Booyor's BLOGgh!

When you finally tear yourself away from the imagery that Clinton’s sludge is tainting Obama’s administration, you need to check out Wii Sports Resort.

Actually, on an Obama note: I’m working on orders for the library. I chose a couple of biographies on Obama and Michelle, as well as Audacity of Hope. But, since it’s a junior high library, he’s on the order spreadsheet right alongside Ashley Tisdale, Shia LaBeouf, and the Jonas Brothers. (The majority of the biographies previously were as current as Selena and Salt ‘n Peppa.)

With Wii Sports Resort, it’s a fun purchase. My first impressions? Well, you may have heard the result from when I was racing across a rickety bridge over a waterfall to confront 13 assailants wielding red lightsabers kendo swords while listening to Battle of the Heroes cranked at MAX.

And then flying around an island strafing the golf course and basketball courts with laser fire.

What’s not to like?

I wish that I could tell you about the crazy intro that I’m doing one of the training days next week, but it is top secret. Here’s a hint:

It’s crazy.

Other news:

If you’ve ever been annoyed by your cell phone minutes being wasted by voicemail instructions, David Pogue has your solution. The voicemail instructions are 15 seconds. That adds up if you actually listen to the whole pre-recorded message. Trust me, Pogue has done the math about how much that nets companies each year. He also gives instructions on how to beat the system-ish. (I already knew this trick. It’s called pressing buttons in a random combination. It’s how I could get E. Honda to beat Zangief.)

The phone companies have been threatened to stop their schemes (at least one of the schemes) and are being bombarded by Pogue’s readers. Pogue put a link to the different sites. T-Mobile got so swamped they created a special site for the Take Back the Beep! campaign. (Complete with filtering out any comments that mention the word ‘beep’.)

What Pogue’s calling for is smart mob action, like when protesters in the Phillipines took out the Estrada regime by coordinating with text messages.

I don’t think iPhone users have that voicemail instructions message, right? How will people know how to work this new technology called voicemail?

As much as I miss my analog static versus my digital “No Signal”, I never knew the dirty truth about analog.

And yes, Star Wars guys, J and I just finished with removing the last of the nest. Now on to my school homework: searching for YouTube videos for the meeting that was planned during the meeting.

Immigrant Song, by that Police Academy guy, Michael Winslow:

Just kidding. This video is for the meeting.

I have a satellite dish on my roof.

I did not pay for the satellite dish.

Well, the previous owner had it on the roof when I bought the house, so I guess that counts.

Yesterday ants started streaming through the ceiling in our kitchen. (Which happens to be near where the satellite dish is.)

A couple of days ago our DVR recorded So You Think You Can Dance, but left off all of the audio. It makes for a pretty confusing dance show without any music. (Sad, I know, because I hear it was bucc.) My pirate creative mind started thinking through how to steal a satellite signal without paying for it.

How do ants and dancing connect? (Aside from the obvious Dave Matthews reference…(“Dave Matthews GPS”))

I’ve been diagnosed with a blood disease called “sin”. One of the effects of this sickness is that it burrows down deep within my body and tries to hide so that it can’t be removed.

Kinda like a bird burrowing into my attic to make a nest.

Seriously, the poor bird was probably in a storm and needed shelter. There were even eggs in the nest.

All had been dead for quite some time.

The bird had crawled in through where the satellite dish cord comes into the house. The install guy from before we had moved in years ago had not replaced the screen over a venting. This hole looked surprisingly similar to a hole for a bird house. We’ve been in this house since before my oldest child was born. The nest was of a size that Jeremy and I think it had been in there for quite some time.

I could go on treating the symptoms, spraying ants in the kitchen (did you know Clorox stops the ants without being too nerve-damaging humans?). But until the deep rooted cause of the ants, a dead bird in the attic, was removed, the symptoms would return from time to time when I least expected them. It’s like how my interactions with people sometimes get strained – it’s not the people that are the problem, it’s really the decaying, nasty stuff inside of me that taints those conversations. (See my other spiritual metaphor for another reference point.) Gotta get that junk out. Know what I’m saying?

Now, while two large men wielding a rake and a Shop Vac in an attic is rather hilarious (“fat guy in a little coat“), I know that there is part of the nest that we won’t be able to get. We removed the main cause, but some dead grass remains.

There’s only one surgeon I know that can remove the decay perfectly every time.

Slade and Mike, this photo explains my comment that warrants a bigger boat.

“That, boys, is a perimeter.”

The next picture may not be suitable for all audiences. I feel bad for the bird and the second picture spurs compassion in me, but I know it’s not for everyone.
That in mind, I will put a pretty (non-disturbing) picture first as a consideration for you.

and then a reminder of my own temporalness:

New contacts are great.

Here’s an interesting mix of Twitter and health care. I think the Caduceus (the medical snakes) mixed with the Obama logo is pretty funny branding.

This dog, though, and I weigh the same:

I don’t know if that’s healthy. You know, the whole “weighing as much as a baby elephant” thing.

Following in the great tradition of the Street Fighter movies, Double Dragon movies, Mortal Kombat movies, anything Uwe Boll touches, and the majority of videos on YouTube, Sam Raimi (from Spider-Man and Evil Dead) has announced that he will be making a movie set in the World of Warcraft universe.

Yeah. While he’s a director I respect, I liked the movie better when it was called The Guild.

Don’t forget the solicitations for the sale.

There’s a new iPhone app that displays directions/other pertinent information in an overlay on the camera. It’s really cool when used in a place like New York while trying to navigate public transportation:

This reminds me of other augmented reality experiments. Have you seen Squidder? These guys are insane, with face recognition in Flash, adding that recognition to Twitter updates, and the one that blows my mind: the t-shirt with your status updates…updating.

PaperTweet3d: Augmented Reality T-shirts from squidder on Vimeo.

I may have to experiment with things like my barcode shirt.

Did I mention that they put their source code online?

Those guys are the next generation of what I remember hearing about Kevin Warwick (part robot) and Steve Mann (the sousveillance guy who has a computer screen projecting into his eye. I remember when he was a student and his professors decided to let him wear his computer during tests. Now he’s a professor with his own cyborg following.)

I also remember the predictions by Howard Rheingold about Smart Mobs during some of my study while working on my masters degree. That’s when required reading doesn’t feel so required.

My tech prediction? Augmented reality will be pop-up/spam free for a few years and then it will be overrun. It’s ironic when I consider the content of today’s bloggh posts.

You should know by now that I have no shame in what I put online (granted, I keep it separate from my professional life, but I’m sure there are policies against some of these things)(I mean, each year a policy is named after me).

So in this shameless online rambling known as a bloggh, I present to you my friend Bruce’s eBay auction. If you are in need of high quality bath/kitchen/steampunk flying train materials, he’s the guy to look to. He knows his stuff, having coached me through many a home repair.

The other solicitation is for my Crest Sonic SpinBrush. The thing is freakin’ amazing.

Mike, I think this is the version of 1776 your school should do.

Sometime in my life I’ll have to go to the ultimate Comic-Con. Maybe the book will take off with a nerd audience and I’ll be asked to do a signing? I know P.J. Haarsma and John Flanagan have that as part of their publishers’ marketing campaign.

Ideal scenario: I make it big and I need people to play Holmes and ValJean. I don’t know what I would think seeing people with homemade sewer rat spandex. But I do admire this TIE squad:


Even though these are from last year, I’m sure we’ll be seeing photos pour in today as people find decent wi-fi spots.

Right now Twilight is messing up all of the searches.