Candyhog blog

Moving over, moving on

This blog will no longer be updated. Probably no surprise, since I have been posting so infrequently that to say this blog is over goes without saying.

HOWEVER!

I have started a new blog, a second chapter if you will. It's Picky Lunch.

I hope you'll join me over there, participate, and have some fun talking about food and all that goes with it. I'd be honored.

Bon appetit and bonne nuit!

A la prochaine!

 

What's right with this picture?

Several things!

1. As always, Gmail themes
2. Conversation view turned off
3. Priority Inbox

Other great Gmail things not seen in this image:

1. Labs: Undo send enabled
2. Labs: Default Reply all enabled
3. Labs: Advanced attachment options enabled

Death & Co.

Death & Company, the best business name in a long while. Found thanks to RT's obsessive reading of the Times.

Deskchair travel

One of my deepest pleasures when I have free time and an aimless spirit is to travel the world using a Dutch utility called google image ripper (Flickr is fun, too, but it doesn't have the links to blogs and article sources where the photos ran). Recent events piqued my interest in Sana'a, Yemen...what's it like there? Turns out, the old city is gorgeous almost beyond compare:

 

My Yemen "travel" led to a curiosity about Cairo, for some reason, and I found this amazing image, which has only been altered to make up for an overexposed sky, in order to make it more like the naked eye saw (always a challenge with skies and foregrounds at dusk and dawn):

 

...and the same photographer wowed me also with this photo of a European robin:

 
However, despite the pleasures of the morning, my absolute favoritest find using google image ripper is the work of Christopher Herwig who has traveled to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Takikistan, China, and West Africa (Liberia in particular), taking the most amazing photographs, including this one:

Interesting to perhaps few

In the main area of my local ferry terminal, two billboards (part of the rapidly increasing volume of advertising there). I was amused at how much smarter the Snickers billboard is than the Starbucks effort. Snickers manages to reinforce brand creatively, and to have at-a-glance impact. Starbucks asks you to read, and it doesn't say anything another brand of coffee couldn't say (switch out the name). The tone tries to have personality, but the personality of the Snickers brand is much clearer and more engaging.

The life Muffet

Imagine my surprise when my curds and whey (i.e., online Scrabble game) were interrupted by this character, 3 inches from my nose:

...Here's what the dramatic descent must have looked like, a snap of the somewhat hasty retreat:

Animism

I must have become so accustomed to everything being a character, from hangin' with the 8 & 10 year-olds, that I totally anthropomorphized this object on the ferry today:

Maybe a nod to the local love of Ugly Dolls?

Working hard and hardly working

Time to cry myself a river.

This has been an amazing — and I don't mean that in a good way — couple of years. For me, the recession has meant:

Too much work. Having to do a lot of side jobs even when I have full-time work, so that I have work when the full-time stuff dries up. Working with startups is fulfilling in some ways, but so insecure.

Too little work. Working with startups is fulfilling in some ways, but so insecure. Too many hours I could be working, when I am not working.

Too little predictability. Sometime too much work, sometimes too little, no ability to look ahead and plan accordingly.

Too little play. No money, no predictable time to set aside for play.

Sorry about the complaints. My cheerfulness will return.

Facebook is frightening

How can Facebook of all entities know my Achilles Heel? How can they know that I have a storied and cherished collection of certificates of achievement participation? 

While others have MBAs and certificates of recognition from organizations to which they have contributed meaningfully, my collection is a little different. 

It begins with Participation in the Vermont Student Art Fair, and includes Safety Patrol and a certificate attesting to the fact that I am licensed to play the calliope on US inland waterways. I am an Elf Master (business software training in the 90s).

And now Facebook is sorely tempting me with this ridiculous certification...I am trying to resist.

You said it, David Boies

When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost 20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the same race.

David Boies' opinion piece is in the WSJ, and I hope a lot of people not yet convinced read it.

Could the Republicans be so lucky in a new leader?

If the world inverts, Meghan McCain will reshape the Republican Party and lead it back to sanity. I'm in no danger of swinging Republican, but I do appreciate honest discourse, courage, and a worthy opponent.

She's pro-choice ("pro sex," even), against religion permeating public life (abstinence-only sex education anyone?), interested in civil rights.  Meghan McCain has famously refused to discuss Sarah Palin (say no more), and she has variously dismissed Karl Rove as as a "Twitter creep," Ann Coulter as a "train wreck," and has been unshy about her distaste for Joe the Plumber:

Shortly before McCain sat for this interview, Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he complained about “queers” and declared, “I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children.” Unprompted, McCain rails against the man her father’s presidential campaign touted as an American everyman and made a showpiece in the weeks before the election. “Joe the Plumber — you can quote me — is a dumbass."

...

Although she says she has no political aspirations, McCain has an astute understanding of her own generation — one more inclined to identify with her bright, bushy-tailed enthusiasm than with the GOP’s grumpy old men.

That was from Out Magazine, in which she vociferously supports gay rights and marriage equality. So is this:

Given her youth, her lack of political experience, and that she’s the daughter of the Republican politician most reviled by his fellow Republicans, it’s doubtful, at least for the time being, that McCain has the ability to sway conservatives on any issue, never mind gay equality. As they did with her father, many prominent conservatives have called her conservative bona fides into question, pointing out that she only recently registered as a Republican, voted for John Kerry in 2004, and spends more time attacking Republicans than she does Democrats. And despite the battle scars she’s already earned, McCain recognizes that she has yet to win over gays. “A lot of people in the gay community are skeptical of me as a Republican,” she says, mindful of her mission to promote the idea that being Republican and supporting gay marriage are not mutually exclusive.

“Homophobia is the last socially accepted prejudice,” McCain says, repeating it for emphasis. So it’s only natural that she also views the fight for gay equality as “my generation’s civil rights movement.” At a time when California can constitutionally ban gay marriage and the current presidential administration — having vowed so much — has yet to fulfill its promises, it’s hard not to be won over by this bubbly optimist. “In general, I don’t get a good response from the conservative movement,” she admits, unfazed. “But there are a lot of people who have said, ‘I’m Republican and I’m pro–gay marriage. Thank you for showing that you don’t have to be anti–gay marriage to be a Republican.’ ”

Sock flaws

Must we live with the itchy compression we suffer from the elastic of sock tops? Some people say, "No." With scissors.

 

Quote of the day

"What you may sometimes think is odd behavior on my part might often be me worrying out loud to myself."

— My fabulous mother

I think the same is true of all of us, or the best of us, or whatever.

 

Thin-sliced French ham cut with a muffin cutter to look like pepperoni

Old people and young people have different ideas about what goes on their half of the pizza. After it came out of the oven, everyone was happy.

Micro koi, aka goldfish!

It's summer and the micro pond has been retrofitted with micro fish. They eat mosquitos and, unfortunately, have been known to feed the heron in the past.

Enjoy.

 

Surprise landing

Targeting error

Today Facebook targeted ads to me *kinda* well...they got me with Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali in Seattle (not that I'm going, but I live here and love those guys) but they go the wrong Richard Thompson.

I can get the real art and music of the real Richard Thompson by tapping into his iTunes and visiting the upstairs studio.

Today's Must-Read

Reminiscent of the McCain Golf Gear Product-Reviews-as-Artform episode, Amazon's #1-selling apparel item has 333 product reviews, and counting. A striking majority of them are masterpieces! A couple of examples are excerpted below, but do yourself a favor and read them all.

Great compliment for my skin art

Unfortunately I already had this exact picture tattooed on my chest, but this shirt is very useful in colder weather.

Why can't Amazon have more stars? 5 ain't enough!

So I'm looking for threads that say, "Hey baby...I'm real boss!" when I stumble upon this epic creation. The wolves spoke to me in a language all their own; it was like German, Mongol, and Bitchin all mixed together. I mean, one wolf howlin at the moon is major...but three???

I ordered next-day air (if only there was same day!), and, of course, a size smaller than usual to ensure the closeness of the wolves to my chest hair. When the package arrived, I tore it open, and I SWEAR angels sang. I think it was Freebird. I immediately removed my "No Fat Chicks" shirt, and replaced it with this finery. Lemme tell you: AW YEAH.

I'll spare the details of my conquests since I started wearing this shrit; suffice to say, I'm swimming in a sea of babes the likes of which are usually found on those K-Tel infomercials. I'm also more confident at work, and expect to be promoted to cashier soon. I owe everything to this shirt (I should say "shirts", since I now own 23 of them).

PNW weekends are action-packed in the summertime

The weekend was spectacularly sparkly, kicked off with a divine dinner at Chez Shea and closed with the 9-year-old's wanderings leading to the discovery of a homegrown John Denver Tribute Concert at the bottom of the hill. No, I didn't go.

(Wrinkles flies in the ointment: Stupidly missed the fabulous annual Hyla Chili Cookoff with its middle school carnival, and Bloedel Reserve too busy to get a reservation to stroll.)

Gorgeous day

Perfect setting

Jalapenos with the crudo

Perfectly dressed

It's all about the snail butter

Dessert!

Separated at Birth?

A piece of hardware embedded in my living room floor, and iPhone's awesome Scrabble Teacher...