bookofjoe

Dust Ball — Dave Hakkens

Wrote Hakkens, "Usually there is no interaction with a robot vacuum. I created a little friend just rolling around, which you could push or kick in a direction to clean. It has no troubles with cables or anything like that, is strong, and when it rolls before your feet you just kick it out of the way."

Back story here.

Big ups from Gray Cat.

Recipe Rock

Reviewed in the March & April 2012 issue of Cook's Illustrated as follows:

"Not all recipes come from magazines and cookbooks, and a sheet of paper — whether it's a printout or a handwritten index card — can easily get lost in the countertop shuffle. The Recipe Rock offers a clever way to hold recipes upright."

"This small, weighty plastic holder sits solidly on a flat surface while its concave front cradles pages at a perfect angle for comfortable viewing. The pages are held in place by a metal ball and an embedded magnet so strong it gripped 10 sheets of 8.5 by 11-inch paper. Its compact 2-inch size takes up very little counter space, and it tucks away neatly in a drawer. The smooth surface wipes clean easily."

Think outside the culinary space to just about anywhere you need to view loose documents.

$14.97.

Economy Skycouch @ Air New Zealand

"Love Air New Zealand. Fly LHR [London Heathrow] to LAX [Los Angeles] with them fairly regularly. In this setup you pay a bit extra for the 3rd seat, and a pad folds up from behind your legs to make the extra width so you can both lie down."

[via Fancy]

Ballet Soldier

A Monster.com direct mail ad campaign.

Brief: "To remind people of the problem of being stuck in the wrong job and to reinforce Monster.com as the best platform for finding the right job."

Solution: "In a pack of tiny toy soldiers, a ballet dancer is found taking up the role of a soldier. The ballet dancer is completely out of place. This reminds everyone not to get stuck in the wrong job and that Monster.com is the best platform for finding the right job."

[via Fancy and ibelieveinadv.com]

Helpful Hints from joeeze: Homemade Knife Block

From the "Quick Tips" section of the March & April issue of Cook's Illustrated: "To keep an assortment of knives on the countertop for easy access and to shield them when not in use, Billie Dionne of Hooksett, New Hampshire uses this knife block stand-in: a tall plastic container filled with rice. (Dried beans also work.) The rice creates a 'slotless' universal system that accomodates a range of different-size knives."

Just excellent.

For a splash of color use rice — and/or beans — with bright hues.

World's best tongue scraper

I've tried 'em all over the years and the Oolitt stands fur and fuzz above the rest.

It's a simple piece of flexible plastic with a gently serrated lower edge which you bend into a "U" shape — then you place the bend in the U as far back on your tongue as you can without gagging, then draw it forward across the surface of your tongue.

The further back you go, the better.

You rinse off the gunk in hot water and let it air dry till next morning (preferably out of sight so someone else doesn't use it. Eewww).

They last forever; I toss mine away when newsprint buildup from my fingertips starts to discolor the plastic on the ends where you hold the device.

You can pay a lot more for a tongue scraper but you won't get better results.

$2.50.

That's the good news.

The bad news: bad breath isn't caused by what you can see atop your tongue but, rather, by the foul smell of thick material in an unreachable area right at the base of your tongue.

That's what all the expensive mouthwashes and rinses and systems and whatnot profess to eliminate.

But guess what? There's an easily found product that does the same thing for about a penny a day.

I'll be waxing eloquent on the subject here in the near future: you won't want to miss it.

Especially if you've been noticing that people are breathing through their mouths when you're speaking to them.

nuf sed.

My new business card

Front and back pictured above and below.

Just ordered 1,000 of them so I'll have them in time to hand out at next month's Charlottesville Startup Weekend.

I have no interest in any of the activities there but I have a LOT of interest in putting my card in the hands of everyone who attends.

Strike a spark, sometimes you start a fire.

I heard that back when I was a homunculus inside my Paleolithic ancestors.

Amazing I could remember it for all those years.

But I digress.

I'm so happy to have found Morningprint after years of trying and failing to use a number of websites purporting to make it easy to design your own business cards and stationary.

I tried VistaPrint, the granddaddy of them all, on several occasions but had to quit, retreating with my tail between my TechnoDolt®™© legs, simply unable to figure out how to use the site.

The cost for my cards: $24.48 + $22.73 shipping = $47.21.

I'm thinking I may give them out as prizes for winning my "What is it?" contests, personally inscribed and signed.

Maybe I'll number them too, just to see how long till they appear on eBay.

As if.

Porcupine quill necklace

By Pamela Love, featured in the New York Times story "Wonder Women, Highly Metallic" as an exemplar of what writer Ruth La Ferla called "The Salander Style."

Noli me tangere: marching song of porcupines worldwide.

Stealth Lambo

Matte black Murciélago.

zoom Zoom ZOOM.

[via Fancy]

Tree of Life Poster

From the website: "The Tree of Life print has been specifically designed to replicate a 'rubber stamp' effect. This effect will result in certain portions being lighter, a little sketchy and sometimes even outlined, as compared to the rest of the poster. Please note that this is not a defect but an intended effect, as intended by Aaron, Gary and Khairul, the designers of the poster."

28" X 20".

Offset Lithographic Printing. Poster printed by A&D Printhub Singapore on Recycled 220gsm maple white by RJ Paper.

$45.

[via iGNANT]