This Month At Dontmindme.com — January 2002

The new year has arrived. Time to put up the new calendar and remember to write '02 on your cheques, assuming you're one of the silly people still writing cheques. No theme this month. Oh well.

Song of the Month: Bif Naked is a much more interesting name than Beth Torbert, which is probably why she changed her name when she started recording. Although she's not a huge star, Ms. Naked actually has her own label. Odds are you heard her song "Spaceman" on the radio a couple years ago. It's a cool sounding song, but it's a bit troubling when realize it's about alien abduction.

Album of the Month: While I own entirely too many Genesis CDs (although not nearly all of them, there are 17 Genesis studio albums, plus several live albums, greatest hits compilations, and a number of box sets) one of my favourites remains their self titled 1983 release. Sure, it represents the end of the '70s art rock incarnation of Genesis and the emergence of the band as one of the top radio groups of the '80s, but it's a great album, and still far more literate than most music of the era. Plus it has a really cool cover.

Book of the Month: I'm bending the rules from the word go here, because my Book of the month is actually a trilogy. THE trilogy. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sure, it's huge, and you need an attention span to read it, but it's the big granddaddy of modern fantasy, and I got a copy for Christmas. Read it.

Chemical Element of the Month: I'm willing to bet that most people have never heard of molybdenum. The atomic number is 42, It's used it making steel, and it has the symbol Mo. How cool is an element named Mo?

Fun Fact of the Month: John Goodman has appeared on Saturday Night Live more than a dozen times, I believe 13 times total at last count. I'm not sure if that's a record or not, but it's a lot of appearances.

Fun Link of the Month: Do you miss Gary Larson's The Far Side? I know I do. But finding Doctor Fun has made up for it somewhat. Not entirely, mind you, but Doctor Fun is a daily web comic that's sufficiently Larsonesque to keep me happy. Some of the comics are strange, some are hilarious, and some are both. There's also years of archives on the site if a single daily comic isn't enough to amuse you.

Useful Link of the Month: You've heard of shareware. And probably freeware, and maybe adware and spyware. But have you heard of scumware? If you haven't, there's a chance that your computer could be infected with it. But there's a cure, and a site that will quickly diagnose and help you remove the offending files. It's called, wait for it, Scumware.com.

Quote of the Month: "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them." Yeah, so I'm into the LOTR thing. Go read the books.

Prank of the Month: This is a classic winter prank. It can only be done if you live where the temperature drops below freezing and stays there for a while to be effective. That said, if you're feeling mean and/or vengeful and the climate permits, this one is a beaut. Start with some buckets. Two gallon ones with handles would be ideal, but use whatever you have. If you have a truck use lots of large buckets if you've got 'em. Fill the buckets maybe 3/4 full of water, or a bit more if the buckets are large. (You want these buckets to be reasonably portable). Leave them out overnight, maybe for two days if the weather isn't all that cold and the buckets are large, and let them freeze solid. You know have portable blocks of ice. Load them, buckets and all, into your trunk, or if you have a truck, so much the better. Now boil a kettle of water, or two if you have more than 4 or 5 buckets. Also bring another bucket of cold water, might want to put a cover on it for the road over. Drive over to the victim's house, preferably late at night when they are sound asleep. Now block in their car. Turn the buckets upside down, line em up, and splash some of the hot water from the kettle on em, the heat will make the buckets expand enough to drop the ice blocks out in a few seconds. Pour on enough of the cold water to freeze the ice to the driveway. On a cold night pack a little snow around the ice and wet it down to ensure a nice, solid, nearly impenetrable wall of ice that's going to be a big pain to get rid of in the morning.

Joke of the Month: Two Newfies (or insert whatever group you'd rather make fun of) go out duck hunting with a trusty Labrador Retriever. They hunt and hunt for hours and they don't have a single duck to show for their efforts. They're tired, the dog is tired, and they're running out of beer.
The first Newfie says "Well, maybe we should head back to town. I really thought bringing the dog would help."
His hunting buddy shrugs and replies "Maybe we aren't throwing him high enough."

DVD of the Month: I love DVDs with second discs of bonus features, and I love DVDs with hidden easter eggs. So it's natural that I'm very pleased with the two disc five star edition of Independence Day. The second disc has the largest hidden feature portion of any DVD I've ever seen. To access it, go to the Data Console. Highlight the Main Menu entry on this screen and then press the right arrow button on your remote control, which will start up the computer and display the message Access: 7-4-Enter on the computer monitor. Accompanied by music you will also notice that the alien space ship in the background is now floating, as you have basically activated the ship. Now return to the main menu to enter the ship. Time is of the essence here, as you will have to enter the ship before it is shut down after about 7 seconds. Use your remote control to enter the numbers '7' and '4' and then press your Enter button and you will find yourself inside the space ship with an entirely new menu.
This procedure is handled differently on different players however. If your player's remote control has a '+10' key, you will have to press this one 7 times and then follow it up by pressing the '4' key and then Enter. Some players don't require you to press the Enter key at all, while other may need you to press '+10' once, followed by the '7' key, then the '4' and Enter. It is a bit tricky and may require a little experimentation depending on your player model.