Fujiya & Miyagi

I have no idea what the words mean, or who the band is here, but this is a great video. Using the dots on dice to do these animations is just too cool! It amazes me how little information our brains need to see the images, especially in terms of motion.

Ankle Injuries

More Videos

Um, I just rolled a 4 trillion.

USB Missile Launcher

Attention office mates! Drop your mice, put down your coffee mugs, and prepare to be boarded! The missiles are deployed, and ready for launch!



This is too cool. I'm seriously considering getting one of these things. It would be so great when people walk by my office, and see the missile launcher turning towards them: FIRE!! Down goes the mug! FIRE!! Down go the photocopies! FIRE!! Ooops... um.... Hi boss!! What's that? You want one too!! :-)

Domino PCs

Here's something neat you can do with all thoses extra computers you have lying around:

Lego Chaingun

This is pretty neat. This guy built a chaingun out of Legos that can fire rubberbands at 11 rounds per second. You can't really appreciate how cool this is until you look at the video:

Now I have all the pieces I need to build my Lego super robot!! Bwoo-hah-hah-haa!!!

(Well, I have the gun at least!)

LASIK at home... Really?

OMG, this can't be for real. I'm scared enough as it is, regarding LASIK, and though I'd love to be contact/glasses-free, I'm not quite ready for LASIK. This home kit (if this isn't a joke, which I suspect it is), is too much.

The "How to" cartoon (above, but better seen here) shows how its done in "Four Easy Steps". Find a place without distractions? Yeah, THAT sounds promising.

FFFFVVVTT!! "Ouch!! Gol' danged phone!! Now I'm friggin' blind!!"

My favorite part of the cartoon, is the last frame, where it shows you enjoying all the benefits of perfect vision... including standing next to a target on an archery range!! LOL

Oh, and "Perform the painless procedure" has a footnote that reads "This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA" I think I'm going to order this kit right away!! For $100, its worth the risk of messing up my eyes!!

UPDATE: Okay, I did some searching, and found a link that explains that this is a hoax. Still pretty funny though!

Dragon Illusion

I guess this one has been around for a long time, but this is the first time I've seen it - in this form at least. I've seen the hollow face illusion in Spencer's Gifts stores, and at amusement parks, but this one is pretty darn neat.

Why? Well, for one reason, you can download the PDF, and make one of your own! I did this, and it looks as good as the one in the video. It only took me about 10 minutes to make.

Update: I hadn't really looked around that site, but now that I have, I've discovered a lot of neat optical illusions and magic. If you like that sort of thing, I recommend sending a few minutes looking around the site. On one of the optical illusion pages, there is an interesting video of a guy who's head appears to pop off, and land in his hands! Very well done!

Mountain Dew Shower Gel

Omigod, I think I could be in heaven. Bathing in Mountain Dew is like the last step in Dew godliness, I think. Like, this soap actually feeds Caffeine into your body through your skin:

Manufacturers claim their Shower Shock soap releases caffeine that is absorbed into the user's system and provides the same hit as a two cups of coffee.

Now if I can just figure out how to order the stuff...

Zombie Claus

Oh no! Not Zombie Claus!!

Yeah, it's an old post on LaughingSquid.com, but I came across it looking for pictures of zombies (don't ask), and thought I'd share. What's with the kid anyway? He looks authentically scared there.

Actually, besides the pile of fake brains, and severed feet in the background, he's a pretty sad Zombie Claus.

Delete a Print Job... GUARANTEED

I have this happen on occasion. I'm printing multiple copies of something, and suddenly, the printer stops. No errors, no weird printing, it just stops. I always think that the printer has printed all the copies I asked for (tonight it was 40), and figure all is well.

Then, I try to print something else. Nothing. Nothing at all. First reaction? Let's check the printer queue, and see what's going on. I look, and there's the document I printed earlier, and nothing else. The heck? Okay, so the logical next step is to "Cancel Document", and move on to bigger and better things.... except that this does not work. Sure, the little window SAYS it is canceling the document, but the damn thing never goes away. I can turn the printer off, and the computer off, and then everything back on, and its STILL there.

Every time before that this has happened to me, I fiddle for an hour, and then, without explanation, the stupid document goes away, and I'm running again. I never know what the magic set of keystrokes are that ultimately rid me of the printer gremlin, and so every time it happens, it costs me another hour of frustrating troubleshooting.

This time, I got smart. I decided to google the words "delete printing queue win XP" (I forgot to mention this is on a Win XP machine). I find a link (click title above) to this article on SearchWinComputing.com that basically walks you through the process of shutting off the spooler, killing the jobs manually (I'm actually deleting files!!), and starting the spooler back up again. Sweet. I was up and running in no time. I can't tell you how much joy it gave me to delete the troublesome files. They actually vanish the instant you press delete - imagine that! Definitely the neatest new computer trick I've learned in a long long time.

In case the article goes away (the internet is flaky like that), I'm going to reproduce the important bit here. I hope this is helpful to someone else out there:

If you're trying to delete a specific stuck print job, take note of the job's approximate time and date. Then do the following:

1. Close all open Printers folders.
2. Stop the Spooler service. In Windows 2000, this is done through the Services icon in Administrative Tools (found in the Control Panel); in Windows NT 4.0, it's done through the Services icon in the Control Panel. You can also stop the Spooler by typing NET STOP SPOOLER at a command prompt. If you're using TCP/IP Printing Services, you'll need to stop that service as well.
3. Open the %Winroot%System32SpoolPrinters directory (same in both operating systems). Make sure Explorer is set to view hidden and system files.
4. Delete all *.SPL and *.SHD files in that directory that match the time/date stamp of the job you're trying to kill. If you're trying to purge everything, delete all files with those extensions.
5. Close the Printers folder and restart the stopped services. You can restart the Spooler from the command line by typing NET START SPOOLER.

If you have too many "dead" spool files in the directory, you may also get this error whenever you try to print:

An application error has occurred and an application error log is being generated.
SPOOLSS.EXE (SPOOLSV.EXE in Win2K)
Exception: access violation (0xc0000005), Address:

This indicates that the directory may be overloaded with printer spooler files and needs to be cleaned. Also check into the system's TEMP directories and remove any *.TMP files. These can also be an obstacle; some printer drivers use the TEMP directory for rasterization of print jobs.

Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets

Wow, this is pretty cool. You can buy these "Box Rivets", and then build just about anything with cardboard.

As I'm a magician, and there are quite a few cardboard stage tricks out there, I think I'm going to be ordering a few of these.

Now, where the heck am I going to get some refridgerator boxes to build me a pirate ship... Yarrr!!

All Hail Dewkid!

I just posted this message:

Listen

!!

Flash 9.0.28 Crashes Netscape 7.2

I've always been a non-conformist, and as such, have clung to Netscape 7.2 for probably too long. I refuse to use IE on a regular basis, and even upgrading to Netscape 8.0 or beyond is repugnant to me. Don't talk to me about Mozilla: yeah, I tried it, but Netscape 7.2 is just so... stable.

Today, a happy little window popped up on my screen to inform me that a new version of Adobe Flash was available. Without thinking, I clicked "Install", and a few seconds later, it went away. All seemed good...

...until I visited my first website with a Flash movie. Suddenly, I was presented with the Microsoft crash dialog, and I quickly pressed Dont Send. The first time it happened, I thought it was a fluke, but after several tries to multiple sites, it dawned on me that Flash was the culprit.

Using IE, I pulled up Google, and typed the words "Flash Crashes Netscape", and after looking through some false hits, found this forum where others have seen this behavior. Following a link in that forum, I was able to download Flash Player 9.0.16 from here, and the flash uninstaller from here.

I uninstalled Flash 9.0.28, installed Flash 9.0.16, and all is well again. I didn't even have to reboot! Whew!

Now do you see why I hate to upgrade? I'm keeping Netscape 7.2 as long as I can, which mean Bill Gate can pry it from my cold dead fingers. No, change that. I wont DIE for it, but I will put up a good fight! Well, maybe an argument. Okay, if Bill asks me nicely I may switch to IE, but he's gunna have to see my angry face!

No Bag Babies!

For Christmas this year, we decided to buy Dell laptops for our two oldest girls. The primary reason is for schoolwork, but surfing barbie.com or playing Zoo Tycoon never hurt either. They will also give them a chance to communicate on a more regular basis with their Grandparents who live 1000 miles away.

We ordered the laptops at a mall kiosk, and they arrived in record time (3 days!). Each laptop was in its own box. Inside the box was another box that contained accessories, and a styrofoam shell which protected the actual laptop. Opening the shell, the laptop is sealed in a foamy bag that sported a graphic of a suffocating child (see pic). Though I understood its meaning, my first reaction was to laugh at the image. My brother-in-law pointed out that it would make a good T-Shirt. Hmmm, I may just do that.

Mystery Science Theatre Mp3000

This is too cool. A friend of mine (posts here as Seymour) pointed out a new website to me:

   http://www.rifftrax.com/

If you ever watched MST3000, you'll recognize what this is right away. Essentially, these guys take movies, and then add a track of commentary to poke fun at it. This used to be on the Sci-Fi channel, but I don't think its on anymore.

Anyway, the website allows you to download the commentary as an MP3 file for any of the movies they have listed (there are quite a few now), and then play them in sync with the DVD of the movie that you provide (own or rent). I tried this with the latest release "Reign of Fire", and it was a blast. Very good comedy, and worth every penny (did I mention that there is a $2-3 charge for the download?)

The only pain, is that the MP3 file is too long to fit on a single CD (which is how I chose to play it). I had to use some software to split the MP3 into two chunks, and burn it to two CDs. The recommended way to listen to the track is with an MP3 player (ie., iPod). We actually have a couple of iPods, but no real way to play it through my stereo, which is where the TV is. I suppose I could have played the DVD on or near my computer, or even used the new iPod speakers I bought my wife for Christmas, but what's the fun in that!! :-)

Check it out, I dare ya!

Move to Blog Beta

Okay, I wasn't going to do this, but then I did. I guess its cuz I was going to have to do it anyway. So, here I am on blogger beta, and things look a little different. Guess I'll get used to it.

Carnival Magic Show

Yesterday, my kids elementary school had a carnival. I had volunteered to setup a magic show booth for the kids, and do several shows. I went back and forth about being excited about it, and regretting it (too much work!), but now that its come and gone, I'm extremely happy I did it.

I built this booth out of PVC piping and black duck cloth (no, not made from ducks: its a heavy canvas that prevents light from passing through - very effective). It's kind of a pain to transport, but once it is setup, its very cool. I have this golden shimmering curtain which adds some flair to the booth, and give it the necessary "magic show" type of appearance. I put up a black bulletin board with my name ("The Mystery Magician") and showtimes (I did three shows: 3:30pm, 4:30pm and 5:30pm).

The first show I was a little nervous. You see, I normally do these things for birthday parties, and usually in someone's backyard or living room. This time, however, the engagement was an open forum, and anyone who wanted to see a magic show, needed only to sit down in front of the booth at the specified time. Anyway, the first show started off a bit slow, because there weren't that many people there at the start (10-20?). Once I got started, the audience (which was standing - first mistake!) slowly edged closer and closer, until I was being pressed back into my booth. Nevertheless, they seemed to enjoy themselves, and I had a ball showing off some of my best tricks.

The second show was different. This time, word had gotten around, and a MOB of people (adults and children alike) showed up. There had to be something like 50-70 people there! I encouraged them to sit on the ground (to prevent the press), and had demarked a line on the ground so they wouldn't get too close. The 2nd show was wonderful. I did some different tricks (for those repeat attenders), and some same tricks. The audience was one of the best I had ever performed for, and there was lots of interaction. Many of the kids would shout out that they knew how I did the trick, and then their jaws would drop to the ground when I changed it up. Pure joy!

The 3rd show was definitely the best, as I pulled out the stops. I did everything, from Cups and Balls, to Hippity-Hop Rabbits, to Rising Deck, to Cut-and-Restored rope. Some of the tricks I didn't think would play well, turned out to be my biggest hits (Stiff Rope, and Dove Pan)!

On Tuesday, I have my big Halloween show, where I will be levitating a Jack-O-Lantern, cutting my daughter's arm in two, and walking through barbed wire. Wish me luck!

Dancing Bananas?!?

This is another one of those things that probably amuses me more than it should, much like Corn Cob Bob. I discovered the dancing banana on a little chat widget on Moody Minstrel's Blog, and have probably overdone my welcome there. :-) Still, that little dancing banana is so fun to watch (I enjoy the simple pleasures), especially in great numbers. So, tip one back for the dancing banana! Huzzah!

UPDATE 7/11/06 - Apparently, there is a Dancing Banana wiki entry. Check it out!

UPDATE 8/29/06 - Pa've suggested a dancing Goon. Though his picture is taken down, he looks something like an overgrown pickle. I know this is a cucumber, but it wouldn't take a lot of time to modify in a gif editor to make a dancing Goon!!

Mmmmmm, Hamwinkies

Courtesy of "The Soup", these little treats are a meal and a snack, all in one! Great for backpacking, camping, boating, clubbing, or taking on your first date. Imagine her surprise when you whip one of THESE bad boys out!

Can't find them in stores? Print out the picture, and show the store manager. I'm sure they'll place an order right away, because no-one can resist these little guys!! I'm going to have one right now..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hats of Meat

I remember seeing this site once a long time ago, and then it vanished. A recent google search reveals that this site has returned once again, and it is bigger and better than ever! There's a fairly large section of photos people have sent in, showing their own hats of meat.

mmmmMMMMMEAT!

Cream of Meat

The sun is just peeking up over the horizon, and you are straggling out of bed, looking for something to break your fast. Cereals don't give you what you need, and toast just aint cutting it. You need some Cream of Meat! Mmmmm that delicious red meaty goodness in a box! Make yourself a nice steamy bowl of Cream of Meat, and get your day started right!