June 09, 2005
The Eyes Have It
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~ Mark Twain
If you ever want proof that:
1. Our brains are broken
2. Wasting time is fun
You need to check out 55 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena. The site is brain candy and it gives good explanations as to why you're seeing things that shouldn't be but are. If you're stubborn like me you'll waste the bulk of your time shouting "no way!" at the screen.
Also I need to know what it says about me that I find THIS vaguely dirty.
Yes. I'm the kind of geek those "magic eye" books were developed for.
Groovy | Inner Geek by Doxy at 05:33 PM | permalink | talkback (1)
April 08, 2005
John Doe Volcano
BOUNDARY, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other. ~ Ambrose Bierce
So, okay, I'm officially obsessed with Google Map's satellite pictures for the next few days. No need to send a search party, I'll come out when the novelty wears off. What I'm most enjoying is testing the limits of my geography memory and trying to find things outside the US where you can only zoom in about halfway.
I found this volcano somewhere in Mexico. No fucking clue which one it is. Any ideas are welcome. Am I alone in wanting full zoom power for the whole world like right now? I want to see:
* The Pyramids and Sphinx
* The Colosseum
* The Taj Mahal
* Angkor Wat
* The Moai Statues
And in the most obnoxious Veruca Salt impersonation I can muster: Don't care HOW I want it NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.
I'm also pretty sure the dark spot on Sicily shown here is Mt. Etna. I'm also confident that one of these dots of water is the Dead Sea.
Also, I found Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant in Miami. I used to head out boating from the boat ramp here. It's crazy that you can see the two massive chimneys and the cooling water canals where all the crocodiles live. And how amazing is it that you can see the trenched channel so clearly that cuts out into the ocean through the shallow water?
Oh, and just in case you think I've completely lost it, just remember, I'm completely sane compared to this guy. He's finding things in corn fields for Pete's sake.
Inner Geek by Doxy at 05:26 PM | permalink | talkback (2)
April 06, 2005
It’s a Small World After All
If you can dream it, then you can do it. ~ Disney Imagineers (via EPCOT’s now defunct Horizons)
When I was just a little girl (I asked my mother, what would I be...) I led a very privileged life, and it was not at all unusual to go to Walt Disney World ten times a year. And that’s a very conservative estimate.
I am not the Disneyphile I was in my teens or in the years that followed. Once, on a dare, friends blindfolded me in the passenger’s seat of a car and challenged me to navigate Disney property. I won.
These days, well, I want to stand outside and throw hissy fits when I see Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride morphed into Pooh’s Great Adventure…or whatever the fuck it is. And what they’ve done to the Enchanted Tiki Room? Well that’s just goddamn blasphemy.
So I don’t go and when I do, I irritate people by calling the Buzz Lightyear ride “If You Had Wings.”
I’m sentimental in a ridiculously insane way about the park I knew as a kid. Before it became its own country. Like Rod Serling’s obsession with the carousel he rode as a boy, I just want to go back for a little while and pet the horse Fred that conveyed me down Main Street a hundred times.
Eh. I’m not going to go on about this, but let’s just say that Cory Doctrow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom hits WAY too close to home for me.
I thought I’d shunned WDW like the childhood playmate that stole my Donny Osmond doll and pretended it was hers (purple socks and all, the little cunt).
But, what happens the minute Google launches Satellite views on Google Maps? I go right to Disney World. It’s the cyber way of driving by your ex’s street.
But, come on. How cool is this:
Other Cool Google Maps:
The Luxor, Las Vegas
The Bellagio, Las Vegas
Devil’s Tower National Monument, Wyoming
Pro Player Stadium, Davie, Florida
The University of Miami Campus
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
Da Mouse | Groovy | Inner Geek by Doxy at 02:13 AM | permalink | talkback (1)
March 25, 2005
Spare Time and Dirty Water
You would be referring to the flute fetish band geek, who made me her bitch, and ditched me after prom. ~ American Pie II
Geeks with spare time are fun. They do things like this:
The problem is that apparently, they also drink stuff like:
Pocari Sweat.
Ewwwww.
Inner Geek | Victuals by Doxy at 05:40 AM | permalink | talkback (0)
March 24, 2005
Pop-Ups and Firefox
He is free that knows how to keep in his own hands the power to decide. ~ Salvador De Madriaga
I've noticed that some sites have figured out a way around Firefox's pop-up blocking. If you're having a similar problem, here is a possible fix that doesn't require FlashBlock.
Adblock also solves the pop-up problem for me, but certain websites (like ESPN) lock up and crash Firefox when I go there with Adblock installed.
Inner Geek by Doxy at 03:56 AM | permalink | talkback (0)
February 28, 2005
TV Tome ConQuery
I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. ~ Franklin P. Adams
I am hopelessly addicted to Firefox ConQuery (Note: if you are not using Firefox, you need to start using it. If you know about it and opt not to use it then you need clinical help).
Anyway the ConQuery extension's Mozdev index provides for most popular search engine-like sites, but TV Tome isn't one of their official listings. I like TV Tome. It's a nice complement to IMDB. Plus the episode-by-episode summaries come in handy.
So, a pal of mine kindly made me a TV Tome src.
Get the SRC file HERE
Get the PNG file HERE
Both of these files should go into your Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins folder.
Props to Molehill just in case he ever decides to blog again.
Inner Geek by Doxy at 02:15 PM | permalink | talkback (0)
