The Prince Of Swords

Here is some detail of the travertine backsplash in the master bath. Dual custom vanities will be seperated by a gentleman’s chest all in a black finish placed in front of the 4′ x 10′ mirror. The vanities will be topped with hand poured concrete basins with Kohler Purist faucets to match the shower. The back of the vanities will be left open so when the doors are opened you can see the marble and the tile work around the faucet fittings and electrical outlets. Lights under the vanities will also glow through the vanity doors which will be fitted with frosted glass or lucite inserts as a night light.

I have an HP Pavillion zv5000 laptop so I can design anywhere which is very cool. After my brother got the sound buttons on the dock working under Debian I noticed he got visual feedback on his screen. Mmm…feedback good. Me want on WinXP! Turns out you can download the Microsoft Internet Keyboard drivers. I downloaded the driver (Internet Keyboard - WinXP - English) and selected the Media Pro Keyboard to install.

Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Hardware - Download Software

His feedback was simply blocky text of “Volume Up” at the center bottom of his screen. My feedback under XP is a widget in the lower right that has a VU meter style interface that turns the LEDs red when you mute and back to green when you’re jamming. The LEDs also indicate the volume level and show the changes you make with the Volume Up and Down on the docking station.

Rock out!

Welcome to Kaboom! Random thoughts I’m going to blog as a record of where my mind was or as a reminder to come back to something or just topics to seriously jeopaordize my chances of being elected to office.

I don’t think women are the weaker gender and I’m not just saying that as a sensitive pony tail guy nor to get in your pants. I think women are more sensitive to everything in every way; skin, image, emotions, diet, fashion, right/wrong, temperature, quality, atmosphere, movement… We (men) spend our lives building tolerances to cope with pain, stress, loss, and all else that threatens our ability to not cry. I’m not sure how much of it is by choice, by socialization, or purely evolution. Showing strength to our world or competition has its place but it is difficult to not bring that “strong” posture home with us. These tolerances quickly become obstacles between a couple as they struggle to decode each others’ words and actions when language or the individual fails to express the motivation.

I do suspect that our gender roles have been designed by evolution more than we’d like to admit. From a strictly survival perspective, building tolerance to pain has its advantages in dealing with a harsh world, whether it be climate or hunting or war. Is there a similar pattern for women? I know I find it almost impossible to turn away a crying woman. Is this an evolutionary defense strategy and not a softness in my heart? Are there other examples I’m not aware of?

Sexist? Too pop psychology? I’m just getting it out of my head since I’m bored talking myself.

Where did this random thread come from? From an even more random thread that crosses my mind from time to time, of course! Late last year I was struggling with the weaknesses of big design up front strategies for project management. As a very inside joke I started telling friends that this was the year I was falling in love, like you can put a deadline on that. I mean deadline. I’m not going to argue about how the subconscious will respond to such a task bringing me secretly from myself to a state of more openess to being in love which will therefore clue in others who may then respond in kind, greatly increasing the chances of it actually happening this year.

I did enjoy watching the challenge as people’s mental Rolodexes spun as they tried to match me to any of the single women they knew. They all paused and said they would get back to me as they spun their Rolodexes again for people they knew who possible might have more single women friends. It is a tougher challenge than you’d expect. My tastes shift with my mood and age, I have a very hard time accepting good enough, and many of my friends don’t know me that well so their chances were slim before the even started to play the game.

Something else random that just hit me, how uncomfortable is it really to wear a g-string? I’ve heard complaints and wonder if it is more of a play for attention and appreciation for their efforts to look sexy in something they deem ridiculous or the stigma that g-strings are the telltale sign of a whore or if it is really uncomfortable?

What do you get when you stay in a hotel room, remove a picture from the wall, create some art, and then put the picture back?

swt

I’ve some Sharpies and some frequent flyer miles to burn. TSIC.

I came here to check out the Space Invaders inspired gadgets…

::: LUKA :::

…but the interface design deserved being blogged. Remember concentration? That’s their nav in flash. It is disconcerting and not good for the user, but novel.

My new business cards…

My brother sent this to me a while ago. Have no idea where he found it. You think he’s trying to tell me something?

I stand firm on my belief that sometimes it is appropriate to rock out with your cock out irrespective of your audience.

We’ve won! The 30-something middle managers have finally created the perpetual three day weekend! Now everyone can go out Thursday, go to dinner, get drinks, stay out late, and not it not make a damn bit of difference slogging through Firday hungover at the office since no one really gets anything done on Friday anymore anyways. How full is your company’s parking lot at 2pm Friday? Power to the knowledge economy!

One of those Thursday nights, we, a clique of those thirty-something middle managers in various industries, sat at the oak bar, waiting for a table, at this for what most people would be a very nice restuarant, but would be slumming for real captains of industry. Very nice usually just means expensive and you feel more elite sipping a $15 martini even though most people don’t actually enjoy the bitter, throating burning swill of a top-shelf martini which only became popular by generations of those working harder, not smarter, who needed anything remotely palatable that would get their heads swimming as soon as possible to wash away the stress of a endlessly repeating work day. Handed down as tradition, young professionals idolize such cocktails as a sign of maturing, acquiring taste, or attaining some social level when the mixes are simply a testement of our ability as human to acclimate to swallowing bitter medicine, whether that turns out to represent a drink or a life. I often wonder if those who sip Dom or Krystal can tell the difference between it and anything else? How much is the flavor versus image?

Although they are older now, they act barely more mature than when they were in college, just have bigger bank accounts and tasted a little better life. They still struggle to find out what their real preferences are, picking up hobbies like hunting or pilates or mountain biking, for months at a time but never really making any of it part of their lives. Listening to them is of most interest, hearing the sales pitch in their stories where it is confusing whether they are appealing to you or themselves. Tom got married first, then Eric. Robert is engaged and I am stll single. I don’t think they see the waves they’ve gone through, thinking their situation is uniquely their own. Tom wanted to get together for some news which after a few Old Fashioneds, he warmed up to tell us now instead of waiting for us to be at the table. At first glance he is thrilled and proud, but between the tiny cracks in his voice as he forms the words you know he is terrified.

“I am going to be a father!”, Tom beams.

For those with wives and fiances, the hollow congradulations spring up as glasses are raised. But the fear hidden in his voice is contagious as the idea of them becoming fathers creeps in unlocking all those buried thoughts about whether it is a girl or boy, how do you raise a child, how do I prevent the mistakes my parents made with me, how will my life change, how will my wife change. Being single is great defense for such deep rooted issues.

Jen returned to take us to our table just in time to keep anyone from thinking too long.

“Please follow me,” Jen offered.

I can’t help but follow a beautiful woman at her request, the draft of her confident walk brought me the scent of her perfume, a blend of vanilla, cinammon and some unidentifiable sweet, tangy flower, which I can’t name but recognize as one that is a little more expensive than I’d expect on a hostess even at a nice place. Like the three little black dresses she bought for this job, the perfume cost more than she wanted to spend but knew they were critical to her being successful so she could move up. Back home in that small town in the dusty plains of Texas, she’d spent those hot summers during high school bagging burgers at the first fast food chain to come to town. That helped her get the courage to want to pack her bags and leave that place. That meant doing well in school after generally wasting her freshman and sophomore years but leaning life’s harsh lessons she’d thought her mother had gone through. Learning about boys and Marlboro Reds and Jack Daniel’s at once, all those weekend nights while her mom served drinks at the local honky tonk looking for her replacement cowboy, and a new daddy to help pays the bills. Scary, nervous, dirty, sweaty nights…

I dropped by Lowe’s to pickup the shower faucet today and am very happy with my choice. The Kohler Purist line is very clean and well built. I have a fetish for substantial things, solid, heavy, strong and this faucet line fits perfectly. Now that I have this faucet in hand, I know I will be going with the single line handle style on the sinks. The shower has a bath spout to make washing dogs easier. The bath down spout comes in two versions. One version has a 90 degree downturn on the nose, the other only 35. I went with the 35 degree nose to mirror the spout the shower head is attached to and though the effect is not very noticeable to someone walking by, I know it is a purposeful design decision.

Here’s the faucet pr0n!

I don’t ever remember being aware of the width of seperation between mind and body since they are so strongly linked. That gap has been made clear over the last three years as I have battled with a fatigue only driven by my mind where resting has no regenerative powers. (I will tell you the real story, if you ask.) Having given up on doctors and medicine to help me out, a new path quickly appeared that I have been following since last September. Now I feel the stength returning in a way where I realized that I’ve never really noticed getting stronger before. I don’t workout. I don’t consciously practice anything. I think a lot which probably counts for something.

A side effect is I now find myself pushing myself to see how strong I am which lately has shown up as going out and drinking as hard I did in college to see how long it takes to recover. So far the experimental data shows that while my bar tabs have only increased 50%, hangover recovery has gone from 3 days to six hours, a 1200% improvement. Just be warned that when I’m out, I’m probably carrying out this little experiment in my head.

In the next few months, I expect to be back to full rock star capability and return from the sabatical I’ve been on that has caused many friends to wonder where I went.

As I watched the northern wall of my master bedroom be taken apart like a Lego project plan in reverse, I am amazed to see a vision solidifying. It has been a while since I’ve turned my design eye to physical objects. A door and three windows are now laying in a scrap pile next to a new gate in the backyard fence to be hauled off Monday. In their place is a set of double french doors flanked by 36″ sidelights that has created the effect of putting the room at the steps of the pool. It takes a little imagination to see the smooth mix because of the cheap beige carpet the previous owners slapped in the house with a coat of paint hoping to sell it sooner, but once the travertine is in you’ll see the blend of textured marble across the limestone patio into the water. With new twelve foot span of glass, leaving the light on in the pool or some moonlight with a little wind will bounce the reflections of waves across the bedroom ceiling, a perfect nightlight.

Lowe’s called today and my special order shower faucet is ready to be picked up. They weren’t that special I just have the uncanny ability to pick things that are not what most people would choose. Most faucets are chrome or that faked antique brassy finish. I used to be very into gloss black and chrome, but my tastes have aged and subtled down into matte off-black and brushed stainless, but the black is now an accent not the base. As I imagined where I would always want to be to set the tone for the bedroom design, I found myself on the beach at a five star resort, and sand becomes the background color in stucco textured walls and the flooring, a timeless rhythm of the moon pulling waves across rocks. Back to the faucets, the accents to the walls and floor I want to be modern so there are layers of new, shiny built on ancient foundation. I went with the Purist line from Kohler in brushed chrome which no one stocks. (Most people must have no sense of style, or no commitment to it and just settle.) The lines are very clean and on the sink faucets the controls have a nice taper that blends into the countertops, which we are going to build molds for stained concrete so the sink and surface are one piece. On the sink faucets, I am still deliberating on whether to go with the single line handles or the “plus” shaped ones to match the two t’s in my name. Choices. Preferences. Decisions. So many new calls on things I’ve never had to think about. That is why I am enjoying this so much. Design you can live in.