Monday, August 24, 2009

Myth Being Busted On YouTube

Mythbusters is one of my all-time favorite Discovery Channel shows. Many Discovery shows are now on Discovery's Official YouTube Channel, including Mythbusters.

One of my favorite episodes:

Saturday, August 22, 2009

ThinkGeek :: Astronaut Ice Cream

ThinkGeek :: Astronaut Ice Cream

I had this stuff after finding it in a museums gift shop once and it's sooo good. Not better than real ice cream (though I'd say it's real close), but it's not really comparable to real ice cream.

The texture is crumbly (think freeze-dried lol) and when you chew on it, it gets really melt-y and creamy. If you've never tried it before, I suggest you do.

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Charging Station: A Tech Rest Stop

Charging Station: A Tech Rest Stop

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Friday, August 21, 2009

If You Love Words....

Wordie.org is a site all of you word-lovers have most likely heard of. But if by chance you haven't, check it out. It reminds me of M-W's Open Dictionary, but with a more intellectual vibe.

The sites tagline is "Like Flickr, but without the photos." I think that says it all.

Twitter-ers That Aren't All "Babble"

BBC News recently told us all something we all already know, at least those of us who use Twitter regularly know this. A lot of what people say on Twitter is "babble." Uninteresting, pointless, and un-newsworthy - and dare I say, even un-tweet-worthy in some peoples opinions. Though I personally believe nothing is un-tweet-worthy. The mundane details you get from it is what I think makes it work.

If your looking for Twittter-ers with more depth to their tweets, please observe, and follow, the following:

Wise words:

@QuotesGeek - Lots of famous quotes

@QuakerQuotes - Quotes of Quakers and many others

@motivation - Motivational quotes

@Quotes4thought - Philosophical quotes

Celebrities:

@Pink - The singer Pink

@jason_mraz - The singer Jason Mraz

@UncleRUSH - Russell Simmons

Educational:

@NOVAonline - The PBS show NOVA

@nysci - NY Hall of Science

@BadAstronomer - Astronomer Phil Plait

@make - Make zine

@NatGeoSociety - National Geographic

Various:

@MTVsMADE - The Official Twitter for the MTV show MADE.

@officialpeta - People for the ethical treatment of animals, a.k.a. - PETA

@trends - Stay in-the-know of Twitter trends

@givesmehope - Inspirational stories

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

All-in-one Vintage Kitchen appliances from Cribcandy - a gallery of hand picked houshold and interior design items from magazines and webogs, every day

All-in-one Vintage Kitchen appliances from Cribcandy - a gallery of hand picked houshold and interior design items from magazines and webogs, every day

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Monday, August 17, 2009

App Turns Your iPhone Into An iSaber (Lightsaber)

I can't believe I'm only discovering this now.

I was over on Twitter finding more people for the official @GettinSmttien Twitter account to follow. I was skipping through various American Idol contestants Twitters and came upon Syesha Mercado (season 7, 3rd place - follow her!). One of her tweets from a little while back read "Just played Lightstaber (iphone app) w/ Hess in the Dark. I was Darth Vader with a red sword. Uh I had to stop I got a lil scared..lol"

Lightsaber iPhone app?

How have I not heard of this until now? I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I don't think you need to be to enjoy this. I then googled it and found basic info on Laptopmag.com

"We preface this short review by saying the 0.8MB application is free. We did not spend our hard-earned money on becoming mobile Jedi masters. Here’s how it works: as you swing your phone, a range of light saber sound effects come out of the iPhone’s speakers. You can change the color of the saber on the left side. Saber colors include: blue, green, red, purple, and yellow.
When you are not swinging the phone—I mean saber—you get some nice high-tech background noise. But words cannot detail this application. Check out the video of my fight with iPhone lightsaber-wanting Haselton."

You should really check out the vid.

Whilst on the subject of lightsabers, I found this really funny article over on (one of the BEST sites ever) HowStuffWorks. It explains how lightsabers (would) work.
I love when they take a break from being all "educational" and get silly over on Howstuffworks.com

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Tartan Maker - Make Some Tartan

TartanMaker.com - I'm smitten. I'm a big fan of tartan; it's sort of like plaid, but different. I don't quite know how to describe it. When I stumbled onto this site I thought it was hilarious that it's a whole site just for making tartan... then I spent a whole hour on the site, you know, just making tartan.

If you like tartan (or really simple, fast and FREE background making), I'm suggesting you check it out. If you don't, well you may not find it as thrilling as I did.

I made this for the @GettinSmitten Twitter(!):

If you make anything, please, comment and post the link!

Brooke Hogan Vows To "NEVER" Wear Fur

popcrunch/cc

I've got a new, major respect for Brooke Hogan. I enjoyed watching her and her adorable little family on their reality show Hogan Knows Best and I've always thought she's seemed like a sweetheart. Recently Miss Hogan, using that sweet-heart of hers, made a blog recalling her trip to talk about blog ideas and possible collaborations with (one of my favorite vegans ever) Russell Simmons. Something else that happened on the trip: He showed her an anti fur blog by Tila Tequila and the accompanying video. Brooke tells she was deeply affected by this.

Note: I have never watch one of these videos that show animals being destroyed as if they were inanimate objects. I've heard about them - I've got the message; I'm an anti-fur-vegetarian. But, I suppose, I'm not anti these videos either, as some people may need to see it, in order to believe it.

Brooke wrote:

I love animals, I was raised with animals and respect them. I was speechless when I saw this and it affected me deeply... Animals feel pain and suffer exactly the same way as you or I do. They weren't put on this planet so that we could do whatever we wanted to them and not be held accountable...

Join me and vow to NEVER buy fur...not even fur gloves or fur on your collars.
Fur equals pain and suffering. Period. And for my girls out there, if you watch this video you WILL cry so make sure you have your waterproof mascara on first. Its a killer. Literally.

I think it's great she's taken this stand and is promoting the idea, as well. One of the commenter's on the sourse of this article mentioned something pretty obvious - it's just as wrong to eat meat as it is to wear fur; the animals on farms are abused, too. Very true. But I still get giddy when I see any sign of people trying to be more respectful of animals. Every little bit helps. Go Brooke.

SOURCE

Friday, August 14, 2009

The Climb - by David Sides

I think this is beautiful.

David Sides does a great collaboration with the group Ahmir to remake Miley Cyrus' hit "The Climb." If you don't dig this song by Miley, please, don't let that deter you from giving this a listen.

A Whole New World, Being Sung A Whole New Way By Nick Pitera

When someone described this "duet" as being amazing but a little "disturbing", I couldn't imagine what exactly they meant. I watched it - now I know. With over 12 million views on YouTube, a lot of people know. If you've never seen it, now you can know too! Watch it until you understand what makes it so special, okay? ;)

I'm officially saying I think this is amazing. Enjoy!

K-pop

I love pop music. I listen to all kinds of music: R&B, rock, country - but really, my main music is pop. Recently I've discovered a treasure trove of pop confections: K-pop. Korean pop music (more specifically from South Korea). On Wikipedia, it's described as having "Stylistic origins" in Pop, R&B, Urban, Dance-pop and Electro. It's big in Asia but in the States even I, a huge Pop music fan, barely heard of it until I got a hint from a Asian Internet friend.

The first K-pop song I can remember hearing in Wrong Number by DBSK. The lyrics in the chorus are in English, "You Got The Wrong Number/You Got The Wrong Number/I'm Sorry. You Got The Wrong Number/So Don't Call Me No More". I looked up the rest of the lyrics and translated them and doing so has made me love the song even more. I've only recently watch the video for it which is just as amazing as the song.

My favorite K-pop song at this moment is definitely Gee by SNSD. I don't speak any Korean but this songs fun message comes across perfectly to me anyways (I always look up the lyrics and translate them anyways, though). The video for the song is super cute and it's got a ton a views on YouTube, along with loads of fan made dance recreations and singers putting their own spins on it, as seen in this soul remix by Pumashock which I adore.

So, if your a Pop music fan, and you haven't heard of all of this, now you've heard.

Gee by SNSD

Gee remix by Pumashock

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Esty - Handmade Goodies

I'm smitten with Esty. I've known of Esty for years but I've very recently been reintroduced to the site. Esty is a website that provides a way for the general public to sell and buy handmade items. They also sell a lot of vintage items and craft supplies. On Wikipedia, it's quoted as having been compared to "a crafty cross between Amazon and eBay", and to "your grandma's basement." "Handmade items cover a wide range including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, bath & beauty products, and toys. The site follows in the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee."

There are a lot of things I love about Esty, all of which revolve around the grand variety of things available. Search for nearly anything on Esty, like "woodland", "wedding", "robot", or "ninja" and you'll find tons of things that get filed into the category of things that are exactly what you were looking for but you would have never dreamed up yourself. I guess I knew there were people this creative out there in the big world wide web, but it's genius that they're all oh-so-conveniently on one site. It's the perfect place to find gifts for all those people you know that are hard to find gifts for. There's a lot of alternative stuff. From "Steampunk" to "Emo" or "Vintage" to "Gothic Lolita". There's just so much stuff.

Of course, since there is so much of it, some of it's serious junk. And by junk I mean "junk" - junk as I would see it. Not necessarily as you'd view it. As I've heard someone say of YouTube, what makes it so cool is that there's something for everybody. On YouTube the videos I've "Favorited" of trigonometry tutorials and cute piglets may not tickle your fancy. And your favorites may not tickle mine. And that's okay. Because the more variety, the greater the odds I - or you, or anyone - will stumble onto what we want.

Some examples of my Esty favorites:

J e w e l e r y -

One of my favorite shops selling jewelry on Esty is GetPersonalArt. Other than simply being gorgeous, the items are highly customizable.

Seller description of the cuff to the right: "Have your pet (or whatever you choose) at your side always:) You can have any photo that you email to me, plus a name or dates, and paws or a little something for the other side;) All I need is your size (in the note to seller, or convo), and your photo and details:) I could add an extra simple color or a few Swarovski Crystals too, just let me know what colors you like! I have almost any font you could ever want! (It almost looks like a sparkly tattoo)."

The artists adorable cat, Muffin, models on the "Your Photo of Choice,

Children, Family,Friends, Home, Car, Boa t, School, Church, Business or Logo Laser Cuff"

Complete customization for only $45

Bride Cuff $45 Golden Handcuff Bangles $60

Many of the goodies available at GetPersonalArt

W a l l D e c a l s -
Esty has tons of decals and, because it's Esty and it's just the way Esty is, an immense variety. I honestly cannot think of a quicker or less expensive way to do what decals do for home decor. I'm especially smitten with decals on the walls of a child's room or a kitchen. I have two favorite sellers.
First is byrdiegraphics:

Shabby Floral Flock Damask$38.00

French Frame Collage$48

Single Bullseye $7

Custom Alphabet Block(per block)$5.00

My next favorite decal seller: singlestonestudios. They've recently gotten some major ink on "the current edition of Better Homes and Gardens 100 Decorating Ideas Under $100!!! We're on the COVER too!" - They're just that great. My picks:

Baroque Style Frame $45

Woodland Nursery $168

Crystal Chandelier $28

Nautical Compass $28

Owl on Branch $18

Rockstar Rock On $22.95

B a t h & B o d y -

I like Esty's wide variety of bath and body products. Many of them are made for sensitive skin, which I have, and many of them are vegan. Here are some of my favorites:

By savor: