“This is a Really Long, Pointless Story about a Shirt” - A prominent coder/software developer/owner of Delicious Monster in the Mac community writes about his experiences with the importance of wearing nice shirts. For example:
I didn’t exactly hit on Laurie, per se, but I will say I was glad I was wearing a nice shirt. It wasn’t until the next night that one of her friends let me know, in a very friendly manner, that if I had intentions towards Ms. Anderson I might reconsider them, because she was, in fact, as interested in women as I was.
Derek K. Miller and cancer - Stunningly honest and straightforward blogging from Derek Miller, a 38 year old family man with stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. When I read his writing, it puts my life, with it’s myriad “problems” and “difficulties” in sharp perspective. Thinking about what he’s going through, it makes me feel very sad.
Mortuary humor - The set-up here is quick: some random guy with questionable motives supposedly was responsible for a signed affidavit opened after his death, which disclosed outrageous details about the true nature of the Roswell incident. This comment followed:
“I’d be laughing all the way to the mortuary, if it were me…
And I’d be really creeped out if I were the coroner…”
Coolest. Lamp. Ever. - Call it a stupid idea, but I feel that if we choose to spend our hard earned money on something, it should jive with our artistic sensibilities. Nobody buys curtains they hate—why buy other things whose appearance we loathe? This approach, however, quickly can become impractical.
Enter the coolest desktop lamp you’ll ever see. These things are handmade by what seems to be an art-house type place; the price isn’t even listed. Regardless of what I can only imagine is a prohibitively expensive price, this is a man’s lamp if ever I’ve seen one (and I simply refer to the angular, steampunk, nature of the styling). The artist, Frank Buchwald, has produced some amazing pieces, be sure to check out “The Series” to view them all.
Exploding clocks - Looking for the gift for someone who has everything? How about these one of a kind exploding/asploding clocks by Roger Wood. They look like cartoon clocks flying apart, yet they still work. Not a gift I could afford to give anyone in the next, oh, 10 years or so. Always good to keep on the back burner, though.
“The Line Experience” - Good observations about the Apple modus operandi, generally:
My old phone, one based on Windows Mobile 5.0, had almost every feature the iPhone has - point by point. The differences between the products (like the differences between their desktop cousins) have to do with how functionality is exposed to the user. In this matter, you’ll find that Apple’s product is almost infuriatingly superior.
Funny comic, too (not like I have to get the word out on that one, after all these guys brought us Jesus throwing up the horns).
Wardway Fuels, Inc. - One of Ars Technica’s writers was able to cram iPhone purchase and a wedding into one weekend. One of her pictures shows a sign: “NO I PHONESHEREBUTWEHAVEPLENTYOFPROPANE”
Cold brewed coffee - Apparently, this type of coffee is absolutely delicious because it doesn’t have the undesirable side effects that occur when you expose coffee to boiling water. The process reduces the need for cream and sugar to almost nill. The recipe:
You just add water to coffee, stir, cover it and leave it out on the counter overnight. A quick two-step filtering the next day (strain the grounds through a sieve, and use a coffee filter to pick up silt), a dilution of the brew one-to-one with water, and you’re done.