REM & Improv Everywhere

Some of you may remember a stunt I posted on by Improv Everywhere a couple months ago. A group of I think 300 agents infiltrated Grand Central Station in NYC and froze simultaneously for five minutes. If you haven't watched it yet, it's surely worth it.

Well a couple days ago REM posted this video, which IE was calling a shameless ripoff.

I guess it kind of is. I mean they're obviously doing the same sort of thing, and that is in fact a ripoff... sort of.

Wired Magazine picked this up yesterday and made a few counterpoints. The main one being everything is copied from something these days, so what's the big deal? While I don't agree with that statement necessarily I think it could be fair to say this video was inspired by, rather than ripped off from the IE video. It's even possible that they thought of it independently based on a common influence. Thill at Wired says, "It has been done before, differently and similarly, which is to say that the frozen-in-time routine is hardly an 'original idea.' As James7777777 commented on Geek Gestalt, the U.K. spoof Just for Laughs pulled the same trick almost a decade earlier, albeit in a convenience store rather than Grand Central Station."

So you could say it's not a ripoff, get over it, except that yesterday in response to the backlash REM PR people apologized, admitted that "us on team REM love the stuff you guys do," took it down and are currently redoing the video to include a nod to IE. By taking those steps, REM basically admitted that yes, it was in fact a ripoff. Honestly I don' t think there's anything wrong with that, and I'm even impressed that they're taking steps to repair the hurt feelings. Because in this case that's all it is... as far as I can tell there was no possible legal action IE could have taken as far as copyright stuff goes. (Lori, are you out there? Am I right about that?)

Here's my issue. In spite of REM's response, I don't really think this was a ripoff. For one thing the REM version doesn't take place in Grand Central Station which takes one degree of similarity away. As far as the style of the stunt, as James pointed out, freezing in a public place to confuse and weird people out? Been there. The main connection between IE's stunt and REM's stunt was the number of spectators and agents involved and the simple admission by REM that they ripped it off. That isn't enough of a similarity for me. The biggest single difference between these two videos in my mind is intent.

The purpose of the REM video is to look cool (and it does). It also succeeds wonderfully in capturing the attitude of the band REM. While the spectators involved probably didn't know what was going on, the people freezing were likely paid actors, or at least an informed group of people who wanted to be associated on video with REM rather than the stunt itself.

The IE video on the other hand uses hundreds of agents who, before they meet up right before the stunt, have no idea what they're going to be doing. In away the spectators, while even less informed, are every bit as involved as the players. And the main difference is that in IE the intent is to play, to confuse, to interact with people and spaces. This is fundamentally different from the purpose of REM.

I guess my point is that while it might have been copied it's not even possible for REM to ripoff what IE did in Grand Central station. It's the difference between art and marketing.

And since we're talking about Improv Everywhere, I'll finish off with the latest IE video from the The Boston Society of Spontaneity.

Ah Comedy

Saw this on William's blog and just had to spread the love.

The video gets a bit wonky toward the end for some reason, but it doesn't matter. This skit just never gets old. Except when it gets really old. My literarally (not a word) inclined friends ought to enjoy this especially.

Grand Central Improv

As with the Obama music video, everyone has probably already seen this, but I wanted to post it just in case. This is the (probably) latest stunt by Improv Everywhere, a group that gets hundreds of people together to cause "scenes" in public. You can look at their events as anything from a practical joke to an interactive work of performance art. I believe they're most famous for the blue shirt prank at Best Buy a few years ago.

This video in particular is actually a wonderful example of people interacting creatively with their spaces. One of the things that makes these scenes so brilliant is that they executed and then abandoned without explanation. I'd have to think that witnessing one of these scenes would be pretty shocking... in a good way.

Shooting themselves in the shoe

I noticed something interesting the other day when Matt was shopping for new dress shoes. Many men's dress shoes these days have gel pack insoles to make some part of the shoe, in this case the heel, softer than the rest. This isn't really surprising or even that new. What was interesting is that in most cases these insoles were intentionally left visible.

This seems to be a trend with shoes in general, though less so with dress shoes. New advances are made in shoe comfort and the shoe designers decide to make it extra visible to advertise that the wearer is sporting the very latest in shoe technology. Or something. This is not normally possible with dress shoes, but since this alteration is on the inside, the manufacturers can make it obvious to the buyer at least, that they've used the utmost of shoe technology to ensure their comfort.

There's one problem with this, which Matt found much to his sorrow. For someone with a sensitive foot, the edge of the gel pack is noticeable, and has the possibility of growing uncomfortable if not painful. Matt had some problems with one of his feet a while ago and, though he liked two of the shoes he tried on, decided not to buy them because of the visible insole. The silly thing is, that edge would probably not be a problem if the manufacturers chose to cover it with even a thin layer of fabric. If that wasn't enough to do it, I'm sure the padding required would be minimal. Then the wearer could get the benafit of the technology without the inconvenience of that plastic edge. I can almost hear the designers saying: "but then how will the customer know that this shoe has the very latest shoe technology, which is of course very important?!" I wonder if anyone's done some kind of survey to see how many people are more likely to buy a shoe because of the visible element (and I'm sure that actually does have a positive affect on sales) verses the number of people who will not buy them due to feeling the visible element. Any thoughts?

Beneath the Sink

Yesterday Peter of the Kultrasten Gallery commented that he couldn't see the "face" in my drain photo so I promised to illustrate it for him:

The face I saw was a partial silhouette of a boy. Peter saw something else and was inspired to illustrate what lives beneath my sink (or all sinks). Go check it out on his blog, it's in Swedish (I think) so I have no idea what any of the commentary says, but he's got some wonderful drawings and Peter speaks English as well (as you've seen in comments) so I'm sure he'd love for you to drop him a line (all bloggers love comments!).

After seeing Peter's illustrations I was inspired myself to wonder what might live beneath my sink. My first rough sketch turned into more of a mechanical musing, which unfortunately is not my strong point (need more practice). It might be fun in the future to expand a theoretical hydraulic system for raising and lowering the plug. I really do love mechanical/industrial heavy drawings, particularly when they're mixed with organic elements and characters (think H R Giger or some of the art of the Matrix) so it's really a shame that I don't do more of it.

Anyway, once I abandoned that, I decided to just go for what kind of critter might live there and came up with a mixture of an octopus, a worm and a centipede:

Camera Counter Culture

I never wanted a camera phone. I bought this crappy chocolate back in March and didn't notice it had a camera until a few days later.

So why did I start doing this photo-a-day thing? Because my phone's memory is already filled with photos. After careful erasing I've got 200 photos left.

Everyone has those, "Gee, I wish I had a camera," moments. When I was an undergrad at ND I was returning to my dorm one day from the student center and I stopped mid-step in astonishment to look at the library. It was painted neon-pink from the sunset. It was one of the coolest natural lighting phenomenas I've ever seen. I had one of those moments then, and after a minute of being frozen in place by awe and indecision I ran like mad to my dorm to grab my camera. Of course by the time I returned the light was gone and I wished I'd just stayed to enjoy it. Then, a few years ago, driving in downtown Cleveland I was struck by the beauty of the buildings rising out of the fog. Not that I could have taken a picture even if I'd had a camera handy, but still, it gave me that feeling. Fortunately, fog and Cleveland are pretty constant bedfellows, so I've had many opportunities for further cool shots.

And now that I've GOT a camera phone, whenever I get that feeling, it's slowly followed by the realization that I do have a camera. Often my reaction is too slow to catch the moment, but I get it far more often then I did before.

This all made me think about the next generation, the kids that are growing up in the information age. This statement makes me sound pretty old I guess, and I'm not that old, but I'm not a child of the information age. I remember not having a computer. I remember not having a cell phone, much less a camera phone. Hell, I remember having a walkman that played cassettes. My point is that although people of my generation are generally very adaptable, we're used to rapidly changing technology, we're not quite as used to it as the new generation. We adapt, but the kids change as rapidly as the technology.

Soon enough, everyone will have a camera, all the time. Unlike me, these kids won't have that half second hesitation that makes them miss the moment. I'm just curious as to how this change could affect the face of photography, of imagery, and of art.

Shakespeare Horror

I'm reading a literary satire at the moment called The Eyre Affair. I'll be writing a review whenever I get around to finishing the book, but for now I want to discuss something that's described starting on page 180.

The main character is meeting her ex-boyfriend for a night out at the theater. Here is the show they're planning to see: "No other play but Richard III had been performed here for over fifteen years, and the theater itself had no company to speak of, just backstage crew and a prompter. All the actors were pulled from an audience who had been to the play so many times they knew it back to front. Casting was usually done only half an hour before curtain-up."

So basically it's Rocky Horror Picture show... for Shakespeare. How freaking cool is that? Why don't we have something like this? I wonder how hard it would really be to produce it. Of course in our society it would actually be quite difficult because it would require a full house worth of audience that's dedicated enough to Shakespeare to memorize it, well enough to banter about it and improv. Not real likely I guess. Still it's a nice idea.

The show in the book ends with the Battle of Bosworth, with the majority of the audience participating. "...fortunately this time no one had been seriously injured during Bosworth." A pink toy horse was supplied in response to Richard's anguished cry of "My kingdom for a horse!" Really a fantastic idea, even if it's a bit far-fetched in application.

*Images are stolen and linked. You know the routine.

Sleep Deprived

So I got about an hour and a half of sleep last night.
I can't really complain, (because I know no one reading will have any sympathy) since the reason I had insomnia problems above and beyond the norm last night was because my sleep schedule is so completely screwed. In my defense, I think most people (most non-morning people that is) when not kept to a semi-regular schedule by school (my classes are mostly at night) or a job (my job has super flexible hours) will sleep in. The trouble is once you start sleeping in until eleven, if you get to bed a little later than usual (read: 4 am instead of 2) maybe the next day you get up at noon. And then of course you get sucked into finishing your book the next night and don't get to bed until 4:30 or 5, and getting up at 1pm doesn't seem all that unreasonable. Really I can't even claim that this is all fine and good during the week, because I barely wake up, the day feels hazy and dim, and after only a few hours it's night again, and I've got nothing done that I needed/intended to do. The more immediate issue is that when I've slowly fallen into a 4:00am- 1:00pm sleep schedule, and need to be a half hour early to my 9 am class, 40 minutes away on Saturday morning. Yech.

Anyway in my sleep deprived state I'm not up for much as far as intellectual activities go, so I've spent the last hour or so building cartoon robots online.

Which brings me to the main point of this whole post, which is that while searching for more cartoon robot building sites, I stumbled on an OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) talking about the science of Star Wars (Oregon and Star Wars, what more could you want?) which gives step-by-step instructions on how to build a balloon powered mini-hovercraft. Too cool. This reminds me of the activities I used to bring along with me when I was thirteen and babysitting. It looks pretty easy, but since I don't have kids I probably won't be actually building it any time soon (we have enough junk around with out adding a broken down hovercraft) but it gave me a nice moment of nostalgia, plus I think it's a pretty clever activity. Just goes to show you that Oregon rocks. OMSI by the way is a great science museum. Admittedly it's been a few (15) years since I've been inside, but in my memory it has the same feel as the Cleveland Science Center (another wonderful kid friendly Science Museum). If you ever make your way to Portland you should definitely check it out. Or for that matter if you make it to Cleveland, you should check out our version, but Portland will forever be my favorite city.

The Colors of Failure- Part II

The continuing adventures of making a black dry erase board.

I'd determined that my studio space was seriously lacking by not having a dry erase board hung somewhere. After a disheartening search of existing dry erase boards I discovered that none were cool enough: I wanted one like the kind they hand in Caribou.

After letting the third coat of magnetic primer dry, and deciding my board would never actually be able to hold magnets, I started with the blackboard paint. This was a thinner consistency than the primer, and went on in watery blue streaks that I was a bit doubtful about. I washed my paintbrush again and waited hopefully for it to dry.

Now on the can it says to use a roller to apply the paint to the future blackboard, and I'd meant to do so, but after pouring the paint I realized that I was out of roller brushes. So I ended up having to apply the paint with the same paint brush I'd used for the primer and wasn't all that surprised when it didn't dry right. It did dry black, so at least one worry was gone, but it also dried in brush-stroke groves that reminded me of a vinyl record. I debated whether to run out and get a roller for the second coat, but in the end I was too lazy, and instead I applied the second (and last) coat very very gently so as to avoid the brush groves as much as possible. After rinsing my brush and other supplies again, I waited some more.

I was happily surprised that the final coat was, I considered, smooth enough to actually use. So I waited another day as recommended for a full dry, then redrilled the holes in the corners, where the paint had closed them. I hung the board and tested it out.

#1: The staff at that particular Caribou are all liars! Ok, maybe that's a bit harsh, but they were certainly wrong about the dry erase markers being just normal dry erase markers. I initially had some difficulty finding light colored dry erase markers; since most dry erase boards are white, naturally most of the pens to write on them are dark colors. Eventually however I found a pack of four neon colors. I tried them out, and to my dismay, the colors didn't show up at all. Actually that's not entirely true, when wet you could see wet streaks, and when dry, if you leaned up close, you could see the faint transparent lines. Picture transparent neon green on a blackboard... yeah... that's helpful.

#2: The staff at Caribou are STILL liars, because not only does the ink not show up, it doesn't wipe off. So now I've got a blackboard (which presumably you can write on with chalk at least, though I didn't try it out, so who knows) with ghostly lines in transparent dry erase ink that is stuck there permanently.

I suppose I could have just used chalk, but my chair is at the same level as the black-white board so it would just have erased the marks I made when I spun it around and it hit against the board. In retrospect, I realize the same thing would have happened with the dry erase markers (had they actually worked correctly) so I can't be too upset about it really. So instead I set about decorating it in barely color.

The end result actually looks kinda neat on camera (without the flash you can barely make out the color differences) but it is fairly useless as a message board. My cats on the other hand, are finding that it makes an entertaining passage through to the back of my computer.

Otherwise, I guess I just have a new piece of non-functional art hanging in my studio. Non-functioning art that in normal light looks just like a piece of wood painted black. Ah well, we'll call it "contemporary" or "conceptual" and maybe someone will give me a show...

The Colors of Failure

If you've ever been to Caribou maybe you've noticed the black boards they have on the wall, announcing their coffee specials and daily trivia? Or maybe not, I know I mostly didn't pay any attention until one day when they took it down at the end of the evening to put up the next day's trivia question.

I'd always assumed they were writing on the chalkboard with chalk... silly me. Turns out their chalkboards also work as dry erase boards! Then I assumed that they were using special dry erase markers, but no they assured me, they were normal run of the mill dry erase pens. AND it's magnetic, which is how they stick all the coffee magnets to it. I realize I'm a bit overexcited about this, but I thought this was just the coolest thing ever, or at least the coolest thing involving dry erase markers.

Fast forward a few months, I'm sitting at my desk thinking I'd like to write myself a list... and post it... somewhere convenient. In fact I realized I need a dry erase board. So I set out to get one, but I'll admit I went in knowing I wasn't going to buy one. Because I wanted a BLACK dry erase board.

After a very quick search that revealed, as I suspected, that there were no readily available black dry erase boards for sale, I decided to make one. I started by measuring the space where I intended to hang it, and getting a piece of plywood cut to fit. After drilling holes, I put it up to make sure it fit right.

Then comes the fun part right? I went out and get some magnetic primer and blackboard paint, using the excuse that it would come in handy later when we make a puppet theater (more on this later I hope) and yes I realize that puppet theaters need not be either magnetic or blackboardy but it's called rationalization people. I put on the first coat of magnetic primer. It was rather bumpy and rough (but then it is primer) but I told myself it would work out ok when it was finished. So I washed my brush and waited for it to dry. After a half hour I was able to try it out, the results were a little bit disappointing. The magnet I tried did seem to have some attraction, but not enough to keep it from sliding off, just enough to make it seem sort of reluctant to do so. So I put on another coat. And washed my brush again. And waited for it to dry again. There really wasn't much discernible difference in the magnet's enthusiasm. I checked the label and found out that they expect you to need something like eight coats before it actually does anything, and even then it's not all that dramatic of a magnetic effect. I guess it shouldn't be all that surprising since they must do it by putting little ground up bits of iron into the paint... that can't be all that strong I suppose. So I put on another coat. And washed my brush. Again.After the last coat dried, I could just barely get the magnet to stick, so long as I held the board at a slight angle. I was sick of magnetic paint at this point and although the can claims it's enough to cover a large wall with ten coats, my can was half empty. So I decided the next day I'd start on the blackboard paint.

*Caribou image taken from flickr.

Continued tomorrow, because I'm being called away for the night...

Like a Dirty Old Man, Microsoft Wants In

Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks the One Laptop Per Child thing is pretty damn cool. Matt pointed me to this article which he found on Slashdot today. It seems Microsoft can't tolerate the prospect of all these impressionable young children growing up without being touched by Windows.

OLPC is currently in the midst of it's "Buy One, Get One" campaign, where people in the US can buy a laptop and have another donated to a child that needs it. The computer, designed for kids, currently runs Linux, chosen for it's open source coding, and because it's free.

Microsoft is on a mission, a mission funded by what Will Poole (Microsoft Corporate Vice President) calls "a nontrivial amount of money[,]" whatever that means. They're working to make Windows work on the laptop, so that children around the world don't grow up on Linux (the horror, the horror). As the article's author, Jim Finkle points out, " The laptops were designed specifically to run Linux programs. If the machines run only Linux, Microsoft will lose an opportunity to expose tens of millions of children worldwide to its Windows system." We can't have that, can we? It sounds like Microsoft isn't even pretending their intentions are altruistic, and I guess you've at least gotta give them credit for that.

Microsoft isn't the only large corporation to show interest in the OLPC. EA recently donated the original game SimCity to the program, so that every computer will ship out bundled with the game. In this case the motives do seem to be purely selfless since it seems unlikely that kids in
Rwanda will be rushing to purchase Spore anytime soon. Some bloggers have been sarcastic about the donation, siting how old the game is, but I think it's a pretty cool gesture. True, they probably weren't making a lot of money off SimCity at this point, but they gave something out of the blue when they didn't have to, and a game on city planning will certainly be an asset to kids in developing countries. Besides, it seems unlikely that the computer could have handled a newer version of the game anyway, these aren't exactly supercomputers.

It's nice to see the project getting some corporate attention, selfish or not. I think this gives it a bit more legitimacy and probably helps other people take it seriously. I love the idea of the OLPC and anything that helps it succeed is certainly a good thing.PS: I doctored the first photo of this post tremendously. This is probably unethical, and possibly illegal, but since no one actually reads my blog I'm not too worried. Bill Gates, if you're reading this, I'd be happy to take down the photo at your request, but only if you leave a comment. The original photo was stolen from Wired's blog, and isn't nearly this creepy. The other pictures link to where I got them from.

What's in Your Bag

So at some point between elementary school and adulthood (though it's debatable whether I can validly call myself an adult) I got stuck on the backpack concept.

A couple years ago my brother and Kim gave me a messenger bag as part of an attempt to wean me off the backpack. I used it for a few months, and agreed that it looked better, but the problem is I lug around so much stuff that even when I can fit it all into a messenger bag, having it on one shoulder is really not good for long term back health. They're meant to look more mature I guess, but they aren't designed to wear long term. There's a reason they're called messenger bags: you put them on when you need to deliver a message, it's ideal because you can stop when you find the person to receive the message, you don't even have to get off your bike, just unzip the pack which is in FRONT of you, give them their package, and turn right back around. Backpacks are obviously not as well designed for such short term missions, but for someone who needs their stuff hauled from here to there to anywhere for use later, it's the best solution. I stuck with the messenger bag right up until we went on a camping trip, at which point of course I switched my stuff back to the backpack. Carrying it around on my back I was reminded how much more comfortable a backpack is, and I never quite got around to switching back.

Part of the problem is all the stuff I consider a necessity. If I could find a true Mary Poppins purse I'd be fine. Though, I always thought the purse seemed oddly disorganized for the Poppins character, things strewn around inside so that it takes even Mary Poppins several minutes to find what she's looking for. With my backpack I occasionally can't find what I'm looking for, but usually I know right where everything is. I shudder to think about the bent books and broken pens that would result from throwing everything into a Mary Poppins purse.

When I explain to people why a backpack is the best thing for me, they usually roll their eyes and suggest I scale back on the things I carry (no relation to The Things They Carried, a novel about Vietnam). To defend myself, here is a list of the things I carry and the reason why I absolutely need it:

Main pocket:

Sketchpad- Well I'm supposed to be an artist, aren't I? It's kind of depressing to see how little I've used my sketchpad lately, but I know (because it's happened) that any time I decide to leave it behind that will be the moment I'm completely inspired to draw. At any rate, now that I'm doing this Drawing of the Day thing, it really does make sense to have my sketchbook in case I have a few minutes to scribble something down.

Notebook- For some reason I have a problem writing things down in my sketchbook. I'll do it in a pinch if I've got no better place to do it, but for whatever reason, it bugs me. I think it's the waste of drawing space, although I waste plenty with a single random line that I decide isn't good enough to continue, or a smudge that ruins my canvas, the idea of using my sketchpad as mere scrap paper offends me. So I carry around a notebook to jot down story ideas, composition ideas, random overheard quotes that are too wonderful not to write down, "I wonder" questions to look up the answer to later, and just about anything else that pops into my head that I want to save. At some point I'll get a phone with a decent notepad function, so this will be less necessary, but I'll probably keep carrying a notebook, kind of like a security blanket.

Book- Whatever I happen to be reading at that moment. I probably really shouldn't carry this, because whenever I'm going somewhere to work on something I tend to tell myself: just one chapter won't hurt and end up wasting an hour or so, but I'm going to carry one regardless, for the times when I'm actually justified in relaxing with a story.

Art Kit- This is actually just a glorified pen case. In addition to my microns and pencils (with one end padded to keep the tips from breaking!) it holds erasers, pencil sharpeners, a small eraser stencil template, paint brushes, dip pen ends, charcoal and conte crayons. I'm not even going to argue why I need this, because I assume it's obvious.

Other things I don't exactly need but like to have- Lately I've been taking my digital camera with me, design or craft magazines, a copy of Offbeat Bride (what? I'm getting married in a year and I'm allowed to be a little girly sometimes), a handful of Vindicators (the magazine I edit) and whatever handouts I've got from my most recent class.

Front Pocket:

Although it's smaller, my front pocket probably holds more essentials than the main pocket. Part of the problem with the messenger bag was that the side pocket wasn't nearly big enough. My actual necessities include my inhaler, an emergency pad, Dramamine, Rolaids, Benadryl, and Advil.

The rest of the side pocket isn't strictly necessary, but very good to have on hand. I have Chapstick, some Chloraseptic throat strips, Airborn, a granola bar, Kleenex, hair ties, a spare phone battery and a phone charger. I keep my headphones because having them on helps me focus, a pocket constitution because I got sick of hearing people argue "It's my constitutional right" when it's not, and a tape recorder because you never know. Sometimes I carry a pocket knife but I tend not to because I fly often and am always afraid I'll forget to take it out.

For a while I was having a real problem organizing this pocket, it all just turned into a mess of junk at the bottom and I couldn't find anything. It was worse than a Mary Poppins purse. I went out and got some kind of craft kit from Jo-Ann Fabrics that's worked beautifully. It keeps most of the small things separated by netting so I can still see what I'm looking for. For pills I picked up some twist-close bead containers and, since they were in the same aisle, put googley eyes on top. What isn't better with googley eyes?

Finally, in one side pocket I carry my Nalgene bottle and in the other I keep my computer adapter. The only thing I can't carry in my backpack is my laptop, I know they make laptop bags but I haven't seen any I particularly like. I'll get one at some point, but for now I just carry it in a slim computer case, so at least it doesn't take up much room. I actually can shove it in my bag if I have to, but it's a pain in the ass.
Anyway, that's why I use a backpack, and I defy anyone to convince me that this all could fit into a purse.

Neat

I just ran across a nifty website. It's called 43 things and the concept is extremely simple. It looks like people just log in and make a list of things they want to do. They can be daily goals, life goals, or just silly whims, and the combination is really quite entertaining. People who log on do have the opportunity to write a post on their goals, but for the most part it's a site of just lists. The best part is the site's design, I can't really describe it, so go check it out. http://www.43things.com

I found it while looking for other blogs that do a Drawing of the Day type thing. Apparently there are four people on the site who have as one of their goals, to do a drawing every day. Kinda cool. I've still yet to find another blog that's doing this with sketches. A few that used to, a few that call it a drawing a day but post almost never. I'm sure there must be others, can someone tell me if they've seen some?

Asthma Devices

For some reason I was thinking of my asthma today. I was diagnosed when I was about eight and I was struck today with the sudden memory of the thing they gave me to control it.

Adult inhalers are pretty simple, and easily recognizable. Looking back I think at eight I probably would have been fine, but my pediatrician was a bit senile in those days and couldn't keep track of what sex I was (I had short hair) much less how old I was (I was also small for my age). So he gave me the kiddie model of inhaler which was a rather silly contraption.
Please forgive my drawing, I haven't had quite the standard in industrial design training (I think they spend three hours a day practicing drawing circles) which is entirely my own fault, but there you go. The inhalers were medical blue, you know the color, and in three parts. The actual medicine came just the same as it does today, in it's disposable plastic inhaler. You would take the metal piece out and install it into the plastic mouthpiece, which installed into a spacer. (I haven't drawn the locking mechanism so you'll have to take my word for it). As best I can remember, the medicine actually went through the mouthpiece so I'm not exactly sure how it went into the spacer rather than into my mouth. I think there was a grey rubber thing inside with an "x" cut through it so the air inside would only come when the child using it sucked on the mouth piece. The spacer itself was sort of a cross between a balloon and a trash can. It spiraled together to collapse on itself, then unwound into a blue cylinder. It made a noise that my friends claimed sounded like Darth Vader, but didn't really. It was a surprisingly loud plastic sound though.

There were all sorts of design faults with this model. The main one was that the collapsible plastic was fairly thin so when a kid carried it around, treating it as carefully as kids will, it tended to get ripped apart pretty quickly. The newer models are quite a lot better, they have rigid plastic instead which can't be broken as easily. It still works in much the same way, only now you stick the full adult inhaler into one end and suck through the other. I'm pretty sure it uses the same rubber "x" to keep the air separate. Other models which I think are pretty clever, go over the child's nose and mouth. This is a much better design, because honestly the timing probably is less of an issue than the fact that it's hard for a kid to understand the difference between inhaling through one's mouth and inhaling through the nose. I think this design is intended only for very small children.

This brings me to my main point, which is that I really never ought to have been on a spacer. Most kids over five are capable of learning the timing of a normal inhaler with a little work on their parents part and having the spacer is inconvenient and unnecessary. In my case it also made me assume that I was for some reason incapable of using a normal inhaler, so that I stuck with the stupid spacer until I was fifteen or so, long after they'd stopped producing the blue folding garbage cans. I've never had very severe asthma, I've never been hospitalized and I can count on both hands the number of "attacks" I've had. Nevertheless, asthma has affected me. When I try to think why, one of the main memories I have is of that stupid large pack of crap to carry with me everywhere.

*Although I was never great at team sports, partially because of my asthma and partially because of my size, I continued doggedly with them because I enjoyed them. I remember when I was about twelve I had to stop in the middle of a basketball play because I couldn't breathe at all, but that was probably my first real attack in years. By the time I was a teenager I actually had "normal" lung strength, which my doctors always seemed to find surprising in an asthmatic. My first non-pediatrician doctor told me that if it weren't for situational symptoms, he wouldn't be able to even tell I had asthma. This made me absurdly proud, as though it were somehow my own doing, but I still carried around the niggling thought at the back of my mind that I was somehow disabled. Looking back I think this had less to do with the asthma itself and more to do with that damned spacer.

*Basketball picture from flickr. Children with inhalers from here and here.

$100 Laptop (for just $190)

Joke's aside, two hundred dollars isn't all that bad. About five years ago a group of participants in MIT's Media Laboratory (led by founder Nicholas Negroponte) came up with the concept which would become a non-profit organization called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). Their goal was to provide children from third world countries with a laptop specially designed for child development and education. The theory was that the computers would be cheap and durable, and would be able to provide the primary education to children who have none available. They aimed to produce each laptop for $100 (According to OLPC's Chief Technology Officer Mary Jepsen this is the average textbook budget for developing worlds) and the project became known simply as the $100 laptop.It's a pretty cool idea. In pictures I've seen the computer is bright green and white, looks very kid friendly. The display swivels, making it a convertible tablet. It is also kid sized, with a slightly smaller keyboard, display, and I would presume, weight. It's obviously meant to be lugged around and occasionally dropped. They've used open-source software (software that can be, and is allowed to be, modified with published source code) so that, as the children learn to use the computer they can rebuild it. "Children program the machine, not the other way around[,]" is one of the more common statements quoted by the program, and is included in their Software statement online.

They actually created their own interface called "SUGAR" which is far more graphical than the GUIs (Graphical User Interface) we've gotten used to in Macs and PCs. They've provided a demo, here. The computers can be wirelessly networked, and are intended to be used for collaboration among fellow students and teachers. This is a design that is all about cooperative learning, and kid fueled study.

Today they finally started production, with their first set retailing at $188 a piece. Their first order is from Uruguay for 100,000 laptops. According to their website, as of November 3rd Ethiopia had recommitted to an order of 50,000 (though they've not yet ordered) and many other countries are interested, though not yet willing to commit. If they get enough orders Negroponte believes that the $100 would still be obtainable.

The very things that make this an ideal design for kids in developing countries would make it a wonderful first computer for a kid who wants to play with Dad's laptop. It's cheap, durable and intended for learning. As of November 12th, people who are a bit better off can buy a laptop at twice cost to donate a laptop to the children who couldn't otherwise afford it. At $376, that's still solidly below the cost of a "real" laptop and what an amazing opportunity for your kid, to have such an innovative toy to play with. It's certainly a better investment than an ipod. By the way, if anyone's looking to get me a $400 Christmas gift, Matt and I want to play with one too.

More from Ikea

Everything we bought from Ikea this Saturday is now in use. Except for the puppets, but more on that later (I promise. And sooner or later I'll get around to posting about Dragon mating as well). For now I'd like to talk about putting together our new furniture.Ikea has a diabolical business model, unlike stores like target and home depot that make their money by setting up in every city with more than two cows, Ikea's appeal is that it a little ways away. Ikea is right now building a store in West Chester, OH but that's nearly four hours from Cleveland. The closest stores are the one in Pittsburgh (2 hours, 20 minutes), where we went, and a store in Canton, Michigan (2 hours, 40 minutes). Ikea will never build a store in Cleveland (unless they change their business model) because we have three stores that are an easy day trip away. They want us to make the day trip. It could be argued (and has been on unrelated topics) that I'm just a paranoid freak, but the fact that many of their products are not available either online or by mail-order supports the idea that it's a conscious global design plan on Ikea's part.

The reason they do this is that they have a unique enough group of items that they know people will recognize the Ikea "brand" (without the necessity of a label), this makes their furniture more desirable than say Target's upscale furniture (which I have to admit, I do like) or other more generic designs. This means when you drive three hours to the nearest store, you're more likely to make impulse buys because, hey, who knows when you'll be back? Everything about their floor plan encourages those impulse buys. Before you get to the large rooms dedicated to JUST beds or chairs or kitchen gadgets, you're assaulted with teaser looks at nifty furniture in the room displays: "find this lamp in the lighting section!" Smaller items such as bathmats and wooden hangers are packaged haphazardly around with giant yellow bags close at hand.

Matt and I had several things we intended to pick up and we stuck to the plan pretty closely (except for the puppets). We've been wanting bedside tables and Ikea carries tables made of, wait for it... ACTUAL WOOD at a comparable price to the shitty particle board ones you might find most places. We got two of those and a bench for the entry way. We looked at bedside lamps but didn't see any we liked enough to impulse, and we decided we ought to wait since we weren't really sure how high the tables would be once assembled. We'd also been looking for a dish-drying rack for our dishwasher-dangerous items such as wooden handled knives and a rack to hold up the cutting boards, which tend to slide down the wall without proper supervision.

In the kitchen section we found the drying rack and cutting board rack (which is technically a dish rack, but I can't see the practical use of a rack that holds only four dishes, taking up as much horizontal space as the dishes would, and more vertical space than dishes stacked) without any trouble. I was sort of childishly delighted at how solid the cutting board rack was, putting it together made a sound like a toddler playing with building blocks. The drying rack probably wouldn't be that exciting to any normal human being, but it turned out to be the perfect size to hang over the sink, and doesn't take up any of the highly coveted counter space (or stove burner space, which is where I usually rest the drying knives and spoons. For some reason I think that since it's on fire most of the time it must be more sanitary).

The solid wood construction of the end tables made me giddy in much the same way as the cutting board rack (only more so). We entirely failed to match the stain with any of the furniture in our bedroom, but we don't really mind. We're both much happier to have a place for mid-night glasses of water, kleenex and I'm happy to have a place for a journal, notebook and my vitamins. The wood actually doesn't look too bad with the red comforter on, but the green quilt brings out the yellow and really makes it stick out. One of the coolest things, which we noticed as an afterthought, was that the back bottom corner is taken out so that the table can sit right flush to the wall. Smart design.

The bench in the hallway worked out even better than we expected: Matt was able to move some of his shoes from the bedroom closet because the shelf is wider than we thought. Ikea actually intended the bench to be for the bathroom (it's cedar, or a wood that's meant to look like cedar) and the red tone of the wood is a beautiful contrast to the green walls.

All in all it was a successful trip. We didn't spend too terribly much money, we didn't pick up anything that we didn't plan to (except for the puppets) and everything's built now, and helping us get crap off our floor and put AWAY where it belongs.