Soup of the Day

We

'I walked alone through the twilit street. The wind was whirling, driving, carrying me like a slip of paper. Fragments of cast-iron sky flew and flew - they had another day, two days to hurtle passersby brushed against me, but I walked alone. I saw it clearly: everyone was saved, but there was no salvation for me I did not want salvation...

--We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

I might be crazy

But vacation days suck. Just saying.

Priceless

Sarychev Peak on Matua Island erupting on June 12, photographed by the International Space Station.

Water for the World

Help improve access to clean water and sanitation for the world's poorest people by asking senators to cosponsor the Durbin-Corker Water for the World Act of 2009 (S. 624).

This important legislation is stuck in the Committee on Foreign Relations, and it needs at least 20 cosponsors in order to get the attention of Senate leaders.

Additionally, help support Charity: Water and make a difference by helping build wells in areas that the water table is too low to reach without heavy machinery.

Most Dangerous Neighborhoods in America

9. Dallas, Texas (Route 352/Scyene Rd.)
12. Dallas, Texas (2nd Ave./Hatcher St.)
I do like that Dallas was listed twice. I know how the area around Fair Park is not the best area but uncertain where the streets actually were, I looked it up. However, it almost seems far-fetched to call these separate neighborhoods. Also, nice to see that Chicago is really setting the bar.

It's a long time

5 years, 9 months and 15 days. 2116 days. 50784 hours. 3047040 minutes. 3 days ago.

Now it is over. And it really sucks.

Technology Should Die

I am very tired of my Yahoo weather alerts not knowing the demographic I fit. I really do not need Hannah Montana ringtones any more than I need to find out if I am smarter than Paris Hilton. In all reality, seeing as how they are both younger and richer, maybe they are on the better path. Thanks to Yahoo, I now see the light.

Or maybe I am just bitter that I cannot turn off the alerts that I did not ask for, but love to show up at 12:04 every morning.

Shameless Plug for Great Art and Theatre

Art by Brian Spolans, currently showing at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Go check out his work before watching the Condensed Shakespeare Festival. Taming of the Shrew is predictably awful (just because you are the head of the Stolen Shakespeare Guild does not mean that you should cast yourself as the lead if you cannot act), The Mistress of the Inn is amazingly funny, and Instant Macbeth was so brilliant it had me in tears.

Texts From Last Night

(914): he invited me to an all week drinking party at his house. apparently he knows the key to my heart is booze shaped.

I wondered for a moment when I moved to Westchester....

via..TFLN

VIA Institute on Character

Character Strength #1: Leadership
Character Strength #2: Appreciation of beauty and excellence [awe, wonder, elevation]
Character Strength #3: Curiosity [interest, novelty-seeking, openness to experience]
Character Strength #4: Open-mindedness [judgment, critical thinking]
Character Strength #5: Love of Learning
Character Strength #6: Persistence [perseverance, industriousness]
Character Strength #7: Integrity [authenticity, honesty]
Character Strength #8: Social Intelligence [emotional intelligence, personal intelligence]
Character Strength #9: Fairness
Character Strength #10: Gratitude
Character Strength #11: Perspective [wisdom]
Character Strength #12: Love
Character Strength #13: Citizenship [social responsibility, loyalty, teamwork]
Character Strength #14: Humility/Modesty
Character Strength #15: Humor [playfulness]
Character Strength #16: Creativity [originality, ingenuity]
Character Strength #17: Bravery [valor]
Character Strength #18: Vitality [zest, enthusiasm, vigor, energy]
Character Strength #19: Kindness [generosity, nurturance, care, compassion, altruistic love, "niceness"]
Character Strength #20: Prudence
Character Strength #21: Self-regulation [self-control]
Character Strength #22: Hope [optimism, future-mindedness, future orientation]rol.
Character Strength #23: Forgiveness and mercy
Character Strength #24: Spirituality [religiousness, faith, purpose]

A few notes my results here from the brief survey:
- Leadership is my #1? I am really the most likely person to pass off making a decision unless being paid.
- Humility/Modesty is pretty damn high on the list, especially in comparison to gratitude. I've spent my life trying to differentiate.
- I'm way too lazy to hold a grudge as long as #23.
- I'm not very nice of a person.
- And I am a coward. Nor happy/funny. Go me.

All, via..VIA Institute on Character

Notcot Roundup

I used to have a plan of making something exactly like this but out of paper mâché. Somehow after my teacher explained how I wasn't able to use that many school materials, I ended up only with a foot long nose.
Infared photography of trees by various artists. Picture above by Musin Yohan
Samurai Vodka by Arthus Schreiber. So definitely want to try this, just to the fantastic bottle design.
Macro photography of Venus Flytraps eating.

Bozeman City job requirement raises privacy concerns

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.

This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. No job is worth giving out all of my private information, especially since they get more than enough through social security number as it is. There are very many times I am quite happy about having one of the most common names possible, as it is much harder to find me.

Great Idea!

Aliens...

“There’s Aliens in Our Midst” by AJ Fosik

..via World Famous Design Junkies

Irrigation with Salinated Water

The dRHS irrigation system consists of a network of sub-surface pipes, which can be filled with almost any water, whether pure, brackish, salted or polluted. The system can even take most industrial waste-water and use it without the need for a purification process.

The pipes are made from a plastic that retains virtually all contaminants while letting clean water through to the plants' roots.

#CNNFail

As the Iranian election aftermath unfolded in Tehran--thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to express their anger at perceived electoral irregularities--an unexpected hashtag began to explode through the Twitterverse: "CNNFail."

Even as Twitter became the best source for rapid-fire news developments from the front lines of the riots in Tehran, a growing number of users of the microblogging service were incredulous at the near total lack of coverage of the story on CNN, a network that cut its teeth with on-the-spot reporting from the Middle East.

I have never been a fan of Twitter, as I have issues with ADHD style blogging. But, I have even more of an issue with CNN and it's lack of credible news the last few years. So, kudos, Twitter.

Finally a Reason to be Proud of Dallas

“What if one block in Texas became the sustainable model for the world? What if everything we knew and believed about design needed to change? What if we need to change along with it?” David Baker + Partners and Fletcher Studio answered these questions with their XERO Project, an incredible plan to connect the city of Dallas with greenways while bringing local agriculture, public orchards, community gardens, private planter boxes, and food stalls into the city. The project recently took first place in the Re:Vision Dallas design competition, and is focused around an energy efficient building that will include a rainwater collection system, solar panels and planted screens that will produce onsite energy and food.

What’s the most exciting part of the competition? Re:Vision Dallas is real. The competition is the result of a partnership between Urban Re:Vision and the City of Dallas to create an innovative and sustainable redesign of a single city block. “The competition created a chance to propel design beyond the typical, beyond the norm, and to lay the foundation for a future of sustainable development.” With the support of the city, the land has been purchased, and this block will soon become a reality.

..via Inhabitat

Barbie Foot

It has been pointed out this takes the manliness out of the game, but man, foosball has never looked so fun.

Humans are Natural Vegetarians

"Although we think we are, and we act as if we are, human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us, because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores."

I'm almost there, except for the unnatural love of chicken fajitas.

The Office:The Musical

..totally jacked from Steve. And I tried to find the dance off, but it just isn't there yet. Feel free to make it. :)

Boring Musical Snobbery Entry

The following was one my Amazon recommendations tonight for music. The thing that ius really confusing me is that if you look through this list, there is a firm theme here of horrible indie bands that are completely my dorky style. Until the one choice, I cannot wrap my head around, bolded and linked below.

Neko Case (Saw in concert, much better live than recorded!)
The Decemberists
M Ward (Saw in concert, was never impressed)
Animal Collective
Grizzly Bear
Yeasayer (Seen twice, come back to Dallas!!!!!!)
Bon Iver (twice on list)
Andrew Bird (Missed in concert :( ) (3 times on list)
Fleet Foxes (Come to Dallas!!)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Iron & Wine
Phoenix
Franz Ferdinand
TV on the Radio (Missed in concert :( )
Camera Obscura
Bat for Lashes (Come to Dallas!!)
Doves
St Vincent (Saw in concert, lovely!)
Kings of Leon (Would like to see, but not over-powering)
MGMT (Come to Dallas!!)
Vampire Weekend (Saw in concert, lovely!)
Beirut
Gangsta Grillz: The Album, Pt. 2
Silversun Pickups
The National
She & Him (Only wanna see for Zooey, as above, M Ward did not impress)
Santigold (Come to Dallas!!)
Bonnie Prince Billy
Royksopp
Calexico
Madeleine Peyroux (Come to Dallas!!)

Art by shawna X

Odd that the artist does not seem to have a profile on the site or contact information.

Pop-Nihilism

These “pop-nihilists” don’t want to sell boring shit to an emaciated class of brain-dead plebs – they want to create engaging content that inspires dialog between individuals and the brands they connect with, and they want to do it in an interesting, artful manner that doesn’t insult your intelligence.

Notice

Photography by David Shrigley.

Happy Friday

So I finally received my Pentax M42 PK adapter today, allowing my to use my old Spotmatic lenses on my DSLR. This wonderful tiny ring allows me to use the old screw in lenses on a lock in type camera, giving me back the option of zoom and telephoto that I have been lacking in this camera. They have been sitting unused for about 10 years, not counting the 20 years they sat after my father quit using them.

Now I just have to remember how to actually take photos the fully manual way since the auto-function is lost with the adapter. It's nice to have not only zoom but macro as well, along with all the filters (which arguably, are just the pre-Photoshop ways of manipulation). I'm actually amazed taking a picture of the mermaid ball could come out so clearly and with such detail that I can see my entire living room in the reflection. Still need to work on noise reduction.

On a side note, uploading pictures tonight I reached a milestone of 20,000 now saved on my Flickr site, with most not visible to the public. This tells me I need to either A) Quit living behind the camera, B) Stop giving the camera to other people to take pictures whenI get tired or drunk, and C) Should stop spending my Friday night on Flickr and should go meet up with friends at the pub.

I hate living in the Bible Belt.

First, let’s acknowledge that Texas has stopped talking about seceding from the nation long enough to get in the renewable energy game. But wait, what’s this? Texas’ RPS is not a statewide mandate of a certain percentage (for example, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and Oregon all have RPS’s above 20% by 2025) of their total power use, but is a meager goal of 5,880 MW of power by 2015?! Well shucks. For the state that consumes 12% of ALL THE POWER CONSUMED IN THE U.S., you’d think they’d want to be a little more aggressive than making less than 1% of their power clean and renewable. I mean, this creates non-exportable jobs for a state that has incredible wind and solar resources. You’d think they’d be all over that action.

Of the Mayors Climate Protection Center I am disappointed that out of the DFW area, there are over 20 of the larger suburbs that have not signed onto this program.

Also, there is this wonderful reason to love living here:

New Zealand named most peaceful country

The South Pacific nation of four million people and 40 million sheep has knocked Iceland off its perch after violent demonstrations followed the collapse of Reykjavik's banking system.

Bret: So he wouldn't serve us basically just because we're from New Zealand.
Jemaine: Is that the norm?
Dave: Well, you guys are in America now, and there's a lot of prejudism here. Especially towards people like you.
Bret: What do you mean, people like us?
Dave: You know, the English and what not, red coats, the oppressors...
Jemaine: We're not English.
Dave: Be that as it may Jemaine, you're pretty much the most disliked race in this whole country.
Jemaine: What about black people?
Dave They don't like you either. Neither do the Chinese, the Asians, Polish, Russian, Cro-Asians, even the Indians.
Bret: Yeah, but Dave, you're Indian. D'you hate us?
Dave: Yeah, sometimes.
Jemaine: But you're our best friend.
Dave: I know.

NZ gave the world Flight of the Conchords, and for that alone they should get the title.

At least it's not as bad as New York

25% of Texans fail driver's test

I'm surprised the score is as high as it is for Texas. Pretty sure the dumbass squids doing standing wheelies at 80 miles an hour and high five-ing cars around them last night are helping to drop this score some more. If they don't kill themselves first that is.