way back home - danny macaskill

Beginning of last year I posted a video of Danny MacAskill which was (and still is) amazing.

I've found another video of him, just as beautiful and amazing. This guy is incredible!

how to be alone

I saw this beautiful video on swissmiss, and thought I just had to share it...

inspired bicycles - danny macaskill

Every now and then I come across something that just completely blows me away. And this video is one of those things...

It still amazes me how incredibly skillful people can become at their chosen "path", be that through practise or talent (in most cases, probably a lot of both)

artificial owl

It's been a while since I've posted about a good site, very overdue in fact. So here it is... Artificial Owl. Awesome photos of "abandoned man-made creations". There are so many nice places to see in the world, and I have definitely added the secret underground submarine base in Balaklava Ukraine to my list. It's absolutely incredible.

happiness

Another one of Dan Gilbert's talks on happiness. Some really interesting things on how we make decisions, and compare things. And some interesting questions at the end too. (also available directly from TED.com)

matthieu ricard

I have just discovered these absolutely beautiful photos taken by Matthieu Ricard, a french molecular biologist, who moved to the Himalayas 40 years ago to practise Buddhism. They are really absolutely spectacular!

Go read his story and if you can, support the humanitarian projects he's involved in.

slowing down

From TED.com, Carl Honore talks about "Slowing down in a world built for speed". A bit soppy, but worth the 20 minutes, if you have the time...

happiness

I'm not sure how I found this video. Dan Gilbert talks about synthesizing happiness, and mentions some interesting experiments they performed to determine certain aspects of happiness. The clip is fairly old, and 22 minutes long, but very interesting... (it's also available directly from TED.com)

beautifull homes

Just a quick one from my feeds this morning. From MoCo Loco, this lovely little Beach Chalet.



And then from inhabitat, this absolutely beautiful Barn (see also ARCHh Daily).

Things to dream about...

archdaily

I found Arch Daily via MoCo Loco. I don't know where they find all these amazing buildings. But I do recognise some of the houses, from other sites, and from some of my books...

changethis

I have just discovered a fantastic site called ChangeThis, via Seth Godin's blog. It's essentially a library of Manifestos, which are short pdf books covering various interesting and, at least to me, relevant life and business topics. It's all free, and the quality of the work is pretty good.

The only problem I have is that I already have a huge pile of books next to my bed, ready for reading, and about a hundred other electronic courses from MIT OpenCourseWare waiting on my pc. And now this...

Anyway, I started by reading "The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness" first. And it's all good and sensible advise, in a 21 page book. Give it a try, if you have time.

Edit: I've also scanned through "25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself", and I'm impressed. This is the kind of stuff they should be giving out at schools and other educational institutions in our country. It's a quick and easy read, but valuable lessons there...

did you hear that?

I have discovered another fantastic blog. Did you hear that? features some really nice photography, like rad-ix, at deviantART.



Footnote: this photo is about the best way to explain why I do orienteering. Who wouldn't want to spend their time running in this...

gaile guevara

Gaile Guevara has a very nice blog with lots of fantastic architecture

ipad

I really wouldn't mind having one of these ipads. I can think of a few very nice locations where they would look absolutely stunning. And a quick currency conversion puts them at around 1.7 million rand, which is not completely over the top. Just a pity it's in New Zealand...

the attic

Found this on the cool hunter. Very nice indeed...

We've started looking at bathroom renovations for our home. Unfortunately the costs of doing anything "out of the ordinary" are absolutely astonishing! And we've got very limited space available, which certainly puts a bathroom like this out of reach.

light shows

I found this on Core77 this morning. You can view all the pictures here, it's very impressive...







Also, have a look at Eric Staller's light drawings and urban ufos.

grasshopper momo

I have been absolutely dreadfull at updating the blog during the past few weeks. I have just had too much work to do, so there was no time to search for great and amazing stuff.

I still don't have much time at the moment, but will try and make more of an effort again.

So, to start this of again, one of my favourite interests, prefab housing. Grasshopper MOMO (Modern Module House Concept) are designed by Swedish architect Thomas Lind. You can combine modules to create your own house. Very, very nice...

esao andrews

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so I'll ease into it with a site that does not contain a mountain of information (like some of the other sites I've had up here).

Esao Andrews is a very talented artist, with a very interesting web site. Make sure to move your mouse around on the flash animations, and don't forget to have a look at the archives.

no more unwanted marketing phone calls

I've had another very rough week. So I don't have any beautiful sites to share today. What I do have, is (hopefully) something much, much better...

I have been plagued for months with unwanted marketing phone calls. Companies (like AVBOB, Nedbank, First National Bank, Pick n Pay GoBanking, Altech Autopage Cellular, etc.) trying to sell me life insurance, funeral insurance, income protection, JSE software, Cellphones, etc. etc.

My standard response to these calls are (and I've memorised this):
Section 45 of the ECT Act requires the sender of an unsolicited commercial communication to observe three rules: firstly, to provide the consumer "with the option to cancel his or her subscription to the list"; secondly, to furnish the consumer "with the identifying particulars of the source from which that person obtained the consumer's personal information, on request of the consumer"; and thirdly, not to send a second unsolicited commercial communication to a person "who has advised the sender that such communications are unwelcome".

This really tends to silence the person on the other side of the telephone line. But now I have discovered, that most of these companies belong to the Direct Marketing Association of Southern Africa, and you can list yourself on their Don’t Contact Me Database, to stop them from calling you (hopefully).

elmanco

Unfortunately Elmanco is in a foreign language, but Google Translate (Italian to English) seems to work pretty well. There are some interesting things under gadgets, and as always, don't forget to have a look at the kitchen and architecture sections.



Speaking of kitchen stuff, have a look at this great knife set I found on Amazon...