spazquest spazblog

In the unlikely event that you’re invited, you can find pictures and directions to the wedding on their site.

A black bear got more than it bargained for after straying into a family garden in the US state of New Jersey.

I posted my brothers’ websites but forgot my cousin Vicky’s site, J V True Art. Shame on me.

This song is dedicated to /b/.

Always Caturday

In the place that I call home
The cats are everywhere
Today is always Caturday
Furry purry everywhere

Caturday, restful Caturday
And if my kitty sheds
then I’ll chase him away

Eyes are glowin’ in the dark
On my chest up at 5am
Purr so loud it wakes me up
He wants to be fed again

Caturday, oh stressful Caturday
And if my kitty sheds
then I’ll chase him away

Cats are growlin’ in the hall
Hissin’ clawin’ rivalry
Alpha cats jus’ can’t back down
And they think that I don’t see
Lick each other peacefully

Caturday, peaceful Caturday
And if my kitty sheds
then I’ll chase him away

A tip if you give speeches: Never start out with a canned joke. Or a joke of any kind, unless you are dead certain you’ve read the room perfectly. A better way to start any speech is with a question. Asking a question does three things, all good. One, it makes the speech about the audience, not the speaker. Two, it helps the speaker get a “read” on the audience. Three, it is a wonderfully calming way to start a speech. It kills the fear that one will stumble out of the gate. That used to be my own biggest speech fear until I learned the trick of starting with a question.

– Rich Karlgaard, Forbes.com

Use a real language, people.

This is weird. If you compare housingmaps.com against Google Maps for downtown Seattle, there’s an interesting discrepancy. Qwest Field is shown on housingmaps as Seahawks Stadium. (Click for larger views.) Is Google providing an old version to its API users or something?

Both of these screenshots were taken today at the same time.

This post at Kitten’s Box suggests an exercise for sharpening your photography skills:

Wherever you find yourself, like say your grandmother’s kitchen at Thanksgiving, or waiting for your girlfriend in the parking lot because she made you come pick her up, imagine this. You have one picture left you can take in your lifetime, and you have to take it right where you are. You can take it of anything in your immediate scene – any subject, any angle, any settings, any filters – but this is the last one, and it’s going to sum up your life’s work. What will it be? What can you see that would be worthy?

I finally heard the song “Creep” by Radiohead (it came out what, 12 years ago?) and went searching for a copy of the no-profanity radio edit (a.k.a. Very Special Mix). Made an interesting discovery. There are several recordings floating around the file-sharing networks claiming to be covers of the song by bands like Cake, Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, Weezer, etc. but which are deliberately mislabeled copies of the original song. I really hope this is a guerrilla move by people working for the RIAA, and not just somebody’s idea of a twisted joke … because I hate not being in on a joke.

Seriously, this is a Really Stupid Move. Copyright holders have a right to protect their interests (although the industry has taken a lot of criticism for their tactics), but I have a problem with people dumping polluted data into a network in an attempt to reduce its value. Someday this will be recognized as a criminal act. Imagine someone going through your public library and randomly changing all the history books until nobody knows who killed who anymore, and maybe you’ll understand what I’m seeing from up here on the soapbox.

Anyway, I got started on this rant after seeing a music video for “Creep” (acoustic, clean lyrics) by a Flash animator named Laith Bahrani. It’s some really nice work. If you don’t feel like getting emotional in front of your computer, he also created one for the song JCB which is just as well done and much more upbeat.