I have been a big fan of the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest, which awards its prizes to the worst opening lines, since I received the collection It Was a Dark and Stormy Night as a wee one. If one can’t aspire to write great literature, one can at least write something so bad it’s great. There is a certain artistry in that.
All of the 2009 winners are here, but I had to pick out my favorite for you, the winner in the detective category:
She walked into my office on legs as long as one of those long-legged birds that you see in Florida – the pink ones, not the white ones – except that she was standing on both of them, not just one of them, like those birds, the pink ones, and she wasn’t wearing pink, but I knew right away that she was trouble, which those birds usually aren’t.
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It was nice to see our iHRIS Suite of Open Source HR information systems included on this list of 50 successful open source projects that are changing medicine, published by the Medicine 3.0 blog.
Just a quick one today, a do-it-yourself fire alarm, via There, I Fixed It.
I understand there was some kind of memorial service going on yesterday, but I really didn’t see much about that on the Interwebs. So instead, I’ve got a lot of local (North Carolina) news to share this morning.
First, I went by Wootini in Carr Mill Mall, Carrboro, yesterday and caught a nice art exhibit of favorite sci fi characters on black velvet. My favorites were K-9 from Doctor Who, Snake Pliskin and an original Cylon. Plenty of Star Wars/Star Trek as well. The exhibit is running through the second week of August (although many of the paintings have already sold).
I read that George’s Garage in Durham has finally closed. I used to enjoy George’s back in the day (now too many years ago to count), but the last time we ate there, it was an extremely unpleasant experience and we vowed not to go back. I’m only surprised it took this long for them to shut down. I hope something interesting fills that space.
Over in Raleigh, a video of some kind of creature in the sewer at Cameron Village has gone viral (via io9). There is some disagreement as to what exactly this “monster” is, but rest assured, Raleigh-ites, it will not get into the public sewer system. So you are safe from invading slimy worm-like entities coming up through your pipes — for now! (Cue scary music.)
Finally, over at NC State University, they have apparently developed the robot bat (via Engadget). As we all know, robot sentience and subsequent enslavement of the human race is only a matter of time. This appears to be another crucial step in the process.
Just to inject some modicum of seriousness in this post, please go read my colleague’s excellent article on developing usability tests for our HRIS software. She describes the process she used and provides lots of useful resources.
Finally, the Daily Funny, which is not at all North Carolina-related: The 15 creepiest vintage ads of all time (via Retro Comedy). I particularly adore the poster of the baby trapped underneath an overturned bathtub, in an effort to sell soap.
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I have been called a brainiac before — while on a first date — and it’s a strange experience, I agree. On the one hand, I’m proud of my brainpower. On the other hand, you know the other person did not mean it as a compliment. That’s why I really enjoyed Roger Ebert’s rant about the commenters criticizing his recent review of Transformers 2 (which is also hilarious — the review, not the movie). Apparently, he is too smart to really appreciate a masterpiece like Transformers 2. And he likes movies too much. Or something.
Even if you don’t read the whole essay — which you should, because it’s both funny and true — scroll down to the bottom and watch the Robot Chicken video Baysplosions!!!! That’s worth the price of admission right there.
P.S. I would be remiss in mentioning Transformers 2 — a movie I have no intention of seeing since I value my eardrums and want to keep them — without pointing you toward this io9 review of the same movie, which is probably the best movie review I have ever read.
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