does anybody ever wonder who writes instruction guides. this thought came to me as i was constructing the new desk for my apartment. and when i was fitting bottom rail [C] to bottom shelf [B] with screws [Q], of my new bookcase also for my new apartment. at first opening the box for the new bookshelf and coming across the sea of parts, and then seeing the thick 8.5x11 packet of instructions can be how do you say; daunting! sigh! but as i sift through the Styrofoam and sort out all the parts, and flip through the steps of construction, i muster the courage to commence the project. the next thing i attend to is inventory the parts, because i am not a naive first time do-it-yourselfer, i have been though 99% of construction of a fine piece of furniture, just to discover the most necessary pieces are either damaged or missing. so i check and re-check, it seems that all parts are present and accounted for. next is of course the obligatory glass of red wine, a trade secret of mine, keeps the hands relaxed and surprisingly more steady. within an hour i have created my new three shelf bookshelf, and it looks pretty good, it even stands without wobbling at all. there was, however one small hitch. the bottom rail [C] that i mentioned above was about a half an inch to long on each end. so what do i do? being the ever resourceful problem solver i am, i quickly decide i could either cut the piece down with a saw, screw it in in a way that the length doesn't matter or leave the piece off altogether. well i took option 2, and i figured out a way to utilize the bottom rail[C] in its intended location just about an inch away, but alas, great success the bookshelf is finished.
now that my new piece of furniture is finished, i will take this opportunity to thanks the person who wrote the instruction guide, without which i would not have been able to put the bookshelf together. well, actually i probably could have figured it out still, but it would have taken longer that is for sure.
still wondering who takes that job, or gets promoted to the job of instruction guide writer? i am too so there are no answers here, but i think i know someone who would be perfect for that job. my amazing girlfriend has an equally amazing family and her younger brother would be the best instruction guide writer this side of Leiden. that is for those who don't know, the headquarters of IKEA. Todd is his name, and he is a unique youngster. unique but not abnormal by far. Todd is a very inquisitive person and reminds the absent minded architect if himself at times, especially with his interest in how things are put together. so to end my session today i dedicate my anecdote of bookshelf, from parts to whole, to Todd.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
.six.
i just thought of an experiment that i have subliminally begun a few weeks ago. for now lets call it a synthesis of the left and right brain through studying fiction and non-fiction tests. i have been studying for the LEED NC accreditation for the past month or so, and a few weeks ago i started reading this non-fiction book about Leonardo da Vinci. Fritjof Capra's book about the great renaissance master focuses on the theories and studies that Leonardo explored rather than the obvious artistic masterpieces that we all know very much about.. more about that later. after i got halfway through the non-fiction piece and my LEED study book i made the decision in conjunction with a Christmas present, that it was finally about time to pick up the harry potter series. i received a box set of the first six harry potter books for Christmas, so i decided to see what all the hype was about.
now for some insane reason i have begun down a trail of multiple story lines, fiction and non-fiction and while i was driving home for my lunch break / let the dog out for potty today, i thought of this blog post. i was thinking about how reading these various topics would influence my brainwaves. i was wondering what would happened as i mixed the two genres. would reading a book about the science of Leonardo and arguably the most famous books of fiction in modern time, exercise both the right and left sides of my brain simultaneously? Or, would the result be, SCIENCE FICTION?
thus, the experiment begins, currently i have finished reading the LEED study guide, and i am halfway through the Leonardo text and the first adventure of harry potter, each. i will be back with an analysis, in the next post or posts.
LINKS OF THE BOOKS
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Paperback-Box-Books/dp/0439887453/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199765093&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Leonardo-Inside-Genius-Renaissance/dp/0385513909/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199765001&sr=8-1
now for some insane reason i have begun down a trail of multiple story lines, fiction and non-fiction and while i was driving home for my lunch break / let the dog out for potty today, i thought of this blog post. i was thinking about how reading these various topics would influence my brainwaves. i was wondering what would happened as i mixed the two genres. would reading a book about the science of Leonardo and arguably the most famous books of fiction in modern time, exercise both the right and left sides of my brain simultaneously? Or, would the result be, SCIENCE FICTION?
thus, the experiment begins, currently i have finished reading the LEED study guide, and i am halfway through the Leonardo text and the first adventure of harry potter, each. i will be back with an analysis, in the next post or posts.
LINKS OF THE BOOKS
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Paperback-Box-Books/dp/0439887453/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199765093&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Leonardo-Inside-Genius-Renaissance/dp/0385513909/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199765001&sr=8-1
Saturday, January 5, 2008
.five.
happy new year! i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
i wanted to add to my last post about the Olympic games that will take place this year. It dawned on me, while watching the Rose Parade that the Games are to start on the 8th of august, the 8th month, in 2008 at exactly 8:08:08 pm. which got me thinking about numbers, an some research i have recently completed. so i put 2 + 2 together, the first 2 comes from the research, and the other value of 2 being the date and time of the next Olympic Games.
getting started the number 8 is a very lucky number in Chinese culture. therefore the games being on the date and time they are is no coincidence at all, i'm sure when they heard they won the 2008 bid, the easiest part about it was decided the time the torch was to be lit. but i wonder what the Chinese think about the symbol of the Olympic Games, that's right those rings, which there are five of them. and i say this because five is not a lucky number in Chinese lore. 5 can represent “me”, the individual, but more commonly it translates to “not” or “nothing”, which is a negative, and thus resulting in nothing good. however if you put two negatives together then you can come out with a positive, such as saying 5-4, which then means “not” and “die”. which brings me back to the number 2, which is good, its luck comes from a saying that translates to “good things come in pairs”. so then, 2+2 is really good because 2 pairs of 2 are even better than one. which can argue the case that 2 wrongs can make a right! WAIT? anyway the total of that equation is 4, also a lucky number when you are in certain regions of the country. BUT 4 in Cantonese regions of China is synonymous with death and i don't think have to remind you, but that is kinda bad!
a couple more things about numbers that i found that are pretty interesting. while in our western culture the number 13 is considered bad luck in pretty much everything. to the Chinese, the number 14 is actually a very unlucky number. for instance in a super high rise tower in China it is common that any floor with the number 4 or 14 in it is removed from the elevator keys. so in fact a building that travels to the 50th floor in actuality has only 36 occupied floors. that is a pretty big difference in terms of measuring building height.
why might you ask, would be talking about numbers and what they mean especially in Chinese culture? well the answer is that i recently put together a presentation for a project that is in northern china. so as a team we immersed ourselves in all that is china. and i feel i have just scratched the surface, but at the surface was this amazing topic of numbers which is has been ingrained over centuries.
now that i have filled you in on the why, i think I'll ramble off a bunch of quick number meanings. ok so 666 to those of us in western culture means the mark of the beast, well to the Chinese language saying 666 sounds a lot like saying things going smoothly, not so bad, eh. 888 simply is prosperity times 3. 6 on its own pronounces like the word to drop or decline, and we all know declines especially financial ones are never a good thing. 7 is related to spiritual things, and ghosts. the 7th month of the calender is called the ghost month.
1 represents unity, which is pretty universal across the board. 6 is described as smooth flow and easy going. 8 is by far the most popular number in the Chinese culture. 8 means prosper and fortune, anything with an 8 on it will bring all things good by the way of money, happiness and wealth. 88 is double joy, and like i mentioned with the number 2 good things come in pairs. the Chinese telephone number 8888-8888 was sold to the high bidder for 270,000 U.S. dollars. that attests to the high value placed on the number 8, people are willing to shell out quite a bit of their fortune. again, the Beijing Olympic games being played on the date they are, is the premier usage of the weight the number 8 has.
now i can lay this topic to rest, for i have come full circle from the number 8 to the number 8. in case you fell asleep during the lecture 8 is good!. for those of you who want to read more on the subject, all the content from my blog post has come from wikipedia. i wanted to make sure nobody hits me for some plagiarism. alright that is all for now!
i wanted to add to my last post about the Olympic games that will take place this year. It dawned on me, while watching the Rose Parade that the Games are to start on the 8th of august, the 8th month, in 2008 at exactly 8:08:08 pm. which got me thinking about numbers, an some research i have recently completed. so i put 2 + 2 together, the first 2 comes from the research, and the other value of 2 being the date and time of the next Olympic Games.
getting started the number 8 is a very lucky number in Chinese culture. therefore the games being on the date and time they are is no coincidence at all, i'm sure when they heard they won the 2008 bid, the easiest part about it was decided the time the torch was to be lit. but i wonder what the Chinese think about the symbol of the Olympic Games, that's right those rings, which there are five of them. and i say this because five is not a lucky number in Chinese lore. 5 can represent “me”, the individual, but more commonly it translates to “not” or “nothing”, which is a negative, and thus resulting in nothing good. however if you put two negatives together then you can come out with a positive, such as saying 5-4, which then means “not” and “die”. which brings me back to the number 2, which is good, its luck comes from a saying that translates to “good things come in pairs”. so then, 2+2 is really good because 2 pairs of 2 are even better than one. which can argue the case that 2 wrongs can make a right! WAIT? anyway the total of that equation is 4, also a lucky number when you are in certain regions of the country. BUT 4 in Cantonese regions of China is synonymous with death and i don't think have to remind you, but that is kinda bad!
a couple more things about numbers that i found that are pretty interesting. while in our western culture the number 13 is considered bad luck in pretty much everything. to the Chinese, the number 14 is actually a very unlucky number. for instance in a super high rise tower in China it is common that any floor with the number 4 or 14 in it is removed from the elevator keys. so in fact a building that travels to the 50th floor in actuality has only 36 occupied floors. that is a pretty big difference in terms of measuring building height.
why might you ask, would be talking about numbers and what they mean especially in Chinese culture? well the answer is that i recently put together a presentation for a project that is in northern china. so as a team we immersed ourselves in all that is china. and i feel i have just scratched the surface, but at the surface was this amazing topic of numbers which is has been ingrained over centuries.
now that i have filled you in on the why, i think I'll ramble off a bunch of quick number meanings. ok so 666 to those of us in western culture means the mark of the beast, well to the Chinese language saying 666 sounds a lot like saying things going smoothly, not so bad, eh. 888 simply is prosperity times 3. 6 on its own pronounces like the word to drop or decline, and we all know declines especially financial ones are never a good thing. 7 is related to spiritual things, and ghosts. the 7th month of the calender is called the ghost month.
1 represents unity, which is pretty universal across the board. 6 is described as smooth flow and easy going. 8 is by far the most popular number in the Chinese culture. 8 means prosper and fortune, anything with an 8 on it will bring all things good by the way of money, happiness and wealth. 88 is double joy, and like i mentioned with the number 2 good things come in pairs. the Chinese telephone number 8888-8888 was sold to the high bidder for 270,000 U.S. dollars. that attests to the high value placed on the number 8, people are willing to shell out quite a bit of their fortune. again, the Beijing Olympic games being played on the date they are, is the premier usage of the weight the number 8 has.
now i can lay this topic to rest, for i have come full circle from the number 8 to the number 8. in case you fell asleep during the lecture 8 is good!. for those of you who want to read more on the subject, all the content from my blog post has come from wikipedia. i wanted to make sure nobody hits me for some plagiarism. alright that is all for now!
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