Gotta see this movie!!!

• The destructive power of space junk – video | Science | guardian.co.uk – This video is awesome. Wow…
• YouTube – Girl Walks Into a Bar – FREE Feature Film – The first feature film made for the Internet.
• A Quick Trip on the Appalachian Trail (AT) on Vimeo – Another perspective.
• Video: Hike the 2,200-Mile Appalachian Trail in 4 Minutes | Playbook – Great video.
• ▶ Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 1 by mjs538 -

During the last couple weeks we’ve been doing a bunch of yard work, getting the yards in as good a shape as we can this year.  Other than that, we haven’t really done much.  So I guess I will just post the links…

Cool Music
I can’t remember if I shared this band yet on here, but Rock Sugar is an awesome band.  The lead singer was the guy that did the voice of Wacko on Animaniacs.

Food Stuff
Four articles from Serious Eats that I thought were great to share.  How to Salt Food, 6 Things Every Griller Needs, Top 10 Tips For Making Better Burgers, and  Mastering the Art of Burger Blending.  I’m very interested in getting a grinder for our KitchenAid Mixer and blending my own meat!  If you are interested in finding a local fruit and veggie or even meat CSA you will want to check out both Local Harvest and Eat Wild.  Too bad there aren’t really any close by meat CSAs in SoCal.  I did recently discover that we have a local grass fed beef rancher 5 Bar Beef, we are going to try some of their ground beef tonight for burgers.  If you want to know more about beef cuts, this poster is great.

Beer Stuff
Make had this cool weekend project for a portable homebrew cooler dispenser, that I might give a try when we have a party.  Talking about beer, Floating Sheep has some maps about bars and areas where there are more bars than grocery stores.

Funny Stuff
When you are buying a home, the most overlooked requirement is Zombie Protection!  Well OC Reader has you covered if you are looking for a home in Orange County.

Cool Sports
If you are looking to buy some tickets for a game or even a concert, Seat Geek has you covered in helping you find things for the best price available.  They forecast if it’s a smart time to buy of if the price will be going down and suggest you to wait if you are buying the tickets on sites like StubHub, Tickets Now, or Ticket Network.  Plus they will graph out the ticket locations for you.

Cool Sites
CNN Money’s 20 best Money Sites.  Mensa’s 50 top websites.  Groundspeak, the team behind Geocaching.org are slowly making their way into the geolocation game with Whibbit, looking forward to see how it compares to Foursquare and GoWalla.

More Cool Stuff
Probably should have been in the food section but I love that this site will locate Where is My Milk From.  Science has discovered that as the use of porn goes up the amount of sex crimes goes down!  Take that feminists!  After you are done watching some porn, check out these awesome airports, I’m not sure if I want to land at any of those…

And last but not least, videos.
I think I will show this one during my Defensive Driving training classes I do.

Photoshop CS5 Content Aware Fill, it’s amazing what photoshop can do nowadays.

Sir Mix a Lot like But-terfingers

Awesome TV Theme duet

So my friend Ned over at A Futile Mistake challenged those that read his blog to come up with their top 25 albums of all time list.  I made a couple rules for my list so I didn’t pull out too much hair.

Food Stuff
For Super Bowl we had a small party with our parents coming over to watch the game with us, I wanted to try and cook buffalo wings, but wasn’t at all in the mood for frying them up, I found this awesome recipe two days before the game for cooking up crunchy buffalo like wings in the oven from Serious Eats, you owe it to yourself to cook them this way!  I also found this cool site that reviews all the interesting snack foods out there called Taquitos.net, they have everything from national brands to regional favorites.  Lastly if you are the type of person that is interested in trying your hand at brewing your own beer check out this quick blurb on Lifehacker about two free open source programs that will help you with your goal.

Music Stuff
I haven’t had much music stuff lately, but I had to share this awesome project that Michael Deal is working on that is a graphical exploration into the Beatles and the creation of their music.  This is a project and any true Beatles fan will want to check out.

Sad Stuff
For those that don’t know the Mars rover Spirit is stuck and can no longer move, so they have pretty much pulled the plug on the project, xkcd has a sad comic to show us that rovers have feelings too.

Funny Stuff
If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you might have already seen this, but if not, check out this graphic on How to Suck at Facebook.   I’m proud to say I don’t do any of those things listed, so I must not suck.  If you saw the Google commercial during the Super Bowl (which was my favorite ad) you saw a clever use of their auto complete feature, the site Autocomplete Me turns the auto complete feature into a interesting look at what people search for on Google.

The Lego Millennium Falcon!

Cool Stuff
I just found this today but I wanted to pass it on, someone has taken the initiative to educate today’s men on what they need in their wardrobe, with Newbie Fashion Tips for Grown Men.  It really is a good group of tips and suggestions on how to look your best.  Wardrobe Oxygen takes it a step further, but I have to disagree with some their what to remove from your wardrobe section.  I’ve been wanting to get some Lego sets recently to put together for fun and I was checking out the online Lego store, they have a $499 Star Wars Millennium Falcon, a little more than I want to spend (it is 5000+ pieces though)…  I’ve seen a couple places recently selling recycled bottles that have had their tops cut off so you can use them as glasses, here is someone that decided they could just make them instead.  Check out this great article on the 19 Most Complex and Dangerous road in the world, I’ve seen some of these on Top Gear, the Road of Death in Bolivia looks like a bitch.  If you know me you know that Kelly and I met online, so I find the research that OkCupid is doing on their dating site is extraordinary, they recently wrote an article about profile pictures, and I highly suggest anyone that is doing any sort of online dating read their articles, they will help you make a better personal ad.  Example, Men: don’t make eye contact and don’t smile, Women: make eye contact and a flirty face.  And the last of the cool stuff, this blog post regarding the changes to the Crayola color spectrum throughout the years.

Not Cool Sports Stuff
The Chicago Cubs have thought up an complete asshole plan, they are going to charge a 20% premium on those that purchase tickets the 1st week they are on sale, and then after that they will be the normal face value.  Talk about scalping your customers.  I hope we don’t see this become a trend.  (edit, this is nothing new they have been doing it for 8 years.)

Cool Videos
Some geeks have figured out an awesome use for Microsoft’s surface, Dungeons and Dragons!

D&D on the Microsoft Surface from CrunchGear on Vimeo.

Hot Tub Time Machine will be the movie event of the year!

Someone has edited all the violence from the 2010 Super Bowl commercials into one epic Youtube video.

And last but not least does this sound familiar?

UCLA Sucks!

What better way to celebrate what we are thankful for than to watch the USC Trojans beat the UCLA Bruins?

Proud USC Fan.

We’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving at my in-laws, and then on Saturday we are going to cook our own turkey at the house.  Not much else going on.  We did get baseboard put in living room, dining room, and hallway a couple weeks ago, things are really coming together with the house.  We will be having 2 Christmas parties at our house in December, one for my dad’s side of the family and one for my mom’s side of the family (which will include Kelly’s family at both/either of them).  It’s going to be a very busy December!  Work will be busy the first two weeks as well since I have to train new hires on high-speed online, but it shouldn’t be too difficult.  That’s about it from here so let’s see what I have to share this week.

Cool Food

Cheeseburger in a Can!

Have you ever been out camping in the wilderness and wished, “Boy I wish I could have a cheeseburger right now!”.  Well the wait is over, with the cheeseburger in a can!

Cool Stuff
When I was a kid I loved reading the various Choose Your Own Adventure books, I found this site that someone has analyzed all the books and has a bunch of data about them, with cool graphics and color.  It’s a pretty neat read if you loved those books as a kid.  Some more cool stuff, but in a much different way are these Civil War pictures (warning some of them are not for the faint at heart), I’d never seen this collection so it was an interesting look into battlefield.

Buying Stuff
If you are looking for the best cheap stuff to get for Christmas, check out this site called Cheapism that has reviews on cheap things.

Funny Stuff
Another weekly cool links and another great site to see pictures of people and go, what the fuck??  This weeks pick is Why the Fuck Do You Have a Kid?  You will be saying the same thing when you see this collection of pictures.  I’m sure a number of UCLA alumni are pictured on that site.

TV Stuff
Anyone that is both a sports fan and a fan of The Office will love this take on The Office done by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Videos

Everyone loves a douchebag.

Watch out for the Shiny Suds in your shower! (Loofah!  Loofah! Loofah!)

The best song of 2009 Show Me Your Genitals (NOT SAFE FOR WORK and people without a sense of humor)

Don’t miss his other great hits also on Youtube!  And you can purchase his songs on iTunes!

Bohemian Rhapsody, The Muppets Style!

Now, on to the links!

TV Stuff
If you have ever wanted to know more about the themes that make TV writing then I highly suggest to take a couple hours to browse and read around TV Tropes.  It’s especially a great read for anyone that’s ever wanted to learn the tricks of the trade for writing anything from Comics to TV.

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, what’s the difference?

Music Stuff
Looking for music like the music you like?  Check out Musicovery, a music discovery service.  Doing a search for Jimmy Eat World on there actually links me to a number of other bands I’ve also enjoyed throughout the years.  Pretty impressive.

Here is a funny music video

Chicks Man
If you are interested in attractive philologists, check out Hot for Words.  She’s not really my type, but hey I know there are a lot of you out there that like big boobed blondes.

Check out these chicks melting ice.

Food Stuff
Lifehacker had an article this week on 10 Simple Freeze Tricks to Save You Time and Money.  Info and links about what can be frozen (Broccoli yes, Onions No) to how to make your freeze more efficient.  It’s a good starting place for many people.

Windows 7 Stuff (Tech Stuff)
So yesterday Windows 7 was released.  I’ve already been using it for 3 weeks and think it’s pretty great, especially the 64bit version because nothing beats using 8 gigs of RAM on a computer (except 16 gigs).  A number of websites had guides for Windows 7, but Lifehacker’s Complete Guide to Windows 7 is the most comprehensive, plus it links to lots of other great starting points to learn more.  If you are looking for a more historical look at Windows, you have to check out Maximum PC’s 50 Best (and Worst) Moment’s in Windows History.

Funny Stuff
Check out Life’s pictorial on 30 Dumb Inventions, how about those screaming tomatoes, and to think people follow that crackpots “religion”.  I only read Maxim magazine for the articles, that’s why I’m sharing the 10 People in Every Office article they recently posted.  Lastly check out Stuff White People Life and Photobomb for some more funnies.

Oh no the Pixar lamp killed the letter I!

If you don’t have me on your Facebook you missed me rating the most recent movies I’ve watched.

District 9 9 out of 10.
Adam 7 out of 10.
Confessions of a Shopaholic 6 out of 10.
The Goods 6 out of 10.
Fired Up 6 out of 10.

And now for my weekly cool links!

Food
Did you know you can make butter in 5 minutes with chilled heavy cream and some salt?  I thought that was pretty interesting, especially since I have some heavy cream in the fridge right now, waiting for me to make some sauce with, but I’m sure I will have some leftover.

Movies
I know it seems like I’m constantly posting ways to rate as well as find new movie recommendations well this week isn’t any different, Criticker will help you!  Just rate some movies 0-100 and it will find more you might like!

Sports
Anheuser-Busch announced that they are coming out with “team color” Bud Light cans this college football season.  I wonder if they have USC color cans?  Talking about USC, SoCal Sports Hub posted an article about 100 Types of UCLA Fans.

Tech
Typedia is a font lovers dream.  It’s a wikipedia type resource of typefaces.  Talking about fonts if you are trying to figure out the font from a graphic nothing beats What the Font.  If you familiar with using the maps from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc but would like to use something less commercial that isn’t copyrighted, then you might want to take a chance with Open Street Map.  If you love Radio Shack and like history then you could probably spend hours looking through the catalogs at the Radio Shack Catalog page.

Cool Stuff
This site shows you how to figure out what hotel you are being offered to stay at when using Hotwire.com.  Very useful since I’m always worried it might not be exactly the hotel or place I want to be staying at!  Bargaineering shares a list of the FICO risk factor codes, which also helps us determine things we need to try and prevent on our credit reports!  And for those of you smart people that use Mozilla Firefox instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer this add-on will make your online purchases that much better, InvisibleHand will automatically show you if you can find an item cheaper online somewhere else.

Funny Stuff
I’ve probably posted this in the past but Hot Chicks with Douchebags is always a great site to check out and get some laughs.  Also it can help you decide if you are with a douchebag or if you might be considered a douchebag.  This poster (to the right) by the Michigan Humane Society is awesome.  We have two pre-owned cats and a pre-owned dog, save a cat or dog from being euthanized and ADOPT from a shelter instead of buying from a breeder.   And now the last of the funny stuff for the week, I bring you Translation Party, the site that you have to check out to completely understand.  But let’s say you take a famous movie quote, such as one of my favorites from the Keanu Reeves classic, The Replacements (I know it’s also from a Black Flag song, but that’s besides the point).

Shane Falco: Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory… lasts forever.

Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory … lasts forever.

Well that quote didn’t work out as great as I thought it would, but trust me it can really do a number on some sayings.

Videos
Sadly, although I have known of it since it launched I’ve never checked out the webshow The Guild, but this music video is hilarious for anyone that has spent a lonely (or not lonely) night creating characters (avatars) in games.

And lastly but not the least a video that is probably 100 times better then the actual GI Joe movie that recently came out.  And yes that is Ben Stiller.

MBA in 2 Minutes

1. Revenue – Costs = Profits
2. Businesses without customers are not in business
3. You must do everything you can to attract and retain customers

Besides work not much happened the last couple weeks, we had a couple various family gatherings, a relaxing 1 week vacation, and saw a couple movies.  Funny People (3 Stars) and 500 Days of Summer (3.5 Stars) you can check out my movie reviews here (more reviews to come as I catch up!).  Lastly I’m getting into golfing and bought some new irons last week, that should be arriving at my house today and I’m looking forward to playing 1-2 times a month if possible.

On to the Weekly Cool Links!!!!

Music
I have a bunch of music links this week, most of them about finding new music, something I struggle with because of my specific eclectic preference.  I’m always interested in finding more music I might like, iTunes DOES NOT CUT IT with their recommendations, even Genius is just sort of ok, but Lifehacker put together an article on articles and ways to help, with their Top 10 Tricks for Making Your Playlists Rock.  There is Project Playlist which can help you find music, generate playlists and create ringtones for you.  Lastly if you are looking into turning an old computer into a “media server” you might want to check out Amahi, doesn’t require much power or high priced tech to get running, and can stream to just about anything, in addition is has lots of features that compare to those of Windows Home Server!  And lastly, I thought I would share an artist I discovered yesterday, this girl can do wonders with just a ukulele and has a very pretty voice.  She is also playing in Long Beach in a week or so.

Movies
Not much on the movies front this week, but how could we all have missed the production of Lesbian Vampire Killers!  Most of the reviews say it’s pretty bad, but come on with a name like that it has to be at least entertaining.

Sports
I found this gallery archive of Iconic Dodgers Photos from Sports Illustrated.  My favorites include the picture of Sandy Koufax’s no hitter, if you look closely on the chalkboard someone wrote and then erased that he went 0 for 4 in the game.  Also love the picture of two of the best pitchers ever in baseball, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.  Glad that they included one of my favorite Dodger of all time, Orel Hershiser.

TV
If you happen to know anyone that is looking for a job, perhaps Veridian Dynamics might be just the place.  Well regardless if it is, I highly recommend that you check out the two episodes of Better off Ted that will be on this week (Tuesday 08/11/09 at 9:00 P.M.).  Or maybe you are like me and you just accidentally want to somehow download all the TV shows you are interested in so you can watch them later on your own time and without advertising… Well ShowRSS might be able to help you out…

Tech
If you don’t know by now, both myself and Kelly have iPhones, and one way I keep up with the release of free applications I might want to check out is by visiting FreeAppAlert, actually I have them on my Twitter, but I check out their website via their feed there.  Talking about the iPhone I’m really stoked to see that the FCC is interested in getting to the bottom of the application approval process at Apple after their denial of the Google Voice app.  I was really looking forward to getting to use my Google Voice number, hopefully these questions that the FCC has made will get Apple and AT&T to stop with the antics.

Neat Stuff (probably tech oriented)
Did you know that my relative and US President John Quincy Adams is tweeting?!!?  It’s all being done by the Massachusetts Historical Society, as this article explains.  J.Q.A. kept a 1 line a day journal 200 years ago while he traveled to Russia to be the first US Ambassador to Russia.  According to my calculations he’s currently just off the coast of Canada make his trek to Russia.
View Larger Map

On to present day, I really thought this graph by the New York Times showing how people spend their day was interesting.  I love the data that have put together and the ability to filter through it and see some specific groups.  For those of my friends that enjoy beer, and especially Miller Lite, they are soon to release some new draft technology to be used in the home.  This one should probably be in the tech section, or maybe I should just make an iPhone section, but someone has come out with software that allows one to track what is in their pantry and allow it to link with their iPhone to help create shopping lists and keep your pantry items up to date.  With the integrating of the pantry list on your computer you can have an automated shopping list that updates to your iPhone pantry list!

Local
That’s right I have a local section, but not much to report.  OC Register posted a list on Certified Farmers Markets throughout Orange County, although it doesn’t include the one in Stanton on Mondays (unsure if it’s a certified but I could have swore it was), also check the comment section for most lists.  Lastly, Gustavo Arellano at O.C. Weekly wrote about an article he read in a Jewish satire magazine, in which porn star Joanna Angel praises the sausages from Mattern Sausage in Orange for, “Its curved shape was good for hitting my G-spot and, because it was a smooth surface, it was also great in my ass.”  If that’s not a praise for their sausage then I don’t know what is!  What Gus didn’t mention is that there is actually an article and pictures of Jenna von Oy from Blossom fame!!!

Videos

Ladies, is this what it has come to?  What extracurricular activity does the Shake Weight resemble?

Are all the people in Santa Cruz like this, or is their something wrong with the water?

Don’t forget the Aspray next time you have issues with your body odor.

And lastly I had to include this awesome time-lapse video of Disneyland construction, it’s amazing how quickly they were able to do stuff back then, compared to the time it takes today.

Have a great week!

So last night I went with a group to a new burger restaurant called Slater’s 50/50 in Anaheim Hills, you can read all about it on my restaurant review site Eat in OC.  Also I started another side project/website Bite Orange, still in the development process but I’m pretty much online and running.  Tonight I’m going to a friends bachelor party, going to see The Hangover at Cinema Fusion in Anaheim, they serve beer and have leather recliner seats, then it’s off to the strip joint for a little relaxation, Kelly told me to have a lap dance, I can’t let her down.  Saturday I have the TinoJam softball event and Sunday a wedding, then I’m on vacation for a week!  Not much happened the past 2 weeks, which is why I’m talking about the upcoming weekend instead, since I’ll probably forget to talk about it in two weeks anyway.  But now on to what everyone visits here for Erica Durance photos, er I mean my weekly (cough) cool links!

(Warning this weeks links are video heavy (5 videos to share so I’m going to do something a little different…)

Leading off it’s a video from The Daily Show about people that don’t know when to stop after they have been proven wrong.

Yes I have my mind made up, it’s much ado about nothing.  And Jon Stewart pretty much sums up my feelings at the end of the clip…

Music
Do you like online web games of adventure and quests and like music?  Check out this one called The Sixty One, check out new music and complete quests, to be the ultimate music geek.  Maybe games aren’t your style, how about 8-bit music renditions of Weezer songs?

Movies
I can’t wait to see the newest Star Wars movie!  Wait what?  Oh I mean the fan created 15 second clip Star Wars: Uncut edition.  Fans will recreate the entire Star Wars movie 15 seconds at a time, till it’s complete, all 472 clips have already been selected and 25 clips are already completed.  Or if you are a guy and looking to watch a chick flick you can check out this list of 20 Great Chick Flicks for Men (Including a movie with one of my favorite ladies, Anne Hathaway!) at the Orange County Register.

Talking about movies, I’m looking forward to these both!

Alice in Wonderland

Beer Wars

Food
If you are looking to cook food on the cheap, 5 Dollar Dinners should be able to help you stretch your paycheck when you have a family to feed.

TV
Even with ComicCon going on I don’t have much TV news this week, other then Burn Notice is awesome and Eureka rules!  But I do have this totally cool poster to share for the upcoming season of Chuck!  Let’s hope Chuck is able to bounce back and get more then just the 13 episode order that it’s signed up for, it’s one of the best shows on TV.

Buzz Aldrin thinks I’m cool, but not this guy.

Cool Stuff
I’m really impressed by these cool solar lights that Lifehacker hacked together from some cheap lights, I might just have to make some of those for the backyard.  Or there is the $14 steadycam for you movie directors out there.  Lastly I highly suggest checking out the most recent issue of Wired magazine for their article on The New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans, I particularly enjoyed this chart to determine what excuses to use when calling out sick.  Long live Keyboard cat and the Three Wolf Moon!

Play me off Keyboard Cat…

Sports
The USC Football 2009 Media Guide is OUT!  And you can go and print out your own copy for freeeeeeeee!  I expect everyone that I know personally to carry their copy with them at all times and to show me it when I ask for it.

Music
I don’t know how current these album covers are from Russia, but wow those are quality with a capital T.  Is that Pete Townshend?

Movies
For those of you closely following my blog you may remember me mentioning RunPee about a month ago.  Well RunPee has created the #1 reason why anyone should get an iPhone, the RunPee application!  Now you can quickly check when is the best time to pee while out at the movies!

TV
Tonight (July 10th) one of my favorite TV Shows returns, with the final 10 episodes of Eureka on the newly renamed SyFy (SciFi Channel).  If you haven’t checked it out, you really need to, the show is quirky and fun.  Or if that is too mellow for you, how about purchasing some of the newest porn from Hustler (link is safe for work)?  TV shows remade into Porn movies!  Such as This Ain’t Star Trek XXX and Not Three’s Company XXX.  I’ve purchased a box set of all volumes… Ok I haven’t really, but it’s still funny.

Fun
The internet was made for fun, but before the internet there were other fun things (many of which still exist) such as Dungeons and Dragons, Satan’s game!  Oh wait, no it’s not Satan’s game, it’s just a freaking board game with imagination, but anyway, did you know that playing Dungeon’s and Dragons actually is a great tool for learning things about business?  I have to agree, just as I agree with those articles that say playing Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games get people ready for real world scenarios.  And let’s continue with the theme of lists of 10 with a top 10 list of things NOT to buy with your credit card.  Credit card companies don’t just deal with numbers, they also write up psychological profiles based upon the purchased you make, and these items bring up the red flags (don’t worry I boought my boxed set via Paypal!).  I see you a top 10 list and raise you to the 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads of All Time (I’ve included my favorite to the right).

Tech
This is usually my favorite section, since I’m a big tech geek.  The biggest tech news of the week has to be Google’s official announcement that they are working on a Google Chrome Operating System, it’s about time they actually just came out an admitted to it, after a couple years of speculation.  For those of you tech support people, the guys at Support Details might help your job be a little easier, with their website attempts to auto detects settings on a customer’s computer.  Some of you might have noticed that I have a Twitter account (and you can follow me and the posts here there!) well I present to you the Twitter 10 Commandements. Yeah I know I do 1 or 2 of those (such as Auto-Tweet).  Oh and last but not least Google Voice now lets users change their phone number that they originally got randomly from Grand Central, you even get to try and make a customer #, I was able to get us a phone number close to our home number.  We are going to start using the Google Voice number when we give out our number to people.

And lastly I present some of the best videos I’ve found on the Internet the past 2 weeks.

Very neat video by a Japanese band that must a been a bitch to produce and direct.

Can you flush a whole roll of toilet paper down a airplane toilet?

What watch he does to get the top button of his shirt snapped, that’s awesome!

Which to you prefer, the A Hole or the B Hole?