Brunch -

to be finished - eek, gettin' behind

Snack - Need Something to Get Obsessed With?

I recently got a package of Buckyballs. They're my new obsession.

One set of these thingies includes 216 5mm magnets that you can stick together in pretty much infinite ways. They can be a bit frustrating when they refuse to snap together in the proper formation, but they're pretty much extremely fun. I took that there pic of a chain of 'em; the surface they're on is not at all photogenic - I might end up re-taking the photo with a better-hued backdrop - but their natural shininess made for some good "buckyball-keh" in the background!

Lunch - Halloween Hangover?

Are you feeling a bit ill from the quantity of sugar-laden sweets you consumed in the past couple of days? Have no fear. Here are some games to distract you.

The first, Record Tripping, is a visually prettyful but difficult adventure in which you use your mouse wheel to scratch a record (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) backward or forward, thus turning a combination lock or blowing a seed toward its destination flowerpot. Warning: I played this game with my lappy-top's touch pad, and it didn't work exceptionally well. You might do better with a regular old mouse scrollerball.

Prefer an easier, more casual game? Try Ballies, an avoider game where you try to touch similarly hued spheres and stay away from those those of a different chroma. With endearing big-eyed balls and cute (if not repetitive) music, it's a mildly addictive play.

Now you're more distracted, right? Oh, I guess I shouldn't have reminded you. Sorry ...

Appetizer - Punkin Eat Punkin

pretty fierce, right?

Getting excited for All Hallows Eve yet? (For the ignorant layperson, that means Halloween.) If not, maybe the gallery of super creative jack o'lanterns at pumpkinway.com will getcha in the mood for the upcoming holidayz. Many of them employ that technique, skinning, in which the top layer of the punkin is peeled off, leaving the white flesh underneath. Perfect color for the jack's choppers or peepers! I tried it out this year when I made this cannibalistic pumpkin. Last year, I tried my hand at a puking jack o'lantern, or "barfkin -" you just let all the gourd guts spill out of its mouth. It worked pretty well, but I'll leave it to your imagination ... I would not want to further spoil your appetite for Halloween candy!

Dinner - Llama Edition

Prepare for the next installment in the My Fave YouTube Videos series - Llamas With Hats! This disturbing but very funny movie features a coupla chapeau-sporting llamas called Carl and Paul. In this edition, the two find a hand-less carcass in their home (it turns out Carl stabbed 'im and cooked up his hands.) There's also the next installment, where the slightly psychopathic Carl sinks a cruise ship, and Llamas With Hats 3, in which he topples a South American government. Viva La Revoluçion!!

If these videos have turned you off of llamas forever, I apologize. However, you may take comfort in the fact that they are still cooler than Hannah Montana - at least according to this Facebook group!

Dessert - You Don't Wanna Meet the Spider That Lives in This Web

Check out these giant spider webs. Calm down, arachnophobes: they aren't genuine. These humongous cocoons are spun from almost 170,000 feet (and 100 pounds) of packing tape. The tunnels and webs are big enough and strong enough for visitors to explore. You totally want to visit? What a coincidence - me too!

Breakfast - Light Show!

I recently tried this "light painting" technique where you take your camera out at night, set a really slow shutter speed, and wave your flashlight around or draw stuff with it in the air. It's fun but rawther hard to get a good picture. Here's one of my attempts at a heart ...

<3

I also tried a peace sign (lookity down below) and my name. However, I soon realized that everything comes out backwards in the pic, and writing your name backwards in the air with a flashlight is no piece of cake. Though that does sound tasty ...