Are there llamas in China?

At the Great Firewall of China, you can test any url to see if it is censored in China. It's surprising what does and what doesn't get through. My other weblog was blocked both times I checked it, but this one was blocked the first time and available the second, as were the LLamabutchers and TSO. Fred is welcome in China, but Martin Luther and the Suburban Banshee are persona non grata.

(Via Twenty Sided.)

[0] comments (1465 views) |  link

A bit windy

Checking the weather just now, I got a surprise:

That's one stiff breeze. It's a bit chilly, too. Riding home on my bicycle will be fun tonight.

[0] comments (1171 views) |  link

Crimson king of the Andes

adopt your own virtual pet!

There weren't any dragons, gryphons or cabbits available, so I adopted a llama. Go ahead and feed him.

[1] comments (1211 views) |  link

Miscellany

Further proof that dancers are the greatest athletes: the Nicholas Brothers (with Cab Calloway):

There's plenty more at YouTube.

*****

If Cute Overload isn't kawaii enough for you, there's The Daily Kitten. Beware: the little predators may be cute now, but eventually they'll all be damned cats.

(Via Lynn.)

*****

I think I've linked here before, but it's worth another visit: Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages. Keep the dramamine handy if you're subject to motion sickness.

(Via Chizumatic.)

*****

If you are a LiveJournal user, you can play a D&D dungeon based on your interests and list of friends. (If you don't have a LiveJournal account, you can enter someone else's username.) This is another of the many bizarre services provided by thesurrealist.co.uk.

*****

Bonus link: Old-school word processing.

(Via Sun and Shield.)

[0] comments (1495 views) |  link

Don't click here ...

... if you have work to do:

M.C. Escher Web Sketch

(Via MamaT.)

[0] comments (1205 views) |  link

Don't immanentize me

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: The Very Reverend Janos the Uncanny of Eschaton End Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

[0] comments (1460 views) |  link

Chronicles of wasted time

I'm not getting much done this evening, so let's see what's on YouTube. How about Steeleye Span?

Just in case there is someone out there who's missed it, here's the kiwi:

[1] comments (1195 views) |  link

Good grief

They made a movie about me, and nobody told me:

When a village is over-run by short-haired lager louts, only one long-haired American musician can stop them - DON MCCLANE!

By a suspicious coincidence, I am long-haired and American, and I'm also a musician if you define the term loosely enough.

Addendum: More about Skanked Up.

[0] comments (1296 views) |  link

Monday morning amusements

Here's something guaranteed to supply as much as ten seconds of fun. Find a web page with numerous small graphics, e.g., a page of thumbnails. Copy the code below, paste it into the URL window and press "enter."

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName(%22img%22); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+%22px%22; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+%22px%22}R++}setInterval( 'A()',5); void(0)

I found it here.

[0] comments (1230 views) |  link

Ding

Play with this for a while.

Then watch this.

(Via haibane.info.)

[0] comments (1214 views) |  link

213085.53 smoots per nanofortnight ...

... is the speed of light.

[0] comments (1160 views) |  link

Dangerous timewaster

If you have work to do, don't read any further.

Steven Den Beste thoughtlessly posted a set of nifty Flash puzzles that he found. The directions are in Chinese, but it doesn't matter. It quickly becomes obvious what the task is in each. Some of them are trivially easy; others are a bit harder -- sometimes quite a bit harder. I've worked out the first ten so far. If you solve #6 in less than an hour, please mention it in the comments. (I made screen captures of the solutions to the sixth and tenth in case anybody gets really stuck, but I'm going to wait a few days before posting them.)

Update: The rest of the puzzles will have to wait a day or two. Real life is like that sometimes. However, if you've solved all 25 and want to waste more time, here's another batch (from the comments at Twenty-Sided).

If that's not enough to keep you busy, a friend just sent me this, courtesy of Steven: Reflections.

[1] comments (1358 views) |  link

Stump the website

A couple of online toys, via Sun and Shield:

Musipedia, "the open music encyclopedia." It's repertoire isn't quite encyclopedic, though. I entered the first phrase of "Scotland the Brave" into its search engine. Its best guess was that the tune was an excerpt from a Delius piece. It also suggested Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Gloria Gaynor, Mozart (three times), Dvorak, Albeniz and "Hava Nagila."

The Dino Directory. Is there a dinosaur loose in your neighborhood? Identify it here.

[0] comments (1203 views) |  link

Who?

What do Orlando Bloom, Robert Redford, John Lennon, John Updike, Wole Soyinka, Alec Guinness, Carlos Santana and John Cage have in common? All look a little bit like me, according to the My Heritage face recognition application.

(Via Irish Elk.)

[1] comments (1273 views) |  link

Some new-to-me weblogs

The Western Confucian Ad Orientem -- "Notes from an American Catholic in Korea."

just muttering -- culture, politics and knitting.

Via Lynn: Unlocked Wordhoard -- "A professor of medieval literature at Troy University, Dr. Nokes enjoys reading, films, martial arts, and torturing students."

[1] comments (1167 views) |  link

Therapist finder on Pen Island

When you register your domain name, check very carefully and make sure that it says what you think it does. Otherwise, you might end up with an embarrassment such as these.

[1] comments (1247 views) |  link

Really bad idea of the week

"billy budd sailor fanfiction"

Other recent nightmarish search strings include "metal bikini" and "sonata for the harp and bicycle the synopsis."

[0] comments (1394 views) |  link

Expensive cat toy

A video for my sister, who likes kitties.

(Via Peeve Farm.)

[0] comments (1335 views) |  link

The literary landscape

Gnooks

Entering "Gene Wolfe" into the map generator yielded R.A. Lafferty, Cordwainer Smith and Neil Gaiman, as expected, but also Borges, Euripides and Dostoyevski -- which is as it should be.

(Via Flos Carmeli.)

[2] comments (1340 views) |  link

You are here

Another way of looking at Mixolydian Mode:

(Via Pixy Misa and The Commissar.)

Update: Here's an explanation.

[0] comments (1265 views) |  link

Search string of the day

raid on harpers fairy

[1] comments (1258 views) |  link

O'zog, kenstu sehn, wen bagin licht dervacht

Sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish if you want, but here's something better.

(Via Eve Tushnet.)

Meanwhile, great things are happening in Cyprus.

[0] comments (1141 views) |  link

You are who you eat

This might put you off your feed. The majority I didn't recognize, and that's just as well.

One I did recognize was Maetel. I think she's better as a robot than as lunch.

(Via fps.)

[1] comments (1299 views) |  link

Neil Gaiman's #1 hit

Recent visitors to my websites have a pathologically broad range of interests:

mentally ill medical students
strippers for hen shows in winsor
universe as a wave function
read of die
music to sweet coraline
corrupted file howl's castle copy protection
how to annoy your friends
bonnie hoosie
jpii soundtrack
should a christian watch full metal alchemist
bucharest salt mine
alabama news archives from december 2005
creepy miniature fantasy animals
frank zappa song titles
buy a doll from rozen maiden
biblical allusions in porco rosso

[1] comments (1262 views) |  link

JPII

Mac users in St. Blog's parish might find one of the boot panels here appealing.

[0] comments (1344 views) |  link