tozai todd

I’ve been staring at this shirt for 2 days now. I...

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:07:31 -0400

I’ve been staring at this shirt for 2 days now. I don’t need another shirt, but would very much like to have this, I’m pretty sure.

Saul Bass on a designer’s responsibilities. “I want...

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:47:54 -0400

Saul Bass on a designer’s responsibilities. “I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”

Paul Rouget giving a spirited (and impressive as hell) demo of...

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:52:22 -0400

Paul Rouget giving a spirited (and impressive as hell) demo of HTML5/CSS3 features.

Photo

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:38:00 -0400

"People will write to us and say, “Well, I know the one about Microsoft was a hoax, and the one..."

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:41:00 -0400

“People will write to us and say, “Well, I know the one about Microsoft was a hoax, and the one about Nike was a hoax. And the one about Honda was a hoax. And the one about Levi’s was a hoax. But I got this one about Sony giving away laptops. Is this true? (laughs) So there are times when you kind of throw up your hands and wonder if anybody’s actually learning anything.”

- Snopes.com’s David Mikkelson speaking to the Times’ David Pogue about our persistent beliefs in things too good to be true.

Sumo ranks. From goo.

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:35:32 -0400

Sumo ranks. From goo.

"We want games that are less about fun right now"

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:23:20 -0400

“We want games that are less about fun right now”

- From ArsTechnica, one of the inane reactions to the game Joe Danger that its indie game developer received from beancounters and others who are, apparently, in desperate need of self-reflection.

Would very much like.

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:45:59 -0400

Would very much like.

"I wish I had learned 15 years ago that consistency is the most powerful tool I have. For those of us..."

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:00:40 -0400

“I wish I had learned 15 years ago that consistency is the most powerful tool I have. For those of us who weren’t blessed with physical and/or mental gifts at birth, consistentcy is where skill and expertise come from. Repetition and failure (performed mindfully) will make you better at pretty much everything.”

- palacewalls answering the question, “What in life did it take you a surprisingly long time to realize you’ve been doing wrong all along?” at AskMetafilter.

Why all the Arby's jokes in the Simpsons.

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:44:00 -0400

I felt like I had stumbled upon the Ark of the Covenant in the big government warehouse when I found this. Josh Weinstein, one of the writers for the Simpsons, explaining what’s the deal with Arby’s and the Simpsons, from a forum post in 2006. Nothing surprising, but I love these moments when the veil is lifted and creators talk about what was going on in their minds at the time. Deliberateness in comedy is underappreciated.

Hi, everybody!

The issue of Arby’s is one I wanted to talk about on the commentary for “A Milhouse Divided” but we were all talking so much on that one I didn’t get a chance to.

Anyway, as I was there at the birth of the whole Arby’s thing, let me try to explain it. And it’s actually a combination of factors:

One thing that Bill and I love (as do a number of our fellow writers from that era) is the humor of getting something just right — where there’s not really a joke, but just some detail that seems to capture something so perfectly that it’s funny. That was combined with the idea that every detail in Kirk’s new life was supposed to be, well, sort of sad (his furniture in the apartment - modelled in part after furniture I had in my first apartment, the fact that he’s neighbors with Jerry from the sewing store, Starla the temp from KZUG, etc.). So it just seemed perfect that his apartment would be in the type of place that would be right next to an Arby’s.

Another example of this type of humor is in “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Badaasssss Song” where Skinner offers Bart a “Diet Caffeine-Free Dr. Pepper”. No joke there, just the fact that it seems to be exactly the type of drink Principal Skinner would have at his house.

Of course, part of the appeal of the Arby’s joke to me is also the fact that Arby’s is so rarely made fun of. Those of you who noted that a joke about McDonald’s or a similar place wouldn’t be funny are totally correct.

I don’t remember who originally pitched the Arby’s line, but I’ve always loved it, as do I all the aspects of Kirk’s life.

On a side note, Bill and I went to an Arby’s about a year ago and it was actually quite good. I like to think someone at Arby’s watched our episode and kicked the company into shape, but I know that’s probably not true. And no, we were never contacted by anybody from Arby’s, before or after. Which is too bad. We would’ve loved to get free sandwiches.

From here, about halfway down.

"You guys are thinking of Yakuza as being these tattooed guys with missing fingers, when you should..."

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:43:39 -0400

“You guys are thinking of Yakuza as being these tattooed guys with missing fingers, when you should be thinking of Goldman-Sachs armed with guns and still carrying swords occasionally.”

- Jake Adelstein, speaking with Phillip Dodd on BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves

Sickening.

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:53:52 -0400

Sickening.

Let’s see, Lio was 23 days old here, which made me a...

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:20:00 -0400

Let’s see, Lio was 23 days old here, which made me a 23-day old father. His beginning, but mine, too.

"Hobbies"

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:50:00 -0400

Joshua Topolsky, of Engadget, reviewing Hulu Plus:

The bottom line is that while we doubt Hulu Plus will really spur the cord cutting that many think it might, but it will be a great supplemental source of content for those who can’t get enough TV.

While working at the English conversation school in Tokyo, it wasn’t unusual for teachers to get exasperated at the number of students who, when asked to name their hobbies (usually just a simple ice-breaking, warm-up exercise for a session), would have little to offer beyond “shopping” or “sleeping.” Sometimes their reply was just a knee-jerk response to an admittedly tiresome question, but sometimes you could tell that shopping was indeed what they enjoyed doing when not dealing with the more necessary activities of life.

The comment above about Hulu Plus’ potential audience really makes me wonder how many people here consider watching TV their hobby, or realize that it is.

We’ve watched Dan polish and refine the awesomely dense...

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:12:02 -0400

We’ve watched Dan polish and refine the awesomely dense and nerdtastic joke “The Best Dinosaur” for quite awhile and I honestly think with this iteration he reached mastery. I couldn’t help but think back to some of those early lonely open-mics where Dan banged out early versions of this joke. As you can hear, our audience was wild with appreciation. It was kind of amazing.

http://bellarossa.blogspot.com/2010/05/dan-telfers-dinosaurs-and-rewards-of.html

“I couldn’t help but think back to some of those early lonely open-mics where Dan banged out early versions of this joke.”

There’s your f’ing Secret.

Related: Eight of John Lennon’s classic solo albums and other...

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:20:48 -0400

From...

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:17:30 -0400

From http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/alleged-spies-hid-secret-messages-on-public-websites/

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to..."

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:50:21 -0400

““When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.””

- John Lennon (via gwenmccartney)

Imagine watching this in a small auditorium adjacent to the...

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:01:00 -0400

Imagine watching this in a small auditorium adjacent to the Prince Hotel in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and you know how I spent my birthday last year. Yo La Tengo were beautiful, incredible, and generous.

Do they get to use my photo for free? Sure, but I wasn’t...

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:34:30 -0400

Do they get to use my photo for free? Sure, but I wasn’t doing anything with it anyway and they asked nicely.