I'm glad people like this are out there

I was feeling unsettled this evening for no reason I can discern, so I sought some distraction in the internet. I ended up spending several hours wandering around this site:

Action Squad: Minneapolis

I think I may have posted it before, but it merits a reposting. I especially recommend these entries (mostly found on the missions, misc. page):

• Bridge to Dimension Zed (I can't believe I've been driving under this bridge for years and never once thought how weird it is that it comes from and goes to nowhere),
• Inside the Wabasha Street Bridge,
• Max Action's Crawlspace, and
• Cobb Caves.

Here I am. Is there a roadmap?

Friends, I have now entered the iPod nation. This means years of being totally behind on music can come to an end. Paul wasn't ever behind on music, but he's joining the iPod nation for the convenience. Apparently there's a LOT of reggae on iTunes, so he's in heaven.

We are slowly learning our way around iTunes, and I even tried out the Amazon.com music shop today (they have rotating free downloads! plus they gave me a $5 credit for something I bought at some point). We have mostly mastered the iPod boombox I purchased for his birthday. Sometimes I can get my iPod radio tuner thingy to work in my car. So here we are!

Now I need your help. What should I download? I need song suggestions. Lots of them.

Thanks, team.

Shoes

Paul gets credit for stumbling upon this little game. I was really terrible at first but worked up to a score of 10 after a few tries.

I did find the random photographer curious at the time

Here I am on the Pizza Luce website (you have to watch the slide show for a few minutes)

Because otherwise I'll forget

Here's my official post to track my ab contest work.

The welcome screen

During my semester in DC, I took a journalism class. The instructor had a really strange set of professional experiences before becoming a teacher, including a stint with the USA T(otal crap)oday sports section, an unspecified something that led to a close personal friendship with the America's Most Wanted guy, and co-editorship of the AOL welcome screen. She told us that editing the welcome screen was the pinnacle of her journalism career, because it's one of the most-read news sources anywhere. Serious thought goes into selecting headlines that will be irresistible to AOLers--and make them click for more.

Yahoo! Mail has a similar screen full of headlines--most of them leading to trite and annoying stories. And yet I still get suckered in to clicking, even as I'm thinking "no, no, resist, resist!" I hate to let the welcome screen people win, but I did find these two recent stories pretty interesting:

• Divorce Wars
  

• The Slump: It's a Guy Thing

Great find

My internet addiction led me from a recent post on Sarah's blog to this incredibly interesting site: Action Squad: Minneapolis Urban Adventurers. This group practices urban exploration, which wikipedia defines as "examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of human civilization" including abandoned buildings, utility and transit tunnels, and sewers and storm drains. Judging from their website, Action Squad focuses on brewery caves, steam tunnels, and condemned historic buildings. The website carefully describes each "mission" in text and pictures. It's really impressive. And they cite Indian Jones and Goonies as their sources of inspiration, so how could they go wrong?

Oh, and for those of you keeping track, the legislature has moved on from regulating animal chiropractic care to the most important business of regulating beer keg purchase and receipt by scrap metal dealers.

Nerdy internet sample platter

For all the language arts nerds out there, check out Freerice.com, a site that donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme for every correct answer to a vocabulary quiz. Thanks to KT for this great find--timely given the problem with rising rice prices. In response to a skeptical friend of Kate's, I verified there is a link to the site from the UN World Food Programme, so looks legit despite sounding pretty weird. I donated 220 grains on my first try (lost on hoosegow, which means "jail") and my highest vocab level so far is 44. I will certainly devote some quality time tonight to beating those records.

For all the economics-, news junkie-, or general-purpose nerds, I think you'll enjoy this Marketplace segment on the coming economic stimulus payments. What's really incredible is that they got former labor secretary Robert Reich to comment for the story.

And not just because...

...Eli reminds me of a scruffy new puppy or a well-loved teddy bear, but because I know many of you are fans:



(I borrowed this from youtube because Animal Planet unwisely did not provide embedded links in its fine series of videos from the big game, complete with the kitty half time show.)

But on the actual game, an AP reporter described it best: "It was a scintillating closing chapter to a crazy week that seemed to have everything: the perfect team; the upstart underdogs; the cover boy quarterback in the Patriots' Tom Brady; the kid brother in Manning." By far the best moment was when they cut to Eli at the end and his look clearly said, "f%#k...I just won the Superbowl...wow."

In comparison I found the commercials quite lackluster. I have to disagree with Cyndy and say that Coca-Cola was the only company that brought it this year (both Jinx and It's Mine), with an honorable mention to Audi and Bud Light for remembering their audience.

Thank you, Al Gore!

Who doesn't love a little time-wasting on the internet? In honor of a completely useless evening of television, junk food, and internet surfing, I bring you links from websites I have recently discovered.

Urban Dictionary
A very handy slang wiktionary. Harkens back to my nerdy linguistics major friends talking about whether dictionaries would move toward a more organic view of new word development. I'd say that ship has sailed, no?

Twin Cities Green Guide
Just like it sounds--help being more green. So your liberal alma mater doesn't disown you.

Food Network
Paul will laugh if he sees this on here because I never cook. But I am infatuated with this website. Whoever designed it should win an award. It is perfectly designed to answer the overwhelmingly broad question, "what should I make?" by giving you a million different ways to wander your way to a recipe.

Target audience?

While doing some very serious online research prompted by Anne's post about tupperware, I came upon this:

The
Gladware
Interlocker
Game

How much do you think Glad paid the makers of Bejeweled to produce this little gem? When it comes out of beta I would suggest less obnoxious music.

Also, isn't it just like humans to create such a boundless invention as the internet and then fill it with crap like a tupperware game?

Speaking of new frontiers

For all you omnivores and connectors out there, here's an interesting news story. Since one of these links will inevitably break, here are a few more: MPR, CNNMoney, and TechLawBlog. I don't know quite what I think about all this yet (especially because I don't use internet on my cell phone), but the Google rep on MPR-Marketplace was pretty convincing.

It is fascinating to watch government regulators react to the rapidly changing technology landscape. We seem to get these whiplash like swings between protecting semi-monopolies and then breaking them. Given the speed of technological development, and the network effect inherent to the tech market, I find the protectionist arguments offered by the cell providers hard to swallow.
_________________________________________________________________
FYI: since the original post, the FCC issued new rules that appear to be a compromise between the Google/openess folks and the Cell phone industry folks.

It's like crack

I learned from a favorite blog that a friend may apply to participate in the Washington Post Magazine feature Date Lab. You have to check out the archives. Seriously, it's like crack. (Well, not the most addictive form of crack served up exclusively by HGTV, but really close.)

Actually made me miss DC for a moment. Don't worry, it passed.

Fugly

I rest my case: The go-to blog on pop culture fashion criticism agrees that there is something strangely fascinating about the Pussycat Dolls (including the Search for the Next). I am not alone.

Seriously, if you were too lazy or uninterested to click the link above, here's another one. I've been spending way too much time there. I first noticed the site because it's linked on two unrelated blogs that I read regularly (the wonders of the blogosphere). So now I can hold two people I do not know (well, one I have met once or twice, the other never) responsible for all my time-wasting.