Space Invaders cutting board on Etsy: “Etsy craftsman l337motif uses ‘pixels’ of walnut and hard maple to create wooden cutting board with vintage gaming motifs for $125 each.”

(Via Boing Boing Gadgets.)

Michael Ruhlman’s essential kitchen gadgets: “Food writer Michael Ruhlman’s list of essential kitchen gadgets are what you’d expect from a guy who wrote a book called The Elements of Cooking — no garlic massagers or bacon wafters here.”

(Via Boing Boing Gadgets.)

Gogglemarks – Backyard Composter: “Well, it’s garden season again, which means it’s time to start composting. I meant to be composting throughout the winter, but a telephone pole fell on my old compost pile, and I’ve had absolutely no motivation to repair it. It wasn’t much of a pile anyways. As anyone who knows how it works will tell you (not me!) composting can be tricky. It takes a delicate balance of nitrogen, carbon, moisture and air to do it correctly, and if you’re doing the conventional compost ‘heap,’ that means making sure your balance of raw material is good, that the heap is well drained, and that you turn it over quite regularly so that air can get to the microbes that need it.
Some folks (especially urbanites like myself) have resorted to compost tumblers, which alleviate the air and moisture issue by making it easy to aerate and drain the pile. These tumblers are cool, but often expensive. Since it’s essentially just a drum on a fixed axle with some holes poked in it, it was fairly easy to build one myself on the cheap. I settled on a design that maximizes air and drainage, keeping the compost moist but not wet, and aerated but not dry. I did it for about forty bucks, and it didn’t really take any special tools.”

Woot! – One Day, One Deal: “Watergate. Jim Jones. ABBA. If you have any doubt that the 1970s were a confused, disturbing time, just look at what they were doing with Jell-O brand gelatin dessert. The New Joys of Jell-O is a glimpse into the void at the heart of a lost people. I don’t want to give too much away, but the weak-stomached among you should know that sauerkraut makes an appearance…”

From here to there and back: “I had heard stories of the crowds in the Coach store over the weekend. I didn’t go in, but I glanced in the window – the store was packed, huge lines. Not sure just what sorts of discounts and prices were going on in there, but I’m not sure it matters. The Coach bag is emblematic of class, a badge of honor for the bourgeoisie. People here would stand in line for hours at the thought of scoring a deal on this label.

It is, after all, all about the labels. You’re no one if you aren’t wearing/driving/carrying a brand that identifies you.”

Tammy promised about 12 years ago to be with me “in sickness and in health”. Right now, we’re working on the health part. I’ve been going to a personal trainer for the last six weeks with mixed results. Today, my workout was very strenuous and he pulled me aside and let me know the facts. Unless I change what I eat and start drinking more water and taking vitamins, there was no way I’d ever see any benefits.

I knew he was right. I was so exhausted I thought I was going to throw up.

Change is hard and the worst kind is change that you *know* has to happen. I have to give up my “foodie” status for awhile and eat simple protiens, less carbs and well, less fat. The worst is cutting things artificial which is next to impossible in this modern age of processed foods.

Wish me luck…

I’m trying to spend more time writing and less time telling myself I have no time to write. Drinking coffee on a Saturday monring means I have my Mac open and on the table.

I’ve spent the last 7 hours installing Windows Small Business Server. 7 hours is a long time in life to give up for something this mundane. Yesterday, I took an hour and wiped the machine, added the disks in a drive array and prepped it for today’s install, hoping I could be on site with our customer at 1PM. Nope.

First, the Windows install needs a driver before even the first files go on the disk. That’s really not a big deal since HP warns you multiple times and provides you with a driver. The worst of it is that it requires a floppy disk. That’s because there’s no way for the setup software to recognize a USB drive, the “floppy” of the modern age. So I spent 15 minutes digging up a USB floppy drive and a blank disk, then copying the drivers and rebooting the machine. Progress!

That’s when the real work began. I’ve been feeding the machine disks for *six* hours and now I’m watching Windows Update download over 42 updates, patches and software adds. Yuck.

Some of this is expected, but 7 hours? C’mon!