Stob Start

Here's my well-received smoothie recipe, "Stob Start". It's a nice drink for a morning start, or an evening desert.

One mug of water
A half mug of orange juice
A half mug of milk (full or skim, to taste)
One banana
A half mug of berries (strawberries or mixed)

Blend well.

It's very lovely.

I like it very cold, so I use chilled water and frozen berries, sometimes even frozen bananas (peel before freezing!) and a few ice cubes.

If you want it more desert-like, add more berries.

You can make it more mellow and nourishing by adding protein powder.

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Bet you didn't see that coming. Well, I'm a man of unknown depths. Like Snoopy said: "the fruits of my labors shall be reaped by future generations."

Mambo Combo

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It seems Lou Bega is another one who got the message about not changing a working formula: his I got a Girl song is a virtual copy of Mambo no. 5, even down to the theme of the lyrics.
It's interesting that so many of the world's best songs were made by people who never before or after got even close to making anything as good. I wonder why.

John Cleese interview

John Cleese interview, very funny. Part two. (I wish they posted the whole thing. This seems to be just two small bits.)
And here's a spoof interview. Maybe not the funniest thing he's done, but at least he's going out of his way to offend everybody!

Denmark is flat

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
-- Aristotle

I can see the viewpoint, but I'm not sure I agree. Even though I've been self-employed for years now and loving it, before that I had several different day jobs which I was perfectly happy with. The work was not bad, it had variation, I liked my boss and colleagues, and I earned my keep and learned new skills and could forget about the work when I walked home each day.

I have a friend who loathes any kind of hierarchy. She could never be in a paid job, she tells me, it would be degrading. I really don't see why. In a couple of my paid jobs I was very friendly with my boss, and half-jokingly called him "boss" sometimes (which is not normally done in Denmark).
Maybe it's because Denmark is very flat, both geographically and socially. There is not a lot heavy hierarchy going on. Or maybe I was just lucky with my jobs, I think I was. But it seems to me that a hierarchy is not such a horrible thing if both parts are doing it willingly and know it's all just in good fun, and there's mutual respect.

It does not have to be twisted domination games. The fact is that in any operation bigger than a couple of people, there has to be a central coordination and control point, otherwise people trip over each other.

From watch to motorcycle

[Thanks to Capt. Kirk.] (I don't know where these are from.)

I think a few of them are really good, even just seen as sculptures. 

Solid Potato Salad - The Ross Sisters (1944)

[Thanks to Jan.] This is not just a fun song and cute singers, it's also an astounding contortionist act. Holy moley, what girls!

(By the way, are you aware that you can jump forward to, say, one minute, even though a video has not yet loaded that far?)

Treating wood

I'm just enjoying another season of Grand Designs, the UK TV show about unusual houses being built. (I just realized season five has sixteen episodes... sixteen full documentaries in one year! Kevin McCloud is a regular David Pogue.)

One issue I've not heard about: when they build of wood, either a log cabin or post/beam structures or whatever, how is the wood treated? What protects it against excessive drying and wood worms and so on?

I started thinking about it watching one episode about a young couple renovating a 400-year old house where big parts of the old oak beams were just rotted away due to death watch beetles. It was a classified building, so they could not just tear down the roof and start over, and it was very difficult and expensive to shore it up and replace parts.
So is anything being done to make new wooden buildings last four hundred years?

Big model rocket

Notice the scale right in the beginning. This muddafukka is big! Must be about ten meters. (Update: it's close to eleven. Good estimate, bully for me.)

John Cleese Philosophers in Oxford

The Secret Policeman's Balls. 1977. Overall pretty spotty, I have to admit, but I liked this one, quite innovative. I got it on a DVD and wanted to share it with you.

Seen from above

Thanks to photography site Neutralday for the link to these aerial photos.

Some of these are very like the book Earth From Above. I have the postcard edition, and many of the cards have been on my fridge for a couple of years.

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Will you look at what my spell checker did? Suddenly insert Chinese words? WTH?

(What's up with English spelling? It goes from "air" to "aerial"?) (I'm not talking about the screen shot now, but about different spelling about two words though they have the same root.)

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BTW, I'm so happy I changed from making post with Mozilla to using Firefox. My big posting problems have disappeared. And well, Mozilla is not being updated anymore anyway.

Irregular bottoms

We've had some of these before.




The one below is not from the Telegraph, it's one I took myself two minutes walk from here:

Lars von Trier

That Lars von Trier, what a character. He seems to be a big bunch of character flaws and neuroses, barely held together with tape and will power. How does he even function, much less be successful?

I'm not a huge fan of his films, but I respect his heart and courage and integrity.
I did like The Kingdom though. A Danish TV series uniquely gaining an international audience (and a Stephen King re-make), it was weird and funny and creepy. And weird.

"The Kingdom" is translated from "Riget", which is fond slang for "Rigshospitalet" (The King's Hospital), Denmark's largest hospital. Big mofo. My sister and my ex-girlfriend have both worked there.

... Thinking about it, I think what turns me off Trier's work, even to a little degree The Kingdom, is that none of it contains any really likeable characters. They are nasty people living in a nasty universe. I guess this comes from Trier's view of the world. And that's all right, and honest. But if your view doesn't match it, it's a turn-off.

TTL exclaims:
Trier is a genius. Possibly the greatest living genius of film. Is there any other director whose films have that depth of an impact? Whose films literally make you question your own sanity?

Or is there any other director who can replace the set with chalk drawings on the floor and still achieve a stronger illusion of reality than a dozen of academy award winning Hollywood directors combined?

"Nicole Kidman reportedly spent two days in bed recovering from watching Breaking the Waves, and then informed von Trier that she simply had to work with him."

Well, I guess I have to see that one. Wouldn't want to miss being bedridden for two days. :-)
(No, seriously, I'll give it a chance. Dogville didn't do it for me, though I had nothing against the stylism.)