Container Corps in Portland, OR makes some of the most awesome notebooks I have ever seen. Though I'm not sure how flat the pages sit. They really don't show that in their collection of ten photos. I may try building my own wood notebook sometime this spring/summer. I have some mahogany planks just sitting around waiting to be used for this very purpose.

64 leaves, 128 pages | 4" x 5.25" | $45
Available in:
Cherry, Oregon Bigleaf Maple, Western Juniper, Oregon White Oak
The following are currently sold out: Western Walnut, Beech, Madrone

Back in September I witnessed just the resourcefulness of famed WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels. He was caulking a roof line in Wheaton, Illinois.

Wired.com gadget lab has a photo and brief article about the new Monopoly board design. I'm not happy with the design.

Usability is paramount to user experience in game board design. The new Monopoly game will not be fun to play and will encourage massive levels of cheating.

The credit card machine is simply terrible. A core function of Monopoly is the transaction of money. Having the money center in the middle of the board requires players to be constantly reaching awkwardly to the center. And the stupid machine is going to be turned around constantly as each person uses it.

I suppose you could assign someone as banker and they punch in the numbers to avoid having to turn the stupid thing all the time. But do you really trust one of your competitors to accurately punch in the right numbers ever single time? Even if you do, there's still a chance they punch in the wrong number by accident. I don't want another player yielding such control over the entire game.

But there's an even bigger problem. It will be so incredibly easy to cheat. The keypad on the machine is the heart of this game. It will be very easy to punch in different numbers. And since transactions are central to this game, the focal point of the user experience will be watching the keypad like a hawk AT every single point of the game. Oh that sounds like so much fun. "YOU PUNCHED IN A NINE INSTEAD OF A SIX! I SAW YOU!" "NO I DIDN'T!"

How do you keep track of how much money you have? Yea, you swipe your stupid credit card and the machine tells you. But surely any Monopoly player worth their salt will be plotting their business strategy when it's someone else's turn. How do you know your current bankroll? You either have to memorize the number which will change almost every single time you take a turn. Or you have to write down the number. I don't see any notepads that come with the game. Stupid.

The display on the card machine is incredibly small. Look at all the white space on the thing and look at the size of the screen. Dumb. Why is the screen positioned flat? Am I supposed to stand up every single turn to look at the screen? Dumb.

Why are the buttons on the card machine a yellowish white and the rest of the machine is a blueish white? Looks stupid. Why is the machine a different shade of white from the board game? Terrible graphic design. Given the incredibly important role of the card machine, there was next to zero attention given to how it looks or functions.

The slot for the credit cards is lower than the height of the game pieces. That's awkward. Why are the game pieces so tall if I'm supposed to be reaching over all the time to punch numbers in the keypad? The pieces will get knocked over all the time.

And when those pieces get knocked over, it will hard to tell where they should be standing because the stupid spaces on the board are so incredibly skinny.

Those skinny spaces will make it very easy to cheat as well. People will be trying to skip spaces to land on desirable property and they will do it very easily because of the skinny spaces.

And then there's the pieces. The clear plastic looks nice. I'll give them that. Though they won't look so nice about 10 years from now when they turn nasty and yellow. By imprinting the different items on the plastic loses the context of what they are. When they were metal pieces, they were tangible three-dimensional objects thus justifying their existence. By printing line art illustrations on plastic, they lose all sense of being.

They COMPLETELY redesigned the board and game pieces, but didn't do lick to the houses and hotels? That's odd. If the idea is to "freshen" up the game (which they did poorly), then why are the houses and hotels not remodeled? It's a weird mix of old and new.

I don't see any space on the board to keep the Community Chest and Chance cards. Where do you keep them? The designers forgot about that. Whoops. The designers forgot to think about a lot of things when it came to putting this game together.

Who made it the standard to use "previous" and "next" as the nomenclature for navigating blogs? I think it's incredibly confusing.

I'll be reading just about any blog, then I'll get to the bottom and I want to read more and the link will say "previous". Ok, fine. It's the only link, so it must mean that I'm visiting "previous" blog posts. I click on "previous" and continue reading some engaging posts.

I'll want to read more and the options at the bottom of the page will be "previous" and "next". By that point I have forgotten that "previous" gave me more posts and I click "next" thinking it will give me the NEXT set of posts and that "previous" is the PREVIOUS posts I already read.

So by clicking "next" I won't be looking at the next set of posts, but rather the ones I just read. I understand it works under the reverse chronological structure of "previous" being the next posts for me to read and "next" being the ones I just read. Basically these "previous" and "next" links are built from the blogger's perspective and does not take into account the user experience of those reading the blog. It's so counter-intuitive and so typical of the self-absorbing nature of many blogs. It drives me NUTS.

nice

Two days ago (January 27, 2010) was the two year anniversary of the first sale of a Map on a Stick painting. That first sale was "Texas on a Stick (The Road to Texas) No. 1" shown above.

Since then, I have sold 274 paintings from the Map on a Stick series. That averages out to be 0.38 paintings every single day for two years. So basically it's a little more than 1 painting every 3 days. It's also 2.63 paintings a week and 11.4 paintings a month.

The first painting sold for $10. That price point lasted for one month until it went to $15 which was for three months. From that point until January 2010 the paintings were $25. Now they go for $39. These dollar amounts are for the 8x10 paintings only. They don't include 16x20 or 18x24.

I have probably about 15-20 paintings currently in stock which means number 300 will be coming up soon. Maybe that one will be painted in gold paint or something crazy.

The New York Times Book Design Review described famed designer, Paul Rand, as "erudite". I had to look up the definition of the word. dictionary.com says "erudite" is "characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly". Ah yes, Paul Rand was quite the eruditian. Now make sure you listen to the audio sample on dictionary.com. You would not sound erudite by pronouncing "erudite" incorrectly.

Back in May 2008, I received a FlickrMail message from a permissions coordinator at Lonely Planet Publications requesting to use a photo on my Flickr account for their 5th edition of "Caribbean Islands". I'm curious if I made it into the book. Though it's doubtful cuz they said they'd pay me $115 if they used my photo and I never heard back from them. Still, I must go check this out.

The newly opened Burj Khalifa is a stunning 2,717 feet tall. To put that in perspective it's almost like stacking two John Hancock Centers on each other. Chicago's John Hancock Center, 9th tallest building in the world, is 1,127 feet tall.

Three years ago, I blogged about what a double Hancock would look like. Little did I know there would be a building almost that tall in 2010. Wild.

animation of Double Hancock here.

It's a giant concrete rectangle and a door and I love it. The size of the concrete slabs really make this work. If the surface's texture was completely flat, then it wouldn't be as exciting. This is going to inspire me to construct a large LEGO sculpture block with a door. I wish LEGO would make blocks that have a printed concrete texture. The idea of a simple door surrounded by a large vast mass always interested me. Here's an example of that look.

The tracking (letter spacing) of "LAD" annoys me when compared to how close that text treatment is to the door. The tracking should not any wider than the text's distance from the door. Though the use of white is sharp. Concrete and white is a great pairing. Very fresh. Black would have made the whole building more gloomy and moody. White freshens it up.

I'm still trying to consume the interior. Part of me thinks it's a poor use of the space, but then again the open environment gives a good sense of scale. I know I can't stand those stair railings. They are way too dainty. Contrasting elements are good, but those railings are distracting and dippy.

interior and additional exterior views available via dezeen

If you have an iPhone, do yourself a favor and download a couple first aid apps. It could end up saving your life like it did for this dude.

Czech designers Boadesign Studio's neoline 02 light is made from borosilicate glass tubes. I like borosilicate glass tubes.

Recently Charlie Sorrel of wired.com's Gadget Lab said some something rather questionable in his article, "5 Reasons to Ditch Your Digital SLR".

Here's the basic foundation and background of the discussion. He weighs the advantages of the new EVIL camera format compared to DSLR cameras. What's "EVIL"? It stands for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens. It's a mirrorless camera system. Micro Four Thirds is the current standard for the EVIL format. I blogged about Micro Four Thirds the day it was introduced and the great virtues of this newborn format. DSLR cameras have mirror systems and thus are larger than EVIL cameras. Micro Four Thirds sensors are smaller than DSLR cameras which leads to lesser image quality. Check out my image sensor size chart.

Before I tear apart Sorrel's words, I'll say he's right on some fronts. Many consumers will opt to purchase an EVIL camera instead of a DSLR because EVIL cameras are smaller. It offers great quality when compared to standard point-and-shoot cameras.

However, Sorrel made a misleading statement to say the least. He finished his article by saying, "Unless you have a specific use that these cameras can’t meet, or you need the very highest level of performance only a Canon 1D or Nikon D3 can bring, you have no reason to buy a DSLR. Instead, consider being EVIL. You might like it."

There's no reason to buy a DSLR when you can buy an EVIL camera? Really? How about image quality? Go to imaging-resource.com's Comparometer and compare ISO 400 images of the current flagship EVIL camera, the Olympus EP-2 to Nikon’s middle-of-the-road SLR, the D90. There’s no comparison. The EP-2 is terrible when compared to the D90. Shooting at 400 ISO is a widely accepted practice in low-light conditions when you don't want to use a flash.

So there is at least one very good reason to buy a D90 instead of an EP-2. The image quality is far superior. Clearly Charlie dropped the ball and didn't do this research or maybe he likes the noisy, less-detailed images from the EVIL format.

It's embarrassing to see a leading technology information service such as Wired to be making such misleading, inaccurate statements.

Have you seen the newly introduced MINI Beachcomber? I like it. It's a beefed-up MINI. All the different MINI iterations are always interesting from the station wagon to the convertible and so on. The branding behind the MINI has always been fun, though it's been getting a little repetitive the last few years.

I momentarily considered buying a MINI years ago, but the price was just too much and I need to haul around too much stuff from Home Depot/Menards for it to work for me. Plus, at the time I knew my wife and I were going to have a baby at some point. I would have gone for the standard MINI with yellow paint, black top and maybe black stripes on the hood. It would have been a homage to my family's $100 "banana with a bruise" car from the mid 1980s.

Wrigley Field is going to see some very big changes soon. Chicago Cubs president, Crane Kenney, announced "a complete renovation of the ballpark". 2014 will be the 100 year anniversary of Wrigley Field and the Ricketts family wants to make sure you don't recognize the place by 2014.

Dave van Dyck has an article covering this topic printed in yesterday's Tribune and it also appears in Blair Kamin's blog.

I welcome the proposed triangle building at Waveland and Clark and the open-air court between the building and the ball park. It will be a great addition. The current space is poorly utilized. However, the plans for renovating Wrigley are disheartening.

I fear all the spirit that currently is Wrigley Field will be stripped away and turned into a giant flavorless Disney park. Yes, Wrigley is dark and cramped. But it's also incredibly charming and personal. That's baseball. Baseball is not about giant concourses and megaplex restaurants. That personality better suits football and its bigger-is-better attitude. Why has minor league baseball thrived? It's because baseball's very nature is intimate and analytical. Wrigley Field captures that spirit like no other stadium or park anywhere. These "improvements" are nothing of the sort. They will taint the love all baseball fans have for this special place.

Now Wrigley has shown its age through its 96 years. Concentration is required on improving structural integrity. Enhancements are fine, especially to player-centered areas like the locker rooms, batting cages, and training rooms; but an overhaul is unnecessary unless of course you think the Rickets family needs more money which is the dirty, ugly bottom line underscoring this Disney-esque mindset.

I can only encourage all Cubs fans to bring cameras, both video and still, throughout the 2010 season and capture the soon-to-be lost glory of Wrigley Field.

photo taken 09/02/2009, Erik Maldre. Cubs 3 Astros 0.

Lucie Koldova's Treasury Table is slick. Lots of storage presented in a polished manner. Though the legs are too thin when compared to the thickness of the table resulting in a flimsy stance. But the frosty surface nominally revealing the desk's contents is intriguing. And I like storage. Storage good. Now I have to go and hide some more LEGO boxes in the ceiling of my basement while my wife calls me a squirrel. Good times.

I visited the site of one of my Google ad sponsors because they had an interesting Polaroid ad and I stumbled across the greatest design graphic of all time. It appears on their "flash single-use disposable Carnival camera". Since the graphic is from a photograph, I recreated it in Illustrator and saved it as a gif shown above.

You can download the Illustrator 8 EPS file or download the zipped EPS.

$2.25 for a disposable film camera isn't a bad price. The cheapest I've seen them in person is $3 at any Target. But who can pass up a "Carnival" camera with the greatest graphic of all time?

The place that's selling the "Carnival" camera is called batteriesandbutter.com which only adds to entire quirkiness of the situation. Batteries? and Butter? That's the most incredibly weird combination. I suppose both can be considered staples of our culture. But the idea of combining butter and batteries really is odd.

As a side note, batteriesandbutter.com requires a $20 minimum purchase and shipping estimates are only provided if you give them your full address. I don't think I'll be buying nine Carnival cameras from batteriesandbutter because of their poor shopping cart design. Sorry.

1/13/2010
I was looking for a Pantone solid coated formula guide in my desk this morning at 9:33am. As I closed the middle drawer, a clinking sound filled the cubicle's air. Immediately my head turned towards the nickel whose standing prose inspired dreams for the past 8 days, 18 hours and 33 minutes. My gaze filled me with relief as I saw that proud nickel now resting on its side. I felt content that I was able to witness the Great Fall.

During its furious stand I wondered how the Great Fall would occur. I was afraid it would happen when I wasn't at my desk leaving me to endlessly wonder what happened.

It's with great hope that this powerful nickel will inspire other nickels to stand on their side and display their might and beauty for all the world to see and admire.

Monday January 4, 3:00pm - Wednesday January 13, 9:33am
8 days 18 hours 33 minutes (that's over 200 hours, 210.5 hours actually)

Hey, you! The Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics is Friday, February 12. That's one month from today.

You can get up to speed on the U.S. athletes final month of preperation by checking out their twitter pages. NBC puts them all them all on one convenient page. It's interesting to see what these kids are saying. (I can say "kids" cuz I'm 34 now and I'd only work in Curling.) Mostly it's talk about sleeping, tackling the day, eating, and traveling.

You think it's cold outside? At least we're not on Mars. It gets pretty cold over there. I wish the NASA rovers, Spirit and Opportunity would provide up-to-date, current temperatures.

image courtesy NASA. Endurance Crater, Mars 8/18/2004 (winter).
Who comes up with these stupid names? Endurance Crater? Name it after some famous, classic English dude. Or even a Dutch name would be nice. They have good names. Van Voosenheltch Crater. There, see how easy that was.

Recently my brother posted a photo on Flickr with the title of "Buses are really big vehicles". Indeed they are. It got me thinking about what I'd like to see inside CTA busses. A tournament-sized table tennis table would be great.

Today Polaroid announced the PIC 1000 (a new Polaroid film camera) at CES AND AND AND the return of Polaroid 600 film!

From pcmag.com:

Polaroid will offer a modern version of the Polaroid OneStep camera, the PIC 1000, available in a range of colors and based on the classic Polaroid Color 600 Instant Film to produce the iconic instant pictures with white borders.

The Polaroid Color 600 Instant Film will work with both classic and new Polaroid cameras and will be offered in packs of 10 pictures. The PIC 1000 camera and instant color film will be available at national retailers in 2010. The return of Polaroid analog film products is supported by a strategic relationship with Summit Global Group, a longtime Polaroid partner, and The Impossible Project, the manufacturer of classic film for Polaroid film cameras.

Throughout 2009 I was following the progress of The Impossible Project. They were a team of former Polaroid employees working in an old Polaroid plant with and without some old Polaroid equipment trying to essentially reconstruct the functionality of instant film. It was interesting to see some of the stumbling blocks they encountered. At one point they sent out a desperate plea to solve some sort of gelatin thickness problem which was evenutally resolved. So it was neat to see some of their renegade techie ways. Though 28 bucks for their t-shirts was a bit too much for me to bite on. Now, their website has been updated to show just a white screen with the message:

The impossible Project had 31.536.000 seconds to reinvent Instant Photography.
31.536.000 seconds to change the world of photography.
31.536.000 seconds dedicated to all the people out there...
believing in the magic of analog Instant Photography and our Impossible dream.
Just a dream?

The Impossible Project.
New website launching in January 2010.
» visit old site «

CONGRATULATIONS TO ANDRE DAWSON! Today, the Hawk was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Four years ago, I blogged how there should an eight cent coin commemorating the greatness of Andre Dawson. The front side of the coin would be the portrait of the Abe Lincoln of baseball and the reverse side would feature a hawk. Nwo more than ever this coin should be minted!

I am very happy for Andre Dawson, one of my favorite Cubs of all time.

The way I came across his induction announcement is pretty cool. I was looking up Cubs robes for a previous post (a back blog post) and I visited the webcam on cubsworld.com. The first line on the Wrigley marquee read, "CONGRATULATIONS". Immediately I assumed it was just someone with a lot of money paying to have their wedding announcement on the famed sign. Then I read the magical words appearing on the second and third lines, "ANDRE DAWSON HALL OF FAME CLASS 2010". Above is a screen capture of a portion of the web cam image.

On Monday, January 4, 2010, 3:00 p.m. I randomly placed a nickel on its side. I didn't think much of it. I left the office that evening and returned the next day to see the nickel still standing. What a talented nickel I have.

You can follow its status on my twitter and facebook accounts.

Did you know that beginning this year Australia and Denmark have banned incandescent light bulbs? And the EU placed heavy restrictions on the sale of incandescent light bulbs back in September. In December 2007, the United States Congress passed a bill that bans incandescent light bulbs in 2014. I never heard of any of this until I came across a silly sculpture covering this topic on a design site.

I dare anyone to buy this Cubs robe and wear it to a game at Wrigley Field this season. I just dare ya. (and be sure to buy it via my amazon.com link below if you take me up on the dare).

I'll give you the option to wear either the blue "Zambrano-style" warm-up top robe or the standard home jersey pinstripes. Please be sure to bring a camera with you to the game and get a photo of yourself in the robe.

Yea, that's right. You thought you'd never see this... the words "Restoration Hardware" and "bargain" together. Now, I absolutely love the store. There's some really beautiful items, but you pay premium bucks for such quality.

Well, here's something you can buy for an absolute steal at Restoration Hardware. A Carpenter's Folding Ruler for $4. It retails for $8. Most stores that sell folding rulers (Menards, Home Depot, Lowes) have them for about $20. yea, 20 bucks!

Folding rulers are to retractable measuring tapes what Polaroid cameras are to digital cameras. One is much more reasonable and practical while the other is loaded with charm and beauty.

Now, the Restoration Hardware folding ruler is a bit different than most standard folding rulers. It has inches on one side and centimeters on the other. The standard is to have inches for both sides.

Also, the R.H. ruler is set in an elegant serif font while the standard is a heavy, large sans serif. I think both type treatments are classic in their own ways. I now own both versions of the timeless folding ruler.

I wonder if the goggle industry doesn't like Google because people now will allows misspell "goggle". I have the hardest time typing "goggle". Every single time I try to spell it out, I type in "google". You try it now.

The goggles shown above are currently 50% off at Restoration Hardware. $12.