Get Rid of the What?

If you’re wondering “what’s a Wiki?”, it’s the section of our site that holds all the articles, as opposed to this bit (‘News and Updates’), which is a blog. We’re not thinking of getting rid of all the articles, but we’re having to think carefully about how to keep them now. If you’re interested in what we’re considering and why, read on. We’d be really interested to hear what anyone thinks, too.

Why the Change?

Background

A Wiki is a site that can be edited by anyone – all you have to do is sign up for an account, then you can modify any page in the wiki, add comments, change things – whatever you like. We liked this idea as a way of letting other people collaborate with us on articles, correct mistakes, and add info about things that we know nothing about.

It’s not really working as well for us as we’d hoped. If most of your site’s audience are heavy Internet users, who are familiar with wikis, and keen to help out with such things, you can get some real community going. A lot of our readers, though, are here for the stuff about pens, drawing, photography – they may well be familiar with blogs and commenting, but probably not so much with wikis. I know there’s some who do know plenty about these things, and some people have jumped in and helped, but it’s a relatively small number.

Anyway, the obvious problem with this openness, that idiots will come along and change what you’ve done just to be annoying (‘trolls’), turns out to be a fairly minor issue. You can revert pages to previous versions pretty easily anyway, and the wiki keeps a full history of every change made to any page, so as fast as someone else can vandalise pages, we can change them back again – so they’d be wasting their time.

Spammers, on the other hand, are a problem. They modify pages to point to their dodgy sites selling prescription drugs, fake watches, penis enlargement, or whatever else they’re trying to sell. The problem is that they don’t do it by hand – they use a computer program (called a ‘bot’) to make all the changes to lots and lots of pages.

Because they’re not doing any of this by hand, they can change the site much faster than we can change it back.

Spam Attack!

On Friday, we got hit with a spamming bot that changed so many pages that it took me an hour and three-quarters to put it all right again. And it could be done again at any time. You see the problem. Some tips thanks to Merlin at 43 Folders have probably meant that I could do the same thing another time a fair bit faster, but still couldn’t keep up under a heavy enough attack.

Temporary Change

In order to stop it happening again, we’ve turned off new user creations, so spammers can’t sign up for a new account. We’ve already blocked the account that was used last time. Unfortunately, that means no real people can sign up for accounts either, unless they mail us and ask us to create one for them.

Permanent Change

There’s a few possibilities for a more permanent solution to all this…

No Change

We could just keep going as we are, just opening the wiki up for new registrations again, and keep dealing with the spam attacks as they happen. Only problem with that is that it’s time consuming to deal with if it does keep happening.

We could also keep things just as they are now, with new user registrations blocked, and get people to mail us if they want an account creating. I suspect this would cut down on the number of people who would sign up quite drastically, though, and it’s pretty close to zero now.

Keep Wiki, but Make it Only Editable by Us

In this case, it seems a bit pointless keeping things in a wiki – the point of a wiki is that anyone can edit it.

Replace Everything with a New CMS

We could replace both the wiki and the blog with a single CMS (Content Management System). We looked into these some time back, though, and couldn’t find one we liked enough. Drupal was about the closest (as used at DIY Planner), but it takes a lot of work to set up in a nicely customised way, and it still ends up a bit more ‘blog-like’ than we want – it insists on listing all posts in date order, newest first.

Put Everything in WordPress

We use WordPress already for the blog (this bit you’re reading now), and it has a feature called ‘Pages’ for more static information. We could make use of this to store all the articles. It would mean that other people wouldn’t be able to join in and edit quite so easily (though people can make accounts and we can grant people enough access to post pages or edit things if we decide we want to), but Pages do get the same Comments functionality as normal posts. It’s not quite the same as people being able to actually change things they spot that are wrong, but it might actually be easier for most people – just post a comment on the bottom letting us know about our stupid mistakes, and we can correct them ourselves.

If we did this, we’d probably move the blog up to the top level of the site, so it would take over the whole of PigPog, and have navigation through the articles on the left side of the page.

Where Next?

If you have any thoughts on any of these ideas, please let us know – just post a comment below.

We’re thinking at the moment that the best solution looks like being the WordPress option. It gets everything into one place, with just one set of accounts for people to create and use, and although it’s not as powerful for collaborating with people, it’s easier for people to give us feedback by posting comments. It also saves people having to learn how to use a blog and a wiki in order to really take part in PigPog.

Assuming we do decide to go ahead with this change, we’ll do some experimenting first with fitting the articles into the design. After that, we’ll try to move the whole blog from where it is now up a level, so it ‘takes over’ the site, setting up a redirect to make sure we don’t break anyone’s links or bookmarks. Then we’ll stop making any changes to the wiki, and start moving articles from there to here. We’ll set up redirects on as many pages as we can, so people who have bookmarked articles, or are following links from other sites still get to the content they wanted.

Introduction

Beatallica play modified Beatles songs in the style of early Metallica. They have been mentioned quite a bit on this site already, but deserve a place in the spotlight section for demonstrating what can happen if you act on the strange thoughts that often pop into your head when listening to music in the car.

In an interview with Ear Candy the band described how the project came to be:

Really the idea of Beatallica, and the naming, was on behalf of Jaymz, Krk, and D^2 (webmaster of puppets). There’s a festival in Milwaukee called Spoof Fest, where musicians get together to emulate and desecrate their favorite bands. One year, Metallica was done by Jaymz and Krk, before they were known as Jaymz and Krk. On the way to rehearsal, Krk heard “For No One” by the Beatles and mixed the progressions with Metallica thoughts on his mind. Jaymz did the same, only lyrically. What started as a whim quickly became an obsession with more and more songs. A recorded disc of songs was obtained by D^2 and he put up a website. It simply went nuts! He was the one to actually call the project “Beatallica”.

You can get hold of Beatallica’s two albums at www.beatallica.org – free Creative Commons MP3s. Download at your leisure, safe in the knowledge that Ringo Larz isn’t going to come round and head-butt you in the kneecaps.

More Stuff

• Beatallica Interview – February 2005 – Interview with Jaymz Lennfield and Krk Hammettson. Find out more about The Band They’re Trying To Ban. This interview was carried out just before the problems started with Sony.

At first, the lads behind Beatallica decided to remain anonymous to protect themselves from any record-company induced legal backlash. But as Beatallica grew to become the best thing to happen to the Internet since ‘badgerbadgerbadger‘, Michael ‘Tinker’ Tierney and Michael Brandenburg, decided to emerge from behind their axes and say “Hey! We made this!”. Shame, then, that Sony Music decided to set their lawyers onto the people who run their site. Never mind about that, please let me…

…introduce to you the band that drank a thousand beerz

So, fellas, why don’t you put those Rickenbackers down and tell us about yourselves?

Jaymz: Well the real name is Michael Tierney, but everyone around here calls me Tinker, thanks to my 5th grade geography teacher. The family is basically just me and the curly-haired girl, JoJo, at home. Sure, I got my ma and pa, a younger sister, and various familiar extremities. My pa is especially extreme…

Krk: I’m a lifelong guitarist and musician, starting playing guitar at age three, and drums too at that time (if you can call what’s happening in the photographs I have of me as a kid pounding my Sesame Street toy drumkit into oblivion “playing the drums”). The Beatles were my best friends when I was a kid, and I always liked the heavier stuff by them the best. There’s a template for constructing a weirdo heavy metal musician.

How did Beatallica get started?

Jaymz: Krk and I were rehearsing for a show here called Spoof Fest. It’s a festival I help to run and it’s been in existence for 12 years now. One year, the band me and Krk were in decided to do Metallica. The fest is a chance for local musicians to pair up and emulate/have fun with their favorite bands. However, on the way to practice, Krk heard “For No One” by the Beatles and the chorus hit a nerve with him. Soon Beatles riffs were morphing with Metallica thoughts. I came up with some lyrics and we had a blast with it. That first song became “For Horsemen”. We made “A Garage Dayz Nite” and “Sgt. Het” soon afterwards just for kicks and we recorded a disc to distribute at the fest. We played a Metallica set but, little did we know, Beatallica was born that night. After friends of friends got a hold of the disc, it found its way onto the internet and that was the beginning of a world-wide reaction.

Krk: At that time, I had Hetfield’s voice in my head constantly due to rehearsing Metallica tunes for the Spoofest show. One day while driving around, I had the song For No One by The Beatles stuck in my noodle, and Hetfield starting singing it. Then Metallica started playing it. It occurred to me that the composition would make a fantastic tune for them to cover.very metal, if you put Metallica’s personalities into it. But the only feasible way they would do the tune would be to do it on a Garage Days’ album. And since I couldn.t just call up Lars and tell him to get the boys started on the song, I spoke with my Neanderthal pal and suggested we do a Garage Days’ spoof of Metallica covering Beatles tunes.

How did your nearest and dearest first react to the idea?

Jaymz: I think my friend Jane told me to “shut up, already!” once. Some of our buds really loved the idea. Some said, “I knew this was too good to keep quiet.” My ma still doesn’t really know what the hell I’m doing but, as long as I stay out of trouble, she’s fine with it.

Krk: It was just a joke, and it was with them only that we were sharing it. I guess the typical reaction was giggling, followed by “that’s pretty fuckin’ cool. Now let’s drink more”. But these people KNEW us, so they weren’t suprised.

Describe a typical Beatallica show

Jaymz: Ringo Larz eats, like, 12 pounds of meat and 5 protein shakes before the show and nearly explodes all over the place. Kliff McBurtney actually showers after we’re done playing, a highlight for us all. Krk Hammettson undertakes somersets on solid ground and, of course, I dance the waltz with Henry the Horse. Shows are meant to be loads of fun, very interactive, and filled with tight and blistering music. We really pride ourselves on putting on an entertaining show and showing how 2 genres of music can be morphed into one hella fun project. We’ve developed on-stage traditions of inviting folks up to sing “Hey Dude” and other special sing-a-long moments.

Krk: One of the things I’m most proud of with this band is that we are both fun and dangerous. The shows are the same…we definitely strive to have a fun show. But I think the typical parody or cover band would try to ease off on some of the aggression inherent in this kind of music, so that it could reach a wider audience. We don’t. AT ALL. What I mean is, they’d make it a bit “cuter”, not be quite so heavy as the old-school Metallica, but would maybe make a parody of that heaviness. It’s apparent when we play live…sure there’s funny props onstage and Jaymz’ wig looks godawful and we’ve got silly costumes, but the music is real, not cute. I personally tend to physically freak out quite a bit onstage. I was a major headbanger in my teens, and it evolved from there. Now it’s my whole body that bangs. I have my own personal, one-man slam dance pit over on stage left, and wherever else I end up after somersaulting. The other guys are learning when to join me and when to stay far enough away so there will be no broken limbs. But we’re all true metalheads at heart, or hardcore punks, and we intuitively have that energy. I think the audiences catch on to that…the show can’t be just a stupid joke because “wow, that guy with the best-looking wig is REALLY into it!”

What’s been the highlight of Beatallica’s career so far?

Jaymz: Highlights for me come in many ways as there are many aspects to a band. As far as live, the highlight for me is still the El Paso show. Though I don’t think it was our best show, it was the start of a live aspect of the band. We showed we’re able to take the Beatallica project into a new realm that we didn’t intend to reach at first. I do think the first Milwaukee show and the Dream Theater show were our best performed however. As far as a tech highlight, the introduction of the Gray Album on the new website on April 1st is the winner. Just to watch the site meter “run for its life” was a treat, and very much appreciated! 2004 has been an enormous learning experience with dudes I consider my good friends. There’s something to be said for that.

Krk: Well, the phone call to the U.K. was pretty freakin’ cool…but for me the highlights happen all the time…every single time I get an email from someone I’ll probably never meet (and usually from countries I’ll probably never visit), saying that they dig our stuff. I know it sounds selfish, but it makes me feel good about myself, knowing that something that came out of my head has made a difference to people from so many cultures and backgrounds. It makes me feel connected to a larger and more important part of this universe than just my own needs and worries and dreams. Um, I’m starting to sound like George Harrison now, a little bit, ain’t I? Not very rockstar-ish. I’ll start again… Uh, okay, it’s was fuckin’ triple killer to play with fuckin’ Dream Theatre last year. And, um, then the next highlight will be when some chick in the audience flashes her fuckin’ tits at me! Yeah, that’d be AWESOME.

Tinker, your Hetfield impression is so dead-on that many folk have been fooled into thinking it’s the real deal. How do you do it, and does it hurt?

Jaymz: Well, thanks for those kind words, ma’am! I guess it occurs by way of a few things. Basic genetics, learning how to sing the right way and not forcing sounds and ruining your throat, not overdoing alcohol on show nites as that swells your throat, practicing breathing and phrasing techniques, pacing yourself in a live setting, fighting allergies as i’m allergic to smoke, and simply having the Het attitude. He’s a great musician who’s really learned how to sing over the last decade. Sure the first 3 albums are classic, but you gotta give credit to someone who wants to expand and better their craft. I can do a bunch of other impressions. I just think that stuff is completely fun.

It’s not all Yeah, Yeah, Yeah…

Tell us about the other bands you’re involved with…

Jaymz: I play quite a bit besides being in Beatallica, though Beatallica is getting the most notable attention outside our region. I do play bass and harmonica in a band called Reilly, an Irish rock band. We’re looking forward to recording a disc with me on it this year. We stay very busy, not only in March, and we have appearances with Gaelic Storm coming up. I’m also in an acoustic trio called Tynkr Boys where i play acoustic guitar, harmonica, and bouzouki. A disc is forthcoming from them as well. Besides that, solo shows and even poetry writing are on my plate. I put out a book a few years ago of original poems that was the hardest project I’ve ever done. Let’s see…I still help to run Spoof Fest and am involved in the Shamrock Club of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Area Music Industry as well.

Krk: My major project is a trio called Ka. Ringo is the drummer. We have been together almost nine years. Our roots are in extreme punk, metal, and prog rock, but we play whatever inspires us. Sam, I think you heard an acoustic tune by us, right? We are always challenging ourselves…we are working on a piece right now that is one song, but three CDs long. I also compose “contemporary classical” music, you know…stuff like John Cage, Gyorgi Ligeti, Steve Reich, etc. I’m also currently finally starting to get serious with a project I’ve been writing music for for quite a while…it’s very demented grindcore-meets-ambient-meets-avant garde. I’m scared to tell you the name of the band…

OK, I’ll tell you, but you should delete it if you’re offended…

‘Corpsefucker’

Sorry.

Where can we get hold of more tunes by your other bands?

Jaymz: The Reilly stuff can be sought out at www.reillyrocks.com. Again, the recordings don’t have me on them as I’m somewhat the newbie. But we have a ton of stuff just waiting to be put to tape. The Tynkr Boys trio begins recording this Spring. The Tinker poetry books are available through me.

Krk: Ka should have a site up by summer, as well as (hopefully) that other band.

Men with Guitars

What instruments do you use?

Jaymz: We were asked this question on our Beatallica bulletin board. For Beatallica, I use a Terser “more beer” 6 string, black and gold. Also a ‘Yoko up your ass’ explorer, same trim. A Marshall cabinet with JCM 800 head, nothing fancy. Various stomp boxes but not a lot of effects. I’m pretty straight forward for this. My other gear ranges from a 1975 Les Paul custom to a 1979 Ibanez artist series, a 1997 Fender precision bass, ampeg bass cabinet, Martin acoustics, Trinity College bouzouki, a bunch of harmonicas and other assorted classical and acoustic instruments and p.a. gear.

Krk: Studio – my Paul Reed Smith guitar (an old one from before 1994) into a Digitech GSP-2120 (Muti-effect processor with real tubes) through a vintage Marshall cabinet. I played a Rickenbacker bass through a BagEnd (I believe) amp, and the drums are a Pearl Masters kit. Live it’s the same, except I play a Rickenbacker guitar like John’s, just because it looks so damn cool.

What instruments would you like if money were no object?

Jaymz: Probably some ancient Celtic harp or any other instrument of the times for my pub to be in my house. Nice expensive instruments are just that, but I’d like to have something(s) with lifetimes of history and culture.

Krk: For Beatallica? I’d like a custom built guitar that looks like the Rickenbacker but feels, plays, and sounds like my PRS. And a wall of Vox Beatle amps (but with Marshall guts inside).

Any tips/tricks for the novice guitarist?

Jaymz: Stretching and strengthening exercises. I broke the 3rd – 5th finger on my left hand about 14 years ago (I swear to god I didn’t see that drum set when I threw myself across the stage that nite in Madison…) and I know I have some limitations because of it. Before every show, I stretch out from my head to feet and really try to pay attention to being limber before busting out a long show. Some nites, I may play for 4 hours. Being prepared has helped me quite a bit in the longevity and stamina department.

Krk: Do NOT give up. If you’re starting to learn something, and you feel like you’re making no progress, KEEP DOING IT ANYWAY. Trust me. Say you’re learning a particular riff. It’s really tough, your fingers don’t want to move like that, and it’s becoming pointless and frustrating. Take it slow, and keeping doing it, but put a time limit on it. Say fifteen-twenty minutes. Record yourself doing the exercise or riff. The next day, DO IT AGAIN, even if it’s still as hard. Keep it up for a week. I promise you that after a week, even if you still don’t have it, you’ll look play back the recording of Day One, and you’ll think “wow”. Period. Rocking in the Real World

Do you still have day jobs?

Jaymz: Well, my supervisor is convinced I’m leaving soon but it’s nice to have insurance. I work some hours with the elderly community and with the School Sisters of St. Francis here in the city. We’re the North American headquarters for the sisterhood. I do physical medicine and rehab with my youngest being 54 and my oldest being 104. I work a lot with dementia and brain syndromes, disease processes, and the like. Music is a portion of my job and I’ve conducted programs here at work as a music therapy session. Working with this population has been an enormous influence on my music, personal life, and family life with my grandparents. Could I leave work and just do music? Sure I could, I play so much. But I went to school for a reason and, as long as I have the time, I’d like to be here. I get an awful lot of leeway to take time off and be a crazy kid though.

Krk: In a nutshell, I’m a Historic Lighting Designer.

How do you find the time to fit it all in?

Jaymz: I could really use like 9 days a week, 36 hours a day to get caught up. I have to say, my straight-laced, suburban girl is a good sport about all I do and am asked to do. I’m at the busiest time of my life, and I’m loving it. As long as my personal life doesn’t suffer the consequences of that, then I’m in to play and play, and forge new ground for Beatallica or any other project I’m a part of. It’s sort of a way to make a legacy and not live a hum-drum life.

Krk: Creating music is all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life. It takes precedence. Of course, I only get to the movies maybe twice a year…

Other than music, what else do you enjoy doing?

Jaymz: I’m really into stuff like football, hockey, hoops, volleyball, hiking, and especially baseball. I become a different person when I play ball, I know it. The focus is so high, even higher than when I play music. What else? Camp Tinker musical and drinking excursions into the woods of Wisconsin with my buds. It’s our own chunk of family land with a place on it but you can get lost if you so choose. We do a lot of theater and winery tours too so we can get our high-brow attitudes their fix.

Krk: Mountain and Road Biking. Camping. Futzing with computers. Reading. Watching strange and/or artsy films.

Do you have any advice for folks out there wanting to pursue their creative dreams?

Jaymz: I’m fully of the belief that you need to jump on opportunites when you can. Don’t hope they come to you and then be hesitant, make them happen by working at it. Be prepared in the other facets of your life, for when they arrive you only have a short time to grab them. Take risks, but don’t be rash. Be calculated and thoughtful. Also, about the drugs thing. I personally know 3 friends of mine who were either killed in a drug deal, killed themselves with heroin, or lost everything (band, family, job, money, kids, freedom, etc.) due to out of control habits. Sure everyone knows someone with an addiction or occasional habit, just about. If you let that person or your own usage affect your life, either creatively or otherwise, you eventually will pay the price in some way.

Krk: The very best way to PRODUCE something creatively is to BE YOURSELF! I’ve tried numerous times to write something I think will please others, or will stand up to something someone else has done before, and although it’s fine and okay, it falls wayyyy short of what I create when it is for me, by me, and about me. Beatallica is a great example. My approach to it was to make something that I alone would think was funny and cool, and Tinker and I have such similar tastes and senses of humor that I figured he’d enjoy it just as much. But if I had come up with the idea, and tried to MAKE it something that would be enjoyed by a lot of people, it would have sucked ass. It would have had very little of that passion that I think your subconscious can pick up on in our recordings. Oh yeah, and another piece of advice, forget all that you’re taught in school in America, unless you’re lucky enough to have a few teachers that aren’t trying to turn you into a consumer.

• Beatallica

Who’s the Artist?

This is a question that often strikes me when photographing things.

Am I the artist for taking the picture, or is the person who made the item?

What if it’s a shovel leaned against a sign by a workman? Is the artist the maker of the shovel? The maker of the sign? The workman who brought them together in a way I found so appealing? Or me? I only pointed a camera at it and pressed a button.

Maybe it’s me, because by pressing the button, then choosing to share the resulting image, I’m deciding that it is ‘art’. The workman only knew it was a shovel. The manufacturer thought it was a product to sell. I decided that the way they were leaning together, just then, framed just like that, was art.

The artist is whoever first decides that it’s art. If I’d taken a picture of a sculpture or a painting, the artist in the result would have been the painter or the sculptor – they decided it was art. I took a picture of that art. If I take a picture of something that isn’t art, then I’ve made art by deciding to call it art.

Half a pickled cow isn’t art. Until someone who calls themselves an artist decides to say it is. Then it is.

Who Can Be an Artist?

Which leads to another question – who can define something as being ‘art’? Can anyone do it, or does it have to be an artist? If it has to be an artist, who decides if they’re an artist? Tracey Emin called her unmade bed ‘art’. She was an artist, so it became art. What if a solicitor called their unmade bed art? Would it be art then, or does it have to be an artist that does it?

If it has to be an artist, who decides who can be an artist? Could the solicitor announce that they are now an artist, then call their bed ‘art’, or do they have to be accepted as an artist by other people to be able to do that?

Acceptance

I think there has to be an element of acceptance there, otherwise, anyone could go around calling anything art, and so it would be. I could tour the country, calling road signs ‘art’, and every road sign would become an art installation. That could be perfectly valid, but only if other people accept it as such. If the only reaction I got was people saying “No, it’s not, it’s a road sign”, then it wouldn’t be art, and I wouldn’t be an artist. If I could get people to see what I was getting at, and play along, and accept that the road signs were art if I say they are, then they are, and I’d be an artist.

Who Does the Accepting?

There’s no official board to define who can be artists, so is it acceptance by the public generally, or by a specific group? The majority of the public are often quite unaccepting of modern art, so it has to be a specific group – presumably, other artists.

Only Artists Can Make Art, and Only Artists Can Make Artists

To make art, you have to be an artist. To be an artist, you have to be accepted by other artists. To be accepted by other artists, you have to make art, which they accept. It’s a circular argument, but I guess you start by making something and calling it art. Get other artists to believe you, and you’re an artist. Then you can call anything you like art until you blow it and they stop believing you.

You might not need one of these yet, but you will when you become rich and famous.

So What Is It?

A felt-tip permanant marker pen. They’re usually just black, but other colours are available now, and there’s a few variations in tips. The basic Sharpie just has a pointed tip, though.

Used For?

It’s the classic celebrity autograph pen. Armed with a Sharpie, a roaming celeb can autograph anything thrust in their face in a couple of seconds. They’ll write on anything, they’re comfortable and easy to handle, and they make a good dark black mark (at least when they’re new – fade a bit with time). The marks they make last pretty well, too, so that signed buttock won’t come clean on the first rinse

A lot of artists use a thinner black pen for most of the detail work and a Sharpie for filling areas. The Sharpie will draw on anything, though, so it’s great for art on unusual surfaces.

Then there’s the smell.

Variations on a Theme

The standard Sharpie is a pointed tip, just a little thicker than most pens. You can get chunky ones, though, and coloured ones, and also the twin-tip – a standard pointed tip at one end, and a much thinner tip at the other – useful for drawing.

Twin Tip

Our favourite is the Twin Tip – has a standard thick pointy tip at one end, and a thin tip at the other.

Thick End

Thin End

Both Samples Together

Used By

• Celebrities signing autographs.
• Hawk at Applegeeks.

Holme Pierrepont is quite close to where we live, on the edge of Nottingham. We took a trip over there a week or so ago, and got some photos (using my old Olympus whilst my shiny new Casio is away for repair).

There can never be enough advice on how to deal with that nagging inner critic, and here’s Karen Winters’ take on the subject from her ‘Karen Friday’ post at The Drawing Club.

Me, I have my own style. My sword is a pen and it’s name is Practice. Like Perseus, I don’t argue with my medusa-critic or try stare it down because I know such encounters can be fatal to the creative spirit. Instead, when I hear its snakes come hissing words of discouragement and defeat, I turn my attention back to the blank page and get busy. It can threaten all it wants but it can’t touch me. And one of these days I may finally have the strength to give it a mortal blow.

Monster Wreath Now with tutorial

It’s made with fun fur, ping pong balls, a paint pen, stuffing, and lots of hot glue (I didn’t feel like sewing) It’s basically just a wreath-shaped pillow with a ribbon on the back to hang it on the door.

If you fancy letting the neighbors think you’re a bit strange – a fluffy monster wreath with eyeballs. Looks fairly quick and easy to make, though.

(Thanks to Boing Boing.)

Staten Island Boat Graveyard Photography from opacity.us

Off the shore of Staten Island New York rests a veritable graveyard of decommissioned, scrapped, and abandoned ships of various sizes, ages, and states of decay. Things are constantly changing here; new boats are brought in and old ones are chopped up or sunk into the muddy banks of the harbor.

The beauty here is in the untouched rust and rotting wood, where weather and salt water accelerates the rate of decay, transforming these ships of the past into sculptures of steel rising from their watery grave.

Beautiful set of photos of these decaying ships – click the gallery link at the bottom of the page to get the full set.

(Thanks to Boing Boing.)

If you’re reading through the RSS feed, this shouldn’t affect you at all, but we’re having a play with the design of the blog here, and trying a few things out, so don’t be too worried if you’re reading and the next page you go to looks completely different

We’ve just realised how badly the old three column design works on 800×600 displays, and although there’s not many around any more, we want to try to make things work better. I spend quite some time yesterday trying out different themes, and we’ve pretty much picked one now. I’m now working on making if fit the ‘PigPog style’ a bit better.

If anything stops working entirely, just try again in a few minutes.

Update: All seems to be working again now, without too much hassle. We’re now using the Oasis theme, with a few modifications. Personally, I really don’t like fixed-width sites, and all but a very few themes for WordPress are fixed-width. Oasis works well for me, because it isn’t. The only thing about it I didn’t like was the very small fixed size font for some of the sidebar, but that’s pretty easy to change, and the colours used. Well, actually, I like the default colours, they just didn’t fit into PigPog so well. Again, fairly easily changed, though – the PHP and CSS code are both well documented (thanks, Jared!)