Things of Interest

Kukuxumusu Clothing

Kukuxumusu is the Basque word meaning "kiss of the flea" and is a company founded to provide beer money (to its founders, presumably) for Pamplona Spain's San Fermin, their summer festival which includes the famous running of the bulls. Their selection of T-shirt designs often feature animals doing various weird things. They have screensavers too.

FundRace 2004 Political Info-Voyeurism
Want to know what your neighbors really think about politics? Check out the FundRace site and browse political contributions over $200 made by people in your area (or out of your area). Pulled from publicly available FEC records summaries can be browsed by region or specific listings can be viewed in an area.

This Picture baby humor

I took this candid of me with little Galileo who's sporting a pretty fine comb-over, courtesy of his uncle's long hair. It helps to know that the kid is/was almost completely bald. Like a little old man. It makes me crack up every time I look at it. Really, every time.

Digital Camera Reviews Resource
I recently bought a great new digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix 5400) and found this website to be a great reference for serious digital camera shopping/comparison. The reviews go into such great depth and they provide full size sample photos for examples. An indispensable site.
Red vs. Blue Funny
So the idea behind this very humorous project is a couple of guys performing a comedy script using a game engine (Bungie's Halo) as the medium. The comedy would not be carried by the expressive abilities of the actors so luckily the script is really funny. It's probably extra funny to gamers since some of the humor is game-related but should be accessible (and funny) to non-gamers too. "What, like a puma?". In a related vein also check out the extremely funny "Warthog Jump" movie, in which the reality of gaming physics is put to the test- this guy has way too much time on his hands.
Smoosh Music
When I first heard Smoosh live on KEXP I thought, "Wow, I love the melodic quality the interesting lead singer's voice and the lyrics but they sound a little rough around the edges." As I found this is because neither of the two sisters that make up Smoosh are teenagers (and here's the punchline...) YET! Unbelievable. Smoosh is really a force to be watched. They write their own music and lyrics and have appeared with little local bands like Sleater-Kinney and Cat Power (ok, so Cat Power is decidely nonlocal to Seattle...). I still don't quite believe it, sorta like there'll be some local music milli-vanill-esque expose in a couple of months. If they continue on their current trajectory, at age 20 they'll be bigger than Nirvana and at 30 they'll be bigger than the Universe.
The Mars Rover(s) Space
How cool is this. Real pictures of the surface of another planet even have ole GW talking about space (anyone vote for sending him on the first mission to Mars?) This is a really needed success for poor NASA who have had some big setbacks in recent years (remember the last thing we shot at mars? Was that in yards or meters?)
Caffeinated Soap Product
Ok- now I don't know if this works or not (the site claims it does), but it's super-cool in any case. No more fumbling through the cupboards at 5AM trying to find an unused coffee filter with your eyes half closed. No siree, this little baby gives you a full charge just by rubbing it all over your body. Check out the other caffeine-related products on the site too.
Rockin-Sockin Robots TechFun
These little (literally) babies simply speak for themselves. I can't wait to get my very own karate-kickin' robot.
The Visual Thesaurus WebSite/Application
Not only is this a very useful and intuitive tool for exploring word associations its also just about the most kick-ass java application I've ever seen. Play with it.
Modest Mouse on a Nissan Commercial Music
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. One of my favorite local Indy-type bands on a big-time Nissan commercial. I didn't really know whether to laugh or cry- but it was cool to hear them anyway.
Learning to Love You More Art
Take an art assignment, be creative, submit to the results to the site and maybe end up in a museum. What an idea- guided creative interaction.This has got to be one of my favorite ideas for an interactive website ever. From the incredible artist Miranda July and others. Step up to art.
The Alton Brown site Food
Part chef, part scientist, all goofball, Alton Brown is my favorite foodie on the Food Network where he hosts Good Eats. The Alton Brown site has much of the oddball flavor of the show, so to speak.
3WK Internet Radio Music
Streaming very cool music 24/7 this site has cost me more than a little money by forcing me to buy new music.
Albert Einstein's writings Reference
This rather overwhelming site has digitized archives of all of Einstein's writings both scientific and non-scientific. Try the Gallery link to get to the highlights (also to get to manuscripts with English translations). The bulk of the manuscripts aren't in English but it's reallly something to see the writing itself.
Piggy Billboards Odd
Driving into Seattle from the South on 99 (the Alaskan Way viaduct) there is a big billboard with a Pork advertisement on it that says "How time flies when you're having Pork". Directly below it is an advert for the Evergreen State Fair that says "When Pigs Fly" with a nice cartoon of a porker with wings. I just thought that was funny. Maybe its just me :)
Mega Memory Commentary
This is commentary worth listening to. Being an avid photographer/videographer I have to constantly remind myself to experience as well as record. What if we had a constantly playing movie of our lives, correct to the smallest detail? Oh wait, that is life.
Deb Talan: Music
I recently rediscovered Deb who is the former lead singer of a Portland band, "Hummingfish" when she was featured at the end of the movie "Lovely and Amazing". Deb has a beautiful and very interesting voice as well as a mean ability to turn a lyric.
This American Life: Radio
In my opinion the best media program of any kind, ever.
King County Maps: Resource
This is the greatest resource for house hunting in the Seattle area. Find out who owns a parcel, what improvements they've made recently, when they bought and for how much, any zoning restrictions or environmental considerations and more. Then go check out all the neighbors.
Unreal Estate: Article
Fascinating article on the economies of online games. Some are large enough to equal many small countries and, here's the kicker, this is actually in real money!

Last modified: Wed Oct 6 08:01:47 PDT 2004