Ninja January 9th, 2009
Jessica Helfand will be interviewed on Design Matters with Debbie Millman today at 3:00 EST. Here, they will discuss design, life, and Jessica’s latest book, Scrapbooks: An American History
Design Matters airs live on the Voice America Business Network, and you can tune in here.
Related links
+ Winterhouse Studio
+ The Daily Scrapbook website
Penguin January 9th, 2009
Got up pretty late and felt a lot better. Had some guava and peanut butter and bread for breakfast. After eating, I still felt lousy and opted not to go out. Considering how cold it still was, I figured this was the better choice.
I slept all morning and woke up again at 12:30. My cousins Round and Clock, who had been staying in to study for finals, already had lunch, so I had to fend for myself. After lunch, I went back to sleep.
I woke up later, but was still pretty weak. Not much else to do, so I just played DS.
We didn’t go out for dinner because it was raining. Instead, we had left overs.
Later, they went to night market and brought back some food. I finally had a chance to have stinky tofu.
-Penguin
Related postsNinja January 8th, 2009
Arms is a project I started in 2004 after a year-and-a-half-long bout of pretty awful writer’s block… And once I started writing again, finally, I guess I’d absorbed a good bit of what they’d all taught me about mood, atmosphere, emotion. Slowness in music, literal and figurative.
– Todd Goldstein
Photo via rcrdlbl
Arms is the lo-fi, solo project from indie-rock Harlem Shakes guitarist/half of folk duo, The Sea & The Gulls, Todd Goldstein. Recorded in his bedroom, Goldstein played all the parts and then layered them to form the absolutely charming, romantic album, Kids Aflame
You can download them here:
+ Whirring
+ Shitty Little Disco
Enjoy,
Ninja
Related links
+ Find tour dates and more information on Arms’ website
+ For more tunes, visit Arms’ myspace
Purchasing link
+ Kids Aflame
Penguin January 8th, 2009
It managed to be colder today than yesterday. My uncle lent me one of his jackets which was much better than my North Face shell, but it didn’t have much of a neck. I wish I had one of the scarves Ninja knit me.
We drove about an hour to this mountain preserve. I managed to fall asleep on the ride up.
When we got there, we stopped off to use the bathrooom. There, I ran into Grace and Newman. What a small world, that I would run into people I know from America half way around the world in this little remote area of Taiwan.
We walked a bit to see a lake and some trees. Then we saw more trees. I did manage to bond with my cousins Smell and Hans a bit in our boredom.
For lunch, we went to this little tea shop half way down the mountain. While we waited for lunch to be prepared, we sat and sampled some “award winning” tea. The tea competition was from this area, so although special, not as special as, say, a Taiwan comp.
The tea was good, but I cared more about the warmth it would bring me as I drank it.
Lunch was good. Everything was cooked either in tea or had tea leaves in it. Some of it, you could really notice the tea flavor which was nice. Others, you couldn’t notice it at all.
After lunch, we went to try some more tea. I had to stop by the bathroom to drop a deuce. I had the choice between a stall with a regular toilet, but there was a sign on the door and a stall with a squat toilet. I didn’t know what the sign meant, so I chose the regular. I dropped my deuce and when I went to flush, discovered there wasn’t any water. I realized that the sign meant it was out of order. I felt really bad and decided to run away in shame.
Next, we stopped by a tea farm where there were little tents to let you try the tea. We were pretty high up and could see a good deal. Again, not very exciting.
When we got home, I was too tired to even off load pictures. Not that I had many. But I jumped in bed to try and sleep it off. I didn’t sleep much and got up for dinner. I realized I had a cold. I popped some Tylenol, put on my iPod and went to sleep.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin January 7th, 2009
Woke up around 4 and jumped online for awhile. With the time difference, not many people were on, but I did manage to get some pictures together for the upload. Eventually, Ninja jumped online and we were able to chat a little bit before leaving.
We left for Yilan at around 6:30a with Round and Clock. The two of them along with my mom and my 6th aunt piled into the back of my uncle’s Lexus R300.
We drove to Taipei and hit traffic right before we were to get on Highway 5. Luckily, there wasn’t that much traffic and we started through.
We drove through a whole bunch of tunnels. One of them, the longest tunnel in Taiwan, was over 12 KM. It took them 10 years to dig.
We finally arrived at my 7th aunt’s place. This was their weekend and retirement home that was built fairly recently. It was pretty cold out here, much colder than it was in Hsinchu.
We sat around a little bit and then went to the traditional art center. What I thought would be like a gallery or something was actually a bunch of little stores. It wasn’t too bad, being able to buy traditional stuff. It was a little too commercial.
We went through this one place, which we all thought was some sort of tour, but ended up being a long advertisement for activated carbon. I love inanimate carbon rods as much as the next guy, but this was a bit much. Some of the things the guy was saying about the carbon was a little far fetched. Sure, it can block EM signals, but common, we’re surrounded by EM signals. it’s really not that big a deal. Especially front lights, TV, monitors, etc. The water filtration stuff was pretty common, since we have Britas and stuff. But he was trying to sell us on putting it in our rice as we cooked it. I don’t think so.
The rest of the time, we just walked around looking at stuff.
Then we went to lunch at Suea Port. Some great fresh seafood over there.
Then we went to try and see some birds but only saw a handful of ducks. It’s freezing cold.
Not impressed by the ducks, we continued on to a sport park.
There was this crater we went to and my uncle and cousins had a fun time there. I didn’t quite enjoy myself considering how cold it was. I was so low on battery, that I didn’t take many shots.
Then we went home to rest up a bit. I recharged my battery a bit before dinner.
Dinner, we went to a local restaraunt.
My cousin played my NDS a bit. He was playing New Super Mario Brothers and wasn’t being very successful. Whenever he would die, I would sing the death music. My cousins found this really amusing.
After dinner, we went home and I off loaded the pictures. I wanted to start tagging them, but I was so tired I just went to sleep.
Didn’t sleep much when we decided to go to a hot spring. It turned out to be a spa, but it was a lot of fun.
-Penguin
Related postsNinja January 7th, 2009
Christine Norrie turns 35 today!
Christine Norrie is an illustrator and graphic novelist whose most noted works include Cheat
Related links
+ See more of Christine Norrie’s work at her web portfolio
+ Visit Christine Norrie’s blog
Ninja January 6th, 2009
My eyes are starting to burn, so I will keep this brief. Here are my first sketches from yesterday’s drawing session with Tanya Dakin. With luck, I’ll have some free time to tighten them up tomorrow.
Odile & Odette
Graphite on Bond
I hope 2009 is treating you well! With this new start, I’m going to try and post more personal work. I do hope you’ll stick around for the ride.
Good nite,
Ninja
Penguin January 4th, 2009
I’m at a free internet terminal at the Eslite bookstore in Taipei, just outside of the Taipei 101 building, the tallest building in the world.
It’s been an interesting last few days. But I just wanted to give everyone a quick shoutout that I’m still here and alive. I’ll be uploading pics later tonight once I get real internet access. I have tons of pictures of trees and food. Exciting!
I was a little sick the other day. Just a cold, but it put me out of commission for a day. Much better now.
Peas,
-Penguin
Related postsNinja January 4th, 2009
I’ve been sick the past two days, and my dear sister was kind enough to keep me company, make me a mean bowl of ramen, and watch chick flicks with me while I recuperated. In this photo, she’s sporting the piggy slippers and naturally, I’m in the penguin pjs with the panda slippers.
Well, today, I’m feeling almost 100%, and I finally got around to finishing Tanya’s birthday present! And just in time for our drawing date.
Much thanks to Kimmy for her TLC and to Tanya for giving me the honor of drawing her!
Related postsNinja January 1st, 2009
I love a man with a healthy case of OCD. On December 12, 2008, MythBusters co-host Adam Savage spoke at the Entertainment Gathering. Here, he gave a presentation on his personal obsessions and explained how his fascination with dodo bird skeletons eventually led to creating an exact bronze-cast replica of the statue from the 1941 Humphrey Bogart movie, The Maltese Falcon.
Related postsLimited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
