LC1 Circa J
September 28, 2007
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.
I’m so happy to get the DMC-LC1 back from the Panasonic shop. They fixed it for free because there was a glitch with the Sony CCD. If you buy the camera with in the last two years, the problem might arise. The sensor breaks down. At first, I took it to the local shop and they gave me an estimate of $200. Then I did some research on the internet to find that other people were having the same problem as me. Look into the Panasonic website for the phone number if you have the same problem.
Ducce Organ
September 26, 2007
Video Production by Ryan Rasmussen/Austin Ellison
Location: Relic, Santum Santorium Second Life.
Voices
September 25, 2007
I had read about Zhabit’s advice on waking up early in the morning. Although Leo of ZenHabits doesn’t condone that one waste time reading blogs or posting for that matter, I just felt like it this morning. Reading and writing is encouraged in the early quiet hours.
6.30 am. I went outside on the patio to listen. The single North Star is still shines bright as dawn breaks over the horizon. The roar of the highway beyond. I can hear the flapping of the crows wings above.
Recently, I was the film ‘The Brave Ones’. The character has a radio show. She speaks about the city of New York. Her voice and the recorded sounds in the New York city street seems so compelling. One of my favorite character in the television show Northern Exposure is Chris. He comments between the songs on his radio show at KBEAR has an authentic voice. There are any radio shows like that, that I know of. Because I don’t have a radio show, just this humble blog, I thought that a post like this about voices would make sense. I thought that a blog or post could have that atmosphere like the fictitious radio shows.
Chet Chin’s Neo
September 25, 2007
In the past month or so, I had a chat with Chet about her Neo. Today, I’m glad to have Chet Chin wrote about her Alpha Smart Writers for us. Although we usually cover paper writing tools, I thought the Neo was to enticing to pass up. The advantage is the battery life and the universal common batteries. In a sense it’s like paper because there is less charging involved and there is less of the inter-net distractions. The Neo has 8 work-spaces, each of which can hold 25 pages of text, approximately 10,000 words. The Neo also prints directly from itself if set up properly.
Chet is also involved with the NaNo project. I’ve heard a little about it. I would like to find out more.
flickr.com/photos/chet_pics reflections
Using the AlphaSmart for travel writing.
Sunday, 2007/09/09
I remember, when I traveled around the States in 1990, I carried a hardcover notebook and wrote my travel journal in it.
These days, when I travel, I no longer carry a paper journal for my travel musings. Take my recent trip to Wolong, China. My travel journal was my AlphaSmart Neo, a 2-lb battery operated word processor with a little screen, full-sized keyboard and memory to save what I’ve written in it for upload to a regular computer later on.
I’ve used AlphaSmart products since 1998, beginning with the 2000 model, followed by the 3000 model, then making a slight switch to the more full-featured Palm powered Dana, before returning to word processing simplicity in the Neo.
The AlphaSmart products were initially developed for the education market in the United States, targeted at schools with limited budget for computers and keyboards. Somewhere along the way, it was discovered by writers, both published and yet-to-be published. Some have written and published novels initially drafted on an AlphaSmart. The very simplicity of the product helps them concentrate on the writing. With a small screen, there is limited display which has helped to shut off the internal editor.
The AlphaSmart really unchains writers from the desktop, allowing them to write away from the desk, anytime anywhere inspiration strikes, and without having to worry about heat or weight or limited battery life. The instant power-on takes them right back to where they were before they switched off the machine the last time.
For me, when it comes to fiction writing, I’ve used the AlphaSmart Dana to complete three years of NaNoWriMo – that’s three novels of 50,000 words each. I’ve written my NaNovels in bed, in various cafes around the city and once, even in a Borders bookstore. Inspiration struck, I had the Dana with me so I found an empty seat, took out the Dana, switched it on, and started writing. While others around me were reading, I was writing.
For my recent trip to Wolong, China, I decided to bring along the Neo instead of the Dana. The Neo is rated to run for up to 700 hours on 3 AA batteries, whereas the Dana’s battery life is around 25 hours. With the Neo, I had one less charger to bring along; the Dana uses rechargeable, and although I could’ve popped in regular batteries, and thus still had one less charger to carry, I would have to charge them after every 20 hours or so.
There were some trade-offs with bringing the Neo instead of the Dana. The Neo only does word processing, whereas the Dana, as a Palm PDA (a very large Palm PDA!), has the usual built-in PIM functions (calendar, address book, etc.). But really, all I’ve used the Dana for was write my journal, so the other functions have been quite under-used. In any case, those functions were available in my Palm TX which I also brought along to the trip.
Speaking of battery life, I’d put in a fresh set of batteries in the Neo before the trip, and by the end of the trip, checked to find the battery status at 97%.
By the end of the trip, too, I also had a 17,899-word travel journal of my trip to Wolong, China. All thanks to the AlphaSmart Neo.
- Chet Chin
oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/09/on_the_joys_of_primitive_computing
Epica ink H
September 22, 2007
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.
Oh boy…it’s been a while since I posted here. Some of you may have missed us. Ducce and I have been hanging out in Second Life exploring the University of Ohio Campus, Science Friday, and generally meeting some wonderful people. I thought I post something light and easy to ease back into the mode. This is a ink drawing test on Amalfi hand made paper from Epica. This is in a series of random drawings maybe subconsciousness reaching and connecting to the inner field.
science friday_002
September 14, 2007
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.
Taking my lunch break with Science Friday. I’m in Second Life with the Science Friday guys: Joe Palca and Ira Flatow. Last week the radio talk show focused on Second Life. The group started gathering on SL in the last two or three weeks. The average attendance so far is around 30 people. The rent cost for SL land is $200 per month. They are taking donation and giving out SL t-shirts. If you are on SL look up the group call Science Friday.
Ducce here for an update. Did you guys check out Sci Fri? It was totally awesome! Girls and math was the subject. I’ve volunteer to help promote this even on SL.
Ly: I thought it was a good topic. I’m trying to find the source to order the book for Kawaii-cat. Back last year, I was trying to help Kawaii-cat with negative numbers. I couldn’t find an easy way to explain it.
Ducce: Are you done? now get out!
Ducce here again. You see me in the front row there? It was so crowded! Do you like my fish nets? The white chest piece is my wolf accoutrement’s. It was quite engaging. I could throw out any questions I felt like asking or comment on the discussion and felt like I could reach these famous radio hosts. The show also streams audio in Sl so the international audience can listen live to the show. Wooo….Danica McKeller! the actress that play the role of Weenie on the ‘Wonder Years’ has a book out call “Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail”
1001 Journals
September 14, 2007
Patrick’s post announcing the new 1001 journal project. I’ve been meaning to add Patrick’s Vox blog to the blog roll. In a chat with Tschai, I joke that Patrick will lure all of readers to his blog. It’s that good. By the way, Tschai also migrated to Vox recently. Both Patrick and I are the original Vox Beta testers. His posts are also about paper products and more. Because he owns his own stationary business, he gets to travel and sample all of the wonderful products. I wouldn’t mind that at all.
Now that I got the introduction out of the way, let’s talk about this interesting project call ’1001 Journals’. I have tried to sign up in the past and I can’t seem to get a hold of one. I signed up again. The new website project seems more organized. There are three or four journals near by Oregon. We shall see. I made a comment on Patrick’s post about a journal which I was sharing with my members at the Gallery 114. I left the blank journal at the desk and artist doodle away while they were bored. Later on it was displayed in a gallery in a show about artist books. I will try to post some pages from that project. It’s a small scale. I would be interested in doing some of this project with friends and people who would be interested.
Fountain Pen Postage Stamp
September 12, 2007
This morning, I received an eNewsletter from Norman Haase:
“Rob Astyk of the terrific website The Lion & Pen has created an online petition to the U. S. Postal Service, suggesting that a series of stamps be created to commemorate the fountain pen. Considering that hundreds of millions or billions of pieces of mail where addressed with our favorite writing instrument over the past century, it seems like a natural. Please add your name to the petition, Here or on the homepage of His Nibs. Don’t be bashful about sharing it with family and friends. The initial goal is 1000 petitioners, but I think we can do better than that with a concerted effort!”
This seems like such a good idea. I’m intrigue as to the design of the stamp. I wonder if it will have a close up rendering of the nib or what brand of fountain pen they would use. I think it should just be a symbolic graphic representation of the nib.
Kawaii-cat’s Mynd Story
September 7, 2007
Here’s a little story from Kawaii-cat, my editor-in-chief, Da-Big-Cheese. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have:
One day [yesterday] 2nd period in French class, we were reviewing what we learned last year. Madam had us pick 14 index cards and punch holes in them and put a metal ring to hold them together. There were 3 hole punchers to go around about 20 people and the line went on for miles. So I then remembered I had my own index cards with a metal ring in my locker. http://www.myndology.com/ring.php it looked like the last one with all the different colors. So while the people in line were anxious to get their greedy hands on a mere hole punch, I asked Madam if I could go to my locker to get my Myndology index cards. She said sure and I brought the hall pass.
I came back with my awesome Myndology ring bound small index cards in assorted colors. So I sat at my desk, note cards in hand waiting for the next direction. Madam came to my desk to check out my cute note cards, she thought they were very cute and asked where I got them (très mignon ! où vous obtenir que? )
I didn’t know where I got these cards since tha-cho-cho [Duc N. Ly, 'tha-cho-cho' is Chinese for Big Uncle] got them for me. So I said staples. But I wasn’t sure. So then I used them as flash cards to say things like Ca va? (how are you?) and what is your name and stuffs.
tags: Myndology, paper, Bare, recycle, notebooks, good thinking, disc bound
The Bare Arrival!
September 6, 2007
Previously:
Ah the long awaited (exactly 3 months!) Bare is here! Just in time for school. About a week ago, Jason – the Mind behind Mynd – sent me package of their new Bare Line via UPS Ground. While I’m still in-doors and don’t have available lights to photograph, I’m just make some quick notes. I’ll use the photo to illustrate later. The Bare line is made from:
- 100% recycled and 30% post consumed products.
- It is printed with soy ink.
- The belly band proudly advertised this fact: The notebook is produced with 100% clean, renewable hydroelectric energy.
- Chlorine free process
- Acid-free paper (I believe this means that it’s archival. Often, recycle paper are not archival.)
- Created with French paper
- In case you didn’t know, the belly band is printed with ‘(RECYCLED) good thinking (RENEWABLE ENERGY) good thinking!
Bravo! There are few companies that make recycle high end paper products. So far I’ve only found one: myndology. This is ‘Good Thinking’! I can’t emphasize enough about recycling of papers. I often indulge in recycle projects myself. I’m guilty of paper waste. So when a acid free recycle paper comes along, I welcome it whole heartily. It makes me feel less guilty using it. I understand that it does cost more to produce such a product, and this is why some companies shy away from it. It takes a shift in different methods of production, I image, to do recycle products. But I think it’s a trend to go organic in the paper industry as well as apparel, foods, and accessories.
Size matters – (at least in the recycle paper world) Cost effectiveness may be one of the reason Myndology produced only two sizes for now, unless there are support and demand for a larger size. There is the Junior size 6.5 x 8.5 inches and the 4 x 3 inches Memo size which has three discs. They are offered in blank or lined pages. The pages has a warm vanilla tone compare to the pure whites. I assume it is because there is no chlorine to bleach the paper pulp to pure white. I like this for several reasons. One, it looks good with brown fountain pen ink. And two, it has less glare. I sit under a fluorescent lights eight hours a day at work, I see that compared side by side, the Bare has a nicer tone. In fact, it has a very similar color and quality to the Moleskine rule paper.
Color – Over all, the designers of Duffy and Partners at Myndology choose a muted earthy tone compare to their more vibrant and wild colors of the previous lines. The plastic cover is replaced by double layer card stock paper folded. The top layer is laser cut with energetic and symbolic arrows alternately pointed at the eight cardinal directions. The whole effect is exotic and alive with the interplay of light and dark as it sits above another layer of the same color paper! This is a very unique design feature. I have not seen laser cut done on any other products. It is an innovative technique to improve our enjoyment of paper.
(For some reason these laser cuts reminded me of Cross’s AutoCross line of steering wheel leather cover which Jack Spade help to popularize.) These muted tones look right at home in a conservative office settings. The cover comes in three colors of Clay, Pine, and Sand. All of these are bound in a disc color of Sand. While I like the disc very much, I can’t help but dream up of new disc colors or maybe even start with the existing color of the cover and matching discs. This way, we would have three possible combinations to play with.
Memo – The Memo pages are still thin like the notebooks. Perhaps it’s hard to make a thick card stock like the 3×5 index cards. The 3×4 doesn’t match the standard 3×5. I wonder why Myndology chose 3×4 size. Perhaps because the paper maybe flimsy if the length extend another inch. Although I like the proportion of it. Myndology has their own size and ideal as to what is a good proportion. In a way, I applaud them for sticking to their guns. This means that the previous note book pages which I have 6.5 x 8.5 fits the Bare! I was worried about this. The backwards compatibility is nice. I think it would be nice to have a Memo with thick card stock paper of their existing covers. The Refill paper comes packaged in a box made of the same card stock as the cover. This is a much welcome improvement to the previous shrink wrapped refills.
Myndology’s Bare line of paper products utilize recycle paper technology to innovate design and improve the enjoyment of paper for the consumers. I would not be surprised that this line of product would win awards and accolades from critics and users alike.
flickr.com/photos/ducly/tags/bare
Coming Up: The Myndology Punch and Disc sold separately!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/myndology.php
http://www.strikethru.net/2008/07/product-review-myndology-bare-notebook.html
tags: Myndology, paper, Bare, recycle, notebooks, good thinking, disc bound
