Cephalopods can be masters of disguise, and this video is proof. The whole video is fascinating but just wait till you see the octopus at about 4:15 into the movie. You’ll find yourself rewinding and watching it over and over.

On a related note, I am digging this “TED: Ideas Worth Spreading” website. They tout themselves as providing “Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers,” and that’s exactly what it seems to be: a collection of talks and lectures on interesting subjects by interesting people. I think that TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

Can anyone guess who the killer is?? Click here to watch!

Mmmmmm…. avatars. Make yourself into a Simpsons character! This is me, what do you think of it?

Dorothy looked, and gave a little cry of fright. There, indeed, just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on, two feet were sticking out, shod in silver shoes with pointed toes.

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” cried Dorothy, clasping her hands together in dismay. “The house must have fallen on her. Whatever shall we do?”

Did you know that L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and the rest of his Oz) books are public domain? I didn’t, until I came across a site (thanks, Wil Wheaton!) called DailyLit. DailyLit has a catalog of hundreds of public domain books, and will e-mail you, for free, a few paragraphs of whichever books you’re interested in, daily or on a schedule of your choosing. Each selection takes less than five minutes to read. It’s a brilliant concept, for those of us who want to read more but can’t ever seem to find the time to sit down with a book.

If you have to work in an office, wouldn’t it be great to work in one that looked like this?

I bet you didn’t know that each year, November 19 is World Toilet Day. In celebration, you can attend the World Toilet Summit:

A major world conference devoted to toilet provision and standards, the Summit sees delegates from all over the world attending conferences, experts’ forums, seminars, toilet exhibitions, network meetings and amazing toilet tours.

Heck, I’m all for working to provide better sanitation to the underpriveleged, and perhaps convincing certain cultures to dispense with the astounding habit of using one’s left hand to wipe one’s bum instead of toilet paper. I just didn’t know there was an organization devoted to all things potty.

You know the “In a world….” guy? The guy who does all the movie trailers, like “In a world, where nightmares come true…” Oh yeah, you are thinking, THAT guy! Well, there’s him and like four other guys who do all that kind of voiceover work. Check out this video on YouTube where they all get together. I had a hard time connecting the images of real live human beings talking with their voices, but as soon as I closed my eyes it was crystal clear. Kind of like when I see someone like Seth Green or Dan Castellaneta talking, I can’t really hear any of their characters’ voices but as soon as I close my eyes I can. Weird!

Also: I made my first lolcat!

I can’t say that I completely understand the phenomenon, probably because I’m too old to have caught this wave when it started.

This one is Bob’s cat Marley:

My full name can be anagrammed as “Thankless, red-hot narcotic.”

How awesome is that?!

What does your name anagram to?

Weird Dream
I dreamed last night that Doc joined a secret society, sort of like the Freemasons. They had come to our house in a huge bus shaped like a loaf of Wonder bread. He let them in and they made their pitch, and he decided to join because members got to wear neckties that had a little lever at the top that when you pressed it, made a really loud train whistle sound. He told me that he really didn’t believe what they were telling him, but he signed the papers because he wanted the train necktie. And who wouldn’t?!

Mmmmm Chocolate
In other news, I got accepted to be in a taste test focus group study on chocolate bars! Next week I’ll get paid $60 to spend 90 minutes eating chocolate and giving my opinion. Can’t beat that with a stick.

Work Bites
I spent 8.5 hours at work on Saturday, finishing up a project that was supposed to launch today. We found out yesterday that it has been delayed for another week because the client, at the very last minute, decided that she didn’t like any of the copy we’d written. Just a global “I don’t like it,” no specifics given. I wasted my entire Saturday for nothing. At least I got a free lunch (or was it really free? I did trade my weekend for it!).

Dot-Matrix Printer Bike
I read a few weeks ago about a guy who custom built a bicycle equipped with a laptop computer and cans of water-soluble spray chalk. It received messages that people submitted to a website and printed them out on the sidewalks as he rode down the street. I think he was arrested before he ever got to use it (something about intent to perform criminal mischief/graffiti, and how coincidental that this was during the time of the Republican National Convention in New York City). It’s genius, though.

Sick of paying your internet or cable company hundreds of dollars each year for broadband access? Now you don’t have to! Just sign up for Google’s new FREE broadband service, Google TISP (Toilet Internet Service Provider). Simply drop the supplied FiOS cable into your commode and flush. The rest happens automatically!

Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.

“I couldn’t be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product,” said Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience.

Try it now!

I leave town for a week, with scant computer access, and it feels like my arm is missing or something. I guess that I could have sent short blog entries via my phone, and although at times it is satisfying to crystallize my thoughts into a 50-character limit, sometimes I just need free reign to blab.

Like now. So here I go.

First of all, I have some fun links to share. This is courtesy of Brett, who has been keeping up with my love-hate relationship with my treadmill. These dudes are infinitely more coordinated than me; it made me feel queasy just watching them. Also, notice how the film was shot in one take. Imagine how many times they must have practiced those moves and how many flesh-squished-underneath-treadbelt injuries must have occurred during said practice sessions…

Too bad this is already over… I think we might have been up for the challenge of making a 5 minute film entitled “Motherf***ing Wombats on a Motherf***ing Segway.” Thanks once again to Brett, who it seems is becoming a purveyor of all things hilarious on The Internets.

And from Leslie, The House on the Rock. Here’s the official website, but this photo gallery paints a much better picture of what it’s all about. I’m thinking that we need to plan a Crazy Shit Across America road trip.

I also want to share some nifty art that I found. The first image is from an artist named Karen Eastman, who does some really nice abstract nature-themed art. Some of it reminds me of my own art, some of it seems influenced by Georgia O’Keeffe.

This next artist, Philip Straub, does gorgeous digital paintings and illustrations. A lot of his work seems to illustrate magicial fantastical realms. It’s amazing eye candy. I could look at it for hours.

And last but not least for tonight, proof! I say PROOF! that playing Dungeons and Dragons is hazardous to your health — nay, your very LIFE and ETERNAL SOUL! Witness the following grainy image showing four innocent teenage girls on the path to darkness! You might want to shield your childrens’ eyes before looking!

I’ve been having entirely too much fun this afternoon having Samuel L. Jackson make personal phone calls to my friends and co-workers, demanding that they go see Snakes on Plane. “Hi, this is Samuel L. Jackson. You may remember me from such films as Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, and The Incredibles. But I’m here today to tell you about a movie that’s near and dear to my heart. That’s right, I’m talking about Snakes on a Plane!”

Make your California rolls, your sashimi and temaki! Collect the pickled ginger for extra points! Load up on your arsenal of foe-freezing wasabi! But watch out for the evil Tofu, Radish, Mushroom, and Blowfish… the only way to defeat them is to sandwich them into your sushi! Thanks to Doc for this awesome link!!

Flow is amazing. Exquisite, haunting, strangely addictive. Play online or download for Mac or PC. Thanks to Doc for the link.