Soldier Ant 

Can this be right? Yamaha Motor's official tagline is "Touching Your Heart"? Yamaha's a motorcycle company, right? Right?

Truth in advertising would be: Yamaha. Buzzing your taint.

You know you loved it. So check out The Unofficial Corvette Summer Web Site

Wow. Now this is a refreshing perspective. Richard Castaldo was left paralyzed from the chest down after the shootings at Columbine. When he learned that a video-game based on the events of that day was being produced, he actually kept an open mind about it.

[A]t first it just surprised me that someone would make a game like that. And I know most peoples knee-jerk reactions would probably be that it is horrible and disgusting and stuff like that. But, I just thought I should play it to see what it actually was. I didn’t think it was necessarily bad, if i was done the right way, which at least part of it seemed to be.

Apropos of nothing, here are 10 things that, when I think of them, make me feel like a bright-eyed little kid again:

1. Don Knotts as the Incredible Mr. Limpet.
2. Fun Dip!
3. The old Ohio Power Campgrounds (now AEP).
4. Daisy BB guns.
5. The legend of the Black Lady.
6. Disco.
7. BMX Bikes
8. Burt Reynolds movies. Particularly Hooper
9. Hard plastic Cincinnatti Reds batting helmets.
10. 10-cent deposits on tall Coke bottles. (And the bags of penny-candy we'd buy with the proceeds. Especially those little creepy liquid-filled wax skulls.)

The Times Reports on this week's modern malady. "Phantom rings", when you think you hear your cellphone ringing and, of course, you don't. (And yes, I know that modern 'mobiles' no longer work on cellular technology, so 'cellphone' is now an archaic and outdated term. But hey, I'm an archaic and outdated kinda guy, and I prefer saying 'cellphone' to 'mobile phone', so screw you.) Anyway, the article says...

Some sound experts believe that because cellphones have become a fifth limb for many, people now live in a constant state of phone vigilance, and hearing sounds that seem like a telephone's ring can send an expectant brain into action.

And my whole purpose in mentioning this at all? I can do you one better than hearing phantom phone sounds. This started around the time I carried a Treo 180: I actually, from time to time, get phantom muscle spasms at the top of my right thigh that feel exactly like the awkward clacking buzz of a Treo phone set to "vibrate." Which is weird cause I haven't carried that 180, or the 600 I replaced it with, for months now...

Yep, this is another Kirby entry, but a short one. He's doing really well. This past Thursday marked his 5-month anniversary with us! and I can't believe he healthy he's become.

He gets really saucy a couple of times a night, and will lay on his back on the carpet, making funny grunting sounds and snapping his jaws in the air. I should really videotape it sometime soon.

Dozer and Polly are comfortable enough with Kirby. There's a lot of social posturing, and some outright agression (usually related to food.) But Kirby's so patient that he (almost) never reciprocates. So little slights blow over quickly.

And, it pains me to say it, but he still has that damn ear infection. It went away for a time. Almost a month. We had an ear culture done, and he's 2 weeks into yet-another round of antibiotics (oral and ointment) and daily ear-washes. And LeeAnn and I taking turns swabbing out his ear canal with wadded-up tissues.

The antibiotics, of course, have a wonderful effect on his digestive tract. He may look like an angel lying asleep on the carpet at my feet, but the periodic blasts of foul-ish green stink tell another tale altogether.

Awesome. Dwight Schrute has a blog. And he's a Sammy Hagar fan:

I can't wait. I can't believe there's going to be a Cabo Wabo experience there. I'm not sure what that is but I am on board. I am definitely applying to be a "Sambassador" as well and enjoying a "waborita T."

Wow. Check out this wonderful panoramic view of Paris at night. (Well, dusk.) Link via John Tolva.

A decent short interview with Alan Moore reveals some more specifics with his problem with the Wachowski brothers. And he also takes a poke at Hollywood's vanity-boys:

Johnny Depp saw fit to play this character as an absinthe-swilling, opium-den-frequenting dandy with a haircut that, in the Metropolitan Police force in 1888, would have gotten him beaten up by the other officers.

Wow. An amazingly expressive ukelele cover of While my guitar gently weeps. Beautiful.

This is the best firstgoatse ever. The sheer look of glee on that one dude's face never fails to crack me up. And pay careful attention to the details...

The Last Stand, originally uploaded by soldierant.

Featuring my all-time favorite flickr tag ever. (Guess which one.)