Ok. I owe you a Lazarus and the Time Machine Part 2, but I can't resist the chance to post a quite nearly timely World Cup inspired design.

I've consulted with experts in the field, and the consensus is that the World Cup involves Soccer.

In my mind this is quite nearly the same thing as Foosball, except that in Soccer the games are much longer and harder schedule.

I admit it. I'm not really an organized sports guy, and today's design is less inspired by the World Cup and more by Rockstar's latest table tennis opus.

The idea is simple:

Foosball + Wii = Awesome.

Which seems to suggest to me that it was offline at some point, almost as if someone had deleted the gallery entry page by accident, and failed to notice it for a few weeks.

Not that could happen on a well run site like this one.

I took the opportunity to update the gallery software, so something good came out of this in the end.

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Here is the gallery.

I have been spending a bit of time with macro photography of late. I have a penchant for crawly critters [ link fixed ], which I have indulged for over a year now.

I've always had issues trying to take these photos indoors, or in dark places. Because the subject matter is so close to the lens, the built-in flash will frequently cast the shadow of the lens into the picture.

So, armed with a high-output halogen flashlight, a few bucks worth of supplies, and some junk I had lying about the house, I built a hands-free rig for lighting these tricky macro photographs*.

I documented the project over in the Chrome Cow Labs section. Stop by and take a look, then build your own!

*In the spirit of full disclosure, the wolf spider photo above was taken before I built the rig. I just like that photo...};^)

I'm testing a new WordPress plug-in I'm working on, and the site may behave a little erratically in places.