A bit later than I usually collect, here’s some late 60s craft images from Cathy of California…

To save paper, the Japanese government recommends wrapping gifts in fabric, the traditional way. Perhaps everyone will get long, skinny gifts from me, wrapped in a pair of socks.

I’m really enjoying the Moldawer in the Morning podcasts. They make me smile and are interesting.

Other ones I like:
Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas
PopSci podcast from the Moon
Scientific American Science Talk
Ken P.D. Snydecast
and Le Show (though I can’t get the subscription to work reliably)

Compact Appliances. That pretty much sums it up. Well, except for the combination appliances.

My current favorite tools are Stim-U-Dents and TiddlyWiki. I recommend them to all!

Dan Bern (he has a new album out) on what I look for in writing:

The writers that I love, some of them are songwriters, but a lot of them are story writers. The best of the lot, at least my favorite ones, are not writers that write in florid strokes so much as very vivid ones, like James Thurber and Ring Lardner, Charles Bukowski, John Fante, Hemingway. They’re not writers who are so in love with their own words; the picture’s what’s important.

When I was making this record, New American Language, it was like, "Let’s be in service to the song — what do the songs want, what does the story want, what do the themes want?" It’s hard to get out of your own way. When people are trying to master their craft, it’s more about learning to get out of the way.

A lovely Britishey source of free printable book plates by such nifty illustrators as Raymond Briggs and Posey Simmonds.

A really great story about a really great grandfather, with illustrations.

After reading her name, I expected Deborah Jakubs to look like Deborah Jacobs but, you know, with a goatee and a gold sash.

I’m at a professional training on web 2.0 in libraries, and the point was made that blogging (and other 2.0ish type deals) are interactive, a back and forth conversation. But I’ve got comments turned off on my blog, and very few people read the posts to begin with. Every new (successful) technology is used to talk to other people. I’m just talking to myself.

But I’m also talking to Craig: Hey! Look at busmonster!