|
09:51 pm
[Link] |
Free Business Plan # 63
| Product | Disney Princess / Superhero babysitters |
| Service provided | Parents hire their next babysitter based on their child's favorite animated hero. Trained babysitter comes in costume and in character. Sample range of characters include Disney princesses, Sesame Street characters and Pixar stars like Mr. Incredible. |
| Rationale | Parent will pay a premium for a babysitter their child is excited to stay with. Characters provide parents a reason to choose this service over the neighborhood babysitter and other child care services. |
Money potential
(scale of $ to $$$$$) | $$$ |
|
|
11:42 pm
[Link] |
A cooking adventure
I guess it started when I couldn’t stop craving a pear cake I’d seen on a blog a friend sent me. A few days later and gave in and made the cake. (It was great. My only regret is that I ate almost half of it myself in about a day…)
As I started browsing (and subscribing to) more and more food blogs and found more and more recipes I wanted to try. My current process is to scan the food blogs I subscribe to and star those recipes that look interesting. (I try not to star many desserts since they always look good. I'm trying to find healthy options to try.) Then when I have time to cook or go shopping I scan the list and pick a few recipes to try.
My favorite part of the process is after cooking a recipe adding a link to the recipe and picture (from the recipe source) to my tumblr feed. (If you’re curious you can subscribe with this link)
I've learned a few things through this process:
Smitten Kitchen has the most amazing food photography (and great, illustrated recipes)
If a recipe mentions cilantro or garbanzo beans I’ll probably try it
I'm a little afraid of cooking meat besides ground beef.
I love my food processor
I really need a juicer
and a meat thermometer
A few favorites:
Smashed chickpea salad
Orange and apricot couscous
Cap'n Crunch French Toast
|
|
04:25 pm
[Link] |
3-D cookies
Alida and I spent Sunday afternoon making and decorating these 3-D cookies. The angels and snowmen were too fragile :-(
|
|
02:53 pm
[Link] | If you know me as a girl who loves magnets and mosaics, you won't be surprised that I am delighted by this new product!
It's basically a bunch of mosaic magnets that you can arrange on your fridge in one of the designs they give you or into a design of your own.
(I learned about this from RGS who is having a contest where you can win a free set.)
|
|
10:58 am
[Link] |
Industrial Revolution
Kris and I teamed up again (this time adding Hugo as well) and brought this year's design forward from last year’s 17th century Pirate ship. This year the pumpkin stayed on land as it competed Clay's annual pumpkin carving party.
We had nine new categories to choose from:
Political Pumpkin Portrait
STYX!
Industrial Revolution
Unlikely Romance
As Seen on TV!
It’s a Small World
Anatomically Correct
Fantastical Beastie
Bone Chiller
We were inspired by the Industrial Revolution category to create a working pumpkin machine. Turning a pumpkin-rind crank on the outside of the pumpkin turned gears on the inside of our pumpkin. The gears were supported by two dowel rods that ran through the pumpkin and could be seen by a window on the back. At one point during our work we had the gears set up to compete a circuit as they turned and light a string of light inside the pumpkin. Unfortunately in the minutes before judging one of the wires slipped out and we ripped out the wiring and lights.
Watch it in action
|
|
12:41 am
[Link] |
Re: Permit distribution
Dear Park Rangers,
First off I wanted to let you know that I totally understand the whole "only 20 permits a day" system -- if too many people trample all over nature we’ll ruin the very thing we're hiking to see. That said I had a few ideas of how to improve your current permit distribution system. Right now you allow me to either procure a permit 4 months in advance [which doesn’t work for me since I decided I wanted to go 5 days in advance] or enter a lottery the day before I want to go hiking [which creates a huge risk for me by driving hundreds and hundreds of miles to *maybe* go on this hike.] I mean, it’s great that you’re already catering to both plan-ahead and last-minute type hikers, it just that this isn’t fully addressing my needs which I assume is your second highest priority (after the not trampling nature thing.)
I propose a permit system that allows 21 visitors per day (one more probably won’t hurt and the math is easier this way.) 7 of those permits will be given away in advance per the current system because if you somehow know what you’ll want to do 120 days in the future you should be rewarded. Another 7 of those permits should be given away the day of by lottery. This is similar to the current system only I made it same day because otherwise I’m stuck there for a whole day waiting for my hiking day. And let’s be honest here -- nature is kind of in the middle of nowhere. The final 7 permits will be given away 3 days in advance to the highest bidder via auction. This lets the park benefit from our free market economy which your current system, with its $7 permits, isn’t really doing. [Google for supply and demand and you’ll see that you’re really missing out on a huge payday!] This also provides me a way, with limited notice, to ensure my travel plans will be fruitful provided I’m willing to pony up the cash.
Thank you for your time and consideration. See you this weekend.
Remember, only you can prevent forest fires,
Erin Dean
|
|
09:07 pm
[Link] |
Giving
While listening to This American Life recently, I came across the teachings of Rabbi Maimonides. One of his more famous teachings (and the one mentioned in the episode I was listening to) is the Ladder of Tzedakah (Charity.) In it he enumerates the levels charity from least to most preferred with the intention of encouraging more (and better) charity.
Based on my own experiences with giving I feel like he has a few of these out of order. The anonymity of the gift seems like no big deal whereas the attitude shift between giving grudgingly to giving cheerfully seems like a much more central struggle. That said he's the Rabbi and I'm just the public radio listener...
|
|
11:25 pm
[Link] |
free business plan #58
| Product | "Show me where it hurts" bodysuit |  |
| Concept | Pull on this body suit and deduce which body part is causing discomfort. |
| Rationale | It can be hard to know if you’ve got a food poisoning or appendicitis when you don’t know where your appendix is. With this you can!! Also great for kids who don’t yet have the word to describe where it hurts. Now they can just point and be on their way to feeling better. It's educational too! |
Money potential
(scale of $ to $$$$$) | $ |
|
|
10:15 pm
[Link] |
If I had my life to live over...
This picture inspires me to remember that I'm brave enough to be the person who lives the life you'd live exactly the same way if you could do it again.
|
|
12:16 am
[Link] |
Clothing dilemma
I spent most of the late afternoon and evening trying on every shirt I own and placing any that didn’t meet the bar into a pile for Goodwill. The bar was pretty high: it had to fit, it had to be a flattering color, it had to be in good condition, and I had to love it. I was strict with myself even forcing myself to keep only one of shirts that looked too similar.
The problem came when I got to the pink section of my closet--there it was. My. Favorite. Shirt. It’s a short-sleeve, pink and purple plaid, button-down shirt. It officially got its Favorite Shirt designation sometime during the summer of 2001. But as I tried on the shirt today, I realized it’s no longer my go-to shirt when I’m excited about the upcoming day. In fact, I haven’t worn it in several years. It’s too big and no longer fits in with the rest of my wardrobe.
Should I keep this once-loved shirt, letting it join a pile of sentimental, no-longer-used possessions that mostly take up space and occasionally bring a smile when re-discovered? Should I donate it and hope (however unlikely that it may be) that this no longer stylish shirt will happen into the hands of someone who will discover that for them it has favorite status too?
For now it sits on the top of the bag of clothes destined for Goodwill as I search for a bit of peace about parting with this cherished friend of my past. I’m giving myself time to evaluate if memories of the shirt when seen in pictures from the summers it was in heavy rotation will suffice. In a few days the shirt will be back on a hanger waiting to be worn--either in my closet or with a $1.99 green tag at the thrift store down the street.
|
|
11:45 pm
[Link] |
Retraction
On May 9th, 2008, we posted an entry claiming that it is always inappropriate to sing along with the band at concerts (with a singular noted exception if the band requests the audience to sing.)
We have since been informed and convinced that singing along at concerts can at times be wholly appropriate and a part of fully experiencing a concert and losing one’s self in the experience.
We would like to apologize for this error and any loss of enjoyment during concerts in the time since this was first published.
|
|
12:18 am
[Link] |
3x3x3 (a plan for getting stuff done)
The plan is a pretty simple one.
Each day you simply need to:
do 3 things at work
do 3 things outside of work
learn 3 things
The motivation behind this method is the idea that significant progress comes from steady progress over time and that achieving steady progress is a really manageable task.
The key thing is figuring out the size of what counts as a “thing.” Really it doesn’t matter so long as you think it’s the appropriate sized thing since the real accountability here is to yourself. I’m reminded of my friend Jon’s rule in which he’s allowed to eat one treat each day. When questioned about exactly what counts as a treat he explains that it’s whatever his mom would identify as a treat which actually clarifies things pretty well for me (although admittedly I imagine what my mom would count as a treat...) In a practical sense it does seem much more important to recognize when something is “about” treat sized than to define the exact number of M&Ms you can eat before you exceed one treat. Close enough really is good enough with measuring both treats and “things.”
Some of my rules of thumb:
A “thing” at work is something big enough to warrant a bullet on a to-do list and defined enough for me to start working on it immediately. So writing back to a single email doesn’t count, but catching up on my inbox would. Writing an entire spec is sometimes too big in which cases the subtasks (like drawing the pictures for a spec, or outlining the design) for a spec would be big enough.
A “thing” outside of work just needs to be distinct for me to count it. Watching TV, going out with friends, taking a bath, cooking dinner, calling a friend, responding to personal email, running errands, writing a blog entry, cleaning my apartment all count. Ideally these involve different locations as well—emailing, watching TV and calling a friend all from the couch isn’t really in the spirit of this one (although honestly on some days it could be perfectly appropriate.)
A “learned thing” is the most lenient of these. Anything that could finish the sentence “today I learned …” counts. Maybe it’s what a word means, or how to spell something, or a new piece of trivia, or a new skill; anything goes. The important part here is to value and give attention to learning each day.
|
|
01:00 am
[Link] |
exhaustion
“the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest. The antidote to exhaustion is whole-heartedness. It is those thing you do halfheartedly that really wear you out” — Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast
I've posted this quotation before but everytime I encounter it it's really meaningful to me. I think I'd like to commision some artwork based around this so that I can encounter it daily.
|
|
01:08 am
[Link] |
the rest of the status update....
(because i exceeded the character limit without realizing it in my half-asleep state)
Erin wakes up from dream about dirtbike. Erin remembers evening plans. Erin thinks about how she'll have to gas up dirtbike first. Erin remembers she doesn't have a dirtbike. Erin wonders if she has evening plans.
|
|
10:10 pm
[Link] |
Odd coincidence
I was in my office this week just before lunch and wanted to back up some videos to DVD and wondered where I could get a black DVD. I went to the cafeteria and on my way back ran into my friend Andrew in the hallway. He said “I took one of your black CDs while you were gone do you want this blank DVD instead?”
|
|
08:32 pm
[Link] |
Thank you
I think every charitable donation should come with a thank you note that a child was forced to write:
|
|
11:17 pm
[Link] |
Conversations from today
Erin: So what do you do at your job? Something with cars right?
Brian: Uh, I make minimally invasive medical equiptment.
Erin: Oh.
Brian (to strangers we met on our hike): This is my sister. She's visiting from Seattle.
Strangers (when taking our picture): Are you guys romantic at all so you could kiss?
Brian: Uh, no. She's my sister.
|
|
05:41 pm
[Link] |
Ticket organization system
This is where i keep upcoming tickets to plays...
|
|
11:57 pm
[Link] |
Pac Man Purse
Last weekend I purchased a set of Pac Man pins. I collected supplies all week and finally put it together tonight :-) I'm really happy with how it came out!
|
|
11:40 pm
[Link] |
Milk
I am relieved my milk only contains whole grains
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
erined's journal