web-goddess

This is the coolest thing ever. A southern Indiana man built his own roller coaster out of scrap metal. It even goes upside-down! This guy sounds like my dad. 🙂 (Link courtesy of John.)

“Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies”. That’s awesome. I love nitpicky articles like this. I’ve also noticed myself becoming more “font-aware” over the last few years. Lately, I’ve developed a physical revulsion to the inappropriate use of “Comic Sans MS”. (Yeah, I still use it for my Dahl logo, but it’s appropriate there.) For example, there was a restaurant near our place in London called “Spicy Fong!” that used Comic Sans MS on all its menus and signage. Could you possibly think of a font less suited to a Chinese restaurant? Me neither. I refused to go near the place.

Success! The Snook had a lot of willpower, but I broke him. He’s now as hooked on Big Brother as I am. We were both shocked to see Damian – the house Lothario – voted out last week. He was one of the couples! (He was probably the one most likely to have sex in the house, too, so imagine our loss.) This week’s scandals have been all about Katrina. First it was revealed that she’s posed nude in a soft-core porn mag. And even more shockingly, it’s now being reported that she’s a Young Liberal! There’s even an e-mail campaign afoot (masterminded by Young Labor, no less) to get her evicted. Who knew Big Brother was so political?

1. What are your hobbies?
Besides all this Internet crap? I quilt. My first blanket is coming along very well, aside from the fact that my fingertips are all raw and bloody from stabbing myself too many times with a quilting needle. I’m also learning Korean in the hopes of amusing my grandparents the next time I go home.

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what?
Though I collect books in general, I also have tons of Roald Dahl stuff. I’ve got an entire shelf of his books, including several rare volumes (that I paid an arm and a leg for on eBay). I’ve also got Dahl movies, Dahl CD’s, Dahl records, Dahl magazines, and even a doll (from Matilda). I tell myself that it’s all for the site, but really, it’s for me. 🙂

3. Is there a hobby you’re interested in, but just don’t have the time/money to do?
I’d love to actually get “serious” about my Dahl collection and go after some of the really nice first editions. Since I’ve seen prices with four digits, though, that’ll have to wait til I make my first million. I’ve also had a crazy desire lately to learn to knit. I’m just working my way through the domestic arts, people.

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity?
When I was first heading to London, I sold my rarest Dahl book because I needed the cash. I immediately regretted it though and was lucky enough to be able to buy the same volume back later. Quilting could possibly be a money maker, though. I used to scoff at how much the Amish back in Indiana charged for these things, but now that I know the work involved in making one by hand, I don’t think hundreds of dollars is out of the question. Of course, this first one is for my bed. It’s getting cold at night!

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to?
Not really anything. I don’t know enough people here to join a club yet.

Check it out! Remember the Australian reality TV show I told you about, where the viewers control the fortunes of a minor league rugby team? (Sidenote: The Hammerheads just won their first game! Chicks still aren’t allowed to play, though, so Debbie Lee is working as assistant coach.) Well, anyway, it looks like HBO is developing something similar in the U.S., except with baseball! I got the impression that the team will be an existing minor league team, though, rather than a new one composed of all amateurs. Honestly, the best part of watching The Club is seeing the randoms that got picked to play. It’s a great show concept, though. If they get the right people/characters, it could be a big hit.

Mucho apologies for the lack of post. Turns out it wasn’t our ISP; it’s our server. Dialing out works fine from either Snook’s or my computer, but when we go through our server (and firewall), nada. Since we haven’t changed anything recently, we’re wondering if we got hacked. Snook’s busy scraping everything off it and reinstalling, so hopefully we’ll be back in business soon.

I’m suffering Internet withdrawal. Our ISP has been “throttling” us because we download too much. Whatever. It’s too slow to do anything. I wish the damn ADSL guy would come put us out of our misery!

Have any of you ever tried to learn a foreign language on your own, like from a book or tape? I’ve decided I’d like to learn Korean, but I can’t find a single language school in the city that offers it. Now I’m wondering if I could do it on my own. I found a helpful website, and I was thinking I could get a book or tape to go along with it. If you’ve done something similar, do you have any suggestions? Is it too difficult to learn without other people to converse with? What kind of materials should I look for?

Calling all old-school gaming nerds! You can now play the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure online! It’s java-based, but I got it to run fine in Mac IE. It’s fun! I keep dying, though. I can’t figure out how to stop the bulldozer. 🙂

Michele pointed me to a great interview with Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Did you know The Mail on Sunday called Pullman the most dangerous man in Britain? And here I thought all the conservative book critics were too busy burning copies of Harry Potter to notice. My sister just finished the books, so she should appreciate getting a bit more insight into Pullman’s personal religious philosophy. I was amazed by his statements that C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books are “detestable”. He makes some good arguments against the view of Heaven that those books present. Good stuff.