Anna: 2, Kitchen: 0 !!!

Ahahaha! As part of my ongoing home-improvement projects, I have waged war against the two decorative columns in the kitchen, and emerged victorious!

This project went quite well, although it was very tedious to attempt to remove the columns without damaging them (so that they can be re-installed later, after the new countertop has been put in). The only real setback was that I had to go buy a new utility knife about halfway through this process. Looking back on it, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to use a hammer on them … not that this stopped me.

To read more about this and other home-improvement exploits, visit the Evil Lab.

Here I am, weilding a hammer, flushed with triumph:

Grrr...

I must apologize for the lack of posts lately, I’ve been experiencing what we like to call “project angst”, a neurological disorder in which, overburdened with projects around the house that seem as though they will never be completed, I have developed an acute hatred of the Home Depot.

Look, they even sell the perfect sign* for me:

I suppose it probably is too much to ask for them to return my phone calls, or keep track of my orders, or deliver things on time. Grrr, argh.

*From the Jodiverse

The musical sublime:

The title of this piece totally under-represents that absolute magnificence of this:

“Redefined, an a cappella group from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, sing and act out a medley of Nintendo theme songs.”

The Tetris segment made me cry. Seriously.

They pantomime game segments as they sing, here's my favorite bit:

(And to top it all off, they even picked the best of the three tetris music alternatives)

Okay, not only is this awesome, but these people are from Wisconsin*!!

And not only that, but they go to UW Madison, the alma mater of a vast majority of my old friends!! And, ya know, some people (cough, Bridget, cough, cough) still actually go there!!

Mother of Jefferson Davis, could one of you not told me of this before now? Hello?? Is this a vast conspiracy to keep me in the dark?? Do I have to do all of the research work for my blog myself?!?! You people seriously need to keep me informed.

Finally, I think I should thank Davin and his Super-Nintendo for this piece, because without him I probably wouldn’t find this as funny as I do.

*snide comments from non-wisconsinites about hallucinogenic cheese consumption leading to acts of insanity, such as the aforementioned acapella segment, shall not be tolerated.

Search Engine Deathmatch

I’m not sure that this combined Yahoo and Google search really has any use except for comparing the ways in which your name appears when searched for. But it does hold a sort of surprising fascination.

Personally, I think it this because I like the idea of things competing to please me. And if there ever was a way to make two search engines “rumble” this is it (all that’s missing is some snappy West Side Story music, and switchblades. They should get right on that).

Despite the nifty concept, they loose it when they try to make the icon clever:

From Lifehacker, which is good for learning about neat stuff.

Evil, evil is my one and only name ....

Of all of the “discover how evil you are” quizzes out there, I think that this may be the most accurate. This is probably because they take things like the type of browser that you’re using into consideration.

I turned out to be “twisted”, probably because I chose France as the European country with which I identify the closest.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in improving their score, I recommend this book on Villainy, which changed my life.

Credit goes to Dad, who reportedly received a score of “good”. You know, given further thought, I think that his results may actually debunk the structural integrity of this test. If I get my evil from anywhere, it’s from him. Thanks daddy!

I can be my own Lichtenstein!

I have no idea if this works, but wouldn’t it be awesome if it did?? The “Rasterbator” (great name) allows you to make your own giant black and white wall art using any images that you would like.

A vast majority of the people who have modified images seem to think that this was designed so that we can create giant Bon Jovi faces for our walls. But hey, at least someone thought to use it in order to doctor up some great art.

Ingres always makes fabulous giant wall posters:

I’m not even sure what image I’d want to use when I try this out, but how creepy would it be to have, for example, your own giant eye staring at you all the time?? Oh the possibilities.

Yikes

Yet another, in litany of reasons, that I bless my two X Chromasomes. Thanks Dad.

Wow ... this is just ... wow.

I wonder what Duchamp would think of this?? He'd probably be proud. God I love art.

My robot dog army would not play soccer.

So, this is what Sony does with its vast technological research into robots: it enters puppies into the Robocup, an international soccer championship with the ultimate goal of creating robots that can defeat human players*.

Robocup was created “In an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined” .

This is all well and good, but how is soccer the right answer to this dilemma?? Here, right off the bat I’ll give you a much better “Standard Problem” to test the boundries of AI research: how about taking over the World????

Clearly these people have no vision. Seriously, what were they thinking??

Sony's soccer puppies:
They are far too cute, and are clearly in need glowing red death-laser eyes or something

*yeah yeah, I'm sure Sony does other stuff with it's vast technological research, and after further consideration, I've decided that these little guys are actually pretty cute. My birthday is coming up, if anyone is in need of lavish gift ideas.

Thanks to Slate for making my life more interesting

Fixation? What Fixation??

Okay, I know it may appear from this post that I seem to have some kind of obsessive “problem” with my ipod. I resent that. Our love is a pure love that cannot be understood by the common person.

Actually, it shows that I’ve been looking around lately for ipod accessories that I need to own. This one mystifies me, Can this actually be real??

Yup, as far as I can tell, that's an ipod electric razor attatchment:

Okay okay, it's not real, it's British. But this brings up an important point: It should be real.