Happy Saturday....

Free Book?

Can this be true...

Oh yes... It is true... The wonderful people at Number One Novels are giving away The Killing Tree by Rachel Keener.

I don't think this is the slash'em up, explosion, kill everyone but the good guy book that I normally read, but you might know someone who would like it...

Just visit NON and read how to enter.

Best of luck to you!! -cheers

Humor Me

The TBS Humor Study web site has tickled my funny bone...
“Get your mind, out the gutter”
It is a well made FLASH site that has won multiple awards.
I spent some time pocking around and had a blast answering questions, creating movies and future sitcoms. I love the Sean Connery voice for the sitcoms... Mine was Pirates with amnesia living in L.A.
I even made a laugh track using The Table of Periodic Laughter... Go to the site and click around.
www.tbshumorstudy.com

Make Your Own Comics!!

I could not contain my enthusiasm when I saw this gem at Life Hacker.
Create your own comic strips with Strip Generator!! With a few people, objects, and text styles, Strip Generator gives you the basics, it's up to you for creativity... It is so simple to use. Try it out HERE...
Below is a screen shot of my first strip...
(you can see the strip HERE)You don't have to sign up to make one, but I think you do if you want to save it.
Kudos for the find LH, and big thanks to the folks at stripgenerator.com for the best office productivity killer I have ever seen.

Auto Blinds Part I

So, recently I completed a project that required a microprocessor and some sort of mechanical action. What better project than Automated Window Blinds. I have seen quite a few examples of automation and power, but few were... well... elegant. Take this one for example, HACKADAY
It is huge...
My goal was to incorporate a micro servo and use the guts of the blind assembly to rotate the bar on the inside. That is the key term here... inside. This, and having multiple power and input options without a monstrosity of motors and cables. To add a twist, I used an LDR to measure sunlight. That's right, my blinds will close in direct sun, automatically. I built a wooden frame so I could demonstrate.

You are looking at my completed project above...

All the action is under the top rail of the frame. You can see my custom wooden servo mount, my servo, the fancy handmade washer between horn and worm gear, and the rod that twists and winds string to open or close blinds. All of this is completely hidden.

Now, I needed something to house the electronics and mount the LDR. A pre-made project box from FRY'S fit the bill.
You can see the LDR poking out the top and some wire inside.. I will explain more in my next blog...
Till then... -cheers

Happy Cat

It is remarkable how many cat pictures there are on the Internet...
Just a thought...

Ikea Hacker

Recently I have been getting ideas about furniture from a super cool blog called IkeaHacker. What is this about... Hacking Ikea products to fit your own uses... The term “hack” is to say, I have made it my own and possibly reused an old product for a new purpose.. That is cool in my book.
So, checkout Ikeahacker and see if you have what it takes to become a hacker...
Some of my favorite hacks:

Knob Cozy...

Wallpaper tabletop cover... Sweet...

Best Job In The World

I have a friend named Nasson who is trying out for The Best Job In The World...

I believe Nasson would make a great island representative. You can help by CASTING YOUR VOTE for Nasson. He is an awesome guy and all around nice person. The website talks a little about the position...
Tourism Queensland is seeking applicants for the best job in the world! The role of Island
Caretaker is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier
Reef. It’s a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include
exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer.

You’ll be required to report back on your adventures to Tourism Queensland
headquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, video
updates and ongoing media interviews.(That sounds so cool)

On offer is a unique opportunity to help promote the wondrous Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.
Other duties may include (but are not limited to)

Feed the fish - There are over 1,500 species of fish living in the Great Barrier Reef. Don’t worry – you won’t need to feed them all.

Clean the pool - The pool has an automatic filter, but if you happen to see a stray leaf floating on the surface it’s a great excuse to dive in and enjoy a few laps.

Collect the mail – During your explorations, why not join the aerial postal service for a day? It’s a great opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the reef and islands."

VOTE FOR NASSON - VOTE FOR NASSON - VOTE FOR NASSON - VOTE FOR NASSON

Number One Novels

This week, Number One Novels featured a sultry Donna Russo Morin...

NO!! Uhmm.. it featured Donna's new book The Courtier's Secret. I read the interview, and I can't get past one thing... When I read it, I hear Donna's voice reading it to me... in a strong, slow, and sexy English accent... I have no idea how she talks.. but, in my mind, it's soo, sooo, and soooooo English... I can't help it...

The book sounds like it would be a good read. “The Courtier's Secret is, in a nutshell, a female Musketeer adventure. For many privileged young women, Versailles is a paradise. For others, it is a gilded and bejeweled cage of oppression” -Number One Novels.
Check out the interview at Number One Novels and you can follow links to Donna's website.

Valentines Day Gift Ideas

I'm a big fan of homemade arts... Some of the timeless classics include the Hand Turkey, and Macaroni Necklaces...

As most of you in the web world know, Etsy is an awesome place to sell and buy homemade stuff. Well folks, I have found a gem of a Valentines Day gift for you to give to your loved one this, oh so special day...

Fungus Amungus has a few other sweet nothings for your loved one at their Etsy shop!
I urge you to check it out and buy one....

I love the "Thanks for not calling the cops" card.

Or, you can make your own with the help of Instructable.com...

My special lady friend is one lucky gal...
Have fun and happy valentines day -cheers

Online Coloring

The folks at TheColor have a simple point and click coloring program. Once you decide on a theme, you can pick a design and color color color color !!

I have done some amazing work today…

Checkout my “flaming pumpkin”…

That’s all I have to say about that.

There is a darker side to TheColor… A seedy underground known as the theme “Halloween”. I found this little gem and went with it….

Scary No? Yes...

Replaced By Robots ?

In the Uber Cool Blog Physorg, we find that our jobs are being replaced... by what you ask? Ham sandwiches??? No, it's robots...

The article states:

"Robots will take on the role of receptionist, guards, office cleaners, etc and replace humans. For example, in the role of a receptionist, they will greet visitors, attend to them and show them to their destination."

Well by gosh, I'm not going to stand for it!!! Just as soon as my bot finishes posting this message, I'm going to turn it off. I.. Hold on... What are you doing... Aaaaaaaaa........ The bot is CRRAAAZZZYYYY..... RUN FOR YOU LIVES!!!!

CatnipForHumans got blogged about!!

So, far as I can tell… Mr. Crash is a DJ… Not that kind of DJ… I mean the WKRP, disk jockey, actor, comic, all around BadA** kind of DJ. He mentioned the post about Technibble’s new tool kit. Super cool…
Checkout Mr. Crash at his Blog HERE: His Website HERE: his IMDB site HERE. –cheers

Cake Wrecks Gone Wild

So, I found this little gem while following posts on several other topics. I love a show called Ace Of Cakes to dream about eating cake, and I looooove watching cops to see people make stupid mistakes.
So, what better than people who made stupid mistakes on cakes!!! I pick this article because it resonates with me... It's all about Spidey... or, some cake decorator's nightmare about Spidey.

Check out cakewrecks to see more. The two shots here are bad... but you must check out the last shot in this article, Jazz Hands... -cheers

Helen is crazy (for Rusty the Rhino)... or she is just crazy

Pedigree dog foods has done an amazing job helping pets find homes with their new adopt a rhino campaign. One features a lady named Helen who has a rhino of her very own... This video cracks me up. Well done Pedigree!!!

Like Frankie Says... RELAX

So, my special lady friend has, for some time now, experienced eye fatigue from staring at my amazing seven minute abs.... Oh stop.. It is from the computer screen. Everyone, I believe, should have regular eye breaks from computing.... Your doing it now.. BLINK!! BLINK!!! Okay... As I was saying, we all need a reminder to take eye breaks. Well, the folks at LifeHacker have found a little program from The Mech-Programming blog that does just that, reminds you to take a break.. LIKE NOW.. BLINK!!
Well done! You are on you way to relaxing in visual wonderment that only eye breaks can provide.
Check out LifeHacker's site HERE, and download the program from the original post at Mech-Programming HERE

Cubeecraft

America's answer to origami... The Cubeecraft paper dolls. Yes, by gosh, the most amazingly cute wondertastic awesomeness all goodness oh golly... I want to make them all. You can find many awesocutenesses at cubeecraft.com and a nice article at LifeHacker. They have Grover folks...

GROVER!!!! OMG!! Mulder & Scully, Darth Vader, The Tick, Dwight, Kermit, Pee-Wee... The list goes on and on... My fave is Grimace... I LOVE GRIMACE!!!!! He is a must do.

But, you know what is weird, how they look before you cut them out. Check out Grimace PRE CUT.. He looks like he got squished with a roller... Kinda disturbing -cheers

Hungry Monster

Weight Watchers has produced an awesome character called the Hungry Monster. He is sooooo cute. I have a new, oh what do you call it, desire, to become a puppeteer. We watched a show called Ace of Cakes, and they made a cake for an adult puppet theater group called Avenue Q. The puppets made me smile. I love to make silly voices and talk with my hands... Weird, I know, but I love it. So, my new career goal is to become a puppeteer and make people laugh... I don't know how I'll do it, but I think I'd be great at it. Rebecca thinks I'm crazy... She's right. -cheers

Yes, I already posted this blog... But, I want to run an experiment and see how many people link to this particular blog... Fun stuff... So relax, your not in a time warp.

New Computer Repair Kit

I have been a big fan of Technibble for some time now, and it never ceases to amaze me how much help they are. This week Mr. Whitty gives us a fabulous computer repair software tool kit...
You will find:
Repair Tools
Recovery
File Management
Information
Network Tools
Virus and Malware Removal Tools
Miscellaneous
Tweaks
Scripts
I highly recommend visiting Technibble if you are a seasoned computer repair tech or just curious about computer stuff... They have hundreds of forums where normal people can ask and find answers to computer questions. While your there, you might as well down-load the latest computer repair kit offered by Technibble for FREE... That's right, FREE... Go here for REPAIR KIT

Shameless Wants and Guerilla Knitting

Oh, I sooo want..
Check out the article on these medals for console gaming brought to us by Loopy Rocket, my new fav... I like Loopy.. they have some zany stuff.. yea I said zany. The products can be found for purchase, hint hint, at supermandolini.com, but I urge you to visit Loopy Rocket for some strange and humorous articles on most any subject. One of my favorite posts is about guerilla knitting..
Well done Loopy!! -cheers

Be proud of your inner nerd.

A new way of showing your true nerdness... Badges!
Oh yea... It's on! I can see my local nerd herd having patch battles at the tables in the school cafeteria. globalnerdy.com has posted a fine idea of nerdom, and they are selling these for only $4.plus some shipping.

Perhaps a hierarchy of value to assist what badges can trump and what badges are just fluff... Will there be the hard to find Verduran Enchantress – Alpha badge that only true nerds can attain... We need rules!!! Check out their site at globalnerdy.com for more info. -cheers

Zombies Ahead... Carry Chains!

Hack A Day has gone and done it again. The hack a road sign to say what you want article is unlawful and mischievous, but I love it... You can see the original post at i-hacked.com.

Your blog is an awesome blog!

Number One Novels has produced two interviews by newly published authors, and I truly like the last one. The book is called The Warded Man by Peter Brett, and it sounds like a good read. It follows the stories of three people living in a world that is run amuck by demons after sundown. My kind of book. Check it out Mr. Brett's article on blogger at Number One Novels... Who knows, you just might find a new author.. -cheers

Old Is IN

The folks at LifeHacker have found a gem about reusing old calendars. “As a result of the rotation of months and days in a calendar year, you can use calendars from past years. Spice up your wall with a little vintage fun.” -lifehacker.com. This sounds so cool. They even include a table of dates that will work with 2009 and a link to the original article. Check it out at lifehacker.com and the original article at wisebread.com... -cheers

Apple Reinvents The Wheel!

Apple has outdone it's self with the introduction of the Mac Wheel...
I can't wait to get my hands on this item. Just kidding...
The Onion has done a wonderful job of mocking how Mac users flock to any new product Apple puts out. I love the sentences it produces for the “auto sentence filler”. My favorite is “The attractive peanut farmer graded the term paper”. Well done Onion! Pay close attention to how long it takes to write an email and battery life.... Oh man.. This had me laughing out loud... or LOL for the texters.

Tom's Hardware dishes up a grate article on 6 motherboards under $100. In my opinion, the Asus P5QL is the best bang for the money. I have used an Asus board for a few years now, and I must say, I love it. Never had a hardware issue, never suffered any BIOS nightmares. I love this company! and, for a low cost board you can't go wrong. Tom's has this to say "A few positive features that help the P5QL Pro stand apart from many other low-cost motherboards is the use of solid capacitors in all locations, a replaceable BIOS IC that can help recover the motherboard’s functionality in case of a bad flash, and a four-phase voltage regulator where some competitors use only three. The combination of these quality enhancements, support for over-sized expansion cards, and Asus’ reputation for performance could make the P5QL Pro the ideal choice for the ultra-low-cost crowd." Check out the article at Tomshardware.com

Too Cool For School

School starts in 10 hours! I'm so pumped... One thing, I need to drop a class that I thought would be an easy A..
Hells bells They want a lot of work for Recreation Management. Where is the recreation folks!
I will report late tomorrow on how things go. -cheers

So cute.. I started to tear up!

I want an elephant of my own some day. Thanks to Ummm for the post.

Ways to Reuse Your Old iPod

LifeHacker has published a cool article on Top 10 Ways to Reuse Your Old iPod. Topics include making it a Flash Card player, a portable drink/recipe/Wikipedia reference, a bootable XP Computer (I like that one), and turning it into the ultimate go-anywhere tool. Check out the article at Top 10 Ways. Visit LifeHacker.com for hundreds of ideas on hundreds of topics. -cheers

Free Windows Software from Microsoft

I have found a list of Free Windows Software from Microsoft that includes applications, utilities, support and troubleshooting, security, and anti-spyware/ anti-virus, multimedia, GAMES!!, and some screensavers and themes... Take a look at LiveSpaces for the complete list and downloads.. Enjoy!

Picture This

A handy new product offered on Photojojo makes it easy to set your white balance on your camera without the gray card or any other funky equipment. “Simply flip your camera into custom White Balance mode, snap a photo with your White Balance Lens Cap on, and your camera creates a perfect profile of the actual lighting in front of you.”-photojojo.com
I have used white/gray cards before working as a photographer, and I always had problems. Once, working at a school, I had to take thousands of shots of kids for sports and singles... My white balance was off. Every shot turned out green... OMG.. The company I was working for lost the contract with the school, and I still have not let it go.. It was my fault. This product might have saved me. -Cody

Find the product here PhotojojoWhiteBalanceCap

Free Your Mind and Your Goals Will Follow

The author of Technibble, Mr. Bryce Whitty, recently posted about a cool method to map out your goals. It's called Mind Mapping. The software FreeMind uses an easy display to assemble your goals in order of importance. This is a program that you download to your computer and use locally. You can watch Mr. Whitty do it via his video pod cast by following this link FREEMIND. After you fall in love with this software, like I did, you can download it from Sourceforge, or follow the links provided by Technibble. It is available for Windows, MAC, and Linux. Enjoy...

Good People

Recently, I have stumbled across a blog about making money from home. The author, Penelope Smith, has taken the mask off some of the most notorious web traffic scams and is constantly trying out new traffic tools to benefit us, the bloger/web marketer, so we don't have to. She signs up for various programs and then give us the low down on how they pay, how they market your material, and how you can use them for yourself. Checkout her blog making-money-at-home-review to find out more. Thank you Penelope for all your hard work.

When is a Phillips not a Phillips?

There is this super keen site called Instructables that delivers a plethora of knowledge on various subjects. I urge you to check them out. One post that I took a liking to is on the subject of tools, mainly , when is a Phillips not a Phillips. The article is indepth and provides us with the most useful of screw information. As we know... I like my screws. So enjoy the teaser and visit the site.
http://www.instructables.com/id/When_a_Phillips_is_not_a_Phillips/

Studious Vocabulary Enhancement

Beef up on your vocabulary and enjoy learning new words with the help of VerbaLearn.com. Our friends at Lifehacker.com have introduced us to a new site that helps the verbally challenged, like me, to learn new words on the fly... You start by taking a word test that assembles a list of words that you need help with; You then have the option to study them online with sentence completion, or you can download them to your MP3 player for lessons on-the-go. I like this...

The Bermuda Triangle exists in every parking lot.

We have all been there...
You walk out of the store and your car is missing...
This phenomena is present in every parking lot in America.
Conspiracy???

My first post...

Oh... I'm nervous, what do I say...
Uhmm.. ladies and gentlemen... No, no.. too stuffy...
Hi,
yea... that's a start.
Hello there, you have entered my brain. Do not feed the animals for they are on a strict diet. I would like to welcome you all to the fantastical wonderment that is Cody and all the he shall deem note worthy.
To start, I think I will talk about a new author that I feel is good for a chuckle or two. Enter, TIM DORSEY... (applause) His style is not for everyone, but if you enjoy a good murder/love/comedy/drug induced cocktail hour/mystery filled with vivid details and wacky, yes wacky, flipped-out rides through our finest state, Florida, then this author is for you. I know what you are saying, but Cody, I don't like to read much... Well friend, read his book Florida Roadkill and get a kick. Like an episode of 24 without that ever too predictable Jack, Florida Roadkill snaps your neck with twists and turns then lays you down with a sucker punch to the face... Fun huh? I liked it so much, I purchased two more of his books, that I'm sure to comment on soon.
I don't usually purchase new books; I go to my favorite book seller The Almost Perfect Book Store near my home. They have a jaw dropping assortment of used books and offer something for everyone. More on them coming soon too!
So, this was fun. Not too long; Not a bunch of horse crap; And just enough to keep me interested on continuing this blog... That's right, It's all about me...