bookofjoe

Afrigator.com — the giant stirs, at long last

Just wait till the fusion of cheap self-powered laptops with Wi-Max: the future lies in the dark continent.

Without rules or a burdensome, restricting past, look for spectacular innovation and world-changing, mind-bendingly original takes on what seemed way over.

It starts here.

Thomas Pink New Age Traveller Shirt — Hide it in plain sight

Short story shorter: The garment has secret pockets in the cuff (above) and elsewhere specially designed for your passport, boarding pass and credit cards.

From the website:
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New Age Traveller Shirt

The Traveller shirt has a special finish that minimises creasing and has two hidden pockets for passport and credit cards.

Fashioned in pure two-fold cotton to keep you looking crisp and feeling cool.

Comes with its own carrying pouch.

Machine washable.

100% Cotton.

Button cuff.
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$130-$140.

The Book of Disquiet — by Fernando Pessoa [II]

The environment is the soul of things. Each thing has its own expression and this expression comes from outside it. Each thing is the intersection of three lines, and these three lines form the thing: a certain quantity of material, the way in which we interpret it, and the environment it's in. This table on which I'm writing is a block of wood, it's the table, and it's a piece of furniture among others in the room. My impression of this table, if I wish to transcribe it, will be composed of the notions that it is made of wood, that I call it a table and attribute certain uses to it, and that it receives, reflects and is transformed by the objects placed on top of it, in whose juxtaposition it has an external soul. And its very colour, the fading of that colour, its spots and cracks — all came from outside it, and this (more than its wooden essence) is what gives it its soul. And the core of that soul, its being a table, also came from the outside, which is its personality.

I consider it neither a human nor a literary error to attribute a soul to the things we call inanimate. To be a thing is to be the object of an attribution. It may be errroneous to say that a tree feels, that a river runs, that a sunset is sad or that the calm ocean (blue from the sky it doesn't have) smiles (from the sun outside it). But it's every bit as erroneous to attribute beauty to things. It's every bit as erroneous to say that things possess colour, form, perhaps even being. This ocean is saltwater. This sunset is the initial diminishing of sunlight in this particular latitude and longitude. This little boy playing next to me is an intellectual mass of cells — better yet, he's a clockwork of subatomic movements, a strange electrical conglomeration of millions of solar systems in miniature.

Everything comes from outside, and the human soul itself may be no more than the ray of sunlight that shines and isolates from the soil the pile of dung that's the body.

In these considerations there may be an entire philosophy for someone with the strength to draw conclusions. It won't be me. Lucid vague thoughts and logical possibilities occur to me, but they all dim in the vision of a ray of sunlight that gilds a pile of dung like wetly squished dark straw, on the almost black soil next to a stone wall.

That's how I am. When I want to think, I look. When I want to descend into my soul, I suddenly freeze, oblivious, at the top of the long spiral staircase, looking through the upper-storey window at the sun that bathes the sprawling mass of rooftops in a tawny farewell.

Comic Book Talk Bubble Paper Clips

Very cool.

From the website:

Talk Bubble Conversational Paper Clips

Speak up!

These cartoon-inspired paper clips are the perfect way to draw attention to what you're really trying to say.

Talk Bubble clips are extra large, extra thick and plated in sexy gunmetal black.

Reusable storage tin.

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25 for $6.49.

Note to my Kansas correspondent: these are right up your [non-tornado] alley.

[via gearfuse.com]

New Yorker Cornucopia

The new (May 14, 2007) issue of the magazine (above) has as its theme "Innovation."

The contents — all free online as of this writing — include the following articles:

"Banksy Was Here: Graffiti Art's Invisible Man" by Lauren Collins

"Crash Course: The World's Largest Particle Accelerator" by Elizabeth Kolbert

"Struts and Frets: Reinventing the Guitar" by Burkhard Bilger

"Fragmentary Knowledge: The Mystery of the Antikythera Mechanism" by John Seabrook

"Critical Mass: Everyone Listens to Walter Mossberg" by Ken Auletta

"Branson's Luck: A Billionaire and His Biofuels" by Michael Spector

Bonus: A new short story — "Hanwell Senior" — by Zadie Smith.

I don't know exactly when the New Yorker opened itself up and put its entire contents online without charge as the magazine appeared on the newstand but I know it was fairly recently, having tried previously without success to find articles to link to and post here.

Even at the cover price of $4.99 this issue's a bargain.

Chair-in-a-Bag

WWMDD?*

From the website:
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Telescoping Field Chair

Our Telescoping Field Chair is the ideal solution for those times you need to bring your own chair — but you’ve got to walk a ways before you get there!

Ingenious — and patented — telescoping design lets you compress the chair into a small bundle the size of your laptop that tucks neatly into its own shoulder bag.

When you arrive, just unfold and telescope to seating position.

Cool mesh lets breezes circulate, hanging drink holder and utility pockets keep stuff off the ground.

Sturdy aluminum and steel frame comfortably supports up to 250 lbs. without sagging, creaking, or complaining!
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$129.95.

*What would Marcel Duchamp do?

20 Questions: How Do I Know If I'm A Workaholic?

It won't take long to find out.

Just answer the 20 questions below.

"If you answer 'yes' to three or more of these questions you may be a workaholic. Relax. You are not alone."

1. Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?

2. Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can't?

3. Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?

4. Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?

5. Do you work more than 40 hours a week?

6. Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?

7. Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?

8. Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?

9. Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won't otherwise get done?

10. Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?

11. Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?

12. Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?

13. Are you afraid that if you don't work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?

14. Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?

15. Do you do things energetically and competitively including play?

16. Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?

17. Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?

18. Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep or when others are talking?

19. Do you work or read during meals?

20. Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?

Well, the returns are in.

Next step is here, where you can join Workaholics Anonymous.

"The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop working compulsively."

Triple LED Cap Visor Light With Middle Swivel Head

Anyone can slap a light on a cap and call it cool but it takes a special person to stick three of them up top and make the middle one swivel.

From the website:

Cap Visor Light

Jeep® cap visor light keeps your hands free while jogging, camping, reading or working in the garage.

Three powerful LED lights with middle swivel head for directional beam placement.

Weather-resistant, heavy-duty construction.

Four button-cell batteries included.

No replacement bulbs needed.

$14.98.