chris | word

I have not been as good about putting things up at this blog as I intended to be. I know, enough with the excuses. It’s just, well, you know. . .  a pain in the ass to find things I deem worthwhile to post here.

I tend to over analyze what I’m going to say here or post here, which is sorta dumb considering its my blog and I do what I want. It should just be enough that I manage to put up something.

I suppose I could just put up any old thing I find lying around the Internets. That might work. Let’s give it a shot, shall we?

To start us off, here’s a video of Aziz Ansari saying funny things.

As always, no need to thank me.

We are relocating this week and for some reason our Internet isn’t working at the old place and I have not had it set up at the new place yet. Poor planning on my part to be sure.

To keep things moving along as best I can I’ve borrowed an Internet Connection Device from a “friend” and am using it to do a few things online. Thank goodness for friends with free Internet Connection Devices. That’s all I can say.

Dealing with my trauma today I’ve realized not having access to the Internet is very strange, at least in my part of the world. I have to admit when I couldn’t get online this morning I felt like something was missing. It was a strange feeling to be sure.

It’s also pretty weird to think that people in some parts of the county, and the world, don’t have access to the Internet. I feel very bad for them. Although, they probably don’t really know what they’re missing. Hard to miss something you’ve never had.

For me, I’m really not sure how I could live without it for more than a day or two. Although, sometimes I think about taking a long vacation and being unplugged for a week or more.

I wonder how I would handle it. I’m guessing not well at first, but I would like to think I would eventually adjust.

Although, you never know. I might not ever be able to kick the Internet habit.

Huh, I’m starting to sound just like some addicts I know. That can’t be good.

With all the content being produced these days it’s pretty much impossible to see it all. In fact, I’m lucky if I get to spend an hour or so a day looking for new things to watch let alone watching the programming I have to in order to write about it or review it for The Flickcast.

Fortunately, that’s one of the many things friends are for. This time around, my pal Rick Marshall pointed me to this particular episode of The Daly Show (not to be confused with The Daily Show with John Stewart) and I have to say, it’s pretty damn funny.

In case you’re not familiar, the show features the exploits of actor Tim Daly and his son Sam. Plus, they have special guests on each show. This episode’s guests? Nathan Fillion and Michael Rosenbaum.

Awesome? Yes.

Well, it’s really more than one. Occasionally when I’m bored, or avoiding work, writing or whatever, I check out a site called The Chive. If you’ve seen it, you know what it is. If not, maybe you’ll check it out sometime.

For those of you who don’t know and don’t want to check it out, let’s just say I like to go there sometimes because once in awhile a guy just wants to see pictures of girls in yoga pants and random people doing random, and often strange, things. And did I mention the yoga pants? I think I did. Okay.

Case in point on the random tip are the photos below. I had a distinct reaction to each of them. I will leave it you you to guess what that reaction was.

I also included these photos because I may start highlighting some random photos here every friday. Or, who knows, maybe more often.

Okay, continue with enjoying your Friday/Weekend.

This made me laugh out loud, or LOL as the kids are saying these days. I can just picture Darth Vader keeping tabs on his minions this way.

I don’t know about you, but many times when I’m writing a story, a script or something else that calls for a particular character to have a name (which happens frequently — characters need names after all), I sometimes get stuck on what name to use. Fortunately, through the miracle of modern technology, this problem is now a thing of the past.

Behold, the random name generator. Refresh a few times to get the name you want and then use it for all its worth. While we’re on the subject of writing, here’s a few other cool writing-related sites (and sites maintained by writers I like) that I sometimes use for inspiration, knowledge and/or to steal ideas from (No, not actual story ideas. More ‘how’ rather than ‘what’).

In fact, I actually ‘borrowed’ some of these links from fellow writer and all-around-nice-guy (aka ‘non-dick’) Wil Wheaton. Turns out we have similar tastes in writing resources. Who knew?

Jane Espenson

Mark Verheiden

Mark Millar

Garth Ennis

Warren Ellis

4 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Writers

Some Very Helpful Grammar Lessons

And, seeing as we happen to still be on the subject of writing, one of my comic books is inching dangerously close to actually getting art to go along with its wonderfully realized prose — which also means its inching closer to publication too. For now, that’s all I can say. Still, this is very good time for me and may lead to an even better time soon. But as they say in the news biz “More on that story as it develops.”

In other words, I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

i don’t know if i should be happy or a little concerned about this one. if you type a search for “chris ullrich” at google.com, i come up as the number one response with my other website: chrisullrich.net. that’s a little weird. but also, a little bit cool.

In order to help us figure out what is real and what we should and should not care about, CNet has posted its Top 10 Web Fads. Like it or not. Agree or not. It sure makes you think. Or not.

Whatever you think or feel you own it. Even if its influenced by the mass media or the cute girl who served you your Starbucks this morning. No matter what, that feeling is yours.

Enjoy it. No, I feel like going to bed. So, I am. Perhaps I will dream about Ellen Feiss.

Now that could be a good name for a band. But really, its your tax dollars hard at work as our government’s big brains have created zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans. Be sure to check it out.

Oh, apparently everything you know and love about the internet and file sharing is about to change for the worse. At least according to the EFF after the Supremes found against Grokster in Grokster v. MGM. Who knows what the fallout will actually be from this decision. It may very well be very bad for innovation and may change the internet landscape forever. I don’t know.

Or, maybe people will actually have to start paying for the stuff they download from the internet? What a crazy idea, I know. It’s so crazy, it just might work. I guess we will just have to wait and see. No matter what happens, it shouldn’t be boring.

those busy people at Google now offer you the world. with google maps you can map our whole planet. you can’t click and zoom into every country just yet but you can see some cool satellite images. it’s just a matter of time, though, until you can get a detailed street map of the whole planet. that’s pretty amazing.