A while back Make Magazine published an article about building a cigar box guitar. Josie loves strumming the strings of my guitars, so Tam suggested I build her the cigar box guitar, and then Josie'd have her own guitar to play (and possibly destroy).

We spent last weekend building the guitar. Seems I can now add luthier to my resume.

Building the Guitar Flickr Set

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A little video of the guitar (making and playing it)

May's The Digital Journalist presents a gallery of images from Jonathan Alpeyrie of Veterans from around the world.

In this age of cheap patriotism, when the greatest war sacrifice most of us makes is the damage caused to our clothing through pinning on little flags, it's good to be reminded this Memorial Day that it wasn't always so...

His aim was to photograph and interview this dying generation of combatants, something that had certainly been done many times before, but what Alpeyrie wanted to do that was different was to photograph veterans from every country that fought in the war.

BuzzFeed is a New York based startup building an innovative platform for publishing and tracking viral media and online buzz. We are seeking a talented developer to expand a strong core team of two developers and a front end designer. The ideal candidate is an experienced, New York based, Perl programmer with experience building web applications.

more...

I almost bought one of these for my desk, but $22.00 is just too much to spend, especially when it looks like Satan may be coaching the Knicks next season. I mean, Jesus has never even made it to the playoffs.

(my mom sent me this link to churchgoods.com. See you in hell, Ma.)

As parents, we talk a lot about poop. Not that I didn't talk a lot about poop before we became parents, but now Tam is on board with the poop talk.

Me: Josie, are you poopin'?

Tam: Do you have a poop in your pants?

M: It's nice that poop is a noun and a verb.

T: Don't be such a poop head.

M: nicely done.

M: (from the other room) He ran poopily to the bus stop.

T: Sadly, I was thinking the same thing.

Julie is coming by tonight for dinner. I call her on the phone to confirm, "Willie's Dawgs (a hot dog place on 5th ave) for dinner, yes?"

Tam yells from the other room, "I want a Hot Carl!"

I reply, "You may want to keep that sort of thing to yourself."

Of course, Willie's Dawgs serves a "Carlos" that is a hot dog with cheddar, salsa, jalapeno peppers on a challah roll.

A "Hot Carl" is a whole other thing, and I'm pretty sure Willie does not serve them, pretty sure.

barackoli.com

From the people who brought you Bird Poop and What's Your Poo Telling You?

I found this video while digging through an old hard drive...I made it for a web project called Weekly DV. Each week they asked for short videos on a specific topic. this one was "orange".

subliminal orange from Mark Wilkie on Vimeo.

David comments on a Scientific American article: How Harvard students perceive rednecks: The neural basis for prejudice.

...a civilized society depends not on the people who are currently the most civilized, but those who are most willing to accept change, as social or cultural groupings change, split or coalesce.

Inevitably this means reasonable people rather than faithful people.

A bit of testimony from the murder trial of Hans Reiser:

On cross examination by defense attorney William DuBois, Andrew Conry-Murray said he was a computer technology writer and agreed with DuBois' characterization that computer programmers "are a little bit socially retarded."

"Some are more socially retarded than others?" DuBois asked.

"Yes."

hrm...

A little winter bean, for good measure.

photo by Teresa

Apartment Therapy, a long time client of mine, is looking for a full time programmer. Looking for a great job doing interesting things? Then this is the gig for you.

me: Do you want to see Balls of Fury?

tam: Sure!

me: Really?

tam: Yes, let's see it!

me: You know it's a movie, right?

tam: uh, no.

"Be good," I will say, "or Sting will come with his lute." -ftrain

Josie is one year old today. Happy Day short-stop!

We've been adding some new features to the BuzzFeed widget code, and I am testing it out here on das pill. This not yet ready for public consumption, but if you click on over at the left on one of the buzzfed images, you can see some of our handy work.