I love this!

I think it's awesome that some guys were just fooling around one day and came up with this.

Daniel thinks it's creepy.

This freaks me out.

I am just learning of Monica Bonvicini's 2003 art installation, "Don't Miss a Sec," which is permanently (and operationally) installed outside the Tate Modern in London:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/toilet.asp

Free

My mom sent me one of those email messages that periodically makes the rounds. It included an inspirational poem. Normally I just delete that stuff, but for a change it really meant something to me. It introduced me to Portia Nelson, a lounge singer and actress in the 50s (she played one of the nuns who sabotage the Nazis' car in The Sound of Music) who also happened to write poetry. I immediately ran to the library to check out her book of poetry, There's a Hole in My Sidewalk.

The title poem, "There's a Hole in My Sidewalk: Autobiography in Five Short Chapters," is the one that was reproduced in my mom's email. It goes like this:


I.
I walk down the street.
     There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
     I fall in.
     I am lost...I am helpless.
          It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.


II.
I walk down the same street.
     There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
     I pretend I don't see it.
     I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in this same place.
          But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.


III.
I walk down the same street.
     There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
     I see it is there.
     I still fall in...it's a habit...but,
          my eyes are open.
          I know where I am.
     It is my fault.
     I get out immediately.


IV.
I walk down the same street.
     There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
     I walk around it.


V.
I walk down another street.


The book also had this untitled gem:

I am so free with you
I never wish to be
          free of you.

True dat. :-)

Rotary

On the Library of Congress site, I found this poem reflecting on the disappearance of the rotary phone. It reads in part,

Why did no one think
to conserve the peal?

Just try once
to sing it to yourself:
it's gone,

like the sound of breath
if your body left.

What would you expect to see at "tranny.org?"

I bet it ain't this:
http://www.tranny.org/

Good Guesser

I got 32 points at Guess the Accent: http://www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent_game.html

I surprised myself by not being able to correctly distinguish accents from Britain/Wales/Scotland/Ireland.

Test your own language prowess!

Clafoutis ("Gesundheit!")

clafoutis!, originally uploaded by nonesuch.

I found this delicious recipe from Ceres & Bacchus via smittenkitchen. Naturally, I had to improve it a bit with a little rewrite, because that's my way.

From wikipedia, I learned that clafoutis is "originally from Limousin" (in the heart of France) and that "the dish's name comes from Occitan clafotís, from the verb clafir, meaning 'to fill up' (implied: 'the batter with cherries')." The article also stated that clafoutis is basically pancake batter fancied up by French cooks, and that clafoutis madness spread throughout France during the 19th century.

(Okay, it didn't say clafoutis madness; that is my own invention.)

I am a big fan not only of pancakes but also trendy recipes, so this recipe was a natural.

The first time I made the dish, I used cherries as recommended by smittenkitchen. The second time, I used plums because they were so much cheaper than cherries.

Both times it has been delicious.

Plum Clafoutis (kla-foo-tee)

* 3 eggs
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup butter, melted
* 1 cup flour
* 1 cup milk
* 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 2 tsp rum
* 2 cups of plums, pitted and halved

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Beat the sugar and the eggs with a wire whisk until they turn lighter in color. Add butter gradually, whisking to incorporate. Add flour all at once, whisking until batter is a homogeneous mixture. Add milk gradually, mixing well. Add vanilla (and rum if you are using it). Mix well. The batter should be very smooth and shiny.

Butter a glass or earthenware baking dish, 9- or 10-inch cake pan, or oven-proof skillet. Place the fruit in the dish. Pour the batter over the fruit.

Bake approximately 30-40 minutes, until slightly browned and almost completely set in the middle. (I prefer it to be a little custardy in the middle, so I rarely bake for more than 30 minutes.)

Let sit at least 15 minutes. Turn out onto a plate; sift powdered sugar on top if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in refrigerator. Leftovers are excellent for breakfast.

Killing Me Softly with His Blog

"The observant among you will probably be aware that the white person wet dream 'Be Kind, Rewind' is about to be released. This might be the biggest event in white person film since The Royal Tenenbaums."

--From #68 (Michel Gondry) in the list of Stuff White People Like from the blog, "Stuff White People Like"

Oh Heavenly God, I am so white! It's like the writer knows my innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires.

If this can't keep you late at work...

...taking advantage of that sweet sweet T3 line, I don't know what can: it's Audiotuts' 240 Free Albums, Tracks and Links for Music Mashup Lovers.

I'm sorry, and you're welcome.

Western Spaghetti

Behold one of the many brilliant and twisted films of PES:

Not Going to Lie

“I’m not going to lie: I used to smoke crack in there,” said one homeless woman, Veronyka Cordner, nodding toward the toilet behind Pike Place Market. “But I won’t even go inside that thing now. It’s disgusting.”

-- "Seattle’s Automated Toilets Go Way of the Box and Chain, New York Times, 17 July 2008

Wearing the Bacon Colors

Eyes on the prize, originally uploaded by nonesuch.

"I see bacon as a celebration of an American birthright. Four slices of Hormel Black Label, hissing in a cast iron skillet on a Sunday morning. To wear the bacon colors, to sport a bacon tattoo, is to announce your belief in the possibilities of bacon, in the American goodness rendered by a low-on-the-hog meat, transmogrified by smoke and salt."

- John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance

There are so many good, gleefully tasty nuggets in that quote, I can hardly stand it.

"Hormel Black Label."
Bacon: the meat that's "low on the hog."
"Wear the bacon colors."
"Belief in the possibilities of bacon."

Here's a link to the article, Bacon Mania, in Salon. John T. Edge is quoted in #7. I recommend the article for entertaining reading, even if you are not inspired to get a bacon tattoo. Full of good writing and information. There I learned that "Anthony Bourdain has called bacon the 'gateway protein' for its astounding ability to lure vegetarians back to the carnivorous fold." Good stuff.

The Downside

Downside of living alone #1:
When you cut your finger real bad, you're the one who has to clean up the blood with your bandaged hand.

So Corny, It's Got to Be Good

Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns: "Campaign; Outsourcing"
Wednesday, July 9, 8:00 p.m. on WQED.

Setting the DVR now.

Robert Rodriguez Teaches You to Cook in Ten Minute Segments

How sexy is this?!?

10 minute cooking school Sin City breakfast tacos

Crazy sexy. Especially when he says, "Get some low-fat cooking spray... naaah, just kidding -- use butter." Ooh. Talk about sinful... you're killing me softly with your song, honey.

Amazon Subscribe & Save

Here is my shill/tip of the day:

Use Amazon's Subscribe & Save program.

By subscribing, you can get Olay Regenerist Night for $14.58 (which certainly meets or beats the lowest sale prices I've seen locally). In some subscription categories there's a plethora of products to choose from; in others there are just a few products or the products are only available in bulk -- I noticed this particularly for toothpastes. I don't want to commit to a specific toothpaste for the length of time it would take me to go through a 4-pack of big tubes. As a result, this Subscribe & Save progam doesn't work for all my toiletry needs.

When I find a product I want that's eligible for the Subscribe & Save program, I sign up for the longest possible interval between deliveries. (Delivery schedule: 1 unit once every 6 months.)

Then, when I need more, there's a page I can use ("Manage Your Subscribe & Save Items") where I see the following information for each product for which I have a subscription:

• Last ship date: June 18, 2008
• Estimated order placement date: December 18, 2008
• To skip the currently scheduled shipment but still receive the following shipment, click Skip this shipment.
• Running low already? click Send your next shipment now.

So if I'm running low on moisturizer, I click "Send your next shipment now" and the moisturizer arrives at my office door in about a week or so. On the same page I can cancel the subscription altogether by making it inactive.

Amazon says that the Subscribe & Save program is in "beta" mode, which is probably why it is not super visible on their site:

"In addition to being the second letter in the Greek alphabet, the word beta is also often used to describe a project or process that is being tested. With that in mind, we'd like to introduce you to a new program we call Subscribe & Save. During this beta phase we'll be making more products available for subscription ordering and gathering input from customers like you to ensure Amazon.com provides the best possible experience for online shopping.

"Even though Subscribe & Save is in beta, our program is completely functional, so feel free to browse our selection of eligible products and place new subscription orders through Subscribe & Save. But be sure to come back often, as we'll only be making our new program better.

Once it's out of beta mode, I hope it will have more options. I love the idea. The 15% discount and free shipping are awesome.

A "bit" difficult

For some reason it was harder than I thought it should be to find a chart that would tell me which size of drill bit to use for a particular screw (in my case, a #6 wood screw). Therefore, when I finally found a chart here, I decided to reproduce it on my blog for my convenience and the enjoyment of anyone reading. (Hi, Mom?)

  Screw Gage    Shank    Shank     Pilot     Pilot
   Number        Hole    Size      Soft Wd   Hard Wd
       0         1/16    .060      1/64      1/32
       1         5/64    .073      1/32      1/32
       2         3/32    .086      1/32      3/64
       3         7/64    .099      3/64      1/16
       4         7/64    .112      3/64      1/16
       5         1/8     .125      1/16      5/64
       6         9/64    .138      1/16      5/64
       7         5/32    .151      1/16      3/32
       8         11/64   .164      5/64      3/32
       9         3/16    .177      5/64      7/64
      10         3/16    .190      3/32      7/64
      11         13/64             3/32      1/8
      12         7/32    .216      7/64      1/8
      14         1/4     .242      7/64      9/64
      16         17/64   .268      9/64      5/32
      18         19/64   .294      9/64      3/16
      20         21/64   .320      11/64     13/64

I knew nothing then

That was a long time ago and now I know that
I knew nothing then, and if I had I wouldn’t
have gone on.

--Irene McKinney, “At 24″

Actual Terrible Movie

Mental Floss challenges worthy readers to identify movie titles as "Troy McClure films" or "actual terrible movies." You may remember Troy McClure as the character on the Simpsons who was always reminding people of his tenuous claim to B-movie celebrity while hawking products. Here's the quiz:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php

I scored 73% (11 out of 15). Hey -- better than random chance (and better than the 66% averaged by test takers so far). Yay, me.

Make your own ringtone

More cool technology to pimp your life courtesy of Patrick:

Make Your Own Ringtone.

It's fun and it's free and I now have, as my ringtone, Darth Vader's Theme played on ukulele. Yessssss!