Art and Design – California Dream 2000s

Weekend home tours; Arterra LEED-certified high rise

Looking through this weekend’s home tours on the Dwell website, one in particular caught my eye: Arterra.

This is a 269-unit condo tower recently completed in the Mission Bay area, which not only looks interesting and innovative on the outside — I like the blue and orange colors and the offset window depths — but boasts that it’s San Francisco’s first LEED-certified residential high-rise (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a construction rating system developed by the US Green Building Council).

From Dwell’s site:

The building features two green roofs, low-VOC materials, Energy Star appliances and dual-flush toilets. The faÃ§ade is made from Trespa, an environmentally friendly product developed from end-of-lifecycle recycled materials.

John King, the Chronicle’s architecture columnist (how great is it that San Francisco’s newspaper still has an architecture column!?) wrote about Arterra in August, and found the design to be a visual standout in an area that plays host to many generic designs.

WordPress revisions

I noticed recently that one of my WordPress sites had started skipping post numbers. It used to just go in order… 1, 2, 3 onward as expected. Suddenly post numbers were incrementing several at a time, seemingly randomly. What’s up with that?

I started looking around and found the database had multiple entries per post. A little more digging and I realized that WordPress 2.6 had added versioning (is “revisioning” a word?). Each time a draft was saved, WordPress would save it as a new entry with the post_type set to “revision” (versus “post” for the final version) and the database would increment the id by one. Mystery solved.

Versioning can be really valuable — it’s a key feature of content management systems and wikis — but for some of my blogs I only want my final version to be saved and available. So, how to turn it off?

In wp-config.php, simply add the following line to turn off revisions:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);

On a related note, autosaves can add extra posts in the database. A workaround is setting a high interval for autosaves, in wp-config.php:

define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL',600);

Once you have these changes in place you may remove revisions that have already been saved in the database by issuing the following command within mysql:

delete from wp_posts where post_type = "revision";

Before you do that, though, you may wish to list all the entries that are set as revisions:

select ID, post_title from wp_posts where post_type = 'revision';

And compare them to the entries set as posts:

select ID, post_title from wp_posts where post_type = 'post';

Technology, Travel, Transit, Weather, Work, Design and Social

Travel

I did a small amount of travel over the holidays, both by train and by plane. I like train trips since I don’t have to deal with the airport, I can move around freely while en route and, most importantly, I can bring a laptop and write. Life has been so busy lately that having a day riding the rails meant I had a day to write and reflect. I wrote over 5,000 words on the train, examining my year and my accomplishments, looking at patterns I have been repeating and working out the things I’d like to keep doing and the things I need to change or stop doing. There are some hard decisions there, but that’s what taking an objective look at myself is all about. I was also able to see some amazing scenery and see how the train winds its way down a particularly tall mountain pass.

The plane ride was pleasant; I chatted the entire time with an interesting couple sitting next to me. We had a remarkably broad conversation for three people who had just met.

The silly moment was before the flight, at the security check, when they pulled my bags for a secondary search. I hadn’t even thought that my tube of toothpaste would be a problem, but it was more than the three ounce limit. I think that limit is ridiculous (as is removing our shoes), but I also know that it’s just not worth arguing about. I just quietly said, “okay, you can keep the toothpaste.” The security woman looked at me with compassion and asked if I’d like her to squeeze some of the toothpaste into a plastic ziplock bag so I could have a little with me to brush my teeth later. I thought that was nice of her, though it occurred to me later that since she believed it was actually toothpaste, and was willing to give some back, then why not let me keep all of it? I figure we were both doing our parts to act sane, within the confines of the insanity imposed around us.

Transit

I got a chance last week to ride the double decker bus that Muni is testing out. It’s nice and clean, and the view from upstairs is interesting. The ceiling on the top level is pretty low, so heads will be bumped. The bus itself felt responsive and didn’t seem to strain under the load. I did notice that it has double axles at the back; I’m assuming that is to carry what must be much more weight than a regular bus carries. I’m curious how these buses compare, weight-wise and fuel efficiency-wise, to the long articulated buses that are used on many of the routes.

I think that an electric trolley-bus version of the double decker would be needed here in SF; we should be lessening the amount of diesel burned here, not increasing it.

Weather

Someone recently said, snarkily, that I just write about the weather ere. I disagree. The weather is a handy way to mark changes, and the changes in the weather often remind me of the passage of time and prompt me to write a little something here. But the weather is in the background, helping me set a tone for the limited writing I do in this space. I’d like to think that someone who thinks I just write about the weather is someone who is not really paying much attention to what I’m saying. That being said, it’s 45 degrees Fahrenheit right now. To me that is really cold! I am so grateful for the double-pane windows, the radiator and the new boiler down in the basement, firing with half the gas consumption of the old one.

Design

I’m rooting through my list of art and design projects, looking to pick out a couple small projects I can fit in here and there, scoping some medium projects to make them more manageable and doing some preliminary planning for a larger remodel-type project that may get underway later in the year.

New Year’s resolutions

I actually have New Year’s resolutions to exercise more, eat more vegetables, lower my fat intake, rest more and pay more attention to healthy choices, physically and emotionally.

Building and design

Something very exciting happened yesterday: the new IKEA catalog landed in my mailbox. Say what you will about IKEA furniture — it’s cheap, it’s “dorm like,” whatever — I love the stuff. ~~Some of~~ ~~Most of~~ Nearly all of my furniture is from IKEA and I like that it’s light and contemporary. They have so much stuff it’s easy to find things that work even if you’re an “armchair designer” like me. And IKEA, as a company, professes to be environmentally responsible.

Now my apartment is rather small, so I don’t really buy new furniture much, but changing things up, adding little lamps and things really helps keep me from getting bored in my little space. I go through the IKEA catalog, the DWR catalog, the Pottery Barn catalog, Apartment Therapy’s site and similar catalogs and publications, looking for ideas, subtle things I can change, artsy projects that I can embark upon. My goal is always to avoid adding clutter and keep things tasteful and interesting, with a little whimsy thrown in. Yes, I said whimsy; whimsy is important.

This morning I heard some banging downstairs; I had heard that the unit downstairs was going to be renovated, and sure enough, painting and tiling was in full swing. I had never seen the unit below and it was interesting to compare. We have the same exterior wall layout, but that’s about it. The unit downstairs has walls separating the kitchen, living area and the closet and bathroom areas, whereas mine had those walls removed at some point and it’s a fairly open space. The built-in cabinetry and moldings downstairs are lovely and seeing them made me feel sad that my place no longer has those charms. But I much prefer a light open space to smaller individual rooms. When I lived in one of those “railroad” apartments, where all the rooms were off a long main hallway, things felt constricted. I would like to reinstall molding and re-tile my bathroom someday; the molding in particular would add back some of the missing architectural detail.

The building I live in is interesting, in and of itself. It was built in 1913 and has the standard San Francisco facade with bay windows and fire escapes. The elevator is an open-cage Otis and, from what I’ve found on the web, it’s of an even earlier vintage. I suppose they found it used and resuscitated it when the building was under construction. I think this whole block was built then, part of the rebirth after the 1906 earthquake. We have steam heat and old-fashioned radiators, which are now powered by a brand new gas-fired steam boiler in the basement; it replaced the cast iron monstrosity that finally wore out this year.

Update: Okay, well, I went to IKEA and bought an Ektorp loveseat; it’s the one that is comfortable to sit on and the covers can be switched off for different colors and patterns. So, one of the old chairs has been mothballed to the basement.

NYC Condom

From nyccondom.org: “The NYC Condom is Here! New York City is the first city to brand its very own condom – and it’s NYC to the core. You can pick up your own NYC condom – free of charge – at participating locations throughout New York City.”

What a great way for local government to promote public health. And it features excellent subway-sign-style packaging design:

Image source: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Mini cards

My Moo mini cards have arrived! Here are a few of them:

Pictures

I love how life stories can be extrapolated simply by looking at photo collections. Looking through the shots I’ve uploaded so far I definitely see visual evidence of my love affair with San Francisco and my interests in infrastructure, sailing and art. Perhaps I’ll start adding some of my older collections over time.

I’ve also ordered some “Moo cards” (no I am not actually endorsing products here) with my photos printed on them. They seem like a much more fun kind of contact card to give out to friends and in social situations than regular business cards. Of course with my regular business cards everyone can be terribly impressed with my super generic job title; oh well!

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