greeting cards

on friday i volunteered at meals on wheels, where i helped make greeting cards for the clients. i took a snap of some of my hand made greeting cards.

4 icons pt.4

round 4 of 4 icons. james.

for about a decade james has had a unique version of the phrase "i love to snowboard" as his primary personal email account address. he is a professional photographer, amazing guitar player, and recently developed a rather green thumb.

snowboard :: camera :: plant :: guitar


i only drew one binding for the snowboard, and then used photoshop to copy&paste the second one so they would look exact. i'm not sure if i feel lazy or efficient about that.

completely rewired

this weekend i tackled the daunting task of rewiring my desk. most people i know own laptops, the only wire on their desk is the power plug. i have a few more items, their desk rewire would have taken 5 minutes, mine took 5 hours.

this is how the desk looked before i started my attack

notice the left speaker is hidden behind a screen, also the speakers aren't equidistant from the sweet spot (where i sit). this was one of the many driving forces behind spending my sunny saturday indoors.



the bird's nest of wires filled me with anxiety, not to mention, i'd accidentally kick the components sitting atop the small chest of drawers under the desk.

with everything taken off the desk and unplugged i started my rewire.

first i placed all of the components in a location where i wanted them. this is when i made the decision to not use one of my 19" screens. the previous setup included my work-issued dell computer connected to a dell 19" monitor along with a mac mini desktop computer with an apple 30" cinema display and a dell 19" monitor. in total two computers each with two screens. i decided to simplify this a bit, especially since my apple cinema display is huge. my new setup would be work computer (laptop) two screens, home computer just one bit one.


now it's time to line up the components that used to sit on the ground. these are going to be hidden under the desk in my new arrangement. the wires are getting a bit hairy here, and i could feel the anxiety coming back, but i held strong and pressed forward.


some 24" zip ties secured the modem, router, external hdd, and plenty of power bricks to the back of the desk crossbeam support.



this is all the cables/wires/cords that need to be plugged in and organized. the big brick on the ground is my u.p.s. - uninterrupted power supply. it weighs in close to 25 lbs, leaving it on the ground was the best option.


here we are, bundled, zip tied, and even incorporated the conduit for aesthetics.

i even bundled the laptop connect wires in leftover white conduit to minimize cables to/from the laptop.


and here we have the before and after pic. the before pic is on the screen of the big monitor.

i feel more at peace now that the wires are hidden from view. i also enjoy more desk space due to one less monitor, though i do have less desktop space (virtual not physical) but it hasn't been a big issue for me. in all this rewire took 5-6 hours and spanned two days. i couldn't have done it without the help and guidance of my a-class project management team.

blown away (guy)

in 1983 maxell ran a commercial about the audio fidelity integrity of maxell tapes.



(notice that blown away guy casually catches his wine glass before it falls off the table's edge.)

this ad went on to represent maxell and become a pop culture icon of sorts.


you've seen this right?


recently there was an article about the youtube fellas, check out their take on the "blown away".

once the family guy references something, that thing is solidified as a pop icon (to some degree).


even the jackass guys are in the know!


i love how he grabs for the glass at the 0:13 second mark even though the entire table is blown away at 0:03 seconds.

since i've been building the ultimate stereo system, i ordered the maxell poster for display above my stereo shelf. pics to come, as i have to get it mounted before the wall is dressed with blown away guy.

my shelf has spikes

my new retro stereo is starting to come together. but as i've been acquiring the components for the stereo, i'm finding an increasing need for a shelf of some sort for the stereo to live. initially the amp and tuner were placed on top of my technics turntables inside their boxes.




the speakers are designed to stand on the floor as they are, but using my two turntables inside their boxes as a makeshift shelf is wrong on two accounts. first account, it looks pathetic. second account, if i use my technics as a shelf, that's a $1,000 shelf.

so i contemplated making a shelf. many of the diy shelf threads on the few audio forums i scoured had all somehow come back around to "the rack". the rack is a diy shelf made of plywood, large threaded bolts, and nuts.



the rack performs well, but just didn't have the aesthetic i was looking for. so i searched a bit more. this is when i learned about vibration dampening, and the spikes that come along with it. each shelf sits atop 4 sharp spikes, thus minimizing surface area contact and mitigating unwanted speaker generated vibrations from reaching your audio components. the first shelf of this genre i found for the small price of $1399.99!!! i'd be damned to have a shelf that costs more than my entire stereo!



then i found the vti-bl404 shelf for $250! three color options and four shelves. i couldn't go wrong. so i ordered it and took pics.











i've received a few compliments so far, and i'm really enjoying how pretty my shelf is. i still need to get a few more components for my stereo, and as you can see, i have the shelf space for it!

next up, to get those technics turntables out of their boxes and onto a tabletop.