June 2008

Blotter can also refer to an official summary, usually covering a short duration, such as a police blotter, or the trade confirmation summary of a financial institution. The term is frequently used in financial institution software terms to represent a list of current trades in a spreadsheet-like interface whose status is updated in real-time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blotter

carefree, happy in a natural way

"It's fun to be with him when he's on a lark - when he's carefree. "

http://esl-bits.net/idioms/id430.htm

A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in very indirect and convoluted fashion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine).