Hey, kids — sorry for the long period of radio silence, especially after the big build-up I delivered for my planned “Talkin’ Books” week. I had — and still have — some major ambitions for that topic, but unfortunately Real Life last week wasn’t very conducive to ambitious blogging, or much of anything else, either. The short version: my load at work has been heavier than expected (I was told things were due to start slowing down for the summer; as Wayne and Garth might say, “shyeah…”), my allergies have been fearsome (the tissues around my eyes were so swollen and dark on Saturday that I looked as if I’d lost a bar fight), and I just haven’t had anything left to give at the end of the day. So rather than dragging my sorry rear-end home and blogging about books until bedtime, I’ve been dragging my sorry rear-end home and sitting insensate in a darkened room with a cool, damp cloth over my face.

I’m hoping to get around to some of the book-related posts I’ve got in mind later this week, but in the meantime, here’s a little something to take the edge off your Simple Tricks jones:

This is yet another of those wild “case mods” I’ve written about before, those customized computer cabinets built by creative folks with way too much time on their hands. In this case, we’re looking at a seriously cool case that resembles a movie-style nuclear bomb, complete with a big red LED read-out. I doubt that real-world WMDs look anything like this, but if I came into a strange office and spotted this thing sitting on a desk, I’d probably find an excuse to cut the meeting short…
If you’re curious, copiously illustrated details on the bomb-case’s contruction can be found here.