Category Archives: Personal

The Nauga Monster

One of these days I’m going to buy myself a Nauga Monster, you may not believe it but this little guy is vintage.

In the 1960′s Uniroyal created a synthetic fabric called Naugahyde which was an alternative to leather used for furniture. According to Uniroyal, this vinyl/faux-leather came from an animal they imagined, called the Nauga Monster, who became the company’s mascot. These Nauga Monsters shed their skin naturally, leaving no Nauga’s harmed in the manufacturing of their furniture goods. To learn more about the history of Naugahyde, visit their website.

This stuffed faux-leather toy stands 11″ tall and 16″ wide, he became the friendly face of Uniroyal’s promotional efforts. They offered a free Nauga doll with each Naugahyde reupholstering. It is rumored that furniture designer, Charles Eames is the creator of the monster but I’m yet to find official documentation of this.

Eames House of Cards

In 1952, Charles and Ray Eames designed the House of Cards – interlocking pictures and patterns. Each design was inspired by nature and culture so the Eameses selected textures from animals, minerals, food, fabrics and patterns.

I finally got myself a set of these cards, totally excited to have found the 1952 version.

2012 Resolution

I’ve found that setting a resolution for the new year has been effective in making me a better person so I put a lot of thought into what it is about myself that I want to work on. These past few weeks have been pretty hectic inside and out so I’ve finally decided, my new year’s resolution is to be more patient – take things lightly and to have a more peaceful state of mind.

There IS a such thing as self-taught

I’ve always considered myself “self-taught” because I don’t have a formal education in design or development, it’s always been my hobby. The other day I read that a developer/designer cannot be self taught because we’re always learning from each other and it made me question myself. Is there a such thing as self taught?

Since most of my learning came from reading other peoples code and studying their pixels, I’d have to agree that a lot of what I know has been learned from others and that I never would have written HTML or CSS if I hadn’t seen it elsewhere. But how is learning from each other any different from learning in an institution? Whether your in a class room or your at home viewing the source of other people’s code, it’s still learning from somewhere but that’s not the point.

There is something special about this idea of being self taught, it doesn’t refer to where or how you get your information, it’s about the drive to learn without a teacher. I was not formally trained to write code, so I attribute this education to my own curiosity and persistence. Everything I’ve done up to this point is my own, it’s not more mine than it would be if I were trained in an institution.

Today is My Birthday

It got me thinking about how lucky I am to have so many unconditional friendships: people who love me no matter what. I believe that a good part of me is a summary of everyone I’ve ever met and so I’m especially grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life. Thank you for having faith in me and teaching me new things, I’m looking forward to so much more.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find.

Steve Jobs Quote

I love this steve jobs quote, from his speech at Stanford, I think about it often.

I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

I am happy to say it’s been a long time since I consistently looked in the mirror said “No.”