Me singing some accordion-enhanced karaoke.
Unlike here in North America, even the toughest bar in the Philippines — even the ones with real-life pirates — are likely to have karaoke. That’s how hardcore we are about it. In my immediate family alone, we collectively own 4 karaoke machines (6 if you count [...]
Monthly Archives: May 2007
May
31
2007
In the Philippines, We Take Karaoke Seriously
May
31
2007
Staircase Drawers
Here’s a clever space-saving idea: a staircase with drawers embedded in the steps:
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Of course, the drawers can pose a safety hazard: you’d better be the type of person who closes drawers — if not, you’d be setting yourself up for a nasty spill one night when [...]
May
31
2007
Latest Articles on "Global Nerdy"
In case you missed them, here are the latest articles from the tech blog I do with my buddy George, Global Nerdy:
LOLCODE, the LOLcat Programming Language: I can has programming language?
Shut Up and Play: “We’re users. We don’t hook up our headsets, we mute your voice, and we just play the damn game. We’re not [...]
May
31
2007
"The Difference of Love"
Click the photo to see the original at full size.
The photo above, titled The Difference of Love is getting a lot of discussion on Reddit.
My own feelings on the matter are best summed up by this musical number from the television series American Dad:
May
30
2007
God’s Business Plan
All the best business plans got started as scribbling on napkins…
Click the photo to see it at full size. Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
May
28
2007
100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
According to the folks at Houghton Mifflin, every high school grad should be familiar with the words in the list below. I’m not surprised that I was unfamiliar with the word abstemious given its meaning, and moiety is now part of my vocabulary.
abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat
If you’re a Simpsons fan, the word chicanery should be familiar to [...]
May
28
2007
My Articles at Global Nerdy
Over at the tech blog I write, Global Nerdy, I’ve got these stories:
Lara Croft, Then and Now: A review in pictures of the evolution of everyone’s favourite hot archaeologist.
Advertising: Best Left to the Professionals? Ad execs are unimpressed with the contest submissions for Heinz ketchup’s “create you own ad” contest.
Sony’s Very Special Screws: Maybe Sony [...]
May
28
2007
Portland’s "Jesus is Lord" Neon Sign
John Philip Green, Pete Forde and I went out one night in Portland to check out Ground Kontrol, an place that’s both bar and arcade devoted to 80’s pinball and video games (I wrote a little bit about the arcade in Global Nerdy). Along the way, we passed by a glowing red neon sign that [...]
May
28
2007
More from That Pre-Keynote Performance at RailsConf
Here’s a great shot that New York-based Ruby guy Sebastian Delmont posted to Flickr — it’s of that pre-keynote performance that I did with RailsConf organizer Chad Fowler:
Click the image to see it on its Flickr page
Texas-based Ruby guy Sean McMains took a video of the whole performance:
May
26
2007
The Tamago Double Mac: Two McFoods in One
Having trouble choosing deciding whether to have an Egg McMuffin or a Big Mac? In Japan, you can get both in a single package: the Tamago Double Mac (tamago is Japanese for “egg”). You get the two burgers for the Big Mac-ness, bacon and poached egg for Egg McMuffin goodness, pepper sauce to make it [...]
May
25
2007
Meanwhile, Over at Global Nerdy…
The image that goes with the Global Nerdy story abou tkids huffing compressed air. Click it to see the story.
Here’s a reminder: Global Nerdy, the tech news site that my buddy George and I write, is an ongoing concern! Here are the most recent stories:
Spam’s “80-200″ Rule. 80% of the world’s spam — and remember, [...]
May
25
2007
Playing Accordion at the RailsConf Keynote
Photo by James Duncan Davidson. Click to see it on its original page.
Yes, it’s total bias on my part, but one of my favourite moments from last week’s RailsConf conference — the premier conference for Ruby on Rails developers — was playing the intro musical number for the evening keynotes — me on accordion, along [...]
May
25
2007
If the Baby Gets a Stroller, I Want a Stroller Too!
Seen in Seattle (and soon, across the internet):
Click the photo to see it on its original page.
Mom’s teaching her kid this valuable lesson: Walking is for suckers.
May
23
2007
Remixes of "Identifying Wood"
Remember the cover of the book Identifying Wood, which I featured last week?
An anonymous commenter pointed me to a FARK challenge to remix the book cover. FARK got the idea from this entry in the Make blog, who in turn got the inspiration for the entry from
