Movie Review: Starship Troopers (1998):

Not for the squeamish, this movie is chock full of…

Dancing at our wedding
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Black and White Photo Illusion

Here is an optical illusion based on the concept of an afterimage. An afterimage refers to the way the eye retains an image even after you’ve stopped looking at it. It’s why you see dark spots in front of your eyes after looking into a bright light, or why you see shadow images after you close your eyes. This is a black and white photo. Look exactly at the red dot in the middle. The image...
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Make a Baby Monitor for your Belly!

I touched on this in my Pregnancy Tips article, but felt that it should be its own article as well. It’s made from things that you can easily obtain at home or at the local store. You know how great it is to feel your baby moving inside you? And how exciting it can be to watch the bumps move when a foot or a hand pushes against your belly? Well this baby monitor will make...
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3:30am boredom fixers: Nestlé Crunch Hotline

If you can’t sleep and you’re looking for some inane entertainment, why not call the Nestlé Crunch Hotline? Believe it or not, there is much silly fun to be had. Here’s what to do: Dial this toll-free number: 1-800-295-0051 Listen to the options for English and Spanish without choosing one, then WAIT through several seconds of silence. A new set of options will be provided… if you don’t want me to spoil the fun, go do it now. If...
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Calling all Tellers of Tall Tales!

NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS PASSED. THIS ARTICLE IS HERE FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES ONLY. I’m putting together a video that will be played at our wedding (May 24, 2009), and one of the things I want to have is a bunch of people telling stories of how they “allegedly” heard we met. We want these to be as wacky as possible, and I know that my friends are a creative bunch. The format would be along the...
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Chicago Tribue article mentions opalcat.com on Feb. 5 2009!

…sometimes someone hits on something in there that even I’ve forgotten that I wrote. This was the case this week when I was contacted by Chicago Tribune writer Charles Leroux about an obscure article on my site…

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Fuzzball kitten savages a 130lb golden retriever

Exceedingly cute video of my 10 week old kitten beating up on my 10 year old, 130lb golden retriever. Smackdown ’08.

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Juggling

I learned to juggle when I was 11 from a book called Juggling for the Complete Klutz. I have seen other books that teach juggling, such as The Complete Juggler and Carlos on Juggling, but in my opinion, Klutz is the best. The most important thing they emphasize (which most others fail to do) is the scoop motion in the toss, which allows the ball going UP to miss the ball coming DOWN. There. That...
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Fun Toys: Impressionist Painter

Try your hand at impressionist painting! It’s easy! Just click in the box and move your mouse around…

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Fun Toys: Fractal Generator

Instructions Click and drag to zoom in on an area. Want to play more? Download one of these Fractal Generators: Fractint Fractal Extreme Some saved fractals:
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The Paper Airplane in the Forehead Trick

One of my favorite aspects of theatre is makeup. I have taken classes in theatre makeup and had a lot of fun. This is a “re-enactment” of an assignment I had in a makeup class. The assignment was to create some type of injury. As you can see by the photos, this is a many years ago when I was about 20 or 21. Incidentally, sorry for the image quality, too. These were taken with...
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Make a Fabulous Cat Toy

Cats don’t need fancy, expensive toys to play with. We’ve all seen them batting around the twist-ties from the bread or that little plastic doohickey that comes off the lid of a jug of milk. What matters to the cat is that it moves and catches their eye. This is an inexpensive and simple toy that you can make for your kitty that they will enjoy playing with just as much as that jingly ball...
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ASCII Art

I think that ASCII art is a sort of neat side niche of the typographical age. I remember back in 1985, taking a typing class in 7th grade... we learned on manual typewriters with no letters on the keys. There were maybe 20 of them in the classroom. There were also about 3 electric typewriters, which the kids who got to class first would jump to claim. When you were done with your drills out...
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Scottish Highlands Rabbit

I took this picture in the Scottish Highlands, and when I went back to look at it, I couldn’t remember what I was taking a picture of. Can you spot the rabbit?

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