Tomfhaines

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(586): Wife and kids came home early...naked passed out covered in chili cheese Fritos dad will haunt them forever.

(413): Executive order 941: BRING ME THE FINEST PANCAKES!
(860): You have got to stop watching the West Wing before going out.

Ape Lad posted a photo:

Thus far this week we’ve explored old standards like t-shirts and mugs, more contemporary gift ideas like smartphone cases and also my penchant for carrying booze around on my person. Don’t you dare judge me, internet!

Now, as our week draws to a close, I’d like to shine the light on another facet of Zazzle merchandise that might be unknown to you: licensed goods.

Zazzle offers official tees, hoodies, accessories and more from nerd-friendly properties like Harry Potter, DC Comics and The Muppets. But let’s be honest here; if I’d just listed The Muppets, like, three or four times there you’d still have all the information you need to make a wise purchase.

You can tweak aspects of these designs like shirt style and color, not to mention size and placement, using the same slick on-site interface I’ve been raving about for days. And don’t forget to order before June 30th to score an extra 15% off by using the coupon code GEEKDADZ2014.

Review and promotional materials provided by: Zazzle

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The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Game of Thrones all get the tiny, cute kitteh treatment.

[via Dose]

Darth Vader and his cat. [wallaby] (more behind the gifs)

It isn’t actually a musing per se, but my mad manicurist Ashley did some amazing work yesterday:

Incidentally, if you’d like an idea of how quickly I can rattle off blog posts, I wrote all of today’s posts in real-time.  So figure all of today is about an hour’s writing, minus the time it took me to photograph my nails and get it online.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/407221.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

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On Wednesday morning, Dark Horse editor Scott Allie tweeted about the release of Dragon Age: The Silent Grove #1, on sale in comic shops now for only $1.00.

The canonical story, written by David Gaider (the lead writer on the Dragon Age games) and Alexander Freed with art by Chad Hardin, follows the adventures of King Alistair, Isabela, and Varric (everyone’s favorite surface dwarf) as they venture deep into the assassin-nation of Antiva.

This issue reprints Dragon Age: The Silent Grove #1-#2, previously available only as a Dark Horse Digital Exclusive and in the hardcovers Dragon Age Library Edition and Dragon Age: The Silent Grove Volume 1.

If you’re a fan of Dragon Age who hasn’t yet read this story that fits into the video game’s ongoing storyline, a $1.00 price tag is a great reason to give it a try.

Images courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.

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New submitter bobsta22 (583801) writes "eBay has suffered a security compromise requiring them to have all users change their passwords. As yet only a press release. Lets hope there's more juice on this." From the press release: "Cyberattackers compromised a small number of employee log-in credentials, allowing unauthorized access to eBay's corporate network, the company said. ... The database, which was compromised between late February and early March, included eBay customers’ name, encrypted password, email address, physical address, phone number and date of birth. However, the database did not contain financial information or other confidential personal information. The company said that the compromised employee log-in credentials were first detected about two weeks ago"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I’m going to eat goop and nothing but goop for a week straight, and see whether it kills me.

That’s a bit of overstatement because I’m pretty sure the goop won’t kill me.  The goop – a yeasty, thick paste many have compared to watered-down pancake batter – is scientifically designed to provide all the nutrients a human needs.  Its proponents tell me I could live on nothing but the goop and still be a healthy human being.

The goop is called Soylent – and no, it’s not made of people, all those jokes have been made – and it’s been getting a lot of press over the last year, a kind of Reddit thread forged from madness and made flesh.  A bunch of starving students asked, “Why am I paying for food when I could just put the raw vitamins and proteins in a bag, and skip this whole tedious eating process?”  And after a while of tinkering with various formulas – there’s actually a considerable Do-It-Yourself Soylent movement – they perfected the formula.  A beige glutinous mass that, when consumed, could replace every meal you ever needed.

(I’ve read a ton of articles on Soylent, but the best primer is probably this New Yorker article – which is fascinating reading, if you’re interested.)

“But why would you subsist on Soylent alone, Ferrett?” you cry.  “Aren’t you the guy who’s going around the country to eat at Michelin-starred restaurants, reviewing them?  Don’t you love food?”

And I do love food.  I love it so much that to me, this is the ultimate kind of food to eat.  It’s a food that demands a total lifestyle change, one that could completely alter how I view eating – because the folks who have lived on Soylent for a time have noted dramatic changes, scornfully referring to food as “recreational eating.”  A week is a comparatively small time to eat nothing but Soylent in the scheme of things, but I suspect that week will take frickin’ forever.

Yet what happens if it turns out this works for me?  I love food, Lord knows, but I’m addicted to all the wrong kinds; even after a triple-bypass, I still crave a fatty steak, crave that sugary cake, long for the fatal smears of peanut butter.  Yes, I’ll be missing out on the vital micronutrients that natural foods bring, but let’s be honest here: even with the smoothies, I’m still eating way more Pop Tarts than berries.  It could be that this is healthy.

And what happens with all the time and money I’d save?  “What to eat” would be a choice removed from my life, a choice that until now has consumed a lot of time, because I love variety.  Will I find better uses for that time, or just dork around on Civilization 5?  How would I meet with friends, considering “drinks and dinner” is the normal social excuse?  And what horrors will this beige fluid wreak upon my digestive system?

Only one way to find out.

Alas, y’all won’t find out right away, as all orders of Soylent are backed up 10-12 weeks.  (I could brew my own, of course, but I’ve seen what my first crafts projects look like and I would not want to put them in my belly.)  But yes, I will be blogging about this whole experience from first cup to last glutinous sip, and I’ll let you know how this all works.  If you’d like to play along at home, well, an order of Soylent is only $85 for a week’s supply.

The crazier bit: my wife, who is a Michael Pollan fanatic, forever bringing up her hatred of artificial foods and chanting Pollan’s mantra of “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” has decided she wants in on this crazytrain.  For she, too, is curious about what sorts of lifestyle changes occur when you reduce your eating world to purest nutrition.

When I pitched the idea at her, I expected to be scoffed at, not joined.  But hey!  That’s why we’re happily married; every once in a while, I remember she’s just as nuts as I am.  Especially when we go out back to tend to our beehives.

So. Coming in 10-12 weeks: the complete replacement of my diet with goop.  Blogged for your entertainment.

I’m sure you can’t wait.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/405059.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

Father’s Day approaches! For many men, this means that they will be getting a new tie, whether they like it or not. Sure, wearing a tie can be a boring affair, but it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of interesting neckwear choices out there with companies like the Cyberoptix Tie Lab, the Speicher Tie Company, ThinkGeek, Scatterbrain Ties, Projectorties, Beau Ties Ltd., Ties.com, and many more offering ties that appeal to all sorts of geeky interests.

We recently wrote about Game of Thrones bow ties, but there’s so many more geeky ties out there. Here are 25 ties that go beyond the standard stripes and solids.

Milky Way Galaxy Tie

Firefly “Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal” Bow Tie

ThinkGeek ‘Ties Suck’ Tie

Circuit Board Tie

Cthulhu Tie

Space Invaders Tie

Star Wars Narrow Ties

Om Edition Sonic Fabric Necktie

Annapolis Wooden Bow Tie

Powered by Bacon Tie

Space Shuttle Controls Bow Tie

Vincent Van Gogh TARDIS Bow Tie

Doctor Who 11th Doctor’s Bow Tie

Black Tie #000000

Steampunk Gears Bow Tie

Harry Potter House Ties

Paisley-oids Tie

Pi Tie

Elements Tie

Lorem Ipsum Bow Tie

ThinkGeek Power Tie

Ampli-Tie

Intergalactic Bow Tie

Aperture Science Logo Tie

Penny Farthing Frog Tie

DIY Geeky Tie

 Necktie Icons by Michela Tannoia from the Noun Project. CC BY 3.0.

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baiovevo:

FIVE YEARS HE WAITED FIVE YEARS

Frozach Submitted

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It’s been 27 years since Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock aired its last episode on HBO. In that time, the quirky musical show has maintained a following, if not to the degree that the Muppets have. Now, as the first kids show to be produced as part of the Hulu Originals line of programming, Fraggle Rock is finally getting a spin-off of sorts.

If you remember the show, there were three main species on the show: the Fraggles, the Gorgs, and the Doozers. It’s the Doozers – the tiny pudgy green folks who constantly build things – who star in the spin-off, which will be animated and aimed at preschoolers. Like Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train, Doozers is animated by Jim Henson Co. so that there’s a definite Muppet-like quality to the characters.

You can watch the trailer below, which introduces the show’s main characters: four Doozle kids known as “The Pod Squad.” You can also view seven 12-minute episodes of the series for free on the show’s page on Hulu. From the episodes I’ve seen, it’s a good show: not something you’d watch without your kids, but most probably something you’ll find fun enough to watch that you won’t dread watching it repeatedly when your kids latch onto it, and that’s no small thing.

In conjunction with Doozers, which premiered on Hulu on April 25, Hulu has given GeekDad an awesome prize package to give away. One (1) randomly-chosen winner will receive both a 12-month subscription to Hulu Plus and a Roku 3 streaming player. That’s worth roughly $196.00! Enter using the form below (if for any reason you can’t see or use the form below, you can enter here instead). Only one entry is allowed per person; duplicate entries will be discarded. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. All entries must be received by noon Eastern Time on Friday, May 16. At or shortly after that time, one winner will be selected at random from all valid entries.

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Ape Lad posted a photo:

Dear Sir or Madam:

This is a warning from your Internet Service Provider. Your IP address has been used to download and/or share copyrighted content, and accordingly your internet service is at risk of being suspended. We are obliged to remind you that the downloading and/or distribution of exclusively owned or licensed content infringes copyright.

We’ve been notified that in the past month, you have downloaded 250 GBs of music by Canadian alternative folk-rock band the Crash Test Dummies. We thought maybe it was an error on our end, but we looked into it further and confirmed that you did indeed download 250 GBs of music by the Crash Test Dummies, creators of the 1993 hit single “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.” We did some research and it turns out the Crash Test Dummies’ entire catalog of music, even including side projects by the band’s members, should just barely weigh in at 1 GB, leading us to assume you either found and downloaded 249 GBs of unreleased music by the Crash Test Dummies (???), or downloaded their entire discography 250 times? We are baffled and fascinated. We have a few questions:

• Did you think you were downloading something else?

• Is it safe to assume that you, having downloaded over 200 GBs of Crash Test Dummies, only listen to Crash Test Dummies?

• If you like Crash Test Dummies enough to download over 200 GBs of their music, shouldn’t you be buying it?

• Can you give us just a general idea of what your personal life is like?

• So was hearing “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” for the first time the greatest moment of your life? We bet.

• Are you one of the Crash Test Dummies’ parents?

• So, like, should we check out the Crash Test Dummies?

• Is there some kind of ironic resurgence of Crash Test Dummies going on? We are all in our mid-40s here.

• We’re wondering what you must look like and we literally can’t picture it. Can you respond to this email with an attached picture of yourself?

• Would you maybe want us to send you some recommendations for other good music or are you good with the Crash Test Dummies?

• Seriously why do you have 250 GBs of music by Canadian alternative folk-rock band the Crash Test Dummies in your possession?

• What are the file sizes on these mp3s you’re downloading? Like 6 GB each?

• In cases of extreme copyright infringement, the accused’s hard drive may be seized by the proper authority. If that were to happen, would they find even more Crash Test Dummies?

• Is owning 250 GBs of Crash Test Dummies music something you openly tell people about or do you try to keep it on the down low?

• Who do you think about at night before you fall asleep?

• Do the Crash Test Dummies still tour and if not how are you dealing with that?

• Say hypothetically you were forced to choose your favorite Crash Test Dummies’ song, and whichever one you pick, all the other ones disappear forever—would you lose your shit or what?

• What is your favorite Crash Test Dummies lyric that isn’t“Mmm mmm mmm mmm/Mmm mmm mmm mmm/Mmm?”

• We absolutely don’t want to get too pushy or throw around accusations or anything, but you’re not going to… kill the Crash Test Dummies are you?

• Wait, did you maybe catch some sort of computer virus that automatically downloaded 250 GBs of music by the Crash Test Dummies onto your hard drive? Do you even know that it’s on there?

• Again, any details about your personal life would really intrigue us. Marital status, hobbies (besides listening to the Crash Test Dummies), etc.

We remind you once more that we will terminate your internet service if piracy of copyrighted content is traced to your IP again in the future. We don’t anticipate this being a problem because we assume 250 GBs of Crash Test Dummies has to be all of it, right?

We apologize if this letter reads as judgmental.

noseperiod:

Tywin Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannisport, Warden of the West, and Hand of the King.

“Less Exciting Board Games” is a Four Eyes comic strip by cartoonist Gemma Correll that illustrates four boring versions of popular board games like Risk and Operation.

image via Gemma Correll

"Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual."

¿Se acuerdan que hace un tiempo publiqué un post donde había una batalla Star Wars vs. Game of Thrones? Bueno, hoy les tengo la versión GIF animado, la cual es mucho más graciosa y fácil de ver.

Este artículo Star Wars vs. Game of Thrones en un GIF animado fue publicado originalmente en Punto Geek.

The latest Star Wars exclusive from ThinkGeek is the perfect housewarming gift for the geeks in your life: the R2-D2 Measuring Cup set.

Your favorite droid now disassembles into practically all the measuring cups and spoons a Padawan chef could possibly need. His dome is 1/2 cup, and his cylindrical body splits into 1/3, 1/4 and one full cups. Similarly, his stubby little legs contain 1/2, 1/3 and one full teaspoons. (Okay, technically there are two teaspoons, though one is labelled 1/3 tablespoon – on account of those ThinkGeek folks are clever!)

Best of all, each of these can be easily, quickly reassembled into a free-standing base to once again become the tiny, discreet R2 unit that your kitchen secretly yearns for. It’s constructed of BPA-free, food-grade plastic, but it’s not safe for the dishwasher or microwave use. Just like real astromechs.

The Star Wars R2-D2 Measuring Cup set is regularly $19.99, but it’s currently only $15.99 as part of ThinkGeek’s Star Wars Day sale. All their other Star Wars loot is also currently 20% off, so act fast!

Review materials provided by: ThinkGeek

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