Global Sign Watch

This story has it all. Human interest. Tension. Kidnapping and maiming of garden gnomes. Internets FTW! Don't steal this family's Obama sign. The world is watching. Literally.

Preston Fosback and his mother, Kristine, were shocked when their Obama sign was stolen one night in April from the front yard of their Portland, Ore., home.

When they put up another one nine days ago, that, too, was swiped within hours. Undeterred, they made their own sign and put it up the next day.

But this time, 16-year-old Preston had a plan: He set up a video camera inside the house and trained it on the sign from behind a window. He figured he would catch the thief on film, should he return. He hooked up the camera to a Web site that provides live streaming. He wrote a few words on the site explaining its purpose.

And then, the handmade sign with red, uneven letters went global.

A few people started watching the video, which shows the sign next to another sign endorsing a local candidate, beside a flowerbed. The only reliable action consists of the occasional car passing in the background.

Still, by that first evening, more than 100 people were watching. The next day, when Preston checked the site during lunch at school, more than 450 were there, not only from around the U.S. but as far away as Australia, Sri Lanka and Japan.

Read the rest of the article at the Wall Street Journal

Watch the sign

Dose of cute

Lilys Yawn
Originally uploaded by bivoir

Getting ready to head out for work... I needed a dose of cute, so I popped over to the photo pool of one of my flickr contacts, bivoir.

Need cute? Bivoir's got cute. Bivoir's got eleventymillion mind bogglingly cute photos.

Yawning guinea piggies. Kissing piggies. Smiling, eating, posing, and even reading piggies. Not to mention funny piggies, safety piggies, baby piggies, mixed species cuteness, frogs, kittens, birds, and doggies.

Death Star over San Francisco

OMG 111 We're going to have to pick sides between the Empire and the Rebellion now, I think.

An invitation to our nieces and nephews

My Mister and I are house hunting, and we're hoping to be in a new home by the end of the year.

What I'd like to do is get an original artwork from each of the nieces and nephews who are old enough to participate. The ideal would be something that could be either framed in an 8x10 mat, or in a similar sized shadow box. We'd like to hang their art around the house, a visual daily reminder of our family members who live so far away.

This could be anything from a favorite photo they've taken themselves, a multimedia collage or crafty thing, a sketch, a painting, a fiber art piece (knitted or crocheted, hand sewn, woven potholder, whatever), a small puzzle they've finished prepared with glue to keep it from falling apart, or whatever else they enjoy working with. Even a story they've written would be fine, as long as it's all on one side of one page.

Ideally I'd like the pieces to be signed by the artists.

The top end of their ages is in the tween range, and some are quite young, so the range of possibilities are pretty broad. I'll leave it up to their parents to decide who is old enough to participate. And of course, if any of the kids would rather not make us something, that's fine, too.

We'll get the frames or shadow boxes once the artwork arrives. And there isn't a deadline for this. Just whenever the spirit moves them.

We're still waiting to hear back on the short sale home we've put in an offer on. Could be days or more weeks yet before the lenders on the current owners' end are done with the extra stuff that happens in a sale like this. No guarantees, but it sounds like it's moving along in a promising - if slow - manner.

Strong with the force, is this one

I've been playing with the lolcaption tools again...



Click on the photo to vote for this one at punditkitchen.com

Time for a warm hat...

Time for a warm hat
It's going to be a cold war...

Yeah. That about sums it up.

*Shiver*

Piratey splendor

Arrrrrrrr ye ready fer Talk Like a Sea Dog Tide?

The Official Site for International Talk Like A Pirate Day has great gobs o' goodies, including pirate pickup lines, songs, photos, games and even piratey knitting patterns. Arrrrglye socks anyone?

Pop o'er t' their links page t' use some mighty swell translators that'll add some piratical splendor t' yer own words, or translate a web page into properly piratified lingo. Even a Post Like A Pirate thingy (for twitterers) and an Aye Phone App.

By Dave Barry's bones! They've got it all! Don't believe me? Take a gander at the guide to pirate-speak auf Deutsch. Helpful if yer a monolingual Landratte like me, and ye be needin' to know what the Irrlichter might be, or how t' order the Smutje to be sent t' the sharks fer spoilin' the Käpt'n's Schillerlocken.

* * *

For I dream of the skull and the crossbones,
I dream of the great day to come,
When I dump the mundane for the Old Spanish Main
And trade my computer for rum! ARRR!

T' me,
Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho,
It's "Talk Like A Pirate" Day!

--from the official Talk Like A Pirate Day song, by th' swashbucklin' songsmith an' filker, Tom Smith

Jolly Pirate Fish image c/o the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

TLAPD Tomorrow

Gearing up for International Talk Like A Pirate Day (September 19) by browsing through some of Cap'n Slappy's words of wisdom in the Ask Cap'n Slappy archives.

Dear Cap'n Slappy,

Do you have to have a Parrot to be a pirate or talk like one??

- Anon

Ahoy Parrot-head!

It's "Talk Like a Pirate" day, NOT "Talk Like a Parrot" day! The parrot is as much a part of Talk Like a Pirate Day as it would be at a Jimmy Buffet concert. Nice set dressing, but it doesn't make the songs any sweeter! The best parrots are the "stuffed/dead" ones. Unless you like to dress in newsprint.

Could you imagine "Talk Like a Parrot Day?" People would be gutting each other in the streets. "STOP REPEATING WHAT I SAY IN THAT HIGH NASAL VOICE! YOU #*#@($)#@!!!" people would say just before slitting you open with their cutlass.

Now, if you have a parrot, that's great! Treat them with care and they will be great gifts for your great grand children, but for the love of Neptune, leave them in their cages on September 19. And for Jimmy's sake, don't take them to the concert!

- Cap'n Slappy

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Litch King

Pre-ordered my copy of the new expansion. I've been watching my Mister in the Beta and it looks incredible.

Even Karl Rove Says McCain Is Lying

Beyond the 100% Truth Test? That would make it... um... let me think... Not true?

Intentionally telling others that things you know aren't true in hopes that they will believe you. There's a word for that, I think.

Senator Clinton and Governor Palin on SNL

Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton:

"I invite the media to grow a pair. And if you can't I'll lend you mine".

Memory

New York City 1985
Photo originally uploaded to
flickr on September 11, 2006. The
text of this post expands on what I
wrote that day.

This photo was taken on our visit to New York City, 1985. Scanned off of the original, the colors of the photo have changed with age.

I was there, I looked out the windows at the top of one of the towers. How can something so apparently permanent be gone? In one senseless and brutal day can our world change so much?

Of course, the towers are gone. And so many precious lives with them. People from all walks of life, from so many countries and backgrounds, all with their own loves and fears, beliefs and doubts, and people who held them dear.

And the brave souls on United Flight 93 when it crashed in Pennsylvania. And all the lives lost in or touched by the attack on the Pentagon in Washington DC. Hold them all in your heart, every one of them.

Bless them all, and also those who gave their lives to try to help them. And those who lost their health in the poisoned air after the fall of the towers. And all the loved ones of those who suffered or died on that horrible day. And all of the human beings who have paid too dearly since then, caught up in the storms of fear and hate and the shameful lies of politicians who dare to use this human tragedy to further their own agendas.

The destruction of that day was an agonizing example of the impermanent nature of the universe. And as the memory continues to touch our hearts despite the passing of time, distance, and our individual differences, we share a lesson in interconnectedness.

However we each may pray (or not), may we all take to heart our connection to one another in the human experience. We owe it to those who have lost so much to create some good in the face of the enormity of all that has happened since 8:36 AM*, on September 11, 2001.

Namaste.


*Eastern time.

Michael Palin for President

Well... how about VP? No offense, Biden.

Palin

Palin

This shirt is made of awesome!
Click on the photo to read more about it.

And yes, that is Mr. Michael Palin. I haven't gone over to the dark side.

Anything Into Oil

For Brian Appel—and, maybe, for an energy-hungry world—it's a dream come true, better than turning straw into gold. The thermal conversion process can take material more plentiful and troublesome than straw—slaughterhouse waste, municipal sewage, old tires, mixed plastics, virtually all the wretched detritus of modern life—and make it something the world needs much more than gold: high-quality oil.

read more | digg story

I heard about this company in 2004 and thought the idea was intriguing. I just saw the above article wander by on Digg.com. Yeah, it's an article from 2006, but it's still fascinating. I don't know if it could ever translate into an alternative energy source on a large scale. But it gives me hope that even if we burn up most of the available underground oil, it will still be possible to create enough oil for other important petroleum products that we take for granted, like plastics.

The company doing this is Changing World Technologies, Inc.

Space Invaders Beer Cozy

Space Invaders Beer Cozy

The space invaders beer cozy is finally finished. I conquered my fear of stranded two color knitting and, while its not perfect, even I think it came out pretty spiffy looking. The bottom is crocheted and the rest is knitted.

My Mister is home and on the mend, minus a gallbladder that had passed its warranty. He won't be allowed to actually put the beer cozy to work for a while longer yet, though. So it's up on the shelf, holding a practice beer.

Time for me to get some chores done, errands run, and generally get caught up on things that got left undone while my guy was in the hospital.

in a world without cheezburgers

That's my Mister and our rattie, Talia. Click on the photo if you want to see it (and vote on it) on icanhascheezburger.com. Or don't. I'm just sayin' it, just in case :)

* * *

In to some sad news, I just heard that Don laFontaine has passed away. The quintessential voice of modern movie trailers, laFontaine's name might not be familiar to all, but anyone in the US who watches TV, listens to commercial radio, or watches movies has heard his voice.

From Wikipedia:

He also appeared on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on May 14, 2005, where he played "Not my job" (a game in which famous people have to accurately answer questions totally unrelated to their chosen professions). The prize (for a listener, not the contestant) is "Carl Kassel's voice on your home answering machine". LaFontaine did not win the game, and offered to do the answering machine message himself instead.

I remember hearing that episode of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! I think it was the first time I had a name to go with the voice of the "In A World" guy. With that show, laFontaine was no longer just an amazing voice actor, but a human being with a great sense of humor. I've been a fan ever since.

Rest in peace, In A World Guy.

Image care of Wikimedia Commons