Lately we’ve been wanting to expand our fields of vision a bit. We’re always on the lookout for new inspiration for the blog, but also just for shaking up our own thoughts and routines. After asking a couple of friends for some book and blog recommendations, we realized that we have the greatest resource in our own readers!
So tell us: what are you reading that inspires you? Whether it’s a new favorite book or one you return to often, a blog you keep tabs on or one you just discovered we want to hear about it. read more…
We received this letter via snail mail recently with a generous check enclosed and have been flying high off it ever since. Not only is the admiration flattering, but the knowledge that all the work that goes into this blog is meaningful to people sustains us in a big way. A true gift.
This little website we started three years ago on a hunch that it would resonate with people is growing, and we have some new projects on the way we think you’ll enjoy. But as we continue to grow, we still face the reality that maintaing the site has a financial component. We know you want us to avoid cluttering up the site with ads (and we want that too!). But there is often a cost to doing what you love, and we hope that if you love what we’re doing, you’ll consider becoming a friend with benefits and supporting us on a monthly basis, or making a one-time donation. Thanks dear readers. Look out for announcements soon…
Today, many of the blogs we visit went dark in protest of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) proposed legislation that could potentially destroy the stunning innovation that has defined the internet. BoingBoing described it best:
“…the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement.
This would unmake the Web, just as proposed in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). We don’t want that world.”
“MUG fully supports the intellectual property rights of artists and companies but SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is ham-fisted and inept legislation that would have far-reaching, deleterious effects to sites like MUG. Today we join the SOPA boycott and urge you to fight this proposed legislation.”
We urge you to sign a petition in opposition to these two acts, in advance of the Senate vote on January 24th.
It only takes a couple of minutes to make your voice heard. Help protect the ability of sites like ours to continue to bring you illuminating content. (Just scroll down our home page to see what’s in jeopardy. Imagine it GONE.)
Even though we’re working today, we’re thinking a lot about this great man, and all this country would not have were it not for his efforts…and what we would not have; his teaching and activism and way still reverberate… read more…
One of the very best products that Ikea has carried over the years was their plywood Frosta stool. It is a fine ripoff of the famous Alvar Aalto stool, but cost only $12 (as opposed to $300+). It is no longer available in the United States, but is available in other countries, including France, Italy, Ireland and Sweden. It was featured prominently on Ikea’s Swedish blog recently, with ideas for painting the stools in stylish way; to us that array of Frosta’s is like a pile of French macaroons we weren’t allowed to eat.
We find ourselves now treating the four Frosta stools we’ve had for years as though they were as precious as Aalto stools. They are endlessly useful as side tables and impromptu seating, and stack to store out of the way. We’ve seen many great hacks using the bent-plywood legs as shelf brackets, speaker holders etc …
We’ve written Ikea twice to ask why, what the possible logic could there be to dictate such a decision; we haven’t heard back. So we have to two ideas: read more…
One of the biggest rewards of writing recipes is discovering the pleasure they’ve given people, or how folks have taken the recipes and made them their own. I was delighted last month to hear from reader/blogger Lucinda Keller of Cobalt Violet, who has been making my Chicken, Corn and Pumpkin Soup in Chipotle Lime Broth since she first cut the recipe out of Food and Wine Magazine in 1999. She wrote:
“It is my hearty, go-to soup for fall and winter. You can substitute pumpkin for butternut or another sweet squash. It is also hearty enough to skip the chicken (I usually do) or even make it vegan/vegetarian soup with vegetable stock.” Lucinda adds extra garlic and avocado.
It’s a great winter soup so I’m glad to hear it’s resonated over the years. The chipotle lime broth is a fine thing unto itself; you can use it as a base for improvising other soups – say leftover roast pork, spareribs or chicken with grilled onions… or shrimp with fine egg noodles. I’ve been known to poach an egg in it. Here’s the original recipe and the story behind it: read more…
(Video link here.) This inspiring TED Talk by Britta Riley recently introduced us to the world of Windowfarms. These vertical hydroponic gardens allow city-dwellers to grow vegetables, herbs and fruits in the windows of their otherwise cramped apartments, all year long. Think ‘strawberries’!
But what’s most intriguing about Windowfarms is the community behind them, constantly refining the product and experimenting with new possibilities. This isn’t a community of traditional scientists or farmers–it’s just a bunch of folks who are passionate about an idea.
Riley describes the process of what goes on at our.Windowfarms–the Windowfarms open source community platform–as “R&D-I-Y” (research-and-develop-it-yourself). read more…
Waylon Lewis, creator of the megablog Elephant Journal has long been a champion of ‘the improvised life’. We were thrilled when he invited us to post regularly over there…our first post ran yesterday. Elephant is, well, like an elephant: BIG. It’s worth scanning the homepage of this online ‘guide to a mindful life’ to find nuggets that resonate with your interests. We’re happy to link our growing community to Elephant’s. (Who knows what might happen.)
(Video link.) We recommend checking out “One of the Nicest Places on the Internet”, a website doling out virtual hugs. It’s mission: “turn the sad into happy and the happy into celebration.” We find it brilliant, curiously heartwarming, beautiful, strange, sweet, healing, sometimes a bit creepy, effective, and finally, if we stay too-long, overwhelming. But what’s amazing is: you can feel the hugs.
You can have as many hugs as you want and you can also post your own hug. On YouTube, you’ll find an endless, ever-growing chain of hugs.
When we did our 2-minute survey, we discovered that A LOT of our readers love that there are no ads on ‘the improvised life’, that we are not trying to sell them something. Not having advertising is easier-said-than done: ads provide revenue that pays for the production costs of content. No ads = no $$.
We’re looking for other solutions. One we’re trying is Friends with Benefits: support us for $5 or more a month and get a link on our site. Please help us keep afloat to keep doing-what-we do, ad-free. It takes less than 5 minutes to do, and gives us FUEL.
photo via Ouno via Facebook (original source unknown)
(Video link here.) On TV last week, we caught a compelling video made by The Guardian about artist Vik Muniz’s recent work. Over three years he traveled to his native Brazil to photograph “catadores” – pickers of recyclable materials – who comb daily through Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest garbage dump, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Muniz’ plan was to make artworks of the catadores’ images using garbage from the dump itself, then photograph the works and sell them at auction, giving the proceeds back to the impoverished pickers.
In the course of the project, Muniz entered into a surprising collaboration with some of the pickers, read more…
(Video link here.) At Apple’s recent celebration of Steve Jobs’ life, Norah Jones sang Bob Dylan’s classic Forever Young, which he wrote in the early ’70′s. Although we’ve heard the song many times over the years, we never really focused on the lyrics until we watched the video of Jones’ performance and looked them up. We were surprised to see that Dylan had written what is, in effect, a blessing: wishing all good fortune, the highest of hopes.
Hidden within the last stanza are the perfect words for clinking glasses in a toast on Thanksgiving Day… read more…
(Video link here.) We LOVE manifestos – in fact have one of our own (click “about” in the right sidebar), so were delighted by the very cool, fun Holstee video manifesto to live your life by. Here’s a version you can put on your wall: read more…
(Video link here.) Barr Hogan sent us this compelling video about a man who invented simple, easy-to-make solar light “bulbs” using ordinary materials housed in recycled plastic liter bottles. He has literally brought daylight indoors to poor families in the Philippines whose houses are so close together, they block the sun from entering. Now the My Shelter Foundation and other organizations have started campaigns, hoping to spread this simple d-i-y lighting throughout the world.
We are always inspired seeing ordinary materials transformed into a useful technological wonder – making a powerful force for change – in this case light – out of virtually “nothing”. It reminded us of the amazing William Kamkwamba, who rigged a windmill out of bits-and-pieces to bring electricity to his village in Africa. The survivalist in us loves knowing the recipe for this strange homemade lighting. read more…
