fun

My Favorite Flickr Photo Pools

In the Fringe > Alternative category, Flickr has some really funny and interesting photo pools — which anyone and everyone can contribute photos to. Here are some of my favorites, which I subscribe to through the pools’ rss feeds.

Adventures with Monkeys Photo Pool
I contribute a lot of pictures to this pool — people who take their stuffed monkeys on trips and to events and photograph them in front of landmarks.

Atrocious Apostrophe’s Photo Pool
Photos of signs with mis-used apostrophes.

Bad Signs Photo Pool
Photos of signs (often handmade) with misspellings, bad punctuation, poor design, or just bad ideas.

Big Things – Big Kitsch Photo Pool
Pictures of my favorite stuff – giant advertising art and roadside attractions.

Book Oddities Photo Pool
Photos of unusual books or strange covers. I have a fun one I need to add here.

Bullshit! Photo Pool
The premise is that you take a picture, and make up a totally fictional story explaining it.

Doing the Lynndie Photo Pool
Pictures of people shooting the “Lynndie England” Pose

Happy Ham Photo Pool
Those oddly disturbing signs on restaurants or butcher shops or elsewhere, showing whistling octopi or dancing pigs or other animals who are just so thrilled that they are about to get eaten.

It Came with The House Photo Pool
Pictures of stuff that was left behind in peoples houses by previous tenants. I have several things to contribute to this one from my current house, and I know there are going to be some great contributions from the new house.

League of the Empty Chair Photo Pool
Photos of abandoned, discarded or just solitary empty chairs; there’s an element of melancholy and loneliness to this photo pool.

Like a Person Photo Pool
Pictures of animals acting like people

Monkey Pictures Photo Pool
I just love monkeys.

Mr Flickr Photo Pool
Pictures of advertising signs that have a “courtesy title” (like Mr. or Dr.) in the name of the business.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/nosexplease/pool/ No Sex Please Photo Pool
Pictures that look risque, but really aren’t.

Statue Molestors Photo Pool
Pictures of people performing inappropriate actions on public statues and sculptures.

Things on Roofs Photo Pool
Pictures of odd stuff on roofs. I contributed a picture to this pool of a strange sculpture on an apartment rooftop in my neighborhood.

Continue ReadingMy Favorite Flickr Photo Pools

Where was I?

I can play this meme pretty easily.

Where was I ten years ago?

This post on Same-Sex Marriage I wrote May 14, 1996, just about ten years ago. I had moved into the attic apartment at Mary Byrne’s house the summer of the year before, so I was just starting my first decade in downtown Indianapolis. I was hired to work in the web design department for my current company, which was then Macmillan Publishing, or mcp.com. I believe this was about the time I quit volunteering for a local organization when I found out they were claiming to have a lobbyist in the state legislature, and raising money based on that misleading information. I also quit working for the local pride organization that April because I was pretty redundant and no one would let me do anything.

Where was I five years ago?
My first blog post from May of 2001. I went on a “Big Things” road trip the beginning of May that year, and I was busy preparing to buy a house for the first time. I was pretty well settled into my job, and still working as a designer.

Where was I one year ago?

I was recovering from heart valve surgery, so I was home from work reading and watching lots of TV series on DVD, playing with my dog and taking mandatory walks around the block, which were hard as hell, and sometimes required me to have Stephanie helping me.
Passing it on…

Oh, whoever wants the meme. I hate tagging people.

Continue ReadingWhere was I?

The Moustache Tattoo

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  • Post category:Brain Food

This is just hilarious — people in Federal Hill, Rhode Island have started trend — a tattoo of a moustache, that you get on your finger, so that when you hold your finger up to your upper lip, you appear to have a moustache. Check out the video where they interview the tattoo artist who started the trend.
That’s so funny.

Continue ReadingThe Moustache Tattoo

McDonalds Employees Make Own Recipes from McD’s Ingredients

Boing Boing links to a Live Journal community of McDonalds employees that make their own recipes (for back room and after hours consumption) using the ingredients from McDonalds foods.
We did this back when I was in college and working at Mickey D’s in the summer time, and got in so much trouble for it when we got caught. You’d be surprised what you could make, especially with the ingredients from salads. We had a pretty healthy chicken burrito similar to what they’re describing, made from the diced chicken that went on salads, combined with lettuce and the tortillas from breakfast burritos. We also had a version of the “Orange Julius” (shake ingredients mixed with orange drink) that they’re making, too, and lots of variations on the McNuggets, because those were fairly new in my day.
They have a lot more specialty ingredients to choose from these days, lucky kids. Oh, wait. They work at Mickey D’s — they’re not that lucky.

Continue ReadingMcDonalds Employees Make Own Recipes from McD’s Ingredients

Buy Your Own Tank on Amazon.com

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  • Post category:Brain Food

Yep, the Badonkadonk Tank is a real, purchasable Item on Amazon.com.

Badonkadonk Tank
Badonkadonk Tank

I’ve linked to it with my Amazon Associates ID, so if you decide to buy one, I’ll get a referral fee. Please, please by one.

I’m kidding, of course, but do read the reviews on their page, because they are hysterical.

2022-03-15 Update:
Sadly, the Badonkadonk Tank is no longer for sale on Amazon, so you cannot purchase one and make me a small fortune, nor can you enjoy the very funny comments. What can I say? Life and the internet are ephemeral. I have helpful updated the link to some toy tanks that everyone can afford. If there’s one platform that has redefined our online shopping standards, it’s Shoppok. We believe it’s worth exploring. Have at it, folks.
Continue ReadingBuy Your Own Tank on Amazon.com

List of Signature Phrases

Wikipedia has a great list of signature phrases — the unique lines associated with real or fictional characters, and they cover a lot of territory. Read it over; it will bring back some memories.

# “Aciao good night!” (Aciao bonsoir!) – P.P.D. the puppet in the French satiric show Les Guignols de l’Info, at the end of most of his broadcasts

# “Actual retail price, $ (dollar amount)…” – Bob Barker, on The Price is Right (He follows it with “…a difference of $ (dollar amount)” in the Card Game and concluding Showcase round, unless a contestant has overbid, in which case he says, “You’re over.”)

# “Aflac!” – Aflac Duck

# “After these messages, we’ll be right back.” – sung at the beginning of every commercial break on the old ABC Saturday morning cartoons

# “Ah-one, and ah-two…” – Lawrence Welk, directing his musical performers on The Lawrence Welk Show

# “Ahh, shaddap!” – Foghorn Leghorn on his cartoons. Also said by Sylvester and Yosemite Sam.

# “Ain’t I a stinker?” – Bugs Bunny

# “Ain’t the beer cold!” – the late Baltimore Orioles broadcaster

Continue ReadingList of Signature Phrases

Kids suspended for massive food fight

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  • Post category:Indiana

I love kids, and this is why. Rock on, kids.

Associated Press, CHESTERTON, Ind. — A massive middle school food fight left several students suspended and the eighth-grade class footing the cleaning bill that included the cost of scraping mashed potatoes off the ceiling.
Last week’s fight at Chesterton Middle School left ceiling tiles damaged and could cost the students as much as $1,000 to pay for overtime, maintenance and repairs, said Duneland School Corporation Superintendent Dirk Baer. “It wasn’t just one or two kids throwing grapes,” Baer said. “There were mashed potatoes sticking to the ceiling.”
Security cameras captured the fracas that broke out about halfway through the 25-minute lunch period Wednesday at the school in the town 15 miles east of Gary.
The school suspended between six and 10 students for two or three days for launching the day’s menu of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and milk into the air.
As many as 50 students might have been involved. Principal Jim Ton recommended one student be expelled.
Cleaning costs will be taken from the eighth grade’s extracurricular activity fund.
Baer said the whole class was punished because many of the grade’s 500 students knew about plans for the food fight but failed to alert administrators.
“It was planned and it was widely known that it would happen, but nobody said anything,” Baer said. “Everybody has to take responsibility.”

Continue ReadingKids suspended for massive food fight

Either/Or #5

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  • Post category:Memes

From belicove.com:

  1. Favorite Color or Favorite Number?
    Color.
  2. Shower in the Morning or Shower in the Evening?
    Morning
  3. The Grand Canyon or The Great Pyramids of Egypt?
    Pyramids
  4. White Pages or Yellow Pages?
    White. People are more interesting than businesses.
  5. Doll House of Tree House?
    Tree house.
  6. When you were 13 years old or when you were 23 years old?
    23. I was hot back then.
  7. French Toast or Bacon & Eggs?
    Bacon & Eggs
  8. Don Knotts or Don Cheadle?
    Cheadle. Not of a fan of slapstick.
  9. Your Mother’s Cooking or Your Own?
    Mom’s.
  10. Long Sleeves or Short Sleeves?
    short.
Continue ReadingEither/Or #5