April Fools

This site will call any number you type in and read out as from any number and name you type in. You can also have it repeat a robotic message in a voice of your choice (you type in the message, they provide the voices)
http://www.ospenterprises.com/phone/

Crochet Patterns at Lion Brand Yarns

There are some really great free crochet patterns at the Lion Brand Site. Who knew you could crochet socks? I haven't checked out the free knit patterns yet but i've no reason to doubt they'll be great as well.
http://cache.lionbrand.com/content-crochetPatternIndex.html

Octopus links

Octopus links. I think I've found a new obsession.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/resources.html draft

Guess What? More Octopi!

More footage of octopi. This one has lots of different kinds. I promise I'll get bored with this soon, either that or I'll run out of octopus footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN4b3xVv7Bs



Watch this one change color and then see it again in slow motion and backwards. It really shows off it's camouflage skills. Awesome. (This is a short one)

Clean Air Plants

Article from sfgate.com on which plants remove which toxins from the air. Apparently it is a good idea to move several Spider Plants into a freshly painted room to remove benzine from the air. Peace Lillies are also recommended as a plant that does well in low light and removes ammonia as well as acetone and methyl alcohol . There is a list of toxin removing plants at the very end of the article. --Found via modcottage.com, whose archives I am enjoying browsing through today.

Recycling Building Matierials

Good article on recycling building matierials (dumpster diving).
http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/recycling-construction-waste#more-679
Lots of links on solar at aboutmyplanet.com
http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/category/alternative-energy/solar/

I Love This Picture

I love this picture. It's the entry page to a "small house" site.
http://www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com/

The Small House Society
http://www.resourcesforlife.com/groups/smallhousesociety/resources.htm
(lots of links for sustainable living)

Teeny Tiny Houses

Lots of links for teeny tiny houses. This first one is to a video of a news story (probably about 15 minutes long) all about small (and usually inexpensive) houses including the owner of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company's less than 100 square foot, year round home, and a yurt.
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=17249@kpix.dayport.com


Another short article. No photos.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1226156-2,00.html

Pictures and specs of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm
He also has a book of house plans for sale and the house plans themselves. Homes can be built following his plans or he will make one for you. He says it usually takes about 8 weeks and then you can come pick it up (the homes can be built on wheels so I guess you just hook it up and drive off). There a pictures and descriptions of a number of different sizes and designs and prices. I was impressed that he would actually show prices instead of making you ask for them(that "If you have to ask, you can't afford it " mentality). Interesting website definitely worth a look.
I'd have to get rid of so much stuff but I'd love to try this. He says his utility bill is about $3 per month (at least I think that's what he said). I could live with that.

Yet More Octopi

Yet another good clip via YouTube. I just love these creatures.

I've just learned how to "embed" these videos into the blog, can you tell? I've also been going back and replacing the old links in previous entries with these new embedded ones.
YouTube "embeds" work well, some of the stuff from other sites jut out of my margins, messy. I wonder if I could fix it or if it would be more trouble than it's worth? I am learning a lot though.

More Octopus

OK, here it is; a link to a bit of the PBS program (Wild Chronicals)I refered to earlier. It does show the octopus going through the glass tubing near the end of the video. I may have to get the dvd I had forgotten just how much I liked it. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpiNVKRNUA0

Ocotopus Escape

This is so bizarre.

I once saw an entire PBS program on these guys. This video is not as impressive as some of the other examples I saw. They had one of an octopus going through one of those distilling rigs where there is a big glass sphere at one end, and a glass tube at the other end that is really quite small and goes around and around like a spiral staircase. kind of like an old fashioned still. The octopus started out in the sphere and squeezed around the tube and out the other end like a distillate of octopus. I wish I could find a video of that one. They have no bones, cartilage maybe, but no bones.
There was a scientist in the program who told of a lab that he once worked at where an octopus was on one side of the room and an tank of crabs on the other. The crabs kept disappearing. The staff would come in at sunrise to find all the crabs gone and bits of crab shell scattered all over. They had no idea what was happening to them except, obviously, something was eating them. They set up a "nanny cam" sort of thing one night and sure enough it was the octopus. It would heave itself out of the water in it's aquarium, hop (splat?) down to the floor and crawl into the crabs tank, chow down and then mosey on back to it's own aquarium. I think they had to put a top on the octopus's tank.

More Paper Furniture

This is kind of cool. Down loadable instructions for folded cardboard children's furniture.
http://foldschool.com/_about/about_start/about_start.html. Not pretty but it's fun that it's cardboard and you can make it just by folding and gluing.

Interesting Furniture

Big round stool called "Dahlia" that unfolds , click on the photos on the right hand side of the screen to see pictures of the actual stool Or here is the link: http://www.kailinke.com/news.htm
The same designer (Kai Linke) has some interesting art pieces as well.
http://www.kailinke.com/projekte_dahlia_3.htm
I really love the surprising foldable furniture that is coming out now.
Here are some links for the evolved version of the amazing folding paper chair/couch that was demonstrated in a video out earlier this year, wow. Still no prices but it looks like they are available, theoretically anyway. I really love the big ottoman/stool type thing. http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2007/02/paper_softseati.php http://www.molodesign.com/pages.php?section=products&view_product_id=40
This is such a great design, it blows me away everytime I see it. I wonder how long before it trickles down into the real world (my real world anyway). The lack of pricing indicates, to me, that it's still up in the stratosphere somewhere.

Here is a site for painted furniture by Sticks. Bright colors and writing around the edges. I've seen these in some gallery type stores like the one in Jackson, Wyoming where Maryanne and I found the wonderful, welded metal bat that hangs in the doorway to my living room.

After much searching around the Jackson Hole websites, I found the little gallery where I bought the bat,. I usually have to find it by walking around until I stumble upon it. Wild Hands Art For Living...

265 W. Pearl Ave... P.O. Box 2844... Jackson WY, 83001... Phone:

307-733-4619... Email : wildhands@wyom.net

Web: www.wildhands.com.
I think Sticks is the company that did the head and footboards, that had sunrise at the head and sunset at the foot, that I liked so much. I don't see it on their site though. http://www.sticks.com/catalog_pages/cat_furniture/desks_06.html

I found both of these sites while wandering around on Wists.com. Kind of a useful site where you can collect all the cool things that you'd like to buy someday, or at least come back and look at

wistfully.

Another Paper Hang Glider

I made another airplane, this one from a page out of the telephone book (thinner paper) and I used a better stapler. It did make a difference. I lost the new plane down the staircase, I have no idea where it went, made another and lost it in the bedroom. I'm giving up for awhile. they did fly really well though.

This is the best paper airplane. It's really more of a paper stealth plane. It flies really fast and far. Even if you don't get it perfect (which I didn't) it still flies better than any other I've made. Mine veers off to one side but it flies great. I'm not big on paper airplanes, I've never tried any of the really complicated ones in a paper airplane books, but this is quick and simple enough to just whip up while you're sitting at a desk. Besides flying really well it's look is rather elegant. It's recommended that you use notebook paper rather than copier paper because it's thinner and that makes it fly better. You do have to download the directions in a file (which I hate to do) but it's worth it I flew my first one off of the 3rd floor balcony and it was flying really well except it veered off into the roof and got stuck in the gutters. You are supposed to use a good quality stapler and staples (I didn't realize there was a difference) so I may have to sneak down to Mary Dean's office and use hers on the next one. If you use the link to Construction Pictures you can kind of see what it involves. There are more detailed descriptions with really good diagrams and a template for the curve in the down loadable instructions.

Andy McKee

This is a guy named Andy Mckee playing the guitar who accompanies himself on... well, on his guitar. Amazing.
I may have posted this before but I couldn't find it when I went looking for it and had to go track it down again.

String Fever Plays Bolero....

This is great, four guys playing Bolero, on one cello.


This is the same guys again playing a brief history of music. See how many of the tunes you can identify. I got 27.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG6Ef-NQCi4&mode=related&search=

They call themselves String Fever.

How To Solve A Sudoku Puzzle

This could come in handy. I'm so bad at these and I've heard that once you get the knack it's better, or at least possible. I've still not even come close.

How to solve a sudoku puzzle
http://www.instructables.com/id/EJLUBKN48JEPD7QXGR/

Expandable Dining Table

Wow. Another great design. Very nice


expandable table.

Australia And The Cone Shell

Very interesting article at National Geographic about research on marine toxins with an eye towards developing cancer treatments. One that has actually been approved is a pain killer that is 50 times more potent than morphine but not addictive. The drug is not available yet but will be called Ziconotide and is derived from Australia's venomous Cone Shell.
When you go swimming in Australia's seas you are warned about the Cone Shell. It shoots a dart (actually an elongated tooth) at it's prey (you) and that's it, instant death. I think they may have an antidote but there is no way anyone could get it to you fast enough to actually be of any use.
I loved Australia, and I'd go back in a heartbeat, but nature, in general, just seems to be a bit cranky there.
I think they have more poisonous snakes than anywhere else and in addition to the Cone Shell there's the Box Jellyfish to worry about. At certain times of the year there will be beach closures in many areas (like even after you ride your bike for an hour, there is a big ol' honking sign that says the beach, where you were planning to go swim, is closed because of them). They are pretty little fairy like things and, once again, they can kill you, though much, much slower than the Cone Shell. There are some beaches, during that time, that have great nets they string along in a section of water and you can swim within that enclosure (but we're not guaranteeing anything, a few may slip through and kill you or, if you're lucky, make you so extremely ill that you will curtail your swimming to chlorinated swimming pools thereafter). Also, don't swim in the rivers, there are Crocodiles. Don't dangle your feet in the water either cause they'll come right up and take off a foot (if you're lucky) or drag you right under, roll you over and stash you underwater somewhere till you're soft enough to eat.
When we were near the coast on, I think, Kangaroo Island, there was a place with a tumble of rocks where large waves crashed quite dramatically. There was also a sign that said, and I'm paraphrasing here: Don't go past this sign, it's really, really dangerous. There are bloody big waves that come out of nowhere to suck you off, and dash you against, the rocks and if that happens we are not coming down there to look for your body cause it's dangerous and we just told you absolutely, positively, not to go there. There was just the sign, no fence preventing you from climbing down like there would be here in the U.S. I found that refreshing, sort of like: Welcome to Australia, Land of Natural Selection.
Once in awhile, when we were cycling down the highways, there would be one of those, yellow, diamond shaped warning signs bearing just this symbol: ! I'm sure it meant: Attention! Warning ! Mind your Feet! Excuse Us But We Feel There Is Something In This Area You May Want To Be Aware Of So Slow Down And Beware! I felt like those signs pretty much summed up Australia in general.
But, like I said, I'd go back in a heartbeat.

www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0505/feature1/online_
extra.html/online_extra.html

More Ketchup Art

Pretty amazing considering it's drawn with ketchup and french fries. I think I'll stick with watercolor.

Comic Book Encyclopedia

I don't know when I would need this but if I don't save it I know I will, at some point, need to know which superhero did what where, when and why.
http://www.comicvine.com/

Ketchup Art

There is a website called ketchupart.com. All photos of paintings done in ketchup on a plate. kind of fun. I did one and tried to up load it but I'm doing something wrong and it won't go through. Either it's too big or it's the wrong kind of format ( JPEG and PNG?) I'm completely clueless.

Very frustrating. Here is mine so at least it gets seen somewhere. I didn't have a white plate but I think this works.

I left the plate out over night and had to scrub the ketchup off. I started with the body and once I got up near the head I decided to try putting a different body on him.

Now it's soaking in the sink. Still haven't figured out how to up load it onto the site though.

http://www.ketchupart.com/

Invention

I invented something at the dog park the other day.

Our dog park was designed by someone that doesn't use them, and maybe doesn't even have a dog. Probably a cat person. Not that that's bad but they shouldn't be put in charge of the dog park.
I have a big orange backpack that I cart a gallon of water and a water bucket in when we go since there are no water dishes and no water source.
Anyway I designed a disposable water dish that hangs on the fence out of a gallon milk jug (they throw anything away that is left in the park).
I sliced the handle 3/4 of the way down and cut a big hole in the front, all the way up to the spout and out through the sides so they can get their big heads in there. I think I will cut the next one (this one has already been thrown out) so it dips down a little more in the front since it hangs at an angle and the water level is lower at the front. Don't cut the handle off, just slice through it so it keeps the dish from being knocked off the fence.
Why hang it on the fence to begin with? Because some dogs like to dig in them and splash all the water out and the others just knock them over.

No Wrinkle Packing

A good site on how to pack & travel with just one bag. I tried this on my trip to Alabama and it works really well. My clothes were barely wrinkled at all.
You lay everything on top of each other in one pile and fold it all up together. The site tells you in what order to lay the garments and then tells you how to fold it.

Dollar Art

I finally got my computer back. I had 452 e-mails, mostly junk.

Dollar Bill Art (via Ursi's blog). Like those frogs that people make out of dollar bills (I really do want to learn to do that some day) but these are much more complicated and on some of them he uses the designs on the bill to create eyes for the little sculptures.. I love the sleeping bat.
He doesn't show you how to do it but sells them for $7.95.
http://www.marcsky.com/dollarartist2.html

Don't Know Much About Geography

This will test your memory of the 50 states. You have 10 minutes to name them all (spelling counts) (Connecticut has an extra c in it). I misses 14. Never was very good at geography.
http://www.ironicsans.com/state22.html