Links for August 12th

A wood worker I'm digging at the moment, John Houshmand.

The Japanese 5S method of organizing tools or really anything.

If you aren't familiar with Shwood they make wooden sunglasses. They're made of very high quality materials like Zeiss lenses and rosewood. Reading the article was a bit of a kick in the ass for me. Because of architecture school I'm adept at using a laser cutter and any other wood shop or design software they're using. Plus I should be better at design, but that's not what matters. They did it. Guess I have to do that at some point instead of making continual one-offs.

I'm not weird! From the NYT: “Cyclists have strange shapes: big quads, small waists and big butts. It’s hard to find pants.” Check out the Tumblr pic. Yikes.

Wiel Arets is the new dean at the College of Architecture at IIT. He's kind of a big deal so it should be interesting to see what he does to the program at IIT.

A teacher trips on LSD that a student gave him while on a field trip - wow.  (hat tip Ben)

I have this idea that I want to open up a multi-use store front that combines a few of the following: a coffee shop, venue, gallery, woodworking space, bar, sandwich/taco restaurant, etc. Obviously not all of those but say a place that's a coffee shop in the morning and a bar and live music venue at night, or a woodworking shop that has a glass partition so you can see the workers in the back and in the front they sell coffee and maybe sandwiches around noon (since we'd be making them for ourselves anyways, that's how potbelly started). Basically just any way to achieve efficiencies from things you already have or need. So much of that which we own sits idle a large amount of the time. I've always liked the idea of an architecture firm that has a storefront where they sell coffee and have a small cafe. The typical problem being that coffee shops don't make much money but if you already have the storefront and we're making coffee why not take advantage of the situation and drive foot traffic to your firm? Plus architects could use the exposure - I feel like they don't have enough interaction with the general public. That is, most people never get to just wander around and see what they do. Anyways, barista classes from Intelligentsia. One day, three hours, $200.