(Ditto to a lapse of the usual formatting..maybe I'll just keep leaving things this way)
The list of websites this week goes on. It’s a potpourri of interesting stuff, and the one-minute vacation is a welcomed change of pace.
One Minute Vacation (www.quietamerican.org/vacation). I was unaware of how many people carry recording gear around with them in order to catch snippets of sounds. This website provides a diverse sampling of unedited (mp3) recordings from “somewhere, somewhen.” The samplings come from all over the globe, and I found myself listening to just one more until I had whittled away at least thirty minutes. In that time span, I listened to church bells in Provence, tinkling bells around Moscow during Orthodox Easter, a musical party in a little village in Ecuador, pennywhistles and fiddles from an Irish pub in County Cork, and French chatter in a Paris café. Each recording is about 60 seconds in length. So, if you feel stuck and want to drift away to another part of the globe for a short break, this is a great way to escape for a little while.
Folk Art in a Bottle (www.sdjones.net/folkart/). Most of us are familiar with ships in bottles, but I had no idea that folk artists also had created tiny chairs, fans, scenes, tools, photographs, and spinning contraptions inside clear glass bottles. This website gives a nice description of the who’s, why’s and how’s of the craft. Visual samples are included, of course. One link on the site leads to a contemporary ship bottle artist who displays his work and reveals the secrets to how those ships actually get into the bottles. You’ll find that information at http://seafarer.netfirms.com/2-bottle.htm.
Tricks of the Trade (www.tradetricks.org). Thanks to contributors from many different professions, the rest of us can gain information from insiders that can be helpful sooner or later. For example, a cab driver reveals (to other cab drivers, we assume) that if he fumbles around slowly to give change to his passenger, the passenger very likely will tell him to keep the change. A bakery chef recommends that brownies be cut with a plastic knife—that way, they won’t crumble. The archives are loaded with hints—some useful, some maybe not. And, if you have a professional hint to pass along, you can send it in for the rest of the Internet world to learn from.
Metrosexual Tarot (www.thomasscoville.com). This satire is described as “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy collides with the occult.” It’s fun to read the card interpretations. Minor arcane card suits have been altered from traditional decks into these suits: potions, cups (a martini glass), forks and shoes. Major arcana cards likewise are altered to reflect the so-called metrosexual lifestyle.
Age Guess (www.ageguess.com). This is a fast, fun little game where you are asked to guess a person’s age. Apparently, real people send in their pictures for this game, with the added benefit of a potential match-up. Each photo comes with a caption, “would you like to meet this person?” Most of the photos I viewed were of young men between 15 and 32. Find out how good you are at guessing ages and if you’re good at it, you might want to hire yourself out to a carnival.
Telephone Lady (www.myinsulators.com/commokid/telephones/). Lest we forget, phones at one time were heavy and bulky and attached to cords. This website is a virtual museum of old phones and phone advertising. It made me wish that I still had my old Princess phone where the dial lit up. I do have a rotary wall phone in operation currently, and this website told me that it is from the early 1960’s too. If you like nostalgia and would like to see the return of those substantially big telephones, you can at least dream and remember the good old days.
