Ha! So there!

Personally I love the public indoor smoking ban that Ohio passed in 2006, but I can see how it was a concern for bar and restaurant owners. Good news is that plenty of people still go out to eat and drink, including smokers! Surprise! Oh, oh now wait, I probably could have guessed that... An article published by Cincinnati.com talks about how there are just as many establishments with liquor licences, and that actually about a 100 more have opened statewide just since this past December. Ha, so there- quit yer bitching, bar owners!

I don't want your lovin', your money will do

Currently reading The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison. No review thus far since I'm only on page 18, but I found a particular line to be interesting on page 7. "Her mother hadn't said the right things; or was dead; or had never existed, so that Ruben had to be made by committee from glossy scraps of magazine ads." It struck me because it's a colorful analogy so I lingered on it for a moment. But I'm also reading this book called The Overspent American by Juliet B. Schor mentions a study that was done that shows that parents who spend less time with their children will buy them more gifts, compared to parents who are with their children more often, who spend less money on them. It's got like a billion other interesting stories and facts in it about how Westerners have enslaved themselves to money and material goods, I highly recommend it.

Anyways, back to the committee of magazines ads forming a person. Imagine the message that spending money instead of time must send a child. Consider where their primary education is coming from if not parents. In all cases, children {and adults alike} learn from a variety of resources. But what if a parent/loving guardian isn't around or doesn't care to combat all the misinformation? Kids end up learning all sorts of nastiness, and maybe someone else like a teacher, pastor, or friend might clue them in, maybe they figure it out on their own the hard way, or maybe they don't. Maybe the child grows up equating love with money spent! Later, various media outlets teaches them that sex also equals love, that nothing is good enough and next thing you know you've got a generation of perpetually-unsatisfied, materialistic whores! So spend your time loving and teaching your children before they turn into degenerate patchwork quilts of debt-ridden STD's!

Did I forget to take my Effexor today?

Starsucks

Been away for a bit, sorry to my loyal readers. Teehee, I think I have about 3 friends and 2 relatives who read my blog, but I appreciate you 5 people. Anyways, so you've probably heard Starbucks is planning to close about 600 of their 16000 stores. Thank God, maybe now there will only be 2 on every major city block, shopping mall and airport, huh? Whatever. Obviously they oversaturated the market, charge stupid-high prices for mediocre-at-best product, and shamelessly misuse the Italian language in attempt to lend their products false credibility. It's good to see that the Starbucks obsession is slowing.

I must imagine that coffee is a bit of a tricky business. On one hand, the profit margin for a product that is 98% water seems like it would be huge. Aaand it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to impress a customer-base used to Maxwell House and Folgers, but on the other hand, in order to serve quality product the beans must be both fresh and imported from 1/2 way around the world. Yeah that might cut into profits a bit. Ugh... and as much as I hate to mention it, this is especially true considering the increasing price of petro based fuel.

But anyways, if I could teach the world 3 things, it would be to always look in the mirror before you leave your house in the morning, God is great, and don't keep good coffee in the freezer! I don't care where you keep the Folgers, it's going to taste like Guatemalan dirt wherever you put it, but good coffee goes in a cool, dry, dark, airtight place. Amen and pass the Raw Sugar.

I'm so there

I'm totally doing it. I wonder what weapons I should take...?

How We Read Online

Randomly came across this article on Slate.com about how we read information online...

It talks about how we're more likely to read short, listed items and will skip longer paragraphs or pages where we have to scroll. It also mentions how in the early days of internet when pages took a long time to load, we were more likely to stick to a fewer number of pages and hunt around for whatever information we were seeking- but now that we've gone high speed, we skip around quickly seeking out the "right" site. And apparently, we like pages that have lots of links because it seems authoritative. Hmmm. I'll keep that in mind.

Anyways, just thought I would share. Check out the article to read more.

high tech treasure hunting

Treasure hunting seems like something you give up on at about the same time you let go of your imaginary friend, but geocaching is an outdoor game that lets us adults back in on the fun. It's sounds pretty simple, which is oftentimes the key to a good time {ahem, cornhole anyone?} Basically you use a GPS system to help you hide or seek "caches," usually a small waterproof container holding a logbook and a "treasure" of some sort. The hider puts the cache's coordinates online for others to find, and all the seeker is asked to do is leave another prize behind of similar or higher value for the next person to find. Caches can be hidden anywhere and have been known to have been stashed on the side of rocky cliffs and even underwater- part of the fun! Treasures can be anything from money, to a book, jewelry, antiques, maps, cds, pictures, tools, a game, etc. Geocaching sounds like it could be very entertaining, a good way to get out and about, and I imagine has developed quite a community about it. I want to try!


An Introduction to Geocaching by Team Tiki

Now you see me...

While doing some research for a sculpture project, I came across a new-to-me 44 yr old Dutch artist named Desiree Palmen. Her art involves a sort of urban camouflage and is a commentary on the increasing amount of public surveillance supposedly done for safety/security purposes. She paints handmade cotton suits with incredible detail that allow the wearer {either herself, or a model} to blend in with their surroundings when viewed from the perspective of the nearest surveillance camera. The scene is then photographed and filmed, then put on display. She said "I'd like people to consider what it means to let the government control our daily lives... When we are controlled we hand over our individual responsibilities to the state. I wanted to make a suit for the non-criminal citizen whose house is being watched 24 hours by street surveillance cameras. I'm also responding to a wish to disappear." I can't begin to imagine how painstaking her work must be!

interior camouflage - for artist in studio during open house, 135 x 100cm, ed 5, 2004