http://www.friday.com/bbum ...so google can organize my head. Sun, 11 May 2008 06:02:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I picked up Boom Blox for the Wii today. Even in playing it for only a bit, it is truly an awesome game. The physics are just flat out fantastic. Basically, you throw a baseball like thing at towers of blocks into which various colored glass blocks are ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/05/11/wii-boom-blox/ Full size. Desktop works well. http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/05/08/desktop-flame-daffodil/ The Bay Area Vegetarians linked to my Maker Faire 2008 post in their summary of their presence at the Maker Faire. Specifically: And then there were those who looked from a distance at our model of battery caged hens, read our sign about WHY VEGAN, but didn’t approach. As one blogger frankly ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/05/06/bay-area-vegetarians/ The Maker Faire is always full of surprises. The fine folks at Far West Fungi had a wonderful display of growing mushrooms, were selling mushroom mini farms, and were sharing a lot of mushroom lore. I'll definitely be ordering some fresh mushroom products from them in the near future! On my ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/05/05/truffle-salt/ Maker Faire 2008 Day One is over and done with. The show feels like it is about twice the size of last year. The scale of awesomeness is definitely 2x. There have been a number of changes beyond the scale. The various displays/booths have been re-organized and the organization ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/05/04/maker-faire-2008/ In the forest, the various bugs common to the leafy undercover were waking up, too. This is a red velvet mite (Trombidiidae). They play a critical, if slightly surprising, role in the health of the forest. Namely, the larval stage is parasitic and effectively controls populations of locust, grasshoppers ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/05/03/early-spring-bugs-in-missouri/ The New York Times has an awesome article about Gary Stern of Stern Pinball, the last pinball manufacturing company around. This may not be entirely true. There was a company in Australia that bought the rights to a bunch of Bally/Williams IP and is supposed to re-making ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/04/25/last-pinball-factory-around/ Of course, any time we spend a while visiting my parents in Columbia, Missouri, Roger looks for any and all wild creatures. Within minutes of arriving, Roger had already found one of these cute little Ringneck Snakes (Diadophis punctatus). Two more followed shortly thereafter. They are each well less ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/04/20/early-spring-critters-in-missouri/ Roger and I (and Christine, for most of the week) have spent the last week in Columbia, Missouri visiting my family In other words, Roger and I have spent most of the last week hiking around the land that surrounds my parent's house every day. I took a handful of photos ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/04/19/water-light/ During the first weekend in April 2008, Roger and I headed to Castle Rock State Park for a bit of a walk in the woods. Castle Rock State Park is located about 20 minutes from downtown Saratoga, CA off of Skyline Boulevard. The park has lots of trails and there is an ... http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/04/13/castle-rock-state-park-a-walk-in-four-micro-climates/