1,000 ukuleles

Now they know how many ukes it takes to fill the Albert Hall: 1,000.

[With apologies to “A Day in the Life.”]

Scrimping and printing

Hewlett-Packard’s not doing so well:

On Tuesday, H.P. showed how its printer business remained vulnerable to the recession when it reported third-quarter financial results. H.P.’s printing and imaging revenue fell 20 percent, to $5.7 billion, as sales of supplies tumbled 13 percent and sales of printers fell 23 percent.

Says Mark V. Hurd, Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive, “People are printing just as much as they did last year.” Hurd blames lower sales of supplies on currency fluctuations, inventory adjustments, and consumer reluctance to stock up.

Stocking up, at least on ink-jet cartridges, is never a good idea — the carts dry out and become unusable. But it’s my printing (not buying) habits that make me doubt Hurd’s explanations. I suspect that many people are doing exactly as I am: printing less, not so much perhaps to save money as to not waste ink. I’m much more inclined now to tinker and tweak in pixels for a good long time before printing a draft to edit by hand.

The Times says that in response to lower sales, Hewlett-Packard “has been scrambling to raise prices.”

H.P. Tries to Keep the Ink Flowing (New York Times)

Repurposed dish drainer

I’ve used bakeware to cool a Vaio laptop. My desk is a kitchen table. And now I have a Rubbermaid dish drainer to hold working folders. It was Elaine’s idea. Thank you, Elaine.

Gertrude would approve

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. Rose is a rose to pieces. That rose to the rose. It is up to. You can do it. You can do that. I can do. I can do.

[The Translation Party swings on. I’ve borrowed this post’s title from the lyrics of Nellie McKay’s song “Cupcake.”]

Frank would not approve

I did it my way.

I had my way.

I have never had a way.

No way.

No way.

[More fun with Translation Party.]

Rob Zseleczky on clutter and stuff

My friend Rob Zseleczky shares an insight:

I need less crap, even if it’s great crap.

I know what he means: I pass up books that I would’ve bought without hesitation in years past. Can get from library, says my interior monologue. I too need less crap, even if it’s great crap.

You?

Related posts
Good advice from Rob Zseleczky
“Wanting is big, having is small”

Lawrence Lucie (1907–2009)

“In show business it doesn’t always pay to tell your real age.”

Lawrence Lucie, Guitarist With Jelly Roll Morton, Dies at 102 (New York Times)

I am a California girl.

I wish they all could be California girls.

I’m a girl I’m jealous of all of California.

I have my daughter I California.

I’m a California girl.

I am a California girl.

I am a California girl.

[Fun with Translation Party.]

I have to be Proust.

I’d take Proust.

I do not have to Proust.

I need to Proust.

I have to be Proust.

I have to be Proust.

Watch words travel from English to Japanese back to English at Translation Party. I began with the last three words of a wonderful remark by 1950s quarterback Ronnie Knox: “If I had to make the choice between a month of playing football and a month of reading Marcel Proust, I’d take Proust.”

(via Boing Boing)

“Exercise boosts brain power”

The next time I’m tempted to skip exercising (because it’s too early, too late, too cold, too hot), I’m going to remember the above chart, from the website that supplements John Medina’s Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008). Medina’s conclusion:

Active people have half the risk of Alzheimer’s of sedentary people. It’s even less for general dementia.

My conclusion: To sit and read and write, one must keep moving.

“Exercise boosts brain power” is the first rule of Brain Rules, and for me it’s the most valuable lesson in the book. Thanks, Professor Medina.