oh, you know you like donuts.

if i was the type to buy things from shady japanese websites, i would buy everyone i know one of these. i mean, who doesn't need to safely transport donuts? the designers have managed to think of everything, including how to lock your case so no one steals your donut. you can even hold a lollipop in the middle!

have no fear! it's compatible with most regular donuts. i wonder if you can even use it to transport multiple donut holes...

thing i need to make pt 1

i often come across things that i feel i should and i could make, but never remember/have time to make them. this bag is one of them. i think it's gorgeous, and one day i'll actually get around to making it.

pictures from design*sponge.

movie update #1

I recently wrote about the Bechdel test and the car-free test. I thought I would post each movie I saw and results based on those two tests, but I've seen a number of movies since then and have yet to blog about it. But, here we go...

My Brother is an Only Child
This is a really great Italian film about two brothers' political and personal evolution in the 60s and 70s. As it was based in mostly small-town Italy, walking and transit were not shown in an unfavorable light. However, as the movie progressed and the years passed, the automobile gained greater significance both as an object and as part of one's life. The older brother celebrated his first full-time factory job by purchasing a brand new car. The younger brother was given a car by his mistress as a sign of gratitude. In addition, a key turning point in both the brothers' relationship and political beliefs involved the local fascist group planning to burn one of the brother's cars. Overall, I think this portrayal of the automobile was not to specifically signal its prominence over other modes, but to accurately show the integration of the automobile into Italian life.

As for the Bechdel test, it failed. But given the name of the film, why would anyone expect differently? The movie does have at least two women in it. Four to be precise, but none of the four ever speak to each other. (This may not be entirely accurate. I think the mom and the sister may say one or two sentences, but it is definitely not essential to the movie as I don't remember it.)

car-free women in movies

Recently (and by recently, I mean a long time ago, but I forgot to post anything), I read two really good pieces about film, and I think I’m going to start applying them to movies I watch.

The first is the Bechdel Test. There's even an online database of the Bechdel Test applied to movies. Basically, this test applies three questions to every movie:

1. Does the movie have at least two women in it?
2. Do the women talk to each other?
3. Do they talk about something besides a man?

Seems simple enough, but according to data collected in the database, 10% of movies don't even meet one of the above-listed criteria.

The second is based on this article:

“Greenberg is just the most recent film in which a character's non-automobility—whether for lack of a car or for lack of the ability to drive—is used for comic effect, whether as a metaphor for a deeper personality flaw or as a token of marginality and/or plain creepiness...Or perhaps it's the wider society that has trouble conceiving of life outside the omnipresent sphere of what sociologist John Urry calls 'automobility,' one tenet of which is 'the dominant culture that organizes and legitimates socialities across different genders, classes, ages and so on; that sustains major discourses of what constitutes the good life and what is necessary for an appropriate citizenship of mobility; and that provides potent literary and artistic images and symbols'...The list of prominent bicyclists in film history includes misfit teens (Napoleon Dynamite), eccentric Einstein-like scientists (the license-less Jeff Goldblum character in Independence Day, in which the bike is, admittedly, shown as a pretty decent way to escape Manhattan), vaguely countercultural types (Mark Wahlberg's character in I Heart Huckabees, or Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men) perpetual man-children (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure), and people who otherwise refuse to grow up or are out of touch with real life and the working world.”

Next time I watch a movie and can remember to do so, I'll post how that movie compares with the two tests above.

charleston

this summer, s and i are traveling to charleston for the wedding of my college roommate. it will be s' first time in the south (save two days attending meetings at an airport hotel in raleigh). i'm in the process of finding things to see and places to stay. i've managed to find ONE hostel - charleston's notso hostel - it actually looks pretty cool. and they even rent bikes there!

another place that looks awesome is the inn at middleton place (but totally not close to downtown charleston). the architecture is beautiful and you can rent kayaks!

pigs

These must be some of the world's cutest pigs.

chrome

I was having some computer problems at work and when my computer was rebuilt I installed Chrome instead of Mozilla. I love Chrome!

But, I tried to install it on my Mac at home, and there isn't a version for my Mac OS!

without s

whenever s goes back to europe, i always feel like i'll have so much time on my hands and i begin to make plans to tackle all the sewing and baking projects that i never normally have time to do. except, it never happens like that. but today i stayed resolute and baked! chocolate yogurt snack cakes are currently baking in the oven and should be done any minute. yum! the disappointing thing about baking when s is out of town is that, well, s is out of town and there's no one to share what i make.

now, to find a craft project to finish (and there's plenty)...

if i had a garden...

and about $900 to spare, i'd get one of these:

Pouf has solid sheet metal top with a photovoltaic panel filled with five LED lights. LED lights collect and store solar energy to illuminate the under structure at night.

crocheting

This makes me want to learn to crochet.

shelf cloud

this is the photo of the day from wikipedia. it's a much more beautiful picture than this one of salt lake in the winter:


i don't remember how often inversions like this happen, but this one is particularly gross. hopefully, the clear the air challenge will have a positive effect on our air quality. more details about that soon...