It seems a strange tradition, to bake a cake and light it on fire to celebrate one’s day of birth. But there it is — it’s a widespread occurrence, and one can’t help but wonder how far back it goes or how it came about. Maybe it originated in a busy farm culture, where the…
Bad Table
When considering something you’re going to use, it is usually worth it to spend the extra money to get something of good quality. It’s worth paying a little extra to have that really nice chair, or the comfortable pants, or a warm coat. But while price can be a reasonable surrogate for quality, it is…
Living in the Matrix…
20 years after The Matrix opened, how many humans choose to live in the Matrix, after all?
BOOKHUNT: Better Book Design
I’m on the 3rd book of Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen Series. The first two books, Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates were rich reading experiences. But the books are long, and a lot happens in them. They are the kind of books where you can figure out what else happened or…
Visual Riddles: Spain – The Tree of Shoes
I had been walking for quite some time. By this point, I’d been walking, through Spain, for about a little over a month. By this point, I was used to walking all day without seeing anyone else. And while I was used to seeing signs of people, I didn’t really see too much of other…
BOOKS: If on a winter’s night a traveler, by Italo Calvino
Tedious, pretentious, and unejoyable, I still somehow found this novel satisfying
The Salad Bowl and the Drying Rack
If you look for pictures of “salad bowl on a drying rack,” there is a good chance you will find pictures of salad bowls, and pictures of drying racks, but you are not likely to find any pictures of salad bowls ON a drying rack. WHY? Because you shouldn’t do it. Not really. Because people…
Rubber Spatula Design
I am often shocked when I enter another human’s kitchen to find that they do not own a rubber spatula. Growing up, it seemed an essential tool in my mother’s kitchen doings. The rubber spatula, more than any other kitchen item, allowed for the reduction of waste. Perhaps you don’t think that ‘waste’ is an…
Hot Eggs and the Formation of the Earth
One day, back when I was living in a trailer park in Te Puke, New Zealand, I boiled an egg. Now, if I am eager to eat a recently boiled egg, it is my custom, once the egg is done, to remove it from the heat and add cold water and let it overflow in…
my house versus a bus
Life can be full of the unexpected. I was never expecting to work on the tree ambulance, or to be poisoned by a potato, or to get a soup recipe from Mr. T. I was never expecting an egg to dangerously explode by a camp fire, nor was I expecting to almost get a Hungarian…
Meditations on the Role of the Raisin in our Daily Lives
Most people don’t think much about raisins. So long as they are found in the right cookie and stays out of the wrong cookie; so long as they sit in the peanut butter on the celery or continue to be effectively motivate lab animals; so long as their prices to not fluctuate to a great…
BOOKS: Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
I’d been holding onto this book for quite some time. I’m fond of Bradbury — I enjoyed the Illustrated Man, the Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451. But it was a 2012 Fringe show (Bookworm, by Corin Raymond) that got me to give him a more careful look, and which prompted me to read Something Wicked…