Goods and Services
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Calories per dollar
Having a Costco membership is changing the foods we eat and how much we spend on them. We recently spent $80 CDN (before taxes) on eight items from Costco and I started a spreadsheet comparing their calories—the carbs, fat, protein and other nutritional information from their product labels. For example, one way to calculate nutritional…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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Identity Feedback
The travel bag that transforms. A short essay, referencing class readings, about a product that has transformed my life.
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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,…
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Flickr Has Video
Details on the Flickr blog. Some minor bugs being worked out. I’ve tagged my first video wtf.
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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.
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Blue Screen Consumer Electronics
In promoting consumer electronics it is currently popular to display the colour blue on a device’s screen.
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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…
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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…