RKNet Blog... Thing

Insert “Thaddeus D Mallardmarrow Meets the Mole Men of Mantle Sector 9″ story here.

Shared by Mathiasx via #ectomo.
I really like this! The video itself looks like it was generated by painstaking hours on a Lite Bright, although I’m sure that’s probably not the case. The sound is modern, perhaps a rather common brand of modern not-quite-pop. Yet it’s pleasant and listenable and there are threads of influence running through here that are almost palpable. Fuzzy guitar matched with a good drum beat, and a lilting vocal make this a pleasure to listen to in my book.

What do you think?

It all started with a simple link to BoingBoing, which I don’t ordinarily read, in the ectomo chat (EFNet, #ectomo or through a java module on the site).

The article was a simple video, with the headline “Man electrocutes pickle to demonstrate power of Christianity“.

Within the video, a friendly older gentleman wishes to share a neat experiment and a metaphor with the audience. The experiment involves taking a regular pickle of fairly decent size, skewering either end with metal forks, hanging it from a safely grounded sling, and hooking up electrical clips to the forks. When the wire with the clips is plugged into a source of electricity (in this case a wall socket, as evidenced by the standard US plug on one end), we can see that electricity is conducted through the pickle to create a complete circuit. With the lights off, you can watch one end of the pickle glow and spark like a fourth of july sparkler as seen through frosted glass.

It is at this point which Grandpa John - that’s this older fellow’s stage name I’d assume - wishes to really make his metaphor. His goal was to demonstrate that by introducing the power of Christ in the life of any average person, that person will glow (figuratively) with the power and light of God.

Needless to say, the BoingBoing commenters had a field day with this somewhat dubious analogy.

My favorite comment: “Pickle! Pickle! burning bright,
Between the forks of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” ~ chriss1519

Later on…

Gia-tan HA. take that expensive, wasteful floor washing kits and mops! Entire kitchen floor cleaned with one clorox wipe and my foot!
Gia-tan toes: best for getting into corners since the jesus pickle invented them

Then Mathiasx mentioned a song called Handlebars by a band called Flobots (which is absolutely amazing, by the by), which in turn reminded me of a song called Jesus Grow a Handlebar Moustache for Me by a band called Pataphysics. Bringing things somewhat full circle. Quite a reach for synchronicity, but without the original Jesus Pickle video from earlier, the odds of my remembering the Pataphysics’ song to make mention of it would have been significantly lessened.

Pataphysics - Jesus Grow a Handlebar Moustache for Me

Sometimes shit just sucks.

~via the rabbitsonthesun photobucket and #ectomo

This guy is AWESOME! Amy might not agree (and my apologies for ganking your series title for this) but I have to say that this is some of the most amusing and amazing nerd rap I’ve heard in a while. Why is it nerd rap? Well, watch for yourself.

Ignoring his awkward posing, this is by far the best lyrical treatment I could think of to describe the role of design in SEO. Everything he puts forth here is exactly correct, from clear navigation, use of standards, browser testing, and a clear call to action.

The SEO Rapper has it right, and even though you may feel like this is perhaps in the same league as the anti-drug rapping of the 80s-90s (yo yo, kids don’t do drugs, stay in schoo’, be respec-ful of your parents, ’cause no one likes a fool!), those who are new to the whole “SEO” thing might want to pay attention. For those who have had an education on the subject already, you’ll definitely get a kick out of this approach to the core concepts of search marketing.

Props to antifuchs in #ectomo for pointing this out to me.

It all started when the #ormgas IRC bot piped up with the following:

wormgas: Garlic icecream is a huge pupa in a special ops team to assasinate bin laden and his wife. It’s his thirtieth birthday!

Next thing I know, over in #ectomo I’m being introduced to a bitchin’ Cibo Matto track from Jet Set Radio Future!

Another version, illustrated by hand for someone’s English project. Will help you figure out the lyrics.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

mathiasx Ernest Hemingway does not cash in on internet memes. He creates them. You ever hear of mudkipz? Yeah, that was him.

Via #ectomo on EFNet. (Come say hi!) ~Ectomo

Last night the most remarkable series of things happened, resulting in a delightful print out just for you!
In #ormgas (the IRC channel for the OCR internet radio broadcast), Leissi pasted the following -

Notice: This Department requires no physical fitness program: everyone gets enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, running down the boss, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility, and pushing their luck.

Struck with inspiration, I decided to make a poster from this material. I also decided that the various cautionary signs from the game Portal, with their wet-floor-sign-guy-in-major-peril quality, were the absolute best to give some graphical window dressing to this wry jab at working life. (I realize the quote is rather old, but I’d forgotten all about it until Leissi was kind enough to remind me of it.)

After several fruitless searches (shocking with the amount of slavering Portal fanatics out there) in the ever-convenient Google Image Search, I finally dug up a panel of Portal’s caution signs. It wasn’t very large so I tried to resize it cleverly, but the end result was still fuzzy. Seeing as this was meant to be a five minute haha on my part, I wasn’t terribly concerned.

I did however take the time to change the saying slightly to make it more apropos to my own current working life. Pleased with myself, I saved a copy as a jpg and slapped it up in #ormgas, and in #ectomo.

I left shortly thereafter, and thought nothing of it, until I came in this morning and checked my gmail. What appeared before my eyes, but a white knight from the depths of #ectomo, Maicro, come to clean up the fuzzy Portal images and raise this snarky little geek joke to the next level of professional subversiveness.

Without further ado, a giant jpg for you to print and share with all the people who fill you with levels of contempt that are at best unhealthy and at worst result in much head explodey.

One million thousand thanks to Leissi and Maicro for their invaluable contributions in the field of snarky, passive-aggressive sign leaving technology. If you have opportunity, comment with links to photos of this particular sheet in action.

I’ve seen the new (proposed) layout for Ectomo! It’s gorgeous! It’s terrifying! It’s truly a wonder to behold! And… I’m not gonna share.

Nope, you’ll just have to wait. It should debut soon when Ectomo moves to better, more stable hosting. It’s their surprise and I’m not going to spoil it. (Man, I’d never make it at Valleywag, eh?) I think the proposed move date is rapidly approaching, but anybody who has ever run a WordPress blog will tell you, it’s never as simple as it seems.

Of course, while you’re waiting for the glorious unveiling of the new and improved Ectomo, you could always consider beating yourself repeatedly over missing our contest. Hell hath no fury like a fun idea gone down the toilet! Except for Dr. Hypercube. He gets a free pass.

Hint: To see this miraculous thing early, you could also just do what I did and spend more time in #ectomo on efnet!

Creative Close up did a post with photos of and links to 100 papercraft ideas. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “papercraft”, it can be defined as: taking a pattern for a 3d object and constructing it entirely out of paper. Not quite like origami, since you are encouraged to cut, glue, and supplement to achieve the final product.

The closest to papercraft I’ve gotten is making a dunce cap by rolling up a sheet of 8.5×11 and taping it. Still, with 100 ideas and resources to pull from, maybe I can move up to something more interesting and advanced. And remember kids, the paste is for putting on the paper, not eating. I know there’s a picture of that smug steer on the bottle, but I promise you Elmer’s is not exactly a delicious burger in liquid format.

Speaking of paper, earlier chesh in #ectomo shared a really great link to some of the prettiest wallpapers I’ve ever seen. I mentioned that it would be super neat if they could make wallpaper that copied the evil elf wallpaper in the house on Dutch Hill from The Wastelands, but I couldn’t find a scan of the art from the book to demonstrate what I meant. Anybody with a handy scanner and whatnot that can hook me up?