How can you not enjoy this?

Posted by James at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Heard this on the radio on the way home from work today. The video is creepy x 1000, and the sound is off, but a classic jam none the less. Happy Friday:

Posted by James at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's a list of the things that Apple will and won't let you get engraved on an iPod.

Here's some favorites of mine, first off, things you can't have engraved:

10,000 Stolen Tunes Inside
Not to be used as a suppository
Lick My Shiny Metal Ass
Something small & white that Enrique Eglasias Isn't In
Steal this? Will self destruct when used
Screwing The RIAA One Download At A Time

And now for some funny ones that were accepted:

This engraving has lowered my resale value
To all the Chinese children who made my iPod, Thanks!
Me vs. RIAA: Exhibit A
98% Liberace-free
Your mamma uses a walkman.

and my favorite...

CDs are for amish people!

[Thanks to FSJ for the point]

Posted by James at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you were heading up the tourism board for Scotland, and you spent $250,000 to have an agency create a new tourism slogan for your country, and your old slogan was "the best small country in the world," how would you feel about the following slogan, after 6 months of work?

"Welcome to Scotland"

Yes, that's what $250,000 buys you these days. Becuase I'm such a nice guy, I'll do some work for free here and give the Scotland tourism board a few other suggestions for free:

"Scotland, Ays Like Fookin Amasin!"

(Irvine Welsh readers will understand that one)

"If You Don't Like Scotland, You Can Hop Over to Ireland and Get a Guinness"

or

"Scotland - You Might Not Understand What We're Saying, But We Swear It's All Nice"

and finally,

"Scotland - We Promise It's Nothing Like Trainspotting"

Of course, a serious heroin habit might explain paying $250,000 for "Welcome to Scotland," so axe that last one.

[Thumbs up to The Denver Egotist for the link]

Posted by James at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear Japan,

Thank you for sushi, awesome electronics, and this:

[SIDE NOTE: Has anyone else noticed this blog has had pretty much nothing to do with marketing for the last few months? Interesting...]

Posted by James at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over the Thanksgiving break I read Alex Roy's book, The Driver. If you're a car/rally nerd like me, I'd recommend it. While some of the spiritual aspects of the book get a little annoying, hearing real stories from Gumball and Bullrun made reading the book well worth it.

Not surprisingly, the book ends with Roy's record setting trip from New York to Los Angeles in 32 hours and 7 minutes, which from a technical and giant-set-of-brass-balls standpoint is pretty phenomenal. Here's a little about the car that Alex made the run in...

Here's a link to the book:

The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World

Get it for all your car loving friends. Merry X-mas.

Posted by James at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Having a friend who's a pilot is pretty cool.

Having a friend who's been on the news is also pretty cool.

Having a friend who's a pilot and has been on the news because his landing gear didn't go down and he had to do a belly landing with his flight instructor on Thanksgiving is REALLY COOL.

So Kevbo, thank you sir for being really cool. Glad you made it down safe and sound, and glad they got the whole thing on tape.

Beers are coming your way good sir, you can be sure of that.

[Here's the link to the story on the Fox 31 site...and if you didn't click above, here is the video.]

Posted by James at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tinariwen is one of my favorite music groups thanks to a blog post from Hugh MacLeod a while back. I ended up listening to them as I traveled across Italy with Kristi, and as far as traveling music goes, Tinariwen is tops.

Who is Tinariwen? Well, I lucked across this documentary on YouTube that will give you a good idea. Needless to say this group is a product of their environment, and their environment is harsher than most of us can ever imagine.

If you have the time, watch this video on Tinariwen, and if you like what you see, download their music...it will change how you think about music, I promise.

Posted by James at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OOOOOOOOOOOK...my small obsession with the Benny Lava video has taken a new turn...could be for the worse. Turns out the guy who did the English sounds-like translation for Benny Lava, Buffalax, is doing translations for a bunch of foreign language videos. Check out this Indian version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which shall be referred to as "Girly Man" from this day forward...

Special bonus...very special:

Posted by James at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My Uncle Todd passed this on to me...it gets funnier every time I watch it. It starts kind of slow, but get better and better as the video goes on.

Posted by James at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alex Roy calls the video below a "snuff film" for auto enthusiasts. Shot in Paris in 1976 the driver, highly respected French director Claude Lelouch, drove his Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9 across Paris at top speed. The result is something that's scary, amazing and hard to believe all at once.

Enjoy.

Posted by James at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fridays. You've got to love them. You might remember the "Benny Lava" jam I pointed out earlier this week (it's the second video in this post)...well this Friday a couple of my coworkers decided to break the monotony with a little dance party, India style.

In this video Eric and Maribeth (a.k.a. Beef) are both watching the Benny Lava video and trying to mimic the dance moves...with varied success.

This might be one of those things that's only funny if you know the dancers, but whatever, makes me giggle...

Posted by James at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know what it is, but for someone who used to care very little about food, I'm now terribly interested in it. Maybe it has something to do with Kristi showing me that vegetarian food can be interesting and tasty, or maybe it's just part of getting older and yearning for a potbelly.

As I've mentioned before, I've become a bit of a fan of the chef/writer/TV guy Anthony Bourdain. Even though the guy loves eating pigs more than having sex, his passion for food is inspiring.

Last night I was reading Anthony's most recent book "The Nasty Bits," and he mentioned a chef whom I've heard mentioned by other famous chefs on multiple occasions - a man named Ferran Adrià. Ferran is known for his scientific approach to cooking and his restaurant, El Bulli, which is always at the top of the best restaurant in the world list.

The other day I checked out the El Bulli site and was excited to see that the site is like a catalog of the strange/tasty/mind bending cuisine Ferran has cooked up.

If you're a fan of food, or just want to see some pretty pictures of strange culinary concoctions, check out the El Bulli food catalog photos. Click around and see what the mad doctor of food has cooked up in the past, and be inspired by the his non-traditional approach to a very traditional profession.

Posted by James at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank God for all the different countries on this planet. Why? Because different countries (namely Japan and India) gave us these amazing videos. Enjoy...

Also, make sure you check out pictures from my sister's big adventure on the ice (hint PENGUINS)!

Posted by James at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On a lighter note...

At 3 mins and 23 seconds this video kicks all ass.

Posted by James at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm going to stay away from any political commentary on this one, but I do think this story is interesting from an economic/taxation standpoint. There's interesting information coming out about the financial cost of the wars we are currently fighting Here's a quote from CNN.com:

A report published Tuesday into the economic impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan says hidden expenses almost double the official cost. Once the extra costs are added -- including health care for wounded veterans and higher oil prices -- the report said the average cost of both wars for a family of four would be $20,900 from 2002 to 2008.

For some reason that really drove home that we're all paying for the war financially with our tax dollars.

Here's the whole story.

Posted by James at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm a big fan of the Diggnation Podcast and an occasional user of the Digg social news website. One name that comes up a lot on Diggnation is the "digger" who goes by the handle "Mr Baby Man."

I don't know about you but when I try to imagine someone named Mr Baby Man, my mind pictures a facial haired, severly heavy middle aged man who lives in a basement and likes to wear adult sized baby clothes. Yeah, pretty gross.

Well, it turns out I was right about the facial hair. Ladies and gents, meet the surprisingly normal and pretty darn funny Mr Baby Man...

Posted by James at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah - I'm bragging. My sister is BFFs with Ann Curry from the Today Show...here is a picture of them totally chilling and taking about the pressures of life in the fast lane:

Actually, Ann is at McMurdo reporting about the end of the world, um, global warming, and she has been drinking heavily with the McMurdarians to keep warm. Here's the story from Laura.

Oh yeah, and speaking of the end of the world, here is a very informative video that describes what could cause the demise of us all. Strangely, the scenario in the video was not covered by the Today Show...

Posted by James at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm back!

I just spent the last couple days in Juarez, Mexico - only about 20 miles from the USA but two worlds away. The poverty in the area was terrible, but like my experience in Africa, the people were amazing. I'm kinda pooped, and Kristi and I celebrated out 4 year anniversary tonight (YAY US!), so I'll let the photos tell the story (see all the photos here). Maybe I'll write a bit more later...

This is the group standing on the slab before we started building...

Part of the family who will be living in the home we built...

We built this before lunch...

One of the boys who will be living in the house...

Rosana, the cutest ever...

Loved ice cream, hated photos...

Finished and painted house...

Myself and the other "Uniturds"...

Sunset on the job site.

The organization I we worked with on this trip was Mission Ministries...make sure you check out their site if you want to learn more.

Posted by James at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ok, so I'm not going to avenge my family because there is nothing to avenge, but I am heading to Juarez, Mexico for the next few days to build a home for a family in need. This is the first trip like this I've taken since Kristi and I went to Africa to paint an orphanage and I'm excited to get my hands dirty and do something meaningful.

Needless to say, there won't be much blogging until I get back, which will be on Wednesday. Send your good vibes to all of my cohorts and coworkers who will be headed south of the border tomorrow.

[Thanks to this person for the photo.]

Posted by James at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This has got to be one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while. The Eye-Fi is a 2 GB memory card with built in wi-fi, so you can upload photos to the web and your camera by just turning it on. Wild.

Check out the Eye-Fi site for the rundown - at only $99 I think I need one.

[Big ups to Lifehacker for the link]

Posted by James at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's pretty rare when this blog and my work blog get a post about the same topic, but seriously, BlogStorm's list of the Top Ten Worst Websites You Wish You Hadn't Seen is flippin' hilarious. Read it and make sure you click on the screenshots to visit these web atrocities (especially the rainbow church site).

Posted by James at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)