Ten Year-end Lists

In no particular order, here are the lists that I've been reading today -- some of these will be re-read and referenced for some time.

1. Core77: Our Favorites from 2009 -- my favourite design blog
   
2. Best Films of the decade -- care of Roger Ebert. I have seen 3 of his top 10 but half of his full list.
3. Great Best of 2009 Recap -- Lifehackers best of the best including DIY, photography, re-purposing and more.
4. Top 100 Craft Tutorials of 2009 -- bookmarked!
5. 50 Best Albums of 2009 -- from NME, apparently I am out of the loop as many of these artists are completely new to me.
6. Buzzwords of 2009 -- from the NY Times; while American in focus, a number of these made their way north of the border.
7. Top Scientific Breakthroughs of 2009 -- from Wired.
8. Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009 -- from Project Censored
9. 20 Worst Foods of 2009 -- Eat This Not That lists its top 20 "calorie bombs"
10. Google Zeitgeist 2009 -- billions of searches aggregated and compiled into a snapshot of global curiousity.

2009 in Review

While I've done month by month reviews before, I think I will break from that format this year. Instead, here's a thematic look back:

notable stuff: I was shortlisted for CBC's Canada Writes, I celebrated turning 40 by watching Hubby smash the hell out of a cake, I got sucked into Twitter, I got a lot of food out of the garden, and we safely navigated the H1N1 scare.

web finds: This year, I fell out of love with Go Fug Yourself after several site redesigns and a new ad partner meant the site itself was fugly and annoying. However, I still like snark and for that, I now go to Regretsy which skewers some of the quirkier things listed on Etsy and Cakewrecks which does the same for "professionally designed cakes." The primary difference between the two is that Regretsy content frequently skirts an NC17 rating whereas Cakewrecks barely rates a PG so I can share the posts with Kiddo.

While I dearly miss At the Movies (and its follow up, which I refer to as the Ebert and Assclown years), I continue to get Ebert's reviews via a weekly email newsletter from the Chicago Sun-Times. I don't know why I hadn't noticed it before but Ebert also has a blog -- and it is full of awesome that is sometimes but not always related to movies. Speaking of awesome (and occasionally NSFW) the comic/info stuff at the Oatmeal often makes me laugh. I finally added it to my Google Reader yesterday after reading this post.

new toys: In the spring, I got a bike but I am a weather sissy and will not ride when it is overly hot, overly cold or overly wet so I have used it less than would be ideal. In the be-careful-what-you-wish-for category, I won an OTTO coffee machine. While it is very pretty, it's a pain to use. For Christmas I got two new toys: a Flip UltraHD Camcorder and a serger both of which come with learning curves. As a family, we also got a PS3 (which I love), a Macbook (for app development), and a Wii Balance Board with Wii Fit, which promptly told me I was fat and should exercise more. (Well, duh.)

escapes: Early in the year we went to Vegas. Bad idea; that city is not our kind of place. As a family, we like elbow room and clean air, two things that are at a premium in Vegas. We cleansed our palate with a weekend at Beach Acres, a few trips to Vancouver, a family weekend in Nanoose Bay, and a much-needed anniversary retreat to Sooke Harbour House. We also spent Christmas at Beach Acres, though that trip was probably more ambitious than the season called for.

play time: Over the year, I spent a lot of time caring for my Moshi Monster and, inside Facebook, playing a trio of addictive games: Lexulous, PackRat, and Bejeweled Blitz. While I have a bunch of games on my iPod, my faves are still the PopCap games -- Bejeweled, Bookworm and, of course, Chuzzle -- I highly recommend all three for any platform (and Zuma, too, which we bought for the PS3.)

I read a fair number of books, though there are still many unfinished tomes beside my bed. I found that Charlie Huston's crime novels are great fun to chew through, as was a novel based on characters from the TV series Bones (which I've never watched) -- I found it among the books at the Beach Acres cabin. I also read a number of books by local author Karen Rivers. Her blog and twitter feed regularly make me laugh (and snort) but her books... well, I won't likely pick up any more; they're well written but not to my taste.

I've been struggling to recall which movies I saw in the theatre this year. I know we saw plenty; here's what I remember (after searching the web for 2009 releases!): Race to Witch Mountain, Watchmen, Coraline, Up, Julie and Julia, Monsters vs. Aliens, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Public Enemies, Inglorious Basterds, 9, Star Trek 11, Zombieland, A Christmas Carol, and 2012. You can probably guess which ones we saw with Kiddo.

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Happy New Year!

contrary logic.and random thoughts

Apparently, I had PeGeStuDoMo all wrong. I shouldn't have told anyone what I was doing and that is why I failed. (Actually, I figure I failed because I am a gold medalist** in procrastination)

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Kiddo has requested all vegetarian meals this week --perfectly doable but it's making me crave steak and click on every link that mentions food -- which meant I found this curiosity (that would be great if I liked peppermint lattes) and this wonderful tale of determination not to waste food.

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Finally, just for fun, here's a great ad from LG -- more or less a PSA asking people to think before they text, "Give it a ponder." There is a whole series of these. They make me smile.



**hey, here's hoping VanOC doesn't come after me for saying "gold medalist."

Falling back and such

Since we still haven't solved that whole Daylight Savings nonsense, tonight we'll be changing a bunch of clocks (and the rest tomorrow). Right now, I am making the most of what is left of Halloween by watching Practical Magic. I stayed home to hand out candy while Hubby took Kiddo around the neighbourhood and then off to Oak Bay to see the bonfire.

She loved her costume this year -- Ahsoka, from Star Wars: the Clone Wars -- but was frustrated by how often she had to explain it. She had more fun earlier when she tried on Hubby's V for Vendetta mask:

(BTW, I saw several people wearing that mask yesterday among the many protesters in Centennial Square (some of whom later caused enough of a ruckus that the route for the Olympic Torch Relay had to be adjusted to avoid them).)

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Bonus: linkdump!

• Supernatural Collective Nouns by Wondermark -- I immediately bookmarked this for future reference and amusement.
• Star Wars zombie art -- yeah, I think I am over zombies now... but this is still an amusing set.
• Cell size and scale -- if you haven't already seen this, go look, play with the slider, and break your brain a little. Then show your kids. It's edutastic!
  

Oh, and if any of you are on Google Wave, let me know. I can't invite others (yet?) and I'd like to see if more people would make it suck less. (Right now, it seems kinda sucky and pointless.)

Starting tomorrow, it's PeGeStuDoMo!

from AA to Zombaritaville

Consider this an alphabetically-arranged linkdump of stuff I have found on the net in the past few days. I took a sick day -- got up, phoned in, went back to bed for 2 1/2 hours -- so I have been able to catch up on some "read later" bookmarks.

AA -- Roger Ebert's blog is one of my favourite things ever. This week, he writes about being 30 years sober thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Bug Catcher Necklace -- great kids' craft and an easy-to-follow tutorial

Coffee -- saving cash on your coffee habit; tips from Lifehacker.

Drumsticks -- we've been trying to find the ice-cream treat we remember from childhood but keep failing (they now market "premium" versions that taste nothing like the original). Thanks to this instructables tutorial, we could make our own... hmm. What do you think, Hubby?

Embroidery -- great tablecloth design, complete with spilled wine. I'm also loving these crowded houses.

Needle Felting -- These felted birds are some of the cutest things ever. Amazing.

Psycho Killers -- what makes them tick? TED Talk by neuropsychologist Jim Fallon (no relation to the Late Night host, Jimmy Fallon, I presume.)

Shoulder Bag -- Kiddo desperately wants an across-the-shoulder bag and this tutorial should be perfect.

Week Without Plastic -- Looking around me, I am certain I couldn't do it. However, someone at least thought about it and it makes interesting reading.

Zombaritaville -- this was featured on Boing Boing but seemed familiar to me. It should be; I wrote Me and Zombie McGee back in April, he started blogging in July. Hmmm.

The Weekend Cometh.

This week has had an elastic quality. Monday and Tuesday seemed to take forever, slowly stretching well into Wednesday but sometime yesterday everything seemed to snap back to normal and now it's Friday.

It was pointed out to me that my banner up there includes a typo and though I promised to fix it, I keep forgetting to do so. I will fix it this weekend. Really. If I don't, you have my permission to flood my inbox with comments to remind me.

Anyway, here's some fun/interesting stuff out there in the world:

A new digital collection at the University of Buffalo features pulp fiction book covers -- over 500 of the library's collection of 30,000 pulp fiction books and magazines. Browse the collection for some great eye candy.

I'm sure after reading about the return of textile coffins, someone out there will try to knit or quilt their own. It's an interesting idea but a green/natural burial is still the ideal as far as biodegradability goes.

For the zombie film-makers in the audience, there is a zombie short film festival coming up in Toronto later this year (tentatively October 30th) -- there is a $20 entry fee, films need to run under 20 min and be submitted on DVD by October 1st.

Although I didn't think I would start to grow bored of zombies, I realized I am already looking for the next trend -- monsters? Maybe, if Where the Wild Things Are doesn't tank at the box office. ...

home today...

Took a sick day. Just a basic head/chest cold again but I am too foggy to focus at work and with all the swine flu panic, my coworkers were giving me pretty wide berth yesterday. Instead, I am reading through newsfeeds... and playing games on Facebook... and watching Donnie Darko (we bought The Director's Cut last weekend).

A couple of stories that amused me:

• Ferris Bueller's Criminal Day Off: a discussion of felonies and other misdemeanors committed by Ferris and his friends.
• Will real pirates kill fun pirates? Are the Somali troublemakers going to put an end to Talk Like a Pirate Day?
• Make jam, not cream cheese. Costing out of various staples, home-made versus store-bought.
  

It's the first time in a long time that I've seen Donnie Darko. I remember being really impressed by it but there was so much I'd forgotten. It's an odd film... but our collection is full of odd, haunting, similar-feeling films: Final Destination, Butterfly Effect, Waking Life, and of course Southland Tales, another Richard Kelly film. There are aspects of the typical teen outcast film but those are largely overshadowed by meditations on philosophy, time travel, the existence of god, literary theory, good versus evil, human nature, and redemption. Yeah, there's a lot of layers in that movie.

Friday Follies undead edition

Star used to regularly write "Friday Follies" posts and seldom a Friday goes by when I don't think about them and how wise she was to post every Monday and Friday (coincidentally the days when my page views here are also highest.) So, here for you are some fun, silly, and interesting things out there on the web:

• Spelling with Zombies. Much better than those glitter words applications and you get results like this:
  
  Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com
  



• Speaking of (un)dead... how about bookshelves which convert into a coffin after you're gone?



• Or maybe you just feel a little undead and could use some caffeine. I'm looking forward to trying out this method of cold-brewing coffee concentrate for summer iced coffees. However, I really want to point you toward one of the most beautiful espresso maker designs ever: the Otto. I love designs that are so bold they look like nothing that has come before; the Otto definitely fits that bill.
  
  
  
• And finally, some video fun....classic Ray Harryhausen stop-motion skeletons from 1963:
  
  
  

Curiosities

Feeling a bit better today -- yesterday this house was flu central and no fun at all. To combat that, today I have been searching for some amusing diversions between naps...

Justine Lai is getting a lot of press for her latest project; she is painting herself having sex with every American president, in order. She began in 2006 and is up to the 18th president; several are quite graphic in content so click with care. The series is called Join or Die.

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Think you know Star Trek? Or maybe you're an expert on erectile dysfunction medications, having read all those spam messages. Either way, test your knowledge with the Star Trek Character or Erectile Dysfunction Pill quiz at Mental Floss. I only got 40%. I think that's a good thing.

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Through Craft, I flagged a couple of tutorials that caught my eye: one for a laundry sack from I Have To Say and one to convert a vintage suitcase into a portable craft centre from Bitter Betty Blogs.

click here

1. Went out with Kiddo this evening to see Race to Witch Mountain -- wrote a full review, if you're interested.
2. Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino features prominently in Witch Mountain, leading me to ponder whether Disney owned a chunk. It doesn't seem like they do, according to the fascinating Who Owns Vegas pages.
   
3. Awesome craft of the day? A needle-felted Horny Toad Roomba cover. So want one.
4. Clever idea of the day? The Peepoo Bag. Yes, it's what you think -- it's for the 2.6 billion people around the world who lack proper sewage/sanitation systems; as it breaks down the waste, the bag turns it into useable fertilizer.
   

Things I've Learned This Week

I learned that...

... someone listened: the roll-out of the wrong-headed CPSIA legislation is being postponed for a year so that some of the many questions raised regarding handcrafted and other goods can be examined and hopefully answered

... if you are "required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction, you may not use the Facebook Service."

... Wil Wheaton's twitter feed (@wilw) is followed by a ridiculous number of people -- enough that he felt the need to explain himself.

... I will soon be reviewing films again; this time for Game-Boyz.com -- I will let you know when reviews are up and active.

... trying to use Contribute in a networked environment SUCKS, plain and simple.

... there was a strike on Second Life (workers at IBM Italy) back in 2007. I think that pre-dates my knowledge of the existence of Second Life.

I am ignoring the snow

It's bitter cold here -- Victorians are actually having to use the words "wind chill factor" in describing the world outdoors and that's exactly why I don't live in the Prairies! So, instead, here are some festive links to warm your mouse-clicking fingers:

Despite his awesome PR, lots of kids are scared of Santa. Here's proof.

Crafting with kids indoors during the winter weather? Here's some ridiculously simple paper ornaments that can be made from anything from fancy scrapbooking paper to recycled flyers. Or how about a kid-version of these beaded napkin rings? Easily done with chenille stems and plastic beads.

On next year's Christmas crafting list (because I am out of time this year, damnit!) this cute little embroidered weiner-dog reindeer and these simple but so effective scrapcraft bird ornaments.

Is it festive downloads you seek? How about a stop-motion-animation Yule Log Screensaver by PES or a free mp3 m4a by the Barenaked Ladies? Or you can decorate your own Gingerbread (wo)man online care of Safeway.

And for my fellow trivia-lovers: 12 Things You Might Not Know about A Christmas Story. [Psst! If you don't own this most awesome movie, go buy a copy on Amazon! It is sooo much better without ad interruptions and network editing: A Christmas Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)!]

Yes, this is an election-themed post.

While our sad little federal election is already a mere dust mote in the corner of our collective Canadian consciousness, the U.S. Election is everywhere today -- and I mean everywhere. You would have to turn off your web browser, television, radio and avert your eyes all day to avoid it. Here are some more interesting election-related links if you would rather not look away:

• If you look at Google.com (here it automatically redirects me to Google.ca) you'll see a clever election logo:
  
  
• Cakewrecks has politically themed cakes today (including one I submitted!) plus a bonus misspelling: "Your Vote Counst"
• Graphic Tales' DB Dowd is sketching election day.
• Mental Floss serves up 11 Memorable Moments from Forgotten Campaigns.

And if you're really desperate to kill time, you can just search "polling station" or "I voted" or "us election" at Flickr or your favourite search engine or surf over to CNN to see if one more viewer will down their servers.

We'll be watching tonight as the numbers start coming in, snacking on an array of appetizers as prepared by my Hubby.

linkety-links

The staging is done-diddley-un, our Realtor seemed impressed with the transformation, and I merrily took many photos this morning-- missing several buses in the process -- but still got to my desk by 8:00! Lucky for you, I have collected them into a set on Flickr called SeaTerrace:


On the awesome side of the links scale are two designs whose times have come: the modular-compartment fridge (for shared accommodation situations) and the flat sink (most useful in public washrooms).

On the opposite side of the links scale is this horrible story (warning: likely disturbing to most readers) that makes me want to track down the idiot responsible and send him to a prison that the UN has condemned. >:(

Finally, this album cover at LPCoverLover had me looking for tell-tale photoshopping signs, but it appears to be legit; sorry grrrls.

Great idea(s)!

Quick round up of useful, clever, or just nifty stuff I've seen on the net lately:

Animal Tracks ABC is a set of flashcards featuring an A-Z of animal tracks! If Kiddo were younger, I would definitely order a set (only $10 plus shipping) from etsy user doggiepiggie.

Doodle Tags turn your child's art into a permanent keepsake -- made from recycled silver! The $95 price is higher than I would normally pay for a pendant but it is a unique and very personalized piece of art. And there is a bonus: you also get a rubber stamp of the image with your purchase. How cool is that?

Pocket Watercolour Tin. You may have already seen this instructable from jpmartineau for a portable watercoulour container made from the ever-popular Altoids tin (there will be riots if the company ever changes their packaging!) plus some polymer clay. The coolest thing about the instructable may be the section on choosing the colours to pack along.

Recycled Magazine Garbage Can. While this project looks very impressive, there is no way I have the time or patience to do it... and if I did somehow manage to complete it, there is no way I would use the resulting container for garbage! Craftster user lovething does suggest using the technique for other items, though, and I might try that.

Random stuff from all over...

People tell me I am rough on keyboards. I disagree -- I have never worn through keys.

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We spent a while last night talking about con-artists, sparked by my revelation that Kiddo thinks it's funny to practice my signature (!!). It reminded me that I was going to share this great article from 1930 published in Modern Mechanix, How Carnival Games Cheat Customers.

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I hadn't heard about this case, but apparently Wal*Mart tried to claim it had a trademark on the yellow smiley-face that bounces around its ad campaign and on store signs. What?? Um... no. Thankfully the judge didn't think so, either.

Stuff to do when you have (too much?) time and/or cash on your hands

1. Modify an old Mac SE into an "iWipe" toilet paper dispenser.

2. Write some creative non-fiction and send it to The Malahat Review (before August 1, 2008) for a chance at $500. After you pay $35 (or more) to enter (includes subscription - whoopee).

3. Browse Flickr and/or etsy for some craft inspirations then start to think about which project you'd like to start next. Think about the fact that you still needed those bent nose pliers and plan on a trip to the bead store but then remember that last time you went in for some earring findings you came out with a small bag full of $60 worth of stuff. Then you realize that really you don't have anything to make any of these projects so maybe you'll just make a mosaic instead.

4. Search for uncommon words -- pretentious, rudderless, poppycock, uber -- to see if you've ever used them in your blog posts.

5. Watch Affluenza (a PBS documentary) in six parts on YouTube. Then allow several hours to manage your reaction.

6. Depending on your reaction to the above link, you might instead want to think of what you'd do if you had a million bucks. Or in today's market, maybe 10 million.

Halloween Link-O-Rama

1. Etsy's Costume Contest (this was only open to Americans. Sigh.) -- Winners did show off some very clever costumes; my favourite is probably the shrimp costume for an infant. [Another great/simple costume idea: be a LEGO brick.]

2. Skeletal Looney Tunes Characters on display; not nearly as impressive as the 3D Looney Tunes skeletons by Hyungkoo Lee, but still amusing.

3. Best use ever for an old Mac: Mac-O-Lanterns. (Yes, I do think it's better than the MacAquarium, because it takes less maintenance!)

4. Has Al Gore got to you? Some thoughts on how to go Green for Halloween.

5. Feeling the need for something creepier? Here's an easy way to put a head in a jar and a sea creature that is likely to give me nightmares... or at least make me less likely to put my finger in the touch-and-feel tank at the aquarium.

6. Last but not least, please consider watching this educational video on How to Survive a Zombie Attack:

One "step" closer

Had my first visit with the physiotherapist today. Nice guy, very personable, and answered my questions pretty clearly. He assessed my current mobility, did some manual manipulation of the joint, gave me some exercises then hooked my foot up to a functional electrical stimulation machine... which felt very odd.

At any rate, he didn't see any barriers to a gradual return to work; if my GP gives me the all clear, I will be back to work (part time) next week.

I suppose I should say "woo-hoo" but I am going to miss hanging out around the house doing my own thing. ;)


On another topic altogether, file this under geekily cool: a whole bunch of online Periodic Tables. I particularly like the first one they link to: a Dynamic Periodic table built using ajax. Verrry handy for parents whose kids are taking any level of chemistry....

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Chronocide

Some of you may remember my website from years ago called "Chronocide" which is the word I started using in first-year university as an erudite-sounding alternative to "killing time." I also created "ProcrastoMan" for a single-panel comic that ran in the Martlet for a year. (I thought I had scanned or photographed some of these... but I can't find any files ... when I do find them (or dig out the originals) I'll share.)

Now that I am spending many hours in my bed, foot up, laptop and TV close by, I have been committing a lot of chronocide (when I am not eating or sleeping)! Here's what I've been up to:

1. I read a lot of blogs; the daily dose currently includes: Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, WWTDD*, Freakonomics, DIY Life, Lifehacker, Shiny Shiny, Overheard in New York*, MAKE, CRAFT Magazine, and Drawn. (* sites may be NSFW). For most of these, plus other less-frequently updated blogs, I use Google Reader and I save the cool stuff on my del.icio.us (which will soon become the Delicious Service ... ooo, errr.)

2. I wander through eye-candy at Flickr and keep up with friends on Facebook -- oh, and I play Scrabble via the Scrabulous application on Facebook. (Hubby also bought me a portable version of Scrabble, which niceley replaces our classic Scrabble game that is missing one tile (an R; so we sacrificed a blank in its place.))

3. I am working on some game reviews for Game-Boyz.com, and in doing so am playing a lot of PopCap games. Woo!

4. I am working on other projects -- another 2008 calendar (rabbits!), Drupal basic training, FrugalVictoria.com, some story ideas, and whatever else seems like a good thing to spend time working on.

5. I've been watching lots of (mostly bad) TV and (mostly amusing) DVDs and I've been reading (Gaiman's Anansi Boys is what I'm currently trying to get through).

So... what's your favourite way to commit chronocide?