Round Up

Trying to find another song with "round" in the lyrics was devolving into Belinda Carlisle. No good can come of that.

In this round up: print your fabric designs, AskMetafilter and Dr. Bronner's as hand soap, dog field trips, dog fro yo, funny kiwi want ad, when did eggs get so complicated, processed food is evil, backyard farms and homemade cheese, bailing out AIG is wrong, free textbooks save students from future wage slavery.

In love with Angry Chicken's Whole Cloth Quilt. She actually designed the cheater cloth herself and had it printed up at Spoonflower, which is too cool for words. I've got a number of fabric design projects in various stages of development that could really gain some traction with some serious Spoonflowerage. I've been holding out to hear more reviews of the colorfastness and print quality. True Up compiled a number of Spoonflower Reviews and Tips including an excellent index of fabric design posts. OK, so really I'm just saving up my money ($18/yd is about twice what I normally pay for fabric).

Now that I've added AskMetafilter to my Google Reader, I have a new appreciation for Not Martha. She really does post the best of the best from AskMetafilter which is quite impressive given the vast number of posts that puppy generates a day. Contemplating dropping AskMetafilter from my Google Reader and just relying on Not Martha to sort the wheat from the chaff. But then I find the post on Uses for Dr Bronner Soap [WARNING: RAGING hippies responded with some VERY personal uses for this product which may induce nausea and Republican sympathies in MANY readers]. It answered my question: can I use Dr. Bronner as a hand soap? Answer: Yes, diluted with water and in one of those foaming soap dispensers. Now I just have to wait for someone to ask, "Now that I use only foaming soap dispensers, what do I do with my three non-foaming soap dispensers?"

First of all, I abhor the term "staycation." Linking to this post is in no way an endorsement of that term. It is, however, an endorsement of taking your pooch(es) on field trips (my preferred nomenclature). The in-laws insightfully gave us The Dog Lover's Companion to California by by Maria Goodavage. Sadly, I broke my toe shortly thereafter and we have yet to take advantage of its recommended dog day trips.

I will confess that we have bought frozen treats for our dogs in the past. But I share this link to an organic frozen yogurt for dogs not to promote such consumption, but to share the cutest wootest little adverpooch pic I have ever seen. Via Re-Nest. If I could get Augie to look up at the camera while eating something with his little fuzzy feet on either side of whatever he's eating, we could take over the world.

The funniest want ad ever via Serious Eats. I want to work the phrase "flip, grab a knife and become Mr Stabby" into every conversation. Is that troubling?

The New York Times clarifies the confusion surrounding egg labeling via Serious Eats.

Also via Serious Eats and the New York Times (which I get delivered to my house every day, so I don't know why I don't read it before the blogs do and then take all the credit), as discussed in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, food manufacturers are putting weird stuff in your food to and making spurious claims about the Frankenfood's health benefits.

Backyard farming + cheese making at home = Sarah's fantasy home life via Serious Eats. P.S. super cute cow picture -- bonus!

Begin Rants Here - - -

Feds Loan AIG $85 Billion [Breaking] via Consumerist. Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks bailing out AIG is not a fiscally responsible use of taxpayer money. Of course, if you look at it as AIG cashing in on the vast amount of donations to Washington politicians, they got a pretty darned good return on their investment. Let's see, they got $85 billion for $9.7 million. If my math is right [big if, but hey, I'm not running a huge insurance company], that's $8.76 of bailout for every $1 of campaign donations. Can we fund public education? No. Universal health care? Hell to the no. Can we come up with $85 "B" as in "Banking regulation" Billion to back up bad investments? Apparently so. Makes me want to move to Canada. Except for all the unflattering plaid. But now that the government owns all the insurers, wouldn't it be so simple to just press the delete key. Poof! No more health insurance companies. Free universal health care for all! Oh, and isn't this communism? Let me get this straight, Venezuela is communist because it nationalized companies in the name of the people. The U.S. is not communist because it nationalized companies to keep capitalism from failing?

Bob: No one reads Orwell anymore...
me: They do, but they think it's a really weird episode of "Why I liked the '80s"

Economics Professor Self-Publishes Textbook To Subvert Overpriced Publishing Industry [DIY] also via Consumerist. Like Damien Hirst doing an end run around the Gallery-Art Dealer hegemony, R. Preston McAfee, a Cal Tech economics professor, is giving the power to the people. Well, OK, that analogy is a bit weak what with Hirst pulling down $200.7M (hey, maybe he should bail out AIG) in two days and McAfee giving it away for free. If only we could give all education away for free so the educated don't have to succumb to wage slavery. Like wage slavery is OK for the uneducated? No. But they can quit their McDonald's job and not worry about making their $300/month student loan payment before they get their first check from Burger King. Ignore my arguing against myself. I like this cutting out the inflationary middle man theme. Let's apply it to health care. No more health insurance companies! [Anyone sensing a theme since I finally watched Sicko?] The vast majority of individual bankruptcies occur after a major personal health crisis. Universal health care would prevent those bankruptcies. Think about it. Then call your representative.

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