Chillin' Life

A low-tech and aesthetically pleasing solution for the slow-drinking Martini-lover's chilling problem comes in form of SwankMartini's Chillin' glasses.

I just signed up with their affiliate-program so click through and buy a dozen to earn me some credit so I can get myself some - I suffer from the slow-sippin-syndrome badly.

Durable Life

The front side of this vintage bamboo tablet used to show an exotic (Chinese) landscape with houses and there was a block of Chinese characters which in my infant imagination more than 30 years ago used to form the shape of an English doubledecker-bus.
Unlike the print on the back side it has suffered from repeated washing though - so I have a hard time re-imagining that landscape ... but the mere fact the tablet itself withstood over 30 years of use amazes me.

Tiki Farm Life

Cross-breeding Tiki and Science (Fiction) culture - does that ring any bell?
These "Robotikis" - Tron the Beachcobmer and Radar Vic are beautiful reminders of a modern global cocktail culture.

From the product page at Tiki Farm: "Our Marquesan Space Invader comes at you in Intergalactic Green and is ready for Blast-Off! Radar Vic & Tron the Beachcomber are designed by one of the Tiki movements most talented artists, my pal Scott Sheidly"

(via)

Student Life

Among the stuff my grandmother handed down to me when I was a teenager, that belonged to my grandfather was this set of a Schnaps-bottle and shot-glasses. It was apparently part of his student fraternity paraphernalia as the little skulls rest on books on which's spine the slogan "Gaudeamus Igitur" is inscribed, the title of a song in ancient Latin that used to be (is?) popular among the members of student fraternities.
(I remember the first line from my Latin-lessons in school: Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenestum sumus - Let's enjoy ourselves as long as we are young!)

When I moved out of my parent's home 1990 I left it there (unlike this tobacco-jar), which I'm rather glad about - I'm sure every piece would have been broken twice by now.

Life in other Dimensions

This animation, published as an illustration of the first chapter of the book on superstring theory Imagining the Tenth Dimension shows how to imagine the tenth dimension, walking you all the way from dimension 0, the point:

Nice!

(via)

Life Viewed From Orbit

Don't those Tikritians have other worries than erecting space art?
This face of a duckie was found on an island in Tigris river in Tikrit, Iraq.

If you have Google Earth installed just right-click and open THIS.
If you want to check out what it looks like on the ground go to lat=34.6078411731, lon=43.690757344.

(thx poetina)

Celeb Life

Two professional bloggers I had the pleasure to meet through my roboexotic activities are listed in Forbes's The Web Celeb 25: CoryDoctorow and Violet Blue.
Now ... is that a good thing?
Oh yes! Forbes is obvy a quality publication, having run an article on ROBOEXOTICA 2006 on their webpage. Congrats Violet, Cory!

Oh, and they say ZeFrank's real name is Hosea Frank.

(via Laughing Squid)

Life is Tough

And only the toughest duckies survive.
It was more than clear that zefrank wouldn't let this brave duckie pass unmentioned - sure enough it headlines monday's show with a dedicated "duckie in the freezer"-intro:

(duckie in the freezer story originally spotted on boingboing)

Sticky Life

I had stickers printed of my successful art print Ceci N'est pas Une Pipe - anybody want any?
I'll send one to you inside Europe for €2 including shipping, 50ct for every additional sticker. (US: double the amount for $$)
Just drop me a mail at magnus[AT]shifz.org ...

Update: Yay - the above photo is linked to from an update to Boingboing's post on a current Los Angeles County Museum of Art Magritte-inspired exhibit ...

Metric Life

Hehehehehehehe!
Quoting robots.net: "The only areas left not using the metric system are Burma, Liberia, and the US."
And that's not "the only areas on earth" but includes the moon, as "NASA and 13 other space agencies from around the world have come to an agreement that the Moon will use the standard metric system of measurement."

Hopefully this will prevent future moon citizens from having to worry "about trying to fit a 15 millimeter nut onto a 5/8 inch bolt."

Life Is Making

Make:blog thinks these pieces of Marbelized Latex with Embedded Magnets look cool ...
Thanks a lot! :)

Started using oblong and round forms to pour latex and embedding neodymium (rare earth) magnets a few days ago (after working on a series of latex bugs based on spoon forms), which gives pretty cool fridge magnets.
Still experimenting with different magnets and multi-magnet set-ups; using latex of different colors keeps the process interesting!

Life Does End - Still!

Robert Anton Wilson is dead after suffering declining health for an elongatd period of time.
As an author RAW introduced me to amazing philosophies and woke my interest in a lot of things, among them longevity/immortality.
Unlike his pal Timothy Leary, Wilson is not reported to have his head frozen for cryogenic storage.

Thanks for the inspiration, Bob. Hail Discordia Forever.

(via boingboing)

Life on the Dark Side

The Truth about Darth Vader is an Ask a Ninja "special delivery" by Doogtoons.
Around since last July, I just discovered this video on Revver browsing the featured creators.

Life's Waste

Making up for many years not dumpster-diving, I rescued a stack of 78rpm records recently.
Someone in the house I live in had put them in the trash and I saved those on top which obviously hadn't come in contact with any yucky spoils yet ... haven't counted them yet, but I think it's a couple dozen of them!
I am only beginning to browse through them - the first two I brought up to the light from the basement were one with Zarah Leander - a singer popular in the 1930s and 40s, and the other one featuring the well known "Wienerlied" (lit. Vienniese Song, a local genre) Ich brauch' ka schöne Leich ("I don't need no fancy funeral").

Currently I'm trying to auction the Zarah Leander one at eBay: Link

Martini Life

I have made the first footsteps in my quest for the perfect Martini, executing my new year's resolution:
The last few evenings have seen me fixing Martinis both with the gin and the vodka I have at home, mixed in a ratio between around 6:1 and 8:1 with extra dry vermouth. Stirred.

Apropos, there is a clever three-stepdrink tutorial "... to understand the Martini, and to understand the concept of a balanced cocktail ..." at Drinkboy.

Happy New Life Year!

This turn of the year marks the start of my personal pursuit of the perfect Martini.
I did already find out my taste is on the dry side (less vermouth) and I like more than one olive going with it (before running out of olives which should not discourage further, even purer experiments).
With a new purpose in this life year, I want to keep the game fair and the recipe open to both gin and vodka ... starting with left-over Bombay Sapphire from ROBOEXOTICA and the russian vodka Sergey brought from his region.

Holiday Life

Enjoy these holiday-cards I designed - click for hi-res versions!

Life Selling Something

With the ROBOEXOTICA going on and all, I didn't think much of it at all, but actually I received a modest artistic acknowledgment for my personal work of fine art: The 30x40cm print Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe has been auctioned off at the presentation of Heidulf Gerngross's magazine Star's latest issue at MAK last Thursday!
Actually 2/3 of the price achieved goes to Star - but my own costs are covered and I got plenty positive feedback.

Sleepy Life

Our guest Kal Spelletich, one of the few who had actually built a cocktailrobot before ROBOEXOTICA even existed (Martini-maker mid-1990s), was quite struck with jetlag all through his stay ...
The symposium Dreams of Regulation obvy seemed an appropriate place to try to catch some sleep.

I am not suggesting the symposium was somniferous or anything - with participants like V. Vale, Eddie Codel and among others Kal Spelletich himself, it was far from that!

Bug Life

This is the first in a series of magnetic "bugs" based on a spoon-full of latex.