Not my practice blog, by Scott Knaster

Halloween

When I was a kid, Halloween was a holiday for children. Now it's a major celebration for grownups. But in Moscow, it's completely backwards: schools are supposed to ignore Halloween.

Halloween is being forced underground because it "includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death," a spokesman for [Moscow]'s education department Alexander Gavrilov said on Wednesday.

For everybody else, Happy Halloween!

Sox and Rox on Fox (part 1)

Sox and Rox on Fox
with apologies to Dr. Seuss

Sox
Rox
Fox
Box
Fox on box.
Sox vs. Rox.
Rox on Fox.
Sox on Fox.
Rox and Sox
on Fox on box.

Tim TV comes.
Joe TV comes.
Tim and Joe on
Fox TV come.
Let's spend time with
Tim and Joe, sir.
First we'll hear a
grim Tim flip quip.
Then we'll hear a
slow Joe call blow.
You can hear a
Joe Buck nyuk nyuk.
Try to say this
Mr. Fan, sir...
Rox on Fox click.
Sox on Fox rock.
Six sick sac's rock Sox.
Six sick Sox shock Rox.

Please sir, I don't
like this trick, sir.
My tongue isn't
quick or slick, sir.
I get Sox great
Johnny Pesky
mixed up with
Jeannie Zeleskey.

I'm so sorry
Mr. Fan, sir.
Here's an easy
game to play.
Here's an easy
thing to say.
New socks.
Two socks.
Whose socks?
Schill's socks.
Who saw Schill bleed?.
You saw Schill bleed.
Who saw Schill's Red Sox
red sock bleed?
We saw Schill's Red Sox
red sock bleed.

That's not easy
Mr. Fox, sir!

Who comes?
Bud comes.
Allen H. "Bud" the Dud comes.
Who saw Bud's crud?
Fans see Bud's crud.
Fans see Buddy's cruddy FUD.

[more to come]

Stephen Colbert's new book is out

I just got my copy of Colbert's new book, I Am America (And So Can You!), and so can you. It's filled with truthiness!

New Star Wars TV series

George Lucas and his pals have announced that they're working on a Star Wars TV series:

"The Skywalkers aren't in it, and it's about minor characters," Lucas said in an interview. "It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It's completely different. But it's a good idea, and it's going to be a lot of fun to do."

Lucas joked that the series would be about "the life of robots" but wouldn't let any details slip about the true premise.

Naturally, Wikipedia is all over it:

The series is set between the founding of the Empire to the events of A New Hope, referred to as "the dark times" by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the latter film. It is during this period that the last of the Jedi will be hunted down, the newly-formed Galactic Empire will rise to power throughout the galaxy, and the first Death Star will be constructed.

Toadhead

A long time ago in a technology world far, far away, Bill Gates wrote a book called The Road Ahead. I believe it was designed to reinforce Bill's credentials as a visionary and futurist. But a bunch of creative folks saw through the book and divined its true meaning.

(Thanks, Ceej.)

Liveblogging

Hi, I'm blogging from a bachelor party (settle down -- it's just dinner).

Raymond Chandler invented Google

Crime writer Raymond Chandler, the author of The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, and many other novels and stories, apparently had a vision of Google when he wrote a letter to his agent in 1953:

The sudden brightness swung me around and the Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn't enough. He was right.

Chandler was mocking science fiction, but he was clearly channeling the future when he wrote this: Google gave him the right answer.

The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

Minutes of fun at The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Star Wars X-Wing launch

Some folks built and launched a full-scale replica of a Star Wars X-Wing, complete with R2-D2. Here's what happened. Hint: the Empire seems safe for now.