Suunto Elementum Terra
I do not wear a watch, for my iPhone gives me all the information I would get from one, and I do not need the status symbol or fashion statement. Nevertheless, I have a keen appreciation for fine horlogerie, and I like timekeeping pieces that push the information envelope beyond the one of a typical smartphone. A perfect example comes from Finland, with the recently released Suunto Elementum Terra, which includes altimeter, barometer, and compass (the later being available on the iPhone 3GS).
Adopting Twitter
Over the past couple of weeks, I have started to use Twitter to push some updates on Intalio, my traveling, and some elements of my personal life. My Twitter feed is available at @ghalimi, and syndicates feeds for both IT|Redux (professional blog) and ghalimi.name (personal blog). Moving forward, I will use ghalimi.name for any article longer than 140 characters.
Duravit Inipi Sauna
I love sauna, but finding the proper place to put one in one’s dwelling can be a challenge. Duravit solved this problem with the Inipi sauna, which can be installed in any room and combines sauna and shower into a single unit. I will definitely include one of these into our next housing project.
Zoho Artforms No. 1
I just came across the Zoho Artforms No. 1, a wonderful piece of craftmanship. It is made of bronze and stainless steel, measures 17 inches, weights 16 lbs, and has a total of 798 parts, of which 101 are found in each hand. Amazing!
La Machine à Ecrire le Temps
Here is a fantastic piece of machinery (movie).
Totally useless, utterly beautiful.
Concord C1 Tourbillon Gravity
A watch is essentially useless. In today’s modern world, everyone is carrying a cellphone, which does everything a watch can do, and more. Therefore, a watch can be considered the ultimate luxury, and a luxury watch the most luxurious possession one could own. I’m not really into luxury, but the pointlessness of luxury watches sometimes captures my imagination. Recently, I came across the Concord C1 Tourbillon Gravity, and I must say that the visible vertical tourbillon mechanism is quite nice.
New Diet
A year and a half ago, I started working on my diet, reducing carbs and meat consumption, and taking a handful of dietary supplements, while developing a fairly aggressive workout plan. A few months into it, I began traveling extensively, and did not find the discipline required for keeping it together. This week, I started exercising again, and came back to a much healthier diet. I updated my list of dietary supplements, and stopped eating meat altogether. My daily intake of proteins comes from fish, peas, rice, and soy. In order to keep the pace while traveling extensively, I decided to stay only in hotels that have a fitness center, and to spice travels to foreign locations by making strictly localized and temporary exceptions to my diet: from now on, I will eat beef in Japan only, poultry in France only, and lamb in Arabic-speaking countries only. Next trip abroad: Tokyo, for a good serving of shabu-shabu.
Photography Project
I have been doing photography for the past 20 years or so, with architecture and landscapes as primary areas of interest. Recently, the announcement of the RED DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) gave me some inspiration. For the next 20 years, I will focus my photography work on developing a process for capturing buildings and landscapes in ultra-high resolution, processing RAWs using HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging techniques, and producing very large prints. My objectives is to reproduce on prints the impressions one gets when looking at an inspiring building or a breathtaking landscape. Developing the right printing process will certainly become the most challenging part of the project. I want prints to be of very large size (12 feet and up), to display an analog grain (no visible pixels), and to be durable (with no visible degradation over a period of 100 years at least). Next step? Acquire an EPIC FF35 and EPIC 617 when they become available, and when my budget allows it.
New Blog Design
This blog is almost three years old now, and a new design was long overdue. After much considerations, I opted for something very clean, turning the sidebar into a footer, and using colors only for pictures, which were added for the first time a couple of weeks ago while May, Neige and I were in Oʻahu. The new design is based on the DePo Clean Theme and is gracing a brand new instance of WordPress 2.5 migrated from Yahoo! to 1&1, thanks to Pascal’s help. Home, sweet home!
iPhone
Returning home after a long trip abroad is always nice, but today was even better, for a brand spanking new iPhone was waiting for me. Our good friend Dave was kind enough to pick one up on his way back from work, so I would not have to wait in line at the store on my way back from Japan. I quickly activated it, and spent a fair amount of time marveling at the amazingly sleek form factor and snappy user interface. I already knew the device would be great, but what Apple just delivered certainly beats any expectations I could have had. Congratulations to Dave and his team — you’ve definitely set a new standard! And looking back at how fast the iPod evolved in just five years, I simply cannot wait to see what iPhone 2.0 will be like.
Zip Nuvo
Today was our last day in Tokyo, and we took advantage of some free time for a tour of Asakusa and a hunt for the newest gadgests in Akihabara. We spent a fair amount of time at Yodobashi Akiba, quite possibly the biggest eletronics store in Japan, then wandered in the busy streets of Electric City looking for robots. Our search remained largely unsuccessful, until my friend Reynald took us in a hidden store full of the latest humanoid robots produced by companies such as Hitec Robotics or Kondo. My favorite was the nuvo produced by Zip and designed by Ken Okuyama. Its design reminded me of the robots living on Laputa, the castle in the sky featured in Tenkuu no Shiro Rapyuta, my favorite movie from Hayao Myazaki. We ended the day with an all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu dinner. Many thanks to Reynald for his local guidance.
Tea Ceremony
Today, I attended my first traditional tea ceremony, organized by Nagura San and performed by her student Sawada San. The ceremony took place at Nagura San’s ocha seki, a room specially designed for the practice of this ancient ceremony brought by the Japanese priest Eisai (1141-1215) when he returned from Buddhist studies in China. The experience is a truly exceptional one, which perfectly demonstrates the exquisite sophistication of the Japanese culture. Following two cups served by our host, Jacques-Alexandre and I got to prepare our own cups, learning along the way that we will need quite a bit of practice before we could serve anything worthy of even the most humble guest. As a point of reference, Sawada San has been studying the art of the tea ceremony for over twenty years. Many thanks to Nagura San and Sawada San for this mazing experience.
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