Breakfast of the Gods

Brendan Douglas Jones has created a violent, dark, and funny web comic using all of our favorite breakfast cereal characters. It starts off with Frankenberry killing Honey Bee at the order of Count Chocula.

'Nuff Said

Link to Comic
Cast of Characters
RSS Feed

Here's a sample page:

Musica!

The Melancholic Man, originally uploaded by think cink.

Ever since I became aware of a desire to be unique from other people, music above all else has separated me the most drastically.

The above quote is the opening statement from the latest Adherical Lyrical post on the Holland Project blog. It captured my attention and I had no choice but to read on.

Its great, it shows how some people that are seen as disenchanted are actually enchanted. I wish that everyone who doesnt understand why peircings, why tattoos, why eyeliner, skulls & crossbones, and dissonance, would read this.

Reno Santa Pub Crawl '06

Last night I took part in the Reno Santa Pub Crawl. If you have never done this I highly suggest it! If you went downtown last night you would have seen Santas everywhere. All of the bars on the route were packed with wall to wall Santas. Louis Basque Corner and Abbys Highway 40 in particular were packed. The streets from fourth to downtown had groups of Santas wandering all over.



There were afro Santas, pimp Santas, sexy Ms. Clauses, Toga Santa, one guy looked like a cross between a Moses, Elvis, pimp Santa, reporter Santa and lots of other varieties.



One of the really interesting stops was the Mens Club. We went in there and there were 20 Santas sitting around watching a stripper on a pole. One Santa (I suspect the real one) shook his butt at the stripper so she got down, took his belt and spanked him with it.



See all my photos from the Reno Santa Pub Crawl

Corporate Santa (photographer)


I hope to see you all out next year.

Another reason I love The Hype Machine...

Instant Mother Fucking Christmas station! (and its not the same old shit!)

My fav find, "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" - Neko Case

Found through the Hype and originally posted on Vinyl Mine

(Dynamical & BNon-linear will return to its normal kid friendly non-cussing format after christmas when those fucking kids get all their fucking presents)

I want first chair in the slot machine section of the Reno Philharmonic

Seriously, I love Reno. Earlier this month 4 slot machines from IGT were featured as intruments in a holiday concert at the Philharmonic. Click the pic to watch the vid.

From the RGJ page:
As part of its holiday concert earlier this month, the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra performed "Holiday Fantasy Concerto for Four Prepared Slot Machines, Orchestra and Chorus on Leroy Anderson." The piece was arranged and composed by music director Barry Jekowsky and was played with actual slot machines prepared by IGT for the concert.


Awesome.

RIP: Walt Disney 12/15/1966

Walt died 40 years ago today. Sadly I have no pictures of his cryogenicaly frozen corpse to post with this notification.

Inconceivable! (Re-Cut)

There is a new genre of YouTube vid, the Re-Cut no doubt started by 10 things I Hate about Commandments"

People take existing movies or TV shows and re-cut a trailer that will make you want to quote Inigo Montoya.

Here is a great Mary Poppins one called "Scary Mary"



The Forrest Gump one is hilarious too. But if you want one that is topical check out Seinfeld Recut (Not Work Safe)

Walt paid attention to every detail

Walt paid attention to every detail Hosted on Zooomr

Today is Walt Disney's Birthday (12/5/1901)

I have no clue what this has to do with Winnemucca

But its called the "Winnemucca Cal King Bedspread"

Gogol Bordello and Primus

So i had all kinds of fun this weekend but the concert was the tip-top.

We snuck down into some seats about 20 ft from the stage for the opening act (aka the main act for Morsa and I), Gogol Bordello. Not that we sat in the seats. We just danced in front of them. They were all energy. I don't know enough about punk to join in on the punk is dead debate but I can tell you it lives in the heart of Eugene Hutz the lead singer.

During the show Eugene climbed down into the audience, started climbing over seats, climbed back, and then flung himself backwards about 6-7 ft. back onto the stage from the front seat. Later he kicked his mic over and a rodie had to come out and replace it while he was running around stage. The front part of the crowd was jumping and dancing and one couple was waltzing all the way up and down the isle.


My pictures arent even worth showing so instead check out other peoples pics on Flickr. Ok seriously, even if you dont give a fuck about this band look at the pics they are hilarious.



Primus was a totally different show but equally awesome. I always kicked myself for not seeing them when I was in the bay. The crowd stood for the whole show, the music was fucking amazing. The guitarist at one point played a banjo with a distortion petal. Les played some weird instrument apparently called a"Whamola"



In an article where Les talks about his gear in it he says

“Everyone wants to know about ‘Whamola,’ which is named for the instrument I play on a tune. It was given to me a few years ago in Vermont at 3 am by two guys who had waited at my hotel after a show. It’s a weird washtub bass-type instrument with a single D string on a stick, a pickup, a peg on the bottom like an upright bass, and a big handle that you pull to change pitch. I play it by beating on it with a drumstick. For the track, I sent the Whamola through the SansAmp distortion and the Korg envelope. The Whamola sounds good on tape, but when you hear it live it’s incredible—it’s like your face is melting!”

Google Whamola, its fun and, yes inquiring minds, of course there is a Wiki entry.

When they walked off stage the crowd actually did the lighter thing



And they came back and played...

Traffic in the 21st century!

Traffic in the 21st century!, originally uploaded by mc Kodachrome.

Traffic was at a standstill for about an hour when I was coming over Donner Pass last weekend. I realized I had my laptop (with 5 speaker sound) and a Netflix movie so I poped it in and enjoyed the shit out of the traffic.

It wasn't as much fun as making snow angels and falling asleep in the middle of the road. But that's another story.

Deux Gros Nez

So as most know Deux Gros Nez is closing. I have never been a big Deux Gros Nez fan but I figured I should go there before it closes. After all there aren’t many places like it in town. The first of the pictures below was taken at 1am on Monday. There was still music blaring and people going strong.

The Experience:
When I first went to Dex Greus Nes years ago, I was uncomfortable there. It was too different and I just wasn't ready for it. Also, I went there with people who were raving about it which of course doesnt make a skeptic less skeptical. So this time I went alone, of my own volition, and it did feel more comfortable. I like places that are different and funky and I was finally enjoying it there.

I watched the other patrons laugh and have fun at the counter and then ordered from a funky fast talking girl. While I was waiting for my food I couldn't help but overhear a very gregarious guy talking to a girl at the next table about why he loved Deux Gros Nez. He talked about how there are other places kinda like it but nowhere else has the feel of Deux Gros Nez (I gotta agree with him there). One of his really interesting opinions was that Deux Gros Nez is the best place to bring a first/blind date because it is a filter. "It's intimidating and some people just can't handle it." He said that people either pass or fail and you know someone isn’t a keeper if they can't relax at Deux Gros Nez. Now I have some real problems with the pass/fail part of that statement, but for now lets focus on the intimidation that he mentioned. Later, I heard one of the waiters say that he was intimidated by the place when he first came in. After a few times he got used to the people, loved hearing all the new different music, and just came to feel at home. When he said that, I looked back at the counter and saw how great a time the people there were having. They were laughing and talking with a familiarity that you don't see other places.

The Food:
I ordered a quiche and a quesadilla. The quiche was weird because although the plate was so hot you couldn't touch it, the quiche itself was refrigerator temperature. This did seem odd to me but being a quiche newbie I ate it anyway. I have since called a friend and found out that yes, as most of you readers already knew, it should be heated. The quesadillas had a cheese that I didn't recognize and although it was pretty good it wasn't really what I expected (which I should have expected).

The old standby:
I didn’t really fill up so I got in my car and decided to do a culinary 180. I drove to McDonalds to have a Quarter Pounder and a Coke.

The experience at McDonalds was totally different. Familiar but souless. I went through the drive through. The employees had the normal "I don't really want to be here" attitude. The smell was strikingly different. Deux Gros Nez smelled crisp, tart, and fruity. Like the food itself tastes when it first hits your tongue. McDs smelled like grease and cleaning solution. Like the foods nasty sweet & meaty aftertaste on the back of your tongue.

The food was what I expected, which is what I went there for. Unfortunately, half way through the drive-thru I remembered that I had seen Fast Food Nation the night before but I still managed to eat most of the burger.

Everything at MickeyDs reminded me of death (or at least decay) and everything at Deux Gros Nez reminded me of life. Deux Gros Nez has some preppy guard. Preppy Guard is what you spray on something to keep the preppies away (Every copy of Master of Puppets was sprayed with preppy guard). Dex Greus Nes was sprayed with preppy guard which is why these people and myself felt intimidated when they first came there. It's important that some places have a little preppy guard on them. The food may be a little inconsistent and they might be a little slow. But these things that jar you out of what you expect are part of what creates the atmosphere. The need to accept a little, give a little and be willing to look through the preppy guard is what keeps the atmosphere alive in Deux Gros Nez. I probably never would have become a Deux Gros Nez regular. But it always made me happy to see that pink neon when I drove down California Ave. I will be sad when it is dark.

They are open until the 30th and I'm going one more time at least. But since I am not a full fan of the place I cant really capture the spirit here. Anyone else? Please comment and fill the holes I am missing.

(cross posted at renodiscontent.com)

Thanksgiving Holiday Challenge: Turkducken

I don't think I have what it takes. But this looks like quite the holiday challenge. Itss a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken!

Paula Dean's Recipe
WikiHow Turducken
Wikipedia Turducken

Or if you are completly insane:

some enthusiasts have taken it a step further, and come up with the turduckencorpheail. This is a standard turducken, which is then stuffed with a cornish game hen, which is then stuffed with a pheasant, and finally stuffed with a quail. The turduckencorpheail is not for the faint of heart; it is an extremely time consuming endeavor, as birds of the proper size must first be obtained, and then prepared.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Natural Progression

7:20pm Dinner

8:10pm Movie (Fast Food Nation)

10:15pm Inspired to write. I Go to Shenanigans to sit at a table, drink 2 large dark beers, and write.

12:00am Run 2 miles

12:30am Feel nauseous. Consider pucking to get it over with.

Aww hell. Just shower and go to bed.

Photos from an Antarctic researcher

Craig and Aurora, originally uploaded by Snow_girl.

I am fascinated by Snow_girls photostream. She is located at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica and has amazing pictures of the station, trips around the Antarctic, beautiful sunsets and sundogs, and thousands of penguins. The ones that fascinate me the most though are the ones of everyday life at the station where you get to see what they do and how they have fun in such a lonely place. She has pics of Halloween, a Midwinter celebration that they had (formal dress of course), a dance night that they called "Club Nido", lots of dress up nights, and of course, pics of their work. The sunsets have colors I've never seen in a sky.

Here are a few of my favorite pics (I couldn't embed them sorry):
Penguin Trip - Group Silouette
Laws (one of the shelters)
Man and Sundog. Its ridiculous how awesome this shot is.

A pic of them using their melting tank as a hot tub
One of her notes reads: It did get too hot again though. We ended up having to take it in turns to lob chunks of snow in to cool it all down.

Penguins
Glasses before wine. Check them out after as well. These shots are some of my favourites. (She's British, respect to the "u". BooYaKaa!)

Penguins set

Club nido. I'm pissed that I missed this party. Our hero is a badass.

Check out the whole photostream though. Every shot will both tell you more about what they are doing and make you wonder about it at the same time.

This dude is thinking about moving to Winnemucca

I put my 2 cents in. Let him know what you think if you have an opinion on the matter. (i.e. If you lived there or have spent any time there. If you are one of those whose only opinion is that you drove through but you missed it because you blinked, then dont waste your time. You have more important things to do like find an original joke.)

~Z

8 films to die for - Horrorfest in Sparks this weekend

After Dark Films is sponsoring a film festival that will show 8 horror films in November 17-19 in only 35 cities around the country and Reno is on the list! From the official website:

Horrorfest is a weekend of horror films that are considered to graphic or too disturbing for general audiences. After Dark Films will release "8 Films to Die For" (plus one bonus film) for one weekend only in approximately 500 theaters around the United States.

Check out descriptions and trailers for individual films here. You can also see am trailer for the festival itself with a mashup of the films on the Horrorfest YouTube page

All films are playing at Century Sparks. Here are the showtimes:
Friday November 17:
Dark Ride - 4:00 10:00
Reincarnation - 12:00 6:00
Unrest - 2:00 8:00

Saturday November 18:
The Abandoned - 2:00 8:00
The Gravedancers - 12:00 6:00
Penny Dreadful - 4:00 10:00

Sunday November 19:
The Hamiltons - 4:00 8:00
Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror - 10:00
Wicked Little Things - 2:00 6:00

Sorry, Im not cool enough to make the showtimes linked like Fandango. But I also don't wear a paper bag on my head. Buy tickets here

This almost makes up for no Tenacious D movie this weekend. Ok thats a lie. nothing makes up for that.

Pahrump hates Immigrants

Pahrump went a little farther to make immigrants unwelcome this week. The Minx noted their passage of thepreviously 'English Language and Patriot Reaffirmation Ordinance.' Now they have passed a law making it illegal to fly a foreign flag in a bar unless the US flag is also flown.

Jedis in Winnemucca

I did a search for Winnemucca on YouTube and found this pretty bad ass video someone made of a lightsaber battle filmed on the mountains around Water Canyon

I promise, my next post won't be YouTube related.

Fish Eye Video Camera

I take some pictures using a door peep hole in front of the lens on my point and shoot camera.

But, my camera also takes videos

Santa Claus HATES fire

If you look at the Washoe County web page and click on "Get the latest Washoe County election numbers". Look on page 3 and you will see that Santa Claus got 19% of the vote in the North Lake tahoe Fire Protection District!

So, was someone running named that?

Either way, I wish he would have won.


(Photo by g - s - h )

Flickr Open Mic Night

So tonight I went to a Flickr meet up. I am in the Bay because my Mom is sick, I looked at the Flickr Blog and noticed that there was an open mic night at the San Francisco Apple Store. I did go wanting to get up there but chickened out at the last minute.

However, right before they started the Apple guy asked if anyone had photos on Flickr. I raided my hand, a little. He then asked if anyone wanted to show their photos and was looking right at me. So that was it. I went over and gave Heather my disk. So I got to meet Heather and Derek who run JPG magazine. One of my camera tosses was on the back cover a couple months ago. I also got to meet George (who is the UI designer at Flickr, and I could write a whole seperate post about how amazing I think that is) and Lynn Hartwell aka fetching. It was a little weird meeing people that you kinda know a few things about from seeing their photos. I kinda had a hard time talking partly because I was nervous about speaking, partly because Im a fan of their work, and partly because of a Y! kinship (even though they have no clue that Im an ex-Yahoo!). It was weird. But very cool.

It was also great being with other people that are really really into what is happening on the web right now. Except these people are some of the ones making it happen. Steve Garfield a video blogger and video blogging consultant was there. The founder of Moo.com. The company that makes the very cool minicards I have. Steve and Derek were talking about the ScobleShow's photowalking with Thomas Hawk. I actually follow the ScobleShow and Thomas Hawk's blog, and it was just kinda nice to think that I'm following some of the stuff that these guys who are in the know are following. That Im not completely out of whats going on being in Nevada.

I hope I happen to be in town next time there is a flickr meetup. Now that Im through my initial nervousness and I see that it is layed back and comfy I will actually bring my personality to the next one ;)

Oh yea and fetching, if you happen upon this, I am a big fan of your photos! I even referenced yours in my very bad photo of Uchronia

Oh yea, also, this post brought to you though the free magic of Google WiFi here im Mountain View!

Crowdsourcing

Submitted a post about voting to Reno and its Discontentstoday. As an interesting followup Wired News posted an article today that gives a glimpse into what the future of news might look like and how we will be involved in it.

Im off on a last minute CA trip for the weekend. Have a great weekend here everyone!

I didnt know that all Tower Records were closing!

A great article on the closing of Tower records. I will miss Tower even though I never go there because its too expensive. It was a part of my early Reno experience. I have hundreds of CDs from there and spent more money there in my early college years than my parents really wished I had.
I remember browsing through the shelves for hours during my Jazz period. Finding soo much in the history of that music and knowing that I could never explore it all. I remember walking up to the counter and a sweet shy and confidant girl with the prettiest green eyes, ever. It was her last week and then she was off to Spain. Something told me she was thoughtful, and I never forgot her for some reason.

That's where I got my Don Rickles album, thats where I bought Ashley McIsacc after hearing him on the X. And that is where I realized just how amazing Frank Zappa is when I saw that the Zappa section took up 7 or 8 rows when the Beatles only had 4 or 5.

Late night dashes to Borders to get a new album just won't be the same. Ahh who am I kidding. I'll just download it.

3:18am: This is why I dont go to bed early

I went to bed tonight at 10:30 in preperation for a big day at the office tomorrow. I am going to get up at 6 to get there early. I woke up at 12:30 and havent been able to get back to sleep. Ive been tossing and turning thinking about work, girls, money, etc. And im hungry.

A piece of toast and back to the sack.

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali, originally uploaded by Zack Sheppard.
Learn more about Diwali.
Learn about the Bhopal disaster.

Referential or experiential

There is a great entry on Jason Kottke's blog about the different types of bloggers. I have more experience with referential blogs (ex. Boing Boing). I love collections of new and odd things and am a spectacular researcher so it makes sense that my blog would be more referential. As much fun as this to me I would like to add more to the blogosphere and I endeavour to become an experiential blogger.

Many of my initial stabs at this will be boring, and trite. There may be potential in the experience but a failing in the text. This will sometimes be because of a lack of time but more often a lack of practice. Referential posts are a good place to start conveying meaning in a small amount of text. There is a difference between posting a link and making a post that makes someone want to click on that link and invest part of their day in exploring it.

Im excited to find my voice. I wonder, will i become a grammar Nazi? I have always been opposed to grammar Nazism. Especially on the web. Do we really need the ' in Im? We all know what we mean! But there is a point at which it's harder to read. I do enjoy being a contrarian but its like my friend Davis tells his son about giving high 5s, gotta have a reason.

Zombies Arrested

I previously posted about Zombies in San Francisco. A fun little event where people dress up as zombies and wandered around downtown SF.

Well the zombies in Minneapolis were arrested for counts as wild as simulated WMDs.

When we got to the 1st Precinct, Sergeant Ed Nelson said, "I don't give a goddamn about your f*king constitutional rights!"

bender

I am browsing through my "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang A-G" to try and find a better URL than quikbeam. It's a fun book to browse through partly because of the fun terms and partly because the etymologies are awesome. I'll share at least part of some of them in posts and todays is

bender n. 1a. [poss. from Scots dial. bend to drink, esp. to drink hard or greedily...a draught of liquor', and bender 'a drinker'; see EDD I 244] a carousal; a spree. -usu. in phr. on a bender

1845 Corcoran Pickings 62: I was on an almighty big bender last night. 1846 in Lowell Poetical Wks. 176: "I won't agree to no such bender" 1847 in Dolph Sound Off 392:
At Buena Vista I was sure
That Yankee Troops surrender,
And bade my men hurrah, for you're
All going on a bender

The definitions and etymologies go on to fill a whole column.

You're watching Let's paint, excercise, and blend drinks TV. Im your host John Killduf

I cant leave for the weekend without a new post. Here is a vid of a guy that does a little show in LA called "Let's paint, excercise, and blend drinks TV"

Its entrancing he does everything the title suggests and runs on a treadmill the whole time. Oh yea, also, he takes called and apparently the only people up are gang bangers.

TaaAAake me, to the magic of the moment,

On a glooory night
(a GLORY night~a!)

Where the childern of tomorrow dream awaaayy,
in the wind of change...

So two weeks ago my old friend AG stayed with me for a few days before he moved out of town for good. I haven't really been drinking anymore but I only had a few nights with AG so we had a few together. On the second night he was there, a mysterious stranger dropped of a CD of the Scorpions "Crazy World" album featuring Winds of Change.

AG and I sang it a couple times. Then my brother called to tell us he got to shot a 50 cal. sniper rifle that day (and it was awesome) so we sang him Winds of Change.

Then we called AG's brother, D Double Bad Ass Dan, to tell him that my brother got to shoot a 50 cal sniper rifle. We talked about how fast the bullet flies, what company probably made it, decided that it was bad ass, and we all sang Winds of Change.

Then AG and I watched Transformers the Movie while drinking a couple beers and flipping our knives open.

Repeatedly.

I love GeoTagging like Ninjas love killing.

So I recently went on a trip to Southern California. I took some pics and GeoTagged them when I got back. This is a feature that both Zooomr and Flickr have that lets you place your photos on a map so people can see where they were taken.

I GeoTagged all of my photos from my trip and you can see the whole thing or make it more interesting by looking at certain places. For example, here are all the pics I took in Disneyland. Or for even more fun here are the pics I took while on the Lost Palms Oasis trail in Joshua Tree National Park. (map above)


You can actually see the trail in the satelitte images. In the pic the sucession of images (the pink dots) are the trail I was on. It's fascinating because I can actually see little landmarks I remember on the map. See the other trail that crosses mine in the lower right of the pic? I remember walking through that (when you are actually in it its easy to get lost and take the wrong trail) and used it to figure out where my pics were taken and how far I actually traveled in relation to those. Right after the crossing trail you can see a dark spot. This was a grove of trees that I passed though and came out on the other side to the start of the sunset and a pretty young cactus.

Zooomr uses Google Maps and Flickr uses Yahoo. Yahoo has much much more detailed images of rural areas so it is better for us Nevadans. Googles are better in urban areas and all of California. One neat side note is that they both have amazing images of Burning Man. Yahoo! has sat pics as the event is occuring (double-click map to really zoom in!). But Google's is even more interesting. The Burning Man event was actually moved slightly this year to help reduce desert scarring. On Googles map you see both an image from a previous year when it was being built AND an image from this year while it is occuring! (I better save that one in case they fix it). I wonder if they purposefully take a pic during the event.

For even more GeoTagging ideas check out the Flickr blog. They have geotagged maps like lighthouses of the great lakes, all the pics tagged with self-portrait, pics of the tube in London, etc.

P.S. Also, to check out one of the coolest sat images yet, Google's new pic of the Eiffel Tower

Peepers

Peepers, originally uploaded by Zack Sheppard.

I just thought this would look good here on black. My friend 'Peep's

Don't fucking call me tonight...

...between 9 and 10...

...I'll be watching LOST.

Ever wanted to go to Berkley?

I have gone into college bookstores and bought the books for a class that I wasn't in just because I thought it sounded interesting. I highly recommend books in Dr. Harvey's classes at UNR. A student of Marxist social theory, brilliant dude, and the best, most engaging instructor I ever had.

Well Berkley is bringing this to the web, its doing it for free, and it's doing it in style with RSS. Berkley is posting mp3s of lectures from some of its classes. Some of them look awesome "Drugs and Behavior", "Introduction to Non-Violence", and my fav "Physics for future presidents".

Gotta run, Im off to my Foundations of American Cyberculture class.

Note to self: From Dr. Harvey's profile it looks like he has been doing work bringing Chaos theory to sociology! I will have to contact him for some literature!

They turned their camera on

I love this vid.

Much better than a couple dudes/chicks lipsyncing in a dorm room ;)

Inside Space Mountain

Ever wondered what Space Mountain looks like with the lights on?

Space Mountain Skeleton Hosted on Zooomr

Yahoo! Answers vs. Wiki's

As I was driving back to work today I was wondering what the 33 in Club 33 represents. I immediatly thought next that I would check to see if there is a Wiki and Im sure it would be there. This also mase me think about Yahoo! Answers which was specifically designed as a fun place for you to designate yourself as an "expert" on something and then answer questions that other users pose. These other users would be experts on other matters, etc. completing the community.

Yahoo! Answers was killed in its first incarnation as Yahoo! Experts and has been brought back but still hasnt taken off like Wiki's have.

They are both repositories of communal information and with a good user base can both have answers to the little questions that it is hard to find other places.

So why are Wiki's popular and the Answers format not?

1. No way to know which is the right answer on Yahoo! Answers. Often when you look at a question you get different answers and there is no way to know which is right. If you knew, you wouldnt have asked. In a wiki there is only one answer and you are taking it on faith that it is correct but there is a trust in the community that you assume when you find the information. Granted that trust may be misplaced, but because you dont have to question it, it seems more reliable (and quotable).

2. Your part of the solution - On a wiki whatever little bit you add feels like your making a contribution to a larger database of information. This may be partly due to the media attention or the fact that it is related to an encyclopedia. But when you answer a question that is one of a jumble of 100 other questions asked about Mickey Mouse, Days of our Lives, or particle accelorerators it doesnt become part of the main body of knowledge like in a wiki and seems less important. If you edit the Mickey Mouse wiki, something you wrote might come up in result #3 on a search for that term!

3. You dont have to do all the work. If one person lays out the main body of a wiki other people can add little bits or change little bits later. It seems less daunting to get in there and contribute.

4. Your helping everyone, not one person - When I started using Yahoo! Answers in its first incarnation as Yahoo! Experts some of the questions would be very involved in researching or explaning and it was hard to make time to write to some random person when someone else might ask the same question 3 weeks later because they didnt search past questions. In a wiki when you add information or correct information it is there for everyone to see (and there is no nagging for your time/expertise).

Answers does have the advantage that if you cant find it anywhere else you can ask there. Also, the different format lets it house information that would not be found in Wikipedia. For example, I found a question and a fwe answers on how to get out of traffic tickets. Unfortunatly the answers were as varied as you would find if you asked 10 people at a party and about the same quality.

Both of these sites are trying to bring together information locked inside peoples minds to form a larger communal knowledge base. But Wikipedia has taken the next logical step and organized and presented this information better. As nice as FAQs are they are not a very useful repository of knowledge. You may find an answer but it is usually not exactly what you are looking for. And you cant explore it.

You will never get lost and fascinated in an FAQ like you will in an Encyclopedia and its "(See Vol.4 Ch.19 Pg.877)" references or the more immediate satisfaction behind the underlined blue text leading you to more knowledge in a Wiki.

Khan Noonian Singh

So I have been watching the original Star Trek while I have been editing photos from my trip.

In the episode I watched last night they introduced Khan Noonian Singh also known as Khan.

This was extra fun since I know where this will lead. Also, finding out his full name made me wonder if there was a connection to Data's creator Noonian Soong. I very exciting prospect since TNG is my absolute favorite.

After a little Wiki research here is what I found out:

In the Eugenics wars Khan Noonian Singh was one of the (and the most successful) supermen who took over the world. For more info on him go here). People revolted and Khan and 72 other supermen escaped in a hibernation ship where they slept for 200 years.

During his sleep is when all the Arik Soong stuff happened on Star Trek: Enterprise.

Next, Khan was thawed out and left on a dangerous planet by Capt. Kirk.

Because Arik saw Khan as a pinnacle of human development the Noonian name was passed down (supposedly).

Now I have to put my fear of bugs in ears away and watch Star Trek II again.

Young Joshua Silhouette

Young Joshua Silhouette, originally uploaded by Zack Sheppard.

One of my favorite pics from my trip last week.

Gogol Bordello

So, the incresingly musically incomperable Morsa has turned me on to another great band, Gogol Bordello.
Check them out on the Hype.

I also found a great 5 minute NPR interview with them. From the interview:

Gypsy musicians is always invited to top the party and kinda make it the ultimate haywire. Go nuts, bonkers, buckwild... I always wanted to take it farther to more people. To make it feel like they been stricken by lightning.

(really, you have to hear it with his accent)

And for the ultimate in modern fun, here is a YouTube video of my favorite song of theirs "Start Wearing Purple"...
If they showed stuff like this on MTV, I might actually watch!

World War Z

No, this is not about my neverending Jihad against all things not me. It is a new book by Max Brooks about the Zombie war. Its first person accounts of survivors of this fictional war. Sounds awesome.

NPR had a great segment with the author and Neil Conan discussing the war as if it had actually happened and the callers played along. I kept having to tell myself, wait this isnt real. Great radio in the tradition of War of the Worlds.

A sample question from a long time listener, first time caller:
"Im wondering about the possible threat of international terrorist forces joining with the zombie hordes creating an unstopable Islamo-zombie threat."

Its worth it just to hear Neil ask a caller if he is ready to "do what needs to be done" and kill his brother-in-law.

Link

Thanks Oscar

I went to Oakland this weekend to see one of the great jazz pianists, Oscar Peterson. Check out his Wikipedia entry for a little history and a list of some of his co-horts.

Oscar is 81, he needed help getting to the piano but when he did he didnt need any help at all. He played from about 8-11 at Yoshis. He played one song twice accidentaly. Apparently there was some guy complaining about it in the bathroom because when I walked in there was some other guy at a urinal saying "So you got to hear Requium twice. Shut the fuck up you're lucky to be here."

It was a lot of driving and a hefty ticket but we dont have many of the old great jazz artists left and I decided this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was worth it.

This vid really does not do it justice but here is a little corner, of a little snippet, of that night, take it Oscar...