Jimmy Op-Ed

I Got What America Needs Right Here

-an old Vox post that I love to push forward since this is a GOOD recipe. I typically do not care for “sweet potatoes” or yams. Last year, I found the key to me liking them is to eat them savoury and not sweet! This is sweet but it’s soooo very much better than you’d think. The buttery-toasted pecans and maple syrup? -plus, no frigging marshmallows! Puke!

"Frank was just asking what's new."

That’s what I call ‘em.  I’ve gotten into disputes  -don’t know the difference between a yam and a sweet potato but a lot of folks have strong feelings over my terminology of both “yam” and “pralined.”

Here’s the deal:  use sweet potatoes, yams or whatever you call them.  As for pralines, nah, they’re not really pralines but that’s MT’s short-hand for taking pecans and “candying” them.

For the lax-inclined, you can buy tinned.  If you do, get:

Take a nice, baking dish that’s not too big but is deep and put the yams in it — I like to use big chunks of them like about two inches long by one inch wide. -I use the typical “corningware” that my granny bought a million years ago.

Sprinkle the crumbles of pecans all over and chop the butter into teensy bits on top of them.  Pour the maple syrup over the whole dealio and place in an oven at 450F/ 232C for about 40 minutes.  Give it a poke/ stir now and then and the last 10 minutes, take off the cover (did I mention cover it at the start?).  You want the nuts to get “toasty” but not burned!

It’s really good and if you don’t feel the nuts got toasty enough, don’t tell your guests they’re supposed to be.  It tastes nice even without them toasted but I prefer to get the crunchy, maple-y, buttery goodness all in a bite : )

This is good any time of the year but for Thanksgiving (US) and other wintery holidays, it’s festive!

I have a piece in the Kirkland Art Center’s Redux benefit this Friday!

A benefit party like no other happens December 4.

Episode 16 of the Secret Archives of the Vatican Podcast – Turban Myths is now available from iTunes or HERE.

Tracks

Framboise featuring Sasha Rose
Mimosa
Release Hostilis EP
http://www.mutimusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/tigranmimosa

Yoda Knowledge
Nanda
Release Constant Change
http://www.myspace.com/soundofnanda
http://www.mutimusic.com

Mysterious Ways
Glen E Stone
Release Four Corners EP
http://www.myspace.com/qilinmusic

Samurai
Mars
http://www.myspace.com/xssr

Sabah al Noor
Uncle Riotous
Release Uncle Riotous vs the Keeper of the Archives
http://www.brokendrumrecords.com

Darker Than East
Dusk + Blackdown vs Grievous Angel
Release Margins Music: Redux
http://www.myspace.com/keysoundrecordings

Marrakech X-press
Amira Saqati
Release Destination Halal
http://www.myspace.com/amirasaqati

Tune playing behind the talking bits is Guru Rabbi Teacher by Secret Archives of the Vatican.

All tunes are played with the permission of the artists or labels or we know them. Please consider buying a CD or vinyl or a download if you like this music. Artists need some income from their music so they can continue to make music.

That includes us.

This morning I would like to present you with a version of Verdi’s “La Donna e Mobile” in a rock version. Normally I don’t much like rock music, but this is an exception. Enjoy.

The fog of this week slowly lifting, I only remembered to eat lunch once it got late, and then when I did it was in my cloffice using chopsticks, mysteriously the only utensils at hand. I meant to read my homework, but I couldn’t even get myself to do even that, ready to float off to some dreamland where there isn’t anything to do but novels.

I spent the morning reading Bakhtin and was all, Yep, that’s what I was gonna say! So turned off the thinkin’ cap and wondered over the last of the soup what the NYC apartments on Project Runway look like to the rest of the country. Irina’s stove! So normal, but do you guys think it’s weird, so tiny and right by the door like that?

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 2 Episode 6 – Redux?

Episode Synopsis:

In Smallville High School, a swimmer mysteriously ages and dies, after meeting his girlfriend Chrissy Parker. The new principal Reynolds arrives and comes into conflict with Clark Kent because he is a friend of Lex Luthor. Clark asks Chloe and Pete to investigate Principal Reynolds history, as well as Chrissy whom they suspect is a life-draining freak who needs three youths to stay eternally young every 12 years. Meanwhile, the Kents are having financial problems and Martha contacts her estranged father, whom she hasn’t seen for twenty years, to borrow some money much to Jonathan’s disapproval. Also, Lana Lang finds an old picture of her mother with an apparent boyfriend. After not getting help from Aunt Nelle, Lana then asks Lex to help her investigate.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Acid Trip Redux
Acid Trip Redux

Acid Trip Redux Game
Acid Trip Redux Game Description : Click blocks of acid that are together of the same color.
How to Play Acid Trip Redux Game? Use Mouse to interact.

When it comes to video discovery, the thrill of the hunt is only really fun when you’re viewing more good than bad. You could scour your feeds for entertainment, but the fodder you’ll file through is enough to feel like work. Tomorrow is a Friday, and we all know that you’re going to mentally check out from your desk at about 1pm. With ReadWriteWeb’s list of easy video aggregation services you can spend the afternoon curating your corporate videos, scouring for media clips or sharing amusing videos with friends:

1. Vodpod: This service offers users a chance to collect and share videos from popular services like YouTube as well as specialized sites like the Daily Show. Users can click a browser button to flesh out their collections and their Vodpod profiles auto-sync across all of their related domains. The Gawker Screening Room is one example of the premium Vodspot TV solution.

2. Popscreen: Popscreen allows users to import videos from a number of services via your video site username. From here you can save all of your videos from sites like Vimeo and YouTube to your Popscreen homepage and share them with friends. The fact that I could aggregate and add more than 45 ReadWriteWeb videos in under a minute makes this an easy solution for media clippings. PopScreen also lets you follow live shows from Kyte, Justin.tv. Boxee, Facebook and iPhone integration are currently in the works.

3. Yubby: Yubby allows users to search for videos via keyword and drag and drop those videos into a single embeddable player. ReadWriteWeb covered the company earlier in the month as the group that powered the backend of this year’s BlogWorld site. The solution is an easy one for those looking to showcase multiple videos without having to customize a page.

4. Redux: Redux offers users a chance to share entertaining links in a channel. As we’ve displayed in the past, Redux can be used for more than just video; however, the autoplay TV mode makes it great for passive viewing – think Chumby but with better Twitter and Facebook integration. The site is best used for personal entertainment rather than corporate videos.

5. Magnify.net: Magnify.net offers users a chance to create and customize their own channels. Upon registration, users are given the opportunity to purchase a domain to match their channel. One of the interesting features of this site is the fact that in addition to aggregating pre-existing videos, the channel also offers a web cam capture option.

By Dana Oshiro

http://www.readwriteweb.com

My last solution didn’t end up working, but I ended up being able to piggyback my files over on Matticus’s server in exchange for a pint a month. Thank you Matticus!

Anyways, I’ll be moving the podcasts there one by one. You shouldn’t see any interruptions, or any more random flaking out.

“Trust me!”

(aka, Windows Redux)

Mac: Hello, I’m a Mac.

PC: And I’m a PC.

P: Hey Mac, did you hear the good news?

M: Really?

P: Windows 7 is out, and it’s not gonna’ have any of the problems my last operating system had. Trust me!

M: I feel like I’ve heard this before, PC.

P: What!?

(Time warp…)

PC: Windows Vista’s here and it’s not gonna’ have any of the problems that Windows XP had.

… it’s not gonna’ have any of the problems that Windows ME had.

… it’s not gonna’ have any of the problems that Windows 98 had.
… it’s not gonna’ have any of the problems that Windows 95 had.
… it’s not gonna’ have any of the problems that Windows 2 had.

Trust me.

This time, it’s gonna’ be different.

Trust me.

My body all-out resisted homework this week. I know, I know, I’ve got a narrative of control going too, but my brain simply would not stay put between the pages of this rhetoric textbook. Enlightenment thought? Pssh. Next! But when a paper is due, a paper is due, so I buckled down (mostly) and hammered this thing out, skimming and drifting and figuring there’s probably something valuable in experiencing the wall-hitting that afflicts most of the students who shambled up to me during my desk shift earlier, haggard and with dread, begging for just one more article, please!

Note from the end: I apologise in advance for this being a relatively long post in relation to the rest of the posts I have written, I may have rambled on a bit towards the end.

As I am writing this, we are just about to start week six of semester 1, year 2 of the Innovative Product Design course at Dundee University. And as far as I am concerned, it has passed extremely quickly, and despite regular posts (well weekly), there has been very little talk about what we are actually doing. So this post will concern 2 of the modules of the course, the Industrial Design portion and the Design Studies area, missing out the mechanics module since you are able to guess what we do in that.

First off, the Design Studies part. We are looking at people with aphasia, working with them and going to develop something which would aid them, whether it be a physical product or a service. Aphasia for those who do not know what it is, usually occurs if someone has a stroke, and they then have a partial or total loss of ability to articulate ideas or comprehend speech or text. It affects different people by different amounts, so whilst it may be definitely noticeable in one person, it may be overlooked in another. They live normal lives and learn to live with and cope with what has happened. We were given an insight into what it was and what it was like when a couple of members of the Dundee Speakeasy group gave a talk about it.

As for the work our group is doing for this project, we are looking at producing an awareness campaign consisting of a number of posters and a video trying to explain to the public what aphasia is. This is proving quite difficult in terms of how to convey the message across effectively, but also it is quite difficult because after initial research into what people already know about it, it appears that no one knows what it is. Initial research for this consisted of a number of messages on Twitter asking the followers of myself and a fellow group member what it is, deeper research is going to be conducted post haste.

Moving onto the Industrial Design part of the course, things are quite a bit different to the design studies part. First of all, this module is probably more practical. For me this makes it much more enjoyable, as I am able to draw lots and will soon start to be making models. Our project for this is aptly called Radio Redux. The aim of the project is essentially to reinvent the radio for the 21st century, making it more accessible to more people perhaps. Having to look for a target market, research into them, come up with 10 insights based on these characters/users and how they use the radio etc, followed by producing 100 different concepts, narrowing them down to 25, then culling a further 20 leaving just 5.

No sooner had we picked the top 5 ideas we thought we had, based on not only feasibility of the project in terms of being able to produce a working model, but also on what we thought was most interesting, we had to do a brief presentation of the 5 ideas, allocating a mere 20 seconds per idea and then getting the rest of the folk on the course to pick their favourite in order to find a single idea to take forward. Having managed to somehow successfully bypass the need to design the radio for a specific user or target market and instead looking at the different environments radios are used in, my top 5 radios related to customisation by the user and also the relationship people have with sound, light, colour and shape (verging on synesthesia, something which I may write a post about at a later date if I can remember).

The idea which was chosen by the voting public, well everyone in 2nd year IPD, was one which looked at the relationship between light and sound, where when the volume of the radio was increased, the brightness of a bulb increased too. A very simple idea which would look, or as I should more appropriately say, should look, quite good (notice the confidence of that sentence, ha). I was however urged to have a look into a process or a device which would make the light flicker when music was being played or when someone was talking and when there was radio silence, in between words etc, the light would be off. It would add to the uniqueness and the, well, weirdness of the radio, something which I would not mind at all.

Another part of this module, which we had to undertake at the same time as the other radio related things, was that we were given a relatively cheap radio to take apart, make a note of all the pieces, measure them and draw them, then go on to create or produce an exploded isometric view of it as a practice for when we need to produce an exploded drawing for our final radio for the project. For me, it was not so difficult to produce this as I had done about 4 or 5 years of the things, or technical drawings in general at school, but it was the first time in almost  a year and a half since I had done one properly.

Those two parts of the Industrial Design module of the course did provide enough stress and work to last almost an entire semester in first year (excluding the supermarket project for Design Studies where the group I was in did put in a 12 hour day to get it finished). In saying that though, it was good fun, and I did help a few people which I do enjoy doing, as I don’t like seeing people getting left behind, or worked up if they do not understand, that possibly being a reason for being told by a former teacher that I would make a good teacher… oh joy, maybe I will change my opinion about it at a later date, but until then, becoming a teacher is going to be the least of my worries. The teacher thing may have been emphasised by the fact my 4th year Graphic Communications teacher did try to make me skip a year because he thought I was so far ahead of everyone else, but part of the reason why I wasn’t was because I said no due to the fact I did quite like helping everyone else. Anyways, I digress.

That’s all for this time, but I’ll try and remember to give some updates on both of the projects, and hopefully if and when I get the radio working, I’ll post a video of it working. Something to look forward to then.

-originally posted at Vox

Dreaming:

I was in the military and wearing a parachute. Looking out through the open door of the small plane, I could hear someone yelling above the noise that they wondered for what this exercise was in preparation to do. Mountains passed closely below us. Too close.

It was an odd feeling, like watching the roller coaster part of the film in the Chevy Show at Six Flags when I was a kid. The view passing below us made me feel slightly giddy and as if my stomach was floating higher inside than it should be.

The mountains had sparse trees and a dry look about them, although beautiful. I grimly thought to myself it looked like Afghanistan. I had a job and I’d go where I was ordered but I wouldn’t like it.

We jumped when given the signal.

I preferred the feeling of falling over watching through the open window. At least I knew exactly what to do with what was happening in this very instant. I had been trained for this.

My landing was good, dead on and gentle. I disconnected from the parachute and spied my colleagues. We silently positioned ourselves and made our way forward, following the hand signals given by our group leader.

My mind stayed focused, free of worry for the majority of the trek. Only sparse seconds of confusion at what we were doing and why entered, only to be pressed away by the need to scan terrain and continue quietly.

As I broke the crest of a hill, the horizon opened and the lay of the land rose up as I began the descent. Fellow soldiers stood in the open, stunned.

This wasn’t what should be happening, so I dropped to a squat in the opening, clutching my rifle and scanned for anyone else who didn’t appear to be affected by whatever had stopped almost everyone else in their tracks.

A voice came to me.

A feeling burst through my heart and I pushed it away. The feelings didn’t matter. I had to think. I was trained and I would continue on, trusting my experience and whoever else was maintaining consciousness.

Without meaning to, that consciousness slid away, so gradually. I lowered the rifle and stood up, knowing that I now would appear the same as those struck motionless before me. It was okay.

I was still me. I had my own thoughts.

At the same time, the feeling and the voice inside was an equal part of “me.” Additionally, I could feel and hear every thought and emotion in every other person in the valley. We were one and that wasn’t weird. That was the way it was supposed to be.

The voice and feeling that wasn’t us really wasn’t us but was still a part of us. My logical mind didn’t know if it was an alien force, a chemical weapon or a supreme being but it felt good.

It was good because what it spoke of was freedom of choice, equality, love, healing and assured us that none of our other thoughts were bad; they were simply unnecessary. At the same time, it was totally fine that we had them because we were living and we were together and nothing mattered but our freedom, equality, love and health.

I woke up and felt blessed to spend that dream-time. I rolled over and fell asleep, returning there. I asked questions and received answers. Then, my alarm went off, so I got up and went to work feeling grateful.

Ils sont sympas chez Givenchy, ils nous ont concocté, eux aussi, une petite marque qui va faire sourire nos cartes bleues ! Après nous avoir encore fait rêver pendant la Fashion Week, voilà quelques pièces qui pourront rejoindre notre dressing, pour de vrai ! (enfin presque)

Isabelle Marant, Chloé, Paul & Joe, Galliano… , chacun y est allé d’une “sous” marque pour vendre leur griffe à prix plus abordable (sans parler de ma boutique fétiche de Marc Jacobs dont je vous parlerai peut-être un jour !). Ce qui n’empêche pas de garder la patte de la marque.

C’est au tour de Givenchy de créer REDUX. Petit aperçu :

Je trouve que la collection (ici un échantillon !) reflète bien l’esprit de la maison de couture Givenchy : classe, chic, sobre, élégant, un soupçon rock and roll quand même ! Un esprit vraiment dans l’air du temps !

La collection capsule, déclinée en 10 tenues, à laisser une belle place aussi à la blouse blanche. Ricardo Tisci en a fait une collection proche des thématiques phares de la maison Givenchy. Cette collection capsule sera déclinée trois fois par an, donc à surveiller !

Mais pas trop de précipitation, la pièce minimum est quand même à 200€…  Compter 240€ pour un Teeshirt, minimum 300€ pour les blouses blanches… Je ne vous parle même pas des pièces en cuir !

Mais bon, cela ne fait pas de mal de regarder ?!

I ate another cheese sandwich, this time checking my new haircut with K. and L. on Googleyvideochat. Is it too long in the back? Is it?

Thinking about contacting BigMeanA. She’s my almost-oldest-living friend. -erm, acquaintance, erm, person I spent years at her house and then ran away from her due to self-destructive behaviors on her part?

It has been about a year or so since I talked to her. That time, I met her for coffee (far safer than any other set-up). It was great (except she was obviously high). I thought she might shank me from not talking to her for about a year that time (and I’m not exaggerating; she was so bad the time before that I was fearful for my health/ life).

Part of it is that I miss the non-drugged out, non-mean person she could be. Part of it is loving that sisterly (not that I have a sister but it’s a similar relationship to my brother since we became adults) connection. You can fart in front of one another and share an ice cream container — and the same spoon — at the same time.

Then, I think of some of the bad. The lies, oh my gosh the lies. The hours on the phone of her ranting and raving about specific things “I did to her” to be followed by me reminding, “I never went to your lake house, remember?” Then, “Oh, yeah. That was So-and-So.” Hours…at a time. I miss this? No, I don’t miss that.

I feel guilty, too. I bailed on her. She’s a repeat-offender, though. I’ve probably only seen her living “straight” for 6 consecutive months at the most. She was making it. Then, she’ll meet some man and it’s all about him. She says it’s all about her daughter but the time before last that I broke contact was because she abandoned her daughter and moved to another state. She called me up yelling (happily) about running the Love Shack in town and that I had to come up to “par-tay!” I was horrified for her daughter and hoped she’d leave her alone until the girl got out of school. “BigMeanA, when have I wanted to do that kind of stuff? You want me to come over and help you clean the house, yes. Call StacieorNikki for that shite.”

Six months later, she was trying to get straight and got a job. Then, she sent for her daughter to come up. First two days there, somebody who was squatting there slapped my goddaughter for sassing her. Well, no shit? You think a 13 year-old who has lived her life might say something to a Non-Parent who tells her to do something? ::sigh::

Okay, I’ve talked myself out of it for a while…maybe. I tried 30+ years. It’s hard to walk away and stay away. I’ve got some kind of “must…fix…other…person” thing.

You can’t fix another person. I can’t fix another person. You can be there for them, though, in case they turn around. Me, I’m a turncoat.

-sad note: the Plymouth Rock chick in this photo is now deceased due to fox

baby chick George

It was so beautiful on Saturday that I went out wearing gym shorts, a t-shirt and Wellies (very mucky) and walked down to the county road to get the mail. It was so beautiful on the way back that once I got to the top of the valley, I went down the other side to the back creek.

Along my way, I passed the flock of chickens who were merrily scratching and pecking around the back pasture up by the old barn. Remember, these chickens weren’t raised by a mama hen. I’m the mama and they’re very spoiled. While adults, they still think they’re babies. -see George when she was a baby?

I entered the back pasture and they started to follow — this is normal. I ignored them and walked on. By the time I reached the other side of the pasture and entered the woods, they were still with me — this is not normal. As chickens, they should have some in-built sense of preservation. Coyotes, bobcats and more live in the woods. I tried to shoosh them back — they watched my arms flying around with curiosity, not clucks nor flapping of wings.

“What’s the big, featherless chicken doing?”

I tried out-running them. “Pat, pat, patpatpatpatpat.” The pitter-patter of tiny feet pounded the mud behind me. I gave up and ignored them as I continued my walk, which took me to a spot covered in deer hair where a pack of coyotes brought down a deer. It was a pack, I believe, because there was nothing left but hairs — no tendons, no hooves. Ah, well. Time to take the babies back.

Sizzling good

As I broke out of the forest into the pasture-land. My father had seen me from their deck and called.

“You got some stragglers, there.”

Yup. Instead of herding them to bed, I just walked to the door, pointed my finger and said, “Go to bed.” They did.  Sweet babies -they taste good, too