If you want to know about the New World Order, this film is a fine place to start. I found Bermas's opening especially moving, as his awakening was very much like my own. This documentary is not for the faint of heart, as it can be very depressing, and angering. And please understand I don't offer this as gospel truth, but I think it's a far more accurate depiction of the workings of the world than you can get watching the network news: that shit is 100% lies and propaganda, sold to us as mother's milk.
Invisible Empire | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday gifts -- 04/26/2010
The Mind's Eye
Since around 1999, I watched this several times with my kids as they grew up, we found it mesmerizing. Now the graphics are incredibly dated, but the whole thing gives me an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.
Hawking warns against contact with aliens
Apollo 11 Launch in slow motion
There's thrust, and then there's the Saturn V. The explanation of why the very beginning of the exhaust is dark is fascinating: they use the cooler exhaust from the turbine pumps to line the sides of the engine bell, giving a bit of insulation from the very hot main rocket exhaust. That's why you see that arterial-looking tube running the circumference of the nozzle, I've always wondered about that.
Your Old Crap Website Dredgings from the early days of the Web.
Archie Comics' first openly gay character
Architectural Megaprojection (Thanks to Andy R.)
Video 1
Video 2
Sheath that lightsaber, son! (Thanks to Chriz)
A brief history of Martian Timekeeping
FARD (Thanks to Arnold)
The Wolf At Our Heels
California Schemin' Art will eat itself.
Another article with the same title, same subject
Since around 1999, I watched this several times with my kids as they grew up, we found it mesmerizing. Now the graphics are incredibly dated, but the whole thing gives me an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.
Hawking warns against contact with aliens
Apollo 11 Launch in slow motion
There's thrust, and then there's the Saturn V. The explanation of why the very beginning of the exhaust is dark is fascinating: they use the cooler exhaust from the turbine pumps to line the sides of the engine bell, giving a bit of insulation from the very hot main rocket exhaust. That's why you see that arterial-looking tube running the circumference of the nozzle, I've always wondered about that.
Your Old Crap Website Dredgings from the early days of the Web.
Archie Comics' first openly gay character
Architectural Megaprojection (Thanks to Andy R.)
Video 1
Video 2
Sheath that lightsaber, son! (Thanks to Chriz)
A brief history of Martian Timekeeping
FARD (Thanks to Arnold)
The Wolf At Our Heels
California Schemin' Art will eat itself.
Another article with the same title, same subject
Monday, April 19, 2010
Monday gifts -- 04/19/2010
Excerpt from Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. This man really knows how to write.
(pages 153-155)
Outside, there is no sign of Taki, though she hasn't really expected any. She looks both ways, wondering where she might more easily hail a cab back to the Hyatt.
"Do you know this bar?"
Looking up into a smooth, tanned, evidently European face that she somehow doesn't like at all. She takes in the rest of him. A Prada clone black leather and shiny nylon, shoes with those toes she hates.
Hands grab her, from behind, hard, just above the elbows, pinning her arms at her sides.
There's something that's supposed to happen now, she thinks. Something that's supposed to happen--
When she'd first move to New York her fater had insisted that she take lessons in self-defense from a small, fastidious, slightly portly Scotsman called Bunny. Cayce had argued that New York was no longer as dangerous as Win remembered it, which was true, but it had been easier to visit Bunny six times than to argue with Win.
Bunny, her father had told her, had been an SAS man, but when she'd asked Bunny about that he'd said that he had always been too fat for the SAS, and had in fact been a medic. Bunny favored cardigans and tattersall shirts, was very nearly her father's age, and told her that he would teach her how 'hard men' fought in pubs. She'd nodded gravely, thinking that if she were ever set upon by literary types in the White Horse she would at least be able to hold her own. So, while some of her friends explored Thai kickboxing, she'd been schoold in no more than half a dozen moves most often practiced in the maximum-security wings of British prisons.
Bunny's preferred term for this was "making mayhem," which he always pronounced with a certain satisfaction, raising his pale sandy eyebrows. And, in the way of things, Cayce had never, that she knew of, come even remotely close to requiring Bunny's mayhem in Manhattan.
With the Prada clone's fingers scrabbling to undo the Velcro fastening between her breasts, trying to free her bag, it comes to her that what's supposed to happen now, in the Bunny plan of things, is this: She shoves her arms suddenly forward, just far enough to grab the glove-thin leather of both his lapels. And as the second assailant inadvertently cooperates, yanking her arms back, her hands buried in Prada's labels, she pulls with all her might and smashes her forehead as hard as she can into Prada's nose.
Never having actually followed through on this move before, Bunny not having had a nose to spare, she's unprepared for both the pain it causes her and the extraordinarily intimate sound of cartilage being crushed against her forehead.
His dead weight, as he abruptly collapses, pulls his lapels from her hands, reminding her to step back, off-balancing whoever is behind her, look down between her legs (a man's shoe, black, with that same horrible squared-off toe), and stamp as hard as she can, with her heel, on the revealed instep, producing a remarkably shrill scream from very close behind her left ear.
Pull loose and run.
"And run" was invariably the footnote to any Bunny lesson. She tries to, the laptop banging painfully against her hip as she bolts for the end of the alley and the lights of a brighter Roppongi.
A lovely Battle of Britain machinima shot in Wings of Prey.
Alex Jones tortures an iPad to death.
The real story behind the Trololo song
He'd like us to write new words for the song.
Ebert defends his contention that videogames can never be art.
I found the matter unexpectedly challenging, as I would immediately say he's mistaken...but then I thought about it further. On a philosophical basis, it seems to me that arguing videogames are/aren't art is like saying Youtube is/isn't TV. Is art passive? Interactive? The work of one, or many? I found Ebert's closing statement pretty compelling, until I remembered that his beloved art form, cinema, has very similar underpinnings. Case reopened.
Similarities
Computational Storytelling
Pebble's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law:
Any *truly* sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from reality.
How to print from an iPad.
Meet Meline (Thanks to Arnold for the link.)
Magnasanti -- 6,000,000 Sim City inhabitants in one city.
This Venn diagram explains nerds, dorks, geeks, and dweebs.
Steorn has created a solid-state version of their generator.
How a fish swims.
Slinkachu
You're Breakfast
Pixar's Use of Harmonic Functions
The Most Awesomest Thing Ever
Dog Sledding
On a related note, here's Bailey.
Guerrilla Public Service (thanks to Chriz for this link)
Evil Clown For Hire (thanks to Diana for the link)
Echo Bazaar
John Murray Spear and the Mechanical Messiah
FWAF means Finish With A Flurry! Tips from a streetfighting master.
Magnetic Solids
Mystery skull still leaks icky brown goo after years.
The proper use of an iPad: amusing simple mammals. It's amaxing how far Apple has come since their famous 1984 Ridley Scott ad. No paradigm busting hammers here, just bright squishy things for entertainment.
Alice, by Jan Svankmajer
CommunityChannel
This girl seems to have an opinion on everything. She's rather charming though...from the safe remove of the Internet. If I lived near her, I'd probably have to kill her.
Her latest, Hackers in Movies, is pretty cute!
Tactile Mind -- Pornography for the blind
It's not your fault if you don't like cilantro. I was interested in this article because of my own experiences with the herb. My first encounter with cilantro occurred when I moved to Los Angeles in 1986, and tasted it in salsa. I *hated* it, and dubbed it 'soap leaf'. But I've come to love the taste of cilantro in various salsas and dishes.
Digital Pointillism
Seat Selection
Complexification
Masterpieces in 3D
Inside xRez Studio (Thanks to Chriz for the link!)
Hermione's Stalker
Behavior Placement -- Movies and TV are telling you how to behave, by design.
Of course, TV isn't the only place you can go to learn how good citizens behave. Just speak to your local clergy, who might be a part of a FEMA-trained Clergy Response Team to offer biblical guidance to help you submit in the case of martial law!
(pages 153-155)
Outside, there is no sign of Taki, though she hasn't really expected any. She looks both ways, wondering where she might more easily hail a cab back to the Hyatt.
"Do you know this bar?"
Looking up into a smooth, tanned, evidently European face that she somehow doesn't like at all. She takes in the rest of him. A Prada clone black leather and shiny nylon, shoes with those toes she hates.
Hands grab her, from behind, hard, just above the elbows, pinning her arms at her sides.
There's something that's supposed to happen now, she thinks. Something that's supposed to happen--
When she'd first move to New York her fater had insisted that she take lessons in self-defense from a small, fastidious, slightly portly Scotsman called Bunny. Cayce had argued that New York was no longer as dangerous as Win remembered it, which was true, but it had been easier to visit Bunny six times than to argue with Win.
Bunny, her father had told her, had been an SAS man, but when she'd asked Bunny about that he'd said that he had always been too fat for the SAS, and had in fact been a medic. Bunny favored cardigans and tattersall shirts, was very nearly her father's age, and told her that he would teach her how 'hard men' fought in pubs. She'd nodded gravely, thinking that if she were ever set upon by literary types in the White Horse she would at least be able to hold her own. So, while some of her friends explored Thai kickboxing, she'd been schoold in no more than half a dozen moves most often practiced in the maximum-security wings of British prisons.
Bunny's preferred term for this was "making mayhem," which he always pronounced with a certain satisfaction, raising his pale sandy eyebrows. And, in the way of things, Cayce had never, that she knew of, come even remotely close to requiring Bunny's mayhem in Manhattan.
With the Prada clone's fingers scrabbling to undo the Velcro fastening between her breasts, trying to free her bag, it comes to her that what's supposed to happen now, in the Bunny plan of things, is this: She shoves her arms suddenly forward, just far enough to grab the glove-thin leather of both his lapels. And as the second assailant inadvertently cooperates, yanking her arms back, her hands buried in Prada's labels, she pulls with all her might and smashes her forehead as hard as she can into Prada's nose.
Never having actually followed through on this move before, Bunny not having had a nose to spare, she's unprepared for both the pain it causes her and the extraordinarily intimate sound of cartilage being crushed against her forehead.
His dead weight, as he abruptly collapses, pulls his lapels from her hands, reminding her to step back, off-balancing whoever is behind her, look down between her legs (a man's shoe, black, with that same horrible squared-off toe), and stamp as hard as she can, with her heel, on the revealed instep, producing a remarkably shrill scream from very close behind her left ear.
Pull loose and run.
"And run" was invariably the footnote to any Bunny lesson. She tries to, the laptop banging painfully against her hip as she bolts for the end of the alley and the lights of a brighter Roppongi.
A lovely Battle of Britain machinima shot in Wings of Prey.
Alex Jones tortures an iPad to death.
The real story behind the Trololo song
He'd like us to write new words for the song.
Ebert defends his contention that videogames can never be art.
I found the matter unexpectedly challenging, as I would immediately say he's mistaken...but then I thought about it further. On a philosophical basis, it seems to me that arguing videogames are/aren't art is like saying Youtube is/isn't TV. Is art passive? Interactive? The work of one, or many? I found Ebert's closing statement pretty compelling, until I remembered that his beloved art form, cinema, has very similar underpinnings. Case reopened.
Similarities
Computational Storytelling
Pebble's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law:
Any *truly* sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from reality.
How to print from an iPad.
Meet Meline (Thanks to Arnold for the link.)
Magnasanti -- 6,000,000 Sim City inhabitants in one city.
This Venn diagram explains nerds, dorks, geeks, and dweebs.
Steorn has created a solid-state version of their generator.
How a fish swims.
Slinkachu
You're Breakfast
Pixar's Use of Harmonic Functions
The Most Awesomest Thing Ever
Dog Sledding
On a related note, here's Bailey.
Guerrilla Public Service (thanks to Chriz for this link)
Evil Clown For Hire (thanks to Diana for the link)
Echo Bazaar
John Murray Spear and the Mechanical Messiah
FWAF means Finish With A Flurry! Tips from a streetfighting master.
Magnetic Solids
Mystery skull still leaks icky brown goo after years.
The proper use of an iPad: amusing simple mammals. It's amaxing how far Apple has come since their famous 1984 Ridley Scott ad. No paradigm busting hammers here, just bright squishy things for entertainment.
Alice, by Jan Svankmajer
CommunityChannel
This girl seems to have an opinion on everything. She's rather charming though...from the safe remove of the Internet. If I lived near her, I'd probably have to kill her.
Her latest, Hackers in Movies, is pretty cute!
Tactile Mind -- Pornography for the blind
It's not your fault if you don't like cilantro. I was interested in this article because of my own experiences with the herb. My first encounter with cilantro occurred when I moved to Los Angeles in 1986, and tasted it in salsa. I *hated* it, and dubbed it 'soap leaf'. But I've come to love the taste of cilantro in various salsas and dishes.
Digital Pointillism
Seat Selection
Complexification
Masterpieces in 3D
Inside xRez Studio (Thanks to Chriz for the link!)
Hermione's Stalker
Behavior Placement -- Movies and TV are telling you how to behave, by design.
Of course, TV isn't the only place you can go to learn how good citizens behave. Just speak to your local clergy, who might be a part of a FEMA-trained Clergy Response Team to offer biblical guidance to help you submit in the case of martial law!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday gifts -- 04/12/2010
Photographer meets kakapo
http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=67753
Oh, isn't this interesting? Funny, how his plane went down the very next day.
http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/04/09/polish-central-bank-pulls-trigger-to-weaken-zloty/
So you *do* have a sense of humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg6QrSVJUyk
Destroyer of Worlds
http://hawtness.com/2010/04/09/wtf-girl-photos-destroyer-of-worlds/
That...would...be...fine
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/9/
Aesthetics of early computer graphics
http://translab.burundi.sk/code/vzx/index.htm
Devo Song Study -- Help pick 12 out of 18 songs for their next album
http://songstudy.clubdevo.com/
The Cat With Hands (Creepy!)
http://vimeo.com/2689070
What to do in case of first alien contact
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/04/first-contact-alien.png
Cracked, on how to write a Nicholas Sparks novel
http://www.cracked.com/funny-4725-nicholas-sparks/
Monster Engine brings children's drawings to life (thanks to inkgorilla for this link.)
http://thechive.com/2010/04/06/moster-engine-brings-childrens-drawings-to-life-11-photos/
More:
http://themonsterengine.com/
Kowloon Walled City
http://io9.com/5512888/the-walled-city-where-sunlight-couldnt-reach
Of course I had to find some other photographs:
http://artkhammarita.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/wolf2.jpg
http://artkhammarita.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/kowloonwalledcityalley2.jpg
http://kwout.com/cutout/n/na/mu/kni.jpg
http://images.coilhouse.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/factory.png
Pixels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFpcTGJwvZ0
Prometheus backlit by Saturn
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100405.html
Small Worlds
http://www.rathergood.com/small_worlds
A Jules Verne inspired steampunk SL sim
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/07/underwater-jules-ver.html
Hell
http://xkcd.com/724/
And the Flash implementation of Hell
http://www.swfme.com/view/1046212
http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=67753
Oh, isn't this interesting? Funny, how his plane went down the very next day.
http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/04/09/polish-central-bank-pulls-trigger-to-weaken-zloty/
So you *do* have a sense of humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg6QrSVJUyk
Destroyer of Worlds
http://hawtness.com/2010/04/09/wtf-girl-photos-destroyer-of-worlds/
That...would...be...fine
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/9/
Aesthetics of early computer graphics
http://translab.burundi.sk/code/vzx/index.htm
Devo Song Study -- Help pick 12 out of 18 songs for their next album
http://songstudy.clubdevo.com/
The Cat With Hands (Creepy!)
http://vimeo.com/2689070
What to do in case of first alien contact
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/04/first-contact-alien.png
Cracked, on how to write a Nicholas Sparks novel
http://www.cracked.com/funny-4725-nicholas-sparks/
Monster Engine brings children's drawings to life (thanks to inkgorilla for this link.)
http://thechive.com/2010/04/06/moster-engine-brings-childrens-drawings-to-life-11-photos/
More:
http://themonsterengine.com/
Kowloon Walled City
http://io9.com/5512888/the-walled-city-where-sunlight-couldnt-reach
Of course I had to find some other photographs:
http://artkhammarita.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/wolf2.jpg
http://artkhammarita.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/kowloonwalledcityalley2.jpg
http://kwout.com/cutout/n/na/mu/kni.jpg
http://images.coilhouse.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/factory.png
Pixels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFpcTGJwvZ0
Prometheus backlit by Saturn
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100405.html
Small Worlds
http://www.rathergood.com/small_worlds
A Jules Verne inspired steampunk SL sim
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/07/underwater-jules-ver.html
Hell
http://xkcd.com/724/
And the Flash implementation of Hell
http://www.swfme.com/view/1046212
Monday, April 5, 2010
Monday gifts -- 04/05/2010
An odd dream
I just woke up from a vivid dream, like the ones I had back around 1999-2002. It seemed hours long, but I only remember the last parts.
In the middle of the dream, I came out of a theater in a downtown mall (there's no such place in the real Los Angeles) where I'd just seen an anime movie that was artistically cool but utterly baffling in the plot department. Back at my parked car, I begin to drive and search for the freeway signs to take me home.
But I get lost, and find myself in in some out-of-the-way place near Silverlake (that also doesn't exist); a historically preserved Spanish mission, and now it's broad daylight. The trees are beautiful, and the day is pleasantly warm, and I'm forced to stop the car and explore a bit on foot. A small community of people live here, mostly Hispanic, but there are also a few blond-haired kids are running around underfoot. Germans, just like those who founded Anaheim (the reason for that city's name being half Spanish and half German).
As I look around I find some leaves from the trees, they're about 5 inches long and dagger-shaped, deep green with some orange and red flecks. After picking one up, it finds its way into my mouth and I nibble at it. Surprisingly, it has a pleasant taste, if chewy. I eat another.
I meet a man and a little girl, both Hispanic, and talk with them for a few minutes, then on a random impulse I pick up one of the dagger-shaped tree leaves and ask about them. Are they poison? As it turns out, they are quite poisonous, though it takes a while for the toxin to take effect. I confess to having eaten a couple, and express some worry. The girl laughs and said she ate some too, when she was younger, and was given medicine by her mother. I'm alarmed but relieved there's a cure.
But there's a slight shift of scene and I'm driving again, still trying to find my way home and just as lost, for about thirty minutes. The poisonous leaves are totally forgotten. I drive over a big incline and have to gun the engine, it's so steep, and end up going airborne slightly at the top where the dusty road suddenly goes level. My car lands with a thump. Fifty feet before me a Hispanic man who had been riding a burro, I see him tumble to the ground when the sound of my car frightens his mount and causes it to fall over in surprise. It's really funny. He isn't hurt, and the little blond girl walking with him laughs with a sound like sunlight on water at the unexpected slapstick.
I marvel that I've stumbled my way back to the mission, though a quarter mile from my previous location. Now I recall that I needed that antidote, and briefly tell my story to the man and girl. He uses his cell phone to call someone at the mission, and I'm taken there quickly. I am shown inside to a kind of kitchen/bakery which has a quasi-European quality.
There is a blond woman, in her early thirties and very pretty, who is glad to see me. Upon first hearing of the need for the antidote to the leaves she'd baked a special pie for me, thankfully it was ready now. It looks like a turnover, square with three open slices on top revealing what looks baked apple inside. When given a fork, I discover it is slightly bitter, but also sweet, and rather tasty, far better than I anticipated.
The woman is a mother, and one of her older children, a blond boy of about 15, watches me with unfriendly eyes. I don't know why he doesn't like me.
That's when I woke up, filled with the belief my dream was a message couched in symbolism. But what does it mean?
p-Cubee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iV0Icy41JM
Dungeons and Dragons Online changes to free-to-play economic model, earns 5x more money as a result.
http://www.fearlessgamer.com/2010/02/27/dd-online-got-the-free-to-play-model-right/
See, this is cool. I spend far more money in free-to-play games like Second Life (which is to say, some) than I do on subscription-based games (which is to say, almost none). Here's the actual DDO site.
http://www.ddo.com/
Attack of the Clones savaged, er reviewed in 9 parts.
Maybe he's trying too hard to top his Phantom Menace review.
After watching it entirely, though, I have to admit it's pretty good.
I'll save you the trouble of hunting down the additional parts, because YouTube's redesign mostly baffles me. Aren't redesigns supposed to make things *better*? Then why is it so unhelpful now? Am I missing something?
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBhi6qqFLA
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im7k4LUzA3Y
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux8pCqiiBLA
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGnorxUw4AA
5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1L63TdhC8
6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-isAmaVbsM
7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blkx6axytKQ
8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QThD0r3hZg
9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0wv2ossJU
Bunny Chow and other gourmet food trucks
http://laist.com/2010/03/31/las_first_bustaurant_world_fare_is.php
The street in front of our office has become a lunch truck alley, and every day there are unusual offerings. The most unique I've seen has to be this one, a double-decker Bus-taurant that serves Bunny Chow, a slang name for a kind of curried South African sandwich. The lower part of the bus is the kitchen, the top storey is the dining area.
Another interesting truck serves a fusion Soul-Asian cuisine which is quite good, but so far my fave is Fishlips Sushi.
Flint, Michigan is burning
http://paxtonland.com/archives/2010/04/153/
The 10 Most Unfortunate Masters of the Universe Toys
http://io9.com/5508866/the-10-most-unfortunate-masters-of-the-universe-toys
Even as a kid I new Masters of the Universe sucked. But age has sharpened my appreciation of that fact.
October by Eric Whitacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EoUAbODO34
I really like Whitacre's compositions, they have a certain Aaron Copland quality, with a dash of Michael Kamen.
Cloudburst, another nice Whitacre piece, this being more like a melodious Gyorgi Lygeti.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zqp0OpzMAI
Miegakure - 4D platform game
http://marctenbosch.com/miegakure/
Bob and Beyond -- Those doomed Windows apps
http://technologizer.com/2010/03/29/bob-and-beyond-a-microsoft-insider-remembers/
U900 - Diamond Head -- A very cute video. There's something about the simple music and soft morning light on the animated dolls that makes me feel happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VWdPGGTT8
Top 5 Just Cause 2 stunts
http://kotaku.com/5505470/top-5-just-cause-2-stunt-videos-are-here-now-vote
Yume
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGOeYzWTIFc
I just woke up from a vivid dream, like the ones I had back around 1999-2002. It seemed hours long, but I only remember the last parts.
In the middle of the dream, I came out of a theater in a downtown mall (there's no such place in the real Los Angeles) where I'd just seen an anime movie that was artistically cool but utterly baffling in the plot department. Back at my parked car, I begin to drive and search for the freeway signs to take me home.
But I get lost, and find myself in in some out-of-the-way place near Silverlake (that also doesn't exist); a historically preserved Spanish mission, and now it's broad daylight. The trees are beautiful, and the day is pleasantly warm, and I'm forced to stop the car and explore a bit on foot. A small community of people live here, mostly Hispanic, but there are also a few blond-haired kids are running around underfoot. Germans, just like those who founded Anaheim (the reason for that city's name being half Spanish and half German).
As I look around I find some leaves from the trees, they're about 5 inches long and dagger-shaped, deep green with some orange and red flecks. After picking one up, it finds its way into my mouth and I nibble at it. Surprisingly, it has a pleasant taste, if chewy. I eat another.
I meet a man and a little girl, both Hispanic, and talk with them for a few minutes, then on a random impulse I pick up one of the dagger-shaped tree leaves and ask about them. Are they poison? As it turns out, they are quite poisonous, though it takes a while for the toxin to take effect. I confess to having eaten a couple, and express some worry. The girl laughs and said she ate some too, when she was younger, and was given medicine by her mother. I'm alarmed but relieved there's a cure.
But there's a slight shift of scene and I'm driving again, still trying to find my way home and just as lost, for about thirty minutes. The poisonous leaves are totally forgotten. I drive over a big incline and have to gun the engine, it's so steep, and end up going airborne slightly at the top where the dusty road suddenly goes level. My car lands with a thump. Fifty feet before me a Hispanic man who had been riding a burro, I see him tumble to the ground when the sound of my car frightens his mount and causes it to fall over in surprise. It's really funny. He isn't hurt, and the little blond girl walking with him laughs with a sound like sunlight on water at the unexpected slapstick.
I marvel that I've stumbled my way back to the mission, though a quarter mile from my previous location. Now I recall that I needed that antidote, and briefly tell my story to the man and girl. He uses his cell phone to call someone at the mission, and I'm taken there quickly. I am shown inside to a kind of kitchen/bakery which has a quasi-European quality.
There is a blond woman, in her early thirties and very pretty, who is glad to see me. Upon first hearing of the need for the antidote to the leaves she'd baked a special pie for me, thankfully it was ready now. It looks like a turnover, square with three open slices on top revealing what looks baked apple inside. When given a fork, I discover it is slightly bitter, but also sweet, and rather tasty, far better than I anticipated.
The woman is a mother, and one of her older children, a blond boy of about 15, watches me with unfriendly eyes. I don't know why he doesn't like me.
That's when I woke up, filled with the belief my dream was a message couched in symbolism. But what does it mean?
p-Cubee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iV0Icy41JM
Dungeons and Dragons Online changes to free-to-play economic model, earns 5x more money as a result.
http://www.fearlessgamer.com/2010/02/27/dd-online-got-the-free-to-play-model-right/
See, this is cool. I spend far more money in free-to-play games like Second Life (which is to say, some) than I do on subscription-based games (which is to say, almost none). Here's the actual DDO site.
http://www.ddo.com/
Attack of the Clones savaged, er reviewed in 9 parts.
Maybe he's trying too hard to top his Phantom Menace review.
After watching it entirely, though, I have to admit it's pretty good.
I'll save you the trouble of hunting down the additional parts, because YouTube's redesign mostly baffles me. Aren't redesigns supposed to make things *better*? Then why is it so unhelpful now? Am I missing something?
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBhi6qqFLA
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im7k4LUzA3Y
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux8pCqiiBLA
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGnorxUw4AA
5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1L63TdhC8
6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-isAmaVbsM
7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blkx6axytKQ
8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QThD0r3hZg
9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0wv2ossJU
Bunny Chow and other gourmet food trucks
http://laist.com/2010/03/31/las_first_bustaurant_world_fare_is.php
The street in front of our office has become a lunch truck alley, and every day there are unusual offerings. The most unique I've seen has to be this one, a double-decker Bus-taurant that serves Bunny Chow, a slang name for a kind of curried South African sandwich. The lower part of the bus is the kitchen, the top storey is the dining area.
Another interesting truck serves a fusion Soul-Asian cuisine which is quite good, but so far my fave is Fishlips Sushi.
Flint, Michigan is burning
http://paxtonland.com/archives/2010/04/153/
The 10 Most Unfortunate Masters of the Universe Toys
http://io9.com/5508866/the-10-most-unfortunate-masters-of-the-universe-toys
Even as a kid I new Masters of the Universe sucked. But age has sharpened my appreciation of that fact.
October by Eric Whitacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EoUAbODO34
I really like Whitacre's compositions, they have a certain Aaron Copland quality, with a dash of Michael Kamen.
Cloudburst, another nice Whitacre piece, this being more like a melodious Gyorgi Lygeti.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zqp0OpzMAI
Miegakure - 4D platform game
http://marctenbosch.com/miegakure/
Bob and Beyond -- Those doomed Windows apps
http://technologizer.com/2010/03/29/bob-and-beyond-a-microsoft-insider-remembers/
U900 - Diamond Head -- A very cute video. There's something about the simple music and soft morning light on the animated dolls that makes me feel happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VWdPGGTT8
Top 5 Just Cause 2 stunts
http://kotaku.com/5505470/top-5-just-cause-2-stunt-videos-are-here-now-vote
Yume
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGOeYzWTIFc
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