Random shiny linkiness

[brooksmoses]

I seem to have accumulated a number of open tabs in my browser containing links that I'm intending to share with people. And, since many people on my friendslist are fond of shinies, it seems efficient to just post them all here.

First off, originally from a "particle" link on Making Light: There's an annual set of awards for gem cutting, and the winners are (as one would expect) quite remarkable. Here are some photos from 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005. The citrine gem that's the best-in-show winner for 2008 is intriguing; it's quite remarkably sparkly due to the little lapis, red coral, and turquoise inserts, and I quite like the overall effect, but I'm not sure I like them quite so much when I look closely at them. There's a really gorgeous sparkly oval in the faceted gems category in 2007, and the "Eye of the Dragon" ametrine that won the faceted gems category in 2005 is quite stunning indeed. The concave-cut rose quartz in the 2005 specialty-cut category is also nifty and quite sparkly, and I'm also fond of the tourmaline that won the 2006 cabochon category. I also like the representative-sculpture piece that won best-in-show in 2007.

John Scalzi's daughter had lots of fun in the winds from Hurricane Ike when it got up to their place in the midwest (IIRC), and proves that she continues to be entertainingly photogenic. And I continue to think that she's a nifty kid. (What is it with preteen daughters of authors? Between her and Maddy, if there are any more and they form a League, they'd be a force to be reckoned with indeed.)

City of Salt is a sort of manipulated-photo-and-text piece, in the sort of surrealist style that reminds me very loosely of Borges. Also quite nifty, and very evocative.

Making Light recently made a post declaring September 21st to be Dysfunctional Families Day, noting: "There are a plenitude of days for celebrating your parents and getting together with your family. There aren’t a lot of days when you can admit that your parents actually drove you completely bats.... And some people need that, because that’s the truth of their lives, and pretending otherwise is poison to the soul." The comments thread turned into quite a remarkable outpouring of stories and sharing and recognition that people weren't alone in their experiences, along with a quite interesting subthread woven through it about what "forgiveness" means, and how some meanings can be pretty toxic while others can be healing.

Some entertaining and amusing furniture designs. Not that many are things I'd actually want to have, but I like a lot of them. I particularly like the park bench that tangles up and grows up the wall like vines (bottom right on the top set of photos). And the idea of a side table that quickly disassembles into a roman-style shield and bat (top right, top set) is rather entertaining. The dollhouse bed (second set) and pumpkin-carriage bed (further down, below the panda chair) are quite cute of the sort that would be really nifty if one had a kid into pink and lace and such, and the garden furniture (just below that) is also very nice.

If there were tours to other planets in the early 1950s, this is what the National Parks Service posters for them might well have looked like. I'm really quite fond of this sort of retro-futuristic imagery, and these are very well done -- I particularly like the Venus and Mars ones, and also the Europa one. Prints of these seem reasonably affordable, too.

Meanwhile, in the "amusing little things to put on cross-stitches" category of art, text messages. They end up being a rather poignant little story; rather evocative given the very small amount of content.

suzimoses sent me a link to this recipe for Raspberry Kielbasa over Cheese Grits. It is slightly disturbing as a concept (though far more so with the Key Lime variant suggested in comments!), and also very entertaining how with only a small substitution of more water for less milk, and slightly fudging the amount of kielbasa, the recipe degenerates into consisting of exactly one cup of everything.

Meanwhile, this is an intriguing way to organize a bookshelf, but one that I suspect would drive Suzi nuts even though it's quite pleasant to look at.

And finally, something lilairen just quoted at me, from sources unknown, but which seems like a good way to wrap up this very random list: "Label on a bottle of olive oil: 'In case of anything, use this product.'" It even goes in the kielbasa!

Comments

[suzanne.livejournal.com]

I like those posters a ot too.

And yes, if you do that to our books I'll lose my mind.

*ponders* But I don't think I'd mind inside of genres overly much. Say your math books, or the architecture, or computer science, even the engineering. *grins*

In short anything I'm not going to be reading....

suzi

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

interesting, how the entire competition winner almost never does anything for me, except for the nautilus cut.

but i'll now go looking for more of tom munsteiner's art.

arranging books by colour wouldn't just drive suzi nuts. :)

i just saw an interesting article on eco architecture (http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7595) yesterday.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

um. did you just say "here are the daughters of two famous male authors, and the thing we should notice about the daughters is how hot they are"? because i keep reading it, and it keeps looking like it says that.

[brooksmoses]

*blinkblink*

I said that Athena was photogenic, and nifty, and that she and Maddy would be a force to be reckoned with if they were to team up with more people like themselves. I admit to being entirely baffled and a bit creeped out by the idea that this equates to "how hot they are", especially in that sexist objectifying sense of "hot" that I presume you're objecting to. I intended no such thing, and as far as I can tell, I said no such thing. If I did say such a thing, I'd really appreciate an explanation of how.

Maybe some more explanation will help.... A lot of my perception of Athena as nifty comes from the particular way in which she's photogenic, which is mostly about how she lets her enjoyment (which is often some form of hamming things up, but wasn't this time) show. It's a skill, and she's good at it. It's rather similar to what Maddy does with her writing, which is (in my view) make it clear that the world is there to be her audience if she wants it, and that she has no fear of being embarassed or patronized. The thing I like about Maddy's writing is that she writes as if she is certain that her view of the world is something that we will enjoy seeing, and she's right -- I like seeing her perspective, because it's very different from mine, and captures and shares a lot of enjoyment of the world.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

you mentioned athena's photogenicness, but no details as to why she was photogenic; frequently when people comment on photographs of other people, it is because they think those other people are attractive in some sense. you said nothing in particular about maddy, and nothing in particular about the qualities that would make "other people like themselves".

i can now see how the interpretation i took was not the one you intended, but i can still see how i got there from what you said.

[brooksmoses]

So, basically, I said nothing in particular about a pair of pre-teen girls, and you (knowing me) got from there to being convinced that I was saying they were "hot"?

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i was about to type out something very long here, but let's see if i can short cut this.

you said something unclear and possibly horribly sexist.

i mentioned the sexist interpretation and asked for clarification.

you clarified and got defensive.

i accepted your clarification but did not and do not think i was mistaken in saying that a possible interpretation is the first one that i took.

you continue to be defensive.

if i thought you were an asshole, i wouldn't be having this conversation with you.

but this is as close as you're getting to a cookie. a history of not being an asshole does not entitle you to not be called out if you are acting in a way that could be you being an asshole.

[brooksmoses]

I'll just say that that's not how I saw what you said, at all.

And how I saw what you said hurt, a lot, by pushing a button where I'm feeling really very fragile right now.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

you asked for clarification as to whether he meant it the way you were reading it.

you got it; he said "no" and even explained how he meant it.

so now instead of saying "ah, makes sense; sorry i misinterpreted" you want a cookie for your error in judgment because some random sexist pig _might_ have meant it the way you took it? and you're attacking him for being defensive? (damn right he's being defensive; you came out of the blue.)

that's whack.

datapointing: "photogenic" doesn't equate to "hot" in my dictionary. "attractive" doesn't even equate to "hot".

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

The last thing I know for sure I called photogenic, in those words, was the rat in this icon. Other things I may not have used the word about, but have certainly used similar phrasing about recently, include mountains and interesting trees. So, yeah, not hot.

[suzanne.livejournal.com]

I don't "hear" that at all. But that's partially because I don't read "photogenic" as hot. (I'm not photogenic, doesn't mean I'm not hot.) Both of their pictures tend to end up on their fathers's blogs fairly reguarlarly. As well as guest-blogging. So as readers we see and hear a lot about them. I think it was the personality that comes through in those pictures and discussions that Brooks was referencing.

[cobalt-00.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I've seen a similar bookshelf design before... *digs for link*
http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/organising-books/

I think it would be fun to create, but by the end of it I would be itching to reshelve them all in the proper order[1] again.

[1]: By favourite/non-favourite status, then genre, then alphabetically by author's last name. I'm only slightly OCD, really.