Barking Lunacy

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DJ K-Dub Nails It

August 3, 2007 by Andrew | 4 comments

A lovingly eviscerating graphic design parody. From Kyle Webster. (Based in Winston-Salem, NC)

Separated at birth?

March 20, 2007 by Andrew | 1 comment

Rainn & Hal

If you close your eyes and listen to Rainn Wilson, especially in Six Feet Under re-runs, you can swear he’s about to say, “Dave … I can’t let you do that.”

Creeps. Me. Out.

You know the world is getting weird when …

February 13, 2007 by Andrew | 2 comments

… the Violent Femmes song “Blister in the Sun” is being used to advertise a sandwich from Wendy’s.
Big hands. I know you’re the one.

Design nadir: MS Word’s Templates

December 18, 2006 by Andrew | Permalink

I’m at work, trying to parse exactly how MS Word’s templates function. I knew this much better back in 1998, when I was a tech writer. I managed to master much of the workings of Word styles and templates, but it was all still pretty arcane even then. I remember having long debates over conference phones, like students arguing the subtleties of Talmud, with virtual-team members about the order in which to apply one or more templates to a document, and how portable the styles would then be, or exactly how to create a new style and apply to the template so that others would see it. Ad nauseum.

So I’m thrilled and gratified to see that Microsoft has finally explained all of this so clearly, especially since millions of people around the world try to collaborate on documents using their software every day. Just check out this cogent, crystal-clear explanation of the until-now mysterious “normal.dot” template, from Microsoft’s vast knowledgebase:

Working with Microsoft Word Templates-The Foundation

Normal.dot is a special global document template created and used by Word. It is a global template, but is often used as a document template. Unlike other global templates, Normal.dot must be in the User templates folder, and unlike other global templates, it should not be shared. Also unlike other global templates, it shares styles with all open documents (including other templates). When you click the New Document button or go to New option on the File menu and then click Blank Document, by default, you get a document based on the Normal.dot template.

Yeah. Now I understand completely. Thanks.

Add this to the ‘great quotes’ list somewhere

September 21, 2006 by Andrew | Permalink

I ran across the story about Bill Gates watching YouTube and ‘admitting to watching pirated content’ just now, even though it came out in June, but the bit that really got me was this quote:

“This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.”

419 Fun

June 30, 2006 by AndrewH | Permalink

I read this article in the New Yorker a few weeks ago, about “The Perfect Mark” — a man who, in spite of being relatively intelligent, fell for one of the Nigerian “419” scams. (The ones where you get an email saying “I have a million dollars in a blind account and need your help to get it out.”)

I’d always assumed these scams were just quick one-hit stabs at getting a credit card number. I had no idea how deep they actually go, and how sophisticated they are. They strung this guy along for years (and he still wants so much to believe that the characters are real!) and did such an amazing job of reality-twisting. Now when I see these emails, I’m no longer just amused and puzzled but a little creeped out that I just got an email from murderous, organized criminals.

So it feels especially wonderful to run across this site, “Welcome to the 419 Eater” where some clever soul conned the cons. He basically tells them “yeah I wish I could help you, but I’m in the middle of this really big deal that’s making me even more money” and baits them into a similar trap. Only in his case, it’s just an extended practical joke. (He never invites anyone to fly to his country then robs and kills them, for example.)

In this one: http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm they manage to get a scammer to think they’ll make thousands of dollars by carving strange things out of wood, then claim a hamster has eaten the goods. Hysterical.

Annual Bock Fest & Goat Race

May 4, 2006 by AndrewH | Permalink

Annual Bock Fest & Goat Race

Sly Fox Goat Race 2006

There’s gonna be a goat race! I didn’t know about it until Laurie sent me the link.

Why a goat race, you ask? Well, evidently “bock” means “goat” in German, and bock being an especially German beer, lots of them have goats on their labels and such. So the odd association was born.

More Intel on the Roswell Castle House

November 10, 2005 by AndrewH | 3 comments




Roswell castle house

Originally uploaded by inkblurt.

A friend sent me a link to some info about the house that’s almost as much fun as the house itself. The page on the DuPont Castle website (which has lots of info on other American castles, it seems) has a picture of the house along with tons of emails with various wildly differing stories about the house and its history.
There are some bits of information that sound more accurate than others.
It’s located on the corner of Cagle Rd and Hwy 140 in Roswell, GA.
I looked it up in Google Earth, and lo and behold, found it. Here’s a snapshot from Google Earth (links to the bigger version in my flickr stream).
From the overhead picture, it’s now clear that yes, indeed, there is a real swimming-pool moat around the whole structure.


Wacky Castle House

November 5, 2005 by AndrewH | 8 comments




wacky castle house

Originally uploaded by inkblurt.

Last time I visited my folks, on my drive between their place up around Canton, GA, and the Atlanta airport, I ran across this strange castle-like house, tucked in the midst of semi-rural suburbs.
I’m dying to know what the heck this thing is.
It appears to have a moat around it, because in the front there’s a railing that looks like it goes into a pool (from my vantage point outside the gate, it was hard to tell).
Out back, it has a weird little smaller castle house like a pool house, maybe? And some creepy cartoonish character sculptures.
It must not be a very new house, because it has a gigantic TV antenna sprouting from one of the conical roofs. (I forgot the word for those things.)
There are a few more pics in the flickr stream, linked from the picture.
(Edit: See the new info on the house in this post)


IAI Badgerifficness

November 4, 2005 by AndrewH | 1 comment

A while back, I couldn’t help myself, and made a little badge for my link to the IA Institute:

And now it’s popping up in really cool places like Japan! (Noriyo Asano’s IA Spectrum).

Yay badges!

(Yeah, I know they’re somewhat tacky … somewhere between pink flamingos and happy meal toys, but like I said I couldn’t help myself.)

Roz on ADD

September 14, 2005 by AndrewH | 2 comments

Minutes from the ADD Support Group

Either Ms. Chast has ADD herself, or she knows somebody very well who does.


I saw this in this week’s New Yorker. The text goes like this:

1. Call to order.
2. Speaker introducted. Didn’t catch name.
3. Talk talk talk. Blah blah blah. Sooooo BORING!
4. Speaker looks like Cousin Jeremy.
5. Note to self: YOU OWE JEREMY AN EMAIL.
6. God, I never answered Miriam’s email either.
7. No *way* I’m cooking dinner tonight. We’ll order something.
8. Everybody left. Why am I still sitting here?

Karma Karma Karma Katrina

September 2, 2005 by AndrewH | Permalink

No need to comment on this. It speaks for itself.

From an article in September 2004:

And indeed, some in-need areas have been inexplicably left out of the program. “In a sense, Louisiana is the flood plain of the nation,” noted a 2002 FEMA report. “Louisiana waterways drain two-thirds of the continental United States. Precipitation in New York, the Dakotas, even Idaho and the Province of Alberta, finds its way to Louisiana’s coastline.” As a result, flooding is a constant threat, and the state has an estimated 18,000 buildings that have been repeatedly damaged by flood waters–the highest number of any state. And yet, this summer FEMA denied Louisiana communities’ pre-disaster mitigation funding requests.

In Jefferson Parish, part of the New Orleans metropolitan area, flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue is baffled by the development. “You would think we would get maximum consideration” for the funds, he says. “This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it.”

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