Closing some tabs

[undyingking]

A few things that have caught my eye recently:

• BgPatterns is a terrific resource for generating background graphics. Choose your motif, colurs, canvas texture, rotation, scaling, opacity and basically every tweak you might reasonably need. Preview it live on the site, then save it locally as a jpg for your own use. Really nice implementation.
• The Nietzche Family Circus is a small and silly idea, but an effective one. Pair a random Family Circus cartoon with a random Nietzche quotation, step back and admire. This is my favourite so far.
• Essex have introduced what they grandly term Essex Cricket Television. The only clips up so far depict various Essex players humiliating hapless Yorkshiremen last Wed with bat and ball on a screen too small and low-res to identify players, devoid of context such as the current score, and in my case at least the sound wouldn't work. Well, it's a start I guess.
• Rather better are Tim Hunkin's short films about the workings of slot machines in general, and his Under the Pier Show in particular.

Comments

[ubiquitous-cat.livejournal.com]

No cricket has happened in the past two weeks, I refuse to admit that there has been any possibility of Yorkshire playing and losing, nor of England throwing away a test match and not bothering to turn up for the other.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

playing and losing

Not to mention being disqualified from the most lucrative opportunity in English cricket...

[ubiquitous-cat.livejournal.com]

Twenty Twenty will never take off, nor does fielding an illegible player make you worthy of being disqualified if it did. I think I'll remain with my head stuck in the sand.

On another note, what do you think of the Twenty Twenty world cup next year?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I'm quite looking forward to it: the last one was a bit farcical but there were some good bits (Zim beating Aus, Yuvraj's 6 6s, the climax of the final). But I think the teams will take it a bit more seriously next year: the establishment of the IPL and related events has solidified it as an established form of cricket.

I posted a little while back that I didn't really think much of the format as cricket, but we're stuck with it now so might as well make the most of it.

Tbh it could hardly do worse than the last 50-over World Cup, anyway.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

it could hardly do worse than the last 50-over World Cup, anyway.

At least the grounds will be floodlit.

[ubiquitous-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not convinced of the format, I've had some interesting discussions with Brian W over it, he's not keen on the short format of cricket at all whilst I quite like one day.

I think it will be the death of 50 over, one day cricket, the IPL will suck all the talented batsmen who are able to slog the ball to India until other countries can match the wage structure.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

able to slog the ball to India

That's quite a shot!

It seems to have already killed off the 40-over (Sunday League) format here, not that that's really any great loss I think.

[triskellian]

Wow. I love the background graphic generator - thanks!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Would also be useful for making wallpaper (house rather than desktop) if you have quite a heavy-duty printer, I'm guessing.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Nietzche Family is very silly. My favourite result so far is this one, mostly because of the way the quote seems like the girl's dialogue.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

And then the next one I generate is this. But I promise I'll stop posting them to your LJ now!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's great. They should have a best-of gallery, like the BgPatterns site.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I got one with the old "Do not gaze for long into an abyss..." quote that had a child speaking to a man on the beach, while the man was distracted by a generously proportioned young lady in a bikini. It was very amusing, but you had to be there. And I didn't get the permalink before clicking again...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mum in the background thinks: I heard that, young missy. No more red smarties for you!