Phantasmic Links 6.26.06

My Sunday proved to be far more productive than my Saturday, and I accomplished the most before 11:30 AM. Maybe there is something to that whole getting up early thing my dad's done his whole life. We got back from church a little after 8, and with inexplicable adrenaline and a desire to beat the rain, I had a jack under my car and wrenches lined up before I'd even had breakfast, before even my dad was ready to work on the car. I didn't get far however, as the jack jammed and after realizing I had it on an unsafe portion of my car's underside, I was unable to loosen or lower it. This led to a brief conflict in which my dad, happening on the scene and discovering my dilemma, declared that I had broken his jack and was just like my uncle, rushing in without knowing what I'm doing. I argued that the problem might be that the jack was older than I was, but once I got a secondary jack out of my trunk so he could free and fix the big one, we soon engaged in a different kind of teamwork. It was he that handed me wrenches as I struggled and loosened rusted bolts on the pipe between my muffler and catalytic converter. At one point he went inside to get a hacksaw, but I had the bolts out to his surprise by the time he returned. On one end, the pipe came loose completely and I realized as loud as my car had been this week, it would have been worse if the pipe had fallen loose while driving. For the first time, I would say I did 90% of the repairs on my car instead of vice versa, and my dad proudly said I did good. My mom even suggested that I now had a backup career should I ever lose my current job, but I don't think I'd want to fix other people's cars on a regular basis. It's enough to be able to fix one's own vehicle, and it takes forever to get my hands clean afterwards. Like a proud fisherman with a particularly large catch, I of course had to document the offending part I removed:





Note that where there are two pieces in the above photo, those brackets were originally attached and that was all one piece. I know it's not Wednesday, but I couldn't wait to share the photos before delving into the real reason you're all here today, this week's PHANTASMIC LINKS:

Here's a museum of handheld games.

These are games with the worst names.

If you get stumped playing Dumb: The Game you might feel like Buddy, as played by Willie Aames.

Survive Undead Assault or perish in flames.

Add http://www.gabbly.com/ before any web site and if someone else is doing the same thing at the same time, you can talk to them. Will my readers be able to talk to each other today? Is “Jimmy” a nickname for “James”?

Hubble goes somewhat blind. I guess we won't catch sight of any interstellar dames.

What happens when MCF approaches females in his office? This is why I don't stake any claims.

In Donut Boy, collecting donuts and surviving 36 floors are your chief aims.

Finally, I've got a big bag full of crabs here, and when you're all singing about it later you'll know where to send blames.