You don't want to read this article.

And I probably _shouldn't_ have.

But once I started, I couldn't _stop_.

It's not the reading, so much as the pictures.

It's an io9 article about Krokodil (prevalent in Russia), a commonly home-synthesized, cheap, heroin-like drug that, when made not in a lab, tends to be made wrong due to the individual not having all the necessary components.  It can still be made to have heroin-like effects, but which last only about an hour.  Which puts addicts into a loop of making the drug and taking it over and over again all day.  

And the problem with the home-brewed version is that it pretty quickly turns your skin green and scaly before rotting your skin off to expose bone and muscle tissue.  

The information on the drug and phenomenon, while morbid and horrible, was pretty fascinating.  And the first picture down the page is pretty terrifying and gross, but you sort of adjust and feel proud that you could deal with the effects.  

But the final picture on the page is what sanity loss is made of.  And, while it was intensely horrible, you sort of can't look away.  You're drawn to look at the details while convinced one more second will render you insane.

So I'm not telling you to look, but if you do, expect to never be able to scrub your brain of the sight.

The "New Look" is the New Black

I would like Google to go fuck itself.  

... ... ...

Let's start again.

I _love_ Google, and I have a supporter for a long time; I'm still a dedicated worshiper.

But _please_ stop forcing "new looks" that are ugly, unnecessary, and counter-intuitive (to the point of taking intuitive buttons of words like "archive" and "spam" and instead changing them to pictures that I completely miss even being there and which do nothing to tell me what action they perform), 

STOP BEING LIKE FACEBOOK.  

Just give me my damn choice back to have things the way I want them.  Let people use whichever design they want.  Then make all the damn changes you want to a design I'll never see for more than two minutes, at which point I'll promptly switch back to the "old look".  Everybody wins.

Deal? 

< /grump>

Reconstruction, reconstruction!

Today I was linked to a video by Snarky Bytes.  It is a video documenting someone watching a video while in an MRI.  The left side is the video as it was played, and the right is the reconstruction done based on the brain activity recorded by the MRI:

The left clip is a segment of the movie that the subject viewed while in the magnet. The right clip shows the reconstruction of this movie from brain activity measured using fMRI. The reconstruction was obtained using only each subject's brain activity and a library of 18 million seconds of random YouTube video. (In brief, the algorithm processes each of the 18 million clips through the brain model, and identifies the clips that would have produced brain activity as similar to the measured brain activity as possible. The clips used to fit the model, those used to test the model and those used to reconstruct the stimulus were entirely separate.) Brain activity was sampled every one second, and each one-second section of the viewed movie was reconstructed separately. 

Um, _what_the_fuck_?

So creepy!

And I completely want an MRI machine now; this would make for some of the awesomest distorted video _ever_.

Tools are cool!

While I'm incredibly inconsistent with this blog, and have certainly never established this kind of thing as a theme before, I'm joining in with this meme, which was started here by Og.  I saw several of the gun bloggers I follow post this, then Michael, and decided, what the hell!

Take the knife out of your pocket and take a picture of it, and post it. Or post a picture of the same knife from a brochure or whatever.

No, not your favorite knife, or your prettiest, but the one that never leaves your side. 

These are three knives that I carry with my every day without fail.  I used to more regularly carry a more full-sized folding knife (and often will), but I wouldn't say every day anymore.  


On the top left is my Climber model Swiss Army Knife.  It has almost all the tools I need/want regularly (with the possible exception of a phillips screwdriver; I make due with the flat heads attached to the can opener and bottle opener, but it's not ideal).  


On the top right is the Classic Swiss Army Knife I picked up in Maine last year.  I often carried one like it (in black or pink) on my keychain, and still have one there.  But while in Maine, I couldn't resist getting the lobster themed one.  It may seem redundant since I also carry a full sized Swiss Army Knife with all the same tools (larger) and more, but I find I use them both regularly!  The little guy mostly for nail maintenance.  I actually have a little collection of them (I have a black, two pink--one solid, one translucent, an aluminum, and the lobster).  Michael lent me the little sheath it's next to and I've been carrying it in there in my bra ever since (alongside my Streamlight Microstream flashlight).  


And for even longer, I've had an obsession with the Spyderco Cricket.  I have three so far.  The first was a black plastic scale model (which used to be Michael's), the second was a full stainless steel version, and the one pictures is the Ying Yang SantaFè Stoneworks model (pearl and jet; mine is _not_ serated, but that's all I was able to find online), which I fell in love with, and was given as a gift for being best man at Michael's first wedding.  It's definitely my favorite knife that I own, and I carry it also in my bra.  I am always well prepared!

"Yeah, well, history is gonna change."

Ever since sometime in the late 80s, I have been planning my 2015 Back to the Future party.  Well before I knew most of the people I know now, well before I was old enough to even appreciate all elements of the films, I was completely addicted.  To this day it remains one of my favorite fandoms and I'm sure will for my whole life.  The jailbird Joey cake, costumes from the different eras visited in the films...I always intended to have a smashing anniversary party in 2015.

And one thing that could only make that better is the power-lacing Nike sneakers from Back to the Future II.  And now I could have a pair of my own.  But I won't.  Not out of desire, mind you, but out of cost.  The shoes were made and are being sold to raise money for Parkinson's research.  And I can't really complain about such a wonderful cause.  It makes me so sad to see what Michael J. Fox has gone through; he was an idol of mine growing up.

And while I'd love to buy a pair of the awesomest shoes ever to exist with the added benefit of the money going to such a worthy cause, $4-6,000 is a little steep for me.  I was prepared for a few hundred (before I knew it was such limited quantity and being auctioned), but this is just too rich for me.  However, it's still amazing and I more than support anyone who does go for them.  They're available on eBay, 150 pairs on a 24-hour auction each day for 10 days (I believe there are four or five days left).

You can watch Michael J. Fox showing off the shoes on Letterman (originally aired the night before the first 150 pairs went up for auction):

The owner of Google is planning to match however much is made through this fundraiser up to $50 million.  Just one more reason to love Google and several more reasons to wish I was rich!

Brilliant new idea!

Wouldn't it be great if you could read books without having to purchase them?

Oh wait, _you_can_.  It's called a fucking library.

Yet Amazon would like to reinvent this idea in a not-much-more convenient way, that you have to pay for:

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is set to launch a Netflix-like subscription service for books.

The service would reportedly work exactly like Netflix, where you pay a monthly subscription fee to receive a set number of books each month. Since this is a rumor, it's still not entirely clear how the service will work or how much it will cost. 

If the cost is _anything_ that's too much.  With DVDs, it's one thing; Blockbuster was never free.  But with my library card, I can take out books from any library in the county.  And if they don't have what I want?  They can use a library exchange program to get it.  

The worst part is that people will do this.  People are paying ridiculous, rapey prices for eBooks because they don't care or aren't thinking about it, so they will also probably do this and figure the slight convenience is worth paying for something that could essentially be free.  

Lando, my hero.

I love Lando Calrissian.  I have always loved Lando Calrissian.

And I've gotten no support and only mocking when it comes to this love.  Of course I love Han (in fact, he ranks as my favorite character..._followed_ by Lando).  And does it suck that he betrayed Han?  Well, yes.  Sort of.  He did sort of save an entire planet in the process (or at least try; I'm not too clear on the outcome of their fleeing) and had his hands sort of tied.  It's not like he had another option that would have saved Han.  I highly doubt that this conversation was likely:

Vader: Hand the rebels over to me, and I'll spare your planet.

Lando: No...I don't think I will.  Sorry, mate.

Vader:  Oh.  Okay.  Well, I guess we'll just enslave your people and be on our way.  Say hi to Han for me.

Lando:  Will do;  peace brotha!

Un_likely_.

He would have simply not had Lando meet up with them at the Falcon and would have gone on the offensive slightly sooner.  In fact, I'm not entirely sure what the whole point of that charade was.  Did it accomplish anything?  I mean, Vader was never intending to actually make good on the deal. Really I think Vader was feeling a bit overshadowed by the Emperor and he just wanted to assert his dominance and play around with the lives and prosperity of a planet.

But I digress, yes, Lando "betrayed" Han, but out of necessity, not out of desire.  We have this trope where it is completely unacceptable to do anything that can be construed as betrayal, regardless of the circumstances, and you never get forgiven.  Well, I think Lando's position is a perfect case for why people should grow the fuck up and take a look at everything going on and everything that comes after.

And finally, someone agrees with me.  (via Dorkly)

Despite leading a successful attack on a Death Star and being an instrumental part of the Rebellion’s victory over the Empire, Lando is arguably the least popular main character because he “betrayed” Han Solo. And that’s bullshit. Lando had no choice but to hand Solo over to Vader. As the leader of Cloud City, he had a responsibility to protect his cloud people (killer band name). If Lando resisted, Vader would have taken the city by force and caught up with Luke and the others regardless. Luke later turns himself in after all.

Lando’s smarts allowed for the quiet escape of the Falcon and the evacuation of Cloud City; a superior alternative to a head-on fight with the Empire. Whereas Han and Chewie would prefer charging at Darth Vader with their blasters out, Lando would prefer everyone not dying. He’s Han Solo for the thinking man and smooth as hell. “You truly belong here with us among the clouds.” Are you kidding me? The man probably shits silk.

I rest my case.

Cleverness in advertising

It's obvious to anyone who ever watches television and owns a DVR that advertising is seriously needing to change with the times.  People don't really watch commercials anymore.  I certainly don't.  And on the rare occasions that I happen to be watching something live and do need to slog through commercials, I spend the whole time complaining about it or checking Google Reader on my phone until they're over.  So to get my attention, a commercial has to be clever enough for it to either catch my eye while it zooms by during my fast-forwarding or become meme worthy online.  Luckily many companies have picked up on this and we're getting priceless Old Spice commericals, confusing but amusing Dos Equis ads, and adorable Progressive spots (now with tacos!).

I recently was linked to a new horror-themed video:

This reminded me of one of my favorite commercials which involved a stalking mannequin following someone home and peering into their window.  I think it was a jeans commercial.  But all my Google and YouTube searching didn't turn it up.

Edit:  Apparently my Google-fu was on the fritz!  But thanks to Genevieve, I now have a link to the Levi's Mannequin commercial.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with the level of advertising we're getting.  It's not that we're lacking in crap commercials; they're out there, too!  But the need to be interesting to be recognized is at least encouraging a higher standard, and I appreciate the businesses that are stepping up.  In fact, soon I'll be able to add my studio's commercial to that list (as soon as we premiere it) thanks to my brother.

As a side note, I've also noticed a different tactic cropping up as a way to grab people's attention.  Many companies have been, rather than running 30-second commercials during commercial breaks, buying two 15-second spots at the beginning and end of the commercial break.  I assume the idea behind this is that you'll see the beginning of the commercial before you start fast forwarding and the end right before your show starts up since you'll leave a little space to make sure you don't miss any of the show.  Very clever.  I've certainly seen those commercials way more.  Dunkin' Donuts comes to mind as the best example.  Keep an eye out; I think more companies will be doing it soon and they should - it worked on me!

Top Picks for Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books

So, NPR recently released this years top picks for Science Fiction and Fantasy novels.  And there are _many_ awesome and deserving choices.  In many cases, it may as well be a list of all my favorite books.  But one of my favorite entries is #82, The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde.

Now, if you know me in real life, you are probably sick to death of hearing me talk about "the Thursday Next series", but if you haven't heard me tout it at every possible turn, you should take this entry as an encouragement to go and read it.  All of it.

NPR's blurb is a pretty good synopsis of the first book:

"In a world where you can actually get lost (literally) in literature, Thursday Next, a notorious Special Operative in literary detection, races against time to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature, forcing her to dive into the pages of a novel to stop literary homicide, in a wildly imaginative, mesmerizing thriller."

The whole series is _fantastic_.  I have read it several times at this point, and also quite enjoy the off-shoot Nursery Crime series.  I will say that the first book is not as engaging as the rest.  It's good, I love it, but the second book is where it really gets into the meat of the world building.

So, if you're looking for something new to read, definitely consider this series.  It's smart, funny, complex, and my favorite series, so I want everyone else to like it, too.