Interesting prefab project. The home is completely self sufficient. It collects its own electricity and water. It processes its own waste and the entire home can be controlled via a laptop. And a contemporary design to beat. Pretty cool.]]>
]]>…we end up spending (as Thoreau put it) “the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.”
]]>So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirt within a man than a secure future.
I still love the instant gratification a digital camera gives me, but the images for some reason are just not that interesting to me at the moment. ...So one night, I woke up and had the thought, “why don’t I just shoot some film and have some fun?” This was of course immediately followed by the thought, “How the hell would I do that?” ...So, I sat there and wondered about it for a while. What camera would I use? What type of film? Do they even make the film I used to use anymore?I can totally relate. After my photo workshop last year where we were shooting 4 x 5 negatives, my interest in film was rekindled. But having never shot medium/large format before, I was at a loss as to where to start. So, I sat on my butt. Recently, several friends have been fueling my inspiration to getting back out there and shooting film. I just dusted off the old 35mm Nikon. The view finder is glorious (bright and large) compared to my digital. I also ordered a cheap 50mm prime and will start shooting some black & white. I've also started exploring range finder cameras like the Leica M series. Not only are they beutiful from an industrial design perspective, they're simple as hell from a UI perspective. Tried as I might, I couldn't find a digital camera as beautifully designed and simple as a Leica (aside from a Leica M8 which still needs some improving). Why is that? Do photographers really need the hundreds of features in a typical digital SLR? Interacting with all those menus drives me crazy. In any event, I've never shot with range finders and I'd like to start. So, I might see about picking up some sort of 35mm range finder at some point. Then there's medium format which I've never shot. A friend is going to introduce me to some of the Mamiya cameras. I'd like to experiment with them a bit. Finally, in the fall I'm going to start taking some classes at Photographic Center Northwest. Todd said it's the best way to get out there shooting regularly. Anyone care to join me for Black & White 1?]]>
The blog really launched on June 1st (I had a few earlier posts, but hadn't opened it up yet). In its first 20 days of existence, it's almost reached 1.5 million pageviews and over 1,500 comments for just 20 entries. It's also brought out a lot of emotion — commenters can really go crazy on some of these entries. It adds to the mix, that's for sure.
... I had a lot of friends who looked at me like i was crazy when I joined the Boston Globe a few years ago. But it's precisely this sort of opportunity I was hoping for. The access to great storytelling resources, a great platform, and the ability to contribute to that, albeit in a more technical role.]]>
Interesting prefab project. The home is completely self sufficient. It collects its own electricity and water. It processes its own waste and the entire home can be controlled via a laptop. And a contemporary design to beat. Pretty cool.]]>
Walt Disney’s mantra was, “I don’t make movies to make money—I make money to make movies.” That’s a good way to sum up the difference between Disney at its height and Disney when it was lost. It’s also true of Pixar and a lot of other companies. It seems counterintuitive, but for imagination-based companies to succeed in the long run, making money can’t be the focus.I love the notion of working for passion not dollars. There's too much dollar chasing in high tech. There's got to be more to life than making a buck. ]]>
These are the people I call Architecture Astronauts. It's very hard to get them to write code or design programs, because they won't stop thinking about Architecture. They're astronauts because they are above the oxygen level, I don't know how they're breathing. They tend to work for really big companies that can afford to have lots of unproductive people with really advanced degrees that don't contribute to the bottom line.He just posted a follow-up to this post. It's mostly a rant about Microsoft shenanigans and the evils of big companies. But he also provides some examples of the latest architecture astronaut output from Redmond. His related anecdote about big company recruiting impacts is also interesting:
...between Microsoft and Google the starting salary for a smart CS grad is inching dangerously close to six figures and these smart kids, the cream of our universities, are working on hopeless and useless architecture astronomy...]]>