Today, I'm going to do a Friday Fun meme. Just, you know, for fun. This one's called "Friday Free Time."

1. It is a cold, rainy afternoon and you have no plans for the day. What do you do?

Cold and rainy? Here? Well, I suppose it's got to happen sooner or later. No sense in trying to go out as the rain will cause drivers to lose what little sense they may have had. "Oh, look! Water is falling on my car. How interesting. I've heard about this. I'd better call my wife and ask her if she remembers whether that means I'm supposed to drive faster or slower. I'm pretty sure it means to go faster. Hello dear. There's water falling on my car. Do you remember-- No, I'm not sure where it's coming from. Here, let me roll down my window and take a look."

2. It is a hot day in the middle of the summer and no responsibilities. What do you do?

How hot are we talking here? Is it "let's make some lemonade" hot or is it "I think my car's melting" hot? 'Cause if it's the latter, I'm turning on the air conditioner and then taking a nap.

3. It’s Saturday morning, and you have no agenda. What do you do?

Um, watch the Sci-Fi Friday that my TiVo has TiVo-ed?

4. It is a beautiful winter day and you have nothing to do. What do you do?

Well, a beautiful winter day would be much like a beautiful summer day, except that the sun wouldn't be beating down quite as relentlessly upon my head. It would be a nice day to do just about anything outdoors, perhaps even to walk along the beach, since it won't be quite as crowded as it would be during the summer.

5. You are sitting in front of your computer, and nothing to do but play. What do you do online?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky! Try to take over the world! And read blogs.

6. You have a whole afternoon with no plans, and you feel like doing something creative. What do you do? A hobby?

As it happens, I've got an old Mobile Armatron with a broken control pendant that I'd love to convert to computer control, and I've also got a little Velleman robot kit that I'd love to put together, and I'd like to build a case for my experimenter's power supply, and maybe better attach the cover to my Laser In Use lamp, all of which I'd totally do if I had a whole afternoon with no plans...

7. You have $500 burning a hole in your pocket and no bills to pay and nothing to do. What do you do with it?

Try to take over the world! Or maybe buy a Wii.

8. Work is done for the day and the evening is yours. What do you do?

Answer questionnaires like this one?

Well, not too much to report today. I put together my Velleman Running Microbug kit. It works, but it tends to make a beeline directly toward the shop light, and then to crash into the wall. It might be fun to play with it in the dark with a flashlight. I bought it last week, at San Diego Electronic Supply. This is a great little electronics shop.

(I wonder if they'd be interested in starting or joining a hackerspace?)

Anyway, next I turned my attention to the Mobile Armatron. I was able to figure out the motor control system, which is basically that one end of each motor is grounded, and that pressing a button on the control pendant sends either a positive or negative voltage into the other end of the motor, causing it to turn either clockwise or counterclockwise. I think it will be pretty simple to cook up a transistorized version of the control pendant, but there's another small problem. He's got a twitchy wrist. It will turn up to a point, and then stop and twitch until someone pushes on it. I took his entire wrist assembly apart and discovered a gear that had two chipped teeth. Not much I could do about that. But I think just the act of taking it apart and putting it back together helped a little bit.

No, I haven't taught the toaster to love. A new version of Thingamablog was released! It's got a few exciting new features, features that I probably won't use, although I might, someday. I just hope that it can deal with a few currently broken RSS feeds. If I have been a stranger lately, well, a constipated feed has got a good chance of contributing in a non-trivial way as to the reason why. The new version's also got new icons!

To those of you that have asked, yes TAMB is still very much alive :) Although it looks like 2.0 is going to be in the cooker a bit longer, here is Thingamablog 1.1b1, which brings several cool new features such as the ability to post remotely via email, template packs, and more! Get the full scoop on this release here.

Sari from The Geek Inside says:

Megan from Fried Okra says that blog stats leap through the roof if you talk about poop, so let's test it out.

Very good. I am always up for a little experiment, although I try to avoid experiments involving poop as a general matter of principle. In fact, I try to avoid poop whenever possible. I think it would be great if people didn't even have to poop. Think about it, a person could save about, oh I don't know, say ten minutes per day. That's an hour on the crapper every week, or just over two days straight every year. Think about the lost productivity!

I propose as a theoretical invention, an implantable cybernetic device that would use standard wall current to simulate the process of photosynthesis as performed by plants. The body's waste products would be electronically filtered from the blood and then photosynthesized back into fuel. It would essentially be a battery charger for the human body. One would need to eat only to take in trace minerals, salts, vitamins, etc., and these could simply be taken in the form of a beverage. Thus, by eliminating food, we can eliminate poop forever!

I discovered that if you are running Thingamablog 1.1b on Ubuntu, and it won't launch Konqueror or Firefox when you click on a link in the RSS pane, that could be due to your Java environment. Launch Thingamablog from a shell:

$ java -jar thingamablog.jar

If it says something like this when you click on a link:

Exception in thread libjdic.so: Can't load IA 32-bit .so on a IA 32-bit platform.

Then you should find out if you're using the free Java clone:

$ ls -la `which java`

If that shows a symbolic link to somewhere like /etc/alternates, then this is indeed the case. When I removed the free (as in speech) Java clone and replaced it with Sun's (free as in beer) Java, clicking on links produced the desired result. The linked pages open in Firefox, rather than Konqueror, but I can live with that.

"Whip me, beat me, make me write bad posts" - Eris

I ever so fortunately discovered this questionnaire at lily potter knits which I in turn discovered by using the Randomizer. It's 23:21 now... will I complete all 38 questions by the stroke of midnight? Let's find out!

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night.

That would be Jon Dyer with his post "How To Piss Me Off With Your Blog."

2. What were you doing at 0800?

Shampooing and being haunted by "Psyche Rock." Apparently I do sing in the shower, but only to instrumentals. Go figure.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?

I believe I was looking at my Google Analytics stats to see if my experimental poop post has had any effect on my stats.

4. What happened to you in 2006? I had a baby.

Well, aren't you special? ;-) I started a blog. Yay.

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?

"WTF?" However, it was not in acronym form.

6. How many beverages did you have today?

"Have you had," dear. I have had three beverages today: morning coffee, a Dr. Pepper at Chic-Fil-A, and a Fat Tire at Applebee's.

7. What color is your hairbrush?

I... don't believe I own a hairbrush. I don't think I need one. I have short hair.

8. What was the last thing you paid for?

That would be dinner.

9. Where were you last night?

On my couch.

10. What color is your front door?

A very light beige, or a very muddy white.

11. Where do you keep your change?

Nobody has ever told me "keep the change."

12. What’s the weather like today?

It's nice.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?

Ah, Baskin-Robbins has the most delicious Jamoca Cookies and Cream flavor. They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

...but apparently whoever said that didn't take resolution into account. Oh well.

14. What excites you?

Robots. Robots everywhere! Muh-woo-hoo-ha-ha-haaaaaaaa! (gasp, pant)

15. Do you want to cut your hair?

Myself? No, I tried that once back in high school. I think everyone else was too polite to say anything, but at least a certain goth boy from the school paper complemented me on it.

16. Are you over the age of 25?

If I'm not, then hoo boy, I'm in trouble.

17. Do you talk a lot?

.....

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?

I used to work for a Steven, and so did Driver Steven and Press Man Steven.

20. Do you make up your own words?

That's opinionary. If I take a common word and splice an unusual, but still common, suffix onto it, is it still considered made-up? If so, then the first person to utter the word "diagrammatic" could be accused of making up words.

21. Are you a jealous person?

What have I to be jealous of?

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "A."

I assume you mean "close, personal friend" and not any of "casual work acquaintance," "random person from online contact list," or "blog stalkee." In that case, I cannot name one. Sorry. :-P

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "K."

See number 22.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?

That would be the fellow I went to dinner with.

25. What does the last text message you received say?

"I have a table."

26. Do you chew on your straw?

No. I also do not chew on hay.

27. Do you have curly hair?

No, thank goodness.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?

Hell, probably.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?

Why, that would be.... me!

30. What was the last thing you ate?

It was called "Crunchy Oriental Chicken Bowl" or something like that. Not bad, but it was maybe just a wee little bit too crunchy.

31. Will you get married in the future?

What, a rude bastard like me? I think not.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?

It was a documentary about Bob Moog, who basically invented the synthesizer. In fact, that was probably the only movie I've seen in the past two weeks.

33. Is there anyone you like right now?

No. And they deserve it.

36. Did you cry today?

Why, what are you planning? Are you going to make me jealous?

37. Why did you answer and post this?

For the same reason that the last person did: so that I would make my thirty post goal.

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey.

Yes, I'm tagging the poor person who didn't get tagged last time, and I'm also going to choose four other victims randomly from the randomizer. But I'll come back and do that in a moment here.

The almost completely random winners of the tag are:

• Indecisive Peach because she didn't get tagged last time
• First out of the Randomizer: Jenny on the Spot
• Second out of the Randomizer: Calm befiore the Stork
• Third out of the Randomizer: life art yarn and baby poop
• Fourth out of the Randomizer: Dasnowz

Of course, since they were each randomly selected, I can't and won't complain if any or all of them randomly decline. In fact, I won't be the slightest bit surprised, since this whole random meme tagging business was devised and implemented in the middle of the night, which is when absolutely anything will sound like a fantastic idea. I guess I'll just wait and see...

Hack-a-Day has a great guide on where to find parts for your projects. Be sure you check out the comments as well.

Where better to advertise than the shopping cart?

And finally, here's the tabletop gaming terrain to end all tabletop gaming terrain. I wonder what would happen if someone showed up to game night wearing a Godzilla suit...

Today's trip through the Randomizer led me to discover According to Heather. Her post "Drive Through Blogging" mentioned a divorce lawyer that had apparently once had a drive-through window. "Well, I can do one better," I thought, "We've got drive-by divorces down here." I was sure I'd posted the below picture as an accompaniment to some post or other, and was going to post a link to that post in my comment. Unfortunately, according to both my third-party site search field, and a verificatory manual search, I've never posted anything to do with drive-by divorces or the photo in question. Well, time to remedy that situation!

And to make this a true drive-by blogging, I'll follow the photo with a list stolen from elsewhere:

Ten Reasons Gay Marriage Will Remain Illegal

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

I've spent the day assembling a Random Blog Compliment Generator. If you're like me, you've discovered a lot of interesting blogs lately, and you'd like to let others know about them. You'd also like to be able to say more than, "Here's another new one." That's why I've created the Random Blog Compliment Generator. The RBCG will take all the work out of creating a shout-out.

In the past, I've had little sympathy when reading posts that essentially say, "I'm sick today. Poor me." That has changed. For I am sick today. Poor me.

Perhaps it's karma. My co-workers have diven me crazy over the past few weeks with their incessant throat-clearings. Perhaps if I'd kindly offered them some cough drops rather than plotting various unseemly demises for each of them, I may have been spared this accursed inflammation. Realistically, though, by that point the air was already saturated with cooties, and I'd now be suffering regardless.

This must be a new iteration of "may you live in interesting times."

A friend just sent me a link to the latest Cloverfield trailer. We've traded speculations in the past as to what it might be. An obvious choice might be Godzilla, considering the claw marks in the Statue of Liberty. I, naturally, am hoping it's a Giant Space Robot, and I actually think the chances of that are pretty good, since movies tend to come out in pairs. For example, Deep Impact and Armageddon, Volcano and Dante's Peak, The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor, etc. ad nausaeum. We had Transformers last summer, yet there has been no "other" Giant Space Robot movie, nor has there been a Retro Action Figure Series movie... yet. One could kill two tropes with one stone and update something like, oh, I don't know, Ultraman.

But back to the topic of this post. (I know, the horror!) As awesome as it would be, I somehow don't think we'll be seeing a forty meter tall silver man pop up to save New York. I think that rather we'll see the amateur videographers attempting to merely survive on their own. Their fates cannot be served up to them on a 35,000 ton platter, or they'll just expect the same service again next the next time a Giant Space Robot wanders across the city limits. No, the message of the day is to do it for yourself, and not expect someone to do it for you. Once you can save yourselves, then maybe we'll talk again about saving the world.

It's not really Friday, but since today's like a Friday, and since I don't want to post two videos in a row, I'm going to answer a Friday Fun questionnaire on a Wednesday. Moo-hoo, muh-woo-hoo, muh-woo-hoo-ha-ha-ha!

The latest questionnaire asks, "In honor of Thanksgiving next week, what things are you thankful for in your life?" Soo... it looks like you all be spared reading yet another collection of random questions and answers. Instead you'll all witness... the Obligatory Thanksgiving Post. The horror! The horror!

Well, without going too far into the gruesome, intimate details, I am thankful that I am employed (for however long it ends up lasting) and as a result I'm a) not being stalked by bill collectors from India, and b) have a roof over my head, electricity, and Internet access. I am also thankful for that wonderful individual who shares said roof, electricity, and Internet access, and who, I'm sure, wouldn't want to be mentioned here, so this statement shall hereby be stricken from the record.

Boring, yes, pedestrian, yes... but isn't that what the Obligatory Thanksgiving Post is all about? It's like the stufffing in the turkey. Everyone expects to have it on Thanksgiving, but all too often, it's just a mass of bland mush. Shall we spice it up? Add a little bam?

In other news, I'm thankful that the United States hasn't been completely transformed into a fascist empire, so there's a possibility things can be put right again. Sorry, was that too bam-y? Then strike that statement from the record, too. On second thought, don't. On third thought, maybe I'll wait for Ultraman to say it first, and then I'll just agree with him.

Finally, I'll revisit my statement from last year, that I'm thankful that the Earth in partiicular, and that the Universe in general, have parameters hospitable to life.

Here's what brought to my potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner:

Fromage Fort

Seeing this recipe on Good Eats made me want to get a food processor. When I eventually did, one of the first dishes I made was this one. It does turn out a bit differently every time I make it. For example, the very first time I tried this recipe, I used some leftover Mexican cheese blend, some American slices, plain Cheddar and a bit of cream cheese. What I got reminded me of the dip served with chips at El Charro, a Mexican restaurant my parents used to take me to.

Today, I made two separate batches. The first was mainly Mozzarella and various store-brand Italian Cheese Blends, with olive oil substituted for butter. I wasn't happy with this batch when I first tasted it, but after leaving it to stand for a while, it was much better. The second batch was Colby Jack, mild Cheddar, and a bit of Swiss, with ordinary (not unsalted) butter. Most of the eaters I asked preferred the first batch.

Tuscan Potato and Sausage Soup

I've made this dish before, but since I didn't recall the exact details of the recipe while I was shopping, I made a few small substitutions this morning. For example, I used small Yukon Gold potatoes instead of large Russets. I didn't have any mustard powder or fennel seeds, so I just added a teaspoon or so of generic Italian Herb Blend and a big dash of red pepper flakes. I also didn't have any bacon, so I used Hot & Spicy SPAM instead. The soup didn't taste exactly as I'd hoped, but it was very good. All the eaters raved about it, and at the end of the night, there was only about a third of the original quantity left over. I only wish I had thought to make this earlier this week when I was under the weather.

Fluxx

Not a food, but a fun card game that can be played by the entire family. It takes only a few minutes to learn, as the basic rules are very simple: draw one card and then play one card. However, play can and does become more complex as cards are played which change the rules and goal of the game. This game is much liked by the players for its unpredictability, and by myself for its short learning curve and game length.

Witch Trial

It was suggested weeks ago that I bring this game today, and I was happy to comply. This is a funny, entertaining game that puts the players into the roles of lawyers both defending, and prosecuting, the shiftier members of a proper and respectable community. The real fun comes when trying to think of good reasons why particular pieces of evidence or witnesses are applicable to the case at hand. And it's a perfect excuse to share lawyer jokes, to make obscure references to episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and to impersonate a Hyperchicken.

Welcome to the Day After Thanksgiving Link-o-Rama!

The Friday after Thanksgiving is sometimes called Black Friday, due to the hordes of shoppers that traditionally descend upon retail establishments on that day. It marks the official beginning of the year's orgy of consumerism. The day can also be called Buy Nothing Day, as a day of protest against consumerism, and it can be observed simply by staying home and eating leftovers. Guess how I spent my day? Did I mention that my favorite part of Thanksgiving is having pie for breakfast the next day? Mmm, pie...

Perhaps it's no longer true than an urban area cannot be an agricultural area. The basement of a former bank in Japan has been converted into an underground farm, producing organic tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, rice, and other fruits and vegetables. This could become a lucrative adventure, as I undertand such commodies are somewhat costly in Japan.

I had no idea that the CoCo3 supposedly had a 256-color mode. Greatest untold secret or wistful fantasy? We may never know. Sometimes, I miss the days when computers were so much simpler, and users had such control over their every move. But then, I realize that they're still here, if you know where to look.