It's only a story

I love books and I love it that the child seems to enjoy them too.... But sometimes he takes it all a little seriously.

We have a book called "Wibbly Pig is Happy". It's a short 7 pager with a seemingly innocuous story....

But oh no... It turns out to be an emotional roller coaster!!

Starts off simple enough...
"Wibbly Pig is happy." (he's a the beach with his bucket and spade)
"Wibbly pig is busy" (he's making a sand castle)

And then it starts getting exciting...
"Wibbly pig is hungry" (he's got an ice-cream!!!)

And then it all goes wrong...
"Wibbly pig is surprised" (a wave has washed over his sand castle... causing him to drop his ice cream!!!!!!!! Oh no!!!!)

"Wibbly pig is upset. He needs a hug" (well you would if you'd dropped your icecream!!!!!!!)

"But a lick will do." (A little dog comes over to comfort Wibbly pig. Bugger that. What about the icecream!!!!)

"Wibbly pig is happy again" (Wibbly pig goes running off to play with his bucket and the dog runs after carrying the spade. So not only did he lose the ice cream, the dog has snatched the spade!!!!!!!!!!!)

It takes a while to calm him down after that book....

We also had a book called "Yo-yo's day" which was about a little dog leaping out of bed, gobbling up his breakfast, playing in the park, having a nap, then lunch then more play, bathtime, dinner time and then bedtime. The betrayed cry of 'No! Yo-yo' when the hero of the story went to bed was priceless.

Just shows you can get lost in a book at any age, I guess.

Stupid ideas that get stuck in your brain

I have had a stupid idea stuck in my brain for some weeks now, and tonight I decided to finally get it out. Of course it is easier thought than done. This post of Laura's garden, and more importantly Laura's chooks is what started me off on The Infinite Chook Project (with apologies to the Infinite Cat Project).

So I found the post and scrolled down to the pictures of Terri and Bindi then went and collected the chooks. Madge and Beryl got a bit nervous as we entered the house, maybe there is some residual memory of large cooking pots in their subconscious or something. Anway, I placed them in front of the computer and had the perfect shot of them both looking at the screen. Of course I was struggling to get the camera out of its pouch.

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story.








Fail.

World of Goo!

This ones for all you engineers out there who miss your LEGO, and anyone who loved Lemmings (the game) or the Incredible Machine series (I'm lookin at you Mouse)... but also for the non-engineers who just like sticking stuff together.

World of Goo is a game about cute little balls of goo. You can grab them and bounce them and fling them around, and if you drop them close enough together they form little goo-bridges between each other, and you can build things. There are different kinds of goo: some can be unstuck again, some are flammable, some float like balloons; there are even undead zombie goo. They come when you whistle for them.

The game has a quirky sarcastic story, rendered in early Kindergarten Crayon Drawings of the Goth Kid. The levels are mostly not time-based, so its not a hand-eye coordination test like some of these puzzle-y games, and they're mostly pretty quick; you can pop a 3-4 minute level in here-and-there while waiting for the next batch of brew to boil, as I proved yesterday. There's a free demo which is sizeable - the first 20-25% of the game - and the full version costs $20 (all of which appears to go direct to the authors) and can be bought online. And best of all, theres a playground where you can go to just build stuff with all the goo-balls you have rescued from the levels so far.

Go forth! Get gooey!

happy halloween

For all your home made decorative halloween needs you need nothing more than a pair of scissors, a hot glue gun and a tampon.

I love big phone companies

So... we're moving house. So we need to move home. Well... how does that work? You can ring them and have the following experience:

"Tell us your phone #"
"1234567"
"Did you say 1234567?"
"Yes"
"Tell us why you are calling us"
"Moving house"
"Did you say moving?"
"Yes"
"Okay. Please hold...."

A human comes to the phone...

"Hi. I'm from Victoria. So how can I help you?"
"I'm moving"
"Okay... I'll put you through to moving."

< insert hold music and apology >

"Hi! I'm from Darwin. Can you tell me your current phone number?"
"Sure... 1234567"
"Okay... so what's your new address?"
"321 Awesome street, McAwesomeVille"
"Okay... let me book in your move...."

< more hold music >

"Hmm... turns out your line has been out of use for 8 years, so we'll have to book in a technician to investigate, which will take a week. Or you can book the move from that phone during business hours. We can shut down your old number now but that will make it more irritating to get the new one connected. When the technician comes out. A week later."
"Don't worry about it. I'll leave it for now."

That whole exchange took 19 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I especially like the bit where I told the machine the information required who didn't bother passing it on to the human.

Normally I wouldn't

bother commenting on US politics, but this is pretty amusing..yet scary...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=blesmzddd38&feature=related

If I Believed In Reincarnation...

Jellyfish at Monterey Aquarium

Otters wild at Morro Bay

Monterey Bay Aquarium Otters

Basking Seals on the CA Coast

Preening Gulls

oooggglyyy

mmmm pron

It started when three brothers joked about making pornography for fans of the genre who happen to be offended by on-screen sex. Out of that joke came an idea for a website, and they called it PG Porn.

From an article in The Age "It's Pron but without the sex'"
(and via a chum in melbourne)

It's very short and very funny and has Nathan Fillion doing some atrocious acting. (no nudeyness or anything - dammit!)

Nailing Your Wife | Girls | SPIKE.com

Wonder Sauna Hot Pants

Wonder Sauna Hot Pants
Originally uploaded by SA_Steve

You know you want a pair.


Grrroowwww!

I need to buy some lego...

No, really.



For Battle!!!!!!!!!!

UglyYetSomehowIrresistableLickyDog-o-phobes:

do NOT click this link.

for the rest of us... heh.
just... heh.

Arachnophobes:

do NOT click on this link.

for the rest of us - how damn cute! I especially love that you can turn the 'bounce' up and have a lovely jaunty spider. because when I think Huntsman, I think 'jaunty'. or, you know, 'squawk and deft flick of the wrist to send Huntsman flying into the bushes, never to lurk in my letterbox again'. either way.