you did a what now?

I wish I had one of these so I could send it to someone and confuse the hell out of them.

Courtesy Swistle, photo from re-wolf on Flickr.

hippo birdie

Hippo birdie two mes! Yes, it's my birthday, and I'm gloating because I'm 38; my only regret is I didn't spend enough time last year telling people, "I'm 37, I'm not old."

And you can tell it's my birthday because I got about 3 dozen "happy birthday" emails from various forums I've joined over the years. October 15th is the annual remembrance of forums past. I'm always asking myself, "When did I join the Waffle Fanatics Who Hate Pancakes forums?"

<-- Those are the flowers my hubby gave me. They're pretty, but you can't really tell that because I arrange flowers like a spastic planarian.

taste the fun

I just found this in my grandma's stuff and thought it was neat:



It's a postcard of the Saltair Pavilion (the 2nd version) and lake. This postcard was sent to my grandparents and dad in 1938; dad would have been almost 11 at the time. And look -- it came with a tiny bag of Salt Lake salt attached! I didn't open it of course, but it smells like salt so I don't think it's lying to me. Can you imagine trying to send this through the mail nowadays?

Here is a huge 1500 px size version so you can see the details. These postcards were colorized photographs printed on thick linen cardstock. I love looking at all the people in the picture.

In the lower left hand corner is a man floating that I swear to you is W.C. Fields:



If it is him, the colorist forgot to redden his nose.

Get!

I'm sensing a theme here. From October 7, 2008:



From everyone's favorite Mark Trail-based comic strip, Mark Trail.

headshot

Ok ok ok ok, this is awesome, you have to try this.

First, you need a head shot of someone, yourself or just grab a picture online, doesn't matter. I've even provided one for you if you need one. (I haven't tried with this pic of Bruce, if you use it, tell me how it works.) The pic needs to be on your hard drive.

Then go here:

http://labs.mppark.jp/hige/

It's in Japanese but should be easily navigable. Click CHANGE, wait until it says UP and then click on that. Then choose the photo on your hard drive that you want. It has to be a head shot like that pic of Bruce over there, it doesn't work otherwise.

Wait a minute and then REVEL IN THE AWESOMENESS. Warning: Nightmares may plague you for a few days.

KGB Handbook: Spy Identification Made Easy

When I was a kid I often kept cartoons I really liked, and at some point I got the brilliant idea of saving them by laminating them. Except "lamination" was "cover them with clear Contact paper." You can see how well that turned out:



Even though it's brown with age and wrinkled because the Contact paper shrank over the years, I still love this cartoon. Apparently written by Jim Meddick in 1986, the year he started "Monty", it's a nice slice of Cold War humor. I used to think the first panel was about Pan Am Flight 73, although that wasn't exactly a KGB job. I guess it references the KGB penchant for hijacking planes as mentioned in this interview with Ion Mihai Pacepa, former (Communist) Romania's chief of espionage:

In the late 1960s, a new element was added to the Soviet/PLO war against Israel and American imperial-Zionism: international terrorism. Before 1969 came to an end, the KGB's Thirteenth Department -- known in our intelligence jargon as the Department for Wet Affairs, wet being a euphemism for bloody -- invented airplane hijacking. The KGB constantly lectured at us that no one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should feel safe anymore. The hijacked airplane became an instrument of Soviet foreign policy-and eventually the weapon of choice for September 11, 2001.

During those years of intensive airplane hijackings, I became amazed at the almost identical pride both Arafat and KGB General Sakharovsky exhibited over their prowess as terrorists. “I invented the hijacking of [passenger] airplanes,” Arafat bragged to me in the early 1970s, when I first met him. A few months later I met with Sakharovsky at his Lubyanka office. He pointed to the red flags pinned onto a world map hanging on his wall. “Look at that,” he said. Each flag represented a plane that had been downed. “Airplane hijacking is my own invention,” he boasted.

The second panel is about News & World Report's Nicholas Daniloff, who was taken by the KGB and accused of being a spy. He was held for almost 2 weeks.

I really wish my copy of this cartoon was in better condition. I don't know that it's ever been collected in a book or reprinted anywhere.

ruining the internet, one cat video at a time

Just doing my part to kill you with cat cuteness.