“From my experience, you can’t wait around to find what you love. You gotta work your ass off. And then you find what you love by doing piles and piles of work.”
– Kate Bingaman Burt
Kate Bingaman Burt, Illustrator speaking at CreativeMornings/Portland (*watch the talk)
I just backed LINX over on Kickstarter. It’s is a super simple toy that will most certainly unleash your inner architect. All you need is lots of LINX and lots of drinking straws.
Kid-in is a brand-new online magazine for the diverse perspectives of a wide range of international and local designers and photographers, artists and thinkers, focusing on the singular subject of childhood.
Brooklynites: They have their launch party on february 16th at the Invisible Dog.
TANTO is not your normal bean bag. It’s giant and magical – the perfect place to read (and write) fairy tales. TANTO is manufactured in Italy and you can place an order on Etsy their Shopify Store! #wishlisted
The original Pennsylvania Station was razed in 1963. (Collection of the New-York Historical Society, negative number 59044)
A passionate NYTimes article addressing the calamity that is Penn Station:
“To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation.
What is the value of architecture? It can be measured, culturally, humanely and historically, in the gulf between these two places.”
Restore a Gateway to Dignity, by Michael Kimmelman
(via @kbAndersen)
Linen Closets, Traverse City State Hospital, Michigan
Patient Toothbrushes, Hudson River State Hospital, New York
Bathtub, Fairfield State Hospital, Connecticut
Autopsy Theater, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, DC
I just spent way too much time on Christopher Payne’s site, staring at photos of abandoned asylums and hospitals. Fascinating.
(Thank you Sarah)
Here’s a useful post over on Apartment Therapy on how to get rid of those gray scratch marks on plates.
In my desperation of finding a solution to my guilt-inducing-email-problem I am considering The Single Sentence Email Project:
“Respond to emails with as few words as possible. Aim for a sentence, but if just a word will do, use it.* It will take practice, and some might dislike it. I argue that this is a fair trade for getting more time to work (and live) productively.”
But I of course fear that my short reply will come across as rude. What is better: Getting a brief reply or none at all? Maybe Five Sentences is a good middle ground.
The above video is embedded in a fantastic post on work-life balance over on Deliberatism.
(via @Aarron)
Kaleidoism turns your browser into customizable Kaleidoscope! #somuchfun
Little tip, after the image is loaded, click on it and move your mouse around and mouse hover the bottom of the browser window to bring the controls back.
(Thank you Tony)
Lovely Melissa Easton has an entire post dedicated to creating vintage 3 dimensional shapes out of paper. I found Le Cheval (The Horse) particularly charming, in a very analog way. She found them over at the amazing Agence Eureka.
Top five regrets of the dying:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Taken from this Guardian Article, via Jay Parkinson.
Jay Parkinson and his team just launched Sherpaa, an around the clock email and phone access to friendly, NYC-based doctors (or Guides as they call them). Whenever you have a health question or concern, they’re here for you. And they play nicely with the insurance you’ve got.
For now, they’re focusing on working exclusively with tumblr employees but will soon be signing up other NYC-based companies. If you’re interested in joining Sherpaa, let them know. I am!
Jay gave an interesting CreativeMornings talk in 2010, in which he explains how he wants to change health care with help of technology and design. Worth watching.
“When my correspondents reproach me for tardiness, I can only say that I give as much attention to a letter as I do to anything I write, and I work at least six and sometimes sixteen hours a day.”
~ William S. Burroughs
(via Brain Pickings)
I saw my friend Chris Glass tweet about his project of finding duplicate files on his computer over the weekend. Being the queen of multiple backups and duplicates I reached out and asked for more info.
Here’s a LONG REPLY tweet he just sent my way. He compared 3 applications to tackle the issue: dupeGuru, Araxis Find Duplicates Files and TidyUp2.
He ended up liking dupeGuru the best. Here are his findings.
How seriously cool is this Pixel-y Pop-Up Card? Click here for Full instructions and printable templates! See full instructions over at Mini Eco.
I have currently 6 guilt-inducing e-introductions sitting in my inbox, flagged of course. While I am extremely grateful for being introduced to interesting folks, I do not appreciate surprise-introductions. I don’t want to be that person that doesn’t reply, or simply doesn’t have time to meet up for coffee or to have lunch. I know, that all of these introductions are meant well, I would just simply appreciate to be asked first, if an introduction is ok.
I fully agree with Fred Wilson’s post from 2009 on email intro etiquette:
“When introducing two people who don’t know each other, ask each of them to opt-in to the introduction before making it.” – Fred Wilson
The Double Opt-In Introduction
(thanks Cameron)
This Brooklyn Beta video made my day. Thank you @boltron!
Brooklyn Beta is a fantastic conference organized by my studiomates Cameron and Chris. Brooklyn Beta is my twitter stream come to live. A small group of incredibly talented, smart and *friendly* folks.
A big thank you to A Book Apart for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed!
A Book Apart publishes highly detailed and meticulously edited examinations of single topics. We produce brief books of about 100 pages—the perfect size in terms of subject depth and coverage for topics like HTML5, CSS3, content strategy, responsive web design, and more. The goal of every title in our catalog is to shed clear light on a tricky subject, and do it fast, so you can get back to work. Look for Mike Monteiro’s much-anticipated book, Design Is a Job, this April.
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
It’s that time of the year again: Nerd Valentine! YES!
