Methods/Systems: Collection A Day

I'm quite excited about Lisa Congdon's Collection a Day project. Her plan is to take a photo or draw a picture of a one of her collections every day in 2010.

Methods/Systems: "Blogggingheads: Against Top 10 Lists"

"One of the pernicious things about the rise of the internet is that everyone gets to publish their own lists." -Matthew Yglesias, "Bloggingheads: Against Top 10 Lists"

To which the internet responded, "My dear sir, how lucky you are to live in a world where you believe that something as harmless as lists are among my most pernicious content."

Watch it here.

The Precious Man in the Air: American Film Institute's Top 10 of 2009

1. Coraline

2. The Hangover

3. The Hurt Locker

4. The Messenger

5. Precious

6. A Serious Man

7. A Single Man

8. Sugar

9. Up

10. Up in the Air

Read about them here.

All of the titles are so similar. Weird.

(Would have liked to have seen Mr. Fox and Tetro included, pretending they were omitted because they were filmed overseas?)

Methods/Systems: The Nisse

"In Scandinavia, Pixies or Nisse is a household spirit that is responsible for the care and prosperity of a farm or family. A Nisse is usually described as a short man or woman (under four feet tall) wearing a red cap. While belief in guardian spirits is a very old tradition in Scandinavia, belief in Nisser was prominent in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Denmark, southern Norway and southern Sweden. Many farms claimed to have their own Nisse. The Nisse took an active interest in the farm by performing chores such as grooming horses, carrying bales of hay, and other farm-related tasks. These chores were usually done much more efficiently and effectively than by their human counterparts.However, Nisser could be temperamental, to say the least. If the household was not careful to keep its Nisse satisfied -- usually in the form of a single bowl of porridge with butter in it left out on Christmas Eve -- the spirit could turn against its masters.In the 1840s the farm's Nisse became the bearer of Christmas presents in Scandinavia, and was then called "Julenisse" and has been associated with Christmas ever since.The Swedish "Jultomte", the Norwegian "Julenisse", the Danish "Julemand" and the Finnish "Joulupukki" still has features and traditions that are rooted in the local culture: he doesn't necessarily retreat to the North Pole, but lives in a forest, field or stream nearby, or in Denmark he lives on Greenland, and in Finland he lives in Lapland; he or she does not come down the chimney on Christmas night, but arrives through the front door, delivering the presents directly to his household friends."- fjorn.com

Get one here.

Methods/Systems: Christmas Price Index

Every year PNC Financial Services publishes the Christmas Price Index, a calculation of the total cost of all the items included in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." This year's total is $21,465.56. Here's how they come up with it.

Methods/Systems: Considering the Cover

Tom Junod's Esquire article , "What's Wrong with the Cover Song?" describes covers as being "gifts and thefts at the same time, shouts of flattery and whispers of ambition — the court jester's plot against the king. They are evolutionary episodes in song. They are the sound of the world spinning; they tell you what the world is going to sound like when you're not around to hear it. They reveal the strategy by which youth plans to take over."

After reading Junod's article, John James, a former record-store owner submitted his list of 1,892 covers songs to the magazine. Although some might find the title of his article "1,892 Cover Songs Men Could Listen To" a bit alienating and the list to be a bit too Beatles-heavy, his devotion is impossible to ignore.

Methods/Systems: Umberto Eco's "The Infinity of Lists" at the Louvre (Paris Week)

"The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order--not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries." -Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco guest curated an art exhibit on the theme of lists, it is currently on view at the Louvre. Here's an article about it and here's another one.

Also, all of this week's posts will be Paris-related...

Methods/Systems: Cornell Note-Taking System

The Cornell Note-Taking System was developed by Walter Pauk, learn all about it in his book: How to Study in College. The method is designed to support the "Five Rs of Note Taking": Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, Review. Yes, that's right, it uses a mnemonic device (Five Rs) to help people remember how to remember.

Methods/Systems: Pantone iphone App

The "myPantone" iphone app allows users to reference various Pantone decks and generated Pantone numbers for the colors of an image on the phone. At $9.99, it's pricey for an app but a fraction of the cost of an actual Pantone deck.

As far as I could tell, the color matching feature was just so-so but then again, I didn't have a deck to use for comparison. "myPantone" often has messages which inform users that it makes no promises of being flawless but it is entertaining because it allows you to find the number for say, a cloud (421C) or your dog (439C); $9.99 entertaining? I'm afraid not.

Methods/Systems: Emmy's Pie Technique

Emmy is an excellent baker. She was making a pie the other night and I saw her employ this clever trick:

By folding the dough in quarters and then transferring it to the pie pan, she kept the dough from collapsing and falling apart while it was in transit. For step-by-step instructions on making a pie dough complete with lots of tips, click here.

Methods/Systems: Japan's Bills

Paul, my friend living in Japan, kindly shared a second gem (for the first one, click here) with me:

In Japan, each denomination of paper currency has its own raised watermark in one of its corners, which is used blind people to deduce its value. The Yen, however, is not the only currency that is easily read by the blind, here is an article about currencies around the world and how they accommodate the blind in their design.

In the U.S., the bills are all the same size and aside from their printing our notes do not have any distinguishing marks based on their value. It seems that most blind people in the U.S. employ a system of folding for their money (i.e. a $5 would be folded in half, a $10 in thirds, a $20 in quarters etc...) and several members of the blind community oppose a possible redesign.

Methods/Systems: Names on Paper Bags--Mystery Solved

I have often wondered about the names printed on the bottom of paper bags. However, yesterday I really had to know and I found this 3 minute "All Things Considered" piece by Barbara Klein.

Methods/Systems: Japan's Female-Only Subway Cars

Paul, my buddy and seventh-grade lab partner, just moved to Tokyo. When I asked him about the systems there, the former Jeopardy! contestant told me that the female-only subway cars are his "personal fave" and kindly sent me these pictures (I especially like the one with the man in the surgical mask). Paul explained that this system, designated with a pink stripe painted the subway platform, is a tactic being used to reduce the instances of public groping and the train cars that stop parallel to the stripe during rush hour are reserved for female passengers. He mentioned that this policy has also been applied to other places. For example, areas with several photo booths might have a few booths marked with a "Women Only" sign.

Thank you Paul!

Methods/Systems: Bookplates

One day, I would like to have a fancy engraved bookplate for the books that I will refer to as "my library." Here are three inspiring ex libris collections online that I like to look at when I start wistfully dreaming of my future bookplate: Pratt Libraries Ex Libris Collection, The University of Louisville's Ainslie Hewett Bookplate Collection (all of which were designed by Ainslie Hewett) and the Plattsburgh State Art Museum's archive of bookplates designed by Rockwell Kent. One of my favorites is Winward Prescott's plate from Pratt collection (pictured above).

Methods/Systems: Rosy-Part 1 of 2: General Organizing

My aunt, Rosy, is a life coach (email her, she does phone sessions: roselliott@comcast.net), the mother of 4 (ages 7, 11, 15, 18) and an Organizing Hall of Famer. Here are some of her techniques:

Images from left to right:

1. Keys, the dog leash etc... are hung near the back door next to a wall-mounted charging station. This allows one to drop off their keys and cell phone in one continuous motion and keeps chargers in one place.

2. Everyone in the house has their own step in the staircase which is marked with their first initial using a vinyl letter. The stuff that that person needs to remember to take upstairs is put on their step so they'll pass the item and carry it up the next time they climb the stairs.

3. A yardstick hung vertically in a narrow space just inside the door (under handrail) to the basement puts it out of sight but ready for action.

4. Ponytail holders around the door knob in the "girl's bathroom" make them easier to find and keep them from getting tangled with bobby pins, barrettes and bows.

And my favorite...a tiny "L-shaped" closet under the steps was converted into a tiny secret room for the family's youngest member by putting toys on the shelves and adding small children's chair, some pillows and small, doormat-sized rug.

Stay tuned the second part of this article: Rosy's Kitchen Organizing

Is that a threat?

"Little, Texty Dingbats...": The Op-Art Column is my new favorite. Here's a great piece about improving the "threat level" graphics.

The Palmer Method

After reading "Op-Art: The Write Stuff" by Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty in the New York Times, I wanted to learn more about the Palmer Method of teaching handwriting. As it turns out, Austin Palmer's system made quite a splash at a number of expositions and in 1912 he sold 1,000,000 copies of his book "Palmer's Guide to Business Writing."