More Colon News

A few weeks ago I posted something about some kind of colon cleansing kit and I quoted something about John Wayne having 40 pounds of crud in is his colon when he died. Well, big surprise, it's nonsense. There's a piece on it at Snopes.

In other news, there's a Bowel Cleanse, Intestinal Cleanse Support Forum. Support forum?

The Fugitive, pt. III

If anyone has any interest at all in what's going on with the whole criminal records mix up thing (and I doubt anyone is), I mailed in my form to the state police today and now I get to wait. I also went and talked to someone at legal aid and I got an appointment to talk to a lawyer for Sept. 13.

Exciting, no? No.

The Fugative, pt. II

So I went to the police station. I'd never been in a police station in my life. I guess I was expecting something a little crazier, a little more like NYPD Blue, but it was far more bureaucratic. The whole time I was there I saw exactly one policeman in uniform. There were few people there at all. I didn't even see the jail.

Anyway, what I have to do to prove I'm not a dangerous criminal is fill out a form, get a notary to sign it (luckily two relatives who live close by are notaries), and then send it with either a certified check or money order to the Virginia State Police. Then I get to wait. Yippee!

Respect Your Elders

Here's a couple of quotes from an email I got from my sister yesterday: "I was out last week at a club listening to really loud music and playing pool with these slightly underaged goth boys and one of them said (very earnestly, like it was something really profound) that I was an 'elder goth'. I don't know whether I was more insulted by the 'elder' or the 'goth'. He said it like it was some term of respect, the dink. I don't want it attached to me, respectfully or not. I mean, can't I go out in thrift store Catholic schoolgirl skirts and combat boots without being called something retarded? Huh? Grrrr!" And then, "Maybe I like wearing Catholic schoolgirl skirts and combat boots. I refuse to get giant pants with the ass-crack showing and pink T-shirts 3 sizes too small with the words 'Porn Star' across the front. I'd rather be mistaken for a goth than a hoochie mama any day."

Mayberry

Last night I dreamed I was watching one of the early 60's episodes of the Andy Griffith Show and Frank Zappa was in it. He had short hair and no moustache. I don't remember much else.

The Fugitive

It doesn't pay to get out of bed. Ever. I've come to the conclusion that I'm cursed. Things happen to me that simply don't happen to other people. Remember back in December when I bought that computer online and they sent me a scooter instead? How many times has that happened to you or anyone you know? Never, right? Well, yesterday was another scooter day.

Since I'm an unemployed bum, I gave in to desperation and went to a local temp agency. I was tested to see what marketable skills I had, etc. Later, the woman interviewing me said, "We were doing the routine state-wide criminal background check and something came up." My mind started going over every possible thing that could turn up in a criminal background check and I couldn't think of anything. I've never even had a parking ticket. She then told me that someone with my name and Social Security Number had been convicted in 1997 of aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy. Oh, joy. And the woman wouldn't even give me a copy of the damn criminal record. "We have to pay for this service," she said. I did manage to get her to at least write down a few details about the charges.

So now I have to go to the police department and have them check my non-existent criminal background to prove I'm not this convicted sexual batterer and forcible sodomizer. Once again I'm going to be penalized for someone else's screw-up. Did someone just mess up the records, or have I been the victim of identity theft? My guess was messed up records.

I did some searching online last night for services that would do criminal background checks. There's plenty of them, but the overwhelming majority are charging money. They're searching public records, so there should be some free services out there. I did find one that would do free searches on offenders. I managed to track down the guy with my same incredibly common name. I also ran my own Social Security Number and came up empty-handed. So it would appear that the company that the temp agency hires to do these background check screwed up. Can I sue them, I wonder?

You'd think that the fact that the guy's still in prison would be proof enough, or the fact that on the day this guy was convicted I was working at a girl's school (and I have all of my old paycheck stubs), but it's not apparently.

Do any of you know of good free online services that will do criminal background checks?

Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat

Anyone even remotely interested in Bob Dylan should check out "It's Not a House, It's a Home" Page. There's lyrics, album and singles lists, bootlegs, etc.

American Music

A German record collector named Stefan Wirz has put up some very extensive websites that deal with things like old folk and blues. There's the aphabetically arranged American Music, Double Neck Guitars on LP/CD Covers, and Resonator Guitars on LP/CD Covers among other things. Be sure not to overlook the odd (and very long) side-scrolling index at the top of the pages.

Eugenics

Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement: "We now invite you to experience the unfiltered story of American eugenics – primarily through materials from the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, which was the center of American eugenics research from 1910-1940. In the Archive you will see numerous reports, articles, charts, and pedigrees that were considered scientific 'facts' in their day. It is important to remind yourself that the vast majority of eugenics work has been completely discredited. In the final analysis, the eugenic description of human life reflected political and social prejudices, rather than scientific facts."

Radios

Sarah's Transistor Radios should give you hours of fascination if you love looking at vintage radios. Of course, if you don't have any interest in looking at vintage radios, then it probably won't hold your interest at all.

Clunky Cameras

I like vintage cameras. I'm particularly fascinated by old Eastern Bloc camera gear because it's so strange and clunky. Communist Cameras, Bruce Feist's Camera Collection, Tiger's Lair, Antique Russian Camera, Comrade Stoisha's Revolutionary Soviet Photography Page, and the excellent Alfred's Camera Page (which I've linked to in the past) are solely, or at least partly, devoted to these wonderfully archaic, oddball cameras.

Trailer Plate Mania!

It's official: the internet has a site for everything. Exhibit A: Michigan Trailer Plates.

Tele-Snaps

From 1947 to 1968, amature photographer John Cura photographed television programs in the UK. The Doctor Who Photonovels are examples of his work. [Link via Metafilter.]

I've linked to the Doctor Who Video and Audio FAQ before, but I think it's relevant to link to it again.

Also relevant is Telesnaps.com and Loose Cannon Productions' Doctor Who fan reconstructions.

More Dead Rock Stars

Last month (on the 29th, I think), I listed several links to lists of dead rock stars and celebrities. Well, I've found a couple more.

The Glam Rock Obituaries is one part of the extensive Glam Rock Files.

And Rock and Roll Heaven "contains artists who had hit records during the classic rock era of 1955 to 1980."

Pop Culture Debris

Pop Culture Debris hasn't been updated in awhile, but there's plenty on the front page to keep you busy if you're into comic books, old movies, animation, etc.

Oxy-Powder

Constipated? Oh, come on, you know you are. Try Oxy-Powder, it's "the same product being used for optimal colon health and oxygen cleansing by the Hollywood stars." Did you say Hollywood stars? I'm sold!

Vinylorphanage

Vinylorphanage is "A safe haven where forgotten and unwanted vinyl record albums find solace". They also feature such things as Album Cover Theme of the Week. They even have .mp3's. It's no Show and Tell Music, but what else is?

Deflation

Yesterday I was all excited about finding Spadefoot toads, so I sent my sister an email telling her about it. This was her response, "I used to find spadefoot toads all the time in that fecking window. I was excited, but it wore off, especially since I found about a dozen of the things. They don't even jump. They just sort of squirm. I don't even think they're proper toads at all. I just assumed my Little Golden Book of Frogs 'n Such was way outdated since most of those things were printed in the 1950's. Frankly I'm surprised my Little Golden Book of Evolution even exists being as it was printed in a less enlightened time. (But that was before St. Reagan was in office.)" Ah, my sister, such a paragon of sensitivity.

A Milestone, Kinda

According to Site Meter, I passed the 20,000th hit mark sometime this morning. Yay! Of course, half of those were me and a large portion of the rest were misdirected search requests for bizarre porn, but still, 20,000 is a lot.

Frog Trap

I love toads and frogs. The sunken basement window of my office is basically a frog trap. I used to hate it when frogs and toads got in there, but now I like it. Yes, it's annoying when they constantly jump against the window at night while I'm trying to look at porn...I mean, do important online research, but I'm always fascinated by the different types of toads and frogs I find the next day.

I have a few field guides to help me identify them, and there's plenty of online resources, but the odd thing is that I've been finding things that aren't supposed to be in this county. This week I've found two Eastern Spadefood toads. Look at the map of where they're supposed to be in Virginia. Not only are they not supposed to be in Pittsylvania County, they're not supposed to be in any of the counties that border Pittsylvania County either. (Pittsylvania County's on the bottom of the state about halfway across. Here's a Virginia map with all the names on it.) But yet I've found two of them, which makes me think they're probably all over the state, but no one's bothered to find them and identify them. What else am I going to find?

Of course I took some photos of the Spadefoot toads: a side view of number one, a front view of number one, a side view of number two, and a front view of number two. (These are links to my Textamerica moblog, which seems to load very, very slowly at times. And sometimes not at all. Sorry.)

Exciting, no? No.

Walking Around

I went out for a walk today with a camera and made sure I went down to get a decent shot of the bent Dan River sign.

Not Impressed

I'm not impressed with Blogger's new bar at the top of all our blogs. I don't really see the point of it. The search feature's nice (I took my old Atomz search box down in response), but the rest I can do without. Actually, I love BlogThis! and use it all the time, but yesterday (the first day the bar appeared), BlogThis! stopped working properly. Sure, it works just fine on the spiffy new bar (where I don't really need it), but now the BlogThis! Firefox extension doesn't work right and I have to laboriously edit everything. No more convenience. And I can't even log on with the BlogThis! button on the Google toolbar anymore. Lovely. Thanks, Blogger, for giving me more reasons to go to TypePad.

Update: I just went over to Blogger Status a few minutes ago and read the following entry from yesterday, "Changes pushed today broke BloggerAPI 2.0 - we're in the process of working out a fix." Well, I guess that explains it, but I'm still not impressed with the bar. So there.

Please Kill Me

You know what I hate? I hate it when I get a song I hate stuck in my head, but I'm not paying attention, so I end up sort of mentally singing along with the this song I hate. I'll just be sitting there, la-de-da-da, when all of a sudden I realize what I'm doing. Today's song? Peaches and Herb's "Reunited". I hate that song!

Random Name Generator

"Let the Name Generator create you a new name." Or not. My new name was Spicy Maxi Pad Monster.

Female Latex Masks, Anyone?

Maskon.com: "Your one-stop resource for female latex masks on the Internet." Finally! I hate having to hunt all over the damn internet looking for female latex masks. [Link via the not-safe-for-work Fleshbot.]

Baby Chicks

Curious about photos of baby chicks? No? Humor me, please. Compare the wild turkey chicks to the ones I photographed last month.

Big List of Blog Search Engines

Blogger Ari Paparo has compiled the Big List of Blog Search Engines. And it is a big list.

More Tornado Photos

In my comments earlier, Cindy mentioned a new gallery of tornado damage photos. These are really good. They even have the badly bent Dan River sign and the ripped open warehouse.

In other news, what's left of the hurricane missed us.

It's Official

It was a tornado that hit here on Thurday. At least 5 million dollars in damages so far.

I found a small gallery of storm damage pictures, but it doesn't have the department store, the big Dan River sign, or the warehouse that was torn up.

And the hurricane should be here by 8:00 PM. Whoopie!

Tornado?

We had what was probably a tornado come through town yesterday around 4:30 PM or so. It didn't hit near where I am, but it tore up some stuff in town.

This morning I went out on a rubber-necking tour and saw lots of big trees snapped in two and a heavily damaged grocery store. I put a few bland pictures of the grocery store area up at my practically abandoned photoblog.

Free Clash!

Hey, over at clashcity.com they have a pile of Clash, and Clash-related, .mp3's.

Why, oh, why do I have to be stuck on a dial-up connection? [Link via The Cartoonist.]

Categories, Please

After doing the blogging thing for well over a year and a half, I've begun to want more from the blogging platform I use. Blogger keeps adding features, but one thing they haven't added that I really want is categories. You've seen them, mainly on Movable Type blogs; a post will have a category such as general, humor, programming, political, or whatever the particular post is about. Having the posts categorized makes it easier to search older posts, such as, if you only wanted to search the political posts. I was hoping there was a way to get categories in Blogger, but all I've turned up is a needlessly complicated workaround that actually requires you to have multiple blogs.

Yesterday I blundered across a blog with categories that appeared to be using Blogger. It wasn't a Blogspot URL, but you can put your Blogger blog on your own server if you want. The template was one of the array of boring ones Blogger trotted out with the relaunch a few months ago. (I don't like any of the Blogger templates, not even the one I use.) I wondered how he did it. Maybe there was a simple way where I'd just have to add a few lines of code. I considered emailing him and begging the secret out of him. Then I looked at his html and saw he was using WordPress, not Blogger. AARRGGHH!! So I can't have categories at all with Blogger.

For the past couple of weeks I've been experimenting with blogging software that I have to install myself on a server. I've managed to successfully install WordPress, which I love, and Nucleus CMS, which I don't love. I failed miserably in my attempt to install pLog. I didn't even try to install Movable Type. I've been wanting to move my blog off Blogger to somewhere where I have more controll for a long time, practically since the beginning. But after messing around with these different blogging programs a bit, I'm beginning to think that it's better to let other, more qualified people deal with the technical side of things. Blogger's done a good job in keeping up with all of my 1,000-plus posts. If I'd been trying to keep track of all of that stuff, and deal with the other problems, I probably would've lost half of it. So, I've come to the conclusion that I need to move the blog to a solid platform with the features I want, and I don't want to have to worry that company's going to disappear overnight. (Why people use off-brand blogging services I'll never know.) I've decided on TypePad is probably my best bet, but I don't know when I'll be making the move.

Blog Glut

Weblogs Compendium lists what I can only hope is all, or at least most, of the sites that offer blogs. It's a long list.

World Sex Records

The online Illustrated Book of Sexual Records will surely be useful in settling strange bar bets. But there's also World Sexual Records and the World Sex Records & Adult Statistics Site. These should keep you busy for awhile. (And I shouldn't have to tell you that these may not be safe for work.)

Gmail Wiki?

There's a Gmail Wiki? Why? [Link via Wiremine.]

Famous Mugshots

"Celebrities and the Infamous Behind Bars."

Worst. Software. Name. Ever.

There's a wiki engine out of Austria called Cuntilla.

Wiki Ruins.

Wikis tend to have an area called a sandbox where people can practice with the wiki formatting syntax particular to that piece of software before they start editing the actual wiki. (About two of you know what the hell I'm talking about. Humor me, please.) What happens to the sandbox of an abandoned wiki? Spam!

Break My Face.

Break My Face features lots of info on obscure punk bands of the late 70's and early 80's. (The site's done by obsessive record collectors.) My own personal favorite is the sad tale of Rock Bottom & the Spys (a band I'd never heard of).

It's Bigfoots, Not Bigfeet.

Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. Oh, lawdy, I loves me some bigfoot! Lots of info.

Rubber Chickens?

Sex with Rubber Chickens? "Admit it-the presence of a rubber chickens is sexual. Whether you're at a scene party or in a comedy club rubber chickens scream sexual tension!" Um...sure. Why not?

And, of course, see the official site. (I guess it's all safe for work.)

Bitter Films Official Homepage

Bitter Films Official Homepage: Animated Short Films by Don Hertzfeldt. Great stick figures.

Interesting food to try in Thailand

Interesting food to try in Thailand should probably be renamed, Nauseating food to try in Thailand.

The Poop Report

The Intellectual Appreciation of Poop Humor. If they say so.

The Whores of War

The Whores of War is a blog entirely about mercenaries, especially the private compaies like Dynacorp.

It hasn't been updated in a while.

Mercenaries

I'm not exactly sure what's up with this page. There's lots of information about mercenaries. Including a big page of links.

Iron Man!

I dug through the 45's today at the thrift store. You know, 45 rpm records. Those black round things with a hole in the center that your parents used to listen to music with. Yes, those. Anyway, I found some surprisingly decent things like The Monkees, The Turtles, Led Zepplin, Johnnie Taylor, Sly and the Family Stone, etc. But the best thing was a promo copy of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". It's mono on one side and stereo on the other. And it only cost 33 cents. Yippee!

Oh, Deer.

This place is practically a zoo. We've got it all: turkeys, frogs, hawks, buzzards, deer, you name it. Yesterday I saw a mother deer and her two spotted offspring strolling around in the backyard eating things. I got my digital camera and took a bunch of shots through a pair of binoculars. Once again, I braced the binoculars on the window rather than going to the trouble of getting out one of my tripods. And, once again, I was surprised that I actually ended up with a couple of decent shots considering how I took them.

Colon Cleansing Kit Anyone?

Blessed Herbs' Colon Cleansing Kit can "remove large portions of intestinal debris". Lovely. And they also tell us, "Most people have 5-10 pounds of matter stored in their Colon... According to autopsies, John Wayne had 40 lbs and Elvis had 60 lbs". And whatever you do, don't, I repeat, don't click on that link they have to see more photos of the "intestinal debris". I'm not joking.

Now I know what it's like to have the heebie-jeebies.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

OneLook Reverse Dictionary: "OneLook's reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept." [Link via The Presurfer.]

Alternative Guitar Tunings.

An article from Guitar Player Online gives multiple examples of strange guitar tunings. Interesting. Although why this interests remains a mystery since I suck at guitar and never take mine out of the case.

Morbid? Me?

I'm feeling a little morbid today, folks, so I'm giving you a selection of dead celebrity and dead rock star links.

The Dead Rock Stars Club

The Dead Rock Stars Club. In my opinion, the ultimate dead rock star page. Hours of fun!

Dead Musicians- who died before age sixty

Dead Musicians- who died before age sixty.

List of drug-related deaths

Wikipedia's List of drug-related deaths of notable people.

The Dead Musician Directory

Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory: "A Site About Dead Musicians...and how they got that way"

More Death

Rock Star's Digest: "A Database: birth, death, cause of death, trivia, links"

Premature Death of Rock Stars

According to the site, Premature Death of Rock Stars, the average age dying age of deceased rock stars is 36.9.(Warning: religion!)

Find A Death.

Find A Death features more than you'd ever want to know about how celebrities have died. (Warning: some gross photos.)

Life in Legacy.

Life in Legacy"Remember everyone. The famous, the small, the young, the old. History lives in all of us and those who we remember this week are legends in history." In short, well known people who just died.

Dead or Alive?

Dead or Alive?: "This site tracks whether famous people are still alive or whether they have passed away."

Beatle Bootlegs

Beatlegs is a Beatles bootleg site that (until lawyers get involved) features around three bootleg .mp3's a month. [Link via J-Walk.]

Gangsters.

I tend to not like modern bands that claim to play ska, they simply don't have a feel for the music. I especially don't like modern bands that claim to mix ska with punk, because these bands tend not to have a feel for either genre. I like my ska older. Either give me some of the original 60's Jamaican stuff or give me the late 70's 2-Tone stuff.

And, speaking of 2-Tone, The Specials in their prime were quite good. [Links shamelessly swiped from the still slightly out of order gmtPlus9.]

The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains

The true story behind the movie, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang.

Prison Flicks

This morning, out of the blue, I watched the 1932 film, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. After doing a little searching online to find out something about the true story it was based on, I found a site called Prison Flicks, where they do nothing but review prison movies.

File Under: Socially Irresponsible.

This looks like a updated online version of The Anarchist's Cookbook. Play nice now.

Rube Goldberg Invention Convention

Rube Goldberg Invention Convention: "Rube Goldberg was an artist, inventor, engineer, author and sculptor. He is best known for his comical drawings of crazy contraptions and inventions. His artwork appeared in newspapers throughout the United States from the early 1900's to the 1960's. Today, the term Rube Goldberg is used to signify anything done in an overly compicated or round-about manner." [Link via something I saw yesterday. What was that? I guess I should've written it down or something. I'm so busy lately. And disorganized. I wish I had a robot assistant. Yes, that would be cool.]

The ElectriClerk

The ElectriClerk is a vintage manual typewriter/computer hybrid inspired by similar devices in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. [Link via Metafilter.]

The Who London 1965

The Who London 1965: An account of the band, the clubs, their equipment, etc.

Also, a guy named Mike Moore completely restored a '58 Fender Stratocaster Pete Townsend smashed during a Who gig in '68.

Moblog

Is this picture fake or not? Either way, it makes my frog picture look kind of lame.

Templates

Why do Blogger sites in Persian (Farsi?) always seem to have different templates than regular Blogger sites? And how can I get access to these templates?

Homebrew Lava Lamp

Homebrew Lava Lamp from a wine jug. [Link via my weirdo sister.]

Pulling Satan's Cotton Plug

Pulling Satan's Cotton Plug: "Christian (Baptist) women today can not go into a pharmacy or grocery store without Satan waiving his filthy cotton finger at us and calling for our souls from the shelves. Indeed a trip down the feminine hygiene isle today is more a test of faith than a matter of choice. In fact, there simply is no choice. Any woman who does not use a cotton maxi-pad will burn in the eternal lakes of fire and that is all there is to it. " [Link via my weirdo sister again.]

Website Plagiarism Search.

Copyscape is a search engine designed to track down plagiarised web content. (I've wanted one of these for awhile.) [Link via The Presurfer.]

Whistling Records

The Online Guide to Whistling Records is the type of thing that makes me glad I don't have a broadband connection. Dammit.

Weirdo Music!

Weirdomusic.com features "exotica, lounge, easy listening, outsider music, and more!" Check out the .mp3 and audio stream page; it's stuff like this that really makes me wish I had a frickin' broadband connection. Dammit!

I Can't Explain.

Pete Townsend's equipment overview features every type of guitar ever played, or smashed, by Mr. Townsend. Unfortunately, the stupid page was down the last time I checked. AARRGGHH!! [Link via Guitarz!.]

Update 07/22/04: The site's still down! AARRGGHH!! I swear it's a real site, you gotta believe me! I've seen it. And it's great, too. Lots of pictures. Really.

Sonic Youth Guitar Tunings

Since you now know all about Sonic Youth's equipment, you might as well know about their tunings as well: The Official Sonic Life Guitar Tunings v1.0.

There's also The Unofficial Sonic Youth Guitar Tunings List.

I guess the fun thing to do would be to compare both of these and look for inconsistancies. Actually, now that I think about it, that wouldn't be that fun at all. Forget I mentioned it.

The Sonic Youth Gear Guide

Curious about virtually every guitar ever used by Sonic Youth? No? Oh, come on! Why not? Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

I See Dead People.

The recent death of former New York Dolls bassist Arthur Kane makes four members of the Dolls that are dead: Billy Murcia, Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan, and Arthur Kane. Which brings me to today's question: What rock band has the most dead members?

At least four people who were either present or former members of the Grateful Dead are dead: Pigpen, Keith Godchaux, Brent Mydland, and Jerry Garcia.

At least four peole who were either present or former members of the Allman Brothers are dead: Duane Allman, Berry Oakley, Lamar Williams, and Allen Woody.

And at least four peole who were either present or former members of Lynyrd Skynryd are dead: Ronnie Van Zandt, Steve Gains, Allen Collins, and Leon Wilkeson.

So there can't possibly be a rock band with more than four dead members, right? Right? Wrong.

There's at least six former memebers of the Byrds that are dead: Gene Clark, Micheal Clarke, Gram Parsons, Clarence White, Kevin Kelley, and Skip Battin. Hell, the Byrds had so many members over its seven or eight year existence, there may be a few other dead members I've overlooked.

So the Byrds win the dead member contest, unless, of course, any of you can think of another rock band with even more dead members.

Infrared, Part II.

Yes, more point-and-shoot infrared stuff. Bear with me.

I have two digital cameras, the one I took the shots I posted yesterday is a good snapshot camera and my other one is a glorified webcam that I paid $25 for. (I've seen it on sale for $10.) I decided to see how well the $25 piece of junk took infrared photos. The results surprised me. Even though the images produced by this camera are small, pixelated, and somewhat distorted, they ended up coming out far better than the pictures taken by the more expensive camera: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Later, I found out how to make a infrared filter using two layers of exposed color print film. I decided to test this new filter against my earlier one. I can't decide which I like better: 1, 2, 3, 4.

This morning I decided to try one layer of exposed film. Surprisingly, even though the filter passed visible light, the vegetation had that "infrared look": 1, 2.

Then I tried the combination of red filter, linear polarizer, and circular polarizer. The results seemed to be closer to color infrared images I've seen: 1, 2.

Infrared.

A couple of weeks ago I read something on taking infrared photos with point-and-shoot digital cameras. I took a few shots after cobbling-together a red filter and two polarizers as a makeshift infrared filter. The results, while sort of interesting, weren't really infrared as far as I could tell. (The photo was brightened considerably using the Levels setting in The GIMP.)

Yesterday, purely by chance, I found myself looking at a site on using subminiature cameras. Oddly, there was a piece on making your own infrared filter by using combined red and green filters. I put a couple of my glass filters together, but that didn't seem to block much visible light. Then I got out my Roscolux filter pack and cut a square from #27 Medium Red and a square from #90 Dark Yellow Green. These two combined were almost black. I taped the stacked filters to the front of my cheap digital camera and the results were surprisingly good: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The dark circle in the center of each photo is the only real problem and I don't know how to remedy that because it always pops up when I use really dark filters with this camera.

Wild Kingdom.

Over the years I've seen wild turkeys around here many times, but I've never seen any baby turkeys until this morning. So I got my Nikon out and shot a few pictures and then I decided to try my luck shooting through my binoculars with my cheap digital camera. The results, while not great, surprised me: 1 , 2 , 3

Digging Through the Junk.

I was bored out of my mind this morning, so I decided to take a trip to Goodwill to dig through the garbage. I so enjoy picking through the detritus of other people's lives. Anyway, I hit the vinyl albums first this time. Typically I don't dig through the vinyl because it takes a long time and there's rarely anything interesting in there. Once I found some belly dancing albums. I stupidly bought only one of them. I went back later to see if they were still there and, of course, they were all gone.

Today wasn't any different from any other time I've looked through the vinyl. Lots of dreck; little of interest. I thought I hit pay dirt when I found a copy of Booker T and the MG's Hip Hug-Her. I pulled the record out of the battered sleeve and it was something else entirely. Something stupid. I don't remember the title. It got tossed it back into the pile and I kept searching.

I don't know why I dig through old records. I guess I hope that one day I'll find something really cool or rare, like maybe an original printing of a Velvet Underground album, the Yardbirds, a Robert Johnson 78, or something, anything, but all I ever see is stuff like Mantovani, Andy Williams, and Leo Sayer. (Did anyone who bought a Leo Sayer album ever keep it?) I did once find a rare copy of the Weirdos' Who? What? When? Where? Why? That was an odd thing to pop up in this town. And that's also the best thing I've ever found digging through thrift store vinyl, I think. That's sad.

Wig-Out!

American Merkin Company, "Handcrafting merkins for over 150 years!" (Not safe for work, by the way.)

3 Dev Adam!

3 Dev Adam is a bizarre, low-budget Turkish movie where Spiderman is a murderous bad guy. Really. It also features Captain America and the Mexican wrestler, Santo. I'm serious. [Link via some new links blog I saw yesterday that took forever to load because it had tons of pictures and I'm stuck on a dial-up connection out here in the boondocks and it really got on my nerves so I didn't write the URL down out of pure spite. So there.]

What Is That?

Dog Toy or Marital Aid? [Link via Monkeyfilter.]

Paint-Cam.

One of the most intriguing things I've seen online recently is artist Daniel Rozin's Paint-Cam. It's a Shockwave based application that allows the user to paint with colors that are various live webcams from around the web to make photo-montages. Very clever and strange.

Rosin is the same person who did the wooden mirror a lot of people were linking to last year.

Jet-Powered Firetruck.

Last month, at a local airshow, I got to see the Hawaiian Fire Department's jet-powered firetruck. (The website's missing some images.) Don't ask me why someone would get the bright idea to mount a pair of jet engines in a 64 year old firetruck, but I'm glad they did. You don't often get to see a firetruck race an airplane down a runway and win. The truck's also is in the Guinness Book for holding the record as fastest firetruck (407 mph). (Why they need a category for fastest firetruck escapes me. Why not a have a category for fastest washing-machine?)

And speaking of the airshow, I really should get off my ass and get those three rolls of film I shot developed.

Try and Read Them All!

Implementation is a novel that's "[...] printed on sheets of stickers that are being distributed in monthly installments. [...]" People have been sticking them on things all over the world.

WHOOOSH!!

Sparkler Bombs. Have fun when the FBI shows up.

Middle Age Riot.

Radio station KCRW had Sonic Youth live in the studio for a performance and interview. You need the dreaded RealOne Player to see it. Oddly, even though I'm on a dial-up connection, I was able to listen to this nearly forty minute streaming media file without interuption. And it didn't sound like it was under water either. The "video" (for lack of a better word) was of a truly crappy quality unfortunately. [Link via Metafilter.]

Belly Dance!

Radio Bastet features cover galleries of vintage belly dance albums and has a radio show of nothing but belly dance music. (You need the loathesome Real One Player, sorry.) [Link via Tales of the Two-Headed Mermaid.]

The Montage Art of Winston Smith.

One of the things I always liked about the early Dead Kennedys albums was the artwork of Winston Smith.

Too Much Time on Your Hands?

A gallery of Japanese dog clothes. (Warning: midi music!)

Search Request Stupidity.

Over the past couple of months I've been accumulating oddball search requests that led hapless web surfers to my humble blog.

when i shower with girls my vagina gets wet is this ok
I'd be more worried if while you were in the shower your vagina didn't get wet. You know, because of all of that water. (Oh, god, my life is so empty.)

hillbilly racing mules
Just because I live in the South people automatically start making assumptions.

Turtle erectile disfunction
There's no greater tragedy in all of nature.

phobia of lobsters
Lobsters: scary, but tasty.

male raccoons don't have nipples
I've never checked, but since the Virginia raccoons have rabies, I'm going to hold off despite my sudden curiousity.

conservative woman bikini photos
They're wearing really big bikinis.

what can i use to remove a homemade tattoo that is inexpensive and you can do it at home
Cheese grater? Sandpaper?

sideburn templates
My barber needed a set of these this morning. She shaved my sideburns off completely even when I specifically said not to.

large volume enema
Doing a little spring cleaning, are we?

ant-thing goes anime porn
I don't know what that is, but if you find it, could you please let me know; I'm more than a little curious.

=exercises porn stars uses
Insert lame comment about picking up coins without using their hands, feet, or mouth.

Avalanche.

I always wondered what it would be like to suddenly have tons of people hit my blog because of something I'd written. In a year and a half of blogging I didn't have that problem; virtually no one was interested in anything I'd written. Well, yesterday I got to find out. The final tally was 346 hits. My old record for one day was something like 70-something, I think. The typical daily average is around 30 hits.

It started when J-Walk linked to my Monkey Grip (AKA "the correct way to hold a pencil") post from April. He's linked to me several times before, but I never got a bunch of hits as a result. Then, appropriately, I started getting hits from Monkeyfilter, who'd linked the same post. (But without crediting J-Walk. Bad monkey!)

And the hits just keep on coming. Today I had over 60 a little after 9 AM.

This morning I also noticed I was getting hits from Diamond Geezer. He used to link to me, but took the link down after I went inactive. But why multiple hits all of a sudden? I found out that today he's going to see if he can leave a comment in a hundred different blogs he reads. You can actually track his progress. At last count he was only about halfway, but considering how insanely industrious he is, I don't doubt he'll finish.

Blogger Pop-Ups?

I've been testing out various new Blogger features over the past couple of days and decided to finally try out the Blog This! thing that's included with the excellent Google toolbar. It worked just great, but oddly, when I opened up the blog (not this one, my R&D blog where I do my experiments first so as not to screw up this one), the Google toolbar informed me that it was blocking a pop-up. I unblocked the pop-up to see what it was and it was a typical stupid ad telling me I'd won something. But why was it on my blog?

I rarely see pop-ups anymore because I use Firefox and on IE I have the pop-up blocker that's built into the aforementioned Google toolbar.

So what's the deal? Does Blogger now feature pop-ups or was it somehow connected to the Blog This! thingy? Has anyone else seen pop-ups on Blogger sites, or am I just going insane?

My system doesn't have any spyware on it either, so don't suggest that as the culprit.

Update: I'm not sure, but this pop-up thing may have something to do with Bravenet. I've got a Bravenet hit counter on the R&D blog. If it's not that, I'm fresh out of ideas.

New Template.

Yep, I got myself a shiny, new template. This one, unlike my old one, actually seems to work properly. If you were using Internet Explorer, the old one required you to reload the page if you wanted to scroll all the way to the bottom. And if you're one of those rare, sane people who uses Mozilla Firefox, you had to reload if you didn't want half the page to display nothing but gibberish. Of course, considering how I haven't posted jack squat here since last month, the gibberish may have been viewed as an interesting change of pace.

The only bad thing about this template (I mean besides its punishing dullness) is there's no blue. My trademark blue is nowhere to be seen.

And, yes, I'm still on hiatus.

A Short, Quick Post.

I just found out Robert Quine, one of my favorite guitarists, killed himself. Just two or three days ago I reread this interview with him. This really sucks. I don't know what else to say.