Only 3cm high. The Clione, which lives mostly in temperate waters, can be found in the Okhotsk Sea, off the northeastern part of Hokkaido in Japan.

And that country is... CANADA! wow. I woulda guessed Russia, cuz it's got all that shoreline up north, and Russia is just huge. But Canada is no small turkey either.

Oh keyboard you look so comfy.
Let me rest my head upon your giving keys.
You are not like my desk so hard and flat.
Your keys conform gently upon my face.

Let me rest my head against the P key
ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp
P stands for pillow, one which you are so nice
You sit in the corner of the keyboard--
much like a pillow on the corner of a bed.

As i turn my face, my nose rests up on the H
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
H stands for Hibernation, which shall sneak upon me.

While zoning out, drool exits my mouth over the key of N
nnn nn nnn n n n
which stand for naptime. we all like naptime.

Will someone please take my mousepad
and put it over my head as a blanket?

As we pray to God, sometimes we have trouble articulating the words our hearts want to express. One of the prayers from the Lutheran book of prayer really struck me with the different variety of action verbs used:
ï Grant
ï Protect
ï Preserve
ï Help
ï Keep
ï Remove
ï Give
ï Enable
ï Fill
This sounds like an interesting list that can totally grow to include other verbs (and there will be making another post here in the future with a longer verb list and maybe some more analysis of the types of verbs). They say action verbs are more powerful in resumes. Well, how about some action verbs for prayer to get your heart and mind going.

Every Monday for the next four weeks, we'll have a new feature called Leatrice's Lessons. Leatrice Eiseman is the executive director of the Pantone Institute. Here's some things she mentioned while giving a talk for a breakfast given by Unisource and International Paper on November 17, 2004

White:
A color not just of purity, but brilliant

Brown:
Not just earthy, but rich and robust, because younger generation associates it with coffee.

Blues:
Not all blues are tranquil. Bright blues: Almost as exciting as red.

Purple:
Purple is a color that can be easily misused. Depending on how it sways over to a reddish-purple or a bluish-purple can have different meanings. Reddish-purple is more sensual. While blueish-purple is more spiritual.

Orange:
Orange used to say cheap, but it's still a hot color. It's quirky and an attention grabber. Apple helped to bring orange into industrial design with the orange ibook. Orange will continue to be hot. It will not be going away for some time. So if you are afraid to use orange in something for the fear of it becoming out of style, you may relax.

Yellow:
Yellow is the new orange.
ï Yellow hasn't been a hot color in a long time
ï Yellow rooms do not make people crazy. Yellow is good for interiors. Good for dark winter days--physically it says sunshine.

Hot Pink:
Hot Pink, Shocking Pink gives same message as red--sensual. Hot pink is becoming a more unisex color.

wow, someone took some very good notes from a Leatrice Lesson a couple years ago. Many of the points are the same.

Source: 11/17/2004 talk by Pantone Insitute Director Leatrice Eiseman at a Unisource/International Paper breakfast

Read the press release.

I can see how Lego must protect their market, but c'mon, really. It seems like such a waste. How about shipping these toys off to some 3rd world country where they can't even afford toys? Actually, Legos are so expensive even people in 1st world countries can't afford it. Hmmm, Lego, maybe the fact that people are offering a lower cost version of your product really says something about how you are charging too much.

I bet that these counterfeit Lego sets were even like the old school versions where you got just bricks. Remember that? Playing with just the simple bricks? Not the fancy weird shapes of toys nowadays.

And this press release has photos of the bulldozer running over the copy products, and then the copy products going through a big crusher. It's almost as if Lego is getting some sort of sick perverted joy about of graphically presenting the destruction of these copy products.

Then you got a Lego representative saying, "Not only do Enlighten products copy our packaging down to the last detail, but they contain brick components of a poor quality. There was a serious risk that children would have cut themselves or otherwise come to harm if an Enlighten component had broken during the course of normal play."

Yeah, yeah, blame it on the fact that you are trying to "protect" the children. "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!"

Today I got an email with the subject line: Oakley Replicas

Ha! The ol' Oakley sunglasses from high school (circa 1989-1993). Those then "ultra-hip" wraparound sunglasses. They remind me of gold chains, hamma pants and mullets. One day my sister had a friend come in from California, and he wore Oakleys complete with the attitude. She never heard the end of it. Even to this day with this post. "Hey! remember when you had that weird friend come in from California? And he wore those OAKLEYS? HAHAHA!"

So um yeah. To see a spam email trying to sell me not just Oakleys, but REPLICA Oakleys. Too funny.

The colon:
The colon likes to explain things. The colon likes to demonstrate ideas. The colon likes to list things. Good job, colon!

Aside from its function, they are two dots--one atop the other. Not touching. Keeping their distance from one another. Maybe the two dots talk to each other. It's like one dot is explaining to the other dot what the following list is about.

How the dots in the colon behave:
ïÝLikes to introduce a list. One dot says to the other, "let me share this list with you."
ïÝEnjoys connecting ideas: A broad idea followed by a specific idea
ïÝExists in all time: 2:19pm. One of the dots is constantly asking the other what time it is.
ïÝBible verses use em: From Galatians 6:6, "Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches." Yes, the dots share verses with each other all the time.
ïÝUsed in ratios and proportions. Mix the oil and vinegar in a 2:1 ratio. Here the two dots are demonstrating together how to mix something. One dot says, "Hey, I'll show you how much to use of the big number." And the other says, "I'll show you how much to use of the little number."
ïÝIntroduces a quote if it follows a complete sentence: "See what I mean! I am the dot and I am showing you how to follow a complete sentence. Do you understand this, my fellow dot?"

The following poem was inspired by the super loud firetruck horn that just blew down on Michigan Avenue. I'm up on the 14th floor and it was quite loud from up here. The horn musta been so loud that it disintegrated the cars in front of the truck...

The Disintegrating Firetruck Horn

The fire truck crawling along the street,
Other cars blocking its running feet.

"Outta my way!" they scream and yell.
Not an inch they move, ignoring the bell.

Out comes the mega loud blaster
With hopes of the cars moving faster

The horn was rung, so loud it was.
Everyone covered their ears and dropped their jaws.

As windows shook, and pigeons vibrate,
the cars in front, they quickly disintegrate.

The truck moved on with no delay,
So please remember to get outta the way.

The 2004 most dangerous toys list is now released.

It's funny how the advertiser links on this "Top Ten Dangerous Toys" list has links to other toys not on the danger list. Having this little call out box makes it seem like "XBox Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" and "Mutant Ninja Turtles on eBay" are on the danger list.

And a cute little penguin made it onto the list.

Used bookstores now function as a warehouse for online selling. It's a shrewd decision for used bookstores to join Amazon's marketplace program, because not only do they retain their status as a real store where people can freely browse through books and casually find an unexpected treasure, but these same bookstores now become a warehouse for selling books online.

Many people talk about how it would be neat to make a living from selling things online, but in order to do that, you need to have a large inventory of merchandise to sell. Whattya gonna do? Have your entire living room filled with boxes while you wait for people online to buy the stuff? ugh. Used bookstores have just that resource of space and merchandise to move.

So next time you visit a bookstore, it's now also a warehouse. oooo! it's the underground for internet selling. A behind the scenes glimpse!

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out! This is not one of those wastes of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate. (More than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (Just to be bold)

3. Add 5. (For Sunday)

4. Multiply it by 50 I'll wait while you get the Calculator...............

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1754....
If you haven't, add 1753.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number...

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2004) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.

how long does it take you to write eell twenty times in cursive continously?

What you need:
ïÝwriting instrument
ïÝsomething to write on, doesn't even have to be paper, use the walls in your room if you have no paper
ïÝa watch or clock with a second hand

What do to:
ïÝLook at your watch, start on the 00 mark.
ïÝDraw twenty sets of eell in cursive without lifting the writing utensil off the paper.
ïÝCount out the number in your head after you make each set. 1 set, 2 sets, 3 sets
ïÝOnce you reach twenty sets, stop and look at your watch. You had better be able to do it under sixty seconds.

Rules
ïÝYou cannot count a set that you screwed up. If you accidentally draw three e's in a row, then just continue writing, but don't include that incorrect set in your count.

I found at first that it was hard to do eelleelleelleelleellee continously fast. Sometimes I would accidentally make three l's in a row, or one e instead of two.

My record time is 30 seconds for twenty sets. See scan for example.

Some people get Armistice day off. But in America it's a very small number. Which makes me wonder what are the most common work holidays? Surely Christmas, Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, and Memorial Day rank up there. But it would be interesting to see these numbers in what percentage of people get these days off.

One of these days i'm gonna make a little survey and post it on my site. But can anyone find any stats on what the most popular work holidays are? I all i ran into was human resources websites.

468x60 isn't the only banner ad size out there. The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has an standard set of sizes. Their site kinda stinks since you can't view all the banner ad sizes on one page. In fact, I can't find any webpage out there that has all the standard sizes of banner ads with actual examples on one page.

So i made a page. Here it is: http://www.spudart.org/blogs/banneradsizes.php

This review is by the 14th Floor Soda Beverage Review Crew of Chicago

Upon pouring the beverage out, we were quite surprised to see the color of the liquid was red. Quite appropriate for the holidays. However, someone screamed and ran away with his hands up in the air. uh, ok.

After a few moments of declaring that we couldn't really taste anything, we discovered that despite this being a Pepsi product, the taste is surprisingly similar to Coca-Cola. Holiday Spice Pepsi's flavor was much less sweet than regular Pepsi. But it also seemed to have a tinge of Sprite mixed with Coca-Cola. Not 7UP. But Sprite.

There you have it. Holiday Spice Pepsi is Coca-Cola with some Sprite mixed in.

What does it taste like for you?

oh yeah. red zinger tea is so tastytown. It tastes like the sidewalk smeared with red berries. Really! it does! and it DOES taste good. mmmmm.

Ingredients: Hibiscus, sidewalk, rosehips, lemon grass, licorice root, natural flavors, and citric acid

A directory of cell phone numbers will be published soon. This opens the door to solicitors calling your cell phones using up your minutes.

The Federal Trade Commission has set up a do not call list.

You must call FROM the number you wish to register, or go to their website atÝhttps://www.donotcall.gov, to be included on the do not call list.

The number is 1-888-382-1222

"Now is time for question, please anyone ask question. One question, ten dollars. Two question, eight dollars. Three question, five dollars."

He said this in joking, of course. It was his way of encrouraging people to ask more questions. The more questions you ask, it actually gets cheaper. Which is a nice idea. Don't just ask one question, it benefits you to ask more questions.

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

you know what feels really good? when you're lounging in a chair or couch, and you hike the waist on your pants up over your belly button.

Yesterday online for Proclaim Joe Stowell talked about the difficulties a missionary in Brazil faces:

---begin joe stowell quote---
> One interesting thing I thought he said was that
> during Mardi Gras, I mean it's so raw and so unholy,
> that Christians go away on a retreat. Now I just
> want to say something about that. We must flee from
> evil. Holiness means fleeing from evil. But you can't
> stay on the retreat your whole life. Because what
> we've learned is that while you need to get away
> sometimes and maybe replenish your "holiness tank,"
> you've got to engage your world. Jesus, the Holy One,
> engaged our world. And as a result of that, we belong
> to Him today.
---end joe stowell quote---

This going away thing on a retreat reminded me of how artists work... like with the potatoes metaphor that they go underground and work, but then come out to share with others. And this also akin to what Estalla Conwill Majozo writes in her essay, "To Search for the good and make it matter" from the book, "Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art."

---begin majozo quote---
> The soul is the seedbed of our actions. Everything
> that we conceptualize, create, or destroy has its
> beginnings there. What we see cultivated and thriving
> in the outer terrain is a manifestation of our inner
> creative or destructive impulses. There is a
> connectedness between what we see in the world
> and who we are, between who we are and what we do.
> The artist tends the private garden of the soul and
> gives evidence of this process publicly through the
> art that, in turn inspires others to tend their own
> gardens.
---end majozo quote---

It's really interesting if you substitute "soul" here for "faith"...
The faith is the seedbed of our actions...
The artist tends the private garden of his faith and gives evidences of this process publicly through the art that, in turn inspires other to tend their own gardens...

oh wow, that just gives me shivers. Because I have for years always enjoyed this analogy of the artist tending his garden. But now to associate that with faith. And just how well this analogy relates to how Christians act based on their faith. It's so incredibly exciting to draw those two things together.

(Here's Joe Stowell's full sermon, "Faithful Under Pressure - 3; 11/3/2004 - Wednesday" full audio recording, full text transcript)

Has anyone ever experienced this weird feeling of electric shocks in your brain? It rarely happens to me. I'm not talking about getting shivers over your body when something exciting happens.

It's literally like quick *przzzp* *przzzp* in my brain. One time it happened while I was in college. I had been taking photography classes. Then I went home for break, and went down to my dad's darkroom. I never fully understood my dad's darkroom until I took photo classes. Then exploring my dad's darkroom, I saw things in a new light. And I was getting A LOT of those electric impulses through my brain looking at his equipment.

Then it happened again this week. My friend Dave is recording an album with his band in his apartment. Before I got to see his apartment setup as his recording studio, he had explained to me the setup in detail. I very much anticipated seeing his setup. And this album is very important to him as he's constantly recording it now full-time. I visited his apartment this week and as I saw the actual recording studio, the electric shocks were shooting around my brain. *prrzzzp* *prrzzzp* very quick electrical charges. And then when he showed me the microphone they recorded all the instruments through, my brain went total wacko.

So what is this happening? It's like I can feel the importance of the tools that people use in their life. Anybody else experience this?

With a lot of talk about morals in the news lately, here's a drafted paper about integrity and morals I wrote a couple weeks ago. http://www.spudart.org/integrity/draft1.html

There're many things we don't really know. It's an illusion that we know anything at all. If a group of aliens were to stop me and ask, "Say, bud, how many miles an hour does the earth spin at the equator?" I'd be in a fix. Hell, I don't even know why Wednesday follows Tuesday. I'd be an intergalactic joke.

From: A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

A lot of people voted for Bush, because they like who he is. Straightforward. But his administration runs the show. He just gets up there all hokey dokey and looks all cute for the cameras. Look at me, I'm human like you. But his regime is one of the most secretive in the history of our nation.

Bush is like a muppet. Which muppet is he like?

ïÝMiss Piggy
ïÝKermit
ïÝGonzo
ïÝFozzie
ïÝScooter
ïÝRowlf
ïÝSwedish Chef
ïÝStatler & Waldorf (those crictics)
ïÝRizzo (rat)
ïÝCrazy Harry (guy with the explosion box)
ïÝNewsman
ïÝDr. Bunsen Honeydew
ïÝBeaker
ïÝDancing clown (performed by Fozzie)
ïÝDoglion Beast (that big harry beast thing)
ïÝLÝew Zealand (boomerang fish thrower)
ïÝRobin the Frog
ïÝSam the American Eagle
ïÝThe Seven Foot Tall Talking Carrot

outer space:
ïÝLink Hogthrob
ïÝDr. Julius Strangepork

band, Electric Mayhem:
ïÝJanice
ïÝAnimal
ïÝDr. Teeth
ïÝFloyd Pepper
ïÝZoot

The complete muppets character guide

"a typical November hosts 5 days with highs at or above 60ƒ" -Tom Skilling

mine was fun. it's always fun to vote. i like punching holes in things. Seriously, even if i was asked to show up at my local church's gym just to punch holes in a card, i would.

All these standard umbrellas of black,
so boring it makes me wanna yak.
Occasionally there's red or gray
still, those don't make my day.
Those colors get the thumbs down.
But seriously, i want an umbrella of BROWN.

Hotwheels makes some nice die-cast metal cars. Matchbox on the other hand makes all very crappy ones. It's embarrasing the stuff that matchbox puts out. Then much to my surprise, I just found out today that hotwheels and matchbox are made by the same company, Mattel. WHAT!?

So basically here's what happens over at Mattel. You got their die-cast car designers there. They make a bunch of designs. Whatever is really bad gets assigned to Matchbox. And whatever is cool gets a hotwheels name.

Why keep the Matchbox name? I don't know. Maybe there's some old school designer or someone really nice they don't want to fire. And they don't want to hurt this person's feelings by not producing this person's crappy designs. And somehow this matchbox person is just totally clueless that the matchbox brand is the brand of junk.

Here's some random notes about Piero talking about measure:

"Every day I work in measure. Sometimes I forget the dimension."

* Human measure
* Natural measure
* Artificial measure

Language another kind of measure.

Ants use the same 011100010101 langauge that computers use. (I didn't understand how ants use a bionic language)

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago