Phantasmic Links 12.21.09

I hurt. Talking my dad out of shoveling snow by threatening him with a reminder of his nursing home stint last Winter was a small victory. I wouldn't have to worry about him. I wouldn't have to shovel at twice my normal speed in order to do the bulk of the work. I could take my time, and have fun doing things my way on a Sunday morning. The only problem was, working alone and at a sane pace meant that a 2-3 hour job would end up taking closer to six hours. If the sun didn't start to set, I probably wouldn't have realized how late it was getting. Part of the problem was that the snow was packed tighter at the foot of the driveway where we'd been plowed in, and my dad didn't want me throwing it in the pachysandra in case it contained salt. So I had to keep walking down the street with each shovelful. In the end, I got 85% of it cleared and enough to get at least one car out, and I came inside to find hot cocoa as well as toast, and omelet with cheese, and breakfast sausage waiting for me. I know a lot of people who were wishing for this weather, but they either don't have to clean up after it, own a plow or snow blower, are crazy, or any combination of the above. Hard to believe I was walking down a boardwalk alongside the ocean a week ago.

If my fingers don't lock up again, I should be able to type up this week's PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) This is the weather according to Star Wars®, and I had to input a few regions far from where I am to get anything other than “Hoth”.
Hat Tip: J-No.

(2) When Jack Bauer interrogates Santa Claus, the outcome may surprise you.

(3) According to Ben Franklin, the best way to get someone to like you is for that person to do you a favor. I'm going to start asking random girls in bars “Do me a favor?” and see what that gets me....

(4) As of now, this 26 gigapixel panorama of Dresden is the largest in the world.

(5) As of January 1st, that will be SIR Patrick Stewart to you.

(6) The Final Countdown would be my song of choice on a made-up instrument too.

(7) It took me 12 Days(game time) to upgrade my rocket enough to save the world in Fly Hard; how will you do?

(8) Would you eat a 1,000-Year-Old Egg? I wouldn't....

(9) The ABC's of Branding is a brilliantly designed 5x5 grid that takes a number of recognizable letters and crafts a commercial alphabet. How many do you recognize?

(10) After 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes, I'm ready to do just about anything! I could have used this around hour five of shoveling...

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!