Getting exposed to some new stuff

I have yet to take advantage of this service, but I think that it is pretty cool.

Quarterly is a web site that features Curators that will periodically send you a package. You do not find out before-hand what it contains, but it you do get to choose your curator, and many are already well known on the internet for their design chops (hope you know what I mean there).
I have wandered onto the web site every so often, and it has really been growing, with new curators joining on. The most recent wandering was from www.thisiscolossal.com whose curator is now associated with Quarterly.

Learning about Other Countries, or A Dangerously Distracting Web Site

Since my geography skills are rather poor, I was looking for some worksheets that would allow me to brush up on countries and related information. I found Sporcle which has some games where you have to come of with the names of all the countries on certain continent, as well as matching games and other related things to do.

This reminded me just how ignorant I am of many other countries. It brings to mind the woman that set out to read a book from each country of the world. I guess a similar task would be to travel to each country, but that would be expensive, if not because of airfare, at least in terms of time.

I wonder what else could be done in a similar style, maybe eat a meal from each country, or buy a handicraft, or listen to a song.

Any suggestions?

The Online prescription eyeglass experiment!

I read this book a while back (Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Frauenfelder). It was pretty good. I am interested in the DIY, or Maker revolution, and maybe his was a good example of an everyman trying his hand at things. I subsequently checked out his blog, and he talked about getting eye-glasses online. It was a little risky but I decided to get some extra glasses, I am always shocked by the markup on frames at my local eye doctor. So I tried Coastal.com and got a pair of prescription sunglasses, and a pair of regular eyeglasses, for about $137.00 and $48.00 respectively. The frames are a little funky, and my wife does not really like the red ones, but I think that I fancy myself stylin' like Seth Godin.

Here is what my new glasses look like:

Kind of a Men in Black sort of look. 

 

A little of the detail of the frame

 

Red eyeglasses

A side shot to show the checkerboard pattern.

So far I have been happy with them. From what I have learned they are made in the USofA