Batspit: May 2007

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

My transparent screen

I've seen this idea floating around-- first on the daily illusion site and then the stumbleupon sent me to w00kie's flicker site, which convinced me I had to try and make one myself. Mine's not so good, but I'm going to try again later.

Free Hugs Campaign

While I was playing around with my new firefox addon stumbleupon , this awesome website showed up: the free hugs campaign. It's such a nice idea and the youtube video is very sentimental, it's impossible for me to believe that officials in this country tried to ban the project.

The Bloody Olive

short film by Vincent Bal, very cute!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Pearl

This is my buddy Andy's bird Pearl. She seemed to love having her picture taken, so I had to post this picture.

Postcrossing

I got my first postcard from postcrossings! By far the coolest thing I've found on the web in a long time: postcrossings is
the creation of Paulo Magalhães. The goal is to allow people to receive postcards from around the world. Send a postcard, and your name goes in the database to receive a post-card. I love getting stuff in the mail, I love writing, I love communication, and I really like canceled stamps, so postcrossings is awesome, in my humble opinion.
But apparently I'm not the only one who loves mail. There have been over 50,000 postcards sent through postcrossings, as well as flicker groups and message boards created and regularly visited by some users.
There are so many good things to say about this project: the best is the stamps, I think. The next best is communicating with a person in a part of the world I've never heard of before.
The one drawback is the increased cost of postage overseas-- .90 in the USA, and they don't yet have .90 stamps so I'm stuck doing third grade math again.
I love the history maps in postcrossing, it's neat to see the lines connecting the postcards and people.

Hillarity ensues

Awesome comic of a duck and his camera at what the duck by Aaron Johnson.

You Are Beautiful

I got my stickers in the mail today from You Are Beautiful, the internet site that aims to counteract the message of almost all other ads. Plus, I got a handwritten thank you note for blogging them! The idea is to put the stickers up where other people can see them (I've spotted them in two cities so far: on a news-stand in Chicago near Armitage and on a street-pole near Duval street in Key West).
I can't wait to put mine up and send a jpeg to their website, but I have to think of someplace really really good first.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Women in Art

over 500 years of female portraits in western art. Very quick and pretty.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Mosaic Lamp

I found the base on the side of the street- the lampworks were broken and there was a big crack through the base-- however, I like the shape and lines of it, if not the orange-yellow color.

First, I replaced the lampworks or whatever you call all the electrical doo-dads and wires. A few orders from Mosaic Mercantile later, I had these pretty little glass tiles, which I glued on with carpenter glue.
I decided to use Mosaic Mercantile's green grout, which came out a little darker than I hoped but is OK, and way better than any other grout on the market (grouting is the least fun-- breaking and glueing are much more fun)
This is the first time I've used tiles-- usually my mosaics have very mixed tessera. It was so easy to grout compared to my other projects I may stick with tiles from now on. (Sorry no grouting pictures-- my hands are usually covered in cement and it's a time-sensitive thing so I never remember the camera).

after grouting it cures for a week or so then a grout-sealant, then, the fun of shopping for a lampshade that works with the strange shape of the base. (The first two I bought were promptly returned)
Here's how it looks completed:

Not bad for a $50.00 of materials, eh?

Friday, May 18, 2007

A-a-a-chooooo

I haven't had time to post anything lately. Daniel graduated (!) and we had family over for most of the week. We all went for a walk in Pomona to the natural bridge and I snapped this picture of a spiderweb. It looks like rain or dew settled on the web, but it's actually pollen.
Southern Illinois is the most beautiful shade of yellow-green today thanks in large part to the blooming Autumn Olive. That and the starlings that just hatched in my gutter (chirping incessantly for food) are making me wish I had titled this post "rotten invasive species that do better here than you"

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Make Love

www.makelovetheworldgoround.com collects photos of their web page, including the one above, from yours truly. As of this posting, they have pictures from 21 countries so far.