Simpsons Crack on (M)Apple

I was only a matter of time...say, where can I get one of those myCubes?

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade

Apparently I'm the last person on the planet to know about these.

Seth MacFarlane, creator of favorites like Family Guy and American Dad, has a series of shorts on YouTube called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade". I was only able to get through a few so far - with mixed results, unexpectedly. They have the SNL movie disease insofar as they can, at times, seem like skits that go on for to long. Still, they have their moments.

I present to you the Super Mario Brothers ending we never got to see as 13-year-olds - probably a good thing in retrospect. I recommend checking out "Jeff Goldblum Wafers" when you're done.

April Fool's Day 2008

Today is April Fool's Day (no really, it is), that wonderful day that comes once a year where people showcase their imagination and creativity through pranks and gags that test the gullibility of others. Ok, so some pranks aren't that imaginative, and most aren't as funny as the pranksters think they are, but there are definitely some out there that get you, and some even make you laugh.

This one is my winner for this year (yes, I know Google may have gotten you with Virgle or Google Weblogs). I don't know if it's real and I don't want to download anything that identifies itself as a virus to find out, old school or not.

The Amazing Mathemagician

I came across this in a feed from HowStuffWorks.com. It's a performance by Arthur Benjamin where he showcases his fairly ridiculous ability to quickly calculate 3, 4, and even 5-digit squares in his head.

Ok, so it might be a little geeky, but I still think it's impressive and entertaining. Click here or the image below to watch the vid.

OSX System Sound Song

I came across this on The Graphic Mac...and felt the need to post about it immediately. Apparently someone had entirely too much free time on their hands and created a song using only the system sounds from OSX. Ok, I'll give an "A" from creativity.

If you actually want to tweak this, you can download the actual Garageband file here.

Need to Clean Your Screen?

In one of the rare cases where I find one of those emails making the rounds to be funny...


...and for those who think cats are better cleaners...


For full screen versions, click here for the pug or here for the cat.
 

Some People Born on "Leap Day"

Ok, enough is enough. Time to get back to some posting.

Today is of course February 29th, referred to by many these days (especially those at LeapZine.com) as "Leap Day". When this changed from "Leap Year's Day" I'm not sure, but the new version seems more fun to say for some reason.

Just a few days ago TLM and I were talking about the family with something like 4 children born on a leap day. Well, it turns out it was only 3 siblings from Norway, Heidi, Olav, and Lief-Martin Henriksen (only 3...come on!) born in 1960, 1964, and 1968 respectively. Is this a freak example of probabilities gone haywire (I mean, the day only comes by every four years or so, depending on the century), or is it instead a masterful example of premeditated and well-timed reproduction? You tell me.


Whatever the case, there are lots of other interesting and/or famous people whose birthday falls or fell on February 29th. For example, as if being a leap year baby wasn't enough, one set of parents in Germany decided to take baby naming to another level in 1904 by naming their son:

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft Sr.

See the pattern? He had a name that began with every letter of the alphabet, in order, up to his last name (which wasn't exactly that short either, btw.). He could have used a different name almost every day of each month, or maybe based on how he was feeling that day. He apparently did have a shorthand version: Mr. Wolfe Plus 585 Sr., though I haven't figured out where the 585 comes in.

Oh...and is that a Sr. I see at the end? Does that mean there was a Jr. running around at some point with the same name? Had he been born somewhere like 60-68 years later, he may have opted to go with the classic Big Bird word that wasn't (see below in case you have no idea what that means).



Some other Leap Day babies include rapper Ja Rule, Pedro Zamora from Real World San Francisco, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and Lyndon Byers, the infamous Bruins enforcer who can still be seen now and then in and around Boston bars and nightclubs. Below is an example of LB's handiwork, and one of the few times you'll see a hockey fight broken up before someone hits the ice.



Happy Leap Day!
 

Joe Kittinger - Skydiving from Space

Taking a brief reprieve from all the Super Bowl hype (my last chance to do so), I came across this History Channel vid that describes an interesting, and I think little known, even that occurred on August 16, 1960. As part of the US's evolving space program, Joseph Kittinger strapped into a helium balloon craft named the Excelsior III with a very unusual mission. Following orders, Kittinger waited until he was 102,800 feet above the Earth (that's pretty much in space, folks), then jumped out.

Yup, he jumped. And he made it back ok.

Now though the act was really part of an experiment trying to determine the effects of high altitudes on human beings, Kittinger managed to also set a few world records. Firstly, it's safe to say that he has the distance record for skydiving (spacediving?). Secondly, because of the constant acceleration of gravity increasing his velocity all the way down, he ended up traveling over 700 mph at one point, setting the record for fastest human not in a vehicle of some sort, not that many vehicles can get to that speed. The man actually broke mach 1 about 3/4 of his way down.

I deem this worth watching at least once. At least.

Hancock Trailer

...I'm still not sure why I think this will be funny:

Balls of Fury

So I finally got around to watching "Balls of Fury", the 2007 sophomoric flick billed as "a huge comedy with tiny balls"...and you wonder why TLM didn't want to go see this at the theaters with me.

Well, it exceeded my expectations, and I was surprised my a few things. For example, I had no idea that the movie was essentially a spoof of to-the-death martial arts tournament movies like "Enter the Dragon" and "Mortal Kombat", except it's to-the-death ping-pong. Go figure.

[ On a side note, there's at least one actor who was actually in "Mortal Kombat" (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and one who should have been (James Hong). ]

The main reason I wanted to see the picture, however, was to watch serious actor turned caricature of himself Christopher Walken play the part of Feng, the sillily evil grand master of the tournament. He did what I expected him to do; that is, talk in the oh-so-recognizable Christopher Walken way and steal the show. It didn't matter what getup he was in (this one was pretty out there), he's still that guy dancing around in the Fatboy Slim video for "Weapon of Choice" (is there anything this guy can't do? Oh, right, talk differently).



Walken had some strong competition, though, from relative newcomer Dan Fogler, who won't be receiving any Oscar nominations anytime soon but still gave a great performance with his deadpan, slapstick, Def Leppard shirt wearing character and hero, Randy Daytona.

I laughed enough to give this one 3 stars, even.

1 vs. 100: Rollin' with Saget

I was flipping around the TV last night and it wasn't long before I found myself watching the end of one of the newer prime-time game shows: "1 vs. 100". Yup, the show where lucky contestants try to outlast the 100-person "mob" in answering random trivia questions correctly. Last night was "Battle of the Sexes" night, and the contestant chosen to represent men everywhere in a test of wits with 100 women was young Jason Luna, who surprised us all by correctly answering a question the remaining 18 people in the mob got wrong and winning the elusive million dollar prize. It was definitely the best (and only) 5 minutes of the show I've seen.

The B-list celebrity host for this "Deal or no Deal" cousin is Bob Saget, star of " America's Funniest Home Videos " and " Full House " (though his role in " Half Baked " shattered that goofy fun-loving image of him to me forever). His site features this rap song that you listen to for a while and then realize it's about him. You read correctly, Bob Saget has a song written about (for?) him, and he's in the video too. This one was too funny not to embed...

5 Minutes of Cloverfield

Cloverfield

One thing I've definitely procrastinated (see yesterday's post) is writing about an upcoming movie I am ridiculously excited about: "Cloverfield".


For those who missed the previews when they saw "Transformers" last summer (and for the rest of you who forgot to go altogether), there is a new movie coming out this month by J.J. Abrams, the creator of "Lost". At that time all we saw was a trailer that gave new meaning to the word "teaser" as the only information we got was that Abrams was the creator, it had something to do with the date 1-18-08, and the head of the Statue of Liberty was going to fly down a New York City street.

Now that's a way to start some hype.

New commercials and trailers are out, and the intrigue has only been magnified. As if the vague imagery of buildings falling, bridges collapsing, soldiers launching missiles and people exploding behind curtains wasn't enough, there is also an entirely different kind of promotion machine out there, and it exists entirely on the web as a super-viral marketing campaign.


For starters, you have 1-18-08.com, a frustratingly vague site that features a bunch of pictures, complete with timestamps and all apparently taken on...wait for it...January 18, 2008. Since it's inception users have been able to move the pictures around, and over time newer (and just as vague) abilities have been packed in. For example, if you take certain pictures like the Japanese chef and give them a quick little drag down and up you can flip them over revealing handwritten notes or, in this case, what looks to be a recipe in Japanese. The most recent addition to the site is a monstrous roar that you'll hear exactly 6:00 minutes at the site (or by just clicking the play button below).



There are countless fan/speculation sites out there (like CloverfieldClues), and if you really want to waste some time you should read the boards at the IMDB page. People go to great lengths doing things like analyzing the trailers and commercials and putting mash-ups on YouTube, most of which revolve around glimpses of the monster.

Many of the characters in the upcoming movie have MySpace pages. A fictional beverage named "Slusho" (which may or may not be an integral part of the plot) has its very own site too, as well as a slew of (odd) commercials. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an actual Slusho beverage available for purchase if the movie takes off.



Slusho's also-fictional parent company, the Tagruato Corporation, also has a site full of over-the-top detailed bogus information. There's even a site for the anti-Tagruato T.I.D.O. Wave, part of "a nonprofit, grassroots, environmental activist organization dedicated to saving our planet from the world's most nefarious corporations". Cool. Why not...

I just am really hoping the movie lives up to at least half of its hype. Oh, and please don't be Godzilla, please.
 

50 Top 10 Lists of 2007

Well, it's New Year's Eve, and what could be more appropriate for this time of reflection than a top 10 of 2007 lists?

How about 50 of them.

TIME recently posted their "50 Top 10 Lists of 2007" complete with pictures, text blurbs, and lots of video clips, a testament to the popularity of online communities like YouTube and Google Video.

There are lots of topics to go through and you may find yourself spending entirely too much time going through and reliving such instant classics like Miss South Carolina Teen USA's countless references to "the Iraq" and the Rosie O'Donnell vs. Elisabeth Hasselbeck heated verbal catfight on "The View". My hands down favorite list was the "Top 10 Viral Videos", though the clip that I just had to embed in this post comes from the sports moments list. It's the last play of a Division 3 football game that's...well, just see for yourself (just make sure you have at least a minute to watch the one play:

(Oscar) Outlook for Chistmas Eve

TLM and I started what we hope will be a couple of new traditions this year. The first is me making a Christmas Eve Spencer-special meatball dinner, and the second is something both of us would have loved as a tradition growing up but never really had: opening one gift on Christmas Eve.

Well, we're both adults now (at least that's what people tell me), and we can do whatever we want, so we did. I gave her a big plastic bin with 100 plastic cookie cutters inside (which we hope to be using soon), but that pales in comparison to what I saw when I opened the gift she gave me: a Wireless Weather Station featuring Oscar Outlook Forecaster.

For some reason, I've come close to buying some sort of indoor/outdoor thermometer (weather stations as they're called I know now) more than a few times last year, and TLM apparently picked up on it. The gadget she gave me is better than anything I was eyeballing, I assure you, and it even comes with a name (we...ok, I...like to name our gizmos). As for Oscar the weatherman, I'll let the video speak for itself.

Carl from ATHF Hates the Red Sox

I found this on BostonDirtDogs and couldn't resist:

American Gladiators 2008

I have a confession to make. I plan to set my DVR to record the new 2008 version of American Gladiators when it starts in January. I was a fan of the original show in the 80's, and for some reason (maybe that I have extra space on the DVR) I think I might be a fan today.

In honor of that classic and perhaps too short-lived series, I found this clip on YouTube. It's the intro for the first season of the show, though the audio is a little off. All your old favorites are there, from Nitro, Turbo and Zap to Sabre, Blaze and Lace.

The new series will be hosted by Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali. I can't wait for their banter...oh, and the gladiatorial games, of course.

Squirrel Man

Found this last night and deemed it post-worthy:

How the Matrix Should Have Ended

Firstly, Happy Birthday Dan. Get all that BAmBUu stuff lined up and ready to go.

Secondly, in light of a conversation yesterday revolving around the many stellar performances Keanu Reeves has delivered to us on film (I know, I know...), I found this on YouTube. It's an animated clip from larger collection at a site called "How It Should Have Ended".

Unfortunately there's no parody there for "Ocean's 13", but I guess that movie's a parody of itself already.

Day of the Ninja 2007

Pirates vs. Ninja...why is that again? I'm sure there is a story (more than just "the Ninja were jealous that Pirates had their own day"), but today is the Day of the Ninja, so celebrate by busting out your black ski masks (just don't walk into any convenience stores!).

Are you a Ninja? Take a (sorta long) quiz at quizilla to see.

Last year "Ask a Ninja" enlightened us as to the origin of the day (see below), but for some reason I don't think he's being entirely serious...you be the judge.