Archive for the 'wacky' Category

Pong Watch

Friday, May 18th, 2007



pong watch John Maushammer

This is way too geeky cool! I want one! In fact, I’d really like a Pong Belt Buckle as well! Creator John Maushammer has a documentry of his homemade creation on his site here. I don’t think he has any current plans to mass manufacture this watch yet, but when it does, I’m sure it’ll be a hit at gatherings.

Watch the video above or YouTube video here.


Clay Grass Tennis!

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

federer nadal tennis court grass clay
How bizarre! First came the breathtaking mile high tennis court with Andre Agassi, and now tennis star Roger Federer dukes it out with French Open champion Rafael Nadal on an experimental exhibition part clay part grass tennis court costing $1.63 million to set up(damn…give me $5000, and I’ll make that happen and pocket the rest). I’ve always been a fan of half&half pizza, drinks, hybrid cars, tools, payments, etc, but I never thought I’d see this happen. It would be interesting to see this again with the split happening horizontally (each player with both floors). Maybe a dangerous oncrete, clay, grass court is next.

Read the rest of the story with more pictures after the jump.
via Slam Sports and ESPN.

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“Book” means “Cool”

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

txt msgBesides this weeks news of 13 year old Morgan Pozgar winning $25k for being the world text messenging champion, another fun, social, behavioral, and somewhat pop cultural fact I learned this past week was the effects of the T9 predictive typing system found on most phones:

“That’s so Book! In an interesting technical flavor to linguistics, T9 predictive text on mobile phones is now starting to have an effect on language. For example, ‘book’ now means ‘cool’ because when either is entered (2665) into a T9 predictive phone, ‘book’ is offered before ‘cool,’ and is now used in place of the latter.”

I don’t use T9 often since it never outputs my designerly modified crappy lingo but this might also be old news as my phone currently does output “cool” before “book”, as does the GUI on the T9 site.

So, can technology change our language or even definitions….sure! Many cultures shorten or replace words much like our Australian friends down under(lingo list). Even mashups are becoming more common. I learned a bunch of pretty sweet custom terms during word queen Erin MckeansWord Lovers’ Boot Camp during GEL last week. The two words that stuck in my head were:

1.”CrappyJack”: any kind of empty, snacky junk food.
2. “Drunch”: to consume alcoholic beverages with like-minded individuals between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday. ;)

I also learned the the term “Ecosexual: A person who’s into hybrid cars, low energy lightbulbs, and recycling.” via Treehugger


Fun Friday: SlingShoting

Friday, February 9th, 2007

SlingShoting is a MUST do activity sometime in my life!!! Besides the fact that my screaming lungs will be catching up to my bodies slinged off body, it looks like way tooo much fun!


Spot the fake smile.

Saturday, December 23rd, 2006

smile test fake smilesCan you spot the fake smiles? I thought I’d have a slight advantage having studied facial anatomy before but I scored 14/20 on this test which actually rates about the same as my Asian “We all look the same” test. Give the test a go, and call out those fake smiles!


Newspaper Monster!

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

How crazy cool, scary, mysterious, and inspirational is this! I love it when people take ordinary objects and make them extraordinary. In this case, lots of old newspaper transformed into an alien like monster that’s somewhat cute, yet scary to guard your entrance. I’m making one over the holiday break!
via MyHumanComputer
More pics after the jump.
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Fish Pedicure

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

fish pedicureOOOooo…I never thought I’d be craving for a swarm of little fish to nibble on my feet and hands, but I just might now. I’ll assume it tickles at first then transforms into a soothing yet odd prickly massage..one day..i’ll give it a try.

“For the adventurous, there’s the Ooedo Onsen. This three-year-old kitschy spa made to look like a centuries-old, shogun-era village lets visitors choose from 15 different yukatas (light cotton kimonos) to wear while inside. In addition to its 28 baths and massages, Ooedo offers an exotic esthetic treatment called Doctor Fish, a foot bath featuring live fish called garru-rufa.

The small fish swim in a shallow tub of warm water and nibble at dead skin, leaving hands and feet smooth [top]. Imported from Turkey, the fish are used in some Middle Eastern countries as a natural way to treat skin disease and rheumatism. Be warned: Dozens of fish chewing on flesh looks like something straight out of a horror movie. But when you get over the ick factor, the nibbling can have a calming affect.” www.ooedoonsen.jp

read more via bookofjoe


DB Fletcher Expanding Table.

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

This MUST SEE video of a spinning expanding table by DBFletcher seems like something from a sci-fi movie! It reminds me of the incredibly fun Hoberman Spheres that we have all played with. Watch their videos on their site, youtube, or above!


Pete Goldlust: Carved Crayons

Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
pete goldlust crayon carvings

Artist Pete Goldlust creates these delicate and inspiring carvings from colorful crayons!!! I’d bet his halloween pumpkin carvings are jaw-dropping!
via boingboing


RC Mop

Thursday, November 30th, 2006
remote car mop

I love it when people come up with ideas that sometimes seem dumb but seriously inspire me. In this DIY example via Evilmadscientist, a mops added to a remote control car, and bahm, ya have cleaning with a zest of fun. I’m not saying this works great, but sometimes when you think like a kid again or act goofy, you get results that raise great questions and often great ideas. I almost want to clean more now with this remote mop! Why cant cleaning be fun?! Anyhow, this is an example of one of those goofy ideas that I love much like the babysuit mop found in the great Chindogu Society Books. Otherwise, for the more grown up types that hate mops, try the MopShoe.


Non-newtonian fluid

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

Wowzers! This is some crazy cool Non-newtonian Fluid(Cornstarch and Water)! Basically, it’s a liquid that hardens on impact and softens when idle! Run across a pool of it, or stand still and sink! A must watch video!

Reminds me of Liquid Armour(Shear Thickening Fluid), which stiffens upon impact as well. It also reminds me of Magneto-Rheological Fluid Technology, which doesn’t harden upon impact, but hardens when a magnetic field is present. They have a video on their site, and I’ve played around with this stuff which is pretty cool!

One last hardening type material is spyders soft futuristic and flexible d30 material clothing which instantly hardens like armour upon impact, protecting this years winter olympians. Check out their webiste for more! I want one!(d30, or spyder) This is such an awesome new material for kick-butt brain storms!


Viktor & Rolf Store

Thursday, November 9th, 2006

victor and rolf store upsidedown

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to walk around the ceiling, but never thought I’d be able to experience it, besides a few instances in amusement parks. Well, not exactly everything is upside down, but the Viktor & Rolf Store in Milan does just this. Check out some other great pics here or here. This also reminds me of a great prank I once saw here!

via apartmenttherapy 

Just to note, sometimes when you turn things, ideas, plans, etc up-side down, it sometimes makes things better!