Moleskine mania

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Via Cool Tools:

A second skin for your Moleskine that itself will become an elegant heirloom. Priced at $39.95 it is an excellent value and will provide exceptional service, becoming a comfortable second skin for that valuable Moleskine. We used our regular English kip, a thin very tight-grained leather that is exceedingly durable. (Also available in Chocolate or Black calf finished cowhide or buffalo, depending upon availability.)

Droolworthy – and Gfeller Casemakers offer some other wicked pissah leather goods. I’m sure Gfeller is a familiar name to some out there (my money is on RF, for one), but they are new to me.

Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4

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1. Get enough food to eat,
and eat it.

2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
and sleep there.

3. Reduce intellectual activity and emotional noise
until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
and listen to it.

4.

– Richard Brautigan *


Two Argentine links

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First, a follow-up to an earlier post on Borges’ Library – via BoingBoing, a paper titled Information Policy for the Library of Babel. To quote the BB entry, “James proposes that the Internet bears striking similarities to the Library of Babel — and applies the lessons from its infinite depths to the question of information policy for the net.”

And – a bit of hyperlinked serendipity. One of the widgets on my Netvibes page shows me my Fickr contacts’ most recently posted pictures. This morning I saw this picture of a Ford Falcon Ranchero posted by Telstar Logistics (as COOP and A Certain Design Student know, the Ranchero is a huge favorite of mine). I zipped over to Flickr to mark it as a fave and while I was there, I read the comments. GiselaGiardino23 wrote, “(The sedan version, apart from being the most used Ford car, was used by the military dictatorship and the police, painted green, so they are widely linked in the collective memory to the violence and atrocities of the 70’s here).” “Wow”, said I, “I wonder where she lives?” I clicked through to her Flickr home page – the answer was immediately apparent: Argentina. And to close the loop, she has a “Borges, the infinite and me” photoset!

I am reassured by the delight I feel when these kinds of odd connections occur – age and cynicism (aside from the military dictatorship considerations) haven’t swamped me yet!

Frogger’s BBQ

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I went to a great get-together yesterday – a barbecue for folks who keep and breed poison dart frogs. The food was great, the host’s frog room was amazing, and as always the company was wonderful. Some pictures…

Dendrobates imitator intermedius:

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One of my favorite frogs – the black blotches seem to float above the metallic orange undercolor. They tend to be bold; out hopping around without a care in the world.

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The map:

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G just got back from kicking around Central America. He pulled a map of Panama out of his wallet and I had to take a picture. I love maps, and this one has everything – it’s been used, marked on and now serves to document an interesting trip.

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My new frogs:

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It was a good chance for folks to trade, buy each other’s frogs, give plant cuttings away, etc. I did a trade with a friend – some adult D. pumilio ‘Man Creeks’ for some D. fantasticus froglets. The Man Creeks have produced some froglets for me, but I haven’t been able to bring them past the critical 4 to 6 month old window. My plan with pumilio is to start keeping them in larger enclosures, where I can get a better population of springtails and woodlice established; in the meantime, the Man Creeks ought to be with a breeder who can do right by them. Fantasticus are aptly named – they are in a grow-out tank now, but once they’re in a nicely planted enclosure – yowzah!

More pictures here.