Yummy Wakame

Singin’ in the Rain
(5MB Quicktime movie. Download available at oorei.com)

A full-length version of the track by Mint Royale may soon be available online. Watch this space.

PaperFrog’s cute new froggy design? It’s brilliant. The whole blog is brilliant. PaperFrog is a Buddhist inspired journal, and the most recent post made on Valentine’s Day is typical of the great content that can be found there:

Mindful love

“One of the first writings I came across from Thich Nhat Hanh was a deceptively simple teaching on the essence of love. In a nutshell, Nhat Hahn reminds us that the most meaningful thing we can do for our loved ones is simply to be present. Not present in the sense of “quality time” or just being at hand ? present in a deep, aware fashion that opens each of us to real communication. In other words, presence as an extension of the practice of mindfulness.

It’s easier to imagine this concept than really practice it. I find it difficult enough to still my thoughts in meditation, much less while interacting with another person. It’s our nature to let our minds wander, imagining what it might be the best thing to say next, wondering how we are coming across to the other person, thinking about pretty much anything other than just listening.”
~ Read the whole article

Oh my gosh, ScarletDemon has an absolutely hilarious true story about male chickens. Boys are so funny.
Proceed at your own risk.

If you like men in kilts check out
The 2004 Utilikilts Mock-U-Mercial Contest Winners
It must have been incredibly hard to choose a winner between the “Freedom” and “Kiltos” ads. Brilliant!!! (Link found at Jennifer’s)

If you don’t think it’s possible for a man to look hot in a skirt, think again. Yummeh!

Over the last week I’ve read various articles about the Kyoto Protocol, but I think this one says it best.

Thanks Eon.

News Report From Iraq (Windows Media Player)
Don’t miss this!

British Military Fitness Training
Achieve your fitness goals in parks across the country with military trained fitness instructors. Classes split into novice, intermediate and advanced. Your first class is free, at a park near you.

Ooh ooh check out these super sexy Alienware Windows themes Ken found:
Free for download. Includes slick skins for Windows Media Player. Mine’s running AlienMorph.

The long post below, in case youre wondering, is YummyWakame’s article for the 100 Bloggers book, and I am infinitely grateful to Nathan for writing it. Jump straight in…

Long and Drawn Out with Regards to this World You’re In Now

Remember how mother always told you that honesty is the best policy? And remember when you told your boss that his comb over reminded you of your pet rat after it had been run over by the left half of spinning black rubber that kept a passing rig rolling by undaunted? I remember, because you were the guy applying for the night watchmen position at my company the next day.

Mother had a lot of happy ideas, but once we all hit the big bad real world they didn’t seem as “happy” as they did just plain foolish. So, in this so called real world, we learn early that little white lies play as important a role in keeping the earth spinning round as does the sun’s gravitational pull. That is, until one day someone somewhere had the idea to post their thoughts to the World Wide Web, a place where true personal opinion could come out with raw, unabashed flavor and without all of the sticky consequences of face to face conversation.

Years later we come out in droves to speak our little minds, typing up our latest rants or expressing our opinions on how our leaders are doing a royal job at misinterpreting the meaning of life or recanting why the rest of the people out there doing the same have “serious issues.” While on the internet we are free to have any personality we want, most likely the one we’d truly like to be tucked away inside of our trendy clothes and gelled up hairdos, but with nothing more necessary to define us other than our typed words and screen names. It is through the joy of blogging that opinions are allowed to form like seeds of the moment, change over the course of our typing them and blossom into fields of “how I see it” flowery blossoms, only to subsequently be weeded out by any passing reader in a few clicks of a mouse’s tail.

The anonymity provided with blogging has truly taken the essence of what dear old mum said about “what really matters is what’s on the inside” and finally put it to some good use. No longer must we sit in bars and hope to find like-minded people over expensive drinks and between the clacking and flapping of small talk spewing teeth and the lips that distract you from what they’re saying. We can simply click on “Next Blog,” read the first sentence, rinse and repeat. Occasionally you’ll find yourself making it to the second sentence, the third paragraph, and then well into the Archives. Here in the blogosphere we develop relationships with people before they even have a clue that we exist. Meeting our new best friends who never need to know our real names or dress sizes as we skim through the world through their eyes. Anonymity is the missing ingredient in real life, it’s the taste of a good thin filet of cod that doesn’t need any salt to ensure its maximum pleasure with everyone, because there’s no need to worry about fishy aftertaste when you aren’t obligated to swallow.

After living your second life this way, that second life that is primarily composed of only your fingers and your brain, all of the ugly fat around your hips and outdated clothing hanging from your shoulders no longer matters, and you get to explore ideas from a strictly ethereal point of view. Eventually you find yourself in the company of others who are likewise inclined to discuss and be fascinated by the things bubbling inside of your own soul, and you decide to reveal your existence to them, leaving little comments after whatever it is about their latest post you find interesting. You find out whether or not they agree with you by how they in turn reply, and if there’s no reply, well there’s also no need for an awkward silence while you stand around thinking of an excuse to leave the room. “Next Blog.”

I have, over the past several months, found myself taking up valuable company time with a cup of tea in hand and a screen full of YummyWakame.com in sight, frolicking in the plethora of quotes regarding the latest news on how best to purchase a goat for a starving family in Africa, where to find the latest spinning plastic disc that will one day house the world’s information, or simply set my eyes melting over slyly scandalous pictures of homemade socks and how they could be shipped to my door with love in less than a week. Then I began leaving comments on this site, only to find my comments were being replied to, not only by the author, creator and soothsaying mastermind behind Yummy, Mrs. Olivia Meiring, but by the amalgam of devout followers she’s managed to amass on her simple and elegant little blog. It seems that Olivia’s daily brain goo, as she refers to it, supplies a virtual beehive’s worth of followers–drones, workers and queens alike–with their regular supply of nutritious tidbits (though I’m certain that most of them exceed the 1x daily recommended dosing the site prescribes.) According to a nifty little script she has running on her page, the gathering is roughly 20 users strong at any given time, a handful of those regularly commenting on what valuable knowledge she leaves behind. They’ve come from around the globe and thanks to blogs like this one, seem to have become good friends regardless of the fact that few of them have ever seen one another out there in the real world.

This is the epitome of everything positive about globalization. If you can dismiss the downsides–Far East slave labor, union busting in the Western world, and the removal of your local neighborhood Mom&Pop’s–and look instead to one of the sole benefits, it is that we’re no longer limited to finding kindred souls in our own local taverns, but have only the limitations of how many words we’re willing to type into comment boxes, how many various blogs we’re willing to give a chance past the date and time marker. And if more blogs shared Yummy’s goal of spreading the word on what we as fatcats in our two car garage lifestyles can do to stop world hunger or send a bit of hope to the victims of the latest natural disaster, we might all go into our next lives a few karmic bits richer, or at least have our dear old mums proud of us for putting honesty at the tip top of our policies.

Best news I’ve heard all year

Having already done my part to contribute to the world’s overpopulation crisis and trying desperately to justify my love for technology as it simultaneously encroaches on my lust for a life of goatherding in the wiles of purple mountain wilderness, this is the good (though a bit dated) news that we as men have all been waiting for.

As if you needed it, further proof that urban SUV drivers are stupid:

Wife drives SUV into pool during lesson; ‘I thought I was dreaming.’

Gross Fact of The Day
Tolet seat up or down? It’s the one thing almost every couple argues over. In our house thankfully we both agree, the revolting thing should not only have the seat down, but it should be kept firmly shut. And not only because pets like to drink from it…

Did you know that every time you flush the toilet, microscopic bits of urea and fecal matter jump out as far as 6 feet from the bowl, and lands on everything. Yup, your toothbrushes, towels, toilet rolls, baisin and taps, everything. Then when you have a nice steamy bath or shower in the room, the bacteria start to really spread over everything. Think about that next time you brush your teeth.

Keep it shut.

Occasionally I run into highly linkable stuff that’s just too risqué for yummy’s general audience, so I tend to send them over to La Petite Claudine for her consumption. This week’s kinky link can be found there:

Capture
Obvious Warning: Adult theme.

I’ve obviously been listening to BBC 1 Xtra too much this week. Somehow this track has managed to get under my skin.

KANO - Typical Me
The track’s catchy, video’s well typical, but it does contain a short girl fight scene.

Actually this one’s even better. KANO - P’s & Q’s Remix. The hard bassline’s guaranteed to make your screws rattle.

- both are out for release on 28th February 2005.
- KANO website

I know lots of gross facts. I have collected and stored gross facts in my brain for many years. And today I proudly launch the new:

Gross Fact Of The Day:
Did you know that when earthworms “get it on” they sidle up to each other and cocoon themselves in this sticky substance they excrete, which is almost exactly the same as snot. It then dries out and goes nice and crispy, so they can exchange bodily fluids in privacy over several hours. Tantric!

Earthworms are such cool creatures. They are gentle and sweet, and never fight. They are also absolutely invaluable for the hard work they do. Whenever the opportunity arises, I will always save an earthworm from drowning.

Putting your feet up on another woman’s coffee table

There’s a cartoon bunny out there named Buster. He’s really a lovable guy, I suppose, and spends his days flittering about the world with his old man trying to teach children about all of the wonderful things out there through the magic of television. Buster is in no way controversial, he usually talks about things like “Reading is Fun” or “The Virtues of Fast Math.” Soon, Buster will take a trip to Vermont where he’ll visit a family who make maple sugar. Before the episode even had a chance to air (on PBS) America’s churches and bingohalls went wild at the scandal of it all.

So what was so horrendous? Well, the maple sugar farming family comprised of two females, who were apparently lesbians. They didn’t call eachother lesbians, and they didn’t make out or burn their bras or try and get the kids to vote YES on gay marriage, all they did was talk about maple sugar.

The end result is this, completely ridiculous. Please, children, be advised that 40 some years ago America’s cities were rioted in an attempt to illustrate the ridiculousness and injustice of discriminating based on gender or race or nationality, and now it is illegal to do so. Just so long as you’re not gay.

Livvy & Pieter Bsti & Niq
They have spoilt us rotten! We got the hugest bumper parcel in the post yesterday, filled with endless socks and garters, for valentines day. This was especially surprising as I didn’t think they believed in valentines day.

They’re all the socks I’ve been drooling over the last while, and some extra surprises:

• Really long M Stripes, Red & White
• Really long M Stripes, Grey & Black (for Pieter)
• Sweetheart Anklets
• Ultra-leggy white vertical STRIPES Thigh-Hi’s
• White lace socks with ribbons
• Black Lycra Thigh Hi with Lace Up Back
• Black Fingerless Gloves
• And les pièces de resistance ultra sexy spikey garters in black and red!

We feel utterly spoilt. Thank you thank you thank you! And you will get photos ;@)

Small, Medium and Large got a valentine card too… from Red and Ginger What a laugh!

Blackspot anti-logo Sneaker
“Kicking corporate ass”

~ Mysterious People ~
Strange powers, occult personalities, poltergeist girls, feral children, eccentrics…

Ocean Breathes Salty
I love this Modest Mouse music video. It’s about a sweet kid, like someone I know :)

WINDOWS MEDIA: 56k 100k 300k | QuickTime | REAL

The Tattoo Baby Doll Project
(submitted by Rachel)

BBC Radio 4: Animal Instincts and the Tsunami
Listen to the latest programme online

“After the earthquake and devastating tsunami in South East Asia, stories emerged from Sri Lanka and Thailand that animals appeared to act oddly ahead of the tsunami. Elephants were said to have trumpeted and fled whilst flocks of birds were seen flying inland. There also appears to have been little loss of native wildlife with very few dead animals found.

Nature explores the seismic and infrasonic waves that are generated by earthquakes and tsunamis and how they might be felt or heard. For example, scientists have known for several years that elephants communicate using infrasound - low frequency waves of sound inaudible to the human ear. With their finely tuned senses and extreme awareness of everything in their environment, were elephants and other animals able to detect the approaching tsunami and head inland or to higher ground in time?”

This is a fascinating documentary. It’s amazing to listen to the low frequency infrasonic waves that were recorded at the time of the tsunami, which apparently animals could hear.

Sometimes I wonder, as our species evolves and we become increasing dependant on technology, are we tuning out of the natural rhythm of the earth? Are we losing our instincts?

Merriam-Webster word of the day:

Ruritanian
\rur-ih-TAY-nee-un
of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an imaginary place of high romance.

“Our common sense … must immediately put a summary stop to the somewhat silly Ruritanian gambols of our imagination.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

He makes it sound so easy.

Feeling bitter?
f*ckvday.com

“Dedicated to Angela, Jasmene, Brenda and last, but certainly not least, Tricia.
Thank you for your continued inspiration. :)”
(via Enschede a/zee)

Naked Woman (steep hill)
“You decide what she hits.”
It’s naughty to laugh.

WHAT IF?
“Who hasn’t at one time or another wondered how their life could’ve gone in other directions if different events had occurred or different choices been made? Thinking about it a bit more lead me to make the below chard. These are the ways my life could have deviated from its actual path…”

The Futuro house
“Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed this UFO shaped dwelling in 1968, initially for use as a ski-cabin or holiday home.

The idea behind the design reflects the optimism of the sixties. At the time people believed technology could solve all problems for the human race. The ideal was of a new era, a space-age, where everybody would have more leisure time to spend on holidays away from home.”