Rosie the Robot For a More Civilized Time...
Now that there is a rethwyll 2.0 currently under construction, our household is going through some major upheavals. Namely, "OMFG WHERE ARE WE GOING TO PUT A KID??" As such, we are madly occupied in revamping our stupidest room, ie "That craptacularly stupid 8'x8' room OFF THE LIVING ROOM that no one in their RIGHT MIND would call a 5th bedroom, Mr. Real Estate Person" into the new library and moving our approximately 73,000 books out of what will become the nursery. (I say "we", although my role to this point has been mostly to point out that "that box of books is WAY too heavy for me to lift in my delicate condition" and that I should really "go back to my nap.")
So, we have this deliciously empty room just ready for some finishing touches (and books), and I can't think of anything that goes better with "library" than "elegantly nerdily awesome steampunk", which is why I'm poring over the galleries at keiththompsonart.com, especially this Karakuri print of a robot geisha. With that, I will have achieved the perfect synergy between my Japanese and retro-futurist obsessions...
Buy it! Karakuri Giclée Print (13"x19"), $40.00, from keiththompsonart.com.
digg it, del.icio.us it, Google it, StumbleUpon it, Linkroll it.
Sometimes I think that I was born in the wrong country; either that, or I was Japanese in a former life, because I canNOT get enough of all things from the Land of the Rising Sun. For example, I am hopelessly addicted to sushi, anime and Iron Chef. (Sakai forever!) And now I'm in love with these wooden Japanese Stylized Leaves Mini Screens from PrairieMod. Granted, they're not actually FROM Japan, but they have enough of the flavor of my second favorite island (what can I say -- Australia will always own my heart) that every time I catch sight of them, they make me just the teeniest bit homesick. 
"Comrades and friends! A great victory has recently taken place in our neighborhood, one which will be recounted by our children and our children's children! Yesterday, the People's National Liberation Armed Forces of Sparky's House defeated the traitorous Mr. Whiskers, stooge of the human oppressors, thus liberating The Bowl Of Cat Food, which will now be distributed equally for the glory of the movement! It is yet another shameful defeat sustained by the human oppressors and proof of the rightness of our cause! 
More than once, we have longed to lay down our keyboard in surrender, move to an Amish farm and take up whittling or knitting or blacksmithing or SOMETHING wherein, when our job was finished, we would have a bright, shiny OBJECT lying in front of us and not a bunch of 0s and 1s floating somewhere out there on teh interweb. At the very least, we'd like a profession which we could explain to our parents in 50 words or fewer. But, inevitably, we shrug our slumped shoulders and go back to the pixel mine, mostly because a) we enjoy being paid every two weeks and 2) we do not know how to whittle.
The Empire Strikes Back: The cinematic pinnacle of the original Star Wars trilogy. (Or, as we like to refer to them, Those 3 Without Ewan McGregor.) Yoda. Lando. Boba Fett. Han encased in carbonite. The Battle of Hoth's complete and total rout of the Empire's laughable ground force, the AT-AT Imperial Walkers. 
When we were but a wee snarkster, we were never personally given to doodling on our parents' walls, mostly because we did not relish the prospect of INSTANT DEATH at such a tender age. Many years' worth of all-purpose cleaner commercials have led us to believe that perhaps we missed out on an essential childhood rite of passage. Now that we are an adult with walls of our own, we would be inclined to give it a whirl... if it wasn't for all of the time we spent painting them, dammit.
or, add Consume to your newsreader of choice...
