carbon based design technologies

one night, there was a gnarly electrical storm over the anapolis / dc region that we could watch. never lived on the east coast before, but the summer storms and their electrical tendencies just blew me away. (the clouds are blurry due to the long exposure)

there is a garage on the property that, at least for the past few years, has mostly been used as housing by rats, a pee-spot by passing drunks, and occasionally to store things by various neighbors. our landlord insists it can be “rented out as a studio” – only, its still just a rat infested, pee-stained empty ex-garage with two garage doors that long ago stopped opening.

ANYways, someone with vision can see that a useable space COULD be coerced out of this particularly stinky space… once all its un-intentional entrances are sealed (including the leaky part of the roof, around the seems of the old garage doors, and anywhere else really), a floor of some sort is laid down, walls put up… in fact, basically the whole place needs to be sealed, then framed up from floor to ceiling, then ply dropped for the floor, ply or sheetrock / drywall the walls and similar for the ceiling. oh and thats after electrical, which currently appears to be two lights bulbs, only one of which works.

you can see there is a drop right as you walk in the door – well, that and a leak – that would allow us to drop in 2×6 floor joists and still not have to step up. however, there may be some problems with that…

i can just touch that 2×6 which means that its at 7’6″ up, meaning the ROOF is at 8′.

you can really tell with this photo and the following two how raked the roof is, so if we were to – as initially intended – drop a level floor, which is not a lofty goal, the height of the room towards the garage door side would be like maybe a foot shorter. combine that with closing up the ceiling (which would feel like your losing another 6 inches) and youve got a 6 ft tall room (at one end).

basically, i need to go back in there, and take some *ahem* more precise measurements.

Canton Hair Studio came to us for some over all brand action, and some awesome CNC’ed lettering out front. Originally, i had given them a complete outfit of nothing-but-Arial (to fly in the face of all those ‘only Helvetica’ devotee’s) but they had me change the nothing-but-Arial to nothing-but-Century Gothic. At least they didnt go serif. Production note: because i used negative like 1million kerning, some of the letters had to be made as one object (namely, NT and STU).

fort mchenry, baltimore; the origin of the national drinking song (star spangled banner) and a wonderful ride across the city.

so, a friendly associate at Velocipede – baltimore’s bike co-op and kitchen – wants to make a grassroots bicycling manual to help baltimoreans feel more confident about cycling charm city. he’s looking for as many inputs and opinions possible, so if you want to help out (even if you dont live in baltimore, generally, the ideas are the same) email steve at editor at let-off dot com. heres what i wrote;

1) if there was one way you could best improve the safety of all bicyclists in this town (while still having automobiles on the road), and cost was no object, what would it be?

establish a system where bicycles are logically the best solution; eliminate suburbia (the bain of sustainable development, and bastard child of the automobile, dependent as all hell on the car), condense existing urban areas to eliminate the physical disparity between work and home that, in turn, promotes (and in some cases, necessitates) car use, without creating anomie – the degredation of societal norms that are cause to – and promoted by – ghettos. if an urban area is dense enough, parking becomes an issue, underground public transit becomes the primarily viable solution, relegating the bicycle to be the cheapest and yet most direct transit solution available. cars are not eliminated (nor should they be – stores still need stock delivered; drunk people need taxi’s), but their importance is greatly reduced, so the opportunity cost of a car is negated. the more reasons to ride a bike, the more bicyclists, the more expected a cyclist is on the road, the safer it is.

2) what are the top three tools you can recommend to a bicyclist who wants to do most of their repairs themselves?

a) the 3 dollar multitool. handles all your allen key needs, and comes with a phillips and flathead for that odd job. absolutely essential.
b) 15 mm box-wrench – for axle nuts.
c) tire repair kit.

with those three, you should be able to handle 90% of what the road throws at you.

3) Judging from the topography of baltimore and the nature of its roads, what do you look for in a bike when you plan to ride around the city?

fat tires; minimal amount of things that can be easily removed.

4) What do you do differently when you have to ride in inclement weather?

wear a poncho.

5) What bike shops do you visit frequently? Why do you choose to go there instead of other places?

velocipede bicycle workshop, and BBW (Baltimore Bike Works). both are >10 minute ride, and run by well-intentioned folk.

6) Why do you choose to ride?

many reasons, and different situations. sometimes its simply to get to work quicker than public transit. sometimes its the only way of getting from one place to another. sometimes its the only way of getting to a certain location (im thinking into parks, up mountains, etc). sometimes its a totally awesome way to get exercise (and sometimes its not). sometimes its to be on a tv show. sometimes its to show solidarity. sometimes its the least impacting option for transportation. its good for racing. good for playing polo. good for cruising to the movie shop. good for meeting people at the pub. good for personal entertainment and fulfillment; ie, the gratification for maintaining ones own ride. and besides, chicks dig it.

oh yeah, forgot to mention im no longer in London.

so, im no longer in London. currently, im a temporary resident of Baltimore, Maryland, United States, North America. oddly, it would seem that during the week, its either rainy, gray or both, and during the weekend its sunny as hell. whoever is in charge of weather over here is not only doing a WAY better job than london, but deserves extra points for timing and stuff.

so, since the continental shift in post code (or zip code, as them yanks like to say) im similarly rebuilding the website. i could just take down the site, but a “in progress” thing up and, like, never really do anything, but instead i decided to jump in and do it the organic, dynamic way. so, like gmail (only not as good), ever so often a little thing will change. a format here, a link there, a page will disappear and reappear as something else entirely.

on the burner:
- all sorts of projects that never got mentioned will get mentioned;
- updates to mentioned projects;
- new projects will get mentioned
- and non-project things that deserve to get mentioned, yeah, they’ll get mentioned too…

enjoy!