Ben Kraal's New Now Know How - Life etc

Shock and Awe

nospam@example.com (Ben Kraal) — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:12:32 +0200

I’m shocked, shocked I tell you at how much of my work is doing stuff that I would do anyway like sitting around reading interesting books.

That’s all.

Slightly stale coffee

nospam@example.com (Ben Kraal) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 04:14:18 +0200

They say that the scent of smell is the most base of all the senses and hence sense most connected with the deeper structures of the brain. Apparently this is also the reason why smells, more so than other sense-input, will trigger memories.

Right now, sitting in my under-designed too-stark office I was transported back to my Oma and Opa’s house through the small of paprika and slightly burnt, or perhaps stale, coffee.

Free stuff is good

nospam@example.com (Ben Kraal) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 01:48:37 +0200

Dear PDFOnline,

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

yours,

Ben

I hate writing

nospam@example.com (Ben Kraal) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 02:56:54 +0200

That’s not true.

I hate writing about my thesis. After four years, I’m completely over it. Yet I must get papers out and so far this year my thesis is the only thing I have to write about.

Semi-productive Things I’d rather be doing:

reading de Certeau
reading Brenda Laurel’s edited collection Design Research (so far – excellent)
doing new research (soon! soon!)

Unproductive things I’d rather be doing:

reading forums
reading blogs
blogging here

Yet I must write. Oh, the pain! The pain of it all.

The workshop

nospam@example.com (Ben Kraal) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:04:33 +0200

I was describing to a friend the workshop we have here for the Industrial Design students. Here’s what I wrote:

We have an awesome workshop for the students to make stuff in. We have injection molding machines and vaccuum molders and lathes and bandsaws and 10,000 other awesome ways to do yourself a serious injury, some of which are powered by compressed air (woosh! buzz! aarrrgh!).

It’s run and maintained by two great 50-ish guys who are like manual arts teachers on a sugar high. We have a small budget so they buy old/stored stuff and restore it before turning it loose so everything is 120% scale and weighs 3 metric shedloads coz its come from a real machine shop. Or its been hacked together from random things because they wanted a vertical bandsaw and you can’t buy one so they made one. Awesome.

If the students want to make something then they have to make it. Bent-wood chair? OK, but you have to learn how to use the steam press/bender. Weirdly shaped cast iron light fittings? Ok, but you have to learn about sand casting and molding.

Congratulations!

nospam@example.com (Ben Kraal) — Tue, 09 May 2006 08:33:27 +0200

Congrats to Nathan and Kathy on getting engaged!