In the newspaper the other day, there was an article that caught my interest about a couple of college engineering students who built a homemade roller coaster in their back yard (with mom’s reluctant approval).  I figured there would be  video of their creation on youtube.com, but I was unable to find the exact coaster from the article.  I did, however, find many videos featuring brave and creative souls fashioning their own various types of thrill rides and testing them out – some so amusing I had to put them together.  You can probably tell by the picture on the video if it’s going to be one you’ll want to watch in action.  And by the way, more than a few of these trials reminded me of that article I read and wrote about a while back about reasons for common ER visits called: Don’t Laugh, It Could Happen To  You…

This guy rides his backyard roller coaster in a little chair, and it even has an inversion:

This guy uses a little mining type cart, and he seems to achieve some pretty good speed:

This one looks more like it’s on train tracks, but it’s a long ride, and he also looks like he hits some pretty decent speeds:

This one’s not a roller coaster, but sort of homemade gravitron:

Are you going to be as surprised as I was about the speeds this ATV uses to wind up this poor lady’s sling shot?  This is one heck of a human sling shot!!

And finally, this video begins with saying this kid’s parents were out of town…  uh, oh.  This guy builds a slip n’ slide off the 2nd story of his house.  Does anyone else find it funnily ironic that the test subject gets congratulated after his run by a guy with his arm in a sling?  The first tester, perhaps?

As I’ve mentioned, I read the suburban Chicago newspaper online.  Today a headline about the town where I grew up caught my eye – a kid filmed a short little youtube.com movie in Warrenville, Illinois.  I couldn’t care less about the battle between fans of Star Wars and Star Trek, but I know there are some tangents.org readers who are fans of one or both of the franchises – thought they might enjoy this little video.  It’s a creative idea, really – what would happen if the introductory words at the beginning of the Star Wars movies fell to Earth?  For its small budget (around $100) and the small amount of time invested, the special effects aren’t bad either…

If you’d like more info about the kid or the video, here is a link to the original article.

Came across this funny rendition of the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody the other day.  I don’t know about you, but the Muppets always make me smile!

I’m talking about the nuptials of Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly, of course!  If you’re not a fan of The Office, you can stop reading now.  But for everyone else, how about that special 1-hour episode the other night?  Hubby and I thought it to be amazing – I laughed, I cried, I laughed until I cried…  Thursday’s episode was heartwarming,  hilarious, and humongous with its 1-hour run time!

Now I will be the first to admit that some of the plot lines contained within this episode were so outrageous that they were almost silly.  But given this show’s talented cast and production staff, things that would normally be ridiculous on other shows instead made for some great tv in this case.  I won’t waste your  time with a recap; you can get that here from the quick-witted tvguide.com writers.  But I absolutely loved this episode, so after much deliberation, here are my top 3 moments from The Office episode “Niagara”:

3.  Pam’s 80-year-old “Nema” saying, “I had to sit there while it happened to me.” – Pam’s grandmother is referring to the previous night in her hotel room when she couldn’t figure out how to get the tv channel switched from the movie “Bruno”.  Having been exposed to the same trash, her line echoed my sentiments exactly!

2.  This exchange was the one that had me crying laughing:
Pam Beesly:      Hey hey! Where are you? Can you take Andy to the hospital?
Jim Halpert:     What?
Pam Beesly:     He tore his scrotum dancing.
Jim Halpert:     What?
Pam Beesly:     He is in my room icing his balls.
Jim Halpert:     What?
Oh, my – TOO funny, enough said!

And the best moment of the episode was…  (drum roll please)…
1.  The wedding dance!  The attendants and attendees of Pam and Jim’s wedding danced down the aisle, imitating a popular youtube video.  I struggled deciding which version to post on my blog, the real one or The Office’s version, and I  went with the original.  Not only is it entertaining to  watch this happen at a real wedding (can’t believe they allowed this in a church, but if you look, the officiant is standing on the altar, grooving along!), but I decided not to post the clip from The Office because I think much of its entertainment value comes from being a fan of the show.  If you are a fan of the show, then you’ve already seen the musical montage in this episode set to Chris Brown’s Forever (shows what I know – after his arrest, I just assumed that Brown was another trouble-plagued hip-hop star, but this song actually has me tapping my toes.  Am I a Chris Brown fan?).  Non-Office fans wouldn’t appreciate all of the significance of the events that take place during this scene of the show, so I figured, why show it?  I LOVED this part; it’s the part that made me cry, albeit with happy tears, of course.  Every moment between  Pam and Jim for the past 5 seasons has been leading up to this moment, and despite all of the anticipation by fans and viewers, it did not disappoint!  I won’t say much more – don’t want to spoil it for fans who haven’t yet watched, but let’s just say (assume Comic Book Guy’s voice from the Simpsons):  “Best. Episode. EVER.”  One I will be watching over and over, laughing and crying each time.

The original version of the Forever wedding dance (this couple also made a parody of their own wedding video with them doing the Forever dance in court during their (fake) divorce proceedings if you want to check it out):

…  giant puppet, but I found it pretty cool when I came across it the other day.  Check out the frenzied movements of the puppeteers in red – there are lines of men, and they take turns running and jumping to pull the ropes to move the huge puppet.

My previous post became too lengthy, but I wanted to share the following video they had on the hotel tv.  Whether it was my relief that the baby had finally fallen asleep, or my being so tired after a huge busy day, the video made me emotional – I think it’s just a feel-good video.  I meant to show it to the fellow animal lovers in my family, but it skipped my mind that morning, so now they can see it here; it’s awesome!

Christian The Lion:

Ok, I have to issue a warning for the following post because admittedly, it’s in poor taste.  And I usually try to write a family-friendly blog, but the following video has some non-family friendly content.  If your kids are anything like mine, they come running when they hear audio coming from the computer.  Too many fun forwards and youtubes of the DoodleBops and Barney, I guess.  But shoo the kids away and consider yourself warned.  Those of you who find sloppy drunken behavior funny should proceed to watch the following video.  It’s a version of the 12 Days of Christmas sung by the late comedienne Fay McKay.  In the song, she replaces all of the presents from the true love with gifts of liquor, leading to her being completely trashed by the song’s end.  I heard it when I was a kid; they used to play it on the radio.  And although I didn’t understand the scope of what was happening, I knew that the singer was acting goofy and it was fun for a kid.  So my sister and I called the song “Greenstuff” (you’ll know why when you hear the song), and we made a cassette tape of it.  Oops – I didn’t mean to lose all you readers who are under the age of twenty (a WHAT tape?).  On the other hand, maybe you shouldn’t be watching this video if you’re not old enough to legally enjoy alcohol responsibly.  Thanks to the modern invention called youtube, I was able to dig up the recording of the song I enjoyed so much as a kid.  Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, it seems kind of strange…

The only video I could find of Fay McKay performing the song was audio/video mismatched, if you know what I mean.  The audio didn’t match the way her lips were moving, and it was annoying, so I’m reluctantly posting a different version instead  – one with a slide show that matches the lyrics.  Some of the add-ins are funny, while I failed to see the humor in others.  And I don’t know why they showed the woman on the table so many times…  maybe she is someone that knows the youtube poster – how embarrassing.  How does something like that happen anyway?  See for yourself, if you dare, and don’t forget to listen to the song: