Southern J

New digs.

2010-05-06T20:57:00.001-07:00

I've moved this blog over to southernj.com in order to have more control over the design, posting frequency, and, frankly, to play more.

KC's Union Station

2010-04-09T11:34:00.001-07:00

(Click for larger view.)

{Harvey House Diner}

{Clock and hall}

New Beetle Days

2010-03-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

With my beloved Clubby in the shop for a few days, I once again found myself with a replacement vehicle. Alas, this time the dealership was plumb out of real MINIs, so they turned me over to the nice folks at the Rent-A-Car-Within-A-Dealership who traded my Amex for a loaner vehicle. The nice man behind the counter, apparently forgetting that I had just left my MINI, “You want a big car or something small?” Heh, something small, please. I pictured something small and sporty; he apparently was just thinking of small.

A loaner is better than a test drive or a rental. Test drives are too short and rentals cost actual money. Since the Clubby is under warranty, this one’s on MINI’s dime. Having spent a few days with the vee-dub, I’m passing along my notes.

With only a few grand on the odometer, this is indeed a 2010 VW "New" Beetle. The wear is minimal, although I swear the last guy who borrowed it loved his cigars. The equipment is basic and includes synthetic leather as well as a six-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic® control. The exterior is candy white, also known as feminine ivory.

The Good

The engine is pretty smooth and has ample power at speed. On the freeway, the little dub did fine in the left lane. The car feels heavier than its small shape would indicate, but as a result it feels planted most of the time. The turning radius is quite tight and, except for body roll that makes fast cornering less than thrilling, I get the sense the diminutive wheels would do quite well on skinny roads or metropolitan cities.

The dash is attractive and the controls, including the radio, are sensibly laid out and symmetrical. When darkness falls and the headlights come on, the dash lights up in a pleasing blue with really good contrast and a nice vibe. Psychologically, I liked the car more at night than during the day for this reason.

The Not-So-Good

While I didn’t have anything that I outright hated, there was much that was underwhelming in the New Beetle. The environmental controls seem to have been done hastily by someone very, very tall. The air vents didn’t ever point downward; it was either at my neck or over my head. This, combined with the overzealous fan speeds, meant that I spent a great deal of time turning the fan on and off while fiddling with the vent directions. I much prefer climate control that required less intervention.

The engine is underpowered. Although not the most gutless thing I’ve driven, it was definitely rental-class. At low speeds, especially in coast-and-go environments like a parking lot, the Beetle just doesn’t have grunt. The result is that moving at 5-10 miles per hour is jerky. Turn on the a/c and the power disappears entirely. In addition, while cruising speeds and normal acceleration are smooth, passing isn’t impressive. At 65, flooring the throttle results in around a one-second lag before the transmission ungracefully drops into 4th and spins the rpm’s up high enough that the torque curve is over.

Another puzzling dichotomy is the round-box thing. This car is round on the outside; really, really round. It’s hard to ignore, especially when looking at the interior roof. However, everything else about the interior seems built like a cube. The dash is flat. The doors are flat. And the seats? Flat, flat, flat. This makes the car look wider than it actually is, but in reality makes the front seat a little short and the back seat quite cramped. In this case, the difference is enough to make the feel more obvious than the appearance.

The Verdict

The vee-dub really isn't a bad car, but it's not anywhere close to exciting. Women overwhelming liked it while a good friend's 15-year-old said he wouldn't be caught dead driving one. And thus my epiphany: if you want to keep your 16-year-old boy away from the wheel, get him a 2010 New Beetle in candy white. It will spend all its time in the driveway.

Snow in August! Er, February

2010-02-15T15:18:00.001-08:00

Less frequently than a blue moon is actual snowfall around Atlanta, at least for the years I’ve been here. Although I’m used to much deeper drifts from my upbringing in the Rockies, snow here catches the locals completely off guard. I’m amazed at how utterly things shut down.

Despite the human chaos, the birds still chirp (and eventually come back to their man-made birdhouse when the photographer stops startling them).

The MINI’s bike rack just tucks in for a few cold nights until it warms up. For now at least, I’m determined to leave that rack on there in a show of defiance against any cold.

iPad is the new Black

2010-02-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

“You know the hardest thing about being smart? I always pretty much know what’s going to happen next. There’s no suspense.”
— Billy Bob Thorton in Bandits

These days, friends and colleagues routinely ask for my take on new technology, particularly from Apple. The iPad is the current topic.

I really can't get around the name and I know that this is the most obvious thing about it. I can only hope we collectively come up with some other way to refer to the iPad because I feel like Apple just threw me the keys to a shiny new Porsche but there's a catch; it's hot pink.

There's no doubt for me that Apple hit the concept square on. Smart-but-clueless* people have been trying to get the tablet concept right for years. Dismissing the iPad just because it falls between two products, like the iPhone and a MacBook is stupid. Every tech company with a future is staring at this space; it's why the netbook even exists. So give Apple credit for seeing what others see. Of course this only gets them in the game.

Where most pundits and critics publishing exuberantly negative reviews miss is that Apple nailed the iPad's execution. The critics missed this on the iPhone and seem to have learned little since then. In a nutshell, the iPhone didn't produce better specs; it didn't do more; it didn't even do less. The iPhone's breakthrough is that it made its owners super productive (relative to Blackberry and Palm people) and brought smiles to their glowing faces while doing it.

Think about it: The iPhone is the first phone that users can't use enough of. AT&T, Verizon, and T-mo never complained about those 'blasted Blackberry users' consuming too much of the network. The iPhone created a cycle of hyper consumption (users) and creation (developers) where both sides keep coming back for more. In the years that I had a Blackberry, I don't think I ever went back to the developer for an updated app. The Blackberry didn't change my life, at best it made my time more efficient. In contrast, the iPhone is great because I use it for different tasks altogether, not to make the old ones faster.

The iPad will change your life, if you want it to.

“I love Apple computers. I’m obsessed. My MacBook challenges me: ‘What are you going to write that is worthy of me?’”
— J. J. Abrams

The iPad will change our fundamental definition of a flat tablet because it changes the way we interact with it. For example, I foresee this changing the entire way I do presentations.

A few weeks ago I did an in-person presentation for a couple of smart potential clients in their conference room. After my video adapter failed on me, I defaulted back to their in-room laptop hooked up to a projector screen 25 feet away. The presentation consisted of me making a statement, them asking a question, all of us turning our heads to look in the same direction toward the screen, and then snapping my head back and forth to get their reactions. It was impossible to read their body language—let alone quickly react to it—using this method.

How different would the meeting go if I pulled out a sleek iPad. "Wow," they'd say, "that's really slick." (Every college student knows that you put your paper in the best binder you can afford.) I show them websites and designs while holding the iPad out in front of me; when I want to hit a point home, I just flip the iPad upward and use it's self-rotating sensors or even push the iPad across the table. Now I can read body language and respond to it faster. I would think, "That guy seems intrigued by the user interface example I'm showing. I'll slide him the iPad and let him tap around the example himself."

I've never seen a presentation where two people that weren't familiar or comfortable with each other sat shoulder-to-shoulder to look at a MacBook screen at the same time but I have seen two or more lean over a piece of white paper or a notebook countless times. The iPad is the future of hover-and-study.

A word on Flash. Flash isn’t dead but it’s not becoming more relevant. Most complaints I've read on the lack of Flash support point to its unique ability to show dynamic, interactive content. This misses the point. HTML5 and AJAX aren’t gearing to replace Flash’s functionality but rather its relevance. Flash is a stable wrapper for content beyond HTML's current capability, however, the content itself is changing. Decrying the lack of Flash on the iPad assumes that what people want from the iPad is only a more portable version of their desktop. No, people will want their iPad to do things that no existing website or device can.

*Smart-but-clueless people make up 95% of the tech industry. These are the people who work on the future but hesitate to actually create something that doesn't exist. They coined the phrase, "Nobody got fired for buying IBM." Their opinions have no real effect on what Apple creates.

Favorite High Points of ’09

2009-12-31T10:06:00.000-08:00

When my second child was younger she often walked around holding her ‘favorite’ toy. After a few weeks I realized that the toy would change but the moniker would not. She had a lot of favorites and that was just cool.

I’ve decided I’m not dissimilar. My old favorites don’t lose their status just because a new favorite comes along; they just get added to the pile. Among the steady stream of dismal economic reports in 2009 there were several pick-me-ups.

Favorite Get Up and Dance — Grand by Matt & Kim

A young duo from Brooklyn that make me remember what it is like to be youthful and carefree. Grand’s most recognizable track is Daylight, which is probably the most exuberantly brilliant song I’ve heard in much more than a year. It is well balanced and cut, but seems to lack the over-production and corporate feel of most music including the alternative genre. Most importantly, it just makes me happy.

Every year needs a series of devil-may-care, get-out-of-my-way-while-I-conquer-the-world songs. This wasn't the only one in '09 for me, but it started the ball rolling and I play it any time I want my day's tempo to pick up a bit.

Favorite Time Behind the Wheel — BMW 135i

After losing my beloved MCS to the flood of ’09, I shook off the shock and moved onto one of my favorite of life’s tasks: car shopping. Specifically, car shopping for me. I typically compile a long list and drive anything that strikes my fancy. Although I tend to gravitate back toward predictable marquees, I am truly open to something surprising me. Alas, there’s a reason that BMW keeps getting my money: they get what it means to love the road.

Topping the M3, the A4, and the Hyundai Accent I rented in SLC, the hour I spent test-driving a 135i was the most grin-inducing, heart rate-elevating drive of the year. It is predictably tight and controllable like a roller coaster with a jet engine on the back and a direct link to afterburners with just a squeeze of the calf muscle. It was impossible to drive this car sanely. And thus it was disqualified from consideration; my budget doesn’t have room for $500/month in speeding tickets.

Favorite Replacement MINI — Clubman S

Typing out my reasons for the Clubman after writing about the 135i sounds like a little league coach telling a bunch of 10-year-olds that there’s nothing wrong with finishing the tournament in second place. It’s all a bunch of rationalization trying to convince myself that pragmatism is really important, too.

There’s a decent point in there, though. Something I learned while having a car ten years ago that I was often afraid to drive for fear of being scratched, breathed on, or tailed by a cruiser with flashing lights. I’d rather have a car that gets driven and enjoys the road, potholes and all, than one that makes me sweat every time the $750 rims get close to a toll booth.

My ‘09 Clubman S is this car. Take everything I loved about the ’06 MCS, subtract a little bit of sport, and then add on heaps of space, smoothness, aesthetics, and a bike rack. I’m pretty sure I didn’t take the prior MINI for granted during the half-dozen 2000+ mile road trips (it crossed Rockies 8 times), but I can see the Clubman S doing even more. My first road trip is already scheduled for mid-January.

Favorite Life Device — iPhone 3GS

When I was in grade school, my teacher—who I probably had a crush on—handed out flimsy newspaper-like packets to the class so we could read aloud. I recall reading stories about the future holding promises of flying cars, vacations on the moon, and reliable Social Security checks. Being the sharp kid I was, I knew deep down that these things are absolute myths that weren’t in my future.

Funny thing is, the iPhone was every bit as futuristic as those things but would have made sense anyway. What kid wouldn't dream about a computer to carry around that told them about weather, traffic, news, food, their weight gain from that food, and the direction of North? As a bonus, every so often it gets a signal strong enough to make phone calls.

I've no shame stating I had my iPhone on the day it was released and I upgraded to the 3GS almost exactly two-years later. And wow. The speed and faster connection make me feel like I'm connected to this expansive sky with all the information I can dream about. It has replaced my MacBook Pro as the most useful tool I have.

Favorite Thank Heaven for Unlimited Data Plans App — Pandora

I find myself more and more untethered. There is no land line at home or studio. I haven’t watched broadcast tv in 4 years. And except for one news station, my car’s radio presets are still on their factory settings.

However, these days I read more news, keep up with tv shows, watch movies, listen to radio shows, and stay connected to the internet perpetually. Automatically syncing news feeds, podcasts, iTunes music, and AppleTV are vastly more efficient than the old system of living by the broadcasters’ schedules.

Pandora’s streaming radio, working like an iTunes Genius playlist, plays songs that I know and many, many that I’m discovering. It’s not just a brilliant concept, it actually changes my day for the better.

Favorite Improvement to a Disappointment — Magic Mouse

After losing the name "Mighty," Apple dubbed their new wireless pointing device as "Magic." It's a fitting name. Although the concept of the previous mouse with it's 'scroll pea' was solid, in practice I found myself cleaning the doggone pea several times a day just so I could keep panning around huge Illustrator files. I stuck with it, really, really wanting the feature to work but it continually let me down. For finite control I often used the trackpad on my MacBook Pro because I could just slide my fingers around the surface.

The Magic Mouse is the mouse I've wanted for the last twenty years. (Yes, I had a NeXT in 1990 with a passable mouse.) Because the whole surface is a trackpad, I move my wrist less while just sliding fingers around in any direction. It never gums up, and it is weighted well. I've always felt that a mouse, like shoes and a bed, is worth spending money on since I'm connected to it almost constantly.

Favorite Story Disguised as a Kids' Movie — Up

I'm astounded at how much of my money and praise Steve Jobs gets. Pixar is full of really creative people who understand me. They know that the most important part of any movie is the storytelling. Flat-out, Pixar's stories are consistently better than their competitors'.

The greatest thing about Up is that Pixar was willing to deviate from a known formula and create a kid's movie that not only entertains adults, it depresses all of them first. /Spoiler alert./ My young kids aren't thrilled that the first minutes of Up cover unfulfilled dreams, the hospital, and death. In fact, I don't think they like it at all. (They insist on skipping over the first 5 minutes of Finding Nemo, too.) But I dig it; it endears the movie to me and means that not every great accomplishment is one I set up when I was in my teens, or twenties.

MINI 50th Ads, eh?

2009-11-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

Communication Arts has an article profiling some of the ads MINI is running in Canada for its 50th birthday. MINI ads are always worth a gander, even if it's just to spot which ones you haven't seen yet.

If I had a box big enough, I'd collect every ad made. It would have to be a big box, though.

MINIs Make Roads Curvier

2009-11-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

Writing for Design Observer, Owen Edwards pontificates on the lack of reality connecting urban jungle-esque car advertising to actual gridlocked, asphalt-only conditions. Then he bought a Cooper S and the back roads became something as great as the promise.

My Clubman S and I are inclined to agree and we know just where to find such roads.

MINI Cooper S Clubman

2009-10-19T04:08:00.000-07:00

After being MINI-less for the last 4 weeks, my driveway is once again comforted by the sweet blanket of go-karted-ness. As it turns out, MINI's hold their value extremely well (not really a surprise to most motorers) so my insurance covered the losses on my flooded MCS nicely.

I wanted a 2009 year model, in order to take advantage of the low financing right now. So, after an extensive search covering dealers in 4 states, I narrowed the choice of options down to 22, then 4, then 2. When the dust settled, the family set out for a short 2.5 hour road trip to Greenville, South Carolina (also known as Spartanburg to BMW aficionados). The dealership was professional and after a short stay I left with a '09 Clubman S.

I've always carefully broken in new engines—this is my seventh—and been rewarded with better gas mileage, smoother torque curves, and so on. So the route back had to fall within the constraints, including varying speeds, no fast acceleration or braking, and no revs above 4000.

I carefully, and at times whimsically, plotted a route back that avoids freeways and multi-lane highways. Mostly I pointed the car toward the national parks and headed off toward the back country, stopping frequently for leg stretching and enjoying the scenery.

Because the Clubman does not have a rear hinge, the Saris Bones rack won't hang on the car reliably. (The rubber lip is the only thing that would feasibly provide grip, but it's too flimsy and juts out past the window too fat to hold the weight, or bounce, of the loaded Bones rack.) And because I have to move my bike(s) with this car, I elected for the factory rack and fork-mounted tray. I haven't noticed louder noise levels from the rack, but I don't think I cleared 60mph the whole way back, so the story is still unfolding.

And anyway, I'm just happy to be motoring again.

Quick Pic 1

2009-10-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

'06 MCS in Chattanooga, happy on vacation.

More Weekend

2009-10-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

In my recap of 2008 I noted Vampire Weekend as a group to watch. They've got my back.

Although their new album won't be out until January 2010, the single 'Horchata' is available on their website for free. To kick off the new-car weekend (update forthcoming) I'm going to make Horchata the official Weekend track.

Saris Bones Wrap, with a Twist

2009-10-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping notes about the Saris Bones rack on my MINI Cooper S on and off in anticipation of a thorough post following up my original note from July 2008, which to date drives most of traffic to this blog. The story took a bit of a twist while I drafted it.

The good news is that the Saris Bones (I've got the 2-bike variety) is really a phenomenal rack. It's my favorite trunk rack of all time, although I admit I've only had 3 or 4 over the years. Still, it's the only one that I've loved using. It really is simple to put on and off the MINI once you've done it a few times because the rear is so vertical. I just hook the top two clips and cinch them to take out the slack (but not tight). The sides go on and then the bottom. I opened the hatch a few inches, hooked the bottom, took out the slack in those and then evenly shut the tail. The result is that the hatch would shut, the bottom straps become tight, but as long as I didn't make the straps too tight before closing the hatch, the rack wouldn't jar.

I personally used the Bones only to move my mountain bike around. For my road bike, I really do prefer the front-wheel-off-handle-bars-hooked-sideways-over-the-passenger-seat maneuver I discovered in a MINI forum long ago. The fit was perfect, the effort to get it in and out of the car was minimal (keep in mind I'm referring to an 18-lb. road bike), and I never had to worry about my Cannondale falling off the back of the car.

A trade-off I noticed is that with my road bike inside the car, once I pulled the bike out I had access to all my gear (helmet, gloves, shoes, water bottle, and pump). This was a really convenient way to transport everything and still have access to it at the appropriate times. With the Bones on the back, the hatch stays closed at the trailhead. So access to my gear had to come via the driver's door. After a couple of outings, I found I'd leave the back seats folded flat and put the main items (helmet, gloves, shoes) on the floor behind the driver's seat. This way I didn't have to lean back into the car in order to gear up.

Trade offs aside, I've gotten used to how easy the Bones is to move around, how I loved not worrying out how wet it got, and how great it looked. Alas, it was not to last. On the morning of Sep. 21, it started raining.

By the time the parking lot flooded with a few inches of rain, the street—my only exit—had filled enough that I had no chance of getting a MINI through the waters. So my red, '06 MCS took its chances with the rising water.

I moved the MINI to higher ground; you can see it poking out from behind the trees in the upper corner. It wasn't enough.

The MINI completely succumbed to the muddy, rushing water before dusk. Before I get comments asking why I didn't move the car even further up the parking lot, I'll point out that at this point the water was already three-feet higher than my parking spot next to my building. I had no idea how fast or high the flood waters would reach. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. After nightfall the water level continued to rise. The entire parking lot was affected as water rose for several hours after I took this picture. Eventually the fire department rescued me via boat.

In the end, the MINI is only a car. (And anyway, we said our goodbyes and exchanged cards and loving glances as the water was rising.) I'm shopping for a replacement right now, with a diminishing chance that the Bones will fit on the newcomer. In any event, I hope that the Bones notes I was able to write help as many motorers as possible; after all, that's the best part about the MINI: sharing the good stuff.

Rose Pedal Jersey

2009-09-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Back in April, a group of fellow cyclists pulled off a very successful (according to our own standards) cycling event dubbed the Rose Pedal. A mere 12 weeks later the custom clothing arrived and it looks great. Really great. Only the jersey is pictured, but I can't recommend the full-zippered beauty enough.

If anyone happens to live within event distance of Canton, GA (just north of Atlanta), I encourage you to come out for next year's ride. (It'll most likely be April. Watch the website for details.) I'll be working on a fresh design for the 2010 jersey as well; we had about two dozen kits picked up for '09 and hope to get a lot more into the hands of the riders next year.

MB Demographics

2009-09-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

This doesn't change my outlook on the world in any way, but I noticed that M-B is making assumptions about me. While perusing mbusa.com on my iPhone, the only option is to view stats and pictures of the E-Class. While I can appreciate that creating a mobile site just for the iPhone is tough and expensive for such a small company, I'm more curious why the E-Class is the car of choice for Apple-toting-yuppies. I mean, how did they know?

Then just now, while perusing the options on a GL550 (alas, not for me) I noted that "no additional packages are available" beyond the standard configuration.

I mean, hey, if I'm laying out the $82 grand for an SUV that doesn't belong within 50 feet of dirt, I'm going to want every option, right? So M-B anticipates this and puts it on there for me. It's like they've got all the world's fortune tellers locked up in their marketing department, just making one accurate predication after another about their target demographics. Or are they just guessing?

And One More MINI

2009-09-03T19:54:00.001-07:00

C&D reports that MINI will be producing two new models in Oxford. While one is confirmed to be the new Coupe with its styling akin to a college kid with a rear-facing baseball cap ducking at a surprise line drive, the other model is yet unnamed.

The most dismal part of this non-announcement is suspicion that MINI is not only going ahead with the Crossman but may also be considering a convertible version of the just-announced coupe. This prospect really got my creative juices going so I've created the following mockup showing what the coupe looks like without it's fixed top. I, uh, made it yellow.

I do hope I'm wrong on this one. The world doesn't need another Mister 2.

Shredded Get-My-Attention

2009-07-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

My kids are in the window where they have a preference for specific breakfast cereals but aren't old enough to refuse what I actually come home with.* Standing in front of one hundred feet of boxes, I usually take a few extra moments to look for trends in packaging design. Yeah, even though I love designing boxes, checking out cereal really isn't as cool as it sounds.

Standing in the aisle last night, this blue box jumped out at me. I typically like this style of design but find it less effective because of its simplicity in what I estimate to be largely an impulse buy. Thus, the more exciting or informative, the more likely someone grabs it. However, from what I saw, most cereal designers have this notion and they've simultaneously raced toward 'exciting,' thus saturating the effect. When I stepped about 5 feet back and looked down the aisle, I was amazed at how much this blue box stood out. Within a sea of at least one hundred boxes, no other package had this much visibility. So I bought it.

*Within reason; anything bran, granola, or a 40-something woman getting 'back in shape' is going to be boycotted by my kids.

New Chrysler

2009-06-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

Fiat's deal with Chrysler has closed. A collective sigh goes out amongst those of us nervously watching the auto industry for signs of change, improvement, and, possibly, life. The image below illustrates the significance of this specific change.

Chrysler source

I'm not typically this pessimistic, although I am cynical. I don't wish ill on any Chrysler people, however, I just can't shake the notion that this purchase means very little. The culprit of Chrysler's demise over the last few decades has been infusions of cash and 'new collaborations' when the company gets too close to the edge. The motivation to make meaningful change never happened and Chrysler never changed course. It just kicked the can down the road.

JD Power source

If you squint at the chart, you'll see that Fiat, who is saving Chrysler, is dead last on JD Power's 2009 Satisfaction Survey. Chrysler is second to last. I'm stuck wondering, again, how many times we'll see money poured into a company or initiative because it's easier than redefining the goal, the logistics, and the product. I hope that somehow Fiat and Chrysler take the next 18 months of downtime and create a new line of cars for a new audience that really wants to buy them. Cheaper versions of the current unenthusiastic products aren't going to cut it.

Spring in Atlanta

2009-06-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is what I love about the seasons here; it's just colorful.

My most useful camera

2009-05-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

I've long appreciated my iPhone's camera. Although the resolution is lower than other camera phones and it has no flash, it just takes better pictures. As friends and colleagues have slowly made the switch to iPhones—including the resistant, anti-Apple ones—I've taken an informal poll on the photo quality. It's unanimous, this thing takes the best photos.

The reason is quite simple: the preview screen is so large and clear that feedback is instantaneous. If the photo isn't just right, I just tilt the phone and fix it.

I impressed my wife the other day after she inadvertently threw the dog's tennis ball into the rain gutter. Enlisted to retrieve it, I discovered that my lawn chair (the handiest excuse for a ladder) was too short to do more than reach my hands above the gutter. I whipped out the iPhone, pointed it in both directions and snapped this picture.

(yep, it's that clear)

I moved the chair to the appropriate rivet and heroically retrieved the ball. So while my other cameras take outstanding pictures of stuff (kids, lighthouses), my iPhone is the one I use to get things done.

Rose Pedal Climb

2009-04-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

I really can't believe that a half-dozen hacks sitting around a table last July turned into the event pulled together on April 18th. (No offense intended at the other hacks involved.) Over 230 riders came to an inaugural event. I'm still completely floored at the amount of support, volunteers, and enthusiasm that showed up on a perfect Saturday morning.

There are a lot of things we could control and several that we have no influence on. The weather is a big one and it was perfect. So although we didn't do anything to bring on the great weather, I expect people to be talking for months (if not years) about how perfect, beautiful, and comfortable the ride was. So, so cool.

I spent about 3 hours driving the course and taking pictures. I'll be posting a set on the Rose Pedal site by early May '09. Also, if anyone wants some awesome Rose Pedal gear (jersey and/or bib shorts), let me know. We're placing an order on May 1.

The MINI got into the action, too.

DC Madness

2009-03-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

I spent most of last week in DC for a conference for Down syndrome leadership. As with most assemblies involving hundreds of people, most got along, some dissented, and a few ideological bombs were tossed. No offense to organizers or attendees who may stumble on this note; the highlight was Sunday morning, 6am, as I stood on the mall alone with the MCS.

55 minutes of no-traffic, all-green lights, light snow, empty city driving can feel like Midtown Madness. A lot like it, in fact, right down to the red-with-white-top MCS that my son and I always drive.

'08 MCS swap

2009-02-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

So I've got an arrangement with my MINI dealer wherein every several months or so we trade cars just for fun. They let me drive a new MINI for a day and I give them my Chili Red Cooper S. The last time we did this, they lent me a Tan '08 Cooper. This time I got a metallic Black Cooper S with bonnet stripes. They replaced my MAP sensor just for fun.

I actually like these one-day swaps for the opportunity to try out a car on more than a fixed loop within spitting distance of the dealer. It's not about unwinding the thing on the freeway or straightening a curvy mountain road. I enjoy the subtle nuances of starting the engine after a cold night and seeing how long it takes to warm up. How does it handle under the 90% driving style that doesn't resemble a test drive? How's that turbo lag when I'm stuck in stop-and-go traffic in town? With what name will my 6-year-old christen it?*

Without rehashing the interior changes from my last evaluation, I tallied a few notes about the differences in pre-'07 vs. post '07 S models (to wit, Supercharger vs. Turbo).

THE BAD
The turbo lag is there. Start softly and it audibly winds up, start a little more aggressively and it jerks on. It kicks in at lower speeds than the turbos of yesteryear, but every time I had to get moving from a standstill I could feel it.

The fuel gauge still drives me nuts. Why, oh why did they use a digital display that is less accurate than the analog? As the candy corns disappear, there is no correlation to how much fuel is left in the tank. For this I had to look at the computer display which shows the remaining distance on the fuel in the tank. They should have stuck with the remaining distance display and dropped the candy-corn gauge altogether.

The aforementioned computer display is really ugly. I really didn't like looking at it. It's not polished; it's not anti-aliased; it's not symmetrical. It doesn't look MINI. It's certainly no deal breaker, but I can't shake the feeling that the designers at MINI didn't design it. More likely, some VP got a really good deal on a bunch of them from a guy he knows.

THE GOOD
It's quick: noticeably faster than my supercharged example. It feels faster (torquier) and is just plain quicker. Passing speeds are excellent as the turbo spools and then jumps, even at freeway speeds. It's really, really fun to drive at 30 or 60 miles-per-hour and then accelerate 20 mph faster.

It likes to go fast. At 75 mph, it seemed really eager to jump up another 5 or 10. The supercharged version isn't sluggish at these speeds, but the turbo was clearly communicating that it wanted to go faster. I found myself driving at average faster speeds with the same amount of feedback; it just feels lighter.

The Sport mode works. I'm guessing it either keeps the turbo running or dials it in sooner. When I drove with Sport mode on, the response was quicker and it felt much more like the go-kart I expected. It's noisier this way, but I didn't press the Sport button in order to take a nap.

The gas mileage is better than the supercharged version. I observed an average of 29.7 over 85 miles with all sorts of driving. I'm not going to expound that last statement, suffice it to say that I expect 29.7 would be the worst mileage I'd have if this were my daily-driver.

The steering feels tighter. This could be due to the newness, but I doubt it. My MCS feels plenty tight; the '08 felt just a little stiffer.

THE VERDICT
It's an excellent car. I do love the MINI. After spending a day with this one, though, I still wish they'd kept the simplicity and arrangement of the prior version. I can't imagine an S lasting as long if I had to run it in Sport mode all the time, which is the only time this car felt superior to mine.

*She named this one "Olivia."

Lights

2009-02-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

A brand-spankin' new A4 passed me on the freeway today during the frigid, morning commute. As it moved up from behind, all I could focus on was the band of lil' dipper-style lights. My first impression in the flesh is favorable; this sedan looked really good in motion.

The Amazing Nuvi

2009-01-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

Reaching the conclusion of my mileage documentary, the results are quite anticlimactic. At 50,000 miles I pulled out of the extended-stay parking lot at Hartsfield-Jackson Int'l.

The cool thing about this picture is that although my Nuvi can't actually find the fastest way to my home, it apparently knows where the aisles are in the economy parking lot. That empty space was dead on and I didn't hit a single car on the way out.

Flying hazards

2009-01-16T18:30:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Times reports on the problem of increased air traffic by both planes and 10-pound birds.

The dramatic landing of a US Airways passenger jet in New York City's Hudson River on Thursday has focused attention on potentially catastrophic bird-versus-plane collisions, said Sea-Tac biologist Steve Osmek. US Air Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson after Canada geese apparently were sucked into its engines, disabling both.

I'm uncertain how they ascertained the geese were disabled. That assumption aside, the man of the hour appears to have been preparing for this his entire life. Impressive and congratulatory. I predict this story turns into a bestseller.

Notably New in 2008

2009-01-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

Few roller coasters have excitement and disappointment rivaling 2008. I confess that dusting off my post-graduate degree in Mountaineering and Hermitology was a temptation I resisted exactly seven times. The drops and dips are like children—uninteresting if they're not your own. So here are a few things that went very right in 2008.

Best Album born from an Uptight NYC University – Vampire Weekend

Dripping into the public consciousness with the release of their self-titled album, this group of Columbia-bred musicians mix so many ideas into their music that I feel I'm witnessing the creative process of a multi-possessed Paul Simon. My favorite from the album that is still in frequent rotation? Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.

Most Maniacally Depressing Bad Guy of whom I Wish There Were More - The Joker

I caught Dark Knight on a weekday trip to SLC when I had a few too many canceled meetings in a single afternoon. Stuck in one spot with a three hour gap, my iPhone yelled that I could catch the movie at exactly that time. (God bless technology.) "No problem," I thought, "I'll just watch this flick to reset my frustration and show up to my next appointment ready to work." Apparently I hadn't seen the trailer.

Two hours later I stumbled out of the theatre physically shaking and astonished that I could love the involvement of darkness and myth. The genius of Mr. Ledger's performance isn't that he made The Joker sympathetic; rather he convinced me that The Joker was more intent toward his objective than any other villain I've seen.

Most Ignored Car that we will come to Wish We Hadn't - 2008 M3 Sedan

Despite a waiting list longer than ten long things for the coupe, BMW apparently couldn't move the four-door variety M3 fast enough to avoid offering ridiculously low financing to anyone with a pulse, à la Ford Motor Company. The 2008 M3 sedan will stick in BMW's memory as a classic told-you-so that we, the enthusiast, will regret for years to come.

You see, after the E36 sedan failed to sell in sufficient numbers BMW pulled the option for the E46 and we missed out on a generation of four-dour sleepers. For years, the Letters section of Roundel lit up with complaints about our gracious German overlords neglecting our tastes. Fences were mended, the M3 sedan returned, and we, the consumer, didn't max out our home equity lines at a sufficient pace to satisfy supply. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the suits in Munich decline to give us another chance. Enjoy your E90; it may well be the last.

Most fun I've had on a Project This Year - TheEndOfRodneySmith.com

The combination of talent between Rodney Smith and David Meredith mean that I have a hard time saying, 'no.' To promote his new compendium, my little company built the very beautiful microsite at TheEndOfRodneySmith.com. My hat is off to Mister S and David, who handled the design.

Future Me Realizes His Dreams

2008-12-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

When I was a teenager I dreamt of having my own radio station that would broadcast only music I liked. I could preset the playlist and then head out with nothing more than my credit card sized FM tuner. I would be set, for hours.

Years later the future arrived, conveniently brought to us by Apple. The iPod and then my iPhone let me carry days worth of music, video, podcasts, and audiobooks without any commercials. The playlist is completely tailored to me, that is, except for the times I want something that isn't on my iPhone, isn't on my computer at home, and only exists somewhere in the ether.*

This is when I love the iTunes Store for the iPhone, or at least one little part of it. On the iPhone, the iTunes Store accesses the same expansive library of songs as its desktop counterpart. Preview and purchase songs right on the iPhone. And now, with the latest software, you can browse and download podcasts as well.

There's a hidden feature here. Whereas music is limited to 30-second clips for copyright purposes, podcasts are all free; there is no limit on the preview length. So rather than waiting for a podcast to download (after tapping the FREE button), I just tap the title of the podcast and the entire program streams, even at Edge network speeds.

Now, my iPhone can hold a lot of podcasts. But it's nothing compared to the infinite expanse of the internet, which I can now stream, for free, anywhere I go. And if I get bored, I just go hunting among the other million podcasts.

*Yes, I know about Pandora, and I use it on occasion. However, Pandora doesn't let me skip around or play those 3 songs I like over and over.

Southern Sky

2008-12-11T16:21:00.000-08:00

We've had two fantastic days of rain here in The Georgia. With clouds overhead, the temperature hasn't dropped. So when the rain stopped the air stayed a breezy 62-degrees. I walked out the back door of my office and snapped this picture of the clouds running from the fading light.

Outstanding colors; Mother Nature's palette wins again.

On the Dam

2008-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

At mile 48102, I crossed the top of a dam by a still lake. Large enough to spend hours on, small enough to be private, and remote enough to have a road so narrow that you take turns crossing with cars headed the other direction.

Motor.

Woodsy

2008-11-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

At 48101 miles the S finds itself lurking behind trees and carving twisty mountain roads laced with, er, potholes. Loads and loads of potholes. The scenery was great but I don't think I made it out of second gear.

The rain was more of a mist that has been hanging around for a couple of days. I love the temperature -- in the low-50s -- and with the sky overcast, the road looks damp and sharp. Although most prefer sunny and clear, a drizzly day calms my soul more than any other weather. It's as if I get a head start while everyone else hibernates, and indeed the road was only mine today.

Thanksgiving cycling

2008-11-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

At mile 48044, the MCS found itself a couple dozen miles north of the city. The day started cold but warmed quickly, perfect for a couple hours of pedaling. It may not be exotic, but it is definitely more exciting than work.

Working Late

2008-11-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

My MCS just passed 48,000 miles on the odometer. I've decided to count down to 50K with flair by documenting the different spots my MINI sits. My goal is to make it interesting while keeping in mind that as my daily driver most of the miles will be spent between home and office.

At 48005 miles, the MINI finds itself working late. Desolate in the parking lot, it blends in with the red brick and leaves. And it dreams of the long weekend ahead.

Non-Detroit Geese

2008-11-21T08:02:00.001-08:00

These geese flew over my house this morning, flapping and honking like they were going out of business.

From all the honking I'm led to believe they were cars. However, I could tell they weren't from Detroit because they weren't using their corporate private jets to travel.

Many people much more educated on the subject than I am have weighed in on the auto companies bailout. There is a lot to discuss on tax incentives, steel costs, labor contracts, nationalism, efficiency standards, and out-of-touch distribution models. The bottom line is that the free market should run its course.

The free market only cares about one thing: Sell me a product that I want at a price I can afford. I'm not talking about features of quality, power, or sturdiness. It's not about my generation versus my father's or my children's. It's about the fact that Detroit churned out massive amounts of vehicles during this decade and still lost market share. If we carry the domestics through this recession, they'll simply fail on the other side.

I have no desire to see tens of thousands or even millions lose their jobs. I have no desire to see competition diminished. I do think splitting the 3 companies into 5 or 10 or 15 that are independently profitable is the way to go. The great thing is that although bureaucrats are completely incapable of doing much at all, the free market is really good at determining what is sustainable. So split them up, parcel them out, and create smaller companies that focus on cars that are affordable during a recession.

2008 MINI on loan

2008-11-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

The thermostat went out on my '06 Cooper S this week. The local service department, much to my delight, gave me another Cooper to drive (as opposed to some Enterprise Rent-A-Cruiser). So for one day I drove a new 2008 Cooper.

Part of my morning routine is driving the kids to school. More than two years after my Chili Red Cooper S came to live with us, my oldest is still stoked about any chance to ride in it, including this particular morning. Standing at the door he asked, "Can we take Red?"

"No." I reply. "Green?*" he asks.

"No." I reply. He looks stumped.

My daughter pushes past both of us, sees the Sparkling Silver Cooper (a color also known as beige), gasps in delight, and immediately exclaims, "Can we call it 'Emily?'"

The name isn't the only thing that delights my daughter during the 5-minute ride. She loves the way the two colored spotlights in the headliner change between red, purple, and blue. In general this turns out to be the most impressive new feature from the 2007 redesign.

From my perspective, I felt as though MINI was trying to turn me into an 18-year-old girl. All the buttons and gauges got really big. The speedometer—already a distinct feature because of its size—has swollen way too much. The computer showing temperature, speed, and gas consumption has more than doubled in size. The buttons felt softer, rounder, and brighter because of the light gray plastic. Toggle switches that used to all hang out together are now spread throughout the cabin. Like domestic autos, the buttons now have names on them. These changes, I'm sure, are welcome by an increasingly female clientele, but I feel a lot of the unadorned enthusiast roots have been cut.

In an effort to make everything digital, MINI has swapped the usefulness of two gauges: instantaneous fuel economy and remaining fuel. The instantaneous fuel economy is a digital-to-a-tenth display of what your gas mileage is right now. And now! And now! It updates two or three times a second like a flashing light that serves to annoy more than inform.

The fuel gauge is set up like most are: a gas pump icon surrounded by a circle of tick marks. In the '08 MINI the tick marks are little candy corn-shaped lights that animate when the car starts. But they're not terribly informative. When I picked up the car, all the lights were lit—indicating a full tank. I drove 44.5 miles at 34.5 mpg (the mileage computer is indeed accurate) then topped off the tank by adding 4.5 gallons. So the tank was at 2/3 but showing only one candy corn low. I expect this of my analog gauge, but I don't understand the point of creating a digital gauge that isn't accurate.

To sum up, the car is fantastic. It's a MINI. It handles like a go-kart, has a decently matched engine (although the S makes the power curve enjoyable), and is really comfortable. The amenities are nice, the paddle shifting works, and Sport Mode really is sporty. Everything that carried over from the original 2002 design is great. It could just do with a little less cute.

*Green refers to my wife's Honda Pilot. Although it was supposed to be black, the salesperson pulled a last minute bait-and-switch on my wife, who took the bait. Even though the color is a dark, dark green, I've made it clear that it isn't black. This is a reminder for next time.

What to do if even clearance sales can't move 'em?

2008-11-09T18:02:00.001-08:00

Oh yeah, it's that bad, like drinking corn syrup.

A MINI Vote

2008-11-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

And then there were Two

2008-11-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

I came up to the light by my office the other day and stopped behind, er, me! The plate is different, but everything else matches Red to a "T."

Looking at the split of my red hood on the bottom of the pic and the back of what my S must look like on the top reminds me of when our black-and-white TV used to scroll vertically until it warmed up.

'night MINI

2008-10-29T19:38:00.003-07:00

MINI EV update

2008-10-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

Several spy pics are posted over at The Car and Driver showing the electric MINI puttering around Germany. The pictures show a gray Cooper with no rear tailpipe and a poorly Photoshopped decal indicating C&D's claim on the images. Personally, the car looks much better in blue and without the door decals.

A Swing and a Miss

2008-10-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

A key benefit BMW's products receive in the design process is close monitoring by a single source, design chief Chris Bangle, to be specific. This ensures that, for the most part, bimmers look great or at minimum, look consistent with the current styling. The newly announced X1, pictured below at the Paris Auto Show, is a hit in the design department. So why does this bug me?

In short BMW has created a compromise that costs too much. (To be fair, BMW has indicated it does not currently plan to sell the X1 in the U.S. so complaining about price isn't entirely applicable.) I went through this with the 1-series. Good looking? Yes. Great handling and speed? Yes. Comfortable? Um, it's a little tight, but livable for single-person use. $38,000*? Without being able to carry passengers and groceries? They lost me. I feel the X1 falls into the same category: great to look at but unworkable as a primary car, particularly at a price reserved for a token sports convertible.

BMWs have always been pricey, a requisite characteristic of luxury is exclusivity. However I find that they are on a string of offerings with less handling, space, or longevity all sporting unjustifiable price tags: 650i Coupe, 135i, 535i Wagon, X6, and now the X1. The point isn't that BMW can't make smaller or more utility-oriented cars; it is that I disagree with pricing them so closely to their better balanced siblings.

*The 128i costs just over 30, but just a touch higher comes the all-around winning 328i. And buying a 1-series without the twin turbo is just silly. The rest of the price comes from the destination charge and sport package.

The Routan Boom

2008-10-09T13:23:00.001-07:00

I'm looking forward to seeing a marketing experiment played out in full force in the near future. Assuming the economy doesn't destroy sales prospects for anything with four wheels, Volkswagen has apparently granted their marketing guru full board voting rights. I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Guru: Listen, I know you want to make the return into the U.S. minivan market with greatness, but don't.

Collective board: We're listening.

Guru: Instead of producing something great that people want, let's produce something miserable and then brand it better than anything else in the world.

Collective board: Can we get Brooke Shields?

Guru: Um, sure.

And thus the Chrysler Town & Country was rebadged as the difficult-to-pronounce VW Routan, a minivan easily forgettable in both name and appearance. The Guru's plan was put into play with one of the best tongue-in-cheek ads that I've seen in a long time.

Look closely at the picture below and you'll see a minivan behind Brooke. Then watch the video on VW's site.

For additional reading, see Kyality's exceptional take.

Change of seasons

2008-09-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

As the temperature cools in the South, the trees start to, uh, stay green apparently.

A nod to all my western friends who've had sage brush and exposed rock keeping them company over the last 5 months. I've been enjoying the very green scenery.

Gratuitous MINI pic

2008-09-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Not my driveway, but still scenic.

More Scenery

2008-08-18T18:33:00.001-07:00

Statistics

2008-08-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

I've arrived back in the proper time zone after a two-week whirlwind. Here are some numbers, including evidence shown on the Nuvi. Note that the drive was not continuous. I spent the majority of the time in Utah and then had detours through Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Louisville.

15 days
16 states
5540 miles
0 tickets
[Undisclosed] Diet Cokes

The Max Speed on the Nuvi has been reset to protect the innocent driver who obeyed all posted speed limits the entire time. This is an amazing, beautiful country.

Scenery

2008-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma!

2008-08-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

I set about driving from point A to point B on Saturday. What did you see this weekend?

Note that this isn't 490 miles to the destination, it's just to the next turn.

Texas rest stops are big. Of course, they are! What else would they be?

The last 200 miles to Phoenix were on local highways and small roads. This is entering the desert.

And just after I emerged from the forest. I somehow escaped the full brunt of the storm visible in the back.

Keep in mind this is one day, one thousand miles.

Saris Bones 2

2008-07-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

6 Oct 2009 Update: I've posted a few more notes on my experience here.

I began a quest this morning to find a bike rack for my impending country lap. Europeans take note: in the next 3 weeks, I'll cover over 6000 miles without repeating terrain, while going through less than one-third the states. This is why we yanks gripe when gas prices rise, this place is huge. Hamburg to Seville is roughly a fourth of what I'll drive, and with no checkpoints.

This post is largely intended to help the fellow motorers who, like me, would give up their left, uh, toe before parting with their MINI. However, we do wonder which accessories fit our diminutive rides and how well they do it. In my search today, I couldn't find a picture of the rack I wanted on the car I have. Worse, the manufacturer's site was a little inclusive, casting enough doubt that it wasn't worth losing the cost of shipping if the thing didn't fit. Heaven knows that there just isn't a perfect match for carrying a bike on a MINI.

After a reasonably impatient search, and an obligatory swing by the local bike shop where I picked up a couple of insulated water bottles (more on those later), I settled on either a low-end Bell trunk rack or the Saris Bones 2. It took more than 2 seconds, but less than 5, to decide I wanted the Saris, if I could get a deal on one. Although the bike shop had only Yakima racks to show me in person, I called back to see if they could order a Saris. Lo and behold, I overheard the friendly mech say, "Justin? Tell him he can have my old one." (Price not disclosed.) Take note people, this is why you schmooze, talk, and otherwise design t-shirts for free for your local bike shop.

Here is the Saris Bones 2-bike rack.

The top arm doesn't actually touch the spoiler. It does rest on the lip; I'm not sure how that works over 2000 miles, but I'll be trying a few adjustments.

The following words are gratuitously included so that fellow motorers can have what I didn't: pictures of an '06 Cooper S with a Saris Bones 2 on the back. Saris, Bones 2-bike, Mini Cooper S, Mini Cooper with Saris Bones, Bones on Mini, Bones 2-bike, 2006 MINI bike rack, rack options for Cooper S, Mini trunk rack, Saris Bones 2-bike rack on 2006 Mini Cooper S.

A street half empty

2008-07-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

I was looking at some random pictures of old Boston. I love scenes like this one.

I commented that all the streets and buildings are in use, "people still live there." My sister replied, "Yes, but they're not happy."

Two if by Sea

2008-07-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Boston at a Down syndrome conference. Interesting stuff. Although I've been to Boston a few times while living in New York, it has been 7 years since I walked around downtown and the historic areas. It was really great this time and not nearly as cold as when I did it last.

This is for my western friends, seeing as though most easterners probably study this stuff for years: We walked through the Paul Revere House and struck a (good) nerve with one of the stationary guides. Seeing that we were the last group and she had no requirement to repeat her lines over and over, she grabbed maps from behind the door then proceeded to lecture on more intricacies of Paul Revere's ride than I had ever read. I was stuck in my spot and soaked it in.

Here's an interesting tidbit: Revere and Dawes would not have shouted, "The British are coming!" because they considered themselves to be British citizens. They also didn't know for certain where the British were headed; the troops were already in Boston (after the tea incident), and the main suspicion was that Samuel Adams and John Hancock needed to be warned of any troop movements. Revere himself would have put the lanterns in the Old North Church, knowing that they were visible across the water gap, knowledge he gained while working in the church as a boy. Ultimately, Revere was made famous by Longfellow's poem just prior to the Civil War, written as propaganda. He intentionally omitted mention of Dawes and the others in order to emphasize the notion that one, single individual can be historically significant.

25 minutes later and we looked back at the Old North Church.

MINI EV

2008-07-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

From Automotive News Europe, via Wired, another in an lengthening line of things BMW-makes-but-won't-sell-to-me comes the electric Cooper. I don't know that I'll ever give up the power and torque of the S, but man, would I appreciate at least the opportunity to turn my nose up.

The gist is that MINI needs to meet a California requirement to produce a certain number of zero-emission vehicles in its fleet by the year 2014. But my cynical side says here's hoping the JCW Clubman stays available for those of us below the Mason-Dixon line.

Can I get fries for free if I tell someone?

2008-07-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

A volley of pundits started with an article in Time written by Anita Hamilton wherein she laments the forthcoming App Store* won't have free apps. She notes that many other distributors give their software away for free; they instead sell ad space and transfer the cost from you to the advertiser. Her reasoning behind the lack of free from Apple: "quite simply, because people are still willing to pay for them." The Macalope responds here. And the Gruber puts in his two cents, too.

I'm not so convinced that Ms. Hamilton is whining. Although it's possible that I didn't read the article closely enough, I still didn't get an overwhelming sense that all is wrong with the world because of Apple. Instead, I read that most people make software so bad that they have to give it away. Many Apple developers, on the other hand, make something so good that people want it. And they pay for it.

Quite frankly, this rule of quality is something that will never be dominated by the masses. It is certainly not easy to create something that has great value, but if it does, customers will pay. I've found the same to be true lately of business purchases and sales. When we create something that actually works for the customer in a really good way, beyond their expectation, they want to know or buy more.

* The App Store is a store for buying programs that run on your iPhone. Well, actually, buying programs that run on my iPhone. If you had an iPhone, you'd already know this, so I have to assume you don't have one yet.

Nostalgic Hammer

2008-07-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

While perusing old episodes of Hammer & Coop, I was admiring the 180-degree, backwards spin in Episode 1 (about a minute-and-a-half in). It's rather MINI.

Even better, it's authentic. Here's the power slide into the street shot by an amateur several stories up.

Now that is MINI.

Artistic MINI

2008-07-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

The trees are green, and it's 70-degrees outside.

Peace, everyone.

Sight for sore eyes

2008-06-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Every so often, admittedly more often lately, I work a little later at the office. The silver lining is the view from the front door of the office. I'm thankful that I enjoy the drive home. Every day.

Take 2 and call me in the morning

2008-06-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

Two days after the tires went on the MINI and I'm feeling the love. Joining the itemized list of paid services at the tire shop was a 4-wheel alignment. What a difference $60 + tax makes. Things weren't uncomfortable before, but now the ride is smooth like my Cannondale. The response for acceleration (especially while the wheels are turned), braking, and handling are incredibly improved. The primary benefit is increased agility to avoid potholes, to which I'm now overly sensitive. This is mostly due to the heretofore mentioned cost of remedying a good rim smack.

The credit for the new grip goes to what amounts to a compromise, but one I'm willing to live with. As much as I'd love to ring some undersized Pilots on the alloy corners, the beloved 330i went through so many Z-rated tires that I've been scarred for some time. Heap on the price of gas and speed has given way to 6th gear efficiency.

When all was said and done, I went with some Continental Run-Flats from Tire Rack. Prior customers have rated them well and they were among the better deals for matching tire sizes on my stock 16s. And why the run-flats? I have to admit this was a matter of security. I've got 37500 miles on a car less than two years old; I drive across country more than my fair share. I decided that if I didn't have to pay a huge premium, and I could hold onto the sport grip, it sure would be nice not to be stranded in the middle of the country with no spare.

A new grip on reality

2008-06-24T07:51:00.001-07:00

I put 4 new tires on the Cooper S this morning.

I love the grip of new tread. It's like getting a whole new car, mostly because you get there via balding tires that no longer grip at all. I had lost the ability to make right turns at ridiculous speeds or to punch the throttle around a tightening curve and feel the tread bite. Now I have that all back.

Saturday morning

2008-06-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Cycling on a lonely country road at 7am, this is what I see.

It may be hot down here, but it sure is beautiful.

Country road

2008-06-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

Along the way to a family gathering, I had the opportunity to drive solo in the Cooper S. Gas prices being high these days, I was poking along the highway when I spotted a scenic detour. The nice thing about exploring these days is that northern Georgia is nothing but scenic and the GPS means I can't really get lost.

After 10 minutes or so, I found this rolling stretch and captured it for posterity.

Prenatal Down Syndrome Books

2008-06-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

I've been up to my chin with some recent projects and it's time I share. One month ago we launched books for expecting parents who receive a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis. The comprehensive model includes books for the parents, guides for the medical professionals, presentations for the local Down syndrome representatives, and a training platform to teach said representatives to be professional, credible, and personable.

The full Parent book design is here.

The full Medical brochure design is here.

The printing is outstanding. We used fantastic paper, an aqueous coating, and a perfect bind that really adds polish. The response from the public has been outstanding. We released a press release a couple of days ago, and we've had a spike in orders for the Presenter Kit, including orders from overseas. In fact the first order for books came a mere 30 minutes after we sent our first email announcing them. I'm confident this is the best pieces of its kind produced for expecting parents.

My apologies to all those I've neglected over the last several weeks as we ramped up. Now, back to admiring cars and weather.

Nostalgic MINI

2008-05-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

I recovered an old iPhoto library with some unveiling pics of the S. This is just for smiles.

Color combination

2008-05-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

On the way to check proofs for some books I'm having printed in Atlanta, I motored down the 75 alongside two other MINIs. One was a white '07 Cooper and the other was an '06 S, like mine, with black body and black roof. MINI boasts 10,000,000 combinations in their configurator and it's no secret that picking the color is a prime identifier of how unique and sentimental owning a MINI can be. When I picked my red-with-white-roof S a couple years ago, the only other combination I considered was an all black MINI like the one I saw this morning. Boy did I make the right decision.

Of the sport cars I've had (the SAV doesn't count) in the last decade, they've all been jet black, until the MINI. My Cooper S is the first car I've owned where I dig the image and feel of the car as much as the drive itself. It's not so much about flying under the radar as that the MINI makes people friendly, happy, and sporty. Although I'm typically biased against sport cars that are not black, it's okay to have a Red Cooper S. Or a Yellow one. Or one called Hot Chocolate. The MINI has a rare ability to allow the driver to express themselves through color, options, and styling without being an overt aftermarket nut or just plain vain. So, express away.

I've thought about what I would change on a new MINI, at some point down the road. This is particularly applicable for the Clubman, which requires two tones because of the colored C pillar. I'm currently digging the black and red option.

The point is that there are very few cars that I feel can pull off the color red. (Hint, almost all come from Italy.) The MINI is an even rarer specimen in that it not only looks good, but looks better with a combination of two hues.

Notes: the pictured speedster is a Hardtop JCW. Note that it's not a JCW package; the JCW is now a trim level, just like "S."

Clubbing, Part II

2008-05-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Note: MINI distinguishes the model line as Cooper Hardtop, Cooper Convertible, and Cooper Clubman. I'm going to get used to doing the same.

A full service on my '06 S gave me a couple hours to explore MINI's current offerings. I spent a few laps in a Hardtop S and Clubman last week.

The bad news is that they only had two Clubman S's on the lot. One was inside the showroom and clearly not going anywhere. The second, a hot chocolate flavor, was sold, locked, and waiting for the owner to show up (he did before I could snap a picture). So I drove a standard Clubman. I'm told that the S drives the same whether it's a standard Cooper Hardtop or a Clubman, so I took a small sizer out.

It was like being in my little car all over on opening day. I could feel the increased torque, and the super grippy tires made the mile-long loop around the dealership truly satisfying. It was nice being able to test some ins-and-outs without pushing any limits; this is something that most test drives don't include. For me, I was a) alone and b) extremely familiar with the physics of the vehicle. I executed a number of U-turns at 10-20 mph without squealing the tires, but without poking through the process. I'm still not completely sold on the minor turbo lag, and the center console still strikes me as too big. Other than that, this is a car I could live with when my S is done providing miles. (Not any time soon, I hope.)

The Clubman was a different story. I haven't driven a non-S since I originally bought mine a couple years ago. Ouch. The thing is downright soft and boring. The suspension is way too soft, the engine gutless, and the tires try to renegotiate any request to corner aggressively. This is a car that would be great for the guy who spends all his time driving and simultaneously jawing on the cell phone: he really doesn't care when that light turns green or how long it takes to get to 50. The physical dynamics and size are indeed the same as a Hardtop; I didn't feel any measurable difference, and it doesn't seem that the Clubman gives up any kartish attributes with its extra 10 inches.

So that's it, I was disappointed after driving the Clubman. I hope that's not the end of the story, though. I spent at least 35 minutes sitting in every seat, including the cargo space of the showroom Clubman S. This is the size, the look, and the car I want to follow my S. The barn doors grew on me very quickly with their swoosh-swoosh open. (I noticed the center line in the rear view mirror while driving for the first few minutes, then didn't notice it after that.) I have to hope that the reason the Clubman was so blah is that the base Cooper is, too. I didn't check.

Here's hoping the S is all it's cracked up to be. And that the salesman's rumor of a native JCW (not just a package add-on) is in the cards. Now, that has a fantastic shot of following Red.

Clubbing, part I

2008-04-22T16:41:00.001-07:00

I seized an opportunity to poke around a Clubman last week in SLC. Fantastic. It changed a lot of my perceptions of the MINI's future evolution. I'm still not sold on the redesigned interior, but the overall feel of it seemed even more livable than my '06 S. The question now is how it handles on the road.

We'll see.

Non-Commitment nonsense

2008-04-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

I read a number of design-related blogs as a matter of routine; these often point to other articles and blogs of note. I've read a few of Andy Rutledge's articles and, for the most part, he seems like a pretty decent guy. There is one recent article that I'm scratching my head over, though.

Andy uses over a thousand words to describe a phenomenon within the design community to have side jobs and sometime side agencies. His position is that while side jobs are okay, the practice of side agencies is undermining the design profession by demonstrating designers' lack of loyalty. And loyalty equals professionalism.

I disagree. I've found that with almost any creative type, if they have the means (financial or time), they have multiple lives. It's not so much about losing focus as being able to fulfill ideas and goals simultaneously. It's not even a designer thing. Steve Jobs, arguably an executive and salesman primarily, splits time between Apple and Pixar. This is not because he's unprofessional or disloyal. It's because the two companies do not fill the same needs.

In another example, I know a graphic designer who spends half his time as a photographer. Turns out he's really, really good at both. Calling him unprofessional or even slightly unskilled is an embarrassment only to the accuser. Show me a creative type (designer, entrepreneur, whatever) who has all their ideas satisfied by a current employer and I'll show you someone that isn't at the top of their industry.

Andy's argument is wrong because it is a rule based on employees instead of the entities he is trying to criticize. He confuses employees and entrepreneurs. In all environments, unprofessional people and sloppy work broadcast disloyalty. However, multiple companies are a creative person's way of allocating resources and talent that are best suited to accomplish something new.

The truth Andy misses is that side projects are about what a client allows its employees to have; side businesses are about what a designer creates independently.

It's almost always snowing in winter

2008-04-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

There's not much of a surprise in claiming winter brings snow. The baffling part is just how much the year has been reclassified as winter in SLC. Here's the rental Jeep in Utah in the middle of April with fresh snow all around.

This shouldn't be interpreted as a rant against Utah, its inhabitants, or its educational and health systems, just the 9 months of the year that are unbelievably cold.

Undermining the cool

2008-04-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

I dig the Range Rover. It's like a limo for the suave. Although the total time I've spent behind the wheel of the RRs is likely less than a couple hours, the capabilities on dry pavement and in snow have me thoroughly impressed. Save for the abhorrent gas mileage, cost of entry, plummeting depreciation, dismal service record, constant change in ownership, and dismal ride quality compared to its German cousin, it is the perfect SUV.

I've spent the last couple of years thinking about the sociology of driving brands. The message and feel from the world brands ranges from 'I'm important' to 'go away' to 'me, too.' I always loved driving my bimmers until I'd see someone behind a roundel pull an offensively arrogant move. Sad thing was, these moves were not only on the freeway, they often included a snotty look as someone in a 650Ci pulled into that parking space first and jeered at the Camry's less-important priority when parking. That's baggage the MINI doesn't seem to have. Boy, we just wave at everybody. (I've even paid a stranger's toll, just like the Book of Motoring instructs.)

So I had to laugh when I followed this guy on my way to work today. I'm still scratching my head to figure the benefit of having a vanity plate that documents the owner's lack of creativity. Range Rover? No kidding.

If you've got to use a vanity plate, use it to say something about life, your personality, or the adventure you're going to have. (E.g. Roving, Unibody, Mounting, and so on.) Don't bother saying, "This is a Range Rover." I can tell that already. The problem with stating the uninteresting is that it inspires a game of grapevine where the resulting message is, "I'm an a**."

New office in Spring

2008-04-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

We've got blossoms outside the new hq. It's 72-degrees outside. No longer in a historic downtown, we do have central air, which will come in handy here in the South. We're on the far side of the third floor.

Apologies to anyone living where it /cough/ is still snowing.

Wrong way, right way bumper stickers

2008-03-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

From the Unauthorized Owner's Manual comes an example of don't and do for the rear of the MINI.

Of course, I recommend leaving the bumper stickers off altogether. This isn't a soccer vehicle.

M3 on Speed

2008-03-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

In a perfect world I'd store my M3 in a photo studio with carefully managed lighting. Until then I'll have to keep it in my run-of-the-mill garage. Before that I'll have to actually get an M3.

Image is from BMW touting the M3's review on Speed TV premiering tonight.

The long way home

2008-03-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

I was picking through some MINI paraphernalia yesterday and pondering that the greatest asset of the S is how fun it is to drive on random roads. It's not nearly as fast or dart-like as the 330i was, but it outperforms when it comes to wandering into new territory. Add to the experience the Nuvi hanging from the windshield and everyday is an invitation to take the long way home. Just like the Book of Motoring advises.

So I set off on a route I hadn't taken before. I hit a few red lights and then got clear of the small downtowns. Just as I caught up to the group of cars ahead of me, they stopped. And waited. And then I heard the horn blast.

This isn't an encouraging story. But I take comfort in other nuggets of wisdom doled from the Book o' Motoring: it's possible to motor, even when sitting still.

Second-class

2008-03-24T13:46:00.001-07:00

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the small wagon. I love sport-with-an-option-to-haul cars. For some time I've been watching the 1-series, available as a 3-door and 5-door in Europe. Although the 1 is being made as a coupe and convertible, just available on U.S. soil, we're missing that hatch and the engine options that make it really great.

Wired notes that the 118d, with a small turbo diesel wins the "World Green Car Award" in NYC and then promptly gets on a boat and goes home.

Full article here.

The general discussion, which I've seen for years as a BMW car club member, covers not only the failure of the underpowered 318ti to post great sales numbers in the early 90s, but the general distrust of diesel engines and anything with less than 6 cylinders. Add to that the premium of a BMW, regardless of engine, and most people just don't buy it.

I cry foul. I think it's a different market and BMW NA (North America functions as an independent subsidiary) knows it. I can't say whether they're savvy enough to do something about it, but the existence of two new changes for 2008 mean that they at least realize that we're no longer in the swinging 90s. First, we've got the 128/135i hitting the shores. It is super-powered, but it's still small. And cheaper than the old 325. (I argue that the current 328 isn't an upgraded 325 but rather a downgraded 330.) The point is, there is a new entry-level.

Second, the X5 and 3-series are both receiving diesel engines this fall. The market is looking for economy and it even includes the upper middle-class baby boomers that drive BMW sales. As oil becomes or even stays expensive, economy will be a bigger and bigger factor for car purchasing. I don't think it will hit quickly, but when the wave crests it will be pervasive. Americans like to suspend thought and follow the trend for automobiles. At least, without that theory I have no other way to explain the Hummer H3.

My conclusion is that the people who decide and the people who complain aren't meeting in the middle, where the rest of us that spend would happily participate. Quite simply, BMW makes more than one turbo diesel. Without needing the big guy from the X5, BMW already has a 2.3d making 204hp with economy not too far off the 1.8d. Give us the 123d. Go ahead and offer us the M Sport that the Londoners get. And we'll buy it because it's not out of reach, it's not euro-slow, and it changes our economics in a personal way that other cars don't right now.

C'mon BMW. Show us some love.

Wheels

2008-03-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

The weather is warming in the South. Hopefully I get out a lot more consistently this year than last. It makes me think about how much time I spent on a bike while I was in school. Ironic that the source of so much stress back then was getting from one place to the other without sweating through my clothes or getting in an accident.

The car/dog conflicts still chase me but I feel so much more stress during the winter months that I don't ride regularly. When I can spend even an hour on the bike, it changes my whole day. When I ride two or three days out of the week, I notice the change in my energy level. Here's to health and man-powered transportation.

As for the pic, I live and work in an Atlanta suburb and still manage to find even more country-esque places to ride. When it comes to the country, the S and I enjoy every bit about getting to and fro.

Tornado, shanado

2008-03-16T05:02:00.000-07:00

Interpreting rain warnings for nothing more than just rain, I rode a short cycling event in mid-Georgia on Saturday. It was overcast, but without the wet stuff falling from the sky. Apparently Atlanta was reeling from a downtown tornado the night before and an additional row of tornado warnings were passing over my house. I did make it back to the house in time to witness the sirens, hail, and visibility-eliminating-torrential-rain. Fun, fun, fun.

I came across this wall in the middle of the ride and couldn't resist the temptation to photograph yet another historic Coke wall ad. Realize that this is out in the middle of nowhere. And then some. I rode a good 5-10 miles before and after this spot without seeing another 2-story building. Yup, this is the downtown center of a southern Georgia city.

Travel and stay warm

2008-02-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

The culmination of 9 days spent away from home was a very tired drive home from Atlanta's airport in the S. It was probably the most cathartic hour of the week. I wish I could drive backroads and wander for a living.

For a few days, we basked in ocean air and frolicked on the beach in southern ja-ja. Mock the accent all you want, February doesn't look like this in the Rockies (or in Manhattan, for that matter). It goes without saying that my boy won the race. I told him it was lucky because I'm trying to develop in him a good 'lucky' feeling.*

Without a break of any kind, and the result of packing a suitcase as quickly as it could be emptied, I was off to Phoenix to present the book heretofore mentioned and talk about membership databases. Trading my shorts and sandals for Prada shirts and a sport coat, I schmoozed, pontificated, and generally threw charisma around the room. Actually, I hope I didn't offend anyone. I take that back. There were a few people at the conference that needed to be offended; not every idea is a good one.

I should note that these pics were both snapped with the iPhone; the battery on the PowerShot timed its demise perfectly with this last-day outing. Those with sharp eyes will also recognize Camelback Mountain as seen from my hotel.

*Tip o' the hat to Mr. Handey.

Maturity

2008-02-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

The MINI turned over 32K miles this week. Never mind that it's only a year-and-a-half old, my S has ample stories to justify the miles. It has a few scars, too, but I think it has held up rather well.

In an obsessive yet never-ending search for the next greatest vehicle, I haven't come up against anything that is as perfect as the red go-kart sitting in my driveway. I've found the MINI has an incredible amount of soul; not just technology inspiring, the MINI is a cult-like lifestyle with fellow drivers that wave, parking spaces that open up, and twisty roads that straighten just for me. Short bursts of speed in superfast cars aside, I have never had so much fun in a car. Consistency without the boredom.

Kyle's MINI received new wheels and a new moniker. While in Utah, we discussed the tendency for MINI owners to photograph their cars. I was so inspired by the picture of MINIzilla in the snow that I snapped an homage. I didn't have any snow handy, so 65-degree air (mid-Feb, mind you) will have to suffice.

Snow and Warm

2008-02-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

This morning I awoke to even more snow falling along the Wasatch front (that's in Utah, for the uninitiated). It wasn't terrible, but enough to make the drive to the airport extend from 55 minutes to well over two hours. And it was cold. I made my flight, mostly due to the plane itself not making it to the airport on time; delays all around.

It goes without saying that arriving home in Atlanta was nice, and particularly warming. It was 65-degrees according to the MINI's computer. But that's not really my point. The really great thing about arriving home is the contrast of driving to the airport vs. driving from the airport. The former takes place in a crummy rental, this week's flavor was a smoked-and-body-odor-smelling PT Cruiser. It proved not only gutless, but also poorly matched for snow driving. The ergonomics were terrible; I honestly have no idea how it passed through Chryler's we-should-scrap-this-bad-idea division. I've rented a large range of cars and, even including the Liberty, the PT ranks near the top of ones I won't do again. I truly felt sorry for all the other PT drivers I saw this past week because at least mine gets returned after 6 days.

I recognize that not everyone has the desire to spend time in a sport-tuned car. And that's okay; I don't resent people, just the car choices they make. Driving that PT made the ride home in the MINI so more satisfying. I kept grinning - and gunning the throttle - as I made my way through downtown ATL. Then I took the above picture. Happy Motoring indeed.

A different look on life

2008-01-27T08:29:00.000-08:00

For the past year I've been part of a small group working on a project for the Down syndrome community to more accurately portray the capabilities of children and adults living with Down syndrome. By and large, the medical community views Down syndrome as a 'negative outcome' that can be avoided and, for the most part, one that is. Estimates put the U.S. abortion rate around 90%. Birth avoidance by some affects society's outlook on those who do live. For my son Andy's sake, a more accurate depiction than 'negative' needs to be shown.

I have observed in general, photographs of people with Down syndrome go one of two ways: either they are amateur shots of smiling kids' faces or they are professional shots of kids' faces. We set out to show more accurate images: kids and adults in their own element, and thriving.

We created some games for the kids so we could get them in a group every so often, but none of the pictures shown are fabricated or overtly staged. We had the kids and adults doing what they naturally do, with their own group of friends; we arranged our schedule around theirs and went to their locations. To this end, all environments, bikes, books, hills, and so forth are real. The peers are their regular peers that attend church, school, ballet, and so forth every week. Interactions between peers are genuine. Here is a sample of what we captured.

Best-In-Snow

2008-01-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

3. Range Rover Sport. After a massive snow flurry that left a good dusting on the streets of Atlanta's northern suburbs, the counties promptly canceled school for the day and proclaimed a snow day. Unfortunate for all the little children who eagerly bundled up to make morning snowmen, the temperature never dropped below freezing, the snow turned to rain, and the snow was gone by morning. It was more of a 'snow evening' than a 'snow day.'

All this excitement did remind me of one of my favorite vehicles that is impractical enough to be on the wish list as a 'probably won't ever happen unless I move somewhere that actually snows.' The Range Rover Sport makes the list on account of my brief but very impressive encounter of New York roads impassable by anything else but the truly capable. Like a sports car that shows its true capability when outmaneuvering normal cars, the Range Rover really impresses when everything else gets stuck. It is expensive, has questionable reliability, gets terrible gas mileage, and is the antithesis of my MINI. But it makes this list because it is just gorgeous, really great in rough weather, and nicely imposing in fair weather.

Brick advertising

2008-01-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

I'm in the middle of looking for new digs for work. I'm looking for something open, light, and historical. Unfortunately, historic buildings are in short supply; they aren't making them anymore. So, I'm driving all over. In Acworth I found a building with a restored flour advertisement; the Coca Cola ad is painted over the top and just as authentic.

In historic downtown Cartersville I found an original Coca Cola ad with a plaque stating "The first painted wall sign to advertise Coca-Cola was placed on this wall for the Coca-Cola Company in 1894. The sign was restored in 1989. Coca-Cola is a trademark of the Coca-Cola Company." It's a good thing they noted the trademark; people may think someone else owns a one-hundred-year-old ad.

Sporty C

2008-01-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

I've never actually owned a Volvo. Okay, I've never come close, but it's not because I don't enjoy them; the Germans just happen to make cars a little more skewed to my liking. In the cycles wherein I've bought a new car, I test drive a whole slew of vehicles just to make sure I'm still on the right track. At least one Volvo has been included in each cycle. The styling has always been controversial, but I loved the V70 the first time I saw it (the boxy one, before they rounded the edges). It remains the best looking Volvo I know. And then I walked out the door of my office the other day and saw the C30.

Kyality is right, there is something appealing about it. I haven't had a chance to drive one, so I don't know how it stacks up or if it will make the wish list. But the advantage I have leaving the office so late is that no one was around and as I circled the C, I peeked in the windows and passed some judgements. It's bigger than my MINI, which is of course no real feat. But the thing about it is, it's much bigger; the wheels are more aggressive to hide the taller stance. And it looks like I could fit some actual stuff back there, not just a couple of grocery bags. It also looked good from most angles. They got the separated-twin tailpipes right. The headlights and hood shape are balanced. I typically don't like to congratulate Ford by proxy, but if nothing else good comes out of further research, the C30 is sure fun to look at.

Beneath perfect lines lie a sleeper

2008-01-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

2. E39 5-series. From model years 1996-2003, BMW produced one of the most perfectly penned sedans in the world. I've always had a super soft-spot for this perfectly sized and balanced sleeper. Although it was possible to get with an underpowered engine, the same skin could hold a mighty 8 that would roar into play upon command. BMW knew this, too. Unlike most sedans where more money buys more luxury, the highest packages and models of the 5 series focused on sport. They were the 540 6-speed and the M5, both with sport packages and manual transmissions. I haven't driven an M5 much, but what I did I relished. It's instantly understandable and it's possible to be newly introduced yet get its real performance out. BMW nailed the target on this one.

An example of the 5 in the flesh, I parked next to this Dinan 5 at lunch today.

List of wishes

2008-01-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

I had a conversation recently that centered around buying new cars. The others were leaning toward the optimum vehicle, and whatever that entails, while I was thinking that there really isn't a perfect vehicle for me. There are just too many great cars out there to live with just one or two over a ten-year period. Within reason, and if I had the means, I'm going to post a running list of what I'd love to lease (or buy) for 12 months.

1. Porsche Boxster S. From its inception, the Boxster has been a fantastic reincarnation of open tops from Porsche in years past. This is a beautifully balanced, amply powered, gorgeous sports car. It's not practical enough to live with it for years on end, but for a short year I would drive this like mad. National parks, parkways, and the occasional oceanside drive are entirely different experiences with the full wind blowing by. There are faster cars and there are more luxurious cars, but the Boxster is one that's unique, true to the Porsche heritage, and extremely satisfying to drive.

Embracing digital

2008-01-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

The march toward digital is an inevitable one. I usually find myself split between the analog (physical) formats of last year and the digital ones of today. For example, this month marks the second anniversary of turning off our television reception: no over-the-air, cable, satellite, or anything else. Nothing. Instead we've bought movies, tv shows, and music from iTunes. And it has been really nice.

I'm not advocating a full switch to digital formats in an instant because, frankly, I don't see how it is financially viable. CD and DVD sales are declining while digital sales are increasing, however, the financial picture is not one that leaves the music or movie industry with as much revenue as they have now. In short, I think they're going to make less per unit in the future and they need to figure out how to make up the difference otherwise.

Which brings me to last week. I received a gift card to Blockbuster over the holidays and decided to redeem it this week buying a new Borne Ultimatum DVD, but alas, they had sold the few new copies they had. I left empty handed.

A few days later I decided I'd buy the copy of Casino Royale that I saw while browsing the new DVDs and returned to the store. Alas, they had sold the copy of that DVD as well. I left empty handed again.

This is the problem with physical copies. I wanted to spend money and was ready to buy at least one, if not both movies. But instead I have neither solely because there was not a physical copy at the same time and place as my physical money.

Digital doesn't have this problem. Sure you have to worry about unauthorized duplication, but beyond that, it has an astronomical advantage over physical distribution. Any time or place (proximate to an internet connection, of course) a customer has money, the digital copy is available. Figure this out and the movie industry will make up their shortfall.

Best of '07

2007-12-27T08:29:00.000-08:00

I typically don't create lists of my favorite things because I tend to be so biased about certain products that's a rather short, predictable one. However, I now have a blog that, like the dog, doesn't feed itself.

Best car of '07: No surprise, it's still the '06 Cooper S.
Specifically, it's Kyality's Cooper S which made the list by being purchased in '07.

Runner up: The '07 Cooper S.
If there's a car that would make me consider giving up my '06 S, it's this one. The jury is still out on the turbo lag, fake intake duct, larger speedo, and toggle switches on the roof, but that's not a long list compared to all the things done right. Like Kyality, the shape has grown on me and I prefer the redesigned tail. Pilfered from miniusa.com: the '07 in its natural habitat.

Best book of '07. Creature by Andrew Zukerman and designed by David Meredith.
I saw the design in March and placed an order months in advance. My copy finally arrived in November and it is fantastic. Whereas most books published this year tried to intimidate me into voting for certain politicians or consume less air, Creature lets me just sit, relax, and lose myself in deep, detailed pictures of animals with perspective that I've not had before.

Best holiday/new year design of '07. That'd be the one over at Canister.

Happy New Year.

There is no Marble

2007-12-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

There has been a recent debate swirling among web designers regarding the lack or even need of a canon of design. The nuances and conversation aren't particularly interesting so I won't cover them again. However, they could be found here (ALA), here (Subtraction), and the one that started it here (Speak Up). The basic premise is this: a print designer questions why there are not many great web sites held up as phenomenal design as there are in print, i.e. why has the genius of print not carried itself over to the web? Khoi Vinh said it, web design is boring.

In return, the web designers create a well-articulated, thoughtful response explaining that the creation is the design. In essence, the engineering and the interface combine to create an organic design that is genius in its own right. Web designers argue that holding the web to the standards of print is futile; the two don't compare and should not be. Great web design is great when compared with poor web design.

I beg to differ.

Truly great design always results from the combination of two things: creativity and skill. The skill is the key, as there are more people with creativity than skill. Skill refers to the specific tool at hand and the designer's ability to master it. The harder the skill to master, the fewer who do, and inevitably fewer phenomenal pieces are created. But, those phenomenal pieces are great. For example, Michelangelo sculpted David from marble, which is an incredibly difficult material to work from. In order to accomplish this, he would have mastered creating sculptures in materials such as wax, clay, wood, and so forth that are cheaper, more pliable, and have an equivalent of the modern "undo" button. The point is, regardless of how creative they are, no hack can create a worthwhile sculpture from marble. In fact, many creative artisans are unqualified; it requires the truly skilled.

The playing field has leveled some in the current age of design, but not entirely. As is pertains to print and web design, there are some parallels to sculpture. Speaking strictly about visual design, changing something as trivial as a color on a finished-and-launched web site, even universally, can be done in seconds with minimal cost and impact on the surrounding elements. To do the same in print is often as expensive as creating the first print(s) and requires disposal of that prior run. The economic cost discourages those who don't have the technical skills to create great press-produced designs. Or at least it makes them practice first.

This isn't to say that all web designers are untrained sloths, only that some are. The rest are frustrated with the tools at hand. So, for the purpose of oversimplification, the two categories of web designers are 1) unskilled hacks and 2) those frustrated by the tools. The first group uses all the tools that Adobe has made available to Windows' users. In many cases they use templates, rules, and all sorts of tricks that make them feel better about creating something 'pretty.' The second group is frustrated that they can't make type run vertically, on an angle, or follow a curve. In fact, they're irritated that they can't even dictate a specific typeface without making it a graphic. For them, the web is still in its infancy; it's boxy, developing, shows potential, but although they can envision design, they can't actually create it.

For the purpose of diplomacy, I should subdivide the second group into further categories. Group 1a are malcontented print designers displeased with the state of the web and either don't venture in or stay on the fringes creating print-like designs while breaking web standards. Group 2b contains Flash designers who combine motion, print design, and control into an embedded object. It's not html, but it is viewable in a browser. It's a good in-between step for these designers, but they sometimes wish they didn't have to live entirely in this world. (Not that that world pays badly, mind you.) Group 2c are css-compliant designers who are skilled with the craft of browser-compliancy, css validation, and standards-based design. In short, they lower the bar enough that great design can be achieved via a checklist. They are good designers, to be sure, and some great, but only when they use graphics or workarounds that aren't truly html (i.e. the good stuff is embedded).

Ultimately, I'm not crying foul on web designer's talent. I do think that there are many, many very talented web designers. (Indeed, many are better print designers than I am.) I am actually protesting the fact that we can't really do on the web what we want. The solution, however, is not to redefine the measure of success to a state of engineering, but to continue to figure out (and force engineers to create) a platform worthy of our skills.

We want our marble.

(Some of) the best days of 2007.

2007-11-24T16:38:00.000-08:00

At the risk of alienating my persevering wife, I make the following claims. My kids aren't old enough to be offended, so they'll have to read this entry in ten years and feel insulted long after the fact.

About the most fun I've had this year was driving around the country with my Cannondale as my co-pilot. The Cooper S, with 29K miles, is not yet a year-and-a-half. It has crossed the rockies twice, been stuck in New York snow, and driven streets in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and Manhattan. The S has seen over a thousand unique miles of I-70 and over two thousand of I-80. It loves the road trip. I love the road trip. And it's so much cheaper than a therapist.

The Cannondale fits inside the car. Yup, inside. With the front wheel off, it covers both rear seats and the handlebars hook the passenger seat, which means that if the Cannondale hitches a ride, then no one else can come. It's a good listener, a good traveler, and doesn't ever complain about where we go to eat. My aim most days was to split up a thousand miles of driving with an hour of cycling somewhere along the interstate. The location was usually selected randomly based on the weather conditions and just how interesting the hills looked. (The GPS typically provides the exact route once I pull off the freeway.)

If it didn't make things harder on the fam, I'd figure out a way to do a road trip every month. Days on the open road are really good days.

Southern fall

2007-11-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

Although I grew up in the west, I've long been fascinated by the east coast, particularly for its abundant trees. I do love the trees. For the past several years, I look forward to driving and/or cycling aimlessly while the trees change.

In the south, it is not just the hills that change marvelous colors. No, every canopy-covered road along my daily 15-minute commute becomes a study in relaxation and wonderment. And even trees that stand alone are intoxicating.

The Safest People in SLC

2007-10-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

In Salt Lake City last week for several things, notably among them was the XanGo Conference. (Canister does a lot of international design for them.) I got to see a little of my handiwork, and a tremendous amount of Struck's.

In the network marketing industry, XanGo has effectively captured the color orange. It's a very bright, noticeable tone. I do have to say that I like it. And then comes the conference, the store, and the thousands of XanGo faithful.

As I walked from the convention center while carrying my orange-and-gray bag, hat, name badge, and notebook I looked at the others around me sporting the same colors. It was obvious that we didn't need to grab one of the orange safety flags provided to pedestrians crossing the street. We personified safety orange. We and 7000 others walking around downtown Salt Lake were very, very safe.

Starting somewhere, predictably

2007-10-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

Writing entries is not new, but historically I've been able to wax nostalgic about my kids. Now I'm faced with a forum solely for insight into my mind. And anyway, my kids have their own blog, now authored by their mother.

This leaves me to muse about cars, design, and whatever else pops into my head. Today's insight is toned down; there will be time for the inflammatory stuff later. Here's the S.

Over the past decade, I've owned ten cars; this is the first year I haven't bought one. A little more than half have been new, and while that makes me sound spoiled, I don't feel defensive. Obsessive people like having new things, and those who believe used or new are mutually exclusive paths don't understand the mathematics of auto ownership. I don't have the patience or desire to go into the numbers right now, but it basically boils down to two irrefutable premisses: 1) cost is the purchase price minus the sale price, added to the maintenance price, divided by the number of days and months in between. Arguing cost on any one of those factors alone is shortsighted. 2) The perceived value is related solely to the buyer and unrelated to cost. This, apparently, trumps rule number 1.

Which brings me to the S. It's not the fastest car I've owned, neither the most expensive, least expensive, nor the most utilitarian (obviously). But so far, it's my favorite and it's the one with which I identify most. As a designer, among all my biases, I hold a couple that apply to the MINI. Among them, not all cars are equal; some have soul. The S has an undefinable quality that causes its owners to ponder their cars with respect for much more than just the numbers that appear on a spec sheet. This can be evaluated by taking cars at a much larger sample. A random owner of any car may be attached, in love, or all out obsessed with their car because it's their first, the most modified, paid-in-the-clear, fully loaded, great performer, or any other number of reasons. Every model of car has at least one owner that feels this way, even the Aztek (although that person hasn't yet come forward). But among S owners, who represent a huge demographic range, they all do. This speaks to the transcendent appeal of the MINI in a way that goes much deeper than forced induction and double-centered tailpipes. If all cars have some good, the S simply has more.

Tagged

2007-10-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged. Now I've got to come up with a whole new set of css rules to make this look even better.

I feel oddly enthusiastic.