kottke.org ends its micropatron sponsorship for an ad revenue model. I say for the better.

filed under: how to avoid the work you should really be doing...

A breakfast conversation:

Tam: Remember when we got this tea cup? (she holds up a Fiestaware mug, a maroon color.) Remember how I hated it?

Mark: You mean the cinnabon ones (Cinnabar is the name Fiestaware calls this color, but I call it cinnabon, at first as a stupid joke, but now I have a hard time remembering what the real name is.)

T: Yep, I hate this color.

M: me too...

T: Well, ever since I dropped this one and it cracked, I have felt kinda bad for it. I keep using it over the others, cause I think it feels neglected.

M: Uh, huh...(I start rooting around for the camera).

T: Your not going to post about this are you?

M: (Smiles...)

Nothing says Web 2.0 like a rotating flaming jesus.

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The social network for people who enjoy Jesus, and flames, and rotating stuff.

Flaming Jesus® would like to thank Tony and Brian for their words of wisdom and guidance.

I have been searching around for decent gif animation software for, well, ever. There are free ones and shareware ones and commercial ones with trials. Each one has been clunky in its own way, and I have spent way too much time screwing around with these apps just to make an ad image animate. Do I really need anything so cumbersome and unwieldy just to make an animation?

Here's a brief example of an experience with any number of gif animation tools:

1. start app.
2. figure out how to get an image into said app.
3. image in, but the color is all wrong. bright green has become pea soup.
4. find the color settings.
5. screw with color setting to no avail.
6. reimport higher color image, not full on pea soup, but still soupy.
7. try and find the settings to make the animation loop. takes way to long to find loop setting...
8. after finding loop setting, look for frame delay setting...even longer than loop setting.
9. save out gif.
10. gif looks like shit. start over, and screw with color settings again.
11. repeat with another gif app.

Today I found what for I had been looking. A simple gif animation tool. An application designed with so few bells and less whistles, a technology so simple and perfect and common, that I hadn't considered it. Being blinded by the GUI, I had lost touch with my roots.

I stumbled upon Gifsicle, "a UNIX command-line tool for creating, editing, and getting information about GIF images and animations."

Simple, concise and one line:

After a myriad of crappy GUI tools that made me, well, a tool, I was reminded that sometimes the old ways are best.

( Uther has a bad day -via tam's blog )

Vice President Dick Cheney shot a man during a quail-hunting trip in Texas, the vice president's office said.

After wounding a man with a shotgun, Cheney dragged him to the ground, pulled out his still beating heart, and savagely devoured it before the man was dead, sources have stated.

Cheney must renew his "life force" periodically by eating the still beating heart of a virgin, or when a virgin heart is unavailable, a lawyer.

Reportedly, the Vice President will now be able to walk in the daylight for up to thirty days without fear of the suns rays searing his bluish pale skin.

Four Jobs I have Had

• Dish Washer
• Landscaper (I prefer Lawn Mowerer)
• Chimney Sweep (really a furnace cleaner, but we swept a few chimneys here and there)
• Piano Mover

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over

• A Fist Full Of Dollars
• Three Amigos (much better if my brother is around to watch as well)
• Blade Runner
• Mad Max

(my movie selections would seem to indicate that I am an adolescent boy with anger issues)

Four Places I Have Lived

• Bohemia, NY - Long Island
• Queens, NY - Glendale
• Minneapolis, MN
• Brooklyn, NY - Park Slope

Four TV Shows I Love
insert obligatory qualification regarding limited TV watching here

• Deadwood
• Arrested Development
• Daily Show
• Family Guy

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now

• To quote the venerable Buckaroo Bonsai, no matter where you go, there you are

Four Dishes I Love

• Szechwan wantons from the Rainbow, Mpls
• Steak at Peter Lugar's, Brooklyn
• Corn Pancakes at Maria's on Franklin Street, Mpls.
• my Great Aunt Loretta's (Aunty's) potato pancakes. sadly, no longer obtainable.

Four Places I've Vacationed

• Isle Royal, Lake Superior
• New Zealand
• Thailand
• Olympic Peninsula

Four Websites I Visit Daily

• google.com
• bloglines.com
• flickr.com
• penis.com

Four Bloggers I am Tagging (and by tagging, I mean having sex with)

• ben
• skim
• peter
• mouser

Finally, I am a Taurus who enjoys snuggling, long walks on the beach and light domination.

The entries for the Huffington Post Contagious Festive went live today...

A few that I like, in no particular order:

• jesusaur - Jesus as a Dinosaur.
• Dropping the Ball - dirty, filthy, funny.
• Braindriving with Ms. Olga Suchadolsky - This one is very strange, but its got boobs, so...
• awwwstrich - Ostriches rapping, need I say more.
• Al Qaeda Caller I.D.