| The world is stranger than you can imagine |
[Jun. 19th, 2008|01:36 pm] |
 In this Wednesday, June 18, 2008 hand out photo, nurses are seen, posing near a monument to enemas at Mashuk Akva-Term Sanatorium in the town of Zheleznovodsk, Russian Caucasus Mountains region. Alexander Kharchenko, director of the Russian spa says the world's first monument to enema treatments has been unveiled at the spa in the southern city of Zheleznovodsk. The bronze syringe bulb, weighs 800 pounds and is held by three angels.
I'm actually sort of speechless, I think it's the cherubim holding up the bulb that causes my brain to stop for a moment. I mean, I suppose I can see building a monument, even an 800 pound bronze monument to enemas. But Cherubim? And why isn't this in Japan (following the maxim that Japan produces 74% of the worlds 'weird shit')? |
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| Owww and other thoughts |
[May. 19th, 2008|12:27 pm] |
Perhaps you've just freshly pierced your lobe a few time the day previously, and you're vigorously exercising. Thus making sweat trickle down and creating 'itchy' sensations in your ear. Don't grasp your lobe and absentmindedly yank on it.
Bloody ow [1].
Also, I picked up some peaches from Sosio's Sunday. They were delicious and juicy and made me yearn for later in the year when they'll be in season for local producers.
Also also, speaking of the market, there were something like thirty tents setup for cheese producers. Neat, I had no idea that was going on last weekend. Of course, becoming recently very lactose intolerant, this was basically one big tease for me.
[1] Literally unfortunately. |
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| The cranks... they go round and round |
[May. 14th, 2008|06:30 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | bicycle | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | busy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Freezepop - Harebrained Scheme | ] |
In other news, when I put my Sunny Day bike together, I was in a bit of a rush. So I didn't overhaul the bottom bracket or headset. Well, yesterday I noticed my cranks were really wobbling and desperately needed adjustment.
So this morning I decided to overhaul it.
( Lots of pics of hard shiny greasy tools and bicycle parts )
I'm not going to go into the full spiel about BB adjustment, other people do it better. Plus any newer bike is going to use a sealed cartridge bearing BB which means you don't have to do any of that stuff. Suffice it to say my BB is running smoothly now without wobbles and was very nice to ride into work.
In other news the bike shop finally heard back from Surly. They want to look at frame, so it's being shipped today or tomorrow out them and then I should get new frame in a week or two (assuming nothing goes wrong). |
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| Another vain attempt not to buy things off Etsy |
[May. 11th, 2008|11:29 am] |
I need to get a clock movement with a longer shaft before I can mount the face backing, but this is the basic idea for the clock I've been thinking about making for a long time. Basically a discarded 48 tooth chainring and a used up 12-32 cassette, cleaned and fastened into an arc.
Also, I suck at taking pictures of shiny metal objects. |
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| A bike for Sunny days |
[May. 9th, 2008|11:46 am] |
Well, my commuter bike frame getting broken inspired me to get my Sunny day bike fixed up last week. I've been stockpiling parts for it for a while, so it was relatively quick to build up.
( Pretty pictures after the cut )
I talked to the shop that has my old frame (Recycled Cycles in the University District). They've left some messages with Surly, but they haven't actually talked to them about it. So my bike is still languishing in their shop. And I've got this bag sitting on my desk at home full of all the parts I took off the frame.
I'm just glad it broke during the summer so I'm not missing my dedicated all weather/bad weather bike in the rainy season. Well, and that I didn't bother overhauling the headset and bottom bracket right before the frame broke. Procrastination saves the day again! |
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| It's my birthday and the cake is on fire^W^W alive |
[May. 7th, 2008|06:15 am] |
While perusing ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jwz's journal this morning, I came across a link to one of the best birthday cakes ever. I think the organ cake is more impressive granted. But, I think this one comes out ahead for sheer Lovecraftian awesomeness.
Behold the horrible non-euclidean cake geometries below:
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Oh, and in other news, the new refrigerator (bought about two weeks ago) is no longer cold inside. Bugger. |
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| Another day, another broken bicycle frame |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|08:15 am] |
Last month I had wheel problems, this month it looks like frame problems are on the agenda.
I broke my Crosscheck frame again in pretty much the exact same location (on my way home from work). I didn't have time to finish putting my sunny day bike together from pieces, so I dragged my fixed gear out of the shed to ride to work this morning.
I really should just shell out for a sturdier frame. |
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| I'd maim for a good basket of Sweet Potato Fries right now |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|01:30 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | geeky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Yongen - Romeo Didn't Know Juliet | ] |
 There are a plethora of different types of mustard, scads of salad dressings, and more pasta sauces than you can shake the proverbial cylindrical wooden protrusion at. So why is ketchup pretty much just plain ketchup?
There's an interesting article over at Gladwell's that talks about it a bit. I agree for the most part, though I will note that I prefer a slightly less sweet ketchup than other people do. But that's probably more of the pattern of my not liking how much sugar is jammed into almost every Western food. |
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| Well, that's sort of wrong, yet oddly spiritually enlightening |
[Apr. 5th, 2008|07:01 am] |
I've never been treated with the contempt I actually deserve before, it's not a nice feeling. - GrayV's post from Idiot Toys |
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| Nothing says Eternal Love like OTC paternity test kits |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|01:19 pm] |
As seen on Boing Boing, there's a company called Identigene selling OTC paternity testing kits. You buy the kit for $30 dollars, swab Mother, Child and 'Father' and send the samples and check for $120 to the lab.
Evidently about 4% of is the rate of 'mistaken' fatherhood. It rather reminds me of a saying in fields like Anthropology: Motherhood is a statement of fact, Fatherhood is a matter of opinion.
Guardian article on the subject
Atlantic article pointing out that the growing practice of genetic screening for diseases is going to expose a *lot* more people to this.
Hmmm, maybe I should have saved this entry for Father's day? |
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| New Beginnings |
[Mar. 27th, 2008|07:52 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | guitar, music | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Franz Ferdinand - Outsiders | ] |
I've picked up the guitar, for various reasons [1], including admittedly too many hours of Guitar Hero.
The worst part of picking it up so far is waiting for the callouses. I can't play it for terribly long before my fingertips get terribly sore. Still, it's quite enjoyable, even though all I can do currently is pick out a halting version of Free Fallin' and bits and pieces of Creep by Radiohead.
I found chord notation for The Lumberjack Song, but it has a B chord that's a little challenging for me yet. Speaking of which, http://www.chordie.com is awesome. A nice site with lots of information, well presented without too much graphic clutter. The personal songbook function is really nice.
[1] I've been wanting to get back into playing an instrument for a while. I thought about picking up the trombone, but it's a terrible instrument to play alone. You really need a whole band with you. The piano is better in terms of that, but even a keyboard is not terribly portable. A guitar is a nice instrument by itself, or as an aid to song. |
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| More tears splashing on bicycle parts |
[Mar. 26th, 2008|11:59 pm] |
Well, this week is certainly better than last for bicycles. Last week went something like this:
( Whinging about bicycle problems ) |
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| Squeezebox replacement remote |
[Mar. 16th, 2008|01:57 pm] |
Mainly posted so I don't lose the details for myself.
If you lose your Squeezebox remote, the Philips PM3S 3-Device universal remote is a nice cheap ($9) replacement.
The remote code to use is "0993" and this file has been tweaked to make the buttons work to my satisfaction. It goes in /usr/local/slimserver/IR. |
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| Ah, sweet sweet ineffective copy protection |
[Mar. 5th, 2008|12:42 pm] |
After taking a peek in the Wine AppDB I found that Deus Ex was listed as working well. Given that I'd heard so much about and never had a chance to play it I went out and purchased a copy (GOTY edition).
After installing, it evidently wants you to have the CD in the drive. After a quick google for NoCD cracks, I realized that one of the cracks was just an .ini file with one main difference.
I changed this: CdPath=Z:\media\DeusEx_GOTY_1
To this: CdPath=..\
Eh voila, no more CD check.
Ah, for the days of yesteryear when copy protection was just an afterthought by the dev and easily worked around. It certainly helps for the filthy Linux using degenerates among us anyway. |
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| The purity and essence of our natural... fluids |
[Jan. 25th, 2008|08:25 pm] |
Who knew that flouride was bad for fish? |
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| Did somebody bring an ark? |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|11:32 am] |
For those elsewhere, Seattle has had a lot of rain in a short amount of time recently.
Monday afternoon, T reported water coming into the basement from an unknown source[1]. I came home and spelled T for a while on the shopvac[2]. After a few abortive forays with the drywall jab saw, I found the source. They had put a bathroom into the basement [3], and it was coming out of a hole in the floor ( ? french drain ? ) that had been walled the fuck up behind drywall.
Sucking the water out of there was much much more effective. Our neighbors reported similar problems. I'm going to cut a slightly neater (and larger) hole in the wall and add a little access door.
God, the previous owners were lazy assholes.
[1] Other than the obvious one of *outside* that is. We weren't sure if it was busted pipe or what.
[2] I'm really really glad I had that on hand.
[3] Doing the previous owners normal craptastic job. |
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| Japan: Please continue exploring... |
[Nov. 25th, 2007|06:57 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
 A model wearing a "My Chopsticks" bra. Japanese women with green issues close to their hearts may soon be able to wear a bra which can carry their own chopsticks in a bid to reduce waste. The bra, created by Triumph Japan, sports cups styled like a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso soup and side pouches for the chopsticks.(AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)
What would we do without the Japanese? Granted they don't have any corner on the market of silly fashion. But they do seem to produce far more than their per capita of odd things in general. Sort of on topic example, very on topic example, another, and lastly and most cutely - this one. |
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| Textcrime |
[Oct. 5th, 2007|03:34 pm] |
It's that time of year again. That's right, it's banned books week. Normally I forget to post about it, this year I just put in off till the end of the week.
List of the most challenged books of 2006
The "10 Most Challenged Books of 2006" reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:
* "And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group;
* "Gossip Girls" series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;
* "Alice" series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language;
* "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things" by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
* "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
* "Scary Stories" series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity;
* "Athletic Shorts" by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language.
* "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group
* "Beloved" by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group;
* "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence.
And Tango Makes Three is a book I've read to children. It's a really nice little book, and if you're not pushing an agenda, incredibly inoffensive and cute.
I can't comment on any of the others first hand, though The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things simply begs to read. Talk about a title of immense proportions.
I'm amazed to find that some perrenial favorites haven't made the list this year. Maybe English teachers haven't been assigning them. That would fit in with my general low opinion of modern education anyway.
Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.
I really am tempted every year to stock my Christmas list from the banned book list. It's a shame so few of my family are avid readers. |
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hungry
apathetic
irritated