Made to Stick - A Review.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a good book. I liked some of the ideas and the half-assed acronym of SUCES(s). Although, it's only been 2 days and I can't remember exactly what it stands for. Guess some ideas just aren't as good at sticking as others. :)



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A Box of BBQ Bees - Brilliant!

Well that was quick.

Kirk called me today.

"Bzzzz," he said, "Do you know what that is? It's bees! I've found you some. Call when you're done with work."

Kirk had rescued a box of bees from a BBQ, and wanted to help me replace my poor dead bees (see my last 2 posts). I picked the BBQ ladies up on my way home and took them to their new place. It is strangely unnerving to have an entire box of bees just buzzing along in your backseat as you drive down Sunset Blvd. Especially when they start escaping randomly and you don't know where they're getting out! I rolled down the window and there's at least one bee hitting the bars in Silverlake tonight. Hope she wore her mustache for Mustache Mondays.

"Quick! Make a run for it!!!!" cried the workers.

I opened a small triangle on the top of the box Kirk had cut so the bees could escape. I backed off and let them pour out, and a few started circling and making their way upward to survey the landscape. Awesome.

I'm going to stop by again tomorrow to make sure they're still going in and out.

In the meantime, check out this vid! The Backwards Beekeepers made CNN!

<3 W/e You Want

A Sad Beekeeper am I.

Well, I called it too soon. My bees have died. Everyone is sad. But Kirk said we will try and get another hive (or 3) going this week!

Everything seemed fine from the outside...

Upon closer inspection

 Kirk also brought along another Beek named Jason. He was very nice and helpful. And he took pictures for us. So I'll post them when I get them. I've posted them here.

When we got there, Kirk immediately noticed some ants outside streaming into our birdhouse.

"Uh-oh," he said, "We've got ants."

It was sad because we opened up the little home and inside were a few bees just straggling along.

Apprehensive about what we might find

Kirk pried off the top carefully.

Oh noes!

Poor Bees.

Kirk pointed out the comb had attached to the bottom of the box. Whatever happened to them happened before we got them.

The little bit of comb they'd built had landed on the bottom of the box and there were a ton of dead bees just laying wet on the back of the hive. It sucks! It looks like they may have been sprayed with soapy water or a pesticide or something before we picked them up, and that the only bees left were robbers and those that weren't home when the hive was sprayed.

I'll keep you updated on when I get another hive to care for.

Packing up our things and making plans for more bees...

Photos are courtesy of Jason Carman. You can view his post on the project here.

<3 W/e You Want

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Beekeeper am I. (with a little help from my friends!)

I now have a beehive of my own. Well, I will tomorrow afternoon at least!

Thanks to Kirkobeeo, I have a new friend, David.

Thanks to my new friend David, I have a place to keep bees.
David is letting me use his AMAZING back yard in exchange for some honey when the time comes.

Thanks to Kirkobeeo, I have bees to put in the new place! Wanna see?! Of course you do!
 

Eileen in Mar Vista asked Kirk to come by and pick up some bees that had decided her empty birdhouse was a perfect place for a home! Eileen and I thought they looked cute - the birdhouse was beautifully done. It's a shame it's really too small for bees, or I would've wanted to find a way to leave them in there. There's even a fake back window on the birdhouse. Simply adorable.

Kirk and I looked at the hive. The bees are lighter than others I've seen, kinda yellow.

Kirk took some pictures. He got some good ones - the ones I'm posting are just a sample. He has one of myself and Eileen! She was very interested in bees and asked some interesting questions. She was so pleasant.

She said, "I didn't want to kill them, so I looked on the internet for who to call." Yay, Eileen! We're so glad you did.

 

smoke, smoke, smoke...

Can you see the bees? They were all around the front, but when I smoked the door, they ran to the back of the birdhouse. They were very nice bees.

Kirk put some screen and tape over the front hole so no bees could get out. Then we took the birdhouse off the post, and off we went to deliver them to their new home!

I'm very excited about having these girls as my first beehive.

Kirk and I set the girls on top of what will be their new home. See the screen and tape?

Now all that's left is, as Kirk put it, "We take the screen and tape off and run." Fun! I felt like a little kid. It was so fun. We didn't really run, but we did back off after pulling off the screen and tape. We'll leave them here to get oriented to their new area, and tomorrow we'll dismantle the birdhouse and put the bees into the hive box.

Hopefully they love it.

 

The area where David has lent some beekeeping space is beautiful. Wanna see? Of course you do!

 

Doesn't that look like something out of a fairytale? For the bees, it's now a happily ever after.

This was Kirk taking off the screen and tape. As you can see above, we're also setting up boxes for another hive. These boxes were left by the last beekeeper. Might as well put them to use!

Run!!

Awesome day. More awesomeness to come tomorrow. Also, keep in mind the Backwards Beekeepers meet tomorrow in L.A. Go to their website to find out more (linked above). 

Do you want to taste some clean, pure, local L.A. honey?

http://kirkslocalhoney.com 

yummy!

Do you have a swarm or hive in L.A. and want someone to come help you out?  

Read this page first, then let us know.

BEE RESCUE HOTLINE: (213) 373-1104

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8tracks Playlist #1 - Gardening in L.A.

My 1st post to 8tracks. Love the site, so happy I can now take part in the fun! The new Mac Uploader makes it super-easy. Enjoy!

<3 WeYouWant

Athiests Don't Have No Songs

 

I <3 Steve Martin.

Take a listen! Nice 4 part harmony, and the lyrics are hilarious.

xoxo <3 W/e You Want.

Bees!!!

This .gif comes from http://gapersblock.com/

I love this. I think it's great, and quite hilarious. 

I know some beekeepers who would love for Oprah to give them bees - and look how happy she is to do it for them! She's even trained the bees to fly around in front of the camera. Dancing. Everybody is so happy to have bees. I would be happy to have bees.

On that note - 

I went to my first ever Barefoot Beekeepers meeting today! It was fun! Someone brought some honey for everyone to taste and Kirkobeeo (his twitter name) answered a ton of questions. Kirk is the resident guru for all things natural-beekeeping-related. 

I took pictures!

These are the Farmlab Hives.

 

And turn!

Mr. DeVille, I'm ready for my close-up. What a cute decal!

 

When it got sunny, the bees got very active! It was so cool to see!

 

 It's hard to really show this. There were SO MANY bees! The hive entrance is facing the fence, and it was like a bee airport over there.

Now some pictures of where the meeting took place - Farmlab! The space is under an overpass and next to a train track, but really cool. There's so many growing things, and they've really made the area their own. 

This is the actual meeting. The guy facing us is Kirk Anderson - he's answering all the questions people have - even the stupid ones - with patience and grace. I'm not patient and graceful, so I'll just tell you now - people have some STUPID questions.

This is building we parked in front of. Really cute!

  Lots of graffiti in the area, though. Still - it was like an artist's haven. The people there have made it a cool place.

These two images are of the sign and view underneath part of the overpass. The space is broken up by pillars, so there's actually several areas under here.

This car is really cool! It's a planter.

Another planter - this time for Strawberries!

A very true and VERY LARGE message in the artist studio next to Farmlab

I loved this neon sign. I didn't get a chance to ask more about Farmlab in general, but will try to next meeting. I might also do some research on my own and stuff. They had all kinds of stuff growing there - from banana trees to mint to strawberries. They had a great rainwater reservoir set up as well, and fantastic gutter re-direction - right into planting beds and stuff. Nice!

If you get the chance to see Farmlab, please do. It was a fantastic place - a real oasis in the concrete jungle.


<3 W/e You Want

If you live in L.A. and have the chance to check out Farmlab, please do. It's a little piece of heaven in a large concrete jungle. It's located just north of downtown, near Chinatown, off of Spring St. 

<3 W/e You Want

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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Mausness... Maus I, Maus II

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A little slower than the first one, this was an amazing, heartbreaking tale. I feel like this is the only book I've read that is worthy of the Dave Eggers title, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Why so good? Because it's so humble, so honest, and so incredibly full. You can see the emotions come through as if we're looking at the characters through glass, instead of words and pictures.



The son/artist comes across as selfish and harsh, yet loving in his own way. An aging parent is one of the hardest things we all must face. Especially when the parent is so annoying and so - well, he's like a lot of fathers. Embarrassing, stingy, clingy, needy. And yet - the things he went through, the astonishing revelations of his past, the incredible love he held for Anja his entire life - even while married to Mala. I cried at the end of this book, and I think you might too. It's worth the tears.



As an aside, I LOVED the addition of the one real photo included in this volume.



This book should be read by book lovers and graphic novel enthusiasts alike.



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