In Which I Get My Behind Back in Gear

There are still so many more rooms and pictures yet to go, so I'd best get on with it.

The next room of the Chihuly exhibit contained only one piece. Simple, right? Yeah, not so much. It was so big and so dramatically lit that it was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing. But the glass was a fantastic shade of purple so I loved it and ended up spending more time just looking at it than taking pictures.

Reeds

The concept is, as you can see, fairly simple and reflective of nature while not being an actual representation of nature. Reed-like tubes of glass are placed in a base of "fallen" birch logs.





For some reason, even though I never changed any settings on my camera, certain of the shots made the reeds appear in different shades. Not accurate, but still pretty! For some other perspectives that keep one color throughout, see the official pictures of the piece here. But, really, who wants to be that dull and predictable, right?





Over the years, Chihuly and his team have done Reeds, sometimes also called Spears, in different colors, some of which can be seen here. Most of them are displayed out in nature, and I especially like this one. The simultaneous strength and fragility of the glass is amazing.





I want to dedicate this section of the exhibit pictures to my friend, Anymommy, a.k.a. Stacey. To me, she and her family are the Reeds. The reeds themselves are her children; gorgeous, colorful, unique and rising from a strong base. The birch tree base is Stacey; steady, bountiful, supportive and beautiful in her own right, but even more beautiful together.

Batting .500 - Looking to Improve

Ahh, nothing like a mixed sports metaphor to start things off right. Last week I ended up even on my picks, and the win went to Amy In Ohio. But she's getting a little cocky. So it's my mission to take her down at least one peg.

Any bloggers who want to participate are welcome, so if you're interested, please go visit the Commissioner's site and add your picks, as posted on your site, to the Mr. Linky thingamabob and pick yourself up a badge.

Here are my picks for this weekend's action, slightly more clearly delineated this week, since last week's didn't show up as much as I would have liked. (And, yeah, it's done in pink. You got a problem with that?)

Atlanta @ Carolina
Cleveland @ Cincinnati
Houston @ Jacksonville
Denver @ Kansas City
San Francisco @ New Orleans
Arizona @ NY Jets
Green Bay @ Tampa Bay
Minnesota @ Tennessee
San Diego @ Oakland
Buffalo @ St. Louis
Washington @ Dallas
Philadelphia @ Chicago

Monday Night Football
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh
Combined final score: 39

This is going to be a fairly busy weekend, so it will probably be Sunday before I can pick back up with the photo tour. There has been so much going on in the news late this week that I just haven't been able to concentrate enough on posting them yet. Even I can't believe that I'm actually this caught up in the news and the election this time around, but it's just too compelling to ignore.

In Which I See Spots Before My Eyes

Now that the Sunday games have begun, it's time to resume the tour of the Chihuly exhibition. Again, many thanks to all of you who have been coming by to view it and the encouraging comments -- it means a lot to me.

When I left off, I was through the Tabac Baskets exhibit and the battery in my big camera had died. Once I averted a panic attack by fishing out my little camera, it was on to a series that is among Chihuly's most recognized and is a favorite of mine.

Macchia Forest





Macchia means "spotted" in Italian -- in case you haven't noticed, a huge part of his work is influenced by Italian glass mastery, and he gives a big nod to that tradition in many of his series -- and this close-up shows why it earned that moniker.

"Macchias represent Chihuly’s boldest combinations of color. He chooses one intense solid color for the interior and another for the exterior. The lip of the Macchia is a contrasting color. In between the layers of color, a layer of white glass forms “clouds.” This layer of white glass keeps the interior and exterior colors separated. While it is still hot, the Macchia is rolled in bits of colored glass called frits or jimmies. These tiny pieces melt into the outer layers of glass and form bright speckles or spots. Chihuly has more than 300 colors in his hot shop. Macchias provide a way to use them all in infinite variations."¹

I vividly remember watching a TV show featuring Chihuly and his team studio approach to glassmaking, and they were making Macchia pieces. The way they swung the rod back and forth with enormous globs of glass on them, to get the wavy-edged effect, had me spellbound and I was hooked.





I wish I'd had a wide-angle lens (oh, and, you know, a "live" big camera) to get this kind of picture of the room, because it's the only way you get the forest sense of it. I was forced to focus mainly on individual pieces, except for this one.



¹ In looking up information to be sure that I'm not talking out of my ass in these posts (the devil is in the details, folks), I found a great resource from The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, where they have Fireworks of Glass, the largest permanent Chihuly sculpture of blown glass. I see a trip to Indy in my future.

Next up: Reeds.

Taking a Break from Pictures to Kick a Little Ass

So, it's official, my mommy bloggers have lost their ever-lovin' minds. Some of them think they have mad football-picking skillz and that they have a chance against me! Please.

The lovely and wonderful Amy in Ohio and Instamom got inspired and concocted the BFL, our own Blogger Football League. Look! I'm an official member. (After this week, this badge will be moved over to the right, and you can come back and see my MVP Player of the Week award!)

We may have gotten a late start on the season, but what we lack in timeliness we more than make up for in trash talk and enthusiasm. Sundays may never be the same.

Here are my picks, clearly delineated by bold and italics. Let's show them how it's done, shall we?

Arizona @ Washington

Carolina @ Minnesota

Houston @ Tennessee

Miami @ New England

Oakland @ Buffalo

Cincinnati @ NY Giants

Kansas City @ Atlanta

Tampa Bay @ Chicago

St. Louis @ Seattle

Detroit @ San Francisco

New Orleans @ Denver

Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia

Cleveland @ Baltimore

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis

Dallas @ Green Bay

NY Jets @ San Diego
Combined Final Score: 48

If you have a blog and you want in on some of the action, go visit the Commish and her henchman lovely assistant quickly to check out the competition and get everything you need. But be warned, these women are vicious. I've seen them drop a deer at 50 feet with a soiled diaper.

In Which I Become a Basket Case

Thank you all so much for your kind comments. It has been great getting your feedback and I love having you along on my tour. And we're walking, we're walking...

Tabac Baskets



Following the color splash that was the Persians room, I turned the corner not knowing what to expect next. Beige was not it. I'm not a big fan of shades of brown and beige, so initially I was a little let down until I read the text on the wall and understood where these were coming from, aesthetically speaking.



These are all inspired by the shape of Native American baskets stacked upon each other for storage, and the way they naturally slump and find a different, but distinguishable, form in that state. There are the very neutral shades of the materials used to make the real baskets, especially as they fade and mellow with age, but on each one is the hint of artistic patterns, in abstract ways, that make the baskets special.



These were displayed in a large room with just four elements: the glass pieces; a huge, wooden 700-year-old table cut in one piece from a single tree; authentic native baskets; and a wall full of Pendleton blankets from Chihuly's personal collection. A good view of the entire room can be seen here.



We came into the room and had to go left or right past the enormous table. To the right were the blankets, to the left were the baskets (both kinds) and the explanatory text; I went left and made my way down, swiveling around and whacking people with my purse as I tried to take it all in while taking pictures.



There were just so many of them, and they each had something to recommend them, that it was hard to not take pictures of every single one. So I tried to focus on the ones that had the most interesting light. It was weird though; it was like there was light everywhere and nowhere at the same time.



This next one blew me away when I took the camera away from my face to see the seconds-long preview. There is no light within the vessel and, to the eye, it doesn't glow like that. I kept looking at it to see how it did that but I still have no idea.



I got to the end of the table and started to make the turn back to the blankets...and that's when my camera battery died. I knew there were still a lot of rooms to go and so much more glass to see, with an unknown amount of battery power on my little camera, so the blankets had to be sacrificed. I couldn't have done any better than this, though, so I feel okay with that call.

In Which I Let the Pictures Speak for Themselves

Next up, as promised, is the Persians room. These babies are huge, gravity-defying, awe-inspiring and all sorts of other hyphen-worthy adjectives. The only way I can think of to help you see how big they really are is to point you here to look at the first photo, with people in it for comparison.

David Bourbon - the Persian installations are flamboyant corsages, "commanding attention for both the sheer gorgeousness of their undulating forms and for the spectacular manner in which they spill into the room, [their] ornate edges all but alive with potential movement."

Butterflies aren't particularly Persian, but these make me think of butterflies, for their color, their deceptive fragility and the ribbons of color. Next time, the color palette changes quite a lot and we visit another culture altogether.

In Which I Admit that I'm a Color Whore

Thanks to all of you who commented on the first set of photos. As was pointed out, you really do need to see these first-hand to get the full effect, mostly because of their scope. But if I can offer a taste that makes you hungry for more in person, I've done my job. Let's move on to the next room, shall we?

This is the room where I had the most trouble getting good shots. I just couldn't hold still long enough to avoid blur on the Ikebana pieces in such low light. I'm going to look into the monopod that was mentioned, because that would have been ideal!

Venetians + Ikebana

This is the only Ikebana picture I took that didn't blur.



It's not from a color palette I particularly like, but it's very evocative of nature (it has a mushroom-like feel to me) and appropriate for the style.

It got easier after that, once I moved on to the Venetians.









The colors! The detail! The cherubim! I was in love. One part of the text on the wall really summed it up:

The Venetians are defined by a baroque aesthetic of exuberance - even excess - that is deeply rooted in the Venetian tradition. This is especially true of the colors, which owe as much to the extraordinary color combination in the Renaissance paintings of Titian, Veronese, and other Venetian masters as they do to the glass produced in the factories of Murano. Chihuly's expressionist use of form and color for their own sake, so foreign to American sensibilities, is one of the liberating characteristics of the Venetians.

Yeah, I'm a color whore (Did you know there's a Flickr group just for people like me?), so these were right up my alley. I should point out that if you click on any of these photos, you can see them larger. I scaled these so they're not huge, which I neglected to do yesterday.

Tomorrow we move on to the Persians, which are truly spectacular.

In Which I Learn a Lesson I Should Have Already Known

Yesterday I was thrilled to go see the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. I've been a Chihuly fan for years and years, but I've never had an opportunity to see a full installation, apart from the display at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. While the Bellagio installation is great, and has given him so much exposure and name recognition, I can only wander around looking up for so long before I start to feel like an idiot and get dizzy.

I've been looking forward to it ever since I learned the exhibit was coming, but I wanted to wait until I had some experience using my new camera and found a good time to go. Time flies, as it always does, and since the exhibit ends this month, I knew I'd better get my behind in gear.

Taking the pictures was more of a challenge than I expected, for two reasons: 1. The size and scope of the pieces; and 2. The pieces are set mostly in dark or even black environments, and you can't use a flash. Ideally, I should have brought a tripod but it was way too crowded on a weekend to make that feasible. One more odd thing was how the light sometimes reacted with the glass in unexpected ways, so what I saw and what the camera saw was at times different.

Once I realized that I just wasn't going to be able to get the pictures I really would have liked, I tried to focus on some unique angles and capturing colors and certain elements. I also had to remember to stop and enjoy the art and not just take pictures. But I did take a lot of pictures...so many that, even without using the flash, the battery in my camera died after only four rooms (out of eleven) in the exhibit! Therein lies the lesson: MAKE SURE YOUR BATTERY IS FULLY CHARGED BEFORE GOING ON A PICTURE-TAKING ADVENTURE. Duh, right? At this point I might have thrown myself to the ground and pitched a fit worthy of a two-year-old if I hadn't made a last-minute decision to throw my little camera in my purse. Day saved!

There are far too many pictures to include even a decent sampling in one post (and that's just the non-blurry ones!), so I'll put up some of my favorites from each room over a series of posts, in the order they were displayed in the exhibit.

Glass Forest #3









If you're at all intrigued by any of the photos, I suggest clicking on the first link up there and looking at the professional photos of the exhibit to get a better sense of the size and layout of them.

Food Network Haiku

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

Fan of all things pork
Guy Fieri cruises on
It might be true love.

Does Anybody Do It Better?

So, of course, when I finally come across something I feel like talking about, it's on a night when my hand is bugging me and I really should just get off the computer and give it a rest. But then, I have a finely honed sense of poor timing, so why should it be any different for this?

Let's see if I can just write this quickly and without obsessing about perfection, m'kay?

On the drive home from work, I heard a "new" song on the radio, Free Fallin' as done by John Mayer. You may recognize the title as a song by Tom Petty. I enjoyed the Mayer rendition, even though I'm a Tom Petty fan, and it brought to mind a ongoing and eternal debate between me and a friend: Is the original always better?

He says yes, I say no, and I'd like to get your opinion. The Mayer song isn't one I would necessarily use as an example of better than the original, but I also don't think it's not worthy simply because it's a remake. It's interesting on its own merits because we hear the lyrics in a way other than how our minds are, more or less, "trained" to hear them after years of radio play.

There are some songs that are remakes that I like better than the originals, such as Van Halen's version of the Kinks' song, You Really Got Me, Sting's version of Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing, and the Fleetwood Mac song Black Magic Woman as done by Santana, to name a few. I think Mad World by Tears for Fears, as recorded by Gary Jules for the movie Donnie Darko is the best example, since even Roland Orzabal said that it showed him how the song should be played, and Tears For Fears changed their performance of it when they reunited not long ago.

Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of really, really crappy remakes, and we could spend about a week listing all the ones that we hate -- I'm not saying that all of them are better, not even most of them, just that SOME of them are actually better than the original.

Are there any remakes that you like better than the original? Make your case in the comments.

Dancing with Ennui

So the Olympics are over and hopefully we're all recovering from the resulting sleep deprivation. I was also hopeful that once the Closing Ceremony came to an end and the time I'd "given" myself to take a mini-break from posting was done, I'd have something worthwhile to say.

But I feel as if we've gone from one epic event, the XXIX Olympiad, to another, the Democratic Convention. This isn't going to keep us up nights (unless you're a Hilary delegate wresting with what to do), but if you're a Democrat, which I am, it's a fairly important time. Yet I so don't have a desire to talk much about that; I'm not into talking politics and either preaching to the choir or trying to change someone's mind.

For days, I've been casting about for something else to ponder here. I keep sending myself links to things or stories that I find during the day, but by the time I get home and look at them again, they don't seem terribly interesting. I guess I'm tired and nothing seems all that interesting.

The only thing that has grabbed my attention longer than five minutes is this:

Are you overcome with curiosity and an insatiable need to go out and buy one? Yeah, it looks to a degree like a chocolate representation of a human colon, but it's really a very clever piece of engineering. It's an "all edge" brownie pan. Yep, every piece is an edge for your dessert pleasure, 'cause no one wants the all-gooey, unbaked part in the middle that no one can get out in one piece, right? I was impressed because I do love a good brownie and immediately put it on my wish list on Amazon; that took up those five minutes very nicely.

But then I was right back where I started: Dancing with Ennui and trying to decide which of us is leading. The bitch of it is, I keep stepping on Ennui's toes, sort of purposely-by-accident, and it really doesn't seem to care all that much.

Blog or sleep?

So I just listened to Bob Costas "sympathize" with America over the sleep we're losing by trying to keep up with the Olympics. That happened at about 11:45pm. But did they then give us those 15 minutes? Let the news start and let us go to bed just that little bit early?

No. Of course not. They're not going to lose viewers for their billion dollar venture, are they?

I am not NBC. I have mercy, people. So this is a short post. Go. Go back to bed or take a nap or something. Rest your Olympic-weary eyes. If you insist on staying online, go take my poll if you haven't already. Thanks to those of you who have. Go already! (But, you know, come back soon, okay? Like in six days when this madness is over.)

Poll

Participating in Blog the Recession has made me think about the role of RSS and how people use it, in part because of this article, which I read when I was prepping that post. I didn't actually get everything in the article, but it did get me curious.

I've had a site feed on here pretty much since the start but, to be perfectly honest, I never really understood what the hell it did until relatively recently. I never signed up for Bloglines or Google Reader (you may remember I was not a Google fan in general for quite a while) so I never actually used anyone's RSS feed and I didn't think much about whether people were using mine. It was there and some people seemed to like it; win-win, story over.

I have never claimed to be an HTML code guru. That would be like claiming I'm a master chef -- I can cook, sure, but no one will ever pay me to do it and few seek out my advice. When it comes to making things work here at the Ping, beyond the standard Blogger template, I've either figured it out, had help or let it go. Anything you see here (including the ability to subscribe to my RSS feed) is the result of cobbling together what people have done for me and what I've been able to pick up along the way because I will chase down "how to" on the Web like a bloodhound on the scent until my eyes cross.

Why am I telling you all this? Two reasons, actually; it is both 1) the reason for the poll that I'd like to have you take part in, and 2) the reason that poll is not actually on this page. I simply can't figure out how to get the code to work within Blogger, but I was able to make it work on a page from my very old Yahoo! GeoCities site (go figure) and then point you to it.

Without further ado: I'm curious. How do you access your favorite blogs? The poll will be active for one week and is open to anyone, including those people who ended up here because they were searching for something related to The Hunt for Red October and got here instead! It's simple, it's fast, it's anonymous and I'm asking nicely. Please? Thanks.

The Good, The Expensive, The Ridiculous

A while back, I stumbled across Uncrate while looking for info on something or another I wanted to buy. I'm not its target audience by any means (it calls itself "a web magazine for guys who love stuff"), but I enjoy popping over there and checking out the interesting array of stuff they feature.

My latest foray there immediately put the above title into my head, so I thought I'd share some of the highlights...and lowlights. Can't hurt to know what gifts might be on the List (real or imagined) for the guy in your life, right?

The Good



Natural Tree-Stump Side Table - I really like the look of this and could see it being a nice touch in a rustic decor.



Glasses made of recycled glass from discarded car windshields. Clever way to be a little greener...and not just because of the tint of the glass. These, along with a pitcher, can be found at Uncommon Goods, where I've purchased things in the past.

The Expensive



A tool chest for the 21st century. Featured on MTV's "Pimp My Tool." (Hmm, that didn't come out quite right.) Brought to you by Kobalt and available at your local Lowe's. I have to admit that I like the built-in fridge.



The new Aston Martin One-77. The pricetag: $1.9 million. Yeah, you read that right.

The Ridiculous



Yes, it's the GoateeSaver. Now coming to a town near you!



The Beer Belt. I find it interesting that they have this displayed on a chick, not a pot-bellied guy.

I have to tell you that there were a half-dozen things I could have put under each of the Expensive and the Ridiculous, and it was hard to pare it down to only two, whereas there really were not that many for the Good. Maybe it's that missing Y chromosome or something.

Yosemite Mosaic

Here's a new mosaic, made up of pictures I've taken recently with my new camera, by request of a special friend who I miss very much. For you, babe!

If you click anywhere on it, it will open up a bigger version to get a better look. All of the pictures were taken in Yosemite while the flowers were rioting and the sunsets were spectacular due to smoke from all the wildfires. Bonus points to anyone who can name any of the flowers in the comments.

Accentuate the Positive

It would seem that, lately, I've just been sending you other places. Well, I'm going to ask to do it one more time.

There's been a lot of medical turmoil in the blogosphere lately, I've noticed: her husband, her dear friend, her stepfather, her sister, and those are just the ones I know about.

So, what does this have to do with me, you may be asking?

The wonderful Meghan of AMomTwoBoys and AllMediocre has a close friend, Hannah, whose yet-to-be-born son will be undergoing in utero surgery on Wednesday, as unbelievable as that seems, to help keep him healthy until it's time for him to make his way into this world. Hannah could use what Meghan so appropriately calls the Healing Powers of the Internet.

I'd like to you go read that post about it and take a few minutes to send whatever constitutes positive thoughts for you -- good vibes, prayers, warm fuzzies, healing energy -- to Hannah as she and her son go through this scary time.

Because sometimes we need to believe and sometimes we need people to believe for us.

Do your part - Blog the Recession

Kristen at Motherhood Uncensored has come up with a way to put a little more cash in the hands of some of your favorite bloggers, at a time when most everyone is feeling the effects of the current economic condition. She has decreed this August as "Blog the Recession" month and has launched a campaign that starts tomorrow.

To paraphrase her explanation: During August, just make a "pledge" to click through to the blogs you follow from your feed reader. (And since I know there are newbies who stop by, check here for an explanation of what that's all about.) Extra page views can make a big difference for bloggers who could really use the help or, for people like me who don't have a revenue-producing aspect to their blog, it's just a nice ego boost.

If you want to be a part of it at your own blog, go get a button at Motherhood Uncensored, put it on your site (check out the swingin' pig down there to the right), then ask your readers to click through and do the same within a post. Send Kristen the link to your post, she'll put a link to you on her site and you'll be entered to win some prizes.

I have finally gotten into the swing of using feeds on My Yahoo, so this works for me. If none of that is your thing and/or you don't blog, consider doing what I've been doing on a casual basis lately. At the sites of my favorite bloggers who generate income through ads, I've been making a point of clicking on their ads as often as I can to help line their pockets via the Big Business coffers. (UPDATE: Please note, I am not asking you to do this or suggesting you should. I am only mentioning something that I have been doing - for me this is significant because I usually ignore all ads. I am now clicking on to those that have some relevance to me or that intrigue me. In other words, I'm paying attention to them and trying to be a good consumer; I'm not talking about random click-throughs.)

Topicless Tuesday

I wish I had something of interest to share with you today, but I don't really. However, if I let too many days go by between posts, I feel bad and get into that "Oh, I'll get around to it..." mentality too easily.

I was glad to see that people clicked through to the First Book voting site, especially after a new friend promoted the post to her peeps. I've been trying to get back there each day to vote, and I happily noted that California had risen from the middle of the pack to #8 as of today. Keep those votes coming for your state!

Speaking of books, you can see over there to the right (at the moment) that one of the books I'm reading right now is Janet Evanovich's Fearless Fourteen. I adore her Stephanie Plum series because they're always laugh-out-loud funny and this one is no exception. I've been reading Janet's books for many, many years, from back when she was writing "Loveswept" novels, pre-Plum, and I was always taken with the twist of humor she brought to them. If you're not already a fan and are looking for a fun new author and some great books to read, I highly recommend her.

Since I'm being pretty random today, I figure I might as well wrap it up with a picture that's apropos of nothing, other than that it's of a pretty flower that's nostalgic for me and reminds me of someone special.

Vote Now, Vote Often

Okay, so we all know we have to do that whole voting thing in just a few months. As much as I want change, I'm not looking forward to that time because it means the endless, repetitive ads touting this candidate or that proposition will be back. (If you don't live in California, you may not have the proposition part of the deal, and you may consider yourself extremely lucky in that regard.)

In the meantime, however, there is a vote you can cast right now that will not only be meaningful, but easy and probably enjoyable.

First Book is a nonprofit organization I found out about a few years ago when I worked for a company that had a generous matching gifts program. They came to my attention via a competition for nonprofits in which one would get a big donation for collecting the most individual donations within a certain period of time. First Book didn't win, but I've been a contributor ever since because I'm a big fan of what they do.

First Book's mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. As simple and as wonderful as that. And now through September 15th, you have a chance to help your state receive 50,000 new books for these kids, without spending a dime.

Go here to share What Book Got You Hooked. It asks you to just "Share the memory of the first book that made reading fun for you and then help get more kids hooked: vote for the state to receive 50,000 new books for children in need." You don't even have to do the sharing part if you don't want to, just vote as many times as you can for your state!

They had this campaign for the first time last year and Oklahoma won; I'd like to see another state get the books this year. We all know school programs are suffering everywhere and that low-income kids often don't get a chance for a "luxury" like a new book. No matter what state wins the prize, we all win by helping literacy.

I could write a dozen posts about how important reading is to me and what role it has played in my life, but I'm going to spare us both by not doing that! Suffice it to say that it has been huge from the time I was very, very young. Being able to help another young child find the same kind of connection I've had to books is a very satisfying feeling.

The book I picked as the one that got me hooked? Harriet the Spy.

Wanna Be on Top?

Wow. This has been quite a month, blog-wise. A year ago I was still on hiatus, and the time of being nominated for stuff had long passed. But somewhere along the line of getting back into the swing of things this year, I rediscovered my enthusiasm for blogging and it has been fun again. Then along came Five Star Friday and finding and joining the wonderful women over at AllMediocre.

(And, before I forget, please go over there and enter The Great AllMediocre Giveaway of '08. Lots of prizes, lots of great blogs, lots of fun and all for the price of a few comments!)



Now, though I can scarcely believe it myself, I have been added to Alltop, in the Life category. Along with the likes of Schmutzie, Pioneer Woman, Blog Nosh, and I Am Bossy, among others, there's the Ping.

Alltop, the creation of Guy Kawasaki, a well-respected blogger, entrepreneur and internet guru, is an RSS aggregator that Guy envisions as "an online magazine rack" for everyone, updated every ten minutes - "All the top stories covered all the time." In other words, it aims to be the go-to place for people who want to read good stuff but aren't interested in tracking their areas of interest (and there are already more than 125 different topics) via individual RSS feeds; it's all there in a very straightforward format. What's your thing? Politics, golf, crafts, geek stuff, food or tea? All there. What's important in your life? Diabetes, homeschooling, career, nursing, kids or adoption? Also all there, along with other more specialized, more broad and unusual topics.

So, as happy as I am to be included in this company, it means I can't be an AllMediocre member anymore. Sadly, the rules say so, and I'm not about to cross Meghan! It doesn't mean I can't join in all the fun they're having over there, though, especially as there's nothing I like better than a giveaway. So now I'll proudly be "Formerly Mediocre" and might even blaze a new path called "Used to be Alltop but actually Mediocre." Keep my seat warm, ladies, that's all I ask.

Food Network Haiku

Ace of Cakes

Wheels won't spin today
Duff must accept this truth now
My crush on Geof grows


Photo by sugarfreak

Flicker Meme, Take 2 - The Dark Side

Apparently I didn't get enough of this last week. I was looking at the questions again while checking out someone else's result and thought, what about the flip side? Would the mosaic look just as interesting and/or compelling if the subjects were a little less positive, perhaps darker?



1. Andora the parsley monster 1, 2. Pineapple Infrared, 3. Untitled, 4. underground symmetry II, 5. abre los ojos, 6. what is it?, 7. Sea Power Glass Wall Wave, 8. Sugar at work, lessens the pain, 9. What ‘New Years’ remind me of, 10. There is always the other side !!!, 11. all work and no play : (, 12. Lonely

The concept is the same as detailed below. Only the questions have changed to expose the not-so-innocent. If you're interested in giving this one a whirl, I hope you'll let me know.

The Questions:
1. What has been your least-favorite nickname?
2. What is your most hated food?
3. What was your worst subject in high school or college?
4. What color looks most dreadful on you?
5. Which celebrity do you never want to hear about again?
6. What drink gives you the worst hangover?
7. Worst vacation spot?
8. What is your “I’m having a crappy day” stress snack?
9. What was your worst job?
10. What is your biggest pet peeve?
11. One word to describe your most annoying trait.
12. What is the first name of the person you like the least?

Gettin' a little foxy

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) has long been one of my favorite flowers, ever since I went to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania during college and saw a massive display of them in one of the conservatories. In full bloom, there's nothing like foxglove and they photograph so beautifully. The fact that they're all in the range of colors I favor doesn't hurt.

I took this picture this past weekend when I unexpectedly came across an area where they were beginning to bloom. The symmetry and contrast against the dark background made one this a keeper, so I thought I'd share.

Wanna know?

Do you know what I'm doing right now? Right this moment in between bouts of tap, tap, tapping on the keyboard?

No, of course you don't because you're not here to see me.

And, I must selfishly admit, I'm glad you're not here because you might want to do what I'm doing right now this very minute and that would mean I'd have to share. I'm a generous person in most cases, but I don't want to share. Not with you, not with anyone. Seriously.

To paraphrase and misquote a very young Brooke Shields: Nothing comes between me and my Reese's.

Photo by Cybele

I've had a love affair with Reese's peanut butter cups since I was a child and, while over the years I've had many pricier, "better," high-end chocolates and people may sniff at Hershey's products in our age of sophisticated palettes, it's still the one I'll choose when it's offered to me.

And, oh, does it take me back. I remember the joy of unwrapping the foil wrappers from the miniatures and feeling like it was the most special of treats, debating with my favorite cousin whether the name was pronounced REE-sis or Ree-sees (it is, of course, the former), trying to peel off the tiny brown cups without breaking off the "teeth" along the edge, and figuring out my own personal way of eating them. (For the record, with miniatures I'm a fan of biting off the entire cup, leaving the thicker chocolate wafer, which I then let melt on my tongue. For regular-sized cups, it depends on my mood.) I remember having the money to buy a fancy gift box of miniatures when I was about 10 years old and treasuring them like the gold they were wrapped up in. I've had most every variation they've come up with, when I can find them, and have even ordered them direct from the factory. Major yum.

I guess you could say I'm a very devoted Reese's fan, and I was recently invited to join a place that recognizes people like me: Devoted to Reese's. It's pretty new and the content is still being developed, but there's a possibility that it will be more interesting in the future. If you're a fan, too, I invite you to check it out and sign up. If nothing else maybe we'll find out about giveaways and specials before the masses.

Right now they're having a big tie-in with the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight, and have a sweepstakes (though you can't enter online) and some unique branded products which they made in both milk and dark. I have yet to find the individual bat-shaped pieces, so that's my current quest. I did find the medallions and look forward to trying them soon. There's a whole bag of each so I might consider sharing. Maybe.

Flickr Meme

It has been ages since I did one of these, but it fell right in line with my recent interest in Flickr. I saw this recently on Sheasy's site, though I've elected to let the pictures just represent the answers (you may have to use your imagination in a few instances!) and not insert them below.



1. un Fiore ... per un Fiore: MAURA! Auguri, stellina!!!, 2. Gnocchi with Thyme Vinaigrette and Lemon Cashew Cream, 3. The bench, 4. Purple fingers, 5. Daniel Craig as JamesBond in QUANTUM OF SOLACE,009, 6. Ice Tea Splash, 7. An Irish Sunset, 8. Flourless Chocolate Cake with Espresso Whipped Cream, 9. don't worry be happy new year, 10. Alien-being or Mochi?, 11. Dependable, Loyal, Late and Lazy, 12. Father Daughter

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste the URL for each of the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name

If you decide to give it a whirl, I'd enjoy it if you come back and leave a comment with a link to go see your results, too. (And I hope it takes you less time to do than it took me.)

Food Network Haiku

Throwdown with Bobby Flay

Bobby Flay comes by
Doughnut guy is a poor sport
Want a treat but not his now


Photo taken by roboppy

Happy 4th!

Just a quick post to wish you a happy holiday weekend for those of you in the States. We enjoyed a front-row seat to a local fireworks show that was really well-done. The finale lit up the sky so much that it seemed like daylight! I forgot to bring my good camera so I just snapped freely with my small camera. This was one of the few shots that came out well enough to use and even then it's pretty blurry, but I like it.

I also wanted to mention that Dara Torres is now my own personal hero. She is flippin' amazing. I'll be rooting her on during the Olympics, which are fast approaching.