Blogger X - I like X! X makes me happy!

Commenter 1 - I give tacit support for your love of X, but somewhat less enthusiastic support than yours.

Commenter 2 - I point out certain deficits in X, but affirm Blogger X as having the right to hold that opinion.

Commenter 3 - I don't like X because of some childhood trauma.

Commenter 4 - I don't like X because of its negative impact on the environment, cultural morals, or because X is a cheap imitation of Z.

Commenter 5 - I affirm Z as being better. X sucks.

Commenter 6 - X sucks.

Commenter 7 - X sucks more than Z but Z sucks too.

Commenter 8 - X sucks and Blogger X sucks.

Commenter 9 - I defend Blogger X and cast aspersions upon Commenter 8.

Commenter 8 - Commenter 9 sucks.

Commenter 1 - I try to calm everyone down.

Commenter 8 - Commenter 1 is a self righteous prig.

Commenter 5 - I roll my eyes.

Admin - Stop it.

Commenter 8 - Admin sucks.

Commenter 7 - Yeah, what Commenter 8 said.

Admin - Ban.

Commenter 8 as Commenter 10 - You all suck. I launch into a diatribe against everybody.

Admin - Come on guys.

Commenter 1 - This used to be such a good blog.

Commenter 3 - This is all Blogger X's fault, really.

Blogger X - Meh?

Posted by ironic1 at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

So I'm quickly clicking through my RSS news feeds, having a backlog of over a hundred stories, and this headline quickly flashes before my eyes...

What's the first thing you would think of?

Yeah, not me. The first thing I thought of was the Inquisition and who the hell did the Catholic church lock up for 5 years and what for?

Yes, I'm that big of a dork that that's the way my mind works.

Besides... what would a sports story be doing in my RSS feeds?

Posted by ironic1 at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You know how Google suggests searches when you start to type in something in that little window based on your previous searches? Here's my challenge... Post your own Google ABCs based on the first thing that comes up with each letter. And I'll start. Let the humiliation begin!

A is for Apple Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz MacBook - I got the 2.2GHz version.
B is for Bif Naked - A singer on an episode of Buffy.
C is for C-Beams - From a line in Bladerunner.
D is for Danny Strong - An actor who frequently appears on Buffy.
E is for Ecclesiastes - One of my favorite books in the Bible.
F is for Fashion Forward - A term I read that I'm still not sure I understand.
G is for Gabriel - One of the few named angels in the Bible.
H is for Hamlet Cartoon - And that's how I found Savage Chickens.
I is for I Miss Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Which is how I found this song.
J is for Jabba on the Dais - Sing it with me!
K is for Karl Spring - A local weather guy who said some silly things.
L is for Luke 16:1-13 - The parable of the dishonest steward. Because I was working on a sermon and this is a toughy.
M is for Mezzanine Word Origin - For this play.
N is for Nagini - Voldemort's snake.
O is for O Antiphons - Which are read in Advent. Also the basis for the hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."
P is for Philippians 2:1-11 - One of my favorites. I just preached on this last Sunday.
Q is for Qoheleth - The preacher from Ecclesiastes.
R is for Representative Huntley - A Minnesota legislator and I have no idea why I was looking him up now.
S is for Salisbury Hill - Which, I found out, is actually Solsbury Hill in the song by Peter Gabriel.
T is for Tannhauser Gate - Also from that same quote from Bladerunner.
U is for UNICEF - For which my church has an annual fundraiser.
V is for Von Steuben Day Parade - A parade celebrating German heritage immortalized in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
W is for Wapakoneta, Ohio - My hometown.
X is for XMP - Some computer extension I was looking up.
Y is for Yvonne Prettner Solon - Another Minnesota legislator.
Z is for Zeppo - One of the Marx Brothers.

Well, that wasn't nearly as embarrassing as I had hoped... I mean feared.

You are officially tagged to do this meme on your own blog or, if you don't have one, in the comments space here. You don't have to do explanatory notes if you don't want to. I just felt the need.

Posted by ironic1 at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Continue reading "Have you heard this CD?" »

Posted by ironic1 at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

From the people who brought you the Human Clock, it's the Human Calendar!

It amuses me.

Posted by ironic1 at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Continue reading "Best of Ironic1" »

Posted by ironic1 at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Wandering around the blogoverse you encounter the most interesting vagabonds. Meet Amy, for example - bellydancer, ren fair enthusiast, and entrepreneur.

She just opened The Gypsy Kiss about a week ago dealing in "oddities, imports, finery, and fripery." Looking through her site is like visiting a virtual bazaar. On her cart you'll find jewelry, some of which she made herself, skirts, tops, and whatnot.

All this for the laudable purpose of quitting her dayjob and charting her own course.

And why, you may well ask, this shameless plug?

Gypsy magic, I say.

Posted by ironic1 at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I found this on davidbessler.com. Use the big buttons to select a tune to dance to and then mouseover the little buttons to strike different poses. You can also use your keyboard to make him dance.

Full Screen Version

My favorite dance moves? Soundtrack F with dance moves FGH in random order throwing in some JK. Try it.

Posted by ironic1 at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I just found WikiWorld, a creative commons licensed comic by Greg Williams based on Wikipedia entries. He seems to share many of my interests based on what he's chosen to draw about so far. Click on the pictures to see the larger versions or see them all here.

Continue reading "WikiWorld" »

Posted by ironic1 at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Q: What do you get when you randomly pair Family Circus cartoons with captions from the pen of Friedrich Nietzsche?

A: Hilarity.

The site would be much better if it were cleaner without all of the ads cluttering it up, but it's a brilliant idea even if the execution is, in my opinion, flawed in its presentation.

Thanks to the Professor from Gonzo Science for pointing this out to me.

Posted by ironic1 at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Fuzzy tagged me for this post. I quote:

The purpose of this meme is to get people talking about their passion in life. It’s called the 5/5 meme. Five questions, then pass it to five people. "Expertise" could be your profession, hobby, or area of intense interest.

How did you become interested in it?
I think I've always been fascinated by preachers and preaching. There's showmanship and scholarship, ritual and tomfoolery. As a preacher you can be both the sage and the village idiot at the same time. Shaman, priests, monks, and holy people of all stripes have always been of interest to me.

Continue reading "Five Questions" »

Posted by ironic1 at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My friend Maria now has a splashy storefront for her on-line shop of artsy crafty things like fairy wings and button head dolls. She's swell and you really should go buy things from her and support independent craft folk.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As an early Christmas present I got my kids their own web domains and are helping them set up their own blogs. Simon started his with a short video entry. I'm his technical assistant and we had a lot of fun learning how to do some basic video editing. If the quality of the video looks lousy, it's because we're using an el cheapo three year old web cam.

Posted by ironic1 at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by ironic1 at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fuzzy is on The Show with Ze Frank for about one tenth of a second. See if you can spot him! Or you can watch the complete uncut extended intro version.

Posted by ironic1 at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This American Life, the best radio show ever, is finally available as a free podcast! Huzzah! Yes, now Ira Glass, Sarah Vowell, David Sedaris, and many others can live on my iPod. For a long time you could listen to a complete archive for free, but finally it is now in podcast form.

If you have never heard This American Life, you can now listen to these finely crafted stories which are alternately funny, shocking, poignant, maddening, and joyful. It has been appointment radio for me since I lived in Chicago ten years ago when the show started as a local program on WBEZ. And now, it is legend.

Posted by ironic1 at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Amanda Congdon is vlogging across the country from her bedroom in Connecticut all the way to Los Angeles and she's taking us along in her hybrid car. Her 5 week journey is sponsored by Envirnomental Countdown.

Check out her new video blog.

Posted by ironic1 at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Some thoughts on September 11, 2001 five years later from a Brooklyner...

That pretty much sums it up for me. Thanks, Ze, for saying it so I don't have to.

Posted by ironic1 at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember Space Invaders? Yeah, it's a little like asking, "Remember the Model A?" or "Remember 8 Tracks?" Well, apparently a lot of people are hankering for the good ol' days. Here is a smattering of artists and enthusiasts who are memorializing the classic arcade game.

Check out this rug. Polish artist Janek Simon used projection television, an actual rug, and old world, low-res design to create this playable Space Invaders rug.

Invader is a Paris-based artist who puts little (and sometimes big) pixelated mosaics of space invaders all over the world. You can track the invasion on his site.

Continue reading "Space Invaders" »

Posted by ironic1 at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Right is right to fear the Internet, because it is a medium whose ethic is essentially antithetical to the Right.

I've been thinking a lot about this since Amanda Congdon left Rocketboom, not because Amanda is so openly a lefty, but because of how she talked about her relationship with her audience. It is about interactivity and listening and having the audience be coproducers of media as she said in a recent interview. When she was asked what new media gets that old media doesn't get she answered, "How to make friends with my audience." Old media doesn't want to make friends. They want to make consumers.

And then I saw Loic Le Meur, a french entrepreneur, on Mobuzz talk about the nature of innovation in business to take advantage of the new media. He talked about how the old model was for some idea guys to cook up an idea for a product, focus group it, design it, produce it, and then make a market it. If necessary, create the need for the product. The new model is almost completely backwards. You first announce the product and then cocreate it with the consumer from the ground up.

Continue reading "Why New Media is the Domain of Progressives" »

Posted by ironic1 at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's the end of an era. Amanda Congdon is no longer hosting Rocketboom. Whether she was pushed or she jumped I'll leave to historians and lawyers, but the fact remains - Rocketboom as we knew it is no more.

In appreciation of Amanda, I just want to share a few things that I learned from watching her nigh every day over the last many months...

Continue reading "Things I Learned from Amanda" »

Posted by ironic1 at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (46)

Thanks to BadCat! and Xenolith over on perfectduluthday I've been having fun with these do it yourself comic generators: Strip Generator and Build Your Own Meat. So what are you waiting for?! Make your own! Ya know ya wanna. Post it here so I can bask in your creative glory.

Posted by ironic1 at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's still pretty explosive and amazing. Hats off! Check out other Diet Coke and Mentos experiments at EepyBird.com.

Posted by ironic1 at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Using Grapheine's wonderful Bombay TV movie editor I created my own dramatic recreation of the Epic Meeting of Amanda and Drew with which they saw fit to open today's episode of Rocketboom.

Thanks Drew and Amanda! Love your show. I'm guessing that is pretty much exactly like it happened, right?

Posted by ironic1 at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)