Update: It looks like Shoes With Souls is out of business but their website is still up and running and taking orders! See the GoVegan forum.

I just found a great cruelty-free eco-friendly online shoe store: Shoes with Souls.

I like:

• ecosneak (Since Converse is now owned by Nike, a company not know for being a good corporate citizen, these might be a good alternative)
• the Napali (For hiking up Runyon Canyon)
• the Liberator (just because they look cool).

I like their slogan “No animal had to die to make you look this good”.

I thought this was a great quote by Esther Dyson:

“Google is blind evolution. They have this … users-in-charge, bubble-up philosophy. Their employees can come up with ideas. There’s this kind of Darwinian internal selection process. … They have a very clear vision; they’re not quite north to the North Pole. They’re going west, they’re going forward but they’re blind evolution; they don’t really see where they’re going. Neither do we … Yahoo, on the other hand, is intelligent design. They have the vision of what they’re trying to build … . Two very, very different models. The other thing that’s really different is Google sees communication as a medium for the distribution of information. … whereas Yahoo, they see information as a medium of communication among people. They get people. They get communities and individuals in a way that Google really doesn’t. Google is blindingly clever. … You have very, very different models of the world. I like them both, and think they will both persist.”

This is a little more eloquent than my “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” description of Google’s strategy.

Roland Shanks is a new band I heard this morning on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. They played a new single by them that is going to be released on February 13th,Cutting Teeth. I really like their sound, reminded me of The Jam a little. They are a from London, and haven’t released an album yet. I’m looking forward to the day they do.

You can hear some of their songs, including Cutting Teeth at the Roland Shanks MySpace page.

The Daily Monkey is a great site. They have a new picture of a monkey and a monkey quote every day. They just don’t have an RSS feed yet!

via BB

This is a post to keep track of all the visits I have made to Vegas. Basically it is a list of the hotels I have stayed at. (#) indicates multiple stays. Dates indicated when I remember them. I will update it whenever I make a new trip.

Aladdin
Bally’s (2)
Barbary Coast (3)
Excalibur (?,Nov 2001, Sept 2006, Nov 2008)
Flamingo (2)
Imperial Palace
Luxor (?, Nov 2007)
Mandalay Bay (Aug 2007)
MGM Grand (Nov 2006, Sept 2007, Feb 2008, Aug 2008[Signature for 1 night])
Monte Carlo(?,April 2006, Dec 2007)
New York New York
THEhotel (Dec 2006)
Treasure Island (September 2005)
Stardust
Venetian (June 2008)
Wynn (October 2005)

OK, it’s not Friday, but I’m going to blog about cats anyway. After Krissy posted her desire for an apple oufit for Noah, I have to admit I want to make a fruit helmet for Tippit.

Wouldn’t Tippit look cute in one!

Found via Boing Boing

One of my current favorite bands, She Wants Revenge, performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. I have seen this band a few times at a local club, so it was cool to see them on their first nation-wide performance. They played their song “Tear You Apart”, but understandably had to change the chorus from “I’d love to fuckin’ tear you apart” to “I’d really love to tear you apart”. Other than that I thought they sounded pretty good.

I expect big things from this band in the future. Their self titled CD doesn’t come out until January 31st, but they already seem to be getting a big buzz.

They are kicking off a national tour soon. To see tour dates and listen to some of their songs, check out their MySpace page. They also have a couple of videos on the She Wants Revenge website.

I also just noticed that the video for Tear You Apart will be out on mtvU.com on January 30th.

I consider myself a little bit of a monkey, so it’s quite a shock that I’ve been peeling bananas from the wrong end all my life.

It seems monkeys peel bananas by pinching the non-stem end. I don’t have any bananas to test this on, but can’t wait to try out this technique.

I saw this on Kottke.org and thought it was fun. Bloggers are making lists of cities they have spent one or more nights in. The * indicates multiple, non-consecutive nights. Here’s my list:

Los Angeles, CA*
Austin, TX*
Las Vegas, NV
Toronto, Ont
Udora, Ont*
Orillia, Ont*
Chicago, IL
Monument Channel, Ont (on Georgian Bay)
San Francisco, CA
Sunnyvale, CA
Big White, BC
Carnival Pride (Cruise Ship off the coast of Mexico)

Overall it was a very slow travel year.

This is great. Someone has come up with an anti-telemarketing counter script. This provides a great script to follow the next time some annoying telemarketer calls. It might not stop the calls, but you might feel like you got some revenge.

Found via Boing Boing.