Translated from parceltongue: Get over to this website as soon as possible and watch an exclusive trailer for HP and the Half-Blood Prince.

Coming in November… glee…

Tags: harry potter•trailer

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= Sunday July 27, 2008 =

Me: *Yawn*

Alia: Dad, you yawn like a hippopotamus

Me: *blink*

She’s been able to say the word hippopotamus since very early. Who know why.. is it easy for kids to say? Does she like the hard syllables? I have no idea. She pretends she is one during her bath at night (sometimes she’s a seahorse or a mermaid). But that comment yesterday caught me totally off-guard. Couldn’t believe she made the comparison.

As an aside, you should be able to see the images now on LJ. It was brought to my attention by delbruc that my image links were always broken when it was cross-posted. This wasn’t a problem with the images, so much as the fact that I blocked all hotlinking from sites other than my own, as I was having bandwidth stolen. So I added LJ to my list of exceptions in my .htaccess file and now the images display as they should.

Surprised no one else mentioned it, but then it could be that no one actually reads this crap, figured I was incompetent and couldn’t post a picture correctly, or assumed the network was having trouble (but only, and always, when they read my posts). I’m guessing it was #3.

Tags: alia•hippopotamus•images

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-George Carlin

This image isn’t some special effects from the latest Hollywood movie, but rather a picture of a lightning storm in Boston circa 1967.

Last night, I experienced a lightning storm of that magnitude over the Philadelphia region. We heard on the news that between 7-8pm, there were over 2000 strikes. Between 8-9pm (as I drove to fencing practice), there were over 3000 strikes.

It was a really strange primal experience. I felt my heart racing and my arm hair rising as I drove up 95. The sky was bright enough to drive without headlights with the constant flashes. It kept my peripheral vision working in overtime, and I had to fight to keep turning my head. There was this primal fear that kept creeping up on me. I finally turned off the radio and gave 110% of my attention to driving, waiting at any minute for the car next to me (or me) to explode in a bright white light.

It looked surreal, with low hanging clouds and both horizontal and vertical strikes, plus the cloud lightning.

The storm gods were mad last night, and they showed it.

Tags: fear•lightning•storm

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If you’re going to raise geek children, it’s a good thing to have geek friends.

Saturday was the twins 3rd birthday party. The first present opened was an Imaginext  Pirate Ship by Fisher-Price

It has Pirates.

It has ZOMBIE Pirates.

I mean, come on.. how much geekier can you get than that? I’m sure it was easy for Mike and Sam to actually pick this item out, because, truth be told, Mike is a 3 year old himself. He was as excited about playing with it as they were.

Connor took one look at it, opened one of the accessory packs (a skeletal shark) and decided he didn’t want to open any more presents. He had the one he wanted.

The ship has ‘action points’ on it, allowing for things like raising the anchor, or firing the cannons. You put the pirate in the appropriate place and turn it, and then the magic happens. Very cool indeed.

He played with it all night Saturday, and all day Sunday (except for the time when Alia had the captain and they were fighting over it). I’m sure, even as I write this, he has his ‘Captain Hook’ fighting against the zombie pirates.

Last night, Alia wouldn’t eat her meatballs. But, when the two-headed dragon chariot decided to eat the ‘dragon food’, she was right behind him. Finished the whole plate. That didn’t give the dragon the strength needed to survive the onslaught of the zombie pirates though.. At this point, whatever toy Connor is holding is the one that wins.

I soon got mauled by two children snarling and growling at me, pretending to be the dragon. No sympathy from the wife, who sat there chuckling that I brought it on myself.

I did, of course, and that makes it all the better.

Tags: birthday•dragon•Geek•pirate•shark•Twins•zombie

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A LETTER FROM JOSS WHEDON
Dear Friends,

At last the time has come to reveal to you our Master Plan. BEWARE! Those with weak hearts should log off lest they be terrified by the twisted genius of our schemes! Also pregnant women and the elderly should consider reading only certain sentences. Do not mix with other blogs. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog. You must be this tall to read. ‘Kay?

Joss Whedon? Neil Patrick Harris?  Nathan Fillion? Felicia Day?

Come on.. how can you not be all over this…

Thanks michelf (michelf)…for tweaking my geek

Tags: Geek•joss•joss whedon•nathan fillion•neil patrick harris

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I just brought these guys up at the Brooks’ party on Saturday, so it reminded me to go check out their site for new missions, and lo and behold!!

In honor of my father and uncle, I present the latest Improv Everywhere mission, Human Mirror.

Tags: improv everywhere•mirrors•reflections•Twins

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Sometimes it takes a large event (such as the current oil crisis) to inspire innovation. Here’s one example. Did you know that because of the shape of gallon milk jugs (as iconic as they are), they are unable to be stacked, and hence the development of the milk crate?

Well, we can thank the price of gas and other environmental issues such as water conservation as driving forces in a redesign:

Sam’s Club redesigns milk jugs

The new containers also store 50 percent more milk per cubic foot than the old jugs. That means more milk on each truck - reducing delivery trips and fuel costs.

…

Sam’s used to take five milk-deliveries per week - now it’s down to two. They could only store 80 conventional-shaped gallons in their coolers. Now they can fit 224 of the new kind.

And, thankfully, that savings gets passed along to the tune of 10 to 20 cents gallon.

I’ll tell ya what, I’ve been seeing the cost of milk going up on par with gasoline for the last year, and changes like this which can save money are a welcome addition to any milk drinking family.

Tags: gasoline•innovation•milk

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If you didn’t get it, obviously you’ve never eaten at Dennys.

Thanks to Neatorama for reminding me that tomorrow night, the full moon of June 18th, is a solstice moon. Because of the high solstice sun, we get a low, horizon-hugging Moon and a strong Moon Illusion.

The Solstice Moon Illusion is described here by NASA. It’s an effect known as the Ponzo Illusion, but there is still some debate on how that’s possible when it’s experienced by pilots without foreground objects.

Tags: astronomy•moon•ponzo illusion•solstice

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