design ideas thought fodder

The 500-Year Building

Historic preservation is an ever-changing field. Twenty-some years ago, people in the field concerned themselves with trying to save as many “old” buildings as they could, “old” meaning primarily Victorian-era, with the goal being to bring these buildings (or, at the very least, their facades) back to how they were originally conceived. In many cases, that meant stripping off any modern skins that had been applied during the 1940s to 1970s, removing insensitive architectural features…

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art thought fodder

Internet Nostalgia – Bitey of Brackenwood

I was suddenly hit with a fit of Internet Nostalgia the other day. I recalled seeing an animated video online years ago that featured a little yellow blob creature in a beautiful forest. For the life of me, I could not remember the name or anything else about the video but I desperately wanted to see it again. Arrgh! It dawned on me that I had shared a link to this video on my original…

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olio reading thought fodder

Olio – June 22, 2015

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things My recent online reading has included some good news, some bad (very bad) news, and a parable. Let’s start with the good news. Stress is often referred to as a bad thing, and it can be. However, if you look at it the right way, your body can deal with it much more effectively than when you think of it as a bad thing. Check out this article on…

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design observations thought fodder

Spelunking Online

Spelunking is the term used for exploring caves. Urban explorers in London have been spelunking in the underground structures of the city and documenting what they find because most of these areas are off-limits to the public. People love mucking about in hidden places. On a planet that seems to have had every square inch explored, what might there be left to uncover? As London’s urban explorers have found, human beings have created hidden and forgotten…

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observations thought fodder

What’s Wrong with Being Defensive?

I’m sure you’ve heard this comment, or perhaps even said something like it yourself: “Why are you being so defensive?” This is normally said in a way that makes it very clear that defensiveness is a bad thing. I want to know why defensiveness is so awful. If someone is being a jerkface to you, what’s wrong with defending yourself? I asked my husband this question tonight. He said, “There’s nothing wrong with being defensive. Usually, the…

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