My dream headphones were, for the past… mmm… 15 years or so, the Grado SR60. The first time I had the chance of listening to this amazing pair of cans was back in NYC when I first lived there. It was then about $90us, a price I could surly afford. It stayed around that price ever since, and I could afford then all along. But, I didn’t.

Yesterday, Roni got me a pair for my birthday. The improved SR60i.

It looks “basic” (a nicer way of saying cheap). It even feels basic.  But when you put it on and press “PLAY” you forget about everything!

They sound amazing!! They sound as good as I remembered + 15 years of waiting :)

And so it happened that 9 days before my 33rd birthday another “V” was marked… (Love you Roni)

QR exploration is my new (and hopefully yours too) time waster…

What is it? you get to find new and interesting (sometimes old and boring) web site by scanning QR codes from a google image search.

What do you need? Something to scan QR codes with (a phone, preferably a smart phone, like my new Samsung Galaxy S), A QR scanning software (I use ScanLife for Android because it automatically sends you to the  scanned URL – higher surprise factor!), and some time to waste (some time NOT to waste can work too)

How to QR explore? Run a search on google images with the words “QR code”. Run ScanLife on your phone to scan one result out of millions you’ll get and wait for it! Repeat to waste more time and find more things :)

NOTE: QR codes can also include file download informations, so keep in mind you should be careful for what you agree to download.

You can also find many PC/MAC dasktop versions of QR code readers if you don’t want to use a phone, it’s as fun.

This will take you to www.etgalim.com

You can also create your own code here

It’s crazy times again… Working hard on my end term presentation.
There is something addictive about this time. I find myself liking it every time again and again…
It has it’s crazy-not-so-fun moments, and i get to spend too much time again @ bezalel (and see Roni less – that’s a lie :), but then again – I’m there with my best of friends, so it cannot be that bad.

I’ll be back to life in no time…

Posted from an Android :-)

I’m going O.R. in the morning for a kind-of-simple-kind-of-not procedure, it won’t take long but I will be spending a couple of days at the hospital.

“They” will be taking out some bad polyps in my sinuses (again), the all procedure is also known as FESS (if you like yourself and me – you will not click that link)

It’s not the first time for me (I’m no FESS virgin) but tomorrow will be the first time I’m going through this with only local anesthetics, which makes it even more disgusting (well, if you are me)

The good news is that it will make me a better person! :)

UPDATE: I just clicked the link! Damn! Here’s what it says under “what are the risks”:

“At worst this could mean blindness, or a leakage of CSF (fluid around the brain) with meningitis and death. The risk of any of these serious complications happening is less than 1:1000″

Given the fact that I was born a conjoined twin that only happens 1:4,000,000 births, I have some good chances of dieing tomorrow YEY!

I loved you all!

It was was a really nice event, I was very excited to  be part of the few who ware invited. The “X” in the TEDx stands for an independently organized event, which is a new concept of the TED org. allowing almost everyone to organize a TED event, and invite speakers of their liking.

The event felt like a pilot, it wasn’t top notch organized, but it also felt like a good start point for something that will slowly grow to be more and more like the real thing.

Hopefully the videos will be up soon… and you’ll be able to see some of the very nice TEDx lectures that took place at the event.

Read more:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/140582

http://www.themarker.com/tmc/article.jhtml?ElementId=ro20101112_00100 (Hebrew only)

Thats right, I moved to digital photography!

I’ve been taking pictures for about 17 years now, As an amateur and sometimes, even as a pro. But I struggled with the digital-move for years. Until yesterday… when I got my 1st DSLR.

It’s a used Canon 20D , and I have to admit, 24 hours later, it feels good. I still think in a very analogue way, and I take pictures as if the film is about to rewind, and still didn’t really got the idea behind taking a shot and immediately watching the image on the little screen (very little in the 20D’s case), not that I didn’t do that with a little pocket camera, but it feels different with a DSLR.

I reviewed the post now and it seen like I’m writing the first digital camera review 15 years a go :) It’s gonna be fun!

Here’s one of the 1st images I took this morning…

One of this weekend highlights is defiantly Eran Tzur’s live show I saw yesterday night…

I only started liking Eran in the past few years, and I find him a very interesting artist… even more, I was there with Mel and some cool photography equipment (Mel’s) and we took really nice front raw pictures of the show… which was very nice, calm and personal.

Enjoy :)

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There is also this (In Hebrew:)

Needless to say, it was a shit party, full of people of the wrong kind :)

But check out the view!!!

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And Neta, just happen to be among my having-fun friends, enjoying her time in Sinai. And I was left back in Tel-Aviv with the important mission of dog sitting Baba…

Little she knew (LOL) that I’ll have such a great time with Baba… (I think she might did).

Amazing how I miss having a dog… (all I need now is life, and I can have one)

It’s located in Tel-Aviv, and other then a job, it’s a good reason to get out of home in the morning :)

I’m not sure I remember when was the last time I was doing anything that resembled a 9-5-office-day-job… It’s a good training for real life LOL

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It is actually 4 episodes into the new season, but I only new started watching…

Yey! (although watching Weeds will never be the same as before – snif snif)

I’m not sure when was the last time I used a paper fax. Not only that, the one I used in a service store in Jerusalem was the chemical paper type, really really old, where the fax is erased after a while…

I was doing a technical drawing job for a lightning designer and believe it or not, she has no email address so she uses FAX services to reply on changes needed… (I can’t post the content of the FAX here, but here is a picture of one :)

It’s not as good as “the all time favorite” High Fidelity, but it’s a nice movie. And I found the trailer (They had trailers in the 90′s…)

Funny things is, that nothing really changed… dating is still dating…

I love you all! Have an amazing year…

I was invited to spend some time on a beach right out side Caesarea (A city in Israel) with Guy, Rachel and some friends.

I woke up in the morning at around 5:00 to the sound of waves (love it when it happens) and took a dip in one of the nicest beaches in Israel (Don’t let the power plant in the background fool you). The water are clear and fun.

The greatest part was opening my tent again in discovering Dutch sand from my trip to Zeeland

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The Wedding took place in the desert at the most amazing place under the stars…

Mazal Tov!

So I’m back, I’m back… home (kind of), it feels like home from one particular reason – NOTHING NEVER CHANGES AROUND HERE! It makes no difference if I’m gone for 5 months or 5 years, I’m always back to the same place with the same people with  the same problems and pretty much the same mood… To be honnest I’m also 90% back, my body is here, my mind… somewhere else…

It’s hot in Israel, really hot, I missed that, I like it hot! but I don’t like the 90% humidity we have here in Tel-Aviv.

I spend about 90% of my time on the beach, not really admitting I’m in Israel and that my so called “vacation” is over.

I live off the last 10% of my money (about the same as saying I spent 90% of everything I had) and 90% of that was spent here on beer and vacation-like activities.

Already met about 90% of my friends here – it was great! I missed them! But also spent 90% of the time thinking of good friends (there) I miss already and hope to see very soon.

Spent 90% of the days since I’m back in Neta’s app. in Tel-Aviv, house-sitting while she was gone, and the extra 10% in Jerusalem on my sister’s couch…

90% of the food I consumed in the past 2 weeks was Humus, GREAT humus to be exact… and not only that – food wise, coming back is a dream, I love the food here.

I’m doing my best to look at the bright side of being back, and the brightest of all is the fact that no I can go away again… and it just happen that I might be spending the next 6 weeks in Barcelona… (about 90% of the time left before next year starts)

So I can’t really complain!!!

I love you all!

(Here's a random person I met who knows how to pick his T-shirts!)

(It’s hot and sticky in Israel)

First place that looks like civilization since I left Eindhoven so many hours ago this morning.

It seams like a nice place to visit, and I do have a few hours to burn before heading to the airport to ctach my flight back home… but… I’m over weight, over packed, tired and feeling so clumsy.

One of the wheels on my SWARMlight box was broken this morning while changing trains in Venlo (still in the NL) and ever since it makes a very wired sound and turns a lot of heads around me.

The train from Venlo to Kaldenkirchen in Germany had no seats in the middle of the cart, and was very old… kind of makes you wonder why… I made a nasty Holocaust joke to the girl next to me… she took it fine :)

I just bought a plastic Coca-Cola bottle and this one is different, it seems to be made of… ABS plastic or something that feels more like glass rather then Plastic… ohhhhh GERMANY!

See you all soon, I love you all!

This only means one thing… lot’s of reasons for parties or in Eindhoven’s case… BBQ(s) in the sun.

The last week felt kind of like “the BBQ” season, I had a few! and with other type of good-bye parties (drinks, parties, dinners)  it was a great week of food and drinks.

LAB3 end-term BBQ party: LAB3 was part of school, and after the final presentation we had a cool BBQ

(Don’t miss the picture where a MACBOOK pro box is being used to feed the fire :)

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Friends BBQ at the lake (one of them): Bye dear friends… I’ll miss everyone

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Ieva’s garden party: This is a cool one. Aperently Europe have this thing where you can rent a garden (!). It’s not near your home, just a piece of farm land you rent on an yearly basis (and it’s cheap) and you make it your own… Ieva have an amazing one. Other then great cooking (from Ieva) we also had salad from the garden… Great vegetarian dinner.

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I presented (kind of) my last 3 presentations today. Which put’s me in a very free state of mind.

Around midday, Jean, Leonidas, Tsyoshi and I decided to have a swim at the lake, so we took our bike and headed there. About half way hell froze and it started raing like crazy. we found asylum under a bridge and waited for the rain to stop. And it did :)

It was a great swim!

Some pictures of our underground asylum and some very wet people!

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Also, this is how we all feel, 1 hour after finishing everything… (not in the depressive-romantic way… just a bit lost)

Jean, Camille, Cleo, Juliette and I visited the lake yesterday, it was great… I think we’ll spend more time there in the next week and a half… the LAST week and a half :)

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So back in April, we had one nice weekend (the rest was freezing) and we decided to go on a little road trip. To a beautiful part of the Netherlands called “Zeeland”… out in the west.

It has nice sandy beaches and the oh-so-famous sand dunes of this country.

We set out with 2 cars (one being Camille’s super cool Renault 4) and good mood… and had some great time!!!

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I’ve started my mental packing and very soon my physical packing too.

I had and still having the greatest time, in a very wired way, I’ll actually miss this place, mainly for the people and friends I met here, I’ll miss the Academy for sure… and the weather… well, I’m glad to be moving to a hotter place with a beach!

I’m the worst fan in the world, but I can’t avoid taking sides for the world cup… GO SPAIN!!! (and Argentina today…)

(Just for the recored, I had those before the world cup… LOL)

Presented is a strong word, we don’t personally present, we put our stuff and go… “The work should talk for itself…”

It was a crazy month, a crazier week, and an insane morning, I’ve been working on the suspension system for my light, and managed to do it this morning… I Don’t love it, but it is as good as it got for 2 hours before a presentation. The SWARM light came out… interesting… it’s definitely not done, lot of work to be made before it will act as I want it too… but it’s cool…

See for yourselves (images are not edited and such, very RAW)

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I’v been walking around like that ALL day…

and if you can't see what's wrong with hat image - go to sleep!

The Final numbers should be about 1500 paper modules and not more then 80 LEDs, as the new LEDs have a 90 degrees angle and disperse  the light over a wider range.

Still need to figure out the hanging system for this, but all that – tomorrow…

Almost everything is ready, got about 1500 modules, about 6000 beads, 130cm x 150cm of wire grid, about 200 LEDs lights and obviously too much time on my hands…

Final pictures tomorrow, and even more final (suspended from A ceiling) on Tuesday.

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Me? I personally turned into a pig… or at least my house looks like a place a pig will live in…

Need this week to be over (from various reasons)… please!

Oink! Oink!

It’s home for this ex-rock-band member and his family, an unexplainable hippie joint that you would never recognize from the outside. That on fridays hosts amazingly cool pizza nights…

A make-your-own evening, where you come, take a number, and where you’re up, you roll your dough, you put what ever you like (there is pretty much everything available) and this cool guy, Tony, throws it in the brick oven.

So why hippie? cus you pay as much as you want on your way out – how great is that?

It was a fun night, I was #700. Apparently something everybody have been waiting for, so I was asked to do a pole dance… (I didn’t, they kind of hoped #700 will go to someone a bit more attractive)

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So so wrong… they played so good…

(if you ware wondering I’m for Spain)

:(

It’s called WeTransfer, and it’s all free (Up to 2GB files!!!)… but thats not the best part, there is no registration necessary, just choose a file, enter the email addresses and click send…

It’s also beautiful and the best part are the ads (I know!!!) They appear as the web site’s background and for the first time, I really enjoyed clicking on ads… nicely done.

https://www.wetransfer.com/

But then Natalie called and invited me to a unique and typical (maybe only typical) Berlin fast food that was brought from Berlin by her mother.

It’s basically a sausage with ketchup and curry powder served with fries…

It’s called “Currywurst mit pommes und berliner weisse mit schuss”

The twist is the drink, it’s a Berliner beer but with an added something (sweet and unnatural) that turns the color of the beer to a radioactive green one… and also adds some sweet taste.

It was nice, I liked it :)

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Good news! 120 modules is a bigger peice then expected, so the 5000 number may be shrinking (Going around town screaming “YEY”)

The bad news are that weaving the f!@#ing 120 modules took forever, so even with 2000 it will take a couple of days… but I’m mentally ready for this one.

For the mean time, here’s a boring-yet -real-time movie of the weaving process. (this is of course not the final jig for the job…)

Count update: didn’t push on this front much – 650 and folding…

I need to make a small piece of the final product for tomorrow, so I’v decided to go with the first 500 I made over the weekend.

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This one is my greatest yet (Is this is a good or bad sign?)

I’m working on my final project here at the design academy, my SWARM light fixture. and the design turned into a huge blanket of squarish silk paper modules hang from the ceiling. How huge? well this is where it all goes right (or wrong) – 5000 of them squarish silk paper modules. Problem is that it takes me about a min. to make one… You do the math.

A quote from a conversation with Aldo Bakker (my teacher)

ET: ” bla bla bla, and it seams like I’m looking at about 4000-5000 of them to make by end-term”

Aldo B. : (pause)… “Good!”

Of course, I’m not obsessed with this particular number. I’m gonna make them as I go and when the clock strikes “it’s-end-terms-in-5-days” I’ll give’em a head count and that will be the wining figure.

For the time being, you all join the party at around 476 :) – I’ll keep this post updated with new, and hopefully larger numbers everyday.

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10 min later we started the practice and one and a half hours later and more then 10km of dirty canal water I felt what it’s like to be 32 years old :)

So to compensate my soring back and swollen hands, heres a movie I shout on my way back on my bike (got nothing to do with the 10k run, but it’s nice)

It’s the May 31st, so I’m officially  32 years old, and it feels… about the same I guess…

I need to work for tomorrow, so I’m gonna keep the personal note for the next post.

Thank you everyone for coming, thanks you all the rest for watching, and thank you all who did neither but still loved me!

The show was a big success, all and all 160 viewers, 83 unique visitors from 13 different countries and 22 cities (look at #12 on the list – the other space was watching too, ET after all)

You can watch it here on my blog or here on USTREAM

All starts at around 18:00 (NL time)

Really, what is wrong with this place?

Kate RULLZ!!!!

It’s been about 3 years since I’v visited BCN for the last time, and back then I couldn’t find that place.

Laurel is a small Argentinian bar that is famous for it’s amazing empanadas. But for me, this place will always be one of the best places to have AMAZING tortellinis. They make theres with Argentinean Mato cheese, nuts and pumpkin. It’s a great delight.

But finding it isn’t the greatest thing, even better is that I’m eating there right now :)

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This is how I like it :)

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Yeah, the pool is part of the deal…

I had a really nice time, and I was glad to meet some friends and spend some time with my family. The weather was AMAZING and it gave me a great boost for whats waiting for me back in Eindhoven… (less sun)

It is actually not completely over… I’m stopping in Barcelona for a couple of days, so a bit more warmth, sun and really good food still ahead…

I want to go back “home” want to go back to school, want to work on my projects… Miss my friends there…

I’m still looking for a flight back, but no luck so far.

It’s not half bad, It’s always sunny, I eat really good food and I got to spend some time with both of my sisters, where with my older one, this has been the first time alone for the past 8 years (it’s a kids thing).

One thing is on top of the list, Kanafeh, an orange Plastinian sweet. It’s as debatable as humus when it comes to the  ”where is the best Kanafeh?”  question. I love the one at Jerusalem’s old city.

Speaking of Humus, I had some Humus at “Lina”, also in the old city – one of the best pastes out there…