"Bloons" Game

Everyone's getting ready to celebrate the survival of the human race for one more year...

... & what says 'Celebrate!!!' like balloons & monkeys?

I ended up spending a couple hours on this addicting little game the other day, until I beat all 50 levels. I usually don't spend more than 5 minutes playing a game, but this one sucked me in somehow. I guess a dart-throwing monkey is just way too much fun to resist.

"BLOONS"

(click for link)

Zeitgeist - The Movie

As I said in my last post on Solar Cycles:

"Like many holidays, the origin of Christmas is rooted in man's continuous use of cosmic cycles to establish measures of time."

Thanks to Phil & Abbey for pointing me to this lengthy but revealing video. Having experienced ego-death (resulting in the rejection of man-made social institutions of control) before watching this may be helpful.

Zeitgeist - The Movie

Solar Cycles

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The Monkey Buddha Bazaar
www.cafepress.com/monkeybuddha

Like many holidays, the origin of Christmas is rooted in man's continuous use of cosmic cycles to establish measures of time.

We are just about at the point in the Earth's orbit around the Sun that is known as the Winter Solstice. This solar occurrence has led to countless celebrations & religious festivals throughout the world such as Dies Natalis Solis Invicti on December 25th - where the Romans recognized the majesty of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun. This key astronomical marker is also used as a point of observation in such ancient initiation structures as Newgrange, Stonehenge, Chichen Itza, etc. The seemingly unconquerable Sun has obviously inspired wonder and reverence throughout the history of humankind.

However, in the fractal universe we inhabit, cycles within cycles within cycles are existing simultaneously. As we periodically spin around the Sun, this unimaginably massive star also exhibits patterns of activity that we can directly observe. The more I learn about the Sun's destructive potential I have become concerned about the susceptibility of our pervasive electronic technologies to electromagnetic forces. The possible disaster awaiting the modern world if a solar storm damages important digital infrastructures should be a major priority of the science & tech world.

Seeing the NASA article below really freaked me out because the magnitude of the solar cycle will be at its greatest around 2012, the supposed end of the intricate Mayan Calender's Great Cycle. We are becoming more and more aware of synchronicity in our perception of the universe. The question is whether, as a species, we can become tuned into it fast enough to affect our existence in a positive way...

"Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning?"

Guilty Pleasures

The 2 shows I have considered my guilty pleasures lately have wrapped up this week w/ their season finales & they didn't dissapoint.

Even someone with such high-brow sensibilities as myself is not immune to the pansexual hijinks of Tila Tequila & the queen of nutty bitches, New York. God, I am so entertained by these shows it's ridiculous.

The finales of both shows kept me wondering till the end. New York picked the little white weasel, Tailor Made. They're both manipulative assholes & totally deserve each other. I don't know how anyone can be willing to put up with her nonsense or, even worse, her psycho-sasquatch mother.

I was convinced Tila Tequila was going to choose the firefighting lesbian, Dani, who had become known among me & my friends as "Johnny Pan" due to the fact that she looks like Peter Pan's cousin. However, nervous & effeminate Bobby somehow got Tila to keep him, even though he didn't come correct in any sense of the word. If he would have lost to 'Dani Pan' he would have been the shame of straight guys everywhere.

Thank you Tila Tequila & New York for showing America the mating rituals of insane people. They provided enough laughs and head-shaking moments to keep me tuned in week to week... and I am so much smarter because of it!!!

New York's Mom, Sister Patterson:

Procrastinator's Flow Chart

Wow, do I know the routine on this flowchart all too well... I'm reasonably motivated, but I still tend to wait till the last minute to do things. However, I don't understand how a true procrastinator could work up the ambition to make a chart this detailed!

Click to See Full Chart

Random Star Wars Stuff

I wanted to post some random stories I've come across about my favorite movie saga.

• Top 10 Crazy Star Wars Tattoos

As great as I think Star Wars movies are, I would never be enough of a dork to get a tattoo of any kind of Star Wars imagery. I would definitely never get a tattoo as crazy as the ones on this list.


• Yoda Pizza

This pizza looks as delicious as it does cool. I usually would never think of ripping Yoda's face apart, but in this case its necessary.

Pizza the Hut's Arch-Nemesis

• Star Wars Toys That Never Made It

My friend Dan sent me this link showing Star Wars Toys that are a little too 'real' to be produced. I design a lot of toy packaging, so I appreciate how wonderfully absurd these are.

I really like the idea of an action figure of "The Force," which is an empty box (of course). This silly idea actually encapsulates the crazy dichotomy of the Star Wars phenomenon. On the one hand, the brand George Lucas created is one of the most successful licenses ever & results in all kind of toys, products, and material crap for consumer consumption. On the other hand, the stories and the philosophy behind it have an immaterial essence that affects the soul and mind in a way that transcends the consumer culture we are enmeshed in. This image kind of mashes those two polar aspects together.

I'd buy it!

Pretend to Be a Time Traveler

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day

This article in Wired.com claims that December 8th is International Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day. I'm not motivated to actually do any of this, but the ideas are really funny on how to 'celebrate' this wacky concept.

I thought this was really funny:

- Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say "In thirty years dial this number. You'll know what to do after that." Then slip away.

Of course, there's the chance that some of these suggestions may make people report your strange activity to the police, which would really screw up the fun.

Dude! This is What Real Time Travelers Look Like

Phillip Glass: "Geometry of Circles"

I saw this animation linked on BoingBoing.com & I was shaking my head in disbelief. First of all, I remember seeing these segments as a kid when they aired on Sesame Street back in the day. All I remember is that these colorful circles were dancing around to weird music!

Now, I can watch this & recognize the fascinating sacred geometry lesson that was being presented - in a wordless, transcendent fashion. As a designer I have a deep interest in all forms of art theory. By studying all these ideas such as Sacred Geometry, the Golden Ratio, Fractals, etc, we get a more creative view of reality.

This animation specifically deals with the concept of the "Flower of Life" symbol. This is a field of equally overlapping circles that forms a repeating pattern of shapes and lines. My interest in the esoteric background of this ancient symbol led me to design and create the game Da Vinci's Challenge. (My brother & I were joking that I must have been hypnotized by this video on Sesame Street when I was little.) It's interesting to wonder how much forgotten imagery & experiences from the distant past still influences your everyday life.

The Monkey Buddha Bazaar

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The Monkey Buddha Bazaar
www.cafepress.com/monkeybuddha

My Golden Compass Daemon - a Monkey!

I don't know too much about The Golden Compass, other than it's supposed to be the atheist's answer to The Chronicles of Narnia. I'm guessing that's an overly simplistic reading of the story, though.

A feature on The Golden Compass website that was linked by Neatorama.com caught my attention enough to visit the site. It is a seemingly meaningless set of questions that help determine the animal spirit, or Daemon, that best corresponds to your soul qualities, or some crap like that.

After trying it though, I have to assume that there really is some type of magic involved, since it revealed my Daemon counterpart to be a wonderful primate by the name of Lysandra, characterized as modest, solitary, fickle, assertive, & flexible monkey. Get out of my head, Golden Compass!

Even The Monkey Buddha has Daemons.

Scare Tactics - Human Rat

I saw this clip on a VH1 "Best TV Pranks" show & it made me laugh out loud.

I almost think that the guy who's being pranked is acting... but I'd probably scream like a girl & run like hell, too, if I saw this little freak.

Monkey King Game

Nothing like a mindless, cannon-shooting monkey game to soothe the soul.

Monkey King Game

Google Goes Green

Right after I posted about the most promising developments in "Green" Technology, the current giant of the tech world, Google, announced an extensive renewable energy program...

I'm glad I have such powerful influence on these big companies, hahaha.

Google: "Powering a Clean Energy Revolution"

If any organization has the power & money right now to really jumpstart the process to wean humanity off the black lifeblood of Dick Cheney that we call 'oil', it is the company with the motto, "Don't be evil." This is, of course, the direct opposite philosophy of Bush, Inc. - "Be nothing but evil."

Yahoo - "Google's Green Initiative"