Munden's Bar

Passing on from vizi, the perfect Christmas present for party members

I feel rivet needs one of these, and one of these would be an appropriate couple portrait for my love and I. The same sex ones, such as this, this, and this, would be perfect for gay couples, though this is a perfect one for a MMF triad!

(Warning : their website is on a non standard port, so if you have a good firewall it might complain when you click on the link, but as far as I can tell it's safe enough. Except maybe for those living in Ameristan, where the secret police will knock on your door thirty seconds after accessing the link. *grin* )

Neil pointed to Ella Edmondsen's My Space account saying "She's going to be a star". I enjoyed it. She has Imogen Heap and The Mighty Boosh on her top friends page, so she's got some taste :)

Watched this TED lecture today by Theo Jansen. He's not much of a speaker, but he doesn't have to be, his art speaks for itself. More pictures and discussion at WebUrbanist, which was where I found it in the first place.

The walking mechanism alone is impressive, especially as it works in the heavy lift version, I was imagining a Battle-Mech as I watched that version move. But when you combine it with the "brain" built out of bits of plastic tubing and bottles.... well, I suppose you also need to know about the research showing that mechanical logic components are a faster and more efficient than electronic at nano-scales, but still..

Meanwhile some guy thinks we've reached an evolutionary plateau. He's probably right, but I think most people reading that might miss the point, that evolution has stopped in developed countries, so the humans of the future will most likely look like people who are not in developed countries now.

And deep in the bowels of an African gold mine, they find the "loneliest bug on earth". What they mean by that is that it exists in an ecosystem of just one species, itself, living with no light, relying on water, hydrogen and sulphate for its energy.

I'm still useless, but less drugs today makes me hope it's improving.

I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine, in a bag
I'm useless, but not for long
The future is coming on

Whitcoulls currently has the first three series of BattleStar Galactica, plus the mini-series, selling at $89.00. I only have the first series in hard-copy which alone cost me about $50. Very tempting! Should I do it? Tell me, please!

So there's another NiN album out, Halo 27 - The Slip, again available free. Get it now!

This article on food that causes anal leakage isn't very well written, but it may be useful for some. It certainly explains why KFC goes straight thru!

Slightly more appetizing is Nik Ainley's art, probably easiest to experience on his site ShinyBinary. His Stranger is especially delectable. If you look at his DeviantArt site as well, it contains art with the txt "Join me in Shinyland" that made me think of Shiny.

Cracked have listed the poison head crabs from Half Life 2 at only Number Two in The 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies of All Time. I would have to agree that they are damn scary. Especially because you know they're there before you see them, but knowing they are there only helps in avoiding them if they are at a longer range and you have line of site to them. Hearing them cackle when you're in a dark room, especially when you;re not already holding an appropriate weapon...well, HL2 is one of the few games that actually causes physical flight-or-fight reactions in me, and those poison head-crabs are big part of why.

So, now I'm part of "EDS, an HP company", how does that make me feel? Pretty "meh" actually.

Recently I realized I have been doing too much reminiscing over past good times, and not enough arranging for new good times. Long term this is, I know, and may fall apart before it happens. But this year I"m 47, and while I'll be spending the actual birth day at Southern Exposure, I would like to have a party somewhere up here. In keeping with my earlier attempts at theming my parties, this one will be called "Closer" (based on my own pseudo-Cockney rhyming slang of "Forty Seven - Closer to Heaven". Take that however you like, though I was thinking of NiN's Closer when I said it.

The next year, 2009, I will be 48. This means I will need to have a 48 hour party. A 48 for my forty-eighth. It will be a real party, I know several DJ's now! :) But hey DJ, please, play it at 48 rpm coz I'm slowing down in my old age! :) Start planning for November 2009 now! And don't die before it happens!

Thinking of TNC this evening, and need to spend some time doing something prior to that, so anyone gonna definitely be at BBC, or elsewhere, for an after-work relax?

The real Flowers for Algernon? :

Ravel and Dr. Adams were in the early stages of a rare disease called FTD, or frontotemporal dementia, when they were working, Ravel on “Bolero” and Dr. Adams on her painting of “Bolero,” Dr. Miller said. The disease apparently altered circuits in their brains, changing the connections between the front and back parts and resulting in a torrent of creativity
...

In the most common variant, patients undergo gradual personality changes. They grow apathetic, become slovenly and typically gain 20 pounds. They behave like 3-year-olds in public, asking embarrassing questions in a loud voice. All along, they deny anything is wrong.

Two other variants of FTD involve loss of language. In one, patients have trouble finding words, Dr. Miller said. When someone says to the patients, “Pass the broccoli,” they might reply, “What is broccoli?”

Well, I'm already apathetic, slovenly, and heavier. As to asking embarrassing question or acting like a three-year-old, I'll leave that judgement to you lot. But perhaps if my aphasia gets worse, I'll actually be able to write a novel? Except, it will have words missing which I'll have forgotten... At least I can now be happily apathetic, overweight, and slovenly, knowing it's not my fault. It's just my dementia. There's nothing wrong with me at all. Is that being creative?

Someone asked me about the pen I had saying "IT Rock Star", here's the explanation!

Ten Thousand Cents is an interesting artistic project and statement on the world. I like the rebels!

Finally, I love graphics that display interesting statistics well, and here is one such graphic, depicting your odds of dying of particular causes (assuming you're in the USA). It's interesting that you are more likely to be legally executed than die in an earthquake, flood, or a fireworks discharge.

I just gotta pass this on for anyone on my flist who doesn't watch alexi_z's LJ :
http://legnangel.livejournal.com/564026.html

Are we thinking or role-playing game ideas that can use these pictures yet?

The rest of legnangel's LJ is interesting too, there is a very creepy baby in a picture at the bottom of the page and some of the other people in the picture look remarkably familiar too...

And from mangee, a link to Portable Apps. The whole idea is to have applications like Firefox, Thunderbird, GAIM, and Open Office run completely off a USB drive meaning that your applications as well as data are available anywhere you can plug a USB drive into a computer. A wonderful idea. With advances in flash ram making 1GB and higher flash drives available for under NZ$100, this seems like a great solution for people who don't want to carry around (or can't afford) a laptop, but want their apps and data available whenever they borrow someone's computer.

Hell, it even sounds like a good idea to me, that way, if my computer falls over I can continue with a borrowed replacement, and I don't have to even temporarily store potentially naughty chat files or LJ entries (y'all know what I mean!) on my work computer's hard drive.