BSBFB

Go Joe Whale!

November 11, 2019 aubuchon Comments 0 Comment

Joe Whale is a Shropshire lad with a either a knack or a gift for doodling, depending on how you look at it. His regular teachers thought it was a curse. Luckily, his parents weren’t having any of it, and encouraged l’il Joe to keep on trucking, and doodling. They enrolled him in after-school art classes, and he flourished with a little encouragement. His art teacher posted some of his work on social media, where it became a minor hit. That led a local restaurant to offer Joe a gig decorating their walls. Doodling on a pad is one thing, decorating whole walls is another entirely. The restaurant’s faith in Joe was rewarded with an endlessly interesting wallscape, and lots of nice publicity. Doodle on, Joe!

Climbing the 14 Highest Mountains in the World in 6 Months

November 9, 2019 aubuchon Comments 0 Comment

That’s not normal. It’s Nirmal. Nirmal Purja that is. He’s a Nepali climber, and he’s just smashed the record for climbing every mountain in the world over 8,000 meters high. The best part? he wasn’t interested in mountain climbing until seven years ago. Then he got really interested.

Purja grew up in Nepal’s low-lying Chitwan region. At 18, he joined the Nepalese Ghurkas, a regiment in the British Army, and served for 16 years, including 10 years in the Special Forces. He didn’t set eyes on the giants of the Himalaya until 2012, and almost immediately fell in love with climbing the big peaks. In March of this year, Purja quit the military, abandoned his pension, remortgaged his house, and started off on what he called Project Possible, a mission to climb all 14 of the world’s biggest peaks in seven months. With Project Possible, he hoped to inspire people to tap into their potential. (read more at Outside Online)

It took the last record holder, South Korean Kim Chang-Ho, eight years to climb them all. I don’t know about you but I couldn’t fall down those mountains as fast as Nirmal climbed up them. The BSBFB salutes you!

The Rube Goldberg Machine Law

November 7, 2019 aubuchon Comments 0 Comment

Stop what you’re doing. Pay attention. Someone is assembling all the odds and ends in their house, basement, garage, shed, and storage locker, and making it all bump in to each other in interesting ways.

You can’t not watch a Rube Goldberg machine. It’s the law. Well, it’s a rule. Well, more of a guideline, really. Anyway, it’s fun to watch.

[Thanks to regular reader and contributor H.J. Briscoe for sending that one along]

Great Moments in Male Bonding: The Shop Vac Song

November 6, 2019 aubuchon Comments 1 comment

Like most good spoofy songs, it’s hard to tell where the snideness ends and the affection begins. The Shop Vac Song was a minor hit for Jonathan Coulter about 10 years ago, and videos like this typography masterpiece put the Shop Vac song firmly in the firmament of internet things that matter for 15 minutes.

The life described in the video is supposed to be pointless, monotonous, and soulless. However, it’s exactly the kind of monotonous, pointless, soulless life that 99 percent of the human race, from the primordial ooze to Twitter, wanted for themselves and their children. And by the way, I own two shop vacs. Deal with it.