I hate it when you’re waiting in line at the store and the people ahead of you are taking their sweet time. I was directly in line at a department store checkout with two open registers: the customer at one register was signing up for the store credit card and the other was waiting on a price check. I was standing there for at least five minutes before another clerk came over and opened a third register… just as the price check customer was finished.
I don’t think people understand how these lines/queues need to operate. Most stores are line anarchy and you can go to any register even if some are open and others are not. Usually you’ll see a person checking out with an entire basket full of things and and some guy with a whole bunch of things and you’ll skip that register in favor of another with only one person that’s just starting to pay. It seems like this is the better choice but as soon as you get there the person with the cart of stuff has made their way through and is leaving and the person paying at your register has decided that they would like to pay by check. Seriously, who uses checks at the store? Checks alone are starting to become an antiquated concept as it is so why are they still being used to buy $50 of stuff at Target? It isn’t the elderly necessarily, either–I see people that have to be in their thirties doing this too. I went several years without writing a check and yet these people seem to refuse to give up the skills they learned in 5th grade life skills class. Have these people not heard of debit cards? Obviously they have a checking account if they are writing a check so why on Earth would they not get a debit card instead? Sure, there might be fees, but you still have to order checks when you run out.
Meanwhile, the guy writing the check is still trying to write down “fifty-four dollars and ninety-nine cents” on his stupid little piece of paper and the guy with all the stuff is paying and already about to leave. By the time you get to the clerk the other register is already on its third guy.
Even worse is when you get stuck behind some kid paying for something in pennies. The only place that pennies exist anymore is in the pockets of kids that don’t bother counting out the exact change until they’re at the checkout line waiting to buy a pack of Pokémon trading cards.
I remember as a kid that my favorite fruit snacks weren’t the ones that looked like fruit or amorphous shapes–they were the ones that were shaped like characters that I liked, sharks, dinosaurs, etc. Or, in the case of this box of vintage food that I found in the back of my closet, fruit snacks shaped like jet fighters!
Last time I checked the store’s selection of fruit snack shapes all that they had were licensed characters and generic fruit shapes. There did used to be a place in a mall near me that sold fruit snacks shaped like weird things but they closed years ago. Oh well. I guess if I’m going to be blindly throwing them into my mouth then I don’t care what shapes they are, like the color of M&M’s.
According to the story, Louis Feuillée was shown this creature in Argentina on August 26, 1708. He drew the creature that he saw and later reported it to the King of France. Feuillée was unable to examine the creature up close, but secretly sketched the creature while seeing it from nearby. He then left and drew in the rest of the details of the creature. The creature was supposedly 11 inches long with the face and bodily features of a newborn, denoting that this creature was a stillborn being and thus probably very dead.
This creature was described as “a monster born of a ewe” and went on to describe it to be a chimera of a horse, calf, and a human child. The photo comes from the NOAA Library, item libr0408.
Visit http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/library/monster.html for a complete translation of Feuillés’ account of the monster.
The chances of genetic mutation are rare and this monster reminded me of a story that I read a while ago about a mutant stillborn sheep with a human face. (Warning–contains a graphic photo) I would have to say that the odds of the Feuillés monster being something similar to this are highly likely if Feuillé did in fact see this creature. Even today, 300 years later, we would describe this creature as a monster, so this recent story gives credence to this bizarre tale. In a way, the Turkish mutant sheep takes away some of the fantasitcal charm of the Feuillé monster, but at least Feuillé doesn’t come across as crazy anymore.
I decided to go ahead and presume that this is, in fact, a monster and not a mutant sheep, and thus it could and would grow up to adult form. This is what I believe Feuillé depicted in the drawing and what I re-created.
I went ahead and used the body of a sheep for my interpretation as I find it an unlikely for a creature described as having sheep origins to have the body of a sheep. I compared the body structures of Louis Feuillée’s drawing and a photo of a sheep and found similarities in the breast and head of the sheep. I do not believe the presence of wool diminishes the representation of the original as if it was a sheep monster, it would have both woolly and sheared forms. The initial account described the ears as being horse-like, I used those of a giraffe as they fit the illustration more accurately. I used a human eye, modified to be cycloptic rather than bicloptic, and mouth since these features were distinctly human.
I remember how I felt the first time I played Megaman X on Super Nintendo — it was both a mix of awe of the graphic upgrade from the NES Megaman series and pure auditory bliss from the continued greatness of the Megaman/Rockman musical legacy.
Then I got to the boss at the end of the first level: a purple guy named Vile that the game prevents you from beating. Only a pop-in appearance from a hero named Zero allows you to progress through the game.
Left: Vile; Right: Boba Fett
At first, I was more concerned with trying to make a dent in Vile’s health bar. When I realized that doing this was impossible, I noticed that, somehow, I was fighting a purple Boba Fett.
There’s no doubt about it, I was fighting the purple Boba Fett, not some random robot guy named Vile.
Of course, Boba Fett doesn’t exist in the Megaman universe, but apparently his Mandalorian helmet style does.
It isn’t even limited to just Vile, either. I swear I saw some guys walking around in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind that have the Fett helmet style, as well. It sure is a popular helmet style.
Its been a rough year for Conan O’Brien. Except for that huge severance paycheck. Unemployment and the massive amount of free time that comes along with it leads to a number of things: one of them being a re-evaluation of oneself that results in an analysis of career goals. Usually joining the Empire isn’t part of those results.
This 1997 figure came as a pack-in in with Hasbro’s AT-AT (the 4-legged walkers from “The Empire Strikes Back”) toy vehicle. While it is supposed to be General Veers from the movie, it looks more like the ginger-headed talk show veteran than the Imperial officer that it is intended.
What you see here is a generic soda brand based off of Dr. Pepper that we saw at Wal-mart. The name of the soda seemed so over-the-top that I just had to take a photo. When I look at this, the image of Thor, the god of thunder, comes to mind. Why not put Thor on the box wearing scrubs? That would be pretty neat.
Apparently, Dr. Thunder was originally called “Southern Lightning”, so that gives you an idea of their branding abilities. Now that sounds more like a name for a super hero than a brand of soda. “Don’t worry, Southern Lightning will save you!” Thank Thor they changed it to Dr. Thunder!
At least it’s more exciting then another Dr. Pepper rip-off known as “Dr. Bob”. It’s basically some guy’s name. “Hey, can I have a sip of Dr. Bob?” “Mmm, Dr. Bob is so refreshing and goes down smooth!”… okay I’ll stop there.
2008 saw the theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth chapter in the Indiana Jones quadrilogy and first new Indiana Jones film since 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Along with the release came the usual slew of multimedia products from a LEGO Indy video game to a fake whip for kids to the collectible action figure collection by Hasbro toys that encompassed all four of the Indy movies.
We found this price tag at a Wal-Mart store a while back where the Indiana Jones movie action figures were supposed to be.
I was excited at first when I saw this label because I had been eagerly anticipating the release of the Temple of Doom action figure line. Not only was it my favorite of the films when I was a child but this wave of figures contained the one figure that I had been waiting for since the launch of the line, Thugee cult leader Mola Ram (the guy that pulls the guy’s heart out in the movie). At first I didn’t even notice the strangeness of the error on this tag and began searching vigorously through the nearby pegs of action figures, none of which were Indiana Jones. In fact, there weren’t any Indy figures around and the peg that this tag was on was filled with Batman action figures that hadn’t sold.
Really. No Wal-Mart employee thought this was out of place? Really. Maybe they did it on purpose because they hated the film. Why not just call this “TEMPLE OF DOOM FIG” or something? And why did they bother to include the size of the figures (3.75 inches) in the title if they couldn’t even fit “doom” in there? They even included Indiana Jones in there twice, both as “IJ” and “INDY.” Seriously. How could they screw this up so badly?
I really over-analyzed that poop joke, didn’t I.
Erin and I were at Toys ‘R’ Us and went to a Star Wars display at the front of the store when something on a shelf of clearance items caught my eye. It was perhaps the most unintentionally eerie plush holiday decoration that we had ever seen.
Maybe he was supposed to look this way. Maybe Charlie Brown had finally snapped. Maybe this was some kind of cry for help.
We squeezed his foot and made the music begin and the result was just as spooky. True to Charlie Brown fashion, a jazzy piano version of “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” played. Sure, that’s appropriate for a holiday-themed decoration/toy. The clincher here was that the batteries were near death and the music sounded flat, slow, and downright bizarre.
It was clear that this toy was intentionally trying to scare everyone away from buying it. Maybe it liked sitting on the clearance rack next to some Rudolph action figures. We didn’t care that he wanted to never be purchased. Evil Charlie Brown was something so weird that we had to drop $8 and take him home with us.
The only way to make this guy not look like he’s planning to take over the world was to grab his face and give him a little face lift with my hand.
The effects were only temporary…
Maybe its just a dried apple that was carved into a face.
We ran into this product a while back in the baked goods section at Wal-Mart. “¡Sponch!” is an imported cookie product from Mexico that is essentially shortbread cookies topped with marshmallow, coconut, and strawberry jelly. It doesn’t really matter, though: this stuff takes the Orbitoad prize for best product name ever.
Stay tuned for an upcoming ToadTalk episode where we put “¡Sponch!” to the test. Will it be as good as it’s name is?
It’s Mario’s pal, Toad!
The second entry in the tribute to cookies series is that of the starman power-up from the Mario series of games. Touching these bouncing stars makes Mario temporarily invulnerable and able to kill pretty much any enemy that he runs into. Despite years of testing, power-up does not apply to cookie.
We begin our tribute to humorously-shaped cookies with this “Simpsons” tribute cookie: Bart’s favorite cookie shape, the bloody spearhead.
These photos were submitted by Orbiteammate Katie. These two deer lights were part of a holiday display at a city hall during December 2008. These two deer lights weren’t posed in this compromising position, but this is what the display looked like as you drove by it. Thanks for the photos, Katie.
This was submitted to us by Orbiteammate Katie who spotted this sign at Volano National Park in Hawaii. Apparently, building pules of rocks is considered taboo, hence this sign. However, it would appear that some hooligans have rebelled by building this pile of rocks. Talk about social defiance in action.