Monthly Archives: October 2006

Flip-Floppers, all of ’em!

Posted on October 31, 2006 by Kelson

Spotted on a school marquee:

Sign: Congratulations! You have earned Flip Flop Fridays!

Gee, I hope none of them ever runs for office. Some opposing PAC group will dig this up as evidence of constant flip-flopping!

Posted in Politics, Signs of the Times | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Evening Skies

Posted on October 29, 2006 by Kelson

Here are a couple of photos, one just before sunset, the other just after, over the past month.

First up is a twilight view of South Coast Plaza. On Friday the 13th, we went to the nearest Borders to pick up The End of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection, Fragile Things. We ended up crossing the bridge over to the main section of the mall, turned around, and saw an amazing twilight display with clouds silhouetted against the blue.

We stopped to take pictures. We weren’t the only ones.

Twilight sky above the South Coast Plaza annex

Perhaps an hour later, the rainstorm arrived.

Next up is from this past Monday, October 23. I was driving up the 405 after work and noticed that there were some feathery clouds in the right area, so I started looking for sundogs. Normally I don’t find anything. It’s Southern California, after all, so the right conditions are relatively rare. (Though occasionally I see something spectacular like the full halo I caught in February.)

To my surprise, I saw a faint bright spot in the clouds, level with and to the right of the sun. It got brighter over the course of my drive, with hints of red, orange and yellow creeping in on the sunward side: a classic sundog. Once I got onto city streets, I had a chance to stop and take a picture.

Picture of a sundog (October 23, 2006)

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Genuine Muppet Fur Pillow!

Posted on October 29, 2006 by Kelson

Picture of Katie holding up a fuzzy yellow pillow.

I forget where we found this—I think it might have been Linens and Things. Katie (shown here with the pillow) took one look at it and said, “Made of genuine Muppet hide!” It reminded her of a certain sketch from The State.

Posted in Humor, Photos | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Whaam!

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Kelson

I’d known that artist Roy Lichtenstein‘s most famous works were done in the style of gigantic comic book panels. Something I didn’t know was that many of those paintings weren’t just in the style of comic panels, but were blown-up copies of specific panels from actual comic books (done, of course, by other artists).

An art teacher named David Barsalou has been tracking down the originals. He has a website, Deconstructing Lichtenstein, which displays dozens of actual comic panels side by side with the corresponding Lichtenstein paintings.

Some are nearly exact. Some depart a bit more, but many of those actually keep the same dialogue or narration. And yet, somehow Lichtenstein’s work has been hailed for decades as “original.”

(via A Distant Soil)

Posted in Comics, Strange World | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Call of the Wild Noodle

Posted on October 22, 2006 by Kelson

Sign: Wild Noodles

The name of this restaurant reminds me of two things:

  1. A “Get Fuzzy” comic strip in which Bucky Katt proclaims that tofu tastes better in the wild. (Rob had to tell him it was an animal to get him to eat it, and of course Bucky had to boast about his hunting prowess.)
  2. The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest April Fool’s broadcast.

Posted in Signs of the Times | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Riddle Me This

Posted on October 21, 2006 by Kelson

I really liked the last two Five For Fighting albums, America Town and The Battle for Everything. “Superman” was quite possibly the only song I’ve heard that made me run out and buy an album without checking other songs first. So I was eagerly awaiting “Two Lights.”

Unfortunately, after listening through twice, I only actually like two songs on the album: “California Justice” and “Policeman’s Xmas Party.” Everything else is just too…sappy.

And “The Riddle” is everywhere. Radio, supermarkets, fast food, shopping malls. I can’t escape it. Worse, it’s one of those tunes that worms its way into your mind and runs around in circles.

But here’s the odd thing: Does anyone else think the verse sounds a little bit like “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “The Night Santa Went Crazy?”

Posted in Humor, Music | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

IE7 got you down? Try Firefox or Opera!

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Kelson

Firefox.Opera.Internet Explorer.

Microsoft will be releasing the long-overdue Internet Explorer 7 any day now (possibly as soon as Wednesday, if rumors prove correct). It will only be available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, and the upcoming Windows Vista.

I know there are people out there still using Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows Me, and other older systems that won’t run IE7. Why not take the opportunity to check out something new? Firefox 2 is also due out this month, and Opera 9 just came out this summer.

Despite what you may have heard, the vast majority of websites really do work on all major browsers. And with alternative browsers gaining popularity, the number of websites that block anyone but Internet Explorer is shrinking.

Opera and Firefox will bring you tabbed browsing, RSS Feeds, security and privacy controls, built-in searching, pop-up blocking—all the advantages IE7 boasts over IE6. Plus you get more customization, built-in spell checking, download management, session saving, and support for up-and-coming web technologies like SVG graphics and WebForms 2. Opera adds blazing fast display, voice commands and mouse gestures (leave that keyboard behind!), and per-site preferences.

Check out Opera. Check out Firefox. Or check out a dozen other alternative web browsers. Try them out, and see what works best for you.

Firefox 2Opera 9 - Your Web, Your choice

Posted in Browsers | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Get used to “disapointment”

Posted on October 15, 2006 by Kelson

Found written on a stairway tile:

Writing on a tile: 'life is full of disapointments' [sic]

Someone’s teacher might be disappointed in the spelling…

Posted in Signs of the Times | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

A9 and the demise of SiteInfo?

Posted on October 13, 2006 by Kelson

Amazon.com’s search site, A9, has scaled back drastically. The rewards program is gone, as are bookmarks and history. They’ve even discontinued the A9 toolbar.

This of course brings up questions about some of the site integration technologies that they developed. OpenSearch has already taken on a life of its own, and in fact the new A9 seems to be mostly an OpenSearch aggregator. But what of SiteInfo? Continue reading →

Posted in Web Design | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Traffic Truth

Posted on October 13, 2006 by Kelson

I was listening to the traffic report on KCRW this morning, and realized the background music sounded familiar. I thought about it, and realized that it was the instrumental track from Aimee Mann’s song, “Nothing is Good Enough.”

Posted in Music, Strange World | Tagged , , | Leave a comment