OK, this is the best Internet distraction I’ve seen in a long time: Line Rider. Warning: You will now waste a few hours of your life.

It’s a fun little not-quite game where you draw a line and a little guy sleds down your line. Deceptively simple, but incredibly addicting. (link via Kottke.org)

But my wife did it, so I’m humoring her. Speaking of humor, Mazie had a pretty funny one.

Les Savy Four (from Jenell)

FOUR JOBS I’VE HAD:

• Stocking frozen peas and whipping 1-quart packages of dented Polar Pak ice cream against the walls of the freezer and yelling “damaged!” at the top of my lungs.
• Riding a bike up and down the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities at tax payer’s expense. Twice.
• Answering hundreds of e-mails per day from all kinds of idiots who shouldn’t ever be allowed to so much as touch a computer, and doing so with all the fake politeness and sincerity I could muster.
• Slinging a yo-yo on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago for the spare change and kindness of strangers.

Continue reading I Hate These Things →

Dress like a burrito and get a free burrito at Chipotle today. It’s part of their “boo-rito” Halloween special. I did it two years ago with my all-out burrito costume and I did it today with tin foil wrapped around my thumb–a “mini burrito.”

And if you live in the Twin Cities I’d highly recommend the Grand Ave. location. For some reason they never have a crowd. I didn’t even have to wait in line, which sure beats the out-the-door line you usually find at the Highland Park location.

I bought a new office chair today. It’s been a long time coming and basically happened because I had a coupon that expired today.

While putting the chair together I was glancing over the various warnings and I just loved this one:

Dispose of packing material properly, Do not use plastic cover as head covering. It may cause suffocation.

You know, I never would have thought of using the plastic cover as a head covering. I think it just might be the up and coming fashion trend dujour. You’d probably look a little something like this guy. I mean, he’s cool.

The Comics Curmudgeon is a blog I just started reading that makes fun of the funnies. Back in the day I used to read the entire comics section every day after school (followed up by the entertainment blurbs on the back page, which were actually a lot like blogs). While I don’t do it anymore, it’s great to read the Curmudgeon’s rippings.

Today’s comment about Garfield was great. Laugh out loud funny.

Amazingly enough, I also thought the Garfield comic in question was actually funny. Not laughing funny, but it got a grin. I haven’t actually laughed at a Garfield comic since, well, since back when you laughed at things no matter how un-funny they were.

I’m back from the Sonshine music festival with the youth group. It was hot. Melting eyeballs hot. Hopefully I’ll write a snide review soon that draws lots of weird comments like I did last year. Though I will say this: If you ever have a chance to catch Mute Math live, do it.

Secondly, my cross-dressing dog is at it again. You can catch him on the cover of this week’s Target ad (same picture as a few weeks ago). I also took him in for another photo shoot last week, which should appear in September. Let’s just say Speak is still pretty in pink.

I’m also enjoying the new Harry Potter, as I’m sure many others are. Good stuff. I love how the story continues to be so engaging.

Oh, and choose your own adventures. While hanging out with a few youth group kids between bands at Sonshine we thought it’d be cool to write choose your own adventure books. Maybe that’ll be my next NaNoWriMo accomplishment.

Here’s a fun little waste of time: Guess-the-Google. They give you 20 images and 20 seconds to guess what keyword would bring up those images in Google. Some are easier than others. I scored a 205 in my first attempt, which isn’t so hot. (link via Living Room)

I’m in Los Angeles right now. Just thought I’d let you know. Another business trip, checking out the west coast and seeing some friends again.

I don’t have anything thrilling to report, I just love being able to crash on a couch in an office 1,500 miles from home and be blogging. Mmm… laptops. Mmm… WiFi.

I did start watching the TV series Firefly from Joss Whedon on the flight out, and I have to say I’m hooked. Good stuff.

And an odd thing, when my flight landed in L.A. the two guys sitting next to me whipped out their digital cameras and starting taking pictures as the plane was taxiing. Now it’s the Los Angeles International Airport, it’s not like the scenery is thrilling. I think they were just snapping pictures of airport stuff. Doesn’t that seem like a no-no in our post-9/11, hyper-security sensitive society? They weren’t trying to be sneaky or anything and none of the flight attendants stopped them, so I can’t imagine there’s anything wrong with it, it just struck me as weird. It didn’t help with the racial profiling in my head that both of them were darker skinned Asians. Weird.

Then again, my dad used to stop the car on family vacations so he could take pictures of trains.

Embarrassing moments on an airplane by David Sedaris.