Time suck of the day: Cake Wrecks. These cakes range from the pitiful to the hilarious to the downright creeptastic.
Category Archives: Links
BookCrossing
Posted by melydia on November 29, 2007
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BookCrossing, in a nutshell, is the art of sharing books. Similar to Where’s George in concept, this website provides you with a unique BookCrossing ID number for your book, which is then used to track the book on its journeys. How it travels is a matter of serendipity: passed between friends, sold on eBay, whatever. The fun part is when people find your books and leave a journal entry on the site, letting you know where the book is and, if read, what they thought of it.
Releasing, as this kind of sharing is called, takes on a variety of forms. People start bookrings, wherein a book is passed from person to person through the mail. Some trade via the post or at local gatherings. Others maintain Official BookCrossing Zones, more or less a lending library with BookCrossing labels, all over the world. (Hunting for books is also a joy; I doubt I ever would have discovered the delight that is Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, had there not been an Official BookCrossing Zone there.) A friend of mine totes a wagon full of books to various events, which she calls her Mobile BookCrossing Zone.
My favorite form, however, is the traditional wild release, where you leave a book in a public place for someone else to find. It’s fun to think up unusual locations, or places that somehow relate to the title of the book being released. Whenever I drive to visit my family, who live over 700 miles away, I release books along the way. Most books are caught, but very few people leave journal entries, even anonymously. There are loads of reasons for this, of course: no internet access, want to read it first, simply forget about it, etc. However, when someone does journal a book you released, it can be the highlight of your (and their) day. For example: my favorite journal entry, from a recent Road Trip Release at a gas station.
I would like to note that despite all this giving away, my to-be-read pile has done nothing but grow since I joined BookCrossing. BookCrossers are generous to a fault. It’s also vastly expanded my reading interests.
To see all the BC books that have passed through my hands over the years (as well as a running tally of books read this year), visit my bookshelf.
Reposted from my CCS blog.
Scary Mary
Posted by melydia on November 27, 2007
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I heart movie trailers re-edited to give a completely different impression of the story than was intended. Here we have a delightfully creepy take on Mary Poppins.
(Thanks to happyturnip for the link.)
Daily Lit
Posted by melydia on September 30, 2007
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No time to read classic literature? Now it’s easy with Daily Lit. Pick your lit and it sends you the entire thing in daily installments.
Actually, it’s not all classic lit. Looks like Cory Doctorow’s entire bibliography is available too.
The Show with Ze Frank
Posted by melydia on January 15, 2007
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I’m not usually much for video blogs, but I am definitely enjoying The Show with Ze Frank. Sometimes it’s informative, sometimes it’s insightful, and sometimes it’s funny, but it’s always a bit random. These are my favorites so far:
* baseline
* scrabble
* thanksgiving
Also, there is a transcript of each episode in the “wiki” link in the right-hand sidebar for those of you lacking mad Quicktime fu. (Which would be most non-Appletonians. On Windows, Quicktime is an ugly behemoth that poops icons everywhere and tries to take over your entire world. When in its native Mac environment, it just quietly plays movies.)
Debbie’s Idea
Posted by melydia on November 12, 2006
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Want to try out a new author, but aren’t sure which book to start with? Then check out Debbie’s Idea.
xkcd
Posted by melydia on September 9, 2006
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I need to talk about the wonderfulness that is xkcd. It’s a webcomic without recurring characters or even recurring themes. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s poignant. It has stick figures, gorgeous landscapes, and mathematical graphs. And it’s absolutely brilliant. The alt-text (the stuff that pops up when you hover your mouse over the image) is also not to be missed.
Anyway, I bring this up because this fills me with so much sadness and hope that I’m not sure what to do with myself.
Superdickery
Posted by melydia on August 11, 2006
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Superdickery.com: A collection of comic-related humor, but the real reason to visit is the amusing time-suck of Superman is a Dick. As far as the webmaster knows, these are all authentic, unaltered comic books. Very funny stuff. Come witness what a dick Superman can be!
ISS Tracking
Posted by melydia on May 23, 2006
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Where is the space station right now? Real Time Satellite Tracking can tell you. It also shows the Hubble and a host of other satellites. It’s amazing to see them in real-time, and to realize just how fast they’re moving.
(Thanks to Bad Astronomy for the link.)
Body Worlds
Posted by melydia on May 20, 2006
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Body Worlds: An Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies. Yes, that’s actually what it’s called and actually what it is: people who donated their bodies to science, on display to teach others about anatomy and physiology. The bodies have been plastinated, a process where the water in the body is replaced with a hardening substance which enables the body and its parts to be posed.
I’m waffling between fascinated and a little creeped out on this one, to be perfectly honest. On the one hand, I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to see exactly what the body looks like up close – not just plastic models or blurry x-rays. And these people were volunteers, after all. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be a little unnerving to look at real corpses on display? Well, no more so than the body slices at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, I suppose. I admit I’m a little embarrassed of my squeamishness. Too bad this exhibit won’t be nearby anytime soon. I’m curious.