geek

Daniel journeys into the world of live action role playing to give an infamous LARPer a second chance.

A screen name says a lot about you. Like, no one would mess with Broly the Unholy because obviously he's a bad ass. Whereas Whopper Head may be just a screen name for someone who frequents Burger King.

I hope he made the right decision. Clearly a lot of time and effort went into the creation of this title and I wouldn't want him to walk away with something lame like Soul Snatcher.

My first screen name was a given. I didn't have to write out a list of potentials. I just went with my gut and I think it worked out for the best. 2cute4words was quite a hit in the chat rooms.

Good morning, people on my Buddy List! Did you see this new web series called "INST MSGS"?

Here's the idea: they dramatize things they find on the web. And like most instant messages, that takes about 6 minutes and 35 seconds.  They must be using an old dial-up modem.

This episode opens with a puppet making misogynistic remarks. Sounds a lot like a Comedy Central show I know!

But the whole 7-minute video isn't just puppets. That could be way too entertaining.  The bulk of the episode is a reenactment of a Craigslist post. Here's their summary:

"My Women" is a Craiglist rant/ode to all the women an anonymous Detroit man has bedded. In our adaptation we've imagined our Craigslister as a photographer who remembers his past loves through the photos he's taken of them.

Okay. In other words, you took a moderately funny post from the Craigslist best-of page and made it into a student film. Thanks for "imagining him as a photographer," Spielberg. Instead of reading the original post myself in about 30 seconds, I get four minutes of stock footage and voiceover.  It's like watching the wedding video for the marriage between myself and boredom.

If you want to give INST MSGS one more chance, check out more episodes at Revision3. Though the odds of me doing that are about as likely as me signing up for a new ICQ account.

Yesterday afternoon, the New York Times tech guy, David Pogue, wrote about a bookmarklet called Readability:

It?s a new button on your Web browser?s toolbar. With one click, it eliminates EVERYTHING from the Web page you?re reading except the text and photos. No ads, blinking, links, banners, promos or anything else.

Ironically, he wrote about it on his blog surrounded by (among other things) a flashing ad for AMD, affiliate links to buy his books and a video of him playing with a mobile phone.

I never figured out how to add the bookmarklet to my browser.  I was distracted by an ad called "I Got Rid Of My Yellow Teeth," and gave it a click because it seemed way more interesting than what I was reading.

If you're as geeky as me, you understand why I'm so excited to see a Tosh.0 blog post mentioned in this week's episode of Diggnation. If you're not as geeky as me, you're probably thinking, "Why is he so excited about being mentioned by two drunk guys on a couch in a web show when he gets a mention on an actual television show every week?" I'll tell you why. It's because I'm just that geeky.

The best part? In the original post, we offered the facetious GeoCities-esque idea of Digg founder Kevin Rose instead being called, ?the webmaster of Digg.? And here, Kevin Rose actually says he's down with the idea!

Our post, Goodbye Geocities: 7 Retro Things We'll Miss Forever, earned the distinction of being discussed by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht after hitting the Digg front page last week.

Isn't browsing internet good enough on its own? Apparently, many Firefox users would disagree with me.

Firefox is known for its copious amount of add-ons that can enhance your browsing experience.  But if your idea of "enhancement" is loading up on 400 add-ons, you should consult one of your three dictionary toolbars to get a new definition of the word "enhance."  If you think slowing your browsing down to a stand-still is worth color-coding your browser tabs, you're nuts.

I'm game for a few tweaks, but if you're completely impeding my ability to look at web pages with sanity… then forget it. Beware of these ridiculous extensions that take add-on excess to a new level.

Add-On: Christian Anti-Porn

Description: "Flee sexual immorality (1Co 6:18). Christian Anti-Porn will filter links and alert the user if any porn websites are clicked. This will not block but warn every Christian that he is going to crucify Jesus Christ again if he proceeds to such websites."

Whoever developed this add-on has come across the ultimate anti-porn algorithm: God. I bet He'spretty mathematically sound.

When you visit a porn site, an alert window will "warn every Christian that he is going to crucify Jesus Christ again." That must be a pretty tough pill to swallow. In fact, those Christians will probably have to look at twice as much porn to keep it up after such a disturbing interruption.

See four more annoying add-ons after the jump… more...

Beam me up, Eminem.

When I tell you that the above video exists — Eminem's "Without Me" remixed into Klingon, the language of Star Trek nerds — you probably think, "Okay, I believe that. The internet is home to a bevy of such mash-ups, especially geeky stuff." But this isn't just a video. It's a real German artist called Klenginem with a real website and real gigs. Though his tour schedule isn't updated, he actually tours the European geek convention circuit, according to Underwire.

It seems that Eminem has such broad appeal that converting his songs into some other niche language could draw an audience no matter what. So, I have a few ideas for translated Eminem cover bands:

• Slim Wookie
• Pig Latinem
• PŁ34S3 ST4|\|D µP
• Elvish Mile
• OH HAI, MAH NAYM IZ

But maybe I'm completely wrong about these and Klenginem will be the only artist to live well and prosper. Afterall, I'm a doctor, not a freestyle rapper.

Awkward Family Photos always follows through with… awkward family photos. But rarely do they nail something that's so simultaneously "awkward family" and "Internet geek."

"Where's the 'family' here?" Don't give me that shit. People like me and Harold Ramis* here are wed to Internet — this is clearly a family photo.

The best part of being married to the Internet is that she always helps you dress in the morning. Here's a tricky one that young Egon confronted that morning: khaki jeans. They're khakis but they're jeans. He wanted to wear black shoes, but black shoes don't go so well with khakis. What to do? Compromise. Wear a black belt to match the black shoes but wear tennis shoes instead. And wear white socks and flood the pants.

*Not actually Harold Ramis.