This is actually rather amusing.
[Origami for dollar bills]:http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/index.html

[The Shirt]:http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/shirt/ reminds me of the website I saw for [how-to-fold-a-shirt]:http://howtofoldashirt.net/ which was also rather fun, and useful, except that if I fold shirts my size like that, they take up more space in my drawers.

Anyway, there are other designs, like boots, bow ties, fans, gift boxes, and other objects of fancy, so you can impress people at parties. It might even be a neat way to tip your bartender or sushi chef. 🙂

Enjoy!

(In case you’re wondering, I get a lot of random links like this from [The Morning News]:http://www.themorningnews.org/ )

This probably belongs in my snippets section, but I figure most of you don’t read that. Besides, this is pretty hillarious, and you really shouldn’t miss it. 🙂

Have a look at [the knee-slapping tale]:http://www.mentallyincontinent.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=155

I’ll pass on a complete retelling, and provide you with this brief teaser-snippet.

> The blend of the cabernet sauce and the mint jelly with the tender juices of the lamb made for a spectacular flavor explosion. It was truly a party in my mouth.

> It was also the last bite of that meal I would take that evening.

Enjoy!

Here’s an email forward that I got recently, and I figured that, rather than spamming people, I’d post it here. It’s worth a chuckle or two.

—-

At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down.
Finally, the guys’ side of the story.
I must admit, it’s pretty good.
We always hear “the rules”; from the female side.
Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are their rules!
Please note… these are all numbered “1”;
ON PURPOSE!

1. Men ARE NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up,
put it down. We need it up, you need it down.
You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It’s like the full moon or the changing
of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport.
And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost
every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only If you want help solving it.
That’s what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem.
See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago, it is inadmissible in an
argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you won’t dress like th! e Victor ia’s Secret girls, don’t
expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one
of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something, or tell us how you want it done. Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say
during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and
neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not! A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will Be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say quote, “nothing”, We will
act like nothing’s wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to,
expect an answer you don’t want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you
wear Is fine…Really.

1. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun
formation, or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in ! shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

But did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.

Pass this to as many men as you can – to give them a laugh.

Pass this to as many women as you can – to give them a bigger laugh .

It seems that this particular quiz is making the rounds at Xanga, seeing as two of my friends from completely different social groups have taken it and posted to their Xanga blogs. Here it is: El super quiz. Actually El Super is the name of a mexican grocery store, but let me have my fun polluting search engine relevancy, okay? 😀

Message to my readers: Do you know of any sites/articles that analyze the spread of these sorts of memes? Is there one dispersion pattern for personality/dating quizzes, another for tech gadgets, one for political causes, and something totally separate for blogging-related issues?

Anyway, here are my results, so that perfect strangers can study it and pretend they know me. 🙂 The results are odd. I have to say that I’ve never really thought of myself as “athletic”– my family knows my exercise habits are pretty sporadic– but I suppose I *am* rather practical though perhaps I’m the idealistically unrealistic one of my family.

Random quote: Follow your dreams. You CAN reach your goals… beefcake. BEEFCAKE! 😀

While aimlessly surfing [blogdex]:http://blogdex.net , I happened upon this brief editorial:
[Down With Duke (washingtonpost.com)]:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32015-2005Mar13.html

A lot of people I know are anti-Duke when it comes to basketball, but their sentiments are mostly based on a desire to root “for the underdog” or a some irrational idea that “they win too much.” This Washington Post editorial is, perhaps, a tongue-in-cheek realization of these sentiments. _sigh_

I have to admit that when the Lakers had their all-star lineup, I rooted against them. There was just something about how one team should *not* have such a high concentration of star power. Was this reasoning equally irrational? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Duke often gets criticized because, well, “it’s no wonder” that it does so well when it has so many McDonald’s All-Americans under its wing. Still, it’s really not that easy. There’s more to winning than good recruiting class, though I won’t argue that it doesn’t hurt. One might point out that UNC gets some pretty decent recruiting results, yet they seem much less targeted than Duke.

Are Dukies arrogant? There’s probably a little bit of that sentiment among them, but I don’t think it’s any more prevalent there than at any other top school. I suppose it’s just that other top schools don’t tend to have good basketball teams. 😉

Coack K is also completely unassailable. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who doesn’t respect him. He really is one of those coaches who brings out the best in his players. His turning down the offer to coach the Lakers was, I believe, a very strong message to the world (and his team) that there are really more important things than money. It would’ve been no shame to accept that offer from the perspective of prestige, profit, or level of play. You gotta love the guy. He doesn’t let success go to his head– I remember a story where some Duke students noticed him at a local Durham eatery, and he invited them to join him.

Anyway, may all your Marches be filled with madness.

Some of you who know me know that I’m terribly amused with “hacker”-speak. Or ‘leet-speak, or 1337 5p34k. I have to confess that I myself dabbled in such language, employing a relatively mild form of alternate-capitalization as my handle for online games at one point. Have I grown out of it? I don’t know. I look down on it whenever people use it to really communicate, but it’s great for making jokes and stuff like that. “I Pwn3d j00” hahaha…

Anyway, this sort of language has reached the stage where everyone knows (or should know) *something* about it. So… anyway, have a look at this Microsoft article about it. I have to say it doesn’t seem terribly precise, but it’s very well written. At least it has some sort of structure. Its structure and grammar would probably get an A in, I don’t know, high school sometime.

Here it is: [Microsoft: A parent’s primer to computer slang]:http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx .

Honestly, they’ve tried very hard to be all correct and precise– an effort which should be undoubtedly applauded. Yet I still take exception to defining “woot” as “we own the other team”. Does it really mean that? It’s certainly not used that way too often. I usually see it as some “cool” way of saying “woohoo!” or “yipee!” And I’m pretty darn sure that \o/ doesn’t mean the same thing.

Of course, some people will never get this. They’re probably the same people who don’t get “all your base are belong to us”. But hey, if you happen to be one of them, fear not. Take this opportunity to be exposed to it, and don’t feel bad that you had better things to do than make up a silly language to make you and your pals feel more cool.

(Real hackers, of course, probably look very, very, strongly downward upon this “hackerspeak” as a means of communication, since real hackers don’t really care about perceived “coolness”– they just like finding interesting solutions to problems.)

Just for grins, have a look at this picture.

This combines the ideas from the post about Japanese toilets and the post about anime. This particular picture is from an anime called Bleach, and the toilet is located in the home of an otherwise typical (aside from the usual magical/spiritual superpowers) family with kids in middle school and high school. Note that the control pad which has buttons/switches, a dial, and even a display. The toilet “enhancer” also isn’t really built-in to the ceramic, but it still fits nicely. Also, note that the toilet seat itself has a cover, which, though probably not hygenic, provides a more cushy surface than the bare wood/plastic that most of us deal with. It’s really hard to tell if this particular seat is heated, but the seat cover is also a common way(according to other sources) to insulate against the shock of an icy cold seat.

Have a nice day. 🙂 Watch the Super Bowl or something.

I watch *way too much* anime. For the unitiated, “anime” denotes a specific form of Japanese animated video (read: cartoons). So, [Tom and Jerry]:http://www.1975tomjerry.50megs.com/ ([another site]:http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/ ) isn’t anime, the [Powerpuff Girls]:http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/ppg/index.html show *influences* from anime, but [One Piece]:http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/movie/2005_onepiece/index.html is anime (more precisely, it was made into an anime series, though it [appeared first in manga]:http://www.ex.org/3.7/31-manga_onepiece.html form ([on fox on saturdays]:http://www.foxbox.tv/onepiece/ )([synopsis at animenfo]:http://animenfo.com/animetitle,731,cdbxop,one_piece.html )([a good fan site]:http://arlongpark.com/ )). “Anime” used to be called “Japanimation” several years ago. People commonly prefer anime to other cartoons, which might follow from Japanese culture’s general acceptance of cartoons (print and video) as a medium to tell every sort of story.

Anyway, now that I’ve watched way, way, too much, I can see a lot of common threads and concepts in it, and I think I’d have fun writing them down. I love the [wiki concept]:http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyWikiWorks in general, so it seems like a good fit. Some starter topics for this might be rivalry, forgiveness, friendship, overdramatization, super powers, or flashbacks. There’s a [page on everything2 about “anime cliches”]:http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1500157&lastnode_id=1115670 that has a similar analysis, but I think I want it in wiki format. Still, since I don’t expect to have an active community to edit/contribute content or delete spam, I’ll probably restrict edits to myself.

Anyway, feel free to comment if you have any input. 🙂 I wonder if I’ll ever have time to set-up/maintain it.

You might find toilets disgusting or fascinating. In any case, the market for really, really fancy toilets is huge in Japan.

See this article at the wikipedia on them:
[Japanese Toilet]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_toilet

One thing that seems absent (feel free to correct me) is the concept of putting a faucet and a wash basin on top of the tank and letting the greywater be used for the next flush. See this guy’s blog: [a toilet with a faucet]:http://ryanehlinger.blogharbor.com/blog/NewApartmentTokuanOsakaJapan/_archives/2004/12/29/218595.html

One thing interesting is that the toilet seat (not just the lid) has a cover so your butt doesn’t have to touch cold plastic/wood/etc.
This site [(little things Japanese)]:http://www.jun-gifts.com/others/littlethingsjapanese2/littlethingsjapanese2.htm has lots of pictures, even if it’s not as well written as the wikipedia entry.

Anyway. Enjoy! I’d write more on this wildly fascinating topic (no, really, it is), but I gotta go eat now.

Some of you may not have heard of Daler Mehndi. But, if you have, you know that, to know him is to love him. He’s a huge figure in Bhangra, a form of popular Indian music, and I must say that his songs are incredibly catchy and easy to like even for someone like me who knows very little of Indian culture.

So when my friend said that there was a big scandal about him, I had to look it up on the web. I found these articles talking about allegations linking him to human trafficking. Please, Daler, say it ain’t so!

[Rise and fall of Daler Mehndi]:http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_442702,0015002000000062.htm
[A fallen pop icon]:http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/oct26/sl1.asp

Those articles are a little old. A more recent article (dated October 26, 2004), [Cops and Robbers]:http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=57660 from the Indian Express mentions that the charges really had no supporting case.

So I guess that clears things up. Kind of sucks for Daler Mehndi though… going through all that scandal and crap because the local government wanted to pursue some sort of private vendetta.

Anyway… I’ll be listening to some more Tunak Tunak Tun and Bolo Ta Ra Ra Ra. Rock on.