Aha!

So I figured out my keyboard and the shift key issue: the problem was that I had not disected it, gotten grossed out by all the cat hair inside it, scavenged the parts for future crafts and replaced it a dreamy new keyboard. Simple! Why didn't I think of that to begin with?

I love circuits and technology guts. I've been fascinated with them ever since I first disected a calculator. I always thought the diodes and such looked like a wee futuristic city, with tiny streets and buildings. Not that I'll ever do anything more ambitious than pulling stuff apart and (sometimes) putting it back together, but it's just interesting to me.

It's Minitropolis!

This piece can look forward to a future as a book cover or wallet.

Neat. My new keyboard lurks smugly in the background.

dream neighborhood

nope, i'm not going all e.e.cummings today. inexplicably, my keyboard shift keys have both ceased functioning.

hey exclamation point11one11

see, it's just not the same. i hadn't realized how much i'd miss asking questions and writing things loudly.

in any case, my point of blogging was to post some pictures of the neighborhood in which we're looking at places in cin-city. being somewhat jaded with the whole 'equity' thing in today's sad, sad housing market, we're not looking for a house. we're looking for a townhouse or apartment, and fortunately, the neighborhood we have a big fat crush on has several available. we'll be walking through some soon, and i'm all a-twitter with anticipation. this neighborhood is lovely for walking around, and there's plenty to walk to - several restaurants and bakeries, a coffeehouse, and an art theatre all within a few blocks of the block we want to be on. dreamy. it's packed with big trees, which form canopies over the road. i've always loved that.

anyhoo, before driving back up to mi today, we puttered around there for a while, taking photos.

this would be a fun building to live in, above the little storefronts. the apts here have the high ceilings, wood floors, and crown molding that you hope for in an older building. lots of character. no central ac, but window units can be more cost efficient if you use them right, anyway.


this building's on one side of a triangle of grass and garden that would be nice to read a book in. here are the other two sides: a some more of the neato houses in the area, and an interesting church.
voila. we'd be very happy with anything in a couple block radius of here.

Top Secret Cherished Deliciousness

Oi, Intarwebs! I come bearing links ---or rather a link to the recipe for the fabulous oatmeal honey bread one of my very "culinarily gifted" sisters makes.

I think I need another cup of coffee: This one's for you.

More later. Most go clean up the drool I produced by thinking about that bread.

I Are Serious Blogger. This is Serious Post.

My amusement with the recent explosion of captioned cat pictures forces me to post a few of them. For the past few months these pictures have been cropping up in internet forum threads (for the non-forumy of you, a thread is an online conversation about a particular topic). There are some sites now where you can find the pictures in large collections as well. Some of the original crop of pictures were funny because of references to various nerdy things, but it's actually gotten to the point where the whole meme is beginning to fold back in on itself by spawning funny pictures which are funny because they reference previous funny pictures (some of which were a reference to something else to begin with). Here are a very few (not an exhaustive list of favorites, but perhaps I'll post a few here and there down the road):

I Wanna Tell the Stars to Get in Line

Recently, as I was poking through the archives of Dresden Codak (which could deserve a post of its own), I noticed a link directing me to the site of the band Balthrop, Alabama. I dutifully clicked, and was rewarded with the discovery of some free and interesting music.

If you sign up for their mailing list, you receive a link to download their double cd debut album, "Your Big Plans & Our Little Town." I think that is very cool of them to offer. Way to acknowlege the digital era, guys (not sarcastic). No matter what their music sounds like, I'd have to give them props for that. So...um...Go Balthrop, Alabama!

As things turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. I'm actually listening to the album right now, and quite enjoying it. There's a pretty big range of influences packed in there, so it's difficult to just drop a couple references to describe it. Imagine a hearty dose of the irony and melodic-ness (is that a word?) of Belle and Sebastian, with occasional pretty boy/girl harmonies and horns that also vaguely remind me of our Scottish pals, along with a few touches of the lazy, cracky vocals of Songs: Ohia (which does tend to grate on occasional songs), and the nonchalant flow of My Morning Jacket, and occasional inklings of early REM.

It's part acoustic, part americana, part indie-rock, and most of it is just a treat. A couple of the songs I could live without, but that's pretty par for the course when it comes to any double disc album. Balthrop, Alabama have done themselves proud here, especially for a debut. I recommend the songs "Tell the Stars" for a happy, vintage pop experience, and "Another Hell to Live In" for a melodic, lazy, americana-tinged experience.

And, uh.. heck - just give it all a listen.