thought of the day

Have you ever noticed how if you're eating with someone else while chatting away, that you rarely notice anything annoying? Have you ever noticed how if you are not eating, and someone else in the room is, that it is suddenly apparent to you that the way that they chew is gross, or that they feel the need to hit their teeth with their fork every single time they take a bite which ends up sounding like nails on a chalk board?

Just a thought...

a story about a garbage man

Gilles Eichenbaum, a Paris based artist, collects old out of date kitchen items, such as these, and gives them a new lease on life by repurposing them into lamps. I think it's an awesome idea, and definitely for those into the who "kitch" movement that is in full effect right now. To me, this is a terrific example of someone seeing something, seemingly of little or no value, and turning it into something beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye.. sniff*

These items can be purchased at craft2eu, and they range from 150 to 450 euros. Craft2eu is worth a look as well. It's a German site that showcases and promotes the work of talented artists (which is also available for purchase via their catalog) Check it out, see what people are doing, look for inspiration, gallery shows, and maybe for something new for your home.

Check out Gilles here to see more about him, his work, and where he's showing

l'affiche moderne

In my wanderings I stumbled upon this cute little place called L'Affiche Moderne where one can find a diverse showcasing of graphic design and photography which are available to purchase as posters. Each image shown is sold in limited edition runs of 300, which are numbered. The nice thing is that you can order them in 2 sizes, and the prices are very reasonable, from 30 to 60 euros. Again, having unique art on your walls isn't always so easy to do, but it's always nice when you can make it possible, and without dipping into your savings account.

Julien Pacaud (online portfolio)

Perdita Corleone (Le Blog de...)

that'snot art!

Marcel Wanders, a Dutch design guru of sorts has come up with a surprising inspiration for a line of vases. Aptly titled "the airborne snotty vase"... this design is created by digitally capturing the spray pattern of molecules that fly out of your mouth and nose when you sneeze. After the shape is captured and enlarged by 1000x, a mesh rendering is scanned into a computer (SLS machine), which produces a replica - with an end use of a glass receptacle for flowers! (aka "vase")

Digital laser cutting has become increasingly popular and this concept takes it further, by beginning with a biological expulsion, using extremely high tech methods for capturing it and producing it, but the end result returns to its misshapen, biological form... which sort of betrays the techie methods which were used in its realization.

Antwerpen 2

Di got me started on how beautiful the sun is against her city in the late afternoon. She's a smart bunny, she is.

Leiden

Antwerpen

Brussels

Place St. Catherine

Strasbourg

ingenious

I've heard recently that in the US, they're going to stop making pennies, because the coin is actually more expensive than what it's worth. Go America!

My experiences in Belgium and the Netherlands are that a lot of cashiers don't want to take your 1 cent coins, and sometimes, they don't even want the 5 cents either. I've been left somewhat confused by that, since it is actually considered to be a part of the monetary system here... but what do I know?

So look, if you live in the US, or in Europe, or if you just happen to have a huge mass of mixed out of circulation coins (make sure they're not valuable!), this is a fantastic way to use them - and - you don't have to pay for tiles... so you also save some money for more important things. Like wine for example.

See how smart I am?

random image find

I was looking online for a "silhouette" of a woman for a project I'm working on, and I found this, which is perhaps not going to work for my assignment... but hey, she's pinching her boobie...

so says BBC....

These are actually laws.....

It is legal for a male to urinate in public, as long it is on the rear wheel of his motor vehicle and his right hand is on the vehicle (and your left hand is on....)

A bed may not be hung out of a window

Taxi drivers are required to ask all passengers if they have smallpox or the plague (I get this all the time from cabbies)

Any person found breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stocks (enacted by Edward VI)

Any boy under the age of 10 may not see a naked mannequin (but a priest is OK?)

Throughout the whole of England it is illegal to eat mince pies on the 25th of December

It is illegal to be drunk on licensed premises (and what is a pub good for then?)

Here is proof

Bueller.... Bueller....

Took this at the grocery store in Clinton Hill, NY back in 2005. When I moved back there in 2007, it was still there. Apparently, it wasn't an accident.

So, question of the day:
Just what is KNORK?

as if you needed another reason...

Go there. Do it now.
The Onion

random question?

Ever see an old photo and think, hey... where the hell are those sunglasses?

a scenario

Sitting in the waiting area

I listen to you speak for a little while
you don't know this...but..I am quietly getting to know you
"Where is my wife?" you ask a woman, who jokingly replies, "You didn't sell her, did you?"
You laugh.

...I'm sure in the back of your mind you're thinking, "Sometimes that seems like a good idea."

the not so distant past, when life was far less technically saavy

LIVING WITHOUT CONNECTION ~ August 6, 2004

I was thinking that by having to visit the library to get online, it would curb my web abuse. And it has. However, I believe I reached a low point in my addiction the other night when I tried to access my space via my cell phone's web. Much to my chagrin, it did not work. Leaving me wanting it all the more.

(I obviously wrote this long before the iphone)

written on the body

"Articulacy of fingers, the language of the deaf and dumb, signing on the body longing. Who taught you to write in blood on my back? Who taught you to use your hands as branding irons? You have scored your name into my shoulders, referenced me with your mark. The pads of your fingers have become printing blocks, you tap a message on to my skin, tap meaning into my body. Your morse code interferes with my heart beat. I had a steady heart before I met you, I relied upon it, it had seen active service and grown strong. Now you alter it's pace with your own rhythm, you play upon me, drumming me taut. Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. " ~ J. Winterson

before you forget me...

I know one bit of html, and it has allowed me to manually insert this image into this post. Somehow I feel triumphant, mainly because I've temporarily solved a dilemma.

For a few days, there's been a problem with my browser (Firefox) and certain applications (including Blogger) are not working properly. Is it a virus? We'll have to see.. I'm running a scan and having it looked at.

So... not certain how long it'll be before I start posting more, but I'm sure no one will lose any sleep over it.

extraordinary

by Andre Jordan

The Animation Show

If you do anything worthwhile today.. it's watching this

a bitter film

"Ah, L'Amour"
a film by Don Hertzfeldt

what's your fetish?

I think we all have at least one, and some are more obvious than others. Colin Christian explores quite a few of them.

I first discovered the artist and sculptor on MySpace. He creates these ginormous 51/2 to 10 ft tall fiberglass sculptures of sexy girlies with huge gorgeous eyes (among other things) and body hugging outfits. Some of his work is on permanent display at the Museum of Sex in NYC, as well as in other galleries around the US, and most recently he did a bust of musician M.I.A. for the "Worlds on Fire" Grammy-nominated artist exhibition in LA (Feb 2009).

I've always been a huge fan of comic illustration and have even toyed with the idea of being an illustrator.. so I appreciate the fantastic quality of his style (and maybe it's because I played with Barbie dolls when I was little.. who knows?)

Check him out. He has a lot of work posted on MySpace and also at Hotbox designs

I could easily see this girl hanging out with Buzz Lightyear....

Solaris series, "Cosmonaughty"

Snackcake series, 2005

I'm lovin' it!

Yah, so I ripped that off from Mickey D's... I'm having some fun over on the Pure Modern website, and I found a lovely solar powered Soji lamp. It comes in 3 different color styles. You simply hang it outdoors and all day it will charge up via the power of the sun, and at night it automatically illuminates. I can imagine that the regular presence of this glowing orb in your back garden would be quite a pretty sight... and even moreso at $40 USD.

it's "holy" toast

As in "blessed" toast. Back in 2004, BBC ran this story on a woman who went to take a bite of her sandwich, only to scream in horror as she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary staring back at her. (Personally, I think it looks a lot more like Brigitte Bardot.. but who's to say...) The amazing thing is that this piece of half eaten toast raised such a stir, that it went to auction on ebay, fetching $28,000!!!

The purchasing entity, an internet casino, announced that it had plans to tour the world with the toast and then sell it to make money for charity. (I have no idea if the toast would even last a year?)

Anyway, as we are a world of capitalists in one way or another, a company by the name of "Fred & Friends" came up with the Holy Toast Press, a fairly clever little idea, where you can enjoy a sandwich with the Virgin Mary any day of the week... for $4.95 at Pure Modern.

it's "Fruit Trivia Friday"!

I have smooth and pink skin, but I look sort of like an artichoke. When you open me, I am white and fleshy, with a lot of little seeds. I taste sort of like a kiwi, but less sweet. What's my name?

(damned if I know... but I ate it :P)

insert trashy pick up line here...

Part of an assignment for one of my new classes is to write a short autobiography and include a self portrait. I'm completely unable to take photos without making silly faces...

"So uh, hey there.. what's your sign?"

bloomframe

I'm never really surprised when I find something beautiful online and it's been designed by the Dutch. The Bloomframe is no exception. In 2007, Hofman Dujardin Architects came up with an ingenious way to change the facades of buildings, old and new.. by designing a window that can be opened into a balcony in just 15 seconds.

The Bloomframe is made of sturdy steel materials, but still offers some degree of flexibility when it comes to size, materials, and appearance. The standard size though, is 250x220cm and from what I was able to find online, the cost for a single install would be around 10,500 euros. This seems a bit steep to me if their aim is to offer this for older facades, where the owner of the building has to have several installed.. but I'm sure it will still appeal to some.

I wasn't able to come up with much in terms of whether this is in production or not. The bloomeframe website still reflects data that is outdated, stating that they will be available in 2008... and because there haven't been posts made by people who have had the opportunity to use this in their home, it's difficult to offer many criticisms. What I did find though, were some comments that your ability to decorate the "terrace" with plants and furniture would be limited, since you'd have to bring it all into your home when you closed the balcony. Also, the floor of the balcony is the interior wall of your home, located below the window when it's closed.. so the issue of dirt and having a patch of wall covered with foot prints was raised.

What came to my mind is the fact that because it is a open/close design, there are no barriers to protect your home (such as doors) from the rain.. so putting this into a large scale building will place the responsibility on all tenants not to leave the bloomframe open while they aren't home. Another consideration, is the fact that this operated by pushing a button. I can see children getting into trouble with this, and wonder if it wouldn't be safer to have key code activation.

Either way, I think this is such an amazing idea and I hope that I see them dotted around the Netherlands this summer...

blue earth

Solar powered mobile phones are finally becoming a reality with news of Samsung's Blue Earth touch screen phone. It's made of recycled plastic extracted from water bottles and a charger which uses standby power, which is less than 0.03W.

So far, I haven't been able to find a lot of other information regarding the competitiveness of this phone, such as price and availability, whether or not it plays music, has internet capabilities, and other features that have become important to mobile users (although it appears to have a camera, there are no specs listed). I also couldn't locate information regarding how long it would take to charge the phone completely using solar power. Ideally, I'd be happy if I could charge my phone significantly while sitting at a cafe.. which is about an hour and a half of charging time.

I imagine that these questions and additional specifications will emerge shortly. In the meantime, you can check out this bit at Business Wire and the Samsung World Congress 2009 site.

on saving internet stuff...

It's official, that I have way too many items in my Google Reader. I only started using feeds in December, and now I have at least an hour worth of reading every day. At first I rationalized the time I was spending as "me" time, to read up on news and design stuff, but there's so much that it's actually made me feel mentally exhausted to sort through. Usually I just end up deleting most of it, and I've even started removing feeds that have ended up being a bit of a disappointment (Architectural Digest comes to mind). There's also that nifty little "save for later" button, which I've used a bit too much, and now I have all sorts of random articles floating in there, things I thought I'd like to blog about... now some are 2 months old.

My bookmarks overfloweth with all kinds of stuff, half of which I have no idea what it is. I spent about 40 minutes tonight trying to make some sense of everything by trimming down information and filing, deleting things that I'll definitely never use. I feel like a kid with a messy room and no idea how to make progress getting it organized.

Then there's my Stumble account, which has so much stuff in it. With my bookmarks in such disarray, I've gotten to the point where I just add sites to my Stumble "I like it" page so I can go back later to check it out. Unfortunately, later never comes...

With more and more people writing blogs and having personal websites, I feel like there's no end in sight to the amount of material that will seem interesting enough for me to want to hold on to it. I think I need an internet detox program...

ISO50

I don't remember how I came upon ISO50, but I ended up scoring on two levels. Initially, I found this band called Tycho. I would say that the music is sort of like Boards of Canada, BUT I'm writing this because while Tycho is pretty cool, even better is the artistic style of Scott Hansen, the guy behind both the band and ISO50.
What I find most impressive is that Hansen has created a strong identity across all of his sites that is relevant to his style in print, logo design, and even his photography, all of which have a retro-organic quality.
He sells amazing prints, t-shirts, and some other odds and ends at the ISO50 shop. He also has an impressive online portfolio, and an ISO50 blog, which rawks, because he posts about many different aspects of design as well as music news. You can check out Tycho at Tycho Music, last.fm, and on Myspace.
His prints sell for $17 dollars each, so he scores bonus points for making art accessible. I hope to have something of his on my wall soon.

DIY lamp: take two

Back in January, I posted here about a DIY project where a girl purchased a standard IKEA paper globe lamp and layered it with little petals/strips of wax paper (using a high end lamp that was covered in ostrich feathers as her inspiration). I thought the result was pretty and I was impressed with her resourcefulness. Here, another person tried her technique on a lamp which was damaged in a move. I think the result here, is perhaps even nicer than the first.

via Apartment Therapy

Friday the 13th

Yah, so that's old news already right? "It's so yesterday"..
Well, to solidify the fact that I am a total dork, and that I live with dorks, we watched the very first Friday the 13th film, dating from 1980. Saying that the film was horrible is sort of an understatement, and that may have something to do with the fact that I have grown accustomed to a higher and more graphic level of violence than what this film offered. In terms of the pace of the film, it was sloowwwww and really uneventful. People were murdered and half the time, you didn't see them actually get murdered, you just saw them afterwards... bummer. In the end of the film, (well if you haven't already seen it, I'm not worried about spoiling it for you, since you've had 29 years to watch..) Jason isn't even the killer, it's his mom! And she's just this chubbly short woman!! During the film, there's a scene where person chases a girl through the woods (this person isn't seen by us, only his legs, and I say "his" because they were definitely dude legs), and in another one, a dead woman's body is thrown through a window. I'm not really sure how this little old lady managed to trick me so well.. so strong and with such masculine legs... But I'm too much of a movie critic for my own good sometimes.

So after the movie was over, I decided to look online to find out where they filmed this movie. The whole thing takes place at "Camp Crystal Lake" which is obviously not a real place, but none the less, I Googled the name, and found this completely hysterical article in the Onion, "Cheney Returns to Camp Crystal Lake", which left me laughing so hard that I was crying. I'm not sure how funny you'll find it if you don't know the movies and if you don't know the humor associated with Dick Cheney (our former Vice President under Bush), but for those who will get "it" will surely think this is freaking funny. I also found this other article, "Cheney Vows to Attack U.S. if Kerry Elected" which was SO over the top... I'd forgotten just how much I love the folks over at the Onion.

Here's an excerpt: "Make no mistake: If Kerry becomes president, no one will be safe from me," Cheney told reporters. "Businesses, places of worship, schools, public parks: No place will offer you refuge. A vote for Kerry is a vote to die in your own bed at the hands of Dick Cheney."

Oh, and a fun fact, the movie was filmed in New Jersey.

a darn good excuse for being unproductive

I can think of a few past times that I enjoy, which do indeed prohibit me from being productive, but that make me laugh, and let's face it, there's always time for laughing... especially at other people :)
There are the classics, like FAIL Blog and the Onion, and recently I was tipped on to this site, aptly titled F*** My Life, which left me with tears streaming down my face. Basically, people post little blurbs about how something really crappy happened to them, ranging from fainting on stage to embarrassing sex stories... so the taste level varies greatly.

Here are a few:

Today, I was talking to my parents about feeling insecure with my "beach body" as Spring Break keeps getting closer and closer. My dad proceeded to warn me by saying, "Don't wear a gray swimsuit. People will try to roll you back into the ocean". FML

Today, it was my first day working at a milking parlor. As I crouched behind a cow to put on an udder cluster, I looked up and gasped just in time for the cow to crap on my face. FML

Today, I took my friend to buy a pregnancy test. She took it and it came out negative. I decided to re-pee on it to be funny...it turned to positive. FML

Today, I was going down on a girl. When I looked up she was texting. FML

So, There's my tasteless contribution of the day. Enjoy!

in out, in out, in out....

That's the sun here in the NL. Fortunately, the sky has been very blue (more or less) over the past few days and although it's freezing out, I find myself wanting to be outside. I've been wearing my running clothes (complete with ear warmer) in the house for the past 40 minutes... I don't know why I do this. I think it's because I don't like to plan anything, so when I decide OK, now I'm going to go, all I have to do is grab my ipod and leave. My plan was foiled today, because as I was leaving, the battery died. So now, I am here, at my laptop, in my running clothes and ear warmer, charging the ipod... because I'm like the Energizer Bunny, and if my music stops, I stop.
Oh, and in anti- celebration of February 14th, we're having tacos/fajitas/some mish mosh of stuff for dinner, and watching another horridly foul 80's horror flick with lots of gushing blood and gore.

I know what you're thinking! Yes, my life is always this exciting folks.. I am truly fortunate.

you put what where?

Today I was checking out Meekins over at From Holland with Love, where she's posted about this interesting TV commercial for Lactacyd, a feminine care product. Admittedly, it is a bit odd.. and while I'm not sure that I feel as "squirmy" about it as she does, I do think this is something that I'd never ever see occupying US prime time ad space. It certainly is interesting how different cultures view nudity and, well, in this instance, vaginal care :)

and for another, plusher take on the topic...

since we're comparing...

WTF!?

a clarification....

I have always been a public hater of V day and I have been passing along these same images for the past few years with glee.. you know, they're very funny and clever x

it's here...

Lenore and Mr. Gosh were never meant for each other...

nothing says happy V day like a letter that begins with,
"Fuck off I hate you."

humor for those with a sense of it


and after all that

I'm still hemorrhaging

be sad.

polaroid love: andre jordan

mixtape


calculations

pick up line

"I was blinded by your beauty so I'm going to need your name and number for insurance reasons."

bluebird à emporter

The Rosebuds - Bluebird from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

An MP3 is available for download too :)

70 years later

one of my favorite commercials

I thought this was a joke...

This is the marbled polecat. It's range is eastern Europe and Asia. It's so cute. I have no idea why it hasn't been domesticated, as the ferret has. I think this is the perfect pet for my friend Mieke!

It's funny to me, because I've had several ferrets before, and 2 of them looked like this:

Pretty close - except for the flashy animal print!

si tu veux...

Have you ever wants to fill your house with lots of weird stuff? Pylones is the answer.

timer

stapler


grater
I've been to this shop, and they sell band aids that look like bacon :P

the only domino that I've ever cared for

...is, or was, an interior design magazine by that name. Domino was awesome because it offered so many DIY projects, decorating ideas, fabric and wallpaper calculators, green design resources, and most valuable, vendor links for anything you could think of.

Sadly, due to the shitty economy, Domino was shut down just last week. It's a sad time for a lot of people, possibly because what Domino offered was design that is available to the masses. DIY that anyone can do, and products from affordable shops... which is a far cry from the big names like Elle Decor and Home & Garden.

If it's your cup of tea, you can still visit the website and grab as much information as you'd like over the next few weeks, before it's completely shut down.