I never knew this was so popular, but apparently there’s multiple rickshaw races in India per year, including:

• The Indian Autorickshaw Challenge
• The Rickshaw Run

I want to do at least one by next year.

Have some money burning a hole in your pocket, and a giant empty wall? Why not buy a billboard from the past? Most are around 8-9′ tall, and 20-22′ wide, and range from a couple hundred, to a couple thousand dollars.

Now that website is pretty ghetto, and they probably don’t accept Amazon Payments. But I recently found out about the TextPayMe service that Amazon Payments offers, and it seems to be pretty amazing. Now, when you go dutch on a meal, and you pick up the tab with your credit card, your friends can pay you instantly with their cellphone. This also goes hand in hand with the TextBuyIt service that Amazon offers.

• Outdoor panels
• flor carpets

This is probably the coolest closet I’ve seen.  The industrial look, the unfinished plywood, and the effect of using what are essentially steel flooring as doors, all blend together perfectly.

In other news, I’m still looking for a good couch.  I’m thinking about getting the Townsend from Room and Board, but apparently someone has already laid claim on it for all of Seattle.  Requirements for a good couch are: simple lines, boxy arm rests, arm rest lower than back rest, arm rest must be wide enough to sit on, comfy, and wide enough that I can comfortably lie on it.

1. The floating house that Sleepless in Seattle was filmed in is now up for sale, asking price? $2.5 million.
2. Just bought: wall decal from etsy.
3. I’ve always been fascinated by magicians who did tricks with rings, that is, until I found out how they did them.  But these are magazine racks that look like those magician’s rings, and you can hang them off of each other.  Very cool.
4. I’m looking for a good, yet inexpensive office chair.  While I’d love to get an aeron, it’s a little out of my price range at the moment.  Recommendations are welcome.

1. Is this a driveway, or a house? On sale in Toronto for $179 000.
2. Back in the days, we used to buy cases of Voss bottled water, but that doesn’t compare to some of the most expensive bottled water in the world.
3. If you eat a lot of bananas, but only half of it at a time, then this is the perfect companion for you.

1. I don’t know why more homes (or businesses for that matter) don’t come with this, especially since Americans seem pretty paranoid about things like germs. But foot operated faucets are a great idea.
2. While we’re on the topic of feet, why not buy some shoes? And did you know that Carlos Santana has a line of shoes?
3. Once you’ve bought all those shoes, here is an innovative way (innovative in the sense that they reinvented the wheel) to store them (but just shoes, not boots).
4. And here’s a site that I don’t know how to pronounce, that sells all sorts of random stuff.

1. The slide light from Suck UK is pretty brilliant - if only I took slides rather than being all digital these days.
2. Slightly more bold is this bed, designed by Karim Rashid.
3. It’s not a secret that I’m buying a place right now, and getting a mortgage has been made much more difficult because of the whole subprime mess, here’s another article asking, why didn’t someone see what’s happening?
4. What’s not subprime is the fact that Radiohead will be swinging by Seattle on Aug. 20th this year - well, not exactly Seattle, but they’ll be playing at the White River Amphitheater.
5. In other Seattle news, the MLS team will be named the Seattle Sounders FC. This is interesting, given that it wasn’t even a choice in the vote (the choices were either Seattle FC, Seattle Alliance, or Seattle Republic). I guess a lot of people did the write-in for Sounders.

1. This one’s been on a lot of blogs today, but it’s a light disguised as a camera. I thought it was interesting because I was actually considering using camera lighting equipment for in-home lighting (because surprisingly, it’s actually cheaper than a lot of lighting options out there).
2. Here’s a floor lamp that will make you feel like you’re a little kid.
3. If you think that was big, there’s a whole blog dedicated to comically large things.