Entries from August 2007 ↓

Just one extra “i” and so much cuteness… I probably shouldn’t be allowed to blog at this time. I think I’m still feeling the effects of my crazy indulgent Monday Yum Cha.

Oh halp!

Rufus Wainwright – Quotes:

“Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn’t.”

“I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.”

“I may not lead the most dramatic life, but in my brain it’s War and Peace everyday.”

“I’ve developed into quite a swan. I’m one of those people that will probably look better and better as I get older – until I drop dead of beauty.”

I imagine he is somewhat taking the pith… or maybes not. It’s brilliant either way.

ps yes spelling mistakes were intentional this time – just in a lol cats mood…

With Girls and Boys.

Modest Mouse had a video comp and there were some pretty good entries.

To prove the theory that everything can be improved by adding a robot, the winner featured a pretty funky retro one:

I liked this one too:

This is an amusingly dated clip of Hallelujah from a much younger Leonard Cohen.

I love reading the comments on these things*:

Girl415: horrible! This guy completely ruined one of my favorite songs!
xxGOBxxBLUTHxx: am I the only one who thinks he looks a little bit like Jeff Goldblum?
firefly1n: he wrote it yah douche
dalekthay1010: nearly made me cry
Khorney: I agree

Of course, there’s the famous Jeff Buckley cover. But I’m rather fond (surprise, surprise) of Rufus Wainwright’s. Here he is in Central Park (and you can also check out this Irish TV one):

Again the comments, this time on Rufus’ sexuality:

twinklewonderkid91: Yep, he is gay. He came out in his teens i think.
fruzsimano: What a waste… for the ladies I mean.
I like this song.

He is dishy but if he wasn’t gay he’d probably go and do something really boring like marrying a supermodel like Jack White and well, that would have been a waste* (though not on Jack White’s part – glad he’s off the market… shudder).

And here’s KD Lang doing the Hallelujah thang…

*In a sick, sad way. XKCD, as always, has a comic on the quality of YouTube comments. I have a theory that they are from the same people that comment on the Sydney Morning Herald blogs.

Embedding was disabled (grrrrr!) but here’s the link to the official video for Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Across the Universe with a very little Dakota Fanning lurking around.

Saw a review for SketchFighter 400 Alpha in Mac|Life. While not exactly glowing, it’s enough to be intriguing. It’s a spaceship invaders type game as played out in animated pen and paper sketches.

Here’s some footage of what the gameplay looks like:

Clocky, the mobile alarm clock

The alarm clock that runs away and hides when you don’t wake up. Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time.

‘Clocky’ earns grad student 15 minutes of fame – MIT News Office

The idea for Clocky came to (Gauri) Nanda a couple of years ago. Her cat had had seven kittens, and she was charmed by the way they would nibble her toes each morning to wake her. Clocky works by the same principle. “I wanted Clocky to be like a troublesome pet that you love anyway,” said Nanda, a Michigan native who has received thousands of e-mails from around the country requesting a Clocky to take home.

Here’s the designer on the Big Idea Show (CNBC) showing the little tyke in action:

Made this last night, it was most tasty. Should freeze well too. I just served it with a green salad as there are veg and potatoes in the dish already.

1 kilo of pork neck, cut into 1″/2cm cubes
Butter
Olive Oil
2 med onions, chopped finely
1 sprig sage (approx 3 tbsp), roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Massel (or other non-MSG, non-preservative brand) vegetable stock cube
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
2 carrots cut into 1cm crescents (cut in half lengthwise and then chop horizonally)
6 small/new potatoes cut into quarters
2 bay leaves, torn up
2 tbsp parsley

Brown pork in batches in a mixture of oil and butter, place in a casserole dish.

Fry onion in butter until very lightly golden, add to pork, along with chopped sage, garlic.

Dissolve stock cube in 1 1/4 cups (310 ml/10 fl oz) water and add this to the pork mix, bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 1 hour. Turn the pork so that is well covered by the liquid.

Add the lentils, carrots, celery, potatoes and bay leaf to the stew with 2 cups (500ml/16 fl oz) water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to simmer, covered for 40 mins.

Remove lid and continue to simmer for 30 ins or until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with chopped parsley.

Unclutterer (via Lifehacker) is a blog dedicated to staying organised. I lost the battle to clutter as a small child but I still have forlorn hopes of, one day, one day overcoming the beast. I’ve just added it to my way too long (albeit for work mainly, there’s not enough fun stuff yet) list of RSS feeds.

They link to some neat (but not cheap) collapsable measuring cups. I actually need to get some US measuring cups so I don’t have to go through the painful conversion process so maybe I’ll indulge. Or maybe I’ll find some that are less expensive.

Good to see that CableOrganizer.com are advertising on them. I think I first found out about them from one of their ads on Penny-Arcade and have lusted after their cable tamers ever since.