First neat thing of 2012

Today I stumbled across this little short film: Zombie in a penguin suit.

Yup.
It's gonna be a good year.
I can feel it already :)

In a VAN down by the river!

Meep.
J and I are eagerly awaiting the call that we can go and pick up our new (to us) Mistubishi Delica L300 Exceed diesel van. It will be our new camper van/adventure podule. I am so excited. It has been many years in the making.
J has been talking about these since he saw the first one about 5 years ago. Our car can't haul a trailer, so we looked at all our options...and decided on a Delica. They're 4 wheel drive and convert nicely into camper-type vehicles and will haul all J's gear or our camping gear. We've wanted one forever and ever...so once we paid off our car we found a guy that had experience in arranging to find us one in Japan and have it brought over. They no longer meet Japan's strict emission standards so you can get one for a very decent price...and we lucked out - he got one that is in excellent shape, low miles and has all the main stuff we want option wise. We've been waiting and fidgeting since April to hear more news, but we now know that it has arrived in BC and is being made Canada worthy by him as we speak!
In a few weeks J can go on a mini adventure and go pick it up and we will have it for camping this summer. We won't get all the special little homemade modifications we want to do to it right away, but doodling off to a camping trip and not having to worry about rain (and driving on the wrong side of the cockpit)....it's going to be great.
It will develop into the most neat of things.
Me hee...
I have no pictures to post yet, but when I can I'll post 4 million pictures.
I can't wait!!

Shaken, not stirred

Since seeing this the other day, I am now convinced I need it.
I've been meaning to get a martini shaker for a while now and this one is well nigh perfect for me for making proper cosmopolitans and chocolate martinis.

Yes.
Then I can be all James Bond (or at least Bond Girl) with my martinis instead of my current 2 plastic IKEA childrens glasses held together for shaking or quick stir over ice, usually ending up with me spilling half of it on myself.
Definitely more classy :)

Cybernetic enhancements - phase 1

If it weren't for the fact that I'm a wuss, it would hurt and it's not a very girly thing to do, I find these specs fascinating, and wouldn't mind a pair. I mean, they'd never fall off, and I'd never set them down and lose them. And they're not an overly offensive piercing or anything...it's quite understated. Sort of makes me think of cybernetic enhancement to be honest, which is why they appeal a bit to me a bit more than they should. Hell, I thought the matrix pinch on your nose specs were rather cool...these take it even further...although I bet cleaning them would be a bit of an annoyance.
Still...10 points to the guy for a new idea.

What do you all think? Would you wear them?

Lunacy

I was hoping to have all these amazing photos of the moon and the eclipse and you know what?
I am a *sucky* photographer.
I had a tripod and diddled about with all manner of settings and sort of got a half assed image, but nothing to ge too excited about.
So please just go here and have a look if you want a nice photo. I haz none.
It was pretty tho. Saturn and Regulus were quite bright to once the eclipse was full. After mucking about in the yard with the camera and tripod I gave up due to cold and tiptoed in, made some tea and popcorn and grabbed the binoculars and a blanket to watch it all from the comfort of my living room - I have a great view of the moon and night sky from there...I fell asleep in the living room looking at the moon and woke up when J got home all very stiff and crunchy. BUT, had a nice evening.

MOUSE

J's Dad bought up a bunch of old Radio Enthusiast, TV Repair and Popular Science type magazines at an auction that are from the late 1930s up to the late 60s. Reading through them has been great...just seeing the whole attitudes towards science and technology back then...It was so completely different. And reading about the wondrous technology of radio tubes and the future coming of satellites is marvellous. I feel like I should wear a flapper dress and be smoking a cigarello or something...
The most interesting article so far was from a 1956 article talking about something I'd never heard of. At a time, a few months before sputnik went up in to the air, there was an article about the US's upcoming planned first satellite: the MOUSE (m-something orbital unmanned satellite earth) .The article had spec drawings and wild speculations about the future use of satellites in our lives. Some were spot on, like weather mapping and communications...but there was a whole sense of mild disbelief and wonder about it all...as though it was just too futuristic. I'm a bit disappointed I can't find references to it online. It was the first mention I'd ever seen about it...I've looked online and I can't find anything about it...I guess Sputnik really put an end to it.
There's also interesting things to read about that time in history. President Eisenhower made a lot of comments about the possible errors of the future that are coming true...comments about being wary of feeding too much power to the Industrial Military Complex and how the US should not make it their policy to inflict peace about the world...that it was not their role.
How times have changed.

I am thinking about all this as I'm stuck working this weekend to finish up an overdue project. It's behind from being on strike, and the extra $$ will perhaps go towards buying my very own satellite that I've always wanted. I believe I will have to come up with some catchy name for it before I launch it off...any suggestions?