Stray Hawkeye

Random Fact: Linus Torvalds (the guy who started Linux) and the state of Iowa share a birthday – today, Dec 28th.  Linus is 40, Iowa is 163.  Happy Birthday to both!!!  In other news, I’m pretty sure noticing that makes me a huge dork, but I’m pretty okay with that.

I posted this video last year around Christmas time too, and I think I’m going to make it a tradition.  I still really like this song, and love the performance of it.  I think it fits the season and time of year well, and it’s just pleasantly calming for me in a time of year that can have a lot of stress.  So, here you go, Imogen Heap singing Just For Now:

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Also, due to travel, holidays,  job stuff, generally taking a break, excessive bowl game watching in one last binge of college football before The Long Painful Months Without College Football, etc, etc, I’m going to be mostly AWOL from posting for the next couple weeks – somewhere between sporadic and non-existent until early to mid January, and then should resume the standard “most every weekday when I remember and can find some spare minutes” posting pattern.  Til then, just keep watching the above video in a loop.  It’ll make you feel better.

Not to be confused with previous Free Idea Friday Cold Beer, this would be a website that lists bars, and their beer prices, only.  No pictures, no reviews or editorials.  No descriptions of the crowd that gathers there and how cool/trendy/hipster/tattooed/townie/gay bar/dance club/meat market/dive/etc it is.  Just a list of what beers the bar serves.  It would also need to note which are on tap, in bottles, and in cans, and the price of each.  It should also list if the bar ever charges a cover charge.

I’m a little up in the air still on if specials should be noted, or if it should just be the maximum price you will ever pay for a given beer at a given bar.  I’m also a little up in the air on if it should include other types of drinks they have (cider, wine, cocktails, shots), and if so, do you limit it to what’s on the menu, or whatever they’ll make.  I would lean towards including all alcohol that’s listed on the menu (if there is one), and noting specials but not real prominently.

The website should also allow you to search by distance from a given location, by which bars have a particular beer (for instance, Guinness on tap, PBR in a 20 oz can, Fat Tire in a bottle, etc), price for a given beer, and any combination of the above (for instance, find a bar within a mile that has Guinness on tap for $5 or less, doesn’t serve 20oz’s of PBR, and has some kind of hard cider).

I think this would be interesting not only as a great way to find a cheap place to drink with your friends and a handy way to find place that serve any obscure beers you may like, but also for how much you could tell about a place by what beers they have there and the price of each.

People tend to be pretty fond of ripping on pictures of models that have been overly Photoshoped to make them look “beautiful” (big air quotes there, ie – like anorexic, heroine addicted 13 year old boys with boob jobs, who may also be of an alien species), and rightfully so.  However, focusing just on photoshop also overlooks all the tricks that have been going on since long before digital retouching really hit its stride.  Namely, it overlooks the huge effects of make up and lighting.  This series of the same model with a variety of different make up and lighting is stunning. (via Kottke)

You don’t need Benjamin Button priced CGI to create effective false perceptions.

Previously here and here.

• Expired
• Starry Nite
• The Kraken
• Ambition
• Making Conversation
• Season’s Greetings

Here’s another one for the list of people I want to be when I grow up:

I love how the mix of having to walk only on the smooth parts to keep from tamping down the rough parts, and having to work with some speed to do the whole thing before the tide comes in combine to turn making it into a form of dance.

Here’s another short news piece about him:

Watch CBS Videos Online

In light of the recent Bigfoot / guy in a hoodie sighting here in Minnesota, I’d like to see a late night talk show where the host is Bigfoot.  It would be just like a normal late, late night talk show – monologue, short skits from the desk, interviews with washed up second rate actors – except that it would be hosted by a hairy, seven foot tall woods creature that never seems to be well lit and in front of the camera at the same time, and who is rather skittish.  And he would talk like this for the entire show – that part’s important.  If nothing else, it would at least make for some entertaining interviews.  A sort of Borat from the North woods, but, you know, funny.  You could always start it as a series of videos on youtube and go from there.

And while we’re at it, here’s a Bigfoot vs Paul Bunyan t-shirt – especially fitting since the recent sighting was in Bemidji, which is also where Paul Bunyan is currently residing.

Previous post in the dino-saga here and here.  And yes, it took me forever to get around to downloading the pictures from my camera for this episode, so it’s a little behind the times, but it keeps you up to date with the saga.

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Sinclair has been hanging out at my place for quite a while now, and after getting rested up after his long journey from Florida, we started our search to see if we could find Minne.  So far we’ve had no luck, but it appears from her twitter account that she’s planning to come back in the spring.  After much consoling and a few cookies, I got Sinclair to accept that he won’t be able to see her until then.  In the mean time I’ve been distracting him with Hawkeye sports.

Sinclair took me up on the suggestion that we go down to the Iowa vs Minnesota game this year and go tailgating.  Nessie sent me a letter and said that she was going to swim up to meet us there, but that Mississippi current was too strong for her, and unlike Sinclair, every time she asked a barge captain for a ride, he’d scream in fear and mutter something about needing to “cut back” and run away.  However, she told me that she had a certain feeling we’d meet another Iowa fan at the game if we told her where we’d be tailgating, so I sent her the address.

We drove down to Iowa for the game the night before so we could sleep a little there and go tailgating.  We got up early, but Sinclair was pretty restless.

So I told him to go for a little walk to burn off some energy, since he seems to be good at that.

“Come to think of it, Sinclair, are you old enough to drink?”

“Oh, I suppose that makes sense, kind of.  Ready for another?”

“Sure.  Are you guys hungry?  We’re a little too lazy to do actual grilling tailgate food, but we do have some cookies and chips.”

“Sinclair, that’s an awful lot of beer to drink that fast, especially for someone your size.”

And I think we all know where that leads.  About 20 minutes later it was almost time to go to the game…

“Here Sinclair, have some water.”

“Thanks, I think I might stay back and take a little nap.  Parker can use my ticket and go to the game with you guys.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“Yeah, though it is a little chilly.  Do you have anything I could borrow to cover up with?  I’m cold blooded and all…”

“Sure, here, hop in the car.  I happen to have an old Iowa Marching Band raincoat that you can cover up with.  It even has the old fuzzy fleece liner in it.  I’ll even tuck you in.”

So, we started walking to the game.

Parker made some friends along the way too.

It took a little while to get in, but we got there just in time.

It was a little quiet for a while after that.

Parker got a little bored during half time…

He takes after the defense.

A little while later, they got ready to kick off the second half, and we’re all lucky Parker was there.

Parker quickly ran down and restrained the unruly fan.  After all, we’d hate to see the Minnesota team catch fire for the first time since Decker got hurt.

The second half was, shall we say, less than photogenic.  But at least one fan in front of us did get pretty excited.

Until we finally arrived at the greatest (if also most blurry) play in football, the victory formation.

A side note, dinosaurs are incredibly slow on steps.  So, it took a little while to get down there and we missed Floyd, but we did get to see…

So, after the meanie security guard, we decided to go meet the band.  They were much nicer, one even let Parker try his horn.

Then we went over to meet the cheer leaders, they were pretty nice too, and seemed to like Parker…

Over all it was a fun game and a great day.

Until next time Mr Kinnick, until next time.

Real Genius gets another step closer.

This is old, but it still makes me smile:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

The guy who make it has a website here.

Via Astronomy Picture of the Day.