Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Does Doctor Who

Well, I was going to sit down and write reviews and things, but being rather tired, I ended up on YouTube watching the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre instead. I'd heard about them before, but people always posted links before I'd watched whatever Doctor Who episode they were doing, so I never ended up watching them.

Their take on The End of Time nails the difficulties far more clearly and hilariously than any other review I've seen. Here's Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.


The sock puppets do Shakespeare as well. I'm very much looking forward to watching thier King Lear.

What are they? They're, um, well, they're sock puppets. Scottish sock puppets. They do amazingly comic, killer reviews and retakes on all sorts of shows and songs and, it looks like sometimes they comment on current events as well.

I watched several during my supposed blogging time, and enjoyed them thoroughly. Mild complaint: A couple of the shows veered into cruder territory than I am comfortable with, but that's why there's YouTube--I could happily switch to something else, and no one was bothered. So, with that mild caveat: Go forth and enjoy!

Seaside Patriotism

Just because: On Brownies

Written a while back for a friend, and posted here... just because


In Praise of Brownies

You may want some berries
Topped with cream in a bowl,
But I'm sure you can see
That the brownie has soul.

Oh a good cake is fine,
It can almost compare
But I'm sure you'll agree
That the brownie has flair.

Oh a cookie is sweet,
And a muffin worthwhile,
But in the end you must see
That the brownie has style

Yes, cupcakes are good,
And peach pie is divine,
But if you're with me,
Then the brownie is mine!

by Jessica Greenlee

Just because

Hyperbole and a Half: The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

Someone just send me a link to this blog entry, and it is too fun and funny not to share: Hyperbole and a Half: The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

Easter Egg Dye

I love dying Easter eggs. I don't do anything fancy to them; I just drop them into the dye and watch with delight as the hues get more and more intense. The brighter the egg, the more unnaturally it fluoresces, the happier I am.

This year, though, I tried something new--tie dye eggs.

The dye is a much thicker, more intense, more permanent gel that one drops onto the egg with somewhat flimsy eye-droppers and then rubs it in using a specially provided plastic bag.

It's kind of fun, though I have a theory that the people who made the kit and the people who wrote the instructions never actually spoke to one another (there are three separate sets of instructions on what to do with the dye, and they're all different, there are two different drying trays, for one), and I got the best results from dropping the dye into the plastic bag rather than the egg.

But--I only had eight eggs to experiment with (I love to dye cold boiled eggs; I don't love eating them), and one of them cracked, so I have a lot of bright gel dye left and a vague feeling that there ought to be some creative use for it. It doesn't spread out well on construction paper, copier paper, or paper towels, so tie-dye paper is not an option. It's also not terribly storable--intense, indelible dye in a flimsy, uncovered plastic tray is a disaster waiting to happen.

So I thought I'd blog and ask--what do you do with leftover Easter Egg dye?

And in the meantime, I'll go make some (undyed) cinnamon rolls.

Yup. More LOLcats

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The Creature from the Deep

Yesterday's long walk on the beach was supposed to be a photography walk.

It didn't quite work out the way I planned because I failed to take the tides into account: I'm currently focusing on found-item pictures and sand patterns, both of which are best done at low tide, after the ocean has had its chance to give up its treasures.

It turned out to be mid-tide, neither high nor low; most of what was on the beach needed to be thrown away, not photographed (Though I did save a couple of intriguing bits and pieces).

So, I enjoyed the lovely day, watched the pelicans and seagulls, and played around a bit from the Creature from the Deep:

New Blog to Follow

A friend * recently suggested I try reading some of Adam Rex's books. I did, and I enjoyed them, and I decided to stop by his blog, which thanks to this entry, I am now hooked on.

Oh, so far, I've read three of the books: Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, Frankenstein Takes the Cake, and Psst!.

The first two are weird and wonderful little poems and illustrations about the lives and loves of various monsters--Frankenstein wants to borrow a little something from his neighbors and has food thrown at him instead (which turns out to be a good thing: it all makes a yummy sandwich), the Phantom of the Opera can't get It's a Small World out of his head (and the rhyme about it can be sung to Small World, which I didn't catch at first), and the raven just can't seem to get Poe's attention.

The third is an equally surreal visit to the zoo, where a young girl is asked by a group of animals to pick up a bunch of supplies for them, using money the peacock picks out of the pools each day. As an extra touch, the animals are all chatty while the people's word balloons are blank.

*Note: Said friend is fond of horror movies. Follow the link with that in mind.

Aaaand another lolcat

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LolCats Strike Again

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Chatterbox

The Broken Hourglass: Makarios Ringtone

I find it vaguely amusing that there is a Makarios Ringtone out there. It's strictly unofficial, but since it comes off of the music posted on Planewalker Games main site, I guess it's ok.

And, yeah, I should actually be writing quests, not doing google searches on the game, or even working to figure out what Carind's last name will be (whatever it turns out to be, I bet it won't be on the list I just posted on the dev forum. That's ok, though, as long as it is pretty soon).

Still don't know Ioanna's last name, either, come to that. Diversions? Yup. It's the old "blank page" syndrome. Not that the page is blank, exactly, but I haven't been working on it yet, so it's all daunting and new and scary.

It's also all planned out and I know exactly what I'm going to be doing.

It's just that starting is always, inevitably, hard, no matter what I'm writing.

Enough! I will go write, I will go write, I will go write....

Why I Keep Reading Terry Pratchett

He keeps including bits like this:

"The question seldom addressed is where Medusa had snakes. Underarm hair is an even more embarrassing problem when it keeps biting the top of the deodorant bottle"

From Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Confession Time

I am over 18. I am a gamer. Not only do I play games, I write them, and, worst of all, I wear jeans (and wear them while writing). Apparently, this makes me part of the decline and fall of America1, though I might be able to ameliorate the situation if I put on a string of pearls and/or gave up voting.

1It's important to be a part of something, don't you think?

Odd

So I've been reading Disneyland's map. It's a very thorough map and even has all the spots with defibrillators marked on it with cute little symbols.

They've go ta symbol for "This ride might scare kids," an big black exclamation mark inside of a bright yellow circle--hard to miss, even if you're skimming the map.

But--it's only on the map once, next to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. That's right, the movie is scary. The Haunted Mansion, Snow White's Scary Ride, Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean are just fine1.


1.Well, probably fine. There's also a big, red triangle that indicates some possible danger from heart attacks, and that is scattered around fairly liberally.

The Zombie Pride and Prejudice

A zombie version of Pride and Prejudice is in the works. My favorite part of the discussion:

"One obvious question, of course, is what would Ms. Austen think of this unconventional adaptation? To this, I turned to Salon book critic and Austen fan Laura Miller, who replied:

"Well, she'd be astonished, of course, since her age was, sadly, as bereft of zombie movies as it was of indoor plumbing. However, I don't doubt that Elizabeth Bennet would adapt quickly to the imperatives of a zombie attack and in time prove one of our ablest leaders in the war against the undead. The real question is: If Mr. Darcy became infected, would Elizabeth have the fortitude to behead him in time?"

Lovely.

Keeping Things in Proportion

We take our mugs seriously in this family.

More Silliness

I seem to have a split personality. According to o'Faust, I there is a "moderate" resemblance between my writing in this blog and that of Oscar Wilde, Frank Baum, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lewis Caroll, results depending on how much text I paste in, and the resemblance never going higher than 30%. I'm semi-tempted to give it yet more to see what else it pulls up, but really do need to get ready for the Book Arts class and tearing down the Reading Room.

GenderAnalyzer

According to GenderAnalyzer, there is a 66% probability that this blog is being written by a man.

Should I use more exclamations or question marks? Or should I discuss pink more enthusiastically? Or should I settle down and get back to work on The Broken Hourglass?

Edit: Adding those question marks just pushed the probability up to 67%. Did the % offset the ? What are they using in their estimations anyway?
Edit2: And throwing in the names of the male authors--see above post--raised the likelihood of this being by a man to 69%.