The Junk Drawer

I post a lot of photos on Flickr. A lot. Some I edit down later. And I’m often surprised by the things people mark as favorites; the same Yosemite shot that is easily shot by every tourist, for example. Nothing special, unless you’ve never been there, and haven’t seen these same shots before.

The interesting thing about Flickr is that it’s so much more than a place to store your photos. There’s an entire community of people posting in groups and commenting on each other’s photos (sometimes nastily). It’s an interesting way to meet people, or find some really stunning photos and be inspired to take some of your own.

It’s fun to see that people have favorited a particular shot of yours, even if you don’t like it as much. It’s also nice to get comments. I often randomly comment on photos if they catch my eye. It also helps bring people to my photos, so they can comment or perhaps make me a new contact.

As part of this networking, occasionally someone might ask to use a photo. Because I mark them all as creative commons, that means that I allow anyone to use them for free, as long as they meet certain criteria. Like crediting my work, or at least asking my permisison first. I’ve had a cat picture used as part of a blog entry, another couple of cat pictures have been posted to a photo map.

Sometimes it’s a surprise. I googled myself to find that my photos had ended up somewhere I hadn’t expected them, on a travel site, but hey, they’re creative commons. Fine.

A couple of months ago, someone contacted me to use a photo I’d taken in Ventura, Calif. He was planning to use it for something with a shoe company’s web site leading up to the World Cup. I agreed, and he said he’d send a link when he was finished.

I saw it just the other day, and was surprised by the use. I didn’t know what to expect, but it ended up being used in a promotional blog. My journalistic nerves are jangled a little, but in the end, I know it’s an advertising site, so I guess it’s OK.

And it’s somewhat gratifying in a narcissistic sense, even if no one knows that it’s really my photo or that it’s in California and not Tunisia.

A Lebowski fest short from 2006 (we’ll be there in a few months, hopefully!). And, for Matt, this real-life recreation of the opening of The Simpsons.

I love the drifting, the random connections and weird explorations, ending the pleasure in finding something you didn’t know existed but can’t live without.

The Internet. I spend a lot of time looking at the same things every day. And some of the coolest things come from cooler people than me posting stuff on sites I visit regularly. It also amazes me to think how many cool and creative people there are out there, and makes me feel a little guilty about how I’m not stretching myself more.

I came across this site, Etsy: Your Place to buy and sell all things handmade. It features a direct way for people who handmake everything from yarn to shirts, jewelry, dolls, purses, and … well, I dunno. I got lost in some of the site’s other features.

Like being able to find items by mousing over a beautiful color picker. I could spend a long time playing and never buying. The site’s designers clearly had more fun by allowing you to toss the item away if you’re done looking. There’s another time travel function, which I admit I still don’t understand the point of, but it’s fun.

I spent probably a half hour just looking at purses (not that I bought any), insanely driven by the need to have something different, that I couldn’t buy in the store. And handmade. And the money going to directly someone who put a lot of time and effort into it.
And for the most part, the prices were very reasonable.

The Internet marketplace. The best thing invented since … sliced cheese. Or bagels.

…as explained by the BBC, recipes provided.

And here’s another site, complete with Pancake Day rhymes and songs.

But if you didn’t get to properly celebrate yesterday, you’ll have to wait an entire year to get another chance.  Sad but true, and I know you’re all itching to sing those old Pancake Day songs.

I know there is at least one brooder whose favorite breakfast food is a heapin’ helpin’ of fruit covered pancakes.

Today would be a good day to go to IHOP, according to Snopes.com.  Between seven AM and two PM on February 28 (today), IHOP will be offering its patrons a free short stack of pancakes in celebration.  Better move your butt over there before two o’clock rolls around.

I just ran across this while researching Art Spiegelman’s Maus. Looks fun and playful. Enjoy–TC

While reading a Wikipedia article on Bob Dylan’s brilliant music video, Subterranean Homesick Blues, I discovered this Weird Al parody of both the song and the video.  Note the Allen Ginsberg lookalike, with a deliberately fake-looking beard.

I am almost ashamed to admit it, but I’ve been a Weird Al fan since I was in Elementary School.  I remember in fourth grade, everyone was singing his parody of the Brady Bunch theme song, which was merely the lyrics to the original song set to the tune of some now-forgotten eighties pop song.

This parody of Dylan took some real creativity, however. Al’s lyrics are in fact palindromes, sentences that spell new sentences when written backwards.  Thus we have the lyric, “Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog,” sung with an impeccable Dylan twang.  Brilliant stuff.  Enjoy!

Just a little something that came across on The Wittenburg Door Insider recently. Too funny not to share.

I just have to share this with you all. Oh, the possibilities. It’s Monk E-mail from CareerBuilders.com. Choose a chimp, dress them, place them and you have three different ways of making them speak. One of those ways is ultra-fun because you can use your phone and CALL IN a recorded message in your own voice! Send it on to friends and/or co-workers from there. The way I figure it, any time you have a talking monkey, life is good.

(I’d insert the image here but I’m having trouble uploading photos too.)

I had to refer to Dawn’s category rubric to know how to categorize this post; I do think the categories will grow more intuitive as we use them.

Anyway, most podcasts available in iTunes actually have a blog associated with them, and one I’ve found that I absolutely love is Escape Pod.  If you don’t have an iPod, and don’t even use iTunes, you can still download and listen to the podcasts via the website; podcasts are just MP3 files.

Escape Pod is an online audio fiction journal that publishes readings of science fiction and fantasy stories.  The Podcast you download will consist of a few minutes of commentary, followed by a complete story.  Whether the authors are professional or amateur, I don’t know; I know little about writers of this genre.  However, the readings are professional quality (no mispronunciations or annoying “ums”), and I find the stories to be generally well-written and the commentary literate and even a little scholarly.  Check it out, and make the most recent story, “L’Alchemista,” your first download.