Friday, January 11, 2008

OTHER THAN INTENDED

Using something for other than it was intended (in this case bottle tops):
Barney's Display Windows

Printing on old maps or pages from old books:
William Kentridge
Lisa Congdon

More later:
To do: Use letters from photos of signage to spell something
Question: Are turtles be the hot new graphic animal? (as were birds, deer, owls, and octopus)
Look into: Explosion of modern pre-fab housing

Thursday, January 10, 2008

MAKE MY DAY

My dear friend Molly just sent me this photo of her desk at work:

It has a little tiny print I made with good luck chat (cat). It totally made my day. Thanks, Molly. :-)

Monday, January 7, 2008

ON WISDOM OF THE CROWD

Many people that I know agree that Cantina Zaccagnini - Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a GREAT (and inexpensive) Italian wine. A dry, red wine with a crisp finish. Ahhh.

A collective agreement - the wisdom of the crowd - consensus of something good across age, belief and location.

In high school literature, we are taught again and again to look upon the crowd with suspect eyes.

"The Lottery" or "An Enemy of the People"

But in recent times, with a new wave of web sites that rely on 'aggregated self-expression' - the wisdom and advice of a virtual collection of people - can actually bring forth some good direction or (at least suggestions) to the otherwise unknowing.

Yelp and TripAdvisor

God forbid, these sites be combined with "rich media".

YouTube

Forced content from an authority expert (or advertiser) old, tired, dead. Marketing wants it to appear that it's grown up from or "of the people".

But any grouping of things are always get interesting.

One Thousand Cranes

I don't even know what this entry is about.

Obama in Iowa

I guess I'm just feeling more hopeful lately. So get started.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Fresh Slate for 2008

Well, I've been meaning for several months now to write how the F5 (Refresh) key literally detached from my computer -- clearly from over use -- and how this is a metaphor for my life or some such thing -- but I have been too scattered all over the place for the last few months take the photo and start the entry.

I realize I need a fresh slate in this blog space for 2008.

To begin, a quick historical summary, I worked through some "place" and "drive across the USA" issues on the trip outlined in the blog entries below. Afterwards, I spent several months oscillating (July-Sept) between Mom and Dad, Redding and Chappaquiddick (all sorts of combos). I returned to Seattle in mid-September after reducing everything from my 10x10 east coast storage unit into a 5x7 crate which I had shipped to my new apartment in the Fremont area of Seattle. Items had been in the storage unit for THREE years. At this point, I've worked through all of the 'stuff' and it's been like opening a time capsule of my life from three years ago in Boston. As cheesy as it sounds, I used the criteria outlined in a book titled "Clearing Clutter with Feng Shui" which was given to me by Megan Riley and that I would highly recommend to everyone. Essentially, the author's point is one's physical space often reflects one's mental place. Ideally, one should only allow objects that you absolutely love into your physical space unless the object has some sort of tactile usefulness needed for survival.

In addition in late September, I started a new contract at Microsoft in the MSN Entertainment group. And most happily, my good friend from college, Jennifer Nelson, relocated to Seattle to start a new job in December.

It is my goal for 2008 to use this blog space to capture and record things of interest that are floating in my head, in email with friends and web links out there.

A new year. A fresh start. Ya gotta love it. Hope.