There’s a personality test going around on LJ and I finally took it. It seems I’m an evil genius. I like the sound of it. Not quite as good at a SUUUUPER genius, but close.

You are an SEDF–Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well–even those you have known a long time–because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

The test can be found over here.

Over on my LJ friend’s list, this post surfaced yesterday about John Kerry and John Edwards, complete with picture.

When John reached out across the space between them, he knew he was doing more than symbolizing how their partnership would bridge the gap between the divided halves of America. He was making an overture that could both save him and damn him, but as he took John’s rough-skinned palm into his own cool, smooth fingers, he knew he couldn’t resist. That touch sparked something in him, something that made him dream of an end to so many cold, lonely long Massachusetts nights, and a beginning to something beautiful and warm in the District of Columbia. The campaign trail had been a rough one, but he needed just one word to give him the promise that he would no longer have to do it alone. He looked into those twinkling eyes and leaned forward, hoping to hear that soft Southern voice tell him, “Yes.” Just that one word, and then he could take so much more from those soft lips. [click for more…]

Of course, this post led to the creation of the JohnXJohn community over on LiveJournal. I’m both hopelessly amused and horrified. I will never look at pictures of the two of them the same again.

As usual, from that /usr/bin/girl:

Flash Fun: Microlife

Grow, train, and defend Microlife in this little flash simulation game. Each level has a different objective; passing one will give you the password to continue. It’s not too difficult, but I found it rather entertaining. [#!/usr/bin/girl]

I lost a good hour and a half playing this one, even if it is a little slow to start out.

An old high school and college friend IMed me the other day and was telling me about some of his current projects. One that caught my eye was Hosting Comparison. It’s a site that compares various types of web hosting services, from shared hosting to dedicated web server hosting. He’s also working on on expanding the features and should be opening up a sister site in the near future (I’ll be sure to mention it when he does).

This morning I was chatting with a friend of mine about some of the great old movie serials I’d seen over the years. On a whim I decided to google for “Movie Serials” and found The Serial Squadron. It’s a site dedicated to old serials, including having DVDs available of some classic ones I remember. I’m really thinking about picking up a copy of The Phantom Empire. How can you go wrong with Gene Autry?

Some of the shows they’re working on just so so wonderfully wrong, like MALA: Secret Agent of the South Seas.

Yes, it’s the serial that everyone’s talking about. It’s the one and only Mala, the spy with the floral loincloth, and his pals Rex, King of the Wild Horses, and Buck the big fat St. Bernard, to the rescue as evil saboteurs crack codes and plot to blow up dirigibles and set fire to ships and stuff on remote Clipper Island in the South Seas. Will super-spy Mala’s good looks convince the beautiful island princess to save him from being sacrificed in the fire pit? Who is that guy with the amazingly bad cockney accent and what is he doing in this serial?

Oh yeah, and be sure to check out Ask Ming in the Games section.

I was looking around Wikipedia to see if they had anything about Pulmonary Fibrosis and discovered that Peter Stone, who wrote Charade and Father Goose (two of my favorite Cary Grant movies), died of pulmonary fibrosis. Of course Wikipedia doesn’t seem to have anything on Pulmonary Fibrosis or IPF yet, so I guess I may have to contribute something.

Engadget.com has a post about a new USB drive that meows when you plug it in.

USB drives these days come shaped like everything from ducks to rockstar jewellery, but Taiwanese firm Panram sets the standard for others to follow with its 256MB Cat Bar, which both looks like a cat (well, sort of) and meows when you plug it in (well, sort of; see below). [Engadget]

I want to hack it so that it makes other sounds. Preferably something obscene.

Paul Fix
“The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.”
[Quotes of the Day]

A few weeks ago my parents had some folks over for dinner and I got to meet Walter Wick, the person responsible for the I, Spy and Can You See What I See? books. One topic that night was ‘What is art?’ and at one point we got to talking about comics and manga. He asked me if I’d read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. I’d heard numerous people I know discuss it, but I’d never actually picked it up. So at his recommendation I picked it up a few days later.

The first surprise I got was that the whole book is written in the style of a comic. For some reason, I hadn’t expected it (though it makes perfect sense). McCloud first asks “Just what is comics?” and the follows it up with a history of comics and look at just what it is that makes this art form special. The thing I really liked is that it felt like more than a book about comics. After reading this I felt like I had a deeper understanding of both art and storytelling. And I think the chapter discussing time and that space between the frames of a comic was the one that struck me the most. But the beauty of this book is how it slowly takes apart what makes a comic and then shows you how it all works together.

So even if you’ve never picked up a comic book in your life. Or think there isn’t much too them. I recommend this book. Now I’ve just got to see if I can get my mom to read it. And I think I’ve also got to read Will Eisner’s Comics & Sequential Art.

As usual, /usr/bin/girl posts about some of the neatest flash things.

Flash Fun: The Phone

The Phone. You dial, and it takes you somewhere else. You try to find the number to the next world. Time goes by, and you realise your soda can is empty and you need to go to the bathroom.

Oh wait. That’s just me.

The Phone is fun, regardless! [#!/usr/bin/girl]

I love these flash things. There’s just so much imagination that goes into them. I’d never think of half of the things like this.