Martin's Miscellany Page

This area of my site, part of the very initial design way back, holds together whatever doesn't fit the Music, Computer or Travel topic but at one point or another seemed like a good idea for the concept of a personal home page. It also features a now loosely maintained section of assorted favorite and courtesy links to other Web sites. But before you venture off to other pastures you may want to sample from the In-House Menu: Wasty's Horror Stories Naive "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"-inspired horror stories that I wrote as a teenager for whatever reason. Good for cheap thrills and a laugh. Available in both German and English ... Martin's Home Brew Beer Labels Brewing beer and designing labels go hand in hand. Beer helps the creative process and new labels are a good excuse to make more beer. Activity suspended due to acquisition of a cat and the resulting infestation with hair and dander ... Martin's Family Photo Album A bunch of photos of very old, old and newer date. Family, friends and relatives arranged as an online photo gallery for, well, mostly the pleasure of my family, friends and relatives ... Martin's Personal Profile All the gory details just in case you were wondering with some more links to favorite things thrown in ... Martin's Photo Portfolio The things you do when you're unemployed: I signed up for movie extra and possible photography work which resulted in my paying for a photo shoot and a bunch of 8x10 enlargements ...   Favorite Links: Acronym And Abbreviation Server Over 17'000 entries, mostly serious, mostly technical or scientific. Very useful resource with some hilarious gems thrown in. Alfa Romeo Owners Club Of America (AROC) Alfas simply rule! My Dad owned several Alfas in the 1970s. That influence was slumbering until 1999 when I was charmed by a 1992 Spider Veloce. My second and current one is a 1991 Spider. AltaVista Digital's World Wide Web search engine. My preferred search tool for years. AltaVista Babelfish AltaVista's language translator for Web pages is heaps and heaps of fun even though it is meant as a serious tool. If you're proficient in a popular second language, play around with this for some pretty good laughs. Baregg Tunnel Home page of one of Switzerland's more infamous tunnels: a bottleneck that forces 3-lane highway traffic to merge onto 2 lanes and causes a rush hour traffic nightmare every day. The site is actually home to a contruction project to finally expand the tunnel to 3 lanes. It features multiple live Web cams and you can send a cute "no, honestly, honey, I'm stuck in traffic again" postcard from the fictitious "Baregg Bar". Blick Online Blick, Switzerland's popular tabloid paper, is now online too (including the page 3 girl). Brugg Online Facts and news from the town where I was born and surrounding villages with nice photos and historical facts. Charles Bukowski He loved the most beautiful girl in the mist of wine... EvolveFish The official Darwin fish and other merchandise... Gotta LOVE it! May be offensive to the realitchless rite... Find-A-Grave Index to celebrity grave sites. Nice collection of sausage labels too... Independent Film Channel An oasis in the disgustingly clean, mainstream, politically correct US TV landscape that caters to the lowest common denominator. IFC shows movies the way they are intended to be seen: No censored speech or nudity and no commercial breaks. The selection is great: subtitled foreign, domestic, funny, weird and artsy movies, short films, interviews etc. Sadly and typically, an easily available IFC is a thorn in the eye of the prudish, bigoted public and the exclusive cable provider in town - Cox Communications - is a willing listener. To "accommodate their audience" those self-righteous money-grubbing bastards moved IFC from the basic subscription to a more expensive digital cable movie tier. They never asked me... Cox, you suck. I want my IFC! Isnogud (Iznogoud) A hilarious comic book series from French publisher Dargaud with texts by Jean Tabary and drawings by René Goscinny who's famous for creating "Asterix". Isnogud (the German name, "Iznogoud" in French) is an evil grand vizier in medieval Bagdad who, with the help of his faithful servant Tunichgud, constantly plots to become caliph in place of the naive and good-hearted caliph Harun Al Pussah. Of course the plans always backfire. The series originated in the 1960's and is out of print. I recently found some re-issues on Amazon.de. Lileks James Lileks is primarily a columnist and author. His site contains many impressive photo galleries about American cities and pop culture from the 1950's and 1960's. A humerous subsection titled "The Institute Of Official Cheer" features even more tours of various topics, my fave being the Grooviest Motel in Wisconsin: The Gobbler! Merriam-Webster Dictionary Quick and convenient reference to words in the English language. Panini Sticker Collections Panini is an Italian company that publishes sticker collections all over Europe (similar to American baseball cards but you get a book with placeholders for the stickers). I'm real fond of their World Cup Soccer series of which I still have the completed 1974 album and a partially completed one from 1982. I still remember sneaking money out of my piggy bank and trading stickers in school. I found the World Cup 1998 series on a trip to Australia of all places and am currently trying to get additional stickers through family back home. Seems there is no US distribution for this... Pepe Le Pew Le tres 'ilarious Warner Bros Looney Tunes cartoon character, Frenchie skunk Pepe Le Pew... Here's a site with a brief intro, sound clips and some images. Phoenix New Times The New Times is not only a great entertainment guide, it's also a beacon in the desolate, big-business driven Arizona media landscape ruled by this piece of journalistic excrement called the Arizona Republic and their pathetic scribes. Besides this Web site is tops in design, layout and content. It features the full paper issue each week along with Web-only specials and allows to search archives. The Professionals TV Series Guide The ultimate guide to The Professionals by Dave Matthews. The Professionals was a hugely successful British crime series that ran in the late 70's/early 80's and has achieved cult status in Europe. It was hard-boiled and down-to-earth unlike many of the US crime series. It was about an anti-terrorist squad called "CI5" featuring agents Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw) and their boss George Cowley (Gordon Jackson). I often watched the show with my Dad as a teenager which made for some great bonding because we both liked the show equally. I'm ecstatic to find this site that is vast in its content and brilliantly designed. Spam Cop Free service that assists in punishing spammers for sending their junk mail. Analyzes e-mail headers and generates a complaint to the appropriate abuse and postmaster addresses. Tages-Anzeiger Zürich, Switzerland's largest daily paper, down-to-earth with journalistic integrity and a slight left-of-center slant. World Cup Soccer The World Cup, the only sports event I can really get into... FIFA's home page seems to be the logical link of choice here. Zippo Lighters Zippo Manufacturing Company Home Page. Zippo's light my tabs exclusively! [ Top | Up to Front Page | Music | Travel | Computers ] Last updated September 17, 2003 by Martin Mathis, e-mail lastbandit.com