Discovering Urban Cycling
Howdy friends! A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure to work with the fine folks over at REI on a video project called Discovering Urban Cycling. The video is up on the REI site today, and I was hoping that y’all might want to check it out. The real kicker is that I didn’t help out behind the lens on this one, those crazy REI folks put me in front of the camera. I’m the first voice you hear on there [in case you don't know what I sound like].
The Chicken Coop [Part 1]
Howdy y’all. I’m gonna take a little time and tell ya about building my new chicken coop. It’s not my typical post, but it might be becoming more of what I like to talk about.
First a little back story. On the 23rd of February The little lady picked up 3 chickens [a fourth came the next day]. To say I was annoyed was understatement, but you can read her perspective over on Season for Cake. I didn’t really want anything else to Read More
Winter Camp – Umtanum Creek Hammocking
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go winter camping with a bunch of folks from one of my online hangouts, HammockForums.net. I was a splendid weekend with daytime highs around 35, night-time lows around 15 degrees, and absolutely no cloud cover what so ever. The moon was a couple of days from full and provided so much light at night that a headlamp was unnecessary. Read More
This Holiday – Get Closer
It’s not just a message for the holidays, but everyday. Take a minute and a half to watch.
5 Best Toys of All Time [via WIRED]
As we approach Christmas, I thought it was a good opportunity in this time of decadence, over-indulgence, and plain old over the top sillyness of gift lust, to remind everyone [and myself] of the best toys of all time.
[Also, with that being said ... I promised the boys I'd post their Amazon wishlists, ugh.]
[Copied verbatim from WIRED's Geek Dad column dated Jan 31 2011 written by Jonathan Liu] Read More
Dogs + Bikes, what’s not to like?
Wordless Wednesday …
How could you not like Lily … a little terrier going the speed of light on a little downhill course. Excellent.
You need this
Guaranteed to be something you needed today. 2 minutes, sit back and enjoy.
Wordless Wednesday – Less Stuff + Less Space = More Happiness
Writer and designer Graham Hill asks: Can having less stuff, in less room, lead to more happiness? He makes the case for taking up less space, and lays out three rules for editing your life.
Be Well Mr. Jobs
I am sure by now, everyone has read the news that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of Apple. Additionally everyone has probably already read 20 articles extolling the virtues, or mocking the lapses of Mr. Jobs. I read this post written by John Biggs over on TechCrunch and decided it was worth repeating … Read More
The Beauty of Design: BUILD
In case you’re new to my blog, or me in general, I am a huge design fan. Good, clean, warm, Scandinavian design. The fine folks at BUILD LLC, whom I a proud to call my friends, had a documentary short about them released today that I’m hoping you’ll take 7 minutes or so to watch. Today is a special day for the Swedish half of my family, and some of what the build guys talk about, reminds me of some of the feelings I have about my Mormor & Morfar’s house in Eugene, OR. The warmth that not only came from the people who in habited the space, but the space itself. Vast majorities of their furnishings came with them from Sweden.
The footage dives into some of BUILD’s favorite projects, allows them to speak about their design philosophy, and gives a peek at some projects that influence them. Also check out their blog [one of the great Architecture blogs out there]
Have a look.
Macklemore: Wings
One of my favorite Seattle Hip-hop artists pushed out a new video yesterday. The video is really well put together and a fine example of another of my recent obsessions, Kickstarter. If you’re not familiar with it, follow the link and go check it out.
Since I was around the first time we put it on film at one of Chase’s Songs For Eating and Drinking dinners a couple of years ago, I thought I’d link to that video too, just to show y’all how far it has come. Read More
Quakebook – Stories from the Japan Earthquake
This is an amazing project! Quakebook: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake. In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world. Completely crowdsourced (writing/editing/design & layout) thru Twitter and then pitched to Amazon, who agreed to waive their usual cut so that all of the money made by the book & eBook/kindle version goes straight to Japan Red Cross. Countless people worked on it – completely volunteer. [MORE] Read More
The Love Letter – Our Hearts Are A Wilderness
I don’t rock climb. It’s not that I am trying to say that I couldn’t climb, just that my current body configuration isn’t conducive to climbing. Although this movie is based in the idea of climbing, it really is only one tiny bit of what the film is about. It’s a glorious movie about the outdoors, and life, and love.
It captures how I feel about the outdoors, and wraps it up in a digestible nugget. It’s a really well done adventure film that lacks all of the typical pieces you’d usual find in one. It’s free of the usual million fast paced cuts, and the overly loud musical interludes. It’s a story, and a great one. An excellent, exhilarating feel good piece that is well worth your next 12 minutes.
Funded by Outdoor Research [whom I now love EVEN more] & Osprey Packs.
From the description on the OR site:
Still clinging to young man’s dreams, a 30-something professional revives his youthful vision of summits and faint trails and abandons work and the city. The Love Letter follows a pair of climbers in search of new and classic climbing routes across the spine of the Sierra, into difficult to reach stretches of the range. In the clutter of the modern world, can wilderness restore the human spirit?
Follow Fitz and Becca Cahall on their 300mile journey through the Sierra.
It’s been making the rounds in the climber circles, but I think that it has tons of storytelling and cinematic merit as well. OR is even running a contest giving away gear and such over on a The Love Letter Project Facebook Page. What’s even better that getting free gear, is reading all of the stories that are being posted over there. Really hope filled, awe inspiring stuff. Enjoy. Now go outside.
OpenBuildings – The Wikipedia of World’s Built Enviroment
OpenBuildings aims to become the Wikipedia for architecture, and buildings and is well on the way. The site is brimming over with information. It’s up to about 40,000 entries which sounds like it might be overwhelming, but when you first get to the site [or through the iPhone App] it all laid out very visually. Find something that tickles your fancy and you can move into more details including its architects, photos, media, floor plans, maps and more.
It becomes even more of an attractive time suck once you get to the suggestions area where you can explore more unique buildings that share similarities with what you were looking at. [MORE] Read More