Aziz Ansari in Sh_ttiest Mixtape Boombox Blast.

Massively Multiplayer Pong. It sounds like a gimmick, but give it a minute and you'll notice all sorts of behaviors emerge: players trying to sabotage their team (or just assert their own individuality or their will?) by seeing how far in the wrong direction they can move their team's paddle, the effect of the popular vote as to where the ball will impact next on the rest of the players (even when it's not the right location), and so on. Interesting idea. Blue rules.

Link via POF.

My favorite new word is "retcon". Honestly, I learn something new every day around here.

New Music Monday!

As if the post below weren't enough to assault your ears, I've posted a new tune (as in brand new!) to the Podcast. Click on the Podcast or iTunes links at left to give 'er a listen.

Take The Lord's Goodness

The first time I heard "Sing Of the Lord's Goodness" in Church, I was gobsmacked. I searched the copyright notice at the bottom of the page to see if Dave Brubeck's name was there somewhere. It wasn't. Over time, my sense of outrage at Ernie Sands' act of blatant plagiarism grew and grew until finally something had to be done; something to educate the world at the grave injustice against an icon of American music, who for six decades has done his best to enrich our culture with his own brand of jazz composition and piano stylings, and who deserves a lot better than to have his work ripped off by the toilet-paper factory that is OCP Publications.

Yes, something had to be done to educate people to Sands' crime. And I only had 10 minutes and a slightly overexaggerated sense of righteous indignation to do it. And thus, "Take The Lord's Goodness" (.mp3) was born (and actually reading it now, this build up is a bit more than the clip actually merits, but oh well.

The story of the THX "Deep Note": the official version and the unofficial version.

Barb Nicolosi makes the case for going to see "Over the Hedge" on May 19.

Sounds good to me. Let's go!

Curious George has got to be just about the sweetest movie made in the last 30 years. You may fault it's thin story but if you ask me, it could have done with even less story and more monkey antics (though there were antics a-plenty, most of which pointed back to scenes from H.A. Rey's -- who himself got a nod -- books). Anyway, no matter who you are, it will warm the cockles of your heart and keep you entertained for an hour and twenty-two minutes. The most telling thing of all is that this winsome 2D-animated film was preceded by previews for a good half-dozen computer-animated films coming out over the next nine months from just about every motion picture studio I'd ever heard of. NONE of which looked remotely appealing.

And, yes, I've given Battlestar Gallactica a fair chance. Try as I might, though, I can't get past the humorless, predictable stories, terrible dialogue (any time you have a supposedly repected military officer saying "It's time to think outside the box, people," you've lost me), and sophomoric camera work. Plus, everything about the humans in that show just makes me want the Cylons to exterminate them all the more quicker (say, there's an idea: how about a Dalek/Cylon alliance? Ronald D. Moore, are you listening?). Maybe that's the point of the show, though.

I promised myself that the next time I registered a domain name solely because I thought it sounded cool, I'd put something, anything, up there, no matter how stupid.

Now that I've gone and done it, though, I'm still left with that horrible empty feeling.

Stay tuned this coming week: I had reason this weekend to dig up my old 4-track tape recorder and dig out some of the songs I did in college. We'll be featuring two of them on the podcast this week: songs no one has heard since 1996, not even me (well, until this weekend).

So be sure to stick around for the first in a series of Buried Folderol Weeks on The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey.

I expanded the Robot Love ringtone (see two posts down), so we'll see how that sounds. If you want to hear the wav file version, scratchy down-sampled and all, click here.

As for Verizon, I don't know how to load ringtones onto those phones, but apparently my music will be available via their download service at some point.

What is a Plog™?

RAC alerts me to a potential copyright infringement by Amazon of one of my intellectual properties.

From the Amazon description: "Every person's Plog is different (hence the name)...." What? Does that make any sense? "Plog" stands for an individual person's Amazon homepage? That's quite a stretch. Wheras "Plog" as a "Puppet webLOG" is obviously the only thing "Plog" could mean and Amazon has ripped me off.

As soon as I find someplace online that has generic cease and desist letters, they will hear from me. Actually, this one looks good but instead of asking for $150,000, maybe I'll ask for an XBox or Coldplay CD.

Okay.. let's see what their help-desk in India has to say about this:

Dear Amazon.com,

It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work entitled “Plogging: The Future, Pt. I” (the "Work") in the preparation of a work derived therefrom. I have reserved all rights in the Work, first published in January, 2003. Your work entitled “What is a Plog? http://www.amazon.com/gp/plog/about.html/ref=cm_plog_learn/103-2400552-3399007?%5Fencoding=UTF8&newWin=1) is essentially derivative of the Work and clearly used the Work as its basis: the description of the origin of the term “Plog” on your webpage is utterly fanciful and inadequate and does not reasonably provide enough reason to dissuade one from making the connection to my original Work.

As you neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work as the basis for “What is a Plog?” nor to make or distribute copies, including electronic copies, of same, I believe you have willfully infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as an Xbox 360 or a Coldplay CD as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.

I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the Work, and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future. If I have not received an affirmative response from you by Ash Wednesday, 2006, indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, I shall take further action against you.

Very truly yours,

Victor Lams
www.victorlams.com

Download your very own "Robot Love" Ringtone

In honor of something, I've made a short ringtone of "Robot Love" and if you have a Sprint phone, you can download it to your phone (most likely) in three easy steps.

1. Right click on this link: Robot_Love.qcp and save the file to your desktop.

2. Go to the Rumkin.com file uploader page and follow the instructions, in the File Name field, browse to and select the Robot_Love.qcp file on your desktop.

3. Finish the rest of the page and wait for the ringtone to be delivered to your phone. It's that easy. Oh, and delete the qcp file off your desktop as you probably don't need it anymore.

Anyway, standard text-messaging fees apply, yadda yadda, whee.

Tomorrow is Love Your Robot Day.

While some may question the origins of this holiday, I (along with only a handful of other people in the universe) know the origin of this special day and why it was first celebrated in 2001.

So don't just stand there, send an e-card!.

According to mp3.com, my music is like Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. and Bruce Haack's. I'll have to check both of them out sometime.

If you like Richard Dean Anderson as much as we do, and somehow managed to watch three quarters of the Super Bowl and still miss his commercial, then, this is for you.

The Escapist Magazine.

Worst Katamari Damacy player ever.

Seriously. I've never seen anyone play keep-away with the Prince's katamari before.

Brilliant.

"Brokeback to the Future"

link via POF.