From Improv Everywhere comes this map of group freezing from around the world, all based on this previously completed Grand Central Station stunt.
Will’s cool French and Indian War fort
Much of Will’s weekend (and some of Annette’s and a very little bit of mine) was spent building a lovely model of a fort typical of the French and Indian War. At least according to Will. I am sure that they did not have forts built out of painted popsicle sticks, felt, sticks, and little pegs for guys.
Anyway, it turned out pretty cool. Here’s a link to a Flickr set of pictures. Be sure to look at the pictures individually because Will and I put in some notes to explain what different parts of the fort are and what the different guys in the fort are doing.
The last time Will did a project like this, he ended up getting what I think we all here thought was an artificially low grade. He better do well on this one….
Oh, and I am rather surprised to know almost nothing about the French and Indian War. Other than I think there was some unit on this when I was in about fifth or sixth grade.
Dude…
From boing-boing.net comes this post on craigslist, which I will reproduce in its entirety, about the pizza business in Ann Arbor:
To The Stoner Who Works At Cottage Inn Pizza
Date: 2007-09-18, 11:30AM EDTYou: the guy who answers the phone at cottage inn pizza
Me: Hungry and stoned out of my gourdI called you from my cell phone but had completely forgot who I was calling by the time you answered the phone. Of course, you were also baked to bajeezus and forgot to tell me that I had called Cottage Inn.
When you answered and said, “Whatsup?” I thought about it, and after a 20 second pause I told you that was hungry. You suggested I try a pizza, and I agreed that it was probably a good idea.
Then I asked you if you sold pizza and you said that you could make me one. I said I wanted anchovies and something else on my pizza. You asked me what that something else was.
We spent five minutes listing toppings until we figured out that I was trying to remember how to say: “Sun dried Tomatoes.” When you said: “We’ll bake that right up for you,” we both started laughing uncontrollably.
It was the best pizza I ever had; I just wanted to thank you for helping me out.
Ah, those sophisticates in Ann Arbor…
Take me out to the ballgame
Least you think that there has been no fun around here while the mice play at the CCCCs, I was lucky enough to attend a Detroit Tigers baseball game yesterday with Will and his fellow safety patrol members from Estabrook Elementary. It’s almost a game we missed– Will didn’t bring home the permission slip initially because, as he put it, he just doesn’t care much about baseball. “Neither do I, Will. But going to the ball game is fun!” So I talked him into it and he was glad.
I got to go along as a parental chaperone, though as far as I could tell, there were at least as many grown-ups supervising as there was children. It might have had something to do with the free tickets. It was also the first trip I’ve had on a school bus in years. Most amusing to me was that both on the way there and the way back, the kids were pretty successful at getting passing semis to blow their horn at us.
Anyway, it was safety patrol day in general at the park so there were many different youth groups on a clear but chilly day. I think it’s fair to say that the highlight for Will was hanging out with friends and eating a $5.50 hot dog. The highlight for me was shopping for but not buying and Tiger merchandise ($25 for a T-shirt I can get at Target for half that price? Thanks, no…), resisting temptation and staying on diet, hanging out with fellow parents, and discovering with my iPod that there was a wifi network in the stadium.
As to the game: like I said, I don’t really follow baseball much. But as far as I can tell, all this hype about the Tigers this year is perhaps ill-placed. This was their third loss, and as far as I could tell, they got spanked in this game.
Anyway, a pretty fun way to spend the day. I can’t very well complain about free tickets, but I think I’ll wait until the temperature is about 60 the next time I go see a game. For the curious, there’s a few pictures here.
Wednesday (and not partying in the French Quarter) Links
Well, since I’m not in NOLA and up to Lord only knows what Steve B. and Bill HD. and my other typical conference partners in crime are up to right now, I thought I’d post a whole bunch of links from my Google Reader feed:
- A book about cursing in over 69 different languages.
- A link to a mashup video of “I’m F*cking Obama.” I came across this on a blog I read on a regular basis (sorry, I can’t remember which one now) that suggested that this was a sexist video. I dunno, I think it makes sense because Clinton is on the attack and has kind of opened herself up to that. I have to think that it’s only a matter of time before we get to the “I’m F*cking Hillary Clinton.”
- Here’s a weird one: http://superbad.com/ You would think that this has something to do with the movie Superbad, but I don’t have a clue what this is. Entertaining though.
- “Professors should embrace Wikipedia” from Inside Higher Ed. This one might actually be useful in teaching about wiki and Wikipedia stuff next year, maybe even this spring. The comments are particularly telling.
- “Experimental Use of Blog-Based Peer Review Gives Mixed Results” in CHE and a reply/rebuttal from the site where the blog peer review took place. Personally, I think a blog is a better place to prewrite/think through a manuscript/project in progress rather review a draft polished enough to send to a publisher.
- What might be an interesting book/web site/blog/wiki to check out later, Wikinomics.
- Finally, another story in the New York Times of a plagiarism policy being plagiarized. Lots of good links here, too.
Sweded Tron
I think this is a little more complicated than a true short Swede, but still pretty good:
I don’t think this is real
But I do think it is still pretty darn funny.
This is not the best reading of “Howl”…
… but it’s the only one I know of from a fish sock puppet:
Via Johndan, via boingboing.
And I bet you thought there was nothing groovy or cutting-edge about Iowa
See this boing-boing TV interview with Ames’ native Leslie “ceWEBrity/gem sweater diva” Hall. Check out all the links on the entry here, too. Tell me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the oh-so-perfect interviewer/uber-cool boing-boing woman with the funny name, Xeni Jardin, seem a little weirded out by Hall?
I just found out that this American Idol dude and I have the same birthday
I’m watching American Idol in the background while doing some other stuff on the laptop, and I just found out that Jason Castro and I share the same birthday, meaning today. Of course, I am very much old enough to be his father and that is not the kind of thing I necessarily want to be reminded of on my birthday, but there you have it.