I work with engineers

... and here is proof. Behold what happens to a big bunch of promotional cardboard coasters in their inventive and restless hands:

Also delicious fun on the tech front - the new "security" Mac ad. CANCEL OR ALLOW???

My favorite of all time is the networking one.

slug art

I have a co-worker who has put a toy slug, a slinky and some very strong magnets up on the top metal edge of his cubicle wall. I have found it quite fascinating to see the various permutations of the arrangment of these over the weeks. (The slug is the mascot of UC Santa Cruz where this person matriculated.)

Today's version of slug-slinky-magnet reminds me of those tubes of fabric and a big wide wire spring just big enough for a child to crawl through. The green wiring is holiday lighting, which has not been a long-standing member of this art show.

The Compact

The other day on the radio, I heard about this group of friends who swore off buying new things in 2006. I tried to remember their name so I could look it up when I got to work, but got distracted by this and that. Then my mom emailed me a link about The Compact. Very interesting stuff! I joined their yahoo group and think it would be fun to meet like-minded folks. I may give this a try also, now that I understand it's more about reducing footprint than being abstemious. They enjoy buying things used, making an effort to reduce landfill and waste. That I like.

I also love it when things get another use, another chance, a new beauty.

I also highly recommend a book called Mongo: Adventures in Trash. It's all about people in Manhattan and how they re-use things that are tossed. Also see NY Times review.

One reviewer (Rob Hardy on Amazon.com) : " "Mongo" is slang that originated in New York in the 1980s for "any discarded object that is retrieved." This decidedly does not mean mere garbage, the worthless rotting ephemera which no one wants. There are plenty of discarded things, however, from books to wood scraps to blocks of buildings, which the person who did the discarding thought were worth zero and which the eventual collector thought had value. And many times, that value is in the thousands. Frequently this is a surprising story of rags literally going to riches. Botha reminds us, 'The street collector you see today could well be a bum or a lunatic, that's true enough, but just as easily a millionaire, a schoolteacher, an accountant, a doctor, a housewife.' He has contacted all these levels to report on them."

Great new site for 50s advertising images

Found while browsing the website for the fabulous magazine, ReadyMade (based in Berkeley!), this site has tons of great bright images of ephemera.

Sock monkey for Thursday, November 30

I am big on cheese. But more importantly, I am big on being civil while enjoying cheese. For the penultimate in cheese etiquette, please enjoy this pdf from Charles Purdy, a.ka. "Social Grace."

guaranteed smile generator

This thing is so simple and fun that I can't believe no one has thought of it before. Don't know if it's art or not, but I don't care.

Amazing 3-D Street Murals

Perspective is an amazing thing. On the sidewalk and off.

Vegan semi truck?

Driving south on 1-80 this morning on my way to work, I thought I was seeing a big semi truck announcing that it had gone on a VEGAN diet, but when I got closer, I realized that the words marked out in bits of tape on the back of the container were "GOT HITCHED IN VEGAS 7/31". Excellent.

And then the Foo Fighters came on the radio. KFOG.

Making 3 nice new entries to the gratitude list and it's not even 9 a.m.