Lego Mini Figures secret!

The Lego Mini Figures: kids love them, but they're a nightmare for parents or anyone who gives them to a kid as a gift.

Nothing's worse than spending $4 or so on one of these only to have the kid open it and learn it's one of the figures they already have.

I talked to someone today who had this problem. Her son wanted a very specific mini-figure for his birthday, but trying to figure out exactly what was in that package without buying it and opening it up was next to impossible.

Until now. Here's a way to know what's in the package before opening it! For series 1 & 2, it's a barcode tracker. For series 3 & 4, it's a dot decoder. Here's the links you'll need to insure you never end up shelling out $4 for a duplicate again...

Series 1 barcode tracker

Series 2 barcode tracker

Series 3 dot decoder

Series 4 dot decoder

More Rapture fun...

Good old, certifiably insane Harold Camping is at it again. Despite being wrong and being turned into a worldwide media joke twice now, he's going for the trifecta of thick-headedness.

The Rapture was supposed to happen Saturday. All the good people were going to head off to supper and the rest of forever in Heaven. In the meantime, life on earth would be miserable for the rest of us, eventually resulting in the complete and total destruction of the planet (by God) on October 21st.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Harold now claims that God did actually show up for a visit on Saturday - spiritually. All we have to go by here is Harold telling us it happened, so of course it must have.

Now there is actual physical proof that Virgin Mary made an appearance on Saturday. She stopped down for a visit in Streamwood, Illinois and found herself on the underside of a turtle. That had to be unpleasant, so I'm sure the visit was brief, but at least she left her mark. See the turtle image on the NBC Chicago website.

But Harold didn't foresee that phenomenon. So back to God's roundtrip road trip on Saturday.

Why didn't God take all his faithful followers up to Heaven that day when he left? What was God's exact message when he returned? And more importantly, is it something that could be turned into a really cool catchphrase that Harold can put on a T-shirt and sell for October 21st? Did God try the secret off-the-menu animal-style burger at In-N-Out while he was out that way? Sadly, we're not going to learn the answers to any of those important questions because there's only room in Harold's mind for one thing - a new & improved deranged diatribe resulting in future false prophecy number three...

The world will still be ending - completely - on October 21, 2011. Here's a direct quote from Harold on this: "The world has been warned. The world is under judgement. We're just learning we have to look at all this more spiritual. But it won't be spiritual on October 21."

Why couldn't Harold just go with the flow and pick December 21, 2012 like all the other crazy people? No, he just has to be different. So this year, the world will be not-ending twice!!!

And for those wondering about Harold Camping himself, he's been making the rounds doing TV interviews. Feast your eyeballs on God's new BFF (in Harold's mind at least)...

How annoying are you?

There's a new survey online that lets you know how picky, arrogant, and irritating you are.

It's a short 20-question survey, took me about a minute or so to do, and is completely free.

Give it a try here.

On a scale from 1 to 5, I'm a 2.83. That's about average. I'm kind of picky, not very arrogant, but I guess I am a little irritating.

The survey was created by personality psychologist Robert Hogan for the book Annoying: The Science Of What Bugs Us by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman.

Harold Camping's response...

...appears to be nonexistent at the moment. Maybe he's in hiding, totally embarrassed by failure #2. Of course, anyone with even half a brain could have predicted that.

I can't say I was surprised at waking up today. I sure wouldn't have started watching the Twin Peaks box set last night had I known I'd never see the resolution of who killed Laura Palmer. Yeah, I've seen it all before, but was in the mood to relive the whole thing again.

One of the best articles I could find on Harold at the moment is something from the International Business Times which speculates on what he'll do today. Maybe he can continue to spend some of the hundred million he wasn't able to spend before the so-called end of the world.

He could always treat himself and his followers to a few In-N-Out burgers today I guess. It's the least he could do after fleecing them of their money and lives. Many of his sheep followers have given up everything, so sure that he'd be right. I can't feel bad for them though since believing something like this is outright insane.

Here's an article from an Associated Press writer about what some of his followers think about all this now that May 21st has passed.

The one thing I could hope would happen is the FCC would take away his licenses for his Family Radio network of radio stations. Someone like that should not be allowed to run radio stations, especially when those frequencies could be used for so many better things.

In light of all this, another song comes to mind now...




UPDATE 5/23/11: Here's a few articles revealing Harold Camping's thoughts on his failed prophecy and what some of his followers think about all this...

San Francisco Chronicle article

National Journal article

L.A. Times article

Rapture & the world ending today...

At 6pm tonight (9pm Eastern time as this comes from California), the world will supposedly end. Although technically, what's actually going to happen is the rapture.

This according to Harold Camping of the Family Radio Network in Oakland, California. The original date of his prediction was September 6, 1994. But that came and went and nothing happened other than Michael Jackson & Aerosmith winning awards at the 11th MTV Awards.

See a picture of this crazy person and read more about how he came up with his theory in an online article from The Independent.

As for my take on this (I guess I'm about to get philosophical or at the very least "deep"), I'm making plans to maybe go to Darien Lake tomorrow at one point. I probably wouldn't be doing that if I thought the world was going to end. Or rapture.

Apparently, what this nutcase thinks is going to happen is about 2% of the world's population is going to go straight to Heaven at 6pm Pacific time tonight. The other 98% will remain in a very bad place (which if I understand right ends up being right here on Earth).

Now I like being here. Got a lot of friends & family, awesome things to do (Niagara Falls, Phoenix & Viper roller coasters, lots of great books to read, etc), and a lot of incredible food to eat (I'm specifically thinking of the Flying Saucer Restaurant right now - that alone probably excludes me from Harold's crazy bus to the sky). I don't want to be raptured!

And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the world would be a better place if some of these lunatics that believe crazy Harold Camping did in fact get raptured and went away (of their own free will of course). That may offend some, but I know you were thinking it too! :)

The thing that really shocks me is this group has managed to collect a hundred million dollars over the past seven years for this cause! But they weren't able to spend all of that yet. Hey rapturers, since you're leaving anyways, can you send some of that leftover money my way? If of course you read this in the next few hours.

I was going to put up a video of Harold here, but I like this far better instead (because I know it will be appropriate at 9:01pm Eastern time tonight)...

Angry Birds & Pomplamoose!

It seems everyone is obsessed with that Angry Birds game.

I just haven't been able to get into it though. My favorite right now is Frisbee Forever, easily the best game I've found on my iPhone. And amazingly, it's completely free!

In Frisbee Forever, you throw a frisbee and then have to maneuver it through rings to get through the course. There's tons of levels and I just can't get myself to stop playing this.

Eventually, I'll conquer all the levels and then maybe I'll give Angry Birds another try. One thing I do love about Angry Birds is the theme music - especially when Pomplamoose does it!

They're the group that did all the clever Christmas song remakes this past year for the Hyundai car commercials. The Angry Birds theme is done in their trademark style and the short video is pretty funny (and fits right in with the game)...

Lady Gaga's Oprah performance...

I'm sure this won't be on Youtube for long, so for now enjoy Lady Gaga performing on a giant high heel with a stingray looking hat on her head...

Steven Tyler's new book...

Steven Tyler is definitely making the most of his American Idol judging experience. It seems like he's been in the news constantly since the announcement that he would be one of the American Idol judges.

And now the ultimate - a memoir titled "Does The Noise In My Head Bother You". It's been flying off the shelves at bookstores.

Here's a quote he had about the book: "I've been mythicized, Mick-icized, eulogized and fooligized, I've been Cole-Porter'd and farmer's-daughter'd, I've been Led Zepp'd and 12-stepped. I'm a rhyming fool and so cool that me, Fritz the Cat, and Mohair Sam are the baddest cats that am."

Based on that, maybe the book won't be the easiest read. I'm not the biggest fan of autobiographies, so I'll probably pass on this one. But if you want to check it out, get it here.

A Florida Feud: Alligator vs. Police Car...

So wrong...

Japan always seem to be on the cutting edge of technology. And usually great things come from that. But not so this time.

It's a device that lets you kiss someone over the internet. Ew.

Miley Cyrus covering Nirvana?!

She rocked it, but I'm sure Kurt Cobain is now spinning at light speed in his grave...