Isn’t that a brilliant flag?

He’s putting his feet and legs where his mouth is (that sounds odd) but what I mean to say is that he’s running about 1100 miles throughout the UK over six weeks to raise awareness and money. Donate just a bit here. I’ve been waiting until he got to Northern Ireland. I’ll pitch in my few pence now.

“In solitude I used to wander about the garden, alternately collecting birds’ eggs and meditating on the flight of time. If I may judge by my own recollections, the important and formative impressions of childhood rise to consciousness only in fugitive moments in the midst of childish occupations, and are never mentioned to adults. I think periods of browsing during which no occupation is imposed from without are important in youth because they give time for the formation of these apparently fugitive but really vital impressions.”

–Bertrand Russell, Autobiography

Thanks, Gretchen of The Happiness Project

LetterCult has some very creative hand (and digital) lettering.

SmashingApps collected some fantastic stop-action shorts. I love this stuff. Want to find time and focus to do some time.

And NYTimes Nicholas Kristof describes how (40 years on) the “War on Drugs” is a failure.

PS: I need to curl up sometime and read this extensive NYTimes article on data centers and the cloud and I’ll bet there’s a creepy ending.

30 unforgettable opening movie title sequences (videos)
A reference to Fairytale Of New York in Andy Ihnatko’s blog. That’s a fave song. Especially poignant as Kirsty died a few years later (while Shane is still trooping along; go figure)
A site about the art of foley. Y’know, making noise in movies.
Bartleby.com looks to be a huge reference for book lovers, readers. I can actually search for a section of text in a lot of classic books.
A video bicycle tutorial site. Bike repair. Cool.
Learn a lot of obscure stuff about your birthday. What happened on date, various esoteric bits of info.
The ever popular BMI site has a BMR calculator (basal metabolic rate).
Four links about braceros.
The bubble calendar. You love to pop them. Do it every day.
Louis Wain was an 19C. artist who drew/painted cats. He developed schizophrenia and his art changed. (video)
If you want to buy your cat entertaining DVDs, here’s the place.
Change.org – ideas for change in America
If you always forget what Chinese New Year it’s going to be, check here.
One of the best cartoons I’ve seen in a while on my profession. (How to kill a web designer in 6 steps)
This post on shower power was tweeted and I replied that I’d long (2004, 2006) had an idea for a whiteboard in the shower. Someone already patented it.
The scientific angle on exercise and health. Note to self: remember this.
A lot of cool hemp products. Hemp is a terrifically sturdy fabric/thread and it’s ignorance and bias that keeps American farmers from a useful crop.
Why Google is the best way to download MP3s. (video)
Self-chosen top “most Canadian” songs.
Because I can’t put this on my business site: 20 signs you don’t want that web design project (real examples) from Zeldman
A recent sideways turn in an iChat brought me a-cappella.com and the Kings Singers with lots of madrigals I used to sing.
WSJ (!) editorial by Ethan A Nadelmann: Let’s end drug prohibition. Too commonsensical for the ideologues.
A fantastic compendium of millions of historic photos from 1860s forward through the decades, from Life magazine, hosted by Google
A list of unusual words beginning with B. I’d been looking for a good alliterative mate.
A most unusual artist, Ashleigh Talbot: Madame Talbot’s Gothic Lowbrow
Movie-O examines the historic truth of “based upon” movies
Mukhtar Mai is a brave and admirable Pakistani woman. Read this to get some perspective. I wish I had the dough to send her school tons of my books.
Don’t look now. Non responsive tuberculosis could be sitting nearby.
A few very interesting thoughts on what’s “fair”.(context: the bailouts) Note to Detroit: You’re history.
Paul Krugman’s depression economics – how it works (Salon)
Because I always want to know where to find that photo of soldiers returning from World War I to Prohibition, bearing the sign “We want beer”
Retro-food.com could be the source of a lot of great recipes
The Right to Quiet Society.
The way to save (native) squirrels in England may be to consume the invaders.

The way to mulitply numbers in your head. Pretty cool. (video)
Spirals. More spirals. If it’s spiral and it’s not here, it’s not really spiral. Gallery of photos.
Learn Lord of the Rings elven languages.
An interesting idea that didn’t work out. Sort of a lottery. The Eleven Dollar House.
Change is come today. The country’s new robots.txt file
Steampunk Workshop. I just find this stuff fascinating.
Love it. Hate it. Pick it apart. Feel renewed by it. Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.
WSJ on Walmart and the shopping death. I have my opinion.
The Beguiling is Canada’s finest purveyor of comics, graphic novels, etc.
What do women want (sexually). It’s not simple.

(*They’re actually in alpha order by web page title, but that’s pretty meaningless in this context.)

But as I discovered a short while ago, he’s started blogging. And his words are a pleasure to read. He crafts words and sculpts ideas. RSS-subscribe to his blog, if you wish.

From a post from last month, I think I’m musing my mind:

In May, I began to sense a change going on. At first it was subjective. This autumn it has become undeniable. My writing has improved.

By that I don’t mean it’s objectively better from the reader’s point of view. I mean it has expanded within my mind, reaches deeper, emerges more clearly, is more satisfactory. Sometimes I glory in it–not the quality of the prose, but the quality of the experience. I find myself writing more, because I will return to that zone longer.

I take dictation from that place within my mind that knows what to say. I think most good writers do. There is no such thing as waiting for inspiration. The idea of “diagramming” an essay in advance, as we are taught in school, may be useful to students but is foolishness for any practicing writer. The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before.

This is 100% logical to me: there is much of a needed and forward-looking nature that can be done with federal funds, and I’d rather it go to this.

That means putting two million Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. It means investing $150 billion to build an American green energy economy that will create five million new jobs, while freeing our nation from the tyranny of foreign oil, and saving our planet for our children.

Yesterday a certain Mr. Bennett had nothing to say but that he would pray for Mr. Obama and the country. And a few moments later, another “commentator” (a strange job title, once you think of it) said — a couple of times — that only the most ungracious person would fail to note the historic moment we are experiencing. And that was a good thing.

Yesterday a person of color was elected President of the United States. When I voted for him it wasn’t because of his color, but I think it especially pleasing that an old totem (only mature white men can be in positions of power) has been shown to be diminished. I have nothing against mature white men per se; it’s just that they’re not the only slice of pie in the demographic. This is a very hopeful thing.

Yesterday I listened to an acceptance speech that didn’t try to make me feel good and fuzzy and warm and placated. I listened to one that challenged me, that made me know that I have to live in the same world with and get along with those with whom I disagree, that told me that there’d be hard work and hard decisions ahead, that told me I wouldn’t always get what I want but that I’d hear the truth and I’d be listened to. That I’d hear the truth, even if it’s not pretty or what I want to hear, and I’d be listened to. And through the tears that well in my eyes because I’ve been waiting so long, I know this is a needed thing.

Appended: a couple of the most interesting articles from this a.m.:

America has cracked open [Salon]

Michelle Obama: a new type of First Lady [Times of London]

Illustration by Patrick Moberg [Laughing Squid]

Appended 6 Nov:

This land was made for you and me [Roger Ebert]