Funny

On funny things… at least I think so

The end of a comic era

Sunday, May 14, 2023 

Tonight I listened to the last episode of NPRs excellent and hilarious Ask Me Another, though originally broadcast on 2021-09-24, it didn’t reach my ears until tonight thanks to the magic of podcasts. It was genuinely hard to hear them sign off for the last time.  I will really miss this show and the warmth and good spirits of Ophira Eisenberg and Jonathan Coulton.

I’ve been listening to this show since it started, back so far as to have been over syndicated FM broadcast on KQED at home and since on various digital media over the years wherever I’ve been, even here in Iraq.  It suffered when Covid hit, the energy and charm didn’t translate well to zoom and without an audience as so many things didn’t and sadly didn’t live to see Covid restrictions lifted.  It would have been fitting if they’d been able to record their last show at The Bell House one more time.  Maybe someday they can have a reunion show.

US Public Radio has been an anchor of good quality programming, from Car Talk, which I still listen to weekly despite the questions being increasingly out of touch (though the cars have long been fairly irrelevant) and Fresh Air and Terry Gross‘ voice, which came from my mother’s kitchen radio every afternoon from WHYY about as far back as I can remember.

Posted at 17:42:12 GMT-0700

Category: EventsFunnyMediaPositiveReviews

Kitty Poop (1995)

Tuesday, June 27, 2017 

Many years ago (21 years, 9 months as of this post), I used some as-of-then only slightly out of date equipment to record a one week time lapse of the cats’ litter box.

I found the video on a CD-ROM (remember those?) and thought I’d see if it was still usable. It wasn’t – Quicktime had abandoned support for most of the 1990’s era codecs, and as it was pre-internet, there just wasn’t any support any more. I had to fire up my old Mac 9500, which booted just fine after years of sitting, even if most of the rubber feet on the peripherals had long since turned to goo. The OS9 version of QT let me resave as uncompressed, which of course was way too big for the massive dual 9GB drives in that machine. Youtube would eat the uncompressed format and this critical archival record is preserved for a little longer.

Time lapse of the litter box. Shot in Sept, 1995 in San Francisco, CA. Captured with a RasterOps ColorBoard 364 Nubus card from a Sony XC-999 on a Mac IIfx.

Posted at 15:16:46 GMT-0700

Category: CatsFilmsFunnyOddSelf-publishingVanity sitesvideo

Regional Energy Drink

Monday, December 1, 2014 

I’ve run across this energy drink in dramatic packaging.  Energy drinks aren’t really my thing, but I thought I’d try it: slightly orange tasting fizzy water, mildly sweet with that slightly weird energy drink taste.  But the bottle is fun:

Bomba Bottle Image

It is made in Austria and seems to be distributed more to the East than the West, at least as far as my travels have indicated.  I have seen it in a lot of Middle-Eastern markets, but not in many European ones.

The lid release mechanism is kind of thematically clever.

Bomba Pull Top Image

I suspect this would be a particularly problematic beverage to forget in your carry-on luggage.

Posted at 18:29:45 GMT-0700

Category: FunnyNeutralOddphotoReviews

Cat day

Tuesday, October 29, 2013 

Happy cat day.

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Posted at 23:05:50 GMT-0700

Category: CatsEventsFunny

Otherwise it won’t come

Friday, February 17, 2012 

It is a childproof security feature as their little hands won’t reach.

Posted at 06:25:37 GMT-0700

Category: FunnyOddphoto

I <3 Germany

Saturday, February 11, 2012 

Where else can you find a store like this at the airport?

Posted at 04:07:17 GMT-0700

Category: FunnyOddphotoPlacesTravel

Oh Google… you’re so cute.

Friday, November 4, 2011 

Sure you’re the largest data harvester in the world and you’ve convinced more people than even microsoft to migrate their personal and business data away from their relatively secure and relatively private personal computers and company servers onto your public, ephemeral servers where you make their data to every government in the world you do business with and all the hackers in China, and even in those circumstances where you do actually provide some measure of security, your services have helped eliminate any residual rational discomfort people might have had about giving Big Brother direct editorial review of every communication they have, every document they create, every question they think about. More than any other company, if only by dint of your scale, you have made an Orwellian informational panopticon reality.

But who can stay mad when you’re so damn cute.  Barrel roll :-)

Posted at 03:51:05 GMT-0700

Category: FunnyPolitics

Rebuilding is Complete

Thursday, October 20, 2011 

I wish to thank everyone for their support in this brief moment of crisis.

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Posted at 14:59:07 GMT-0700

Category: FunnyGeopostOddphoto

I WILL rebuild

Thursday, October 20, 2011 

Earthquake damage

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Posted at 14:53:00 GMT-0700

Category: FunnyGeopostOddphoto

Playing Cat and Mouse Games

Friday, October 14, 2011 

cat and mouse game.jpg

more cat and mouse.jpg
Posted at 16:37:34 GMT-0700

Category: CatsFunnyphoto