Tvindy

100 Entries!!!

Today is my blog's birthday. This is my one hundredth post, so Tvindy is 100 posts old. To celebrate I have put up a picture of the cake from my last birthday. I've learned it's best to make my own cake arrangements rather than relying on other people to obtain a nice cake for me. This is an ice cream cake I had made at Baskin Robbins. The filling is pistachio almond. The hulk is more than just an ornament. It is possible to place the boulder in the lower left corner in his hands, and by pressing a button on his back, you can make him hurl the boulder across the room. Cool, huh? Blue doesn't really do anything, but I was upset that last year he was not included on my Spongebob Squarepants cake, so this year I paid the extra $4 to have him included with the Hulk. He has a calming influence on the Hulk theme.

Anyway, I'm a strong believer that the best one percent of anything is pretty good. So now I can finally ask what is my greatest post out of the past one hundred. (Certainly it's not this one.) Interestingly, the entry that received the most comments from the largest number of people was the one entitled The Pushup Project. I almost didn't even bother to write that. It just goes to show that you never can tell what people will respond to. Well, if there's that much interest, I guess I really should make the attempt. On December 31st, 2004 I shall do 1000 pushups, or I shall fail to do 1000 pushups. Either way, it'll be interesting.

Weekly Links

Updates to Previous Posts

Update to Aquatic Ape Theory: Jim Moore has an interesting site that is very critical of the Aquatic Ape Theory. Unlike most other people who are critical of the theory, he offers very intelligent arguments against it.

Update to The Neon Lights of Muncie: Apparently I'm not the only blogger to take pictures of neon lights. Receptionista has put up an album of neon lights in Seattle. She also blogs about cherry coke. (Is that a weird coincidence or what?)

Cool Stuff

I can't believe my site came up on a Froogle search.

Make yourself a virtual paper snowflake. (from snowball)

Here's another bizarre and inexplicable Japanese website. (from Zannah)

Wanna play Pacman?

Oh my goodness! Well this should certainly boost ratings for MTV's next season of The Real World. I know I'll be watching. (from Fark)

At cooking with monkey! a tiny stuffed monkey leads you through various easy recipes. (from Amber)

And finally, since this is Thanksgiving, be sure to check out the new turkey & gravy flavored beverage. (from Dumbidity)

Weekly Links

Updates to Previous Posts

Update to Butterfly on Sunflower: Apparently I'm not the only one to photograph a butterfly on a sunflower. Check out these pics.

Update to The Pushup Project: Check out the saga of Charles Linster, who in 1965 achieved the world record for nonstop pushups by completing 6006 pushups before being forced to stop by the test administrator. Shortly thereafter, he broke his neck (his own, not the test administrator's) and became a paraplegic. The current record now stands at 10,507 (and no, I have no immediate plans to challenge that record, especially since I can only do 3 at this time.)

Blogs of Note

The Mesopotamian is yet another interesting blog by an Iraqi. (The first known Iraqi blog was by Salam Pax.)

AmberBamberBoo has a blog all about being a mommy, which she makes sound interesting and fun -- quite an accomplishment. She's got about a million kids (okay, four, but it seems like more). My favorite entry is this one, which should get an award for "best use of photos to illustrate a post". (I would give second place to crabbymrbill for this one.)

The Adventures of a Snowball in Hell is another, slightly less joyful, mommy blog. In this case, she has divorced the father, and the most entertaining entries are about custody disputes with her bonehead ex. (Yes, this really is a cool blog.)

Cool Stuff

You are

Wesley Wyndham-Price

"I didn't get this job because of my looks."

What "Buffy" Character Are You?

I normally don't take online personality tests, but since this one related to Buffy, I made an exception. I don't think I'm anything like Wesley, though; he takes himself way too seriously. Also, I would never have run off with Angel's baby without first conferring with his colleagues. (from Arrrgh!!!)

Some analogies can get taken to far, whereas others, like this one, just keep getting better.

If you're a contrarian, check out Five Reasons Not to Buy an iPod. (from Blogintosh)

Yet more evidence that spammers are psychopaths. (from Coup de Vent)

I have yet to see the final Matrix movie, but from what I've read, it pretty much sidesteps all the big questions. This site brings together a lot of ideas voiced in the newsgroups about what other more satisfying directions the finale could have incorporated. (from Widdershins)

Is there no end to the creative things people come up with to sell on eBay? I may just have to buy me one of those. (from Widdershins)

And for this week's entertaining flash animation, check out Pong, the Movie. (Warning, this site has annoying popups.) (from Zannah)

Free Hosted Movable Type Site

In last week's Weekly Links, I mentioned an opportunity I had run across for free hosting with Movable Type installation. It was listed here as part II of the Blogspot Jihad. Since then, I've taken the blogger (a.k.a. The King) up on his offer. True to his word, I now have a free (for 3 years) Movable Type blog hosted by 1&1. The King was very helpful, always responding to my e-mails within 24 hours, and he stuck with me when I encountered problems. I definitely commend him for volunteering his services and time to help others, and I can now vouch for the offer.

So what will I do with my new blog? I'm not yet sure. One thing I won't do is transfer my current blog over to it. I am happy to stay with TypePad. I want to continue supporting it, and I like being part of the community and knowing that if there is a problem, I can always rely on the TypePad administators for assistance. (Besides I've already paid a year in advance.) For now, the new blog will just be used to give me an opportunity to learn the Movable Type interface and to experiment with making my own templates and learning how to use CSS (something I can't do in TypePad without upgrading my account to TypaPad Pro).

If you want your own freely hosted Movable Type site, you can find the details here.

Weekly Links

Updates to Previous Posts

Update to Lumberjack: Jenny from Mulubinba Moments reminded me of an earlier post she had done with a link to a huge guide on big things in Australia. Also, Richie referred me to this site about Muffler men in the US. Also of interest is a site entitled Big Things in Muncie, Indiana. It has pictures of the lumberjack as well as many of the other statues here in Muncie. It's a bit out of date, though -- the purple hippo is no more.

Update to Brazil 1990: This article is a wonderful historical followup to my paper.

Blogs of Note

The Best of What Was There -- This is the blog of a music therapist.

The Write Event -- And here is a blog by a handwriting expert all about that field.

The Tard Blog -- This one is highly controversial because of the very unfortunate name. It is by a special education teacher who works with developmentally challenged children. I have to say that after reading most of the entries that I do not feel she is ridiculing or belittling her students, but she really needs to rename the site.

Do Penis Enlargement Pills Work? -- Well, here's a unique idea for a blog! This fellow ordered some size-increasing pills. He's been taking them and doing special exercises, and he blogs about his progress. Judging from the comments (which he recently disabled), he's got a large audience. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

Cool Stuff

Apparently, if you write fake CNN stories and post them (even as a joke), you will get in serious trouble. The fake story was taken down, but Bill Stevenson had the foresight to preserve it before that happened.

Yet another example of how customer service has become a lost art in the United States. (from stupidangrycanajun)

The Catholic Church fights to redeem Halloween.

Here is a great article that argues that to preserve our privacy we need to expose ourselves online. (from eclecticism)

Weekly Links

This is outrageous! Before I read it, I was of the opinion that the US presence in Iraq was a necessary evil and that we owed it to Iraq to stay and rebuild, which we do. But clearly the military is not interested in humanitarian work. I say give the $87 billion to the UN and let them clean up our mess. I would dedicate an entire post to this subject, but it has already been masterfully dealt with here and expanded upon here.

This is how much $87 billion is.
(from amberbamberboo)

Does Bush oppose peace in the Middle East? It's starting to look that way. Check out this commentary.
(from Channeling Cupertino)

Okay, now on to the fun stuff.

Wanna buy something unique for your loved ones this holiday season? How about a bottle of butterfly pee. (Actually it doesn't come out of butterflies; it's for them to drink.) Apparently bottled and powdered animal urine is a popular item. Check out this list.

Until I saw this, I didn't think there were any more truly creative jack o'lantern ideas to be thought up. Boy was I wrong! I also liked this one (very scary).
(from starkittn ink)

Here are some more cool optical illusions.
(from widdershins)

The Dalai Lama has determined that hard drives can function as prayer wheels.
(from Ron's Log)

According to the Pliocene Pussy Cat Theory, cats were first domesticated four million years ago by australopithecines. They were used for hunting and protection and were an integral part of human evolution. (Crackpot science at its finest.)

If you're planning a trip to China, don't expect to get much use out of the internet while you're there. Here is a list of sites that are known to be blocked. Besides the obvious sites about world news like the BBC, and human rights organizations like Amnesty International and anything having to do with Tibet, China also blocks such sites as google and hotmail, not to mention a huge amount of porn. So what's left? Well, I didn't see disney.com on the list.
(from stupidangrycanajun)

Perhaps employers should not be so quick to penalize their employees for surfing at work.

Digitus Impudicus was one of Ancient Rome's greatest contributions to the modern world.

Here in Muncie, a computer science class (CICS 602) at Ball State University has given its students the task of creating a maintaining personal blogs. The site has a list of about 40 such blogs, so if you want to check out other blogs by Munsonians, now you can. Be warned however, that most of them are not that good or interesting. They also recommend a good site on how to write an effective blog.

The Guardian has compiled a list of the 100 greates novels of all time. They were inspired by the BBC's recently-released list of one hundred nominations for Britain's best-loved novel. (I've read eight from the first list and sixteen from the second.)
(from Bill Stevenson)

My Posting Schedule

I've been at this for a little over six weeks now, and remarkably I've managed to post something every day. A routine is starting to emerge. Here is the current schedule as it now stands.

Monday -- Old Pics
This is something I just started this week with the baboon photo. (Yes, I know; I posted it on the wrong day.) Every Monday I'll put up an older photo that I think people may find interesting. Most will be ones that I myself have taken, but there will be some exceptions. All will be original (never before published), and they will all be connected with me in some way.

Tuesday -- My Old Writings
Usually I put up an old college paper that someone somewhere might find moderately entertaining, or even useful. I personally believe that everyone should be doing this. Preserving information and getting it into the public domain is very important. (I may post an entry about this in the coming days.)

Wednesday -- Pic of the Week
I try to take at least 100 photos every week. Out of those, I select one and post it. In other words, I only put up the top 1% of everything I take, so if you don't like the pictures, you'd probably be horrified by the ones that aren't posted.

Thursday -- Links
Throughout the week I save links to whatever I come across on the web that seems interesting or amusing. Then I post them all on Thursday. This way I can post a large number of them at once, rather than cluttering up the site with a bunch of little entries. (If I have too much time on my hands, I may even organize them by topic.)

Friday, Saturday and Sunday are open. In other words, I just post whatever I'm in the mood to put up.

That's pretty much how things stand now. I know this wasn't one of my more interesting entries, but it helped me to pull my thoughts together.

Finding the Good Blogs

Looking for good blogs to read?

Check out this (completely subjective) list of the 20 geatest blogs in the world. (from Mulubinba Moments)

Technorati generates a top 100 list of blogs based on the number of blogs that link to them.

Blogshares also has a top 100 list, based on monetary valuation using imaginary money.

There are many directories, such as the Eatonweb Portal and Blogwise.

You may want to check out the winners of the weblog awards.

And there are celebrity blogs.