unwiredben

Check out http://translationparty.com -- they run phrases through Google's translation service from Japanese to English and back until it gets the same text out of it. Depending on what you start with, it can be quite funny. Here's the translations of Jeff Foxworthy's classic punchline:

1. You might be a redneck.
2. あなたは偏見を持った可能性があります。
3. You may be prejudiced.
4. を害することはできない。
5. Not to harm.
6. 害はない。
7. There is no harm.
8. 害がないです。
9. Is no harm.
10. 何ら問題はない。
11. There is no any problem.
12. 何の問題もないです。
13. I have no problem.
14. 私は問題を抱えている。
15. I have a problem.
16. (then it loops -- we've reached equilibrium)

Other phrases that elicited chuckles from me include "Where would you like to go on our first date?", "Come here and give Grandma some sugar.", and Darth Vader's line "I find your lack of faith disturbing." which ends with "We need to worry".

These are two little figures I made from spare parts I'd scavenged from a broken Atari 2600 video game console and a probably-working-but-useless Atari XM301 300-baud modem. They're held together with hot glue, and each one has a small magnet on its back so they can watch the kitchen from the freezer section of the refrigerator.

My first one is sitting at Annelies' desk; it stands upright with resistor legs embedded in a small piece of antistatic foam. I don't have a picture of that one yet.

I was inspired by the Maker Shed Store's Capacitor Robot Charms, but they're my own take on the idea.

I was looking at the Schiphol (Amsterdam) Airport website trying to see what I can do during my four hour layover on the way to Tanzania later this week, and I found this passage very illuminating:

"Allow yourself to be surprised by one of the many surprising toilets at Schiphol. You will feel as though you are in the heart of Amsterdam or are being surrounded by Dutch tulips. Location: G-pier and Lounge 2."

Somehow, I never think of toilets as something I want surprising me, but that might just be my cultural insensitivity talking.

Also, in describing the Back to Life Aquamassage at the airport, they say you "can leave your clothes on", which seems to imply that you could also take them off. If that's the case, I'm not sure I want to get into the aquamassage chamber.

Finally, in the "fun for kids" section, they talk about the Grand Café Plaza, which serves "genuine clown pancakes". I never thought clowns would make good pancakes; they might taste funny.

I just logged into my account on Amazon's Askville, their Q&A site where you answer peoples' questions and get "gold" that you can use for coffee mugs and the like. I found that I'd gotten a bunch of compliments online... it ends up that I'm the "Askviller of the Day". In the last week, I had six answers of mine make the "best answer" list, and I it looks like that put me on top of whatever ranking system they use. To be honest, I'd never even noticed the little recognition box on the bottom of the home page; I usually find interesting questions through the topic-based RSS feeds. Still, it's an honor... maybe I'll stay interested enough to earn enough gold to get the Askville coffee mug; I'm halfway there right now.

You don't want to be stuck behind the SEGFAULT-mobile... it's hard to recover from those crashes. I guess if it was a Windows-powered car, it would have a blue windscreen of death.

Which employee? Which hand? There are so many questions when you're in the bathroom.

(I saw this back in the summer at Spice in NYC)

OK, it's not actually about me. Go check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combee. I'll be here when you get back.

( This is me being here when you get back. )

This was one of my favorite clips that we would show from time to time on The Show With No Name. It's James Brown interviewed in the mid-80s by Sonya on CNN; he mostly responds with song lyrics, screams into the microphone, and just seems very off kilter. It's good stuff.

(By the way, if you've not heard the news, here's L.A. Style's announcement of the event from 15 years ago.)

Some of you will remember my own personal Andy Dick story from this year's SXSW, how he went wild during the Q&A, throwing one of his cast members on the floor and dry humping her, stealing microphones from anyone trying to answer questions but him, and generally being a (slightly funny) a-hole.

According to this except yanked from Salon, he's at it again:

Andy Dick = totally insane: At the Comedy Central-sponsored roast of William Shatner in Los Angeles on Sunday night, sorta funnyman Andy Dick had his very own Courtney Love moment, publicly melting down in a way that cries out for an intervention. Apparently visibly drunk for the duration of the show, Dick started licking comic Patton Oswalt's face after Oswalt joked about Dick's cameo in Jessica Simpson's "Public Affair" video (in which Dick licks Simpson's roller skates). Dick went on to turn his tongue on Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher and Nichelle Nichols (who played Uhura on "Star Trek") during the taping. But he really let loose at the after-party, taking a piss in front of New York Post reporter Mandy Stadtmiller, then offering her cocaine, then trying to grope her and finally biting her hand. Asked by Stadtmiller why he started with the licking, Dick responded: "I was doing it because I was desperately trying to tie the show together like a fisherman with tuna, and you're a little piece of fresh tuna. But thanks for asking. Do you want me to lick your face now?" (Page Six)

"I was desperately trying to tie the show together".  Yow!

I never got around to doing my own secret project with the bumper sticker that I scanned, but a reader of my blog took my graphics and has turned them into a local Austin 'net phenom with the Virtual Waterlook Records Stickers website.  It even got some sweet coverage from The Austinist.  I'm glad to see this project finally come to fruition.

Interact 10 Ways is one of the neatest uses of photomosaics I've seen in a while.  Starting with one picture, you keep selecting areas that turn into more pictures, that turn into bigger pictures, that turn into one picture, and then it starts all over again.  It's like that David Hasslehoff zoom meme but without being hella distubing.

I'm not sure where this came from, but it's hard to look away once it starts. As seen on YouTube, Captain Picard does an alphabet jig

I saw this at a shopping center in Cupertino (near Apple's campus!) when I headed to lunch today. $3 is much, much, much too much to pay for that particular concoction.

Coming early Wednesday morning, about an hour after midnight: 01:02:03 04/05/06. Be sure to remember where you were so you can tell your children.

I saw these in the Ruta Maya men's room on Wednesday night while at the Asylum Street Spankers show, and I had to capture them to share with the group:



( Read more... )

BTW, the Spankers were having lots of fun up on stage. Guy Forsyth was there, rocking out, and they mixed up the lines if the "If You Want Me to Love You" duet with Guy and Christina, adding a few that I don't think I'd heard before. For the encore, they all came back on stage and picked up someone else's instrument and attempted to play through one of their dirtier melodies. It was like listening to them on warped-in-the-sun vinyl -- the notes were mostly there, but the timing was very, very off.

There was other goodness that evening too, but I'll tell more about that some other time :)

I was looking at an online quiz and noticed a very bizarre and NSFW banner ad. At first, I thought it was real, but then I noticed that the ad wasn't actually linked to a website. That triggered my absurdity reflex which then led me to a web search that led to this article explaining the meme. Ah, what silly Internets we weave.

If you don't have anything else to do on Saturday night, please head down to Little City and see the second night of The Best Salvage Vanguard Holiday Ever. My friend sistrmoon and I went to it tonight, and it was a blast. While not all of the five-to-ten minute long plays worked, there were some really funny moments, including one bit involving a man-thong and high pitched ranting that had me completely cracked up.

As we left the coffee house, we drove through a throng of Santa-costume-wearing people roaming aroung Congress & 6th Street, marching behind a big pirate flag. I'm not quite sure what was happening, but I love the surrealism.

...not with a bang, but with a foil burrito wrapper. (Taken at the North IH-35 Freebirds)

I just looked over the web server statistics from the last week on Veg Out! Austin, and finally I found something to chuckle about. Among the usual references from Google, Yahoo!, and my old EditThisPage Veg Out! site, there were a couple of fun ones:

• A spam blog with articles titled "Updated Meth Recipes" and "Brand New Crystal Meth Recipes"
• Search engine queries for "homemade sauerkraut accessories" and "out of 29 vegetarians"

My content isn't eclectic enough to get the really weird search engine requests, I guess.