Compass & Coffee Spoons

Could This Help Transit?

I got a lot of enjoyment out of this articlefrom the Miami Herald, via Planetizen. Here's a snippet:

"James Harris loves public buses so much, he stole one from a Miami-Dade depot last month and, wearing a genuine uniform, chauffeured unsuspecting fare-paying passengers around South Beach for hours, police and government officials said Thursday.

When Harris, 18, was arrested a few days later, he posted bail -- and promptly stole a second bus.

''He's a real transit freak,'' said Derrick Gordon, assistant director for bus operations..."

Photo from nycsubway.org--their 2001 Best Non-NYC Metro Area Bus Photo contest winner BusProwler, depicting "bus 9910, a Miami-Dade Transit 1999 NABI 40-LFW is parked outside a trailer park in Liberty City assisting in evacuating a flooded trailer park following the infamous No Name Storm of October 2000."

 

Etsy Finds: Best Bets for Pittsburghers or Pittsburgh Wannabes

Say you know someone from Pittsburgh or someone who likes to pretend they are. Say their birthday's coming up. What to buy? Perhaps something to remind them of home.

Can't crack open an Ahrn while shaving? Use this Iron City Beer soap from leavingalegacy:

Ah, true love. Show a Pittsburgher you care by using this keychain by ThePoint:

   

This garter by GartersByKristi requires no introduction:

 

I'd buy this just for the guy's etsy name Printsnat:

 

Light up your life with this lamp from lizziecrafts:

Don't forget man's best friend. Get him a collar from FidosFashionCollars:

Happy shopping!

Cool Tool

Ask.com has this cool feature where you can calculate walking directions and distance. It's pretty spot on too. I just did my route to work and was going to show it until I realized that, um, I shouldn't post my home and work addresses online. I did do that walk today, though, and it takes about an hour. The estimate was 57 minutes, which I could definitely do if I stepped it up a bit.

So, here's a hypothetical walk from Pittsburgh to New York:

You can get there in 185 hours if you want! Pretty cool, huh?

Vintage Etsy Finds

Just browsing Etsy...cute stuff!

Vintage bluebird tea towel from moonula:

I had to include this because not only was I a Strawberry Shortcake FANATIC when I was little, but I had this mug (my mom still may...) From TrunkofPrettys.

This funky vase from seaglassvintage.

And, lastly, this cute scotty dog from snew:

Peep Show Time!

You gotta check out the Washington Post's Peep diorama contest.  The contestants set up scenes using the infamous marshmallow candies from Jus' Born candies (a Pennsylvania company!) So funny and creative! And, you can vote for your favorites. Here are some of my favorite candidates:

Kate Bowen's "Peepator Craig's Wide Stance"

Rebecca Guerrerro's "It's a Major Peep Award!"

John Klingler and Jane Slatter's "Elvis Peepsley"

Jodie Smolik's "Peep Set me Up!"

Check them out and vote for your fave! Happy Easter!

Blogging, 12-steps, and the Nature of Reality

One day at work this week, I was feeling a bit down in the mouth. I wondered why, but being the great student of self-help books that I am, I identified the reason and then felt immediately pathetic: I had one of my photos posted on ApartmentTherapy.com.

What could be awful about this you ask? I have been a self-professed obsessed fan of AT. Okay, it's like crack. I was addicted ever since I first found it by looking for something about apartments three or four years ago. I was practically in line at the bookstore when founder Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's book came out. Well, this is what it said after my photo:

"Okay, the pics aren't great, but Christine in DC's back and has nice flowers for both weeks"

(see the original post on AT here).

Woah. What? "Nice flowers," but the "pics aren't great"? I may be dense at times but I'm pretty sure that's at least mildly insulting. I felt like Carrie (the one from the Stephen King novel) except, unfortunately, without the powers to set things on fire. Like I was asked to the prom by one of the cool kids only to then have pig's blood spilt on my dress or something. Maxwell broke my poor little heart.

I doubt it was with purposeful bad intentions (I'm not paranoid). Still, I don't really understand the objective there. Pointing out who's not cool enough? Not wanting anyone to think HE'D taken the low pixel photo? I'm no expert blogger or businessperson, but I do know insulting one of your fan/supporters isn't smart. Still, I don't know him, never met him, how could I possibly be offended?

I came to my answer thinking about the nature of internet "relationships." People talk a lot about the anonymity of communication on the web. But, in some ways, we create quick relationships without really knowing anything about the people. While somewhat anonymous, the relationships are anything but surface. Because of the somewhat anonymous aspect, we share more than we would with people at work or strangers on the street. We share interests with them, share our opinions, our embarrassments, and in this particular case, our homes. You'd think NBC's "Dateline: To Catch a Predator" would have warned me off of sharing too much and forming naive feelings, but it didn't.

So, I'm sort of starting my own therapy--like any good addict, I've realized when I've gone too far. I'm staging my own intervention. I'm going to go 12-step on AT. I'm still going to keep checking the blogs from the fun people I "met" through there, and doing my own home improvements, but I doubt I'll be frequenting AT as much as I used to. "Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable." Being insulted by a guy on a web site to the point where I write a blog entry? Uh, yeah, check, I think that qualifies as unmanageable!

Apologies to all those AT people who are visiting me here...I know I'm sort of flogging a dead horse!

Fat Fashion!

Amber over at "My Aim is True" has started a great feature called Fat Fashion Thursday. It features plus-size fashions. If you're a plus size, you understand how hard it is to find stylish fun fashions (witness, my travails this weekend, where I tried on about 3 outfits, got frustrated with the fit, and left the mall...), but every week, Amber's been dishing up fun outfits, and because she's vegan, the accessories are too! I know I've found some excellent sites I never knew about that I plan to peruse for fashions in the future!

Open Pandora's Box!

I wanted to share a sanity-saving device I enjoy--Pandora online radio. This has saved me from listening to coworkers' chatter and other annoying noise at work. You can make your own radio stations based upon artists and songs you like. I have personally discovered many new artists and songs, some mainstream and some obscure, that I never thought I'd enjoy. You can bookmark these songs/artists, and then access them later to purchase or refer to. (Pandora kindly includes links to Amazon.com and ITunes). Here is what it looks like...

 

As you can see, I have the version with advertising, which is free. However, they also offer a very reasonable ad-free version for $36 per year, which enables the user to listen to it "on the go" if they have compatible devices. That's all too technical for me, so I stick with the free one. (And, besides, how else would I find out about important things like the "Baconator" at Wendy's?) :)