I guess I am in a nesting sort of mood because I am aching for a beautiful space to live, love, entertain, create, inform, and share!  “Italian furniture manufacturer Poliform has created an inspirational residential interior project called “My Life in 80m²” to show that the quality of a living space does not depend on the size.” Via The Contemporist.

One thing that I am not is touchy about the fact that I love what I love. And I love Moleskine notebooks.  And I love manual typewriters, especially the Hermes 3000, and I love quite a lot of other like-minded stuff.  Well, Moleskine notebooks are #122 in the list of Stuff While People Like. Sad but true.

This particular type of notebook is very expensive and was quite popular with writers and artists in the olden days.  Needless to say, these are two properties that are highly coveted in the white community.   In fact, it’s a good rule of thumb to know that white people like anything that old writers and artists liked:  typewriters, journals, suicide, heroin, and trains are just a few examples.

Let’s see what else I like that white people like — the bold ones I feel especially strong about:

• #122 Moleskine Notebooks
• #120 Taking a Year Off
• #119 Sea Salt
• #115 Promising to Learn a New Language
• #108 Appearing to Enjoy Classical Music
• #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
• #106 Facebook
• #99 Grammar
• #98 The Ivy League
• #92 Book Deals
• #90 Dinner Parties
• #88 Having Gay Friends
• #81 Graduate School
  
• #80 The Idea of Soccer
• #79 Modern Furniture
• #78 Multilingual Children
• #77 Musical Comedy
• #73 Gentrification
• #72 Study Abroad
• #70 Difficult Breakups
• #61 Bicycles
• #58 Japan
• #57 Juno
• #56 Lawyers
• #55 Apologies
• #54 Kitchen Gadgets
• #53 Dogs
• #52 Sarah Silverman
• #51 Living by the Water
• #50 Irony
• #49 Vintage
• #48 Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops
• #47 Arts Degrees
• #46 The Sunday New York Times
• #45 Asian Fusion Food
• #44 Public Radio
• #43 Plays
• #42 Sushi
• #39 Netflix
• #38 Arrested Development
• #37 Renovations
• #36 Breakfast Places
• #35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
• #34 Architecture
• #25 David Sedaris
• #24 Wine
• #23 Microbreweries
• #21 Writers Workshops
• #20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
• #19 Traveling
• #18 Awareness
• #16 Gifted Children
• #14 Having Black Friends
• #13 Tea
• #8 Barack Obama
• #7 Diversity
• #6 Organic Food
• #5 Farmer’s Markets
• #3 Film Festivals
• #2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
• #1 Coffee

Holy fuck, I am pretty darn white!

Everyone knows I hate Second Life but some people know that I love IM and IRC.  So, if this Google’s Lively actually acts like an IRC with avatars, I think I might use it — as long as the interface isn’t too heavy and I can “play” it on my x61 ThinkPad.  I was really into MUDs and MOOs back in the day, so this might be right down my alley.  My business partner, Mark, said to me, “I’m kinda praying this bombs..” We’ll see. Via Wired.

ExploringLively, Google’s Virtual World

Google is well-known for expanding into unpredictable areas, but virtual worlds? Google’sLively is a cross betweenSecond Life and IRC: pick an avatar, add clothing, enter a room, and chat. It’s all a bit confusing at first, as there isn’t really much else to do yet. You can create your own rooms and add furniture (including TVs playing YouTube videos), dress up your avatar and interact with objects, but original content creation is being left out of users’ hands.

While clicking through the catalog and dressing up my little guy (with a sweet bacon hat and overalls) I noticed a cryptic “Price: Free,” which suggests the exchanging of currency at some point or another.

The rooms themselves are pretty interesting: some of the popular ones include World of Warcraft and Guild Wars themes, a Digg Lounge, and even a Western-themed area, for folks who just can’t get enough Gunsmoke. I checked out the “Dragon Tower,” and watched avatars stand around while fires crackled. Nice sound effects though.

It’s only been out for about a day, so people are still getting their feet wet. And as with all Google Labs projects, it’s in (perpetual) beta, so expect the occasional glitch. Check it out. There is a small download, but (unlikeSecond Life) the entire thing runs out of a browser — Windows only, for now.

Lively [Google]

In memory of the too real bar known as Zack’s we introduce its replacement at 613 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, the The 18th Amendment, which will be yet another offensive simulacrum. Via David Gelles.

“The upper level will offer a full bar with high-end liquors and about eight beers on draft in an art deco-inspired room. The basement bar — ‘the kind of place where gangsters would have hung out,’ Spore said — will have furniture fashioned from old whiskey boxes, barrels and pews and a small lounge with couches.”

Oh Lord.