What would be cooler than walking down the street and seeing a Mario Box (for lack of a better term) hanging in the air, like so:
Well I’m glad you asked that, me! The only cooler thing would be seeing one already busted for you with a fire power flower waiting for you!
You can see many more pictures and even templates for making your own at BladeDiary, link courtesy Urban Prankster.
Imagine receiving a letter or video of your grandma 10 years after she died, a surprise visit from a departed loved one, if you will. Sweet? Possibly. Creepy? Most likely. Opening up deep psychological wounds you thought long closed? Most definitely! Unfortunately, they review your letters, so you can’t just drop bombs on your family after you are dead and clear of retaliation. “Dear son, your father wasn’t really your father. Just kidding. Or was I? I guess you’ll never know! -Grandma” Fortunately you can ask specifically for a male or female reviewer. I suppose that opens the door for nudie pics of grandma from beyond the grave? I think I’ll stick with email.
That was another great link courtesy InteractiveReader, who is clearly my #1 contributor. I could pretty much just let her write the blog at this point, despite the fact that her own blog kicks my henie in hits.
Speaking of contributors and fellow bloggers, I’d like to highlight this excellent post over on MegDesk. Especially (perhaps only) if you are a computer programmer, you will enjoy the quotes. I actually read all 202 quotes in the links, but the abbreviated version in the blog post is good enough. My favorite quote:
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
– Martin Golding
Another interesting link for you Chicagoans out there, check out EveryBlock. You put in your zip code and you can find out all sorts of news, reviews, approved permits, crimes and even filmings in your area! It is quite interesting, although it can be a little too much information. That link was courtesy fellow Woodlawn blogger I Hate My Developer. Check out her blog for a compelling story about how much a bad developer really effects a person, an association, and ultimately a community as well as wealth of information on how to become a super sleuth on tracking down information! If I ever needed a private eye I would hire her. I’m telling you though, after reading her blog I sure feel like we really got lucky with our condo. I had no idea about the possible pitfalls, etc. and I certainly didn’t ask all the right questions.
Finally, I will leave you with something that makes me laugh and simultaneously blows my mind with horribleness. To summaraize, the EPA was ordered by the Supreme Court to determine if greenhouse gases were dangerous. After studies were performed they determined that they were and immediate action was required. They sent an email to the President who then refused to open the email! As if not opening the email was some loophole by which the issue would be resolved. You have to admit, if it wasn’t such a serious issue, it would be hilarious. What’s next, throwing the report on his desk and yelling, “No backsies!” I read about this story through the NY Times, but Sara received it through a blog she reads, Treehugger. Their versionwas decidedly more tongue in cheek, bearing the headline, “Bush Administration Puts Hands Over Eyes, Chants LaLaLa I Can’t Hear You!” and this picture:
So, in case you missed all the unintentional humor on the previous post, I will now spell it out in excruciating detail. So I had two unrelated topics to talk about, Pickle Pops and the fact that if I were a disease, I would be Rickets. Naturally, I made a nice title that tied the two together, and perhaps a long the way might have implied that Pickle Pops may be linked to a certain horrible disease. Now you’d think I would have learned my lesson with the last brush with the magic that is Google Alerts, but apparently not. I certainly never expected someone from the company to find my blog.
Let me set the scene for you. It’s Monday morning, a man comes into work all bright eyed and bushy tailed. He sits down at his computer. “Aw great!” he says. “Another blog talking about this awesome product we’re selling! We’re really starting to take off!” He then looks at the title of the post mentioning his product. “Do Pickle Pops cause Rickets?” His smile slowly fades off his face as he blindly gropes for his antacids with one hand and his lawyer’s phone number with the other.
I mean, I don’t know if that’s how it happened or not, but just the thought caused several fits of hysterical laughter throughout the day. Oh man, even now I’m laughing! Too funny. I changed the title of the post even though he was a good sport about it. I mean, even without the title, I didn’t exactly give a glowing review there. I mean, I can’t conclusively say Pickle Pops do NOT cause Rickets, can I?
Along those lines, I decided to go on over to Bob’s Pickle Pops and order a case to give them a fair shake. I mean, I shouldn’t really dis them without a fair trial. And I love pickles, I’ve been known to eat a jar in a sitting, so if I’m not their target audience, who is? However, before you get excited, I have to say I will not be putting my money were my mouth is after all. Sara convinced me not to buy them as even the thought of them sends shivers down her spine. Unlike me, Sara hates pickles. How much does she hate pickles? Well, legend has it that when Sara was little her parents asked her what she should name her little sister when she was born. Sara, having no desire for a sibling, said “Pickle” on account of how much she hated pickles. So anyway, no pickle pops will be coming my way (despite their reasonable price). So if anybody has tried them, please let me know as my curiosity has now been greatly peaked. And, at the same time, if I could manage to get my hands on some Synsepalum dulcificum…
Finally, in completely unrelated news, we have not had any updates on a subject near and dear to my heart; Pirates! Well, just because I haven’t been talking about them doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy. 4 tourists taken hostage, although what they were doing in pirate waters in their yacht to begin with is beyond me. They are just lucky they were taking hostage and not forced to walk the plank immediately!
Okay, I like pickles. I would go so far as to say I *love* pickles. But nonetheless, they seem disgusting to me in frozen form and I’m not sure how I feel about them being in kids lunches. Call me old fashioned, but why not just give them a regular old pickle? But I definitely think getting away from the name “Pickle Sickle” was a good move.
That link was courtesy of InteractiveReader, and speaking of which, this quiz is courtesy of her boyfriend, whom I am currently blogstalking. You know, to make sure he’s right for her and stuff. It’s practically a duty. I’m sure she would ask me to do it herself, but that would be impolite.
Which Horrible Affliction are you?
A Rum and Monkey disease.
I feel pretty good about Rickets. It feels kind of old world and dignified, as diseases go. Any disease with the tagline “Hear your bones go boing” can’t really be all that bad. Plus, since it is almost wiped out in the 1st world, it sort of has a nostalgia factor.
Today marks the first day that anybody pulled over to tell us how adorable Evie is. We were walking back from the garden and they just stopped their car in the street to tell us. So perhaps I am not just being a proud pappa in thinking she is indeed adorable!
So we had our first “incident” with Evie the other day. She was trying to stand up in the bathtub (no matter how many times I try to tell her…) and her feet slipped out from under her and she came down chin first on the side. I quickly picked her up to comfort her, but I could tell it was a bad one. She did the thing where she is so upset that she cries out all of her breath and then there is a long silence due to the fact that she is so upset she can’t breathe in, followed by a huge intake of breath and then the loudest scream she can manage. You can judge how upset she is / how loud the scream is going to be based on how long the preceding silence was. This one was so long that I tried reminding her to breathe, fearing that she was so upset she would forget to. And when she let that one out, boy howdy it was a howler. Sara didn’t come in because usually at that time of night when Evie is already tired, if Evie sees Sara and then Sara leaves, Evie can’t handle it. So I was holding Evie and I looked down and saw that the shoulder of my shirt where her head was resting was bright crimson with blood. I said, “Sara, I need you” in what I thought was a very calm voice but Sara later said that she could tell by my tone there would be blood (and not in the oil discovery, I drink your milkshake kind of way). She had a lot of blood dripping out of her mouth and she wouldn’t let us see, but I’m guessing that her two teeth on the bottom cut her gums on the top.
Anyway, she recovered quickly and it didn’t require going to the doctor or anything, but it was still interesting.
In other news, I watched The Notebook the other day. Between that and the cupcake place, I fear I am becoming a stereotype.
(Note that I would have loved to just embed a youtube video, but apparently NBC made sure none where out there. Enjoy that commercial!)
One last thing, the folks over at Improv Everywhere have spun off a blog to coordinate all of the mayhem ensuing across the globe. So go over to Urban Prankster to keep abreast of all the best “scenes” and perhaps participate if one comes up near you.
Shane Halbach 