Stray Hawkeye

Has anyone else ever noticed that the clothes the sledgehammer girl is wearing in the iconic 1984 Apple commercial below really closely resemble the outfits the waitresses at Hooters wear?  Like, basically identical.  No?  Just me?  Okay.

I know it’s well past the end of basketball season, but this still makes me laugh like hell.

Super cheesy, but cute:

I wonder how much post-it note sales have increased since people started making all sorts of videos like this on youtube.

Via Ovablastic.

Did you know that NASA makes movie style poster for its missions?  They do, and they’re awesome.  I think the one for Expedition 13 (really big pdf of it) is my favorite:

Neo... In... Space!!

And before anyone starts bitching about “my tax dollars at work”, remember:

1. If you know what you’re doing it doesn’t take that long to do this sort of thing, especially when they already make the informative versions for press / schools.
2. Seeing a government agency embracing a bit of remix / pop culture is sort of a refreshing surprise.  Especially with the continuous corporate push towards more DRM and more strict intellectual property laws that would limit this sort of format.
3. These people when to god-damn space and are in basically the most hazardous profession that exists.  They deserve to be doted on a little bit, especially now when shuttle launches and space walks barely even get a 5 second mention on the evening news unless they’re the last one of something, or something goes terribly wrong (see most hazardous profession that exists comment).  I mean really, without looking at the poster above, name me one astronaut in the last 5 years.  Now name me one reality show star.  That’s what I thought.  Our real heroes need some more press.
4. They’re awesome.

Via Kottke.

Just 10 more football-less weekends after this one…

Via Black Heart Gold Pants.

Also, this video points out something that I hadn’t thought of before – the first thing the players see when they walk out of the tunnel is the water tower.  We really need to paint that thing.

Most Twitter accounts suck.  This one, not so much.  What BP would say if it said what it meant – @BPGlobalPR

Via Kottke.

When Skynet comes, I hope it looks like this:

(Via Swiss Miss, Kottke, Boing Boing, and basically the entire rest of the internet)

That may be my favorite way for the world to end.  Though I would have been content if it just took out New York and went away.

Bonus fun fact – if you look up Skynet on Wikipedia while making a blog post to check if it’s one word or two, and if the N is capitalized if it’s one word, you may notice that the page has location coordinates for Skynet: 37.921, -122.532.  If you were to find this location in Google Maps (perhaps the start of Skynet itself), it would show you this.

Skynet will apparently be born in the pool of some fancy house in the suburbs of San Francisco.  Now, with the glory of Google Maps, we not only know where Skynet will start, but, low and behold, the place (503 Corte Madera Ave, Corte Madera CA 94925) is up for leasing!  That’s right, for a mere $6995 a month, you could live in this 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath, 5,300 square foot future home of mankind’s downfall!

From the listing, it sounds like our future mechanical overloads really know how to live, … or compute, … or process, or whatever it is they do (emphasis mine):

Listed for lease in Marin County at $6,995, and truly a unique find, this custom-built  5,300 +/- sq ft home* offers gracious style with an expansive layout that makes sense for today’s living.

Built in 1988 and situated in the hills of Corte Madera, the house is close enough to town that you’re just a couple moments from shopping, dining, local farmer’s markets, etc, yet far enough away that you achieve the rare Marin combo of privacy and property.

5bd/4.5ba + office + workout room

Formal entry paved in marble.  Formal living room boasts hardwood floors, fireplace and elevated sitting area perfect for piano or other large scale furniture.  Formal dining room offers big corner bay views and butler’s entry to kitchen.

The cheerful country kitchen faces east overlooking the bay, offering fresh morning sun.  Kitchen includes newer appliances, an open layout, and a wonderful breakfast nook.  Kitchen opens to large family room with additional fireplace, and french doors leading to enclosed lawn, gardens and pool.

Four bedrooms all on one level upstairs.  Master suite includes spacious walk-in closet and elevated sitting area w/fireplace.  Additional 5th bedroom is downstairs – perfect for au-pair or extended stay guests w/separate entrance and mini kitchenette.

Bonuses include:
-formal office or library with built-in bookshelves
-small bonus room overlooking pool – perfect for workout room w/steam shower
-elaborate centralized computer system controls almost everything in home from the den: security, lights, temperature and more

Life in Corte Madera includes access to highly-ranked local schools (see www.greatschools.org) and an excellent San Francisco commute.  Great central Marin weather will allow you to take full advantage of the pool and yard.  Cut over the hill to Mill Valley for great dining, or hop on your bike and be on Marin’s great biking trails right away.

Available this month for 1 year lease.  Looking for non-smoking tenants who will care for this custom-designed home in the family since it was built!  Owners will include pool and garden maintenance – tenant to cover all utilities including renter’s insurance.

Contact Executive Rental Agent Darcy Alkus Barrow to schedule your private tour: (415) 637-8917

Cheers!

*Sq ft quoted per tax records. Agent has not verified.

Not really my cup of tea, but then again, I suppose I do have a soul and all…

If you’re in Minneapolis, there’s a Nerd Party going on all this week and weekend at the old Arise Bookstore on Lyndale.  I haven’t gone to it, nor do I really know who’s putting it on, but it sounds like it could be a good time from the list of scheduled activities.

Via Boing Boing.

There seems to be a lot of talk around the shifting college conference landscape lately. So, I thought I would take it upon myself to try to clear things up.

So far, we know for sure that Colorado is leaving the Big 12 for the Pac-10.  If things were to stop with this, the Pac-10 would then have 11 teams, as would the Big 12 (11). However, it would seem a lock that Nebraska will be leaving the Big-12 (now 11) as well. They would be headed to the Big 10, which currently has 11 teams, which with Nebraska would be 12.  So, we would have 12 Big 10 teams, 10 Big 12 teams, and 11 Pac 10 teams.  One would have to assume this would beget renaming the conferences to align with their new number of institutions, to make the Big 10 the Big 12, the Big 12 the Big 10, and the Pac 10 the Pac 11 unless we throw out USC for their recent violations making the Pac 10′s 11 10 again.

However, it doesn’t stop there. There’s more talk that the Big 12 with 10 teams (not to be confused with the Big 10 with 12 teams that had 11 before) could further loose more teams to any mix of the Pac 10 (11), the Big 10 (12), or the SEC (number withheld to protect the innocent). If, from the remaining Big 12′s 10 teams, Texas and Texas A&M were to leave for the Pac 10 (11 carry the two for 13) that would leave the Big 12 with 8 teams, not to be confused with the former Big 8, which became the Big 12 when they added 4 teams (how reasonable), and would make the Pac 10 13, the Big 10 12, and the Big 12 8 (but not, mind you, the Big 8).

With all of this, there is of course speculation that both the Pac 10 now 13 and the Big 10 now 12 (but not the Big 12, or 8) would then want to continue to expand to 16 teams each, further dissolving the Big 12 to the Little One. This would thus make the Pac 10 16 and the Big 10 16 and the Big 12 one, and we could then just rename them all to the Pac 16, the Big 16, and the Big Nothing Plus One (presumably Iowa State on both accounts), removing a lot of confusion.

And, never failing to look long term, one could see a day where the Pac 16 and the Big 16 would want to merge into one super-conference which would of course be known by one of two names.

In the first case, the conference would be known as Every Relevant Football Team – West, which would then compete with Every Relevant Football Team – East, aka the merged SEC/ACC, aka SAC, and thus replacing the BCS with the ERFT playoffs, which the ERFT-West would dominate.  The yearly playoff would thus be nicknamed The Annual SAC Kicking Contest.  The beer commercials at half time would be epic.

In the second case, the merged Pac 16 and Big 16 would choose to combine their names to form the Pig 32, which the still excluded and horribly confused Iowa State would attempt to mate with, producing a new, wildly deformed chimera offspring conference. The new Monster Conference would by genetics consist half of relevant football teams, and half of Iowa State, thus mirroring the current Iowa / Iowa State rivalry, but on a much larger and more horrifying scale. I’m also pretty sure it would be a signal of the end times.

Notre Dame (still independent) would then attempt to engage in a battle (football) with Monster Conference in a final contest of good vs evil (I’ll let you be the judge as to which side is which in a half-pig/half-ISU vs Fainting Irish contest) in order to bring about the Apocalypse as foretold in the book of Revelations.  However, Monster Conference would be confused as to whom “Notre Dame” is, as it would have long since been relegated to little more than a folk tale among devoted Catholics and viewers of NBC, with little recognition in the outside world.  Monster Conference would then assume the challenge from “Notre Dame” was just a prank phone call and hang up, thus avoiding the Apocalypse and making the world immortal.  Logically this would cause my Iowa Hawkeyes to be crowned The World Champions Of All College Football Forever Amen.  This would of course take place at the Rose Bowl.

Hope that clears everything up.

I’m not usually much of one for bluegrass, but I really, really like this song by the semi-local (Duluth) band Trampled by Turtles (which also ranks up there for favorite band names):

Trampled By Turtles-Wait So Long from Justin Gustavison on Vimeo.

Also one of the few times I think actually like the band better after seeing a video of them.  It’s rare, because usually it seems to ruin something seeing a music video with the one “official” interpretation of the song, but here I kind of like it.  It fits just well enough to not break the image of them I had in my head from the music, while at the same time making me think a bit more about it and leaving things open.

I especially like the interlude around two minutes in and the lyrics right after it:

And your heart goes on like a frozen freight train
You know that I help you if I can
But I’m just a raindrop in a river
Just a little itty-bitty grain of sand

Really like the “Welcome home” t-shirt too.