They love coffee even more than you do.

As seen on the Telegraph's Pictures of the Day:

"Artist assistants stand next to 3,604 cups of coffee which have been made into a giant Mona Lisa in Sydney, Australia. The 3,604 cups of coffee were each filled with different amounts of milk to create the different shades."

It is yours.

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It is yours." ~ Ayn Rand


Dedham, Massachusetts, by Kerry Hawkins
Courtesy of Sierra Club's Daily Ray of Hope

If this doesn't make you grin...

...you're a miserable sod.



How cool when people throw off old conventions while hanging onto just the traditions that matter the most to them, making the day their own. They certainly seem like fun folks! Of course, I could be biased, as I really like this song and somersaults and hot pink...

Stumbled upon...

Interesting way to keep growing your veggies during longjohn season. AND, it comes with your very own ladybug army!




Tulip mosaics around the world.




My favorite tot's new favorite song.

And we should

"You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth."

~ Evan Esar

Found objects

Ask A Urinal

"It's impossible to be unhappy in a poncho."

"Why are you looking up here? The joke is in your hands."

Newsroom Quotes

"I do think that 99% of heads are bigger than arses."

"I have no luck. Last time I went out I ended up knocking on a murderer’s door."

Marghanita

"Perfect use for your plastic water bottles"



UrbanEye by The NY Times

"Can you use a thesaurus as a weapon? Tonight Opium Magazine
sponsors a Literary Death Match: competitive reading.
Readers, including the veteran SNL and comedy writer Alan
Zweibel and the novelists Rivka Galchen, Josh Weil and
Michael Muhammad Knight -- author of "The Taqwacores," which
has been called "'The Catcher in the Rye' for young
Muslims" -- will unspool some verbiage in the round at
Pianos. They will be judged -- by a New Yorker writer, a
"Project Runway" alum and a comedienne -- on their
showmanship, meter and sesquipedalianism, and everyone will
feel smarter when they leave."

Raft Clear Creek River w/ Mile-Hi Rafting


"Sure Shot: $37 Adults / $30 Child
Rafting on Clear Creek River’s mountain water is an experience that’s fun for the whole family. Get ready for some fun on our exciting ‘Sure Shot’ beginner-rafting trip. Begin with passing by the historic Charlie Taylor Water Wheel experiencing Class II rapids (ripples). While rafting through Historic Idaho Springs the Class III rapids of Castle Falls and Argo Holes test your newly developed rafting skills. Below town history and nature abound, with the occasional sighting of Retail Hawk, Deer, Fox, Bob Cat, Lynx, Elk, and Big Horn Sheep. Dizzy Lizzy, Power Line, Mountain Lion, and Box prepare us for the grand finale of Mr. Twister! The perfect beginner—starting with Class II water so you can practice, and then the Class III rapids. There is a 50 pound minimum for rafting to insure proper fit of the life jacket. Allow 3 hours for the trip."

311 really wants ya to watch "Hey You"

The band has hidden a phone number in the video. Call the number, leave a message, and the band might call you back. I love love love 311, but this song is just "eh". So, the only reason to watch the vid is for glimpses of hot Nick Hexum.



Parkour

Training class for the masses looks like a good workout.



Bike trials

Danny MacAskill, an in-feakin'-credible rider from the U.K.
(And this song by Band of Horses is fab.)



A smattering of Vincent Hermance in Colorado

And the To Read list grows...

Story of my life (pun a happy accident): I add to this list faster than I can check books off of it, sometimes tenfold. The newest addition is worth sharing with you, lest it go unnoticed in that ever-overwhelming list to the right.

"The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature" by Loren Eiseley seems as though it might speak to the same part of me that fell in love with "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey. Those are big shoes to fill, though, Ed's are, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Who knows when I'll get to this book, especially now that I've added a fourth to my nightstand. After years of desiring to but waiting for the seemingly "right time", much as one might feel about buying a home or having a child, I've finally ventured into Ayn Rand's world, with her first endeavor, "We the Living".

Wish me luck.

Hope never stops at all

Another nice Daily Ray of Hope:

"Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all." ~ Emily Dickinson


Bridge Creek Watershed area of Bend, Oregon, by Pete Marquess

Compare/Contrast

Found this an intriguing comparison, as each of the four vocalists produces such a unique sound. Peter's and Trent's voices are so distinct, making the collaborative version rich and interesting. But it's almost too much, as TV's vocals complement one another so well as a sufficiently groovy duo. Reminds me of a Mahler piece performed by a several-hundred-piece orchestra; the movement's tonality is incredibly complex and thus wondrous, but there's something equally spectacular about a seemingly simple violin solo. Perhaps there is no comparison to be made, just an appreciation for the individual performances...

The always cool TV On The Radio performing their tune "Dreams", infused w/ some Bauhaus and NIN flavor.



And here's "Dreams" straight up. (Sound's a bit distorted, though.)

Smooooth

Burger grease art

Holy cow!

"The answers are simple."

Today's Daily Ray of Hope from the Sierra Club is worth sharing.

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
~ Dr. Seuss


Photo Credit: Jim Dollar
Location: Otter Point in Acadia National Park in Maine

Awesome animals

This slideshow is full of neat animals in the news. I'm such a sucker for stories about critters - happy or sad. The latter, of course, inevitably make me angry at my own species.

Here's a great one:

In November, the cries of alarm from Willie, a Quaker parrot from Denver, Colo., alerted his owner, Megan Howard, that the toddler she was babysitting was choking. His yells of "Mama, baby" led Howard to perform the Heimlich maneuver and earned Willie the local Red Cross chapter's Animal Lifesaver Award on March 20.

Some others include a turtle fossil, 30-something millions of years old, found to have an intact egg sac (a first here the U.S.); hundreds of stray dogs starving and turning to cannibalism because locals dropped them on an uninhabitable island to get them out of their fishing village; a 772-pound stingray is the largest freshwater fish caught by a rod and reel (they released it, thankfully); and an albino elephant baby born in the wild in Africa (aww!).

Honey, is that you?

LemonDrop.com (Who thinks up these names? And, just in case you're wondering how I even found the site, this was a headline on my homepage) reports on identical twins marrying identical twins in China. It's like a bad sitcom waiting to happen, but sorta cute, too.

Identical twins marrying a set of identical twins -- it sounds like something from a soap opera. But it actually happened in Wuxi, China, so we can only hope that none of them are evil and/or homicidal.

It was unusual enough when Jian Yang, one-half of a set of identical male twins, proposed to Juxiang Jiang, herself one-half of a matching set. But things got weirder when their identical siblings, Kang Yang and Lanxiang Zhang, fell in love at their engagement party. All this led to -- clearly -- a double wedding.

Of course, hilarity and confusion ensued. For instance, Kang once tried to hold his brother Jian's fiancee's hand on a group outing. Naturally, she didn't stop him, because she thought Kang was Jian. And there they stood, until Kang's fiancee helpfully corrected the error. (How did she know?)

Their parents consider the marriages a sign of great luck. Which is good, because with all the potential for accidentally adultery, they're going to need all the luck they can get. That, and name tags.

Some good tunes: Rocco Deluca & The Burden

Colorful



Swing Low

Super glued flip flops

How much water do you use?

The National Wildlife Fund tweeted a link to this on Good magazine's website. It's quite the eye-opener. (Click on the link to the article if you have trouble reading the graphic; this is the largest I could make it.)

Apparently, I'm a Doer

Typealyzer analyzes the types of words a blogger uses and the frequency with which she uses them, and spits out an analysis of her personality type. Here's what it says about this blog and me; it's pretty right on.

The analysis indicates that the author of www.metroowl.blogspot.com is of the type:

ESTP - The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

It also pinpoints your personality on a brain map, which I was unable to capture and post here. Basically, it shows the brain divided into these sections: Thinker, Practical, Feeler and Idealist. Apparently, I am Practical, which is somewhere between the Thinker and the Feeler. It describes the Practical blogger as thinking (with a talent for logic and mathematics) AND sensing (with a talent for order, habit and details). I suppose that's pretty accurate.

There's also a LoveTypealyzer. Here's what it says about MetroOwl; this is only partly accurate.

The analysis indicates that the author of www.metroowl.blogspot.com is of the type:

ESTP - The Doers

They are gregarious and action-loving and will probably make your date into a thrill. In relationships they often feel tremendously commited, but want that commitment to be renewed day by day. They tend to get bored easily, and may be prone to switching relationships frequently unless they find an outlet for their boredom elsewhere. Sexually they are more into enjoying the moment sensually than verbally.

Best matches: ISFJ or ISTJ

And, lastly, there's a SportTypealyzer, which is sort of comical for me seeing as I am not the athletic sort. But here goes:

The analysis indicates that the author of www.metroowl.blogspot.com is of the type:

Artisan

"Get your kicks while you can!"

The Artisans loves real-life events that can be experienced here and now. Standing in the shouting crowd at a game is almost as fun as actually taking part in it! Personally they love action and will go boldly down roads that others consider risky or impossible. That´s why they will probably gravitate towards sports with tuff independent sportsmen and women. They´re always on the look-out for fun and playful ways to enjoy themselves together with friends.

Sports of preference: Motor sports, Football, Boxing and other sports that gets the adrenaline pumping.

I suppose it's worth mentioning that I take this sort of thing with a grain of salt. And certainly any site full of spelling errors makes me wary.

"Working your way from the ground on down"

The adorable Ben Harper and other boys with a few of my favorite things: great music, skateboards, slide guitars, Chucks and poets' souls.

Buy festival tix on layaway

Per Springwise:

Back in 2007 we noted the return of layaway payment plans, and in today's economic climate the need for such arrangements is clearly even greater. Completely understandable, then, that several upcoming music festivals are giving attendees a layaway option for purchasing their tickets.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, for example, will take place from April 17 to 19 in Indio, Calif., featuring a range of indie-rock artists. A three-day pass to the festival costs USD 269 plus fees, but this year, would-be attendees buying online have two alternatives to purchasing their tickets outright. First, they can pay just 50 percent of the cost up front, plus Ticketmaster fees, and then have the remaining 50 percent automatically deducted on April 1. Alternatively, they can pay 10 percent up front, plus Ticketmaster fees, and have the remaining amount automatically deducted in two equal payments on March 1 and April 1. The last day to order via layaway is Feb. 28, but the option is not available for single-day tickets or camping travel packages.

The Coachella festival is produced by Goldenvoice, which is offering similar layaway options at its Stagecoach Country Music Festival, also held in April in California.

Country Thunder USA, meanwhile, is offering an EZ-Pay option to purchase USD 119 general admission for its April festival in Arizona in two installments at no extra charge. Tickets must be purchased online by the end of this month.

Finally, for the June Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee, attendees who buy by the end of February have the option of purchasing their USD 249.50 general admission tickets in five installments of USD 50 plus applicable fees. Bonnaroo offered an installment plan last year as well, according to USA Today.

Economic woes may be hitting consumers far and wide, but that doesn't mean all luxuries have to be dispensed with. Be flexible in your terms of payment, and consumers may just pay you back—with interest! ;-)