New website!
F blogspot! I have successfully migrated over to my own domain running wordpress. Please change your feeds and so forth to reflect the new URL: http://www.dailytraversal.com.

The best thing: I found a nifty tool that sucked all the posts from this site (and flashwhore) and put them into the new site, so all of the links have been preserved! w00t! So F this place, and come to the new site at:

http://dailytraversal.com.

f.
- posted by frank crist @ 1:39 PM 0 comments

 
Top 10 Largest Databases in the World
A great list of great examples of great big freaking databases. Great!
- posted by frank crist @ 12:14 PM 0 comments

 
Cage's 'Ghost Rider' Rides $44.5M In Box Office Revenues
Jesus Christ. Well, when you're wrong, you're wrong. I'm big enough to admit it.
- posted by frank crist @ 11:15 AM 0 comments

 
The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™
w00t! I made the beta list for the LOTR MMORPG! Now I can merrily stomp through the Misty Mountains squishing Dwarves and Hobbits alike. Joyous day!
- posted by frank crist @ 2:11 PM 2 comments

 
Movies: Ghost Rider Opens Cold
Ever since hearing of this project, my guts have turned cold and stony. Whatever fool thought it wise to cast Nick Cage as Ghost Rider should be drawn and quartered. Well, alright, that's a stock reply from me regarding Nick Cage, but whatever. From the article:

Sony is dodging opening-day print reviews for "Ghost Rider,'' which opens a week from Friday. Critics are being invited to the premiere the night before the opening as well as a "courtesy'' screening on Friday, which means reviews will be buried in the Saturday papers.

- posted by frank crist @ 11:56 AM 0 comments

 
Britney no lesbian
It's been confirmed in an independent lab full of scientists and Nobel laureates in Physics and Astronavigation: Britney Spears is no lesbian. Apparantly, it's some kind of smear campaign from K-Fed (AKA "Burger Boy") in their divorce battle. K-Fed's producer, Omar 'Iceman' Sharif, says of Britney, "Britney was into threesomes and girls. There was tons of porn in the house - but it was mostly Britney's." What kind of a world is this, dear readers, in which young, innocent Britney Spears is accused of being a highly sexualized person? It's enough to make me physically ill.
- posted by frank crist @ 8:00 AM 0 comments

 
Senator Carl Krueger Thinks iPods Can Kill You
Well, file this under, "Get back to work ya bum." Apparantly, Senator Carl Krueger believes that by using a mobile electronic device you're putting yourself in mortal danger. From the article:

Yes, [Senator Krueger] is planning to introduce a law which would make the use of the iPod, the BlackBerry or any other handheld illegal, when crossing the streets of New York. No matter how funny or weird that might sound to you, his intentions are pretty serious. He claims that the number of fatal accidents caused by what he calls “the iPod oblivion” is increasing in New York and as an example he brings the case of a young man who died last month.

Seriously, guy, aren't we currently at war? Better things to do, perhaps?
- posted by frank crist @ 7:53 AM 0 comments

 
Shower habits by gender
A video showing the showering habits of men vs. the showering habits of women. For the record, I have never drawn a penis in the fog on the mirror after a shower, but I may have shaken my wiener and made the "woo woo!" sound.
- posted by frank crist @ 5:15 PM 0 comments

 
Bad Language / How to be a freelance journalist
A bit of good advice from Articulate Marketing Writer-in-chief, Matthew Stibbe, on the ins-and-outs of becoming a freelance journalist.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:58 PM 0 comments

 
David Lee Roth Re-Joins Van Halen for Summer Tour - Music News - Playfuls.com - Fun & Entertainment
Diamond Dave, Mr. Gigalo, re-joins the band with the record for the most number one hits on Billboard's rock list. Rejoins them again. No, really, this time they're rejoined. Dave and the band. Rejoined. Again. Together. To record rock-and-roll. Not to threaten each other, no, no, no. That was... an accident? No, to get along. Yes. To record some rock-and-roll. Together. Again.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

 
PS2 Sales Likely to Surpass PS3 Sales in 2007 and 2008
Vindicated. That's how I feel. For every conversation I've ever had about the PS3, it's ginormous price tag, and hasty rollout schedule. For that kid in Radio Shack who made fun of me for desiring a Wii instead of a PS3, I say, "In your face." For that co-worker that called the PS3 the "Cadillac of consoles" I say, "DeLorean, maybe." To all of the game developers who dropped their PS3 titles to concentrate on the Xbox 360 and the Wii, I say, "Forward-thinking." The PS3 is in deep doo-doo, and Sony and Blue-ray along with it. And let this be a warning to future generations of console manufacturers on how to take a solid brand and send it straight to the bottom of the ocean.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:03 PM 0 comments

 
Rock Your Face
In honor of their successful terrorist invasion of Earth yesterday, witness! The Moonites! They will rock your face.
- posted by frank crist @ 6:25 PM 0 comments

 
Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD - Lifehacker
Yay! Finally, no more hunting for converters for: xvid - dvd; divx - dvd; mp3 - dvd; ac3 - dvd; mov - dvd; avi - dvd; wmv - dvd; mpeg - dvd; vog - dvd; and so on. This tutorial on how to use the open source program DVD Flick will make it all happy.
- posted by frank crist @ 4:22 PM 0 comments

 
Boxhead: The Rooms
I've been playing this zombie shooter for the past 3 hours and I'm seriously cracked out on it. I found it to be pretty formulaic after a point but, well, see the "3 hours" above. Lots of fun!
- posted by frank crist @ 10:10 PM 0 comments

 
Nudist Beginnings: Do nudists have a word for people who wear clothes?
From the "You learn something new every day" department:

Yes, anyone who is not a nudist is called a "textile". The word textile refers to the non-nude person being clothed with textile materials (i.e., cloth is a textile).

I wonder if latex-wearers are known as synthies?
- posted by frank crist @ 3:50 PM 0 comments

 
Tiger 1 Radio Controlled Model Tanks
"1/4th Scale Tiger 1 !!
The only commercially available 1/4 RC Tank in the world! Massive size, 63' long in body, 36' wide, 28' tall, and 7' long with gun! Full option weight 200kgs! Will run on either 12v or 24v, all options available similar to the 1/6th tanks, but bigger and louder! Also, 1/4th T34/85 currently under test."

(Thanks, deedlebomb!)
- posted by frank crist @ 11:11 PM 0 comments

 
Even vodka freezes in Siberia
Some guys (uncredited) made a photo montage of their Jan 2006 trip through Siberia. See: beautiful and desolate landscapes, native Siberian fauna, bizarre Soviet Union relics, and crazy (shirtless!) Siberians.
- posted by frank crist @ 2:48 AM 0 comments

 
Mum: You are wrong because...
A list of argumentative fallacies for the next time you're at a family gathering and your uncle makes a statement about the world only being 6000 years old because the bible doesn't mention dinosaurs.
- posted by frank crist @ 12:05 PM 0 comments

 
The Axe Murderer
Video funness by a bunch of guys who answer the ancient philosophical question: what would you do if an axe-wielding maniac was beating on your door and your voice-dialing cell phone keeps connecting you to the wrong number? Fun!
- posted by frank crist @ 5:38 PM 0 comments

 
You missed Muhammad Ali's birthday
Gah! Yesterday was the 65th birthday of the butterfly-floating, bee-stinging idol of America and the world! And you missed it. You may officially suck now. Give yourself a haymaker to the face for penance!
- posted by frank crist @ 3:22 PM 0 comments

 
I'm reading on Jan 20th
I'm doing a performance reading this saturday, Jan 20th, at Kate the Great's bookstore, at 5550 N. Broadway St, Chicago. Come out and watch me astound audiences with funny googly-eyes and well-pronounced words. (I have no idea what I'm going to read yet.) Show starts at 6:30 in the PM.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:15 PM 0 comments

 
All's well..
Some images and other file-ish content was fubar on DT for a week or so due to a snafu on the server on which they're hosted. Seems that the web server suddenly got stuck on an internal 172 network, thus boofing the pooch. Gnarly. Anyhoo, everything should be back online now. Aren't you thrilled?
- posted by frank crist @ 1:59 PM 2 comments

 
Caloric Values of Alcoholic Beverages, Alcohol calories
JFC. Drinking booze will, indeed, make you fat. This excellent article, produced for the University of Rchester Health Promotion Office, not only discusses the metabolic reasoning behind the reviled "beer belly", but also has a comprehensive list of caloric values of alcoholic beverages.

I had always known that an average beer was about 150 calories per bottle, but what I hadn't known was how calorie-laden liquor was. For instance, a 1.5 oz shot of vodka can have as many as 125 calories, and a 12 oz Long Island Iced Tea has almost 800 calories! Compare that to the average daily caloric intake of the average American--2000 calories--and now you know why you felt like bloated crap the morning after drinking a half-dozen Long Islands.
- posted by frank crist @ 4:55 PM 1 comments

 
Robert Anton Wilson is dead
One of the greatest thinkers that I ever had the privilege to read, meet, and discuss, Robert Anton Wilson, has left his physical shell to join the cacophony of Eris in the halls of Chaos. RAW was a shill, a lunatic, a skeptic, and a great man of many profound words. He was a visionary blessed to be at the side of Timothy Leary's death bed, as well as the noted co-author of the "Illuminatus!" triology. The world is a sadder place with his loss, and, whoever you are, should smoke a joint in his honor this very moment. Fnord.

Eulogy for Robert Anton Wilson (1.4mb mp3)
- posted by frank crist @ 2:16 AM 2 comments

 
Net Business Blog » Blog Archive » Building a Niche Minisite (Part 1)
One of the easiest ways to make money online today is by creating “niche minisites.” The internet is huge, and it’s growing bigger everyday. You can always make a site that attempts to compete in large content areas, and you can succeed if you put enough time, effort, and money into it. What if you don’t have a lot of time? What if you don’t have much startup money? What if you’re lazy (even too lazy to start a Myspace turnkey)? Well then maybe you should give niche minisites a shot.
- posted by frank crist @ 11:42 AM 0 comments

 
How to Draw Storyboards
Any one story, if filmed in real time would be tedious and time-consuming. To condense this and inject interest, the plot is broken down further into important events or situations. These are called Moments and the rule which surround this idea is called the PRINCIPLE OF MOMENTS. This is a very important storyboarding tool. Now, every event is not as important as each other. Some are critcally important whilst others are simply required for the narrative or as atmosphere to t a more important event. For this reason Moments are generally categorised as Atmospheric, Narrative and Critical
- posted by frank crist @ 3:36 PM 1 comments

 
Fiji coup leader to grant himself immunity - World - theage.com.au
Fiji's new interim prime minister says he will grant immunity from prosecution for himself and fellow officers who overthrew the elected government a month ago.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who was sworn in as prime minister yesterday - exactly four weeks after staging a bloodless coup - said ratifying his actions would be among his first duties.
- posted by frank crist @ 11:45 PM 0 comments

 
SanDisk introduces 32GB SSD for notebooks
Invest in this. This is a technological turning point worthy of your attention.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:05 AM 0 comments

 
Classes: Chicago Metro Area
It's a bunch of people in Chicago who stab each other with rapiers. Freakin' awesome.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:12 PM 1 comments

 
Meanings and origins of sayings and phrases
Whether you want to resolve a friendly argument over how a saying or phrase originated or whether you just enjoy words, you'll probably find something here to interest you.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:25 PM 0 comments

 
Confrérie du Sabre d'Or | Art Of Sabrage
It is the art of opening a champagne bottle with a sword. How freaking cool is that?

1. Take a chilled bottle of champagne, not ice cold but suitable for drinking. The ideal temperature is around 37°F or 3°C
2. Carefully remove the wire around the cork. If the champagne has been properly chilled, the cork will remain in the bottle.

- posted by frank crist @ 2:22 PM 0 comments

 
Top Myths of Renaissance Martial Arts & Swords
From the article:

The diverse range of misconceptions and erroneous beliefs within historical fencing studies today is considerable. But there are perhaps some myths that are more common, and more pervasive, than others. This webpage presents an ongoing project that will continually try in an informal and condensed manner to help address some of these mistaken beliefs.

For example:

24. True rapiers could make lethal or debilitating edge cuts.

False. No historical rapier text teaches, implies, or expresses that edge blows with true rapiers, that is, the slender narrow blade forms developed in the 1570s or 1580s, killed by cut. Indeed, several historical sources specifically criticized these kind of rapiers for their lack of lethal cutting capacity. No historical accounts in the voluminous evidence of rapier combats describe rapiers as killing with cuts (or debilitating limbs by edge blows) but only as producing assorted lacerations and scratches.

- posted by frank crist @ 4:08 PM 0 comments

 
I.33 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I.33, also known as "the tower manuscript" because of its long stay in the Tower of London, is the earliest known surviving European treatise on the use of sword and buckler. The manuscript now resides in the collection of the Royal Armouries at Leeds, England. It is referred to as British Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi.

On 64 pages, the treatise shows a martial arts system of defensive and offensive techniques between a master and a pupil, referred to as sacerdos and scolaris, each armed with a sword and a buckler, drawn in ink and water colour and accompanied with Latin text, interspersed with German fencing terms. On the last two pages, the pupil is replaced by a woman called Walpurgis.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:44 PM 0 comments

 
List of United States military schools and academies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A handy list, which also includes a long list of defunct schools.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

 
Someone turn my chapters into a novel
So, it's a writing day over at the house today. Soren has joined us, and the three of us are sitting at the diningroom table working on our various theses. A.'s is on how one can see "whiteness" using the photography of Tina Barney. S.'s is on why and how melancholy characterizes the way we approach history today. Both of them are finishing M.A.s in modern art history, theory, and criticism. (That should probably all be in CAPS since it's the official title of their degree program.)

My thesis is a novel about an American scion who gets caught up with the Russian mafia during the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. My M.F.A. is in Creative Writing.

In preparing to write, I began going through some old material that I thought I could reuse. In fact, I have tons of old material, and curiosity got the better of me: how much old material, exactly, did I have? Or, as a metric, how many pages have I thus written for this novel? I often quoted a figure of "over 500", but it's always been an estimate.

So I counted the pages. All pages are Courier, 12-point, double-spaced. Because of the volume, and because I'm not exactly doing a scientific study here, I counted all cover pages as a page (there are only a few), as well as counting partial pages as a complete page (at the end of a chapter, e.g.).

All totaled, and not including typed notes or journal entries about process or direction or synposes (I have more than a few) or one-pagers, since November 30, 2004, I have 564 pages towards this novel. I'm on the 5th draft.

IMHO, instead of wasting my time, sitting here and writing more pages, I think I'm going to go to Craig's List and place an ad, "Will pay money to put my chapters into novel form." Then, instead of shovelling money at my M.F.A. program, I could just pay an editor to do all of the work for me and publish the novel instead of graduate.

I think it's a great plan.
- posted by frank crist @ 7:03 PM 3 comments

 
Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Fan Club
Nero Wolfe's fan club is sponsoring a writing contest: a detective novella of 15,000 - 20,000 words in length which must follow a set of guidelines along the lines of old-school detective novels, e.g. no psychics, coincidences, or psychopathic murderers.

Each entry must be an original unpublished work of fiction that conforms to the tradition of the Nero Wolfe series.
The mystery should be "traditional" in flavor.
The crime must be solved using the deductive abilities of the sleuth. No coincidences.
The killer must be known to the victim. No random pycho shootings.
The characters (male or female) must have an engaging relationship.

- posted by frank crist @ 3:03 PM 0 comments

 
Why have HD prices not dropped?
Two to three years ago I was paying between $70 - $100 for 250 GB hard drives, both IDE and SATA. I keep waiting for 250 GB drives to drop, but they remain in the same price range. Even as 320 GB and 400 GB drives come down in price, the 250 GB still will not budge. What gives with this? 750 GB drives are approaching the $350 range.

Bring the 250 GB drive prices down! I want $50 HDs, and lots of them!
- posted by frank crist @ 8:24 PM 0 comments

 
Amazon's $100 360
So, on the Amazon Customers Vote page, this week's deal is an Xbox 360 for $100. ! (The system typically retails for $299). They offered 1000 units at this price.

Sale started at 11:00AM PST. Accounting for time zone differences, I finally reached the sale page (after WAITING OMG THE SERVERS WERE JAMMED) at 11:09AM PST. SOLD OUT. 1000 units, gone in under 9 minutes. Bullocks.
- posted by frank crist @ 1:20 PM 0 comments

 
THE 9 on Yahoo!'s 99th show
The 9 keeps chugging along, production values are increasing, and guest stars abound. I saw T.O. last week, and today it's Fez from "That 70's Show." I'm telling you--you're asleep if you don't see the potential being realized by Yahoo!
- posted by frank crist @ 1:15 PM 0 comments

 
Iraq - A Neo-Conservative Dream Mugged by Reality - NAM
In this article, National Book Nominee and Washington Post correspondant, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, talks about how the neoconservative "dream" was corrupted by Rumsfeld's takeover of the state department. However, what I wonder is why he cares? Is this a whitewash of an extremely hostile and biggoted brand of American conservatism? I mean, neoconservative aims are just as aggressive, even with out a war-hawk like Rumsfeld in charge. Is it a chance to get easy shots in on the Iraq war fall guy?

In fact, it is an incredibly short article--a "Q&A"--and an audio excerpt. But the reason I liked it is because I didn't know Baghdad was called the "Emerald City" by the troops. And here's Chandrasekaran's explanation of why that is:

A number of disaffected people who worked in the Green Zone began to come to the realization that they were living in a fantasy, that bore no relation to the real Iraq. So they began to jokingly refer to the Green Zone as the “Emerald City.” It was kind of like going to Disneyland. It was like popping a Proza

- posted by frank crist @ 12:35 PM 0 comments

 
YouTube - screwed by Bush
Up for a little roleplay tonight, dear? How about I be the country and you be Bush.

"Don't pull out! Don't pull out!"
- posted by frank crist @ 12:19 PM 0 comments

 
Mike the Headless Chicken - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On Monday September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, had his mother-in-law around for supper and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen failed to completely decapitate the five-and-a-half month old bird named Mike, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact.

Not quite sure what to do with his by now loose head, on the first night after the decapitation Mike slept with it under his wing; it was this touching tenacity to life and the now redundant organ that convinced Olsen to reprieve Mike from the cooking pot.

Despite Olsen's botched handiwork, the by-now-headless Mike was still able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily; he even attempted to preen and crow, apparently not noticing that neither activity could be accomplished properly without a head. After the bird did not die, a surprised and no doubt guilty Mr. Olsen decided to continue to care permanently for Mike, feeding him a mixture of milk and water via an eyedropper; he was also fed small grains of corn. The unfortunate Mike occasionally choked on his own mucus, which the Olson family would clear using a syringe.
- posted by frank crist @ 12:58 AM 0 comments

 
The end of the internet
I did it. After months of denial, and being sorely out of practice, I read every page on the internet tonight. It took me 12 straight hours, but now there's nothing I don't know. As long as it's on the net.

Fuck I need to go to sleep.
- posted by frank crist @ 4:32 AM 0 comments

 
Weird Al interviews Eminem. - CollegeHumor video
A classic.
- posted by frank crist @ 10:51 AM 0 comments

 
Laser Pointers, Blue, Green & Red Lasers
This is a page of lasers that will actually burn things--the lasers as advertised by Star Wars in my childhood, but never delivered upon.

This site sells them.
- posted by frank crist @ 10:32 AM 1 comments

 
Laser Pointers, Blue, Green & Red Lasers
This is a page of lasers that will actually burn things--the lasers as advertised by Star Wars in my childhood, but never delivered upon.

This site sells them.
- posted by frank crist @ 10:32 AM 0 comments

 
Jaleel White is not dead
Urkle? Yeah. He's alive. So quit telling me that he killed himself.

Speaking about his "suicide":

White, now handsome and 30, a UCLA film school grad, a man who didn't squander his money or end up on America's Most Wanted alongside other fallen child stars, was alive and well and, as you might imagine, royally pissed.

- posted by frank crist @ 6:05 PM 0 comments

 
I quit my job
So, obvious lack of content here, and that was because I had a 70 hour / week job. But no longer. Although I loved the job, and worked with a great crew, production video game life didn't work out--at least, not when I have an MFA thesis in Creative Writing looming over me. Yes, it is hard to write a novel when all of your time is spent at the job.

So I quit. I'll miss Babaroga, and really appreciate working there.

For the future, I have a work-at-home job doing mobile social networking apps. mpulsemedia.com. Which also means that I'll have more time to write. Thesis-wise, but also to entertain the tubes of the intarwebs.

That is all. Now watch this flash from Whiskas(tm) cat food describing and demonstrating various cat behaviors.
- posted by frank crist @ 12:09 PM 0 comments

 
A Crime
Her body was burned. Not her face. In fact, her whole head was fine, except for the terrifying vision of it. Pain. Like a solid thing.

Lifting up her housewife dress, her midsection and genitals were a blackened mess. Charred skin cracked to reveal oozing red-black deep tissue below. The bone showed on her inner thighs.

She'd been raped. And burned to hide the evidence. But she hadn't been raped in the vagina. The evidence of burning was concentrated in the back. Between her buttocks.

A monster was on the loose; a hungry, devistating monster. And with an appetite like this, he would not soon be sated.

This was going to happen again.

Heeeehehe. I get to work on my thesis again. *stoked*
- posted by frank crist @ 11:39 AM 0 comments

 
Device Dries Lice And Nits Out Of Hair
Device Dries Lice And Nits Out Of Hair: "If you want to rid your children of lice and nits and don't want to use chemicals, a hairdryer-type device may be just what you are looking for. Use it on your child for 30-minutes and he/she will be infestation free, say the makers of the LouseBuster, Larada Sciences. The makers stress that their device dries the bugs out, it does not heat them. You should not try doing this at home with your hairdryer."
- posted by frank crist @ 6:13 PM 0 comments