Probably everyone who reads this has heard They Might Be Giants. They’ve been around for over 20 years now (I saw them the first time on their Flood tour back in 90 or 91), and have had many great songs. Lately though they’ve been putting out albums geared towards kids. Our house has been playing both Here Comes the ABCs and Here Comes the 123s DVDs, much to Baby Grrl’s delight. Their latest one is Here Comes Science and I think it’s their best one yet. Just check out some of the lyrics to the opening song “Science is Real”.

Science is real
From the Big Bang to DNA
Science is real
From evolution to the Milky Way
I like the stories
About angels, unicorns and elves
Now I like the stories
As much as anybody else
But when I’m seeking knowledge
Either simple or abstract
The facts are with science

…

A scientific theory
Isn’t just a hunch or guess
It’s more like a question
That’s been put through a lot of tests
And when a theory emerges
Consistent with the facts
The proof is with science
The truth is with science

Rock on guys!!!!

There are many more songs like this one, and they all have that catchy and geeky element that all their songs have. That’s why this album is as much for adults as it is for kids. (It’s at all the usual places like iTunes and Amazon.) Included is their classic “Why Does the Sun Shine?” and the follow-up “Why Does the Sun Really Shine?”. Those two songs are the perfect example of science in practice. The first song’s theory was proven invalid, so they revised it. Awesome.

Just like always, the two Johns have lots of stuff available to listen to for free at their site. They’re posting the videos for each of the songs so you can decide if you want to splurge for the CD/DVD combo. (Pssst, it’s worth it!) Plus you can subscribe to their free podcast! My only complaint is that they don’t have a stop scheduled for Oklahoma on their current tour.

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, they might be giants

There’s not many geeks who haven’t seen at least one Mystery Science 3000 episode. Myself, I have all of the DVDs they have released so far. They are great to throw in when you want something fun, light, and humorous.

But have you ever watched a recent movie and thought “Wow, this movie really needs to be MSTied!”? Well, it may have already been. Except it’s now it’s called Rifftrax! The riffs feature many MST alumni, including Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. Many times guests riff along as well and have featured Neil Patrick Harris and Weird Al. The brilliant thing about Rifftrax is that the MP3s available are only a few bucks and include recent gems like Twilight, The Happening, and The Room.

What makes them this week’s Full of Fun Friday! topic is their upcoming LIVE event on Thursday, August 20th at 8PM ET/ 7PM CT/ 6PM MT/ Tape Delayed at 8PM PT.

Join Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot), now of RiffTrax.com, as they are reunited in HD for the first time ever on the big screen! This event will feature the world premiere of a brand new, never-before-seen short and non-stop hilarious riffing on a COLOR version of “Plan 9 from Outer Space”- a 1959 science fiction/horror film written, produced and directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.

There are a group of us who have already got our tickets for the showing in Norman. I’m not sure how many (or even if!) there are tickets left, but if you are interested, I would not wait until the last minute to purchase them. Come on out and join the fun!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, rifftrax

The last Friday in July is a day when IT folks finally get the appreciation they deserve! Today is the 10th annual SysAdmin Day!

A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. All to serve this webpage.

A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. All to make sure the webpage found its way from the server to your computer.

A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers, and keeps the printers going no matter how many copies of the tax code someone from Accounting prints out.

A sysadmin worries about spam, viruses, spyware, but also power outages, fires and floods.

When the email server goes down at 2 AM on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work.

A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work — to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So if you can read this, thank your sysadmin — and know he or she is only one of dozens or possibly hundreds whose work brings you the email from your aunt on the West Coast, the instant message from your son at college, the free phone call from the friend in Australia, and this webpage.

Show your appreciation

So for all of my fellow SysAdmins of varying occupations within the IT field, I present this certificate of appreciation. Especially to Corwin over at Last Exit to Babylon for all his help with server-webby stuff!

The test says:

Dear Wondrous SysAdmin,
I present to you this small printed token of appreciation in recognition of the fact that you could easily turn my e-mail address into a spam sewer if I didn’t. I pity the fool who doesn’t give you one of these today. I am not worthy. Please hurt someone else.

Go forth, Sysadmins! Treat yourself today! Or make someone else treat you!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, sysadmin day

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done one of these, and with some amusing ones lately, it’s time to share again!

Just like every year around this time, I still get hits from people searching for info about Ninja Warrior. The past few weeks I’ve gotten a lot of visits for my post on the racist and sexist Sotomayor cartoon. But today I bring you some of the weirdest and most amusing search strings that brought people to my blog! Well, amusing to me considering this place was probably not what they were looking for. You’ll see.

black cat from marvel naked and marvel woman hot sexy are just two examples. There are at least a dozen related like these.

On the flip side, I’ve had many searches like can a fat girl finish a marathon or fat girl runs blog. I hope those people see that you don’t have to be a certain size just to run!

It seems though, that the most amusing are now showing up in spam comments.

Michael | xxxxxxxx@gmail.com | IP: 173.1.61.68

Hey, have you seen this news article?
New details about Michael Jackson’s Death Emerge
I was wondering if you were going to blog about this…

Wow, you surely didn’t waste any time, did you? (And no, I wasn’t going to.)

Pink Mini Stun Gun | xxxxxxx@pinkministungun.info | pinkministungun.info | IP: 66.42.252.130

No kidding - that is an understatement!

Now, what makes this one funny, is that it was on my rant about the Girl’s Guide to Comic-Con. A pink mini stun gun! For the ladies, obviously.

Dr. Martin PhD | xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com | alternativetherapiesrevealed.info/nutrition.php | IP: 190.225.25.217

If a healing technique is demonstrated to have curative properties in properly controlled double blind trials, it ceases to be alternative.

That was on my rant about how “natural” doesn’t automatically mean good. And yeah….that was kind of the point of my last sentence.

However, the winner of all spam comments, and still my favorite, has to be

bathroom accessories | bathrooms@racecare.info | cheapbathroomaccessories.info | IP: 211.95.176.6

You’re a good but lazy blogger.
Mar 31, 6:41 AM

Yes, bathroom accessories spam comment. Yes, I *still* am.

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, site stats, spam comments

I’ve posted before about great podiobook novelists like Mur Lafferty and Scott Sigler, and in doing so I’ve mentioned J.C. before, but I realized this morning that I never gave J.C. his own post! He’ll fit in perfectly with Full of Fun Fridays! So for the people who read my blog and don’t know about J.C., you’re missing out. All two of you.

I first became a fan of his back when the 7th Son trilogy was just wrapping up. It’s a great story that caught my interest with the opening line “The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…” The plot combines science fiction, action, mystery…several different genres intertwined well to create a great character driven story; told through podcasts by J.C. himself.

7th Son chronicles the story of seven strangers who are assembled after the assassination of the U.S. president. They quickly discover they all appear to be the same man … with identical childhood memories.

Unwitting participants in a human cloning experiment, these “John Michael Smiths” have been gathered to catch the man who murdered the president. Their target? The man they were cloned from; the original John Michael Smith, code-named John Alpha.

The first book, Descent will be coming out in print later this year!

But before 7th Son comes out, there will be a very cool book released on June 9th.

Personal Effects: Dark Arts follows the extensive notes of art therapist Zach Taylor’s investigation into the life and madness of Martin Grace, an accused serial killer who claims to have foreseen, but not caused, his victims’ deaths.

Zach’s investigations start with interviews and art sessions, but then take him far from the hospital grounds — and often very far from the reality that we know. The items among Grace’s personal effects are the keys to understanding his haunted past, and finding the terrifying truth Grace hoped to keep buried…

* Call the phone numbers: You’ll get a character’s voicemail.
* Google the characters and institutions in the text: You’ll find real websites.
* Examine the art and other printed artifacts included inside the cover: If you pay attention, you’ll find more information than the characters themselves discover.

Personal Effects: Dark Art is the ultimate in voyeuristic storytelling, representing a revolutionary step forward in changing the way people interact with novels.

This will be very cool, and fits very well with J.C. He is very interactive with his fans; inviting them to submit fan art, stories, voicemail…which many people do! For PE, fans can become “patients” of the art therapist in the book by committing themselves to The Brink. He always comes up with some cool ways for fans to become involved.

What I like is that while the extra stuff you can do to enhance the story is very awesome, it’s not required to enjoy the book. Personally, I may not have time to spend looking online or calling a number to listen to a voicemail, so being able to read the book, but not miss any core story, is a plus for me. Although I probably will try to do the extras if I can!

Before the book launches, take a listen to the prequel, Personal Effects: Sword of Blood. I just finished the third podcast this morning, and I’m waiting to hear more. ORDER NOW!!!

There is much, much more to J.C. and his work, so please visit his site to find out more. Or listen to Elmocast 102 for an interview! Definitely follow him on Twitter, or any other social media like Facebook. He’s a cool guy, and a geek! You won’t be disappointed.

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, jc hutchins, 7th son, personal effects

I blogged about this show after season one ended, and now that the season 2 finale shows this Sunday, it’s time to plug it again. I’ll copy the basics from my earlier post and add what’s new since then.

It’s not often I blog about a movie or TV series unless I find one that’s either controversial or one that I think is underrated and I want to share. It’s the latter with AMC’s original series Breaking Bad.

Break Bad (v.) 1. to challenge convention 2. to defy authority 3. to raise hell

Chemistry: the study of change. Meet Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher sleepwalking through life when, boom, a terminal diagnosis changes everything. Liberates him. Empowers him to use his chemistry skills anew: to man a rolling drug lab and finance the future for his struggling family. It’s an uncontrolled experiment with the American dream. And it finally wakes him up. Breaking Bad: Change the Equation.

It stars the great Bryan Cranston, from Malcolm In The Middle, but this time in a more serious role. More specifically, he uses his knowledge of chemistry to bake meth, while trying to deal with his terminal cancer diagnosis, various family issues, still teach, and work with his not-so-smart of a meth dealing partner.

At first I was very skeptical of the show. Numb3rs didn’t work for me, as I felt the inclusion of math as a way to solve crimes seemed forced into the script. And this is coming from someone who likes math and loves to learn more. The chemistry used in the plot for this show, however, flows very easily. Doesn’t seem forced or like they’re trying to teach people stuff for the sake of teaching people stuff. The Register even thinks it may help save chemistry and make it cool again. Although it’s not airing over there, except on FX.

Which is where the internet comes in. You can get season one on DVD from various sources, or download the entire season from iTunes or also Amazon.

One cool thing is that since the popularity of the show has taken off, there are a lot of extras on the website. Videos, forums, and my favorite, Hank’s blog.

I couldn’t see where season 2 will be repeating on AMC yet, but I would think it would be repeating, if nothing else, before season 3 starts.

Technorati tags: breaking bad, chemistry, amc tv

Sometimes families take pictures that are good, and sometimes families take photos that make people who see them say “WTF were they thinking!!!?!?!?!” The site Awkward Family Photos is of the latter. It really would be hard for me to pick just one favorite. But to give you an idea, here’s a couple. Apologies for the small thumbnail, but yes…you do see a walrus penis and a family dressed in cosplay Pooh. Click through to their site and see the large version:

It’s easy to waste time there, just going back through to see all of them. Like I did when I found the site. And if you want to keep up with the new pics they post, either subscribe to their RSS feed, or follow them on Twitter!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, awkward family photos

What will you be doing tomorrow? For those of us who are math geeks, we’ll be celebrating Pi Day! What is that you ask? It’s a holiday in the funnest sense, celebrated on March 14th generally, and at 1:59pm specifically. Get it? 3.14159 You can even get more specific by saying 1:59:26

What people do on Pi day can vary, but mostly it involves pie. The coolest thing I’ve seen looks like it will be happening in Boston. Rebecca at Skepchick is having a pie fight!

To celebrate Pi Day (3.14), we’ll gather at exactly 1:59pm in Boston Common to smash pies ever so gently in one another’s face.

BYOP! Despite the Boston Cream Pi pun, you are encouraged to bring light, fluffy pies with delicious whipped filling in equally light disposable pie tins or paper plates. In fact, one might even be tempted to fill a paper plate with Reddi-Whip and go with that. MMmmmm.

If anyone has some Pi Day activities they know of happening in OKC, let me know!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, geek, pi day

For the last two years I’ve donated to Donors Choose. It’s an awesome site that connects donations with teachers who need the money to buy supplies for their students. Not just basic stuff, like microscopes, but also special items or for field trips. As tight as budgets are, things that we might think would be a “duh” teaching experience are often not used because there isn’t the cash available.

This year, Think Geek has a great contest going on involving Donors Choose. They are donating $500 toward a technology based request, and they want us to vote for which classroom we think needs the money the most.

Please take a look at DonorsChoose.org for classrooms you think need some geek love, and vote for your favorite by tweeting the url to @thinkgeek with tag #geek<3 or by writing your vote on our Facebook wall by 6pm EST on Friday, February 13th.

Everyone who votes will be entered to win a $75 ThinkGeek gift certificate, and if you vote on Twitter and Facebook you’ll be entered to win twice and we won’t call you a cheater.

I’m still trying to figure out which classroom I’m voting for. It’s really hard to say one is more deserving over another, when really all classrooms need help. And not just with technology either, there’s tons of projects in multiple fields.

I know a lot of people can’t afford to donate cash right now, but if you’re on Twitter or Facebook this is a great way to both help out some kids and maybe get some free stuff. Everyone wins!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, geek, donors choose

I’ll say right off that this will not be my greatest Full of Fun Fridays! post, but at least there is one this week!

As a geek, cool t-shirts are a must. I’ve got several from lots of different places, and it’s always hard to resist buying even more. So here’s a run down of a few of my favorite sites.

J!NX has gaming and general geek shirts.
Think Geek
Threadless doesn’t have a huge geek selection, but you’ll find some good ones if you look
Retropolis Transit Authority

I know there are more out there. Tell me where you get your favorite geek shirts!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, geek, t-shirts