As you might have noticed, I like my stuff organized, but I was having trouble keeping my two identical WD external hard drives from looking a mess; I couldn’t stack them or they’d get too hot, so they’ve always been fanned out on my desk, taking up space and creating a tangle of cables. I can’t go without them because I run everything off them, so what would an architect do?

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Having secured a new apartment in Vancouver, I was thinking about the furniture we’ll be needing to furnish the place. My first thought was to load up the place with task lamps (that’s the architecture student blood in me), but I wanted to try out this concept I sketched out: the light jar.

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I woke up (because my iPhone was abuzz with Watsapp) to find this beauty waiting in my Mail inbox: the preview of the Wacom Inkling. This pen and sensor attachment clips onto a sketchbook and turns all your sketches into vector or raster.

(PAUSE)

Yes. It’s true. I went through the videos (and so should you) and I can say for sure that I am excited to have all my concept sketches instantly vectorized and layered…and all in a beautiful little package. I bought a stylus for my iPad to try and replace the sketchbook, but nothing is quite as quick and comfortable as a pen on a Moleskine; this hybrid solution should bridge that gap. I am definitely looking forward to late-September to pick one up (and one for Shirley, too) and go on a sketching rampage.

After my silver Polaroid SX70 Alpha began to show signs of aging (it is older than me, after all), efforts to revive it through epoxy and paint proved fruitless; I laid it to rest. Thankfully, I snatched up a white SX70 off eBay in great condition, and, after electronically modifying its aged motherboard (I learned how to solder just to do this to the first one) to accept 600 film, I ordered a fresh set of light brown leather skins from Aki-Asahi.

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not very many people have seen this little project yet, but the team of tae and i have been working hard to produce our class of 2011 graduation rings and packaging. this is the first project from our newly formed MAISON DE SYNECDOQUE collective, and you’ll be seeing more from us.

School’s out for the last time. My architecture undergraduate degree is as good as done and employment is waiting for me in Vancouver before graduate school. All in all, a good five years of design headaches and internships travelling around the world. Five years well spent!

I have curated out my school work (as I leave that stage of my life…for now) to focus on a more refined blog, so hit up commacomma.com to catch my architectural work. more changes to come!

MOCA held a very welcome tribute to street art at the Geffen Contemporary: Art in the Streets. As street art has blasted past its roots as petty crime to much publicized and sought after work of legitimate art, so street art is no longer…street art, but art outside of the normal white walls – the streets.

I won’t even go into all the descriptions, as there was way too much too take in, but all the stars of the game came through – from Banksy to Saber to André to Krink – from East to West.

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I spent the afternoon biking from Culver City to Venice beach, stopping along the way to hit up some thrift shops and comic stores (yeah, I know nothing about comics, but I like them anyways). When I finally reached the beach, it was almost sunset, but I found the Venice Fishing Pier: a path straight out into the ocean!

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As I was making my way to the Lomography Store (searching for Impossible Project Film…which they do not carry), I walked by this place, and…having not eaten all day, the allure of hot dogs was much too great. I doubled back and gave it a shot. This is The Oki Dog.

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I guess it’s not vandalism if it’s all planned out with a film crew on standby and equipment rented out for it; street art has gained acceptance, if not complete legitimacy. A huge paste was just being finished near the corner of melrose/fairfax (saw this as I left the Melrose Trading Post, actually). I have been a little out of the graffiti world for a while, but I believe this is the work of JR (update: yes, it is!).

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