• Ridiculously morbid German training video - Starts slow, but just keep watching it.
  

• Video: Animated short about alternative communication
  

• Video: Entire Soundtrack from Sonic the Hedgehog played on piano (via)
  

• We Love Katamari minigame - This is actually fun as hell (via)
  

• LED magnet graffiti - This looks like fun (via)
  

• MOTHER 3 IS COMING - I loved Earthbound so much, I can't wait for this!
  

• Tom Waits' highschool yearbook on eBay (via)
  

• Video: Motorcyclist's helmet-cam records out-of-control Honda Civic hitting her - See also the message boards where this was posted (via)
  

• Animated commercial from Triplets of Belleville's Sylvain Chomet (via)
  

• How to make Garfield funny: Erase his thought bubbles (via)
  

My friend Erik Abderhalden sent me an email today pointing out the book Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City by Richard Lloyd on amazon.com, and it took me a minute to recognize the reason he sent it to me. Then I noticed that the picture in the lower left hand corner is of one of the I Need Sleep stickers we plastered Chicago with when our album came out!

I'd kind of like a copy of this, but it looks like it's a whopping $90. Update: Looks like it's only $20 for the paperback. Sorry, Richard! I'll definitely be picking one up!

-D

Posted by Dave Hoffman - Post a Comment / 6 comments

Today Kari, Jupiter and I decided to go play in all the snow we got last night. We made snowmen and ran around and generally had fun. If you're in the mood for some home movies, you can check this one out:



Also, I've posted a bunch of pictures of the day on a flickr photoset. Snow is fun!

-D

Posted by Dave Hoffman - Post a Comment / 6 comments

Have you heard of energy beer? Well, it's the reason I was up until 5:30 this morning watching Gigantor on Adult Swim. Basically, it's a kind of red bull malted beverage, so it gets you drunk and jittery at the same time. We couldn't resist picking up a 6-pack of it when we saw it (the brand we got was Sparks, but I guess there's another one called B^E), and we took it home to drink with some Chinese food. It tasted good for an energy drink, like a red bull or a monster drink, and it certainly did its job as a beer with its 6% alcohol content, so we drank a good deal of it without really realizing that ENERGY BEER IS A TERRIBLE IDEA.

Here's the thing: You drink a red bull early in the day to get that kick. You still have a lot of things to get done and you plan on being awake to do them. With alcohol, though, if you drink early in the day you are what is called an alcoholic.

So what happens when you drink energy beer in the evening? Well, you get drunk, and you do your drunk thing, and then you can't go to sleep and you find all sorts of interesting new shows on TV and feel like crap the next afternoon when you finally feel like you can close your eyes again.

I guess the target audience of this beverage is the crazed partier who wants to get drunk and energized so they can stay up all night continuing to get drunk or whatever, and I guess I do know some people like that (you know who you are), but if that is not you, then I would recommend you keep your energy and your beer separate.

Cheers.

-D

Posted by Dave Hoffman - Post a Comment / 1 comments

• Video: 500kV Switch Opening - Electricity is a powerful thing
  

• Video: New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS (via)
  

• Mouse hacked into a Nintendo Powerglove (via)
  

• Trailer for Terry Zwigoff's new film Art School Confidential based on the Daniel Clowes comic of the same name (via)
  

• Video: Half Life 2 Rube Goldberg - I made a Rube Goldberg device in middle school, but it didn't involve nearly as many explosions.
  

• Sketch Swap: Draw a sketch, get a sketch
  

• Animated Music Video: Basin Street Blues by Kid Koala
  

• Video: Octopus Eats Shark
  

• Video: Incredible multi-input touch screen
  

Ah, the times, they are a changin'. Filling up all the spare time that comes with unemployment has brought to you, my loyal readers, a new site design.

The first thing to go was the archive, which was confusing and made finding anything impossible. I've replaced it with a google search box that should let you find the specific post you're looking for. If it doesn't work quite yet, it's because I'm having a little trouble getting google to index all my pages. In the future, though, it should work marvelously.

I figured I'd fill all the space deleting the archive had freed up with more links for you to be uninterested in, so you might want to check that out. Also, I added my del.icio.us tag cloud over there in case you're curious of what geeky web things I keep in my bookmarks.

The site has a logo now, too. I know it's nothing flashy or special, but I think it will help establish a little bit of a brand, or something. And I just felt like making a logo.

Finally, you will notice that the ads are back below some posts. I decided to give them a second chance, mostly because I don't have a job yet and I'll take whatever I can get.

Anyway, how do you like everything?

-D

Posted by Dave Hoffman - Post a Comment / 0 comments

• Nacho Libre is a movie by the director of Napoleon Dynamite and the writer of School of Rock, starring Jack Black (via)
  

• Songbird, son of Winamp, sent to kill iTunes - It's just out so it's really iffy, but there are some great ideas there. Plus, it's open source!
  

I read Adam Pash's article on lifehacker about creating a self-sustaining iPod, and I thought the idea was great. In short, instead of your iPod relying on software on the computer it's plugged into (like iTunes), you install the software directly onto your iPod (it is just an external harddrive) and from any computer you can:

• Rip mp3's from CD's
• Import mp3's to your iPod
• Play your music directly from the iPod
• Pull mp3's from your iPod onto the computer (Which iTunes won't let you do)

The problem with this solution, though, is that in order to do all this you have to install several different programs. I think that the idea of a self-sustaining iPod is brilliant, and it makes sharing your music with your friends and keeping your music organized that much easier, but I think a more organized solution is in order. I'm calling for a more unified self-sustaining iPod. It needs to be one program to be installed that will take care of everything listed above. Doesn't such a great portable device deserve a great piece of portable software?

Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer and I can't do this myself. Will somebody out there please make this for me?

-D

Posted by Dave Hoffman - Post a Comment / 2 comments

• Incredible Photos of China - I had no idea China was this beautiful
  

• Video: Modded Fiat needs two drivers to operate each set of wheels
  

• Ron Burgundy Stencil Graffiti: You Stay Classy, Iraq (via)
  

• Check out the making of the animated United Airlines super-bowl ad Dragon. - The ad is just amazing, it's the same guy who did the awesome animations during the credits of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
  

• The best Powerpoint Slide. Ever. - “Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely”

• Brain surgeon wasp zombifies roaches - Holy crap, nature is creepy