Let the Games Begin

Oh my god, I just had to post the picture from today's Cake Wrecks blog. Parentheses! Quotation marks! And nothing else on the cake to distract you from the beautiful artwork that someone paid for. I am just imagining the decorator standing back, admiring his or her work, and thinking, yep, that's perfect. 10!

God bless America.

These Are a Few of my Favorite Things...

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens...and a SMEG refrigerator!

I love their retro look, fabulous color range, and endless custom options.

Another favorite thing? A blog that was just shared with me today, called Alkemie. In my first day of reading, I browsed through Karen Olivia's amazing photos of Night Hotel (where I stayed a couple of years ago), SMEGs in their natural habitat (aka adorable, happy kitchens), and a picture of Blythe! It's too good! Chock full of photographs, it's like a design-lover's wet dream.


(OK, please notice that I found these 2 pictures randomly on the internet, and they coordinate perfectly. And why? Because my world of favorite things is PERFECT.)

The only thing that I might change is the name of the refrigerator company, and only because I don't want to hear 13-year old boys snicker every time I say it.

Takes the Cake

I love blogs that are written about a single, weird topic and filled with comments and observations that are totally spot-on. Cake Wrecks is an example of just how misdirected and twisted people can be. And they express it in CAKE! Too Fabulous!

This combines 3 of my favorite things: baking, fuck-ups, and occasionally, inappropriate quotation marks. Ah, the Holy Trinity.




(Many thanks to my friend Josh for sending this to me and keeping me laughing all day long!!)

You're Getting Sleepy...

Whoa. Stare at these spirals and they will appear to move. From an optical illusion website that I found online. I think my eyes may be crossing....

Oh, and by the way, there is a whole section on the site called "Jesus Illusions". Gotta love the world wide web!

A Bottle of Water and a Divorce, Please

Daily Candy published a blurb about this hilarious blog yesterday.

"Stuff White People Like" is full of clever postings, the kind that make you laugh (at yourself, most likely) and pose a general commentary about modern society.

Expensive Sandwiches, Knowing What is Best For Poor People, Multilingual Children and Kitchen Gadgets are some of the categories listed.

Great to talk about at your next Oscars Party!

DIY + YouTube = VideoJug

I was looking on the internet for information on how to load pictures from my iPhoto onto a CD. Typing in the very literal "how to load pictures on a CD from a mac", I was led to this site called VideoJug, and there it was, a video of only a few minutes in length, showing me step-by-step instructions on how to do this. Brilliant!

Of course, I had to spend the next hour seeing what else VideoJug could help me do. I learned all about organic produce, how to dress my pets for holidays, how to measure my bra size, and how to make a simple, but delicious, apple crumble.

Easily navigated with tabs entiled "Beauty & Style", "Food & Drink", "Love & Sex", etc., this is a very useful, and addictive site. Perfect if you have ADD as the videos are short and simple.

Well, I've got to go - I just discovered the "Art & Craft" section, and I really feel the need to learn how to draw a cartoon pirate.

The World According to ME ME MEEEEEEE!

Which is exactly as it should be, no?

So listen up, music lovers, I am going to clue you in to one of the coolest sites ever. It's called Pandora, and it is an interactive site where you choose a band or song and it plays a selection of related tracks in a continuous stream, in the format of a "radio station".

You can create multiple stations on your account, according to your different tastes and moods (almost like having a Playlist that searches your music for you, except that their database is much bigger). So I started off with "The Decemberists" for some indie rock, and got songs by them, Yo La Tengo, Special Needs, etc etc. A window with the artist and title pops up so you can rate the selections, and so that Pandora can get more acquainted with your tastes. I decided I wanted to hear some electronica, so then I created an "Underworld" station. Now I am listening to a song by some guy named Yoshimoto that has a similar kind of driving beat - love it!

When you sign up, you can either pay $36/year to have advertising-free multiple-channel access, or you can be a cheapie like me and choose "free radio". Just for signing up, you get a thank-you note in your email in-box and a picture of a cute guy who I would assume to be the founder of the site, Tim. I'm gonna assume it, because in my fantasy I am laying in the tub while cutie Tim is playing all of my favorite music and simultaneously dusting and cooking dinner.

Fuck, I just knew my day would come some time. All I had to do was open Pandora's box!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I just discovered a website called Savory San Francisco. I think it launched late last year. I think you could best describe it as a restaurant information site. I love that they have video blurbs about many of the restaurants - it really helps you get a feel for what a place is like, and it's great to hear the vision from the mouths of the owners and chefs. It reminds me of what they do on Check Please Bay Area.

Imagine if Yelp could figure out how to include videos with the reviews. Now, that would really be Useful.

They have sites for different cities, including New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

I tried to embed a video in this post about one of my favorite restaurants, Ame, but it wouldn't play. Wahhhhh, I am such a computer dork! So just go check it out for yourself on the website.

Enjoy!

Co Je Blog?

I'm sorry, what was step 2 again?

It's Like the Renaissance Faire, Without the Chubby Couples

...as said by Marge Simpson about the new online game she has become addicted to. What an awesome line.

So, there are two FREE online games that I have found that are a lot of fun. Please understand that I have the attention span and ability of a 6-year-old.

• Get the Glass is a game brought to us by the American Dairy Association as part of their Got Milk campaign. For an online game, the graphics are actually really good. The animation of the characters reminds me of the Incredibles. Board game format.
• Big Love Land is a game I found on the HBO website. It's a really easy board game in which you gain and lose points according to what square you land on, kind of like Candy Land. Try to get First Wife status - I did!

Must...step away...from the screen...

What's For Dinner?

Reservations, of course!

Here's something extremely useful. It's called "Menu Pages"

What it is: a website that lists menus for hundreds of restaurants in the Bay Area, or wherever you live.

What it's best for: little dives or Mom 'n Pop restaurants that don't have a website, or new restaurants that are not yet online. It's great if you planning to dine out with people that have dietary restrictions and need to make sure if they will be able to find something to eat.

Also check out: their blog. Useful and funny.

I have to thank my friend Denise for this wonderful tip - she eats out more than anyone I know. Except for us, of course.

Hello, It's Me

I have to say, this blogging thing is a hell of a lot of fun. While I have lofty dreams of it as a wonderful outlet for self-expression, a home for my insights and the occasional catharsis, I am not deluded in the least in its appeal on a totally narcissistic level.

• one-way conversation
  
• no need to justify any thought or opinion
• ability to re-read "important" posts and self-congratulate on cleverness
• practice for the "real" writing that is yet to come...I hope

All right, I think I have let this thing incubate long enough. Time to make an introduction. Blog, world; world, blog. Talk amongst yourselves.