Month: June 2009

Snug as a bug in a hug

Everybody likes a hug. Except people who have phobias about physical contact or an overdeveloped sense of personal space.

Sometimes hugging for long periods of time can be taxing. Sometimes it’s not geographically possible. Which leaves the huggy (as opposed to hugger) feeling down.

Here’s some hug help.

For adults.

For babies

That’s called “the Zaky”. Here’s a blurb… if you’re curious…

“f you’ve ever wished for a hand to leave behind so that your baby would feel as if you’ve never left the room, your prayers have been answered with the Zaky.

The Zaky is an ergonomic infant pillow designed by a mom to mimic the size, weight, touch, and feel of her hand and forearm to help her baby with comfort, support, protection, and development. The Zaky can help calm your baby and help your baby sleep better through the night.”

And then there’s those of us looking for someone to be hugged by. Perhaps every town needs one of these…

It’s an anonymous “hugging” wall. Because lets face it, having a long haired hippy run up and hug you on the street isn’t for everybody.

June 14, 2009

Geek hazards

Every now and then I do something geeky and pull a component out of my computer to replace it with a newer, better component. This is standard geek practice. But I’m an unco. So it always ends in tears. Or at least cuts and scratches. Computer parts are unbelievably sharp.

Luckily I now have an appropriately geeky bandaid solution.

June 14, 2009

A Voca do

That’s what I’d call a party featuring this A Capella group. Voca. What you are about to see (assuming you watch the video) is produced solely using the voice. Robyn tells me it’s old. But it’s still impressive.

June 14, 2009

The last post…

For today. And I think I used that title before. Perhaps. But I don’t care. 19 posts in one day (inclusive – but ignoring the fact that it’s after midnight). That’s got to be a record. I suspect maybe a third of them were actually worth posting.

It’s lucky the blog off is off though. For the sake of the others.

June 14, 2009

Bust a tap in your mass

Ok, so the last word in that title is pretty contrived. But it’s late, and I’m waiting for Robyn to put the finishing touches on the first draft of her reports.

But, contrived or not, this hose fitting makes it much easier to feel like the tough gangster type when you’re watering your herb garden. Though perhaps a concentrated stream of water isn’t the best thing for those delicate plants…

June 14, 2009

Snessy USB Hub

Poking fun at things is all well and good – but it’s much better to offer solutions. So here’s a solution to the paucity of classy USB hubs in the world – a DIY USB hub in a SNES cartridge from instructables. I’m sure it would work just as nicely in an N64 or NES cartridge. And I have plenty of those lying around in various stages of disrepair… sounds fun.

June 14, 2009

Slayered in the spirit

It’s seriously time to start saving. Because I want one of these more than I’ve ever wanted a coffee machine before. Or in fact any “thing” before*. It is a work of art. And it will no doubt be as expensive as a fine work of art. It has knocked me off my metaphorical feet.

The Slayer Espresso Machine. Is. Beautiful.

And the focus is on function rather than form. One day Slayer… One day…

Slayer Espresso Machine @ Fratello – teaser from Chris Prefontaine on Vimeo.

*hyperbole.

June 14, 2009

The Singleness Post

So a while back I alluded to the fact that I was going to write something on singleness while I could still remember my single days enough to say something with sufficient empathy.

Here’s the post.

The best advice I received on singleness was from my incredibly wise, old, grandfather. Ever the pragmatist. He was deeply committed to my gran and they were married for a long, long time. His sage advice to me, a young upstart bemoaning my single state one afternoon in Inverell was:

“What are you worried about, I was 48 when I married your grandmother. You’ve got plenty of time.”

That is all.

June 14, 2009

Anatomically correct

Late last year I posted the anatomy of a minifig – a nice little view of what’s inside your favourite lego men, making them tick. The guy who showed us how minifigs work is back – now showing us how people work – and there’s a little bit of lego in all of us…

And he’s also given us the run down on what’s inside the humble gummi bear…

June 13, 2009

The Church of Google

A while back I mindlessly speculated that Google was just like God. At least there were certain similarities. I was trying to find an appropriate analogy for talking to geeks. Who incidentally, in my latest piece of theorising, are probably statistically more likely to be atheists despite a love for science fiction*.

Anyway, it seems there’s actually an atheist movement running round calling themselves “the church of Google” suggesting that Google is indeed the closest thing to God (Note: google chrome reckons this site is dodgy, and has blocked it (and search results it appears in on my site) so I’ve killed what was a link, and you’ll have to google it for yourself),.

Sadly, there is a page dedicated to “hate mail” filled with irate Christians. Like this guy.

“I’m sorry, but I must not only completely disagree with your little Googlism idea, but i must also call it insanely retarded. For one large reason, it was man-made. Not to say than any other g0d is not man-made, but as much as we are sure google exists and g0d does not, we are also sure google is a search engine not only made by two guys, but there is no opposition to the thought that it wasnt, where as to g0ds of any nature, are not man-made, but more on control/lead man. Another reason, the only thing google is made for, is to give information. Google has not created the world, man created google. To say google is g0d not only does make sense, but it has to be one of the most retarded things i have ever heard.”

*Based solely on the number of pro-atheism articles submitted and voted for on geek cesspools like Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.

June 13, 2009

Hanging around

One of the coolest wedding presents we were given was a Beginners Guide to Taxidermy… Seriously. If I had pet Guinea Pigs I’d seriously consider turning them into salt and pepper shakers… but I digress.

Hanging dead animals on walls has been trendy since the Middle Ages. But it’s usually the head and not the body – which means there must be a lot of spare animal bodies floating around right?

This is a bit of a back to front approach from a Museum in Venice.

And Ken Ham would love to bag one of these on one of those all American hunting trips he probably goes on with his ultra-right wing buddies. If only dinosaurs ran around with people. It sold on eBay for $US660.

If you’re more the squirrel type – the redneck M16 toting squirrel type – how about one of these… from Rick’s Custom Squirrels…

June 13, 2009

Starbucks: Overconfidence in advertising

These are some advertisements from a current Starbucks campaign…

I’ll take “nothing” – I love how if you switch the “not” and the “just” around you get a pretty accurate understanding of the product.

That’s right people. Starbucks are the coffee house of choice for Vampires. They put “heart” into every cup. That’s a whole lot of blood – and explains why it tastes so bad to the average daywalker.

June 13, 2009

A bunch of links – June 13, 2009

June 13, 2009

Cards for the not quite Hallmark moment

Someecards is a site full of ecards – about half of them are too inappropriate to put here and the other half are brilliant. You shouldn’t go there thinking I’ve endorsed it – more that I’ve laughed at some of them…

This one’s for U2…

June 13, 2009

Pool table with extra soft cushions

Sofa beds have great utility value – a sofa and a bed. In just the space of a sofa. It’s a great concept – so how cool is a sofa pool table… it’s for sale on eBay – so get in now to avoid disappointment.

June 13, 2009