flowers

this one is by chris

our last gerbera flower for now. maybe it will surprise us yet.

and the new addition to the family (of plants, that is)

*drool*

Stopdesign

SiliconBeat article: “Finally, a “visual design lead” for Google”

+ some interesting comments

everything is illuminated

independent films never get enough credit. the box office and hollywood and the media are so obsessed with stupid, disgusting american teenager/adult comedy, meaningless teen movies, meaningless repetitive action flicks and unintelligent dramas that they make room for few gems. lucky number s7evin was brilliant and i expect the da vinci code to be as well. but what about the little movies you rarely hear about? i waited for this one to come to theatres, then completely missed it somehow (if it even, in fact, played at all), and then waited for it to come out on DVD. everything is illuminated was more than just a film, it was an experience. (based on the book, by the way.) it was funny, romantic, endearing, tragic, witty, bizarre, and beautiful. elijah wood plays jonathan, a collector. i finally realised my attachment to things when i finally leave them (moving out, etc.): alex, as jonathan bags a cricket: “why do you do this?” jonathan: “sometimes i’m afraid i’ll forget.”

after you’ve watched the trailer (linked above), if you like the song at the end, find it. it’s called How It Ends and is by DeVotchKa.

recommend me a good french book

i’m realising how poor my french is now, having not taken any classes in it since winter 2000 … geez … and having little practise since. i’m kind of bored, and since i don’t talk to my pals in french all that much, i might as well cure that boredom and rusty french with a good book. my favourite is L’Amour Mallarmé by Guy Moreau. the thing is, i need like a “roman jeunesse” because my french isn’t quite good enough for a real adult book. i’ve tried. vocabulary is too slim.

a friend’s recommendations:

le petit sauvage – alexandre jardin

danielle steel’s novels in french

marie laberge

christyne roy

perhaps even some articles on subjects i like (see “themes” list at right). i had a fairly easy time reading a short bit about an industrial design piece that found itself in my coursepack. any good design sites in french one can recommend?

i’m lazy, so shoot me

webby awards + postsecret

I was browsing the 2006 Webby Awards website for cool stuff when I came upon something beautiful. i think i’ve heard about it before. some of these are funny, others gutwrenching, heartwarming, and encouraging. i also admire the exceptional artistry and creativity of these wonderful people. PostSecret.

serenity

last week during wonderful weather we went to the zoo. there aren’t any noticeable animals in this photo because i wanted to simply document the beauty of this little deciduous forest. where i grew up, it’s a mix of both, which means in the wintertime it’s still pretty green instead of grey and brown. where i grew up, there are maples everywhere. gigantic, majestic maples. this place really was a canopy and everything was veiled in filtered sunlight. glorious.

Say goodbye to Elmer?

CBC.ca posted a story yesterday [source article removed] about an incredible discovery by a Canadian scientist in the US. he “has discovered bacteria that produce the world’s strongest glue.”

“Bacteria covering a quarter are able to hold the weight equivalent of an elephant, Brun said.”

You might be saying goodbye to Elmer in a couple of years:

“Caulobacter crescentus bacteria produce the adhesive substance, which researchers believe could replace dozens of glues currently on the market.”

But then again, sometimes one doesn’t want something that strong for daily practical purposes. I seem to remember my godfather repairing my broken sandal with Goop. Goodbye Goop? I guess we’ll find out. It could be a very environmentally-friendly alternative to chemicals.

Peaches that taste like nail polish remover

You know when you’re taking a shower and you get a funny taste on your tongue, and realise it’s your shampoo, but you didn’t get any in your mouth? Well my receptors got a little criss-crossed when I tasted a peach and knew that if nail polish remover were a drink, that this peach would taste like that. Needless to say I threw it out. What a waste. Mom asked if it was from California. I wasn’t sure. She told me it was the chemicals they use to make it ripen faster. I figured it must be irradiation, and that bothered me.

From Wikipedia’s page on food irradiation:

“Under certain circumstances some research suggests that irradiation forms new chemicals in food, some of which are uniquely radiolytic products. However, the levels of these compounds produced in irradiated foods have been deemed too low to present a meaningful risk to consumers. At very high doses, e.g. >6 kilogray, irradiation can reduce the vitamins and other essential nutrients; and negatively impact the flavor, odor and texture of food. At the doses typically used in irradiation treatment of food, e.g. <3.5 kilogray, these changes appear minimal." Save a penny a day, you have $1 in 100 days. What about this?

Internet Explorer is the root of all evil

I was reading a page about new (old) CSS3 propositions and the support different browsers offer. Any surprise as to what supported the least? (None, in fact.) Internet Explorer. Of course.

Internet Explorer is the bane of my existence as a designer. Because I don’t have to put up with it on a day-to-day basis, I’m not forced to put up with its crap. Lately because I’ve had the opportunity to check my designs on a PC while I’m working on them on my Mac, I’m discovering IE’s odd quirks. What renders beautifully in Safari will look the same 97% of the time in Firefox on PC, and maybe 85% in IE. I’m surprised that number is so high, but I’ve been careful and have learned a few solutions that I’ve kept on hand to avoid tearing my hair out. There remained one puzzle though:

WHY was there a gap under my images?

Solution? I googled my problem (turns out this is a good alternative to D.I.Y.) and found an easy solution: display:block. Ta-da! here’s an easy read about it and some more standards-compatibility charts. The funny thing is that I’ve never noticed this before.

Other problems: dimensions of boxes are wonky, positioning text within those boxes and having the padding being off, things difficult to get centered. Maybe I still have more learning to do, but why should it have to be this difficult when it works perfectly in two browsers? Because they’re designed better?

IE is still the most popular browser, but Firefox is smarter and IE is being… outfoxed.

Hi

This isn’t my first blog.

I have one at myspace and I had one on my school server that I basically didn’t use and found to be user unfriendly. I publish comments online on my website but it doesn’t exactly constitute a blog.

My fabulous mother gets an incredible amount of traffic at her blog where topics include arts, culture, and history. I have sort of realised that having a blog myself is what was suggested by commenting everywhere and including a link to my site. Commenting where? The websites I check out most aren’t exactly public, one-person-driven sites where you can comment.

So here I am. I’m here setting up a blog for my client but set up one under my name just to see how easy it would be.

Hang on a sec, who is reading this?

I need to get back to work.

Until next time (and I think there will be one). I enjoy writing.