Travel Search by Price and Location

Kinnon forwarded me this from the blog kottke.org, and I couldn’t resist posting here.

Kayak, the travel index website, has launched a feature called Kayak Explore.  You go to this webpage, set some parameters (starting point, price range, activity, etc) and it will give you a map of destinations, overlaid with prices.  I dream of travel all the time – I often don’t even care where I’m going, as long as it’s someplace new.  I’m limited by my budget though, so this is a great tool for quickly checking where I can afford to fly to.

Favourite Things: BBC Radio 1 Scotland

If you haven’t already noticed, I love Scotland and all-things-Scottish.  Since I have no plans to return to the Highlands anytime soon, I get my Scottish fix by listening to BBC Radio 1 Scotland online.  I like to tune in throughout the day, but you can pretty much guarantee that I’ll be listening weekdays between 9-11am (Toronto time).  That’s when the Tom Morton show is on – an excellent mix of pop music (new and old), witty Scottish banter, and Scottish news. If you can’t listen live, you can download podcasts of the show here.

You can listen to all the BBC radio stations online here.  And if you want BBC Radio 1 Scotland, click here.

Drama and Desire at the AGO

While you’re reading this, I’m at the AGO.  (unless you’re reading this later than when it’s posted, in which case I’m probably back at my desk)

A few months ago, after returning from New York full of arty inspiration, Kinnon and I got memberships to the AGO.  Which means we can go anytime for free, and we get into exhibits before the general public.  So this morning we’re checking out the new “Drama and Desire” exhibit at the gallery.  (going to the art gallery during normal business hours is a perk of the freelance lifestyle)

For two people that met in Theatre School, I really can’t think of a more perfect exhibit.  But somehow I’m a bit skeptical that it could be cornball.  I’ll let you know when I get back.

Update: Yeah, the exhibit was just okay.  I think for people that didn’t spend 4 years studying the connection between visual art and theatre, this would be really mind-blowing.  But I didn’t find it all that enlightening.  But I did get to see the Palm Sunday installation, and that made it all worthwhile.

Headin’ to the Desert

We love travelling through home exchange.  We swap houses with other people around the world – they stay in our house, and we stay in theirs.  It’s free, and a great way to travel.  If you saw the movie The Holiday, with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, it’s like that.  We organize our home exchanges through a website: HomeExchange.com

Ian and I have done 2 previous home exchanges (to Vancouver Island and Mexico), and have just confirmed our 3rd.  In September, we’re heading to Palm Springs, California.  We’re so excited – our exchange partner has a gorgeous condo with 3 swimming pools and many other nice amenities!  It’s like going to a resort, for free. (that’s a photo of the place up there)

We’ve never been to the desert, so we’re pumped to explore the surrounding area, including Joshua Tree National Park.  Fingers crossed it won’t be too hot (30-35 degrees is not unusual in September).  And Palm Springs has a large concentration of mid-century modern architecture and furniture – it’s gonna be like living in Mad Men.  So excited!

Great Idea: Woolly Wall

A few years ago, I saw a living wall in an office building, and I thought it was the coolest thing.  I’ve wanted one in my house every since, but I was concerned it would be complicated (do I have to reinforce the wall because of the weight, how do you water the plants, will they receive proper drainage, etc).

Yesterday I saw this cool “sneak peak” on Design*Sponge, featuring many green walls made with WoollyPocket’s Wally Planters.  These look so easy!  They have watering and drainage covered, and they’re pretty simple to install on your wall – just use a few anchors for extra support.

We have an outdoor herb garden (that’s currently being attacked by slugs), but it only works for the summer months.  It would be great to hang some Wally Planters in the kitchen, and have a year-round herb and veggie garden.

Letterpress Workshop

[top image: Kinnon’s letterpress projects.  She has mad skills.  bottom image: my letterpress project, based on a quote from Samuel Beckett.  A fitting passage for my lack of skills.]

On Saturday, Kinnon and I attended an “intro to letterpress” workshop at Kozo Studio.  All of the print design work I do is designed on the computer and printed on digital presses, so working by hand on old-school presses was a real change.  Things that are so easy to do on the computer (layout changes, kerning letters, justifying text) is NOT so easy to do by hand.  But it’s so much more rewarding when you get it right!

I was a bit disappointed to learn that “real” letterpress work doesn’t actually impress/indent on the paper.  The ink should just “kiss” the paper, leaving a print, but not a pushed-down indentation in the paper.  Our instructor taught us that pushing so hard as to make an impression on the paper is hard on your metal type (it wears it down quickly).  But it’s so popular now to use letterpress to get the indent on the paper on purpose.  That’s what sets it apart from digital printing – there’s so much texture that you can’t get with digital. If I were to do more letterpress work, I’d say “to hell with the metal type” and definitely make indentations in the paper.

Overall, I had a great time, but learned that I am not so good with movable type.  It takes too much time to position your letters properly.  If I were to do letterpress projects, I would design them on the computer and have photopolymer plates created.  Then I could take the plates and run those through the press.

Now I have even more respect for printers and those that are doing letterpress work by hand.   Just look at this blog post from our instructor at Kozo Studio – that’s pretty insane.  And cool.

I want to live here.

I just saw this home on The Selby, and I am having a massive case of house-envy.  I want to live here.  Or, I want my house to look like this.  I’m really into natural texture lately, and I love all the wood in this home.  It looks so crisp against the white walls and painted white floor.

You can see all the pictures on The Selby, or check out the homeowners’ design firm, The Brooklyn Home Company.  More pictures are there too.

Funny on Friday: Grandma’s Google Call


Today’s Funny on Friday is thanks to Ian, who showed me the clip below.  Apparently it was making its way around the nerd websites, but I missed it.

This is an audio recording of somebody’s Grandma calling some sort of tech support (not Google) asking how to remove the playable Pacman game that Google put up on its homepage on May 22 (Pacman’s 30th birthday).  Apparently Pacman was making some noise, driving Grandma crazy.  Listen to the clip, and be awed by the tech support guy’s amazing patience.  And if you want to play Google Pacman, it’s still online here.

Inspiration: Paper Art

I just saw this post from a few days ago on Smashing Magazine – it’s a round-up of beautiful paper art.  I am amazed and inspired – these paper cuts and paper art pieces are pretty unbelievable.  Like that picture above, of the “Paper Craft Castle On The Ocean” by Japanese art student Wataru Itou.  He built it all by hand, out of paper (complete with lights and a moving train), over the course of 4 years.  Click here for more pictures of the Paper Craft Castle, and here for all the other paper art on Smashing Magazine.

Luxury Travel for Stupid Cheap

I was reading the Globe and Mail on the weekend, and saw a little blurb in the travel section about a website called Off & Away.  It’s a hotel suite auction site, where you can bid on 5-star luxury hotel suites for ridiculous prices (bids start at $0.25). A recent package for a 2-night stay at a posh hotel in Chicago went for $100, and 3 nights in a gorgeous suite near Cancun went for $60.  Insane!

I’ve been watching the site for a few days now, trying to figure out how it works, and trying to figure out what the catch is.  The catch is this – if you want to bid on a hotel package,  you have to “buy” bids.  And bids cost about a dollar each.  I’ve watched a few auctions, and the winner has used anywhere between 20-100 bids to get the deal.  Not so bad if you’re the winner, but if you’re the runner-up, you basically lose that money.  Of course, Off & Away says you can use your losing bids as a credit towards booking hotels with them, but I’m assuming those aren’t the cheap ones.

If you want to try it, read the “How It Works” section of the website, watch a few auctions to see how it’s played, and then jump in there and start bidding.

Update: You can now buy bids on Off and Away from Canada.  You couldn’t previously.  Thanks Hilary for the tip!