Actually - no

So, it seems like blogger really is on the decline and people don’t write long entries anymore as I find it hard to find a mobile app for editing. So, will probably not post here again but instead keep it in a separate personal journal. Not that anyone is keeping up with this, but in case you are curious, here’s how Mr. nubbin’s last few days were like: 12/14: Mr. Nubbins got to explore more of his new home today. That was of course not before he woke his parents up at 2am for potty and they got all dressed up thinking it was 6am. Teehee. He also discovered in the morning that there is a back patio and there are some cold things they call snow out there. He didn’t like getting his paws wet but they wouldn’t let him in until he peed, so he peed a little. Daddy stayed home but mommy left for work in the morning after the patio visit. Grandma came by and brought him some treats. He had such a good time chewing the rawhide bone that he had to be distrsted by an extra serving of dry dog food. They took it away just when he cracked it - shucks! Daddy tried to get him outside a few times but it was cold and dark and so he just sat in front of the building until he gave up. Grandma tried to get him to walk outside the apartment door and he ended up getting so comfortable there that he pooped on the landing. When daddy was gone, Mr. Nubbins went to town and peed in lots of places around the house, especially around the tree and that other room that no one goes to. Mommy and daddy came home late and introduced him to his crate. It had the same bed and he was again so tired that he fell asleep in it. Daddy laid on bed exhausted and mommy said she has two “pooped” pups. 12/15: Mr. Nubbins woke up earlier today because he slept at 10 instead of midnight. He is starting to think of the back patio as his personal outdoor bathroom and daddy as his attendant, but he still likes to make his mark around the rest of the house. Daddy left for work today and so did mommy, although she came back in the afternoon. Grandpa watched him all morning. Once he made such a mess with his pee that grandpa had to use a floor spongemop multiple times to get it up. Even the pee pad wasn’t enough to keep it in. Grandpa cooked water and the whistle scared him. Other than that the morning was not very eventful as he just napped. When mom came back, she played with him and introduced him to the rawhide donut. He liked it lots and loved nipping at her arms and hands. He learned quickly when she tried to teach him the sit command although he initially thought sitting automatically resulted in treats. Seems like he has to wait for the command first though. Mommy tried to take him out for a walk and he did a block after much coaxing. There was this lady with cheerful voice who ran in front of him and clapped and so he ran toward her. Later mommy did the same thing and somehow before he knew it he made it home again. Of course, mommy rubbing his paws and hugging him to encourage him helped a lot. It’s not always about treats, you know. Still, he was nervous so he didn’t go until he got back home. Before getting home, they visited the pet store again and Ollie was no more friendly then he was last night. He was probably jealous that Nubbins got all the attention and could walk all around town. Mom said she was the pooped one that night, after wiping and cleaning out pee pool after pee pool. She is not the bathroom attendant after all. No wonder she couldn’t get it right. Mr. Nubbins managed to bite through the donut today so it was taken away too. 12/16: Today was the most exciting day Mr. Nubbins had so far. He needed relief at 4am and left his crate to find daddy, who took him out for a quickie in the patio, followed by the expected treats. He then had a full breakfast followed by a walk outside to the post office with both parents. He met lots of dogs but the salt still bothered him. He did manage to mark his territory in front of the post office, but it was a small drizzle. Dad left for UPS and mommy took him home, but not before taking him to the pet store to get him some booties that he absolutely hates. He knows it’s not just him. The neighbor’s dog upstairs said the same thing. He met 3 labs at the pet store - all girls. They might be older than him, but he was an alpha dog and a ladies dog so he enjoyed the visit quite a bit and sniffed quite a few butts. He did discover he had a preference for blondes. When daddy came back they all played a little. Mommy seemed tired and shut down while daddy played fetch with him. He didn’t like giving up the ball after fetching though - he would rather chew on it. Afternoon was quiet and then he was taught “sit” again. Now both mommy and daddy can order him around. He tis sliced quickly that they started locking the door on the crate but so far whenever he need to pee, he just had to raise his voice a little. He had new types of treats today and a plasticky bone that wasn’t nearly as yummy as the rawhide one. Mommy and daddy took him on a different longer walk at night. They tried to put booties on him and got into a fight with each other when he wouldn’t put it on. Eventually they left the house without it. Yay! They also didn’t make him wear a coat again. It wasn’t cold, snow and salt had melted together, and once he figured out the scary cars weren’t really scary, he was fine walking. They took him to this huge park where he got to smell so many dogs and dirt. He even met this ballerina poodle that was trying to show off pirouettes, but daddy called her a show-off. He managed to both pee and poop. After an hour, they came back home and he was tired so he napped again. Dad said he is a mix between a border collie and a lab. Right before bed, daddy and mommy did a four hand belly scratch/rub that is highly satisfying. He would recommend it greatly. 12/17: Can’t believe it is just day 4, but Mr. Nubbins made a lot of breakthroughs today. While he woke us up at 4 to go to the bathroom, he continued sleeping until 7, giving mommy and daddy enough time to recoup. There is a better schedule now - wake up, pee in patio, eat breakfast and go outside for a walk. Mr. Nubbins was a little wary of going outside so early at first but then the neighbor’s dog walked out and Mr. Nubbins wasn’t about to be shown up by a dog smaller than him so he also went out. It wasn’t snowing outside so aside from some paw wax, he didn’t have to put on a coat or any booties. He walked happily almost all the way to the park, and was successful in doing both number 1 and 2 outside today. What an accomplishment. At the park, he ran into an aggressive 5 month old puppy that tried to bully him, but he didn’t seem too riled up. He also saw some pigeons and just knew in his heart that it was his right to chase them into flight. He even managed to cross a few streets despite noisy bug cars bearing down on them. Mr. Nubbins takes after daddy in that way - he always looks both sides and again before crossing. Mommy would yell “go go go” and he would run across the streets when safe. On the way back, mommy and daddy tried to encourage him to run up the big staircase on his own, but it was so scary he could only manage a few steps. Mr. Nubbins also discovered today that his parents also ate. He didn’t like it much when they were eating and he was given the hard rubbery bone instead but he’s a good puppy so he will bear with it. Mr. Nubbins also went out to get lunch with mommy and daddy today and it wasn’t as nice of a walk as the one to the park. Somehow though he made it back home and was so happy to be home he actually made it up all the stairs to get to the apartment. He was so excited though, that he couldn’t help but chew his bed. He got some stuffing out but then mommy confiscated it and sewed it back up. His bed is now blue since the sewn up side is now facing down.

Mr. Nubbin’s Adventures - Day 1

It’s been many years since I last blogged but I have started it again now that Jeff and I have adopted a puppy together.  I will try to get back to posting art and design related posts but will primarily do ones about Mr. Nubbins going forward.

Here goes - Day 1:

Mr. Nubbins had the adventure of a lifetime. He got many new things - collar, home, toys, parents.  He rode in a carrier too small for him, puked while the car lunged in evening rush hour traffic from NYC to Jersey City, and visited a pet store to pick out his bed while being yelled at by corgi named Ollie.  He was prompted wiped down in the tub and because he was so exhausted, he quickly adjusted to his new bed area under the vanity table in mommy and daddy’s bedroom. What a day. He slept almost right through the night even though mommy ordered the wrong sized wet food can and left him hungry after dinner. His favorite toy today was the green Dino.

Aren’t I a cutie

Second Chances

Second chances. It's the name of a nonprofit that sends clothing to organizations servicing the poor, the title of a movie from more than 10  years back about overcoming tragedy, and more often than not, something people do in relationships against their better judgements.

As a Christian, I believe in second chances, and third, and fourth, and fifth chances...in all aspects of life.  It stems from knowing I am imperfect, but that God is still pursuing me. So how can I not believe things can change?

I started this post thinking I was writing about restarting a blog that I haven't touched in 4 years, but it is much more than that.  I feel like I am finally waking up from years of emotional and intellectual coma.  A lot has happened in 4 years.  Since my last post I have changed jobs, moved cities, and parted ways from my ex-boyfriend.  In fact, those three things all happened within a few months of each other.  Talk about change!

What followed was a rather long mourning period, as I learned what it means to be sad, the kind of sad that doesn't disappear when someone cracks a joke or when something good happens.  And that sadness slowly morphed into a type of listlessness.  Even self-imposed goals to do well at my new job and learn something new (first guitar, then swimming) did little to inspire me.  I suddenly did not have an answer for what made me happy or what I loved or who I was.

But second chances do happen.  I feel energized and curious again, about life, about God, about my potential to give something back to society, and about finding someone after my heart.  I am starting to ask myself who I want to be, not just trying to figure out who I am.

I have my family to thank for sticking with me, and God to thank for giving  me a second chance.

Enough about me, here are some "second chances" I hope you will enjoy:

People of the Second Chance - A site dedicated to people sharing stories about second chances.

The Art of Recology - I was recently in the SFO airport and passed by a beautiful collection of works by artists who turn objects scavenged from the Public Disposal and Recycling Area into pieces that delight, inspire, and call to action.

Robohands - The inspiring story of two guys located on two different continents coming together to give children with fingers the gift of being able to pick things up without spending a fortune on traditional prosthesis.  The "hands" they design can be printed on 3D printers and re-printed as children grow.

Cyrus Kabiru - the Kenyan artist who gave found objects a second chance as eyewear.

Lastly, some fun 'recycled' products:

Recycled Chair as Hangers, image from inhabitat.com

Talc powder containers as USB drivers, image from dnacreative.org

 

Oven-turned-fold-out chair, image from davison.com

Wine bottles for lamps, image from designrulz.com

CD's as CD holders, image from insidethemindofnicole.blogspot.com

A Catch of Collective Nouns

Ever heard of a group of crows being referred to as a "murder of crows" or a bunch of bananas referred to as a "hand of bananas"?

Nope, me neither, until I looked more closely at a catch of collective nouns in English called terms of venery.

Terms of venery, a subset of collective nouns that are object specific, were originally used by hunters to distinguish themselves from the more common folks. Although initially only a few of the words were intended describe groups (the others described characteristics), history is like a game of telephone and now all of the terms are regarded as collective nouns. In this day and age, writers have taken up the torch to invent more terms of venery, often of a humorous nature, so it is not surprising that the words we have for some things are rather bizarre and tongue-in-cheek.

I've hand-picked a list for your amusement and highlighted a few I thought interesting:

Getting corporate and political:
* bank of swans
* business of ferrets
* coalition of cheetahs
* corp of giraffes
* company of parrots
* congress of baboons
* conspiracy of ravens
* parliament of owls
* posse of police

Getting very discriptive:
* abomination of clergy
* ambush of widows
* bloat of hippopotami
* blush of boys
* clashing of economists
* circus of puffins
* converting of preachers
* destruction of cats (feral)
* disguising of tailors
* embarrassment of riches
* equivocation of politicians
* fidget of altar boys
* flap of nuns
* giggle of girls
* illusion of painters
* implausibility of gnus
* murder of crows
* muscle of marines
* mutation of thrush
* neverthriving of jugglers
* obstinacy of buffaloes
* ponder of philosophers
* poverty of pipers
* shrewdness of apes
* shuffle of bureaucrats
* skulk of friars
* threatening of courtiers

What?
* badelynge of ducks (on the ground)
* bale of turtles
* barren of mules
* bob of seals
* bury of rabbits
* caste of flower-pots
* clowder of cats
* confab of doctors
* confraternity of smokers
* cornucopia of slugs
* descent of relatives
* draught of butlers
* earth of foxes
* fall of lambs
* fun of fish
* generation of vipers
* hand of bananas
* heard of harlots
* machination of monkeys
* multiply of husbands
* mute of hounds
* rhumba of rattlesnakes
* sleuth of bears
* unkindness of ravens
* wolfpack of submarines
* zeal of zebras

All About Charts

As a consultant, about a quarter, if not more, of my time is spent wrestling with ways to present complex information to clients that will lead to more than just acknowledgments that we did the work. Not to belittle market research firms (data collection is crucial in the business world), but it is usually a negative thing if one of our reports comes out looking like market research. The key rests in the difference between pure data dump and focused visualizations that transmit insights and sometimes act as calls to action. As such, I have always taken a particular interest in new ways of presenting information visually. This post hashes together some of my encounters with chart magic (data visualization).

Last year, I ran across an article in the Economist celebrating 3 of the best graphics from history. Who were the lucky winners? Minard’s depiction of the fate of Napoleon’s army, Florence Nightingale’s diagrams of mortality in the armies, and Playfair’s chart of wages of mechanics and prices of wheat. For those without access to premium Economist online archives, you can find these as well as other historical graphs on the York University Department of Mathematics’ website. Some of these graphs are flawed (Playfair, for example, used different sets of scales when charting wages and prices, which may visually contradict his conclusion that wheat has gotten more affordable), but the bottom line is, they pioneered new ways of representing information.

At around the same time I read the Economist article, I purchased a few of Edward R. Tufte’s books on information display—Envisioning Information, Beautiful Evidence, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Although I haven’t gone through all of them, I do recommend them for their wealth of illustrations and chart examples. Beautiful Evidence may be of particular interest to art lovers, especially those who appreciate Leonardo DaVinci’s drawings of inventions, etc. I have to admit though, as in the case of GEB, don’t expect too much new information / insights if you are a visual arts nut.

More recently, I have run across some very amazing charts. They convey messages that elicit both intellectual and emotional responses from the viewers without the aid of any explanatory voice overs—truly worth a thousand words! If anyone wants to contribute, I will update this post with new charts and give due credit :)

Source: JPMorgan
Let's see how the banks have performed...

http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/
Walmart is taking over the world, an interactive chart.

Federal Borrowing through Dec. 2007

Federal Borrowing through December 2008These two charts function as a pair. Need I say more? Source: seekingalpha.com

Arthur: Stephen Morley
Color-coding maps may not be something new, but the legend is certainly innovative.

http://www.karlhartig.com/chart/chart.html

While Hartig’s charts aren’t always as innovative as some of the others I have just shown, they do visualize some rather interesting relationships, such as how events and the economy contribute to people’s opinions about the president and how consumers change their purchasing behavior in the music industry over the course of time.

J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851)

Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English Romantic painter whose impressionistic seascapes place him stylistically closer to Monet than to his contemporaries. Turner's works are filled with the magnificence of light, whether they are depictions of waves crashing against splendid naval fleets or shipwrecks being swallowed by the furious seas. In college, I used to go to the Yale Center for British Art (BAC) and sit alone for hours (well, maybe not hours, but at least a good 30 minutes) losing myself in Turner's seascapes. So much happens on his canvases that I usually find myself feeling overwhelmed by the free play of his brushstrokes and colors. Yet, my eyes never seemed to get enough of the visual feast and would impatiently devour the delightful yet unquestionably powerful images before me. I would often walk away from these sessions feeling the coolness of sea sprays, their brilliant sparkles impressed on my mind's eye.

As I mentioned earlier, Turner's works do not immediately bring to mind the work of his Romantic contemporaries. Gericault's explicit Raft of the Medusa and Delacroix's frenzied Death of Sardanapalus are both dark--one is shrouded in the shadows of weariness and despair while the other is stained by the blood of passion and pride. Yet, fundamentally, they all mark a return from the refined neoclassicism of Jacques David to works filled with intensity and emotion.

I've always been drawn to paintings that are bold, passionate, and seemingly unrestrained, so it is no wonder that I am drawn to Turner, whose works break free of their canvas constraints and gain a life of their own. What I find most admirable about Turner though, is his ability to win over his audience despite being ahead of his time. I am sure he got away with his abstractions partially because his subjects were seascapes. After all, waves and storms are supposed to be chaotic, their forms everchanging, hard to define and impossible to contain.

While at the BAC, I was even fortunate enough to handle and study a Turner watercolor up close (for a class on connoisseurship). I have to admit though, that I was surprised to find Turner using masking fluids. I know it is a common and legit practice, but somehow (as with knowing about renaissance perspective machines), it dims the level of technical genius I have come to expect from my favorite artists. Of course, I should know better than to hold that romantic view. As much as I'd like to believe in artistic "purity," whether related to authorship, where the artist alone worked on his art, or skills, where the artist paints or draws without the aid of tools, the truth is, sometimes the end more than justify the means. Titan's masterpieces are no less amazing even though they were produced in workshops and Da Vinci is no lesser genius for using the camera obscura to aid his drawings.

Although I like many of Turner's paintings (he painted at least 600 oils), here are a few that wre particularly abstract:

Snowstormteam—Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, John Mallord William Turner, 1842, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cm, Tate, London

Slave Ship—Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on, John Mallord William Turner, 1840, oil on canvas, 90.8 x 122.6 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1812, oil on canvas,146 x 237.5 cm, Tate, London

Be My Valentine Cookies

My valentine really like oatmeal cookies, especially the kind with cranberries, so I generally bake those in the shape of hearts for him. A bit cheesy, I know, but oh-so-much-fun to make. I recently found the perfect recipe on allrecipes.com. I added dark chocolate chips, a pinch of nutmeg and freshly ground whole cloves and cinnamon so the flavor of the spices is even more intense. Otherwise, I followed the recipe to the T (including recommendations to use all butter). Yum...