Happyblox

Gravity: The Original G.

Check out this amazing footage from a camera mounted on one of the Space Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters during it's decent back to Earth. It's like the worlds best, however unlikely, free fall sky dive. It would be hard to survive you know not made of metal and all. You are traveling near the speed of sound for most of this ride. It amazes me how far of a reach gravity has. Technically you know that it extends far past Earth but when you watch something get sucked back in from outside the atmosphere it is still awe inspiring. A few things to watch for are around 2:45 you can see not only the trail your creating but the residual trail left from the launch, still hovering in the upper atmosphere. Also dig the sounds. You can hear both how fast your going and how much stuff is getting vaporized and knocked off, flailing past you in a blur of metal confetti. In many ways this video describes our current space program in a nutshell. Yes, it is amazing what we can do and the physics of the whole thing is mind boggling but at the same time our process is outdated and for lack of a better word, unsophisticated. Sophistication comes with simplicity in such matters and the Space Shuttle doesn't really have any simplicity. The only simple part is the concept.... attach flammable shit to a flying bus and let it glide home. But thats where the simplicity ends. It is by far the most complicated piece of machinery ever constructed and I don't think it needs to be. I think the Virgin Spacecraft is a much simpler idea, just as an example. Less stuff to break. I am not suggesting it is easy, I am just suggesting that instead of fixing foam problems we should eliminate the foam necessity. Enjoy the ride.

Oh Yeah! A Macho Man Could Save T.V.

Why don't we have characters on television like The Macho Man Randy Savage anymore? Everything these days is a character from a book or a movie or a comic or it's based on a cliche. What happened to the characters that created cliches? The last one may have been Seinfeld and that's sad. The Macho Man was as much of a character as one could be. Real, fake, even at 12 year old I didn't care. Honestly, I still don't. I was always into the characters. If there were one character on television today like Mr. Savage maybe I wouldn't keep falling asleep on the couch and waking up to Antiques Roadshow. From his humble beginnings to his famous interviews and rantings you simply can't deny the power of this guy. Arsenio Hall Couldn't as he tortured Morgan Fairchild on his couch. He is like an intentional train wreck that your allowed, no encouraged to stare at. When you really think about it he is fast on his feet as far as improvisation and being generally intelligible. Maybe if I get less lazy I will try and see what he is up to today. If his organs didn't reject all them roids. Thank you Macho Man for making me ponder fondly a time less complicated and far more colorful. I dare you not to love him watching this!

Do You Really Need That Pier One Catalog? Catalog Choice.org May Be For You.

If you are like me you get a lot of catalogs in the mail. Some, like the Tiger Direct catalog I flip through and sometimes even read. Most I throw into recycling straight away. Not to sound like a total hippie but I do think about the trees when I am throwing away a 150 page catalog from some Swedish furniture company I never heard of. Even though I am recycling them it is still an obvious waste. The good people at Catalog Choice.org must have had that same feeling because now canceling your subscription to all your unwanted catalogs can be achieved on one web page no doubt saving tons of trees, making animals happier and skyrocketing you chances of getting into heaven or at least getting to sleep at night.
The process is simple and you can even add catalogs that they do not list. The ones you do choose to cancel receive a letter from Catalog Choice canceling the subscription in your name. I bet it's all official looking 'n shit too. It probably has skull and crossbones on it and is written in goats blood with a quill pen and mentions certain executives waking up with pet heads in their beds if they don't comply.
Okay, probably not but it gets the job done. If you get even a couple unwanted catalogs do your hippie ass friend Poyla a flavor and check out Catalog Choice.org. Think of all the trees who will finally start talking to you.

Rejuvenique A.K.A. Moron Mask.

On the ever vigilant American quest for a youthful appearance without the annoying prospect of eating right and exercising in comes Rejuvenique. From the very same quest that brought you fat shaking belt machines and The Thigh Master comes an electric stimulation mask. Remember those belts that made your stomach pulsate by running small amounts of electricity though it? (Not you, the ass hats who bought it.) which were supposed to simulate a sit up? Well this is the same thing but for your face. They use fancy terms like "mild impulse", "activating skin", "facial zones" and "facial workout"... Okay, maybe they are not even fancy they are just made up terms. You can call it whatever you want but it's electrocuting your face.... until it spasms.... over and over. This can't be good for you. To top it all off they made the mask look like a drama icon mask or those little painted porcelain masks that teenage girls used to have hanging on their wall. With the electrical chord though, it kind of looks like a crazy psychotic gas mask. What Buck Rodgers wannabe, Clockwork Orange watchin', Botox lips wearin' money burner is buying this thing? Maybe I am over reacting, you tell me. Watch:

Happybox's Team Bronski Wallpapers.

Winter is fun. Some people, like myself, enjoy winter outside from time to time but most enjoy winter in front of the warm glow of their computer screens. So be it. From Team Bronski's latest venture to Killington, VT I bring you 3 exciting new wallpapers. These were taken from my Pentax 8 mega pixel camera and brought down to size in Photoshop. They are available in 2 fun sizes! Lame ass 1024 X 768 and amazingly beautiful 1920 X 1200.

Pipe Dream Escape.
Click here for the 1024 X 768 version, click here for the 1920 X 1200 version.

Mr. Toad's Wild Lift.
Click here for the 1024 X 768 version, click here for the 1920 X 1200 version.

Frozen Gondola Glass.
Click here for the 1024 X 768 version, click here for the 1920 X 1200 version.

enjoy and think snow.

People Are Strange. So Let's Ski The Woods.

Some things you just can't pass up. As some of you know I recently developed the underdog site for Classic Media. I had a lot of material to sort through but I never found anything like this video. (same as below)

This is a woman named Suzanne Muldowney and she portrays Underdog through dance. That is right. Portrays.... Underdog..... through dance. I don't know who is sadder, the announcer "here is Underdog the way it should be done!" or this Suzanne knob "This dance doesn't show I am on a rescue mission, it is just an exhibition number", suggesting that there are scenarios she dances out in other "arrangements". Needless to say she can not dance and has borderline painful social issues. Is it me or does this video remind you of this scene from The Big Lebowski? God people are strange.

This Past weekend me and a few friends were up at Killington in Vermont and it snowed 16 to 18 inches in 3 days. We were on and in sections we never rode before. Killington busts out new glades every year. Of course they have always been there it is just a matter them marking it, which they have been doing, or finding it which we have been doing. Devils fiddle was open, an out west type trail with open rock faces and tight dangerous woods on Bear mountain. Most of the below video was shot there and in Anarchy glades which are located off Great Eastern just after the split to Launch Pad. Duck on in there, it's gated but even if the gate is closed you can head to the right and end up near Julio.

WinAmp Is Still Cool.

Yes itunes is the best, all hail itunes, blah blah blah. Seriously though itunes is an organizational masterpiece. I am an avid music collector and I like things all neat and tidy when it comes to it. One of the only facets of my life I need to be this way but it is what it is. I try to get every album artwork or pictures from the live shows, I like to make sure all the tracks are in the correct order and the bit rates are equal. No program in the history of music has made keeping these things that are near and dear to me in some kind of sane manor. If I want to add I drag and drop, if I want to burn I hit the obvious radioactive burn icon. The less thinking the better when your stuck in itunes. Whatever the easiest way to get there is is most likely the answer. It's like the physical device of acoms razor. There are however other good mp3 playing programs out there and WinAmp has always been one of them. Dare I say they even have itunes trumped in a couple of areas.

One area is it just looks like a cool player. Many skins are available but the basic ones are stellar. I have a feeling itunes tried to copy WinAmp in this department and did a nice job making it their own but to me music on my computer should look like this.Look at that picture! It's like a little slice of music playing future. Another area itunes can't touch is the visualization zone. itunes has a nice default one and some okay down loadable ones that are neat but don't really hold my interest. Even back in the day WinAmp had great visuals. I remember the first time I saw one full screen and was amazed by the lights dancing to the beats. Now the scripts are crazy intricate and involve even more creativity. There are also TONS to download so you can switch between them (within WinAmp's regular design) and offers smaller versions of the visualization window that you can place anywhere, something I dig a lot. It also has something called Active Desktop which projects your visualization as your desktop... thats right a moving desktop...SO COOL! (click on top animated gif to see it in action)
I recently started running a Dell 1920 X 1200 monitor and full screen WinAmp bad ass-ness is simply jaw dropping. I was listening to live Bob Dylan and then live Megadeth and the visuals adjusted perfectly.

To be honest other than simplicity, which I agree is most important, itunes doesn't do all that much that WinAmp couldn't. Play lists, advanced libraries, EQ options, even recoding audio file types. itunes just does most of them easier so with less headaches and more time to listen to music. But if you just downloaded that killer live Pink Floyd show and you want to revel in the warm glow of your HD monitor, or you want your mp3 player to look like a Cylon built it, WinAmp is still your man... er, machine... program. Itunes will always be my bread and butter, staple audio program and it replaced WinAmp for very good reasons but the original has still got some cool looking tricks up it's sleeves. I ended that lame but I don't care, I have some Hendrix to watch.

Challenger SRT8 Launches.

Dodge launches the Challenger SRT8 with this site. I really want this car. I have always been a car person but something about this car speaks to me. Maybe it's the retro design, or the ridiculous power that all my cars so far have lacked. My tuned Saturn SC2 was fast, but this is a different story. 6.1 liter V-8 different. Zero to sixty in 4.9 seconds different. Hell what American male doesn't want a muscle car, even just a little bit? Well if you don't your a commie. Anyway, maybe if they make enough of them they will stick to the suggested 40 grand sticker price. Unfortunately they will probably make only but a few so they will be selling for a lot more. Someday.
Here is the official launch video from the Chicago Auto Show. The Tuttles come in at the end and get real cheesy but before that there are some great stats and shots of the SRT8 in black. JESUS CHRIST I WANT THIS CAR!!!!

Frozen in Grand Central Station.

What do you get when you have 200 or so willing participants and an urge to freak everyone out? aside from a lame segway? You have this video. Why am I never around when this stuff is going down. Scary thing I might not notice. The people In Manhattan that I see frozen are usually one or two at a time and they are on smack. I dig this video and this type of thing in general. Makes life interesting.