In Bad Taste

Regretsy is fantastic for questionable content but I was stopped in my tracks by this particular Valentine card. Wait! Before you click that link you should know it features the Twin Towers, mid-strike, with the text "I'm falling for you."

It's by an artist living in Wisconsin. I wonder if she knows/knew anyone affected by the collapse?

And then there is the issue of the death of Georgian luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili just prior to the opening of the big event on the mainland. The IOC was lighnting fast in getting footage pulled from YouTube but my guess is that it had much more to do with marketing and trademarks than common human decency because the footage* continued to air on CTV and NBC, the big official media partners. Today, even after cries of, "Enough, already!" erupted, the NY Times featured an "interactive" look at the accident: freezing 8 frames of the footage and matching them to the track.

You'll notice I'm not linking to these things.

I'm not that old, but I remember a time when the news didn't show people dying -- outside of war zones, and then the footage was preceded by warnings that it might be graphic or disturbing.

A quick search of Google News finds opinion pieces with titles like "Gravity of News Seems to Escape NBC" and "Is a Georgian Life Worth Less than an American Life?" and "Are we Just Crash Test Dummies?" -- good questions. VANOC seems certain of one thing, though, it was not their fault but they will make changes anyway. Unfortunately, Kumaritashvili's death was not the only incident on the track -- there were complaints that it was far too fast. Will VANOC pay any price for this? Only in salaries and bonuses to their spin doctors.


*Some comments have started referring to the footage as a snuff film but I think, technically, it escapes simply by virtue of being captured in a documentary action, not story-boarded.

New Podcast Episode

I finally got around to re-recording the vocal track and mixing the rest then uploading it to the Internet Archive: Flotsam and Jetsam The Podcast - Episode 1: Mountain from a Molehill is now available as an m4a (Quicktime) track (I think that's because I dragged artwork into the thing which meant it was not just an audio track. My bad.).

I've also embedded it at the end of this post. Credits and links are below (next time I will insert these into the podcast):

• Background image: Westcoast Flotsam (by me)
• Opening track: Heaven on a Dish (uncredited composer/performer from the Open Source Audio collection)
• Closing track: Triple Funk (by Wilhelm, Gub, Bigmoon from the Open Source Audio collection)
• 43Things.com
• my list of 100 Things that Make Me Happy (besides money)
• "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music

The production took a lot of planning (most of a week) and I spent several hours combing through the Internet Archive for suitable music. I recorded one version of the vocal tracks earlier in the week (but I decided it was not good enough) then re-recorded and mixed tracks this evening -- about 4 hours work in Garage Band. The finished project runs about 7 minutes and 15 seconds. I enjoyed it but should I do more? Let me know...

One Hundred Things

I started this list of "100 Things That Make Me Happy (Besides Money)" about 5 years ago after selecting it as something that seemed simple enough when I first joined 43 Things. Last November, I added it to my PeGeStuDoMo list, again thinking it was a simple task. When I finally got to number 75 in the last week of January, I decided to commit time to it every day until it was done -- even if I just added one item. I finished it on February 2nd.

Parts of this list have been blogged before but here's the list in full:

1. Walking alone in shaded woods or gardens.
2. The sound of moving water in nature (ocean waves; streams and rivers; winter runoff or waterfalls).
3. Observing nature, with or without a camera in hand.
4. Finding something “hidden” in plain view.
5. Identifying plants, bugs, and animals.
6. The smell and taste of a well-made cup of coffee.
7. Smooth dark chocolate melting in my mouth.
8. Walking into a house filled with the smell of baking or cooking.
9. Teaching my daughter cooking skills.
10. Making soup!
11. Sunrise or sunset on a slightly cloudy day.
12. A warm, purring cat in my lap on a cold day.
13. Reading a story that makes me laugh out loud or cry.
14. Getting (positive) feedback on things I’ve written; especially if I have made someone smile, or laugh, or think.
15. Sharing a book I’ve “discovered” with someone else.
16. watching trashy TV without feeling guilty
17. watching great TV without feeling guilty
18. digging into a big bag of fresh popcorn
19. sharing a big bag of fresh popcorn
20. pulling together a meal out of whatever’s on hand and having it turn out to be a new favourite
21. planting vegetables and helping them grow
22. eating fresh vegetables that I have grown
23. seeing a great photo or other piece of art—especially in unexpected settings
24. seeing a deer from the bus or an eagle fly over a schoolyard
25. bopping along to ridiculous songs in my earbuds
    
26. scraping batter from the bowl or licking the beaters
27. biting into a cookie still warm and soft from the oven
28. the smell of fresh baked bread
29. the taste of a fresh strawberry
30. clipping herbs from the garden to use in a meal
31. picking fresh fruit from a tree
32. making pickles, jams and other preserves
    
33. judging a book by its cover and being right
34. finding a new author and going back through their whole catalog
35. reading e-books while waiting for the bus
36. reading a free newspaper on the morning commute
    
37. wandering through the library just browsing
38. curling up in bed with a graphic novel
39. watching full-length animated movies
    
40. window shopping
41. zipping downhill on my bike
42. all the memories that rush back when an old favourite song is played
43. the first rain after a dry spell
44. the smell of the ocean on an overcast day
45. the sound of a train whistle or horn in the distance
46. the sounds of a steam train
47. taking an afternoon nap
48. realizing I can still learn things, at any age
49. that a-Ha moment when a concept becomes clear
50. explaining a concept to someone else then seeing that a-Ha moment
    
51. the smell of wet leaves in the fall
    
52. the sound of rain on a tent when I'm inside
53. building and stoking a real wood fire
54. the sound of rocks being pulled over each other by receding waves
55. reading and re-reading poetry
56. writing poetry, especially haiku
57. taking on a writing challenge and finishing it, even if it doesn't get me anything
58. crossing things off lists -- in general -- but especially things that have been a long time coming
59. finding a new use for something
60. using something I have repaired
61. watching my daughter sleeping
62. going to bed the night before I know I don't have an alarm set to wake me
63. waking up before everyone else and having a quiet house to myself
    
64. mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter -- it's always the start of something yummy.
65. seeing someone wearing or using something I've made
    
66. making something without a pattern
67. following a pattern and succeeding
68. finding a great tip and sharing it
69. fancy printed book endpapers, especially marbled ones
70. holding old books and thinking about all the people who have turned the same pages
71. marveling at the intricacies of nineteenth century prints from etchings
72. the peace of walking through a graveyard
73. trying to unlock how an artist made a given piece of work
    
74. playing silly computer games
75. playing sudoku now that the trend has faded
    
76. going out for a date with my husband
77. fresh-baked apple crumble made without a recipe -- different every time
78. watching a show on Canadian TV, without bleeps or re-edited dialog and sometimes even with unpixelated nudity
79. browsing through Etsy and eBay at all the amazing, weird and banal things that people sell
80. finding and sharing useless trivia
81. being challenged on a useless fact and being able to find and show proof I was right
    
82. looking at architectural details and learning how to identify an architect's style
83. writing reviews and sharing my opinion
84. getting results from a strongly worded letter to a company, government body, or other corporation
85. watching a production line in action whether it is human or mechanical -- I always think of the Looney Tunes "assembly line" music (Oooh! Useless trivia moment, that music is called "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott.)
86. rainbows
    
87. the idea of unicorn chasers, even if I don't particularly like unicorns
88. getting lost on the web by link-hopping (easiest on sites like Wikipedia)
89. watching clouds moving and shifting
90. watching dew turn to steam on warm summer mornings
91. having a job that allows me to wear sassy t-shirts and jeans and pays more than $8 per hour.
92. watching our cat play like a kitten
93. catching up on tv shows with marathons of a season in a week.
    
94. realizing I know enough about a given program to get the result I expect when I am using it
    
95. the smell of laundry that has dried in the fresh air
96. breathing deeply on a crisp, clear morning
97. standing on the deck with a mug of coffee, just listening
    
98. finding the answer to something particularly tricky
99. imagining what cats are really thinking
    
100. finishing this list and realizing there's a lot more I could add.

And, after crossing this off my list, I smiled thinking about item #58.

New Coffeemaker

Yesterday I came home and noticed that there was coffee left in the coffee maker. I asked Hubby if he'd made another pot in the afternoon. He said he hadn't. Unfortunately, the carafe was just a few degrees cooler than molten lead and from this I surmised that the "auto off" feature had failed, completely. I unplugged it and the clock stayed on for 30 minutes -- about 3 times longer than it should have. I decided it was possessed by a boggart and we made a note to use the French Press in the morning.

This morning I realized what I thought was our French Press on the shelf was in fact our Bodum milk frother. Doh! Since I really needed coffee, we gave the possessed coffee maker one last go (but I made Hubby promise to unplug it when the carafe was empty). Tonight we bought a replacement. We had actually looked at coffee makers on the weekend (maybe ours knew it was doomed) -- and had come home with a new grinder -- so we had already narrowed our choices. Big bonus, one of our front runners was priced $30 lower at London Drugs so we went with that one (this Oster model).

I threw caution to the wind and brewed some coffee when we got home. It was gooooood. I'm enjoying it now and will be cursing it at 1:30 a.m. when I am still awake.


Speaking of awake, the sunrise this morning was lovely:

Contest Update:
To everyone who added a heart to my Etsy store, Thank You! -- Anne was #100 and will be getting a special something in the mail.

Not for a fistful of hundred dollar bills

I think I've already made this clear, but I am not a supporter of the big boondoggle set to kick off in a few days. After reading the list of items banned from venues (which will have airport-style security), I commented that you wouldn't be able to get me in a venue with a free ticket and a fistful of unmarked non-sequential $100 bills.

Included on the list

• Water balloon launchers (really? this happens often enough to need a separate listing?)
  
• Leaflets, pamphlets, non-approved publications and promotional material (this just plain angers my inner librarian -- what exactly is a non-approved publication?)
  
• Banners containing religious, political, provocative or obscene content and or visible branding and trademarks of sponsor and non-sponsor companies (guess what part of this annoys me? yup, that pesky branding and trademark stuff! What amuses me most is they don't even want logos of the participating sponsors visible -- my guess is they are paying for every reference)
  
• Flags of non-participating countries (non-participating in the games or non-participating at that event?)
  
• Strollers (because transportation is going to be a challenge but if you want to take your toddler to a once in a lifetime event, the kid is going to have to walk or be carried)
  
• Umbrellas (because it never rains in Vancouver)