Things look like things

For those of you interested in design and/or photography, I have a linkalicious entry for you today!

First, a blogger pick from a few days ago which I enjoyed browsing, despite some repetition of -cupcakes-, uh, I mean themes. The idea is to juxtapose unrelated photos which share a common element. Sometimes there is a story created, other times, not.

Then, Ianqui has links to hus photo archive, including hus 365 photos project. I was enjoying going through them a day or two ago. Many NYC shots, a good eye for urban shots as well as color and beauty shots. One of the things that stood out to me as I went back later and looked at some of the 365 project as a thumbnail 'collage' was that there is also some interesting work there on motion and shape, and I couldn't help (sans doute influenced by my recent visit to TLLT) but connect some of the photos with similar shapes or directions of movement to each other during my viewing. This was interesting to me, as the format allowed me to appreciate certain shots that hadn't caught my eye in slideshow format, and also because I enjoyed the alchemy of sorting photos together in my mind: sometimes a photo ends up being about something completely different, just because of what you put it next to. Fun!

Also recently blew a couple of hours poking around this site: Open Architecture Network. Really neat to see what at least a handful of architects and builders are up to around the world. Some of the projects are ho-hum, but some are pretty cool. Everything from straw bale cottages, to hurricane relief work, to hexayurts (ok, maybe just one), and balloon buildings. You can search by region, location, theme, degree of completion of project.

And I went window shopping online, to a number of fun, modern furnishings stores, led mostly by a link to easily buildable/unbuildable furniture that was pretty. (Thanks Treehugger!) Also check out Design Life Now, if you didn't already discover it a year ago, since the triennial was in 2006... Browsing by designers is fun, and can suck up a couple more hours of your life.

So there you go: now you have the weekend ahead of you. Enjoy!

Oh, and does anyone know how to cross out a word in a post?

Kitties-in-law

Friday cat blogging. Yay. Here are two of my kitties-in-law. Yep, the whole family is cat persons. The stripey cat in this picture is a torbi: that's a combination torti and tabby. Maybe you can see the sweet orange blaze on her forehead? I'll have to look for a better shot of that: it's very pretty. They are just recently full grown, and still very soft, and I don't get to visit them enough, but their people are thankfully much better than I am at taking pictures regularly.

Wait, that wasn't a _closet_ door!

It's a sad commentary on the lack of organization in my home that I was injured this morning while opening the freezer door. A leaping ice pack (among other volunteer items). Yup. I know: I too thought their purpose was to heal, not harm. Well, the square, hard type, not so much. Maybe they're more about leaping out of the freezer and going on a picnic. Bit me in the ankle, it did. So I put an ice pack on it....

Been walking around limping all day, but close inspection after first look showed I had not after all severed a major artery, just a vein, and that swelling and bruising and such, while indeed spectacular, did not warrant a trip to the emergency room. Because, even as I screamed "OW" in my head (funny, but I don't tend to do this out loud), I immediately thought: damn, now I am going to have to spend the day in the emergency room waiting for help. Because what doctor in their right mind would take this injury ahead of anything else, right? So, was v. glad to be able to stay at home and make some little progress on the crazy big 'to do' list. Laundry is on its way to the dryer. This is good, as my weekend ends tonight.

Found this while looking for a picture of the ice pack that bit me. I love some of these lifehack type sites. There's a parenthack site that's pretty good out there, for those of you w/little ones. I'll find it and link someday.

Friday cat blogging

In honor of Dr. Hussy and Arbitrista's new family member, I present my first very own Friday cat blog entry. This is our stripey baby. She's not really a baby anymore, since she is close on to 4 or five years. But, she still only weighs about 5.5-6 pounds, soaking wet with change in her pockets. Sorry for the bad pic. I'm not so much on the photo skilz. Hope you can see her sweet forward-reaching whiskers! Right now she is singing to me from the bedroom. (She's a very airy soprano 2.) Well, now she has stopped, as the fluffy cat has gone to check on things. Make sure they're under control, you know.

May I have a word?

Ooh. I would *so* go to this if I lived in Chicago. Just to spectate.

Out of the mouths of babes...

I attended a 9 year-old's birthday party yesterday. It was great fun. Many pink dresses were present, and much froufrou crafty activity and exclusion of little boys were done. Oh, the social structure of third grade... aie aie aie!

Anyway, we had a group of kids who were pretty into being active, once the craft activities were over. (a pleasant surprise) So we went for a bit if a nature walk. Little girl A saw some pretty flowers, so we approached to have a closer look.

Ahh, I say. I believe those are asters, and they are indeed quite pretty, don't you all think so? Little girl B says 'asters?' that's a funny name, why are they called that? Being an amateur linguist (and this girl is bilingual by the way, so I figure perhaps she'll find this interesting, even as a third grader...), I respond, well, it's because they look like stars, and that's where the word comes from, see: it's like the word blahblah in blahblah language....... And so we walk on, two beats of silence, and littlegirl B blurts:'it has the A-word in it!' Stunned silence and raised eyebrows of other adult chaperone, and I try not to trip as I reply, uhhh. yes. yes, it does. Well, it's not *really* that word, because it's spelled differently, but it sure sounds like it, huh? And the hike goes on.

It was a pretty entertaining day, all in all.