Archive for May, 2008

Say goodnight, Dick

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Dick Martin is dead at the age of 86.

I remember one of the skits on Laugh-In had Dick Martin as a wine connoisseur who had become a drunken bum who was on his last legs. He got involved in a wine identification contest (at the behest of Dan Rowan’s character, I believe) and won it. According to Dan Rowan’s character, he identified the last wine after his death. I doubt that Dick Martin’s real last words were anything like that.

I couldn’t find the skit, but there’s some good stuff here.

Oooh, want!

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

I remember the old Bensen gyrocopter ads in the back of magazines. I used to want to build one. I wanted Little Nellie the moment I saw her. Somewhere, I have instructions for building a gyrocopter kite.

Which lets you know why I want a Magni.

A few music links for Thursday morning

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Learn to play an instrument online.

Folk and Celtic punk tabs.

Practice drills for music theory.

An impressive version of One Note Samba on ukulele by James Hill:

Finally, just because there are occasions when one is needed … an instant rimshot.

Got your incentive check yet?

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

If you don’t already have plans on how to spend it, you might be able to find something in the Acme catalog.

You can’t make this stuff up

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Well, I guess you can, because someone did.

My youngest brother likes spy stuff: Bond movies, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, and the like. I just picked up a book for him at a local used book store. It’s The Man From T.O.M.C.A.T #2: The Million Missing Maidens, by Mallory T. Knight, printed in 1967.

The Man From T.O.M.C.A.T. #2
(Click for larger)

The cover blurb reads:

Under orders to deflower every virgin he can find, T.O.M.C.A.T Agent O’Shane comes up against evil beauty Gisela Vultch as he seeks the secret of her strange orgiastic cult.

I’ve only given the first chapter a quick once-over, because of that and the back-cover blurb, a portion of which is:

The Man From T.O.M.C.A.T. could not have devised a more stimulating assignment. Until, hoisted aboard Merdalor’s mystery-ship, O’Shane found himself the only man on a vessel carrying two hundred virgins, five hundred monkeys and a pair of armed Lesbians.

The character names are horrendous: Merdalor is the bad guy of the story, a brilliant biochemist who was an associate of Heinrich Himmler during WWII, and is now head of a cult known as Systemology. Merdalor’s companion “was Hund Scheiskopf, mathematician, physicist, and ardent Nazi.” O’Shane’s boss is Duncan MacSwiver. The Willick sisters, Fanny and Hilly, show up again (they were apparently in the first book).

I tell you, I don’t know whether to give my brother the book or burn it to save his sanity.

It’s too late for me, now.

Not good

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

I wanted to download an Apple Dashboard widget and watch one of their tutorials this evening, but every time I try to go to their website, I get redirected to the Washington Post website’s 404 page.

Someone has a messed up DNS entry somewhere.

I guess there is an ‘I’ in team, after all

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Via Ace, we have the story of a very impressive young woman.

And, for those of you familiar with the Ace of Spades Lifestyle, this has nothing to do with that.

Unless it falls under the “drive your enemies before you” part.

Yowza!

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Impressive photos of ice waves on Lake Huron. Now that’s gotta be cold!

Via Protein Wisdom.

For my old Navy buddies

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

… if any of them ever wander in here. Found at The Last of the Few (probably NSFW overall, depending on where you work, although this link should be ok).

Military Language

Oh, this looks like fun

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

… even if it’s called Phun. A 2-D physics simulator, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Be sure to watch the video.