Video game bad guys are definitionally stupid – they do the same thing all the time. For their longevity – this behaviour needs to stop.
From Dorkly.com
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
First Person Umbrella
Sick and tired of the great unwashed. Tired of slow walkers. Or worse, public smokers… well. Use this umbrella, and your imagination, to blow them away.
From the blurb on Flickr.
“Around Harvard you can tell the MBAs in the rain because they’re the ones with the giant umbrellas. Those are are nice about it raise their umbrella and generally play well with others on the sidewalk. The jerks are the ones who barge through the city hitting the umbrellas of others at will.
It’s because of them that I’ve invented the Urban Combat Umbrella which lets you exact virtual revenge by putting them in your sights and making shooting noises until you heart’s content.”
Sunday Night Music: Gotye, Hearts A Mess
A few of us went to see Gotye yesterday with “orchestra” at Brisbane’s Powerhouse. It was sensational. The instruments were slightly different to the array in this version from JJJ. But this song was insane. It gave me goose bumps.
As a bonus – here’s Eskimo Joe covering Somebody That I Used to Know.
Homer Simpson painted by Rembrant
Obviously this would have been much harder to animate.
And, as a bonus, Marge Simpson in the style of Johannes Vermeer.
And as a bonus bonus. Groundskeeper Willie Van Gogh style.
And Darth Vader Monet style…
Satanic Toys: Smurfs are out…
My question – if the smurfs are satanic – then what is Gargamel? My second question – how do these people get their own TV show?
How to get off a speeding ticket in NZ: Write a completely honest complaint letter
Ahh. New Zealand. Home of the long white cloud, Fergburger, and other holiday memories…
Also, home to this ingenious bloke who wrote a letter that humourously told the department of issuing stupid fines that their infringement notice was riddled with factual errors. Letters of note has the exchange.
Firstly, the ‘date of offence’ is listed as the 23rd of June 1974 with the time being at or around half past six in the evening. This is of grave concern to me because I was not issued a drivers license until sometime in 1990 and I have no desire to be charged with driving while not legally licensed. I do not have a clear recollection of very much at all before I was three and a half years old, so I rang Mum to see if she remembered what I was doing that day. She said that – coincidentally – I was born that day!!
He goes on (and you should read the whole thing).
“This is where it starts to get really strange. The car that I must have crawled into had the same license plate number as the one I have now – AEH924 (according to the infringment notice). However, my car is a dark gray Nissan Bluebird SSS, with dual cup holders, 1800cc’s of grunt, air-conditioning and electric windows.
You will notice that a time-travel option is not included on this model, so that rules out any ‘Back to the Future’ issues and the car I was driving back then could not have been the the one I drive today.
This is clarifed by the infringement notice which states that the vehicle was a Honda saloon. How this relates to my Nissan Bluebird, I cannot fathom. I can only hypothesise that, back in 1974, the first range of proto-type Hondas had an automated number plate changing mechanism (like on the A-Team) which were used to avoid parking tickets and facilitate safer getaways from burglaries, armed hold-ups and the like.”
Clear cut biology: Amazing transparent animal specimens
These are cool. A Japanese designer/scientist is turning science into art with these transparent animal skeletons. They are amazing.
Here’s a little synopsis of his project. The site is in Japanese, but the magic of google translate should fix that for you.
“Originally, the method of making transparent specimens – enzymatically turning the protein transparent, dyeing the bones magenta and dyeing the cartilages blue – was established for scientific purposes to study the skeletal system. Taking this a step further to refine the form and coloration of the specimens requires time and experience.
I create transparent specimens as pieces of work that help people feel closer to the wonders of life.
People may look at my specimens as an academic material, a piece of art, or even an entrance to philosophy. There is no limitation to how you interpret their meaning. I hope you will find my work as a “lens” to project a new image, a new world that you’ve never seen before.”
Here’s some of his work.
Hitman fail…
If you’re a hitman. The rules are simple. Don’t fall in love with your target. And if you do, don’t try to cover it up with a photo mock up featuring tomato sauce and the old machete in the arm pit trick. And, failing that, definitely don’t get caught canoodling with your would be victim, especially don’t let the person who paid you catch you…
This, sadly, is not a hypothetical set of happenings.
Only in Brazil…
Get Locusts…
So apparently there’s a world out there still consisting of people who design text based adventure games. Which is cool. I played through this one the other day – a game based on getting Jesus to turn water into wine at the wedding of Cana. Here’s the opening scene.
>look
Kitchen
The kitchen is dim and smoky and cluttered, the result of the chaos of preparing for the wedding, currently underway in the courtyard to the south. In the northeast corner, the door to the garden stands wide open, in the hopes of letting in some cool air. Down some steps to the west is the winery.All the actual food has been served, except for a plate of honeyed locusts that sits untemptingly nearby, unsurprisingly untouched.
>get locusts
Taken.
It’s by a guy with “Rev” in his name, and is pretty biblically literate. It’s full of vaguely amusing Bible jokes and with some rudimentary problem solving, and a quick recourse to the hints, I was able to finish the story, there are apparently a few endings based on whether you want to be a nice guy or a nasty guy.
“As you turn to leave, you hear what sounds like a lion’s roar, followed by a slight rustle of leaves. It takes you a few moments to recognise the roar as merely the rumble of an empty stomach. Be that as it may, there’s clearly someone hiding here.
>offer locusts to intruder
You wave the plate in the direction from which you last heard the rustling. After a moment, John, the Rabbi’s son, emerges warily and takes the plate from you. “Thanks,” he says, “now if you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone.” Given that he’s also clutching the missing wine jug to himself, you don’t think that’s an option.”
It was fun. Took me back a little bit. And sucked up some valuable hours of time I should have spent writing essays.
Zombies attack Queensland…
The Queensland Government is launching a new disaster management web portal, to do so, they’ve run a trial on the basis of a zombie invasion. Inadvertently causing a bunch of chainsaw wielding vigilantes to run around hacking up teenagers in hoodies with their vacant stares and dribbling propensity for gibberish. Well. That’s not true.
Getting the deputy commissioner of police to talk about a zombie attack is pretty brilliant.
In case you are interested in psychologically preparing your children for the upcoming zombie apocalypse – here’s a book for kids.
Perhaps you also want to ward zombies off from your door. This door stopper might help.
If you want some zompocalypse survival tips you can find some previous posts on the subject here.
Food fun from around the interwebs…
Rather than posting all of these separately, here are some food related stories I currently have in my queue of stuff to blog.
Peel garlic in 10 seconds
I want to try this. It’s amazing.
How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.
Make your own marshmallows
Serious Eats has a quick run down on making marshmallows.
I had no idea it was this easy. I probably should have. I know plenty of people who have made marshmallows – but the home made version has never really struck me as being as good for toasting, or putting in hot chocolate.
Make a biscuit bowl
This has been doing the rounds – but it seems so much smarter than trying to make a bowl in the inside side of a muffin tray…
Wilton.com has a recipe for biscuit bowl success.
Cheeseburgers at home
Maybe it was self discipline, maybe I just forgot – but I didn’t take advantage of the amazing $1 cheeseburger happy hour deal that McDonalds was running as a birthday celebration.
Lifehacker tried to figure out how much it would cost to make a cheeseburger at home. They calculated the cost at $1.38. That’s a cheap lunch.
Some “Babushka” knives
These don’t just look cool – they’re conceptually cool in their use of Fibonacci ratios.
Details on Design Sojourn. You can buy ’em for millions (well, hundreds) on Amazon.com
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How to stay famous forever: Make your name a noun
A long legacy amongst the broadest number of people requires a reductionism that turns your name into some representation of a particular achievement.
We remember and continue to honour very few people from the past in daily conversation. Sure, if you had to come up with a particular person when answering a question it’s possible that you “remember” them, but often that requires research. Charles Babbage. For example. Invented the computer. Some of you no doubt remember that – but we don’t have any great reminder about his work. If computers were called babbages, then we’d never forget him. Anyway, here’s a song that better explains the aim for anybody who wants to be remembered. Become a noun.
Wanna Live Forever? Become A Noun from NPR on Vimeo.
Stop motion Ninja
Contains violence. Ninja violence. Featuring toy ninjas.
Ninja from Olivier Trudeau on Vimeo.