After reading the airplane conveyor belt puzzle on Kottke, I was reminded of a puzzle I thought of a long time ago that is pretty similar. Here is the puzzle:

You are driving a car at 50mph with the passenger window down. You look out the window and see a bird flying next to you at the same speed. The bird turns left and enters your car through the open window without touching any part of your car. You close the window and the bird is still suspended in the air next to you. In order for the bird to remain hovering above your seat, what did the bird have to do?

A. Keep flapping it’s wings at the same pace as before he entered the vehicle otherwise it would slam into the back window of the car.

B. Stop flapping it’s wings in a forward manner and flap its wings so that it can “hover” above the seat, otherwise it would hit the windshield.

C. A combination of A and B.

I thought I knew the answer, but Kottke’s post has me questioning my own logic. Maybe you can give me a physics lesson after you get this one figured out…

It is human nature to want to upgrade everything you can. We want the best. We want more. Faster. Bigger. Louder. Cleaner. Hotter. Colder. New and improved. While some people spend their entire life pushing for these things, most of us eventually realize that this isn’t healthy. While it is fun for a while, the end result is a bloated life of excess and waste. Once you come to this conclusion, you start to prioritize things in your life. You figure out what is really important, and you invest in it. With everything else, you downgrade to the most efficient and comfortable level possible. At least that is what I do.

In the vain of life hacks (shout out to David Kadavy), I thought it would be fun to make a list of upgrades and downgrades that I have installed in my life recently. These aren’t big things, in fact you might laugh at how trivial some of these things seem. Nevertheless, here is my list:
Upgrades
1. iPod headphones upgraded to Sennheiser HD 580
If you only do one thing to upgrade your iPod, make an investment in a quality pair of headphones. If you can afford to splurge on a pair of Sennheiser HD 580′s, you will be rewarded with astounding sound.

2. Sheets on my bed upgraded to 300 thread count
Sleap is an extremely important part of life. You are going to spend a large part of your life in your bed, so it makes sense to upgrade your sheets. When my wife bought new sheets, I didn’t realize how nice this upgrade would be.

3. One button Apple mouse upgraded to two button Microsoft mouse
It was hard to give up an Apple product in favor of a Microsoft mouse, but I am not looking back. The two-button optical mouse with scroll wheel is perfect. If you just can’t embrace a Microsoft product, I hear good things about the Mighty Mouse.

4. CD player upgraded to turntable
That’s right I said upgrade. There isn’t any point in starting a cd vs. vinyl debate, but I will throw my hat in the vinyl ring for several reasons that don’t involve audiophile snobbery. First, it introduces a physical presence to music, that gets lost in the mp3 format. Second, it allows me to be exposed to great music of the past that I would have otherwise ignored, or simply not been willing to pay $17 for. Third, Looking for bargain records is fun.

5. Cable upgraded to Tivo
I am not a big television watcher, but this is still a very worthy life hack. I haven’t watched a commercial since I made this upgrade several months ago. With a simple remote hack, I fast forward through commercials in 30-second jumps. Now that the TV works for me, I can record the shows I want, and skip everything else. It has streamlined my TV habits, and allowed me to watch things that I would have missed otherwise.

Downgrades
1. Trifold wallet downgraded to two fold
Fighting “fat wallet syndrome” is a constant battle for most men. I have always hated the seemingly unavoidable “wallet bloat.” By using a two-fold wallet instead of three, my wallet is 33% thinner. When combined with a commitment to keep my wallet cleaner, I no longer feel like I am lugging around a briefcase in my back pocket.

2. Toyota Tacoma downgraded to Toyota Tercel
Probably the hardest downgrade to make is on your vehicle. I still miss my truck, but my decision to trade it in for a cheaper, more fuel efficient vehicle was a choice I don’t regret.

3. I drink tea
I have a drink at my desk almost all day long. In attempt to cut down on the sugar and caffeine, I switched to drinking tea or Fruit2o instead of soda and coffee. Surprisingly, I haven’t had the headaches that accompanied prior attempts to quit caffeine.

4. No cell phone or watch
People have lived for centuries without portable phones. I really enjoy not being able to be reached anywhere at any time. When I lost my watch a couple months ago, I decided not to replace it right away. It is amazing how many clocks surround us. If you can afford not to be a slave to your watch and phone, I recommend ditching them.

5. Digital camera downgraded to film
Ok, I still use my digital camera, but I am a film guy at heart. Film can be much cheaper than people realize (even medium format). If you are willing to surpass the instant gratification of digital, you will be rewarded by the quality and versatility of film.

Well, there you have it. I would love to see your list. What do you upgrade in your life, and what do you downgrade?

(Update: I added a couple hacks to my list on this post.)

This post isn’t really about Elvis, its about found photography. We have been throwing around the idea of creating a photo blog for a while, and I want to get some feedback. A few years ago, I found myself in a dumpster taking photos of some lovely textures (What? You have never been in a dumpster before?). Among the garbage I found a box of old photos, and took them home and started sorting through them. Well, since then I have been collecting photos that people discard. To get to the point, I have registered the domain www.foundphotography.com, and I am wondering if you think that would be a good place to put our photo blog. Here is my rational…
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Sharing my new poster with you gives me an excuse to ask if anyone has heard the new “They Might Be Giants” album. The article in Wired makes it sound like they went political on me. Apparently, they are working with Spike Jonze on a benefit album for MoveOn.org. I am not going to run out and get their new album if it is going to be another celebrity on their soapbox. The Amazon reviews look harmless enough. Maybe I should give it a chance. Anyway, the poster is promoting their concert in Omaha earlier this July. It is a 3 color screenprint. I got number 47 of 70.

There is a political ad on gop.gov going around right now where Kerry is compared to a cicada Whether or not you like the comparison, it is a striking image. For some reason, where I live in Nebraska was spared from the cicada invasion this year. I am not complaining, but I wouldn’t mind seeing some of these bugs up close again. They only come around every 17 years. Last time I saw them, I was 8 and my mom paid me a penny for every one I killed. That was the easiest 2 bucks I ever made. If you want to see some more photos of cicadas, here is a gallery you can check out. Thanks to Kiplog for bringing the cicada gallery to my attention.

I have been working to get my graphic design portfolio online for a while now. I uploaded it last night, and aside from a few bugs, it should be finished. Here is the link to my new portfolio.

I had several goals as I was building this site that I think are universal challenges to anyone working in Flash:

Keep the size small. The site is 70kb. I am trying to solve the problem of it being choppy on a computers with slower processors. Any suggestions are welcome.

Keep it simple. Fancy Flash gimmicks are a crutch for alot of sites if they don’t make sense, are slow, or don’t serve a purpose. My philosophy is if the animation doesn’t serve a purpose, leave it out.

Animate using actionscript. This allows acceleration and decelleration movement as well as limitless other benefits.

Use Preloaders. Anyone who is starting out in Flash knows that preloaders are a challenge to learn, but are very important.

Load content from external files. This more than anything else keeps the size of the file small.

Those are some big challenges. If anyone wants the .fla file, let me know.

I have been working to get my graphic design portfolio online for a while now. I uploaded it last night, and aside from a few bugs, it should be finished. Here is the link to my new portfolio. [for a more current view of my portfolio visit design.adrianhanft.com.]

I had several goals as I was building this site that I think are universal challenges to anyone working in Flash:

Keep the size small. The site is 70kb. I am trying to solve the problem of it being choppy on a computers with slower processors. Any suggestions are welcome.

Keep it simple. Fancy Flash gimmicks are a crutch for alot of sites if they don’t make sense, are slow, or don’t serve a purpose. My philosophy is if the animation doesn’t serve a purpose, leave it out.

Animate using actionscript. This allows acceleration and decelleration movement as well as limitless other benefits.

Use Preloaders. Anyone who is starting out in Flash knows that preloaders are a challenge to learn, but are very important.

Load content from external files. This more than anything else keeps the size of the file small.

Those are some big challenges. If anyone wants the .fla file, let me know.

I have been working on updating my online graphic design portfolio to replace what I currently have at design.adrianhanft.com Hopefully I will have it up and running in a week or so. Above is a teaser of the direction the graphics are going. I am building it all in Flash, so hopefully it will look pretty slick.

This weekend we had a garage sale. We did really well and made almost $100, but the highlight of the day was what I bought at a garage sale a few blocks away. I bought the two planes above for $5 (he was asking $3 each). I was researching the planes online, and couldn’t find anything on the tin wind-up plane, but I was able to learn a little about the Mickey Mouse plane. It was made by the Sun Rubber company in the 1930′s or 40′s. I am going to have to research the value a little more, but I am guessing it is worth about $150. It says “Mickey’s Air Mail” written on the side, and it has the original wheels. The paint is almost all still present, but the blades of the propeller have broken off. I think I am going to sell Mickey on Ebay, and keep the tin plane for my desk. I know alot of designers like to have toys on their desk. Why is that? Maybe since we enjoy our jobs so much, it just makes sense to surround ourselves with fun things.

To anyone thinking about starting a blog, I found some encouraging words on Whitespace. (What a fantastic name for a blog.) Being relatively new to blogging, I have found myself wondering if it matters if anyone reads this blog. Why do I want to keep writing? After thinking it over, I decided that I write to hear myself think. More than anything, it is a great way to document my thoughts, clarify my ideas, and to let me vent. That is rational enough for me. If you are questioning whether or not it is worth contributing to the constanly ballooning blogosphere, you might be interested in the conversation found on Whitespace.
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