San Francisco's Musee Mechanique

Wow. I hesitate to even give you a link to the website because they have terrible carnival music playing in a loop -- but it's sort of like the whole reason I'm writing this blog post so I guess I have to.


Musee Mechanique. Turn off your speakers or mute or something before you visit. Seriously. I have done everything within my power to warn you.


We were in San Francisco for Drupalcon (a nerd convention for those obsessed with open source, database driven, content management systems) and a friend suggested we go to Musee Mechanique to check out some of the antique coin-operated machines. They are awesome, and stunning and some of them hilarious.

Of course anything with monkeys is awesome: 




And this guy just looks super crazy dumb

Yes, there is an Opium Den antique coin operated machine:With little opium smokers inside: 

And this weird guy with a huge, ugly screaming baby:

And finally - possibly my favorite part of San Francisco. It appears that someone hates Teatro Zinzani as much as I do. Check out the graffiti right on the front of the Teatro Zinzani building itself:

Snort. Snicker. Giggle.

New Obsession: Swap-bot.com

I like getting stuff in the mail. I like mailing stuff through the post office. I like stamping things. I like putting things in envelopes. I like writing crazy things on paper and sending it to people. I like the mail. I like everything about it.

I also like crafts. I like making crafts. I like seeing what crafts other people make. I like it when other people give me crafts.

I especially like it when people make crafts and then send them to me in the mail. 

So you can imagine my delight when I discovered Swap-bot.com. It's a website filled with Swaps that you can sign up for. You send someone something. Someone sends you something. A swap. It's magical.

I registered right away and then signed up for a newbie swap. You have to build up your swap cred a little bit as many swaps require you to have already swapped a minimum number of times. This weeds out the folks who won't follow through on their swap obligations. (shakes fist at the dumb monkeys who mess up the swaps!)

The swap I signed up for is right up my alley: Big, Fat, Stuffed Envelope Swap. Oh yes. Oh, yes. I can't wait to get it! I'll do a post later that shows ya what I got (and if I've really got it together -- what I gave). In the meantime, sign up for Swap-bot.