Photo Coyote Yet another version of an ordinary reality.

Oh, Sweet Google Pen. How I Covet Thee.

This is why I dragged myself out of my sick-bed and drove my ancient, dilapidated vehicle across town to stagger through LinuxFestNorthwest in a flu-brained stupor. I realllllllly wanted a Google pen. The shadow mustache is an added bonus. Ironic, too, seeing as how I was the only humanoid on the premises who was exuding any estrogen.

Suggestion to uber-geeks: Pretty-up your presentations! All the tables at LinuxFest looked way too much alike. Other than Google and Ubuntu (thank you colorful banners), it was difficult to distinguish one vendor from another. Without the map that told me which vendor resided at which table, I would have been completely clueless.

Sadly, the robotics demo was dissappointing. Sob! That’s the second-most compelling reason for my wanting to attend the event. Fortunately, in the robotics room, there was a large table bearing several huge boxes of leftover cookies that had been donated by our local Albertson’s grocery. The presenters kept encouraging me to take some. Lots of them! For free!

So, I politely hoarded one from each box, and ate them on the way home in the car, hoping that the sugar rush would help keep me alert, or at least awake, given the fact that my flu-enhanced body had remained upright for far too long, due to the mesmerizing demo of the ever-amazing Google Earth application. They made my pen, too, you know.

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, I made a committment to use as few resources as possible for 24 hours. This was a relatively easy fête accomplis because I’ve been quite ill for the past few days, and have pretty much been lying around doing nothing but perfecting the art of staring stuporously into space with a half box of tissues stuffed in my nose.

I confess to using a bit of electricity to heat the hot water I needed for brewing copious cupsful of herbal tea. Thank the tea gods for reminding me to stock up on all those little bags of tasty goodness the last time I went to my local, el cheapo, past-pull-date store. I’ve been consuming 2 cups of tea per hour, hoping to flush out the EvilEvil virus, and attempting to satisfy the aggressively insatiable thirst I develop whenever I’m thusly stricken. My bladder is unimpressed.

If, like me, you’ve forgotten how Earth Day came into being (hey, it’s been almost 40 years now — who can blame us?), I offer up this short and informative blurb, written by Senator Gaylord Nelson, principle founder of Earth Day. Click here to become enlightened.

Google always has the niftiest logos for all sorts of celebratory events. Behold their creation for Earth Day 2008:

Why God Made Refrigerators

Ordinarily, when I’m visiting someone who has magnetic poetry on their refrigerator, I try to write something clever — something that’s a least a complete sentence — because I hate seeing all those cool magnetic words being used for nonsensical purposes like “enlightened puppy drool” or “dance with a delerious purple woman” or “I was originally chiseling acrylic produce.” Gah.

So, after I’d warmed up by spelling out, “their only egg is frantically incubating,” I decided to best myself by composing an epic-length poem, the likes of which has never before graced a refrigerator anywhere in the known universe.

Behold. My social commentary.

Time Capsule, Photo Style

I am absolutely loving PhotoJojo’s Time Capsule emails. Whenever one shows up in my inbox, I get all tingly with excitement. Here’s how it works:

“Every couple weeks, the Time Capsule looks at your Flickr account for photos you took a year ago. It picks the ones that are most interesting — the ones that got viewed the most, favorited the most, and commented on the most — and sends them to you in email.”

It’s a really neat blast from the past. I highly recommend it.

Click here to get your own time capsule.

FishEyeMirror

A friend of mine brought me an old, somewhat decrepit, fisheye mirror he’d found behind a pile of boxes while scrounging around in his basement. I leaned it against the garden edging outside my front door for no particular reason other than that’s where I was standing when he handed it to me. Despite my chronic lack of vanity, I’ll admit it’s pretty neat to be able to watch myself walk down the front steps of my house and amble off into adventures heretofore unknown.