I Found the Strangest Things on My Way Here

That's what threetwoone is all about. It creates diagrams of relationships. Some of the relationships are familial, others geographical, and yet others well...? Some of the excellent relationship diagrams that can be found at the site are War of the Roses, Hitler family tree, and overview of the Hebrew bible. Coming soon: Schindler's list and Sherlock Holmes.

TRON was a movie made back in 1982. It was the story of a computer programmer that is captured by the computer and forced to participate as a virtually real combatant in the games of the machine. Along the way he meets some intelligent programs fighting for the principles of good and evil. Crazy story, right? Well maybe but the computer effects used in the film were considered groundbreaking and the film went on to spawn a real arcade game and quite a cult following.

Jay Maynard is one of those super fans. He has gone to great length--and I suspect unreal expense--to replicate as close as possible, the costumes worn by the computer program characters in the movie. Jay Maynard's TRON Costume chronicles his efforts at recreating the costume worn in the movie. The most interesting aspect is how meticulous he was about trying to get everything as correct as possible, right down to the soft green glow visible in the film but not on most commercial or amateur costumes.

This has by far got to be one of the most unique sites I've run across. It is called Clown Staples and has two components. The first is called Windows Noises. I like to think of it as a mini symphony written and produced by someone with far too much time on their hands. But I'm glad they spent the time. It's quite entertaining and ingenious.

What does it do already? First it uses the Windows built in wave files. Then it proceeds to load (in a visual fashion) and play these files in such a way that some might call it music. It has a definite rhythm to it, and while it's probably not something you would hum in the shower, there is a new era type of sound to it. It takes a little while to load but a little patience with your dial up is worth the wait.

The second component of the site is a study in physics. Think of a spent yo-yo at the end of a string--attached to the tip of your mouse pointer. Try it.

Sandy Collora has done something I consider rather different. He has written, directed and produced a trailer for a movie that doesn't exist. This isn't the first time either.

As any super hero aficionado knows, World's Finest refers to a team up of Superman and Batman in the same story. That is what Mr. Collora has done. The trailer runs about 3.5 minutes and should probably be loaded using broadband. I haven't gotten to a broadband machine yet but am looking forward to it. When you get to the page use the browser Find feature to find World's Finest. There is a lot of information about other trailers and a manual browse might not find what you're looking for. The actor who plays Superman looks the part, down to the forehead curl. The Batman costume is the older version that I prefer. No phony armor muscles, just gray and a large black bat insignia.

This game is a little like virtual dodge ball-or better yet virtual tag. The difference is you are being attacked from several different directions at once. You start in the middle of a white square. You are a red square. There are four blue squares trying to get you. Don't get caught by them or stray out of bounds and you win. No fancy bells or whistles on this game but it loads quick and plays smooth even on dial ups.

A lot of folks where I work have collections of various action figures decorating their offices. Well the Asian Pacific American Toy Chest  is for them. It definitely has an Asian focus and chooses to list those toys that highlight Asian characters. It includes everything from Space Rangers to Anime characters. If you're into collecting these action figures give it a view.

What better way to keep the kids occupied during a long car trip? Play 20 Questions. Now you can do it with a computer on line. Think of an item and then allow the computer to ask you 20 questions. Answer the questions truthfully. You'll find it a bit spooky but the computer answers correctly more often than you might expect. If you don't wish to enter the demographic information the site asks for, simply click on play and you will go right into the game.

Where's Part I? It's at another of my blogs, Data Base & Research. Those tend to be a bit more serious and useful. These are a bit unusual.

Please don't send me any hate mail for this one. It's called the Virtual Pet Cemetery. The reason I chose to place it in this section is that while it proclaims to be an area for leaving a final tribute to your wonderful pet/s, the first few I read seemed to lean more toward the humorous or cynical. There are certainly some sincere sentiments at this site.

The Infinite Cat is a study in redundancy. The story goes that a cat lover took a photo of her pet (cat 1) and posted the image on the Internet. Than another cat lover took a picture of their cat (cat 2) looking at the computer screen with cat 1 online. This lead to cat3 watching cat 2 watching cat 1, which lead to cat 4 watching cat 3 watching cat 2 watching cat1, etc., etc., etc. Just how deep is this picture? Somewhere around 350 cats deep. Anyone who would like to have their own cat included in this infinity cat mirror can send their image to the webmaster for inclusion and watch the infinite cat grow. (Kim Komando has recently listed this site in one of her newsletters and there's a big rush to the web site at this date and time. Wait a couple of days and the traffic should clear up.)

The artist that put together Stick Figure Ninja is quite talented. For me the best works are the flash Ninja files. Interesting stick figure animations. One of them is a recreation of an entire music video starring Christopher Walken. There's also an interesting animation called "On and On and On and..." All the works are worth a look.

I've noticed two things about arcade games over the last couple of decades. One: they require more skill and faster reflexes. Two: the older I get the less skillful I am and my reflexes slow down as well. Hence I like word games. I'm not worried about getting killed or falling off a cliff. I just have to come up with different words. I've always been good at that so those are my games.

USA Today has a puzzles web site where they have a daily crossword, daily jigsaw, and daily jumble. I did one of the crosswords and it is probably moderate level of difficulty. I haven't had time to try the jigsaw or jumble but like I said I move slower now then I did a couple decades back.

Shockwave provides the word gamer with Text Twist, a word jumble game . You can play it online, download, or buy it. It presents you with six letters. You are asked to make as many 3-letter+ words as you can. To qualify for the next round of play, you must find the one and only 6-letter word that can be made of each jumble. If you're going to play online, the initial loading can be slow on a dial up connection but not awful.

On August 31 of this year, I posted an article about Photo.Stamps.com. What I didn't realize at the time was that this is a test program and not going to run forever. The cutoff date is September 30, 2004. So if you wish to use the site, you should get out their before the end of this month.

There is an interesting story associated with this. While Photo.Stamps has attempted to set guidelines of decency and propriety, it seems that Smoking Gun, a web site that specializes in finding and publishing government documents, decided to run Photo.Stamps through the ringer. They managed to get some rather notorious photos (No, not nude shots) onto the stamps. Should Photo.Stamps continue or should it shut down? What do you think?

This is a one shot site. It provides instructions on how to create a paper plane that actually flaps its wings as it flies. It's called the Flapper. There is no motor. There are no rubber bands. All that's needed is a piece of typing paper, a penny and one inch of tape. My only problem with this site is that in order to read the instructions from the screen the user has to click a couple of times to zoom in so the instructions are legible. Why not make the instructions legible right away?

At Sign Language you will find a photo collection of weird, wacky, and ironic road signs. When seen in context they probably made a lot of sense to those that designed them. However the webmaster of this sight likes to look at things with a different perspective. The photos and commentaries are sure to bring a chuckle to all who view it.

With the Anagram Internet Server you can find all variations available for any word/s (up to 26 letters). Most combinations are utter nonsense. But once in awhile you'll find something like: Parliament is an anagram for partial men. If you have some time to kill give it a whirl.

This is a really huge data base. It's the World's Largest Roadside Attractions and the Gallery of Huge Beings. You can find photos of many large roadside attractions that still exist - and some that don't anymore. The World's Largest Roadside Attractions have the largest buffalo, pineapple, and northern pike. While the Gallery of Huge Beings has Santa Claus, Superman, Big Foot, and Pocahontas. Unfortunately most of the images simply state "World's Largest..." location and that's it. Other information like address, or physical data about the statue is sorely lacking. But this gives you an idea of what to look for while searching for more information about whatever roadside giant you might be looking for.

You or your friends go on vacation and if you're lucky you come back with a picture of you on the Eiffel Tower, or a red fox sticking his head out of the woods, or maybe a celebrity. Fantasy Photo Tours will take you to places to get photos that don't exist in this world. Go to the secret woods of Minnesota and perhaps you'll spy a wood nymph or a barbaric warrior with their wolven companion. Go to New Orleans and get photos from the Dark Side - you know vampires, ghouls and more. The fees usually include hotels, meals and model fees. 

TWO IMPORTANT ALERTS: 1. While cruising the sites all posted photos had women and animals but no men. 2. Some of the photos at this site may not be appropriate for viewing by children or those who are offended by partial nudity.

Anyone can have a big vocabulary. But to know the origin of the words in that vocabulary is a different story. This is, "The Toughest Word Game On The Web." It isn't easy. All you have to do is answer 10 multiple choice questions about the origin of words. Good luck. You'll need it.

That's right! Clint Eastwood is an anagram for "Old West Action." At the Anagram Genius you can find the hidden phrases in many other celebrity names. You can search by author, subject or an anagram itself. Lot's of fun for those who like word games.