Animator vs. Animation, by Alan Becker

Animator vs. Animation, by Alan Becker

via The Art of the Prank by Moderator on 6/8/08

Submitted by Nick Gaetano:

Animator vs. Animation, by Alan Becker

Just click here, click on play, then leave the mouse alone, sit back and enjoy a piece of creative brilliance.

If you love the animation, you can play the game, created by Charles Yeh who is interviewed here.

Webcam

If anyone's interested in video chatting, this is the webcam we got. Nice and compact for the traveling.

Skype

Jennifer & I got Kathy a webcam for her birthday and after being pressured (Torsten) we got one for ourselves. We used our gmail address for our skype account, so you should find our skype name if you search with that.
Speaking of dorky communication tools, have you noticed that "Call Me" button on the left side of the blog? It connects to my (John, if you thought Jennifer could be this dorky) Grand Central #. If you click on that you can enter your number and it will connect the two of us. Cool, eh?

Jeff & Stacey's Wedding

Jennifer & I just got back to MI from a long weekend in Montana. We got to see Elizabeth in Bozeman, plus most of the folks in Livingston before heading down to Big Sky for the wedding.
It was at the 320 Guest Ranch, who deserve some props for being very great hosts. They even helped B out when an errant driver took his scooter into the volleyball pit.

Live Webcam of Ninth Street Bridge

Live Webcam of Ninth Street Bridge

via Livingston Weekly by Reilly Neill on 6/22/08

Local Lindie Gibson provided us with this link:

LIVE WEBCAM OF NINTH STREET BRIDGE

xkcd strip

xkcd is a comic strip that pertains to "Romance, sarcasm, math and language."
I especially liked this one.

via xkcd.com on 6/24/08

TV on the Go

Jennifer & I haven't had TV in a while, which isn't to say we don't watch stuff. There are quite a few ways to rot your brain these days, most of which involve a connection to the internet.
Something we've only done once is buy a season of a show and download it through Amazon. The rest you can watch on Hulu, AOL.tv or if you have Netflix, the Watch Instantly feature.

Below are links to two of our favorites, Top Chef & 30 Rock. (30 Rock is generally available on the internet for free)

Charlie's Soap

We've mentioned this to a couple people, but Matt & Meghan introduced us to Charlie's Soap. They found it when they were looking for a good soap for washing diapers, but it's also great for septic systems. There's also a cleanser on the site, which is good for wiping up baby puke or cleaning diesel engines.

Jennifer and I are on...

Jennifer and I are on the scene at the 9th Street Island Bridge in Livingston, Montana. Parts of the roadway have buckled and the road is closed. This is an ongoing situation and you should check it out, you know online stuff or something. listen

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Get a better browser, help set a record

The official release of Firefox 3 is today at 10am Pacific time. Mozilla is attempting to set a single-day downloading record, so once the clock ticks 11am Mountain and 1pm Eastern download away.
In anticipation of the release, many of the extensions and plug-ins that people love Firefox for have already been updated and de-bugged.
For whoever thinks it's just a marketing ploy, I like Gizmodo's take on it.

No More Pump & Dump!!

Milkscreen System Prevents Party Moms From Getting Their Babies Drunk [Mother Of The Year]

via Gizmodo by Sean Fallon on 6/13/08

Just because you have a baby at home doesn't mean that your partying days must come to an end. Fortunately, mothers that like to go out on Saturday nights and have a few drinks can prevent passing boob booze onto their kid using a system called Milkscreen. Basically, Milkscreen is a litmus test that screens breast milk for alcohol that could have a negative impact on a baby's health. The whole thing seems a little weird in a contentiously irresponsible sort of way, but I suppose it is better to be safe than have a drunken baby on your hands. Available for $20 for a large pack.[Milkscreeen via Inventor Spot via Ubergizmo]

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jennifer & I recently watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a very interesting french-language movie about a man who has a stroke and ends up with 'locked-in' syndrome - totally paralyzed but for the use of one eye. Highly recommend. Especially vs. the crap that's in the theaters at the moment. Tried going to the movies the other night, and there was nothing to see. Nothing.
Well, I would have seen Indiana Jones, but it's gotten really bad reviews, even from people who wanted to like it.

Behind the scenes @ Olympics

Hey all,
Jen here. My cousin Heather just emailed us a link to some cool photos! Her boyfriend, Chris, is sailing in the Olympics this summer. He and his teammate are blogging about their adventures in China. We really enjoyed the inside look at the sport and wanted to share it. Thanks Heather and good luck guys!


The basic info is listed below, be sure to check out the slide show.

American 49er reps Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast are back in Qingdao, China
training everyday in preparation for the Olympic Games. Despite their boats
being stuck in customs, they have been able to borrow the Canadians boat and
the German's mast, and have been on the water working closely with their
training partners from Germany. They have put together a very interesting
slide show of life off the water: http://tinyurl.com/3jdhez

You can also check out his blog, www.wadlowrast.com

Red Wings WIN!!!

This is not news to anyone in Michigan or that follows hockey, but the Detroit Red Wings are Stanley Cup Champions.

One tradition of hockey is the playoff beard. I don't know all the history, but it's covered in one of the more interesting product tie-ins I've seen.

I didn't keep the beard until the playoffs were over, but the Red Wings still managed to eke out victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The final series was fantastic, and now that they've won I can say I was a little excited the series got stretched an extra game after the 3OT loss.

Tini's House

Jennifer, Lucy & I got to stay with my grandmother Tini a little while back.
One feature of her backyard is a birdfeeder that attracts quite a few birds and also some squirrels. Since the fence is not that high, Lucy can't be left alone outside (and besides the birds fly away whenever she is out there). She has two places inside, however, from which she can watch all the action.

Boulder Visit

Jennifer & I headed to Boulder Colorado to pick up the Prizm which had been staying at my Mom's house. Kinda like when Lucy stayed there when we were in the Grand Canyon.

While we were there we got to try a couple restaurants we hadn't been to but now heartily recommend. One was Sherpa's, a Tibetan-focused restaurant that also has some Indian and Nepalese offerings. The mo mo's (dumplings) are great and something I hadn't tried before. We also had the Saag, rice Biryani and Yak Stew. They did have a Sherpa Ale that did not conform to my theory of generic international beer. It's only a guess but I think they have it made for them by one of the local breweries.

The other place we got to try is Ras Kassa's, which serves Ethiopian food. I enjoyed this meal more than the ethiopian place in San Fran, but only because of the company. Well, the company and the food. Oh, and the service, ambiance and wine.

We have not been going out to dinner a lot in Michigan, much less having a wide variety of ethnic cuisines, so we were pretty glad these topped the list of places my Mom wanted to go. We did get to go to Indian with Matt & Meghan in Lansing, which helped our decision-making in Boulder, as that was the other choice of Mom's top 3.

Tip o' the Thumb

Jennifer & I have gotten to spend some time with her folks at their place in Port Austin, MI, which is at the tip of the thumb. We were having some picture upload issues, but I was able to get these pictures that Tom took with Kathy's new camera. It has a great action picture feature, which was able to catch some good ones of Lucy. The water near their place isn't deep, so while not being excellent for swimming, it's perfect for dogs to chase birds with the added benefit of being almost as tiring as snow.
She likes it so much she has reached a new level of excitement, which comes with its own new noise - a three-way split of a bark, a howl and a yelp.
If we can capture it we will.