Spikydesign.net

A gardener’s design

Johannes — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:43:39 +0000

As the weather got better and spring finally arrived, I decided to test my design capabilities in the garden. The aim was to build a bed for my mother’s herbs. I had seen snail like constructions before but those were finished goods and rather expensive. I came up with one myself. All that is needed is

- a spade
- a rollboarder (height 30cm, length 250cm, ca. 15€)
- potting soil

All you do is dig a hole with a diameter of 60cm. It should be uneven, i.e. deeper at one side to get the difference in height. The single panels of the rollboarder are connected with a wire but as you can see, there’s enough flexibility to bend it as is needed. The remaining holes at the sides are filled with the digging which may also be used to increase the height difference. Once you’re done, fill the whole thing with potting soil et voilá! The white flower is a sutera diffusus (also bacopa and in German Schneeflöckchen). It had to go already just because it got too big and occupied the herb’s space… In exchange, more herbs moved in.

Microsoft is far behind – as always

Johannes — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:05:11 +0000

My project of the recent past has been the redesign of the website of my new employer Carstens Medizinelektronik from Göttingen. The basis is one of the most simple and standard WordPress themes out there. The site may well be enhanced later. Anyway, the gradient that can be seen in the navigation is inserted with the -linear-gradient CSS3 property. When I constructed the webpage, I only looked at it in Mozilla Firefox. Yesterday, I realised that it would be a good idea to check the website in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Well, I guess you know that the gradient is not displayed there. Why? Because Microsoft sucks. They don’t maintain their browser very well. CSS3 is out there for quite a while already, at least a year… If you want to please those poor souls out there who still don’t know that Firefox is the browser to use, you need to insert some extra code into your CSS-file:

background: -ms-linear-gradient(#color1, #color2);

That will do the trick but only, ONLY in Internet Explorer 10. It comes with Windows 8 and uses the new interface. A Windows Vista/7 adapted version is in the making but as you will guess, a release date is unknown. Give it up for Microsoft! For now, it’s a good idea to also include this line of code. It is all familiar and self-explanatory I reckon.

background: #color; /* Show a solid color for older browsers */

Song for a grey November day

Johannes — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:53:06 +0000

I don’t publish songs very often. I’m not a great guitar player and my voice and breathing definitely need a lot more practice. However, the above recording is fairly decent I think. If only I knew why the microphone makes my voice sound like I’m lisping…

The song is my very simplified approach of William Fitzsimmons’ “From the water”. He is of course a much better guitar player and his voice is just incredible. I did my best anyway and I think it’s a good response to the winter depression that kicks in about this time every year. I’m glad that this is a problem that doesn’t affect me – at least not as much as other people. So, the song goes out to those who suffer yet again…

Testing the Tamron AF 70-300mm 4-5.6 Di SP VC USD

Johannes — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:49:27 +0000

For my birthday, I got myself the Tamron AF 70-300mm 4-5.6 Di SP VC USD. I missed the opportunity to take pictures of objects that are far away. Especially birds were tough motives since I had to get really close – well actually that close that they would flee. Also, I always wanted to take pictures with a huge moon in the background. My standard lens only covers 18-105mm though. It was impossible to fill an image with the moon or a bird. The new lens is quite an improvement even though I’d need even more focal distance for screen filling pictures. The Tamron lens is the best entry level telephoto lens however. It begins where most standard lenses end (70mm) and ends at 300mm. It comes with a built in vibration compensation that is supposed to compensate shaking and helps you to avoid blur. Here are two rather random shots that I took on a bright day in Kassel. I can’t exactly tell how far I was away but it must have been about 100 metres in the first case and 50 metres in the second case. Both objects were not moving (quite obviously). Good victims for first shots…

Here’s one attempt to take a picture of a bird. Ok, it’s a duck and they usually don’t rush off when you get closer. Anyway, the sharpness is great and the bokeh (i.e. the blur in the background) is really super soft.

The next image is supposed to exemplify how well the zoom works. The picture shows the Herkules in Kassel. When I took the picture I stood next to the great lake at the foot of the mountain between the Schloss and the monument. The second photo is a 100% crop of the first image. Yes, that poor lad is naked. He must be freezing up there…

Finally, the moon. On the left, you have the full picture, on the right, you see a 100% crop again. I could have increased the sharpness, if I had used a tripod but mine is to weak to hold the cam with such a big lens. However, the vibration compensation did a great job and saved all of the images.

I’m really happy with the lens. I’m sure you’ll see some more pictures taken with it on my website soon!

You can finally ‘like’ my pictures.

Johannes — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 09:05:04 +0000

I’ve been looking for ages to find a plug-in that allows visitors to ‘like’ my photos with a facebook button. One would assume that there are some dozen out there that have that feature. Nope! I finally found one, though. I had to pay for it but I’m willing to do so, if I get a working piece of software that does everything that I want. As I once said, I’d never upload my precious pictures to facebook directly. They get all the rights – at least for the files uploaded to their servers. I could have uploaded crappy, reduced versions but that wouldn’t have been pretty either, right? Now, the pictures are on my very own webspace but people can still like and share them if they want to. If I sometime decide that I don’t want them to be online anymore I just delete them and they’re gone. That’s not possible on facebook either. When you delete something, it is only invisible for you and the public and neither you nor any of your friends can access it anymore. It’s still on the facebook servers however. There was this Austrian guy who once deleted his account and asked facebook half a year later if there was anything left on their servers. He got more than 1000(!) A4-size pages listing every conversation, comment, like, file etc. he ever had had on there. Nothing had actually been deleted. Enough said! Anyway, I hope you ‘like’ my pictures. Just take a look at the galleries…

I’ve been ‘home’ once again – depending on what you call home

Johannes — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 21:40:10 +0000

I spent a week at the Danish northwest-coast again. It’s one of my all time favourite places to be. We used to go on family vacation to Denmark when we were all still kids. Two weeks every year. However, it wasn’t until 1995 that we discovered that quite long bay up in the north. It’s a sand-loam cliff with drifting sands shaping the landscape in the hinterland. About two metres of land vanish in the sea every year. In several places, cottages that used to be rent by vacationers are falling down the cliff. The most interesting place, though, is the little lighthouse Rubjerg Fyr. It was built at the beginning of the 20^th century but shut down only 50 years later. Drifting sands had formed a high dune on top of the cliff. The lighthouse couldn’t be seen from the sea anymore and lost its function. In 1992, protecting the lighthouse and the surrounding buildings was given up. The area was declared a nature reserve. The coastline and the dune had got that close to the lighthouse that it was impossible to remain the buildings. When I first saw the lighthouse in 1995, the first house was covered by the sand already. Today, the dune has passed the lighthouse and moves eastwards with a speed of about ten metres per year. The lighthouse is now standing close to the edge of the cliff. All other buildings are crushed. However, the sea below is still a good 40 metres away. The tower is expected to fall into the sea within the next 10-15 years. An ancient church that is standing above the coast about a kilometre north was carefully torn down and will be rebuilt in a different place farther inland. You can only see about half of the graveyard, the foundations of the church, and the wooden bell-tower these days.

It makes me sad to see how everything has changed. I’ve been there several times between 1995 and today but it’s still always a very emotional experience for me. Maybe it’s what I use to call ‘double history’ what makes me so sad. I have vivid memories of our first vacation up there. It was the best trip we ever took in my opinion: amazing weather, brilliant landscape, an unparalleled spirit. For me, that vacation is like a shimmering soap-bubble in my mind, one of those memories that can brighten your mood when you feel down and out. I know, though, that I can never get back there. I’ll never be 13 again. There is no chance to re-experience those two weeks. I have no-problem with getting old. Really not. It’s just that I would love to feel as free and unconverned as I did back then. That is impossible, though. Usually you can refresh your memories by revisiting places at least. In case of this place, however, it is not possible. Within a few years, it will all be history – forever. This is what I call ‘double history’: a past experience that can never be repeated/revived.

Anyway, during all the trips that I took to Denmark, it kind of became my second home. Part of me feels Danish. Whenever I go there, it thus feels like coming home. The question is: what is home? What is part of our identity? The place or area where you lived longest? Some people don’t have such place… Well, I guess I’m losing the red thread. Also, I’m not a great philosopher. I took my camera with me of course. Some pictures are of a rather documentary character, i.e. just showing or proving that I really went there. However, I also took a number of pictures that turned out to be quite well. You find both kinds below…

documenta 13: Oh my genius, I am differently developed

Johannes — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:43:14 +0000

I visited the documenta yesterday again. This time, I got a ticket and went to three of the most important exhibition sites. The Fridericianum is the most important one – not only because it was one of Europe’s first museums but just because it usually houses the crucial artworks that represent documenta’s main theme. This time, the base floor is basically empty. The only noticeable thing is a fresh breeze in all of the rooms and you can hear an endless repition of the line ‘Till I get it right’ from Tammy Wynettes song by the same name. Time to pause and think about what is wrong there or where one is or what art is… just time to think. The other rooms are mostly filled with rather political and scienific artworks. There are a lot of references to Afghanistan as well as Holocaust. Also, there is this room with all those thought provoking statements. I particularly like the ‘Oh my genius’ one. That’ll be my answer whenever people make fun of me…

The documenta-Halle is usually used for the larger artworks just because it is a huge hall. The most popular artwork is obviously a room filled with 100 paintings by a Chinese artist. On every of the 100 days that the documenta lasts, one of the pictures will be taken to the VW-factory and coloured yellow. In the end, the room will be filled with yellow canvases only. It’s ment to be a protest against censorship.

Finally, I went to the Neue Galerie. I didn’t find it too exciting there. However, there’s a point where you get tired of art… I’ll have to continue on another day and visit the rest of the venues… and probably go to all the other venues again to try and understand more of what is shown there. Good that there are 95 days left.

documenta 13: Food is art?

Johannes — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:55:30 +0000

Today, I set out to take some more pictures at documenta 13. Well, at least I tried. I was stopped by the rain. It was the British kind of endless downpour. I made it to the Karlsaue in Kassel and managed to take exactly one good picture when the disaster began… At the end, I was completely soaked. Riding a bike with a wet saddle is particularly joyful.

Anyway, back to documenta: There is this tent where you can get North-West African food, provided you have a ticket for the exhibition of course. I hadn’t got one. It smelled so lovely! Must have been the Couscous. Yummy. Is this art, though? I guess everything could be called art and it’s certainly art to prepare a good meal when you actually don’t have anything to cook. Couscous is so minimalist but yet tasteful.There were also some posters with more info and I heard music. Either they just play African songs or there’s a video instalation included. I’ll have to get a ticket and check it out soon.

There are much more interesting artworks in that park and I haven’t yet been to any of the large mueseums that are used by documenta. If only it hadn’t rained… Theme of this documenta is ‘Collapse and Recovery’ by the way. I’ll certainly post more about it in the near future.

As for the rain, at least I was out on my bike for two hours again. I’m pretty sporty recently.

Facebook won’t get my pictures…

Johannes — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 15:02:02 +0000

I read that facebook wants to browse user’s pictures in order to be able to display more user-relevant adverts. Also, whenever you delete something on facebook, it’s not actually deleted. They even keep your private messages! Sorry guys but you won’t get my pictures. At least, I won’t upload them to your server. Hah!

I played around with my camera recently. You don’t get the chance to take a picture of a rainbow very often. This one was special anyway because it didn’t rain in my place meaning that I could take all the time that I needed to get a good shot. No need to worry about my cam…

documenta 13

Johannes — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:55:55 +0000

documenta 13, one of the world’s most renowed exhibitions of contemporary art, starts on Friday. Many of the artworks are spread over the Karlsaue, a park in Kassel. There are about 28 huts and tents. Most of them are not ready yet… Peolpe were still quite busy. I’m looking forward to the exhibition anyway. It turns Kassel into an international city. I love the liveliness.