Saer Ze, the DIRTY DISCO DOLL’s Neighborhood

Had to upload it to youtube this time!

 

At least his bedding will be clean soon, even if he isn't....

Reasons I Am Buying Less At Trader Joe's

or

Items Trader Joe's Has (Apparently) Discontinued

in no particular order other than the most heartbreaking is first (also you might notice a theme)

• Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies--I told the cashier last year that I loved these so much I wanted to marry them.  Then I wrote Trader Joe's and told them that, and they said they were a seasonal item.  And they didn't bring them back this season.  I want to punch them in the face for this alone.
• Pierogies--these had become rather a staple for me over the last year or 2.  I'm not sure if they have been discontinued but I haven't seen any in a few months.
• Hot chocolate mix in the round blue can--okay, they have the sipping chocolate which is good, and this one I can live without but still, just another turn of the thumbscrew.  Saw it 12/10 on the shelf.
• Chocolate yogurt--the kind with the real cocoa in the bottom that you mixed up and it was all delicious and shit, not that Eurotrash crap in the smaller container they try to shove off on you.
• Cookies with Perks--the chocolate chip cookes with espresso chips (or espresso flavored cookies with chocolate chips?).  Haven't seen them since probably last winter or spring.  Bastards.
• Milk chocolate cocoa almonds (are you getting the theme yet?)--now they have the black cocoa almonds, and they are pretty good, though unless you eat them with a spoon or chopsticks it's like you just read 100,000 newspapers (okay, newspapers that taste like chocolate, but still, it's messy!)  Now---90% of the time I prefer dark chocolate, but this is one of the few exceptions (one of the others is the milk chocolate covered McVitie's digestive biscuits which I haven't had in years but I would probably sell a kidney for a packet right about tomorrow).  Would it be SO WRONG to have both?
• I didn't check for it this time because I bought some at the regular supermarket since I couldn't find it at Trader Joe's the last couple times, but if they have discontinued their frozen broccoli florets I'm gonna bust up the joint.
• I don't think they have discontinued them (YET) but their sea salt brownies were really delicious until they lightened up on the sea salt.  Now they are just bland.
• I didn't see the little chocolate mint cookie clusters.  They were so good that I can't even remember what they were. They were in a brown and dark pink round container, like a pint of ice cream, like Thin Mints or something, all crumbled up and covered in chocolate, maybe?
• Also I haven't seen the dark chocolate toffee squares I've become rather addicted to, in a while.  I bought some in September to bring on vacation.  I have one left in front of me.

There are probably other things but it's probably like regular food that doesn't stand out in my mind like chocolate stuff.  I will add things as I recall them.  I know my neighbor was pissed about some croissants they discontinued, maybe almond croissants.

They are discontinuing stuff I like but not replacing them with anything as good or better.  Are my tastes that eclectic?  Do all the rest of the Trader Joe's customers have bland ass taste?

Oh--the first thing I ever had from Trader Joe's, before I lived near one, were these little chocolate animal cracker type cookies (my sister had them at her house when I was babysitting once and I wanted to eat the whole thing).  They weren't chocolate covered or anything, they were like chocolate butter cookies that melted in your mouth.  And they replaced them with something BLAND.

I seriously was planning on buying 10 boxes of those Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies. And next trip I would have bought 10 more.  I'm completely serious.  I was going to stock up so I could have them at least through the spring.  Or till New Year's.  Or till I OD'ed on them, or at least till I vomited.

Quit breaking my heart, Trader Joe.  You are getting to be evil and sadistic, getting me hooked on this stuff and then yanking them out from under me, without warning, before I can stock up and buy out every store in the area.

I thought this was kind of neat.

The Beatles Complete on Ukulele  (recorded in Shabby Road Studios in Brooklyn!)

I was just looking again at a newsletter I got in October from Spottiswoode & His Enemies and noticed it mentioned at the bottom.  Well, Spottiswoode does a cool version of Within You Without You which I downloaded for free.  Yep, all of the songs are free to download.  They are doing a song a week for 185 weeks till the catalog is complete.  And if you happen to be in Brooklyn this weekend, they are doing a Benefit Concert for Yoko Ono.  Last year it was a benefit for Warren Buffett, so I don't think it's like Yoko's broke and needs bone marrow transplants or anything.

Sunday December 6, 2009, from noon to midnight at Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Whythe Avenue, between N. 11th and N. 12th Streets, Brooklyn 11211.

more info here.

 

The Eyeballing Game 

eyeball right angles, center of circles, 3 lines converging, dissecting an angle, etc.  Oh the worst for me is making a parallelogram.

Planarity

like untangling christmas lights, yarn, etc.  only with more and more for each level more points the faster you get it (if you have hours on your hands)

Let's not forget about the snowflake making sites!

Snow Days and Make-a-flake which is the one where I made this a few years ago:

 

There is no way I could do anything half that cool again.

 

Maybe you'll remember back in October, me trying to get a head start on the year end music voting/contest thing they do on WXPN and posting this.  Maybe not.  Anyway, I think I'm ahead of the game doing that.  Well, sort of.  WXPN decided to add top 10 SONGS of the year too.  And the contest is a drawing to win a 50 inch plasma screen hi-def tv.

You don't have to be a member to enter or win. Vote here, if you care to.

So I compiled my list of top ten songs of the year (and added Mike Doughty's "Sad Man, Happy Man" to the album list, since I only had 9 in October)

and here they are.

1. Illinois---- Hang On
2. Mexican Institute of Sound--Sinfonia Agridulce
3. Gomez--Airstream Driver
4. Empire of the Sun--We Are The People
5. Guerrilladelphia--Unstoppable
6. Vic Chesnutt--Chain
7. East Hundred--Slow Burning Crimes
8. Jack Penate--Tonight's Today
9. Sondre Lerche--Good Luck
10. Mexican Institute of Sound--Reventon

(I had a hard time with #10 so I just repeated a band.)

 

 

Oh Vox, I really hate your fucking formatting.  It really CHAPS MY ASS.

I give up or I will be here all night.

 

 

 

Just a sampling but they are all in my Vox library should anyone give a flying crap!

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

When Michelle & I went to the Outer Banks of NC in September, we stopped by a really nice store called Sandy Bay Gallery.  After making our jewelry purchases and chatting with the owner, we walked back outside and stopped to admire the hippo pottery.  But oh look!  Hippo Mouth has a resident!

 

 

 

Is that the blurpiest little frog ever? The shop owner saw us looking and came out and said he lives in there, and that sometimes there is another one that hangs out close by.  But before I could get more photos inside the hippo, she coaxed him out onto the wall:

 

and that is about half of my vacation photos right there....

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy