Spoon was in town this week for two nights of shows at the First Ave. The Current gave away tickets for weeks in advance. I called Mark Wheat and he added me to the guest list, plus one.
I was not very familiar with Spoon before the show, but hey, free tickets! So on Thursday night my brother and I went downtown to hear them play. Now I am a Spoon fan.
Have you been to any good shows lately?
This summer I went water skiing for the second time. Or perhaps, I should say, that I attempted to water ski for the second time. The first attempt was when I was just a wee tot in my church's youth group, and I barely pulled my head above water before bailing out. This time I almost got it right.
In total, I think that I made four tries. On round one, I took a face dive and swallowed half a gallon of lake water through my nose holes. I coughed and sputtered a bit and then found the skis, which had been torn off, and got ready for round two. For my next attempts, I was able to pull my body up so that my butt skipped across the water, but I couldn't quite get onto my feet.
Afterwards, I held on to a tube-type thing called the Y-Not (so named because it is Y-shaped) while my sister-in-law's husband's step-grandfather pulled me behind his boat. I was dripping with blood when I climbed out of the water, and discovered that I had suffered some minor battle damage to my elbows and bashed the hell out of my bad knee. It looked worse than the photo shows, but it hurt less than it looks. So it goes.
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injury,
tattoos
Lowrider bicycles are making a comeback, but they don't build 'em like they used to. Here is an original model from the first ever print issue of Lowrider Magazine. I love how his saddle is practically scraping the whitewall tires, about one foot off the ground. Also, nice hat!
The IowaHawk blog has more scans, but sadly, this is the only bike-related photo.
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bikes,
fashion
This made the rounds a while back, but it's still awesome: Jake Von Slatt's steampunk keyboard. If you are so inclined, he provides instructions for modifying an IBM Model M into a beautiful, brass, typewriter-keyed computer keyboard. Next, he built an LCD monitor in the same style.
He hints that the desk is missing a mouse, but what will he build after that? One can only hope that it will be a steampunk case mod!
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casemod
This Nintendo DS Lite is the platform for a brilliant mod. The gold paint job is reminiscent of the original NES cartridge, and a 3-D Triforce medallion on the cover is backlit with blue LEDs. Additional photos at Joystiq and Softpedia.
There are many more complex case mods in the world (see e.g. the Metroid Wii), but I'm overwhelmed at the level of skill required to do something similar. This DS inspires me to try a simple repainting on my own. "How hard could it be?" I wondered.
After reading Linear's painting tutorial, my naïve enthusiasm has been dampened, though not extinguished. It might be a good winter activity. Or I could get a Dremel kit for Christmas, and start a wildly ambitious project.
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casemod
Image credit: Charles Krebs, water-scavenger beetle larva (Hydrophilidae sp.)
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photos,
science
Craftzine's feature on hikaru dorodango ('shiny mud balls') made it look so simple that I had to give it a try. If Japanese schoolchildren can do it, than it couldn't be too difficult. Plus I already had everything you need: water, and dirt. I made a sifter by poking holes in a paper cup. Then I got to work forming my dorodango.
Playing with mud is fun. I like the smell and feel of it. As children, we can play in the mud for the sake of play, but as adults we need an excuse. Hikaru dorodango is an opportunity to reclaim this childhood activity. You may be surprised by how much you enjoy it! There are online instructions if you would like to create your own hikaru dorodango.
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handmade,
Japan
Mary Britton Clouse runs a chicken rescue out of her home on Lowry Ave. Some of the birds are abandoned, and others are saved from fighting rings or ceremonial slaughter. According to the Star Tribune article, it's the only chicken adoption organization in the nation. How wonderful that someone is finding homes for chickens right here in neighboring Minneapolis.
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chickens
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craft,
dolls,
games,
toys
Nobody moved into my handmade bird house this year, but it's still providing a valuable function in our urban forest. See that big pile of morning glory vines at the corner of our backyard fence? The swallow house I built is buried underneath all that foliage!
I took this photo over a month ago, and the cluster has only grown thicker with time. This mighty bush grew from just five wimpy seedlings. It seems to be putting all its energy into bulking up the branches, producing only a handful of morning blooms. Meanwhile, all around our yard tiny morning glory plants are springing up, and burgeoning with dozens of flowers.
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birds,
gardening,
nature
I'm participating in the Zen Habits "October Challenge." From their site:
The purpose of these monthly challenges is to form a new habit in 30 days by doing them daily [...] The only rules:I was going to pick weightlifting, because it's a habit I would really like to get back into. However, I've tried to start up again several times before and it's hard, so that violates rule #2. Instead, I decided to do one new blog post every day throughout October. I enjoy writing (it's good practice for NaNoWriMo!) and I haven't been very consistent lately, so I've got lots of catching up to do anyway.1. Choose only 1 habit. You might want to do more than 1, but it’s pretty difficult.
2. Make it easy — you want to be able to accomplish it. Don’t make it too challenging.
3. Report daily, or as often as you can. Accountability is what makes this work.
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blog
Look at the list of ingenious pedal-powered mowers on treehugger.com. Some of these contraptions remind me of the mutant bikes made by chopper clubs like Black Label and the Rat Patrol. In fact the "Suburban Intruder" pictured above was put together by Cyclecide, whose crazy creations never fail to impress.
Sadly, our urban yard is far too small to justify a riding mower of any kind, whether manual or run on gasoline. I did consider buying a modern reel mower. If only our home's previous owner hadn't left behind a perfectly good Toro, that's probably what I'd be using now.
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bikes
I was at Robot Love today and became enamored with the KnockMan Family, cute little toys that you wind-up to make noise. All the figures are charming, but this one takes the cake: Pololon is a tiny guitar-man with strings you can tune (watch the video)!
I officially have too much useless plastic crap cluttering up my desk. Regardless, KnockMans have been added to my lust list. I could make room in my collection for one more gadget if I got it as a gift. Why, it could even be friends with my solar-powered Sunshine Buddy.
Pok Pok Pok...
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music,
toys
Wired today has an interesting interview with a couple of controversial environmentalists. From the comments there, I went to a site about Peak Oil (subtitle: Life After the Oil Crash). I really enjoy reading about these apocalypse scenarios--so much so, that I'm using them as fodder for this year's NaNoWriMo.
Regardless of what the future holds, though, it's smart to become more self-sufficient. In the event of a global catastrophe, the only difference that most of us can make is an influence on our own, personal circumstances. So we have bird flu kits and canned food and bottled water. That's interesting for fiction but scary in real life. We stockpile emergency supplies and hope we never have to use them.
But, there are also fun ways to prepare for the collapse of civilization! Raising chickens and bees, growing our own food, and investing in sustainable energy sources, for example. My retirement goal is to structure my life so that if the grid goes down, I'll be so prepared that I don't even notice. Come on, everyone, let's all build earthships and live in a Sui Generis commune!
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chickens,
gardening,
off-grid,
self-sufficiency
I recently discovered a wonderful blog on simplicity and productivity called Zen Habits. Aside from containing great advice and wisdom, the writer's style is very straightforward and accessible (good qualities for me strive for).
I find that just reading it makes me feel more serene. Highly recommended if you have ever wanted to find focus, replace bad habits with good ones, and gain control of your life. Check it out.
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productivity,
zen
Stencil Revolution posts a step-by-step tutorial on using spray bottle bleach to "tattoo" images on fabric. The roadblock for me is taking time to cut a proper stencil. If I can tackle that, this looks like an easy application technique with awesome results.
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art,
fashion
I don't recommend that you actually talk like a pirate, but there are other ways to celebrate this dubious holiday, based on your level of commitment to living the life:
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games,
puzzles,
rum
This year was my first time attending Waconia's annual Nickel Dickel Day celebration. It was good times all around. When we arrived, I noticed a sign for a book sale and of course that had to be our first stop. Here's what $3 buys you at the Carver County library:
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books,
cars
Lately I've been playing Harvest Moon on the Gameboy Advance. There are two versions of this game; one in which the main character is a boy, and one where it's a girl. In Japan these are appended "for boy" and "for girl." This clear distinction is muddied in the import subtitles, which are "Friends of Mineral Town" and "More Friends of Mineral Town," respectively.
As a series, Harvest Moon has been critiqued for sexism, so I was intrigued by this release. A previous game (Back to Nature) was the first to offer a choice of gender for your on-screen avatar, but the girls' version was dumbed-down in comparison, including a premature ending. The game is over when girls get married, whereas boys can continue to play indefinitely--and their wives dutifully stay at home and have a baby one year after the wedding. So, that's awesome.
By contrast, the gameplay in Friends of Mineral Town for Girls is supposed to be almost identical to the one for boys. They even added improvements, instead of taking features away! Progress! Just for fun, I fired up both games on my emulator to look for differences, and I was in for a treat right away. The opening stories are polar opposites of each other.
If you play as a boy, there's a touching tale about befriending an old farmer and fond memories of a rural vacation. After he dies, you inherit his farm. The game begins as you attempt to continue his legacy. That's nice.
Now here's the introductory sequence if you play as a girl. You dream of escaping the daily grind for a slow-paced life in the country. In the newspaper, you see a farm for sale and decide to buy it, sight unseen. Only when you arrive on the property do you realize that you have been suckered! The fields are littered with detritus and the buildings are in disrepair. Now you're out whatever money you spent, and since you already sold your apartment, you're stuck here. Stupid girl! To top off this heartwarming scenario, the mayor of the town comes out and laughs at you. Way to go, Harvest Moon. Stay classy.
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chickens,
games
I have fallen behind on my blog posting schedule, and now I'm trying to... ketchup? These tomatoes were plucked from our backyard garden in early September. We got a bountiful harvest this year, and plenty more green fruits are ripening even now. The bulk of last year's crop withered and died on the vine, but this year's plants are huge and super-productive!
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gardening
