Did you hear that?

"Back in the Day," I think the internet was easier to simply bumble around, discovering things. People built ugly pages just jam packed with information about obscure things, just for the sake of bestowing their knowledge upon the world wide web. One found these pages via search engine, or links from said interesting page, to another interesting page. While the awful flashing gifs and such were hard on the eyes, (and the aesthetic sensibilities), it seems as though it was easier then to stumble onto new things. Nowadays, (insert old lady voice), one searches, but gets redirected to commercial sites, linked to ads, and barraged with cookie requests more often than one finds something truly new and interesting. And git off muh virtual lawn!

In order to reacquaint myself with the internet of old, I stuck the StumbleUpon toolbar into my browser. It's not one of those awful and intrusive "Find a deal!" toolbars that I so detest. You specify what types of pages you're interested in "stumbling upon," and a click of the button sends you to a random site fitting those specifications. You're able to give a thumbs up or down to the page you reach, making it more likely that StumbleUpon will send you someplace you're interested in being. You're also able to submit a new page, if you so desire, by simply giving it a thumbs up or down and filling out the subsequent little form describing what it is.

The only thing that annoys me about it is that it asks to set cookies for the next page in line before you actually see the page you're stumbling to.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I recently found a neat site that could be an interesting resource: A page full of sounds. Ever wonder what a pheasant sounds like? Or curious about what a sounds Geiger counter makes? This is your page. Neat stuff.

Prettier than your average documentary

The Boy with the Incredible Brain is a documentary that follows the mental magic of Daniel Tammet, who is able to do insane mathematical calculations in his head with seemingly no effort.

The subject matter is intriguing all on its own--a young man who can recite twenty thousand numbers of pi by memory, who can learn languages ridiculously quickly, and will never need a calculator for anything--ever, unless it's for someone to check the fact that he's right.

However, I'm impressed at the prettiness of the documentary as well. It's beautifully put together, the music is lovely and the overall look if the thing is much more interesting than the usual fare.

More Low-key Adventures.

It was in the 70s today, which made running errands a pleasure. I am happy about the fact that I literally "run errands." Well, technically, I walk errands, but whatever.

Here's a view from a bench in Old Town Center - I mentioned posting this a couple days ago.



This is the bell tower I was also talking about. I try to time things so I'm nearby when it rings noon or six. We can hear it from our house, but it's fun actually see the bells go (deafening, but fun). I have no idea what one does to actually play a carillon. Will have to look that up.



There are several trails of various lengths that start at the (completely landlocked!?) old stone boathouse. I poked around in the woods for a while, and though you're really not that far from civilization, it feels like a gentle sort of forest wilderness. The trails are mostly in a valley, while the roads and houses are up above, so the noise of cars and such doesn't make its way in.



In other news, this is the favorite thing I have on my desk. J made it a while ago, and I can't stop inspecting it. So many little things to see. You must click the photo to make it big enough to get a good look.

Recent Adventures

I try to go walking around our neighborhood a lot so I don't go stir crazy in the house.

Is it a holiday of some kind? Perhaps some sort of flag competition I was unaware of?

There's a neat old church a block over. One gets to it by passing through the super-secret slate-roofed portal.



I like mission style lights, and I approve this arbor.



"I'll meet you at the cemetery gates. Keats and Yeats are on your side, while Wilde is on mine." A Smiths quote is almost always appropriate. Almost.





Quite a lot of grave markers from the 1800s. RIP, Sarah Jewett. She was younger than me when she died, yet she was a wife and a mother several times over.



This house across the street was begging to be sepia toned.



Walking through this area makes me feel almost as though I were in the Lake District. This neighbor has the "romantic English garden" down pat. I adore it.



As small as the village is, I still find new and interesting things almost every time I go walking. More to come: I was going to take some pictures of Old Town Center, which the church and these houses cluster around, but there was a lady sitting by the fountain eating lunch. I didn't want to bother her. Next time.

It's Official

I have the most adorable niece and nephews (plural now!!) EVER. I keep pictures of them handy in order to have a sudden dose of cheer when I need it. Here are the feet of the most recent addition to the unbearable cuteness (as of the end of September):


I can not stop staring at all his pictures. I can not wait to meet him in person.

I made a thing a while back before he was born, and recently worked up the courage to send it. For some reason, after looking at a project long enough when I'm working on it, I lose all sense of whether it's stupid or not. Ah well. It's fine, though I always feel like I could make it a million times better next time. It's a bird mobile with the birds sewn out of felt. Here are the first three:



And for some reason I didn't take any pictures of the fourth when it was done, but here's its little unstuffed body.



I made a leaf kind of thing for the middle of it.



The crossbars were made out of some dowel stained with coffee and sealed, and I left the ribbons uncut so they could be adjusted for height and balance, then trimmed.

I was kind of hoping for a fifties sort of feel for the whole thing, which I'm not sure I achieved. I love the felt toys of that era. I think in that regard, maybe the little green bird worked out best? H.A. has asked me what the names of the birds are, so she can tell them to the Tiny. Hmm... Anyone have any ideas? I kind of think they'd be names along the lines of what you'd find in Beatrix Potter books, or some-such.

It was fun to break out the sewing machine again. I'm looking forward to having a permanent setup for it. Now to work on Christmas ideas...

So sweet it may cause tooth decay.

True story about an orphaned maccaque whose best friend is now a pigeon. Aww.

A Lovely Noise

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Gravenhurst. There's something about those bell-like vocals and the something between Nick Drake and Creation Records era shoegaze that is just tasty.

Below is a Take Away Show Gravenhurst did for La Blogothèque. I recommend browsing around that site any time. I love it, and it's a great way to find interesting music and get to know musicians in a more simple and personal setting. (on that note, they've just done a neat set of songs with Loney Dear in Paris. We saw Loney Dear with Low back in the spring, and I've been curious about them since.)



And here is a pretty little film Gravenhurst made using a Super8 camera. It's slightly "collegy," but the song is lovely, though it sort of cuts off a but abruptly at the end.



I do recommend taking a look at their other videos on Youtube. It's good Autumn music.

I....I don't even know what to say.

This was just posted on Neatorama, but it was too good not to share here. Apparently this movie can be watched as part of Netflix's online video rentals.

There is also a music video complied with scenes from the film. The poo sings so touchingly.

(??!)

The Cusp of Autumn

For those of you wondering, my dad came through heart surgery well, and is making a good recovery--which makes me very very relieved. Life can be pretty sucky at times, but mercies like that can make all the other stuff seem pretty irrelevant and small.

I realize I'm a worrier a lot of the time, but I hope I'm not a pessimist. It's only because I forget to remember the things that are good. Er...unless that's the definition of a pessimist. I think of them as someone who's aware of what's good, but manages to imagine everything is going to be awful anyway. I'm working on encouraging my tiny, withered seedling of optimism to grow up into an oak tree or a skunk cabbage or whatever.

Yes, I know. It's been for-freaking-ever since I've blogged. As an apology, I would like to offer these tasty morsels:

• What do you get when you combine Johnny Cash's vocals, Led Zeppelin's drums, Beastie Boys bass, Ted Nugent's guitar, and the Beatles lead guitar? No, not an apple streusel, silly--It's quite possibly the BEST MASHUP EVER.
  

• When it comes to storytelling flash games, many times they're a digital cacophony of crappy animation and awkward gameplay. However, Samarost is different. It's essentially a beautiful interactive children's book with lovely music, interesting art, and engaging puzzles. I've linked to the walkthrough, because I did get stuck a couple times. Point and click adventures force you to think a little differently, and it takes a bit to catch on. There is a second installation of the game as well.
  

• Also, who doesn't like a simple game that basically just involves Japanese Victorian ladies slapping each other?

• This is a concept I can get behind. "The more unhappy you are, the more ice cream you need."

• For those of you with small dogs, this is valuable info. And it's darn cute.
  

• Here's a highly entertaining look at what the world of 1910 envisioned the year 2000 to be like. The page was originally in French, and I've linked to the Google translation, so the text may be a bit awkward. The ideas are an awful lot like we used to dream up for the future as children. Machines that put on your makeup! Pills for dinner! Ah, the glorious future...

• And if you'll excuse me now, I have to go take my daily chocolate supplement.
  

Grocery Shopping at an Amusment Park

Yesterday we plotted our course and did some adventuring around town. First stop was Lulu's Noodles, where the pho is supposed to be legendary. Uh, we didn't order it, though. Next time we will for sure. It just seemed too warm out for a big bowl o' soup. The Cantonese pan-fried noodles were good, though.

After that was a stop at a couple shops in the area - I'm afraid I did the typical wife thing and wandered to a nearby Cost Plus World Market while the Boy mulled over arcane external drive housings and computer guts at another store. We need curtains downstairs, so I searched for some. I've come to the conclusion that whoever decided that curtains should be sold one panel at a time ought to be smacked. I can imagine someone rubbing their hands with evil glee as they propose that not only will one one panel be sold at a time (as if anyone ever just needs a single panel for a whole window), but the panel shall be thin! So thin, in fact, that one may need to buy MORE than two panels to cover an entire window. MWAHAHA!!!

Only IKEA seems to get it right. They not only sell curtains enough for an ENTIRE window in one package, but it still costs less than a single measly panel elsewhere. Oh IKEA, come quickly. Cincinnati is waiting, and Spring 2008 seems so far away.

Anyhoo, after gnashing my teeth about the curtain panels, we traversed north a ways to a food market called Jungle Jim's. Now actually, to call it a food market would be a disservice.

You can't see the elephant fountain from here. Seriously.

What the place actually is, is something....sort of hard to describe. Imagine, if you will, that an amusement park married the most massive international grocery ever. This place would be the kid they'd have. According to the eccentric "Jungle Jim" himself, the place is, "Oh, six or eight acres" of gastronomical wonders ranging from thousands of cheeses, to an entire normal grocery store size area of wines and alcohols, to a fresh fish market, to a massive hot sauce section alphabetized by name, to... pretty much, you name it. Good thing we'd already grocery shopped recently. We hadn't really known what to expect there. Among the foods, you have weird and corny displays of various kinds, like a singing lion dressed like Elvis, or a support pole transformed into a giraffe neck. It was kind of bizarre in that respect, but you really really couldn't argue with the fact that any food or ingredient you could ever imagine, they had.

This is just part of the Parmasan and Romano section of the Cheese District. Forgive the blurriness. We were being sneaky with the camera.

Here are some of the dried peppers, most of which I'd never heard of. The whole area had an amazing smokey, peppery smell.

This is the front of the Hot Sauce Department- there are some aisles behind. I think the Boy had a little heart attack when he saw this. There was much gleeful browsing.

Who'd have thunk? A hot sauce that costs $2,000?? If cost is proportionate to heat, it must be like putting battery acid on your food.

We got off easy, buying just a few things: a six pack of various interesting beers and ales, which I'll write about later, cardamom, big shavings of cinnamon, star anise, and galanga. Oh, and a cat toy. Heh.

If any of you visit us here in Cin City, you may want to pay Jungle Jim's a visit. Bring your walking shoes.

Prettiest Commercial Ever?

I know it's ancient by web standards - it's been over a year since Jose Gonzalez sang "Heartbeats" as a sonic backdrop to hundreds of thousands of superballs being released down a San Francisco street for a Bravia commercial. However, I still love both the image and the song.

Wha...?

Remember the other day when I posted about how the cats love to look out the window at the feeder hanging on the oh-so-convenient tree right outside the study window? I neglected to mention that it provides a nice amount of shade and privacy to the front of the house, and is as fit as a fiddle, with its evergreen foliage making nice places for little critters to hang out where we could watch them right outside.

Yesterday I'd just charged up the camera and was ready to take some more adorable squirrel-hanging-from- feeder pictures, when I remembered the laundry needed changing. At the same time, I heard the lawn care guys doing some trimming outside, and breathed a sigh of relief that they were going to take down a couple large dead branches of a tree out by the road. I had had visions of them crunching down on an unsuspecting jogger.

Anyhoo, I figured since the squirrel would undoubtedly be in hiding until the lawn guys were gone, I'd just take pictures of it at the feeder later. It's not like it was going anywhere. Right? RIGHT??

I hauled some clean laundry upstairs and as I passed the study, I paused. It seemed awfully bright in there. That was when I realized my tree was totally and completely GONE. Gah! The cats were milling around on the windowsill, wondering why the view was so different.

After some roaring and fist shaking, I realized that they'd not only cut down my perfectly healthy shade tree, but they'd LEFT the 2 dead branches over the road. What the...?

Apparently this is a new trend with elderly man landlords. My mother-in-law had the exact same thing happen a little while ago at her place up North--- The landlord had a perfectly healthy tree chopped down for no other reason than that "It might fall on the house someday." I can only assume ours cut my tree for the same reason. Darn our trendy landlord! He didn't have to give in to peer pressure!

Bleh. I'm still sad about the tree, but I'm over it. And in the grand scheme of things, we do still have the best landlord ever. He's a grandpa-type who is absolutely charmed and impressed when you bring him the rent in person and shake his hand. We've heard no end of, "We're just so glad you're on board with us! It's just a pleasure to have such wonderful young people in that building. A pleasure!!" He actually added screen doors and ceiling fans and refinished the wood floors for us before we moved in. He wanted us to choose the paint colors, too! His wife is great as well, though she's hard of hearing, and can't take a phone message worth beans.

So *sigh* no more tree. I guess I'll put a feeder outside a window downstairs. The cats will be just as entertained, I'm sure.

Certain Laws of the Universe...

state that it would have been scientifically impossible for this ragingly adorable Valentine-spotted puppy to have been born anywhere but Japan.

Er...

I realize the last post had nothing to do with malts. However last night we went over to Graeter's on the town square after dinner for malts. It's ice cream month, apparently, and they're doing a thing where they'll add a mini scoop of ice cream for free. This equals a tiny scoop perched carefully on top of the regular scoop in the cone. We were highly amused by it for some reason. Who would have thought ice cream could be adorable?

I think it has to do with CuteOverload's Rule of Cuteness #7: "A thing, accompanied by a smaller version of that thing, is always cute."

Hooray for Malts!

Well, a week on from the move, things are pretty well unpacked, and though we need to pick up some shelving for here and there, and a couple other things, we're pretty well settled in.

It feels odd to know all the neighbors. We've always been friendly, but pretty quiet--not really diving into communities we've lived, partly because they haven't been all that conducive to diving into, and partly because we're "homey" types. But I think I like this whole "being social" business. Next weekend we're supposed to go to a big farmer's market in downtown Cincy with the girl who lives next door, and we're hopefully meeting up with a buncha nerds in a couple weeks from a literary group. We'll see what happens in terms of churches as well. We have a couple leads on decent places, though we're not rushing to find one.

The cats seem to be doing better. After the initial flurry of nervous stalking around and Nihao hissing, they've settled back into being pals--sleeping practically on top of each other and grooming each other like mad. I stuck a bag feeder outside the study window, and they've both been entranced by a massive chickadee convention as well as by a particular squirrel we've dubbed Squirrel Nutkin. (link goes to complete book online)


We have a decent patio and a--gasp!---already made garden to which I can easily add and maintain. The house we moved from started with a wasteland of trash and tomato wires in the back yard that took me an entire summer to clear and till. By the time we moved, there was more of a formed garden with plenty of perennials. About a thousand percent better than it was, but oh-so-much work... In any case, it's nice to have something a little simpler. I planted nasturtium, lavender, oregano, and chinese bellflowers in this section, which will be the "mostly herb" area. The nasturtium should spread nicely, with lots of spicy flowers, and buds you can cook with like capers. There was a tomato plant I repotted, and the local neato plant nursery was having a sale on herbs, so I got some thyme and Basil for pots. As we were walking up to the register, the owner of the place came running up with a couple garlic plants, which she gave us for free, since the cloves were ready to eat. Yum.

Ignore the big trash can and dolly. They're gone now. Also, is that a fancy-dancy brand new grill I see under that cover in the corner? Why YES, yes it is. The Boy had been yearning for one for a while now, and apparently there was a crazy sale at Lowes, and that= grill. Huzzah. We did a lime-herb turkey breast and asparagus on it last night. So yum.

oh, and Nihao likes to watch the neighbor cats from the back door.

Still Alive.

*yawn* Just barely. Happy Fourth of July, fiends and families!

We made it down to Cinci and have had internet for a few days, though I've been too pooped after the move and such to do much of anything but sloooowly unpacking boxes, like an old, rusty robot.

We're actually pretty settled for having been here less than a week. The neighborhood is lovely, the people are friendly, and we're having great fun getting to know the area and finding neat places to eat and hang out.

The cats are slowly recovering from an uber-traumatic 5 hour drive, and I expect that by next week they'll be back to normal. They're already pretty comfortable here, though there's been some hissing and spitting as Nihao is a little uncertain about her territory. Boo could care less, but she growls and roars at him, unless they're both preoccupied by something, in which case, they'll distractedly groom each other until Nihao remembers she's supposed to be hissy. It's noticably better already, thankfully.

Last night we spent some time out on the patio in the dark. There was a fireworks display happening nearby in downtown, and the carillon in the nearby church was playing songs along with it. The fireflies were out in force, trying to match the flashes in the sky.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

I'm rehosting my blog because we're changing internet providers.

The new location (which looks pretty much exactly like the old location) will be:

http://whenidropdead.blogspot.com

That site should redirect you here for the time being. It'll switch over this weekend.

Just the Facts, Ma'am.

I got a welcome packet in the mail today for our future hometown.

Here are some highlights:

• There are 3400 residents in the village.
• Boo... street parking is pretty regulated
• They have a setup where residents can leave a copy of their home key in a lockbox at town hall in case you get locked out of your house or apartment. (?) That's kinda cool.
  
• Boo also...you have to put a special sticker on each trash pickup. Ah well.
  
• Hurrah - On sunday evenings in the summer, they have carrillon concerts in the bell tower park three blocks from our place. Lovely.
  
• They have a setup where you let the police know when you're heading out of town on vacation, and they'll swing and check on your place if you want. (It's like the Waltons or something!)
  
• They have town meetings that actually include a town crier in period costume. I'm going to feel like I live in Greenfield Village. ^_^
• The area of the village is .9 square miles, yet has 50 acres of parks and greens.
  
• It's about 15 minutes to the museum center in downtown Cincinnati, the botanical gardens, the zoo, etc.
  
• ANNNND, they just broke ground on an IKEA! It's kind of lame how excited I am about that.
  

"Fish! Plankton! Protein from the Sea!"

Okay. I realize that was a massive stupid jump in logic. Those of you with obscure enough tastes in film may recognize that title quote as being from the 70's campy gem of a movie, Logan's Run.

The character being quoted is called Box, which happens to also be an object I'm seeing lots and lots of these days. Get it? That wasn't such a stretch, right? *groan*

I have aquired more boxes. Many more. That's about the only thing happening in my life at the moment, other than half-watching a gigantic marathon of Stargate SG-1 on the Sci Fi Channel as I packed downstairs. I swear, the past two weeks, every time I've turned it on, they've been running that show. It's practically the Stargate Channel. But I figured it was a toss up between that and watching perfectly manicured people with a troop of obedient movers make over houses I already think look fine on HGTV. That was beginning to make me twitch.

I did have the Kevin Costner opus, Waterworld, on the other day as I was packing. You know, I saw this movie in college. I remembered people saying it was awful. Well, it was even more ridiculously dumb than I'd remembered. It really helped me focus on the packing to avoid looking at it. What I caught was basically "Mad Max at sea." Only with terrible acting, laughable writing, and a plot that made me shake my head in disbelief. Oh, and no really good-looking young Mel Gibson. But seriously, in Waterworld, the characters, with a straight face, refer to oil as "go-juice." *brrr* Even as someone appreciates the occasional campy romp through the back lots of B-movieville, it was too much for me.

In other news, to counteract all the celluloid nightmares left over from Waterworld, I've found a piece of film that perfectly embodies drama and incredible method acting. It's only six seconds long, but it's so intense, and acted with such passion I have to watch it over and over. Please be sure you have your sound on.

BEHOLD.

Reporting From the Parking Lot of the Mos Eisley Cantina

Uh, of all the weird things I've run across on Amazon, this might just take the cake. Don't you need a crew of Jawas to pilot these things? And for some chuckles, read some of the reviews. Heh.

In other news, I seem to have run out of boxes. There I was, packing away, minding my own business, when I realized that I've packed every box I have, and I'm still not even close to being ready to move stuff to Cinci.

I've gotten extra double-plus ruthless lately when it comes to pareing down the amoung of things we have. Four years is a decent amount of time to accumulate stuff we don't need, but I can't really use that excuse. A lot of the stuff I'm getting rid of is boxes of things we never really unpacked. Loads of moldy books from the Boy's storage space, things that were here when we moved in, boxes of random baby paraphrenalia we were given by a coworker ages ago. Don't ask. Just lots of stuff. It all contributes to the love affair I have with digitally stored media. That doesn't take up any of my physical space.

In any case, my plan of action so far has been thus:

1. Divide STUFF into categories - stuff to donate, stuff to trash, stuff to store, stuff to pack.
(Technically, there should also be a stuff to sell pile, because lord knows when we're going to hook up that Sega Master System, but I can't imagine dealing with Ebay on top of everything else at this point.)

2. Have thrift store haul away a lot of stuff. Tax writeoffs! Yes!

3. Somehow store and weatherproof boxes of stuff for the garage and basement.

4. ??

5. Profit!

Just kidding. The list was overkill. And boring, like this entire post is turning out to be.

There really isn't much more to report on life at this point, though I have been enjoying the songs of Linda Draper lately. As I descibed it to someone, her album, Keepsake, is not earthshattering, but she's a really solid songwriter--she makes wistful, rolling, folk-nouveau songs that will stay with you. "Traces Of" was the soundtrack to a dream I had the other night.