Tiny People

Photos of tiny people. Neat!

Who Doesn't Like Pie?

The White James Brown

I find this guy's voice pretty annoying. He can slide his feet around neat. I like how he has dual double–bass drummers, but all they do is play that straight, super boring beat in unison. I also wish the "audience" would get run over by a steam roller. Those have to be paid performers—they're just so hokey.

Dyson Bladeless Fan

Whoa. Dyson does it again with this super geeky fan. I wonder how loud it is. Good if you have dumb babies around that like to stick their faces and appendages into things (which is pretty much all of them, right?).

America's Downfall

Ugly plastic shoes and blankets you wear like a robe. They go together like puke and snot (and I don't mean the comedy team that I never saw, but seem pretty funny, because there's no way you could get me to the Reneaisisananeance Festival).

The Ladyboy

How to Find a Masculine Halloween Costume for Your Effeminate Son. The Onion hits another one out of the park, into the next county, across the ocean, and around the moon.

Pork Chops & Applesauce Brains

This totally pretty and non–insane lady went nuts when her kids ate the last pork chop. The little bastards.

And speaking of totally pretty and non–insane ladies, is Amy Winehouse still alive? How can that be? Why? Perhaps her new tits are really hiding alien beings that are using her body to conquer the world.

Reverse Trikes

I've seen a couple of these Spyder 3–wheeled trikes on the road over the past few months. One was just pulling out of a farm that's right on 163 between Des Moines and Pella, or thereabouts. I didn't know they were made by Can–Am, or that Can–Am even existed any more. I remember they at least made kick–ass motocross motorcycles back in the '70s.

Mork Radio

Rectangular radios without TV characters in them are lame. That's why we all need one of these.

Crystal Clear Electricity

Now that you've had adamantium cables run directly to your house from the 20x20 mile wide solar panel array you've installed on Mercury, you'll need new outlets that are rated for "audio grade". That's right. Ordinary outlets filter out Paiste ride cymbals and guitar solos played in cafeterias. Good thing you can spend $147 on a better one.

Be sure to read the customer reviews. Really.

Creative Marble Sculptures

Whoa, these marble sculptures are pretty cool. I like the 2 interlocked tires and the skull that looks like styrofoam.

It's Always January

We love Mad Men on AMC. If you don't watch it, maybe you just need some enticement. This is January Jones, who plays Betty Draper. She's so Nordic and hot. Plus, the show is so good.

We're All Cells

If you have about 20 minutes to kill, here's a fascinating film called Organism shot in 1975 by Hilary Harris. It shows NYC in time lapse, the people, the traffic, the boats and air traffic, and equates it to the way organisms move (hence the name). I also love the mesmerizing music. Lots of groovy vintage synth sounds played to great effect. I watched it in sections throughout the day while waiting for builds or email replies.

16G Still Not Enough

Turns out 16G of RAM still isn't enough. I just had a short swapping session going on while building Creator, while it was compiling some of the hairy C++ files that use heaps of template shit. Xcode 3.2 seems to use up more as time goes on, so if you've been building throughout the day, it's gonna use a bit more each time. Maybe it's not cleaning up after itself like it should. I guess I'll get in the habit of quitting Xcode a few times a day if it's gonna be this way about it. It's still a metric shitload better than Microsoft's lame excuse for a development environment, Visual Studio. That shit's just gross and should be put out of its misery.

Computer Sex

This is how somebody started a message to the Creator list. I don't see what he's so bummed out about.

My Mac went down on me yesterday, Bummer.

ISO 102,400!!

Nikon's new D3s has some serious light sucking capabilities. My D70 goes up to 1600, same as the Fuji film I used to use. So to even fathom ISO 6400 or 102,400 is, like, hard. But the shots are beautiful and noise–free at the lower–yet–still–ridiculously–high ISOs.

RAM Jam

We recently switched from Xcode 2.5 to 3.2. 3.0 and 3.1 sucked for large projects that used source control. They finally made it less sucky in 3.2 and fixed a bunch of other things that prevented me from wanting to go beyond 2.5. We're now also using gcc 4.2. And because of that and probably changes made in Xcode, each compiler thread now needs about half a gig of RAM. So with 16 threads compiling on my 8G Mac Pro, it quickly goes into a swapping frenzy and grinds the hard drive, bringing the entire machine to a near halt. Even simple things like clocks and Activity Monitor's CPU history icon cease moving. And 8G is still a lot of memory for a modern computer. So I bit the goddamn bullet and ordered another 8G for it. If that doesn't make it happy, I'll try painting a smiling face on its big aluminum side.

Whoa, Black Betty.

Timeless Chicken

A couple summers ago we were up in Two Harbors, just northeast of Duluth. I saw a big chicken that I just had to take a picture of. I just now saw it again on Square America, but that picture was taken in the '60s. I verified it's the same chicken because the building behind it looks the same. Even the pine tree in the back is still there, but much less full these days.

There was also this random shot of a dragster. And this bar scene where some guys took their kids along, were done up in blackface, and having one hell of a good time. Cracks me up. Ah, here's the rest of that rail. These are all in a gallery of shots mostly orphaned from the rest of their original set. I just love that site.

Magic Mouse

Apple has a new mouse that combines a multi–touch trackpad with a mouse. It doesn't do much that you can't already do with a 4–button scrollwheel mouse (although it can do horizontal scrolling without having to reach for the shift key if you don't have a Mighty Mouse). It's just sleeker. It's so flat; I wonder if that is worse on the hand and wrist. At least it no longer has those horrible side squeeze buttons like the Mighty Mouse has. Those would inevitably fire off that function if you were lifting the mouse while playing a frenzied game or something like that. And no more gunk in the tiny Mighty Mouse scrollball, although I never use mine enough to get any build–up (it's on the old G5 to my right here that only gets fired up when I need to debug on 10.4 or PPC, or to archive my MultiAd mail).

The Glory Hole

No, not that kind of glory hole. When I was on the phone with the Apple support guy for Kim's iPhone problem, we were talking about The Glory Hole, a huge pipe that's the spillway for a dam in NoCal. Here's a video of it being skated.

Luxo Jr., Murderer

Most people can recognize Luxo Jr., the Pixar lamp, by now. Fewer have seen its origin, the first project from John Lasseter at Pixar. Now see the terrifying truth behind the life and death of the squeaky little fella.

The Who

We're kicking around the idea of doing Won't Get Fooled Again. Since the organ part is so important, I've been looking for MIDI files of the song that I'll use in my drum brain to play it. I'll have to bring some headphones and play to a click. Haven't done that live since The Dial Tones. I think the hardest part would be making sure the guitar solo is always the correct length. I haven't listened to see if it's already a nice division of 4 or not.

Fiddlin' Around

Kim's wanted a violin for as long as I've known her. She's always wanted to dink around on one to see what it's like to play. Me too. So we found a cheap used one at Music Go Round today. A Karl Knilling from Germany. Actually, it's a 12" viola, so I think the size is more akin to a violin, but its sound must be warmer like a viola. I dunno. Man, the notes are really close together on that little fingerboard. Now I see why it takes so much patience and commitment to play bowed instruments. There's so much going on.

We were looking at everything else they had and wandered into the acoustic guitar room. I've been wanting one the past few months. I ended up not liking the classical guitar I got a few years ago as much as I thought I would. I always used to like playing on them, but now I'd rather have the steel string sound. So I ended up getting a used Ibanez they had there. I just wanted something cheapish and nothing fancy, although this one has lots of perks, like the electronics and built–in tuner.

Went over and helped Geoff fix their invisible fence today, which got broken when they had some yard work done. He found the 2 places where he knew the tracks of the Bobcat excavator ripped up the ground. We fixed the breaks in the wire there, but that didn't fix it. He also had a new driveway put in and was hoping it wasn't broken under there. For the helluvit, I suggested we just tug on the wires that we fixed and see if any of them pulled out. Luckily, that did the trick. The final break was only about a foot from one of the others. Yeeha!

New Music

We ate at Smashburger tonight, cuz I was craving some extremely good beef. Then we stopped over at Down in the Valley. I picked up a live Steve Vai album recorded almost exactly 2 years ago at the State Theater in Minneapolis. I was looking for Cheap Trick's Special One album, which they didn't have, but they did have Sgt. Pepper Live. Yup, they performed the entire album with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' album—2 shows. Last, but certainly not least is Apocalyptica's Worlds Collide album. That one's in the cans right now. Just finished Helden with Till Lindemann from Rammstein on vocals. It's a German version of Bowie's Heros. Go listen to that sample, and remember that it's all cellos, although there is a guitar somewhere on that track.

Speaking of Rammstein, the new album is almost out—just 3 days to go. 2 tracks on the iTunes Store already. The video for the song named Pussy has been out for a while, and you should only check that out at home when nobody else is around that. You might want to close your eyes too. It's porn. I don't know how much of it is studio trickery, like I'm pretty sure Flake, the geeky keyboardist, doesn't have tits.

Animal Lover

Sounds like this kid loves his imaginary dog a little too much. The first panel I saw was so weird that I had to read the rest (about a third of the way down).

Snow Beetle

What looks kinda like a Volkswagon that had sex with a Cessna, has skis, a big propeller, and a giant cutter from a pencil sharpener? Why, it's this weird Russian thing. There are a few movies down in the comments that are much better than the lame one they put in the post. It moved along just fine, as long as the ground was perfectly flat and had just the right kind of snow packed on it.

Microsoft Sucks; Reason 17,492,039,845

I've been working on changing how we draw text selections on Windows. I had a bunch of source windows open, trying to keep track of where stuff is. Windows decides it has an update (Really? A Windows update?). Every few minutes it would pop up an annoying window telling me that I should restart to apply the update, or wait and do it later. I guess "do it later" really means "keep annoying me every 5 minutes with your stupid window, and if I don't reply to your stupid window, go ahead and restart anyway because Bill Gates knows what's best for me." So while I'm in the kitchen heating up lunch, the fucker decided that—right in the middle of a build—my work is not very important, so it restarted. Thanks, you stupid fuckers. You couldn't design an OS if your life depended on it. Go away. Go work in a ditch. That's really all you can handle. And in the case of Steve Balmer, even that would be too much for him. He should be working at a zoo, flinging his poop at people. That's about his speed, and he already looks the part, the freak.

More Idiots with Guns

What a bunch of pussies. And not one bullet found a target. I guess it's hard to aim when you're concentrating on holding your pants up around your knees.

No Gig

Door's locked—no car chase.

So I was on my way up to Champlin for out gig last night. I was left plenty early to make sure I made it through rush hour traffic, so we could set up at 7 or earlier. Kim called before I got there and relayed a message that we couldn't set up until 7:30 because of the dinner customers. Fuck. The guy who hired us said we could set up at 7. So I got there and checked out the place, since we'd never been there before. The hostess showed me a tiny space they'd cleared out by removing a table or two. There was one outlet. I had no idea where Denny would be able to set up the board. Everybody else showed up later and we went in. They kept seating people at the tables up near the "stage", tables they said they move so we'd have more room. 7:30 rolled around and we asked if we could load in yet. Nope, but as soon as the people at that front table leave we could. That's what the little old Italian lady who's part owner said. 8 comes and goes and we say fuck it and leave. I don't know what the hell they're thinking having music there. It's a really nice looking place with good smelling food. But it's a restaurant, not a live music bar.

So we went down to Mainstreet B&G in Hopkins and saw a good band called The Pearl (whoa, their site really sucks). Chick bass player who also played a near little electric fiddle. Really good and a dynamite stage presence. She played the fiddle on The Devil Went Down to Georgia and Kashmir, which fucking rocked. They also surprised me by playing a Tool song. Nice! The lead guitarist was really good, especially when playing metal type stuff—played Les Pauls through a Mesa Boogie Rect–O–Verb. It was snowing when we left. Not much stuck, but things were a bit white this morning.

I unloaded the truck today. It was still mostly loaded from the weekend before. Drained the hoses. Was going to bring in the rain gauge, but it was already broken from the water in it freezing. The previous one broke when it hailed. Tried to find other things to do outside. It was nice and blustery and it was fun to be out trompin' around in my work boots. Got some chicken breasts and other stuff at Byerly's so we could make that chicken wild rice soup mix that we got at the apple place a while back. Damn, that was good. Nice and herby. We ate 2 servings, refrigerated 2.5, and froze 4. Root beer floats for dessert.

Did You Sniff Glue in '72?

They must've been sniffing something. Just look at these ads from the October 1972 issue of Cycle. I'm pretty sure the bellbottoms on the left chick would be instant chain food on a bike, just as the pants on the guy inspire an instant ass–whooping.



This looks more like a stock Getty image of 2 people getting high in a field.

Suzuki Rotary

I grabbed a small stack of my old Cycle magazines when I was in Keota. Why she threw out all the car magazines and kept these Cycles is beyond me. I much rather'd had those. Still, there's some cool shit in these. Like this Suzuki with a Wankel. I don't remember that. Looks like this bitch got plenty hot, judging by the size of the radiator.

Where It All Began

Decided to gather the various Black Diemond photo scans I have into iPhoto, and published it for all our screaming fans to enjoy.

Division of Sex

Boys can be President. Girls can be Miss America. It says so right here!

Fat Minibike–Riding Twins

Coop hits one out of the park. Damned good read about what we used to have and what there is now. If you remember the fat minibike–riding twins, Evel Knievel, and Jungle Pam's gigantic hooters, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Italian Horror Art

Whoa. This is some cool shit—a Flickr set of old Italian horror comic covers. NSFW if paintings of tits is against office policy. Some of it is kinda dopey, but a lot of it is pretty intense, almost equalling Basil Gogos. And just when you think you've gotten to a series of comparatively lame and safe covers, they go and blow your mind with some really twisted characters, like this one.

Doubt

We watched Doubt last night. Whoa. Meryl Streep once again shows that she can kick ass, here as the principal of a NY catholic school in 1964. From her first line (which I think was "ssstraighten up!") you fear her. Kinda of a mix of the "penguin" from The Blues Brothers and R. Lee Ermey. Those of you who went to catholic school can probably relate more than I can. I only went to church when Mom dragged me there, and I did the catechism thing. Just enough to get a feel for the place. The subject and plot are pretty heavy, but there are still many moments that made me laugh, mainly because Meryl is so good at being a nun. I really liked the movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams (still cute under the heavy habit) were also very good.

Cowboyz

I'm sorry, but they spell it with a 'z'. It's a nice bar way the hell out in Rockford where we played Saturday. It's one of those places that's split into 2 rooms; one has the bar, TVs, and games, the other has the stage. So, those regulars that don't want to go into the other room and appreciate live music won't. We sure won't get any of our friends or fans out there—way too far to drive. Not a lot of people there either. Really nice people working there though. The sound guy works at the place where we buy our PA and lighting gear. My biggest complaint; no chips! I was starving after the 2nd set. The best they could get me was a basket of tortilla chips. I put some salt on 'em for flavor. They have a green room in the basement. We hung there a little, but it's not like we were being trampled by crazed fans upstairs. We did sign the wall. I drew a sucky looking Martian. Shit, shoulda took a picture.

Keota Kids

Cross Country Team in the Keota Eagle. Heh, could the White kid look any more like Rodney? But who's the bald rapper, Cody Uphold?

Lancia Delta S4 = Screaming Satan Batshit Fast

Here's a neat little segment on the history of Lancia in rally racing. Listen carefully to what they say about the Delta S4. My god. It's full of stars.

The Tony Randall Show

I have a faint memory of this show. Maybe if I could see more episodes… They only made 2 seasons. I thought it was pretty funny. It's not hard to be funny when the star is Tony Randall. His line that comes at about 27:20 is classic Tony Randall. Note his girlfriend judge is the ever–annoying Doctor Pulaski from Star Trek, the one who always mispronounced "Data" as "Datta". The court reporter is a funny guy—played Ralph "you have my permission to marry him" Marolla in Arthur.

It was captured off of 16mm film, which is why it looks like that. It also has a bunch of commercials from that period that are fun to see. "Take the Certs breath test," Wilkinson Sword, and Aviance perfume? Those awoke some brain cells that haven't been active for a while.

Music Never Rusts

Metal audio conductors weren't good enough. Thankfully, we can now use liquid wires. I suppose now the audiophiles will be keeping their listening rooms temperature controlled as well, because there's probably some optimal temperature at which the liquid conducts electricity and sounds warmest. The good news is that as soon as their dog chews through the insulation, the conductor will leak out and the whole thing will be useless. They'll probably also sell more of those little stands that hold the wires up off the floor (ya know, because the vibrations in the floor might jostle the electrons in the wires and the whole thing would sound like shit then), because they'll need to keep the liquid even distributed. Don't want too much flowing down to one end and causing a pressure buildup. I'm sure that would make cymbals less shimmery, violins too smokey, and French horns too bitter.