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Shopping at Kroger's, reaching for generic brand popsicles, discover Jones Soda Frozen Soda Pops instead, leave store in a much more satisfied frame of mind.
Jones Soda Frozen Soda Pops are the biz-omb. The Cherry Soda flavor leaves my mouth garishly red, just as a good popsicle should.
These frozen beauties will hopefully (temporarily) help to curb the Girl Scout cookie feeding frenzy at my house. Helloooo?? $3.75 a box ain't cheap.
Dutch designer Joris Laarman has designed an achingly beautiful radiator unit (who knew those words could be in the same sentence?!) that is simply begging to be hung on your wall and warm your house.
The Heat Wave is a concrete and aluminum curly-scripty art piece that probably works better than the ugly, boring one you have in your house right now (if you're not of the central heating persuasion).
Droog Design will be selling it pretty soon -- so yes, it is most likely completely and totally out of your price range. I would seriously hang this on my wall even if it didn't actually do anything nice for me... like warm my living room. Pretty.
Amsterdam069
Originally uploaded by ilsergi.
So no, I'm not there - not now, at least. But a bunch of lucky bloggers were selected by Dutch Tourism Board to fly, stay for five nights and see the sights of my beloved Amsterdam for FREE. How lovely.
Vacationing bloggers were not required to blog about being in Amsterdam, but two of my favorite posts thus far from this Holland blogger experience:
1. Panoekkeken!!
2. 101 Cookbooks study of the colors of A-Dam
Heather Armstrong has a few things to say about the trip, as does the ever-silly Trent. Oh my! Even SliceNY got into the groove -- certainly a blog to check out, as my pizza addiction doesn't subside by simply crossing time zones and oceans. Good times. Wish I had been there....
So this is old-ish news, but I am still very sad at J Dilla's death last week after a long battle with Lupus.
Talk about a music man with a lion heart - Jay Dee has worked with everyone from De La to Janet Jackson to Pharcyde to Macy Gray to Kanye. His newest album (released just a week before his death), Donuts - recorded primarily from a hospital bed, is fresh and fantastic -- I really look forward to the next bits of work that he completed as they are gradually released.
Tough to see the good ones go....
Golden lion
Originally uploaded by happykatie.
It was a super trip to San Francisco - we enjoyed meeting the TechSoup / NetSquared gang immensely. So many super people with so much heart and cool nerdy ideas.
(more on this soon...)
Mena Trott (of Six Apart) gave an interesting presentation on the history and development of the Six Apart family of products. It's wonderful to see such an understanding of the importance of the Internet as a community and a conversation.
Seth Mazow (resident blogger and soon-to-be online guru) from Interplast gave a super demonstration of the broad-reaching powers of blogging and online technologies for organizations. It'll be very interesting to see how he develops their online strategy as he becomes more and more familiar with available tricks and tools.
The remainder of the trip was spent walking the city - with extra time in China Town and by the water (loved the Musee Mechanique!). A late-night dinner was pretty tasty at The Globe, but the Varnish Art and Wine Gallery certainly took the cake for awesome atmos and a great wine selection.
Awesome city. Great people. Can't wait to go back.
Check out some photos that Ed and I took on my happykatie flickr (including a sappy message written in the sand, awwwww).
I was immensely enjoying catching up on the hil-arious-ness on the McSweeney's site this weekend when I stumbled upon this silly essay on a (fake) new iPod model - the Zepto.
The Zepto holds 12 million songs (that's 68 years without playing the same song twice, apparently) and is the 1/10 the size of the head of a needle. Best of all are the Zepto's troubleshooting tips:
Q: My iPod Zepto has turned evil and is holding my family hostage.
A: A patch to the IntellectShuffle feature will address the evil-Zepto issue. The main things to remember in the meantime are: (1) don't talk in a condescending tone to your evil iPod Zepto, (2) don't meet any of your evil iPod Zepto's demands, and (3) don't, under any circumstances, urinate.
Q: It will take seven hours until the evil iPod Zepto patch downloads. WHAT'S THE FREAKING DEAL ABOUT URINATING?
A: While we can't elaborate, we can tell you that an evil iPod Zepto sometimes mimics the Amazonian candirú fish.
Ah, the candirú. I had quite forgotten about you - for years your parasitic ways have been gone from my mind, but never truly from my heart. How happy I am to be once again completely disgusted and freaked out by your slender animosity and thirst for blood and tissue.
So much for my big plans to go skinny dipping in the Amazon this summer, pirhana sitings be damned.
Looking forward to a quick work excursion to San Francisco for the online technology/social change group NetSquared.
This Net Tuesday meeting will feature Mena Trott (Six Apart co-founder) and Seth Mazow (Interplast) as guest speakers. The Feb. 15th event will also feature many fine technologically-savvy non-profit minds and bottles of wine for the remainder of the evening's entertainment.
Should be a fun and informative time - I hope to return home with some new friends made and at least a few new ideas running around in the old cerebrum.
A shame we don't have time to take a quick drive to Muir Woods to wander amongst the redwoods, although there are in fact a great many things that I would like to do with a few extra days in San Fran. I suppose it is worth adding to the 'long weekend trips to make' list.
I am so in love with my moleskines, anything moleskine-related just hits the spot right on all the way.
For instance, the Armpit of the Mole artist collection - 44 artists (European and American) get 6 pages each of a moleskine (or a moleskine look-alike) to present their sketches, transfers, painting, doodles, lettering, etc.
The collection is interesting enough I suppose, but it's in a moleskine and somehow THAT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. RIGHT!?!?!?
Please tell me that other people think this way to about... notebooks... ahem... This is just one of those things that my excitement even baffles myself sometimes.
Some of the most beautiful and intricate examples of art can be found in gorgeous Islamic geometrical patterns seen on various forms of architecture and in colorful tiled mosaics.
Glorious expressions of scientific and aesthetic unification, this artform is unique not only in its symmetry but in its complete lack of human depiction. This concept is central to the anti-iconographic stance that Islam holds its believers to.
Where the Catholic Church believes that images of Mary, saints and martyrs are helpful aids in prayer and devotions - Muslims find them wicked tempations for idolatry. This isn't too alien of a concept as many Protestant groups in the States believe similar things.
From the once sophisticated and high-minded cultures that created these abstract gems now sprout fierce tentacles of rebellion and anger. Such a waste.
A series of cartoons have caused Danish, American and Austrian embassies worldwide to be fire bombed, stoned, burned and mobbed. Flags are burned, new slogans chanted, guns are shot, people are dying in stampedes and angry mobs.
What are these but knee jerk reactions by a lost and desperate people?
Where have these cries of indignation and self-righteousness been when so-called 'terrorists' have been touting their beloved Islaam as a religion of death/terror/turmoil/destruction/despair/hatred? Surely the crimes committed by these extremist groups are a greater insult to God, Mohammed and the very heart and soul of the Muslim community worldwide???
When I read story after story like this, it makes me automatically think words like this: sadly misinformed. under-educated. spiteful. hateful. low.
I despise the fact that I think this. I despise the fact that some people refuse to stop fulfilling the very stereotypes that they are so outraged to be stuck with in the first place. Where is the leadership that this international community so desparately needs?
UPDATE: Our dear friend Iran is now holding a cartoon competition for Holocaust depictions (which should be super interesting because Iran apparently thinks the Holocaust was a 'myth' anyway). Of this, President Ahmadinejad said:
"Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by the United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its freedom only for insulting religious sanctities?"
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei said the cartoons,
"...were a scandal, particularly as they came "from those who champion civilization and free expression." (duh, isn't that what you're freaking out about??)
The caricatures amounted to a "conspiracy by Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas," he said, referring to the Palestinian militant group that won a surprise landslide victory in last month's elections.
Great way to improve relations, guys! This whole thing is sounding more and more like a middle school girl-fight everyday. What a joke.....
