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.

Mexico Baby

Okay, so we went to Mexico.
Well....

I went to Mexico. Doug was denied at the airport at 3AM when we got there to get on a plane.

He has an enhanced drivers license -- the website for which says it's good for going to Mexico and Canada.

It is. If you're driving.

Not if you're flying.

So I flew to Mexico alone. Luckily, we were meeting my dad there so I got to hang out with him at the swim up bar for three days before Mr. Gale arrived.

How did Mr. Gale get a passport that fast? He flew to San Francisco -- which was apparently the only place that was 1. open at 4:30 in the morning and 2. could guarantee him same day turn around on a passport.

Holy cow.

So that's how the trip started. Then, we ate all the food and drank all the booze for a few days. I got a blazing sunburn in the meantime. I think Doug was kind of glad because he got to try out his new Spanish phrase he had been working on, "My spouse is a red lobster." Nice. Very nice.

How did the trip end?
With me sitting next to two sorority girls on the plane who accidently spilled two glasses of ice water in my seat. And I know what you're thinking -- I probably handled it with grace and dignity, right? No. I did not. I swore at them. And then had to sit next to them for three and a half hours. With a cold. wet. butt.

Eff Mexico.

Unanimous Craft -- It's ALIVE

I made this. I made it good. Oh yeah.


Unanimous Craft is a taggable, searchable index of resources for indie business. 


You can find accounting spreadsheets for your profit and loss statement. You can find inspirational blogs. You can find potential places to sell your products wholesale. It's all in there baby -- and tons more.


Indie business folks can post their own resources too and share them with the Unanimous Craft community. Then, we all vote on which ones are the most useful. Oh heck yes. 


It's not over either. You can even curate lists of your favorite resources that share a common theme and bookmark them -- and then share them with the rest of Unanimous Craft.


If you own a resource - say it's a website that you operate - you can sign up to write little updates that are shown on the same page as your resource.


The site just launched on Monday, but already there has been a huge amount of interest. My lovely EtsyRAIN Beta testers did a great job of finding flaws and providing feedback so this updated version of the site is working great. 


I'm offering a couple of specials to get the ball rolling: 


1. Until the end of March, 2010 - Premium Memberships will be $45 per year (that's $15 off the full price of $60). You get to fill out a fancy profile and one Premium Member is shown on the front page each time the site refreshes. You also get discounts on additional advertising on the site and you get shown on the Premium Member page. It breaks down to $3.75/month for front page exposure on a potentially popular website.


2. Advertising on Unanimous Craft is currently set at an introductory rate. It will stay at this price until I reach 10,000 page views/day. BUT - you can purchase as much advertising as you would like now and lock in the introductory price -- so when other people are paying much more -- your ads only cost $20/month. Awesome Sauce.


In any case, please tell your crafty friends who might be interested in the site. You can also follow Unanimous Craft on Twitter and fan us on Facebook. There is also a forum thread on Etsy where you can post your feedback. 


Many thanks everyone -- and I love your faces.
Rosalie

Get Instructable-d by Me

I maded an Instructable. Oh yeah. Now you can read it and be Instructable-d by me.

HONK!


Franken-Scarf. Fire Bad! Scarf Good! - More DIY How To Projects

I Need Some Halps!

I'm looking for a great list of blogs to read. That's all. Just more blogs to read. I tend to get stuck in the stand up comedy or crafty goodness blogs but I know there's more out there.


Can you halps me readers? Just list the blogs you read in the comments and I will be forever grateful.


Hearts, 
Rosalie

How Many Unicorn Posters Have YOU Stolen?

None? That's what I figured.


Well Nik is different. A little bit. Not in a Canadian way -- but still different. Plus, although I've never met him, I do imagine that he smells of almonds. Again, not in a Canadian way -- in a good, almond-ey way.


What am I talking about?
I have no idea.


I meant to do a blog post about my latest trade with Nicolas Caesar and perhaps I should just stick to the task at hand instead of talking randomly about the scent of almonds.


I'll try it.

Mr. Caesar, a frequent Sauce trader and the proprietor of Scary-Art.com, traded with me again. 
A two parter, this one included a Unicorn Poster that he stole along with a Transvestite Robot (well, really just a robot, but he included a weird wig in the box that he sent me so I put it on the robot and started calling it Transvestite Robot. It stuck). 

He gave me those in exchange for the Weird Rooster Thing and a painting I call "I Can See Butt."


Are you wondering at this point how you can grab the Unicorn Poster or the Transvestite Robot for yourself? 


All you need to do is get signed up on the bARTer Sauce website.  Once you have an account, you can make offers on any of the items that are currently available. 


What do you need in order to make an offer: A piece of art or an odd object -- and a story. That's pretty much it. 


Of course, I'll make you do other things like taking picture and answering "interview" questions but those come much later on in the process when you've already invested way too much to back out.  
MMMMmwwwwwwwaaaaahahahahahahahaahhahahahahah