People say what I’m about to say a lot, but in 13 months of blogging and 120 posts I have never said it. I’ve said similar things, but I haven’t made the following over-generalizing, cliched, oft-exaggerated blanket statement until today:

This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

You must suffer through two more paragraphs of fan-boy ramblings before you can watch it - I feel like I owe that to the creator of this video.

It’s hard to imagine the amount of work this took and the level of creativity and skill this guy has to have to be able to pull something like this off. I can’t even do a simple animation using a pad of paper. Imagine your pad of paper as a dirty brick or concrete wall in a back alley and your pencil as a huge exterior paint brush.

Now imagine not being able to use a clean sheet of paper for each frame of animation, but having to erase your drawing and remember exactly what it looked like so that your next frame matches up. Keep in mind this artist can’t just erase his painting - he has to paint over the entire thing to create a blank canvas every time. And imagine doing all this out in public with strange people watching you.

For heaven’s sake, imagine it! If you can’t imagine it, here’s the video:

(Note: if you don’t watch this with sound you’re not getting the whole experience. The sound effects truly complete this piece of art.)

Thanks to Hulu I can demonstrate for you first hand why Saturday Night Live is as funny as ever. These are ranked from really funny to extremely funny, and I tried to include a nice mixture of sketches, Digital Shorts, and fake commercials for your enjoyment. If these videos make you laugh, check out the SNL section on Hulu to see a beautifully categorized archive of SNL clips, shorts, political segments (not my favorite but include some pretty funny segments), and commercials.

I also want to point out that Hulu is an amazing site that lets you browse videos very easily without navigating away from the video you’re currently watching. You only have to watch an opening ad about one in four views, and the ones I saw were actually funny (and pretty short). Plus theres a “lower lights” button on the right that makes you feel like you’re viewing from the privacy of your own comfy TV room.

6. The Tangent

5. Tim Calhoun

4. Cubicle Fight

3. The Barry Gibb Talk Show

2. Annuale

1. The Surprise Party

No, I’m not getting sick of these, nor will I ever. I found the video below on Digg today, and it’s genius. I was motivated to post it in response to this equally amazing video I saw on LITS the other day.

This type of custom level requires no manual controlling, and it’s built to beat itself. This sort of reminds me of a sweet Line Rider video.

Speaking of amazing Line Rider videos, here’s one of my favorites with awesome music from Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, so turn on your speakers!

If you can’t view that version because you don’t have the latest version of Flashplayer, here is the youtube version. Also, check out this guy’s channel - he’s a great artist and level designer: TechDawg’s Youtube Channel.

I grew up riding a bus to school that passed a mental hospital called Central State on the west side of Indianapolis. It was abandoned in the mid 90s, and has been around for over 100 years. People still tell stories of hauntings at the hospital, and it became especially frightening after it was abandoned. You can still drive past it and peer between the iron bars of the fence to see the old brick buildings that used to house the mentally insane.

Apparently Central State had a very violent history. Who knows what used to happened inside those rotting old hallways. These thoughts prompted me to research the hospital’s history online, which led me to a wealth of sites devoted to “urban exploration” - the exploration of man-made abandoned sites, structures, buildings, mines, and tunnels. Popular destinations seem to be mental hospitals, factories, and even Soviet-era research facilities.

Two days of researching this stuff and I’ve barely uncovered the tip of the iceberg. I’d like to share with you 10 of the scariest abandoned building facades I have come across so far. This isn’t a list of buildings with the scariest histories, creepiest inner hallways and rooms, or most frightening locations, but simply abandoned buildings that have the most chill-rendering, foreboding external facades. Enjoy!

Le Triage Lavoir Coal Plant - Belguim

It’s just an empty shell of a building with all its guts ripped out. It almost looks like a cage for a huge monster. More Photos

Buffalo Central Terminal - New York

Looks like an old school attached to Grand Central Station. Who knows all the comings and goings that took place in this building throughout the years. Now it’s just sitting there staring at the city from the outskirts of town. More Photos

Littoral Ceramics Factory - Belgium

This one looks even older. I bet there is something staring out through one of those top floor windows. More Photos

Lakin Industrial Home for Colored Boys - West Virginia

Half projects, half orphanage, all scary. More Photos

Michigan Central Station - Michigan

These are some of the most visually compelling abandoned photos I’ve seen. Do people really drive by this in Detroit every day without getting freaked out? This one’s totally ominous and foreboding. It looks like a ghost mansion. More Photos

Fort Steendorp - Belgium

As I’ve stated before I have a fear of voids and caves and such things. The entrances into this underground structure are very cave-like and frightening. I would never crawl into one of these dark passageways alone. I have to admit, this would be awesome to accidentally stumble upon in the deep forest. More Photos

Meiderich Steel Mill - Germany

Giant twisting rusted abandoned towers of metal that once processed liquid steel. This thing looks like it would growl at you if you ventured too close. More Photos

Hasard Cheratte Coal Mine - Belgium

Why does Belgium have all the scary looking buildings? More Photos

Marquette - France

Someone purposefully designed this monster to look like an orphanage sanitarium where demons are manufactured. I don’t know what this building actually used to be since I could not find much information about it. I do know one thing that it is: crazy scary. More Photos

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - Ukraine

This one tops them all. It’s just sitting there, emitting contaminated radiation from when it melted down 22 years ago. Did I mention it still has 95% of it’s nuclear supply? The only way to get rid of such a humongous death trap is to completely encase it in a steel shell and try to forget about it. You heard me, they’re building the ginormous steel canopy as we speak, which will be hoisted over the treacherous factory and bolted down forever upon completion. More Photos

I guess I’ll end with a question. You know how when you were growing up there was that one house at the end of the street or that one abandoned lumber yard down by the railroad tracks that you and your friends would always try to sneak into but got too scared to do it? If you could choose any of the freaky buildings in this post that would be the scariest one to have to sneak into alone while your friends waited outside, which would it be? Oh boy this is a doozy!

It’s Friday. Let’s step out of the void/cephalopod/abyss kick we’ve been on and feast our eyes upon this absolutely spectacular piece of technology. In my opinion, this is the culmination of the entire human race. When God created us He only did it for two reasons: 1) so we would worship Him, and 2) so we would figure out how to build this R2-D2 projector. I’m sorry if that was blasphemous. Just click on this link please:

R2-D2 projector in action video (over at Gizmodo)

Here are some photos from the Star Wars Shop:

In case your IT department blocks the clicking of links on the intertubez, here is a list of features. Bear in mind all of these features are controlled via a Millennium Falcon remote control:

• DVD/CD player projector
• Completely motorized (like a remote control car)
• 260″ projection size
• Multipositioning (project on the wall, ceiling, floor, etc.)
• 1800:1 contrast ratio
• Connects to Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii
• Optical digital out for Dolby 5.1 surround
• Build in virtual surround
• All original R2-D2 sounds!!! This is the main reason I want it.
• S-video in (connects to camcorder)
• USB slots and multi-card reader (display photos on the wall)
• iPod doc (plays music and displays photos and video from your iPod)

Oh BTW it costs three grand. WORTH IT!