Saturday Ramblings...
Yes, once again it's Saturday and my day to ramble (as if I ever demonstrate a laser-like focus here!).

First, if you're reading my blog and have never visited my particular “stupid sites” you should now. Start with PondScumAndLawyers.com (a name suggested by my Mom at dinner in New York a couple of years ago--I got up early the next morning, left the hotel, went to the local Kinkos, got online and registered it.) There's a new lawyer joke every time you visit (with in the bounds of reasonable randomness, that is). There's also a Wacky Sentence Generator and a large set of snappy quotes, humorous poems, one-liners and sigs. My other “stupid site” is NobodyExpectsTheSpanishInquisition.com which I had to have just because the domain name was (unbelievably) not taken!

Other Saturday links: Kiltmen.com: Bravehearts in Kilts ; yes, I wear a kilt now and then, and I need a new one. Lots here about wearing kilts and similar garments.

ColorMatch Remix: Another Color Scheme Designer
Here's yet another color scheme designer: ColorMatch Remix. I think these are valuable resources, especially for beginning designers who have not developed a strong color sense yet, but I still think I like Pixy's Color Schemes a little bit better. I think using thse tools will give a real boost to those who are primarily IT folks who have inherited (or were awarded by default) the task of creating/updating/redesigning their departmental or organizational Web site. For novice designers, they really can help in developing their color sense while offloading the technical aspect of figuring out just what the funky hexdecimal codes actually need to be.

Articles About Writing Web Content
Rachel McAlpine, who live and works in Wellington, New Zealand, runs workshops on electronic writing - mainly Web and Intranet content; she also writes web content, and does usability testing and Web site reviews. Her articles about writing Web content are breif, concise, and a lot more approachable than, oh, say...Jakob Nielson, for example.

Track a Flight With Google!
“Google is an aviation buff. Type in a flight number like “United 22” for a link to a map of that flight's progress in the air. Or type in the tail number you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.

Google is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is etched onto a plate, usually on the door frame, of every car), like “JH4NA1157MT001832”, to find out the car's year, make and model.”
Read More... (requires free registration to view)
[via David Pouge's New York Times Circuits newsletter (requires free registration to view)]

2004 Design Salary Survey
Aquent and the AIGA are in the process of posting the results of their most recent design salary survey at http://www.designsalaries.com/; this includes Web designer, developer and programmer salarys. There is a salary calculator up and running, and a promise that the actual survey results will be “...downloadable soon”

The Annals of Improbable Research Blog
The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), the lineal successor to the Journal of Irreproducible Results and home of the Ig Noble Awards for dubious achievements in science, medicine, and technology, both have websites that are...well, to be quite frank about it, HORRIBLE. But the Annals of Improbable Research now has a blog, which has a daily dose of the stuff that makes the the Annals themselves so much fun: http://improbable.typepad.com/. It's much more readable than the AIR pages. Check it out!

The Rasturbator
“The rasterbator is a web service which creates huge rasterized pictures out of relatively small image files. The pictures can be assembled into extremely cool looking posters!”
[via Chris Pirillo]

“Bohemian Rhapsody” performed by the cast of Megaman
This one is for my eldest son: “Bohemian Rhapsody” performed by the cast of Megaman
[via Whatdoiknow.org]

Bunny Exorcist
The Exorcist in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies: http://www.angryalien.com/0204/exorcistbunnies.html.
[Via the Internet Scout Weblog]

Chernobog
I am on my second book in two months in which Chernobog plays a pivotal role. Chernobog (also Crnobog or Czernobog) is the Slavic god of darkness and evil. His name means “The Black God” (Balkan Crno “black” and Bog “god”). The most popular (if you can really call it that) image of Chernobog is the giant demon from “Night on Bald Mountain” in Disney's Fantasia, but the Chernobog in these stories is a hideous devourer of not only souls but flesh as well, the ultimate evil and a clear cognate for Satan. I have not previously encountered Chernobog in literature so I wanted to know more, but I guess I'll have to look in a real library because the pickins' online are pretty slim. The books (by the way) were The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling and The Shadow of the Lion by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer. The Shadow of the Lion is available online throught the Baen Free Library, where Baen Books makes about sixty of their science-fiction and fantasy titles available online for free! I download them in MS Reader format and read them on my Dell Axim Pocket PC. I'll let y'all know what I find out about Chernobog; I'd like to use the legend in a sermon sometime.