Stupid Sock Creatures

Found this on dooce:

While he didn’t exactly buy me socks, he did pay attention to my recent infatuation with handmade toys (and toys and toys and toys) and bought me this:I have never sewn anything in my life except my wild oats. My goal is to make at least two sock creatures this year — that should allow me enough time to learn how to thread a needle.

I got the same book for my sister for Christmas! It’s a very cool book IMHO. I wonder if there is a Stupid Sock Creatures” Flickr Pool or Gallery?

UPDATE: I found a couple sock creatures on Flickr – I’m surprised there aren’t more

Miss Rogue and LexnGer Are Stalking Me!

See here for context

It’s those sneaky ::  at the front of your blog title.  It means your feed is usually at the top of my bloglines feeds.

But for real…you’ve got a great online voice and I enjoy reading along.

Impressively designed creative execution (sexy billboard).

(via)

UPDATE:  Another one although not sexy

Today is the Shortest Day of the Year

The December solstice is observed around the world in both astronomical and spiritual terms; this day is the shortest day and the longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and vice versa in the Southern hemisphere (via)

Free iPod Video Conversion Application – iSquint

iSquint

An iPod video conversion application.

Download the latest 1.0 preview (0.9j) now!

Interesting coverage on the ongoing cruise-ship-attacking pirates drama.

Remember that story from a few weeks back, about a group of mercenaries being given $50 million to fight Somali pirates — the guys who attacked a cruise ship, and were sent running by a sonic blaster? Well, it gets weirder, as Kathryn Cramer has been discovering.

First, she found out that the firm, New York’s Top Cat Marine Security, sure looked like a front company, sharing a single suite with NyClubScene.com, “Animal Fair” magazine, MyHealingPrayer.com, and a law firm. Then, Kathryn dug into the finances of Top Cat chief Peter Casini, who seems to have a habit of bankrupting his companies. And security didn’t exactly seem like his forte. So the question was: who were the real guns-for-hire at Top Cat?

The answer, Kathryn’s found out, includes the former U.S. rep for Sandline International. That’s the private military company that has been involved in quite a few messy little wars, from Sierra Leone to Papua New Guinea to Liberia. The company often flouted international law and U.N. restrictions to supply weapons and mercenaries to African strongmen and shady revolutionaries alike. Now, at least one of their top guys is back, under Top Cat’s cover. But who hired Top Cat, in the first place?

How To Make Your Own Web Mashup – Guide + Resources

“So you want to make a mashup but aren’t entirely sure where to begin? This page can help you get there.”

 

Scott Adams – Creator of Dilbert

Yet another “third highest ranking al-Qaida leader� has been killed, this time by a rocket attack from an unmanned drone. There are a lot of jobs that I wouldn’t want, and “third highest ranking al-Qaida leader� is right at the top. But I can tell you for sure that if I ever got that job, the first thing I’d do is narc out one of the top two guys so I could move up a notch. Apparently one of the perks of being in the top two is having a really, really good hiding place. The number 3 through 10 leadership guys are pretty much scurrying between mud huts and looking at the sky a lot.

I know that war is Hell and all that, but I have to think that the guy who fired the rocket by remote control loves his job. I have an image of him sitting in an air conditioned headquarters someplace, feet up on the desk, a bag of Cheetohs on one side, a Budweiser on the other, staring at his computer screen. It’s about 1 am and everyone else is asleep. The order comes through on e-mail saying something like “Blow up mud hut #4,7855.� So he takes a break from playing Doom and plugs that number into the GPS system and soon his drone is hovering over said mud hut, missiles ready to go.

Maybe it’s just a “guy thing� but the idea of blowing up a mud hut by remote controlled drone sounds like the most fun thing I can think of. And if the number 3 al-Qaida leader happens to be inside, that’s a bonus. It certainly makes your story sound less nerdy afterwards.

I find it interesting that the guy with the best job in the world gets to blow up the guy with the worst job in the world. That’s really rubbing it in. But I guess it’s not so different from a CEO downsizing the auditing department. It’s one of those recurring themes in life. (link)