sad lego

On Vox: Help Boots Give The Gift of Reading!

My darling, the illustrious Boots Valentine, is raising money to try to get some decent middle-school level books for the kids at the school in south Phoenix where she teaches.  The school is a K-8, and the library focuses more on the younger end of the spectrum, so she's trying to put together some classics and some more recent favorites to encourage her kids to read.
Give! Give!

Even if you can't donate money yourself, post the widget, post the link, get the word out!

(I know there are librarians out there-- you shouldn't be able to resist donating to reading, right?)

Originally posted on eightysixfourhundred.vox.com

sad lego

On Vox: Seriously, people, don't you watch Project Runway?

There was no joy at Parsons...
This article about an NBC-Weinstein scuffle reminded me that I'd been meaning to ask you, the reading public, what you've thought of Project Runway this season. Boots and I have jumped on the international circuit to find our Project Runway joy. (I hope to do cases in comparative Runway as an...
Only two people voted in my Project Runway poll.  This is hardly a worthwhile sample size.  I'm even joining and posting to the "Fashion" group, because I need to dissect this phenomenon.

Hell, I'm even posting it to my freakin' LiveJournal.

Answer the friggen' question.

Originally posted on eightysixfourhundred.vox.com

sad lego

On Vox: For those who don't pay attention to my tumblog

First, as a thank you for the Sterogum tip-off: there's also 3GB of music from SXSW for those who might have missed the post on Lifehacker.  In other news a PMOG mission led me to the best food pr0n site ever.  In the sense of food that gives you voyeuristic glee, not naked chicks covered in flour.

Seriously, let me send you a PMOG invite.  So.  Much.  Fun.

Originally posted on eightysixfourhundred.vox.com

sad lego

On Vox: Change of Venue

From the get-go, I wasn't entirely happy with the mechanism that we came up for playing this here caption game, and so I have taken the game over to Tumblr, where I think the posting mechanics are better suited to playing a more freestyle game.

Ross and Six already have Tumblrs, so I think I'm going to try to talk them into doing a "beta" run of the game, then I'll probably check back in here and give a more detailed run-down of how it all works.  If you're an early adopter sort, you can go to the Caption Booth page and join up.

Feel free to message/IM me for pointers.


Originally posted on eightysixfourhundred.vox.com

sad lego

On Vox: Flash Games + Television = Instant Self Loathing

In the name of market research, Boots and I have been playing NeoPets lately.  Well, Miss Bootsie has always had a special place in her heart for mindless flash games, so I was basically just asking an alcoholic to go through my wine cellar and let me know if she found anything worth drinking.  (Don't get me wrong-- the hours I've whiled away on video games trump her obsession with Zookeeper a thousand times over.  I just tend to play the sort of video game which wants to take over your whole computer/television screen.)  Anyway, combine that with a string of No Reservations shows on the Travel Channel, and you've got a sure fire recipe for over stimulation.  It didn't entirely help though when Mr. Bourdain said, "It was like a Motel Six had sex with a renaissance faire and then crammed in a breakfast nook and a crummy bar."

I almost passed out from laughing.


In other news, I am intensely jealous that I am not at SXSW this week, but I figured that my chances of talking it up as a networking trip to drum up business would be limited.  Next year, though, I am so going to try that route.

Originally posted on eightysixfourhundred.vox.com

sad lego

On Vox: More fun than VOX

(Or at least the same amount of fun with less effort, thus producing a higher happiness quotient.)

As my good friend Unkie Dev pointed out, my posting here has been lagging lately.  Partly, this is because I got berated for watching goofy videos on the internet when I should have been working, but it is also because I have diversified my time-wasting portfolio to include the following:

  • Promoting Fezzik, Greenland on Yarold's Samurai War Link Exchange - Actually, this is sort of a crass lie.  Mostly, Boots spends her evenings link farming to promote Zizzle, Sri Lanka.  The mindless simplicity of the process, and her compulsive pursuit of it are fascinating.  One night, she volunteered to click links on my behalf, which resulted in my account getting BANNED 4 LIFE!  So, I'm faced with the prospect of arguing with 13 year olds that I am legit, or just giving up on the whole thing and leaving Fezzik unemployed, in Greenland.  Of course, if someone else wants to take on stewardship of this little 'berg, I'm sure you could click to your heart's content.
  • Playing Kingdom of Loathing on my lunch break - I am currently a level 13 Accordian Thief and I am waging war against the Hippies on the Mysterious Island of Mystery.  My trouble is that as I am (disguised as an Orcish frat boy) I can't actually manage to hit any of my opponents. Soon, I hope to reach my first Ascension  and become a Sauceror under the Moxie zodiac sign.  Doesn't that sound like fun?
  • Submitting random crap to my Tumblog - Tumblr is so much damned fun.  Basically making a post is as simple as using a bookmarklet and making a few clicks.  It sort of feels like randomly looting the internet for goodies.
  • Browsing for random content with the help of Flock - I do so very much love the RSS reader in Flock.  With it, I can scan random images from the web with easy and loot them into my Tumblog:
    Rss
    It's especially good for scrolling through Tumblogs, Ffffound, and my Ravelry friend activity.

    The "My World" page is a fancy console for checking out what all is being updated by friends around the web.  (It ties in with Facebook, and I think that as soon as I'm done with this post I am going to sign up.  That is unless someone comes by my desk with something more valuable that I'm supposed to be doing.)
     
  • Racking up points on PMOG for taking other players' tours of the web - PMOG has a fair amount in common with Me.dium (or however you place the periods) in that you install an extension, and can see notations left by other players on the web.  It has two main advantages over Me.dium, however.  The first is a kickin' steampunk aesthetic and some "game play" to it.  The second is that one of the main ways you interact with other players is by taking "Missions" which are like little website slide shows that players assemble.  I've taken one on Fantasy Art, one on Roller Derby, one on Libertarianism, etc.  For each TLD you visit, you get two points.  Points are spent on goodies and also let you "level up".  The benefits of increasing your level are a little beyond me at this point, but going on a mission is a fantastic way to kill five minutes learning about something new.  At some point when I have another slow day like this, I'm going to have to make a few missions, myself.  I get to invite two people per week to join, and I'd love to have some company here.  (When I signed up, it took almost no time to get from invite request to being on the site, so maybe the invite codes aren't a big deal.)

There you go.  I hope you join me on some of these time-wasting diversions.

Originally posted on eightysixfourhundred.vox.com