articles, japan, social, travel, videos
Everything in Japan moves at its own pace—its own perfectly polite and energy-efficient pace. I was amazed to find an entire country whose population individually and collectively have such an amazing grasp of their own proxemics.
In Meguro, we witnessed groups of golfers patiently going from one hole to another, with each group seemingly never having to wait for the previous one to finish. At the same park, splatters of little children were being shuffled around by no more than two women with nothing but colored hats to distinguish them from the other herds of children. Finally, a the bus depot across from our hotel, I watched every night as every bus returned in sequential order and park closing before its gates.
MINI-HIKERS (PINK GROUP)
BUS DEPOT
May 23rd, 2010
amsterdam, articles, DIY, keempoo, projects, travel
Since I was so successful previously in making an Antwerp map for offline use on the iPod, I have made map set available for download, this time for Amsterdam.
Google maps is great for most cities, but it isn’t quite right for Amsterdam whose “straats” often change name about every ten feet. This map was taken from the popular Citoplan series (think “Thomas Brothers Maps”) that is easily bought and used by most of the tourists walking around. The “Large Grid” and the names of each numbered “mini-map” are also now labeled with descriptions of the neighborhood, an idea I naturally came up with after the first map, Antwerpen, could tell us where we were going but failed to tell us where we were.
**This map is larger than the Antwerp map and therefore bigger in file size.
The entire set, with all 15 mini-maps is 12 mb.
February 11th, 2008
amsterdam, articles, travel
As the sun came up this morning, Pierre got me out of bed to show me how blue the sky is before the flight paths’ exhaust dissipate into thin layer of cloud and wash all the color out.
Starting in March it might get a lot worse as the Open Skies Agreement will go into effect allowing all European and American airlines to fly from any American city to any EU city. Amsterdam has been named as one of the destinations that airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and British Airways plan to compete with KLM/Air France for consumers.
For Atlanta Boy, Pierre, following talks of a Delta/Northwest merger is of particular interest. Northwest and KLM had already been granted anti-trust immunity from the US after the Netherlands signed a Open Skies Agreement with the US back in 1992. With Delta merging with Northwest the hope is that prices would become more competitive and destinations easier to get to between Schiphol and the US (Delta and AirFrance will be coming together to make the whole thing into one awkward double date).
All I know is that come March, if I start to see a lot less blue and a lot more white, I better be on one pretty cheap-ass plane ticket back to Los Angeles or I’m going to be pissed.
February 8th, 2008
antwerp, events, fashion, travel, videos
THE YODELERS
Part of the Tirolean Room, each statue has a speaker for a head and sung almost in rounds.
FOOTBALLERS
“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”
POSTER ANIMATION WITH PROJECTOR
A poster of Trick-o-Treaters get some some life breathed into in through the use of a projector.
February 5th, 2008
articles, DIY, projects, travel
Oh iPod Touch, I’m going to tell you what I found myself saying to my first boyfriend over and over again for the first two years, “You would be so great if you just tried a little bit more.”
Quite frankly, I am just a little sick and tired of my iPod showing a blatant disregard for the usefulness of things being offline. Yes, we all love the web, but the internet doesn’t open up its legs for free to just anyone like the whore that Apple believes it to be. It can be expensive and hard to find, especially when traveling. I mean, all I wanted you to do, oh-Crappy Expensive Christmas present, was to provide me with a map of Antwerp for the weekend and ungratefully you couldn’t even do that.
My alternative to using Google Maps was to sync a high-res image of a city map to an iPod which can be viewed offline. Even though that seems like a sensible idea Apple somehow didn’t think that a user would want to keep the resolution of images larger than its screen. So, because of the genius in the Visual Design department, I had to Holly Hobby my way out of yet another issue I have had with this product and come up with my own solution (see comments). But here it is, from me to you:
Other maps may be available in the future as I become increasingly frustrated. What can I say? Hate breeds creativity.
February 1st, 2008
los angeles, television, travel
Who says I’m posting too many videos? Considering that ninety percent of my television is now in Dutch, the internet is the only plausible way to get most of my kicks. I’m this close to investing my hard earned money and starting a Netflix here in Amsterdam. I could call it Amsterflix, or Amsternet, but right now I’m leaning towards calling it Dam Movies. Who’s got some start-up money?
Reyner Bahnham Loves Los Angeles is a classic documentary on LA in all it’s absurd glory back in the day. Actually, if you watch the video, not much has changed except for some of the hairdos, but the style and attitude is all the same.
July 16th, 2007
articles, design, hong kong, shopping, travel
A cultural and shopping dim sum excursion that was my two day vacation to Hong Kong included market after(-)markets of fake Boneta Venetta bags, a trip to the biggest glass bank I’ve ever seen, and a trolley ride stuffed with old people eating foods that squirted yummy colors like brown and orange on the windows. RAD!
All kidding aside, this country is striking in real life with its gigantic mountain slopes glittered with skyscrapers and condos. I don’t think I had ever considered Hong Kong to be a placed I’d ever want to live in, but I definitely do now.
LOVE FROM HONG KONG
An lifestyle exhibit hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council who have joined up with Hong Kong Style Magazine to create these unsual creates sitting in the middle of one of Hong Kong’s many shopping districts. I bumped into two of them while roaming around Causeway Bay with my parents who were on the hunt for giant q-tips (don’t ask). Each crate was filled with its own unique “exhibit”. The first one was overloaded with a collection of Giant-Robot-esque toys and the other, modern clothes by some of Hong Kong’s young, creative fashion designers.
I wasn’t able to stay for long, but I was able to take some picture of the descriptions of the exhibits in case anyone is curious.
SPENDING PARADISE
I found this pretty nifty credit card mosiac and was quite jealous to find out that the nice people of Hong Kong can get a “Miffy” credit card. I can’t have anything nice.
January 16th, 2007
articles, food, singapore, sports, travel
The Singaporean culture phenomenon that is a Sarong Party Girl (or SPG) is nothing more than a Eurasian way to say punk-ass gold-diggers. I can only assume that because Singapore doesn’t have Jerry Springer or trailer parks that this was the only way they could describe it. Look – a ho is a ho, is a ho. Isn’t rap predominant enough for everyone to have understood that by now?
PURE YOGA
Went to hot yoga at the top of Takashimaya with my girl Shirley. This chain of new yoga studios beat out any new age mumbo jumbo joints in Los Angeles easy. For $25 Singapore a class, you get to do a variety of yoga classes at Pure Yoga in an ultra-modern skyrise. I assume they’ve got some foreign yoga-teacher exchange program because I got an American gal the first time and a very nice, but rigorous Austrailian dude that I just wanted to smack after he told me lean backwards a little more ten times in one pose. I happen to have bones that don’t bend at a 90º angle, so stop telling me to relax and breathe.
TOASTBOX
A food kiosk surrounding that ubiquitous perfect snack food, toast. It’s got a bit of an Asian flair to it, including spreads like Kaya (coconut jam) and pork floss with or without cheese (mmm, cheese!). If anyone knows how to hack into Pierre’s savings account and create a “worm” like they did in the movie Hackers, give me a call and you can be my partner in the first Toastbox to hit America!
EVERYTHING ELSE IN SINGAPORE THE SAME
The utopian, law-abiding city state of Singapore remains the same, only the shopping blueprint of Orchard Road is slightly different. There are now two GAPs instead of one (employees wore these excellent “gap Singapore” in the old gap font-face, so wanted to get my hands on one) and there is a new Muji in Paragon. It was more interesting to hang out with my cousin, Ian, than to go shopping all day, which is at it should be during the holiday season.
January 11th, 2007
