It's a Death Star Party, Who Could Ask For More?

An ambitious fellow Lego freak has assembled this brilliant Death Star playset. I routinely browse through Brickshelf.com's new stuff, and this thing keeps popping up, which either means this guy is adding more pictures, or he's just re-posting to keep his creation in the limelight. It's a nuance of Brickshelf I haven't really figured out yet. Either way, he's really maximizing the potential of this playset with an array of scenes, some goofy and some not. I've included some of my faves here, but I recommend a look at the rest. Just excellent work. My favorite element is the Rebel Pilot on the right upper level who's peering into that big cylinder. And you can hardly see him in the dark there, but the Emperor is playing the piano on the level below.

Astromechtastic

As a collector, it's moments like this that make you feel like you know what you're doing. Here's my newly swelled collection of Astromech Droids.

Oops!

From the BBC:

A stumbling visitor to a top museum has destroyed a set of priceless vases which stood on a shelf for 40 years. The 300-year-old Qing vases were among the best known artefacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The visitor is said to have slipped on a loose shoelace and fallen down a staircase bringing the vases crashing down as he tried to steady himself.

The vases, donated in 1948, were said to hold a "significant value" and were among the best known pieces on display.

The museum declined to identify the man who had tripped.

The accident happened last Wednesday and the museum said it was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident.

Margaret Greeves, the museum's assistant director, said: "They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together."

Read the rest here.

I'm sure it was traumatic and embarassing and all that, but I honestly wonder about the visceral thrill one might get smashing two priceless vases and not having to worry about replacing them. Maybe the guy who did it reads this article and cringes, or maybe he nurses a secret pleasure remembering the sound of the porcelain hitting the marble stairs, as he and the vases tumbled down together. Can you imagine the noise?

With no injury and no compensation attached to the experience, I figure the recollection of it must be slightly intoxicating. Fair warning to my friends who own 300-year-old vases.

The Girl Who Named Pluto

Check out this article about the 11-year-old who named the ninth planet. It's very charming.

This explains all the opium

I started reading the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde today, which I've never read before. Get a load of this description of Jekyll's good friend and lawyer: "Where Utterson was liked, he was liked well. Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit awhile in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man's rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety."

Jeepers crow, the Victorians were so BORING! Listening to Mr. Stevenson here, they even touted it as a virtue. "Well honey, I invited a bunch of fun, interesting people to the party." "But darling! Surely you invited somebody boring to hang out with us afterward!" Man.

Who has to practice being alone?

iMeat

I don't know about you, but I think this is freakin' hilarious. Such a surreal choice.

Family Finds Raw Meat Instead Of iPod Inside Sealed Box

A 14-year-old girl who received a new Apple iPod opened the sealed box and found raw mystery meat inside, according to a Local 6 News report. Rachel Cambra purchased a new high-tech iPod for her daughter as a gift this week.

When she opened the sealed box, the device was missing and in its place was a piece of raw meat, the report said.

Cambra said the box was sealed and that it didn't appear to have been tampered with when she brought it home from the Honolulu Wal-Mart where she works. An investigation found that a former employee apparently tampered with a shipment of iPods and put the meat into several packages.

The former employee now faces tampering charges, Local 6 News reported.

The Wal-Mart where the device was purchased from promised to give the family a new iPod from the next shipment the store receives.

Fish Cathedral

I'm trying to pay more attention to this blog, so today I'm slapping up one of the many beautiful nature photos I've boosted from the BBC. I don't know the story behind this, but I've been grooving on it for weeks.

Nun Bun Fun

According to this article from the BBC, someone nicked this shellac-covered cinnamon bun with a "striking resemblance" to Mother Theresa. You know, my biggest problem with all this "Jesus in a pancake" stuff is that these holy images are so darn inaccurate. Can't they get some better rendering software on the Other Side? That thing doesn't look like Mother Theresa. It looks like the old woman in this optical illusion, or maybe the witch from Hansel and Gretel.

No wonder the poor woman wrote a letter asking them to cut it out. I wonder if she mentioned to them that her nose isn't the shape of a large potato, or that her eyes don't peer beadily from beneath her habit.

Just once I'd like to see the headline "Face of Jesus in Cheese Sandwich Turns Out To Be One of the ZZTop Guys. Never Mind."

Santa Claus moves his operation to Venice

Never again having to inform a sobbing elf family of another polar bear attack: priceless.

Horrorthon Results Are In...

And I won. JPX beat his little brother's score for the first time ever, 52 to 43. I won with 57. Our new dark horse candidate scored 3, but to be honest my first year of competition was about the same. In 2003 I watched about half a dozen horror flicks with JPX, but while I intended to write reviews, I blew it off. At the very least* I'mnotMarc gave us some fresh ink.

*(Actually, the very least multiplied by 3.)

Best of all, it was a total blast. As usual. I know the ingredients of this contest are people watching movies alone in the dark, but the experience feels like a live event. I love it. Thanks to everyone who commented and those of you who tuned in without comment. Heck, thanks to the people who ignored us!

What can I say, it's been a good week.

This Year's Model

This was my Halloween costume this year, based on the notion of a brain-controlling alien that might populate a 1950's sci-fi movie. I had more of a costume in mind for myself to wear, but I spent all the time I had making the darn brain in time for last Friday's party. Suitable attire ideas include:

1. A uniform of an employee of the "Department of Outer Space."

2. A v-neck sweater with a varsity letter on it, as in "Me and the guys were drag racing down by old Johnson's farm, and we saw a shooting star and went to check it out." This is what I wore to the party, minus the varsity letter because of time and lack of black construction paper (Jaimi, I'm talking to you).

3. And then, seconds before I got home on Halloween night itself, I thought: lab coat!

I tend to reuse my big props, so I'll go whole hog some time in the future. The brain says I must.

And the Horrorthon is ovah!

I just watched my last movie for Horrorthon 2005. Swear to God, one of the first things to cross my mind was "well, it won't count, but maybe I'll throw in another horror movie."

I also did a lot of great stuff for Halloween this weekend, like wear a big blue brain and carve faces.

Kaylee is my favorite

But River took a better picture.

Adam took me to a screening of Serenity at Pixar tonight, and I was VERY very satisfied. It was a treat to see that batch of characters again, and there were a lot of cheering audience members. Rock. I hope it does well enough that they make some more.

It's too bad we didn't have dvds after My So Called Life was cancelled. Who knows what sort of resurrection might have occured?

Cringe In Fear, Surface Dwellers!

Have you seen those first-ever pix of a giant squid in the wild? Me neither! There's that one picture everybody's got, but I wanna see the prey "enveloped in a coiled tentacular ball." The Royal Society is holding out. I was able to get the DNA sequence off the tentacle they snagged, but after I forwarded it to the Cloning Department I felt sort of empty.

Actual Burning Man

I just can't get over how jealous I am of this guy, showing up on fire. I once read a book in which a race car driver, after a series of mishaps, shows up at a formal party in a dripping-wet tuxedo. I've always wanted to do that. This guy's aiming several notches higher.

I love the funny stance for the handshake. "Oh, do excuse me, I seem to be aflame."

Widowmaker

My bike got stolen! Probably right while I was writing my first ever post. The good news, such as it is, is that they left behind the clipped remains of one of my lock cables, letting me know it was the work of pros with tools and not some slip-up by me when I locked it up. They got my helmet, too.

This makes two bikes I've disappeared this year. The other one received an unfixable crack in its aluminum frame right where the back wheel attached.

Got a bicycle you need to "go away?" Looks like I'm your guy.

Sigh. I really liked that bike.

Tronka Warning

This is the real reason they don't sell Chevy Novas in Mexico.

Marc and I watched the first disc of Shogun tonight. Richard Chamberlain has two expressions: Glaring and Puzzled. Marc aptly pointed out that means he's in a tie with Jessica Alba.