culinary abilities, but it'd be great for someone who had some skills with stuff like this. I can imagine this being a conversation piece at a party, or perhaps something fun to make your kids eat their veggies. This article combines, three things I love: Cartoons, Craftiness, and Food.

Special thanks to blog reader Ken for this link.

"The Most Important Video You'll Ever See"

I disagree with name of the video, but it's very interesting. I have been looking for stuff to blog about and got caught up watching this series of videos. There are eight of these videos about 9 minutes long. If you like math and/or statistics you'll love this series of videos. I'm still in process of watching this lecture, but I'm enjoying it. The lecture is a little dated, but it's math, it's still valid.

Interesting T-Shirt Designs

This morning I came across this site with lots of neat t-shirt designs on it. I like funny images, so this was right up my alley. These are more clever than straight out funny, just something to think about then say... "oh, I see, that's funny".

Cat Tries to Ice Fish

To dislike cats, I sure do post a lot of stuff here on my blog about them. Oh well, this one is still pretty funny. Cat + Ice Pond + Goldfish.

Real Life Mario Cart

I've seen this video on a few sites tonight, so I figure it's highly climbing up the viral scale. The banana peels were not the same effect as in the game, but throwing banana peels is funny no matter how you look at it.

Ads on Tests

Here is an interesting story about a teacher who was forced to put ads on his tests due to some budget cuts. This is a little silly, he should've just given shorter tests, I'm sure the students are on my side. The rates he's charging for ads are pretty reasonable, I wonder if I could advertise my blog on his tests while subsequently helping to further education.

Mario Cart Love Song

I came across this song a few minutes ago and really liked it. I would have enjoyed it much better a few months ago when I was in my Mario Cart prime, but it's still entertaining. My guess is this guy had to write the song when he was playing Mario Cart with his girlfriend and let go a turtleshell at the wrong time. It can be a difficult game when playing with someone you like.

The Ferocity of the Honey Badger

Of all animals I've heard the badger is one of the meanest. It's now pretty much confirmed. Guinness book of records now has confirmed this honey badger as the most ferocious animal. Any animal that can take on a cobra, pass out from the venom, wake up to continue eating it, then go the next day and hunt more gets the badge of "mean animal" to me. Hopefully I never see one of these in the wild.

Not So Lucky Winners

I've heard it said if you can't be happy with a little, you cannot be happy with a lot. The Bible says in Philippians 4:11 "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." which I feel is great wisdom. Many people will often think winning the lottery is a good thing, but here is an article pointing to several "lucky" winners who's luck turned. This goes to show that money cannot buy happiness, after a while the dust settles and the glory of the money wears off. I'm not saying that I don't want to come across a few million, just that it in no way would ensure any type of happiness or prosperity.

Get A Human

The other day while listening to TWiT, they were talking about this gethuman database. Often times when you call support or customer service, it is next to impossible to get a live person on the phone. This site gives you the steps on how to get through the automated menus of several of the more popular companies you may call. I haven't tried it out, but I imagine it works farily well.

Street Installations

I don't like the title "Street Installations", but that's what this link calls these strange items on the street. Some of these items could really make someone freak out. I could imagine the call to the cops "So, you say there is a dead guy in the river? Is it the one under the bridge with balloons.... that's normal, carry on".

Barack Roll

The Rick Roll is an odd creature. People fear it for some strange reason. I try to avoid posting news about it, but this time I had to give in....the reason? Did you see how closely Obama's dance resembled that of Rick Astley. Uncanny!

Fear the Chicken

I was checking out some pictures of the day and came across this picture with only the following caption below it :

"A hen pecks an eagle. Chinese farmers are trapping eagles and other birds of prey and throwing them trussed up into chicken pens to make them so scared of poultry that they never return."

Other than that being kind of cruel, it's kind of cool. I'd say it works.... I wonder how the eagle tells his friends that he's chicken of chickens.
Link to the picture with caption.

The Dancing Plague of 1518

I don't mean to make light of plagues or death, but this Dancing Plague of 1518 is a really odd situation. As far as ways to go, it seems pretty horrible, however if we're talking plagues, it'd rank pretty high. The Wikipedia article linked here does point to a few other similar incidents to this. I tried to imagine how CNN would report on this if we suddenly had a dancing plague in a major city, and I also wonder how doctors would try to treat it.
*There is a really clever pun that I can make here, but I can't think of it right now, so just pretend.

December Question

Last month I asked what you thought about the US presidential election. I delayed the posting in order for the results to be in. Turns out, I had 24 voters and 45% said they were happy with the results, 37% said their candidate did not win and 12% didn't feel like there was much out there to vote for, and 4% do not talk about politics. Despite how you voted, I'm sure that we're all hopeful that our President elect will do the things that are best for our country.

With that out of the way, I wanted to ask you about your Christmas shopping habits. This month's question is:
How much of Your Christmas Shopping will you do Online?
Close to 100%
Around 75%
Around half
At least some
None

I feel like with today being cyber-Monday, and since you're online now reading my blog, this is probably an appropriate question. Thanks again for voting, and happy shopping.