• YouTube – Spicks and Spicks | Manta | Doctor Who theme – Ep 27, 2010
  You really haven’t heard the Doctor Who theme until you’ve heard it on a didgeridoo.
  Tagged as: [music youtube doctorwho]
• Bus bench ads on Christ’s return funded by unemployed Springs woman
  Well, I know what I’m doing on May 20. "Cake store? Send me 200 cakes and charge them on my credit card!"
  Tagged as: [religion kook]
• Halfway There: Where’s my money?
  Yayy! Becky is getting a huge raise! (Where does talk radio FIND these people?)
  Tagged as: [money school politics lie]
• slacktivist: Tips on improving your HW score
  Slacktivist rips credit score a new one.
  Tagged as: [money society]
• I Can Has History? The History of LOLcats – Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger?
  This is actually kind of interesting.
  Tagged as: [geek web]
• Florida Church Hosting "International Burn a Koran Day" on 9/11 – Miami News – Riptide 2.0
  When we’re all drowning in urine, will we be able to tell who wins this pissing contest?
  Tagged as: [religion stupid]

Next: Synnibarr Sunday: Taste the Rainbow

And that means someone gets Happy Birthday wishes!

Next: This Del.icio.us Week

Next: It Is July 30

No fooling, this past week we headed up to Niagara Falls for a few days with Becky’s folks. They flew into Buffalo and we drove up to meet them, but first we made a pit stop in Rochester for the Strong National Museum of Play, home to the National Toy Hall of Fame!

Inducted in 1998:

Other inductees include the yo-yo, Game Boy, stick, and cardboard box.

We picked up the folk and then headed for Canadia, which has better, though more Socialist falls than America. This was the view from our hotel room:

We did all the big attractions. We went to the ledge right near the falls.

And on the Maid of the Mist:

We did the White Water walk, where we saw crazy Class Billion rapids.

And though we didn’t go over it in the sky-contraption, we did see the whirlpool.

For drier activities we went to the Botanical Gardens and visited Swamp Thing:

and visited the Daredevil museum.

(The others saw the IMAX movie there. I was content with not having a headache or being nauseous.)

We then left Niagara Falls proper and headed to Niagara-On-The-Lake, a touristy little place filled with all kinds of chi-chi shoppes. More interestingly, it had Fort George, where we saw cannon and musket firing demonstrations and got charged by British troops with bayonets.

We hadn’t yet seen enough water, so after leaving there we headed to the Finger Lakes region. There are a lot of wineries out there, but apparently “open weekends” means “open only on Saturday, thanks for driving all this way on a Sunday, though!” Still, we saw Taughannock Falls.

It’s hard to tell there, but they’re actually taller than the Niagara Falls.

It was a great little vacation, and I recommend it.

Next: In Which I Take a Bold and Controversial Stance on Flickr

We spent the past few days in and around Niagara Falls, and I have a lot to show and tell you about it, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. You know how it is the first day back to work after a vacation; they make you never want to leave the office again.

While you wait, here’s a photo of our hotel view.

(Yes, this means no “This Used to Be the Future” tomorrow. Instead you get, I guess, “This Is Currently the Recent Past”?)

Next: Niagara Falls!

Yesterday marked birthday number eight for this blog. Can you believe that?

Here’s some of the foolishness I’ve been up to this past year.

Holy Shit! Auctions! — My first published boardgame.

HAVE YOU TASTED BLOOD? — A tribute to Voice of the Mummy.

On the Corner of Memory Lane and Cleary — I return to my suburban roots for the first time in years.

Man, I Never Wanted to Use This Image Again — The return of a depressing favorite.

They Don’t Like Socialism or Handouts, but Hotlinking is OK? — In which I pwn Freepers.

Benoît Sérialporte, Computer Detective — The Mystery of the Failing Mackboop is solved!

Opposition Leaders Call These Gestures “A Good Start” — Yeah, this sort of thing used to be funny.

Always Remember to Close All Parentheses. We’re Not Paying to Air Condition the Entire Paragraph. — The Rise and Rise of FakeAPStylebook!

Ask a Judoon — Space Rhinos on the Mooooooooon!

Triple-I Sunday: Interplanetary Insurance, Inc. — The follow-up to Space Cabby Sunday!

The Space Cabby Gallery — Finally a home for all my precious works of art.

His Icon Was a Rubber Band Holder — A tribute to a great Lego builder.

Science! and More Science! — Two Lego builds I did.

Best Comics Month Ever — February 1966, y’all.

This Used to Be the Future: Big House of Space! — The follow-up to Triple-I Sunday!

Synnibarr Sunday: Because 9 Wouldn’t Be Enough and 11 Would Be Too Much — A regular feature for fans of really bad RPGs.

After All, We All Know What the Definition of Insanity Is — I give up.

Family of “Old Flattop” Finds Song Hurtful — Lolbeatles

Elvis Costello Dog — or should I say, Declan MacManus Dog, International Art Thief?

EPIC Building: Cafe Corner — An exciting new Lego building technique!

And some memorable images:

As always, thanks for reading!

Next: Use This Post To Get Your “Slowly I Turned” Ya-Yas Out

Being an undertaker for aliens seems like a skill with limited usefulness, but that’s because in addition to granting the character skill in funeral rites, creation of tombs, and so forth, it also has the handy feature of letting you make zombies and mummies. Alien zombies and mummies.

Naturally, such a skill doesn’t come easily. Xeno-Undertaking has, according to page 91, eleven prerequisites: Anthropology, Exterior; Anthropology, Interior; Anthropology, Xeno-; Biology, Marine; Biology; Biology, Xeno-; Carpentry; Math, Basic; Reading; Undertaking; Writing.

(“Interior” and “Exterior” refer to positions within the Synnibarr “worldship”.)

Although XenoUndertaking itself has no required minimum ability scores, some of its prerequisite skills do. Carpentry requirest a strength of 12, and Math, Basic requires an ego of 10.

Adding up the learning times for all these skills reveals that it takes 22 years to learn how to be a Xeno-Undertaker.

Next: Eight

• What the hell were we thinking? | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
  Pretty sobering video.
  Tagged as: [war politics video]
• YouTube – Bat Man
  ATTENTION INTERNET: BATMAN DOG
  Tagged as: [video animals]
• Joe Sacco: Not in my country | World news | The Guardian
  The immigration issue elsewhere. Once more it’s brown and black people vs whites.
  Tagged as: [comics politics race]
• A hidden world, growing beyond control (Printer friendly version)| washingtonpost.com
  A sobering look at the fear industry that is wrecking our country.
  Tagged as: [politics terror]
• Brick, A Literary Journal: Issue 85: The Lizard, the Catacombs, and the Clock
  Fascinating story about a non-nefarious secret society.
  Tagged as: [secret art]
• YouTube – Balloons and Dyson Air Multiplier™ fans
  Cool and cool.
  Tagged as: [youtube gadget]
• Utah: At Least 4 State Workers Linked To ‘The List’ : NPR
  Oh look. Two assholes on taxpayer money compiled that idiotic list.
  Tagged as: [race politics crime]
• The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense
  This will upset some folks.
  Tagged as: [skeptic kook image]

Next: Synnibarr Sunday: So You Want To Be a Xeno-Undertaker