Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
I’m currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying) a book called The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters which is an odd little beast. It’s being released in the UK as a serial so every Monday morning for the past 6 weeks a new chapter has dropped onto my letterbox. The book has previously been released in the US as a whole book but the method of publishing as a serial, although old (many novels in Dickens time were published as serials) has been revived by Penguin for this book and it works beautifully. I probably wouldn’t have bought this novel otherwise but each chapter comes with a very nice cover and I’ve found many other treats along the way such as the old school text adventure game of the book (done it seems for the US market as it features a picture of the whole novel, not the serialisation and calls the author Gordon Dahlquist (in the UK version he is G.W. Dahlquist and each chapter comes with a new amusing fictional bio for him retaining the suspense element of the book). Although the book is subscription only and was limited to 5,000 copies you can still order the complete collection for delivery in time for Xmas – it’s a riveting read so far so I’d recommend it.
Colours Are Brighter
If you’re a music fan, especially if you like decent indie music then go buy a copy of Colours Are Brighter a charity album for Save the Children put together by Belle and Sebastian and featuring a new song by the godlike Half Man Half Biscuit as well as new songs by the Kooks, Franz Ferdinand, Jonathan Richman, Four Tet, Divine Comedy, Kathryn Williams, Snow Patrol, The Flaming Lips and Ivor Cutler (that reads like a John Peel show listing!). The songs are ‘for kids’ but any album that features a new Half Man Half Biscuit track has to be worth the price of the cd for that alone.
Give me back my GOOGLE
I’ve been getting a little frustrated recently that Google is getting bloated with useless results from affiliates so I started writing a simple line of code to remove those results from my searches until I found that as usual, someone else had already done it. Give me back my GOOGLE simply removes results which come from domains which feature words like ebay, kelkoo, pricerunner etc leaving you with much more relevant results. Nice.
Maths Lesson
Interesting idea and one that uses graphical means as a newway to multiply.
Animator vs. Animation II
What a good way to end a Friday – it’s the return of one of the best animations to ever grace the interweb…Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m pleased to present Alan Becker’s Animator vs. Animation II.
Dwarf Fight
Ok, this is possibly the single most un-pc thing I’ve ever posted but you’ve gotta admit that a midget Fight is entertaining (until one of them starts stripping ).
That’s the Way I Like it Baby
Bless their little cotton socks – Motorhead have agreed to sponsor an under-10 football team. Love the photo and the strips too.
New ‘Secure’ British Passports easily cracked
From the ‘I told you so’ Dept. comes the news that the new ‘secure’ British passports are easy to crack. This is exactly why I deliberately renewed my passport for another 10 yrs just before they started issuing the new style ones.
Lick My Shiny Metal Ass
Apple are pretty restrictive on what they’ll engrave on an ipod. “10,000 Stolen Tunes Inside” and “Cocaine and razor blade not included” didn’t make it past the iPolice.
Work Out Why Your Site is Slow
Handy site here that helps you identify why or where your site is slow.
Internet Only 1% Pr0n
Someone’s simply not trying hard enough. It seems that a new survey has concluded that the Internet is Only 1% Pr0n – that’s down from 2% in the last survey I saw – come on, who’s not pulling their weight?
Jello Biafra on Net Neutrality
Always a pleasure to hear voice of reason Jello Biafra talking, this time on the painful topic of Net Neutrality.
Portable Puzzle Collection
Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection is a great little collection of puzzles for your pc but what would be really great (for me at least) is if some enterprising person could turn them into Google Widgets (hint, hint).
Magic Eye Tetris
I’ve got to be honest, for once I’m posting a link that I have no idea whether it’s any good or not, you see I cannot do Magic Eye pictures (please don’t leave any comments saying ‘it’s easy’ – I’ve gone far beyond trying). So Magic Eye Tetris holds zero appeal to me but I know all you smug, superior people who can see them might enjoy it – me, I’ll just be sitting in the corner mumbling about a conspiracy.
The Mr. T Virtual Playset
Disturbingly, if you use the Mr. T Virtual Playset to remove his hair and beard, doesn’t Mr. T look quite like Samuel L Jackson?
Nintendo Candy
Whilst browsing the lovely CandyAddict site I was rather taken by the Comprehensive List of Nintendo Candy.
Office Space Re-Cut
I love the cult movie Office Space (if you haven’t seen it then it’s probably the only worthwhile thing Jennifer Aniston has ever done (apart from, possibly, the atrocious Leprachaun)). I was rather tickled by the reimagineered trailer for Office Space Re-Cut which certainly puts a whole new slant on Milton’s psychological problems.
Horse Rescue
A heartwarming story for Monday morning. In Holland earlier this month, a gourp of over 100 horses were trapped on a small island after being cuaght out by a flood following a storm. Attempts to resuce them had failed until this attempt.
PS3 User guide
If you’re interested in the next Palystation, then check out the User manual to see what it can do – I like the idea of using a PSP as a wireless remote controller and it looks like you can even use your PSP to view/play PS3 games on too.
No strings attached
Why learn how to play a real instrument when you’re geeky enough to develop smart textiles with cableless motion sensing capabilities hooked up to a guitar simulator ie. a real air guitar?
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Watching the Heavy Metal Parking Lot video takes me right back to the 80′s and reminds me how awful a lot of it was and yet how cool it seemed back then. I wonder how many of these macho, hetero people would have even had an inkling that the lead singer they worshipped (in a totally non-gay way you understand) was actually wearing the leathers in a distinctly non-ironic way.
thanks for all the links today Kim – good work!
Top Ten Female Streakers
The Top Ten Female Streakers at sporting events (naturally NSFW).
Little People
Apologies if this is a re-post – I’ve seen it before (and love it) but a couple of readers have recently sent it to me, leading me to think that I might not have posted about the Little People left in London to fend for themselves.
Whoa-oh Black Betty
I dunno, quoting the Ram Jam band for headlines seems a bit desperate but when your post is for pubic dye then I guess anything goes. (If Betty is the female form then what’s the male word? Bertie?)
Isfahan
Isfahan is an animated short movie inspired by Persian architecture that reminds me of a kind of fractal Koyaanisqatsi.
Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson – Nine Below Zero. nuff said.
thanks Kim
Armed with Flavour
Why risk breaking your teeth on shot pellets when eating the game birds you’ve just shot when you could kill two birds with one stone (I really must work on my metaphors) by using Seasoned Shot – it flavours the bird as it kills it. Dear god – this must be a joke right?
Panda Sneezes
Altogether now, Awwww.
Amazon Page Scraper
You know how annoying it is to place an order with Amazon but be a little bit short of the minimum for free postage? Pop over to Amazon.co.uk Filler Item Finder and it’ll scrape Amazon pages to return a list of little items that you can use to pad your order out with – you’d have to pay that amount anyway so why not try to get something useful for the money? Link goes to the amazon.co.uk version but other versions available from the site.
Hyperactive Drumming
Lasse Gjertsen is starting to make a name for himself with his ‘hyperactive editing’ videos on youtube. His latest one is the excellent Amateur and if you haven’t seen his previous Beck with an afro video then it’s worth checking that out too.
