Costume Ideas

• My personal favorite: Limecat
• Costumes for your doggie: Nacho Libre and a bunch of grapes.
• Are you going as a wookie? Here’s how to make the Chewbacca noise.
• Here’s a cool costume for your favorite zombie wannabe.

Halloween Lists

• Sometimes the scariest movie moments can be found in non-horror movies. Check out the top 25 list here.
• Or, for a sure thing, read Martin Scorsese’s top 11 picks for scariest movies of all time.

Recipes

• Nicole over at Baking Bites has some cool vampire-themed recipes: pancakes, cookies, and cupcakes.
• Over at Not Martha, you can learn how to make a meat hand. Vom alert.
• Double vom alert: brain cake.
• Serve your brain cake with bloody brain shooters.

Goofy Halloween video of the week:

• Law school exams are only six weeks away. Yikes! It’s also getting harder and harder to crawl out of bed every morning. Feeling a little burned out? Take a one-year creativity sabbatical. Oh, if only I could do just that. Seriously, though, I’d bet there is something to that. I always get my best ideas in the shower when my mind is wandering. In lieu of the sabbatical, here are 33 ways to get and keep yourself motivated.
• Did you  miss out on the Cash for Clunkers program and now you’re in the market for a new vehicle? Check out the Prombron, the world’s baddest SUV. Pay close attention to the disgusting repulsive horrifying unique seat covers. Eww, vom.
• I need another pet about as much as I need the Prombron, but PLEASE LOOK AT HOW CUTE THESE MICRO-PIGS ARE. Waaaaant. Bonus: Ron Weasley has one. Now you know they’re cool.
• Speaking of swine, FitSugar has some really great tips for warding off the H1N1 virus. It’s been making the rounds here for several weeks now. Don’t get it. If you do, stay away from me. Also, here’s a handy chart for determining whether your symptoms are caused by the swine flu or the regular flu.
• Tissue alert: Read the story behind this picture, if you haven’t seen it already. (image credit: Abby Bennethum)
• 

Courtoon of the week:

Most pathetic/hilarious video of the week:

So, without further ado, here are this week’s best links from my feed reader.

• Are you at all interested in interior design? If so, you should check out these 40 Excellent Examples of Interior Designs Rendered in 3D Max.
• Design not your thing? What about Hello Kitty?
• Traces of the anti-flu medication Tamiflu are showing up in rivers in Japan, and scientists are worried that this could result in a drug-resistant strain of the flu.
• Speaking of the flu, here’s a recipe for some do-it-yourself hand sanitizer.

Funny cartoon of the week:

Entertaining video of the week:

Anyway, since I feel like I’ve been totally neglecting this blog lately, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of the best items from my feed reader (hence the name “friday night feeding”… get it?) with you in case you’re bored. Like me. Not that I’m complaining. Sometimes boredom is beautiful.

• Dan Brown, of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons fame, has a new book called The Lost Symbol. I was entertained by The Da Vinci Code much more than Angels & Demons, and I’m sure at some point I’ll get around to reading The Lost Symbol. I’m not a huge fan, though. Here’s a less-than-flattering review of the new book by The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik.
• Along the same lines, here are Dan Brown’s 20 Worst Sentences. Some of them really are pretty bad.
• I want to make this recipe for Spicy, Citrusy Black Beans. Yum.
• I think this guy’s lawsuit for “1,784 billion, trillion dollars” is completely reasonable.
• Are you planning a party and providing alcohol? Wondering how to figure out how much to buy? Lifehacker, perhaps the most useful website EVAH, has a simple formula.

Funny comic of the week:

Funny kitteh video of the week:

hat tip: @no634 from a long time ago

• Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
• That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’
• The scream of a modem connecting.
• Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
• Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
• Answering machines.
• Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
• Spending your entire allowance at the arcade in the mall.

By the way, California pics will be up soon — hopefully this weekend.

The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty — that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776

In case you ever wondered how Thomas Jefferson was selected to write the Declaration of Independence, wonder no more:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Ten things you may not know about the Declaration of Independence, courtesy of Nick Rogers of the Victoria Advocate.

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

The Muppets sing Stars & Stripes Forever:

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations…This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

John Adams, letter to H. Niles, February 13, 1818

And, finally, a unique fireworks show:

Happy Independence Day!!

* All quotes are courtesy of Mark’s Quotes.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com