EXPO 2005 AICHI JAPAN

These monsters came from the EXPO 2005 AICHI JAPAN. They even built a replica of the My Neighbor Totoro house--which apparently came from 1950's Japan.

First Recordings — Electronic Music Winners

Wanting to listen to this album including a work by Paul Lansky, after listening to the first 10 minutes of Mild und Leise on YouTube.

Radiohead/Lansky

The sample from Idioteque : o)

Mike Birbiglia

Listened to a May 5, 2009 rebroadcast of Mike Birbiglia on NPR's This American Life, recounting his story of a traffic cop finding him at fault after a drunk driver hit his vehicle and sped away, later hitting a tree.

Emily

"Did you know that most of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas"? It's true! Go ahead and give it a try."

Via

Losers

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12QUESTIONS.html?...

"Q (Deborah Solomon for the New York Times): What is your I.Q.?

"A (Stephen Hawking): I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."

Clutch

Reading about replacing clutches this evening and remembered why I chose to not get my hands dirty repairing engines. A man has to know his limitations. :o)

Tempting, still....

Davis: "anal probing world capital"

:o)

Someone has placed a sign of an alien's head on the Davis Chamber of Commerce Welcome Sign on Richards Boulevard, with the text, "anal probing world capital."

Cute.

Woodstock's Pizza + Beer

Dawn and I visited Woodstock's Pizza in Davis, CA this evening.

We tried the medium Pesto Primavera (Pesto Sauce, Broccoli, Red Onions, Artichoke Hearts, Fresh Tomatoes) and a medium Vegetarian (Black Olives, 'Shrooms, Onions, Green Peppers, Fresh Tomatoes).

Dawn had a Fox Barrel Pacific Pear Cider and I had an Anderson Valley Brewing Company Bahl Hornin' Imperial Boont Amber Ale.

Bomb.com

:o)

From a Yelp review.

Automatic cat feeders with multiple cats

Purchased!

UPDATE 2012-05-06: turns out it works great for Hill's Prescription Diet c/d (Multicare Feline Bladder Health - Dry), but not Hill's Prescription Diet t/d (Feline Dental Health).

The c/d kibbles measure approximately 1/2" on all sides, while the owners of the Super Feed recommend 1/4" kibbles.

I believe they originally marketed this for feeding fish, which makes sense. One comment on Amazon.com suggests the company will soon have a product supporting larger kibble.

Contrasting bumper stickers

Just messing with people: put contrasting bumper stickers/magnets/what have you on your vehicle.

For example, the National Rifle Association (NRA) contrasted with something written by Michael Moore.

KMA233

Saw KMA233 on a license plate frame while walking to work this week. Seems like a public safety radio frequency out of the Santa Cruz area?

Green coffee beans seem to burn fat fast

Dr. Oz plans to visit Sacramento on Monday to present. I honestly do not know much about him, so I visited his web site.

I randomly saw one of the front page rotating articles included a guest blog post by Lindsey Duncan, ND, CN, which spoke about the benefits of Green Coffee Bean extract in burning fat.

The authors of the original study have published it online, for free.

Sphygmomanometer

A wonderful word :o)

Origin: 1860–65; sphygmo- + manometer:

• sphygmo: From Greek sphugmos (pulsation), from sphuzein (to throb)
• manometer : From French manomètre, from Greek manos (loose, rare, sparse) + metron (measure)

So, measure loose/rare/sparse pulsations. :o)

Marketing

“The art of marketing is really about telling true stories that people already believe,” he says. “If you don’t tell stories that people believe, it’s very expensive to try to convince them.”

Via

My Neighbor Totoro Blu-ray

Comes out in July, 2012...in Japan.

10160 Totoro

From Wikipedia:

"A main-belt asteroid was named 10160 Totoro after the film's central character Totoro."

Old French, Gaulish, and High German

Reading about languages on Wikipedia.

For Dawn

The Civil Wars cover of "Dance me to the end of love"

http://youtu.be/bgFh1rEr5dM