Stuff from October, 2006
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on October, 2006.
Little Brown Jug
We have the Little Brown Jug this year. A somewhat rare occurance. More info about the jug.
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on October, 2006.
We have the Little Brown Jug this year. A somewhat rare occurance. More info about the jug.
The Coolhunt - Malcolm Gladwell’s fascinating article from 1997 about the “coolhunts” by employees of the clothing industry. Recounts the resurrection of the Converse One Star shoes.
Above all, it’s hard learning to live with vivid mental images of scenes I cared for and failed to photograph. It is the edgy existence within me of these unmade images that is the only assurance that the best photographs are yet to be made.
— Sam Abell
Living vicariously has advantages
No aches
No risks
No good
Where to go, then, on daydreamt journeys?
I’ll take a trip to the past
Or the future
Anywhere to salvage now
Eyes on the horizon
We find our place on the ground in front of us
I was born to sing. When I don’t, I feel empty. When I do, I feel fulfilled. It’s that simple.
— Natalie Walker
Using an iron to cook - The most innovative hot dog preparation I have seen.
Unbelievably well done article on Wikipedia - It’s about enzyme kinetics. It rivals my biochemistry textbook (allowing for its limited scope and the foibles of online “publishing.”)
If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus; and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.
— Bruce Lee
I’ve worked out of a series of no’s. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no’s force me to the “yes.” I have a white background. I have the person I’m interested in and the thing that happens between us.
— Richard Avedon
And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.
— Richard Avedon
When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler - Join a car-sharing club today. (Interesting poster from the wartime era).
Buckling spring keyboards - These keyboards are what keyboards used to feel like … with buckling spring technology to give you a scientifically proven increase in feedback, generally resulting in faster typing speeds.
Computers are most useful when they get out of our way. I recently realized that when I say I work with computers, people automatically peg me as that computer geek who loves hardware, spec sheets, and processors. Thing is, I only know about them in order to get these blasted machines to do what I want to do. I spend an inordinate amount of time shoehorning machines into working the way I think, so (pardoxically) I can stop worrying about shoehorning the machines into working the way I think. I’ve always seen Windows as a respectable software tool to deal with, but I must liken the experience to taming a wild stallion (without any of the glamorous trappings inherent in the animal analogy). Windows has to be poked, prodded, altered, trimmed, augmented, and examined from the top to the bottom and up again, to get it to do what you want it to do … when you want it to do it.
Police hunt farting dissident - “Police in Poland have launched a nationwide hunt for a man who farted loudly when asked what he thought of the president.”
Most expensive adwords - The top two most expensive adwords phrases are “school loan consolidation” and “college loan consolidation.”
Via Mike Davidson
Pickpockets - This guy allows himself to get pickpocketed, then picks the pockets of the pick pocketers.
Fun read.
Pitch drop experiment - World’s longest lab experiment: since 1927 - it measures how slowly pitch (tar) will drip out of a funnel. “The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, allowing experimenters to calculate that the pitch has a viscosity approximately 100 billion times that of water.”
Sandra Boynton - Known (to me) as the lady who wrote the original and quite punny card “Hippo birdie two ewe.”
The tie I got for my U of M interview.
The Big Round Cubatron - This fantastic contraption is a homebuilt 3-d light show. You’ll have to see a video or another video to get a feel for how cool it is.
Skidboot the dog - If you’ve got the time, take about 8 minutes out of your day for a heartwarming story about an amazing dog. Thanks, dooce.
The Headington Shark - Yes, it’s a shark stuck into this roof. Been there for almost 2 decades, too.
I hope that the kids, while they sing along to my songs or dance to it, feel that life is not that bad at all. Even for just a minute.
— Scatman John
This tooth is from the Star of the North dental convention - I keep it near my desk as a reminder of my goals.
Timelapse photography - Using the Canon camera (one model newer than my own), this guy makes some incredible timelapse movies with software set to snap an image over a certain time interval. “Montreal Sunset Shards” is one of my favorites.
Weight lifting can be monotonous … but there are always those moments of sparkling dialogue.
Guy 2: So, what did you do Sunday night?
Guy 1: Yeah, I ended up watching 8 Below.
Guy 3: Hey - that snowboarding movie, right?
G1: Umm … no. But there is a lot of snow involved. It’s about sled dogs.
G2: Oh oh - that’s that movie with Cuba Gooding, Jr. in it!
G1: Uhh … no. Cuba Gooding Jr?! What? It stars that worthless actor …
G3: Oh yeah, yeah -
G2: Paul Walker!
G1: Yeah, Paul Walker.
G3: “You’re not double clutching like a good little boy …”
G2: Wait a second. What were you doing watching 8 Below?
G1: It was actually pretty good.
G3: Are you gay?
G1: No. And now I want a husky.
The k in kottke - This is not unlike me - the replaying conversations I’ve had throughout the day and analyzing what I’ve done/said wrong. It happens during conversations, too. A handicab, I think.
After weeks of physical chemistry, biochemistry, and cell biology, I finally took Friday off to play some piano; it was physically cathartic to produce some creative work. In addition to the usual stress of trying to cram so much information into my head, I find the lack of creative outlets in my classes stifling. Spontaneously, unexpectedly, I find my hand drawing things, as if the urge to create inside of me refuses to be held back any longer. I end up sketching crappy trees.
Tomb of 4,500 year old Egyptian dentist discovered - I wonder if being the dentist to the pharaoh required any special training.
Interesting, this was found in Saqqara which, as ancient burial grounds go, is pretty amazing. “The step pyramid at Saqqara was designed by Imhotep for King Djoser (c.2667-2648 BC). It is the oldest complete building hewn stone complex known in history.”
This was taken inside Mai Village, an inexpensive restaurant with amazing atmosphere. Surrounded by authenticate Vietnamese artwork, you cross over a hand-carved wooden bridge to the most comfortable restaurant I’ve been to in a while.
Voted Best Vietnamese by City Pages readers in 2006, 2005, and probably some years before that. Perfect.
Review: Juvenile felis catus - “A kitten will, however, enter this standby mode for most of each day. During this period, it is safe to approach, and will consume no food and little oxygen; you may wrap it in a blanket with impunity.”
The cat that loves water - Turkish Vans are a breed of cats that love water. What’s more: “Vans can easily hit the top of a refrigerator from a cold start on the floor.”
I think we chatted with the owner about the fish in this really cool pond in Mai Village. He was very nice. Mykala, do you remember what the name of that expensive fish he mentioned was?
On the local classic rock station, I heard a song by Carlos Santana today; luckily, I thought I had it in my iTunes library. Headed home, checked, and there it was: “Oye Como Va” from the Best of Santana album. Naturally, I wanted to learn a little more about the guy … I knew he had been around a while and experienced a resurgence in the 90’s. I didn’t realize that his album Supernatural was essentially all collaborations, and pretty good ones, too.
I grabbed this Hershey’s “Chocolatey Chew” from Mykala’s free bag of candy from Target … and it was amazing. It’s some sort of really soft chocolate (a bit like a Tootsie Roll, but better tasting) with sprinkles on top.
Man orders 40GB iPod - receives shrinkwrapped box of soap and some batteries - At least the thieves in the shipping chain had a sense of humor; or if this guy is being dihonest, at least he’s creative.
Razor blade numbers - The number of blades on a razor versus year can be modelled by a hyperbolic curve. If however, we model with “what is known as a power law, then the 14-bladed razor should arrive in 2100.”
Finally, a picture that captures what I saw and the way I felt when I took it. It’s only taken about 16 months of shooting to get one; I really like the way this turned out.
Hopefully, there are more where this one came from.
