computer-less

What do you do without a computer? Especially if your job relies on it?

Paper. With my dead computer, it meant dead to-do lists. Trapped on the interwebs, only to be accessed through a very small smart phone screen.So I've been spend more time Hand drawing and rendering ideas, making notes, and drafting emails- typing long emails on a smart phone takes a while- its best not to make too many mistakes!

I realized how dependent I was on my computer. How much jibber jabber there was.Now I'm forced to limit myself to urgent emails- no banter! Fortunately, Timon' has a spare semi-working laptop with basic capabilities at home- whew! I can still research product ideas and trends, and edit excel docs.

Something cool that I discovered this week was open source software. Gimp, Inkscape, and Open Office are all free simpler versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and Microsoft office. Seriously saving me right now!

Bruegal birthday

One of my birthday twins always has a theme birthday party. Shanghai 1930's, Pirates, and this year was monks/Bruegal. Who/what is Bruegal you ask? Why, a Flemish painter from the 18th century!

RIP macbook pro

4 years ago in 2008 my bro snagged a great deal on a mac book pro from UCLA.

It died Monday afternoon silently.

Tuesday I took it for repairs and learned the motherboard was fried and would cost 5,000 rmb to repair it at the apple store.

To it off the internet was down at our apt AND at my office- so I was feeling like I lost am arm AND cut-off from the world.

So now- either find some other repair man who can do it cheaper- or get a new comp? And I was still running photoshop CS from university on there!

craft stuff

I experimented with some upcycling jewelry for a friend's group.

Motorbike innertubes are way thicker than bicycle ones. I had sewn bike inner tubes in college, which were really fun smooth and stretchy. T and I were walking back from the gym and saw a bike repair man with his tools sprawled on the sidewalk sitting on a stool. We asked if he had any inner tubes to spare, and he got one and was ready to cut us off a piece- "How much do you want?" he said. T said, the whole thing. The bike man was pretty mystified, but easy going. We received some funny looks from the Bao an (guard) and Police man too. I got home, scrubbed it with a toothbrush in the sink then let it dry.

 

The inside was whitish- which meant I couldn't use it for earrings, but it was easier to draw my designs on, before cutting.

bonjour birthday!

I am now 27 years old- just a tiny bit wiser and a little more wrinklier.

The invite I designed.

"Did you guys bring your moleskins?!"- John

 

Looking at preserved bat and beetles on wall.

 

Everybody!

  

At the end of the night, I gave out little goodie bags - muslin bags I sewed with different colored ribbons (Using up my scraps!) and had little gold doodles on them- inspired by old logos from french ceramics- pinterest) Thanks to all who came, esp Steph for the cake and Timon for organizing!

Getting creative and other things

I've been hanging out at M50 a lot more- 50 Moganshan rd the arts
area. Last weekend there was a "Talk-eat-create" event where I worked
with another artist on an upcycle project- my half done dress inspired
by pond ripples (see below). Also, I helped a friend cater a gallery
opening! She did most of the planning and prep- we cooked together the
evening before and then we served together (and her family members
also helped!) It was really cool being behind the counter and making
the appetizers look pretty- quiches, tomato cheese bites, wheel
sandwiches, yummy pinwheel cookies!! The gallery, Two Cities was
packed full of people who kept peeking over and trying to snatch at
our delectable bites. There was also a jewelry "workshop" = basically
free-for-all where we made jewelry- shown here is the necklace and
bracelet I made.

wow! Exhausting!

Grass

Sunday afternoon we took our lunch to go then headed to Jing An park to take in the sun. The security guard kicked us off the main lawn, but allowed us on the edges to tan. My friend came with burgers and fries looking eerily similar to In-n-out burger but the logo said Cali Burger. The paper fries dish and paper bag had red and yellow palm tree logos. And then Dave began filling me in on how it began as a blatant rip-off of one of my faves from home- In-N-out Burger (he's also from Cali) and their lawsuit with In-n-out. AND how cheap they were. 40 rmb for a combo meal!

In September 2011, In-N-Out filed a lawsuit, alleging CaliBurger's actions led to "substantial damages" and "irreparable harm." -Los Angeles times wrote it up here.

My friend boycotted Cali Burger until things got worked out with In-n-out. In-n-out is know for their "secret" menu, including "Animal style" which Cali burger also had (Their website claims they registered it internationally, whereas In-n-out only had it in the States) but currently their website has "Wild style".

In-n-out did a one day "tasting" event here in Shanghai, flying over chefs, hosted by Sasha's. (Photo credit: Serious Eats)

I'm mos def gonna have to check this one out!

5239 7728

98 Yanping Lu, near Xinzha Lu 延平路98号，近新闸路

Rock! for Roots n Shoots

 "Planting trees on Earth Day seem like an appropriate thing to do,

 but raising a forest by attending a rock concert puts a new spin on

 helping the environment. Rock! Roots & Shoots fundraising concert

 will feature local Western bands The Horde, Boys Climbing Ropes,

 Moon Tyrant as well as Chinese bands, Gone Before Now, Da Bei, and

 Banana Monkey bring an eclectic mix of bilingual beats ranging from

 Shanghai-style American folk to Chinese punk."

 One of our friends works for Roots and Shoots, A Jane Goodall program, here in Shanghai. She helps do programs in

 the local migrant schools and is featured as the face of roots n

 shoots on a commercial running in taxi cabs here! We went to support

 her and a few international schools, and our comedian friend, Drew

 Saturday night.

 There was a really talented high school student playing guitar. He

 had shoulder length fluffy hair and bangs that kept getting in his

 face. The event began at 6pm with a bunch of pint sized people in

 "buy a tree" shirts running around convincing us to buy Shirts they

 painted. For 50 rmb you planted a tree in inner mongolia and got a

 cool decathlon Tee painted by grade school kids- each one unique!

 How could I say "no"? Laurie and I went through about all the shirts

 looking for the coolest ones. You can sponsor a tree planting on Taobao!

 They also gave away free pizza, and had a nice lounge area away from

 the concert hall (Mao livehouse) to sit and chat. It was a cool

 variety of music- from acoustic guitar, punk rock, and U2 sounding

 stuff and the last band brought all the foreigners in - Boys

 climbing ropes: a tall bearded Canadian, and a very petite asian

 singer. Not my type of music- I could barely hear her over the rest

 of the band and wondered what it sounded like when they practice? I

 really liked the Banana Monkey band. It was a group of asians- and

 the guitarist was all decked out in geek gear. They had some U2 -

 like songs, and very catchy upbeat songs that got the crowd on their

 feet. (The front row was sitting) Drew did 15 minutes of comedy,

 awesome as usual, with his "Pointy menu" joke and the phone call

 joke- which I won't give away here!

 Since we got free tix (for my birthday!) we bought a load of raffle

 tickets and anxiously hoped for our numbers to be called. 1st round

 nothing- they gave away 800 rmb of chocolate, a whole case of wine,

 dinners at element fresh. 2nd round came around 11pm and I was

 really tired and ready to head home. They called the numbers and we

 got the last two prizes! A hang out with the cricket club, and a

 weekend stay at the marriot! woo hoo!