David Chartier’s Neighborhood

I've been getting some seriously awesome Spam - with killer subject lines.  They almost make me want to make my erection huge with large doses of Viagra, Cialis and other prescription drugs -- all while wearing the hottest new replica watches and bags!

Here are a few of my faves:

• May the foreskin be with you.
• Silence of the loins
• Backdoor Lambada
• Good Willie Humping
  

and what has to be my ultra favorite:

• Sperms of Endearment
  

Well played, Spammer Dudes.

I so want to live here! This is art dealer, Sabrina Buella's San Francisco loft. I don't much care for the book "shelves" (i.e. vertical stacks -- I'm a traditionalist when it comes to how to display books: horizontally) but the space is gorgeous! I'm particularly fond of the large windows and open concept. The brick and wood combo certainly does no harm. Drool..

Buell01

Buell04

I just was introduced to this amazing sculptor and his work: Patrick Dougherty. His massive, twig installations must be very impressive in real life because the photos themselves amaze. Here are a few of my favourites. And go here to see a slide show of how it's done (I tried to find a way to embed this but it didn't work).

Patrick Dougherty, "Trailheads" (2005)

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted this already, but for those who had to blink at some point yesterday - MOO's launched Business Cards! As so many of you have asked for the MOO MiniCard magic just that little bit bigger, we felt duty bound to indulge you. MOO Business Cards are a similar size to standard business cards, but with some very cool differences: Unlike lots of business cards, MOO gives you the option of a different image on every one. Using magic technology we've decided to call 'PrintFinity', you can have a different photo, logo or design on every card. So, when people ask you what you do, you can show them - everything! It's a little portfolio in your pocket, a product catalogue, a trading card, anything you like. You can buy your Business Cards in super-short runs We're an experienced bunch at MOO HQ. We've all worked in different companies before, and we still have the business cards to prove it. The traditional way is to buy business cards in batches of 250, 500, even 1000 or more, and no matter how hard you network, its impossible to get through so many before something changes - your phone number, your job title or even the company you work for. We realised if we still have stacks of old cards sitting about, you probably have too. So, we give you the option to buy in smaller batches of 50: - it's more economical (much less waste) - it gives you the chance to update your cards as you update your products or your details - it's greener - even if you're using virgin stock, at least you're not throwing it away! And talking of 'green' - there are now two paper stock options available We're slightly obsessed with paper at MOO, and take a great deal of care looking for the best paper, with the best feel, print quality and outstanding credentials. We've decided on two different stocks for our Business Cards: MOO 'Classic' - which is sustainably sourced and elemental chlorine free. Matt-laminated, it has a smooth and sturdy feel. It's the same stock you've seen and loved on MiniCards. MOO 'Green' - which is 100% recycled, 100% recyclable and biodegradeable. It's totally chlorine free, uncoated, crisp white, and prints nicer than any other recycled paper we've seen. (And we've seen a lot.) The cards come beautifully packaged Every pack of cards comes with a free Business Card holder. Designed by MOO, the box is made of recycled pulp board and fits in a briefcase or bag. We've even included two (recycled) dividers too, so as you empty the box of your own cards, you can fill it up with the ones you're given, without mixing them up. (Another problem we've had ourselves, that we thought it would be good to fix). So, there you have it. MOO Business Cards - as nice as MiniCards, but bigger, and a little bit different. We like them, and we hope you'll like them too. Oh! And if you want to see what other people have been doing, check out our ideas pages. See what other people have made, and how you could use the cards yourself.

I had an interesting conversation about money with Katka the other day. When my scholarship started trickling in last fall, I vowed I'd put some of it away, start paying off my student debt. This is the first time in a loooong time that I've had more money per month than I need to live. Actually, I don't know if I've ever really had any kind of surplus. And although I had great dreams of being responsible with the extra money, I haven't. I've been spending money hand-over-fist especially in the last two months (which, interestingly, might be connected to my grandmother's death or according to an article I read that linked fear of death with spending) and what little I had saved up until this point is gone. I really do want to pay off my debt particularly because I fear the day that I'll be saddled with that financial burden but apparently I don't want it so badly that I'm willing to stop being a shopaholic. Anyhow, the conversation with Katka made me realize that perhaps what I need to do is start really investing in my long-term goals & dreams, really getting attached to them so that they have as much weight as my short-term desires (like new shoes). First amongst these goals is buying an apartment. I reeeally reeeeally want my own place. My desire is so great that I've started cruising the MLS website on a regular basis and drooling/dreaming even though there's no chance in hell that I'll be given a mortgage by any bank. No way. Not with this kind of debt. 

Sometimes I feel guilty about how "free" my lifestyle is, especially at the moment. I have no major deadlines, I have no commitments (except the odd thing here and there), I have no one breathing down my neck wanting anything from me. And I'm still getting "paid" (i.e. my scholarship is still coming in). My life right now would be considered a vacation for most and yet I'm not on vacation. No, this is pretty much how things will be for me until January minus a few weeks of deadlines and conferences. I mean, I have work to do, things I must accomplish, many books I must read, but my lifestyle will pretty much stay this way. I should be happy about this but when I talk to my very hardworking friends (like steelie), I feel badly. I don't want to talk about my life because I feel guilty that they're working so hard and just scraping by and yet I'm doing nearly nothing and living just fine. It's not fair. But what can I do?

I've been using the iPhone SDK since its original release way back in March. Many frustrating moment in the beginning but the recent beta 7 and beta 8 release proved to be ready for prime time. Apple has added many helper classes or helper methods to classes to make it far easier to work with the UI components, which is by far the most frustrating things I encountered. I am still having problem wrapping my head around the idea of Interface Builder but since the apps that I am building do not involve very complex UI, I just hand coded all the UI instead.

To illustrate, the original iPhone app idea I had that I started developing using the original SDK is a mobile application for Mingle. The application would consist of a series of table views showing projects, cards, and card details, along with some network code to talk to the Mingle server through REST API. At that time, progress was slow because of many factors. First, learning Cocoa/Cocoa Touch API and Xcode at the same time was tough. Second, the Cocoa Touch API was a bit 'primitive' in the beginning. What I mean is that while the API provides all the necessary hooks for developers to create an iPhone app it does not provide many pre-build components, making it difficult and required lots more work from developers to re-create the look and feel of the built-in iPhone apps.

I was so put off by the initial experience that I skipped beta 4-6 and did not open up Xcode until last weekend. And what a refreshing change with beta 7! Now it is straightforward to make an app that looks and feels just like an Apple's one. I was so fired up that last Sunday evening I decided that I would try to create an app for an idea that one of my fellow ThoughtWorker suggested to me. Instead of days of tearing my hair out and got no where, I was able to create a almost features completed app within hours, using beta 8.

So what is this app? It checks the build status on the CruiseControl server. Just like CCTray (Windows) or CCMenu (OS X), it allows users to monitor their software build status and trigger a build remotely if desired. Following the convention, I am calling it CCPhone. The app isn't more complex than the Mingle app but the fact that I was able to almost match the productivity I normally get on my Windows development environment means that I was excited about working on the app rather than dreading it.

Now here are couple of screen shots:

To-do:

• Fix the build time being 1 hours off (probably day time saving bug)
• Better status icons
• Create application icon (currently it uses icon from CCMenu)
• Finish coding the 'Force Build' functionality
• Add startup screen bitmap (so it won't be just a black screen)
• Add auto detect of CruiseControl server (Java, .Net, or Ruby)

Jian

I went to see a taping of CBC radio's Q this evening. It was a live show (but not live to air) at the Société des arts technologiques (or the SAT as it's known) hosted by the one and only Jian Ghomeshi (I luuuv him!). The guests included the amazing and world-renowned jazz artists Joe Lovano and Hank Jones, the lively Gregory Charles, and the one and only Creature (my good friend's band)! It was a fantastic show! Lovano & Jones entranced the audience with a Lovano-original from their album, Kids, Charles wowed us all with his beaming personality and talent on both the keyboard and vocals, and Creature turned up the volume and the energy with two numbers from their debut album, No Sleep at All. 

Jones and lovano

Creature

I just discovered this gem on a blog. The entire sketchbook is available for view on flickr. Here are some of my favourite pages:

But my absolute favourite is this one (ha ha!):

Turn to academia