A blog by Rob Cruickshank.

 
There haven't been any posts for a few days, sorry. Today is the last Friday of the month, and you know what that means. You're not a wimp, are you?
posted 8:47 AM

 
What if you did a critical mass type ride but with longboards? And bad music?
(6 meg quicktime, download it, don't stream it.)
posted 6:09 PM

 
Yet another energy drink..this time it's E-Plus which looks a lot like red bull, except with an eagle. It's made by NR Instant Produce , and, even though they don't have it on their website, if it's anything like their other drinks, it's probably hygenically sterilized. We liked it, except that it tastes like Dimetapp. It's not as thick as Red Bull, and there's no gross aftertaste. I poured some into my Fresca and it was ok. I feel sort of hyper now, but in a good way.
posted 4:23 PM

 
Marvin Glass shaped your personality more than your parents did. Your parents only existed to buy you stuff that he designed.
posted 11:35 AM

 
This might look good on a ferret or boa constrictor, too.
posted 11:09 AM

 
Now you can generate instant postmodern essays.
Or, you can deconstruct the scary mess of of self-reference and simulacra in this news story.
(thanks, GF!)
posted 4:14 PM

 
Yesterday's drink was XTC. I'd like to put a link to the maker , but their site is down. What's an energy drink without a flash-encrusted website? Preferably one with naked people or extreme sports. How lame. The drink itself is lame. We poured it out, and decided it looked like pee. It wasn't fluorescent under ultraviolet. That would have been cool. The taste was really unremarkable, and fizzy, like fizzy candy. The aftertaste was yucky. I guess there's cafeine in it, but it just made me sort of irritable. Test Subject "B" didn't feel anything, and felt ripped off. Now that we've tried everything in the corner store, it's time to go to Chinatown. I hope we don't wreck our livers or spleens or anything.
posted 11:24 AM

 
Another workday, another energy drink. Today we are drinking Battery . We like it. It tastes kind of sour. Like white grape juice with SweeTarts and Red Bull. There's a weird aftertaste that we can't place. I'm not jumpy or fidgety at all. Good things: its got Guarana AND coffee in it. It's from Finland. The can looks like a battery. Someone saw me drinking it in the newsroom and asked if I was a hacker. The website has this really freaky voice message thing that's supposed to be a cuckoo, but looks like a CG version of Rodan. In bondage gear. It talks. Sort of. Also there's lot of "extreme" sports news on the page. Most of the events they cover seem to be sponsored by Red bull or Mountain Dew, not Battery. Points for being objective. I'm not sure how I feel about wakeboarding in an underground lake but at least it ain't golf.
posted 5:50 PM

 
Today was learn-to-snowboard day. There was one other old guy in the sketchy little one-hour class, and we both survived. I've found the snowboard page at CERN to be useful for beginners. I can remember when most of the web pages in existence were at CERN, and I used to look at them with Lynx. I guess I really am old.
posted 9:05 PM

 
Time to test out some energy drinks, since the store across the street is out of guru . Last week, I tried some Thai Red Bull. It's the consistency of HC110 or Nyquil- it was too gross and sticky to drink straight, I mixed it with water. I think it would be good in Fresca. It made me alert but a bit edgy. I think its the sugar. Big advantage is the cost, (99 cents in Chinatown) and the cool bottle. You could dilute it, just like HC110, and make a working solution. Next up, KMX Orange. Remember when you used to make swampwater as a kid, by mixing pops? Guess what this tastes like. Strong orange pop tast with some citrus, like Ting. My fellow guinea pig and I noticed a distinct cream soda aftertaste, too. It snapped me right out of my 3 o'clock torpor, but the sugar made me kinda twitchy. Test subject "B" was bright-eyed and animated for a short time, then she ran up a flight of stairs, got a headache, and had to sit down for a while. As she sez, "watch out for the drop"..
Now the Bomba is kicking in. My scalp feels like it's contracting. I haven't checked on test subject "B" in a while, I hope she's ok. She nailed the flavor as being like melted blue Freezie. With a twist. It tastes blue, like the KMX tastes red. So far so good- it's blue, made in Austria, shaped like a hand grenade (!), which uncorks with a pull ring, leaving you with a jagged piece of metal in your hand. (or your mouth, if you do it John Wayne style). And the website has pictures of naked people.
posted 4:05 PM

 
Darn. Why'd we get rid of the old Saab? We could have made it into a sauna!
(pictures load slowly 'cause it's via /.)
posted 8:48 AM

 
Nice page of circuit-bent Speak 'n' Spells. I think a trip to Goodwill is in order...
(via /.)

posted 11:39 AM

 
OK, this has to be a hoax, and if it's not, I hope they have some kick-ass materials science folk on board, 'cause the thermal expansion in that glass is going to be a bear: it's going to take a lot of joules to get that goo in motion, and if they heat it from the base, the temperature gradient in the glass is going to be, uh, interesting...
On the off chance that they do build it and it doesn't crack wide open and scald everyone to death, someone better remind the corner stores in town to stock up on papers. Hope they like hippies.
posted 11:27 AM

 
Stuck for a title and artwork for your next CD? Try Fatal Facts. Sure, these are horrible industrial accidents, and someone lost their dad, but just look at Struck by/ Caught Between . I just can't decide whether that's a punk CD or minimal techno....hmmm.. Fall From Different Level sound like Joy Division...
via excitement machine)
posted 11:18 AM

 
Dog and longboard. Poetry in motion. Are you ok?
(~5M quicktime)
posted 10:43 PM

 
How Much is Inside?
posted 1:34 PM

 
Set aside an hour or so, and check out these painted roadside signs.
(Via Coudal Partners)
posted 11:14 AM

 
Billy Van is dead. So is Oolong the rabbit. He was the rabbit who could balance things on his head. Fair warning: don't look at the photos of Oolong's last day unless you feel like having a good cry.
posted 1:00 PM

 
Hey kids- why don't you make a little shroud for your My Little Pony so just the creepy giant eye pokes out? There, that looks excellent.
posted 9:38 PM

 
Russian/Soviet tube factories and their logos is exactly what it says it is.
(Via Coudal Partners)
posted 9:29 PM

 
What's the matter? You got ants in your pants?
posted 4:57 PM

 
William Gibson has a blog now.
posted 1:58 PM

 
"Paan was invented by Scholars of Aruvedas with the help of Dhanvantari thousands of years ago after taking experiment on rats." It gives me a weird pain in the chest, and there's all that crud that you have to spit out. But you should try it. It's got all kinds of good stuff in it. And lots of bad stuff too.
posted 10:44 PM

 
They have blogs in Minnesota? You betcha.
posted 9:42 PM

 
Currently reading:
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. It's the Caught Inside of Scrabble. Also reading every dictionary in the house, including the Scrabble dictionary. And playing a Scrabble clone on my Handspring. And I still suck.
posted 6:39 PM

 
"unfortunately, no-one can be told
what the Domain of the Wiggy Woo is"


posted 5:03 PM

 
Like most lists of toy recalls, the SafeChild.net database is a seemingly endless litany of "....blahblahblah detaches blahblahblah choking hazard". Yawn. But dig a bit and you find some gems like kittens filled with contaminated water. (via BoingBoing)
posted 1:37 PM

 
Even better than my squid transcript is this overheard cat mishap.

(via the recently overhauled wemadeoutinatreeandthisoldguysatandwatchedus.com)
posted 10:18 AM

 
Partial transcript of chat session in which I created a room in ivist called "plastic animals", described quite accurately as "chat with plastic animals":
(squid can be clearly seen in the cam to be a plastic squid, not a "girl")

quique: hi

squid: i am a squid

quique: are you girl

squid: squid

quique: yes

quique: are you girl

squid: i am squid

quique: allow me to see your body

squid: there it is

squid: you bore me

Clearly, this person had never seen PJ Katie's Farm.
posted 11:32 PM

 
Sad news- I just picked up Climbing Magazine, and learned that one of my heros, Göran Kropp is dead. He's the guy who bicycled to Everest and climbed it solo, without oxygen. Here's his and his wife's home page. Here's a news story from Mountainzone.com.

posted 9:55 PM