Happy Halloween everyone!
From Boing Boing

Monsters matted into classic art photoshopping contest

Cory Doctorow: Today on Worth1000’s photoshopping contest: matte monsters into classic works of art. I have blogged a lot of Worth 1000 photoshopping contests here, but this is hands-down the best, ever. I screeched aloud about ten times with delight while paging through the entries. Michaelangelo’s David with a facehugger! American Gothic Hannibal Lector! Norman Rockwell, also with a facehugger! There were so many brilliant entries it was nearly impossible to pick one to accompany this post, but I settled on Hellraiser’s Pinhead as the Mona Lisa as the perfect combination of excellent technique and a great concept. This one is cool enough to print and frame. Link

Current Mood:  exhausted

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For years we’ve gotten and carved pumpkins. Inevitably, they wind up getting forgotten about, and then rotting away on my porch. What you then wind up with is a rotting mess of pumpkin goo, surrounded by tiny flies. Sometimes I can get rid of it while it still resembles a pumpkin. Last year it was ignored for so long, I actually needed a shovel to scrape the goo pile up and throw it into the compost pile.

Well thanks to this idea from Extreme Pumpkins:

I shouldn’t have to worry about it again. Look! It’s already in a bag.

There are some other great images in the gallery. Their intro reads:

At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a "cute" event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events

That pretty much sums it up. There’s also the plus of being able to use powertools to carve one of these buggers. I talked Jean out of getting one this year because of last year’s shovel incident.. However, I think I have renewed interest now, and maybe it’s worth doing again.. I still have a few days left.

Current Mood:  amused

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I betcha this guy didn’t have to remember all 25 combinations. If he did, then he’d truly be deserving of the $7k first prize.

T.O. lawyer crowned Rock Paper Scissors champion

By the way, Murray…—->>>> Lightning…. damn.. I lost again…
As a reminder, here’s a previous topic concering the ongoing saga of RPS25.

Current Mood:  stressed

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Ok, time for some nature learning boys and girls. First off, if you don’t have a broadband connection, don’t even bother following this link. It’s a great National Geographic video, that is pretty damn spiffy.

Video in the News: Bees Battle "Hornets From Hell"

Japanese giant hornets pack a venomous sting so strong it can dissolve human tissue. Watch an attack by these killer insects on a hive of honeybees, and learn the surprising secret of the bees’ defense.

Watching the efficiency with which the giant hornets can decimate a hive is incredible. The video has some phenomenal shots of the hornets in slow motion. Gotta love new technology. There certainly weren’t shots like that in the good ol Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom days.

The secret to how the Japanese bees survive is at the very end of the video.. The butler did it, and that’s all I’m going to say.

Current Mood:  melancholy

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I didn’t even know this was in the works. I’m always up for more Conan. Too bad we can’t get Arnold to take off his suit/tie and get back on the set again. Though, after Conan the Destroyer, maybe he shouldn’t. But was that really his fault?

Perlman is nailed down for ‘Conan’
Ron Perlman has signed on to voice Conan of Cimmeria for Swordplay Entertainment’s "Conan: Red Nails," the first animated film featuring the mythic barbarian. Marg Helgenberger and James Marsden also are joining the voice cast, which includes Clancy Brown, Cree Summer and Mark Hamill. The film will be directed by Victor Dal Chele, with a screenplay by Steve Gold and Timothy Dolan.
[..snip..]

Current Mood:  stressed

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Had a great day yesterday. My father and his girlfriend came over for one of their semi-regular visits. We’ve seen them 3 times now, every two weeks. I’m glad that he was able to make some time in his schedule to come and visit his grandkids

We were also joined by our friends The Dunns. Jason brought his new digital Canon camera over, and we had fun taking some pictures of the kids. It was a learning experience, as the first batch of Alia were out of focus due to the AI in the camera constantly refocusing. Once we got that straightened out the second batch was much better.

Next time around we really have to work on the lighting though. Our hodgepodge of flash, floor lighting and bounced natural lighting didn’t give us as much depth as we’d like. Plus, it meant we were fussing with lighting and spending less time making the kids smile. Taking children’s photographs is an art unto itself. Mostly it requires lots of patience and experience. Granted, you still take shots with their eyes closed or their heads turned, but you have a standard set of poses to work with. our ratio yesterday was probably closer to 1 good for every 15 bad.

The hardest part was trying to do the pictures of them together and having them both smile or focus on the camera at the same time. In the end it was the single pictures that wound up coming out better.

It was a good first try though. We got enough decent stuff to make us (and more importantly the rest of the friends and family) happy for awhile. I probably even have enough shots to start working on a baby announcement.

It’ll take some time to play with color balance, fix some of the soft focus, etc. But who knows what we can turn out in a week or so. What’s important is that we took the first step in actually trying to pull something together and get motivated. I made a great collage of the photos you see here, added their names, and turned it into a wallpaper for my desktop.

Now I can look at my smiling kids all day long! Oh, and I didn’t even talk about the stupid dog. So we’re all in the kitchen working on the photos. We’ve got the photographers, the grandfather, the baby handlers, the audience.. the works… what don’t we have? Someone keeping an eye on the dog.

So Sebastian hangs out in the living room eating 2/3 of a tray of pepperoni and cheese. We come in at the plate has the near-perfect line of missing food on the lower 2/3 half. Why? Because that’s all that his grubby little head could reach from the floot. Luckily we didn’t come home from dinner to find the results of his little pepperoni-event all over his cage. I need to put ‘puppy-handler” on my list of requirements for the next photo shoot.

Hey, I just noticed that I lied to you.. the picture of connor on the wallpaper is his ‘Connor Curious”, not the smiley one… guess I gotta show that in full size too? Don’t get mad that I have more pictures of Connor up here Alia. I’ll make it up to you next time.

Also sorry for the jaggy layout of the images. One of the problems with images and html text and wrapping and the amount of space I have for the blog post.. guess you gotta deal with it.

Current Mood:  happy

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Feed me Seymour!

For two and half months my children have been lumps… grubs…little shit factories…I mean, I love them to death, but they had this blank stare on their faces, alternating with occassional crying and the pissed off “I’m taking a dump” look.

Not a very nice way to talk about my kids is it? Well I say it with tenderness in my heart.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, something magical started happening. The wonders of development. At first it started with Connor. He actually started engaging you with his eyes, and you know damn well that he’s looking directly at you and knows who you are. Then he smiles…. ***** melt ***** I’d come home from work and walk in the door and start talking to Jean with Connor on her chest, and he’d make this huge effort to flip his head over in the direction I was talking as if to welcome me home.

Alia was slower, but then in the last week, she’s started the same thing. They can both hold their heads up off our chests now, but struggle when they are flat on their stomach. Definately still a bit a way before they are able to push up and fully support their bodies and then flip over.. all the basics for crawling. Again, here Connor is slightly ahead of his sister, as he was holding (with much effort) his head and chest off the ground two nights ago, for a few seconds at a time.

Right now though, I’m happy with just the smiles. They are happy to be there with us. We can make faces and sing silly songs and our kids are laughing with us.

I knew that this was going to be the first milestone, and I’m so glad it’s finally here. It’s been a long 3 months with lack of sleep and free time. There’s a long road ahead. But I’ve finally got a feeling of progress. Progress in weight has been there, but the progress towards humanity is all that much more important. Oh, and just because they’re acting more human, doesn’t mean I still can’t call them grubs or garden gnomes.

Current Mood:  cheerful

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As of 10/11, FireFlyFans.net is reporting that Serenity has only grossed $18m so far. That’s far short of the reported $80m need for a sequel. So this guy has the right idea:

Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Movie fan purchased 320 tickets to give out 

Who was he?

A man said he bought 320 tickets to "Serenity" and on Sept. 30 stood in front of Regal Cinema Cascade 16 theater and gave them away.

It could have been a crazy promotion by Universal Pictures. Or maybe he was just a crazed fan willing to drain his savings account for the love of a movie.
[..snip..]

Current Mood:  pleased

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