Why I Love Jamie Hyneman

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted anything Mythbusters on this blog. Or in Spanish... Cazadores de Mitos.

Recently YouTube held a live event in San Francisco which they streamed out over the internet. They had lots of famous guests and infamous ones too - some the creators of those viral videos that become a big hit were there too.

Because it was held in San Francisco, home of the Mythbusters, and one of the most played videos on YouTube was Leonardo the robotic paintball artist by the Mythbusters, Jamie and Adam were invited to participate.

What they came up with, is this:



How awesome is that? ONLY Jamie Hyneman would have the cajones to stand in front of a high pressure machine that fires over 1100 paint balls across 15 feet of space at him, while wearing a suit of armour. I love the man, he is just a total legend.

And while we're talking the mighty awesomeness of Mythbusters, I have a new favourite explosion. It's the "Water heater of death":



It's the ultimate stress relief. One can totally shed all the tensions of the day by watching Jamie and Adam blow stuff up.

MoVember

Well it's the end of MoVember, you know, when all the guys find a legitimate reason to go around with big, bad 70's porn star moustaches. They basically grow them up through November, and folks sponsor them money that goes to charity for men's health. Specifically prostate cancer and men's depression. I think it's great that men are getting proactive about their health issues, we gals have been having morning teas and pink days and all kinds of things to raise money for women's and children's health for a long time.

Anyway, yesterday was the big day, and those guys that were too scared to wear a mo for the whole month shaved out their beards to just mo's, people had morning teas and other events to raise money.

The Wellness Centre in my work building sold moustachioed cupcakes to raise money, and Di was kind enough to go and buy some for us. Here are some of the ones she came back with:


This guy has a serious overbite.


I'd look worried if I was green with big red lips and that mo.


Hitler cupcake anyone? There was no real reason that the boss got this cupcake. HONESTLY.

And Di spotted this one and was sure I would like it:



Why? Because it looks like Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters!! Don't believe me? Check this out:



Ok, then look, I modified it a bit to make it more like him:



I should have made little paper clip glasses. All right, shut up, I know I'm a nutbar.

A few guys in our office did the whole MoVember thing, but none looked quite so dodgy-riffic as Will:



To be fair, he always has a beard, he just shaved that tragic shape into it this morning for one day. Poor precious, it's his birthday tomorrow. What a look to sport!

Multiply Your Intelligence

I've needed a wee break from blogging for the past week, things have been kind of intense with me dealing with a close friend who has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and I've needed some time to process that before I got talking about other stuff. As you may have been able to see from my last blog post, my tolerance level had dropped considerably!

But I'm back ready to blog!

I've found a wonderful subject to talk about today. Mythbusters! Ok, it's not directly Mythbusters, but the lads have cropped up with regards to the internet and Web2.0, that I think is VERY relevant to our whole 23 Things journey.

Being the solid Mythbusters fan that I am, I have Google alerts (where you get an email that tells you if there are any new pages/blogs about whatever subject you choose) on them. One of the alerts pointed me to this WONDERFUL interview with Patti Schiendelman from Makezine online magazine of Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage from Mythbusters fame.

It's such a comprehensive interview it's split into two parts, if you'd like to read all of it go to:

Make with Mythbusters: Part 1
Make with Mythbusters: Part 2

The part that particularly stood out for me as relevant to our 23 Things journey was this quote from Jamie:

JH: Well, the strange thing is that I'm finding it just as entertaining to read non-fiction. In particular, the thing that I've realized, especially recently - people talk about the impact of the Internet, and I'm sure different people use it, obviously, differently, but for me, it's just absolutely fantastic because I have no end of questions and I can answer those questions almost instantly. Obviously a lot of it's crap that you're going to run across; if you learn how to filter it, you're better off. I was halfway through my master's in Library Science, had a degree in Russian Language and Literature before that, I was
already really into Information Science, way before Mythbusters, before getting anywhere near where I am now. But the Internet - I think of it as something that's practically mind-altering. The amount of power that you have for advancement and development of technology - I don't think we've really seen the impact of it quite yet - people may not realize the potential of it. But when one learns how to really use the Internet, it's like you've multiplied your intelligence, your abilities by huge factors.

I knew I liked the guy! Not only is he a prolific reader (and if you read the whole article, some of his favourite fiction titles are a delight to discover), but he was also studying to be a librarian before he got into the career he is in now. How cool is that?

Now his point on the internet and it's potential really impressed me. This is not a man who jumps on to technology because it's new and cool, he's known for always taking the unadorned, elegant approach to problem solving. This is also not a young man (he just turned 52 in September), and this is also one of the most phenomenally intelligent men in this world. And he completely sees the potential of learning how to use the internet and it's tools (which is what Web2.0 technologies are, internet tools) to multiply your intelligence and as a source of information if you learn how to use it effectively.

Web2.0 is very much a buzzword, and unfortunately people are naturally adverse to buzzwords. I know I am. That's why I really loathe the term myself. But I don't want to see us tainted against these tools simply because the hype has overshadowed them a little. Think of books you've read or movies you've seen that have been hyped up, and you were a bit over the whole lot, but when you DID find out for yourself, you've been so glad you did so. Harry Potter was like that for me. I avoided reading those books because of all the hype, but when a trusted source convinced me to try them, I found them truly wonderful and regretted that I hadn't picked them up earlier, that I'd let hype turn me off them.

The whole point of 23 Things is that we are leading you into learning what the tools are, how to use them effectively and then YOU choose how they apply to you. Once you are armed with the skills and knowledge, your intelligence multiplies and you're able to do so many things more effectively and efficiently.

I really urge you to read the whole interview with Jamie and Adam, you won't regret it, they're both fun and fascinating. And as a treat, here are a couple of my favourite YouTube vids of the Mythbusters in action.

Jamie shooting fish in a barrel, Mythbusters style:



Adam demonstrating the power of lighter and heavier gases on the human voice:

Well! I Never!

I've been stood up!

Ok, not me personally, but well... it feels that way. It could be the three rather hefty glasses of chardonnay talking though.

This evening I went to the launch of the QPLA Conference (Queensland Public Libraries Association) at State Library of Queensland. A rather lovely little soiree out on their tea-cup terrace, wine and nibblies in the cool breeze off the river. The guest of honour was supposed to be the absolutely divine William McInnes... but he didn't bloody well show up!



Now for those of you who don't already know, I'm possibly William's biggest fan. Have been for some... well, it will give away my age but it's about 20 years. I've run a fan mailing list for about 12 years, and a news-blog for about three. If you want to look at the news blog, go to: http//williamwatch.blogspot.com

He was supposed to be a guest speaker to launch the conference, and he just didn't turn up. The bugger! He'd better turn up tomorrow morning, he's the keynote speaker!

Well, if he's going to be like that, I'm going to go hang out with the other man of my dreams, Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters. He'd never stand me up. I'm sure of it!



Yeah, you can all hang shit on me now.

Something to Make You Laugh

Yes, it is I, the Mythbusters fan.

I found these on YouTube over the weekend. Apparently a recent myth Adam and Jamie have been testing is ways to sober up after you've been on the turps.

The first one is a slap in the face:



The second one, is vigorous exercise:



Both had me cracking myself with laughter. I do love Mythbusters!