jeffrey + upstairsloft

target="_blank">To one of Iris’ points on her blog, a great friend I grew
up with since the 6th grade (and former neighbor), I live an awesome life and
have More Than Enough.

Kate and I live a very sustainable lifestyle and that’s something we plan on
pursuing with slight upgrades along the way. Nothing flashy but to enjoy the
simple pleasures in life like fresh-out-the-oven bread, shopping here and
there, eating out, and chillin at the park.

Roof over my head? check!
Yummy Food in my tummy? check!
Fresh Clothes on my back? check!
Job? check!
Health? check!
Found and soon to be MARRIED to the < 3 of my life? check!

Unconditional love and support from the bestest friends and fam bam? check!
Residing in one of zeeee most beautiful cities in the whole entire world?
check!

With that said, it’s the simple pleasures in life that I enjoy. And though I
may bitch about about the strains and struggle whether it’s finances, the daily
grind at the job or whichever, the biggest thing I can bitch about is not being
motivated to just sit down and reflect (simple enough, right?). I used to be
king at that. Much like most of us are grumpy before we start the morning with
a cup of joe, I’m just in a bland and pissy mood when I don’t get to sit down,
relax a bit and, most of all, reflect.

Reflection is going over the checkpoints in life. What did I do? How did I get
there? How can I learn from it? How can I do it better next time? I’m the type
of dude who tracks things to do it better, whether’s it’s dealing with life
situations or work, in my case, the design process. I learn from my lessons and
mistakes.

I’m either always in a rush or too occupied recuperating from the bullshit to
sit and think. Like how some people are too tired to cook after work, they’ll
pop in a microwave dinner to satiate their hunger. I resort to mental junk
food. I’m too tired to do anything productively. When I get home, I sit around,
staring blankly at the screen of whatever Kate is watching. Most of the time I
have no clue what my mind is processing. Sounds easy enough and I know I need
to find a work-around from this.

I love this. And it’s 2 blocks south, and 1 block over from where Kate and I live.
>> top-floor victorian [url]

It’s about $800,000 over our budget, so we’re also considering this 2-bedroom flat, which is about a block away from where we live.
>> 2-bdrm flat [url]

Simple, yet extremely clever. When designers make the unseen obvious, well, seen… damn I love that. Aaron Allen, Creative Director at Wieden+Kennedy,designed this silkscreen. So simple. So clever. And so powerful. I’m jealous and inspired.

I’m also inspired how designers and artists are directing their creative drive towards politics in an upbeat way. I’m not that big of a fan of Bush as the next person but the “Fuck Bush” art saturated too much of our lives. It’s a fresh breath of air that helps keep positive vibes up in a crappy economic climate.

This dude is a perfect example as to why a butt load of kids are getting hurt crawling into the fixed gear scene. It’s fun to ride but kids are getting way ahead of themselves, gleaming their eyes and glorifying their fixed gear bike heroes, skidding downhill and doing minute-long wheelies before they learn to just ride. I’m not judging, but before involving yourself in any of that craziness, learn to ride. Learn to control the bike so the bike doesn’t control you. At least put on a front brake and wear a helmet.

I’m just saying it’s a serious thing to learn how to ride first. Like seriously learn how to ride. Get used to the awkward notion that you can’t stop pedaling. Let your muscles adjust to the resistance of slowing your bike down. Most importantly, learn to control your bike so your bike doesn’t control you. Really. I can’t stress it enough. This dude takes a nasty spill when his friends filming him urge him to skid. There’s a definite learning curve with hopping on such a minimal machine where legs, cranks and pedals all work together in crazy unison to control the bike, much like getting used to typing efficiently and accurately on an iPhone. It takes extreme cooridination and feel. Right? That was some nerdy shit. But you get my point.

A fixed gear bike is a bike that has a direct drive system. Pedal forward; you move forward. Pedal backwards; you move backwards. It’s very simple, basic and the bikes are sleek, sexy and streamline. But it’s something most people aren’t used to as most bikes allow you to coast. Skidding is a technique riders used to slow down, much like snowboarders and ice skaters skid in their tracks to slow themselves down. Enough talk. Watch Nick fail. Then watch the videos Nick is probably watching and copying before he learns to ride.

Nicks Fail from Christian Meldrum on Vimeo.

Macaframa SF Track Bike Promo from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

‘ figuring stuff out…