8/16/07

Tickle Me E. Coli

Ebola

The You can Find Anything on the Internet Series - Part Deux:



I just stumbled upon this online store with the cutest little stuffed animals. The store is called GIANTmicrobes®. Yes, that's right.

Their dolls range from Alimentaries™ (e.g., E. Coli), to Venereals™ (e.g., The Clap). As a special deal, you can buy a set! A 6-pack of Calamaties™ includes the Flesh Eating virus (so cute!), Ebola, and Black Death (for those Goth kids).

Go ahead - take Salmonella to your next potluck! Give Herpes to your friends who have everything, and aren't afraid to spread it around!

How Not to Celebrate the New Moon

"Woman faces charges after yelling chants"


"...Capt. Mike Babe said Brenna K. Barney of Waukesha told police they were infringing on her religious beliefs since she was performing a ritual under the new moon..."

"...Neighbors called police shortly after midnight Tuesday and, after an officer arrived, he heard the woman yelling in the backyard and found her wearing headphones, a T-shirt and underwear, the captain said..."

"...He said Barney at one point poured lighter fluid on the fire, in which she was burning rubber car mats and a cooler. Barney refused to cooperate with police and was belligerent, and her breath smelled of alcohol, Babe added..."

Let me see now... "Eye of newt, toe of bat, styrofoam cooler, and rubber car mat." Yeah, that ought to do it.

8/15/07

Tacos y Torture


Spanish Torture
Originally uploaded by Monkfishy
Not the greatuest picture, but this is a mural I saw on the wall inside a Mexican restaurant where I went to eat with my parents yesterday. All you need to whet your appetite for some good Mexican food is a life-size painting of partially naked men being tied up and tortured. Delicioso!

8/10/07

Must-See Internet

For anyone who missed this, here's the link to the presidential candidates' forum with the Human Rights Campaign on GLBT issues:

The Visible Vote 08

8/5/07

Technophobia

This is a bit of a segue from my last post. I ran across an article about Elton John's interview, Why we Must Close the Net. It started me thinking about all the people I've known who passionately avoid some form of technology.

I've known a couple of folks who refused to own a phone. A friend from high school has refused to watch television all of her adult life. She wouldn't have one in the house, except that she was overruled by her husband & kids. At this point in my life, I know several people who refuse to own or use a computer. I even have to include myself in this. I and several of my friends and acquaintances refuse to have a microwave oven (see How I Inadvertently Came to Fear my Microwave).

Although there seems to be a general assumption that technology is integral to everyone's life, it actually isn't. For a lot of people, it isn't even welcome. I once had to read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler for a sociology class. It's interesting to me that after 30 years, the popular suspicion and dread of technology has almost complete disappeared, except for these isolated idiosyncracies. Yet, at the same time, we seem to be just beginning to wake up to the consequences of unbridled consumption.

I wouldn't begin to consider giving up my TV, much less my phone or computer. On the other hand, I gladly gave away my microwave. Now I hardly ever miss it. It's just very rarely that I wish I could nuke a bowl of soup when I'm really tired.

This past spring, in the interests of environmentalism, I stopped using my dryer and put up a clothesline. I actually really enjoyed going outside and hanging clothes when the weather was pleasant. I haven't done that since June, though, when it got into the 90's. I suppose I could continue doing it on the occasional nights when it cools off a little, if I had some light out there.

When I think about what else I might be able to live without, I imagine that I probably could adjust to giving up my TV. I might even be able to give up my computer {gasp!}. I'm not giving up my phone, or my air conditioning, but there are a lot of technological things that aren't really essential to my well-being or happiness.

One of my happiest memories is of spending a week in a cabin with no electricity. Although it can be nice to have some conveniences (like a refrigerator), it isn't really necessary to have all the things we feel that we have to have in the modern world. We've just gotten used to them. If global warming and oil shortages become more pressing, we may all have a chance to see what we can give up.

8/4/07

IM: AFK2BYHD
(away from keyboard 2 burn ur hous down)

Taking 'Flamewar' A Bit Too Seriously: Man Drives 1,300 Miles To Burn Down Home Of Online Critic


by Mike Masnick
Fri, Jul 27th 2007 7:31pm

from the yeah,-maybe-let-that-one-go dept

Online flamewars certainly can get nasty at times, often boiling over into quite a bit of rage -- but it's still pretty rare (and amazing) to see that anger then boil over into the real world. Last year, we wrote about a case in the UK where someone drove 70 miles to attack the guy he was sparring with online. The press referred to it as "web rage," though, rage doesn't tend to last that long. Or, perhaps it does. Here in the US we do things in bigger ways, apparently. A guy in Virginia who got into a flamewar online decided to make it a bit more literal, and drove 1,300 miles to Waco, Texas to burn down the home of one of this online enemies from a (no, this isn't a joke) picture sharing community.

(more at Techdirt...)


I hope this puts to rest the theory that the internet is only serving to isolate and distance people. Obviously, it's also bringing people together in surprising new ways.

8/3/07

Jesus on a Unicorn


Jesus on a Unicorn
Originally uploaded by Monkfishy
Okay, here's my crude 1st attempt at cropping & pasting Jesus on a unicorn. Jesus on a dinosaur has sort of knocked the wind out of my sails.

I have also found out that even this is not an original idea. See Jesus Rides a Unicorn on MySpace.

To make it worse, apparently the unicorn appears in one or more translations of the bible, and is thought by some to have existed in the garden of Eden. Great holy hooey.


I guess it's time for me to get to work on the Mad Hatter's Last Supper.


P.S. In my quest to create this image, a friend of mine turned me on to:

GIMP - Free

I highly recommend this as one of the coolest graphics editors ever. I was able to create and save this image in less than two minutes after installing the program. Plus, it's free! I'm all about the free.

Jesus on a Dinosaur

I've just spent some time editing a picture of Jesus on a Unicorn. Next I thought I'd had this cool original idea to photoshop a picture of Jesus riding on a dinosaur. Then I found this, courtesy of The Searcher on flickr™.

Damn! The only difference is I meant it as a spoof! I thought it would be so ridiculous that no one could possibly take it seriously.

It just boggles my mind that there are people who actually believe stuff like this. What can I possibly do to top this absurdity? Leprechauns in the garden of Eden? Jesus and the seven dwarves? Give me a break!

8/2/07

Roundabout Route to a First Post

Okay, I have now determined that I can blog from my phone, although this isn't really what I had in mind. I mean, I'm not even blogging from my computer. All I really want to do is create an online shopping list that I can access from my phone when I'm at the store. Is that too much to ask???

Anyway, now that this has gotten me to actually post my first blog, here are a couple of things that have amused me today:

This is part of a message I got when trying to access something on Google from my mobile web:

"Please note that it is a violation of intergalactic law to use this parameter under false pretenses, so don't let us catch you at it. And, it won't work very well -- really."

Also, a few weeks ago I snagged a perfectly good milk crate out of someone's trash. Right now it's sitting upside-down on a table. I was just sitting here staring off into space and happened to realize that it has stamped on it, "DAIRY FRESH", and under that, "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL".

My latest idea for a bumper sticker which would only serve to piss people off:

JESUS LOVES MY UNICORN

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