December 28, 2009

The Precious Man in the Air: American Film Institute's Top 10 of 2009


1. Coraline
2. The Hangover
3. The Hurt Locker
4. The Messenger
5. Precious
6. A Serious Man
7. A Single Man
8. Sugar
9. Up
10. Up in the Air


Read about them here.
All of the titles are so similar. Weird.
(Would have liked to have seen Mr. Fox and Tetro included, pretending they were omitted because they were filmed overseas?)

December 21, 2009

Methods/Systems: The Nisse

"In Scandinavia, Pixies or Nisse is a household spirit that is responsible for the care and prosperity of a farm or family. A Nisse is usually described as a short man or woman (under four feet tall) wearing a red cap. While belief in guardian spirits is a very old tradition in Scandinavia, belief in Nisser was prominent in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Denmark, southern Norway and southern Sweden. Many farms claimed to have their own Nisse. The Nisse took an active interest in the farm by performing chores such as grooming horses, carrying bales of hay, and other farm-related tasks. These chores were usually done much more efficiently and effectively than by their human counterparts.However, Nisser could be temperamental, to say the least. If the household was not careful to keep its Nisse satisfied -- usually in the form of a single bowl of porridge with butter in it left out on Christmas Eve -- the spirit could turn against its masters.In the 1840s the farm's Nisse became the bearer of Christmas presents in Scandinavia, and was then called "Julenisse" and has been associated with Christmas ever since.The Swedish "Jultomte", the Norwegian "Julenisse", the Danish "Julemand" and the Finnish "Joulupukki" still has features and traditions that are rooted in the local culture: he doesn't necessarily retreat to the North Pole, but lives in a forest, field or stream nearby, or in Denmark he lives on Greenland, and in Finland he lives in Lapland; he or she does not come down the chimney on Christmas night, but arrives through the front door, delivering the presents directly to his household friends."- fjorn.com

Get one here.

December 20, 2009

How To: Roll a Coin on Your Knuckles aka a Steeplechase Flourish




"You may see this trick performed by various 'cool' movie characters (i.e. David Hemmings in Blow Up) on the big screen. It requires more practice than skill, and this article will show you where to start." -wikiHow

Learn how to perform a Steeplechase Flourish here.

December 15, 2009

How To: Use the internet to create your ideal granola

Mix My Granola lets your customize various granola bases with your choice of a wide variety of dried fruit, nuts and seeds; you can even design the label for the bag.

December 8, 2009

Gift Idea: 2010 Calendars

Clockwise from top left:
1. "CAts LEt Nothing DArken their Roar." Noa Bembire Calendar ($40)
2. Today is ($32.99 or $15.29 for a refill)
3. Stendig Calendar by Massimo Vignelli ($30)

December 7, 2009

Resource: Tommy Rowles

"Tommy Rowles has set 'em up for 51 years at Bemelman's" -New York Times

Resource: History of the Push Pin

Edwin Moore started the Edwin Moore Push Pin Company in 1900 with $112.60. Read about it here.

Gift Idea: His/Hers Classic Sleepwear ($49.50, $39.50)

1. Men's Union Suit ($49.50)

December 3, 2009

December 2, 2009

Gift Idea: Cormac McCarthy's Olivetti Lettera 32(estimate $15,000-$20,000)

"It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station airhose..." --Cormac McCarthy


December 1, 2009

Gift Idea: Grandpa Witmer's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer ($9.95)

Aside from being an incredibly simple but helpful tool, the thing that really endeared me to the Grandpa Witmer Natural Peanut Butter Hand Mixer was the R.N. Witmer Company website. Their slogan is "Turning Ideas into Products" and they sell four other products; a retractable clothesline, a sand auger for beach umbrellas, a vinyl flap called the "paperguard" for protecting newspapers from the elements and the peanut butter mixer.

Methods/Systems: Christmas Price Index

Every year PNC Financial Services publishes the Christmas Price Index, a calculation of the total cost of all the items included in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." This year's total is $21,465.56. Here's how they come up with it.

About Me

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I once took a personality test that told me I was a perfectionist and I thought the test was flawed. True story.

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