dilettante favorites

My Favorite Things

The items listed on this page are in no particular order and I don't always update them as often as I should. But it's a fun list anyway!

Actors/Hot Guys (aka my future husbands)

Adrien Brody - His leading role in The Pianist takes my breath away, but I also really like him as the con artist in Love the Hard Way.
Gerard Butler - future husband.
Ioan Gruffudd - He's had so many great roles, but the best to date is Horatio Hornblower. So get this...my friend Amy from RIchmond Stitch n' Bitch is married to a lovely man named Geoffry and Geoffry is Ioan's first cousin. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!
Ewan McGregor - I LOVE EWAN! Here's the website chronicling his motorcycle trip around the world: The Long Way Round.
Clive Owen - Yum.. My favorite roles of his are as D.I Tanner in the BBC (I watch it on BBC America) crime series "Second Sight" and as Larry in the film "Closer". He also made a series of short films for BMWfilms.com that you HAVE to watch.

Books (what I'm reading or have read)

Archangel, Jovah's Angels, The Alleluia Files, The Angel Seeker and Angelica by Sharon Shinn. These are the books of her Samaria series.
Beowulf by Sheamus Heaney
The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel In North America by Barbara Garnett-Smith.
The Fellowship of the Ring by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
The History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt
The Iliad - New 1996 translation by Robert Fagles.
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman Cantor
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley
The Ringworld Throne by Larry Niven
The conclusion of the Ringworld trilogy, this book follows Ringworld, and the The Ringworld Engineers.

Dog-related Books that I read when training Chester:

Furniture & House Stuff

Le Klint light fixtures - I have a Le Klint 172 "Giant" hanging over my dining room table and it is gorgeous.
Mid-century Modern design
Danish Modern design
Ikea
Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe (1927) one of these days I'll have this chair so help me god.
Barcelona Bed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930)
Most everything at Design Within Reach
Herman Miller Mirra chair - I finally got one March 22, 2005 and I love it.
La Difference here in Richmond, VA

Crochet, Embroidery

Sublime Stitching - embroidery site
Subversive Cross Stitch

Knitting

Go to my Knitting page for my knitting links.

Magazines

Metropolitan Home
Elle Decor
Vanity Fair - Love it! I've been getting this since college and it's my favorite.
Viking Heritage Magazine - Published by the folks from Viking Heritage in Gotland, Sweden.

Music

Cecilia Bartoli - My FAVORITE opera singer. I have many of her CDs and have loved her for years.
Eighteenth Street Music - Home of my favorites: Ursula 1000 , Les Hommes, Nicola Conte and Thievery Corporation
iTunes - My digital jukebox/music store of choice. I highly recommend it!
NorthSide Records - Excellent site for Nordic and world music. I highly recommend the Nordic Roots sampler CDs

Open-Source Software

GAIM is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.
Spambayes anti-spam filter. Amazing, and free!

Web Design/CSS Books

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design by Eric Meyer
Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation by Own Briggs
Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
Web Redesign: Workflow That Works by Kelly Goto, Emily Cotler
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground by Curt Cloninger
The Art and Science of Web Design by Jeffery Veen

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Blogs

dooce.com

Humor Sites

AngryAlien.com - Home of the 30-seconds Bunny Theatre
The Quarter - a spoof SCA publication

Other Good Sites I Visit Regularly

alistapart.com - EXCELLENT web development/design site.
Apple Movie Trailer site
BUST.com
Design Within Reach
Eighteenth Street Music - Home of Ursula 1000 and Thievery Corporation.
HARPHQ.com - Home of High Adventure Role Playing- one of the sites I do for work.
House Gymnastics
IronCrown.com - my other work site
Koko.org (Koko the Gorilla) - Koko is a 32 year old lowland gorilla, who learned to speak American Sign Language when she was just a baby. Her teacher, Dr. Penny Patterson , began working with Koko as a Ph.D. project at Stanford, thinking it would only be a 4-year study.Thirty-some years later, Penny and Koko continue to work together at the Gorilla Foundation in one of the longest interspecies communication studies ever conducted, the only one with gorillas.
KristenUlve.com - Artist website. Great charicatures.
Librarian Avengers
Loobylu - she's an artist in Australia.
Metafilter.com
Northside Records - one of my favorite music sites.
PlayaMayaNews.com - My long-time friends Brenda and Jorge Alfaro live in Cancun, Mexico and Brenda often writes for this online magazine. They also own several businesses (Weddings In Playa and America Maya Foundation) including a lovely restarant call Ajua! The Ritz Cantina. One of these days I'll actually go and visit them!
Textism - this guy lives in Pompignan, France and created Textpattern: a flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs. He has 2 Weimaraners and has tons of beautiful pics of them on the site.
venuszine.com
VikingAnswerLady.com
VikingAnswerLady merchandise @ CafePress.com
Visit4Info.com - UK website where you can watch your favourite TV ads, Cinema adverts, Press ads. Just like AdCritic.com used to be before they sold out and became a subscription-based site.
whatdoiknow.org - "This site is all about providing an alternative, personal perspective to the droning noise of mass media. Technology, web design and development, Mac OS X, Macromedia Flash, popular culture, and other odds and ends from my neck of the woods (Atlanta) are regular topics."
yellowlane.com