John thinks you’ve probably already seen them, but I for one think these freaky Cartoon Character Skeletons are worth a double-take. Hello Kitty looks scary, yo.

Okay, so I managed to lose all the ratings and playcounts in my iTunes music library. I still had that data on the iPod, but it wouldn’t update iTunes (since I had the iPod set to manually update because out library is bigger than the iPod). I did some desperate Googling tonight and discovered iPod-iTunes Data 1.0.1. It’s not the prettiest application in the world, but I’m happy to report that it copied all my metadata back to my Mac. (Tip: I had trouble getting it to work at first because I didn’t read the fine print about setting the “update” dates at the bottom, which default to the current date. It only checks songs that you’ve played since that day, so if you’re doing it for the first time, you need to click the down arrow about a million times to get back to the first day you used the iPod. That was easy in my case, but it could be a bitch if you’ve had yours a long time.)

Look at me, puttin’ pr0n up on DeskCam. 🙂

Catchphrase of the Month: “We’re married now. It’s allowed.”

60% of The Human Body is Made Up of Body Fluids
I just stopped by our local Chinese grocery to grab a Diet Coke when I noticed something new in the cooler in amongst the Red Bulls and Gatorades: Pocari Sweat. Yes, Japan’s most famous soft drink named after a smelly bodily fluid is availabe right around the corner from my house. Reviews on the Internet are mixed. I am now completely obsessed with this fearsome drink. Dare we try it?

Here’s an idea for the hardcore librarian in your life: Have a word from a new short story tattooed on your body. Kinda interesting, but there’s no way I’d have a giant “Remember?” plastered across my forearm.

Woohoo! I actually own one of Forbes Magazine’s Best Designed Products of 2004. I feel so tomorrow.

Wedding Gift Shout-Outs
We will, of course, be sending out actual thank you cards to folks, but I just wanted to throw some thank-you linkage towards Rob and Amy (who sent us two great Star Wars cookbooks), Max (who rounded out our Harry Potter DVD collection with Prisoner of Azkaban), and Moire (who came through with the always-appreciated cold hard cash). You guys are wonderful and we appreciate you thinking about us!

Nominations are open for the Best of Blog Awards 2004… which includes a category for Best Knitting/Craft Blog. I’m just sayin’.

Both Moire and Kevin pointed me towards the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer, and I admit I’m a little torn in my first impression. My actual inner monologue was like, “Hey, they made Johnny Depp look slightly older and less handsome; that’s good. And heh, the kids and Grandpa Joe look fine. What’s with Mike Teevee playing videogames? On one hand that’s not strictly what the book says, but on the other I think it’s a fair modern interpretation of the character, since nobody watches Westerns on TV anymore. Ooh, the boat looks good! What’s with Willy Wonka in the jungle? Hmm, I wonder if that’s Loompaland and he’s swatting some snozzwanger. The Oompa-Loompas look… weird, but at least they’re not orange. I guess it’s fair to reinterpret them, since Dahl himself did. I love Violet and her mom wearing matching J.Lo tracksuits. But what on earth is up with that Austin-Powers-like rock band scene? Yes, the Oompa-Loompas sing, but they didn’t perform friggin’ music videos…” And then I went through on slow-mo and looked at every single scene, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that if I was seeing this trailer for the first time without any reference to the book, I’d probably think it looked really awesome. I just find it difficult to reconcile with Felicity Dahl’s (and everybody else’s) statement that they wanted to be “faithful” to the book. It looked too Tim Burton. (And I’m still unnerved by the IMdB credit for Christopher Lee as “Willy Wonka’s father.”) Unfortunately I think Peter Jackson has set the bar too high for most film adaptations of books. So like I said, I’m conflicted. It’s not that I don’t think the movie will be good; it’s that I resent it being marketed as “The One True Movie of the Book” when it’s blatantly not.

Just found a great link on MetaFilter: Chicago Then & Now. A photographer attempts to reproduce some photos taken of the city from over fifty years ago. It’s interesting to see how some shots look almost the same (some buildings even have the same signage!), while others are depressingly different. As I read recently, architecture is the only form of art which is regularly allowed to be destroyed. My dad mentioned to me recently that the Sun-Times building has been demolished to make way for a Trump Tower. That’s just sad, people.