Friday Update

Well, internet, it's gotten crazy around here again (still?) and I haven't been keeping up. And to be honest, I don't think I'll be posting much until we've got both feet planted firmly in summer around here -- there's just too stuff much coming up and going on in the next few weeks.

But here are a couple of interesting items from today...

My dog killed a baby bird this morning (I think she was just trying to make friends), and I think the mom is still pissed. This morning, I heard a commotion out in the back yard and when I went to investigate there was a dead baby bird, and a very angry adult bird squawking and dive bombing the dog. And now I think that same bird is outside the dog's window (she's got a spot where she hangs out, next to a window), shrieking and flying at the window. It's spooky.

And then a totally unrelated thing, but I'll mention it because I was a big fan of Google Docs, which is now being replaced with Google Drive. This could be cool...

Changes in RSSLand...

If you're reading this in Google Reader, it's time to buckle up...

In the next week, we’ll be making some highly requested changes to Google Reader. First, we’re going to introduce a brand new design (like many of Google’s other products) that we hope you love. Second, we’re going to bring Reader and Google+ closer together, so you can share the best of your feeds with just the right circles.

As a result of these changes, we also think it's important to clean things up a bit. Many of Reader's social features will soon be available via Google+, so in a week's time we'll be retiring things like friending, following and shared link blogs inside of Reader.

We think the end result is better than what's available today, and you can sign up for Google+ right now to start prepping Reader-specific circles. We recognize, however, that some of you may feel like the product is no longer for you. That's why we will also be extending Reader's subscription export feature to include the following items. Your data belongs to you, after all, and we want to make sure you can take it with you.

• Your subscriptions
• Your shared items
• Your friends
• Your likes
• Your starred items

Like always, the new Google Reader will be a great place to read and share your feeds. And in addition to Google+, you'll still be able to share to almost any service using Send To. We're looking forward to launching the new features very soon.

Dynamic Views

Have any of you blogger folks out there decided how you feel about their new Dynamic Views? I'm considering the switchover but want to know what will happen to other customized parts of my blog, like... oh, say, all that stuff over in that right column...

(For the record, I do think things could use a bit of an update around here.)

Do you photovine?

It's recently been released to the public.* Here's an intro, and a look at the app.

Update: never mind. Whoops.

Also, speaking of google, this is really cool: the weather is now an option on Google Maps. For example, check out the image below, which is the current google map of the US, with the weather toggled on (and also a reminder to those in the US northeast to get out of the way of that storm!).

*if you have an iPhone. Inexplicably, if you're using Google's OS, you're out of luck.

October 9...

Weekend Links

Well, this was supposed to go up over the weekend, but the days have gotten away from me. G-Dog got home from one trip and turned around and left on another, we had some family in from out of town for a brief visit, and then yesterday was so freakin' gorgeous that I spent the whole afternoon outside... and so on... but enough with the excuses -- here are a few bits of interest...

• Gorgeous aerial nighttime shots of New York and Las Vegas!
• Best. Graph. Ever.
• Slow Money -- how would the world be different if the money you spent (even just 1% of your assets) stayed in your local economy?
• The fun and the frightening!
• Food can be grown just about anywhere.
• Best spelling bee contestant ever -- he's awfully composed for someone so young!
• All of Popular Science is now online (137 years worth)!
• Are there any mammals in that sushi you're eating?
• Google search suggestions.

January Links

We got a bit of snow here in Chattanooga, so just about everything shut down this weekend. Which gave me a chance to finally get caught up on some blog reading for the month. My trip to Florida (and the relatively limited internet access that I had there) had put me way behind. So, here's a quick rundown of interesting links I found while buzzing from one side of the internet to the other. It's been a while since I've done this, so bear with me -- there're going to be some old links...

• The iPad is out, but I think I'm still more excited about the GooglePhone.

• I really want one of these (does that make me a dork?)!

• Are you a New York State voter? Watch out for this guy.

• Howard Zinn: How I want to be remembered.

• Some Jon Stewart... On the Massachusetts Senate race -- it's old, so you might want to scroll through the beginning and get to where Jon channels Lewis Black and comes close to expressing how frustrating it is to watch the Democrats (and especially the Blue Dogs!) these days... The First 364 Days 23 Hours... Supreme Corp... Oh, South Carolina... changing the game in banking.

• I've been learning a lot about nutrition lately. Between last year's adventure when G-Dog and I decided to give up processed food, to this year's experiments cooking for someone who is supposed to avoiding sodium, potassium and vitamin k, mostly what I've learned is that I'm easily confused. But Marion Nestle often comes to my rescue, and this time, it's with instructions for navigating the USDA's nutrition info.

• If you're like me and will always miss being a student, you're going to love these free lectures!

• Cool features like this one are what make me love google's rss reader (and many other google apps)!

• Overheard in New York still cracks me up.

• A fascinating collection of photos! Also, check out Tom's Hawaii slideshow!

• From Joe. My. God.: "Remember folks, the Christianist right is not about hatred and bigotry. It's about the gentle redemptive love of Jesus, forced upon you at the barrel of a gun in prison as they beat the gay out of you."

• And finally, the Devil wrote a letter to Pat Robertson.

Busy, busy, busy!

Well, we just had our third Christmas this evening. The first was on Feats of Strength Day -- the day after G-Dog and I bought a new elliptical machine as our big gift this year. Emmie and I got the parts inside and I assembled the thing on the 15th. It's a larger machine than the last one, so it called for some rearranging of furniture and equipment -- hence, between that and the lugging of parts and assembly, you get the Feats of Strength.

Our second Christmas was in Ohio, on the traditional day, with the family, and it was wonderful. There was snow on the ground, a magical Christmas Eve buffet, a fun Christmas morning with lots of gifts and a classic afternoon dinner with roast beast and yorkshire pudding. Wow. Who could ask for more?

But there was still more waiting at home, with a few more gifts and a celebration for the dog, who didn't get to go to Ohio, but was not forgotten by Santa.

We've also been enjoying some cable TV again after being without since the middle of the summer. The EBP hooked us up to their fiber network on Monday. I didn't miss TV in general much, but going without MSNBC was tough at times, and I'm happy to see that they've got some new talent since the last time I tuned in -- Ed Schultz is part of the lineup now and I'm loving his show based on what I've seen so far!

I've also been enjoying Nebulous Week. I've been cleaning and cooking and working on projects. My major effort this year is to get all the photos from the last decade organized. I got a digital camera in 2004 and never did properly archive all the pictures I've taken, so I'm working now to get them in order -- and thinking of moving them all to Picasa, not only for the independent archive, but also for the captions and labels, which I would think might aid in searching for images as I move forward. Does anyone have any experience with Picasa to share?

That's about all I have time for at the moment, though, as the evening is not done! I found a recipe for dog treats, and Nonnie and I are planning on trying it out this evening... the fun never stops here at Chez 10K! :-)

Weekend Links

There's an awful lot of weird weather out there this weekend, so I gather a lot of folks are trapped in their homes.

Now first of all, that's no reason to sit in front of the computer all day! Get up and move around, people! If you don't use it, you'll lose it. I don't want to hear any excuses! ;-D

And second, as long as you're sitting at the computer anyway (for a quick break between your Jack Lalannes and your Jane Fondas, right?), here are a few tidbits for your amusement...

• What’s the worst snow storm you can remember? (Mine is the Blizzard of '77.)

• Is Coca-Cola saving the earth?

• Can you possibly resist a list that has in its #2 position, "Oreo Cookie Death Filling?" It's the 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods!

• If you're in the mood to experiment, Google released beta versions of their Chrome browser for the Mac and Linux this week! (Speaking of Google, have you seen google goggles yet? It's one of the many cool things that has me lusting after the Droid way more than the iPhone these days.)

• Is it the gift that keeps on giving? Or the gift that keeps taking away?

• Gretchen Carlson is an idiot. On purpose (jon stewart clip!).

• Eww (this is why you're supposed to use your elbow to cover your cough or sneeze, as I recently learned from my sister-in-law, the elementary school teacher).

• Brands that will disappear in 2010.

• Can you drive a stick? I've never driven anything but, to the point where trying to drive an automatic freaks me out. Plus, transmissions cost a whole lot of money to fix, but clutches don't cost much, so maintaining cars with manual transmissions can be quite a bit cheaper.

• Toilet Graffiti... my favorites are #7 and #8.

Google Rocks

I've been fiddling around with Google Wave lately (it looks great and there's lots of potential there, but I'm still finding my footing... let me know if you need an invite, and we can play!). I've also been loving Google Voice for a month or so now -- gotta love the automatic transcriptions and the email and SMS notifiers! And today I finally got around to watching the rollout of automatic captions! There's some good stuff coming out of the Googleplex these days!

Fresh Food Porn!

It's been a busy day, followed by dinner with friends at my favorite Korean restaurant (I'm such a lucky girl!). I had the ojingeo bokkeum (spicy squid with vegetables in hot sauce), pictured below, and I'm now stuffed with wonderful food. And the photo is all I have time for at the moment, because a friend just hooked me up (again, lucky girl!) with a Google Wave invite, so I have some exploring to do...

Weekend Links

Things that caught my eye recently...

• Oh, Sarah Palin, why do you make me think of you and your horrible inadequacy?!? I don't deserve that (more here!).
• The world in lego!
• Sesame Street made a joke, the wingnuts freaked out and Colbert had some fun. Honestly, I have no use for Sesame Street or the muppets since that horrible Elmo made his debut, but cut the shaggy rags a break -- it was a freakin' rhyme.
• These photographers color outside of the lines.
• Islands seen from space.
• Al Gore (the thinner version!) visited The Daily Show last week.
• Where are you getting your Thanksgiving turkey and how much will you pay for it? Years ago, when Emmie was a bleeding-heart teenager, she announced that she would not be eating any Thanksgiving turkey unless it had been a happy bird who had lived a good life. I said ok, I'll give it a whirl, and picked up a free-range, organic bird (and took some long, deep breaths to get me past the sticker shock). I cooked it up and was amazed at how much more moist and delicious the turkey was that year, and have paid the premium prices ever since. It really is better meat.
• The History of Birth Control.
• Leviticus also said...
• US Exclaves.
• This link is a bit older, but I loves me some Sarah Vowell!
• Letters of Note.
• Al Franken has gotten to work (he's not funny (much) -- he's just really good).
• Feed the World!
• In America, people of all faiths are welcome here to worship Jesus in their own way.
• What's happening to American conservatism?!?
• A difficult goodbye.

Link-i-poo!

Here are a few things I've run across today:

• Both on and offline, I've been getting a lot of questions about my weight loss. How did I do it? What did I give up? Did I follow a program? Do I still eat meat? The answers are: It's complicated, not as much as you'd think, no, and yes. I still eat meat, but not a lot, and it's locally and humanely produced. But if you're weighing the omnivore vs. vegetarian thing, here's an good introduction: Are vegetarian diets ok? (and by the way, this is an awesome book. I read it cover to cover and it changed the way I think about food.)
• Google Street View is now a 50-state enterprise (welcome, Aloha State!).
• Splurb is attempting to bring you what's currently buzzing on the web.
• 10 of winter's most intriguing films

Google Voice

I've been playing around with this today and it's like magic!

Sunday Links & a Song

This is a short list, especially considering the fact that it's been a while since I've done links, but I'm tired of the politics that are filling our headlines. The best course of action here is to hide in the great music of geniuses like Elvis Costello (while reading a bit about the other stuff):

• Two can play that game (and some other protest signs -- some of my favorites: "My two moms can beat up your 14 wives," and "They're the ones that keep having gay babies!").

• Sigh. Back to health care. Let's just go ahead and cover everybody already -- even the constituents who manage to survive Boehner. One way or another we're going to pay for their health care anyway.

• I just started trying out google sidewiki this weekend. As one contributor pointed out, the implications here are numerous -- and not all positive -- but the potential is exciting.

• A Chattanooga suburb (East Ridge) made Boston.com's Big Picture last week. Seriously, we got a LOT of rain.

• And finally... the Origin of Stupidty

Oh, this is very cool

A quick way to flip through the morning's news!

Back soon!

You would not believe the email email/imap purgatory I've been trying to fight my way out of the past day or two! (Suffice it to say, I'm done with Mac Mail for this lifetime! Thank dog for gmail!!!)

But I'll be back for Wordless Wednesday...

(Sorry if I haven't responded to your contact... I'll get caught up soon...)

Lots of links you might have missed!

It's been a while and these things do pile up...

• How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck -- this is an interesting chart. We're by no means average (we've never carried a car loan, for one thing, and we probably spend more on food and alcohol, even though we don't eat out much), but the proportions seem to be generally true.

• Have you tried goofram yet? It's a combination of google and wolfram|alpha.

• Think you're a geek? Have you mastered the essential skills?

• The Young Republicans have elected an Aryan as their leader.

• Barney Frank visited the Daily Show last week.

• Just how rich is Fitzwilliam Darcy? (Here's an interesting bit of trivia: Pride and Prejudice is not only my favorite novel, it's also the first book I ever read aloud to Emmie -- starting when she was about a week old.) And speaking of Jane Austen, today is the anniversary of her death.

• How's your sense of pitch? (I scored a 26 out of 26 -- which, if you've ever heard me sing, you know must mean that I hear pitch perfectly -- I just can't produce it that way.)

• White Men Can't Judge.

• Local coverage of Zach Wamp's psooper psekret christian adultery cult (read about yet another C Street philanderer here -- and here!).

• You Suck at Craig's List is pretty funny (via Joe. My. God.).

• Badass of the Week, featuring Blenda, the Viking Heroine!

• Rick Perry is apparently rethinking that whole Texas-as-a-country thing (seriously -- who voted for this guy?).

• If you want to see the Great Barrier Reef, you better go soon.

• Can someone find Glenn Beck a nice small room with soft walls and a good therapist?

• ... and speaking of health care (that's what set Beck off)... Glenn doesn't have it quite right when it comes to France's system. The current American system is fine until you get sick, but will the next one be any better?

• This can't be said enough times: the only thing abstinence-only "education" produces is unbelievably stupid kids.

• I loves me some Usain Bolt footage. He makes all the other best runners in the world look like my grandma.

• Understanding our economy.

• Drunk people doing yoga.

• And finally, Pat Buchanan: he really stepped in it this week -- even more than usual!

Saturday Links: things you might have missed

I've found some interesting reading lately -- things that haven't worked their way into a post, but are worth mentioning nonetheless. Besides, it's been a while since I've done a link roundup.

• In The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off, Frank Rich reminds us of some glad tidings amidst all the recent rotten headlines:
  

  Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford.

• The interesting thing to take away from the The 20 Worst Foods in America 2009 is that even the sit-down restaurants and innocent sounding menu items (dishes that use words like "salad" and "chicken") can be loaded with fat, cholesterol and calories. If you're trying to eat healthy food, it's not enough to just stay away from the fast food joints, and surprisingly enough, some of the worst offenders are those family restaurants with the ferns and brass rails -- maybe places like TGIFridays and Chilis are best avoided as well. (And speaking of gross food, if you haven't yet seen Supersize Me, you can now catch it on Hulu!)
• The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media is an interesting list. I was surprised to have not heard of a few of them (and in at least one case, by who is considered to be liberal).
• It's good to see Joe Biden out there stumping for Amtrak. This country needs good passenger rail service, and Amtrak has been neglected for far too long.
• A Hand in the Health Debate is an interesting perspective on health care reform from Eugene Robinson (why MSNBC doesn't put him out in front more often than they do is a mystery to me. He's smart, funny, and he has one of the coolest voices since James Earl Jones):
  

  What is relevant is that I have good insurance, which I obtain through my employer, and haven't paid a dime out of pocket for my treatment. If I were among the 46 million Americans who are uninsured, I'd be looking at a huge hospital bill. No one should face financial ruin because of a mishap with a fork and an avocado. The way we ration health care now -- according to the individual's ability to pay -- is immoral, and if higher taxes are needed to ensure that no one has to choose between health and bankruptcy, I'll pay. That was my position all along, but now it's personal.
  
  What's changed is that I also feel more strongly about the ability to make my own choices. I decided where I would be treated and, ultimately, what would or wouldn't be done. I'm willing to pay for that, too.

• UK Street View Has Arrived and Brits are celebrating -- by finding celebs and playing Where's Waldo? (but they've still got some catching up to do!)
• This one makes me laugh every time I think about it: Tucker Carlson doesn't think Jon Stewart is funny. Gee, Tucker, I wonder why? Is it because you're a drama queen, or is it because you're still smarting from that asswhuppin'?
• I'm still blown away by this: Do you remember John Tyler? You know, our 10th president. A long time ago. Way back in the days of Tippecanoe and Tyler too. Back when the only way to take a picture was with a daguerreotype. Well, would you believe he still has a living grandson? Wow!
• And finally, what would we do without Improv Everywhere? I weep at the thought of it! Here's the latest, Subway Art Gallery Opening:

Happy Valentine's Day

I have mixed feelings about this one. The consumerists are trying to make it all about buying stuff and are doing their best to to suffocate all the natural fun in the day, but there is still some whimsy left in the world -- Google sightseers found a bit of it.

They've also found some other cool stuff recently: a ghost fleet, miniature castles, lots of twittered discoveries and NEW historical imagery (how cool is that?!?)!