beancounters

Pearl Jam puzzle

Pearl Jam, the grunge rock gods, released a remastered version of their first CD, Ten, this month, as well a pricey collector's edition. Diehard Pearl Jam fans have probably been waiting for these with bated breath. As a merely enthusiastic fan, I will just offer them my congratulations and keep my $125.

But this 3-D puzzle is a fun diversion. Pull the rainbow-colored puzzle pieces down and complete the picture. For every row of color you complete, a live track plays from the remastered set. Finish the puzzle and watch an exclusive video.

After three different attempts, I finally got the knack of the puzzle and put it together in 20 minutes. Bunny watched me for a moment, then went to her own computer and beat my time. But in all fairness, she didn't bother to listen to the tracks.

Friday dog-blogging: wild things

Ready for Where The Wild Things Are? The trailer is amazing. I didn't know the book was written in 1963! It's held up pretty well for a 45-year old. ::cough::

DIY charging station made out of a plastic lotion bottle. Nifty!

Wow, even Barack Obama's teleprompter has a blog. [Thx Karen, I think.]

Someone stacked 61 things on their cat, and set it to music. That is all.

Saved by the Bell trivia game

Mega Mona Lisa - a collection of, er, renditions of the world's most famous portrait  

And for BB: a house made of math puzzles. If we ever design our own house, sweetheart, this is the way we oughta go.

Searching for Angelfire

Boy, this takes me back: The Vintage Web -  I used to work for an agency that regulated diploma mills private schools, and half of their websites looked like these. They'd advertise the opportunity to come to America, have an advanced degree printed, see Disneyland, and go home as a tanned and well-rested Doctor. And even if we managed to track them down and threaten them, they'd just buy themselves another mailbox and put up a different crappy web page. Good times, good times.

The secret life of a web tech

One of my agency's IT gurus is escaping our clutches and moving to a different agency next month. I will miss her. She is one of the few the only one around here whom I've told about my blogger identity, but she only uses this knowledge for Good. In her honor, here's a new web TV show The Website is Down [NSFW] When you watch it (at home or during lunch in a secluded manner), pop it up to full screen so you can really live the web dude's life.

Obama halo

I hereby declare a moratorium.

Photographers are no longer allowed to take pictures of the President of the United States from this particular angle, so the head is situated within the circle of the Seal of the President, which is hanging on the wall to one side of the podium. We get it: it looks like he's wearing a halo! How interesting! How droll! We remember this trick very well from the last presidency. Now cut it out.

Crouching subtitles, hidden plot

I appreciate Yahoo's list of 100 movies to see before you die. I think primarily because I have already seen what looks like 75% of them, and so do not feel as inferior as I typically do in the face of others' experiences.

Happy to see Nature's Perfect Movie, Titanic, listed prominently. But they also listed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I did not get that movie. My husband BB and I started it one evening and had to shut it off after 20 minutes because we were too confused. It started out so poorly lit, and I'm all, what, they can't fight in the daytime? Why's it have to be at night, when they should be getting their rest? I'm just saying, you go flying between buildings at night, someone could get hurt. The plot seemed to start in the middle, and there was too much to keep track of on top of the obligation of reading the subtitles.

However, I just asked my husband if he liked it. To my surprise, he said it was excellent. Which means ... he went and finished the movie. Behind my back. We can't have this, so it seems I must give the movie another try.

Don't keep calm and carry on.

Don't keep calm and carry on.
Originally uploaded by moleitau

A vigorous response to the historic poster. The crown of wrenches is truly inspired. And hey, there's even a t-shirt available to the Brits (so far).

Friday dog-blogging: my Ottoman is having a Bulldog

Gobstopper - A spoof film trailer by Funny or Die. Did the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ever give you nightmares? It has now completely transitioned to a horror film, thank you. Christopher Lloyd, you're still so wonderfully creepy.

Robbers get robbed by robbers while leaving a robbery. Best thing is, the loot is now missing, possibly stolen by a third set of robbers. What ever happened to honor among thieves? What a world.

This year's Hugo Award nominees. Dr. Horrible is among them - very cool. John Scalzi blogs his thoughts on being nominated.

The Rainbow Vomiting Pandas of Interestingness. Don't say you weren't warned. Also an animated version. Bjork? Is that you, honey?

Extreme sheep-herding looks possible.

Spaghetti cupcakes look delicious.

And for my mother: a cool collection of modded furniture - spaces for pets in homes. Well, you DO have a birthday coming up ...

Quick thought:

Herr Fritzl's prison cell ought to be a tiny, tiny box.

Tweetbook

Tweetbook
Originally uploaded by STML

James Bridle says he may be the first to have his own collected Twitter tweets hardbound. Click on the picture to see the whole Flickr set.

I'm not a fan of vanity fiction, but I still think it'd be cool to produce a set of my blog posts or Scrine posts - not to inflict on strangers but to keep.

More St. Paddy's day miscellany

Play St. Patrick's Day Polygone - within the allotted time, find the polygons within the pictures. They're slightly out of place, so they're easy to see. Unless you see that way already. In which case, you have more problems than I can solve on this blog. Start by putting down the green beer.

Say, what a coincidence! On Monday in the comments, Anthony complained that Swedes aren't getting equal attention  - and today, this appears in the Beancounters Email Stash. Hmm.

Into a Stockholm pub comes Henrik Sedin, looking like he'd just been run over by a train. His arm is in a sling, his nose is broken, his face is cut and bruised and he's walking with a limp.
"What happened to you?" asks Jan-Ove, the bartender.
"Gunnar Lundqvist and me had a fight," says Henrik.
"That little  skräp, Lundqvist," says Jan-Ove, "He couldn't do that to you, he must have had something in his hand."
"That he did," says Henrik, "a shovel is what he had, and a terrible omgång he gave me with it."
"Well," says Jan-Ove, "you should have defended yourself. Didn't you have something in your hand?"
"That I did," said Henrik. "Fru Lundqvist's breast, and a thing of beauty it was, but useless in a fight."

Early St. Paddy's

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, add your own text or image to the Chicago River.

From the Beancounters Email Stash:

Brenda O'Malley is home making dinner, as usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door. "Brenda, may I come in?" he asks. "I've somethin' to tell ya."

"Of course you can come in, you're always welcome, Tim.  But where's my husband?"

"That's what I'm here to be telling ya, Brenda. There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery..."

"Oh, God no!" cries Brenda. "Please don't tell me."

 "I must, Brenda. Your husband Shamus is dead and gone. I'm sorry."

 "How did it happen, Tim?"

"It was terrible, Brenda. He fell into a vat Of Guinness Stout and drowned."  

"Oh my dear Jesus! But you must tell me the truth, Tim. Did he at least go quickly?"
 
"Well, Brenda ... no. In fact, he got out three times to pee."

The Jim Cramer game

It's Saturday, and if you haven't experienced enough Jim Cramer schadenfreude, you have plenty of time to play this fun little Crashteroids game. [via @pops]

Turn the head with the arrow keys; fire with the space bar. How much more straightforward could it be? Anyone can play! Get in there! Buy buy buy! Sell sell sell!

Friday dog-blogging: Kindness

Vonnegut motivational posters

Schultz City - What if Frank Miller took on Peanuts? [comic] This is brilliant. A spot-on parody. The image of "a runaway train loaded full of concrete fists" will live with me forever.

Upside down dogs - The dogs are upside down, but the photos have been turned right side up. Gaze for a while and your mind starts to bend. This site must be where the Eggar dog picture originated.

J Cruel - a fashion magazine for the rest of us

10 toxic things you should never attempt to discuss on the internet - Totally true.

Do video games prepare our children for the Apocolypse? [Onion video]

And for my Public Management prof: What if Lincoln had been able to deliver the famous Gettysburg Address in PowerPoint? (Are you cringing already? You should be.)

The one with all the comic sans

So many of my blog friends and family happen to be editors, graphic designers and freelance writers, that I know you'll all ace this fontalicious quiz. [via Karen] Me, I gave up somewhere around question 5. I mean, I've seen all the fonts, but I couldn't tell you their names.

Speaking of fonts, there's one innocent little font out there receiving a big ol' ugly, steaming internet pile-on. An undeserved pile-on, I might add. I am talking, of course, about ...

What's that? Oh, you don't believe bloggers are trying to administer to Comic Sans a slow, painful Death By Meme? Look at this! And this! And there's even a blogger who named her site No Comic Sans on principle, though apparently she's too distracted getting married to really keep up TEH HATEZ. And let's not forget that poster. (Okay, I can't find the poster right now. But someone will.)

Blogfolk, it's time to back off of cheerful little Comic Sans. What did it ever do to you? Sure, it may be overused. Sure, some tasteless cretin may have asked you to format an entire cookbook or a full-page ad in Comic Sans once, but that's no reason for the vituperative spew. Your gripe is with other people, not the font.

Come back to Comic Sans. Embrace Comic Sans. Comic Sans remembers.

Comic Sans never stopped loving you.

Clarity and depth

I get this all the time, except by email rather than face to face.

Through the hourglass

It's Saturday, so you have plenty of time to play on the computer. Well, some time, anyway. Here's This is Sand, where you can make virtual sand sculptures in a variety of shapes and colors. Just click on the little square at the top and start right in. When you're done, submit your art work to their gallery.

Friday dog-blogging: Could this be the magic

A mall in New Zealand will use Barry Manilow songs to get rid of its pesky mall rats. Anthony, darling, I sense a whole musical Return of the King/New Zealand mall/Peter Jackson shops for another damn purple Izod trifecta coming into play.

Pantone matched sneakers. It's a killer idea, I agree. But um, $125 sneakers? This is what you call "California casual"? For $20 I can buy a pair of white Keds knockoffs and a big ol' Pantone marker from Aaron Bros, if you get my drift. Now THAT'S casual.

Crappy balloon art

White Wedding, sung literally

In response to those lame legal disclaimers that people add to the bottom of work emails, Dr. Momentum proposes to add this disclaimer to the end of his blog:

This blog post (including any images) is for the sole use of the intended reader(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this post is not the intended reader, you are hereby notified that you smell like dirty socks. If you are the intended reader then you are required to laugh at my jokes, tell me how brilliant I am, and buy me a beer.

John Hodgman hates 'meh'. He and my 12 year old must be in cahoots. Fine. You know what? FINE. From now on, 'meh' is out; 'cahoots' is in.

And for my brother: Saturday Morning Watchmen

Obama sees THE WORLD with his Third Eye

Do you need a reason to cringe on this fine Thursday? Look no further than Bad Paintings of Barack Obama. Click Reload to view a new picture, if you're strong enough. At least stick with it until you see the one with all the sombreros. (via @Laughitup)

Because I know it matters to you

Probably ought to cook my steaks a little longer. How'd you do?