Open Courses

I've discovered an excellent resource to keep my noggin growing: Open Courses. The idea isn't new (eh hem, Open University), but with the advent of multimedia technologies being widely available, university professors are recording their lectures, and making these audio files (and sometimes transcripts and handouts) available to the general public, free of charge. How valliant, to make their knowledge available to anyone, with no expectation for a fee. I say its awesome.

I'm currently reading the transcripts for Yale's ENGL 310: Modern Poetry. It's extremely thorough, and includes all of the handouts and a selection of transcripts, audio files, and video links of actual lectures. It's a great example of a course I wish I had time to take while I was at university.

MIT Open Course Directory
Yale Open Course Directory
Oculture Directory of Open Courses
OEDB Directory of Open Courses

(click the pic for the article)

Did you know that, to the best of human knowledge, the button was developed between the years 2800-2600 B.C., and was initially used as decoration? Don't you just love Wikipedia?

Comment

I think I've been getting far off topic lately, not too many crafts and cooking posts. That'll come very soon, I assure you. But in the meantime, here's a good memory...

Monsterpiece Theater

Click on the picture, and take a look at the Monsterpiece Theater Muppet Wiki. Who knew Cookie Monster (Alistair Cookie) had such poise hidden within his rough, blue exterior?

Comment

I kept the same facial features with both images, and changed only the face shapes and hair styles.

Comment

Things I Really Like Right Now

• Green River Soda Always has been my favorite soda. Still is.
• Black grapes and honey in plain yogurt. I just threw these things together one day (I had a hunch that it'd taste good). I don't like plain yogurt, and I'm not crazy about black grapes (I'm a green grape girl), but it was goooood. I realize this is as annoying as "Tastes like chicken" comments, but it tasted like cheesecake. I think next time I'm out, I'll pick up some graham crackers and dip them into the yogurt-grape mix.
  
• Crayola's 120 crayon box. I'm the kind of person who buys the big box of crayons just to read the names and look at the colors. Funnily, I've never really enjoyed coloring.
• Pumpkin Pie. I love pumpkin pie so much I tried to make a pumpkin pie shake once, by whipping up the pumpkin pie batter in a large glass without the eggs. It was okay, but I'll probably never make it again.
• 315 Ways to Enjoy Toast. An article, with a ton of recipes for toast toppings and such. Some sound a bit off to me, but that's just my $.02.
  

I like to look at Print & Pattern. Sometimes I get the energetic thought that I could do "something like that." Today was one of those days. I made these on a greeting card making program, and then modified the patterns on MS Paint; it made me wish I had Photoshop.

Ok, so this post isn't entirely crafty, but I am beyond frustrated with the settings on this blog. At one time, comments were allowed. Now they aren't, although I've repeatedly checked and ensured that all the blog settings were configured to allow comments. I wish it worked! I'll try to figure this out.

I like craft/design magazines; like Blueprint, Dwell, House and Garden. But they're expensive: $4-$10 an issue. I don't subscribe, because I change my mind from month-to-month, and don't want upwards of forty issues laying around each year, when I only enjoy ten-or-so. So I've decided not to buy them anymore. I'll see what I can online. Every time I see a magazine I want to buy at the store, I instead purchase fabric. I saw the new Domino and Blueprint today, and bought four yards each of two $1/yard fabric. They will be a dress and a blouse someday. Someday.

The iris flowers are blooming, and I had the chance to take some pictures of mine. So far, I'm only seeing purples and white iris flowers- I'm excited for the salmon and pinks to show. The wind was blowing very hard, but I was pleased to see that some of the pictures were okay. I wish I knew more about taking pictures-I think it would be a great hobby.

Inspired by the wonderful blogs I wouldn't have found unless I had stumbled upon them, I've started Random Creative, a more detailed blog roll of sorts, documenting the great blogs I encounter out there that I may not have discovered if I had only depended on the major craft sites and search engines (Google can be so harsh).

So, visit; if you would like to recommend a site, feel free to email me at the address listed there, and I'll do my best to list it!

Enjoy!

Do dah do's and fa-la-la-la-la-la-ing.

So I turn on the radio today, chase stations a while, and...gasp...Christmas music enters my ears, causing me to smile and turn up the volume. Some people say its too early to think about Christmas (and snow, dreaded snow and ice), but since I look forward to it every year, I welcome the music to supplement my craving for the Holidays. I prefer the older classics (I'm not too smitten on new, synthesized stuff), even though I've heard them countless times. AccuRadio has a several Christmas channels all year-round (eeeekkkk!), and you can sometimes find Christmas CD's at the local library, to rip-n-sync onto your handy dandy mp3 player (which I've done, no surprise there, eh?).

For the hardcore classic Christmas music aficionados, head to your local thrift shop, and check out their collection of records. I guarantee at least 40% of the collection is Christmas related. And you find some rather obscure stuff, too.

Well spent.

During a semi-regular trip to the thrift store, I found the greatest container/vase/pot. The cost was five dollars (which is a bit steep, considering where it was purchased), and I had to put down a few things I wanted to buy to get it, but I had to have it. It is one of those coiled clay pots that kids make in art class (my very first clay project, in fact, was one such vase), except that it is monsterously huge. The outside is colored with a bluish-green glaze with small gold flecks, and the inside was decorated with a clear glaze with brown and metallic-orange flecks. It measures about thirteen inches tall, and while a friend suggested using it as a garbage can, I couldn't bear putting trash into it, considering someone put a lot of time into making the thing. So, I decided to store a tiny portion of my yarn stash in it, as well as my collection of knitting needles. Then immediately after, I whipped out my camera and took some pictures of it...

Two more views: an inside look; an inside closeup (notice the glazing flecks and the number of coils!).

You can link to me!

This blog is new, and I am relatively new to blogs. I'm getting myself established here, so I haven't put any pictures of my projects up as of yet (coming very very soon, mind you!), but I've been drooling at the thought of making my own little button. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but hey, I really wanna make one. Yeah, I know its not craft-related, but it takes creativity to make something with the old 1995 MS Paint. I heart creativity.

If you would like to link up to my blog, type up (don't copy and paste, it doesn't work) the following HTML codes.

You have:

Choice A: a pink and perhaps loveable pink space creature...

Choice B: a little spaceship in an old black and white scene...

Enjoy!