Kimball, Kimball Where Are You?

Kimbal trying out her Alien stare
Originally uploaded by idogcow

Are you sleeping off your meal of 'bad clams'?

Corporate Ipsum

[free, widget, Lorem Ipsum]




The Corporate Ipsum Dashboard widget is a Lorem Ipsum generator Peter Gibbons might use in a TPS Report … if he were a graphic designer and had a need for a Lorem Ipsum generator. (And was allowed to use a Macintosh)

Well Read

[art, books, Thomas Allen]

From March 10 through April 22, 2006 the Joseph Bellows Gallery hosted the first West Coast solo exhibition of Minnesota photographer Thomas Allen.


Allen's photographs are inspired by his childhood experiences with pop-up books and View-Masters. After cutting figures and images out of illustrated pages of old books and vintage fiction novels Allen then cleverly rearranges and juxtaposes the forms to create a 3-D tableaux. Then he carefully lights his subjects and photographs the scenes.

At left is a detail from Stacked (2003).

To Serve (and Protect?)

[business card, found]

Found this at work the other day:


When did waiters servers get business cards?

This News Makes Me [Blank]

[Charles Nelson Reilly]



Charles Nelson Reilly (of Match Game fame, shown here as 'Josie Chung' from X-Files and Millennium) died May 25 2007.

Sixteen Words

[politics, Bush, Blair, Iraq]

From the Beatles and Monty Python school of political commentary, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

A Recommendation From a Cheap-ass Brit

[Harry Potter, Royal Mail]

Some cheap-ass Brit noticed a page on the Royal Mail website that might interest you. Please click me to see it.

Regards,
The team at Royal Mail

Veronica Mars Mission

[Veronica Mars, CW, TV]

If you have never seen Veronica Mars (think 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' crossed with 'Clueless,' with a hint of the Nancy Drew books) you are luckier than I am as you have unseen episodes to watch while the rest of us have what the CW referred to as a 'Season Finale' that most believe to be a 'Series Finale,' even though several questions were left unanswered and many new questions were raised.

Now there's this over on E!:

"CW president Dawn Ostroff technically has until June 15 to make a final decision on whether Veronica Mars will return midseason."

I hate to admit it (and it is a slim reed to cling to) but perhaps this is why when I tried to get an account over at the CW Message Board it told me that 'No new accounts are permitted at this time"?

Drive, He Said

[VW, Dylan Thomas, Noam Murro]


Richard Burton reads a Dylan Thomas classic ("Under Milk Wood") in director Noam Murro's beautiful new VW spot, Night Driving. Music by Cliff Martinez ("Don't Blow It").

And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.
Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives. Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glow-worms down the aisles of the organplaying wood. [...]
You can hear the dew falling, and the hushed town breathing. Only your eyes are unclosed, to see the black and folded town fast, and slow, asleep.

Photo of Dylan Thomas from Poets.org

Oh We Has Troubles (Right Here in River City)

[LOLkirk]

To counter-act the sad/happy LOLcat from the other day I am happy to present (to my knowledge) the first LOLkirk:

Fwd: Time to End This. Time for What is Next.

[Heroes, viral]


From: wireless@samantha48616e61.com <wireless@samantha48616e61.com>
Date: May 22, 2007 7:54 AM
Subject: Time to End This.  Time for What is Next.

I'm in China. It's the only way. Learn more @ samantha48616e61.com.

Also…

Not sure what will happen to me next so you need to know when I broke into Linderman's files in Vegas a few weeks ago, I came across the name Kaito Nakamura several times.

We should learn more about him.

I found this site: www.yamagatofellowship.org.

Start there.

HG

Join in the Hype

[San Jose, Starbucks, coffee+mug]

We started bring home mugs from Starbucks with 2 from England (London and United Kingdom) added to it with one from Hawaii and then sort of stopped as the mugs got harder to find and (IMO) uglier. Their latest set (The "Architect Series") is a slight improvement over the last round but not by much. After San Francisco and Atlanta (to keep things in even-numbers) we thought we had finished.

But then this: "Starbucks honors San Jose . . . for its skyline" shows up in yesterday's paper.

London EMT Saves Cat

im in ur ambulances breathing ur oxygen
Originally uploaded by LinkMachineGo.

[hero, EMT, LOLcat]

From Diane Duane comes the first-person report from a London EMT who saved a cat found in a house-fire:

""Hello Control, erm... This is going to sound weird", how best to phrase this? "We have no human casualties at this call, but I do have a very sick cat with smoke inhalation, I'd like to take it to the 24hr vet hospital at Wanstead. Mainly so that I can sleep tonight. Can you ring them and let them know that we are on our way please?"

[...]

"Now some folk will moan that we used an ambulance to look after an animal - but this 'patient' was the only one who actually needed an ambulance that night, we'd been dealing with drunks for much of the shift. So if you want to moan, then moan away - but it was good for the mental health of my crewmate and myself."

"I'd like to just say a big 'Thank You' to the Control staff who let us run to the vet hospital and also to the vet hospital staff who helped us out. Also thanks to the crew that gave Control the phone number to the hospital. Because of them I can hit send on this posting and can sleep soundly knowing that we did the best we could."

(Their blog, previously titled, "Why I Hate Humanity" is now called 'Random Acts of Reality")
http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/16/2955025.html

New (Yorker) Cartoons at iTunes Store

[free, podcast, New Yorker]

(Re)adding Marketplace Morning Report to my iTunes podcast subscription (for some reason I can't get this one to download new episodes on a daily basis) and noticed this:
They work rather well considering they were probably one-panel gags to start with.

The Last 10 Seconds

[Star Trek, TNG]

For a while there I was falling asleep for the end of Star Trek, waking up only for the music swell over the end credits – this would have come in handy back then:

iChart

[iChart, funny]

Just in from teh intarweb:

Send Us a Key to Your House While You Are At It

Got this letter twice today from 2 different people – sure are a lot of jobs out there!

______

From: "Maggie Holman"

Date: 16 May, 2007 10:40:08 PDT

To: <*****@******>

Subject:  By-work

Hello, would like to propose you a FINANCIAL AGENT vacancy.

My name is Maggie Holman  and I'm the Chief Manager of Department of employment in Rest Pro Company. I am pleased to offer you a vacant position of Financial Manager in CompanyName.

Let me tell you about our company. We are engaged in selection and delivery of technical equipment and goodies in various offices and organizations. We take all troubles about choosing and delivering appropriate technical equipment to client's office, under our responsibility. Company was established in 2002 and earned quite good reputation on the market. At the moment we have some plans for the further development, we plan to broaden our services and add an international network to serve clients in all over the world.

To offer to our foreign clients more favorable and comfortable conditions we have made the decision to create an international network of regional agents. We have opened a set of employees in various areas of the world. It has allowed our clients to get access to a wider assortment of the goods, than before. In fact, earlier, many suppliers refused to work with us for the reason of bureaucracy that occurred then registration of legal documents were needed to transport equipment, or transfer money.

The Duties of the financial manager consists of reception of money resources from clients of our company and transferring them to us. For every transaction, we pay 8 % from the total sum.

Work Requirements:

minimal knowledge of personal computer and internet/E-mail

Bank account

Legal age

Will to work at home 2-3 hrs per day

Crime-free background (background check will be made before accepting on the position)

There is not any starting payments or pledges for the goods!

Please replay to this e-mail if you are interested in this opening, we will send you an employment agreement within nearest 24 hours, feel free to ask questions.

Maggie Holman

Green Umbrellas for a Green Cause

[Starbucks]

To kick off the start of summer, top Hollywood celebrities who share Starbucks passion for the environment have transformed a series of Starbucks green umbrellas into works of art.

New Flavor Day

[cheapassbastards, free, ice-cream]

Free scoop(s) at Häagen-Dazs today!

Fwd: Important Message from Primatech Paper

[Heroes, NBC]

From: Primatech Paper <no-reply@primatechpaper.com >
Date: May 14, 2007 4:21 PM
Subject: Important Message from Primatech Paper

Thank you for your interest in Primatech Paper. We will be in contact once we evaluate your application.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

[NBC, Heroes, Studio 60]

It's too late to save Studio 60, but you can help save the city of New York.

This One Goes to all the Mothers Out There

[Mother's Day, falcon, webcam, San Jose]




Happy Mother's Day from the falcon nest atop the San José City Hall.

I Love You, Chocolate

[chocolate, Han Solo, Star Wars]



I know.

WSJ: Last Harry Potter Ends Spin-offs

Just as the Apple iPod created a myriad of spin-offs, ad-ons, and
accessories, so did the Harry Potter books.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at how this might all be ending
with "Last Hurrah for 'Harry' Offshoots? As Series Draws to a Close,
Market for Related Books May Well Spike, Then Fade"

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117876383431898056-

GThmnkKdFTp3CJQAcEEzWOdEkHA_20080509.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

This Is Not the Disneyland You Are Seeking

[Shijingshan, Disneyland]

Disney bosses are in crisis talks with the owners of a 'fake' Chinese version of the famous amusement park.

The Shijingshan Amusement Park included a raven-haired woman with seven men in elf suits, a 'Mickey' mouse and other Disney-style characters.

Deputy general manager, Yin Zhiqiang, said: "The characters in our park just look a little bit similar to theirs. But the faces, clothes, sizes and appearances are different."

Read more at Metro.co.uk

Der Eisbären, Knut!

[Polar Bear]

Milena singt ein Lied für den kleinen Eisbären, Knut.

Engadget:Japanese vending machine offers free drinks for watching ads

[cheapassbastards, engadget]

From Engadget:

...vending masters Apex Corp. have purportedly laid out plans that will bring free or subsidized non-alcoholic beverage to thirsty consumers who are willing to watch a 30-second commercial before partaking. Aiming to launch next month in Japan....

He Was Once a Little Pile of Grey Goo (Gumby!)

[Gumby]

"New 3-D printers that transform three-dimensional plans online into solid objects could be in homes soon" says NY Times.

I think that they need a bit more work before they'll be good for anything other than an internal part or a battery door on the back of a mobile phone.

Let's hope they keep on working on these, however. Is Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age," closer than we think? (Read the book)

Flying Cars and Punch Cards

[Jetsons, punchcard]



Can anyone remember what year the Jetsons was supposed to take place? I'd like to think we beat the curve on some of their technology (besides the having to live on stilts because of flooding/pollution/???)

Enjoy a free drink on Peet's when you bring in a friend!

[cheapassbastards, coffee, Peets]

Bring this email to any Peet’s store today through Monday May 7, 2007 to receive a complimentary Peet’s Blended Freddo with any Freddo purchase. We’re inviting you and a friend to try our new Scharffen Berger Chocolate Caramel Freddo, a luxurious marriage of flavors, handcrafted with Peet’s fresh Major Dickason’s coffee, all-natural Scharffen Berger cocoa powder and deliciously sweet caramel. We top it with a cool layer of real whipped cream garnished with fresh shavings of Scharffen Berger chocolate and drizzled with caramel. Packed with pure flavor and refreshingly smooth, this is a treat to be savored. Valid at Peet’s retail locations only. Free drink must be of equal or lesser value than purchased drink. May not be combined with any other offer or coupon. Limit one offer per visit. Offer valid through Monday May 7, 2007. The Scharffen Berger® trademark and trade dress are used with permission.

Walmart vs. Emo (Ontario) Hipsters

Store owners in Emo, Ontario have been crossing into the US to
regularly to pick up bargain-priced merchandise in bulk by buying at
Sam's Club, the warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Upon their return, they then post signs on the shelves of their
Cloverleaf Grocery touting their prices as lower than Wal-Mart's.

Kevin Groh, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, acknowledged that Sam's
Club was built to serve small businesses such as the Cloverleaf
Grocery, but Wal-Mart believes its name is being misrepresented in
the Loneys' advertising.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070503.RWALMART03/

TPStory/

Private Dancer

[Britney Spears, concert, cheapassbastards]

I'm your private dancer
A dancer for money
I'll do what you want me to do
I'm your private dancer
A dancer for money
And any old music will do

Britney Spears put on a 15-20 minute show at the San Diego House of Blues, with five lip-synched songs with fans paying as much as $125 or more a ticket.

Not sure how this is a 'warm-up' for more tours unless she has no plans to do any singing at those either.

Seems like these people paid to go see a Britney impersonator (who just happened to be Britney). Hope they got what they paid for.

Where You From?

[John Paul, miracle, sainthood]

I heard the Vatican is pushing hard to make John Paul II a Saint on the logic that Saints from 'our times' would have more meaning than those from long ago. They found a nun in France who claimed she was cured by his help thus giving a 'miracle' to put on JP's application, which sounded all very fishy to me.

Today I read Jon Carroll and find he has his doubts as well, he just is more articulate than I am:

It is no secret that Pope John Paul II has been fast-tracked for sainthood. A large percentage of the current College of Cardinals owe their eminence to John Paul. If he were canonized, his views on a wide variety of social issues would become the utterances of a genuine saint. So the Vatican has been looking for miracles. And, as cognitive scientists will tell you, people usually see what they want to see.