Korey Atterberry’s Idle Chatter

Interestingly enough, my lawn mower video actually aired on CNN yesterday. I’m still surprised that people find it that entertaining, but a half-million viewers can’t be wrong!

CNN Hottest videos gone viral

Last week I posted a video to YouTube of a dumb experiment I did with my lawn mower:

There’s not much to it, really. I just set a couple of stakes in the middle of the yard and tethered the mower to them. I clamp the self-propel lever in the “on” position, and let the rope wrap around the center pivot, cutting a smaller circle on each lap.

What’s funny is that this video has gone somewhat viral. Between the original YouTube post, a few (authorized) reposts by the Cheezburger network, the video has been viewed well over a quarter million times in the past week. It’s also been posted on facebook profiles 2000+ times as well as making the rounds on Twitter, etc. It never ceases to amaze me what people find amusing! I’ve put WAY more effort into posted content that hasn’t had 1/1000th the public interest.

At any rate, thanks to the Cheezburger Network for originally posting the video! Check out some of the links below, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll get a kick out of the comments!

Original video:

• Self-propelled mower on autopilot (korey99)

Blog posts by Cheezburger Network:

• Automatic Lawn Mower on There, I Fixed It
• Genius, on EpicWinFTW

Reposted videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6dJhzMk6OM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDv65QIkHVU
• http://www.viddler.com/explore/epicwinftw/videos/7/
• http://www.viddler.com/explore/thereifixedit/videos/2/

Other blog entries:

• Lawn Mower of the Future, on CollegeHumor
• The Lazy Cheapskate’s Automated Lawnmower, on Gizmodo

In a surprising turn of events, my wife told me a couple of days ago that she was starting a blog. She’s mainly focusing on her new-found love of sewing. She’s showcasing a couple of projects so far. Go take a look!

The Dusty Corner

Last week at work, the topic of toys from our childhood came up. One toy with many shared fond memories were the AA-powered 4×4 trucks called “Stompers.” Apparently they’re still made, at least according to these enthusiast sites:

http://www.route21.com/stompers/

http://www.stomper4×4.com/

Here’s a short video of one in action. See if it brings back any memories:

Stomper Hill Climb

Even though they’re still manufactured, I haven’t had much luck finding them yet. I’ve heard they cost around $3, and finding one would bring me way more than $3 worth of joy!

Ok, I finally broke my addiction to this game, so now I figured I’d get you addicted as well:

Desktop Tower Defense

I know the concept of musicians creating music without the aid of the major labels and the RIAA isn’t new, but I thought I draw a little bit of attention to guy I found by chance recently: Josh Woodward

I like his music, which is a mixture of folk and rock, but I also find his approach to distribution interesting. You can buy his CD’s from his website for $10 each, you can buy his latest album off of iTunes, or you can just download all of it for free. He also encourages you to copy and share his music with your friends without fear of being sued. I haven’t found much music put out by the major studios lately that I enjoyed, so I’d like to encourage those musicians who are taking a different route.

It’s worth noting that Josh is a loyal Fruhead (fan of the band Moxy Fruvous). As a matter of fact, he even runs the site! If you’re a fellow Fruvous fan (like me), take a quick listen to Josh’s work.

Quite a while back I posted a link to a Flash game for parking a car and commented that a game like that for parking a trailer would be good practice. I just found one:

Pépère and his trailer

I wish they had more situations, longer/shorter trailers, etc. but it’s still neat. BTW my best time was 6.28 seconds (after playing for about 5 minutes). Have fun!

Maybe I’m the last person on earth to know this, but there are free alternatives to the standard “411″ directory assistance phone number.

Try 1-800-FREE-411 next time. It gives you an automated system with voice recognition, and actually worked really well for me. If the automated system can’t understand you, you can get a real person. Now, you do have to listen to a short advertisement, but it’s only a few seconds, and they have to get something for providing this service.

They have a website also, at http://www.free411.com. It was able to find our number just fine, and they have a feature that shows your neighbors as well. For many of them I didn’t know their last name!

Here are a few more interesting things I’ve stumbled across:

• Ever wonder what the “voiceover guy” looks like?
• Serial Killer or Programmer?

I spent hours watching stupid videos on the internet so that you don’t have to! Here are a few that I enjoyed:

• George Bush singing “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
• Hyakugojyuuichi! – an “Animutation”
• Road Van Trip Prank
• Talking Cats
• Tea Partay – music video
• Treadmill Bike
• Why Sumo is better than Karate
• Biker runs into a ditch

(strong language, but listen to the guy afraid of a beating!)