Thanks to Mr. Wang from MT, last week I received a package of masking tape samples which are limited editions only to be sold in their very own new shop near Waseda University in Tokyo.
Kamoi's beautiful washi paper made masking tapes are getting so popular, many end user inspiration just keep coming in as evident from MT's web site. These new patterns and sizes you see here gives a hint about MT's development, more applications built-in to the tapes, like labels, wallpaper, wrapping paper and Xmas versions.
Check out MT's blog and you'll see how the shop looks like, can't wait to be there next year. If you can imagine it, Kamoi can make it, so don't be shy to send mail to them to suggest new product ideas.
When it takes one hour to defeat your soon-to-be-six year old in chess, it means (a) you suck at chess or (b) the kid is good.
Maternal vanity makes me choose (b).
It's time to gear up for lots of store visits, there will be a lot of layout changes, one more new store and multiple phases of Xmas promotion happening from this week onward. My gears will change from office setting (mind.depositor, Moleskine diary, fountain pen, calculator, camera) to field setting (pocket Moleskine, camera).
One of the indispensable tool is this "Holder for M" from Vintage Revival Productions. It is an ingenious two piece product made from a combination of leather and denim label material. One piece acts as a holder which allows you to insert your M into your jean's back pocket (8,800 yen), the other is a pen holder (4,500 yen). Both pieces are looped so that you can slide to the front and back cover of you M easily without permanent damage.
Where did I found this you asked? It was last July when I thought I was having the last meeting of a business trip in Tokyo, Mr. Doi from Sweetroad (a great store to visit mind you) told me about Mr. Iwata and his shop Iwata Denki. I had to rush to that store in Setagaya before it's closed. Full of sweat and unable to communicate in Japanese, I was signing and nodding a lot and had a great "conversation" with Iwata san, a designer himself, who published 2 design books called GOALD (goal of design), and constantly working to create new products. Do visit Iwata san's blog to get a glimpse of his works and product collections from his friends.
Iwata san made some very nice leather Moleskine covers. They are like stickers, only in leather, which are removable and probably can last several uses when you change your Moleskine. I was about to buy the brown snake skin embossed or the wood imitation cover but too bad they were out of stock. He also made those cute little leather photo clips which look like smileys, they are put into recycle film cans and sold in stores like Tokyu Hands and Loft.
Iwata san was very keen to show me his collection of great products in the shop, wooden iphone case, his leather credit card holder, coin pouch etc. "Holder for M" was the one thing I got from his shop, then I was out of cash in Tokyo :)
So if you are going to Tokyo, I suggest you to dig up these interesting small shops to go, it is far more rewarding as a journey. As for myself, the connection and sense of discovery always give me the thrill.
...is here. And how ! It seems only yesterday I was complaining about the delay.
It is never really monsoon in this part of the world unless there has been a cyclone or two, with wind uprooting trees, schools shutting down, our campus lake breaching ..so on and so forth, but the general feeling is already there, thanks to the periodic whoosh of dense precipitation as the weatherman says, and the damp and smelly clothes that won't dry. Right now I don't have a sizable problem, as sitting in the varandah with a book, rosogolla and a comfortable chair, watching the kid dancing in the rain outside (and occasionally joining in) is soulful enough, but once all the clothes in the cupboard turn equally mouldy, and critters and worms start taking shelter in the confines of our nest, the expletives may start pouring with the rain.
That said, I never fail to feel the slight tinge of guilt in looking forward to monsoon from the safe confines of my solid roof when there are thousands on the street, homeless, huddled under jute sacks. As with all righteous guilts, I conveniently push it into the dark recesses of sub-consciousness, and gear up to enjoy the rest of the monsoon.
..until I have dry clothes to wear, that is.
"If you don't finish up your Dosai, no karate class for you".
"If you don't clean up the room, no more books for you".
"If you don't finish up your lunch in school, no more lunch for you"
"If you don't braid your hair, it will fall off".
"If you don't drink up your milk, you are going to end up with osteoporosis like kollu paati".
All of the above within a span of 20 minutes. I am well on my way to becoming a professional blackmailer. Anyone need my services? Charges nominal.
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Soon-to-be-six: "If you tell a lie, God will dance in your brain and you will get irritated"
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Neighbour: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Soon-to-be-six: A big girl.
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Soon-to-be-six: "I don't like boys. They are rash".
Mom ruminating: "I'd like to hear that in ten years. ummm..on second thoughts, I don't think so."
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Soon-to-be-six: They show Tom&Jerry and Mr. Bean on TV during AV period in school. I don't like it. I want to read my book.
Mom ruminating"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS".
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Xmas to me for the past 6 years has been a gradual build up of pressure and anxiety because of work. After yet another day of number crunching I reached home finding a surprise in our guest restroom. I would've expected a lonely cat or dog lurking around in the house if it wasn't our restroom, the only culprit here must be Olgua. I was furious for a few seconds and click..... I switched to story telling mode, about dogs and cats at home and why they do things they do because nobody clip their nails etc. Then it was the plead to tell yet more bed time stories. I must remember that flick of switch, to turn anger into stories, to turn anxiety into something creative. It shouldn't be a positive reinforcement of bad behavior or emotion if the subject can grasp the good intention behind given a review is done, and it is no surprise and a pity that this works best with children, 'mature' people just have too much pride to see things through.
I've been helping to fight the city council's plan to convert 1400+ acres of restorable wetlands in Redwood City. As a fly fisher and supporter of the environment, I am appalled at the level of greed and short-sightedness being demonstrated by my city. We don't need more condos, we don't need more development, and we certainly don't need any of it here, on the banks of the bay. What we need HERE are wetlands, protection from floods, habitat for wildlife and a healthier ecosystem for our damaged watershed.
Even if we didn't need all of those things, which we do, we simply cannot afford the water and electricity needs of such a massive project. Remember the electrical shortages that resulted in brown-outs? Would you welcome water rationing? You might not think about it now that it's fall and the rainy season, but come summer, we will all remember what that pain feels like.
The city is chasing money, pure and simple. Cargill and the developers won't be around later to reap the ecological rewards of such a misguided plan, and even if they are they'll be too busy counting their money to care.
For a while, it seemed the misinformation campaign they were running was winning, they won at the ballot box by confusing the voters. But now people are discovering how truly awful this plan is and they are starting to do something about it.
I am, and you can too:
Spread the word.
Dear karen,
We are glad to report that there is a growing rebellion against Cargill's plan to build a city in San Francisco Bay. We wanted to update you on these developments and ask for your continued support in protecting the 1433 acres of restorable wetlands in Redwood City.
In an important opinion piece in the Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto City Council member Yoriko Kishimoto calls out Cargill's plan as a grave threat to the Peninsula's future: "A proposed development in Redwood City so breathtaking in its size and misguided in its scope that nothing of its kind has been seen in half a century." She points out that "this is not an infill site and this is not the place for housing."
And the Redwood City Daily News recently reported that the Menlo Park City Council is moving to declare the project an environmental hazard to the region. Menlo Park Council Members Kelly Fergusson and Andrew Cohen agree that "the current Cargill/DMB development proposal seeks to reverse long-standing regional and local policies to protect the Bay and its wetlands."
Meanwhile, in an opinion piece published in the Redwood City Daily News Redwood City resident Marsha Cohen expressed concern that the city "is stonewalling requests for public records." She points out that the mayor works for business lobbyist SAMCEDA, a strong public supporter of the Cargill development. Ms. Cohen wants to know what advice was given to the mayor about the conflict of interest.
You can join these Peninsula leaders in the battle to save the Redwood City salt ponds. Please write letters to the editor in response to these pieces, expressing your own opinion:
letters@dailynewsgroup.com
Palo Alto Weekly letters can be sent to:
letters@paweekly.comCurrently, the Redwood City Council is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to determine whether Cargill's application should move forward. Clearly, many leaders on the Peninsula have found a much cheaper answer: It should be dead on arrival.
Go to www.savesfbay.org/redwoodcity for more information and to sign our petition, and stay tuned for more interesting updates.
Sincerely,
Stephen Knight
Save The Bay Political Director
510.452.9261
I heard a lot about Win 7. Not only from the press, I have a lot of friends who downloaded and installed the RC version and have kept it. Once it was on sale on NewEgg, I purchased the family pack and it took less than a full day to get to me.
Have you ever returned an item to a store for a refund after having used it?
Yes, but nothing perishable or anything nasty. If I'm not pleased with something, I want my money back. I bought a CD I thought I liked. I hated it and was kind of offended by it and I returned it. I was honest about why I was bringing it back and I got store credit.I used to do it when I was younger also. Part of why I was able to was because I knew the staff and it predated the internet(GASP!) and the listening station.
Been a hectic few days, and unusually, not on the professional front as much as the home front. Been pretty lax with Vox, but I guess the tide comes and goes all the time here. My next work deadline is a fortnight hence and I am anticipating a nightmarish period during then, for all my colleagues are away on personal crisis situations, and the burden of the deadline is pretty much on the onion.
I need a break. And what's more..I am getting it. Taking an impromptu, mid-semester, mid-term, mid-deadline vacation this following weekend, thanks to the spontaniety of a certain dude. To Srirangam. All three of us deserve it, we have been working hard and if we need to continue this pace of industry further, we need a change.
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What's up with the weather, I say. Where is the trusted N.E. Monsoon that lashes our side of the world about now? The sun god has shown no mercy on us this year, and every day is just as infernal as the previous, with no respite in sight. If there are no rains in November as well, we are in for a tough summer next year, with water scarcity that can wreck havoc on our city. It has happened before, and the memory of that period makes me dread what is to come. Oh heaven, open up already.
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Met two of my grand aunts this week. Both in their nineties. Both dynamic women in the past, rag dolls now. One of them, the widow of the erstwhile GM of Southern Railways, who lived in a mansion in an arterial road, now lives in a tiny one bed room apartment with daughter's family, confined to a boxy room with no ventilation. Repeats statements, very confused about people, senile, in short, but manganimous as ever. Gifted me Rs. 100, despite her dependence on her meagre pension. But beyond the gift, what I would treasure is the affection with which she held in her bony, wrinkled ghost of a hand, mine.
The other grand aunt, an enterprising businesswoman in her heyday; in an era where the woman's place in the house was the kitchen, is a broken old woman now, with paid servents to keep her company and home. The tasteful, expensive teak wood furniture she adorned her home with , now gathering dust in every corner. She can't hear too well, but her memory is sharp. Her eyes clouded when I took leave of her, and she beseeched me to visit her more often.
Maybe I won't see them again, maybe I will. They probably won't remember my visit. But I made them happy for the time I was there.
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End of ramble.
