John Murphy's Stupid Sock Creatures

If you have too much time, thread and old socks on your hands (and who doesn't?)... then you might consider following the path of John Murphy. While perusing the stock of a Hastings this weekend this book caught my eye in the teaser aisle. I was originally just going to send this post to my friend, Frippy, but decided, what the hell, let's share. It was very difficult to pick the three representatives above out of the over 200 creatures on Murphy's website. They are all so perfect in their own stupid way.

Ink-Blot Test Wallpaper

I confess that there are times when I exhibit the attention span of a kitten in yard of blowing leaves. I was writing an email and telling my friend about having finally seen the music video for Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." I was trying to describe it (in case she hadn't seen it) but I couldn't remember how to spell Rorschach. A quick Google landed me the answer in a matter of seconds but I ended spending half an hour or so in various sites displaying all manner of ink blot tests. The most intriguing was www.inkblottestwallpaper.com which not only offers amazing ink blots in both grayscale and color but allows you to download them as computer wallpaper. I grabbed the one above for my Powerbook.

Meg Whitman's Call To Action for Free Internet

If you've ever bought or sold anything through eBay then there is a letter sitting in your inbox from the company's CEO and President, Meg Whitman. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest you do... right now. Go ahead... I'll wait.

For those of you who didn't get the letter or deleted it unread, here are some of the highlights:

As you know, I almost never reach out to you personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today I feel I must.

Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.

The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would allow them to divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.

The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.

The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two-lane system will restrict innovation because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity and inspiration that come with them.

The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington.

Whitman supplies two links through eBay in which to write your representative. I implore you to do this. The form asks for your name, address and phone but that is only to connect with the proper representatives. Please do this. I know it may not hekp but you know that old adage "you cannot win if you do not play." I don't want us to be paying out the ass to meet here again. Savvy?

The Stained Glass Art of Patience Rohde

One of the things I had hoped to do with this space was to introduce outsiders (and locals as well) to some of the artistic talent in the area. High on my list is stained glass artist Patience Rohde. In the hands of most, stained glass is considered a lackluster art form... often featuring coloring book type images (fat-ray sunrises, balloonish landscapes and rainbows abound) inside the usual stilted fixed frame.

Rohde’s work defies these standards, seeming to morph from the inside-out often in free or loosely-defined forms. The occasional use of mirrors also adds a new dimension, incorporating the surroundings of into the light and aesthetic of the piece. Her imagery is sometimes representational, sometimes symbolic, often playful and at other times just wondrously abstract. Items like her lampshades challenge the accepted norms of viewing stained-glass as flat one-dimensional image. These lamps must be completely orbited by the viewer to be fully appreciated.

Her relatively new website features photos of a small sampling of her work. Check it out.