Camellia Sinensis – Cultivating a Future

My first Tea Plant (Camellia Sinensus)

I’ve often dreamt of buying a small plot of land in Asia and starting a little tea plantation. Waking up with the sun, throwing open the shutters and overlooking row after row of tea plant while I paint seems like the kind of existence I could die happy from.

I was at Flora Grubb nursery last weekend looking for a plant to add a little life to my bedroom. I had settled on a small dessert plant (which I’ve since forgotten the name of) when one of the employees asked if she could help me with anything. Without thinking, I asked if she had any tea plants. She thought she might, and hurried off to look. She came back with a lone plant – it was the last one.

I bought it.

I know all I did was shell out five bucks for a tiny tree, but I can’t help but feel as if somehow I’ve taken a significant step towards realizing a dream. You have to start somewhere right?

Identities – Preliminary Acrylic on Wood

This is a close-up of a piece from a series I’m currently working on entitled “Identities”.

I made wooden “canvases” a few weeks ago with my buddy Lee. They were cheap, about $6 a piece for 32″ x 24″, and have since given me something new to experiment with. A lot of people paint on wood, but this was my first experience with wood as a canvas. I began to realize how beautiful the grain was and really wanted the identity of the wood to show throw.

I started thinking about how I could accomplish this, and what kind of artistic opportunities were open to me now that I was working with a rigid structure. It dawned on me that I could probably paint something in acrylic, and actually sand it down. My hunch was right.

I painted thick, let it dry, and then applied a few consecutive coats of watered down blacks and browns. The wash settled into the valleys formed by the paint, as well as the small cracks in the wood, which helped to accent the grain.

There are still a few more steps I want to take with this piece, and the series as a whole, but here is another close-up, this time of the center, and the piece as a whole, after sanding.

What do you think?

Hope to see you on Twitter!

April Fool’s Day Prank Anyone Can Do

There’s no reason for you NOT to prank someone this year.

This is one of my favorite practical jokes for a reason! It’s easy, takes about 5 seconds to set up, and it doesn’t cause any damage – so you can’t really get in trouble. The perfect crime! Happy April Fool’s Day everyone!

Cava de Cano Quinoa

Quinoa, up close and personal.

Quinoa (pronounce it ‘keen-wah’ and you’ll sound smart) is an important source of nutrition in much of South America. While not quite a grain, it’s often eaten like rice, either on it’s own or as a side, and can be prepared in a myriad of ways. Recently, it’s become my staple side dish because of it’s high fiber and protein content. 1 cup of cooked quinoa has 5 grams of fiber, and 8 grams of protein (source).

It’s not very well known in the states, so it can be hard to find outside of specialty food stores. However, if you have a Trader Joes near you, you should be in luck; they carry it.

This particular recipe was gifted to me by the chef at Cava de Cano Winery in Mendoza, Argentina (pic). Like all talented chefs, he had no idea how much of each ingredient he put into the dish, so it took a bit of experimenting to get the proportions just right. It’s light and zippy, and pairs especially well with salmon and chicken.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Quinoa
• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Lemon (juice)
• 1 Cup Fresh, Chopped Parsley
• 3 Cloves Garlic, minced.
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Combine Quinoa and water in a small pan and bring to boil. Immediately reduce to very low heat and cover. Cook for 15 minutes (or follow intructions on packaging). Do not stir. While waiting for quinoa to cook, squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl, taking care to remove any seeds, and combine with parsley, garlic, salt and pepper.

When quinoa is finished cooking, stir in lemon mixture, cover, and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

How many of you have tried Quinoa before? I’m curious.

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20 Minute Dulce de Leche

Traditionally, dulce de leche can take anywhere from 2-3 hours – which means a rather large time investment for such a simple yet delicious dessert. I’ve gotten the prep time down to about 20 minutes (less, for most uses). It’s wonderfull what a little experimenting can do!

Cook time: 20 minutes (active) More time for larger batches.

Yield: 8-10 bite size caramels

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 4-6 Drops of Vanilla Extract, or Vanilla Bean, to taste.
• Dash of Salt
• Pinch of Baking Powder

Directions

Pour all ingredients into your pot (non-stick) and bring to a rapid boil at high heat. Stir vigorously until the milk starts to condense and darken, 8-10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and then low as the dulce de leche thickens. Continue to stir throughout to avoid scorching. More time in the pot yeilds a harder candy.

Notes

• The original recipe calls for BAKING SODA, not BAKING POWDER. I substituted to see what would happen, and I liked the results. I would assume using baking powder leads to an end result less dense than mine. Pretty please let me know how it turns out if you make it with baking soda.
• If you want to make dulce de leche sauce, mix in sweetened condensed milk to the final product while it’s still warm.
• Darker dulce de leche has more flavor, but it’s also harder and more dense. Experiment with cook times to find your preference. My cook times lean toward a harder, caramel candy.

Tip

If you want your dulce de leche even faster, start off using sweetened condensed milk right out of the can (make sure to add the baking powder). It tastes a little different, but practically shaves off the rapid boil stage.

I really want to hear about any experiments with, or different ways to make, dulce de leche. A good friend of mine told me her family used to make it by boiling sweetened condensed milk while still in the unopened can. No stirring, but it could explode! WILD!

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Using Gmail and SMS To Recieve Email on a Non-Internet Capable Phone

I’ve held off on getting mobile internet on my phone for a few reasons. Mostly because I just don’t want to be that connected and available to everyone, and because I really don’t want an email update about my Netflix queu interrupting dinner. Sometimes, however, there are circumstances when it would be nice to have. For those times, I’ve put together a little step-by-step procedure that I’ve found useful as a way to get specific, important emails to my non internet capable phone using SMS.

It’s really easy, and if you don’t have Gmail yet, maybe this will convince you to sign up.

1. Sending email from your phone. Type your message as you usually would, but instead of sending it to a mobile number, send the text message to an email address. It’s that simple. Give it a try and email a text message to your inbox. This will set you up for the next step.

2. Receiving email on your phone. The “from” field of the email/text you just sent should look somewhat familiar. Usually it’s your mobile number@carrier.com or something of the sort. I use AT&T so mine is xxxxxxx@txt.att.net. All mobile carriers have slightly different systems (I think Sprint does some kind of routing thing) so this is the easiest way to discover what your phone’s email address is. Once you have this, you can start forwarding important messages to your phone.

3. Using Gmail to forward emails. It’s all well and good that YOU know how to email your phone, but good luck getting your non-tech savvy significant other to start emailing your cell phone. Luckily, the wizards at Google have you covered.

1. Sign in to Gmail and click “Settings” at the top right.

2. Click on the “Filter” tab.

3. Click “Create a new filter”.

4. In the “From” field, type in an email address. This could be your boss, dentist or even Great Aunt Myrtle, bless her heart. All the emails from the address you put in this field will get forwarded to your phone, so make sure this person A) is important, and B) doesn’t often send you spammy chain letters and other useless emails.

5. Click the “Next Step” button.

6. Check the “Forward To” box, and input your cell phone’s email address into the field.

7. Click the “Create Filter” button and you’re done! Now, all email from that special someone will be pushed right to your phone and you don’t have to pay an extra $30 a month for mobile internet.

Just a few notes:

• Normal text rates apply, so it would be advisable to have unlimited text service.
• As long as you don’t check the “Delete It” box during filter creation, you will still retain a copy off all forwarded emails in your inbox.

The flexibility of Gmail’s filter features can be incredibly powerful, especially when combined with RSS and SMS technology, so I highly encourage you to play around and see what you can come up with. Leave any tips or exciting combinations in the comments.

As always, follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/dpwalsh

Tango at Cafe Tortoni

This place is an ESTABLISHMENT. Jorge Luis Borges (who heavily influenced my graphic design education, thank you Professor Corwin) used to write his books here. It’s like the equivalent to City Lights in San Francisco. The decor was awesome and the Chocolate con Churros was THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE I’VE EVER HAD. And that’s saying a lot, as I make a pretty killer hot cocoa.

Don’t worry, I’ll add  Cafe Tortoni to my forthcoming Buenos Aires guide.

The tango AFTER this was probably the HOTTEST thing I’ve ever seen, but my batteries died halfway through!

Second Recoleta Cemetery Shirt, and Contest Winner

This is the second shirt inspired by the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. I was shooting for a design that would feel opposite to the first, so I opted for skulls and red, as opposed to angels and blue. There are some angels in this design as well, but good god they were everywhere. I just couldn’t help myself. The text translates to “We wait for God” and is on the inside of the entranceway to the cemetery, opposite the RIP text which is on the first shirt.

If you like the new shirt, head on over to my gallery at Zazzle to pick one up. If you could even just click the link and give the design a 5 star rating that would be fantastic as well.

A lot of people requested neon and/or brightly colored designs as well. So, just for fun, and because I was really digging the skull on this shirt, I’ve made a shirt with 3 skulls on it. This one’s also available on Zazzle. Enjoy!

Contest Winner

This was tough. I went with JoSe’s/Raven’s color scheme for this shirt, but I thought Chris’s pickup line was so good I’m trying to work it into a forthcoming YouTube show. Raven’s tshirt site suggestion was also impeccable, TeeFury, had such a great design when I checked it out that I bought a shirt on the spot. Their designs seem to be more in-line with my tastes than Threadless or Woot. I have to pick someone however, so I choose TINA because her anecdote rocked. Congrats!

If you didn’t win, you can pick one up at my Zazzle gallery.

Also be sure to check out Karl Long’s tshirt blog at http://tcritic.com, for some of the latest and greatest Tees out there.

Recoleta Cemetery, Shirt One – Giveaway

Buenos Aires has an incredible cemetery in the Recoleta barrio. It’s easily one of the top tourist attractions in the city, and for good reason. The place is both peaceful and eery at the same time. Ornately carved statues number in the thousands and cats roam freely within the cemetery walls, brushing against visitor’s legs as they get lost amongst the tombs and side streets.

I easily spent 5 or 6 hours taking pictures – and getting sunburned – at the cemetery. There was too much inspiration for one shirt, so I’ll be creating a series. This shirt is the first in that series, and to celebrate I’ve decided to give one away!

Show me some love por favore. Click the pic and rate the shirt 5 stars.

How to Win:

You must answer the following 3 questions in a comment below to qualify for the free shirt. I will be judging mostly on originality, and I’m only giving away one shirt, so make your comment count.

1) Where is your favorite place to buy T-Shirts online (provide a link).

2) This shirt was blue and grey, what colors should the next shirt be?

3) What is the best pick up line  you’ve ever heard?

Good luck!

Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/dpwalsh

How to Remember Everything Pt. 1

Mnemonic devices are, simply put, mental tools used to aid memory. Many teachers in grade school have put them to great use. Remember this saying?

“My Very Eccentric Mother Just Sold Us Nine Pickles”

If not, it’s a simple mnemonic device used to remember the order of planets in our solar system. The first letter of each word corresponds to the first letter of each of the planets: Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto. There are variations on this saying, and of course Pluto has since been stripped of its planetary title, so I guess your mother no longer sells anything, but that’s beside the point.

There are many types of mnemonic devices, but they all work either by adding emotional value, lumping multiple pieces of information into one idea, or by infusing arbitrary information (lists, etc.), with an already established thought structure.

Most Americans can’t remember the last 10 US Presidents in order, but I bet at least 85% percent could name the previous winners and runners up of American Idol, in order. All connotations about the US education system aside, most people can’t remember presidential order because the information seems arbitrary, whereas there is a massive emotional, and contextual factor to American Idol. The planetary order is arbitrary as well, until you instill structure via the small story about your industrious mother.

Except for the occasional question at trivia night, knowing how the planets stack up won’t really be all that useful. However, circumstances like running errands and remembering everything your boss said needs to be done by 3pm are situations we run into every day. I would now like to share an awesome, mnemonic device my 7th grade social studies teacher taught me for remembering 10 items, in order, forwards, backwards, leftwards and even rightwards.

How to Remember Anything

First, remember this easy list. Hint: all words rhyme with their corresponding numbers.

1. Bun

2. Shoe

3. Tree

4. Door

5. Hive

6. Sticks

7. Heaven

8. Gate

9. Line

10. Hen

Second, create associations with each item on your list and the corresponding word from the above list.

Example:

These were the first 3 items chosen by the class, for the demonstration in 7th grade (1997 and I still remember).

1. Pencil

2. Welcome mat

3. Garbage can

• How do I relate a pencil to a bun? It might sound silly, but the pencil has a similar shape to a hot dog, and would fit nicely in a bun. Done.
• The welcome mat and shoe was easy, you wipe your shoes on the mat. That was a gimme.
• Garbage can? Well, you throw a lot of paper in the garbage can, and paper comes from trees, so there we go.

It doesn’t really matter how silly or unusual the relationship is, just as long as you form a connection in your mind. It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else except for you, and you’ll often get strange looks if you try to explain your thought process anyway. I use this technique all the time, and never forget a thing at the grocery store.

Coming soon: How to Remember Everything Pt 2 – Learning Languages and Creating Original Mnemonic Devices.

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