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I came across an article about a plane spotting and photographing one of the last uncontacted tribes in the world in the Amazon. Ho-hum, I said. Interesting, but not enough for a blog post. However, what makes it cool enough for a blog post is the picture of some badass Amazonian natives actually trying to shoot down the plane with bows and arrows. How freaking hardcore is that?

Additionally, I would like to point out the eerie similarities between low aerial pictures of uncontacted Amazonian tribes and playing Diablo II, Act III.

Well, the free soda at work was a mixed blessing, it seems. Eventually, I came to be drinking prob 2-3 liters of Coke & friends a day, and decided that it probably was working against my get-back-in-shape aesthetic, particularly when my stomach wouldn’t stop burning during workouts. So, I managed to work myself down to an average of maybe one bottle (small) of Pepsi a day (go figure the burning stopped). It was a little after-the-fact for me, but here’s an article about trying to kick soda I found while trying to self-diagnose a pubic… thing… on webmd.

Stopit.

Homestarrunner.com is still cranking out Strong Bad emails and Teen Girl Squad. The content is still pretty good (see my other post about the latest on the website… I revisited the site because the phrase “MSG’ed” came up while we playing kart…). But even more exciting: the brothers who run the site are teaming up with the producers of the Sam and Max game to make, “Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People” (not Lucas Arts, but the people who took over from them). It will be a story based game, like the Sam and Max games, it will be episodic, and it will be sold as Wiiware.

Wired Magazine post about the game
SBCG4AP website (their abbreviation)

I think this is a nice way for the site to get some more exposure.

Pete’s post of the Poultrygeist trailer encouraged my cousin, Jeremy, to go out and find the movie. We sat down to watch it a few nights ago and I can’t really say I’ve been the same since then. Long story short, get the movie by hook or by (as in our case) crook. Short story long, the trailer is really only the last 15 or 20 minutes of the movie, but it’s well worth it to check out the whole thing. I’ve never really been interested in Troma before but Poultrygeist has given me the incentive to check out some of the classics. All that’s left to be said is….AMAZING!

I’m not a very big fan of Weezer anymore. I enjoy their singles and never mind listening to their music, but don’t go out of my way to listen to them much. Their newest single is decent, although it sounds mostly nonsensical to me. What made me change my mind to thinking that it is an awesome song is the video that goes along with it. They managed to get some of the most popular viral video stars to help out including the mentos scientists, the Britney Spears guy, and the Numa Numa guy. Definitely not what I was expecting, and awesomely done.

I also recently rediscovered weebls stuff. The flash toons are quite hilarious for the most part, and the Weebl and Bob toons are great.

• I finally had a chance to play the new smash brothers (on the wii). I’ve never played the game cube version, so this is like a 10-year leap in smash brothers games. In general, I loved it. It’s basically exactly what I wanted: smash brothers, but with more characters. The list of characters is great, even though I have no idea who many of them are. The most important aspect is that all of them feel pretty unique. Wario isn’t just another DK. There are so many characters that I was too busy trying them all to find a favorite. The new “classic” controller took some getting used to.
• I also played the new kart. I like that every race is grand prix style, with 12 racers every time. The new courses are great, and the control is fluid if you’re not using the wheel. I think I could get used to the wheel, especially with the sensitivity turned up. But right now, it’s just silly. A small push of the thumbstick corresponds to a big movement of the wheel.
• Random article about google automatically correcting searches, and another about google denying searches for people who search like a bot.
• Yet another random article about making your own font … caught my eye because I’m typesetting lots of documents recently, both in html and TeX.

You know I really have no idea why they would make a Family Guy spin-off about Cleveland, unless it is to pull in a black demographic or something. Or possibly cuz it’ll make gads of money. On the other hand, I’m still reasonably into Family Guy and give a Hearty thumbs-up to American Dad, so perhaps we’ll see.

Lots of different types of mummies, most of them pretty cool to think about. I had no idea, however, about the mummies created by the (defunct) practice of Sokushinbutsu, nor had I seen pictures of them, which would no doubt make fantastic metal album covers.

ManBabies just might be the greatest website ever. Then again, maybe not, but it’s still worth visiting.

I’m under the impression that certain of us have begun listening to/reading the His Dark Materials series, from which the movie “The Golden Compass” originated. Personally, I have this more on my “to-do” list, but did find the time to watch the movie, which was goodish, but not greatish. Watching armored polar bears beating the poo out of each other, though? Greatish.

I thought some may find interesting an article in The Atlantic referred to by Ebert in his overestimating (in my estimate) 4-star review of the film. The article, “How Hollywood Saved God,” traces the path of the many, many scripts, and of the director, and features much interviewing of the author, Philip Pullman. I had no idea the series dealt so much with underage sex, and have of course renewed my resolve to hit up the original books.

That article, correspondingly, references another article, this by Pullman himself: “The Dark Side of Narnia,” which pretty much takes C.S. Lewis to task for everything from shoddy writing to fearful, negative attitudes towards women. Particularly the latter. The article is largely worth reading regardless of the HDM trilogy, and has some pretty interesting material in it. Enjoy.