RKNet Blog... Thing

• @rodzilla I like the idea of searching for music a lot more than I do uploading it all ala muxtape’s model #
• @rodzilla it’s so much fun, I’ve already done at least 3 #
• @rodzilla hahaha. that makes sense, I’ve been going ga-ga over the service lately #
• going to play on mixwit now, I just can’t help it #
• @rickjulian Fage is the beeeest! Oh my goodness. with cherries? nom nom nom #
• @rickjulian even better! I wish it wasn’t so expensive. you ever try Kefir (yogurt drink by lifeway)? #
• @rickjulian lucky! :) i wonder if it’s safe to mail order yogurt… #
• @rickjulian is she still raving at whoever will take the bait? #
• got some curious traffic earlier, makes me wonder if I’m being watched (in a good way i hope) #
• @geechee_girl I stil haven’t quite gotten the hang of hash tags #

Editor’s Note: Seriously, non-stop Tweeting all weekend.
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I found a great big PNG with instructions on how to make a papercraft mudkip! I found it on some random gamer forum, but it looks like it originated with someone from /po/.

If you get around to making this, be sure to share links to photos in the comments! Fun papercraft Pokey-mans for everyone! YAY. If that’s not your speed, here are two simple, adorable kitties that you can print and build, too.

Enjoy!

I just want to apologize for any visitors who have actually gone to infinitedesu.com. While I feel as though I did provide fair warning when I originally linked it, I was looking at WPStats and couldn’t help but notice that people have actually clicked on that.

What you will find, upon visiting infinitedesu.com is the following: …nothing.
Apparently, I let the hosting or the domain or something expire. Could have sworn that auto-renewed. Well kids, looks like it’s technically up for grabs. If you buy it because you saw the name here, let me know so I can congratulate you on your refined tastes.

But if domain sniping isn’t your cup of tea, what you can do is visit RKNet’s new affiliate, TorsoPants. I came across their site earlier today and I was so impressed I decided that I had to be their friend. You can be their friend too, just tell them I sent you, ok?

There’s so much going for them: their site works in Opera without fuss, they’ve got all kinds of great design on the site, there are more hidden fun things than at a hidden fun thing convention, and I guess they’ve got good clothing, or something. I definitely spent a while at the site today, really just exploring all the things to see and do, and trying to decide whether or not I can afford to buy a pair of torsopants (which for those keeping score at home, is like a “shirt” only superior in every way) before I spend the money to renew Infinite Desu.

If I get the cash-money necessary to resurrect infinitedesu.com myself (hint), then I hope to achieve a similar standard of site awesomeness that I saw demonstrated by the proprietors of TorsoPants, instead of the old infinitedesu.com, which just had an annoying animated gif for a background, and the word “desu” over and over and over again.

I realize that some of my visitors may be coming here because they have no idea what the deal is with “desu”. I can appreciate being in the dark like that, and would like to take a minute (just sit right there) to explain a little more about what desu is and why I felt compelled to even buy infinitedesu.com in the first place.

Desu

Verb. Japanese form of the verb “to be”. Example: Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu. I am an American.

(aux) (pol) polite copula in Japanese; (P) [via Jeffrey's Japanese Dictionary]

Exclamatory. Taking a cue from a character named Suiseiseki featured in the 2004 anime, Rozen Maiden, people on the internet have come to use desu in excess. This is most often found in the form of the “desu flood” where by a post or entire thread is comprised of ONLY the word desu, repeated over and over again. It is the determination of Encyclopedia Dramatica’s shadowy editors that Desu is a classic meme. No other sources seemed to refute this.

And now…
Needs more desu!

Today I put a click mapping app on RandomKitty.net. It will give me “heat maps” of where people click when they are on the main page of the blog. I may add it elsewhere, but the home page needs an overhaul before I do that. If you’d like to view the current heat map of RKNet, go to http://www.randomkitty.net/clickheat and log in with the username and password of “checkit” (no quotes obviously). You’ll have to look at the whole week or the whole month to really get any data, and most of that was me clicking random areas to generate data that I could view to test my installation. I look forward to getting a little eye-tracking information for the site. I’ve been doing a lot of usability reading lately and I know that observing the patterns of people who visit your site is a great way to learn how to cater to them in a more educated fashion. (Or I could just ask: how do you like the site? Is it easy to use? Entertaining? I love feedback, good or bad.)

I also signed up for a Twitter app that will now auto-feed the new posts to the RKNet twitter account. I’m hoping that it will spread the news a little more effectively, maybe get a couple more people on the proper RSS, so they can tell me the Twitter update is annoying and can I please turn that off? I’ve also collected a lot of unique and bizzare followers on Twitter here lately, although I did end up following zefrank, and I even participated in a project to tell really short bedtime stories. (There are some really sweet ones in there.) I’m contemplating signing up for a reverse item, that will post my tweets to the blog, but that could be pretty blah if it’s just me. It would be way more fun if the other writers also posted their tweets.

I just got turned down for displaying Project Wonderful ads, but I’m not down about it. It’s just inspiration to really clean up the home page, get some content squeezed out of the fascinatingly weird group I hang out with, and resubmit. Besides, setting up a PW account was an important step for me. Not so I can subject you the viewer to ads here, but so I can eventually promote RKNet and monetarily support sites that I visit and enjoy at the same time! Win win. Besides, I am in the process of setting up another app that will hopefully drive some more traffic, maybe provide you the gentle readers with some links to other fun internet items (as if you need anything else but RKNet! PFFT!), and perhaps even drag in a little cash for yours truly. Mmm… delicious petty cash.

Speaking of del.icio.us, I finally figured out how to get a feed of links put up by people in my network. It’s like a whole world opened up. I suddenly understand the social value of the site with stunning clarity, and I have to say I’m networked with some folks that have great taste in linking.

The more I experiment with the various services, apps, and information sources that are out there, the more fun I have. It may not all be terribly productive, but most of it does provide me with opportunities to meet new people and learn new things, and I think that’s pretty valuable, don’t you?

I’ve been meaning to get to slapping my holiday list up here - not so much in the hopes of getting the gifts that are on my list - so I can do some slobberingly glorifying reviews of some of my favorite things.

The first thing worth noting is this great article on the MAKE blog about DIY gifts. You’d figure that anything do-it-yourself would run on the cheap side, and for some of the items I suppose it is technically cheaper, but some of these projects are for those with cash to spare.

Nevertheless, nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from the… workbench. Okay that’s lame. How about: Give the gifts that keep on geeking? Uhmm… Right, well, the overall gist here is that you can make all kinds of technologically inclined do-hickies for all the open source loving, raw part digging, LED enthusiasts in your life. It will cost you between $10 (for the LED menorah) and upwards of $3,000 (for a hardcore 3d printer).

Just think, for younger people on your list, you could get one of the kits and build it together. For the musically inclined nerd on your list, you could build the Daisy Open-source MP3 Player and build a sweet ass steampunk case for it out of an Altoids tin or a Weighted Companion Cube or something.

Any way you look, fun times to be had by all.

Just to keep things brief:
I dreamt I had a fish tank with a few kinds of viscious, snappy fish in it, and a small octopus and some other kind of shellfish or something. I accidentally screwed up the whole aquairum by collapsing one of the sides leaving only a tiny bit of water at the bottom, and nearly crushing the fish. I set everything back up and added in the appropriate salt water for this collection of pirhana like fish. (One looked like one of those clap-trap deals from Donkey Kong Jr.)
Next time I looked into the fish tank, it was full of irridescent octopi. They would look like small, but relatively normal, bluish and reddish octopi, then they would contract and glow in neon colors with cartoon faces. I watched this in fascination, as more were arrising, born out of the dead bodies of the fish that did in fact die because I had broken the tank.
That’s all I remember now. There was so much more. There has been so much more lately but I unfortunately haven’t had time to record the overall details. I have been told I need to watch Until the End of the World. …I can’t imagine why.

Hard on the heels of my DESU-related discovery, my friend Keith sent me a veritable dragon’s hoard of gamer themed motivational posters! Tabletop game nerds rejoice, because there are a lot of in-joke posters in here for you. A lot of good MMO, RPG and general geek goodness abound in this collection. I think I saved most of the ones I saw. With a staggering collection of 272 of these puppies, if this doesn’t burn out the humor value for you… then it means they really are just that funny!

Do you have a few minutes?
Do you have a microphone or some audio clips of your voice?
Do have a picture on your computer that you feel represents you?

If so, you can go to Lifehouse Method and they will process all of those things into a musical portrait of you! Word of caution to anyone who runs around with all the bells and whistles turned off on their browsers: you will need Java and Flash for this. Don’t worry though, before you go through the process, they do a short browser test to make sure you have everything you need. I found the signup process short and sweet, with just a touch of warm fuzzies. Even at the signup point, they want to know what you think of the site and their tools. That indicates to me a group of people who actually care what their visitors think and it’s rather refreshing.

If you’re interested though, don’t dawdle! You can “sit” for up to 3 free “musical portraits” until July 31st, and then they are going to go to a subscription service.

Check out the project’s pedigree:

The Method Music Software has been developed under the patronage of Pete Townshend by mathematician/composer Lawrence Ball and software developer Dave Snowdon. A team of composers, personally approved by and occasionally including Pete Townshend, will regularly listen to Method Music portraits and select a few for further development/elaboration.

I still have two more portraits left to go. I’ll probably fire up my microphone for the next one, since I used pre-recorded snippets, and didn’t really provide a “rhythm” track for the software to analyze. Download my first muiscal portrait

I was so excited when I found out Wilco had a new album, entitled Sky Blue Sky, just the day after it released. I immediately downloaded it off iTunes and I’m loving every moment of it. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see them in concert this year. (You can subscribe to the tour update RSS feed with this link right here: http://wilcoworld.net/tours/wilcodates.xml) They are absolutely electrifying live, I just wish I’d gotten pictures.

Speaking of the sky and getting electrified, the other day we had some serious storms here in NH, and there was an actual tornado warning for the area. I told the people I was having lunch with (a New England native and a Floridian) that they didn’t really need to worry, because the sky hadn’t turned green yet. Having lived in central Illinois for several years, and having family who lived in the same area, I’d heard the tale that when the sky turns green, it’s time to run for cover. As it turns out, even science isn’t sure about why the sky turns green, and how often it is a true indicator of exceptionally foul weather to come! It does appear to be a common enough trend to be used as a common warning sign of possible tornadoes, though.

Found at least one decent photo over at stormeyes.org:

I sumbit the two images for your comparison:

Exhibit A: The first draft 2012 London Olympic logo. Garish and bizzare, it’s caused a lot of issues with people complaining of epileptic reations and a feeling of general disgust upon seeing it and the related media.

Exhibit B: An Eristic play off the Olympic logo.

Is it really such a stretch? Also, is it 1985? I seem to recall having socks this color when I was a girl. No lie.