Jeffrey McManus

I’m so happy that Boingboing turned on comments on their posts. (After going back and forth on the subject for a while, I put myself in the camp that believes “if there aren’t comments, it’s not a blog, and if it’s not a blog, it ain’t shit.”)

There’s a classic comment thread today on a post pertaining to the true source of petroleum (which is an interesting subject because scientists don’t actually know how it’s formed). While one hopes that this line of inquiry does not reveal oil to be a renewable resource, I really like the idea that the purpose of humanity may be to “clean the septic tank of the Old Ones.”

Here’s a FunnyOrDie video featuring Casey Wilson and June Raphael. Casey joined the cast of SNL last year; June has had little parts in Flight of the Conchords and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

I wrote this back in February and I just realized I only told a few people about it. It’s a Greasemonkey script that mucks with the standard text display of the Facebook “Share” link. (It’s really just a silly joke.)

The instructions:

Step 1: Install the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox from here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/748/

Step 2: Click here to install the script:

http://files.approver.com/public/cher.user.js

Step 3: Go to a page that contains Share links such as
http://www.facebook.com/barackobama and bask in the enhancement.

Link: Not-So-Alter Ego of Kenneth the Page, Still Soaking It In

As a star of “30 Rock” (whose new episodes resume on Thursday) [McBrayer] has somewhat brighter career prospects. He recently appeared with the pop singer Mariah Carey in her video for “Touch My Body” playing a nebbishy computer repairman who arrives at Ms. Carey’s mansion. Shot in a single day and directed by the filmmaker Brett Ratner, the video was a surreal experience for Mr. McBrayer.“To hear Brett Ratner say, ‘O.K., now walk more slowly with the unicorn’; ‘O.K., Mariah, spank Jack more,’ ” he said. “What is happening to my life?”

Here’s the video. Once you get past the unlikeliness of Mariah Carey answering the door of her mansion in an unbuttoned shirt, it’s an absolute scream.

Update: I took the video down because Mariah’s record company apparently isn’t into the idea of “sharing”. Too bad!

Link: Paterson Is Sworn In as New York’s 55th Governor

Mr. Paterson then made a self-effacing joke about his visual impairment; he is the first legally blind governor in [New York] history. He recalled that at a State of the State address, while presiding over the Senate as lieutenant governor, “Apparently I was going to bring the gavel down on a glass, like this one,” grasping a water glass. Lowering his voice into a deadpan, Mr. Paterson imitated the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, who, Mr. Paterson said, jokingly warned that he was not going to allow the proceeding to be turned into a Jewish wedding.

Madonna Heads to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

[Justin] Timberlake told of how he felt ill one day while working on Madonna’s new album and she asked whether he wanted a B-12 shot. He said sure, expecting a doctor to show up, but Madonna pulled out a syringe and said, ”drop ‘em.”After he pulled his pants back up, ‘’she looked at me and said, ‘That’s top shelf,’ and that was one of the greatest days of my life,” he said.

”Everything he said is basically true,” Madonna confirmed, ”but I didn’t say ‘drop ‘em,’ I said, ‘pull your pants down.”

Secret Hand-Gesturers for Clinton

Originally uploaded by jeffreymcmanus

Note subtle differences in hand gestures between pink-skinned middle-aged female Clinton supporter and brown-skinned middle-aged female Clinton supporter. I’m convinced that there is some Illuminati-esque secret meaning to this but I’m not totally sure what it is.

Link: Task of Shooting Down Satellite Begins

"Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who left Washington Wednesday for a week of meetings in Asia, has been empowered by President Bush to issue the order to shoot down the satellite."

You know, people kick around the word "empower" a lot, but you have to admit, when the President of the United States orders you to use your navy to fire a rocket into orbit to destroy a spy satellite, that’s what I would call empowerment.

I wish that my two-year-old were more cogent so I could explain this to him — rockets, boats, and explosions, all wrapped into one. Only if Thomas the Tank Engine played the role of the Secretary of Defense and Sir Topham Hatt were president could it possibly enhance the already pornographic appeal.

knowing me knowing you. by kendrak.

Some people — crazy people, but good crazy — mail their rental DVDs back to Netflix with movie reviews written on post-it notes. The crazier among them take photos of the post-it review and post them to the Notes to Netflix pool on Flickr.

Link: Gluttonous Rite Survives Without Silverware

"You’ve got the tender beef, butter, salt, French fries, beer — all your major food groups. But it’s very unique to North Jersey. I go to other places and nobody’s heard of it."

Link: Steer Escapes From Ohio Slaughterhouse

"Searchers on the ground and in a sheriff’s department helicopter Monday were looking for an Angus steer that postponed its date with a slaughterhouse by bolting out a gate that had been inadvertently left open.

The more than 1,000-pound animal escaped from a slaughterhouse holding pen Monday morning and ran into the woods of suburban Cincinnati, according to Colerain Township police and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

The steer was last seen heading into woods several blocks north of Stehlin’s Meat Market and Interstate 275, said Dick Stehlin, co-owner of the meatpacking business. He said the bovine should be approached with caution. ‘It’s not, say, a mean animal or anything like that, it’s just sort of in a panic stage,’ Stehlin said. ‘It’s just out running, not even knowing where it’s heading.’"

Oh, it knows exactly where it’s heading. Away.

I don’t even think it’s necessary to comment about how perfect this photo is of Hillary in Las Vegas. Study it for a moment. There is absolutely nothing about it that is not hilarious.

From the NY Times’ election blog.

This is not to be missed: Fake Steve Jobs attended today’s MacWorld keynote and live-Twittered it. It’s vulgar and hilarious.

I think that Dave was one of the twelve people who bought an Apple TV before they made it work right and lowered the price; it’ll be interesting to see what his upgrade experience is like.

Not excited about the MacBook Air, even if it is impossibly thin, etc. I don’t need a smaller screen and a smaller hard drive, I need a bigger hard drive, 3G wireless everywhere for a fixed rate of $20 a month, and more battery life. And more memory. And a pony.

Paying $20 apiece to equip our two iPod Touch devices with software that should have been there in the first place will make me feel like a choad, but I’ll probably do it at some point, maybe.

A movie rental that expires after 24 hours is still a stupid idea, particularly for people whose kids constantly screw up their plans. Extending the intentional bit-rot factor, even slightly (like to 27 hours) would be a big help. But even then, this feels like the flip side of the Blockbuster coin that consumers have been rejecting in droves in favor of the Netflix model. Instead of dinging you with endless late fees they simply disappear the movie you paid for. Dumb model.

A wireless terabyte network attached storage device for $500 is kind of interesting.

Still, nothing to make me leap out of my chair and run to the Apple store this year. (A 3G iPhone, maybe with more storage, might have done that this time around, and I will probably want to replace my mid-2006 MacBook Pro before the end of 2008, but there’s no rush on that.)

Blue Screen of Death by Laughing Squid.

Best costume evar!!

Hapi olmost halawin by jeffreymcmanus.

Celeste writes letters to characters in the game Animal Crossing nearly every day. Her spelling isn’t terrific (she’s six, so it’s no big whoop) but it’s really astonishing to see her pursuing this with such vigor when six months ago she was barely able to read or write her own name.

This reminds me of when I was in fifth grade and I got my first real creative writing and public speaking experience through dungeon mastering. Why can’t more learning activities seem like play?

Link: Late but Lavishly, A380 Makes Debut

"As if to enhance the already high expectations of his audience, Mr. Chew explained that four of the suites in the center of the cabin can be modified to become double beds for couples traveling together, simply by removing the privacy divider between them.

In a demure hint at the plane’s honeymoon possibilities, the carrier had decked out one double bed with Champagne and scattered the duvet with red rose petals. The bed’s two seat belts — in case of unexpected turbulence — were discreetly hidden below the bedding.

Officially, of course, these beds are meant for sleeping only. ‘We look forward to welcoming our premium-class guests for the purposes of travel and rest,’ said Stephen Forshaw, a Singapore Airlines spokesman. ‘That is all.’"

If you claim to have invented Facebook, finally there is a place for you to tell the world about it.

Your story won’t be believed, of course, because everybody know that I invented Facebook, but if you’d like to weigh in with your story, you’re welcome to.

AEEEE by jeffreymcmanus.

Link: A Different Kind of Company

"Because we consider the success of our client to be our ultimate aim, we take an unusually proactive approach to providing the client with the most effective marketing collateral possible. If a client is unsatisfied with a first draft, we’ll happily provide a revision. And if a client is unsatisfied with the revision, we will seize control of the client’s firm by force so that we might better provide the firm with what we, as marketing professionals, know to be effective marketing collateral. And though, as a precaution, you as the CEO will be executed, your children will be provided for in a manner adequate to their social station."

Those of us who have ordered the new generation of iPods and paid extra for FedEx shipping have noticed that they’re being shipped from a city in China called Kunshan. Naturally, this important fact has now been entered into the Wikipedia page for the city. Way to put yourselves on the map, dudes!

I just noticed that the date stamps jumped forward and backwards (from Sept. 19 to Sept. 20 then back to Sept. 19, I guess as the package crossed the international date line). Hope it makes it here from Alaska tomorrow so I can play with it over the weekend.

Update: I checked again this morning to see they’d sent it to Indianapolis. Crap! That must be a FedEx hub.