Fri, 09 May 2008 01:35:13 GMT

Son of Rambow

"A likable, lightly sticky valentine to childhood, the 1980s and the dawning of movie love, Son of Rambow was written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, the duo behind the underappreciated fantasy The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "Like that film, this one involves a snug community of oddballs and outcasts whose eccentricities, pluck and fundamental good cheer have long been durable staples of British screen comedy."

"Mr Jennings starts out gangbusters, only to turn disappointingly unimaginative," writes Nicolas Rapold in the New York Sun. "The second half of Son of Rambow has the feel of a hack sequel to the first half, losing a loony-but-credible touch for childhood and friendship in order to go through the motions (quirky though they may be) and wrap things up. Still, on the whole it''s better than most studio comedies."

Updated through 5/8. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:23:55 GMT

Wine Glossary: Enomatic

Popular throughout Europe for years, at wine bars and stores such as Paris' Lavinia wine store, an enomatic is a self-serve wine dispenser. Patrons purchase a wine card (similar to a debit card) and insert the card into the machine for a wine pour.

The enomatic just came to my area, the first such machine in Ohio is located at 87 West 2 wine bar in Westlake Ohio's Crocker Park, just west of Cleveland.

I asked the establishment's owner, Tom Lutz why a wine bar patron would prefer to use the enomatic instead of having a server bring their wine. He explained that the enomatic takes the stress and mystique out of ordering wine. There's no embarassment about not knowing what the server is talking about or worry that you are being sold a wine that's not to your taste or budget.

I tried the enomatic on Thursday night and I have to say it's an intriguing gadget. Look for one in your neighborhood.

(photo © C. Sully/courtesy of 87 West 2) Posted by: Sandy Mitchell      Read more     Source

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:21:07 GMT

Circular musing

When we were last at Roundrock and took our obligatory hike around the almost full lake, we saw several spheres like the one you see above. I’m sure it’s obvious to you what the sphere is, but at the time I didn’t realize it.

I recalled spherical algae colonies I’d seen in the salty water of the Caribbean, and I understand there is a freshwater version of them that is common in Missouri waters. Still, it seemed too brisk for such an ambitious building project, but I’m willing to believe anything positive about my lake.

What you see is a cleaned up version of what I showed in this earlier post. The farther we walked around the lake, the more of these we saw. I soon understood what I was looking at, and I’m glad I did all of my initial speculation inside my head.

Missouri calendar:

• Serviceberry begins to bloom in woods.
• Badgers bear young through early April.
• Ohio buckeyes begin leafing.

Today in Missouri history:

• Waltus Watkins buys the first 80 acres of his eventual 4600 acre plantation on which he would establish the largest woolen mill west of St. Louis. The land and structures are now a park northeast of Kansas City.
• In 1896 a tornado strikes St. Louis.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:05:13 GMT

Andy Warhol's Time Capsules

Andy Warhol, king of pop art, the factory, and his groupies, has a fantastic amount of goodies saved up. This late Marilyn Monroe painting, Campbell soup can sketching, white wig wearing artist & filmmaker amassed a collection of 570 cardboard boxes, or time capsules, which have now been opened and analyzed.

This collection is considered the largest of any artists' personal belongings, and allows those studying it to be surprised every time they crack open a box: from a signed photograph of Shirley Temple to a mummified foot, each box is a total trip and a history lesson in one. Posted by: Meieli Sawyer Detoni      Read more     Source

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:36:31 GMT

What's Your Break Up Style

What's your break up style?

Do you drag things out? Try to be as nice as possible? Or just opt for a clean break like this columnist?

Remember that famous episode of Friends where Ross and Rachel "took a break" and Ross slept with the copy girl a few hours later. After that, he constantly shouted, "we were on a break!" every time the issue was brought up. Still, it remained an issue throughout the show.

Breaks don't work, in my opinion. I also know a lot of people that handle break ups by avoiding the whole thing. These folks actually stay with their partners because they keep hoping something "might change."

So let me ask you, what's the best way to break up? Posted by: Cherie Burbach      Read more     Source

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:53:41 GMT

Water - H2O = Life

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor. About 1,460 teratonnes of water covers 71% of the Earth''s surface, mostly in oceans and other large water bodies.

Employed by cultures around the world in rituals and ceremonies, water bathes us from birth to death. Water is essential to life as we know it. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:16:19 GMT

Kiki De Montparnasse: It's Sexy Time

Boy, oh boy, a new underwear brand has come to London town and its sexy. Kiki lingerie has my girlfriends (and their boyfriends) talking. I don''t blame them. Kiki De Montparnasse has some very exciting things on offer - they are chic, very hype, and very, very naughty and I don''t mean in an Ann Summers kind of way. Think Agent Provocateur but without the feathers and leather…I am talking sterling silver, 24K gold, pearls and some very interesting titanium pieces.

Posted by: Gabi Muller      Read more     Source

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:42:24 GMT

Trespasser's will

Yesterday I strapped on snowshoes for the first time this year — and possibly for the last (it’s in the 50s today). Unlike a lot of areas to the north of us, central Pennsylvania hasn’t gotten very much snow yet this year, so Saturday’s eight inches on top of the four to five inches already on the ground afforded our first real opportunity for snowshoeing.

There’s a special freedom you feel when walking on top of deep snow through woods where abundant fallen logs and other obstructions have mostly been buried. You get to thinking you can walk almost anywhere, albeit with great deliberation if you’re using heavy, clunky, white-ash-and-rawhide-type snowshoes. I went off-trail almost immediately, and soon found myself straying over the line onto the posted property of a neighbor with whom we don’t have very good relations. I figured what the heck — he’s not going to be up here today, and someone has to enjoy his woods in the off-season. I was after an unobstructed view of the valley, thinking I might take a few landscape photos. It was harder than I figured; there’s a lot of brushy growth in his recently logged woods.



Fortunately, scenic vistas were among the least interesting things I found. I admired several dense stands of Hercules’-club. These strange, thorny trees are among my favorites, but unfortunately the deer like them, too, and often kill them by stripping off their bark, thorns and all, during the hungriest time of the year — March and early April. And in fact, I did find three Hercules’-club stems that had just been stripped to a height of four and a half feet, their pale yellow nakedness looking especially pitiful against the snow.

The deer bed in the above photo was one of three clustered around a large oak tree on our side of the ridge — the local herd, post-hunting season. But over on our neighbor’s property, where hunting pressure is lower, I was dismayed to find another, much larger cluster of deer beds: eleven of them. All had fresh tracks leading out of them; there was no doubt they’d all been occupied the night before. I saw oak stump sprouts that were still struggling to get above deer browse height, ten years after the logging. The good news is that we won’t have to listen to our hunter friends complaining that aren’t enough deer next fall — the deer, unlike the humans, aren’t constrained by boundaries.



By far the coolest thing I found yesterday was this immense burl on a chestnut oak tree. I shot photos from all angles, including one with a view of the valley behind it: you can check out the slideshow here. It amused me to consider that the same grotesque protrusion which renders a tree unfit for regular lumber (and probably the reason why this one is still standing) can make it quite valuable in the right hands. By the same token, I suppose someone with a purely culinary interest in oysters would be annoyed to find a pearl. Liberate the pearl from the oyster, or the burl from its bark and tree, and suddenly the grotesque becomes sublime, like trading a distended abdomen for a newborn baby.

That’s entirely too many metaphors for me, though — I’m getting giddy! Confusing freedom with willfulness is always a risky proposition. Best to hike back onto more familiar ground, safe behind the ridge-top boundaries which also form our horizons here in Plummer’s Hollow. Posted by: Vianegativa      Read more     Source

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:55:15 GMT

What should you do with your day

What should you do with your day when the forecast calls for a March 2nd in Missouri with temps in the 70s? Rise early and get to Roundrock! When I rose at about 5:00, it was already 63 degrees out, and the sky was clear. We threw the usual gear into the back of the truck then threw ourselves in, sprinting out of town toward our little bit of forest on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks.

We held great anticipation since the game camera had been focused on the filled suet cage for three weeks! The wily woodpeckers would have found it in that time and filled the memory card with their antics.

Except that they didn’t. The camera had taken only four pictures. Three of those were of #1 Son Seth shortly after we set up the camera. The fourth was washed out and may have been snapped because of a flash of lightning. I don’t know. Clearly I’m no Rurality with this device yet. We took down the game camera from this clearly unproductive location (though maybe it will be better in the summer when the itinerant woodpeckers return to Missouri) and moved it to a different location with different bait that I’ll tell you about in a different post on a different day.

Although most of the gravel road from the paved county road was dry and firm, there were a few soft spots, including several within the boundaries of Roundrock. We managed to avoid bogging down in those, but we also managed to dig some new furrows. All that money I have been saving for a new truck can now be put to a different use.

We made our way toward the lake, full of anticipation about how high it might have filled in our absence. All of the usual signs we watch on the drive down (the Corps of Engineers lake, several rivers, a seasonal swamp) looked promising. We were not disappointed. Our lake was about a foot and a half below full pool! It was glorious. We stood on the dam, looking across the expanse of water, side by side in silence for several minutes. Two waterfowl had risen from the lake when we noisily stomped down the gravel road to the dam. One was a duck that settled back on the water farther from us. The other was much larger, though I never got a good look at it. It may have been a heron or a goose. Or it may have been a hawk that wasn’t in the lake at all but in a nearby tree. I was dazzled by the water.

Whatever plans we had for the moment were forgotten as we decided to treat ourselves to a hike around the lake. Equipped with no tools aside from my camera, we set out, walking on dimly remembered paths high above the usual water line. The farther we got from the truck, the more chores I remembered I had in mind for the day, but that didn’t matter. We had an almost full lake, well before the spring rains were expected. (Never mind the leaks.)

Our path was blocked in many places by fallen branches from the December ice storm. That meant we had to divert here and there and climb over and around them. By the time we got to Libby’s Island (which wasn’t surrounded by water, sadly) we decided to pull out the comfy chairs we keep cached there and fall into a little pre-lunch stupor. We were successful in this ambition, with the warm sun on our skin and glinting off the lake water nearby. I heard some turkeys gobbling over the south ridge. I think we devoted a half hour of our day to this bliss.

I decided after that to hike into the hill on the north side of the lake (rather than continue along the shoreline — which was blocked in two places by cedars that had split from the ice and meant a wide diversion to get past). Part of me was hoping to find one of the really big round rocks since this is where we have found two in the past. With all of the youth and strength we had brought along (Seth), it would have been an ideal time to find one of those big ones. Alas, we didn’t, but we had a nice hike through a part of the forest we don’t usually visit, and thanks to my dead-eye pathfinding skills, we ended up back at our shelter, only a few steps from the truck.

Though it was a bit early, I suggested we enjoy our lunch because I had a big hike planned as our next chore, and I wanted to be fortified. I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

Missouri calendar:

• Barred owls are nesting.
• Wood ducks nest around wooded ponds and backwaters — time to put up nest boxes.

Today in Missouri history:

• David Rice Atchison, Senator from Missouri and President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate, serves as President of the United States for one day. Many consider this a specious claim.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:52:18 GMT

Why Psychology is Not

, and work on from there. These types of findings are the best evidence for how much more psychology is than just common sense.

Ultimately what really sets psychology apart from common sense is the scientific method.Ultimately what really sets psychology apart from common sense is the scientific method. Psychology tests common sense ideas about people (along with some nonsensical ideas) to try and find out the truth. Sometimes common sense is proved right, other times not.

But, again, let''s not be too down on common sense. While psychologists are usually sensitive and therefore defensive about the role common sense plays, they don''t need to be: in fact common sense is very important to them. The reason for that lies at the interface between psychology and common sense.

Crossing boundaries
Academic psychologists are generally pretty coy about the role common sense plays in coming up with ideas for their research. They will talk about theory and hypotheses a lot, without really acknowledging that they just had a hunch.

....many experiments don''t return common sense answers....What most people would call common sense plays a huge part in the early phases of psychological research. When psychologists first consider a new area of research, there''s little else to go on other than guesswork or common sense.

And sometimes the results are exactly as we would expect and so common sense becomes science.

Of course many experiments don''t return common sense answers and often these are the most fascinating. They can reveal the most to us about what it means to be human as well as setting up a whole line of further studies to try and hunt the answer down.

When common sense is proved wrong, though, this begs the question of how, and whether, psychological knowledge can creep across the line to become common sense. Perhaps once psychological findings become well-known, people incorporate them into their intuitive thoughts and behaviour.

People, such as myself, who are interested in disseminating psychological research, would hope the answer is yes. Wouldn''t it be fantastic if just understanding Milgram''s experiment on conformity really did allow us to avoid it''s more depressing consequences?

This may be far-fetched but it doesn''t hurt to consider the interaction between common sense and psychology. After all what used to be ''just'' psychology, can become ''common sense'' and similarly what used to be ''just'' common sense can become psychology. Each should inform the other.

But, please, don''t try to tell a psychologist that psychology is just common sense. It''s safer for all concerned. Posted by: Jerry      Read more     Source

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:55:28 GMT

Stumped

When I came across this near the pines, I was stumped. The tree that this once was grew near my northwest corner in some deep, good, completely un-Ozark type soil. It is close to but not right on the fence, and there are plenty of other trees of its same size growing nearby. It’s not apparent why this particular tree was taken while so many around it were not.

That won’t stop me from making a guess, of course. I’m going to say that this tree was cut down to be used as a fence post, perhaps at the nearby corner. (The running length of the fence has steel posts. The corners have wooden posts.) I base my guess on two things I do know about the tree. First, the stump shows that the diameter of the tree was pretty good for a career as a fence post. Second, the cut was made so very low to the ground, allowing more of the trunk to be preserved.

The ring pattern suggests that the tree was fairly straight, which helps support the idea that it might have been a suitable post tree as well.

I wish my tree identification skills were better so that I could make an educated guess about what type of tree it was. Given that the stump has hardly rotted away at all suggests to me that it is a wood that is rot resistant — and thus would make a good post.

These are the kinds of things I spend my days thinking about. It’s a benign sort of madness.

Missouri calendar:

• The Missouri Natural Events Calendar is sadly blank for today.

Today in Missouri history:

• The First Missouri Volunteers marched on the Mexican city of Chihuahua on this day in 1847. Looking more like bears than men, they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, but they surprised their opponents and opened Mexico to further conquest by the United States.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:49:22 GMT

Cool Place: Vanuatu

Sparkling beaches may just be every island vacation dream, but Vanuatu has a little something special. This group of 83 islands offers mountainous spaces of volcanic origin and plenty of space for the adventurous types to poke around in the wilderness. Take a guide, boat between islands, and consider camping in a village retreat overnight for a truly mind-blowing experience.

Did I mention that the island pictured above is for sale?! Check out Vanuatu's tourism site and start planning your trip there. Posted by: Meieli Sawyer Detoni      Read more     Source

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:29:22 GMT

Persistence

Do you have persistence?

If you plan to start your own business you better learn some persistence. First of all starting your own business is going to take time. You always here about the 1% of businesses that just take off, well the 99% you do not hear about take a lot of time to get off the ground.

Further, there is going to be bad days, really bad days, extremely bad days, and the good days. You have to be willing to deal with those bad days and thoroughly enjoy the good days.

I am not saying that starting a small business is going to be a nightmare, but it will be a big challenge. However, you have to realize going in that every day is not going to be a bed of roses. You are going to have to work hard, work long hours, and scrape by for the first few years.

Do you have the persistence to stick with it? For more on persistence go to the Start Up Spark Blog. Posted by: John Dornoff      Read more     Source

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:12:19 GMT

Cool Pick: Bold Scarves

Looking for a quick way to get celeb style and not spend a fortune? Bold scarves are the way to go. Whether you find one at ASOS.com for a discounted rate or at eLuxury for a pretty penny, you can channel the right look, and fast.

So go ahead: loop one around your neck like Ashley Tisdale, let one drape down in the style of Kate Moss, or just let one hang like the Olsens. No matter what, you've got an extra ounce of insta-style going on, and that's just what you need to get one New Year's resolution out the way. Looking good? Done. Posted by: Meieli Sawyer Detoni      Read more     Source

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:59:41 GMT

Sorry ya'll

Dear fabulous readers of this blog,

I would like to apologize for the lack of updates recently. I moved into a new place over the weekend and the kinks with the internet have not been worked out yet. I am currently sitting in a fun cafe, B cup, on 13th and Avenue B, which is in my new 'hood. You should stop here sometime and get the roast beef sandwich, it is delish! As soon as my internet gets worked out I will be posting every day again.

Thanks for being patient with me!

*Ryan

Oh by the way you should check out LA-Story.com Stevie is tres magnifique!!

Posted by: Ryan      Read more     Source

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:56:32 GMT

Vinturi fizzes your wine to fineness fast

Be it a gift for yourself or for an upcoming celebration, the Vinturi Wine Aerator attempts to bypass cellar aging, decanting, "breathing" - perfect for party throwers and partygoers who seem to leave such details, as decanting wine and allowing it to "breathe" for a half hour or more, to the last minute (we''re not all perfect!). Vinturi accomplishes the process of breathing in seconds.

Hold Vinturi over your glass and pour wine through it (this is a technique called aerating wine). You''ll notice that the wine will make funny fizzing and gurgling noises, the process of aerating wine allows oxygen to soften the wine, letting the fruit and its signature flavors to emerge.

The end result is generally pretty good; however, wine aficionados might know that you''re serving with a hint of trickery. But, hey, after a few glasses of deliciousness I have a feeling that even the skeptics will begin to smile and reveal a tipsy tribute or two to the second, third, and all future bottles.

Price: $39.95 at Amazon.

Available after January 7, 2008 for $39.95 at wineenthusiast.com. Posted by: Sarah      Read more     Source

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:25:04 GMT

The reluctant burn pile

This is the one burn pile that never realized its full potential in life. When we had the lake made, the dozer man took down hundreds of trees that had been in the Central Valley. He made long piles of them that he later set afire. They all burned to ash. Except for this one.

You’ve seen the glass chunk on top of that stump before, but I don’t think I’ve ever shown the pile of branches and felled trees that surround it. When the dam was finished and the valve was closed, this pile was still smoldering, sending a wispy line of white smoke into the air. The builder assured us that the coals would eventually re-ignite the wood and the pile would be gone long before the lake bed filled. That never happened.

Libby and I would visit the pile of dried wood in the empty lake bed and stuff old phone books into it then set them on fire, confident that the pile would burn to ash, if not this time, then the next time we did it. Or the next time. That never happened.

Eventually we understood that the water gods had appropriated the burn pile with the intent that it serve as underwater structure for the fish that would be teeming in the deep waters of our lake. So we carried some steel fence posts out to this pile along with some rope made of a substance not of this earth and tied down the pile to the stakes (driven by Pablo into the unyielding Ozark hardpan, by the way). I put the glass chunk on the top of the stump to mark the location of the pile so that I could drop a line beside it and pull out lunker bass all day long. Then we waited for the lake to fill. That never happened.

Well, it did happen. Quite a few times, actually. But it all drained away. So the burn pile that became fish structure became a conventional brush pile. When there was water here, I’m sure the wild fish explored the intricate structure with an eye to settling down there. They’re all about a hundred feet to the west for the time being. Now when we pass close to this pile, flocks of little gray birds burst from it in panic. I’m sure terrestrial critters have explored the intricate structure with an eye to settling down there. But the spring rains will come and flush them out. By July, all of the fish that had moved in again will have retreated to the part of the lake that still has water. And the cycle continues. That part does happen.

It must be frustrating to be this pile. It’s never realized its full potential as a burn pile. It’s never realized its full potential as a fish structure. It’s never realized its full potential as a brush pile. About the only thing it has really done is kept me frustrated, and maybe that’s what its real potential is. Good work, then, I say!

I’m standing at ground level in this picture, with the camera held before my face. The glass chunk is higher than my head, and the lake has been higher than the glass chunk, so the water is plenty deep here for lunker bass curious about the lure that has been dropped in their midst. That might happen.

Missouri calendar:

• Look for goldfinches, cardinals, titmice, chicadees and nuthatches.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:03:47 GMT

Merry holidays!

A “garden version” of The Night Before Christmas:

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the yard,
Not a vegetable was growing, not even Swiss chard.
The hoses were stored in the cellar with care
And I, rest assured, knew they wouldn’t freeze there.
The perennials were mulched, all snug in their beds
While visions of springtime danced in their heads.
The new planted shrubs had been soaked by the hose
To settle their roots for the long, winter’s doze.
And out on the lawn, the new fallen snow
Protected the roots of the grasses below.
When out in the drive there arose such a clatter,
I ran with my hoe to see what was the matter.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a truck full of useful gardening gear.
Saint Nick, the driver, so plump and so jolly
Jumped out of his truck with a sack full of holly.
I’ve brought trimmers and clippers and tubers and seeds
And landscape fabric to eliminate weeds;
Well-aged manure, strained finely for spreading,
Just what you need for your annual flower bedding;
And colorful flagstones for a new garden path;
And for birds and bird watchers, a feeder and bath.
I’ve an insect pest guide to help you to know
Which of the bugs will cause plants to grow slow;
A new sprayer to fill with safe soap and oil;
A floating row cover - there are insects to foil!
For gardening with ease, I’ve a new rototiller,
Pads for your knees and organic bug killer.
For pH detecting, here’s a soil-testing kit
For soil preparation that’s sure to be a hit;
A new mulching mower for grass blade clipping,
And a long soaker hose that saves water by dripping.
With jolly Saint Nick’s gift-giving complete,
He started his truck and took off down the street.
And I heard him exclaim through the motor’s loud hum,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a green thumb!”

Poem courtesy of the Ohio State Extension Service, originally posted here. According to them, the poem was written by Jack Kerrigan, an Ohio horticulture educator, and is an organic gardening version of a poem written by Charles and Janice Jensen and published originally in The New York Times in the 1950’s.

Photo courtesy of University of Nebraska-Lincoln / Nebraska Forest Service. Posted by: Caroline Brown      Read more     Source