Get a Plant!

I always enjoy reading her advice, but Sars earned herself a big batch of approval in today’s Vine when she took a woman to task for wanting to put her cat to sleep because it kept peeing on things. Sars is always very outspoken about pets being a responsibility, even when they become old or sick or develop a behavior problem. As she says, your pet is part of your family. If you can’t handle that level of responsibility, get a plant.

How to Drive

For your Friday fun-time you must go watch Yes and No a flash movie showing correct and incorrect driving practices and their usual outcomes. Very funny! [via #!/usr/bin/girl]

Ryan and Jacob are Fakes!

Ryan and Jacob are fakes! I hadn’t noticed talk of the latest e-mail spam until a copy showed up in my box this morning, and I’ll admit that it was compelling enough I read it. If you haven’t received a copy, it starts: There is something extremely wrong with every single person in this world. They seem to be part of a pointless simulation. “The Matrix” has portrayed this idea somewhat, yet we watch it and go back to our daily lives. Yet in this very life, underneath the seeming diversity in people’s opinions, values, talents, and interests, there is … Continue reading Ryan and Jacob are Fakes!

Photo Album

I kept thinking I’d do something more interesting with these images, but with it nearly being July, I’m going to give up and declare my photo album of images used in Screenshot entries from 2001 complete. Each photo has a link back to the archive page on which it appears. While they’re not all good, there’s a few in there I’m very happy with, and a couple of fun panoramics too.

Mann’s AI Thoughts

While it’s not as exciting as my friend who managed to buy a many-hundred-dollar-valued autographed book for a couple of bucks recently, I had what I think was a very cool used book experience yesterday. I spotted a copy of Penrose’s The Emperor’s New Mind on the $1 rack outside the local used book store, which I’ve been curious to skim. Well, it was on the cheap rack because there are notes scattered through the margins of the book, but they’re tidy notes, so I decided to buy it anyway. However, on closer examination, the book was labelled as having … Continue reading Mann’s AI Thoughts

Open Source Music

Offering even more public domain content, Project Gutenberg (the online public domain book project) has created the Project Gutenberg Music Web Site as an archive for public domain chamber music scores. Knowing the quality of their book site, I can only assume this will be a fabulous resource for musical types.

Yummy Sludge

In a headline that screams to be weblogged, the EPA says toxic sludge is good for fish (though a later article indicates that it was the Army Corps who said it, not the EPA – incidentally, the same group dumping the sludge). In studying the effects of toxic sludge in the Potomac, the report said that since the sludge forces fish out of the now toxic water, the fish go to more remote areas where they are less likely to be caught. The statement that it “protects” the fish is a real misuse of that word. It’s sort of a … Continue reading Yummy Sludge

Personal Dewey Coding

Is your book collection getting out of control? I certainly have the occasional fantasy of organizing and databasing up my books, and do keep them in a roughly thematic ordering. If you want to get really obsessive, though, this site will help you determine the first three Dewey decimal digits of your books, which I would think would be plenty for any home library. It’s also fun to browse aroundthis really impressive classification structure for all of human knowledge. And it is pleasing to see computer science linked with information and general reference, rather than with technology, though it is … Continue reading Personal Dewey Coding

Seasoning Cast Iron

Housekeeping days around here, both in reality and cyberspace. I finally updated my commenting code, so if you noticed the problems with HTML tags in them, that’s hopefully fixed. Around here, I hung a ton of photos, baked a lovely blueberry pie, and finished seasoning my new frying pans. I didn’t get around to making my new curtains yet, though. I mean, I’ve been pretty swamped by actual work around here too lately. By the way, a comment below reminded me that some people don’t like cast iron because they were told you can’t wash it with soap. You absolutely … Continue reading Seasoning Cast Iron

Patriotic Yarn

I love the Lion Brand yarns, particularly their Wool-Ease, but their blurb on their website promoting their latest new yarn is hilarious: Chunky USA is an American-made yarn tailored to the fast-paced American lifestyle: no dye lots, so the colors always match; a bulky weight, so it works up fast; and 100% Acrilan Acrylic, so it’s easy care. Who knew a yarn could be so patriotic?