I don't know about you, Blog, but when I think "patio," I think "catnip kicktoys." I'm lying, that's completely random. (I hope you're getting this, Randometer!) Nevertheless, a patio is a very good place to make catnip kicktoys, because you can spill the catnip and no harm done. Now, on to the burning question in the minds of our readers: How do you make a catnip kicktoy?
1. Find a patio. Ours works nicely. (Can you spot two cats?)
2. Gather your supplies: Some sturdy long socks (I used spa socks I found for $2 a pair at Michaels), fiberfill, catnip, needle, thread and scissors. Allow at least one sock per resident cat.
3. Fill the sock with alternating layers of fiberfill and catnip. Make it nice and puffy but also squeezable.
4. Do your best to keep your cat out of the catnip as you work. [Cody: Dude, this plastic lid is rocking my world!]
5. Don't be alarmed if your cat absconds with the catnip lid. [Cody: Man, this patio is awesome!]
6. Completely fill the sock with its wondrous stuffing mix. (So much better than Stove Top!)
7. Then, to paraphrase Devo, you must whipstitch it, whipstitch it good. Cats will not care about the color of thread or the neatness of stitches, so just make sure the opening is well sealed.
8. Proceed with remaining socks. Expect cats to try to climb inside the socks as you work...
...or start to nuzzle with the completed socks...
...or claim a sock before they are all finished.
9. Continue until all socks are completed transformed into catnip kicktoys. You are now ready to party!
Here, Alice demonstrates the actual catnip kicktoy kicking motion.
Some cats, like Alice, may also look at their new gift more as a catnip LICKtoy.
But see the drug-induced stupor love in her eyes? That will be your reward for the 5 to 10 minutes it takes you to make your beloved pet a catnip kicktoy.
I can think of no better use for a patio, Blog. No, I'm lying again. But still, we had fun!
This is what happens when Davie and I brainstorm, and then I capture our thoughts via that wonderful tool called Photoshop. I think the Randometer approves.
Hooray, Blog, it's time for another A.O.U.T.! And this time I uncovered another unique one. I found out the other day that my longtime friend Bill has a semi-secret life doing all manner of cool computer animation. Well, "semi" because it's his actual day job at Plank Road Publishing, a local publisher of music and music teaching aids for kids. "Secret" because I had no idea he was capable of creating such fun stuff.
But he is! Check out the fun stuff I snagged from his website, Blog. Everything on this post is by Bill...like little critters here from an ecard he did for Plank Road Publishing.
For starters, he's pretty dang good at drawing, as his sketch of a lovely elf here shows. And with a computer and whatever magical software programs he's mastered, Bill can do everything from anatomical diagrams to building exteriors in 2D and 3D. The thing I love about what he does is that you have to be adept with both your right AND left brains. Kinda blows me away, Blog.
And then there's the Flash animations.... As a sci-fi buff I totally dig the animation of a meteor colliding with the earth. Meanwhile, Randometer is totally enamored of the skipping flour sack. (Those puffs of flour crack me up.) And jazz fans, check out the singing egg. Bill has done educational games and ecards that are really fun and adorable. Man, I wish I knew how to do this stuff!
My favorite creations of Bill's are his music videos. He created one for a song called "Forte Piano" by Teresa Jennings. Well, in the first place the song is totally adorable. In the second place, the animal orchestra does an absolutely bang up job performing it, due to the deft flash stylings of my friend Bill. And if you have little kids, you can use this video to teach them the musical terms "forte" (loud) and "piano" (soft), along with fortissimo, pianissimo, and crescendo.
Our local PBS affiliate got wind of Bill's video and included it on a recent broadcast of their arts magazine show, "Arts Digest." You can go to that link and then find the 20:25 mark to see it, but there's no need because we've got it right here. Right, Blog?
But wait, there's more!
Likewise combining the educational with the totally wackadoodle, there's another Teresa Jennings song called "Major Minor." It reminds me of a time in the car when I was teaching some music theory to Davie about how major key music sounds happy and minor key music is sad or moody. Well, in the video Bill's animals get downright schizoid about it. Like the song says, "No flats, no sharps, no worries."
Bill gives a lot of credit to the animation program developed by Milwaukee Area Technical College, where he got his degree in Visual Communications. And no doubt it's some pretty slick software. But I have a feeling that's Bill being modest, which is another specialty of his.
Bill is available to do freelance work, and you can contact him at wbelongia @ wi.rr.com (without the spaces). Wouldn't it be cool, Blog, if we were made of money and could hire him to do full length Flash movies of the Bloodchained novels or something? Like that scene at the opening of Bloodchained II when the Magician is working his wiles on Kelsi and...but we digress...
We can't hire Bill to make movies of the Diana Laurence books, but we sure can brag about his talents and share them with you. :-)
Blog, it’s our 100th post, a HUGE occasion to be sure! Considering that your interviewee for the 50th was the Internet, I’m sure our readers are as excited as I am to see who you found for our celebration today! Take it away, Blog....
Blog: We want to welcome our very special celebrity guest, the Circle-Slash-Carrot Burro of Oakman, Arizona! Burro, glad to--
Diana: Wait, hold it, hold it. For the 100th our guest is the who?
Blog: Not The Who. The Circle-Slash-Carrot Burro of Oatman, Arizona.
Diana: Yeah, I heard you the first time, I just couldn’t believe it.
Blog: Believe it.
Diana: The burro that daughter Katie photographed on her Route 66 trip, the burro with the circle-slash-carrot sticker on his forehead. That burro?
Burro: Um. Is there a problem? Should I go back to Oatman? Would you rather get The Who?
Blog: No, of course not. You’re a perfectly fitting guest for this auspicious occasion, Mr. Burro.
Diana: This I gotta hear.
Blog: And you WILL, if you’ll let me get on with it.
Diana: Sorry. Take it away, Blog....
Blog: Burro, first tell us about life in Oatman.
Burro: Oatman has the zip code of 86433 and burros roam all over the town. And there are like a hundred-some people, too. And the zip code is 86433.
Blog: Burros roam all over the town?
Burro: Oatman started when some prospectors struck a ten million dollar gold find in 1915. It became a mining town, and burros were used to haul rock, water and supplies. The mining stopped in World War II, so the burros were set free and became wild. Then when Route 66 was built, Oatman became a tourist town, and the burros hit it off pretty well with the tourists. ‘Cause they had carrots. Burros like carrots better than gold. I would like some carrots.
Blog: Wouldn’t we all?
Burro: Then in 1953 they moved Route 66 and the people didn’t come. And there were no carrots either. They didn’t have zip codes back then either.
Blog: You seem pretty enamored of the zip code concept, Burro.
Burro: I would like 86,433 carrots. But I can’t even have one.
Blog: Even though Route 66 and the people have returned, you can’t have carrots. Which brings us to that sticker on your forehead, Burro. Why are you sporting a circle-slash-carrots sticker?
Burro: No one else is! The other 86,433 burros get carrots!
Blog: 86433 is the zip code of Oatman, Burro...I don’t think it’s the population of burros.
Burro: No, you’re right...it isn’t.
Blog: You seem pretty downcast--maybe you don’t want to talk about the sticker?
Burro: Oh, I’ll talk about it. It’s there to keep the tourists from giving me carrots because I’m too young to eat carrots yet.
Blog: Oh! Well, that’s not bad. When you’re a little older and bigger, you WILL be able to have carrots!
Burro: I’ll NEVER be older and bigger. The carrots will all be gone by then.
Blog: No they won’t. There will be lots left.
Burro: How do you know?
Blog: Because there are, um, 86,433 carrots! That many carrots will last, um, practically forever!
Burro: They will? Okay! I’ll just wait till then then, thanks Blog! Oh, and it’s funny, because 86433 is the zip code of Oatman, too!
Blog: The world is full of amazing coincidences, isn’t it?
Burro: Blog, I can’t see your face because you are non-corporeal, but Diana’s face I CAN see and she looks puzzled. Does she want a carrot?
Blog: She just wants to know why I picked you to interview for our big 100th post, Burro.
Burro: Do you want to explain, or should I?
Blog: Uh...sure, you go right ahead!
Burro: Diana, I know the Internet is a big, famous guy that everyone in the world knows, and I am just the Circle-Slash-Carrot Burro of Oatman, Arizona. But Blog wanted your readers to know that it doesn’t matter how famous you are, even someone like a little burro can be important too. The Internet makes a lot of people smile but so do the burros of Oatman and other burros, too. And I make a lot of people smile because I have a sticker on my head with a circle-slash-carrot on it. So that’s why, Diana.
Diana: Huh. Well, that sure makes sense to me, Burro! Well said.
Burro: Thank you. Now I’m going back to Oatman to wait to get bigger. Please tell the Internet that everyone in zip code 86433 says hi. He does know that’s the zip code of Oatman, right?
Blog: He sure does, Burro. I hope you get your carrots soon!
Burro: I would like 752 carrots, please.
Blog: I have a feeling our Randometer is your biggest fan, Burro. Readers, thanks for visiting and we look forward to bringing you the next hundred posts! We close with a lovely video of the burros of Oatman, created by Life Journey guy and featuring the nice song “Say You Believe,” by Amanda Kaletsky. In other words, our friend the Internet brings you our friends the burros. Enjoy!
Blog, I am sitting here at home waiting for Milwaukee Water Works to shut off the water main, so Bobby the Plumber can repair our broken water valve. In the meantime, no H2O. I can think of no better way to cheer myself up than to combine the awesome concepts of bizarradore and mash-up, making an even more awesome concept, the Bizarradore Mash-up!
First up, let's combine Easter Island Heads (which are endlessly entertaining)
with eclipses!
No, not THAT kind of eclipse. I mean when the moon blocks the sun and stuff. Resulting mash-up:
Now for a never-fail bizarradore mash-up. Of course I bizarradore funny pictures of cats. And likewise, I adore putting stuff on the heads of cats. So of course life is even better when you have several funny pictures of a cat with stuff on its head!
From the awesome folks at ICanHasCheezburger. Again, you should read it daily, like Blog and I do. [ADDENDUM the next day: For a ridonkulous number of fabulous pictures of this cat with stuff on its head, see this composite. Don't forget to click enlarge if your browser requires it!]
And lastly, what modern artist is more amazing than M.C. Escher...
Meanwhile, what toy is cooler than Legos:
Therefore, your head just might explode from this:
Now that is button. But wait, there's more! Let's mash-up the concept above with something even awesomer, like SPACE! Then the result is this!!!
An Escher-style Lego space station! It's the work of Alex Eylar aka Profound Whatever, publicized by Lego fans The Brothers Brick, and brought to my attention by the fab blog Great White Snark, which you should read daily for no other reason than that it has one of the coolest blog names ever. Except of course for you, Blog.
Wow, thanks to the Interwebs, we have had a very day-brightening experience with this Bizarradore Mash-up. Randometer is happy, Blog is happy, I am happy...and I hope you're a little happier too.
Blog, I got in some hot water with the Randometer for yesterday's post. Just not random enough to qualify, to his way of thinking. So I am determined to please him today by bringing up the three randomest things I can think of.
RANDOM THING 1
In my blog perusals this morning I came upon a post in The Artful Crafter about homecoming mums. It seems unbeknownst to me, there is this tradition in certain parts of the southern U.S. In these places, homecoming mums are not the simple flowers we wore for that occasion when I was in high school. No, they are homemade extravaganzas contrived of pompoms, ribbons, stuffed animals, etc. that to me resemble what would happen if you ate a Michaels store too fast and regurgitated a sort of crafty-hairball. As you can see in the photo, Blog, these dealies are not tasteful nor even especially wearable. They certainly must outweigh one's homecoming dress.
I found this page from back in 2007 when moms in Plano, Texas were selling homecoming mums, and being the high-tech sort of Texans, made themselves a web page to advertise their wares. "Buy your mums and garters from the Planoettes’ Bootbackers Booster Club Mum Moms in the school cafe during lunch," reads the ad. I dare you to say that three times fast, Blog. It also instructs "Look for the Mum Moms!" This is all out of the realm of my Wisconsin experience, but I'm guessing the "Mum Moms" would be easy to spot. Readers who have indulged in this tradition, do share. I need firsthand comfirmation this is really happening. And that the boys wear them too (?).
RANDOM THING 2
Readers recall when I determined to invent a new word and see that it became famous. Well, I can't say that bizarradore has hit the big time yet. Never you fear though, Blog...last night Davie and I came up with another idea to try.
We were watching "Colorsplash" with David Bromstad on HGTV. At the same time, we both thought David had referred to some whimsical decor item as "button." As in, "Ooh, that's button!" We're both pretty sure he actually said "fun," but felt strongly that "button" would have been more fun. So now we're trying to see if we can get button to catch on.
There are not degrees of button, so you can't say "that's totally button." There's no opposite of button either, so you can't say, "that is so not button." You CAN simply say, "That's button," or "I think you're button," or "This cake is button."
Think middle-class, white, middle-aged translation of the slang term "buck," and you should do fine with it. And if we can get the rappers and krumpers to use the term "button," well...that would be button.
RANDOM THING 3
Davie found this video the other day on the website WTF Japan Seriously. First of all, what could be more random than a website called "WTF Japan Seriously"? Random, and yet justified, if you have been exposed at all to the insanity that is Japanese game shows. Anyway, this one really takes the cake. It is rated for mature audiences not because it's truly racy, but because the point of the game show, apparently, is to "not ram the boobs." I mean that so very literally. If you don't believe me, watch.
Blog, I can confirm that that just sent Randometer off the chart. Thank you, Japan. You have outdone Texas, and for that we say, you're button.
Blog, I think the Randometer will appreciate that today I am randomly posting on the subject of song covers. Why? I guess I was thinking how much I like covers as a concept. I mean, you start with a great song and then find a cool way to reinterpret it. That just makes for yet another great song! What's not to bizarradore about that?
To see my love of covers, all you have to do is look at the contents of Ipo my iPod. Like I have “Jump” by Van Halen and “Jump” by the cast of Glee. I even like it when the same artist as the original artist does it. Like Ipo has both the original of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” and the acoustic version he did for MTV.
For some reason I find it uber-cool to take a song and preserve the basics of it, but transform it into a whole new sound. One easy way to do that is simply to have a person of the other gender record it. I think Joan Jett and the Blackhearts may have actually topped Tommy James and the Shondells when in 1981 they revamped the 1969 hit “Crimson and Clover.” I’m sorry, but the hotness factor went way up. If you don’t believe me, watch the video:
A similar thing happened in what I think has to be one of the best covers ever, the Bangles 1987 re-do of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1968 hit “Hazy Shade of Winter.” Well, that happens to be my favorite S&G song in the first place. So it just shows if you take a fabulous song and use the tools of your generation’s music to make it your own, great results occur. Start with the original:
And check out the Bangles:
Sometimes it works to take a song and give it a completely new spin, and both the Randometer and I love it when that happens, Blog. I had the fun of thinking about that quite a bit when I wrote my novel Looking on Darkness. One of the characters is a jazz singer who likes to do crazy covers. For example, in one scene she performs Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” as a reggae number.
In that regard I love the following two covers. If there’s anyone out there familiar with the musical “Oliver!”, you may recall one of the big radio hits from that show, “As Long as He Needs Me.” It was sung straight up as a slow, plaintive, melodramatic ballad both in the musical and by the various people who covered it. But last year my Broadway idol Jason Danieley did a cover with his band that is all jaunty and chipper but for reasons I cannot quite figure, is completely awesome that way. Give it a listen on this page.
But nothing tops the insanity of the Manhattan Transfer’s reinterpretation of the slow, passionate Righteous Brothers ballad “Unchained Melody.” If you do nothing else today, Blog, click on this link and listen to it. It’s like some nutty cowboy song or something. Who knows what they were on when they recorded it. Fantastic.
Sometimes covers are not so separated by time and style as these examples, as I will now illustrate, Blog. Last year I discovered the incredibly awesome version of “Our Lips are Sealed” by Fun Boy Three, which to my mind is eons cooler than the famous version by The Go-Go’s. Well, it seems the song was actually co-written by Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin AND Terry Hall of Fun Boy Three. And the latter version came out only a year after the former. So, it was a fascinating case of artists collaborating and then performing a song separately in their own unique ways.
In closing, enjoy it--one of my favorite covers ever.
Have your own favorite cover song? Sing out in the comments! Randometer says you must!
Blog, today I feel that I have joined the ranks of the world's great journalistic filmmakers. I achieved the lifelong dream of capturing on video an event I thought would evade me forever. Wow.
Of course I will share this footage with our readers, but before I do, let's spin the Randometer and ask him to share with us a couple examples of rare, amazing stuff being caught on film. Hit it, Randometer!
Look at that! Yes, it says here that this is a cough, something I've always considered more or less invisible, captured on camera by a Dr. Gary Settles a couple years back. It was a special "Schlieren" camera. Says the good doctor, "In my lab we use this technique a lot." Well then, I'd love if he could photograph some more cool invisible stuff, like the square root of zero and the true meaning of the U.S. Tax Code.
Randometer has also turned up this amazing image. The article on Gizmodo.com says, "Behold the rare Octopus USB drive mating ritual. Notice how the magnetized lips join together in a passionate kiss. Unfortunately, like the praying mantis, the female is prone to violence after mating. In the background you can see that the female has ripped the face off the male and stuck his lifeless corpse up on the fridge with a phony suicide note. Tragic I know--but it's nature and we mustn't interfere." That's a pretty incredible photo all right.
But believe it or not, Blog, with my handy camera, ICU, I managed to achieve something far more amazing than either of these. It's actual video of...wait for it...Cody hiccuping.
I know, right? This is HUGE. There are people out there who aren't even aware that cats can hiccup, and now we have proof.
I never thought I'd see this day. It's not that it's unusual for Cody to get the hiccups, that happens all the time. Even though, oddly, he never laughs. The problem is, his hics never last long, and by the time I've grabbed ICU and switched him to his video function, they are always over. I have no idea what Cody does to cure his hiccups so effectively. He doesn't get the other cats to scare him, or drink out of the wrong side of his water dish. But regardless of that mystery, the point is: on this video, you can see (and hear) two of his petite little hics, one at 1 second and another at 11 seconds. Enjoy!
I don't know, Blog...a Pulitzer maybe? An Oscar for best Short Documentary? Really, Really Short?
Yesterday, Blog, we learned that I like Liv Schreiber dressed either as a man or a woman. This just went to reinforce my sense that this blog could be subtitled “Eclectic R Us.” It also put me in mind of that beloved song by Pat McCurdy that runs like this:
I like men and I like women
I like sinkin’, I like swimmin’,
I like dogs and I like cats,
I like cows in cowboy hats.
I like knives and forks and spoons,
I like to whistle happy tunes;
I like to come, but not too soon...
I like everything!
I like almost everything, to the point where it’s almost more interesting (assuming it’s interesting at all, which may be a leap) to know what I don’t like.
Take for example Ipo, my iPod, who currently stores 30 genres of music. This morning during my workout and drive I heard these random tracks:
Manhattan Transfer – Route 66
The Four Seasons – Candy Girl
Sisters of Mercy – This Corrosion
[title of show] (OBC) – Part of It All
Roxette – The Look
Vince Guaraldi – Baseball Theme
Hair (OBC) – Good Morning Starshine
Eric Carmen – That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll
Bryan Adams – Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman
I’m hard pressed to come up with a type of music not on Ipo, as I do have a rap song, a couple country songs, and something approximating death metal. But here’s what I don’t like: late Beatles. I actually don’t like “Eleanor Rigby--I know, Blog, it’s a scandal.
When it comes to movies and TV shows, I’m also pretty eclectic. “The Sound of Music” to “3:10 to Yuma,” “Forbidden Planet” to “Office Space,” “Lethal Weapon” to “Beaches,” “Saw” to “Veggie Tales,” I can dig it. What I don’t like? Mob movies and stuff about drug dealers. With the rare exception (e.g., the Godfather movies) they are just not my scene, and no I didn’t watch “The Sopranos.” Weird though how I like “Breaking Bad.”
I will also eat just about anything. I even ate dirt on a dare when I was a kid. Along with unsweetened Koolaid powder, but let’s not digress. I do have a problem, however, with offal and celery. Offal, you know, Blog, is stuff like brains and headcheese. And while every other veggie is fine with me, celery is as awful as offal. Put a stalk in my bloody mary and I will be offally offended.
What’s that you say, Blog? You think our Randometer would enjoy a list of random things I don’t like? Well, I’m happy to oblige! I don’t like:
The current obsession with stainless steel appliances.
Chimpanzees (although I do like “Another Postcard with Chimpanzees” by Barenaked Ladies).
Not cutting the tags off stuffed animals.
All amusement park rides that have height requirements, and most of the ones that are for kiddies too (although it’s fun watching other people ride them).
Chewing gum (and it’s not fun watching other people chew it).
Knotted up telephone cords.
When Google Alerts turns up bogus stuff that has nothing to do with the topic.
Top hats when they are not worn to look elegant (e.g., Slash and the Mad Hatter).
But you know, Randometer, as much fun as that was, I believe it’s far better to think about the random things one likes (see bizarradore). I feel extremely fortunate to be born such an eclectically-inclined person. Life would be even better if I could say I liked soccer, the band XTC, tarantulas, scotch, and the Great Plains.
Okay, fellow eclecticophiles, what do you like? Click the right-on box if cows in cowboys hats rock your world!
Well, Blog, we invited people to check out their work computers for random stuff like the photo of the Ecuadorian Banana Puree Barrel that can be found on mine. I’m happy to report that Randometer is in for the experience of his life: daughter Katie is sharing with us a few “highlights” of what she has on her Mac at work.
England Dan and John Ford Coley’s timeless song “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” is celebrated in this first item. How the phrase “movin’ in” became “my linens,” only Randometer can begin to guess. But do note the classic Katie Nelson style in the design of the linens logo.
As you well know, Blog, there’s nothing that can’t be improved by the addition of a llama, particularly if said llama is named Tina. You don’t have to be a Napoleon Dynamite fan to enjoy the signage below. Tina, drink your latte!
I am told the next image had something to do with Snopes, the website that helps us all differentiate reality from hoax. Someone has been caught red-handed photoshopping in a mountain lion (or cougar). Shame, shame.
How thrilled was I to be reminded of “Saladfingers,” one of the weirdest internet video crazes ever? If you are not familiar with this rusty spoon aficionado of the interwebs, I’m providing the video here as well. Needless to say, Randometer flips over Saladfingers. “Hello, young child.”
Meanwhile, in Randometer’s world, no computer hard drive is complete without the obligatory photo of the Arby’s Oven Mitt Mascot. You can’t argue with that.
Blog, anyone who’s surfed the web has run into these annoying banner ads. However, the ad’s charm gets a huge boost when Katie photoshops the head of my nephew-cat Floyd onto that long body. Floyd is sometimes referred to as “Fat Dog,” and this image really captures the essence of that.
Lastly I must close with something so very random I cannot even begin to guess what stressed-out, freaked-out mood at Katie’s office served as the maelstrom that gave it birth. All I know is it is called “Chimeric Showbiz.”
Draw your own conclusions, Blog. At any rate, this menagerie of haphazard glory has possibly broken Randometer, who seems to be flailing and twitching as if in the grip of a seizure of joy. Thank you, Katie! Anyone else want to treat us to the random stuff on your work computer? Just comment and we’ll hook you up!
Now, an Exciting Teaser Just Like on TV
Hey, you know what? Blog and I are coming up on our 50th episode already! Looks like it will occur April 21 or thereabouts, and to observe this milestone, Blog will be interviewing someone absolutely huge. Bigger than Oprah, bigger than Jon and Kate with or without their Eight, bigger even than someone whose every breath is reported on by the media like Tiger Woods! Holy cats, who will it be? Well, we’ll be giving you some hints up until the big event, so be sure not to miss a day.
Today’s hint: our guest knows more than you, me, Blog and Stephen Hawking all put together. Oh the Lost-like suspense!
UPDATE: Per Katie’s comment below, we must give credit to her friend Nicole for the linens logo. Well done, Nicole! And I must say, I got a good guffaw out of Nicole’s other re-envisioned lyric, “Precious and few are the moments we toucans share.” Precious indeed!
Blog, the Randometer has been bugging me to get some more attention here on the blog. To appease him (yes, sometime in the past weeks Randometer has become anthropomorphized, it happens), I decided to treat our readers to a little randomness.
Our subject today is wacky stuff that can be found on my work computer at the day job. I found a few fun things to share, things which do not incriminate anyone but myself, because I didn’t feel like drawing up those legal forms where you get permission to use images of people and have my co-workers sign off on them. I realize I’ve been using images of celebrities constantly on this blog without their permission, but I don’t have ads here so am not making money off them, and really why would Matthew Morrison bother with little me? My co-workers, on the other hand, see me every day and could beat me up.
So, let’s begin with this picture of me dressed as a lion. Scary. I dressed as a lion for the office Halloween party a few years back because the company logo features a stylized lion. My boss did threaten to make me appear at company functions as an official mascot. Very scary. Actually, when I came home from work in this get-up, my cat Cody met me in the kitchen and puffed up in terror. Seriously. Thanks again, Sarah, for lending me the cool costume you made.
I’m not the only one to adapt the lion theme. Here’s a little ad that was worked up by one of the sales reps (I believe it was). He might have been having a bad day.
Over the years I have had fun adapting our company logo and here are a couple of examples. One was for the softball team, and the other for the launch of our big building project. The possibilities are endless.
Uh-oh, Randometer is getting bored. Better move on from lions.
Let’s try sharks. A few years ago we had a snow sculpting competition. This was my teams entry, “Scuba Snowman in Trouble.” Can you believe we didn’t win? Me neither! Then again, I think the prizes never got awarded. Sometimes things just slip through the cracks at that place.
Randometer is still giving me a pretty low score here. Okay, how’s this? The I.T. Department asked me to design computer wallpaper for the new “cyber café” in our lunchroom. So this is what I came up with for them:
Sad to say, it was never used. They just put some regular boring picture up. What, is this wallpaper not cool? Was it too lame for the geeks in the I.T. Department? I just don’t get it. I used a nifty computer-like font and everything.
I think Randometer’s pointy hand actually went down a few points there. But don’t worry, I’ve saved the best for last, the most random thing I have on my work computer. Drum roll please, Blog. Behold, it’s—
An empty barrel that once held Ecuadorian Banana Puree! Yes!
