Yummy Wakame

Did you know that James Taylor and Carly Simon have a son?

“This is what happens when you take the sugar-coating off a love song…”
Ben Taylor – My Wicked Way

Track taken from Ben’s Lady Magic EP:
Nothing I can do

Yummy!

• Listen to an NPR feature on Ben
• bentaylormusic.com
• MySpace BenTaylorOfficial

I’ve always gargled with salt water, but apparently this remedy works when antibiotics do not, and is excellent for those weird sore throats that don’t seem to go away after 4 weeks (the ones that possibly lead to chronic fatigue syndrome).

via lifehacker

Any reliable birth control option that doesn’t require pumping your body with synthetic hormones resulting in a permanently grotty mood, lowered libido and health problems later on, gets a big thumbs up from me. more…

StoptheSealHunt.org
The annual seal hunt is now just a few days away. In the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of baby seals will be clubbed or shot — an annual harp seal slaughter endorsed by the Canadian government. Scores of baby seals, some as young as three weeks old, will be beaten or shot and left to die. Many will be skinned alive… more…

It’s true!

One of the most surprisingly wonderful things that happened to me yesterday was Field Music – a band I unexpectedly watched play last night just before Menomena’s highly anticipated set. more…

The Games Factory 2 lets you add images, as simple or complex as you can make them, do some simple animation tweaks to them, and then assign them as moving characters, backgrounds, foregrounds, etc. It looks like a super simple way to make your own video games.

Finally, a way to have my stick figure skateboarders show the Evil Ninja Turtles who’s the boss once and for all!

Visit their website »

Treehouses that are used as full-time dwellings are a real rarity.

When Kendall Thurston, a 35-year-old cabinet maker from New York visited his parents in central Florida, he couldn’t resist building a treehouse in a giant oak tree there, 40 feet up on the banks of the Suwannee River. During the late Spring floods, the river surrounds his home and he has to reach it by boat.

more…

Years and years ago I promised myself I’d have one of these one day, as soon as I was old enough to buy one. And I’m already thirty. I don’t even have a drivers license yet. Seriously – at this rate if I don’t start planning towards this dream right away I’ll be 60 before I get one, and the thing will be so vintage by then it won’t even run anymore.

Check out the styling on this beauty. If she was mine I’d call her Bibi Battlecruiser. She has the classic curves of the Isetta – and everyone who knows me well knows that the Isetta is my favourite car of all time, so this little beauty is really doing a number on me. I so badly just want one, an empty but running shell that I can convert and make my own. I reckon this dream is fantastic enough to inspire me to finally overcome my fear of driving and get the license.

I only hope I feel the same way tomorrow.

… in Klingon.

PowerLight Connectâ„¢ is an easy and affordable way for businesses and government to connect to the sun. This powerful new offering makes buying solar electricity as simple as buying power from your utility.

PowerLight offers its service to governments and businesses and claims to do so as easily as they might by the electricity that comes default with your light switch. They claim that there is no equipment to buy, no maintenance costs, and the electricity they supply you is simply billed on a monthly (and fixed!) rate.

Here’s how it works, according to their website:

1. We pay for and deploy your new solar power system
2. You host it on your roof, ground or parking facility
3. You buy the solar electricity produced at a fixed rate – for 10 years or more
4. Your organization benefits from clean solar power, while demonstrating environmental leadership

This sounds amazing! If only it were available on a residential basis…

Twenty ate 27 for breakfast today, on this day, the anniversary of the much celebrated birth of Nathan Swartz, my only love-interest. It’s the number of times two yin and yanging fish have spun round, chasing each others tails giddily on the eternal persuit of happiness. It’s the age I was when I fell heart first in love with him, and co-incidentally found myself, when I thought I had it already figured out. It’s also the exact amount of days we’ve been sleeping uncomfy on couches and strange beds alone, all because there is a rudely placed ocean in the way which won’t let me swim across it! Happily for me I’m already on day 25 of this journey with only three more excited sleeps to go.

Happiest of Birthdaetenweekens my lovliest. I cannot wait to come home to you!

And PSsst: your prezzie is cleverly hidden in plain-wrapped sight on my desk. X

I have a small obsession with treehouses, and would love to one day live out in the thick woods with Nathan, building, sewing and painting our own treehome together. What a great place to escape to for a few weeks or months at a time, growing our own food, snuggling around fires and mostly just getting a break from the outside world and reality for a while.

Look at this amazing little treehouse!

This one was built by Buster Simpson when he joined the Pilchuck Glass School in Bryant, WA. Part of the curriculum required students to fashion their own housing on the school grounds, back when the school opened in 1971. Many of the houses have survived the years, including this one, and are still lived in by students.

The treehouse is built atop a fat cedar stump in the forest — a picturesque walk from the school across a log bridge that lies over a brook. He used leftover materials to build it, including lots of old windows used maily for walls, so I’d imagine it would be a very chilly home in Winter… but imagine waking up early every morning to the smells of cedar and with all that light streaming in on all sides…

These pictures, along with the full story of this treehouse and other inspiring tree abodes can be found in the book Treehouses by Peter Nelson. Photographs by Paul Rocheleau.

Love it!

* cat proximity

At this eatery customers are invited to barter and pay what they think the meal is worth.

One World Cafe makes up its menu daily based on what’s fresh and in season, and lets customers pay what they think the meal is worth or what they can afford. Instead of getting a bill, customers drop their money in a large wooden box, where owner Denise Cerreta has taped a sign with her goal to serve all organic food, to eliminate world hunger and wasted food, to feed all members of the community, and to trust people to be honest. If people can’t pay for their meal, they can work for it. Some of the food is organically grown in a donated garden plot.

Our philosophy is that everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy, organic food while being treated with dignity.

~ Brad Birky

Based on her success, Cerreta is setting up a nonprofit foundation with a goal to put a similar eatery in other cities.

Supposedly we’re the only ones in the country doing something like this, and my hope is it will catch on. Part of the reason I’m on the planet is to eliminate world hunger.

It’s an exchange, a hand-up. A hand-out is not what I’m about.

One World Cafe, 41 S. 300 East
Hours: daily, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.;
Prices: Fair value: diners pay what they feel is appropriate;
There are no menus. Denise Cerreta and crew fix something different everyday, including vegetarian and vegan offerings, then serve up only what you want, and in the portions you request. As you leave, pay what you feel your meal was worth — or a little more to help make sure everyone can eat.