THE clock to get you out of bed tomorrow morning!

Now according to it's creator Gauri Nanda, (Pictured at left from the Her Website who is also a research associate at MIT - Whoo. Mom and Dad must be really proud of alllll that money going to good use...Who am I kidding...I'm jealous I didn't think of this first.) this is THE perfect item for the person who doesn't like to get out of bed.

From the website:

"Clocky is, quite simply, for people who have trouble waking up.

When the alarm clock goes off and the snooze button is pressed, Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off. Small wheels that are concealed by Clocky's shag enable it to move and reposition itself, and an internal processor helps it find a new hiding spot every day.

I don't like being told when to wake up but I've come to terms with the idea that I have to. In designing Clocky, I was in part inspired by kittens I've had that would bite my toes every morning. Clocky is less of an annoying device as it is a troublesome pet that you love anyway. It's also a bit ugly. But its unconventional look keeps the user calm, and inspires laughter at one of the most hated times of the day. "

Now I don't know about you, but I'll admit that I do have a hard time getting up in the morning. But I happen to think that its a bit sadistic to make someone get out of bed and search for the darned alarm clock. Considering that most mornings I can barely make it to the bathroom without bumping into something, stubbing a toe, or somehow manage to injure myself in a minor way (I'm a klutz...I'll tell you about it later...) making me search everywhere in my room for that annoying alarm, just so I can have 5 DAMNED MORE MINUTES!!!! No thanks.

Although I guess I could also build it a little cage...so then I wouldn't have to search for it every morning, thereby forgoing the awful work of hunting it down like a underfed lion - growling, angry and lumbering all over a dark room for a small fuzzy clock. Nah...I'm sticking to my original thought this is a sadistic toy built by a very bored grad student who came up with this at the last minute while She was running late to turn in the project. I think that she managed to luck out on this project.

I just love the fact that they had to add to the web pag:

"Clocky is an academic research project and is not commercially available at this time"

Not for long... It's just a matter of time before someone thinks to sell this...

UPDATE > I actually just went to Gauri's website...and it looks like I'm ahead of the curve on this one. Clocky and Gauri are scheduled to go on Good Morning America tomorrow morning. (4/1/05)

So now it's just a matter of time when households all over America have their own Personal Morning Sadist...better known as PMS.

Update > Okay, so I'm a little behind the 'blogsphere...i've been busy. I'm finding postings as far back as March 16th...

SHRIMP, CUCUMBER, AND MANGO SALAD Recipe at Epicurious.com

SHRIMP, CUCUMBER, AND MANGO SALAD Recipe at Epicurious.com


Photo from Epicurious by: Lisa Hubbard. (who incidentally makes this look sooooo tempting!) If you had any idea about me...(which you probably don't) you might know that this meal idea sounds like nirvana to me. I love, love, love LOVE Cucumbers and Mango! Not to mention that the "forbidden food" of shellfish has made it all the more tempting and delightful to a girl like me. Therefore the simple hint at putting them together has sent me into a tizzy.

why in the hell didn't I think of this before? Truthfully I don't think I could tell you, or rather give any reason why. The thought just never crossed my mind before now. And it doesn't hurt that today is the most loveliest of days for it. San Francisco has decided to tease us all with awesome clear and warm weather (well sunny at least...warm is relative.) So it only makes me wish that I had a yard with a portch so that I go back there tonight and have this lovely meal with some nice white wine and slowly get tossed as the sun sets in the background.

ahhh... now that's romance!

I've come to realize - I've lost my creativity

I've been so wrapped up in being busy - looking busy - acting busy that I've managed to lose what I once thought was absolutely essential to my personal well-being.

I find that I am perusing Amazon and other sources for self-help books. I think that I've become the sad cliche that I had hoped I'd never become...

"make the career you have the career you love!" "women, and the life changes they made to be better!" " stressed out? Good for you, now leave your job"

Looking to self-help books to find the answers, instead of being self-sufficent enough to know that I don't need snake-oils, and others to help me "through"...you know what I mean...
It's not just the stress, although that is a good part of it, but I keep thinking that maybe I've abandoned something in the process of just desperately trying to maintain a "safe balance." Of course most of the books that I've either mistakenly purchased in a moment of bordem all seem to be "find a way out" kind of books. The kind that try to lead you by the nose to get you to do what they've done, make "that" change and then be happy. (whatever in the hell that means.)

But to be honest, I'm not depressed, (well just a little I live in a big city for christs sake. You're not normal if you haven't been to therapy at least once in your life) and I'm not unhappy. I'm just feeling lost. You know that kind of lost. Everyone does every once in a while, whoever tells you they don't is deluding themselves, is on some serious drugs, or otherwise anstestizing themselves to their current reality. But for me...its been a long while that I've felt this way. I keep looking back through older posts, and old journal entries, and it seems to be the same laments over again. "I feel lost." "I feel purposeless." "I feel like I should be doing/could be doing 'more'" (of what more pertains to I haven't a clue.)

a lot of my self pity and self-loathing is gone, and a lot is due to the fact that I'm much more confident than I ever have been before. It doesn't hurt to have my guy. He has made one hell of a difference in my life, in just a short amount of time. But its not him that I've been thinking about. its me. I think that I'm still allowed to be selfish in this place and space, I don't consider myself a "fully fleged adult" yet, although I'm closer than where I started.

Its the aimlessness.

That's what's making me feel dragged down. And its not like I'm not busy. In fact I'd say its the opposite. I'm running around busy all damn day. its the encroaching feeling like I'm phoning it in, and have been for quite some time. That is what is worrying me more than anything else.

Once, I wanted to be a writer so badly. It tugged at me and kept me up at night. Now its fallen by the wayside. Now it seems I'm going to be a business woman, but truthfully I can't stand that Idea either. Part of me hates the way I am so susceptible to modern trends, 'cause now I wish that I was some heiress...(actually that's a lie, everyone wants not work for a living.) But really I still just want to be, want to be DOING something else. Its the constant circle of employment and then unemployment that forced me back into what I'm doing, and I hate it. Now truthfully it offers me a grand opportunity to go to school...But even that was a phoned in. I applied on a whim, got in on a whim, and am not really dedicating much to it.

I dont have a super-clear idea of what I want, but I know that its not this. This hasn't been it for a good long time. This has paid off my college bar & books tab. But its not really feeding me or even filling me with any sense of completion or statisfaction.

shit. maybe I just need to quit.

Crack-smoking professor , with MONKEYS!!!

from This Is Broken - Crack-smoking professor

The new york times was following the Robert Blake trial. Towards the bottom of the reoprt there was this very interesting aside:
"Earlier in the trial, a professor from the University of California, Los Angeles, testified as an expert witness about the psychotropic effects of cocaine. He said that he had smoked crack cocaine himself and sat in a cage with monkeys to teach them how to smoke cocaine as well."

Now personally I happen to think that this story alone deserves a full headline...Maybe more than just a side bar. Because I suspect that there was probably some public funding, and I'm dying to find out who what the genius Dean who gave this professor the go-ahead to use "psychotropic drugs" on monkeys or himself.

God help us, every one.

not so good news now

My grandfather died this morning at 5 am. It was expected, but it is much harder than I thought it was going to be. I loved him dearly, and although it was difficult to watch him become a shadow of his former self, he was always (and as ever) a trooper. Or rather, specifically clear about what he wanted - whether it be his life or his death...always clear.

Anyway, I have already been to clean up his effects, and it was awful for me. I couldn't help but cry...its difficult when in my minds eye I still see him. It was also difficult to try and explain how 93 years of life gets distilled down to about 3 boxes of papers, pictures and artifacts. I suppose that close to the end you take only what you think you need, you leave behind the legal stuff for your family to deal with, and hope that you've made peace with yourself and your diety by the end. In fact I'm certian that he did.

Stubborn as ever, but as strong as they come, he left on his own time.

RIP: Abraham David Zadow b. 1911 - 2005