thedailywhat:

This Is Funny, You Should Listen To It of the Day: Those self-centered brats who told their parents to f*ck off because they got the wrong color iPhone for Christmas may be fairly awful people, but this song Jonathan Mann composed using their distasteful tweets is hilarious, so I guess they’re not completely worthless human beings after all.

(NSFW, explicit lyrics.)

[trcb.]

Nicki Minaj Totally Looks Like Old Gregg

Look-alike by:
freshlancer

Pictures by: Unknown

Posture problems are rampant, especially among those of us who work hunched over our keyboards all day. If you're not sure if your posture needs fixing or are sure and want some help, this guide from Men's Health is for you. More »

I can't tell the difference between a $229 bottle of 23-year old bourbon and a $40 bottle of good bourbon. Which tells me two things: 1. My palate sucks. 2. I shouldn't spend $229 on a bottle of whiskey. It's possible (though not always fun) to gain 20 pounds in 28 days, lose 20 pounds in 5 days, and gain 16 pounds back in 24 hours. (More on that next year.)When you're procrastinating and watching YouTube videos when you should be working, set a timer for 30 minutes and just start your work. For some reason, a countdown timer inspires action. (I like Online Stopwatch.)Feeling off your game or overwhelmed? Get back to the basics: stretch, drink water, make a list of all the shit you have to do, breathe. You're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Yeah, it sounds corny. It's also true. Get around good people.You don't need to deadlift, squat, or bench press to get or maintain an awesome body. You do need to get into the gym a couple times per week and lift stuff, though. But not as often as you might think.Consider rotating a vegetarian or vegan meal into your day, just for a change. Get your protein from lentils or beans. Make a tofu stir-fry. Eat a shit-ton of veggies. Then go order a grass-fed steak, medium rare, with sauteed onions and mushrooms.The things you love? Learn about them. Know how to do them well. Make an amazing cup of coffee. Learn how beer is made. Try cooking your favorite meal. Learn the history of motion pictures. Learn why your favorite band plays the kind of music they play.

Go see an animated movie during the matinee and bring two cans of beer. Sit away from everyone else. Enjoy yourself. Instant relationship boost: spend the first 15 seconds of meeting completely engrossed in the interaction. She just walked in the front door? Stepped out of the bedroom? Put the phone down and give her your full attention for just 15 seconds. After that, let the interaction go where it wants to go. But at least she'll know you're aware of her presence. Louis CK is the greatest living stand-up comic. As often as possible: Eat local food, drink local beer, shop at local stores.Learn how to meditate. Practice daily.   Realize you can get an education anywhere. Read books. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to look stupid. Get out of your comfort zone. You may just learn something. Keep track of how many white lies you tell every day. If it's more than 0, you should be pissed off. Read Lying and make it a habit to stop. By the way, telling the truth doesn't mean you get to be a dick. You can still be honest and kind at the same time.Try fasting for 24 hours every month or so.  NFL athletes (and other pros) aren't as advanced with their training and nutrition as you may think. They can still whip your ass on the field, though.  This was probably my favorite blog post I wrote this year.  Or maybe this one. You can learn a lot about change, perseverance, and gratitude by interviewing people who've lost a lot of weight. 

Never throw a punch at my dad, even when he knows it's coming. (For you will get elbowed in the ribs. Hard.)

 

++++

What did you learn (or remember) in 2011? Let me know in the comments.
 
(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://thenategreenexperience.com/)

We used this guy as a WTFriday a couple weeks ago and he was pretty popular.

Well, he's back for an encore.

Sing it if you know it…

But not too loud.  His rendition is my all-time favorite.

[via Tastefully Offensive]

This is absolutely mind blowing.

While browsing around looking for images of the plank for an ebook I am working on, I came across this piece of news: a 54 year old man has just set a world record for the plank.  The staggering thing is the length of time that he held the plank:  1 hour, 20 minutes and 5.01 seconds.

That is almost unbelievable - I think I am doing well when I get 3 minutes!

George Hood broke the Guinness World Record on December 3 for the "Longest time in an abdominal plank position," clocking in at 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 5.01 seconds. The record-breaking took place at Eggsperience Pancakes and Cafe in Naperville, where owner John Sakoufakis created a special venue for Hood.
  The full story is here: George Hood breaks Guinness record for plank

I liked his comment:

“I wanted to raise awareness with regard to the benefits of core strength, for one’s personal fitness and overall health,” said Hood, a personal trainer and former Marine. “I see so many people who are overweight, have bad posture and can’t walk from point A to point B. It all comes back to one’s core, and this particular exercise is the best one out there.”
and also that the work only began after 50 minutes!

“Once I broke the record (at 50 minutes), the work began,” Hood said. “When we got to an hour and 12 (minutes), I was ready to call it, but that crew guided me through one minute at a time. They were the only three people in my head and in my ear.”
  John Sifferman - now it is your turn!

Eat your heart out Denmark!  In Edinburgh we even deep fry butter itself!

Deep fried butter goes on the menu in Edinburgh

An Edinburgh bar has put a calorific treat to rival the deep fried Mars Bar on its menu - deep fried butter balls.
There is more in the Daily Mail..

Sod the diet: Fiddler's Elbow head chef Simon Robertson (right) and colleague Paul Fitchie with the latest item on the menu - deep-fried butter balls in Irn Bru batter

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076260/Scottish-bar-The-Fiddlers-Elbow-serves-deep-fried-BUTTER.html#ixzz1h6mmUR4P

This is now a thing. I hope this catches on like planking and people start imitating Robyn videos.

Thank you SNL.

Yesterday, a copy of my latest book arrived in the mail, the Third Edition of Bulletproof Web Design. The first edition came out back in 2005, and I’ve been revising it every few years. This latest edit was a bit larger than the 2nd because so much has changed. HTML5, CSS3, Responsive Web Design—all of these things dovetail nicely into the core bulletproof concepts from the original book.

If you have the 2nd edition, the new version is likely not a necessary upgrade (New Riders probably loves me for saying that). Meaning, the guidelines for building flexible websites are still there, but a lot of the code and some of the examples have been brought up to speed. I’m most happy that the book has been updated for those that haven’t read it before. And as always, I think it’s a great book for those getting started in building flexible websites with semantic markup and style.

The final chapter was rewritten from scratch to include a new fictional case study that follows a very simple example of Responsive Web Design, which I think is a natural extension of the previous chapters.

If you haven’t read the previous editions, I hope you enjoy it. It should be available by the end of the week.

Don’t ask just get mom

dis iz emerjensee!!

LoL by:
worksucks

Picture by: Dea

Variations of the Deadliftby Timothy Piper (2001)The use of the deadlift (DL) and its variations by strength and conditioning professionals is widely accepted as a means of strengthening leg, hip, back, and torso muscles. However, an explanation of the different styles used and available for training programs is often overlooked. This article is a short overview of the different DL techniques beyond the standard and sumo-stance deadlifts.The DL is typically associated with the conventional and sumo styles, commonly used by powerlifters. The conventional style is characterized by a shoulder width stance of the feet and the arms outside the thighs. The sumo style differs primarily by the wide stance used and a handgrip that is between the thighs. The conventional style emphasizes the lower back muscles more than the sumo because the trunk is flexed forward, increasing torque about the lumbar area. Due to the more erect back alignment throughout the sumo style lift there is a decreased potential for dynamic involvement of the lower back muscles, thus requiring greater recruitment of the hip muscles to move the load.These two styles are the basis of all other deadlifts, which are similar, at least in part, to the sumo or conventional technique. All styles strengthen the hip and knee extensors, spinal erectors, abdominals, back and forearm muscles to varying degrees depending on the style.VariationsThe STRAIGHT OR STIFF LEGGED DEADLIFT (SLDL) is used for the specific strengthening of the lower back and hamstring muscles.Setup: Stand with feet shoulder width apart and an overhand or reverse grip just outside the thighs. The scapula should be retracted and the head in a neutral position.Execution: Begin the exercise with hip flexion allowing the hips to move posteriorly. The knees remain straight, but not locked out at full extension, throughout the movement. The spine maintains its natural s-shaped curvature as the bar descends. The path of the bar has a SLIGHT arc moving away from the legs as the hips are progressively flexed. The bar ends directly below the shoulders. Downward movement ceases when a strong stretch occurs in the hamstring muscles. The lifter then reverses motion. The completion of the lift occurs when hip and back extension raises the trunk to an erect standing position with the scapulae retracted. Relatively inflexible individuals may not be able to go down very far before the hamstrings are strongly stretched. It is important to stop the exercise at that point rather than lose the arch in the lower back in an attempt to descend further before the lifter is able to without causing problems.Take note that there is greater torque on the hips and lumbar areas because of the horizontal distance from the bar to the base. The use of near-maximal weights can compromise form by pulling the lifter forward or causing spinal flexion increasing the chance of injury. This is not a round-back lift and should not be confused with the round-back version of the exercise. They both have their specific purpose. A slow rate of bar movement will also reduce the chance of injuries. Don't just drop down into the bottom position. Or, if you feel like it, load the bar to double your maximum and do just that. Slow learners realize truths only by doing. Rapidly in most cases.The bar may descend to the floor, or having the lifter stand on a box can increase the range of motion of the exercise. Do this carefully and gradually. Even with proper form this is a higher-risk exercise that should only be performed if the lifter has no back restrictions, history of injuries, as well as adequate hamstring/low back flexibility, but even then caution should be taken.Round-back lifting, known as kyphotic lifting posture, during this or other lifts should be avoided unless its purpose is understood. An advanced lifter with an established base of strength will sometimes undertake this lifting posture to emphasize the spinal erectors. However, it is not recommended for beginners. This is a common type of deadlift viewed in many gyms but is commonly a contraindicated exercise because of the potential risk to the invertebral discs. If you aren't certain of what you are doing, don't do it until you are.Other common technical errors in the SLDL include hip flexion beyond a lifter's ability, byperextension of the knees, overly rapid execution, and attempting to pull more weight than the muscles have been trained to accommodateThe ROMANIAN DEADLIFT (RDL) is primarily used for the strengthening of the lower back, gluteus and hamstring muscles with decreased low back stress relative to the SLDL because of the technique.Setup: The stance is similar to that of a conventional deadlift with an overhand or alternating grip. The spine is fixed in a naturally arched position both at the beginning and throughout the entire lift.Execution: The RDL is similar to the SLDL, with the exception of the 15 degrees of knee flexion that is employed. All movement is achieved via a rotation at the hip joint. The bar descends slowly and closely to the thighs, instead of being directly underneath the shoulders. This reduces the torque on the upper body by placing the load closer to the axis of rotation and over the base of support. The bar descends until it is inferior to the knee joint, the lifter feels the need to round the back, or he has the urge to further bend the knees, or they may have reached their maximal range of motion without compromising lifting posture. The key is to focus on rotation about the hip joint as you push your gluteus back, while holding the knees at about 15 degrees of flexion. When ascending, hip and knee flexion should occur simultaneously while maintaining some shoulder retraction and the spine's natural curvature.Common mistakes during the RDL are not flexing the knees or extending the knees prior to hip extension during the ascent. Many lifters comment that they can actually feel stress is placed higher in the hamstrings if the knees are kept flexed to 15 degrees, whereas they feel more stress at the hamstring insertion if the knees are straightened during the lift. Other errors include allowing the lower back to round, kyphosis to occur, pulling the bar against the thighs, and excessive extension of the back when completing the lift.POWER RACK DEADLIFTS (PRDL), also called lockouts are sometimes used by powerlifters trying to strengthen a particular upper portion of their deadlift. A high load is used to overload the back muscles and increase motor recruitment. Different grips and stances can be applied to this exercise, but the conventional form will be described here.Setup: The height of the spotting bars or boxes should be such that the loaded bar sits superior to the knee joint when standing erect. This may be adjusted depending on the specific objective and the preference of the lifter. Power straps or lifting hooks can also be used for this exercise to prevent the fatigue of the forearm muscles before the back muscles have been stressed to their potential. The lifter flexes at the hips , slightly retracts the scapula, maintains the back's natural curvature, and grasps the bar approximately one to two inches outside of the thighs.Execution: The lift begins with hip extension followed by knee extension. The lifter completes the lift with slight spinal extension. The spinal erector, gluteus maximus, and quadriceps are the primary movers during lockouts, but its counterparts, the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, and trapezius have an even greater role in stabilization of the upper back. An established back and leg strength base is necessary for this exercise due to the very high loads used. This type of deadlift can benefit anyone who requires a great deal of back strength in the final phase of hip and back extension.MACHINE DEADLIFTS (MDL) have been added to some manufacturers' line of plate loaded and selectorized equipment. This style not only can be done on specifically designed machines but also non preexisting equipment such as the smith rack. Both an advantage and disadvantage is that the plane of motion is fixed, dictating the movement pattern. Although, this could prove benefit for those who have difficulty maintaining the correct motor pattern and arrive at the gym in a short bus. It can easily force the lifter into potentially dangerous positions. The need for muscular coordination is reduced so the lifter will not reap the full benefits of the synergistic muscle involvement they would using barbells or dumbbells.The SNATCH-GRIP DEADLIFT (SGDL) places emphasis on the thora-columbar fascia, erector spinae, and the shoulder girdle muscles that stabilize the scapulae. The positioning of the torso causes a great deal of hip flexion, which increases the load on the lumbar region and hip extensors. This is similar to the RDL, but the wide grip makes this exercise advantageous to lifters requiring increased upper back strength and scapular and spinal stabilization. The wide grip creates a lower (deficit) start position.Setup: The conventional stance is used, but the lifter uses a wide snatch grip. The distance between the hands in the snatch grip is determined from measuring the distance from the lateral side of one shoulder to the fist of the opposite arm abducted to shoulder level.Execution: The lifter pulls the bar off the floor using the hips to lift the bar instead of the back. Throughout the lift the back is held tight and fixed. The bar is kept close to the legs to reduce the amount of torque on the lumbar region. Scapular retraction continues throughout the exercise but is not exaggerated when movement is completed.The SMITTY or DEFICIT DEADLIFT is a variation of the snatch grip deadlift, which is performed on a 4-6 inch platform, and movement ceases when the bar is inferior to (situated under or beneath) the patella. The technique is otherwise the same, emphasizing hip flexibility and back strength in the limited range of mo[…]

Directly on the heels of an update for its newest media streamers, Roku has released its official iPhone remote app. Apparently "inspired by user feedback", it allows users to launch or rate channels, control the box with touches and swipes, and add or remove channels from their box directly from the app itself. Probably the best news about it is that it will work with all generations of Roku hardware, and can even pair to multiple boxes. Usage requires the box and iOS device be connected on the same network, and for users to sign in with their Roku account, but that's it. Hit the source link to grab the free app now, or check out a couple more screenshots in the gallery below, then let us know how it measures up to the numerous third party solutions (like DVPRemote) currently available. Roku already promised an Android version is in the works, so we'll keep an eye out for that to arrive soon.
Gallery: Roku official iOS remote app
Roku's official iPhone remote app is available, has gesture control and channel selection for all originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink   |  iTunes, Roku Blog  | Email this | Comments

mai fotojenix i shows u it

dis mai modlol behayvyer!

LoL by:
ljg52843

Picture by: Unknown

We r adding favorite buttons 2 sum classic lolz, so u can favorite dem!

Check owt sum other classic lolz dat nao has favorite buttons!

LOL By: brown tabby

Submitted by: Unknown

Freemium elearning website Grovoteaches people how to use Internet sites and services, from Google Apps to Basecamp to Craigslist.

Sean Weinberg is the COO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes and grades resumes instantly. You can connect with Sean and the RezScore team on Facebook and Twitter.

Brangelina, TomKat…. Twesume?
 
Just like it sounds, “Twesume” unifies Twitter (your favorite micro-blogging platform) and your resume (yep, the one sitting on your hard drive).
 
In essence, a Twesume is a short bio or resume condensed into 140 characters or less. Sometimes paired with the #twesume hashtag, the Twesume can be tweeted, messaged or emailed to potential employers.
 
The great thing about the Twesume is that it’s a completely flexible, living document. Did you get promoted? No problem, just tweet the addition to your resume. Relocate? Totally fine.

What’s the Big Deal?

 
Like it or not, social media is only getting more influential. In 2011, 89% of companies used social networks for recruiting. As we venture into 2012, you’ll find that social recruiting will become more prominent, edging out job boards as a means to connect employers and job seekers.
 
Twesumes help job seekers get noticed by companies who use social recruiting. With the Twesume, a job seeker can introduce himself and engage with an employer in less time (and space) than a traditional resume and cover letter could ever manage.
 

How Can I Write My Own Twesume?

 
If you’re interested in jumping on the Twesume bandwagon, all you need is a Twitter account and something to say. Once you have your Twitter account squared away (be sure to have a picture, bio and some followers/followees), write your very own Twesume. While the Twesume can be anything you like, try to include this information: what you do, an accomplishment, a goal, skills and/or a link to a detailed profile or website.
Santa Claus: World traveler and toy expert. 300+ years management experience. Looking for position in entertainment industry. http://tinyurl.com/c9ursdp #twesume
 
Tweet this to your followers, DM to a specific employer or use as your Twitter bio. It really is as simple as that.
 
What does your Twesume say? Do you think Twesumes are here to stay? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, SchulteProductions

More About: contributor, features, job search, resume, Social Media, Twitter
For more Business coverage:Follow Mashable Business on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Business channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Douchey Wallnuts hands out the award:

——
Eleven months, over 50 candidates. Poo, poo everywhere and what a mighty stink… Going back to the beginning of 2011 and coming up with this list was an eye-melting, brain cell-killing experience that had me reaching for the promotional sized bottle of Maker’s Mark, while I wept for the magnitude of the Societal Loss on display on these web pages.

My criteria was simple, if they appeared in a picture and had been given a nickname they were eligible. There were rare exceptions where the face was so punchable that I decided to give them a name and enter it into my Douche-Face Analyzer. I was able to whittle the list down to a manageable 6 candidates.

Which brings me to my first nominee, Tighty-Whitey Douche who appeared in a group picture in November. You can see why he made the cut.

The Herpster. He makes me hate, as do all good (bad) douche-faces. I’d love to make his head tlit permanent via a broken neck.

A. Samuels. This is a video entry, which makes his face more douchey and more frightening. Not only should A. Samuels get punched in the face, he should get stomach cancer.

Gynochin. In the monthly winner comments Dude McCrudeshoes said it best, when he recognized Gyno’s “impressive body of work.” Societal Loss at its best.

Too Tight Tony. He embodies all the classic symptoms of the Grieco Virus, while toiling in relative anonymity in Middle Douche-Earth. No need for any other pictures of this guy. He doesn’t have to win a monthly. He represents all the one-shot, randoms on the site.

Hello Kitty Hott. Since we are equal opportunity mockers I see no reason why we shouldn’t include a female nominee in this catregory. She’s made many appearances, but deserves a full-on punch in the face for her douchette-face and for her taste in men.

And the winner is….

Tighty-Whitey Douche is the recipient of this year’s Douchiest Douche Face Award. A face you would kill, on top of all of the de rigeur douchebag elements.

Groin Shave Reveal, bathing trunks that make him look like a total dick, bleeth that is both hot and tranny-like and a complimentary douche-bleeth couple who are borderline award-worthy in their own right.

He didn’t need to make a overly “facey” face or execute a contrived “for-the-picture” expression; his face in its natural state is the epitome of douchey.
———

iOS: Speed Notes is a plain-text editor for the iPhone that instantly syncs your notes with your Dropbox account for easy note creation and editing on the go or from your computer. More »

“Weird Al” Yankovic is untouchable. He’s given us so much, beginning with song parodies like “Amish Paradise” and “Fat” that are still funny upon multiple repeat listens many years later, as well as musically sound original works (“Dare to Be Stupid,” “One More Minute”), and screen entertainments such as the classic UHF and underrated Al-TV specials. Most novelty song performers end up dated, corny, and obscure, but Yankovic has been around now for more than 30 years, longer than most non-funny musicians. Today, he’s basically a part of the L.A. alt comedy community out of appreciation, nostalgia, and the fact that he’s widely regarded as one of the nicest people in entertainment. He won’t even officially release a song parody unless the original artist approves it. This isn’t a legal requirement; it’s a gesture of goodwill.

Those parodies are, as such, usually innocuous, and concern themselves more with wordplay or topics like food or crappy television. But Yankovic is human, and as such, he’s got a mean streak that occasionally, and fascinatingly, rears its curly head. It’s led to some truly cutting, brutally funny stuff.

“It’s Still Billy Joel to Me” (1980)

Billy Joel has always seemed like a real smug and cynical piece of work. Not a light heart for a guy that plays pop piano. Joel’s “It’s Still Rock n’ Roll to Me” is a smug song in which Billy Joel gives approval to new and emerging rock subgenres, particularly New Wave, which was the style at the time. As if the world needed or wanted Billy Joel’s permission or opinion on the matter. So while Joel gives his unsanctioned thumbs-up to musical variety, Yankovic made “It’s Still Billy Joel to Me” (it was never officially released) to call out Billy Joel on just how awful the music of Billy Joel is, because no matter what he might try, it’s “still Billy Joel,” and ultimately pointless and bad.

“(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long” (1988)

After gently parodying Michael Jackson, (“Eat It,” “Fat”) only Yankovic could get away with taking the piss out of a Beatle. Evidently none too impressed with George Harrison’s improbable late career comeback with “Got My Mind Set On You,” Yankovic points out that the song was repetitive, very slight, and sing-songy (which is of course fine, if you’re Paul McCartney). The parody is meta and self-referential, positing that the song in which he is currently singing is “just six words long” owing to songwriting laziness and how hard it is to write lyrics, a criticism of pop and rock music in general.

“Buy Me a Condo” (1984)

A twist on the American and British cultural phenomenon of suburban white kids who hijack an ethnic culture as their own, “Gonna Buy Me a Condo” isn’t a parody of any one song. Instead, it’s an original reggae song about a Jamaican guy who moves to an American suburb and tries to fit in by doing the blandest, most suburban things possible, such as installing wall-to-wall carpeting, and trading in all of his Bob Marley records for some Jackson Browne. All hail Jackson Browne, king of awful white person music!

“Achy Breaky Song” (1993)

Rarely does Yankovic use a song to directly mock its original artist. But not too long after line dancing fever hit the country (and which still to this day continues to hit a large swath of the country, I can report), Yankovic presciently used “Achy Breaky Song” to place Keith Urban Billy Ray Cyrus and his “Achy Breaky Heart” into the pantheon of the all-time most annoying, disposable, shameful musical fads: Donny and Marie, Vanilla Ice, New Kids on the Block, and, most disparagingly, Barry Manilow. (You just don’t compare another man to Barry Manilow. It’s coldblooded.)

Yankovic used a similar technique a year earlier to make fun of Nirvana with “Smells Like Nirvana,” (“sing distinctly / we don’t wanna / buy our album / we’re Nirvana!”) but he was kind of off the mark on that one, as Nirvana wasn’t a glorified novelty act who went on to whore out his daughter to the Disney corporation.

Brian Boone writes about music in a funny way, but more importantly, lost on Jeopardy!
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See more posts by Brian Boone
5 comments

You think that's bad? You should watch them catch flies with chopsticks! Very poor dexterity.

[via Videogum]

Imagine you’re Roman Polanski. (Stay with me, this isn’t going where you think.) It’s 1968, and you’re working on Rosemary’s Baby, a thriller that will go on to earn six Golden Globe and two Academy Award nominations. Everything’s going great until a bit player delays a day of shooting to debate your carefully scripted delivery. “To me, that’s not being a troublemaker — that’s just being alive,” actor Charles Grodin recalls the incident, more Zen than mortified, in a 1997 interview with Charlie Rose. The memory, and the glib explanation of it, exemplify performer-turned-pundit Grodin’s infamous churlishness, part of a personality introduced over dozens of wonderfully awkward late night TV appearances.

Grodin, whose career spans nearly fifty years, is a well-known thorn in the side of hosts who have spent decades dealing with his aggressive demeanor. His early guest appearances on the talk show circuit were quickly categorized as schtick, the affectation of a combative character whose eye-rolling accusations aimed to expose the fake friendliness of celebrity culture — and to prove that audiences loved the abuse. Throughout his shifting career, Grodin’s maintained and expanded on this “character,” challenging hosts and audiences to play along with the joke, or become the target.

Maybe you’ve only caught glimpses of Grodin — say, on a Miami beach honeymoon in The Heartbreak Kid, or introspectively playing the flute in Thieves (something he actually, sincerely does, about 22:30 in) — or maybe you only remember him “playing straight man to a St. Bernard.” But for better or worse, he holds a place in late night history for adding some edge to a traditionally smooth-talking time slot.

Grodin studied under famed acting instructor Lee Strasberg, getting his big break in the aforementioned Rosemary’s Baby. Four years later, in 1972, he landed his first starring role in The Heartbreak Kid, written by Neil Simon and directed by Elaine May (one of the founders of the legendary Compass Players, alongside improv guru Del Close). As adult-in-training Lenny Cantrow, whose naïve and self-centric worldview sends him down an impulsive (and, ultimately, emotionally empty) quest to win the woman of his dreams, Grodin brought a charming, hopelessly adolescent air to an otherwise unlikeable character. His knack for endowing uncomfortably odd man-children with just the right touch of clueless charm turned him into a bit of a typecast player: 1977’s underrated Thieves (written by Herb Gardner and co-starring Marlo Thomas) saw him as a sour but nostalgic divorcee; 1981’s The Incredible Shrinking Woman made him a supportive, grinning accessory to leading lady Lily Tomlin. He caricatures this persistent, superficially sensitive persona, which dominates the early half of his career, aptly in The Great Muppet Caper:

...but, really, who can forget him as the grumpy dad from 1992’s Beethoven (and 1993’s ambitiously immediate sequel, Beethoven’s 2nd), a disgruntled guy who seemed to be in the constant midst of a serious psychotic episode:

Over the years, his onscreen focus shifted from literary adaptations to more mainstream family fare, eventually fizzling altogether around 1995, when he quit acting to spend more time with his wife and two kids. But one thread remained constant: his delightfully volatile recurring appearances on post-primetime staples like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and David Letterman’s Late Night and The Late Show. Grodin cultivated a character that remained consistently and endearingly brash, a sort of persnickety, both-sides-of-the-Odd-Couple bipolar personality by turns attention seeking and insult slinging.

And then: from 1995 to 1998, CNBC aired The Charles Grodin Show, which found the host interacting with entertainers as often as discussing current events (like the O.J. Simpson trial, a subject he’s notably vocal about). When the show first started — Grodin taking over Tom Snyder’s timeslot after the icon was handpicked to replace Letterman on The Late Late Show — Entertainment Weekly noted that his hosting style wasn’t as outwardly hostile as his guesting tended to be. But his grave demeanor, never definitively earnest or affected, was outside the established mold: “As a guest on Letterman and, earlier, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, Grodin excelled at the rude put-on, provoking reaction by seeming to appear angry or offended by his host. Now sitting in the opposite chair, Grodin frequently ignores his guest and gasses on about himself.” He became known for launching into off-topic digressions and demanding more camera time, tics that comic Dana Carvey repeatedly skewered on his short-lived variety show.

Since, Grodin’s continued to put himself in the public eye, stopping by network studios and phoning in to a variety of issues-focused radio shows. He’s also written several books, including memoirs How I Got To Be Whoever It Is I Am and I Like It Better When You’re Funny. Both include explorations of his involvement with Carson and Letterman, the former volume containing a chapter titled: “Appearing on Johnny Carson and David Letterman to Show the Real Me?” Decades later, Grodin’s explained — repeatedly — that his off-putting persona was just a put-on. “I think it was defined by the movies,” he told Rose, explaining that his fans expected him to be the same cocky and combative guy he tended to play. After getting booked on Carson, he felt he had to deliver. “When there’s 600 people out there, and you’re following Diana Ross — who just did a medley of her biggest hits — and nobody knows who you are, what am I gonna do?” His instinct was to argue; even when the seasoned host played along jovially, “I’d say the majority of the audience still felt that I was being unpleasant.” But it kept people tuning in, hoping to catch a few intense “honest” and awkward moments — a breathless Grodin accusing Carson of not caring about his guests, or a tense argument that Letterman diffuses with one-liners delivered straight to the camera — that counters the otherwise saccharine tone of most late night banter.

Here are a few of Grodin’s greatest moments (those that are available online, at least), from the absurd hosting job that reportedly got him banned from SNL to a recent battle of wits with Sean Hannity.

Saturday Night Live

Entering their third season and dealing with the departure of scene-stealer Chevy Chase, the SNL cast found a familiar spirit in host Grodin. The AV Club called this episode “a glorious anomaly, an utterly singular bit of brainy meta-television the likes of which the show hasn't attempted since,” explaining that, “[i]n sharp contrast to his famously prickly talk show appearances, ‘Charles Grodin’ here is a boyish, daft bungler who never seems to catch on that he's acting in sketches on live television in front of a studio audience.” (BTW: you can watch the episode on Netflix and Hulu.) Showing up moments before his monologue, Grodin interrupts Gilda Radner and John Belushi’s behind-the-scenes cold open, apologetic about missing rehearsal but laden with Christmas gifts for the cast. (In a historically memorable moment, he makes a loaded joke involving Not Quite Ready For Primetime’s only black player: "I couldn't very well get gifts for some of the cast and not for everyone. If I had forgotten to get a gift for Garrett [Morris]... I mean, can you imagine my embarrassment if I'd forgotten to get a gift for Garrett? I mean, Garrett, especially.") Operating under the conceit that he’s completely unprepared to tackle the live show, Grodin intentionally stumbles through scenes, peering at cue cards and stretching bits to fill time.

SNL lore has it that Grodin’s antics got him banned from Studio 8H; he recently explained the incident to Nathan Rabin, and his take on it hints there might be some truth to that rumor: "I just got the idea that that would be funny, that I didn’t know it was live, that I had just come in from New York, and then I say, 'This is live?' They asked me to do it again, but I chose not to, because I can do two things: I can learn a script, or I can improvise." He did, however, prepare for his part in The Paul Simon Special, a musical interlude-infused narrative short shot partially during Simon’s SNL appearance that same week. The show starts here (Grodin, who appears in all eight clips, first shows up around the 1:05 mark):

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Grodin’s dark turn on SNL came as no surprise to frequent Tonight Show viewers, who had seen the actor butt heads with their favorite host. Carson was the perfect foil for Grodin; friendly and always willing to roll with the punches, he also had an appreciation for the absurd. One night, for example, when his jokes got zero laughs from the studio audience, he staged an impromptu cleansing ritual by burning his script onstage (while the band played “Taps,” natch). It’s no surprise that, after appearing on the show twice, Grodin was offered an exclusive contract as a guest on the show (he notes in his memoir I Like It Better..., straight off the bat in Chapter One, that this was a near-unprecedented honor). Interactions between Grodin and Carson are edgily jovial, almost like a tense family gathering; as Grodin lobs barbs at Carson and the industry in general, he’s met with good-natured ribbing, and there are many moments when one or both appear on the verge of breaking.

1990 — Charles Grodin on Johnny Carson

“I’m so sensitive I really can’t answer a question from someone who’s not interested in the question,” Grodin counters when Carson asks about his acerbic attitude. Most of their “arguments” center around accusations that the professional conversationalist doesn’t really care about his interviewees, or that he[…]

Smartphone apps, desktop apps, and web apps are some of the best tools we have to get things done, express ourselves, and yes, sometimes have fun. You may have once thought programming was the domain of anti-social neck beards living in basements across the world, but the fact is, anyone can code, and almost everyone can benefit from knowing a little bit about programming. This week's episode of Lifehacker is an introduction into the basics of coding. More »

Presenting our 100 favorite songs of 2011. Like our albums of the year list, we had to leave off a ton of great jams, but this is a pretty thorough representation of what we were most into this year. Turns out it was a pretty great one. Check the list after the jump…

click for gorilla vs. bear’s SONGS of 2011 »

Snooze. Snooze. Double-tap-snooze-20-more-minutes. Snooze. Off. Yeah, that's fine. Off and I'll get up in two minutes. ... ... ... Crap. CRAP. That's bad. This is really bad. I'm fired. I need this job. More »

We leave you for the weekend with our favorite music videos of 2011: you’ll notice that the majority of these videos are of the low-budget, DIY variety, as most of the expensive / cinematic joints that dropped this year felt a little overwrought and, with a couple of notable exceptions, mostly fell flat for us. There are even a few found footage clips mixed in there, and (spoiler) our top two vids are both self-directed. Check the full list after the jump…

click for GORILLA vs. BEAR’s VIDEOS of 2011 »

Mean ole hobbitses burned my fish!

dey iz bery trixy, doze hobbitses.

LoL by:
seattley3k

Picture by: Unknown

I enjoy using my computer, especially at night when it's quiet. I enjoy it so much that I often forget to get up and stretch every few hours. I also stay up way too late. My propensity to get caught up in my Twitter stream or my RSS feed is one reason why I bought Coffee Break.

Coffee Break sits in your menu bar and forces you to take a break. You select the time you want to take a break and the app will darken your screen when it's time to walk away from the computer. There's a countdown timer that'll warn you when a break is about to start.

When your break is over, the screen will brighten, and you will be ready to roll back into what you were doing. If you're on the computer for an extended time, you can schedule several breaks throughout the day and add a reminder so you don't forget why you are breaking.

Coffee Break is a pleasure to use. It's visually appealing and easy to configure. The controls are intuitive and it's simple to turn a scheduled coffee break on or off as needed. It's also a lightweight app and hardly uses any system resources. It's one of my favorite little apps. Coffee break is available in the Mac App Store for US$2.99.
Daily Mac App: Coffee Break originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Before Community aired its first episode in 2009, Joel McHale was the guy from The Soup, known to most only as "The Guy from The Soup"; Gillian Jacobs was the girl who had a topless scene in Choke; Alison Brie was the rarely-seen Trudy on Mad Men; Donald Glover was part of a comedy troupe that made the "bro rape" video; Yvette Nicole Brown was a movie theater manager on Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh; Danny Pudi was the Token Indian in movies like Road Trip: Beer Pong; and Chevy Chase was a has-been.

Now, on the morning/afternoon of their 59th episode together — their last until March? April? May? — they're the seven stars of Dan Harmon's Community, one of the greatest sitcoms of all-time. I'll have a full recap of tonight's episode, "Regional Holiday Music," tomorrow morning, but until then, let's celebrate. Below are 58 reasons why I love Community, one from each episode and all with photographic evidence. Sometimes it's a theme, other times it's just an amusing screenshot, and it's not nearly everything (I'm as disappointed as you that there's not a picture of Annie's Boobs, the monkey); but these 58 reasons equal to: I'm going to miss the shit out of this show.

"Pilot"—Because the show's come so far since Jeff wore track pants to class.

"Spanish 101"—Because of Troy and Abed's rapping

"Introduction to Film"—Because jokes about Chevy Chase's age will never not be funny.

"Social Psychology"—Because otherwise, Ken Jeong would just be the more-than-vaguely-racist Asian guy with a small dick from The Hangover.

"Advanced Criminal Law"—Because they set up a joke about Luis Guzmán attending Greendale in the fifth episode of the show, and didn't come back to it until the middle of the third season.

"Football, Feminism, and You"—Because of the Human Being.

"Introduction to Statistics"—Because Britta dressing up as a squirrel is the most adorable thing ever.

"Home Economics"—Because "Gettin' Rid of Britta" and "Pierce, You're a B" are great songs.

"Debate 109"—Because of, well, yeah.

"Environmental Science"—Because Troy and Abed's heartbreaking rendition of "Somewhere Out There" is better than the original.

"Politics of Human Sexuality"—Because of the Wheel of Remorse.

"Comparative Religion"—Because there was an episode that pitted Clark Griswold against Rusty Griswold.

"Investigative Journalism"—Because when Jack Black guest starred as Buddy, instead of playing Kung Fu Panda-style Jack Black to increase ratings, he played understated High Fidelity-style Jack Black instead.

"Interpretive Dance"—Because Britta and Troy once danced and wore black leotards together.

"Romantic Expressionism"—Because of Kickpuncher

"Communication Studies"—Because even out of context, this is funny.

"Physical Education"—Because of Abed's pick-up move.

"Basic Genealogy"—Because this is how Pierce draws a windmill.

"Beginning Poetry"—Because it's fun remembering how excited we were for Buster to appear on Community.

"The Science of Illusion"—Because of Troy and Abed In the Morning.

"Contemporary American Poultry"—Because of the Goodfellas-spoofing scene set to the piano outro from "Layla."

"The Art of Discourse"—Because of SCHMITTY.

"Modern Warfare"—Because of how unexpected "Paintball," as its now known, was when it first aired.

"English as a Second Language"—Because of how Troy's natural plumbing abilities would show up again in the third season, and bring John Goodman to the show.

"Pascal's Triangle Revisited"—Because of Troy's giant cookie.

"Anthropology 101"—Because of how the second season started, with a glance into everyone's bedrooms.

"Accounting for Lawyers"—Because of the Dean's outfits.

"The Psychology of Letting Go"—Because of, well, yeah, Pt. II

"Basic Rocket Science"—Because of E Pluribus Anus, with the KFC Space Simulator in the background.

"Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples"—Because of Everyone Acting Like Jeff Day.

"Epidemiology"—Because of, "Zombie Annie, what big fists you have—in your face!"

"Aerodynamics of Gender"—Because of Greendale's magical trampoline.

"Cooperative Calligraphy"—Because of how tough it was to choose a single screenshot for this episode, so I instead went with the Dean holding a soon-to-be-parading puppy.

"Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design"—Because of how my grandfather thought this episode was the worst thing he'd ever seen, and how wrong he was.

"Mixology Certification"—Because it was nice when Shirley became a real character.

"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"—Because of just everything in this episode.

"Asian Population Studies"—Because of the lengths Britta went to for Red Hot Chili Peppers MEZZANINE tickets.

"Celebrity Pharmacology"—Because Troy and Abed occasionally dress up as bumblebees.

"Advanced Dungeons & Dragons"—Because of the Story of Fat Neil.

"Early 21st Century Romanticism"—Because of, well, yeah, Pt. III (I'm done, I swear).

"Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"—Because of Troy's reaction to meeting LeVar Burton.

"Intro to Political Science"—Because of notches.

"Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy"—Because of, "Hit me with your genie's bottle, rub it all over me."

"Critical Film Studies"—Because of the moment where we realized the so-called "Pulp Fiction Episode" was actually the "My Dinner with Andre Episode."

"Competitive Wine Tasting"—Because of the way Abed figured out it was Angela Bower, not Tony Micelli, who was the boss.

"Paradigms of Human Memory"—Because THIS is the best episode of the show. (“I’ve seen enough movies to know that popping the back of the raft makes it go faster.")

"Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts"—Because of Starburns' excitement at the writer from Dean Magazine.

"A Fistful of Paintballs"—Because of Sawyer dressed up like a cowboy.

"For a Few Paintballs More"—Because of Leonard.

"Biology 101"—Because of the musical opening to season three.

"Geography of Global Conflict"—Because of CRISIS ALERT.

"Competitive Ecology"—Because of Todd.

"Remedial Chaos Theory"—Because Troy's troll still haunts me.

"Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps"—Because of Abed's reasonable horror story.

"Advanced Gay"—Because of John Goodman as Vice Dean of Air Conditioning, Robert Laybourne.

"Studies in Modern Movement"—Because of Jeff and the Dean's karaoke version of "Kiss from a Rose."

"Documentary Filmmaking: Redux"—Because of, "Go Greendale, Go Greendale, Go Greendale, GO!"

"Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism"—Because this is pretty much how we feel without a new episode of Community for a few months.

Josh Kurp enjoys Community very much.
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Rick Perry needs to return to old fashioned values. All Hail Orgo.

Movies seem to have gotten dumber and dumber ever since that movie Dumb & Dumber.

Fitting then that the makers of that film — The Farrelly brothers — appear to be staging an all out assault on our sensibilities with their latest outing, The Three Stooges.

The trailer above hit the Internet today.

If you make it past the iPhone joke — which someone decided was strong enough to lead the entire trailer with — let me assure you that, yes, that is Kate Upton of Tosh.0 fame playing a nun in a revealing swimsuit and, obviously, a Snooki cameo.

Something makes me think Moe, Larry and Curly are rolling over in their graves.  As well as Shemp.  And Joe.  And the other Curly.

So many dead Stooges…

[via The Daily What]

The reason you should read this Wirecutter post about giving gifts to geeks isn't the list. It's the anecdote at the beginning. It's like the secret to getting into any supermodels' underwear, but like, about buying presents. So, sort of the same. More »

Filmmaker Nick Scott shows
us how NOT to do a school portrait session. Here's a short film about
a school photographer who's having a terrible, horrible, no good, very
bad day.

But no matter what he said, there's always one cute kid that gets ya!
Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo]
| Making Of
- via PetaPixel
(Your kid can now be the star of Nick's new school portrait film. Competition
details are here.)

Don't forget to read more baby and kid posts on NeatoBambino!

CAT PLACEMENT Always maximize the amount of space you take away from the humans

placement iz importint in all aspektz ob kitteh life.

LoL by:
NawtyKitty

Picture by: Unknown

Get your clicking fingers ready! These boys are going to go fast.

Starting Sunday, December 11th at 6:00 p.m. Central time, 16GB and 32GB Touchpads will be available on HP’s ebay store. A $79 accessory bundle will also be available, which includes a case, charging dock and wireless keyboard. Look for them in the laptop section. As you would expect, there are some caveats with this deal with the main disappointment being these are refurbished TouchPads rather than the brand new models sold during the first firesale.

The refurbished 16GB and 32GB models will be available in an unannounced quantity. Sales will be limited to just two SKUs per ebay member and PayPal must be used to complete the transaction. All sales are final and the product only comes with a 90-day warranty. HP wants these things gone.

HP employees also have a chance to snag a TouchPad but they’re going to have to wait in line as well. An internal HP memo received announced the sale to employees. It states that the TouchPads will be available starting at the aforementioned 6:00 p.m. time but the public announcement will not be made until a little later, allowing employees first shot at the discontinued tablet. Guess I messed that up, eh?

In an effort to give HP employees first chance at a very limited supply of refurbished TouchPads, there will be a short delay between when the product is posted live for sale on eBay and when the general public is notified of the sale.

This might conclude the TouchPad’s sad story. The product was pulled after just two and a half months on the market. HP quickly turned around and sold most of the available inventory while promising more were on their way. This supply slowly appeared at retailers but were only available with the purchase of an HP computer. But with this sale, HP is making good on its promise and likely closing the book on the TouchPad. Its development will likely be in just the hands of the TouchPad’s capable fanbase.

Good night, sweet TouchPad.

To: U.S. HP Employees

HP employees will have a chance to purchase a refurbished HP TouchPad via eBay before the sale is announced to the general public. Specifically, the TouchPads will be offered through one of HP’s newest marketplaces for close-out and refurbished HP products, the new HP eBay Store.

This product will NOT be available through any other HP stores, such as the Home & Home Office store, Small & Medium Business store, HP EPP or the HP Business Outlet. PLEASE DO NOT CALL ANY OF THESE CALL CENTERS BECAUSE IT DISRUPTS REGULAR SALES ACTIVITIES AND THEY’RE UNABLE TO PROCESS AN ORDER FOR THE TOUCHPADS ANYWAY.

In an effort to give HP employees first chance at a very limited supply of refurbished TouchPads, there will be a short delay between when the product is posted live for sale on eBay and when the general public is notified of the sale.

Refurbished HP TouchPads, both 16GB and 32GB versions, will be posted for sale through the HP eBay store at: 6:00 p.m. (Central Time), Sunday, December 11th. If you are interested in purchasing a refurbished TouchPad, please make yourself a reminder to log-on to eBay a few minutes before the sale starts to make your purchase.

The TouchPads will be available for sale here (under “Laptops”):

http://stores.ebay.com/hewlettpackard

Important information about this sale:

•
There will be both 16GB and 32GB versions available, selling at a fixed price of $99 and $149 respectively…while supplies last.
•
There is also an optional 3-piece Accessory bundle with a Case, Charging Dock & Wireless Keyboard for $79 (est. value $199.97).
•
Purchases must be made through the HP eBay store via PayPal only. If you do not have eBay or PayPal accounts, create your accounts before the sale begins to avoid delays.
•
The product offer will be announced to the general public on Monday morning and is expected to sell-out quickly thereafter, so don’t delay.
•
There will be a limit of two (2) TouchPad SKUs per eBay member, sold on a first come, first served basis.
•
This sale is not associated with any HP-sponsored employee purchase program and there are no additional discounts for HP employees off the HP eBay store price.
•
All sales are final. There are no returns unless product arrives defective.
•
The refurbished TouchPad product comes with a 90-day limited warranty.
•
Please note that eBay orders only allow one ship-to location per order.

Thank you for your cooperation, good luck to you and don’t forget to mark your calendars for 6:00 p.m. (Central Time), Sunday, December 11th.

Best regards,

This Christmas, give your favorite geeks the gifts and stocking
stuffers they've always wanted: tools!

Here are some of the neatest tools that we have on the NeatoShop:


The Credit
Card Survival Tool ($3.95) has 11 functionalities in one easy to use,
easy to carry package. Slip one in your wallet, and you'll always have
the tool to help you survive the next Zombie apocalypse (or at least help
you open a beer bottle to help you cope with one). Perfect for a stocking
stuffer!


MAKO
Bike Tool by PocketToolX ($47.95) - The only tool a serious bike lover
needs! This lightweight (only 45 grams or 1.6 oz with the bits) and compact
tool has 12 tools. Made in USA.


Piranha
Pocket Tool by PocketToolX ($41.95) - Titanium pocket tool with 10
functionalities (including the most important: popping the tops of your
favorite beverage!) This super-slim stainless steel pocket tool is tough
and looks awesome in your hand.


Sometimes all you need is the essentials. The Brewzer
($7.95) by PocketToolX packs 5 functionalities (yes, including opening
beer bottles) into an ultra light (0.5 oz) and super-compact stainless
steel tool. Your beer buddies will drool over this one!


This neat little tool with a cool name shows that useful things don't
have to come in big packages. The sturdy 4-in-1 Screwpop
Keychain Tool never finds a bottle it can't open, or a screw it can't
handle.


The EvriScissors
($ 4.95) is like the Swiss Army Knife of scissors! The stainless steel
scissors double as a 12-in-1 multifunctional tool that's great for your
home and kitchen.


Sometimes all you need is a hammer. And a bottle opener. So this ingenious
and rugged Hammer
Bottle Opener ($9.95) is ALL the tool you need!

More from the NeatoShop: Tools
| Gifts for Geeks

Dry-aged steak is fantastically tender and flavorful, but it's rare to find it outside of steakhouses or quality butcher shops, and it's pretty expensive. America's Test Kitchen shows you can dry age a supermarket steak yourself in your fridge. More »

Making something scripted seem like it’s actually happening sounds easy until a camera’s switched on. Once tape’s rolling, too many actors’ bathroom mirror rehearsals become overdone regurgitations, unresponsive to others’ performances. When dramatic performers fall short, it’s painfully apparent and we label them “hacks.” Less believable comedic actors, on the other hand, sometimes get a pass because their punchlines distract audiences from a lack of training. Viewers are too busy laughing to realize that what’s going on is phoned in.

A talent who blends the visceral realism of drama with the snappiness of comedy is unusual. For such a talent, successes may come in the form of projects with genres as varied as they are high profile. I say all this to say: For Ann Carr, “The Actress” could be the start of something great.

Created by and starring Carr, the web series about a struggling New York City actress (now in its second season) is not to be played in the background. Dry, layered, and artfully paced episodes are much more akin to something from across the pond — a Pegg-esque deadpan — than a brain-eating-zombies-are-on-the-loose, hyper-jokey, watch-while-you-pregame YouTube riff. “The Actress” underscores smart, natural humor with true to life reactionary emotion. In its best moments, the show seems much more voyeuristic than performed, providing laughs alongside an authentic immersion that every escapist entertainment enthusiast craves.

Here are three reasons to watch if you’re in one of those “why should I?” moods.

Realism

Understatement

Unbridled characters

Episode #2 — “Sisters”

Making people laugh is hard. Making people care about what you say in between jokes is harder, and depends largely on believability.

Episode #3 — “The Day Job”

There’s something to be said for loud, boisterous, watermelon-smashing humor, and those who employ it often garner laughs as plentiful as their antics. But subtlety requires risk, uncertainty, a belief in concept that rewards viewers who appreciate comedy as much for the laughs it inspires as the complex process that evokes them.

Episode #4 — “The Seminar”

Web series are often too short to allow for rich character exploration and tend to fall more in the sketchy, two beats and heighten camp than in the exposition camp. “The Actress” episodes are long enough to showcase characters’ smaller idiosyncrasies and, because they’re so spot-on, that attention to detail takes up character-based humor a big notch.
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Hey look, I like the advanced notetaking tools we're afforded on our computers, smartphones and tablets as much as anyone. But there's a point at which your documentation of life just gets in the way of you actually living life. Case in point: Evernote's two new apps, Food and Hello. More »

CollegeHumor made a pretty dope ad for Greendale featuring the full cast of Community, and yeah, that includes Magnitude. Watch and be transported to a world of intellectual stimulation where the number of soggy National Geographics to be perused in the libary is second only to the number of raccoons enjoying a quick garbage-rifling at the campus snack bar! The college years truly are the best of our lives.
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1 comments

iOS: Popular organization tool Evernote has released two new iOS apps today. Evernote Food is an app for iOS that aims to help you document your dishes throughout the day, while Evernote Hello wants to make it easy to remember everyone you encounter. More »

Comedy Central is developing shows from Rob Delaney, Eugene Mirman, Amy Schumer, Anthony Jeselnik, Kumail Nanjiani, Wyatt Cenac, and more (full list below). Here are some things I would do to this development slate:

- Slowly chew it up and swallow it and have all these comedians in my stomach making hilarious jokes to the layers of mucous cells lining it as pepsin gradually breaks them down until they are a part of me.

- Paint a series of nude portraits of each show's star and then sneak into the White House and Buckingham Palace and replace all the pictures of presidents and kings with the paintings.

- Trap all the comedians in a small sauna, collect their sweat in a jar and use it as the central and sole ingredient in a perfume called Eau de Haha.

SERIES IN PRODUCTION

Key & Peele – premieres Tuesday, January 31, 2012
In this original sketch-comedy show, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, the fresh, relevant comedic actor-writers that are used to being on the outside looking in, will examine life in a provocative and irreverent way, through a combination of filmed sketches and live stage segments. Whether it's satirizing the President, spoofing Nazis, or ordering up some soul food, "Key & Peele" will showcase their chemistry, camaraderie and unique point-of-view, born from their shared background and experiences growing up biracial in a not quite post-racial world. Executive produced by Key, Peele, Ian Roberts and Jay Martel. Eight episodes are set to premiere on Tuesday, January 31 at 10:30 P.M.

The Nick Show Kroll – premieres 3Q 2012
"The Nick Show Kroll" highlights Nick Kroll's incredible ability to transform himself into hilarious characters that pop off the screen while bringing many of his popular short-form favorites along for the ride. Sketches in the pilot episode included "The PubLIZity Girls," with Kroll and Jenny Slate as publicists on the verge of a breakdown; "The Ed Hardy Boyz," featuring Kroll as Bobby Bottleservice who, along with Peter Paparazzo (Jon Daly) solve mysteries for Christian Audigier, King of the Ed Hardy fashion empire; "Rich Dicks," which sees Kroll as Aspen Bruckheimer, son of Jerry, who, along with his old moneyed friend Wendy (Jon Daly) are rich, on the prowl and ready to party at a moments notice – oh yeah, they're also the biggest dicks in the world and man-on-the-street interstitials from Kroll's popular character Fabrice Fabrice. "The Nick Show Kroll" is executive produced and written by Kroll, John Levenstein ("Arrested Development") and Jonathan Krisel ("Saturday Night Live," "Portlandia"), who is also directing.

Brickleberry – premieres 4Q 2012
"Brickleberry," co-produced by Fox 21 and COMEDY CENTRAL, is based on a group of dysfunctional forest rangers at a national park that is facing closure until a new ranger comes in to whip everyone into shape and save the park. The series is created, written and executive produced by Waco O'Guin and Roger Black (MTV2's "Stankervision") and executive produced by Daniel Tosh ("Tosh.0"), who will also voice a character.

IN DEVELOPMENT (all titles listed are working titles)

@Rob Delaney
This comedy, variety show brings the world of Twitter to life via the unique point-of-view of comedian and twitter extraordinaire, Rob Delaney. Delaney presents video and talks to remote guests as the show acts as a living, scrolling Twitter feed. Executive produced by Delaney and Avalon Entertainment's David Martin, Jon Thoday, Richard Allen-Turner and Kara Baker and co-executive produced by Avalon’s Dan Lubetkin.

Braunger
This single-camera comedy is based loosely on the life of man-child comedian, Matt Braunger. By day, Braunger works as a closed-captioner, transcribing TV shows for the deaf. By night, he tries to make-up for the short-comings of his job by living the most fulfilling night-life possible with his gnome-like roommate, played by comic/actor Kyle Kinane. Executive produced and created by Braunger and Brent Forrester ("King of the Hill," "The Office"), who will also direct, and executive produced by Avalon Entertainment's David Martin and co-executive produced by Avalon’s Dan Lubetkin.

Eugene!
A sketch show in the form of a television network from the absurd point-of-view of comedian, Eugene Mirman ("Delocated," "Flight of the Conchords"). Executive produced by Mirman, Jon Watts and Chris Ford.

Gregory Brothers
From "Auto-Tune the News" to the notorious Bed Intruder Song, The Gregory Brothers are bringing their comedic musical talent to COMEDY CENTRAL. This ensemble comedy features an up-and-coming music group trying to make it in the world of viral videos. Executive produced by The Gregory Brothers (Evan, Andrew, Michael and Sarah Gregory), Tom Scharpling, David Becky at 3Arts Entertainment and Peyton Reed ("The Break Up"), who also directed the pilot.

My Mans (previously announced)
"My Mans" follows the adventures of two best friends, one who is constantly getting into trouble, and the other who is always bailing him out. Offering a unique twist on sketch comedy, this weekly narrative weaves in and out of stand-alone sketches. Executive produced by Naomi Odenkirk and Mark Provissiero, "My Mans" is written, performed and directed by Second City Chicago members Tim Robinson, Mark Raterman and Andy Miara. Bob Odenkirk ("Mr. Show," "Breaking Bad") serves as creative consultant.

Nathan for You
Canadian writer-comedian Nathan Fielder ("Jon Benjamin Has A Van," "Important Things with Demetri Martin") uses his finance degree and life experiences to help struggling businesses each week. When interacting with real businesses and real people, Fielder's advice and questionable personal skills usually do more harm than good. Executive produced by Fielder, Michael Koman and David Kneebone.

Overloaded
"Overloaded" with Michael Kosta ("COMEDY CENTRAL Presents: Michael Kosta") is a short-form comedic look at the world of social media. With our inboxes overflowing, our brains overrun and our world overwhelmed, Kosta deconstructs the madness of social media and gets us back to what we all really need and want: real personal connections. From his studio and in the field, Kosta breaks down the week's highlights of what people are talking about on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and more. Executive produced by Kosta, Infomania's David Nickoll, Will Ward and Roar Entertainment's Jordan Tilzer.

Review (previously announced)
"Review with Forrest MacNeil" is a half-hour comedy written and executive produced by Andrew Daly (starring as Forrest) and Charlie Siskel. Unlike typical critics who review boring things like films, food or art, MacNeil reviews the most difficult experiences of life itself…by living them. He reviews anything his TV audience throws at him: the adrenaline rush of stealing, the trauma of divorce, the harrowing effects of murder, the wonder and joy of anonymous sex and stops at nothing to show us what an experience feels like before we embark on it ourselves. And, for our convenience, he rates every adventure on a scale of zero to five stars. MacNeil's unwavering commitment to his work means his answers to life's most challenging questions often come at the expense of his wife, his children, his affable neighbor Gary, his co-workers and humanity in general.

Robots
What if robots attempted to take over the world well before they actually had the ability to do so? This animated show pits a group of household electronics against their slacker owner, Jeff. Unbeknownst to Jeff, the Robots plot and scheme to take over the world every day, however, their lack of ability and understanding of humans eventually foils their plans sending them into a tailspin. Executive produced and written by Kumail Nanjiani (COMEDY CENTRAL's "Hot List," "John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show"), Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky ("The Office," "Bad Teacher").

The Burn
The self-proclaimed Roast Master General, Jeff Ross, and his friends roast the week's hot topics and go into the field to burn public figures and events. Each week, Ross will be joined by a group of fellow comics who help hit the topical targets. Executive produced by Ross, Mike Gibbons and Tagline Television.

Time Trumpet (previously announced)
A satirical look at pop culture and current events, set 30 years in the future, executive produced by Armando Iannucci ("In the Loop," HBO's "Veep"), Chris Godsick and Laura Krafft.

TripTank
"TripTank" is a collection of animated shorts featuring comedy's brightest. This collaboration between executive producers, Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico of ShadowMachine ("Robot Chicken," "Moral Orel") and Tom Gianas ("Pretend Time with Nick Swardson," "SNL") combines a variety of animated formats with a broad range of talented writers and creators including Tommy Blacha, Tom Gammill,
Jon Glaser, Laura Kightlinger, Joe Mande, Bob Odenkirk and Duncan Trussell, among others. Plot lines include a behind-the-scenes look at the Roman Colosseum, a magical alcoholic wheelchair helping sick children, a group of aliens studying the world's most average guy to the misgivings of a kidney transplanted into a super model.

Untitled Amy Schumer Project
After her breakthrough performance at the "COMEDY CENTRAL Roast of Charlie Sheen," Amy Schumer brings her talent to the all-comedy channel. Schumer will executive produce and develop a pilot as well as shoot a stand-up special.

Untitled Anthony Jeselnik Project (previously announced)
Acclaimed comedian Anthony Jeselnik is bringing his sharp sense of humor and dark, twisted point-of-view to this project. Jeselnik will star in and executive produce, along with Tom Johnson and Mosaic Media Group's Christie Smith.

Untitled Cyanide and Happiness Project
From the creators of the Cyanide and Happiness web comics and shorts comes a half-hour animated show featuring the twisted humor of a world populated by glorified stick figures. Executive produced and created by Kristipher Matthew Wilson, […]

We recently featured a microwave that was hacked to play YouTube videos while it cooked food, but for those who want their kitchen hacks to  play a direct role in their food preparation, here are ten ideas to get your food-related geek-juices flowing.

Make A Sous Vide Cooker From A Beer Cooler

While “sous vide” has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the cooking world for the last few years, those of you who don’t work in kitchens or read cooking websites would be excused for not knowing the term. Sous vide literally means “under vacuum”  in French and that’s essentially how this food is prepared –vacuum sealed food is placed in a low heat water bath and cooked very slowly. The cooking method generally allows for foods to cook more evenly, retaining a better texture and its original appearance.

Unfortunately, a quick search on Amazon will show you that a sous vide cooker will run you a minimum of $200. Then you’ll need to buy a vacuum sealer, which will add on at least $30, and non-reusable plastic bags for the sealer that can quickly add up too. All of this is a pretty big investment –especially if you just want to check out the process before you commit.

To hack yourself a cheaper option, Serious Eats suggests using a beer cooler, a thermometer and a few Ziplock bags, which will cost less than $25 total. Just add hot water to your cooler until the temperature is a few degrees above your target cooking temperature, then add in your bagged food, close the lid and let the insulation do the work for you. As for how well the beer cooler holds up to the real deal: in tests, the beer cooler worked every bit as well as a quality $450 cooker.

Turn A Crock Pot Into A Yogurt Maker

Most electric yogurt makers only incubate the product, leaving out the critical heating and sterilization process. That’s why Chris Reilly of Make Magazine opted to hack his own yogurt maker out of a Crock Pot that automates the entire process. He call it the “Yobot.”

While the process is pretty involved, for those with the tech skills to pull it off, it seems like a great way to go through the yogurt making process. As a bonus, since you’re already programming a temperature gauge into the Crock Pot, you could easily tweak it just a bit more and make a combination Sous Vide cooker, yogurt maker and Crock Pot in one…now that’s a useful appliance.

Make Your Own Hotel Breakfast

(Video Link)

If you’re sick of leaving your hotel without a home-cooked breakfast, Natalie Tran has a solution. In this video, she shows you how to make oatmeal or soft boiled eggs with a coffee maker, and bacon and fried eggs with aluminum foil and an iron. It might not be the most delicious food in the world, but it’s better than nothing –which is what most hotels offer.

Concoct A Three-Course Meal With A Coffee Maker

Of course, oatmeal is far from the only food that can be made with a coffee maker. The John Hopkins Newsletter has a variety of recipes you can create with nothing more than a coffee maker. While the poached fish, pasta and cinnamon coffee all sound good, the chocolate fondue is certainly the highlight of this column.

Whip Up Fresh Chicken Pesto In The Office

For more advanced coffee-maker chefs, Food 2 suggests making your own chicken pesto pasta for lunch. Simply grill the chicken breasts on the base, boil the pasta in the coffee maker and then use a coffee grinder to create your own pesto sauce from scratch. If you’re really going to make this one though, you might want to buy a new coffee pot and grinder first or else everything is going to taste a little strange.

Brewing Beer With A Coffee Maker
Finally, for those with lots of time and no local bars (for example, someone stuck on an Oceanic Research Vessel), Southern Fried Science has some good tips to make your own beer with nothing more than a coffee pot and items you’d be likely to find on said Oceanic Research Vessel. While it might not be the most practical recipe for most people, it might just be the most useful for those people who do find themselves stuck out on the ocean for months at a time.

Build An Android Bartender

For those of you with some serious hacking skills, many of these tips and tricks will seem too easy or even downright boring. If that sounds like you, then here’s something more inspiring: an Android-powered bartender called “iZac.”

Using a battery-powered aquarium pump, a scale and a tablet with Android software, Nick Johnson devised this electronic bartender that can make any cocktail for you provided he has the ingredients on tap. He also offers an “I’m Feeling Lucky” feature that will provide you with any three liquids at random, providing for some disgustingly hilarious results.

Turn a Broken Wine Fridge Into a Fermentation Chamber

For most people, a broken wine fridge is little more than fodder for the closest landfill, but when Instructables user sklarm found out his neighbor was throwing away an old wine fridge, he jumped into action, hacking it into a top-notch fermentation chamber. By removing the cooling components and adding a lamp and temperature gauge, he was able to turn a piece of waste into an ideal chamber for fermenting bread, yogurt, kombucha and more. If you want to make your own, the process seems pretty straight forward even for the slightly-less tech savvy.

Use Liquid Nitrogen to Make Ice Cream In A Jiff
Homemade ice cream is so delicious, but making it can be so darn boring. What’s a geek to do?

Get an electric drill and liquid nitrogen involved in the process, that’s what. DocBug has all the directions you need to make your own delicious orange raspberry sorbet made with power tools and liquid nitrogen. While you can change up the flavors all you want, whatever you do, don’t forget your safety gear.

Make Some Stew While Taking A Drive
Going on a long road trip and don’t want to get stuck eating fast food? Why not take advantage of the heat generated by your engine? This great Manifold Stew recipe instructs you how to prepare a stew that can be cooked on your car’s engine by driving for about 4 or 5 hours. While it asks for squirrel, you city folk who find squirrel meat in short supply could try using rabbit or chicken in its place.

Personally, the only cooking trick like this that I ever used was making Top Ramen in a coffee pot. Have any of you ever hacked something to cook food it wasn’t intended to create? Are any of you planning to try some of the tricks here?

I must have been watching the wrong channels in 2001, because I completely missed this Swedish meatball mess of an Ikea commercial starring a rapping Billy Idol and a bunch of videos hos. Billy sounds like Freddy Krueger trying to cough up a loogie and at times he looks like a young Aaron Carter after taking his first meth hit. I think I'll try to put together a piece of Ikea furniture (aka the impossible) to forget I ever saw this.

via The Life Files

Mac: Camtasia Studio was one of your favorite screencasting tools, and TechSmith, the company behind the app, updated the Mac version today to version 2.0, which includes new annotations for your screencasts and videos, blur effects so you can obscure sensitive information, visual effects to add some interest, and more. More »

Cloud (for Mac) is an OS X app that makes it super simple to share large files without worrying about bounce backs.

by Bill Pearis

Oh happy day! The Darkness are coming back to America in early 2012, including a February 4 stop at Irving Plaza. (No on-sale date yet.) A full list of North American tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

We haven't had The Darkness on these shores in at least five years around the time the band was promoting their overblown second album One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back. Due to rock n' roll problems, the band didn't last much longer. Bassist Frankie Poulain left in 2005, and frontman/songwriter Justin Hawkins quit the following year after a stint in rehab. The remaining members of The Darkness continued on as the Stone Gods and Hawkins formed the more latex glam Hot Leg who played SXSW in 2009. In March of this year, the original line-up of The Darkness reformed, started playing shows and announced they were working on a new album.

That album is part of the reason why they're touring. Hawkins tells Rolling Stone that the band are going to Nashville in January to record a few more songs. The tour in February will unleash a few of those new tracks, as well as the entirety of the band's fantastic 2003 debut Permission to Land, which this writer considers to be a genuine classic, one of my favorites of the '00s:Clearly you don't wear spandex cat suits, sing in a Tiny Tim falsetto and write a love song to a genital wart ("Growing On Me") and not understand irony, but it was clear singer/guitarist/songwriter Justin Hawkins loves this stuff. Part Thin Lizzy riff rock boogie, part Queen flamboyance, Permission to Land is all hits, start to finish. (If you can get past Justin Hawkins' falsetto.) And some of the most inspired, melodically-driven guitar solos (some songs have three) on any album of the last 20 years. Plus "Friday Night" which could almost be a Pulp song. And hilariously insane videos (especially "Growing on Me".) It all went up Hawkins' nose on the overblown second album, but Permission to Land is brilliant.I still wear my Darkness t-shirt that I got free with purchase of the Permission to Land CD at Virgin Times Square and count their September 2003 show at Bowery Ballroom as one of the most fun of the last ten years.

Tour dates and some of their classic Permission to Land videos are below.

Continue reading "The Darkness are back -- new album coming, tour announced" at brooklynvegan

Alsew avaylabul in moovin pikshur format!

Moar gifs dis-a-way!

“Mr. Vader can be so thoughtless. It was my birthday yesterday and he didn’t even notice!”

We can learn a lot from Kristen Stewart.

We can learn the small things. Like if you need to convey nervousness, thoughtfulness, or lust, bite your lip. Or if you need to convey confusion, embarrassment, or indifference, touch your hair.

But we can also learn the big things. Like the story of Christmas.

Happy, um, holidays. Everybody.

[via Tastefully Offensive, previously: Public Speaking Lessons from Kristen]

Bulk renaming files can be a time consuming pain without the right tool. If it's a problem you face often, you've probably already got a favorite batch-renaming app residing on your Mac, but if not, Quick File Renamer might be a good place to start. It has a user-friendly interface with straightforward options -- "idiot proof" you might call it.

Add the files that you want to rename into the "Before Rename" box by using the file finder built into the program or dragging and dropping from Finder. You then select the kind of renaming action you want from the presets, input your custom name, set whether you want to save the renamed files in the same location or another, and whether you want to delete the original files.

If you want to do something a little more complicated, the advanced tab lets you change or add numbers to an existing series or clear the name entirely. You can also modify things such as upper or lowercase names, add dates, suffixes or prefixes, remove or replace sections of names or add audio or photo tags. A comprehensive help system will guide you through the more complicated actions, which is accessible via the good old F1 key.

Quick File Renamer comes in two flavors -- a free 'lite' version, which lacks some of the more advanced renaming and tagging options, but will rename and append file numbers without issue; and a fully capable paid version that'll set you back US$1.99. There are quite a few other batch renamers available for the Mac including Renamer, Name Mangler and Photo A.K.A, while you can achieve the same result with a bit of Automator magic. But if you're looking for a decent free batch renaming app for the occasional file renaming task, then Quick File Renamer Lite is a good start.
Daily Mac App: Quick File Renamer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple released iOS 5.0.1 few weeks back, which includes fixes for bugs that was affecting battery life and few other minor enhancements. Dev team has advised iOS device users to hold off upgrading to iOS 5.0.1 until the flow for downgrading to iOS 5 is … Continue reading →

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

One of my favorite things about the Paley Center is getting to see beginnings. Whether it’s the first Tonight Show, the first Honeymooners sketch, or whatever, even if something isn’t fully formed, I love being able to see the base line. Today we’re going to look the very first Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which demonstrates the very humble beginnings of one of the funniest late night hosts in television history.

A lot has been written about the circumstances that led to Conan ascending to the late night throne (The Late Shift and The War for Late Night by Bill Carter are great choices) but it’s important to note that besides a few random appearances on Saturday Night Live while he was a writer, this high-profile gig was the first time Conan had appeared on television. To make the jump from being the new kid writer at the Simpsons, then in it’s fourth season, to the guy taking over for cult hero David Letterman was completely unfathomable. People expected a marquee name like Gary Shandling or Dana Carvey to take over, both of whom NBC pursued. Conan had some big shoes to fill.

Perhaps the most frequently written about thing from the first Late Night with Conan O’Brien is the cold open, which dealt with these expectations. The short version: Conan walks to work, carefree and whistling to himself as everyone stops him to say “lotta pressure” and “you better be as good as Letterman.” He goes into his office, shuts the door and slips a noose around his neck. It’s smart in the way that it immediately diffuses the expectation for Conan to live up to the hype, and sets a definite tone that would last through the peak years of O’Brien’s hosting.

As someone who grew up with Late Night, it’s interesting to see what’s already in place here in the very first episode. Andy Richter, Max Weinberg and announcer Joel Godard are all there. The desk piece Conan and Andy do after the monologue was “Actual Items,” in which they show ridiculous items from small town newspapers that are clearly too insane to have actually appeared, a mainstay that would be done on the show over the next sixteen years. But what I think is even more interesting is what’s different here. The most glaring (and potentially charming) is Conan himself. He’s (obviously) much younger, and clearly rather uncomfortable being thrust into the limelight. Instead of a subtle laugh after a monologue joke that tickles him, Young Conan yelps out a high-pitched, single note chuckle.

In the middle of the show, Conan segues into a short commercial for Bob Costas’ show which once followed his, which is clearly something he made just for the show in which Bob announces that he’ll be interviewing the surviving cast members of The Wizard of Oz which includes an 84-year-old munchkin and a guy who played one of those trees that threw apples, still in costume. But one thing that I wish had continued on longer into Conan’s Late Night was the number of sketches that appear in the show. At the very end of the evening, Conan says goodnight and begins singing “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music. As he does the camera then cuts away to a nun, bawling in the audience, then back to Conan, then to a Nazi SS officer, also crying. Earlier in the episode, guest John Goodman’s interview is suddenly interrupted by audience member George Wendt, who then challenges Goodman to a leg wrestling match, which ends in a draw. The show’s atmosphere feels like a controlled chaos, and unlike any other, in which funny things could happen at any moment, and there was no way of knowing where they were going to come from next.

But is it still funny? Yes it is. Quite surprisingly, 95% of this particular episode of Late Night is pretty timeless. The bulk of the monologue is about how this is Conan’s first show, then they’re off to the races with what remains a solidly written collection of silly comedy pieces. And why shouldn’t it still be funny? Beyond Conan and Andy, the original writing staff of the show is like the comedy nerd dream team, with such luminaries as Louis CK, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel, and Dino Stamatopoulos. If those guys can’t write something that’s funny almost twenty years later, then I don’t know who can. Watching Young Conan make his way through his first episode is pretty exciting, but as you do, one can’t help but think about what lies ahead for him, and how he’s soon going to figure out what to do with that limp head of hair he was sporting in 1993.

Ramsey Ess is a freelance writer for television, a regular writer for the UCB’s sketch team Neighbor Boy, and the head writer of his website.
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Wikipedia just added another face to its already wacky cast of characters. Oh boy.

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Get just the FAILs on FAIL Nation!

3D printers are slowly, but surely working their way into all sorts of useful, everyday applications -- like the creation of chocolates, flutes and even Mario Kart turtle shell racers. Now, Washington State University engineers are unveiling a unique implementation of the tech that could aid in the regrowth of damaged or diseased bones. Utilizing a ceramic compound, the group's optimized ProMetal 3D printer builds dissolvable scaffolds coated with a plastic binding agent that serve as a blueprint for tissue growth. The team's already logged four long years fine tuning the process, having already achieved positive results testing on rats and rabbits, but it appears there's still a ways to go -- about 10 -12 years, according to the project's co-author Susmita Bose -- before orthopedic and dental surgeons can begin offering "printed" bone replacements. With a synthetic windpipe already under medical science's belt and now this, it's looking like we're just a few short decades away from that long sought after full body replacement. Right, Mr. Lagerfeld? Click on past the break for a brief look at this osteo-friendly machinery.Continue reading 3D-printed bone replacements coming soon to an orthopedic surgeon near you, courtesy of WSU (video)
3D-printed bone replacements coming soon to an orthopedic surgeon near you, courtesy of WSU (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink BBC  |  Washington State University  | Email this | Comments

They call themselves "carnivores" and "meat aficionados," but there are other names for the vegetable-phobes in your life: "children," "cave dwellers," "people who will probably contract gout or cancer," and possibly "young-diers." Eek! More »

You’d think Yoda’s amazing Force powers would allow him to correct his speech impediment, especially when getting on everyones nerves it is. This cute Shoebox Cards illustration shows why the rest of the Star Wars gang are sick of Christmas caroling with the little green Jedi Master.

Link

If you’ve got a serious chocolate addiction and you’d like to make it as healthy as possible, give this X-rated dark chocolate a try.
I call it X-rated because it is certain to not satisfy young, sugar-craving palates, but is appropriate for only the most serious chocolate craver. This is a way to obtain the rich flavors and textures of cocoa, the health benefits (e.g., blood pressure reduction, antioxidation) of cocoa flavonoids, while obtaining none of the sugars/carbohydrates . . . and certainly no wheat!

It is easy to make, requiring just a few ingredients, a few steps, and a few minutes. Set aside and save for an indulgence, e.g., dip into natural peanut or almond butter.

Ingredients:
8 ounces 100% unsweetened cocoa
5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup dry roasted pistachios
1/4 cup whole flaxseeds or chia seeds
Truvia or other non-aqueous sweetener

Using double-boiler method, melt cocoa. Alternatively, melt cocoa in microwave in 15-20 second increments. Stir in coconut oil, pistachios, and flaxseeds or chia seeds. Stir in sweetener, mixing thoroughly. (Note that the sweetener must be non-aqueous, as water-based sweeteners will separate in the oils.)

Lay a sheet of parchment paper out on a large baking pan. Pour chocolate mixture slowly onto paper, tilting pan carefully to spread evenly until thickness of thick cardboard obtained. Place pan in refrigerator or freezer for 20 minutes.

Remove chocolate and break by hand into pieces of desired size.

Git ur own bed, kittehz! Dey mayk kewl TARDIS wunz 4 u nao!

LoL by: Unknown
Via: Cat Versus Human

While everyone handles gift giving differently, there are always those people who might be a little difficult to shop for. If you’re like me, the last minute gift buying frenzy can stress you out.

To help those of you out shopping for the beer lovers in your life, I’ve created the 2011 holiday beer lovers gift guide below.

Last year I broke it down by price and had multiple suggestions for different price groups which is a great starting point.

5 Beer Gifts Under $25
5 Beer Gifts Between $25-$75
5 Beer Gifts Over $75

The year before that Luke wrote a top 10 gifts for beer lovers list which has some great suggestions as well not covered in the other posts.

This year, I’ve decided to feature some fun and interesting products not mentioned in previous years. So between these and the previous posts, hopefully you will find some good ideas to shop for that beer lover in your life.

The Oxford Companion to Beer
This is a book that should be on every beer lovers tabletop. It covers pretty much everything to do with beer, and while not perfect, a pretty awesome book. The book is generally $65 but Amazon is currently running an amazing promotion where it is only $26 (I’m not sure how long it will last). Get It Here.

Beer Gear Wallet
If you’ve never been to Etsy, you are missing out. There are a lot of talented people on there making some cool stuff. I came across Mindy’s Beer Gear the other day where you can buy some custom made beer wallets, cuffs, luggage tags and even head bands. All of the gear looks pretty well done. It looks like Mindy is located in the same city as me, so a lot of the gear is focused on Northwest beer companies, but she does do custom orders. Get It Here.

Spiegelau Beer Classics Glasses

I wrote a post about these Spiegelau Beer Glasses last week and I’m including them in the list because I absolutely love them. Anyone that loves good beer will enjoy these glasses (I know I do). Amazon has the best prices that I’ve found on these. Get It Here.

Zaca Recovery Patch
Let’s face it, no one likes hangovers and alcohol created headaches. The Zaca patch is a perfect gift for that person who drinks a little too much at times. You just apply it to your body and it’s blend of antioxidants, vitamins and amino acids help you feel better in the morning without the hangover or headaches. This isn’t the go ahead that you should drink more than your limits, but a helpful tool. They sent me a sample last year and it worked pretty well. They start at $19.95. Get It Here.

Brew Your Own Magazine

Brew Your Own is by far my favorite beer related magazine on home brewing. If you need a gift for the home brewer in your life, a subscription is only $17 for the year. Get It Here.

Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit
This is a great tasting kit for any aspiring beer geek. It contains samples of 13 hops and a guide so you can start training your palate to detect hop varieties in taste and aroma. This will take you from a fan of beer to an expert in no time. Get It Here.

Arkeg – Drink n Game
Are you the ultimate friend? Yeah its expensive but it just might be worth it. Arkeg is both a classic arcade game preloaded with 69 classic games (more can be installed) plus a kegerator all in one unit. Just think you could be playing astroids and filling up your pint glass at the same time without moving. Starting at $3999, this is designed for a either the hardcore gamer, or nostalgic beer fan. Get It Here.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~Confucius

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Scott Dinsmore of Live Your Legend.
Is it possible to have your passion also be your core source of income?

We seem to hear more and more stories of people reaching the promised land, but is it really possible for the everyday person? Or are those ‘lucky few’ just that— lucky?

After years of research I have good news for you…

I bet you there’s something you love doing that someone else would be happy to pay you for right this second. I might go as far as saying I’m sure of it.

But let’s start with a question.

Why is it that the people who succeed once, seem to have similar successes on future endeavors? Whether it’s fitness, entrepreneurship, career, relationships, you name it.

Success begets success.

What are the things that consistently allow certain people to build a business and living around the things they love most, but allow the other 80% of the world to continue to drag themselves, day in and day out, to a job they can’t stand?

Why can some people charge seamlessly from one creative endeavor and passion project to the next, experiencing all sorts of success along the way, while many others can’t take the first step to finding their passion, let alone building a career around it?

The steps aren’t foreign, they aren’t cryptic, or hidden behind some secret handshake. They aren’t complicated and in many cases not even that difficult. But yet they are still massively underused.

Why is that?

These questions have kept me up at night for years.

As it turns out, the answer is pretty simple…

The passionate people simply know what’s actually possible. They are crystal clear about the steps that work, so they don’t think twice in applying them to whatever the excitement of the day is.

The rest of the world doesn’t know the first move to distinguish up from down.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Living Off Your Passion Is a Right – For Everyone
For the past eight years, and more specifically the past three, I’ve lived and breathed passion. I’ve done case studies with hundreds of passionate workers around the world, conducted countless experiments and profiled 14 of the top experts on and off the web.

Not only have I been obsessed with how people find their passion, but also how the seemingly ‘lucky few’ (hint: it’s not about the luck) are able to push through to the next level and turn their passion into a career – as entrepreneurs and employees alike.

My goal was to combine the art of discovering your passion with the science of making money from it. I recently published the results and process into a self-study course called Live Off Your Passion.

The results were invigorating. But as it turned out, they were not as complicated and unique as one would think.

Living off your passion is more possible than most realize. We just have to condition it.

I wanted to share some of the most profound lessons with you all. If you follow the steps below, I’m sure you can monetize your passion in record time if you want it badly enough.

The 3 Sacred Steps to Converting Passion to Income
1. Separate passion from reality.

We must start with brainstorming your passion projects in a way that encourages success. Unfortunately most people do the opposite.

As humans, our immediate reaction to someone’s new idea (or our own) often is to figure out why it won’t work. I know, sad but true. The problem is that when you get critical of something the moment the idea comes up, it gets stomped out immediately. It might not even make it more than a sentence or two before someone else yells out the reasons it ‘obviously’ won’t work. Then you feel stupid and move on.

But if that idea were given say five or ten minutes of brainstorming whiteboard action, along with a solid dose of open, creative and non-critical discussion, it’s very possible that the idea would turn out to have some merit.

Imagine how many brilliant ideas get killed too soon due to premature criticism.

This happens with passion every day—even if we’re just doing it in our own head (which is the most likely and most dangerous case). A lot of times when we task ourselves to think of our passions we only allow ourselves to play in part of the sandbox. Since the end goal is to find something we can make a living from, we subconsciously discard the ideas that are totally off the wall. We stifle our creativity without even knowing it.

In order to have a fighting chance at developing world-changing business ideas or personal passion pursuits, you absolutely must separate the creative and the critical stages.

Brainstorm your most far-out dreams of passion careers you can think of. Then wait for at least a few days if not a week or more before you start to get practical and critical. Mark my words, for every wild idea you come up with, I’m sure there’s already someone out there making a great living off it (and that’s a good thing). More on finding them below.

2. Be the expert you already are.

One of the most common barriers keeping people from making money from their passion is the belief that you don’t know something well enough to get paid to teach it to someone else.

That’s just flat wrong – You know more than you think. Being an expert is purely relative and based largely on perception.

The crazy thing is once you find something you’re passionate about, you’ll likely realize it’s something you’ve been learning and improving upon for years and maybe even decades. You have more experience with your passion than likely 99% of those around you, simply because you love doing it.

If you’ve been on this earth for at least a couple decades, I guarantee you’re an expert at something. Give yourself some credit. Find what it is and find the people who desperately need your help. Combine the two and living off your passion starts to become a reality.

3. Do the impossible.

For decades, breaking the four-minute mile was believed to be scientifically impossible. Right up until Roger Banister did it in 1954. Then you know what happened? 16 more people ran sub four-minutes in the three years to follow.

We’ve been largely conditioned that it’s not possible to build a career around passion. So many people hate their jobs and many of us have decided to accept that as a fact of life. I did too, right up until I started meeting people who showed me another way.

Listen carefully. The most crucial ingredient to loving your work and living off passion is to surround yourself with people already doing it. You must reverse the brainwashing. Spend time around enough people living squarely in their dreams, and living off passion not only becomes possible, it becomes probable. That shift in psychology will change your world.

My recent course, Live Off Your Passion, as well as my site, Live Your Legend, would not exist today if it wasn’t for the ‘crazy’ people I spend time with every day. Leo is at the top of that list. He and others changed my thinking from “making a living online, helping people while doing something I love, isn’t possible” to “I can’t imagine any other way to build a career”. Thanks to Leo and the rest of you.

Once someone knows the process and is convinced not only that it works, but that it is indeed possible, their creative and business potential becomes limitless. It’s just a matter of time before they turn the passion of their choosing into a full-blown career.

Start surrounding yourself with people doing the impossible. Don’t look back.

Who can you help right now?
Often the first step to living off passion, and the most realistic for those scared of the threatening income gap, is to start working with people one-on-one.

Remember, there are things you are better at (and enjoy more) than the great majority of those around you. There are also people actively looking for the expertise you have.

Find the right connection and you could begin making money from a passion tomorrow if you wanted to. It’s that powerful. And it’s that fast.

Need reassurance? Go do some research on some of the people charging folks and making a living from the skill and passion you enjoy. Are they all the next Steve Jobs? I doubt it. They just decided to focus their energy where they could help the most.

The great majority of people who have not been able to monetize a passion does not come down to lack of skill. It does not come down to lack of credentials. It does not come from lack of experience.

It comes from lack of creativity and courage.

Combine those two with something that makes you come alive, and the world will be beating your door down to give you their money.

Crossing the Chasm—From 80% to 20%
A recent study reported that as many as 80% of the people in the workforce don’t enjoy their job. And nearly 75% don’t know their true passion.

This is not a coincidence.

You don’t have to be one of them.

What would happen if we could reverse that statistic? Think about it for a second.

If we can begin building an income around the things that excite us, our work will no longer be something we loathe. It will be something we can’t get enough of. Which quickly becomes something the world can’t get enough of. If we can do that, we can literally change the world.

The all-important first dollar
The first hurdle in living off your passion is realizing it’s possible to get paid to do what you enjoy—to show yourself that you’re capable of helping people and they are willing to pay you for it. Whether it’s $1, $15, $100 or $1,000, the point is to make the massively huge leap from earning exactly ZERO from what you enjoy doing, to earning something. Anything.

People will find value in what you have to offer, but you’ll never know unless you start offering it.

In my years of passion researc[…]

Greg Fitzsimmons is the scrappy, Irish brawler of stand-up comedy. No, really. He admittedly has some anger issues and has been known to challenge other comedians to step outside. He once went at it on stage with a heckler and hit the guy with a microphone.

Fitzsimmons, 45, is now married with two children and not as pugnacious, but he’s still feisty. His humor stems from his willingness to talk candidly about his anger and other personal issues, which he does frequently on his podcast, and his satellite radio show that he does for Howard Stern’s Howard 101 Channel on Sirius XM. Stern was an early fan of Fitzsimmons’ unflinching honesty, as Fitzsimmons is a frequent guest and was one of the finalists for the sidekick job that eventually went to Artie Lange.

Fitzsimmons also has an impressive resumé as a TV writer, where he’s worked on shows ranging from The Man Show to Lucky Louie to The Ellen Degeneres Show, where he won four Daytime Emmy Awards. His latest TV project is Pumped!, agame show in the vein of Cash Cab, but set at gas stations. I recently caught up with Fitzsimmons to chat about his love of game shows, the decline of comedy club ticket sales, and his fondness for psychotropic medication.

You dad was a popular radio personality in New York. I imagine you get some of your sense of humor from him. Did you get any of it from your mom as well? Is she a witty, funny person?

It’s funny because since my dad was in entertainment, people assume I got it from him. But it’s her and her side of the family who are really the ball-busters. Really funny Irish storytellers who are always making jokes with a real wise-ass attitude. That’s a huge influence on me.

You’re Irish on both sides?

Yep, I am 100 percent Irish.

So you’re pretty much incapable of being quiet.

I would think so. It’s an amazingly consistent thing with Irish people. We will talk to strangers at parties for hours. It’s what we were bred to do I think. And the Jewish people were bred to write the stuff that we say.

[Laughs.] I checked out Pumped!. Congrats on the show by the way. How does it feel to be back in front of the camera? This is your first hosting gig since Idiot Savants, correct?

Pretty much. I did all those VH-1 I Love the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, but those were different. It’s funny, hosting a game show is something I’ve always loved doing. I’ve done probably 10 game show pilots, but just never had the luck of getting one picked up. It’s great. It’s a great feeling to be in middle of things. It’s so much like stand-up. You know you have to make it happen. You just make the situation funny. It’s a really exciting, challenging thing.

Do you prefer game shows because they give you more of an opportunity to riff, as opposed to being on sitcom and reading scripted lines?

Yeah, being on a sitcom would be really hard for me. It’s hard for me to read lines that somebody else writes for me, especially since I’ve been writing on so many shows as well. It’s hard to just give it up. It’s hard to give up your voice, and your choices of how you would do things. The funny thing is with game shows, some people might think “oh, you’re a game show host. There’s nothing creative there.” But with Pumped, I think I really have the opportunity to do what essentially is crowd work, like what I would do at a comedy club. It’s just like that, except the person isn’t going to throw a glass at me. [Laughs.] Or walk out on their check.

I loved in the premiere episode when you were talking to the guy with the mohawk and you kept on insisting that he punch you in the face. His reaction was great.

[Laughs.]

I think you scared him a little bit.

Yeah. That was great. I love that guy. He came back to the gas station. We shot at that station for four days straight, and he came back every single day and just kind of hung around. He just wanted to keep reliving his glory of winning $1400 or $1600.

Do you have any other interesting stories to share from the tapings? Did anybody try to come at you or anything?

Yeah, there was a guy in Staten Island who will go on in infamy. First of all when we got out there, we realized that 99 percent of the population is in the witness protection program. [Laughs.] Nobody wanted to be shown on camera. We had to keep asking people. In the other places we’ve been to, I’d say 95 percent of the people we approached wanted to play. In Staten Island, 5 percent wanted to play. So this one guy, he had a track suit on with gold chains and black hair that looked like he blow-dried it back, and he had a white Cadillac, and he sees us standing there with the camera, and he floors his car at the camera crew.

Wow.

And he’s screaming, “Who the fuck are you? Get those fucking cameras out of my face!” We had to have a guy step in. Luckily one of our producers is a martial arts lunatic, so everything got taken care of. But we left Staten Island shortly after that.

So it sounds like Staten Island did not disappoint.

No, you dream and you hope that it will be everything you see on the Jersey Shore and there, lo and behold, Staten Island keeps its reputation intact.

Judging by your book, you were a first-rate shit-starter growing up. What else were you like? Were you a popular kid?

Up until 8th grade, I was the leader of the losers. I hung out with the nerds but I was like a champion for them. And then when I got to 8th grade somehow I just started doing crazy stuff. And then I was the crazy one and then all of the sudden the cool kids liked me. So I left all the nerds behind, I was like “Later guys, the cool kids will hang out with me now.” And then I was like the low man on the totem pole with the cool kids. They let me hang out because I would hang off rafters from like 10 stories up and I would do flips off walls and I would jump out windows and I would say stuff to teachers that nobody would believe somebody would say. I started getting off on vandalism and drinking and it just sort of propelled me into the ranks of the cool kids.

What does your therapist say accounted for your acting out?

I think part of it is I have ADHD, which means you need a lot of stimulus...It’s the same thing with stand-up. I mean you step on stage in front of hundreds of people and you got to survive for an hour. Getting into fights is the same kind of dynamic.

Do you take anything to treat it?

Now I have a patch. It’s not adderall, it’s something else. It’s a time-release patch that I wear every day.

Does that have any noticeable effect on your writing or anything? Does it increase your output?

Well I can only tell when I don’t take it. On a day when I don’t wear the patch, I’m like a zombie. I don’t get anything done and I just wander around. I started taking medication about five years ago and I’ve probably gotten more done in the last five years than I did my entire life.

Really?

Yeah, I finish through on projects, I’m able to be present a lot more than I used to. I don’t daydream as much. It’s been a very positive thing.

Did you know early on that you wanted to do comedy?

No, I just loved it. I never thought it was something you could do. There weren’t comedians then the way there are now. It wasn’t a career. The first time I did it was a high school talent show, and then I did it my senior year of college. It was the biggest challenge. It was like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. I did it because it was like, “I can’t believe someone would allow me to do this.” Once I did it, I was so hooked. I just kept signing up for open mic nights and just waiting around and hanging around clubs until midnight to see if I could get on. It was just such a thrill. I got so competitive about trying to get stage time. And then I started to get paid, and later on it was something you could go on the road doing. I never thought about it as being a career. Then I look up one day and all of the sudden I got a wife and two kids, a house and cars, and it’s like “Wow, that goof that I started doing is my career.”

Did you do any odd jobs when you started out?

I was a banquet waiter at the Marriott. I got pretty lucky because I started in Boston, and in Boston at the time there was a lot of comedy clubs and rooms outside of Boston in New Hampshire and Rhode Island and Connecticut and Maine. If you had a car, and you had 10 or 15 minutes of material, you could start making money pretty early on. You could make 50 bucks a night, and you could be out there five nights a week doing it. I actually didn’t work that long. I was a full-time comic within a year-and-a-half of starting. I caught the wave at just the right time. Today, people start out doing stand-up and no matter how talented they are there’s just not that kind of access to make money in clubs that there used to be. It’s changed the game.

But do you think there’s some sort of stand-up resurgence happening right now? I’ll use the example of Chicago, where I’m from. There are two new comedy clubs set to open there next month.

I’m not sure if it’s the cart going ahead of the horse. Sometimes these comedy clubs expand with the bigger rooms and there’s not always the market for it. Chicago has always been a town that’s tried to do stand-up but it hasn’t really worked. It’s a sketch and improv town...I can’t predict the future, but I know personally, crowds have not been coming out in the last year-and-a-half the way they had been before. I’m not really sure what’s happening. It seems like comedy is obviously getting bigger on the internet, and people are probably watching it on TV more. I think it’s making it tough for people to go out to clubs. I’m surprised to see new clubs opening, to be honest.

That’s interesting. So you’ve definitely noticed a difference in your ticket sales over the past year?

[…]

Looking for just the FAILs? FAIL Nation has all your classic epic FAILs in one place!

thedailywhat:

Angry Over-Protective Fathers of the Day: In the first episode of his web series not to feature an (intentional) comedian, SNL writer Mike O’Brien invites Insane Clown Posse to spend 7 minutes in Heaven with him.

Everything goes better than expected right up to — and including — the part where Mike tries to plant a kiss on Violent J’s lips.

[laughterkey / ratsoff.]

Photo credit: Roberto Bouza (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m really not a morning person.
I’ve tried to get myself going in the early hours of the morning, but I’ve always been more of a night owl – my creative juices seem to flow better in the later hours. So I’d be the last person to suggest that you need to force yourself out of bed before your body and mind are really ready to do so.
But when you do get up, you may find that you’re pressed for time and have fallen behind the rest of the crowd in what you need to get done during the day. A slow start to your day won’t help anyone, let alone you.
Just because you’re not up as the sun rises doesn’t mean that you can’t put yourself in a position to make sure that the day ahead will be a productive one. You need to put some things into play so that you can make the most of your waking hours.
On that note, here are 10 “morning hacks” to jumpstart your day:
1. Wash your face right after getting up.Rather than make your way to the kitchen for that cup of coffee, head to the bathroom and splash some cold water on your face. Once the alarm goes off, head out of bed and straight to the sink. The refreshing feeling you’ll get from the water hitting your face will act as a trigger that it’s time for your body to get moving. Think of it as having a pail of water thrown on you while you’re still in bed – but with a little less wetness and cleanup required.
2. Program your coffeemaker in advance.This one may not sit well with the coffee connoisseurs out there, but the smell of fresh brewed coffee sends a signal to your brain that says, “It’s time to get up”. If you’ve got a coffeemaker with pre-programming features then you’re all set. Just set it to start each day at the time you know you’ll want to get up (remember that you don’t have to get up earlier, be reasonable with your demands on yourself), prepare it the night before, and you’ll be good to go when morning comes.
3. Put your alarm clock out of reach.I keep my alarm clock across the room so that I have to actually get out of bed to turn it off. It’s also close enough to my bedroom door so that I can head straight to the bathroom to give myself my morning splash. I also use an alarm clock app on my iPhone that takes some effort to shut off (such as Mission Alarm Clock; there’s also Challenging Alarm Clock for Android users), meaning I actually have to be awake in order to stop it from going off.
Oh, and by using my iPhone I’ve got an alarm clock that is great for travel and I’m less likely to abuse the device – it is a pretty expensive alarm clock, after all.
4. Go outside.I step outside with my coffee and sit on my deck whenever the weather permits. It connects me with the outside world right off the bat and puts me in a place where I’m not jumping online right away. I’m enjoying the day as it arrives (for me, anyway) and sipping a fine cup of joe while doing so. Fresh air is good at any time of day, and getting it early on is never a bad thing.
5. Plan your day the night before.Despite being done at night — the night before — this is most certainly a morning hack. I give my task manager a good review before hitting the sack for the night. Because my late-night habits often put me at performance par with those who get up a couple of hours before I do, I’m rarely behind in my productivity. The key is to “time shift” so that you’re ahead of the early risers the night before. By planning your day in advance (and even doing some of the tasks the night before), you can go to bed at ease.
6. Mix it up.I do the things above as part of my wake-up routine, mixing it up from time to time but never straying from these things. For example, I like to make freshly-ground coffee, so I do that instead of pre-programming it for myself. But I prepare my wife’s coffee for her the night before and still get the benefits of the aroma in the morning. I don’t go outside every day – sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate – but I definitely look outside every day when I get up. I’ve positioned my sitting chair in my bedroom in such a way that I can enjoy my coffee while looking out the sliding glass doors every morning. A routine is beneficial, but don’t make it essential. You need to have some flexibility built in, otherwise when things you can’t control cause your routine to go off the rails you’ll be more inclined to start sluggishly.
7. Recognize your best workflow patterns.It’s a commonly held belief by those who dwell in the productivity realm that email shouldn’t be the first thing you bury yourself in when you start your day. I agree, but if you’re having trouble jumpstarting your day you need to figure out if that’s why or if it’s something else that needs to be adjusted. Perhaps by setting yourself up the night before, you feel that email can be your first target. Go with that until it doesn’t work for you. Maybe, like me, the first thing you check is your RSS feeds so that you can have something to spark your day. It could be that you want to dive right into the heavy stuff while your energy is high. Take the time to really reflect on your workflow practices and patterns and honestly ask yourself what isn’t working and what is. Leave the stuff that is alone, monitor the stuff that sits somewhere in between until you see how it reacts to the changes that you must make to the stuff that isn’t working. Wholesale changes rarely lead to results; you often abandon the changes altogether when you try that. Tweaks, however, can lead to results because they’re not as painful to adopt. So rather than going ahead and “changing”, try “tweaking” instead.
What tips do you use to jumpstart your day? Leave your suggestions in the comments.
Mike Vardy is an independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivity pundit" who also dishes the goods at Vardy.me. You can follow him daily on Twitter, listen to him weekly on ProductiVardy, and read more from him eventually at Eventualism.

Moar gifs dis-a-way!

Be a pretty brunette chick.

(And maybe get rid of the knit turkey hat.  It's kind of a turnoff.)

[via BuzzFeed]

So we've already seen Burton's line of Star Wars snowboards, and here comes the perfect accessory: an R2-D2 crash helmet. Would I get shot out a cannon wearing one? Yes. Would I get shot out of a car wearing one? No, because I always buckle up. BOOM -- holiday safety PSA outta nowhere. But seriously, folks: drive safe this holiday weekend -- I can't have you getting hurt on my watch. *pounding on your chest in hospital bed* WHY GOD -- WHY?! He was such a great...commenter. *booming voice* "He was a troll, GW." He wa-- really?! *pulls the plug to charge my phone*

Burton Product Site
via
DO WANT: R2D2 Helmet [incrediblethings]

Thanks to bb, who takes taxis everywhere when she's been drinking so she can make out in the back. HELLO! -- split a fare?