Links to look at later

Sometimes you just find links to pages that you want to spend more time on...

http://danmeth.com/post/15296838533/xmascards
http://danmeth.com/tagged/popculturalcharts
http://www.geekosystem.com/category/theres-a-map-for-that/

Because I'm a geek...

...I find this really interesting.

Year of the Fett

For the past year I have been following a 365 set on Flickr called the Year of the Fett, a series of daily pictures of a Lego Boba Fett. It was interesting and funny. I liked the routine of refreshing the tab each day and seeing what Boba Fett was up to. It ended on Friday. I have the tab open right now reading the comments. It will feel weird not to have that tab open on Firefox at work any more. Well, I'm off to close the tab now ... ::click::

(I still have my daily dose of Indexed.)

Last comic book post for a while...

...before I over-geek this blog. Back in my comic book buying days I bought issues one and two of Big Numbers, a comic by Alan Moore with art by Bill Sinkiewicz. Well, issue three never came out and it just kind of disappeared. I always wondered what happened to the series. Apparently a different artist took over the project and after doing the art decided not to release it. Well, I found a site where someone actually found photocopies of the third, unreleased issue on eBay, bought them, and with Alan Moore's permission, scanned them in and posted them. It's kind of cool to see the unreleased issue, although it has been so long that I have no idea what the storyline was or anything, only that it was an odd size and that they were going to add a little color each issue until the final issue was full color. Interesting concept. It's unfortunate that the whole thing never came together.

[And I promise something cooler next post ... like roller derby pictures or plants from the yard.]

Effort to save Superman's house

I'm a comic book geek, and a book geek in general, and I have an appreciation for the history of where pop culture and Americana comes from, so I think this is a very interesting effort going on. An author recently went to visit the house of Jerry Siegel, one of the Superman creators, and found a very sad house in a very bad state of disrepair. So the Siegel & Shuster Society is now working to raise money to repair the house (for the current residents) and eventually buy the house when it comes up for sale. Superman wasn't really one of my favorites, but I think this is a worthy cause. (I will say, though, with all the talent backing this effort, you'd think they'd have better t-shirts to buy to support the cause. Maybe they're in the making...)

Six degrees of Neil Gaiman

I really enjoyed the Six degrees of Kevin Bacon game. It was a good source of entertainment back in college when I would be working the front desk of the dorm in the middle of the night. I like it even more now that, after many years, I can now connect myself to Kevin Bacon in about two degrees.

My favorite author is Neil Gaiman. I was a Neil Gaiman fan before it was cool to be a Neil Gaiman fan (and, yes, if you didn't know, it is kinda cool to be a Neil Gaiman fan). So I just realized that I am three degrees of separation from Neil Gaiman, and this is how:

I know Chris, who knows Bela Fleck (of Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones) and Bela Fleck recorded a song for Neil Gaiman's audio book version of the Graveyard Book.

The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman's latest book, which comes out just after my birthday in September (and would make a great late birthday gift, hint, hint) and there's a contest revolving around this new book release. I like free stuff as much as the next guy, so check it out (although I don't know if I'd really use the Stardust-inspired bath bomb).

Perseid Meteor Shower

If you're up into the wee hours of the night watching the Olympics (and I know you are), why not stay up just a little longer and check out the Perseid Meteor Shower. I guess you could see as many as 60 meteors an hour. This is as good an excuse as any to stay up late (like you need one)...

Gloria In Excelsis Deo, on a broccoli flute

This made my day today ... I borrowed it from the Fabulist (where I find a lot of off beat things) and just thought it was great. Where else but on the internet will you find someone playing a broccoli flute?!?

Giant exploding comet

OK, you know Jeni married a big nerd, and sometimes I just can't help myself, but I got an email update from Space Weather about a giant comet that is larger than the sun (although light in mass so it's size will not affect gravitational pull or planet paths or anything catastrophic) but you should be able to see it in the sky, assuming you know where Mirfak, the brightest star in Perseus in on Nov 19, which I don't, but still think it will be cool to stare into the night sky and look for something really big and bright that we may never see like this again.

The email: GIANT COMET: University of Hawaii astronomers have measured the diameter of Comet 17P/Holmes: 1.4 million kilometers. This makes the exploding comet bigger than the sun and now the largest object in the solar system. Not surprisingly, the comet is visible to the naked eye; with only a backyard telescope you can watch its gigantic debris cloud expand from night to night. Nov. 19th is an especially good night to look: Comet Holmes will glide by Mirfak, the brightest star in the constellation Perseus, and appear to swallow it. Visit http://spaceweather.com for a sky map and images.

(Note: The sun remains by far the most massive object in the solar system. Comet 17P/Holmes' diaphanous atmosphere of dust and gas, which is what the astronomers measured, contains less mass than a typical asteroid. In spite of its great size, Comet Holmes is a lightweight that won't be deflecting the orbits of planets or causing any other such catastrophes.)

Largest full moon of the year

Thursday we will have the largest full moon of the year. Space Weather explains why, and according to them, "the Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side 30,000 miles closer to Earth than the other. The full Moon of Oct. 25-26 is located on the near side, making it appear as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier in 2007."

Last year when this occurred we were up in Big Canoe with Tiffany and I remember pulling over on the side of the road by the lake up there and staring in amazement at how much the moon filled the sky. I tried in vain to get a picture of the moon, but it was so bright that it gave my camera fits. (Supposedly you can't really take pictures of the moon easily at all, and I think I confirmed that.) So take a few minutes Thursday, step outside and stare up at the sky.

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Speaking of weather and such, during my lunch I was driving to the bank and it was finally raining here. As I passed USC's campus, I passed a guy on a scooter holding an umbrella over his head while driving down the road. It's moments like this that make me wish I had a camera with me at all times.

"New heights of geekdom"

Greg, probably my oldest friend (the one who knew me even before "back when"), sent me an email with the subject "New heights of geekdom" and linked to two great sites. The first was PodBrix, a website featuring Lego-style figures of the iPod commercial characters (you know, the silhouettes with the white iPod and headphones). Interesting website -- if I had an iPod, I'd love to have an iPod guy to hand on the string to the earbuds (although there are none in stock on the website).

The other site I actually enjoyed even more, and this one truly appeals to the geek in me. Indexed is a blog that uses graphs to make commentary -- surprising humorous and pointed -- while making me remember how to read a graph. (I like her Weekly World News one, and her dodgeball graph.) Check it out...

[Update: The 5x7 graphs are really funny, especially We're All Going to Hell.]

[Update2: OK ... just had to add this one too...]

Dean's Dream Mailman

If Dean could pick his dream mailman, this is who it would be...

Also, check out uspsjedimaster.com.

Everything in the internet is connected

So this is my proof that everything in the internet is connected. This morning, in a brief moment between patients I took a minute to check a few blogs I enjoy but haven't been to lately. First, I went to the Dog Eat Doug blog (from the artist who does the Dog Eat Doug comic). He had a link to an artist he enjoyed, and whose style reminded me somewhat of my cousin Kerry. I viewed some of his pictures, liked it, and moved on. I then went to Neil Gaiman's Journal (on of my favorites). He wrote about a book he enjoyed, then mentioned his favorite book of the year so far, The Pinhoe Egg. Out of curiosity, I do a Blingo search for the book, and go to Amazon to look at it. The cover of the book is by the artist that was linked to from Dog Eat Doug. And the circle is complete...

Decisions, decisions

Which is cooler, the Nintendo controller belt buckle or the Pac-Man belt?