unsolicited opinions on random things
Wow – check this out. Drop your phone into an Everpurse, and it starts charging automatically. Put the Everpurse into your larger bag, or carry it on its own. At the end of the day, place the Everpurse on a wireless charging mat, and you’re ready to go for the next day.
Yes please!
You can order one through their Kickstarter campaign. Expected ship date: March 2013. A bit late for Christmas, but just in time for my birthday in April. Wishlisted!
We were so happy to attend the wedding of our long-time pals Jaime and Kevin in Muskoka this past weekend. The shindig was held at Jaime’s cottage (where her parents now live year-round), about 3.5 hours north of Toronto. Although it was really cold, it was a gorgeous autumn day in a beautiful location.
Jaime is good friends with Alison Westlake (aka Coriander Girl) who did the stunning flower arrangements. Another good friend, Jed Corbeil (owner of the Griffin Pub), performed the ceremony in a grass skirt and Hawaiian lei (!!!) Jed’s brother, Sam (who runs Sawdust City Brewing) helped sling beer. It was a really lovely wedding, that was very true to who Jaime and Kevin are. Don’t you love it when people have authentic events, and aren’t all formal just for formality’s sake?
Wow – could you imagine staying here on holiday? This luxury treehouse in Tuscany isn’t cheap, but it would certainly be memorable. Rent it on Airbnb.
There’s a new book out that I can’t wait to read called Shi*tty Mom: The Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us. It’s written by a team of comics and comedy industry people, so I fully expect it to be hilarious.
You can read an excerpt (from the chapter entitled “How To Miss Work Without Saying It’s Because of Your Sick Kid”) over on the Huffington Post.
I’m downloading the book to my Kobo tonight!
Are you on Twitter? If so, do you follow anybody because they’re funny? You might like this: MyLifeScoop did a roundup of the 10 Most Amusing Fake Personas on Twitter. I quite like the @SarcasticRover. Missing from the list is one of my favourites – I love the tweets from the @HonestToddler account. A lot of it is Mommy humour of course, but I really do find it entertaining!
In related news, I’m running a Twitter contest for Camp Tech. You can win a ticket to one of our classes! All the details are here.
If you follow arts news at all, you might remember a little brou-ha-ha that went down last spring between Canadian top playwright Michael Healey, and Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. It was all over his new play, Proud. Full disclosure here – I used to work at the Tarragon Theatre, a place that is close to my heart. So I’m not going to weigh in on the controversy, and the fallout. But I am happy to tell you that Proud is being independently produced, and you can see it later this month at the Berkeley St. Theatre.
Proud’s a great play (I’ve read it – and you can read an excerpt here), and I’m really looking forward to the production. Miles Potter (yep, from Stratford) is directing, and the awesome Maev Beatty, Tom Barnett, Jeff Lillico, and Michael Healey himself make up the cast. Oh yeah, and I designed the poster. Which doesn’t count for much, but was fun to do!
Proud is on stage from September 20 – October 6. All the details and tickets can be found on this website.
Cup of Jo posted a link to this last week, and I thought it was so cool. Talia Christine shows how she makes her own baby wipes, by cutting a roll of paper towels in half, and soaking them in a mix of water, baby shampoo, and olive oil. Such a great idea. See the full post with step-by-step instructions here.
[images via Talia Christine]
I remember reading an article a few months ago about the supposed perils of sitting all day long while you work. It sounded pretty bad – the Mayo Clinic says that sitting for prolonged periods of time (like I do, for hours every day at work) is associated with all kinds of increased health risks. Yikes.
Then, last week, one of my clients told me she tries to use a standing desk as often as possible. I assumed a standing desk is just a taller desk, that you stand next to instead of sit (like they do at the Apple store). I did a Google search and found a bunch of articles about different standing desks – this one from Wired is my favourite. Wow, do standing desks ever run the gamut of price and design. Most of them are really ugly, and have exorbitant price tags. Of course, you could try to make your own – the websites Ikea Hackers and Apartment Therapy have some good ideas for DIY standing desks.
Forbes ran a great article about the pros and cons of standing while you work, and offers some tips before you give it a try. I also enjoyed this piece in Fast Company from David Zax, who tried a standing desk and gave up after a week. I’m afraid that’s what would happen to me too – I would give up. So, for now, I’m going to stay in my chair. I do try and get up often though – I walk around when I’m talking on the phone, and I take little breaks throughout the day.
What about you? Would you stand at your desk all day if you thought it would significantly improve your health? Or do you just get up and walk around every hour or so?
[image above of the Focal Locus seat and desk, one of the less ugly but definitely more expensive options for a standing desk]
The Guardian UK’s Music department has a fun little website set up with the music service Spotify. It’s called “Six Songs of Me” and it encourages you to choose 6 tunes that define who you are (the first song you ever bought, the song that always gets you dancing, the song that takes you back to your childhood, your perfect love song, a song you’d like to have played at your funeral, and an “encore” song).
It stinks to use if you’re in Canada, since we don’t have Spotify here, so you can’t play your six songs after picking them. But it is kind of fun to think of which tunes you’d pick. Here are my six. What would yours be?
Montreal artist Jon Rafman has been combing through Google Maps “street view” images, uncovering the oddest and scariest shots. Like the one that looks like a prisoner on the run, or a tiger sauntering by in a parking lot (above).
Check out the whole project (called The Nine Eyes of Google Street View) here.
Have a wonderful long weekend! See you again on Tuesday.
[via Toronto Standard]