Big Pickles

His acceptance speech is long, but very good. He can't resist rhyming and using cliches, but he's so sincere, you love him anyway.

(Originally the video cut out some of his remarks about torture, but in the end it appears that the level of irony involved in censoring a Liberty Medal recipient was too much to bear.)

Labels: video

Did you see this video during combined PH/RS meeting yesterday?

Melissa did. She wasn't sure if it was a church-wide thing or if it was done on a local level, but she told me that she won't soon forget hearing the voices of Chris Parnell and Amy Poehler in the chapel.

They also showed this FedEx commercial.

Labels: church, tv

This blog post fascinates me.

Here's a guy who doesn't want to bother calculating the tip on his restaurant check, even though he probably has a palm pilot or laptop or cell phone out during dinner (judging by the importance of wifi access) and could easily use the calculator in said device.

So he rounds everything to even dollars, only to realize that he could be using those precious cents digits to communicate a wealth of information to himself about each meal. Simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication are too much to bother with, but binary/decimal conversions are de rigeur, apparently.

No less remarkable is his discovery that restaurants seem to be pretty lax about the total you write on your receipt.

Labels: math

Melissa finally accomplished her goal to run the annual Mansfield 5K.

Here are the race results.

One caveat: Melissa accidentally switched race numbers with her friend Shauna Steenbakkers, so their results are switched. Her time was 33:18.

Yay, Melissa! She's looking for another 5K to run in November or December.

Labels: running

Only In China.
Only In Texas.
Only In America.

These pictures attempt to sum up the entire world. You'll see what I mean.

Labels: pictures

I guess they probably don't keep stats on things like this, but I'll bet it's never happened before.

It's one of those things that, given the number of at-bats in baseball history, was bound to happen sometime.

Labels: physics, sports

Did you ever wonder what Super Mario Bros. would look like in the style of Stalinist Soviet propaganda? I know I have.

Labels: fun, games, video

Another addicting game that's difficult to describe, takes minutes to learn, and a lifetime to master!

Labels: fun, games

My kids love Word Girl.

First they found her on the Internet.

Then they found her in 5-minute shorts at the end of their PBS cartoons.

Then they discovered that she's getting her own full-length show this fall.

Then I found her on the Internet.

It's a vicious cycle.

NYT on Word Girl

Jim Lehrer Interviews Word Girl

Labels: fun, kids, tv

It looks like an old card game from the 60s, and it really ate up my afternoon. Just place cards on the board in such a way that your guests are sitting next to people they like.

Labels: fun, games

MICHAEL: Hey Dad, if you want to get some more information about something, you should check the Internet.

ME: Thanks for the tip.

Labels: kids these days

ME: Hey, Michael, I heard they're coming out with a new Zelda game for the DS.

MICHAEL: You mean Phantom Hourglass?

ME: Um, yeah, that's the one. How did you hear about it?

MICHAEL: I saw it on YouTube.

ME: Oh. That's right, I guess it's already out in Japan. It's not going to be released in the US until Christmas.

MICHAEL: Yeah, maybe Santa Claus will bring it to me!

Labels: games, internet, kids these days

So I signed up for some Facebook. Everyone else needs to sign up now so I can have some friends.

It's a pretty slick interface, far superior to MySpace, as far as I can tell. I'm still not sure about the whole social networking thing, though. It's clearly geared toward kids who are still in school, so I find myself thinking about old friends I haven't contacted in years.

Still, Steve was asking me about a way to aggregate everyone's blogs, photos, videos, etc. this summer. Something like Facebook would be very useful in that regard.

Labels: internet, nostalgia, social networking

Okay, it's a toothbrush with a concave back that is designed to redirect a stream of water just like a drinking fountain. So you don't have to use a cup (or other less sophisticated means) to rinse after brushing.

What will they think of next?

Labels: design, tech

This is so two years ago, maybe I even linked to it before, I can't remember. It's "Since U Been Gone" covered by Ted Leo. Something reminded me of it today, and now my brain is craving it like heroin.

I've been thinking we need some new music at our house. Maybe Ted Leo and the Pharmacists is just the thing.

Labels: music

Melissa, you need to show the boys this video.

Labels: video

"You come to me as Beginners. When I'm through with you, you'll be Experts!"

Labels: fun, games, movies

You type in words, and then they sing it for you.

I could play with this for hours. It's fun to see how many songs you can recognize from just one word.

Labels: audio, fun

Paul Graham has some excellent articles.

This one is about Stuff. I feel like I've been saying this stuff to myself for years. And yet I keep accumulating more stuff.

"What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will."

Labels: material goods

I have been looking for this for a long time, a way to play the old Oregon Trail game that we all played on Apples in elementary school. I've download stuff and tried to get it to run with no success. There are more modern versions available which are no good.

Now someone has set up a Virtual Apple II emulator that lets you play Oregon Trail on the web. I think you have to have Windows and Firefox for it to work.

(By the way, I found the link at MentalFloss, another highly recommended site.)

Watch out for dysentery!

Labels: fun, games, old school