Silly Site o' the Day

Many of you have heard about a bunch of funny videos being pulled from YouTube by the producers of Der Untergang ("Downfall"). Here's BoingBoing with more of the story. Via Maru, that hasn't stopped Hitler from ranting about the injustice of it all:



He's right, you know. After all, it's Friday, and for many people that means cat blogging.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, being Mac-only now does have its drawbacks. Someone want to tell me if Vacuum Magic (via Sheila Lennon) is cool or not?

Silly Site o' the Day

Another loooong day. Only one more to go, then Season is over! In the meantime, I neglect my blog because I can't do anything at work and I'm way too tired at this hour. So how to draw folks to Pen-Elayne? How about a Linkbait Generator (via Gerard)? My favorite so far: "10 ways Pen-Elayne can help you get a date."

Silly Site o' the Day

Like most thinking people, I haven't missed George Bush at all (and dearly wish his successor would stop continuing so many of his policies). But I have missed decent George Bush impersonators. Here's a pretty good one doing his bit for Alan Grayson:



Via the Reaction.

Silly Site o' the Day

As soon as I can get my Flash to work properly, I shall state that I am most definitely Not A Member. (Via Julian Lennon, who's Not A Member either.) Update: Kids, don't try it with Flash and Firefox on a Mac, open your Safaris to do it. I'm Not A Member #1077.

Silly Site o' the Day

Much more wiped from yesterday than I thought I'd be. Between the rain and my sciatica returning and my tiredness I fear I slacked off a bit. I'm also running out of Silly Sites again, but I'm sure I'll find a few more as I catch up on blog reading once more. Until then, via Susie (sometime last year, archives not found) it's 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling. Really.

Friday Cat Blogging* (and Bonus Matriarch Blogging)

Well, I should have known I'd jinx things by blogging about them. My sciatic nerve, or whatever the problem was, appears to be back. Ah well, at least I had a week of remembering what a balanced stance felt like, and there's always the possibility I can fix it again.

Other than that, and the horrid ride back home (all three NYC-bound crossings had major delays last night - what the heck was going on in Manhattan? - and it took us three hours to get home instead of the usual two), I had a great time at Mom's yesterday. I especially liked showing off what I'd done with the family photos I've taken over the past decade now that everything's in iPhoto. She in turn brought out the following:



I've cropped the photo within the photo in case you don't clicken to embiggen:

That's my grandmother Fanny (as opposed to the proverbial "my Aunt Fanny"), aka "Baba," with my Aunt Kenie and my Mom, about three quarters of a century ago. Everyone to whom Mom as spoken says that Baba reminds them very strongly of me, or veesy-versey. I see it a little but not all that much. What do y'all think?



And I apologize to Mom who doesn't care for this but I haven't done my cat blogging yet:



There, now I've done it.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm so excited! In a couple of hours Robin and I pack the computer, the cold pack, the camera, and other various and sundries that don't begin with a "c" for our first visit to Mom in 2010! She's finally back in her Jersey "summer" home again, and it looks to be a great day for travelling - lovely and temperate and no rain and probably no shore-bound crowds since tomorrow's supposed to be a bit nasty.

I'm also psyched to travel because I'll be feeling less pain than usual. For at least the last few years (it could be longer) I've felt like my body was out of balance, I couldn't stand for long periods of time without teetering between legs, I couldn't fully put my weight on my left (dominant) side, it hurt when I walked, etc. etc. The root of the problem seemed to center around the sciatic nerve, in the general area of the left side of my lower back. I've been told by doctors who've examined me that I have bursitis in the left hip, so I was attributing most of the discomfort to that. But I still felt like my left calf and thigh were always about to cramp, like the leg felt somehow shorter than my right one... just off-balance, as it were. And some instinct kept saying it wasn't just the hip, there was something else amiss.

I'd been contorting and stretching my body in various lying-down positions to try to finally alleviate that feeling. Then, last Saturday, after a second or two of "uh oh, that was painful, maybe I shouldn't have stretched that way" - somehow I did it.

Suddenly I felt like some kind of energy was circulating through my body again, unobstructed. I've been enjoying the heck out of the last week, being careful enough not to reinjure myself (even though I have no idea what caused the problem to begin with) but thoroughly enjoying my regained balance. Everything is so much easier now! It's amazing to me that so much physical discomfort was all because of that one area, and that my body knew it was wrong and that's why I kept trying to ease (or yank) it back into place. My left leg is still twitchy, but that's probably because it needs to get used to working properly again. Walking, standing, showering, etc. are pleasures once more. I hope it lasts.

Speaking of medical matters, a lot of folks have been mocking Senate hopeful Sue Lowden for suggesting people alleviate strained pocketbooks when visiting medical practitioners by restoring a modern form of the barter system. Frankly, I don't see why that idea is so silly (unless she meant it to take the place of real insurance reform rather than supplement the currently horrid situation - always a possibility with modern Republican conservatives). When my friend Jan still did PT we often talked about me helping organize her office in exchange for free sessions. I'd love to have Robin pay for any needed medical care by drawing art for doctors' offices. Lots of places use barter systems very successfully. Money (or credit) itself is just an agreed-upon form of barter, for heaven's sake. So seriously, at its heart there's nothing wrong with Lowden's suggestion as I see it - just the unfortunate example she used. As JoAnn Worley has been known to say, "Was that a chicken joke?" Here's one that made the Rachel Maddow show last night, but I first saw it on Susie's blog.

Silly Site o' the Day

Bloglines still down, but at least I'm catching up with Livejournals via Google Reader whilst I'm here at home. And I may as well go with a fairly old (by blog standards) silly site, Patrick Jean's remarkable Pixels:



Hope this wins all kinds of awards. I recognized most of the games, but not the one depicted last.

Silly Site o' the Day

Bloglines is down for awhile, so it's Google Reader to the rescue, at least here at home (it doesn't work right from the office, so once again I have no alternative to reading blogs via Bloglines). Via Arthur Hlavaty, I found a Facebook group for Episcopal Priest Barbie, which led me to Tefillin Barbie, and of course you all know about Atheist Barbie who's all over some of the blogs I read but can't attribute properly because (*sigh*) Bloglines is down for awhile.

Silly Site o' the Day

Whew, 20 minutes to spare, but I've now blogged today! How about a (literally) self-explanatory movie trailer?:



Via Mark Evanier, who needs no explanation.

Silly Site o' the Day

As it's 4/20, I felt obligated to bring you this parody of Reefer Madness (hey, isn't that movie pretty much a parody already?) by the Baked Potatoes:



More here. A bit disappointing, could be way funnier, but then I'm used to Firesign so I've admittedly set the bar a wee bit high.

Silly Site o' the Day

In honor of tonight's No Reservations food porn show, something that really defines "irreverent" for me - Savor the Savior, via PZ Myers.

Silly Site o' the Day

A good day filled with accomplishments, as I finished half my ironing, sorted all my medical stuff into an expandable file I can actually use, and got some more refreshing sleep. Rob's been watching some old James Burke programmes, which got us to talking not only about unfortunate leisure suits but about alien encounters, so I thought it a good time to pass along, via PZ Myers, a handy guide to alien contact. You'll definitely want to click on that to embiggen it. Very funny and brilliant stuff.

Silly Site o' the Day

A detox day, most of which I spent watching baseball and catching up on my local paper. We ate dinner whilst watching the most recent two Doctor Who episodes. Loved "Beast Below," thought the Dalek/Winston Churchill one was "eh," really looking forward to/dreading next week with the return of River Song (yay!) and the Weeping Angels (uh-oh). So I'm kind of in a Brit mood - okay, married to Robin I'm usually in a Brit mood - and would like to recommend, via Gerard, the Loony MP Name generator.

Friday Cat Blogging*

I'm continuing to keep my photos organized, but I'm more than a little disappointed in my phone's camera. Robin has sync'ed up my phone with the laptop that I'm now using as a desktop, and I finally got a look at the stored photos today. A big fat "meh." So I'm back to taking photos of the cats via my "real" camera:



Datsa likes to spend as much time as possible in the kitchen near the food bowls.



Amy was hiding from me before, in amongst the wires under the living room table, but as I type she's sitting right behind me being cute as usual.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow, I really need to detox from this week! Oh well, could be a LOT worse, I could be living around Iceland, or traveling around Northern Europe. Speaking of which, I'm surprised the ecoEnquirer (via Media Matters) doesn't have anything up about the volcano but, judging by their front page, they're so out of date they apparently still think Bush is president.

Silly Site o' the Day

It's Tax Day, which means a whole lot of people who work around me will be much happier tomorrow. Meanwhile, Robin and I have enjoyed paying our bills with our tax refund. Speaking of which, other freelancers will appreciate this fake tax form at the NY Times, via Xeni at BoingBoing:



Click once, then again, to embiggen to full size; it's worth the read.

Silly Site o' the Day

The Shakespeare geek in me finds this fascinating: Such Tweet Sorrow (on Twitter, naturally) is "the tale of Romeo and Juliet but now you can see it happening live and in real time - in modern Britain and on Twitter. Six characters live the story over the five weeks of Such Tweet Sorrow and you can experience it with them." Via the Awl.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Tild, here's a good game to get your mind off of things...

Witness to Tragedy

I'll have a Silly Site shortly, but I haven't felt terribly silly today. This morning I witnessed the last violent throes of a human life, as a man fell 42 stories to his death not ten feet in front of me - or, more accurately, about ten feet to my side. As I was walking along the sidewalk on the south side of the street, the corner of my eye caught something falling, and I turned just in time to hear an enormous and sickening THUD and see a body laying in the road on the north side of the street. Somewhere inside I suddenly realized that a falling body does not bounce when it hits the ground, as I guess I'd surmised it did; at least this body didn't from that height with such tremendous force behind it. I've been shaky all day, as you might imagine. I've never actually seen anyone die right in front of me before (although a few years ago when I was working in New Rochelle a wayward pedestrian was apparently decapitated on the street right outside my office by a truck, I didn't actually see it happen). This made the local papers fairly quickly because there's a tie-in to baseball, as the hotel whence the man jumped was being used by the LA Angels. I think I spoke with the truck driver quoted here, and I can totally corroborate what he says: "a flash of something falling down, and then 'boom'." I hope to God I never witness anything like that again. To New Yorkers' credit, at least a half dozen witnesses immediately dialed 911. I didn't stick around to gawk, and by the time I turned the corner onto Sixth Avenue the cops had already shut down the street. I feel very fortunate to live and work in a city whose emergency services can mobilize so quickly.

Silly Site o' the Day

It's officially Monday morning and I unofficially have a touch of insomnia, so I may as well take care of my daily blogging quotient now. Maggie at BoingBoing passes along a handy chart of the relative efficacy of various dietary supplements. Unfortunately, sleeplessness isn't one of the covered conditions...

Silly Site o' the Day

Considering what I did today, I needed to pick Awkward Family Photos (via the News Writer) for my Silly Site today. Apologies if I've already done this at an earlier date, it was just too perfect.

Belated Friday Cat (and NYC) Blogging*

I've spent all day doing something I hadn't planned on: going through My Past in Photos, consolidating everything that had been in assorted files from my PCs over the years into our Macbook laptop's iPhoto program. Over 11 years worth of stuff (pretty much the entire time we've been married), including tons of comic book conventions, holiday snaps, family gatherings, blogger meetings and so forth. I've learned how to import and export, make new "Events" (groups of photos), split Events into more than one grouping and rename the new ones, and merge Events, the most relevant one for cat blogging as we have well over a thousand photos of Amy and Datsa, far too many for normally sane people. Here's the most recent:



Meanwhile I'm busy making new memories. As mentioned, Rob and I went into Manhattan yesterday, him to my boss' home to help out with some AV setup and me to have lunch with Heidi MacDonald:



That graffito was right next to our favorite conveyor-belt sushi place, East (there's one in Heidi's neighborhood). Amazingly I didn't eat a lot, but I hadn't been feeling well all day. When I arrived at the Armory for the annual Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Art Fest, I made a beeline for the ladies' room and found out why. Let's just say I felt much better for the rest of the day.

I stayed at the fest for only about an hour, feeling like I was a little too old and the place was a little too crowded. I then hopped a local bus uptown to meet Robin and say hi to my boss and his wife. We left about 5:30 and strolled up First Avenue:



Only in New York: a supermarket right under the 59th Street Bridge. I also took a few shots on homeward-bound bus. I love this one of the Chase sign, it's so typical of New York:



It reads, "If there's a scaffold, we're under it." My sentiments exactly: "Welcome to our city - under construction!"

The trees around Dyckman Place were very nice, but the bus was moving most of the time so this was the only good one that came out:



Nearing home, I took this shot of a willow behind another blossoming tree, but I don't think you can see the willow very well even if you clicken to embiggen...



And that's it! It's been a surprisingly restful weekend, even with today's grocery shopping; I'm glad we both got out of the house two days in a row.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Ah, out and about in Manhattan today! A few photos follow later on, or maybe even tomorrow. At least they can wait until after I've had my bacon-flavored toothpicks (via Lisa at BoingBoing).

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Carolyn Ibis in email, Dr. Horrible reimagined as an 8-bit Nintendo game:



You really have to be an uber-geek to appreciate this, I guess. I've only ever played one Nintendo game in my life, as I recall; and I only watched Dr. Horrible once when it first "aired" online (and never did see the ending) so I don't remember most of the songs, for instance.

Silly Site o' the Day

Another one via Arthur, which he calls Dueling Church Signs.

Spring Has Sprung, the Grass is Riz...

... and here's where all my photos iz! First time uploading them to my online Mac account; hope you enjoy.

Silly Site o' the Day

As usual, Bloglines is ignoring LiveJournals again, so I thought I'd catch up on what my LJ-blogging friends are doing now that I'm pretty current on my other blog reading. Even though Passover has finally passed over, I couldn't resist a gem via Arthur Hlavaty - Slate's condensed Haggadah. I laughed out loud at "the four kinds of children and how to deal with them." You probably have to have been through a seder to appreciate this.

Silly Site o' the Day

The iPad backlash continues, with this chart via Ginger Mayerson:



Then there's this, seen just about everywhere:



But I'll credit PZ just 'cause.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via BoingBoing, did you know you can pretty much use one caption for almost every New Yorker cartoon? That's probably because they're so unfunny.

Blogaround for Jon Swift

I’m remiss again. At least this time I have a somewhat plausible excuse. Not only do our office’s servers (as y’all probably know by now) block my ability to blog, but it’s been Season, as they call it. From mid-January through the end of April or mid-May, our firm is very busy with various deadline-oriented services for our clients. This hasn’t affected me in the past, but this year I’ve been asked to help out, which has meant much overtime and little leisure time. That’s now coming to an end, and I look forward to regaining a sense of equilibrium and some more time to write again. At least I’ve been able to catch up on blog reading again, which means it’s time for another blogaround:

• Jon Swift was the pseudonym of Al Weiser, who left us last month. There are lovely tributes to him all around the net. Here’s a good compendium from Skippy, another from Kevin Hayden, and another from Stephen Herron. Al/Jon was one of my blog friends to actually keep in touch with me as I dropped from a solid B-list blogger down to C or D, and he was always encouraging and enthusiastic. I miss him a lot.

• Roy Edroso is moving from NY to Texas and leaving his Village Voice blog (which I could never read anyway ‘cause our servers blocked it, but I like Roy and lot and will miss seeing his face). It’s also the end of the line for Mikhaela Reid’s Boiling Point, as she prepares for motherhood and other adventures.

• Congratulations to Terrance Heath and his husband Rick Imirowicz! Here’s a nice interview with them via Pam Spaulding.

• Why isn’t Tomorrow’s Law better known? Maybe because the word ”triumphalism” is a bit unwieldy? In any case, it doesn’t seem to apply to the latest crop of iPad skeptics, who remind me more than a little of certain comic book fans (both in the sense of “You haven’t loved comics for years, you’re just in this shop because you saw the Batman movie, you’re ruining the hobby for us Real Fans” and “I’m verbally bashing this gadget because of what it isn’t rather than reviewing what it is”).

• Speaking of fan privilege, I liked Val D’Orazio’s take on the ridiculous outrage over Kathryn Bigelow’s triumphs.

• And speaking of “so last month,” Barry Crimmins views the Massa scandal (remember that one?) from the POV of someone who actually knows the former Congressman. And Merle Kessler skims through the Joe Stack Manifesto.

• Mark Evanier must be getting old to remember what journalism is actually supposed to mean.

• Robin and I are hoping to take in Macy Park this weekend to take some photos of the spring foliage, but I’m sorry I missed seeing, as the Awl calls it, The Tryon in Winter. Some really lovely pictures! And speaking of amazing photos, Bob Harris details his trip to the Peruvian Andes on BoingBoing; well worth the perusal!

• If you’re anything like me, you’re staying far away from Jamie Oliver’s new show on ABC, even if you’re a foodie. Not only is it chock full of fat-shaming, but Oliver seems fairly clueless about the real reasons kids may be unhealthier (as opposed to fatter; the “obesity epidemic” is more fearmongering myth than fact) such as overly processed food and corn subsidies that allowed the explosion of high-fructose corn syrup and the more limited food choices one has when one is poorer and struggling to get by. Fortunately, for every Oliver there’s someone like Michael Ruhlman who recognizes not everyone shares his personal privilege and comfort when it comes to the ability to cook at home.

• Over at Digby’s place, Tristero looks at an older Ruhlman rant about vegetarianism versus acknowledging that we’re animals who eat other animals, like so many other animals in the world. What’s interesting is that Tristero suggests Ruhlman do what I suggested above that Oliver do – point the finger at the source of the food issue, not individual consumers. (I also loved Tristero’s remembrance of Abbie Hoffman’s American flag shirt.)

• On to politics. Yesterday Robin brought to my attention a NY Times article examining Talx, a company to which employers outsource unemployment claims and which then proceeds to use every trick in the book to deny those claims. Check out the Awl’s overview of this article here. This is not a system bug, it’s a feature in a country whose unscrupulous leaders (with help from a complicit media) convince a large section of the populace that “government is the problem” and therefore it’s desirable to outsource the very things a government is equipped to do more efficiently, cheaply and honestly – when the reality is quite the opposite. Talx gets a leg up by convincing employers with multiple locations that the various state laws differ so much and are so complicated they’re better off having Talx handle things. When this used to be the case for, say, getting an insurance license, the answer was to standardize the laws (I witnessed the NAIC doing it), not to outsource everything.

• Speaking of the public being convinced that up is down, don’t be fooled by anyone who worships Reagan and thinks he was a wonderful president. Those of us who remember what things were really like during those years can tell you – well, Mark Adams at American Street does just that.

• Anne Zook has an excellent post for the You're Not Helping people, about telling the difference between folks who are victims of political discrimination and folks who are just acting like jackasses.

• Sara Robinson has another must-read post, this one about student loans.

• What Digby Said - in passing along Billmon’s great post about “charging the opposing side (i.e. the enemies of the people) with doing exactly what you yourself have been accused of doing” and false equivalence; and about Atlas Shrugged, Abridged; and about how some only seem to care about the Great White Rescuers rather than the idea that local populations can care for their own.

• Nicole Belle at Crooks & Liars asks, Did NBC Give Sarah Palin’s “Stand-Up” Debut a Little Audio Encouragement? Most likely; as someone who’s seen the difference between the Macy’s parade in person and on TV, I can assure you that pretty much everything NBC does seems to be “sweetened.”

• Must-reads from Melissa McEwan - What makes a family; her childhood in a kitchen sink; and the story of Iain's citizenship.

• And from Lance Mannion: Describing my feelings exactly vis a vis Obama's "drill baby drill" plans; how Republicans use words to make themselves feel better and worse; catching up with Doonesbury in the 21st century; an ode to the fine art of letter writing; and how the fix, in fact, is in and always has been.

• Fafblog catches us up on the situation in Iraq and a very tautological Afghanistan and Pakistan.

• Michael Stickings has the news behind the rumors behind the news about Chief Justice Roberts’ alleged imminent retirement.

• I’m fairly ambivalent about the health insurance reform bill that’s passed, and Barry addresses my misgivings nicely. He has also made his entire Hereville graphic novel available online! In, erm, thumbnail form, but still...

Lastly, and not to belabor the point, my husband Robin Riggs is seeking professional comic book pencilling or inking work. As it’s now comic convention season, I would like to again implore Pen-Elayne readers to mention Robin’s name “early and often” to attending pros, editors, etc. You know his work, you know he’s good and fast and reliable. He just needs to be employed as well. Thanks in advance for the good word of mouth!

Silly Site o' the Days

Well, I'd hoped to do a blogaround this afternoon, or even a post for Blog Against Theocracy weekend, but I've just been too tired. The good news is, even though I'm on call tomorrow and Wednesday evenings and won't leave the office until 7 PM, it should be fairly quiet and my "boss" (the principal to whom I'm mainly assigned) is still on holiday. And at least I "finished the internet" today, finally catching up on blog reading. Couldn't find any more Easter-related Silly Sites, so let's go with Maru's find, Catroulette:



Now to watch the rest of the Yankees/Red Sox game...

Geronimo!

Just watched the premiere of the new season of Doctor Who. Ohhh yes. Tons of fun, and as usual it's the ultimate Mary Sue show. Great redesign on the TARDIS, a very clever combination of new and retro. Kind of like my brain. Love the new companion, Karen Gillan (and Moffat's writing) really makes her work. And young master Smith is quite easy on the eyes. This should be a fun series.

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, let's get the Peeps stuff out of the way. I mean, y'all knew it was coming, right?



Via Robyn at Serious Eats. Via Robyn's cohort Grace King comes How to Make Peepshi (Peeps sushi), and Erin Zimmer points us to this year's Washington Post Peeps Show dioramas.

Friday Cat Blogging*

One of each this time:



Datsa on his cat shelf in the library.



Amy on the ironing board, of course.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Hope everyone had an interesting April Fool's Day. Via our admin http://realtegan.blogspot.com/2010/04/warning.html, here's a roundup of April Fool's Day On the Web. As usual, Google seems to lead the pack among my favorites.

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! And just like that, it's an hour or so later and I'm still awake, having just showered in the hopes that it'll make me sleepy. In the meantime, it's not only April Fool's Day but the day we celebrate as Amy's "anniversary" - today she's 13 years old, and in honor of her we pass on Whack a Kitty:





More at the official website.