Gymnast's Optical Illusion

MoIllusions.com

I can't help it, I love optical illusions, especially when they are made via real life photos. This one kinda took a minute because I kept thinking she was supposed to be in the pool, but I'm a bit sleepy too. Anyway, there are more at that same link - click the photo or the link below.

Amazing Mind-Blowing Optical Illusion

I found this via Digg, but the actual image is at ICanHasInternets.com. It is just a simple image but when you take into account all that you see, it is very interesting. Really take a look at the details on this!

Click for Full Size

Source: http://www.icanhasinternets.com/2011/07/if-this-picture-doesnt-blow-your-mind-you-dont-have-one/

Magic School Bus on XKCD (and Other Childhood Favorites)

http://xkcd.com/911/

I don't read XKCD much, but I've liked many of the ones I've read.

This one in particular caught my fancy since I used to love watching The Magic School Bus and even caught an episode or two within the past year. The Magic School Bus is one of the many things I miss about being a kid, along with My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Not that all cartoons nowadays are bad (though many are), and not that all the cartoons from back in the day were great (though most were - yes, I'm being biased).

Best Free Imaged Editing Software (When You're Too Broke for Photoshop)

Microsoft Blog News Channel

I recently developed an interest in creating some forms of art (God forbid). I've created some logos lately that I thought looked pretty good (including the one for my blog), which was encouraging. I've actually always had some interest in taking really good, professional looking photos and being able to edit them though. Taking the recent photos and videos of the tornado aftermath and taking some photos of storm clouds and lightning (to be posted here in the very near future!) has helped pique this interest, even though it's been underlying for some time.

Even more fun though is to mess with photographs of people. I have a nephew that takes amazing, magazine-worthy photos with his $300 digital camera. $300 is a bit pricey for a digital camera but not in comparison to some of the models out there. I don't have $300 to spend on a fancy digital camera and I'm too prone to breaking expensive toys so I wanted to opt for a cheaper route but still learn some good photographing techniques.

New Logo? How to Set Your Blogger Icon

I am proud to announce that I have a new logo for the site. I am using this logo on my other Desultory Thought site - http://www.desultorythought.blip.tv as well, and it's much smaller on there, so I am curious to know if it is decently easy to make out (the DT specifically).

Julie & Julia Movie Review - Who's the Real Julie Powell?

2 Girls 1...Movie

The movie Julie and Julia is half about Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) and Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep). Part of what got me back into writing on my blog was seeing a movie about her blogscapades (did I make a new word?). Her blog was seen, her blog was reviewed, her blog eventually turned into some sort of a money maker in spite of it being simplistic and honestly very plain. It's got plenty of novelty, sure, but really she's just describing her cooking adventures. I'm forcing my opinions on life and love, where's my attention?! (I'm kidding, of course.)

Back to Julie and Julia. Glancing at the real Julie Powell's blog that made her famous, I notice that she seems far more brash than how Amy Adams portrays her in the film. Despite the short haircut in the film, I guess she has to maintain some level of innocence since she did play in a Disney film. Really, how would it look to see this girl...

Picture her cussing at the squirrels...

...dropping f-bombs? While singing and cleaning an apartment with help of birds and rodents? (I wonder if Julie Powell was happy to be played by Amy Adams?)

A quick glance of Julie Powell's real blog: The Julie/Julia Project, is not quite what you might expect after watching the movie. Then again, watching the movie is not quite what you expect after seeing the previews. The previews are exactly what you expect them to show in order to successfully reach a target audience probably full of middle-age women. Wait, I really looked forward to seeing this movie. Is that what I'm becoming? A middle-aged woman? No, not quite yet there.

By the way, if anyone is interested in seeing that film I will not spoil it for you. But I will say that Julie and Julia is, very literally, Julie and Julia. The movie is literally two movies (or stories) semi-intertwined into one.

I really enjoyed learning about Julia Child. Meryl Streep is an excellent Julia Child and even got her voice down beautifully. Unfortunately, since Amy Adams played an until-some-years-ago Unknown, there's not much to compare her to. I don't know if anyone knew of Julie Powell prior to the movie, unless they had already come across her blog. Maybe I'm way off there, since she wouldn't have a movie if it weren't for her blog and her blog wouldn't have become so popular if she didn't have many readers.

Something fascinating - and sad - about finding the real Julie Powell is A) A Google search for "Julie and Julia" produces over 21 million results - and it is not until result #5 that the "Julie/Julia Project" actually appears. Julie and Julia the movie overshadows the Julie/Julia Project blog that (half) the Julie and Julia movie was based off! That's Hollywood for you. B) She appears to have stopped publishing to her fan base long ago from the original site. The last writing was from 2004. She now has a different blog, titled "What Could Happen? Musings from a 'Soiled and Narcisstic Whore'." However, she wrote it on Blogger also - I guess that's a start for me?

How to Get People to Watch TV Again (Joke)

More Funny Stuff on DT:
Internet Safety Guidelines
Different Types of Geeks
The Husband Store
Police Officer Makes a DUI Stop

A Classic Female Joke
Best Fat Jokes from Cyanide and Happiness