{"id":408,"date":"2003-10-11T02:18:24","date_gmt":"2003-10-11T10:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/10\/11\/seven-ways-to-have-fun-this-weekend\/"},"modified":"2003-10-11T02:18:24","modified_gmt":"2003-10-11T10:18:24","slug":"seven-ways-to-have-fun-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"Seven ways to have fun this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

1.<\/b> Drop by Lost in Translation<\/a>, a site that specializes in making fun of translating software by turning it against itself. The site uses some sort of technological thing beyond my ability to comprehend to translate a phrase so many times that it makes even less sense than Engrish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For example, something like this:<\/p>\n

The dark figure streaming with fire raced towards them. The orcs yelled and poured over the stone gangways. Then Boromir raised his horn and blew. Loud the challenge rang and bellowed, like the shout of many throats under the cavernous roof. For a moment the orcs quailed and the fiery shadow halted. Then the echos died as suddenly as a flame blown out by a dark wind, and the enemy advanced again.<\/div>\n

Becomes this nugget of clarity:<\/p>\n

Of nondark the sketch in these accessories and ecceduto of the orders to compete he, who it left it to the work? In the point of the product of the rock, the one that extends, followed orcs the external part. And Boromir, alongside advanced of this and jumped angle, interior in her is increased. In winch the end to look like much throat to give to the form and its noises of the shout that are considering a challenge, shout constantly repaired to the fact they with dachs of the most inferior piece of the term of the repair perforateing that one which of the sieve of the shout are. Orcs, comes in him the extreme color, that arrests dubbing. As much how much the this chronometers are he who without the recognition comes the one from stampini of timeth of two and and was an enemy and a fire here, where the extension of the wind and the echo leave ignition.<\/div>\n

2.<\/b> For those of you who remember Transformers<\/i>, one of the better-written animated television series to come from this side of the Pacific, or for those of you who just want to see something a bit different, check out amateur-made but professional-looking movie clip<\/a> of a new Volkswagon Beetle transforming into a giant robot.<\/p>\n

3.<\/b> Buy a CD (or download some MP3s if you’re a scurvy mate), or, alternatively, just stare at your empty (or in Amp’s case dearly departed<\/a>) wallet and wish that you could buy a CD. This weekend I’ll be listening to M83’s Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts<\/a>, Dntel’s Life Is Full of Possibilities<\/a>, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless<\/a>, and J\u00f3hann J\u00f3hannsson’s Englab\u00f6rn<\/a>. What can I say? I’m in the mood for static and electronics, I guess.<\/p>\n

4.<\/b> See if you can come up with six ways in which this picture<\/a> doesn’t look like a modern Gap or Abercrombie ad. And, yes, the fact that she’s clothed in the first place counts as a difference. (Bonus!<\/i> If you want to prove to yourself that you’re more culturally literate than I, see if you can recognize the woman in the photograph without being told who she is.)<\/p>\n

5.<\/b> Read a study about the forces required to drag sheep across various surfaces, the (scientifically validated) uniquely simple personalities of politicians, the composition of belly-button lint, and how to make frogs and sumo wrestlers hover, courtesy of the Ig\u00ae Nobel Prizes<\/a>. (I think my favourite story from there is the one about the village of the dead<\/a> in India.)<\/p>\n

6.<\/b> Learn about and experience some truly wonderful optical illusions at Sandlot Science<\/a>. Be warned, though, that the site is pretty Java-intensive so it might be problematic for persons with abnormal browsers (i.e., not Netscape or Internet Explorer) or persons with slower connections. I used to have a really great optical illusion page in my bookmarks, but unfortunately it’s slipped away into that great chasm that inevitably develops between a new computer and an old one.<\/p>\n

7.<\/b> Have some fun with Google and Ogden’s Basic English: go to a word list<\/a> for Basic English; pick a few words at random; run a Google search for those words using the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button; see what sort of interesting things you can find out about. For instance, a search for “industry goat development” takes me to this abstract<\/a> (in PDF form) from the International Goat Association (who knew there was such an association?) about the “Role and Strategy of Goat Rearing Industry in Poverty Alleviation and Development.”<\/p>\n

I promise to post something a bit more serious on Monday. Until then, have fun!.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Drop by Lost in Translation, a site that specializes in making fun of translating software by turning it against itself. The site uses some sort of technological thing beyond my ability to comprehend to translate a phrase so many … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-site-and-admin-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}