FuzzyCo

I love the bold stroke the kid always starts with.

(via Apelad)

• Tutorial for Flash MP3 Player
  Using 1-pixel flash player on non-wordpress sites
  (tags: howto flash blog movabletype webdesign)

• Dgenerate Nation - Skate With Me video
  (tags: music video boombox)

• LOCKHORNS ALOUD
  Jill Bernard reads the Lockhorns to you, daily
  (tags: comics comedy)

• 1000 True Fans
  Another foray into the 'how famous do you have to be to make a living' question
  (tags: creativity life)

• An hour and a half with Barack Obama
  (tags: politics obama)

• In Defense Of Complaining -- Cory Doctorow -- InformationWeek
  The response to complaints about complaining.
  (tags: essay complain freemarket)

"Inspiration is a Magic Cow whose Teat we Squeeze into our Imagination Pail. Dare a Dream of Cows to Fly over the Moon! Also, Scrapbooking." -- Merlin Mann

Seriously, while Layer Tennis is off, I could do these all day. I'm, dare I say it, inspired.

Contains CC-licensed images from ann_blair2003, DogFromSPACE, macieklew, and Lenny Montana. Many thanks (and apologies) to them.

"We must all rainbow our puppy princess with butterfly hugs; when we do, all children can unicorn chocolate snuggle with Jesus hang glider." -- Merlin Mann

Update: There's a desktop background version and a Zazzle poster (which you should not buy -- download the Original Size from Flickr and print it out at work).

Update 2: No one was clamoring for a Glitter-spirational version to leave in MySpace comments, so I made one.

• morguefile.com Where photo reference lives.
  (tags: design free photography webdev)

• US vs Allen (pdf)
  An awesome story of a terribly bumbling robbery of rare books. The punchline is the court's decision on their appeal of their sentencing calculation.
  (tags: books crime law)

• YouTube - Shunt
  short film by Jen Ellison and Michael Brownlee
  (tags: film)

• Movable Tweak: Creative Ways To Use Subcategories
  (tags: mt movabletype webdev)
• Address Book - Gmail sync
  (tags: macosx software utility gmail applescript sync)
• Action Streams for MovableType
  (tags: webdev movabletype mt)

• Royalty Free Music
  Nice CC-licensed music
  (tags: free music filmmaking)

• SNEmulDS: SNES emulator for Nintendo DS
  the blog is broken, but the download links on the sidebar are correct
  (tags: games emulation snes nds)
• NDSTT
  (tags: games emulation nds)
• dslibris
  ebook reader for the DS
  (tags: ebook books nds)
• How to Convert Most Video Formats to .Dpg in Mac Osx - wikiHow
  (tags: movies video nds)

• Design Police | Bring bad design to justice.
  Woop, woop, it's the sound of the police
  (tags: design stickers)

• Sticker Guy - Online Catalog
  (tags: stickers diy promo)
• Open Source SimCity: overview
  (tags: programming software)

So the CD Cover Meme thing kinda took off with my crew: Lawrence, Emma, Simon, and Erica all did ones (actually, I think Lawrence did a bunch). But best of all, Elizabeth and Bryan did one, then decided to record a song from the album, and then decided to make a video for the song. Crazy kids.

• The Best Peanut Butter in the World
  Anybody know if you can get Parkers Farm peanut butter in the Chicago area? (via Daring Fireball)
  (tags: food PeanutButter)

The rules:

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/

The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

If you upload it to Flickr, tag it: "Cd Cover Meme".

My addendum to rule 3: I'm a stickler about such things, so my photo is the first Creative Commons licensed photo from the third photo on. The above photo is by capn matt mudd.

(Via Sean Bonner)

• Cool Tool: FuBar Demolition Tool
  I've done demolition with a shoddy crowbar -- wish I'd had one of these.
  (tags: tool tools destruction)
• Shamisen Hero!
  How have I never heard of the Yoshida Brothers before? Those guys rock.
  (tags: game music)

• Waiting for Godot—and Much More—in New Orleans
  (tags: art theater NewOrleans)

• How to Do What You Love
  via Making Light
  (tags: creativity life inspiration)

16

Please note that the code they give you to include on your site includes a spam-ish link at the bottom. Feel free to delete that.

Update: Dan has pointed out in the comments that the site is broken and doesn't give you a score and I wouldn't suggest bothering to take the test. (Though it's not any more shady than they already were -- http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/ was already redirecting to http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/fight5. I'm guessing that their give-you-your-score code has crashed.) More entertaining, anyway, is to just go read the old forum thread from 2005 that started the whole thing. (It's a Poker forum, by the way, but one that seems to foster interesting side-discussions.)

(via Shaun, of course)

• Beating The Little Hater
  (tags: creativity video vlog videoblog procrastination)
• How To Avoid George Bush Syndrome
  (tags: creativity video vlog videoblog)
• the show with zefrank - brain crack
  (tags: creativity video vlog videoblog procrastination)
• Amy Winehouse and the Ethics of Clowning People
  (tags: comedy ethics)
• Craig Ferguson Speaks From The Heart
  On the power ethics of not making fun of Britney Spears
  (tags: comedy ethics)

Careful, my remix from the elements of last week's Layer Tennis match may induce dizziness, nausea, or the urge to read.

(The boxing glove is from a CC-licensed photo by adamhenning.)

So I've gotten totally addicted to this weekly online design contest called Layer Tennis, hosted by Coudal Partners. Two designers duke it out in 15 minute rounds, with commentary by a guest writer. What makes it really feel like a sporting contest is the forum, with live kibbitzing from the peanut gallery. Coudal also gets people involved by having a sidecontest going in the forum during the live match and then by making the layered source files from each "volley" available afterwards for remixing during the week. I've entered many of the sidecontests and done a few remixes (and even won a few prizes from Coudal) but I'm particularly proud of my entry from this last week. I woke up this morning well before anyone else, made a pot of coffee, and learned enough Flash from some online tutorials to make this simple game. I know it's not much, but I'm happy with it for being two hours of effort (from scratch, no less).

A week ago, I thought this was hilarious: "overheard at starbucks: can't wait to hear the daily show's take on the writers strike."

Because, you know, they're on TV... which they're striking from...

But, the thing about the modern age is that you don't have to have a TV show to get your message out. So you can, in fact, get the Daily Show's Writers' take on the writers strike.

Update: The Colbert Report writers weigh in as well... here in the person of Team Gerdes friend Pete Groz, who wants you to think of the poor executives.

(via Sidelights)

Your Aspie score: 53 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 170 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical

What with one of the contestants on America's Next Top Model having Asperger's syndrome, we've been talking about around Team Gerdes HQ and now you too can take an Internet Quiz to diagose yourself.

(Please do not diagose yourself using an Internet Quiz.)

(via Whatever)

Just speechless.

(via Whatever)

Don pegged me in the head with this one.

The purpose of this meme is to get people talking about their passion in life. It’s called the 5/5 meme. Five questions, then pass it to five people. "Expertise" could be your profession, hobby, or area of intense interest.

Name your area of expertise/interest:
OK, so the thing is that I do a lot of different things, and I tend to throw myself into new areas with extreme vigor and enthusiasm. Last summer, for example, I decided that I needed to watch more skateboard videos and so I watched a lot of skateboard videos and researched the history of them and so on and so forth. I'm probably best known for my activities in improvisational theater, but I'm also a photographer and a graphics technology specialist/network analyst (i.e. computer guy) and a filmmaker and a graphic designer and a (new) marathoner and juggler and so on and so forth. I think the overriding story of my life has been to constantly try new things. I realize that's not quite the "I like ponys!" response this meme to trying to elicit, but I'm going with it.

How did you become interested in it?
My dad was an electrical engineer by day and a photographer on the weekends, so I've always had that close influence of knowing that people could have multiple skills -- you know, that you didn't have to be just a fireman or a forest ranger or whatever sort of simplistic career path a kid thinks one might go on. And my mom was always teaching me skills and crafts -- I learned to cook and bake and sew and garden and we made puppets and all sorts of crafts. So I think I've always just believed that, pretty much, if you saw something you thought was cool, you could learn how to do it.

How did you learn to do it?
I was about to say, "it depends on which skill you're talking about" but then I realized that (and Shaun is going to laugh at this one) there actually is a common answer -- I read a lot of books. It really is my default solution to any problem. When I decided to run the Chicago Marathon, did I sign up for for one of those big training groups? Nope, I bought a book.

Who has been your biggest influence?
Besides my mom and dad (as mentioned above) I think my biggest influence for multi-disciplinarism (like that? I just made it up) was all the sci-fi I read as a kid. The heroes of the juvenile sci-fi of that era were always jack-of-all-trades. There's even this list that Lazarus Long, the hero of several Robert Heinlein books, gives that's all the things a well-rounded person should be able to do. Oh, here, I found it:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I now peg in the head Katie, Christopher, Erica, Noah, and Lawrence.

Oh, how I love movie lists, because it always makes me realize how many movies I haven't seen. Which also makes me kind of hate movie lists. What, movie list, do you think I'm made of time?!?

Ahem.

Here's a list of the 25 Best Movies You've Never Seen and yeah, they're right, because I've only seen 3 and a half* of them. Which is odd, because this list is full of the kinds of movies I usually end up watching when I'm not watching the kinds of movies that are on the "100 best movies of the century" lists. OK, time to add a bunch more movies to the queue.

* Some of you may know about the part of my job that involves fast-forwarding through movies. I've done that with Bully.

(via Outside Counsel)

Kenner posts the deets of a hilareeous office email sequence. (It's on his MySpace blog, so I hope you don't need to be logged in to view it.) The original image is from this guy -- I totally ganked it since I was just sending it out to 6 friends.

I loved the Golden Compass books and I didn't realize there was a movie coming out. Of course my Daemon would be a chimp:

(via Devin)

Dorian hits it pretty much right on the head with his "if the Globe Theater had had a message board":

"WHERE DO YOU GET OFF KILLING OFF ROMEO AND JULIET? Clearly, you have no conception of how drama is supposed to work, since you won't let your characters be happy!"

"It was a total rip-off of the sub-plot from Midsummer's Nights Dream anyway. Talk about unoriginal."

"I'm still waiting for WS to explain the continuity errors in Antony and Cleopatra. There is NO WAY that both AAC and Julius Ceasar can take place simultaneously!"

Kate tagged me to disclose Six Weird Things about myself.

1. I have a stylized tattoo of a root vegetable on my ankle.

2. I don't speak Italian, but I usually say "thank you", especially to store clerks, by saying Grazie.

3. I can get pretty obsessed about finding a rare or obscure DVD, finally find it, and then never watch it.

4. As soon as I get home, whoosh, off come my pants. When people call and say they're coming over at night and I say, "Well, then I'll put on some pants" I'm not being cute -- I'm really not wearing pants.

5. My longest continuous, non-family relationship is with Latte, a cat who hates everyone.

6. When I'm walking, I put out my hand and drag it along whatever I'm walking next to -- the wall, fences, file cabinets, etc. At work, with lots of file cabinets everywhere, I'm sure it's annoying to people as I plonk-plonk-plonk past their offices. Sorry, can't help it.

====

Erica and Tricia have answered Kate's tag, and Steve answered Erica's tag. I hereby tag you. You're the weirdest person I know. Hoo-boyo. Lemme know in the comments where you post your response.

Based on my last entry, the Gender Genie says I'm a lady. A very pretty lady.

(via Making Light)

As my brother notes, it is indeed a slow blog day. The Alchemist's Challenge is a surprisingly well-written quiz, covering quite a breadth of knowledge. Sans Google, I got 70% correct.

2247 other users have thus far accepted the Alchemist's Challenge. Their average score is 55 percent correct.

Out of a total of 50 questions, you answered 35 correctly – that's 70 percent correct.

(via Making Light: Particles)

But it's still totally worth it: Lines From Alanis Morissette's "Ironic," Modified to Actually Make them Ironic

(via The Poor Man)

I'm sure I know a higher-than-average number of people who own gorilla suits, so I want to make sure that they know it's National Gorilla Suit Day. However, not everyone is thrilled with the holiday.

Bilal Dardai (playwright, Neo-Futurist, married man) is doing one of those things -- the Interview Meme -- on his LiveJournal.

Rules are as follows: You comment on this entry requesting an interview. I respond with five questions. The questions will theoretically be tailored to you based on what I know of you (or want to know). You copy and paste those questions into your own journal, and write the answers, along with these rules. Anyone wanting an interview from you continues the game by requesting an interview from you.

So here are the questions he asked me and my answers to the same:

1) You always strike me as a very even-tempered individual. Have you always been as such, or did you have to actively cultivate this demeanor? Is there anything that can get you truly, truly angry?

Yes, yes, and yes. I was going to say I've always been pretty calm, but I realized that "neurotic" would probably be a better way of describing the demeanor of my youth. I've been actively pursuing sanguinity for a number of years now (FuzzyCo motto #6: Therapy is Great!). But get me tired and grumpy or show me great injustice and you'll hear some cursing. I'm not proud to admit it, but the number one thing that really gets me swearing-and-shaking furious is frustrating sections of video games. I have, to my shame, flung controllers.

2) Is there any job/career besides your own you've always wanted to try?

In my youth I wanted to be a forest ranger.

In my adulthood I've wanted to try everything. And I do dabble in a lot of different things. I used to be a handy-man for rental units, and a bookkeeper for a headshop, and a graphic designer (all at the same time). These days I do a little programing, a little web design, a little photography, a little video-editing. And there are seriously times when I'm on the train and there are the ads that the CTA is hiring train repairers and I really wonder how long it would take to get trained in hydraulic systems repair and what it would be like to have that job. Could I be a cop? A teacher? I think about that all the time.

3) List your five all-time favorite video games; defend your choices if you think they need defending.

In alphabetical order:

Galaga
Karateka
Monkey Island (the first three)
Samba de Amigo
Tony Hawk (all versions)

4) Is there a show you've produced that you're proudest of? How about a show you've performed in?

In the summer of 1995, my friend Matt Martin decided he wanted to direct No Exit. I was already producing a bi-weekly 'coffeehouse' music event at the Wesley Foundation (the Methodist Campus Ministry), so we somehow managed to convince people that Sartre's examination of hell would be an appropriate summer production for The Wesley Players. It was my first time producing theater, and I was the technical director as well, so I'm proud that the show went off at all. But I'm also really proud that we sold out our entire run* and that we came in on budget and made a tiny ($5) profit.

I think I'm proud of all the times I've taken risks and gotten on stage and done something new (new to me, anyway).

* To increase the claustrophobia for the audience, we put the audience on stage and built a stage on the floor -- so we only had 35 seats. And our run was three shows in one weekend. So 'sold out' was 105 patrons.

5) In a best case scenario--that is, you went when you wanted to, how you wanted to, and everybody was okay with that--describe your funeral.

Goodness, what a question. We've been trying not to think about funerals in the Gerdes household, but here goes:

When my grandma Ahlrichs died, she wanted (and we had) a memorial service, not a funeral. Her body wasn't there (in fact, it was in rural Iowa, so the nearest crematorium was hours away and she was somewhere in transit while we were having the service. It was, at some level, just a big family get together and people kept saying (and then catching themselves), "we should do this more often." So, something like that. Oh, and play Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy's I Only Have Eyes For You.

Jason done tagged me while I was on the road, so now I have to tell you these things:

1. 3 Things that scare me: how short our lives are, how big the universe is, getting poked in the eye
2. 3 People who make me laugh: Erica, John Hodgman, Jared Logan
3. 3 Things I love: Erica, video games, reading
4. 3 Things I hate: my stuffed-up nose, meanies, spam
5. 3 Things I don't understand: knitting, French, remaining willfully ignorant
6. 3 Things on my desk: L.A. Guns MegaMetal trading card, stack of to-do notes, Mastering Regular Expressions
7. 3 Things I’m doing right now: clearing out my voice mail, blogging, having some sort of allergy attack in my left eye
8. 3 Things I want to do before I die: learn to play a musical instrument reasonably well, get paid to be in a movie, visit all continents
9. 3 Things I can do: juggle both balls and clubs, improvise, cook a whole meal with one pan
10. 3 Things I can't do: play the aforementioned (any) musical instrument, get my ass in gear, open my eyes underwater
11. 3 Things I think you should listen to: Ze Frank, the Penny Arcade podcast (a great look at a collaborative creative process), Kaki King
12. 3 Things you should never listen to: haters, lamers, douches
13. 3 Things I'd like to learn: better Spanish, to play the twice aforementioned musical instrument, to ride a horse
14. 3 Favorite foods: fried chicken, popcorn, noodles
15. 3 Beverages I drink regularly: Coca-Cola, coffee, booze
16. 3 Shows I watched as a kid: Spiderman, Electric Company, The Muppet Show
17. 3 People I’m tagging: I'm going for an all Reid set here: Erica, Christopher, Tricia

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

(via Beyond the Beyond)

I should have known the Jesus/Mary one.

(Via PNH)

(Via Sean Bonner)

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

It's not that there are two "Fuzzy Gerdes"es -- I searched using my seldom-used birthname. And "2" seems pretty accurate -- I've even corresponded with the other guy, via email back in my college days. There's also a scientist in Denmark. Fuzzy Gerdes, though, there's one of those.

(Via Crooked Timber)

How many subways of the world have you ridden on?

From b3co.com!

I'm not sure why "CTA" and "Chicago L" are listed separately, but I took it.

(via PNH)

It's been years since I've updated my Geek Code, but here's my Blogger Code:

B9 d++ t+ k+ s- u f+ i o+ x+ e+ l c--