sexy moose head

(Amy got a moose hat from her sister who visited Canada and it's actually cute...)
Last week I asked Amy out on an old-time funny-adventure date. Steam-trains through the dark "moonlight" redwoods, BBQ and line dancing pretty much gets the idea across. Hey, it seemed like a fun[ny] thing to do. it was actually pretty fun and a beautiful setting with ponds and ducks and a covered bridge. When we arrived, we felt a little sheepish because all of the other dates were wearing formals and we had just changed OUT of our dress clothes and into jeans and sweat-shirt/flannel (to fit in with the hill-billys).
Luckily the dressy people were there for a wedding reception - what a relief. the BBQ steak was pretty rare and we got a kick out of watching a cute ancient couple square dance.

The steam train through the woods was the highlight. Amy sat by a little boy holding a pink flower whom immediately tried to kiss her (well, nearly immediately). The kid must have been 2 or 3 and that his favorite color was pink, so I don't blame her for thinking he was a she when Amy asked the father about his very friendly daughter. I couldn't tell until I heard him addressed as "Timothy".

Our train ride was fun and adventurous. We spent a good hour trying to get up a steep grade (8.5%!) (3% is usually unheard of). We played the Thomas the steam engine game by trying and failing 3 times because there was so many riders that the load was too heavy (6 open cars full) . Eventually they had to call a diesel engine to push us to the top where we were met by guitar-playing "cowboys" singing around a campfire. There was hot chocholate and apple pie and good times. The train Also had 3 switch-backs where you go forward up hill and stop, switch the track behind the train and then go BACKWARD up another hill. It was pretty fun.

Amy and I danced to some [awesome] country music and acted silly. We had a good time- I hope she liked it.

pineapple pancakes

Amy was a wonderful seminary teacher and made banana, buttermilk, plain and PINEAPPLE pancakes! We were celebrating the Summer birthdays of Chris and Tony. They looked almost as good as this picture with all the strawberry and banana slices... vanilla yogurt or maple syrup. mmmmmmm! mmm.
Needless to say class enjoyed it but didn't get a lot of meaningful scripture mastery study in.
If you haven't made hot and fresh pineapple pancakes, you should!

License plate LDS scripture & hymnal cover

Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/License_plate_book_cover_LDS_scripture_amp_hymn/?ALLSTEPS
Memory-souvenir turned useful.
Yes, I "made it"! But, I must admit one thing. I did not COMPLETELY make this form scratch. I actually tore apart an un-used souvenir CD holder that I got on our honeymoon so the hinge was re-used.
I would have made one from scratch using my old black and yellow plates from my 68 VW square-back (deceased), but I didn't have much time and needed it before seminary started Monday.
It looked quite different and I really wanted to make one from scratch so I could say "I did the whole thing myself" but I also appreciate that I can say it's a souvenir from our honeymoon instead of my old car... that's much more romantic anyway. Truth is that the only part that I didn't rivet on myself is the hinge. I even had to unbend and re-bend the license plate and remove all the original hardware. I added new hardware, re-formed the bends and perm-a-sealed neoprene to it for a liner. It was pretty easy to make the pattern for that. The hard part was cutting it smoothly- and grinding the plate to hold it down. The license plate is EXACTLY the right size to fit around a small-version LDS quad and hymnal and there is still room for my 8-color scripture-marking pencil. I love it and I love telling people that I made it from a souvenir of our honeymoon.

prayers answered:

So Amy and I are teaching seminary now. It started yesterday.
Time: 6am - 6:50 ( e a r l y ! )
Subject: New Testament
We joke that it was an answer to our prayers because we wanted motivation to be better at studying together... well, we got our answer!
The first day was tough because we were up all night worried about the next morning and that 1st impression stuff.
The lesson was supposed to be a grab-your-attention-"zinger", but you know that's hard to do at 6am after 3 months of vacation. (even for the teacher.)
Never the less, I thought it went well-to-alright. Amy on the other hand started to freak out because of what the kids wrote about the experience in their journals. Some were very positive and some were pretty negative. She rightfully had issue with a few of the students being rude. There are plans to nip that in the bud. She ended up focusing on a few trouble-makers and got a little "discouraged".
So the next day another prayer was answered... it was the get-yo-know-you day and she got paired up with the girl that had given biggest attitude. The great thing is that they shared stories, got along great and laughed a lot. It turns out their a lot alike. And honestly, Amy is a very personable person. She can make anyone smile- that's what I love about her! well, that and a few other things too :)
Today we're not fall-asleep-at-work tired and actually enjoyed getting up early and spending the morning together. It's a nice change. It's different than when I would get ready and come give her a hug while she lay in bed still (which I'll miss a lot), but I think it's a change for the better... even though we have to be the cool young couple that has to go to bed early.

My photography

I found these photos i took long ago.
The flamingo is a nice piece of art (taken at the Oakland zoo) and the car-top tent pic (although not beautiful to most) is my fav' car-project & reminds me of my park-ranger job because I'd often just pop my tent and camp instead of going to Tyler's place to sleep.
(I'm seeing about selling the tent, sadly http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=652274). I'd also (of course) have to repair it in the campgrounds often as well as on the way to and from Angels Camp every weekend. It really was/is an unconditional love relationship between that car and I.

ciao'

3D photo-tour = awesome

I've been negligent on blogging. And i've almost completed a few projects i'd like to share... BUT in the meantime i'll direct you to some awesome stuff i've seen.
and other stuff in my shared folder @ http://www.google.com/reader/shared/15340637955416290035 (updated regularly)

Ciao4Now! Allen

architecture thievery?

I don't know, but you conclude...

credit card fee realization...

So, Do you know how your credit card fee is calculated? I just figured it out!

We've been watching our credit closely and learning how to raise our credit scores (without paying lots of interest fees).
We bought a couch last week and I wondered how the credit cards come up with the seemingly random finance-charge so I found out something very interesting.
They charge a tiny interest daily (.04%) SO I wanted to know how much money we would be paying if we put the couch on credit for 1 month verses 1 day.
In other words: what would we save by paying the charge the day after the charge instead of at the end of the month.
TAKE A LOOK!...
$18.75 vs 63cents !

We're expecting

a new couch any day now. We're very excited and anticipate it's arrival. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but we do know what color it is. Dark Grey (and very comfortable I might add).

GOOGLE READER: ok, i'm addicted

(click)to google reader! basically it looks like your email in-box but instead of mail you get the newest articles that your favorite websites post. I have a "design" folder with ~20design sites that I SHOULD be keeping track of as a designer but had no way to do it efficiently. Now i just tell it which sites OR search "gadgets" for instance and subscribe to the site "feed". Now i can skim through 100s of articles with photos and see what catches my eye. I can do proactive research.

it does local NEWS, you-tube, anything! Even your friends Blogs post to your "inbox".

There is a "SHARE" feature that you can show your friends what caught your eye.You have to start using it to get the full effect, but HERE ARE A FEW OF MINE:
(pictured is a super-thin and durable tyvek mailing-envelope wallet featured in the museum of modern art I tried to make one, but I want the designer's version)

Making Fun of Fonts

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766

Design tool:

we have something like this... (but it only prints plastic but i have made plastic molds to make rubber parts)

Magic wheel (Gauswheel) = Awesome toy

Stares: good or bad?

Friday, July 18, 2008, 8:19:26 PM

i'm adding a photo:

So, we got all dressed up - me in my 3-piece suit with red tie and new faux-hawk she in her brown skirt & top with plaid heels and [hot] neck scarf with her hair all curled and looking absolutely gorgeous...

A good situation is when you open the door for your wife at a nice restaurant and, as you follow her in, you see that many of the men are looking at her... then of course they see me and avert their eyes = Good situation.

So it's strange when I open the door, let her step in ahead of me, follow her in, see the guys staring BUT then I am caught in an uncomfortable eye-lock with the row of gay guys standing at the bar = Good situation or Bad situation... uncomfortable either way.

Amy enjoyed it and laughed though. I just don't know weather to be flattered or not. So, backstory is that she loved Roy's restaurant in Hawaii and after hearing they opened in San Fran (http://www.roysrestaurant.com/), I made a reservation. we ate the appetizer canoe with yummy everything including these lobster pot-stickers. For dinner, the m academia crusted butter yellow tail and for desert- chocolate souffle and strawberry shortcake. yummy (BUT, we still love CreAsian better )(we found it on the way home from the temple) (better price and portions great presentation). http://www.creasianbistro.com/index.html

Farding Kills

Ok, so get this… It's "ride-you're-bike-to-work-day" so naturally I appeased Mother Earth by strapping my bike to the roof of my car and DROVE-my-bike-to-work… (Does that count?). So, now I'm driving down Winchester in the "fast-lane" on my way to work -Chomping on my yummy blueberry Cliff bar- when I pull up to a stoplight and tragedy strikes... almost.

So, I'm slowing to a stop when a sun-damaged, renegade Ford Mercury flies into my lane while turning left – heads straight at me – and then onto the center island – dodges around traffic-light and sign posts – all the while casually signaling a merge into the proper side of the street then jumps into the proper flow again. I'm unscathed, but on tomorrows commute, that woman will think twice about farding.

(look up "fard")

Eating Healthy-

This Salmon Burger recipe confused us- http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/epicurious/105602/salmon-burgers-with-spinach-and-ginger
274 kcal = low-cal meal? (yes/no)
We found that
1 kcal = 1 Calorie (big "C") = 1000 calories (little "c")
So, in fact, this recipe has 274,000 calories!
if that's not confusing enough... we Americans interchange Calorie with calorie and it's really only 274 "Calories"


AVOCADOS:
Amy has been awesome at making sure we eat healthy. I've never seen so much fruit in my life and she's always finding healthy recipes that she wants to try out. I don't know as much as she does and I definitely think that I know how to eat healthy- but in truth, she knows more and i slowly pick things up from her... slowly. For instance, I heard that Avocados were one of the fattiest foods so I avoided them for so long, but often indulged when making deli-sandwiches- one of my favorites. She says i was wrong and I trust her - especially since I saw the nutrition facts on guacamole. Needless to say, my naivety about nutrition and OUR desire to eat well together has often led me to be re-informed. I'm learning- In fact, i think i'll look up avocados now...

"Although they are fruits, avocados have a high fat content of between 71 to 88% of their total calories - about 20 times the average for other fruits. A typical avocado contains 30 grams of fat, but 20 of these fat grams are health-promoting monounsaturated fats, especially oleic acid." http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=5 (best link)

"It's true that avocados are high in fat -- one reason they've earned the nickname "butter pear." A medium-sized avocado contains 30 grams of fat, as much as a quarter-pound burger. That's why diet experts have long urged Americans to go easy on avocados in favor of less fatty fruits and vegetables. But now nutritionists are taking another look. They're finding that most of the fat in an avocado is monounsaturated -- the "good" kind that actually lowers cholesterol levels. Thanks to this new understanding, the U.S. government recently revised its official nutrition guidelines to urge Americans to eat more avocados." http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/avocado-advantage

"Between 70-90% of the calories in avocados are from fat. All avocados contain "monounsaturated" fat, the same kind of fat as olives. This type of fat may help lower cholesterol. Also avocados are high in beta carotene, fiber, folate (a B vitamin), fiber, and potassium (ounce for ounce avocados have 60% more potassium than bananas). To put the fat in perspective, per ounce avocados have less fat than lean beef, and a whole Haas avocado (the highest fat variety) has less fat than 3 tablespoons of Italian salad dressing. So, go right ahead and put some guacamole on your burrito!" http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0656.html

Anyway- enough studying for today
As usual, Amy's right and i heard wrong.

Zoolander-sized phone through wireless power

An interesting article about wireless power. Basically these MIT students made one coil of copper wire to transmit "magnetic resonance" (MHz) 7 feet across a room to another "receiving coil" to power a light bulb. This works a lot like an opera singer breaking a wine-glass that is receiving energy from her vocal frequency- except instead of harmonics, it's magnets. The cool part about this is that, unlike current electro-magnetic power-transfer, the power of this "magnetically coupled resonator" travels great distances and doesn't RADIATE and get lost in space creating RADIATION that can harm [human] organisms. Instead the power that isn't gathered by the receiving unit remains localized with the sending-unit.
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7418/
What does this mean to you? how about never having to plug in your "feather-light/paper-thin" laptop that doesn't even need a [heavy] battery or cord! Cell Phones are pretty thin now, but you could literally have a Zoo-lander-sized phone here. Pretty awesome stuff!
One of my school projects was Starbuck's furniture that had a fold-out table for your laptop and the table-top transfered power to your computer. Great idea, but this technology will quell whole "fear-of-cancer" thing that comes with current inductive power-transfer.

fight for freedom!

Amy and I went to Volleyball with Almaden3rd ward (it's now something else(?)) and there were all of these GoodWill clothes COVERING the whole stage. We sorted through them and found her brothers some hideous SF 49er sweat-pants (tiger and snake-skin patterns), her some black-with-neon-paint-splash sweat-pants and -of course- myself the MOST AWESOME AMERICAN FLAG PANTS! (made famous by Rex Quon Do in Napoleon Dynamite- http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=558). Of course we wore them over our voleyball outfits as long as we could untill we got super hot... Now I love them as pajama pants and even wore them to Costco today for the 5th of July.

I love going to Costco because I don't have to dress up as much as I do when we go to Walmart. :D

(j/k)

CHINA Tour-day Photos

Well, as you may know, I was in China for a week- including a weekend.
So one day we toured a nearby Ancient water-town (with a leaning tower temple) and some botanical gardens. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Front gates of Suzhou- ancient water town

Suzhou- North temple Pagoda (Leaning tower of Pagoda)

This is when it started to rain.

Arches

Now it's pouring rain. (you'll see the tower is leaning towards us)

(Well, it's been there for 2500 years- why would it fall now?)

Taking a boat ride around the city moat.

random

Now it's a monsoon- even the mannequins are wading.

Joe had the women's attention... all they wanted was his money.

Talking Maynah bird

Later at the botanical gardens...

"hello" There's a little cliff and stream below me that wouldn't fit in frame.

beautiful architecture and landscaping!

of course they put us to work

in the rain the lily pads fill with water, tip over and pour off into each other. a very tranquil and poetic design.

Dragon scales

here's the picture we laughed about-
The group shot was funniest to Joe and I because – as I tell the
story- someone offered to take or photo so Joe and I stood in frame
(as far apart as men are supposed to stand away from each other) and our tour-guides/co-workers filled in the gap. Little did we know that
(even with my hand behind my back to avoid any "appearances") the
picture would still come out looking like 2 couples out on the town.
Far from the truth- needless to say- ESPACIALLY since the whole time I was thinking
"WOW look at that! I really really wish Amy was here with me!"

fasting helps jet lag

It's true- I tried it. You can help re-set your internal clock by waiting 16 hours to eat at breakfast time at your destination. You sort of trick your body into starting a new day at the right time. Listen to the research...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90769113

Only time f.or notes again.

How to say hi to someone in China.
Usually they just look at you like you're an ailien (especially if you're speaking their language)
However, when I was skating through town on my giant-wheeled Rollerblades and waving at the gawkers they'd say, "hey! helloello!"
I've always liked skating at night, but
I really like skating in China in the evening to see the neon lights, the interesting architecture and the strange looks i get.
BUT, the reason I like it most is that there are lots of fellow Rollerbladers- LOTS of them! they were the friendliest curious people out tonight.
Time to call my wifey :)

oh! i edited a bunch of photos and maybe i can post them soon.

"you are what you eat"

Hi Luv Bug, (Amy),

It;s funny that you wrote your blog about the "You are what you eat" show because (even though I have not seen it) I was telling the guys at work about it durring dinner. They found it amusing as I described it and the way it runs. I told them about the episode that you told me about where the man only ate meat and bread for a week and the host said, that he must be a stinky sick mess that likes to fart. well, i didn't go that far.

I tried to post this on your blog comment, but I think Myspace is one of the websites that China says we're not allowed to view. i'll post it later, or you can do it for me.
blog: http://allenwilsondesign.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

I love you so much! and miss you too. Allen

--
H. Allen Wilson IV
Industrial Designer & unicyclist
WAGIC Design

notes for stories to catch up on...

"In America (gesturing my hand down my face), We don't eat anything with a face"

speaking of the future-
When I land in SF, i'll be able to say...

"Hey, wow! I was just in China 20 minutes from now."

 

(even after a 17hour flight)

 

AND

Invasion of the boil coverd waitresses

AND

shopping in the city

coming soon

Jane (our tour guide): "You don't look like your passport photo. We thought you looked like Nicolas Cage."

Me: … that's nice to hear, since, in America, Nicolase Cage is a very ugly man.

 

While sitting at lunch- served whole fish and shrimp waving my hand across my face "In America, we don't eat anything with a face."

 

It was fun explaining fortune cookies to Chinese natives.

Monsoon makes tourism more fun.

Jumping off rocks -Slipping falling on my but in a puddle.

Lilly pads tipping and pouring off the rain.

 Fighting women restaurant owners.

Being asked if "this" was what you usually order in america… (because they tried to order dishes that you would like).

sick to my soul

Appropriate titles: written the night of an experience that will never happen again.

1. "Be in the world but not of the world"

2. "Job hazard!? More like Relationship Hazzard"

3. "Like a mormon in a w**re house (pardon my mandarin)"

4. "It's as innocent or as corrupt as you want to make it."

5. "When cultures collide"

6. "A really bad day at the office"

I suddenly found myself with my supervisor (thank goodness he was there to dance around like an idiot to act like he was having fun) with our China business associates in a dark room with a karaoke screen and, when the door opened again, I soon relized that THIS karaoke is NOT that same in China as in the US. To make a long TORTUOUS and ear-peircing story short, I found myself hurriedly grabbing my digital camera- not to take pictures of course, mind you, but to rather show to the evening-gown-clad women, the pictures of my wife and explaining "This is my wife, Amy, so no 'funny business' (with my fingers making quote marks in the air)". They were nice, understanding even, complimentary of how beautiful my wife was and they got the message and were hopefully, for ONCE in their work-lives, treated respectfully by someone. Of course, they probably saw our defensive positions – hands clasped and elbows on knees with eyes straight ahead- and thought Joe and I were either prudes, or just plain gay (pardon). But that's fine with me.

Now I have mixed feelings- I hate the idea of what I saw [which was actually cleaner than a beer commercial, but still highly uncomfortable] - or rather the "strongly impled" potential that I saw. I don't know what goes on there and don't even want to think about it.

I often like to think of myself as adventurous and willing to try different culture's exotic foods and also as able to view other cultures while still keeping my distance and standards, but this is one sad thing that I just rather not know about or have every had to see or bear… on the other-hand I'm thankfully that Joe took me under his wing and assured me that, although we need to keep good relations with our vendors, that situation can be "as innocent or as corrupt as you make it [so we'll make it innocent]. Anyhow, I thankful that's over and now (after a few days together) that my China business associates understand my standards by (by observing and asking questions about my different behaviors) and we've become friendly and understanding of our differences, we can dismiss any more uncomfortable situations- THANKFULLY!

--
H. Allen Wilson IV
Industrial Designer & unicyclist
WAGIC Design

Japan Airport (JAL) lounge

we're sitting in the posh JAL lounge at the Japan airport. My boss gets to because he's a frequent flyer. He wanted to show off the robotic beer pourer when a Scottsman asked about it.

the bathroom urinals are awesome. HUGE, in fact.

fish eye fun

We saw Amy's Friend Jo Anne and her B/F Eric on a trip to Fresno.
They're our artsy friends with the cool but somewhat dark taste in art (Haloween cartoon-like) and music (the rockabilly concert we went to had old rat-rods and such.)
Eric bought Jo Anne a fish-eye camera for Christmas-last.
click to see my ape-arms in the background

Me, in the news... (video clip)

Perfectly clear

I wanted to see how this blog thing works. Perhaps keep a log of my up and coming trip to China for business.

Perhaps while I am there i can write a blog about our Hawaiian honeymoon vacation and Amy's birthday get-away to Seal Cove, Moss Beach.
Let's see what I can post on these things...

here are some Photos of our engagement announcement taken by Amy's sister Michelle
(MLP Photography)...







note: Blogger posts 3 sizes of pictures: sm, md, lg.
In order to get them to display in your blog PERFECTLY CLEAR you need to save them according to size.
Sm =102 pixels wide 72DPI
Md =163 pixels wide 72DPI
Lg =400 pixels wide 72DPI (maybe quadruple for the click-on larger image (?) )
ALSO, and this is very important: If you don't use PhotoShop's "Save For Web" feature it will save with a very pink cast (RGB vs sRGB).
Now that I've figured this out... Here you go.