itesser links

Cabinet of Wonders: The Anti-Pragmatic Manifesto

This is one of the best things to happen to me this week. An I've had a pretty good week. Words cannot describe.

PET bottle armor ::: Pink Tentacle: "At the request of the world’s largest cola cartel, Kosuke Tsumura made this suit of PET bottle armor by slicing up bottles and sewing the pieces together with transparent nylon thread. "

My screensaver is Electric Sheep. Part fractals, part art, part distributed computing, part open source community project. I've been running it for so long I'd forgotten some of the details about it, especially that there's a "vote for your favorite sheep" aspect. Strangely enough, the two I was going to mention are the top two on the site. this and this.


They're atypical for Electric Sheep, more representational and asymmetrical than most, which is why they stuck out at me.

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe



This is possibly my favorite new webcomic.

That's an old comic, but still good enough that I've stopped reading the archive so I can leave it open and bask in its light longer.

Video: Three bioluminescent sea creatures ::: Pink Tentacle: "This video clip from Japanese TV program “Best House 123″ shows the top three glow-in-the-dark sea creatures selected by Hokkaido University professor Yoshihiro Omiya, a specialist in the study of bioluminescent organisms."

Link includes descriptions of the creatures

Curry-flavored mock terror drill ::: Pink Tentacle: "In these video stills from a Japanese TV news report, law enforcement officers engage in hand-to-hand combat with a mock terrorist armed with a curry-rice banner — the kind commonly placed on sidewalks in front of restaurants."


Next: A news report about police training to tackle the threat that is terrorists armed with sandwich boards.

Underwater scenes from 20,000 Leagues. While I was in the groove on an all-night binge of drawing and being amused, I felt my confidence growing in the areas of being able to draw characters consistently. Of course, it helps to have photographs of a single person to be drawing so consistently, but I've not felt, previously, that it was in my current abilities to hold on to a character. Until now. Ask me to draw a Ned Land without a reference. I can do it! And a couple other characters, too. :)

While I might have frittered some of my day, the bulk of it was spent listening to the Areas of My Expertise audio book and drawing in the aforementioned groove. Also known as a flow.

I almost managed to play Zoo Tycoon 2 while drawing, but it too often took too much attention. :(

If you have a spare $20 and an audio listening device, buy this for yourself, and you'll never be lonely again.

For at least seven hours, John Hodgman will speak directly too you and tell you things.

John Hodgman does not give me money, but I think you should give some to him, unless you can get it for free. Pirate.

This thing which I am shilling is the audio book of his textually written book, Areas of My Expertise, with which I have no experience. I've never even seen it in a bookstore. Although I've never looked.

It's possible I'm going to abandon all other listening projects to hear this out, and I'm only about 20 minutes into it. :D His dry wit is so soothing.

I've fallen down on posting links lately, but this is just toooo fantastic to pass up.

Ten Tokyo time-lapse trips ::: Pink Tentacle

One of the 10: