Arts and Crafts Time.

The best thing since the Macquarium... it's the iPod Retro Radio!

Since I don't own and iPod, can someone make this and verify to me that it works? Cuz that would be so kewl, man....

Video Blogging #1.

Like the rest of 'net-dom, I'm becoming something of a YouTube addict. So, periodically, I'm going to try to share some of my favorites with you. Today, we're going with a baseball theme...

From a couple years ago, here's an ESPN Top 10 countdown of the best baseball fights. A more recent list would surely have to include Pedro Martinez vs. Don Zimmer from the 2003 ALCS, as well as this season's main event, Michael Barrett vs. A.J. Pierszynski. (Yes, I know there are only nine included. Don't blame me, blame the uploader...):



Bronson Arroyo hits a home run just for... you:



I post this next one, not so much because I have any particular affinity for the Mets or hatred for the Red Sox, but for two other reasons -- 1) as an appreciation of the sheer amount of time and dedication it took to pull this off, and 2) because they used the audio of Vin Scully's classic call of this classic game. Vin always was, and always shall be The Man. Anyway, here's Game Six of the 1986 World Series as recreated on Nintendo's RBI Baseball:



I can't let a baseball post go by without a little fandom, so I offer this, Steve Finley's walk-off grand slam to win the NL West for the Dodgers in 2004. Even though I wasn't in the stands for this (but instead watching at home, jumping around excitedly with an infant Sarah in my arms), I still get chills watching it again:



And, lastly, we can't forget the new gold standard in manager tirades:

Da Doo Ron Ronnie.

Giving the Reagan the respect he deserves....

(Gotta love that backing band, though. Go, John Paul, go!)

Yay! Stupid Meme Time!

Here's something pointlessly fun...

THIS WAY UP á

Eric has fragile contents which may break!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Oddly enough, when I use my capping handle, I get exactly the same thing. Go figure.

People Have the Power.

Tired of waiting around for your lazy-ass congressional representative to quit dillydallying and recommend to impeach our corrupt, lying and cheating president? Well, now you don't have to! Turns out there is a legal precedent in the House rules that allows impeachment proceedings to be initiated by any American citizen. So, head on over to Impeach for Peace to find out how, download the forms and get started now. After all, the government is here to serve us, not the other way around, and it's our ability to choose its direction that helps make America great.

And while you're doing that, here's some extra motivation from Neil Young and DJ Green Lantern and friends.

Satan! Satan! Satan!

Happy 6/6/06 everyone! Or, should I say Eeeeeevil 6/6/06? Anyway, in honor of the impending armageddon, I present to you the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics of All Time and (The Other) Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics of All Time.

All hail our Dark Lord and his funny pants...

Yawriats Ot Nevaeh.

So, there's this guy in the Netherlands who spent months teaching himself to sing "Stairway to Heaven" backwards. Then, he videotaped himself doing his best impassioned karaoke performance of it (on a public street, no less) and reversed the footage so the song comes out forwards. The results can be seen here.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just the sort of thing that gives the Internet meaning.

What the World Needs Now...

...is for me to update this damn blog more often. But, barring that (which real life seems bound and determined to do), I can at least share some links with you all:

...is Gangsta Haiku, yo!

...is a new president. (Although this piece originally ran in the Boston Globe, I'm using the link to the reprint at Truthout, because reading it in the Globe's archives would require a paid subscription. And I love my readers too much to make them capitalist slave hoes.)

...is a happening new Dodgers blog, which is so much more entertaining and insightful than the official PR-department-approved Dodgers blog. (Remember: Kenny says don't panic!)

...is the happy fun times wrought by Dinosaur Comics, Toothpaste For Dinner and, most especially, Married to the Sea.

Thank You, Blogosphere, For These Delightful Reminders of My Gloriously Misspent Youth.

From the time I became a hardcore baseball geek at 10 years old up until my high school years, I was an obscenely dedicated baseball card collector. I tried to get my hands on just about everything that came out circa 1981 to 1987, as well as trolling the local card shop for stuff from before then. Those old cards and players still have a pretty powerful nostalgic pull for me, even though the card collection is essentially gone. (In college, I sold most of it to buy camera equipment.)

That's why I've been going gaga lately over the writing at The Baseball Card Blog. Don't let the dry blog name fool you -- Ben, the proprietor, is putting up some of the most hilarious blog writing I've read in a long time, plus his years of obssessive childhood collecting roughly parallel mine, making for some great flashbacks.

And, as a companion piece, there is Joe Sports Fan's Worthless Card Collection, which offers much of the same, but in much smaller doses.

(Now, you'll notice that I said above that I sold "most" of my collection. I still have a few favorites that I didn't want to part with, including a '68 Topps Don Drysdale, Fernando Valenzuela's '81 Fleer rookie card. And, most significantly, there is the '82 Fleer Cal Ripken rookie card, which may or may not be able to pay our rent some day....)

Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Wingnuts.

The Toronto Star is covering an interesting bit of research about the links between childhood personality and adult political leanings. If this research proves true, does this mean that the havoc being wreaked by our current (mal)administration is just the result of... bad parenting? You be the judge.

(Although how they managed to find any kids at all who grew up conservative in Berkeley is beyond me...)

Goodbye, Dear Friend.

144b:

This is so much better than cooking bacon nude.

The capping community got a blow today, learning that our beloved friend Bert Tilley (better known as 144b) passed away on Feb. 20. We lost a great one -- a marvelous storyteller, a generous and kind-hearted friend, and one hell of a funny capper (even when his delightfully mangled spelling and syntax got in the way). The world is a little bit sadder place without him in it. He was incredibly well-loved, and I hope he never forget that.

Life With My Strange Daughter, Part 4,172.

So, the other day as I was getting dressed, Sarah was relaxing on our bed when I noticed that, well... she made a pretty stinky mess in her diaper. I told her to wait until I was finished, and then I would change her. She agreed, but then a couple moments later said, "My poopie all gone!"

"Well, where'd it go?" I asked.

"Up in the sky!" she said excitedly, pointing heavenward.

Hoo-kay, I thought. I can roll with that.

But then she started gazing into our bedside reading lamp (it was turned off, of course) as if it was a telescope. "I see my poopie!" she exclaimed, pointing off in the distance out the window.

Later, as I was changing her diaper, she made a point of telling me that it contained not only her poopie, but peanut butter as well.

Yum yum!

Rock 'n' (Blog) Roll.

Lately I've become a maniac with the MP3 blogs. Here are some quality Eric's House approved (tm) blogs for you all to enjoy and download groovy tunes from....

• 7 Inch Punk: The best hardcore blasts of yesteryear.
• The By-Pass Control: Vintage vinyl and paperbacks.
• Copy, Right?: Covers, covers and more covers.
• Endless Mike and his Annex: Great vinyl rarities.
• The Groovy Fab Workshop: Come for the psychedelic sounds, stay for the vintage comics.
• Hanszunblog: Back from the dead and ready to rock your ass.
• Lellebelle: Obscure (or not-so-obscure) nuggets from the psychedelic era.
• Mexicovers: Space age pop from south of the border.
• Music For Maniacs: Missives from the fringes of the music world.
• Planet Xtabay: The best in lounge, exotica and other out-of-print vinyl curios.
• Post Punk Junk: Something old, something new...
• The Record Robot: Hot, fresh and served up daily!
• Vinyl Mine: A great trip through one hipster's record collection.
• WFMU's Beware of the Blog: Audio weirdness and miscellany from one of the coolest radio stations on the planet. Lots of great non-music features as well.

It's all enough to inspire me to start my own MP3 blog with choice selections from our vast music library. But, like so many of my other grand schemes, it'll probably fall by the wayside. But if it happens, I'll be sure to let you all know.

I Bring You... DEATH!

I didn't make this, but I wish I had...

More Fun With Nameless Dread.

You like? Cthlulu doesn't care if you like! But you can check out more of the same here.

Dance, Monkeys, Dance!

I know it's been a long time with no update, but real life doesn't leave me with much time to pay attention to this blog right now. I hope to be back updating with a little more regularity after my class is over next week. We'll see.

In the meantime, enjoy this treatise on the monkeys.

Holiday Time.

It's hiatus time again around Eric's House, what with the college closing down for the Christmas break and all. I'll be back in effect (yeah, boyyyeeeeee!!!!) again in January, so try not to miss me too much (yeah, right).

Until then, happy Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Solstice, Festivus, whatever else.

The Album the RIAA Doesn't Want You to Hear.

Whether you're a mash-up fan or not, check this out anyway if, for no other reason than to support two wholesome DJs in their damning-the-man activities. Get these tracks before they go away forever:

American Edit.

[BTW, the Record Industry Association of America, which wants to squash your listening enjoyment, should not be confused with the fine folks at RIAA, who want nothing more than to rock your body. (FWIW, I highly recommend the "Sounds For the Sun-Set" album.)]

Random 10 Answers.

Well, only one of you would hazard a guess on my "guess-the-lyric" Friday Random 10 post, so here are the answers to the other nine songs...

1. "You're given a flower but I guess there's just no pleasing you" ["Blue Orchid" by the White Stripes]
2. "Would you like to watch tv? Or get between the sheets? Or contemplate a silent freeway?" ["Just One of My Turns" by Pink Floyd]
3. "Are you ready for the Sucky-Sucky?" ["Bite Me" by the Electric Six]
4. "I’d be your lover, if you were there; Put your hurt on me, if you dare" ["Photograph" by Def Leppard]
5. "You realize the sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round" ["Do You Realize?" by the Flaming Lips -- guessed by Fred.]
6. "Well I'm a high school grad I'm over 5 foot 3, I'll get a badge and a gun and I'll join the P.D." ["God is a Bullet" by Concrete Blonde]
7. "Bird in a flying cage you’ll never get to know me well" ["Man in a Suitcase" by the Police]
8. "So get the morgue embalm the goner" ["911 is a Joke" by Public Enemy]
9. "My mind goes sleepwalking while I'm putting the world to right" ["Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello]
10. "Na de dil pardesi nu tainu nit da roona pai jau ga" ["Jogi" by Panjabi MC]

[sarcastic mode] Gee, I was so sure someone would guess #10. [/sarcastic mode]

Anyway, give these fine songs a listen sometime, won't you?

Five Questions.

From the wondrous world of Kass Rachel comes the popular LiveJournal "five questions" meme. Basically, someone asks you five interview-type questions, which you then answer in your blog. And, if anyone wants you to ask them five questions, they say so in the comments section. Got it? Good. Here we go...

1) What's fun about newspaper work?

It's hard to narrow it down to just one thing. There's the adrenaline rush of being in a newsroom on deadline, with a group of editors working together to get everything put to bed. There's the satisfaction of seeing your work published the next day (or posted online, what with this being the 21st century and all) and seeing the public's reaction. There's the geeky fun I have sitting in front of a computer and doing a page design, or worrying about textflow, or doing a thousand other nitpicky little things. There's the gossipy, catty fun of learning some big news before everyone else and then being the one to tell the world about it. (Which is a very powerful motivator to those who go into the journalism profession. Don't let them fool you with their explanations of the noble purposes of the press in a free society; we're just a bunch of folks who like to swap gossip over the back fence.) There's the camaraderie of the newsroom, which can be a rollicking fun place, especially when the deadline pressure builds. Plus, with my position having such a tutoring/mentoring component to it, there's the satisfaction of watching the students learn new skills and spread their wings.

2) If you could spend time inside any book or movie universe, which one would you choose and why?

Ah, yes. The all important fandom question. Somehow, I knew you'd get around to asking that. ;-)

I suppose it would be the X-Men universe, which comes from my past as a comics junkie. But only if I could have mutant powers of my own, too.

If not that, then it would probably be the bizarre non sequitur world of Coleman Francis. (Here is poorly-designed tribute page, which really gives the man more artistic credit than he deserves.) The only problem is that I don't like coffee. However, I am caught in the wheels of progress.

3) What has surprised you most about parenting so far?

Well, the stock answer to this question would involve the many hours of lost sleep, the sudden difficulty in keeping a clean house, or the new depths of joy and love you feel every time your children look up at you and simply smile. And all of that is very true. But what surprised me the most is not just how much pee and poop those little bodies can create, but also how heavy a full diaper really is. And, based on that, how hernia-inducing a full diaper pail can be.

4) What books were most formative for you, growing up?

For the sake of completeness, I'm going to use a fairly expansive definition of "growing up" here.

When I was preschool age, my parents didn't have much money to buy me a lot of books, so I had to make do with having the same ones read to me over and over. It was this repetition that helped me teach myself to read early on, and the book I remember most from that period is "Green Eggs and Ham."

Later on, there was this massive 500-page or so Marvel Comics activity book, which featured mazes, coloring pages, word games and other fun stuff based around their characters (circa late-'70s).

By junior high, it was Chris Claremont's stellar run of the X-Men.

Into high school and college, there was a very wide range of stuff, including "Wuthering Heights," "The Sound and the Fury," "Diane Arbus: A Biography" by Patricia Bosworth (along with Arbus' Aperture Monograph), "Fire in the Crucible" by John Briggs, Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time," Shakespeare (especially "Hamlet," "Othello" and "Macbeth"), "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," two George Orwell novels (the obligatory "1984" and the unheralded "A Clergyman's Daughter"), "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton, bits and pieces of Kierkegaard, Nietschze, Sartre and Camus, plus lots of others I'm forgetting to list right now.

But for all that, I still spent more time in front of the TV than with my nose buried in a book. Don't even get me started on the ways "The Gong Show" has influenced my life, and continues to do so.

5) What's your favorite food and why?

Another tough question, since I pretty much just eat to live, and not the other way around. A gourmet I am not, which is why my list of favorite foods would include pizza (especially with pepperoni and pineapple), candy corn, Hot Tamales, Flaming Hot Cheetos, maraschino cherries or most anything that makes my mouth burn. Outside the realm of junk food, though, my favorites are my grandmother's Fabulous Potatoes (no, she didn't name the recipe that, but yes, they are fabulous), for their prominent part of our family traditions, and Mary Ann's pork chops, for her unique seasoning which produces what I like to call "the crunchy bits."

And with that, I'll shut up now.