Row 2, seat 6 [Flickr]

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How's my blogging?

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Monkey Steals the Peach

That's no peach! Click the image for a larger view.

Update: This image is from the book Ninja Mind Control, by Ashida Kim. No self-respecting ninja would be caught dead without this tome in their library.

Link (Thanks, Jaime!)

Sweet machine [Zooomr]

Sweet machine Hosted on Zooomr

A photo from Zooomr while we wait for Mark III.

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Jamaican sunset [Flickr]

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Help the Police [Video]

Some creative and necessary censorship can go a long way towards making a family friendly NWA.

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HTML tattoo

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Congratulations to Eric Blehm!

Congratulations to author Eric Blehm for winning Barnes & Noble's Discover Award in the non-fiction category for his book The Last Season. According to Barnes & Noble, the contest is designed to highlight "debuting and under appreciated writers" who are "chosen solely on the basis of merit."

His book, a stirring investigation into the disappearance of legendary back country National Park Service ranger Randy Morgenson, has been met with a great deal of critical acclaim from publications ranging from the outdoor category to the mainstream. Mary Pipher, one of Barnes & Noble's Discovery Award judges, had this to say about the book:

For a book to be truly great, it must be about something much larger than its content. It must point readers towards their deepest life themes and brush up against the universal. Blehm's book is not only a carefully researched, well-written biography of an amazing man, it is also a page-turning mystery. But it transcends its story by exploring what it means to spend one's life in the wilderness in the last half of the twentieth century. Randy Morganson's life helps us see what we are missing and broadens our sense of what it can mean to be human.

Full disclosure: Eric is my uncle in-law.

Link (Thanks, Lorien!)

The Ray Project

I've been out of the loop on this, but yesterday's edition of The Show with Ze Frank (embedded below) brought a smile to my face.

The short version of the story goes like this:

A guy named Ray wrote a song for his daughter Ramona, who was having a hard time at work. The song found its way onto the 'net, where it made its rounds. Ze picked it up and invited his viewers (better known as Sports Racers) to create remixes of the song. They came in in droves. Of the nearly one hundred remixes submitted, the most popular were compiled onto a CD which Ze inteded to deliver to Ray. The project inspired a music video as well, which was apparently recently completed.

Having no full name or address, Ze tasked his Sports Racers to find the mystery singer and songwriter. They did. In two days.

The video below is an interview with Ray, a minister in St. Louis, Missouri, with the product of their hard work. If the embedded video doesn't work for you, follow the link at the bottom of this post for the Quicktime version.

I find it fascinating that so many people made an effort to chase this down, and the cherry on top is that they found someone particularly special behind what was superficially a short-lived Internet phenomenon. Here's an excerpt from Ray's letter to Ze Frank:

I was informed that you have been trying to contact me. A friend told me to go to google.com and type in "whip somebody's ass." Well, I did and what I saw completely blew my hair back (and I am bald).

I am absolutely lost for words... All of these mixes of a simple tune that I intended for my daughter is amazing. When I said that I was going to put it on the Internet, I had no idea that it was going to spread like this. I only emailed it to 2 people!!! This is deep!!!

Follow the link below for the text of the Ray's entire letter.

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X-ray kiss [Updated]

I noticed that some of the accompanying pictures in that collection linked by Diggers is NSFW. You've been warned.

I'm sure the attention will be a lesson to Georgetown's webmaster(s): Allowing directory browsing can bite you in the ass!

Link (via Digg)