You are what you wear

feelings6
Originally uploaded by Frauenfelder.

Today I came across this timely reminder about why I might want to do some clothes shopping soon.
[Via BoingBoing]

Mojo (Zen) Gardens

On my last day in Little Lepreau, I got into a difference of opinion with one of my band mates. Like me, she had collected many rocks from the beach. Unlike me, she had also collected other objects like pieces of wood and shells. She began arranging them and re-arranging them, occasionally having artistic flares of temper: "that's just not right!"

I suggested that she could make presents for people by bundling her found objects with sand and letting them make Zen gardens with them.

"I don't see it with sand," she said.

I gently tried to convince her that sand is the way to go, but she had closed her mind to sand.

Okay, I thought, I was gracious enough to let her have one of my brilliant ideas, but if she doesn't want to run with it, I will. The next morning, just before driving away, I filled a large coffee can with sand from the beach.

Back at home, I did some research on zen gardens. I learned that they should probably be called "Japanese rock gardens" because they have existed in Japan for a long time and it was an American who gave them the "Zen" title in 1935. Oh, oh, I thought, if the Japanese are behind these things, there are probably complex rules about the elements and their arrangements. That's no good for me.

So instead of making Zen gardens or Japanese rock gardens, I make mojo gardens.

What does a mojo garden need?

• A container with some mojo (illustrated here: a box made from Lego and a gutted answering machine)
• Sand collected from a special beach (optional step: to get a nice consistency with the sand, you can filter it through a collander)
• Objects like rocks and shells from that beach
• Other objects with mojo

What can you do with a mojo garden?

• I plan to keep mine on my desk at work. I will rearrange the objects or rake the sand during long phone calls.

More Products for Men Only

Remember my re-branded deodorant, toothpaste and dental floss? Because I am always thinking, it occurred to me that there are some products with gender neutral marketing that can be challenging for men who are not secure in their sexuality.

The first that come to my mind are skin cream and hair conditioner. Some people think that real men should just endure dry, leathery, itchy skin and hair like straw.

I'm all for stoicism, but bad skin and hair can interfere with cherchering les femmes.

Here is my solution. Rename the compounds and sell them in manly motor oil containers.

Let me know if you can think of other products I should add to the Big Dog line.

Road Trip: Hartland, New Brunswick

No time for driving through the bridge

If you are driving from Ottawa to Halifax straight, or from Lepreau to Ottawa straight, you don't have time to see many attractions and you don't have time to find quaint restaurants. So you stop at places like Tim Horton's and Subway. At 538 and 542 Main Street in Hartland, New Brunswick, just off the Trans Canada, you'll find one of each of those franchises next door to each other. Not only do they have exactly what you'd expect, they have an excellent view of the world's longest covered bridge. There is also an imposing sculpture with a base you can sit on while you eat your 6" veggie on whole wheat sub. I believe the sculpture is intended to display friendship between indigenous News Brunswickers and settlers from Europe, but the woman looks frightened to me.

Fun with Panoramas

You know how it is extremely difficult to do anything new on your computer? Especially with images? I made an animated GIF on Sunday. It took me about 5 hours to figure out how to do it, and I had to use three different software packages.

Today I thought I'd try pasting together separate images from my trip into larger images. To do this, I downloaded autostitch, a package recommended by Lifehacker.

Holy Cow! All you do is "open" the pictures you want stitched together and it creates a panorama from them. The only flexibility seems to be on things like output size and image quality. This means that if it decides to blur someone's face, you can't change it, but for results this easy, I say, let it blur the face and call it an artistic effect!

2017 update: The 2007 link to autostitch had died, but Peter Selmeczy helpfully let me know and pointed to a page he's made with a long list of free utilities that has a valid link for autostitch. I already use a number of the utilities and plan to look at all of them.

Introducing Astronaut Love Triangle

Back in July, Megan revealed that I had bought a keyboard "for a mysterious new project". That project was the evolutionary new musical group Astronaut Love Triangle.

We are all still basking in the glow of the adulation we received at our debut performance in Little Lepreau, New Brunswick, and looking forward to our next genre-bashing coup, perhaps as soon as next month at Sally's Salon.

Links:

• Astronaut Love Triangle Blog
• Video: Roberta Bondar: not a nut job

Alto Horns in the Family

Mabel Elms and her alto horn

This is my mother's cousin Mabel Elms (and therefore, my first cousin once-removed). She is a member of the brass band of the Salvation Army's Grand Bank Citadel. Like me, she plays second horn. Unlike me, she makes excellent soup. As far as I know, she is my only relative who plays in a brass band. The odds that my only brass band relative would also play second horn are 1 in 25.

Photos of the Riggs' Family Reunion

Quilted Lighthouse by Winston and Cathy Newbury

This summer I attended a Riggs' Family Reunion in Newfoundland.

The Riggs' Family came from Stones Cove. Stones Cove is a harbour on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula that at its peak housed 60 families.

We did not have the reunion in Stones Cove because it was abandoned in the 1950s and is only accessible by boat. All that is left of the community are the foundations of buildings that had foundations and rusted pieces of old wood stoves.

My mother's mother was Frances ("Fanny") Riggs. Her brother, Willoughby ("Bee") Riggs, was the engineer on the schooner Mabel Dorothy when it was lost at sea in 1955.

The catalyst for our reunion this summer was the unveiling of the Mariners' Memorial in Grand Bank. Willoughby Riggs is one of the names recorded on the memorial (along with at least two other names in my family tree).

As a group, we had several dinners together, an excursion to Stones Cove, and attended the unveiling. There are many pictures.

• Pictures taken by me and Manon
• Graham's pictures

I will add links to other pictures as I get them.

If you would like to upload photos, I have found the free versions of both Webshots and Flickr to be easy to work with.

For the free accounts, Webshots allows you to upload 2000 photos. The free Flickr is "unlimited" and has features that make me like it more than Webshots, but you can't see the earlier photos when you have more than 200 and limits how much you can upload per month. But if you are a Rogers.com user, FlickrPro is now free and it is unlimited.

If you email me photos, I will upload them to my account and make them available here.

Other Links:

• A picture of the Mabel Dorothy
• Map of abandoned communities in Fortune Bay and Belle Bay
• 1921 Census of Stones Cove (my grandmother shows up twice with two different birthdays; Willoughby has his name spelled wrong.)
• Mariners' Memorial website

Where is Stones Cove? [Click on "Hyb" and the "-" sign]
View Larger Map

Guess what! I'm a Rock Artist

Ingredients:

• Heart-shaped rock
• Skinny rock
• Circular rock
• Green rope from crab trap
• Orange rope from crab trap
• Duct tape
• Box with cellophane lid

[Rocks and rope from Bay of Fundy]

Back to School Lifehacks

Here is a retrospective on my how to be a better student postings following from my appearance at Professor Lee's Language and Power class. Postings from me:

• Maxing the Word Count
• Writing a Paper: Interview Someone
• My Drawing Kit
• Productivity hacks I am currently using
• Prevent procrastination -- think of your future self

The Language and Power Presentation and Brainstorm Session

• Lifehacks for Students
• Language and Power Tips #1 - Starting Points and MSN
• Language and Power Tips #2 - TV
• Language and Power Tips #3 - Hatred of Topic and Happiness in the Moment

Links I spotted elsewhere:

• How to send email to a professor [spotted on Lifehacker]
• A study guide I wish I'd read before starting first-year
• Writing Links & Links for Writers Word Stuff

Suggestions from Michelle Soles:

• Study Guide Zone
• StudyTips.Org