Thinking about lots of things: language (reading Eco’s Search for the Perfect Language), privatization of state functions (cops and soldiers), laser (make Dr. Evil air quotes while reading, please) weapons, and the approach of spring. I’m also getting ready to do some vivarium work – rearrangement, new lights, etc. – thus, not a lot of blogging energy. Until I have something worth saying, another bookshelf shot:
Two new (to me) words that I like quite a bit:
The fictional material handwavium (similar to unobtainium) is sometimes referred to in situations where the solution requires access to a substance that is probably possible to create, but only by means which would require a great deal of research, development, time, effort, and/or money, none of which the speaker intends to explain at the moment. *
…it’s a synthetic combination of the words beauty and usage, and describes the beauty that comes with using something.
How, you may ask, is beausage any different than patina? Well, it’s certainly related, but different. Patina is really more about surface level changes happening at a chemical level: oxidation, chemical stripping, and so on. Beausage describes changes that happen in 3D where atoms get torn and stripped away, as occurs with scratches, tears, chips, and wear marks. *
For another nice example of beausage, see here.
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I’ve been using netvibes for a few weeks now and wanted to take a moment to recommend it. My netvibes page/portal/site is now indispensable – I can keep an eye on my favorite blogs, my Gmail account, Flikrstreams, etc. Clicking on the image above will take you to a Flikr page where I’ve marked the screen capture up a bit. Another great web app I fell over recently was Pandora (I know, I know, I live in a cave) – you give it an artist or song name and it starts streaming music similar to your seed selection. A great way to expand your horizons – in a rational world, the music industry would be showering the Pandora folks with cash. I’ll leave you with a Youtube clip I first saw about 3 weeks ago – it’s getting huge linkage, but one more won’t hurt. Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us:
The title of the blog post is The best lede ever written – I couldn’t agree more. The lede in question:
A jazz musician was injured Friday after jumping from a burning motor home driven by a one-time roller skating stripper from Lodi. *
A universe of weird in one sentence.
Obvious h/t to Blake Hounshell at Foriegn Policy.
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I stumbled across Michael Jekot’s web site this morning and saw some paintings that I like quite a bit. The Porsche 917/Auto Union portrait above is especially resonant – I saw 917s race at Watkins Glen way back when. Although I prefer the Martini paint job (even then – the lure of psychedelia >grin<) the Gulf colors are likely the canonical version. The Auto Union silver arrows are also faves of mine – a perfect blend of function and just enough form to cover.
For those of you who don’t read BoingBoing, but do like pictures of the high places of Asia – the photography of Mr. Gutierrez:
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Well, I ended up needing to execute on the cell phone thing earlier than I had originally planned – my current cell started to flake out. My priorities for the new phone were, in order: good phone function (duh!), Bluetooth, decent camera capabilities, and 3G network access. I ended up with a Samsung SGH-A707 – it does what I want it to do. The camera is OK – not great for closeup work (as you can see in the bonus bookshelf blogging shot below), but ok for a quick snap. An excellent extra is that it will record video; I’ve got some footage (can you call it that when it’s a pile of bits?) of my Dendrobates tinctorius that I’m trying to edit so I can post a clip. Unfortunately, iMovie doesn’t seem to want to deal with the camera’s file format – my copy of Final Cut imports it fine, so it looks like I’ve got to get busy climbing the Final Cut learning curve.
The shot at the top of the post is the cell, taken with my junky lo-res digicam. I tried to take it using the cell’s camera, using my cat-like speed (and quantum uncertainty) – unfortunately, I ran into the same problem I experience whenever I try to look at the back of my head by spinning around really quickly. The cell picture is here as a hat tip to Señor Lex10, who posted the graphic goodness I’m using as wallpaper – thanks!
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I like maps – old, new, fanciful, technical, you name it. I was very happy to stumble across the strange maps blog this morning (thanks, Bruce); this one’s going to get added to my netvibes portal and to the blogroll.
One of the best rides I ever got back in my hitchhiking days was a short one – one town to the next one over, here in NH – in an old Saab. It was powered by their three cylinder two-stroke engine, sounded like a pack of angry chainsaws (and smelled like one too) and was driven by a tiny woman with a salt and pepper braid about 3 feet long. She pulled over, I hopped in – noticed the box full of cans of two-stroke oil in the back seat – and we passed a pleasant 10 minute ride talking about cars and who can remember what else. Pointless reminiscence inspired by metacool – also, check out his Flikrstream (this is not a Saab!):
Later – I can’t believe my friend Eliza’s pea soup green 96 slipped my mind – what a good car!
Even later – I remembered another great set of Saab pics driving home tonight – Coop’s from La ’06 Carrera Panamericana. Click through and scroll down just a bit. Check out those Minilite wheels (and that chainsaw exhaust)! More info from el equipo Saabpearl Svenska here.
Just for grins – I think that every so often I’ll post a picture of a random couple feet worth o’ bookshelf (mine, that is). Anyone who wants to reciprocate and post on their blog (if you don’t blog, email the pix to me and I’ll post for you) – way cool. Hopefully, this isn’t too much information…
