Quick Hitts

I visited the Discover site to see the outakes and extras for Mythbusters.  Most were only a few minutes long, but every one started with a 30 second commercial that couldn’t be bypassed.  I watched a couple of clips, and left, never to return. I’m seeing this more and more on video sites.  First it […]

I’ve been watching Heroes since the first episode, more or less enjoying it, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll bother. The most recent episode, a two-parter, really jumped the shark. The show has been an interesting rip off of X-Men, but has had problems from the beginning. They introduced so many characters with […]

I deal with Christmas differently than most atheists. I celebrate it. I put up lights and a tree and give gifts and say “Merry Christmas” and mean it. I’ve played Santa Claus on several occasions, with the full costume, enjoyed it, and will probably do it again. Devout Christians rail against how secular the holiday […]

I’ve subscribed to Wired for years. At a buck an issue, it makes for good bathroom reading. If it goes up to a buck and a quarter, though, I’ll let my subscription lapse. You can study good design by A) studying good design and learning from it and B) studying really bad design and learning […]

I’m working on a project that needs some into, outro, and background music. I’d like to use music that sounds like music from the late 80’s: Bands like Ah Ha, Supertramp, The Eurymithics and maybe a hair band or two. Since this will be distributed as a podcast, it has to have a Creative Commons […]

I’ve always loved explosions. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve blowing things up, sometimes with commercial fireworks, sometimes with homemade fireworks, sometimes just by misusing common devices and/or chemicals. (Back then, there were real chemicals in chemistry sets.) If you’re a male you know exactly what I’m talking about. Back when I did movie […]

A friend, who has one of the funniest blogs on the internet, sent me a link to a story about PETA that was too disgusting to even consider writing about. So I considered it. And he considered it. We wrote back and forth about how disgusting it was. It was like a contest between adolescent […]