11/30/2005
delicious root beer
I had some really delicious sarsasparilla today, made by Maine Root.
"We believe that root beer deserves to be free. Free from chemical, artificial sweeteners and confined spaces; the very things that strip a root beer of all its innate rootness..." The Maine Root site led to the really well-executed Free-range root beer. (by the same dudes who make Maine Root.) (Portland, Maine)
bridge by my house
Bridge work closes portion of road: not a whole lot of info, but the 1 lane bridge should be open "real soon," the bridge will reopen next fall, and the project will be completed around May 2007. Projected total cost is $2,728,043. (Kittery Point, Maine)
making fun of goths
cheap shots at some profiles from
the gothic personals
11/29/2005
chem experiment: powerbook
will it keep me awake in class?
R.E.M. Lyrics
"Shiny Happy People" -> "
Furry Happy Monsters" on Sesame Street?? (mimi smartypants)
methods of getting through phone systems
*, 0, and # seem to do stuff usually...
IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul English
11/28/2005
"body hacks"
lifehacker calls them "body hacks." I call lifehacker "silly." I'll be trying to clear my sinuses this way anyway.
18 Tricks to fix Your Body
the 3 Portland gay bars
Styxx (boys every night except Thursday when the karaoke lesbians take over),
Blackstones (men, men, old men),
Spring Street (ex-Somewhere Else. Now it's a "martini/sports bar." um, right.) (Portland, Maine)
return of the switch ad
(ROTSA) actually, just old stuff.
unused Ellen Feiss ad
sweatshop-free clothes
All kinds of stuff, union made -
No Sweat.
11/26/2005
DVD questions
what is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R discs? -- not too much? My powerbook (fall 2005) superdrive supports DVD+R double layer, DVD+R,RW, DVD-R,RW, CD-R,RW. More info than I'm willing to read on the differences at the
DVD FAQ. also
writable DVD: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED.
hard drive shopping
how are these different, other than price and size? (case doesn't matter.)
Mercury Elite - 200GB Firewire 400/USB2, 7200 rpm, $195.99 vs.
Mercury Elite-AL Pro - 250GB Firewire 400/USB2, 7200 rpm, $199.99
11/23/2005
happy christmas shopping season
ordered one of these for my boss (retail) -
Monkeyphonecall.com.
$100 laptop
totally cool, except for the color... -
MIT unveils $100 laptop to the world
buzzword
Web 2.0 Checklist. Am hoping laughter is the intended response.
11/22/2005
temporary email addresses
Mailinator
11/20/2005
origami boulders
"you buy wadded up paper now!!!!"
Q: Do you do custom pieces?
A: Finally good question!! This is the kind of person who should visit site, not dumb people too cheap to spend money. Yes, I make custom piece for you! Only $25! You send me piece of paper and I wad up for you and send back with Priority Mail!
flying spaghetti monster book
Pastafarian Bible: "I'll be really disappointed if it doesn’t spawn a cult."
World's 10 Tallest Buildings
pretty diagram at SkyscraperPage.com... plus stats about each if you click on them.
11/19/2005
edamame
I am considering making a screen print of edamame (soy beans). Image resources:
photo (large),
smaller watercolor sketch (for style: see how the beans are attatched to the stalk? mmm.)
presentation tips
presentation tips at 43 folders,
presentation tips by Craig S. Kaplan, one oft-reiterated presentation tip is that you repeat yourself, another presentation tip is that you tell your presentation as a story, is this presentation tip spam? Not that I personally make any presentations. I just enjoy reading presentation tips?
North America is about 3000 miles wide.
You know how difficult it is to find the freaking width of North America? It took me like 3 different searches! Important information like this should replace some of the tripe that's in the newspapers these days. (
"width of north america" miles - Google Search)
Jobs good, Gates bad.
Well, duh. A
comparison of Steve Jobs' and Bill Gates' presentation styles. (Skip the intro paragraphs, check out the pictures and their captions.)
Environmental stuff
recent Maine pesticide news. Adam and I were talking about the benefits of eating local food, and one of them was that you have more control over how your food is grown--not only is it easier to find out where it comes from and whether the source is organic/non organic and family/small business/corporate, but you have more control over environmental regulations around farming. State, county, and town level pesticide, waste (dead animals, manure, burning of crop waste), and labor codes are all much more accessible to an activist resident than to 3000 miles distant consumer.
11/18/2005
mmm vegetables
article about Wolf Pine Farm at MOFGA (I get a CSA share from this farm)
sony cds
sony cds with rootkit. Every day slashdot has the word "rootkit" splashed all over it. freaky.
"guys with pies"
via this week's Savage Love -
Buck Angel's Bizarre Magazine ad (quicktime. not work safe.)
11/17/2005
usability laughs
'The world's least usable restroom' - Tom Coates and Simon Willison try to use a bathroom. References
The Design of Everyday Things.
11/10/2005
how to install wordpress on os x 10.4
Installing Wordpress on Tiger. MacZealots is so slick.
calligraphy
code/calligraphic letters, "
Elian Script" -- especially pretty is this bit,
variations on the word "association"
Van Gogh's drawing
Danny Gregory pointed out
Van Gogh's large vocabulary of lines.
11/09/2005
not quite landscapes
gallery of Icelandic landscapes by Tim Gasperak at The Morning News. I prefer the odd numbered photos, plus #8.
11/08/2005
movie
hamburgers! potato salad! -
super model meat sports
11/07/2005
some customer from work recommends
House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende, when she saw I was reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's
Love in the Time of Cholera. (which I greatly enjoyed. still haven't finished
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter, instead moved on to
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Also recently read
Third Person Rural, by Noel Perrin--essays about farming in Vermont by a 'sometime farmer'... Herriot-esqe, man was I obsessed with James Herriot as a kid.)
11/06/2005
funny story
"ass blood" anecdote, from Bad News Hughes (via mimi smartypants)
11/05/2005
blogging to build site traffic
resource for future arguments in favor of using blogs to build site traffic/interest -
An Argument for Small Business Blogging. argues that blogging is more effective than 'search engine optimization.' when I analyzed the traffic of a site for work recently, and came up with suggestions to build traffic, I basically said that search engine optimization is overrated--especially meta tags, which are near-useless these days--and that the best strategy was to have good content... "content is king." which makes me vaguely happy about the whole project (otherwise pretty frivolous), especially because the new version is full of delicious content (relative to previous deliciousness).
"Theory of Special Crazification"
stuff - silly jabber on a recent Bush speach & also on his current approval rating (37%)
11/04/2005
font laughs
bad Futura version: "If your VW had egg-shaped wheels, wouldn't you complain?"
sarah recommends
ChronoSync, software for synchronizing folders. (mac os x)
funny pics
had me laughing. ugh, it's so weird. also this
bathroom pic, not so weird.
typography
some pretty standard tips -- "
Five simple steps to better typography," interesting parts were
part 1 on line length (everyone should know this),
part 2 on hanging punctuation (I don't know how I feel about that), and
part 3 on ligatures (meh).
11/03/2005
backup software
backup util -
SuperDuper (mac os x)
11/02/2005
blogging at 11
Danny Gregory's son's blog:
Life in Laguardia
procrastinating by reading about procrastination
procrastination training at kuro5hin via 43folders.
11/01/2005
which watershed do you live in?
map of Portland, Maine's watersheds (I guess I thought watersheds were really large, like that the entire gulf of maine was one watershed... not so much, there are 17+ just in Portland).
mywatershed.com has maps of other towns & cities' watersheds also.
home town environmental blues
Spruce Creek Association: "[Spruce Creek] has been identified by the state of Maine as one of the nonpoint source priority watershed [sic] due to bacterial contamination, low dissolved oxygen, toxic contamination, and compromised ability to support commercial marine resources... The Spruce Creek watershed is also listed by the DEP as one of seven Coastal watersheds most at risk from development in the state."
