Stupidfool.org

Snowflake, the albino gorilla

Oh, and here's Snowflake, the only known albino gorilla (and this toy project's namesake):

Snowflake

For a mini-project written in Perl, I wanted pretty syntax highlighting. I've used pygmentize directly in the past from the command line, but I wanted a simple wrapper in Perl. Something like Albino, but for Perl.

So, I ported Albino to Perl, and here's Snowflake, a Perl wrapper for pygmentize (named after Snowflake, the only known albino gorilla).

It's easy to use:

Faveplayer

Inspired by Mark's choonplayer (both creatively & visually), I wrote a simple app to show off my favorite posts on TypePad (or yours, or anyone's). The player is on github, if you'd like to check it out; it's a nice simple demonstration of how to use TypePad's favorites API.

Titus Andronicus: "A More Perfect Union"

via stereogum.com

I didn't think I'd like Titus Andronicus, but I really do! I'm still getting through the whole album (it's long), but "A More Perfect Union", the first track, is a big ball of energy, and a lot of fun.

(See also: Andre raved about Titus Andronicus' The Monitor last week.)

Even more Nicki Minaj

This is not a Nicki Minaj fansite, but... week before last, after getting hooked on Nicki Minaj tracks, I did a search in my iTunes for "nicki", and found this one from last year's "No Ceilings" mixtape: Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams", featuring Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. So good.

I'm such a sucker for superlatives.

via www.boston.com

Above: the world's largest bowl of tabbouleh.

(See also: the biggest dog in the world.)

Running again

David Jacobs writes:

I haven't been running over the past few years, but I have been recently. I'm a couple generations behind on the NikePlus experience, so I plugged it in this morning to see how it had evolved. The iPhone app and web dashboard are completely new to me, and entirely for the better. All the things that used to annoy me about running with it are gone (although I'm sure I'll find new ones). All of my old challenges, goals, and running maps were there, and I was immediately fed several suggestions to improve my running practice based on past behavior (even one suggestion that a goal may take "92 weeks" - yikes!)

I totally agree! I haven't been running for the past couple of years, either, but I started up again a couple of weeks ago, just casually, and NikePlus has gotten even better than it used to be.

It was great to see all of my old run data still there, and to be reminded of the last day that I ran (October 8, 2007, 2 days before Penelope was born). It's definitely time to start up again.

Bedrock

Nitsuh Abebe says:

Young Money — "Bedrock" My enjoyment of this track is rivaling my enjoyment of most everything since the similarly plinky "Laundromat" (Nivea w/ R Kelly), which is, for me, saying a lot. The only problem is how clearly it divides into the part where Nicki Minaj's crisply enunciated verse is yet to come and the part where it's already passed.

So true. It's funny, because I was thinking exactly the same thing about Lloyd's "Take It Off" (Lloyd feat. J. Holiday and again, Nicki Minaj) the other day: in that case, she's by far the best part of an otherwise just-okay track, and it's her verse that I look forward to more than anything else.

But, "Bedrock"! It's so good.

Making mayonnaise

Via the Amateur Gourmet, homemade mayonnaise:

Look at that creamy, dreamy concoction. Even the me of yesteryear might have to dip my finger in to taste. I think anyone who hates mayo should make it themselves; seeing how it works--how the oil emulsifies with the egg yolk and the lemon juice--makes all the difference.

I've had a similar mayonnaise reawakening: when I was younger, I absolutely hated mayonnaise, to the point that thinking about it made me gag. A couple of years ago, though, I started making homemade mayonnaise, and I never looked back. It's delicious, and fun.

(It still feels kind of gross to dip a spoon into mayonnaise and taste it, though.)

Unsubscribe

Over the last two months, I've been doing an experiment and I'm happy to say it actually seems to be working. I have been clicking on the "unsubscribe me" link in every piece of unsolicited (or possibly solicited but no longer wanted) email I receive. As of the last week, I've noticed a marked decrease in the amount of such mail.

via www.quid.pro

I started doing this today on every piece of unwanted marketing email I received. We'll see how it goes.

(Incidentally, it's kind of interesting to see the number of different interfaces that email marketing companies have created for unsubscribing from an email list. There wasn't a common interface among the 15-20 lists that I unsubscribed from.)