When Christmas is over, the Christmas tree is generally wasted. In the past I have made ornaments out of the wood, but this last Christmas I decided to make a cross that would stand as a reminder to us until Easter. The Process This was a relatively quick project. I took...
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Last year I started the TailoredToys project, my non-profit work of creating custom toys for special kids. While there is a process for applying for a TailoredToy, sometimes I will just go and choose an unsuspecting family because I have been inspired by them or their child. A recent example...
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My brother Nick died this last November after over three years of battling lymphoma. Besides leaving behind his many loved ones and friends, he left behind a rather large, wooden cross. In August my wife and I decided to move our family out to Colorado with the hopes of spending some...
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One of my goals last year was to record 50 piano improvisation sessions. It stretched me, not only in its quantity, but in the discipline of capturing what I create, imperfect as it may be. I've carried forward this practice, and I often listen to past recordings and smile (or...
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Here is the process I used in creating "A Mother's Heart is Always Heavy". I'm sharing it in hopes that it is an encouragement to others to create meaningful poetry and share it with the world. Topic and Theme Selection Similar to designing anything else, before writing a poem you...
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I love my mom. Each Mother's Day, instead of giving her more stuff that takes up space in the garage, I've sought to give her something more meaning and real, something that only takes space in the heart. This year I wrote her this poem. It has been a challenging...
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I have taught through Stanford Splash for several years now as a way of volunteering my time to help students who are interested in pursuing design and product management. This year's course, Designing Products by Storytelling a Great User Experience, filled up quickly. It was about how storytelling is used as a...
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Last week an acquaintance and I were talking about bringing innovation into the corporate meeting place. He works at a video conferencing company, and he brought up the topic of gamifying a business meeting, which I thought had some interesting design challenges. So, I spent a couple of hours on...
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I own a garage door opener. It works most of the time. It doesn't know me, but I try to take care of it from time to time. I lubricate the threaded steel rod when it gets too loud. I even soldered a new LED to its remote when the...
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I have a tradition each Christmas of building a toy for my kids. The Latch House last year was a lot of fun, and this year I decided I wanted to work on a bath toy before the kids started to lose that playful joy of bathtime. Ideation I like...
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