Buffalo Blog

The Next One is the First Song on Our New Album

So, by now, you've finally realized that I have a few tricks up my sleeve. The Church Sign in my previous post was not a real church sign. I generated it using the Church Sign Generator. It's a slick little site that lets you pick from five different church signs and input your own custom message. They also have the Concert Ticket Generator, Vinyl Record Generator, Cassette Tape Generator, and many more.

Yeah, I wish I could take credit for finding these things out in the wild, but I'm not that talented. But I put this challenge to you. What's the best thing you can generate? Post your best generation in the comments section and we'll see who's got the chops for corporate marketing.

I personally, think that the Buffalo Blog's new executive seal is pretty honking sweet. Peep it:

Prepare to be boarded!

Ahoy me maties. I can't believe I almost missed it. This beauty of a day comes but once a year and I'm a filthy bilge rat for almost missin' it. Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day. So, buckle your swashes, bid farewell and adieu to the fair Spanish ladies, and get yer pirate on. Arrrrg!

Oh, and in case ye be wondering:

I am The Cap'n!
Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

Discover yer inner pirate and share it in the comments. Oh, I almost forgot to ask. Has anybody heard about that new pirate movie? I think it's rated Arrrrrg! And the rumor is that the MPAA said it needed an adult rating because of all the booty!

. . .

I took some time off from blogging for a little bit because there was a lot going on. But, I'm back now. And, as I can see from my teeming, screaming, fans, my presence was greatly missed (Thanks Parker and Nate for getting me back on the wagon). But I missed the ole Buffalo Blog, so it's time to rekindle the magic. I have a lot to update you on, but I figure, why cram it all into this post, when I can create lots and lots of posts to tell you all about my adventures over the last few weeks. But I will say, that there have been some exciting things on the internets recently. Here are three of them:

• Human Space Invaders —
  

  
  Try here if the video doesn't play

• Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence — The Onion takes a dig at Wikipedia by running a fabulous story. Here's a taste of the genius:

  The commemorative page is one of the most detailed on the site, rivaling entries for Firefly and the Treaty Of Algeron for sheer length. Subheadings include "Origins Of Colonial Discontent," "Some Famous Guys In Wigs And Three-Cornered Hats," and "Christmastime In Gettysburg." It also features detailed maps of the original colonies—including Narnia, the central ice deserts, and Westeros—as well as profiles of famous American historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Special Agent Jack Bauer, and Samuel Adams who is also a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals.

• Room Defender debuts on Ubergizmo — For about $50, you can have the ultimate in cool-but-worthless geek security: A 24-round sentry robot with four attack modes to guard your stuff. Sure it only fires foam disks, but damn if it isn't the coolest toy I've seen in ages.

So, that's the news from me. Stay tuned for some details on what took place during "Buffalo's 42-Days of Silence."

Let Your Freak Flags Fly

I'm sure you've come across these badges in your travels on the Web. They have them for RSS feeds, for blogs, for websites, games, even foods and beverages. They are everywhere, but George Taylor McKnight has assembled a collection of most of them. What you may not know is that these little badges are called Antipixel Badges. They are 80 pixels wide by 15 pixels high and all have a 1 pixel border around the outside. They exist to show visitors at a glance who you are, what you like, and why your Live Journal is better than theirs (For more information on how to make your Live Journal better, check out Lore Sjöberg). So, since I don't want to be the only blog that you read that doesn't have a badge for you to slap on your site, I created my own:

It was really easy to do, and I think it came out pretty nice. If you want to make your own, head over to the 80x15 Brilliant Button Maker. Let me know when you have yours and I will add it to my blog. And, if you're looking to add my stylish badge to your page, just paste this code wherever you feel like it:

<a href="http://buffalo.blogs.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://buffalo.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/buffaloblog.png" title="Buffalo Blog" alt="Buffalo Blog" /></a>

I'm a (culture) genius!

I know that you always thought I was smart, but now it's official. Mr. T has certified me as a genius with a culture IQ of 151. I was over at Culture Fool the other day and I decided to match my wits with the formidable BA Baracus (who, by the way, makes a mean cookie jar). Who thinks they can beat my score?

The Rajah of Cap Hill

So, this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute--just sit real still--I'll tell you how I became known as the Rajah of Cap Hill. Or at least that's what they apparently call the guy pictured above. He is the face of my new neighborhood. His real name is Brian Fairbrother and he works at the local sidewalk bar, Espresso Vivace. I've never met the guy, but I did recently take a trip to TurnHere. It's a cool new site that features short 3-5 minute videos on urban neighborhoods around the country. The clip about Capitol Hill is pretty cool, and it does a good job of showing off what we noticed and why we like the neighborhood so much. So, check out your own neighborhood or the next place you are thinking of visiting. You can check out the neighborhood that we used to live in, but we had to leave because it still had plenty of drug deals, crack heads, and knife fights to make two kids from DC feel uncomfortable. But, it did have a ton of great music venues and some killer restaurants... I looked at my kingdom, I finally will, sit on my throne as the Rajah of Cap Hill.

Why in the World Can't I Take Ye Flask?

Behold! I have found the flask, vanquished the dungeon, and proved myself to be... Thy Dungeonman. If you are a fan of Homestar Runner or of good olde fashioned text adventures then you will be psyched to know that the Brothers Chaps have released a brand new game: Thy Dungeon Man 3. I discovered it today while surfing the Web (via) and instantly had to sit down and give it a whirl. It's an update on the previously released pure text game: Thy Dungeonman. This version, however, has Apple II style graphics (for illustrative purposes only), and way more places to go than just North, South, and Dennis. It's a fun game that shouldn't take more than half an hour to complete. Have at it my fellow dungeonmen and dungeonwomen. Will you be able to TAKE YE FLASK?

A few of my favorite things

Since I started the new job that keeps Web surfing on lock-down, I don't use the old Random Links sidebar as much as I used to, but I still manage to find some good material  from time to time. So, this is where I share with all of you a few of my favorite things (during the work-day).

• alt.text — This Wired column by  Lore Sjöberg is probably one of my favorite columns on all of the Internets. It's freakin' hilarious. I often find myself cracking up, out loud while reading it at work (Don't tell anyone I read it at work). Some of my favorite columns include Not Your Mama's Online Assistant, WOW: the Text Adventure, Tune In, Turn On, Veg Out, and his most recent column, Sailing the Sorry Sea of Nausea. I tune in every Wednesday to see what ole Lore has to say, and nine times out of ten, it makes me laugh. I highly recommend this to all of you who appreciate humor. (And, if you're crafty, you can download his columns and listen to the man on your iPod).
• The Walk-Through — This blog, courtesy of The New York Times, is one of my usual diversions during the day. It's on the Times, so the URL shouldn't flag any attention, and I'm in the market for a property (which, as I've been told is for Plutocrats). It's slightly New York centric, but they have lots of nationally applicable information. I like them so much, I even tipped them off about Google Real Estate.
• podstar.runner - I don't have a video iPod, but I do have a PSP, and this is probably the single greatest use of RSS technology to date (and quite possibly for all eternity). It's Homestar Runner. It's syndicated to your computer. It's automagnificantly transferred to your video device. It's freakin' sweet. Get your Strong Bad fix on the bus!

PS. I get the word of the day at work, and I couldn't stop laughing yesterday. I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

My Shit's Blowin' Up

So, my life is about as dull and boring as you could imagine. Work and feeling exhausted seem to dominate my time these days. I've been thinking up some ideas I want to put up here at some point, but I just haven't gotten around to it. But, I had to break the silence when I saw that I had not just one reader, but two. Yup, that's right. Recently documented proof shows that I have a second reader. Take a look at this here, Exhibit A. It's enough to give me faith in humanity. To go on blogging. I mean Parker has always been there for me and kept me going, lo this many years. But now I feel new vigor knowing that I too can be all over it like glitter on a stripper or crazy on Whitney Houston. Thank you Christina. This ones for you.

Oh, and if you want to create your very own comic strip that is hopefully a hell of a lot funnier than the one I made, go check out Bubblr. It's one of the coolest, most awesomest Flickr mashups, ever!

PS. This one's awesome!

RSS all up in my steez

So I woke up this morning and dashed to my TiVo to see what was in store, but not finding anything I felt like watching before my coffee, I went to go pick out some music from my PC to stream through my TV to help me face the day. Well, what to my wandering eyes should appear? But 4 games for my TiVo and a ton of yahoo! features. Scanning quickly down the screen I came to the most amazing feature: The TiVo Podcaster. Now, this might not seem amazing to you, but in the last few weeks I've noticed that RSS has been blowing up all over the place. IE 7.0 has integrated RSS support. Microsoft's new operating system Vista will have an integrated RSS engine to help all of your desktop applications parse feeds and automatically update the photos in your MyPhotos directory, or copy mp3s directly to your myMusic folder, all via RSS. It's really exploding all over the place. And, just this past weekend, when I got my PSP I noticed that it had RSS support. Take a look:

When Podcasting becomes a standard feature on gaming devices and my television, you know it's hit the mainstream. But what's even more impressive, is I love having podcast support on my devices, is the most amesomest thing ever... It's like having all of your favorite radio stations with you all the time without having to deal with commercials... and getting to skip all the songs that you don't want to listen to. I've been a huge fan of podcasting since I got my iPod a little over a year ago, but these new features mean that I don't even have to download the music before I start listening to it, it just automatically streams so I get instant gratification. Now all I need is a WiFi cloud to cover Seattle so that I can stream these podcasts to my PSP all over town. Wait for WiFi support on your iPod soon and pretty soon it'll be on your refrigerator and toaster. What I really want though is Flickr support for my TiVo so I can surf Flickr on my TV. But that's it from me. It's like Christmas morning up in my apartment right now.