Once again, neglected

Like my poor livejournal account...

I am currently in the midst of trying to salvage my senior design thesis. I'm at a crossroads - i'm unable to do the research I need at the moment due to the lack of open businesses and sufficient online data. i'm unable to validate or really ideate on any of my design directions. I do NOT want to do a re-design project.

Here is the rundown:
A large, growing population (gen Y), is at a point in their life when they are beginning to "couple" and learn shared behaviors as adults that will soon be passed onto their children.
They are also at a point in their life where they have to learn how to cook.
Many couples use this time to experience shared cooking. This is either on a day to day basis, entertaining, or by cooking classes (there is a huge spike in couples cooking classes, and this is a national trend).

It is my goal to target that age group by bringing them a product that will provide their shared cooking to be a more positive experience, even in their smaller space environments. What product this is? I have no clue. I'm at the point where I am ready to explore my observations and really get some ideas out on paper.

HOWEVER

I just had a friend die. My brother is finally back in the states from a tour in Afghanistan, and is newly engaged to be married. My little brain can only hold so much emotion and it is interfering with my schoolwork. Mind you, I also work about 50 hours a week at 2 jobs (I'm a secretary and food writer)...

Please, if you have any thoughts on my thesis direction, email me. i think it's a valid and meaningful idea. you can't get any more meaningful than emotional family bonding coupled with ruthless efficiency.

Perhaps I should just go to sleep.

I make basses.

Long overdue pics of my husband's christmas present, a rebuilt, refinished Fender Jazz Bass. Formerly candy apple red with substaintial damage.

music and scribbles

It's Tuesday night.
Tomorrow my best friend will be 31. I can't say i'm too pleased with myself for not getting her the present yet, but I am knee deep in school, a usual.
So in honor of her and her support, i present to you the song that gets me through a lot of lonely nights of ideation.
Happy bday sar.

trying this again. arg/

I'm up....

So my last final is tomorrow. I've been absent from here, busy busy, pretty much for the last eight months.
However, I will make a valiant attempt to start posting again.

I'm moving to a new apt in the next few weeks.
New apt means new things,
ridding of old things,
and rearranging.

I have to purchase:
1 dresser
1 new bathmat
1 storage cabinet
1 over toilet cabinet
As we will be losing a linen closet, a coat closet, and regular closet space.

However, everything must be inexpensive enough that we could leave them should we have to move again. Goal is to go overseas in the next few years. Looks like it's a trip to family dollar or IKEA....

so generally

i try not to want want want....

however, after being bombarded by blasts of green design and ecology and such... and after a self reminder of the book "Alas, Babylon", i think I would like to save up for a scooter when my car payments are over.

Pros:

CHEAP

cheap insurance!

CHEAP GAS!

supa sweet.

Cons:

suck in rain

getting run over

having to pay for leathers, helmets, the how-to-ride-a-motorcycle class

cargo room

However, after a long time of annoyingly researching, i found this baby:

The 2007 (or '08) Yamaha Vino... Quite possibly the best bang for the buck.

Speed up to 60 MPH, 115 MPG (!!!!!!!)

....and '07s are being clearanced for a whopping $1299.

SO THEORETICALLY,

cost of scooter+cost of take moto class+leathers+helmet+gas for a YEAR=

WHAT I PAY IN GAS A YEAR.

*s i g h*

that $300 car payment is looking mightly annoying now.

fun stuff!

Good morning!
Fun stuff time! Today is all about stuff used in WRITING.... I want to go home and make a pen vae right NOW.






Yes, this is a flavored Bic cap...


just, erm, in time for Easter? It's a flocked pencil!!

posters

I love posters... I always have. A poster makes a statement of what you are about and how you want people to portray you. I, however, want that statement to be "I have cool design posters"... LIKE THESE:

The first, the Vitra Design Museum Collection, I have been lusting over for years. Yes, furniture=lust. Available for $50 at DWR.

Second set is the Love Your Earth poster pack from Designboom.com ($38). Also pictured below are the Illustrated History of Rocking Chairs and the Illustrated History of Folding chairs, each $10 at Designboom.com. This is a big, blatant hint to anyone in my family or friends that feels that I have been good and they want to get me something for Valentine's Day. Screw candy!

I need stamps.

NOW. Congrats USPS, you have officially made me an enthusiast. Now my spiral binders from my youth will be complete. These are two designers that changed my childhood from the moment I stood back (about age 7 - second from top, far right) and REALLY looked at the chair I was laying in that I loved so much...


(From USPS.com)

In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored next summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. If you’ve ever sat in a stackable molded chair, you’ve experienced their creativity. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.

FOR JOHN

Michael Osborne Design
Design firm out of SF... does a lot of wine bottle design. However, the website itself seems to be more adventurous than the actual product branding.

What I'd like to know is what design firm is that CLEAN? What are the hoods for? Lighting? You can't really tack up ideas to something curving toward you.