Jake of the Web

This will make you sick. Three geometric grids, overlayed and moving in different directions relative to one another. Just in case you can't make it to the State Fair to get motion sickness this year.

P.S. - The actually link covers the whole page.



Grid o' nausea!

These gymnastics clips, in the wake of the Olympics, have become very popular all over the web in the last 2 weeks. These are clips from the 80s of Paul Hunt performing comedic gymnastics routines as 'Paula'. It's a dude in a unitard, acting like a girl as he does flips and handstands and the splits, and whatever it is one does on the uneven bars. Think of it as being The Globetrotters of Gymnastics - despite being a comedy bit, his routine is still very impressive. I know Paul has ties to the Utah gymnastics team, although I'm not sure if he is still at the 'U'. One of these clips is clearly filmed in the Huntsman center.

White, pink, or brown/red noise to help you sleep. Or you can use it to drown out the sounds of your illicit plans being made - or any other illicit things you may be making/doing. You can vary the noise ratio on all three, or download loopable 30-second segments for playback offline. Also available for free download is a 60-minute recording of a thunderstorm. YES, it's boring - that's the POINT.

To my ear, the 'darker' the sound (ie, red over pink or white) is more soothing - it almost sounds like the ocean or a river.

'Simply Noise' Noise Machine
Downloadable soothing sounds

This is from a recent MAD Magazine, but finding a lot of traction online. Calvin and Hobbes comics, only with Hobbes replaced by Steve Jobs, who philosophizes with Calvin about how Moe the bully really isn't that bad, about marketing, and how releasing dazzling new Apple products is the best way to avoid censure over a back-dated stock options scandal. An inanimate Steve Jobs doll turns out to be really cute, too. An excellent recreation of the look and feel of Calvin and Hobbes.



Flickr site
Comic 1
Comic 2

Set an alarm within your browser to wake you up - a rooster, a traditional alarm clock, an electronic alarm clock or distorted guitars. WARNING: Uses military time (if it's after noon, add 12 to the time you are thinking of...)

Ku Ku Klok

Create 1 to 10-paragraph complaint letters about any person or company you wish with just a few keystrokes. As long as you don't care if there are any specific or accurate complaints, the letter will achieve its main goal of besmirching your target's character. Here is a sample of a complaint about 'John Q. Public':

"Call me effete if you'd like; I will still do everything in my power to develop a rational-empirical base for dialogue about John's expostulations. Then, I will announce to the world that John finds reality too difficult to swallow. Or maybe it just gets lost between the sports and entertainment pages. In either case, John's epithets are based on hate. Hate, paternalism, and an intolerance of another viewpoint, another way of life. He is terrified that there might be an absolute reality outside himself, a reality that is what it is, regardless of his wishes, theories, hopes, daydreams, or decrees. Admittedly, John struts like a god on Mount Olympus, looking down on us mortals below. But that's because John decries or dismisses capitalism, technology, industrialization, and systems of government borne of Enlightenment ideas about the dignity and freedom of human beings. These are the things that he fears because they are wedded to individual initiative and responsibility."

Complaint Letter Generator

Recommended Dave Lundgren

As many 'fill-in-the-blank' name generators as there are out there, I still never get tired of them. Combining aspects of your first and last name, your home town, your favorite actor/actresses' last name as well as the name of a prescription medication, this site is quite effective in creating realistic-sounding Jedi names. Mine is 'HENJA STSAL of the planet Cialis'



Jedi name generator

Recommended by Sean Evans

Snickers commercials from England starring Mr. T. In them, T extols the virtues of being manly with the catchphrase 'Get some nuts' and by deriding guys he perceives as wimpy - guys who fake being fouled in soccer, or a speed walker guy (played by Kirby Heyborne...that blond guy in every freaking local film made from 2000 to 2006). That one is the better of the two, mostly because Mr T shoots Snickers out of a hand-cranked Gatling gun at Kirby.

Turn your computer keyboard into an piano/synthesizer. It automatically records whatever you play and saves it for playback.


Keyboard Music

And then its sister site:
"9 Reasons not to date a Tyrannosaurus Rex." Including:



Unicorns Rule
Don't date a T-Rex

Doodle in 3D. You do need some 3D glasses to get the most out of it, but it's even cool without the glasses - and disorienting. If you do that 'magic eye'-kinda stare, it goes 3D without the glasses.

3D Doodle-o-rini!

Crazy effects that you can manipulate with your cursor. Have to see to understand, this is very hypnotic - with our without their trippy transe music playing incessantly.

Cursor Effects

A web-only musical dramedy
-Script and Music written by Joss Whedon (Firefly, Serenity, directed a few Office episodes)
-Starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible (Doogie Howser, some other show nowadays)
-Nathan Fillion as his nemesis, the vacuous superhero 'Captain Hammer' (Also known from Whedon's Firefly and Serenity)
-Felicia Day as Penny, Dr. Horrible's love interest (She's cute, been in some movies, but has gained a lot of fame from the very good web series she writes and stars in called 'The Guild'.

What is Dr. Horrible willing to do for acceptance into 'The Evil Order of Evil'? Although not outright evil himself, per se, he sees problems in the world around him and has decided a more hands-on approach is the answer: Fixing the world himself by taking over.

While attempting to steal a part he needs for his time-freezing ray, Dr. Horrible inadvertently introduces his secret crush, Penny, to his nemesis, the arrogant superhero Captain Hammer. Now Dr. Horrible must stop the two of them from growing closer, while trying to impress 'Bad Horse', the head of 'The Evil Order of Evil'. We get to know Dr. Horrible's roommate/sidekick named Moist (he's just really sweaty, as far as I can tell), and we get to explore the consequences of a super-criminal broadcasting his evil intents on a video blog. Also, there's a lot of singing.

This is starting as free, but has recently moved to iTunes, and will probably be exclusive iTunes content for a while before the DVD is released.

Good super-hero lines:
(Speaking to a group of homeless people): "Home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest"
"It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds"


Dr. Horrible's site