Homemade Modern

Everytime I come across Todd Oldham, I'm impressed with his creativity, his vision and aesthetic. Somehow I just just stumbled across a series of his from HGTV that I had completely missed, Homemade Modern on HGTV. There are a few videos of Todd making side tables and ottomans and wall art with some very special celebrities like Amy Sedaris, Joan Jett, and Jeffrey Tambor, respectively. Check them out here!

It's just a shame that Top Design was cancelled.

OS X Chess

I've been playing a lot of chess lately. The "Crazyhouse" chess game in OS X is great...chess with the element of surprise. Basically, as you take you opponent's piece, it goes into a holding area where you can then put it back into play--for your team! It's a cool concept, it's just too bad that the Chess application is still buggy even in 10.4.11. For example, make a bad move and hit undo (Take Move Back), the computer will continue to move. I've had the computer put invisible pieces into play numerous times and have lost to these invisible piece several time. Fair? I think not!

Have you experienced these same bugs?

A year ago, I was looking for a new watch. My Seiko 5 automatic was a great watch, but I'd decided that automatic watches were impractical. After weekends sans watches, I'd have a wound down, unreliable watch on Monday mornings and the day/date feature was always wrong on the 1st. I knew that I wanted to replace it with another classy watch that had perpertual calendar and that did not run on a self-winding mechanism ("automatic"). Moreover, I had dropped the Seiko and a replacement crystal was going to cost $50. I figured that I could find a replacement for a little bit more and be more pleased with the replacement. After, I had 3 good years of use from the Seiko given to me in college.

I began scouring the internet looking at very expensive watches like Rolex, Piaget, Cartier, Montblanc, Omega, Oris, Hamilton, as well as some low end watches like Timex. I pursued the high end watch market mostly hoping to admire the design. In general, I found most of the high end watches unattractice and few met my criteria. An automatic watch with a perpetual calendar would cost the same price as a new car and I was in way ready to make the plunge More than that, it's interesting to note that although pricier, automatic watches are less accurate than quartz (battery-operated) watches such as Timex and especially digital watches like Casio.

I had resolved (without much thought or strong conviction) to only wear a Timex, Citizen or Seiko watch mostly because my parents wore these brands. I was soon on my way to looking at the Citizen Eco Drive line and, in particular, the 8700, part of their Calibre line. Just a notch below their 9000 line which are handmade in a sterile environments like Swiss watches (or computer components), it has a handsome face, a leather band with a butterfly clasp and perpetual calendar with day and date. In addition, it's powered by solar power--natural and artificial light keep the watch charged, so their is not need to wear it daily or keep it on a winder. It also features a travel time zone and an alarm (which I set to chime at noon).

A year later, I can still say this is the best watch I have ever owned. The quality is very high and it continues to wear well and keep good time. It's a powerful watch that looks great with a suit or jeans and thanks to eBay, it was only $100--much less than the retail! I do miss the thermometer/worldtime Casio I had in 3rd grade, but this Citizen reminds me that time is precious, that I am now and adult and it reminds me of my father.