Clarity
Online brilliance
Posted 29 Aug 2008
Blog, People | 9 Comments
Recently, the Quirky Indian flattered chickenmonkeydog by naming our little site as ‘brilliant’. Given the quality of the Quirky Indian’s own work, we were honoured by his praise and, given that our web traffic has increased since then, are very grateful for it.
With that in mind, we wanted to share (in random order) some of our favourite blogs with you:
Chup-chap
Great blog written by a guy living in Bangalore and working for a newspaper. We stumbled upon this blog through the Quirky Indian, but we now check into Chup-chap’s blog on a regular basis.
OhGizmo!
A blog updated with around five posts a day, illuminating interesting (if nothing else) gadgets and devices that people have created. Some are for production and others are just artwork or prototypes. People make some pretty whacky stuff sometimes!
Jan Chipchase
A blog by a Nokia researcher who is looking at trends and trying to predict where Nokia products should be in 3 - 15 years. This site is a non-professional blog, so it just has some interesting photos and comments about details of daily life.
Savage Chickens
A little blog updated daily with a random comic featuring chickens as the characters. Always good for a laugh or a chuckle.
The Rut
Great sketches about all sorts of random stuff. Very funny indeed.
Mr Bacon Pants
It’s about bacon. Enough said.
Quirky Japan Blog
A Canadian fellow living in Japan since 1993 takes photos of and comments on a variety of aspects of Japanese culture and life.
Hey readers, we’re not expecting many comments on this post, so if you wanted to leave one, please do let us know which of our selections that you liked … and tell us about some of your favourites!
Rate your adversarial relationship
Posted 28 Aug 2008
Daily Life, Language | 22 Comments
In a recent email discussion with several chickenmonkeydog readers, we came upon the idea of "degrees of animosity" in relationships between two persons or groups in opposition. Now, we don’t claim that this list is exhaustive or even organized correctly, so that’s why we’ve turned to you!
Please (via comments) help us out by suggesting additional levels that we need to add, or if you disagree with the order of the levels currently please go ahead and voice that opinion as well.
Ranked from least to greatest degrees of "enmity":
- Opponent
- Rival
- Arch Rival
- Enemy
- Bitter Enemy
- Sworn Enemy
- Nemesis
- Mortal Enemy
- Arch Enemy
- Arch Nemesis
Redneck Games
Posted 27 Aug 2008
Events, People, Signs | 4 Comments
As it’s Wednesday again, today’s post comes from UP, one of our readers from Orlando, Florida, in the USA.
This flyer was discovered in a restaurant in Orlando, having caught our reader’s eye because of the "redneck" games on August 23rd, as opposed to the "regular" racing happening on August 16th. Our reader’s first assumption then, is that the "redneck" games must be somewhat "irregular".
Furthermore, what exactly does "Unlimited Tire-Pull" mean? I am conjuring up images of people grabbing a hold of as many tires as they can and pulling them in a race. Turns out, I don’t think I am too far off on that. Note the girl in front, who thought it out a bit and decided it was best to ROLL THE TIRE! Seems like a good idea, right? I cannot explain why she is losing.
Perhaps if you think you may have a hidden talent for pulling tires, or you’ve got a truck you’d like to enter in the Beater Truck Challenge, or maybe if you just think you’d like to learn more about redneck athletics, head on down! Make sure you get the right weekend though, or you could end up at just ordinary plain-old racing.
A big thank-you to our Orlando reader for the contribution.
Check out my dark, choppy and inaudible video!
Posted 26 Aug 2008
Daily Life, People, The Little Things | 8 Comments
Over the past weekend I was at a rock concert, and among the thousands in the crowd, I caught sight of at least twenty or thirty people at any given time making video recordings of the show using their cell (mobile) phones. I had to wonder: What is the point?
The videos will undoubtedly be too dark to distinguish anything besides a "bright area" and a "dark area", so choppy that they induce motion sickness when watching them and of such poor audio quality that it is equivalent to listening to the CD, as played by a blender.
I guess I just don’t get the point, but I do get annoyed when they hold their phones up and block my view while they attempt to make a worthless video.
Hello? YouTube, anyone? There will be better videos than you took, posted online before you even get home. Trust me, I looked.
The dangerous knitting fish
Posted 25 Aug 2008
Back to the Isle of Wight for another ’sign’ post (no pun intended … honestly!) Whilst strolling along the promenade in Shanklin, I waltzed passed past a sign that caught my attention. (Ok, most signs catch my attention these days.)
What struck me about the sign was the fifth item down; shouldn’t the sign have perhaps expanded on the need for caution around such creatures. The dangers of currents, winds, tides and large boats should be common-knowledge for most people who frequent the seaside. But is the last item in the same category?
So, what are the dangers of the weaver fish? Could it be that the fish circle around unsuspecting swimmers, quickly weaving a knit sweater (jumper) onto the swimmers, leaving them to struggle in the surf with the added weight of a water-logged garment? Or maybe the sweaters that the fish weave are like the ones are grandmothers used to knit - made with love and the most ridiculous of colours and patterns?
Surely the makers of this sign could have been more explicit in their description of the dangers of such a treacherous fish.
