So, I’ve been using twitter sporadically. I’m still feeling it out and not sure if I will continue using it, but signs point to yes. For now.

It’s like a weird form of irc-like chat in slowmotion, where you start off ignoring everyone in one gigantic world-wide room. Everyone is also ignoring you. You can befriend somene, which means you have essentially unignored them and now receive their messages. They’re not seeing yours, though, until they befriend (or “follow”) you.

You can also see who someone is following, but not who is following them.

I’m r3v there.

Also, for a complete waste of time, check out the mesmerizing Twittervision.

Via the Daily Mail:

‘Unclean’ guide dog banned by Muslim cab driver | the Daily Mail: A Muslim minicab driver refused to take a blind passenger because her guide dog was “unclean”.

Abdul Rasheed Majekodumni told Jane Vernon she could not get into his car with the dog because of his religion.

Islamic tradition warns Muslims against contact with dogs because they are seen as impure.

That’s about as far as I got in the article before I paused, flipped out a little bit inside my skull, and then went to Google to see if there was anything I could find to back this up.

Yeah, there’s a LOT to back it up.

Seems dogs are not prohibited as pets in the Quran itself, however Muhammad still didn’t think much of them apparently. Ok, so he wasn’t a dog person. It ends there, right? Not so much. Hadith, which has nearly as much of an impact on a muslim’s daily life as the Quran and Sharia, pretty much states dogs can only be used for security and hunting.

I’ve just read about five different explanations of the Islam stance on dogs and a couple of counterpoints from muslims as well, one saying that that particular hadith is fabricated. After all of it, I come away feeling that Islam is a weirder religion than I thought.

Via #!/usr/bin/girl:

Time: Character Actors: Time has a fantastic photo essay of 8 actors doing what they do best: showing the range of human emotion. I only wish there were more pictures.

She’s right. These are some really great photographs. Two things I noticed: Kelsy Grammar does creepy really well and Christopher Lloyd kinda looks like my Uncle Taylor.

I absolutely love this guy’s work.

I saw it mentioned on Attack of the Show on G4 a few weeks ago and forgot to blog it. This guy takes (really) old portraits and, well, hacks them so that from certain angles, they look spooky. It’s really f’n cool. And creepy.

The site’s tagline is “real girls, imaginary relationships.” The service allows you to select a girl from their stable and carry on a pretend relationship with her…

Just make up how you met and include any details about yourself that you want your new girlfriend to know. Within days you’ll receive personalized love letters by mail, e-mails, photos, special gifts… even phone messages or online chat. Every Imaginary Girlfriend is unique.

I suppose you can have imaginary sex with your imaginary girlfriend too. Of course, that’s not really different than many of the relationships I had in high school. But why? Why would someone use this service, you ask?

There are many reasons. Some guys are tired of being told by friends and family to get a girlfriend. Maybe you would like to make someone else jealous when they see how enamored your new girlfriend is by you. Perhaps you are wondering what it’s like to have a long distance girlfriend?

These are all good reasons, and it really depends on your situation. Having an Imaginary Girlfriend can be a lot of fun. What guy (or girl) wouldn’t enjoy being showered with personal love letters and affection of an Imaginary Girlfriend? Having an Imaginary Girlfriend can be a great confidence booster!

Apparently Imaginary Girlfriends require less care than Sea Monkeys:

No! You do not have to write back or acknowledge your Imaginary Girlfriend.

Note, this should not be attempted with real girlfriends. It is highly unadvisable! At any rate, I think the best part of the service just might be what happens at the end:

When the stated time period is over, you can break up with your Imaginary Girlfriend for any reason you wish. She will write you a final letter begging you to take her back.

Now that’s comedy.

No… really: Feto Soap. I know, upon first
hearing the name, you’re thinking “soap for washing feti?” or something. Well,
first let me tell you this: It’s “fetuses” not “feti”. Also, no.. it’s not for
washing fetuses… I mean, can you even imagine the logistics of that? You can?
Ew, that’s gross. Stop it.

Yeah, I know what the rest of you are thinking too.. “Soap made from feti.. er
fetuses?!” And no, that’s not exactly accurate either. It’s just soap
that contains a fetus… it’s not really made from them.

Ok, ok.. so it’s not a REAL fetus. Picky, picky.

An article on Kiro5hin points to an article on The Scotsman about Russian Orthodox Monks “selling” prayers on their monastery’s website. I guess there’s more than a couple people irked by this, but I don’t see the big deal. I mean, in other churches throughout the world, churchgoers drop some cash on the collection plate and I don’t think most of them even get to make specific requests. Who’d have guessed these guys would be so technologically savvy. (I’m guessing the guy in the back with the shades is the webMonk.)

Ok. So I stumbled upon a quicktime video out on the net of a girl stacking cups… competitively. She’s freakishly fast at this odd event. I mean seriously freakish. She might be a mutant. (No offense, Emily.) The video is hosted by a company called Speed Stacks. The Leader in the Sport of Cup Stacking™

That’s right. The Leader in the Sport of Cup Stacking™… with the ™ and everything.

On their About Us page, they say: “As more and more Physical Education teachers introduce cup stacking units in their classes, they see first-hand the benefits of this sport, not to mention the excitement being generated by students.” Huh. I wonder if this is going to cut into the number of young hopefuls who pursue athletic careers in the realms of speed-typing and card-shuffling.

In their Store (yes, they have a store page) they have all sorts of sport stacking paraphernalia, including Super Stacks. “These cups are specially weighted - just like the pros use.” Pros.

Did I mention they’re talking about stacking cups?