Hear ye, hear ye: the school of Astridica is now in session!

I've been casting about for things regarding which I'd love to learn more, and eureka! I have now found a splendid lesson plan:

Victorian House School

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be exploring each of these subsets of wacky Victorian architecture, and you are more than welcome to come along for the ride. Before diving in officially, here are some pics I found which incited my interest just now:

photo in Eureka, CA by Josh: A dream house of mine. No, seriously. Also, did I ever mention that the theme music to "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" is one of my favoritest themes of all time? Interesting how that immediately sprung to mind....

another photo in Eureka, CA by Josh: dream house of mine no. 2. I could really eat these up with a spoon. Just glorious.

a rainbow house, presumably in San Francisco, simply peachy.

I am so thrilled, you have no idea. So far, my idea of my dream house would be a Queen Anne, painted in colors bright enough to punch out your eyes, with about fifty bajillion weathervanes along the rooftop, and windchimes (and comfy reading benches) on the porch, and a haphazard mix of plastic flamingos and more weathervanes on the front lawn, and the inside of the house would have wide open spaces suitable for a)fine dining and b)roller skating, depending on my mood, and there would be sunlight everywhere, and Persian carpets, and mismatched Tiffany lamps, and at least one pennyfarthing bicycle just for kicks, and there would be an open-air cupola on the highest part of the roof, with a telescope, where I could stargaze or perhaps recite poetry to no one in particular. And I'd have endless tea and raspberry lemonade and chocolate chip cookies for everyone who dropped by. And I'd have a player piano with rainbow keys which would play the latest vaudeville dance tunes. And I'd wear a feather boa all the time, and eat bonbons while reading Maugham in the bath, and I'd have seances, and I'd even have a talking parrot named Reginald who would consistently beat me at Connect Four.

Oh boy oh boy oh BOY.

do it for the banana

Geostationary Banana Over Texas

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Just think: a giant banana. In orbit. Over Texas. Folks, I do believe we are about to witness the purpose of humanity unfolding. Armageddon is nigh. AND IT WILL BE BANANATASTIC.

Oh, and don't forget to donate something! If you don't want to donate money, they're looking for engineers, mathematicians, translators, administrative folk and so forth to donate their efforts.

Please: do it for the banana.

two weeks' worth of smorgasbording

Science & Technology for a Better Tomorrow
Stirling engines will save the world! And it only took a century to get around to this.

Building Stonehenge - This Man can Move Anything via William Gibson Books

360 degree Light Field Display via Boing Boing. It's so holographo-riffic, I can't stand it!


Science & Technology for a More Excitingly Disturbing Tomorrow

Laser Flashlight Hack! - video powered by Metacafe -- am I the only one who finds this simultaneously cool and frightening? What do you think the range is on this thing?

Yahoo! News: Spider web engulfs Texas park trail -- creepycool.

Heating With Radium: nicely creepy, ye olde view of the future


Profound Commentary on Western Civilization
Scott and Rory and the Baby Carrots at TechEd 2005 -- although it looks like it was shot with a cell phone, this made me laugh. And laugh and laugh and laugh. I may have a short circuit. That, plus I know too many programmers. And tiny carrots are always hilarious.

Village: The Game: it's a SimCity-esque game that teaches you how to be an ethical Third World entrepreneur. I'm not into gaming, and I haven't even tried this yet, but this seems to have its heart in the right place. Check it out and get back to me on this.

Should the Net forget? -- Rough Type is a wonderfully thoughtful blog about how ethics and the Internet intertwine. Good stuff.

Greg the Bunny -- Monster Puppets a Breed Apart: trippy, and very funny.

Bono and Steve Jobs: this is so on the money, I can't stand it.

Intermarriage, a short 'n' sweet love story via Yo Yenta!

Side show 'freak' wants to be a lawyer: am I the only one who doesn't see the big deal? Gooble gobble, we accept you, one of us etc.

Odd Mustache Competition: I love the phrase 'beard enthusiast.'

Judge strikes down part of Patriot Act: Hallelujah! Hell may have finally frozen over.

Violent Acres: The Pentecostal Church and The Holy Ghost Want You To Wear Big Panties -- hilarious as always. A great (if disturbing) slice o' Americana.

Midwest Teen Sex Show: BRILLIANCE. All episodes are nothing short of spectacular, but my current favorite is Episode #6 (Gym Class).

Mom via Planet Hiltron. Carole Morgan is sheer brilliance. My car is my freedom!

Mr. Bean: Invisible Drum Kit

Rowan Atkinson: Welcome to Hell

xkcd: Dating Polls: it staggers me, really, how much stupendousness there is in this world. So much creativity! So much hilarity! So much brilliance! Can I be this cool when I grow up?


Art & Design-y Things
daab creative: my friend Luke has his own agency, and oh my lordy is he awesomely talented. He makes me feel all sorts of glamorous just for knowing him.

What can be done from old books: the sacrilege of all this makes me cringe, but WOW these things are gorgeous. SO innventive, so beautiful...so wrong.

Art is Not a Scam: so dumb it's awesome. Makes me feel 11 again, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Henrik Halversson: NSFW, but still stellar photography. I'm a giant fan of the portraits.

Paleo-Future: GM's Three-Wheeled Runabout (1966): oh MAN I want this car. SO cool!

MareNostrum, Europe's No. 1 Supercomputer via Papelera 21: a supercomputer in a former church? How very Avengers. Beautiful.

Amazing things: The ghost of Chernobyl. Via Unscathed Corpse. I especially love the neato graffiti.

Tribbles, Gorey style! Oh boy, I love Gorey! Oh boy! Great homage.

B-Movie Retro Fonts

Science tattoos!

English Russia >> The Matrix Goggles via William Gibson Books

Decline and Fall of the Ligature because I really am that much of a typography geek. You'd never guess I have a degree in graphic design, would you?

Amazing things: 21 examples of dullness in construction LOVE this.

We Make Money Not Art: The unhappier you are, the more ice cream you get I'm trying to decide if this is a good thing or bad thing.


Screens, Big & Small
Haitian UFO Sighting: very graceful, and I'd love to know the story behind it.

Video compilation of TV logo signoffs via Boing Boing: ah, dated signage with synth music. How marvelously quaint.

YouTube: Technological Terror via Papelera 21. Truly a terrific way to get Star Wars geeks to turn off their cell-phone ringers.

Vertigo! -- OMG OMG OMG!
Vertigo, this time with cavemen!


(Sometimes Spooky) Kitsch-o-Rama
Do What Now?: Corn Is Not a Filling -- I am always a sucker for excellent kitsch, and Do What Now? never disappoints.

Do What Now?: It's a total blue-out -- I love AND hate this. Interesting.

Freaky Mermaid Guitar: this just seems wrong, somehow.

Which brings us to: Little Hokum Rag: Teenar, Girl Guitar -- wrong for so many reasons.

Dow What Now?: Whatever. It's still a hamburger meat bolus. Pretty much says it all.

Yurt Madness! Who isn't mad for yurts?


Music
YouTube: Polly Paulusma - Guitar Shop Tour - Track 1 - Day One: This wonderful singer/songwriter is touring different guitar shops, recording different tracks on proprietor-recommended guitars she's (presumably) never played before. SUCH a neat idea! This particular track, despite the poor sound quality, is still achingly sweet.

Kimya Dawson:"I Like Giants" via /Film. Long intro, and unnecessary non-singing stuff at the end, but the actual song is nothing short of magnificent, in a simple way. For fans of The Moldy Peaches.


Health
Tattoo bandage assortment: for the biker with a paper cut, here's your chance to have the most stylish adhesive bandage on your person ever.

Researchers discover correlation between birth month and short-sightedness via Phys Org. I was born in November, what's my excuse?

boldly going where no pocket-sized cinematographer has gone before

I've realized three things:

a) I'm a fast learner, and only require a week to learn that perfume is cool,
b) I'm bored with talking about myself, and
c) I'm at my happiest when I'm creating something, and/or learning something.

To that end, I'll try the experiment of picking a theme roughly each week, and learning as much as I can about it, given that I also have a life that doesn't revolve around a blog. Sorry. Sometimes these themes will be film-related, sometimes they'll be about player pianos -- you'll just never know.

See you on the flipside!

Spetmeber Scent Xperiment, Day 8

Chopin has very little to do with this post, I just felt like snapping a moody pic of him. I got this bust of him at Ross a few years ago; isn't he just dreamy?

Moving right along, Friday was a Body Shop Neroli Jasmine day -- just sublime. why does fruitiness in a perfume convey innocence? Why are floral notes in perfume usually considered the opposite? For me, here's how I think of my little scent library, in order from most innocent to least:

Body Shop Satsuma (very orange-y)
Calgon Get Juic'd Plum Raspberry
Sephora mûre (very blackberry-ish)
Body Shop Neroli Jasmine (might as well be relabeled "Astrid in a Bottle," it's absolutely me and so divine)
Body Shop Sandalwood
Body Shop Ananya

There's definitely a psychological progression within the fruit spectrum, at least for me; darker-colored fruit (plums, blackberries) smell more gothic to me, peculiar yet true.

Back to Chopin: did you know he died when he was thirty-nine? THIRTY-NINE, people. Just horrendous. You stick around long enough to impress people with your brilliance, then your lungs get wacked out and that's it. It makes me think that I need to hurry up and get impressive -- but not before I stop and smell the blackberries first.

NB: don't ever wear perfume oil on both your wrists AND your throat. It will make people faint dead away, plus you'll frighten their dog. And then you'll have to do an emergency rinse of your wrists and hope for the best as your friends regain consciousness. Not that I'm speaking from bitter experience or anything.

Spetmeber Scent Xperiment, Day 3

Invisible Day

I felt invisible yesterday, in a not-entirely unpleasant way. Did the Satsuma thing again, as per Rebekah's request, and did a whole bunch of unpacking and book-sorting. Read a chunk of "Mary Poppins, She Wrote; the Life of P. L. Travers" by Valerie Lawson, and I've hit the part where Travers starts hanging out with theosophists. I've decided that if I weren't such a card-carrying atheist, I'd be a theosophist instead; it just seems like a barrel of monkeys plus a bag of Doritos, you know? I also happen to agree with the theosophy slogan -- "There is no religion higher than truth" -- although the actual practice of theosophy involves quack seances, 'telegraphing' with the undead and so forth. Fun for a Saturday night, but not my idea of truth, exactly.

Still, there's no denying that theosophy attracted some really remarkable people, besides friends of P. L. Travers. From Wikipedia: "before his death Scriabin [a theosophist] planned a multimedia work, to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon". IS THAT NOT AWESOME? Also, Henry Steel Olcott "is still remembered fondly by many Sri Lankans." Man, that's one of my goals in life, to be remembered fondly by many Sri Lankans. Nifty.

So, yeah, lots of heavy lifting, light lifting, reading about quacky folks, and more lifting. Then there was Peruvian cuisine, and a Lee Hazlewood music tribute at Tangier, where everyone was ironically hip except me, because I was still wearing my unpacking/reading-about-theosophy clothes, and no amount of Satsuma goodness (now entirely faded) could make up for my utilitarian, shambly look. Not that I minded: the very last performer of the evening, whose name I sadly couldn't get, was just a man and a guitar singing Lee Hazlewood, and his purity and simplicity blew. me. away. It more than made up for all the pouting and posturing from everybody else that night, and I wanted to give him a hug afterwards.

Conclusions:
1. Being the perfume novice that I am, I'm learning that perfume does not magically renew itself (Renew! Renew!), and requires periodic upkeep. I'm sure this is painfully obvious to everyone except me, but I pride myself upon being a fast learner. Heck, I didn't learn how to properly blowdry my hair until last year, and now see how snazzy it is! This is what I get for being raised by a tomboy mom.

2. It's not a good idea to take perfume requests. Sorry, Bekka, but I was really in the mood to just smell soapy clean and nothing more. I guess there's no predicting these things, though.

3. I need to figure out a way to do a multimedia presentation in the Himalayas, and also hang out with many Sri Lankans.

P.S. The above photo was taken in my bathroom. Yes, I really do have a hula girl keeping me company. And I use the doll's head, which is hollow, as a cup to hold my toothbrush. More info than you ever really needed, huh?

Spetmeber Scent Xperiment, Day 2

SSXD2 lasted until about 2 this morning, which is why I haven't written about it until now. Here's how it went:



I chose the Body Shop Satsuma (the ESP award goes to Rebekah, rock on), because I needed to feel alert, and citrusy scents are handy for that. So far so good.

So, there I was, flipping around various TV channels yesterday morning, munching on my breakfast (strawberries, plain yogurt and oat sprinkles, yumz), when the words "Bill el Científico" flashed across the screen.

Huh, I thought. That kind of looks like 'Bill the Scientist.' As in "Bill Nye the Science Guy." Sure enough, the familiar chorus of "Bill! Bill! Bill!" popped out moments later, and I was then treated to an episode of Bill el Científico yammering away in dubbed Spanish about the science of breathing. Apparently, the Spanish term for thorax is 'thorax.' And mucus is 'mucosa.' There was also a mention of the Krebs Cycle, I believe.

All this science fabulosity was then followed by another excellent episode of "Bill el Científico," wherein he discussed friction ("Friccion!"), as evidenced by him sliding around a lot. Also, there was an excellent demonstration of ball bearings, using marbles and a jar lid, which spells doom for any household with an impressionable and overly curious 11-year-old.

Speaking of impressionable, did I mention that, back in high school, I wanted to marry Bill Nye? The man is total hotness in a blue lab coat. Granted, he does look a tad cadaverous, what with the deep-set eyes and high cheekbones, but I kinda go for that sort of thing. After all, I also like David Bowie, Daniel Day Lewis, and cadavers. Er, I mean....

Yeah.

So, after all this hilarity and swooning and Spanish-dubbed excitement ("Friccion!"), I decided to get down to business, trotting out to my local caffeineatorium with script in hand, but that all ended when I went outside. And slammed into an invisible wall o' heat, about 102 degrees Fahrenheit, which would have been enough to fry Bill Nye's bowtie right off his sexy geek neck. This was a killing heat -- I went back inside, and was already done for the day. It was sad, and no amount of Satsuma awesomeness was able to counteract it. I read a little, napped a little, read some more, napped some more, etc. I also dimly recall watching some "SpongeBob SquarePants" in there, which is always a fine idea. The script, thankfully, turned out to be pretty impressive, but it wove weirdly in my dreams with SpongeBob, which I'm not sure I'd recommend.

I awoke with a start around 8pm, feeling groggy, and then I was suddenly consumed with the need to salvage the day. Or night, whatever. And so, feeling a little woozy and disconnected, I headed out into the Pasadena evening, and I'm really glad I did. It was like the entirety of Pasadena, which had napped right along with me, had decided to stir along with me as well, and the sense of expectancy in the air was electric. Everybody was out, even in my part of the neighborhood, which is just houses and trees and crickets and dim streetlights and not much else. In the dark, people coasted past on bicycles, gears clicking as the riders quietly chatted and laughed. Children giggled, dogs bounded, trees glowed in the streetlights, guys shyly nodded their hellos, crickets chirped, and couples kissed. Actually, I think Pasadena may have broken some record for kissing couples, right around 8pm yesterday.

Like I said, it was that kind of evening. And the Body Shop Satsuma fit it perfectly: sweet, clear, yet serenely lush.

I grabbed an iced Japanese Cherry green tea and chocolate chunk muffin at the Coffee Bean, settled in with a second script (a vile paint-by-numbers gorefest, yawn), gave up on the script after twenty minutes, and people-watched. Folks were thronging to Pinkberry across the street, which still baffles me. As for the rest of the crowds, the night was too hot for people to be as jumpy or chatty as they normally would be on a Saturday night, so there was an almost liquid quality to people's movements, a lethargy which made everything seem even more serene and meaningful somehow.

Pasadena, last night, had presence. It was magical.

After I finished my tea and muffin, I decided to head home, but when I hit my street, I just kept going -- something deep within me couldn't give up this night just yet. I still have no idea how long I walked in the dark, twenty minutes? Two hours? It was quietly glorious, in that wistfully suburban, Ray Bradbury sort of way. Air conditioners hummed, sprinklers swished, houses creaked and settled. In the distance, through an open window, Mel Gibson yelled "Freedom!" as an orchestra swelled. I passed an older woman who was outside just to enjoy things like me -- she was gazing absently at her sprinkler when I walked by, and we quietly said hello to each other before we let our minds slide away again into the dark. It was nice. And my perfume lasted the whole time, adding that little something extra. Just beautiful.

I wasn't planning on wearing the same scent twice in a row, but it has been specially requested, plus it was undeniably part of yesterday's magic. I can't wait to see what happens tonight.