beancounters

Drop and give me, er, a few

UR's doing it. Maya's doing it with a spreadsheet. IT is the one hundred push ups challenge.

To improve your strength, fitness and general health all you need to do is commit about 30 minutes of your time per week, and follow the push ups training program as closely as you can. I promise you will feel much better about yourself and much more confident after just a few short workouts.

Strictly out of curiosity, mind you, I myself got down on the floor and assumed the position. With my right shoulder still so troublesome, I'd assumed I couldn't even do two push ups, but on the initial test, I made it to eleven. And I coulda done more, if I weren't, you know, such a pansy. So I'm going to take the challenge. My goal is 100 "lady" push ups (knees as fulcrum).

Then again: 30 minutes of exercise per week? I don't know; that's going to cut into my Twitter time.

A Rabbit's Revenge

It's Saturday, so you have plenty of time (at least ten minutes) to watch Big Buck Bunny. [via Mlle Lapin]

This short was released in April 2008 by Blender, a company that produces an open-source program for three-dimensional modeling. DreamWorks for the People!

Friday dog-blogging: minion

Click around on The Arcade Fire's new video, Neon Bible. It's interactive, man! This is way better than regular music videos. This is going to kill MTV. MTV's gonna get so discouraged, they'll stop showing music videos altogether, and then ... What's that? When did they ...? Oh, well, never mind.

This kaleidoscope toy is deceptively simple and dangerously addicting. Poor Karen says she'll never leave the house again. Which is a shame, because every time she tries to take her kids swimming, it rains. She could have a bright future as a rain goddess. We could invite her out to California 'n stuff.

Typical infographic. Love this. I'm throwing one into the middle of my next draft, just see if my prof notices.

Here's a recipe for Ziploc ice cream. We ought to try it, don't you think? It was preschool-tested, so it must work.

Moving tilies [via Grow a Brain]

Alcoholics Eponymous

And for my mom: Typical reaction to the revelation that I do not own a cell phone, by year.

Today's fill-up

$100 for a tank
Originally uploaded by beancounter

A Ford F-150 holds 25 gallons, but the gas station only lets you buy up to $100 at a time. I don't know why the price limit. Suicide prevention, maybe.

Later: This is what car ads will look like when oil gets up to $300 a barrel ...

Hands-free is the law

Hands-free is the law
Originally uploaded by beancounter

Yo California!

After July 1st, whatever you're holding in your hand as you drive had better not be a cell phone.

Wildfires

As you can see, it's been hazy and smoky in Sacramento the past few days, due to a whole slew of wildfires happening in Northern California. They're saying the cause is a freak thunderstorm we had last Saturday. Lots of thunder and lightning, but about thimbleful of actual rain. 

Here's a screenshot of today's incident report, for perspective.

Flash Beancounter of the 21st century

So, my daughter was bringing us up to date about a girl who was her best friend in fifth grade. "Nossin is in Bangladesh visiting her grandparents this month," says Bunny. "Did you know Bangladesh is just a little island? I thought it was bigger at first, but then I looked it up on Google Earth." The two of them email each other every day. Because there's a 13-hour time difference, they have a running joke. One will claim to be tired and ready for bed, while the other calls BS, says the sun is out and it's time to get out and play.

I'm sorry. Can we stop and rewind a moment? Can we pause and reflect on how wonderfully science fiction-y this is? We are living in a world of interactive maps and vast stores of information available - literally - at the touch of a button. And a world where it's possible to send letters instantly to your friends on the other side of the planet.

Sure, we don't all have flying cars yet, and we don't all dress in silver jumpsuits, but shoot, we're only eight years into the 21st century. There's time for Flash Gordon to show up.

Friday dog-blogging: kidlets

One of my dad's ex-wives used to call children kidlets. We hated it. Because we hated her. Also, because the word sounds like "cutlets". And who needs that image?

Other ways we mess with children ... fun snacks shaped like Legos, to teach our toddlers it's okay to swallow Lego-shaped things! Go ahead!

My first cavity search.(SFW) Funny, but probably true.

Robert Scoble provides a running monologue about the birth of his son via Twitter. It made the list on the Twitter Hall of Shame. [via Karen, on Twitter of course]

For kidlets of all ages: Visit the Snack-o-matic snack food generator. Shallot and Blue Corn Grunteros? Endive and Paprika Flingingers? I can't understand why these delicious-sounding snacks are not available in my grocer's freezer.

The Birds of Bodega

I neglected to tell you that our family attended a wedding in early June, in Bodega Bay.

Bodega Bay, of course, is the site where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds. We'd been looking forward to seeing the bay because of that; and in fact, locals could point out to us the major landmarks, such as the diner where Tippie Hedron got stuck in the phone booth, and where Suzanne Pleschette (or was it Tippie again?) foolishly took all her schoolkids out of the reletively protected building and made them run down the street and get pecked a lot.

(I loved Tippie, though. No matter what she was up to - hiring a little motor boat to play a trick on a guy, driving a ratty ol' pickup truck, or discovering dead bodies - she always, always knew where her purse was. The mark of a truly self-possessed woman.)

I first saw this movie when I was eight, on a little television, with commercial interruptions, during some afternoon movie show. And still, that movie was so horrifying to me, I watched most of it while crouching behind the living room couch!

Fast-forward to Bunny's first viewing. She's ten, and this time it's being shown on a big-screen TV. During the scene with the school children running down the street, I looked around - no Bunny. She'd crawled behind the couch and was watching the movie from there. I hadn't told her my story or anything.

How did you handle your first viewing of The Birds?

Google let me down

How to beat the Monday morning blues. Three tips to beat the Monday blues. FIVE ways to beat the Monday blues. (There must be a high inflation rate in India.)

But nothing on Google shows me how to MAKE OTHERS SUFFER for MY MONDAY BLUES.

You got lucky today.

Another reality TV illusion shattered

The real secrets behind a HGTV FreeStyle design show makeover.

The crew, meantime, was peeling off price tags and planting $1,000 worth of newly purchased furniture and accessories in other rooms. Then later, we could conveniently "find" them, exclaiming how great this lamp, those pillows and that bamboo mat would work in the living room.

I knew it. It always bothered me about that show, that a homeowner might have wonderfully decorated bedrooms and dens, but a crappy-looking living room. Who really lets that happen? Thought it was a bit of TV hyperbole, but not to this extent!

Friday dog-blogging: scifi fido

Little-known facts about the movie Star Wars. I don't know why I'm a sucker for stories where a studio turns down a film project that later goes on to great success. Also, it took George Lucas two years to write one thing? Holy shit, I can relate.

Zoomquilt (flash) This came out in 2004, but it's new to me, so heck, it might be new to you.

The 5 most evil robots ever invented (in real life, Anthony. Do not comment.)

What's the deal with The Happening?  Poor M. Night. The movie opens today, but already Rotten Tomatoes is piling on. (OK, Anthony, now you may comment.)

Escape Pod - original science fiction in convenient podcast form.

Top Ten Errors in Science Fiction Movies. The fact that he could stop at a mere ten displays remarkable restraint. Shoot, Star Trek: Generations violated most of the laws of space and time in the first 15 minutes, and that was just a warm-up. I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll ever travel in space, so I don't mind all that  much if my space movies to go *BOOM*.

Sliced for your convenience

02-1963-05-16-18
Originally uploaded by White Rock Museum

I'm getting a kick out of a newspaper collection from 1963, currently being loaded onto Flickr by the White Rock Museum.

(Click the photo, then click "all sizes" to see a nice, large version.)

Prices aside (except to say WOW, IF ONLY!!1!), it's kind of goofy-sweet to return to the days when grocery stores offered packages of Berkshire cheese, and hamburger buns that were pre-sliced for your added convenience.

River Cats dress

River Cats dress
Originally uploaded by beancounter

Had to snap a picture of this dress, which was in a shop window downtown.

Sacramento isn't one of the world's most sports-crazy cities by a long shot, but every once in a while, you'll see some display of pride.

Especially on prom night.

Even heroes gotta pray

Someone has a most unique hobby - that of grouping all the superheroes by religious affiliation. Spend some time perusing the list. It seems amazingly comprehensive.

How sad that the Legion of Druze Superheroes has only one member. Can't he post a flyer on a kiosk or something?

Oh - even sadder - no Unitarian-Universalist superheroes. Spanglemonkey, our mission is clear.

What? You don't believe that United States ex-Presidents are superheroes? O ye of little faith! Click on a name. You'll be directed here. Now you know!

Under cover of darkness

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica  before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness. The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo's population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.

Presumably the summer crew will find the that the winter folks are all smiling.

Mind your A's and O's

Even after all these years, I still mix up CAPITOL and CAPITAL.

That's it. Where are we supposed to lodge our etymological complaints?

OK electronica

Radiohead set a challenge to remix the song "Nude" from their latest album. And this video student did just that for his final project in school, turning dot-matrix printers, cassette tape recorders and old computer parts into his instruments.

Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

[via]

Friday dog-blogging: work

10 ways not to arrive on your first day of work. [video] Maybe I should have posted this on a Monday.

This poor Japanese guy is just trying to give a speech in his underwear. Why must you tickle his shorts with your mouse? I hope you're satisfied with yourselves.

How projects really work. We used to have a version of this cartoon in our office when I briefly worked in Operations. Sadly, it wasn't far from the truth.

Top Office Jokes. Some are classic internet darlings; others I hadn't seen before. Kind of digging the cardboard desktop here!

Temp hides fun, fulfilling life [Previously shared, but I do love it so]

Growing

Over on her blog, my daughter Bunny is revisiting the Grow games. She's found two versions that I hadn't seen before, and a cheat for the more complicated one.

Go and give her a shout, please! She'd love to hear from you.