Goods and Services

App Gifts

Hey Oli, I decided to use that iTunes gift certificate you got me towards buying apps—and only apps—for my phone. It's great, a gift that keeps on giving, so much more than buying one album. I've only used half the money on the card and bought the following apps: Sleep Cycle Alarm PicFrame Caffeine Zone 2 1-bit camera...

Pearl Izumi P.R.O. 2009 Cycling Shoes

And how to ship stuff to the USA when you live in Canada. I needed a new pair of road cycling / racing shoes to replace my 15 year-old Sidi shoes. I love Sidis but they're pricey and well, I've never ridden anything else. My requirements: * carbon sole * something mid-range but on sale * if possible, something match...

Essential Mac Web Design Apps

While working on a contract these are the applications and programs I have running on my MacBook Pro (with OSX 10.4) at basically all times while designing and constructing a website. I can't work without these. A lot of Command-Tab, Command-r going on. What do you use? Grab Native OSX app for taking screenshots. Good for grabing areas of an...

Design Project Hours and Budget

How much time and money does a 4th year design graduation project take? Nearly 1,000 hours and over $3,000....

Anne Frank House

I likely first heard about the Diary of Anne Frank in grade school, though I don't recall reading the actual diary. I never gave her much thought again until I happened to walk past the Anne Frank Huis, now a museum and major tourist attraction, on my first visit to Amsterdam in 2003. At that time I vaguely understood...

Identity Feedback

The travel bag that transforms. A short essay, referencing class readings, about a product that has transformed my life.

Living With the Composers

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Stick a Light In It

From left-to-right, top-to-bottom: ???, Egg Basket Lamp Julia Lohmann, Ruminant Bloom. (preserved sheep stomachs) Bill Culbert, Light Sculpture. (plastic detergent bottles) Tejo Remi, Milk Bottle Lamp Tejo Remi, Milk Bottle Chandelier Studiomeiboom, Enlightenment lamp (book) Christian Maas, Lichtinfusion Lamp. (saline drip) Nadine Sterk, Sleeping Beauty (knitting machine) Chris Kabel, Sticky Lamp (bulb packaging) Michael Malmborg, Lightspeaker Lamp Jake Phipps,...

Flickr Has Video

Details on the Flickr blog. Some minor bugs being worked out. I've tagged my first video wtf....

Vancouver Summer Room for Rent

Click for full-size PDF (112kb). Design by roommate Tobias. We are looking for some nice ECIAD-people to look after our place on 2360 Larch St. for a while! It’s located smack dab in the middle of Kitsilano in a very nice brand new house where we usually live and work. It’s a 2 min. walk to Safeway, 5 min....

Design Academy Exhibit

The Family of Form exhibit at the Design Huis in Eindhoven, Netherlands is currently showing "works of three generations of graduates from Design Academy Eindhoven." By three generations they mean over the past decade or so. Here are some of the pieces I documented with the English text copied from the show's labels. Many of these pieces are what originally...

Nine Months of Sent Mail

These sent emails cover the period since I left Canada on April 23, 2007, and leaving Bali on January 26, 2008, i.e. nine months of sent mail.

Fax Not

This is excellent [that you sent me an email with a PDF form to apply for Emily Carr Institute Bursaries], I am ready to apply right away. One lengthy note...er, rant, however: Is it possible to submit this via email? I'm confused as to the benefit and perceived extra legality of faxing a form that requires me to find a...

Why Flickr?

As the person responsible for taking the small organization I work for in Bali into as progressive an online realm as I can take it, one of the many recommendations--and one of the few that has required any spending--is that we purchase a Flickr Pro account. The question my boss asked: Can you give a quick explanation as to...

Filipino Text Slang

So the Philippines is literally the text--or txt--capital of the world. More people send messages through their cellphones here than anywhere. The P1200 (approx. $27 CAN) used, ubiquitous (Nokia has sold over 1 billion) Nokia 1100 phone I bought from a street vendor in Baguio. Here pictured during a hike overlooking the Banaue rice terraces, the only place I picked...

Philippines Bicycle Hunt

Or more specifically: How to Buy a Used Road Bike in Manila. A set of instructions. View of my new used bike riding a street somewhere in Quezon City, Metro Manila. It veers right without hands but otherwise pretty great. Spend two months spanning half the country asking everyone you meet where to buy a used bicycle. Give up looking....

Coda: a quick review

There are a lot of web design apps out there and I'm going to briefly highlight a couple things I like and don't like about Coda, one the more recent ones for Mac that a lot of people are (were...I just found it this week) talking about. Lots of thorough reviews to read out there. I'll just touch on a...

Ifugao Hunter Backpack

Remember the picture I posted of Aklay (aka Philippe) the French Baker in Sagada wearing one of those water-proofed traditional backpacks? I found it (well, both Aklay and the backpack) interesting and posted a photo of them on my Flickr. I'd actually secured a standard variety model without the covering a week earlier, but when Roman Izdebski, a professor of...

Straight Shave

One of my indulgences this internship is going to the barber for a shave. Waiting. The other barber at this stall would play and sing a few chords on the guitar during my shave. At 40 peso (a little under $1) in Baguio City you get a 20 minute straight-razor shave and a brief facial massage and neck cracking. In...

Philippines Ukay-Ukay

Recorded June 5, 2007 walking around an oki-oki ukay-ukay (thanks to Marco for the spelling correction) complex in Baguio City, Philippines. Ukay-Ukay means to rumage and find from a pile, i.e. a used clothing store. Baguio is somewhat of a hub for ukay-ukay, receiving truck- and ship-loads of second-hand and discount clothing from Hong Kong and, primarily, the Western world....

Tools and Modification

How far can we modify an object before it becomes unrecognizable or permanently altered? How many mistakes must be made to determine that limit? At what point do modifications become useful enough to become adopted as the norm? When a modification doesn't quite meet needs, how much time and investment and additions must be made for them to function...

Google Analytics New Beta

A quick note to say the new Google Analytics, the free web site traffic statistics program, is pretty sweet and such a welcome change over the old. If I had ten seconds to say why it's better, well, less finicky little buttons and text, more of what I need to see right away--particularly the six Site Usage stats under the...

Ouch my freakin' ears

It seems the recent OS X update scaled the hardware volume up on the MacBook Pro (and all hardware running OS X?). Googled for 30 seconds, someone mentioned the 10.4.9 update system volume change. I miss 10.4.8 volume. For the Moms / Aunt reading this, that means my computer updated itself with new instructions that make the speakers on...

Sofa Control

I bought a program for my computer and it reminds me how important good tools are and why I'm willing to start paying for them.

Physical Backup Policy

In addition to monthly backups to my external 250GB drive, I've decided--as a worst-case-scenario kind of pre-emptive backup--to buy a second MacBook Pro 15" laptop. Just in case my first laptop gets stolen. Like, just in case I leave my laptop in my backpack somewhere and it gets swiped. Just in case I leave my first $2,500 MacBook Pro in...

Web Service Accounts

An ongoing list (with favicons) of every web service I have an account with. Some are used hourly, others once, and some aren't even ready yet.

Blue Screen Consumer Electronics

In promoting consumer electronics it is currently popular to display the colour blue on a device's screen....

Staying Mobile: Desktop vs. Laptop Volume

My ongoing efforts to Stay Mobile include liquidating as many possessions as possible. There are certain asymptotes on the road to Nomad Nirvana that I'll likely not touch, however; i.e. things I can't live, work or study without, the most obvious as a web designer and student being a computer. Like spending money to make money, I'm convinced by first-person evidence and recommendation that I should get rid of my desktop and get a laptop.

Microsoft Ergo Keyboard Review

After two days with my new ergo keyboard I'm feeling slightly less discomfort in my arms and hands (especially the left hand), while my typing may have actually improved, if not in speed yet than in proper form. There was about a one-day adjustment phase where my speed and accuracy suffered oh, about a 15 per cent loss. It's not...

Moving Sale

I'm moving out of my apartment next week and I'm trying to lighten my load. I'm giving away most of these things listed below. Anything I can't sell / offload will go to the Sally Ann / dumpster (recycling if possible) / storage. Maybe the treaure you never knew you wanted awaits. Email me if something catches your fancy. Note...

Apartment For Rent

In two weeks I'm moving out of what's been my home for the past three years. If you're a friend of mine (or a friend of a friend), mature and respectable, and are looking for a bachelor suite close to the University of Victoria, email me: my suite may be available to the right person.

Nikon Coolpix 4800

A friend and client of mine purchased her first digital camera today, a Nikon Coolpix 4800, in part because of my advice. But I also learned that despite the many practical and enticing factors that hundreds of other cameras offer, one simple usability feature can steal the show from dozens of seemingly more important ones. My friend first sent me...

Barbershop Protocol

How do you go about getting your favourite barber, and not one of his assistants, to cut your hair? Also, do you always tip a barber, and how much?

Alumni Junk Mail

An open letter to the University of Victoria Alumni Association, requesting a response to, and ultimate termination of, its embarrassing, harassing and persistent "invitations" to "enjoy the benefits" of a MasterCard® credit card.

Toque and Flute

When Lisa and Alistair returned last Christmas from their extended stay and travels in Peru and South America they brought me a gift. Or rather, they left my gift with Scott until I returned to Victoria after the holidays. Come a February house party at Sarah and Kelly's and sure enough, Scott pulled through! So a belated thank you Allstar,...

Suit Shopping

I'm in the market for my first suit, and went shopping for one today. Found a few I liked (with photos of two). Decision pending. Update Feb. 11: I bought a suit from Outlooks; details coming.

iPod Shuffle: How Do You Navigate Tracks?

When the rumours first surfaced about a screenless iPod back in early December, the first question that popped to mind is how would I navigate songs on it? I won't be buying one for a while so here is my hypothesis.

Xmas Wish List

A table of realistic gift ideas (there's no iPod, iMac or new bed on there) I wouldn't mind being on the receiving end of this Christmas, basically itended to give the Moms a bunch of stuff to choose a couple from. No doubt I'll add items to the list until the 24th.

First Impressions of iTunes

I think the free Apple iTunes Jukebox software is OK, but was expecting better. I installed version 4 (on my Pentium 4 1.5 768 RAM WinXP-Pro box) last night. I've used Winamp for years and occasionally give Windows Media Player a go for regular music listening. The following are my knee-jerk reactions and thoughts after approx. eight hours of iTunes use.

Disappearing Possessions

I am missing the following items. If you've seen any of them, sweet, let me know.

Shopping List for the Weekend

Tabasco Sauce butter Adams Peanut Butter LCD monitor squash racquet optical mouse 256 MB RDRAM shoes...

Weber Charcoal BBQ Grill review

A review of why I bought a charcoal grill and a Weber model specifically, what I use with it, how I use it, what I think of it and the Weber brand overall, and questions I have about it and charcoal grilling in general.

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