I just read [ an article ] on organic light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) used to make glowing wallpaper. It’s a new alternative to flat screens that is made from graphene. Graphene is much easier to recycle than metal electrodes found in LED screens which are used in TVs and cellphones. LEC can be produced from liquid solutions so they can be produced as large flexible sheets from a printing press, which can be installed on walls as an alternative to light bulbs. They would be cost effective - though I’m not sure what the price range would be. Glowing wallpaper that can change, better wide spread lumination, more energy efficient than light bulbs, easier to recycle than light bulbs, made from fully organic material…what more could we ask for? Imagine having scenery such as sunsets on a summer beach or a snowy mountain scene. There may be problems of course, like hanging things on walls and accidentally putting dents in walls. Applying this concept only to ceilings, replacing lights, can be a cool concept that’d work.

I decided to create a blog from scratch. With the help from CodeGrrl, I was able to accomplish just that. The functionality is all finished. Next will come the creation of a theme and some more pages to go with the site. I’m not sure if I will be working on it a whole lot though since it takes a lot of time and Wordpress is pretty amazing. This blog just has the bare minimums:

Public Pages

1. A page to configure the blog title, tagline, copyright, MySQL connection, number of blog posts to display per page
2. A database creation page to be used only once which creates a table for the blog, comments, and categories
3. A page to display all posts with pagination, comments, categories list, date
4. A page for single entries and comment form as well as listing of the comments posted
5. A page for processing comments and email notification
6. A page for displaying posts of one category

Private

1. A page for posting new entries
2. An edit entries menu page
3. A page for editing single entries
4. A categories page for adding and editing categories
5. A page for logging out of admin session

The good thing about starting from scratch is it allows lots of customizations and personal preferences and it’s a good learning experience. I don’t know why but coding and programming is pretty fun yet tedious.

Project 2

Also I’m working on a design wiki for industrial design. It’s mostly created to display a quick reference about different design companies as well as artists and designers.

Project 3

I really really want to have a wider knowledge base. It’s been frustrating that I don’t remember most of what I read for very long, but Interpreter of Maladies is inspirational. One of the characters reads the newspaper from front to back all the time to become well cultured. The Internet is a great source for information, thus I want to read news articles at least 1 hr everyday. Probably more. And then I’ll write about what I read.

Project 4

I’ve also been wanting to improve my eye sight for quite a while. It’s just that I have these periods where I forget about it. It’s hard to consistently work at it. But I’m hoping that writing about it and reminding myself daily will help.

This article is a continuation of Relearning to See: The Second Principle-Centralization.

The reflection of the moon in the lake is clear only when the water is calm”
–Chinese proverb

E=mc² (eye sight = movement times centralization to the binocular) and movement = centralization = relaxation = clarity.

Relaxation is the third and most important principle of natural vision. The initial tendency for people with bad eye sight is to strain to see better. Poor vision habits create excessive strain, and lower sight. Thus, the sole cause of bad eye sight is a conscious or unconscious effort or strain to see. The only solution to this strain is relaxation or rest of the eyes accomplished by centralization. Movement, centralization, and relaxation go together.

Stress sometimes causes strained vision habits and once the cause for strain is removed, vision improves. The book mentions that the quieter the mind the better the eye sight is preserved. Anything which relaxes the mind is beneficial to eye sight. For instance, a person reading an interesting novel do not find their eyes becoming tired but when studying for a difficult exam, do find his/her eyes becoming tired. Also the normal eye is only at rest when it is moving.

Sleeping doesn’t help relax one’s eyes, however, as eyes can be strained even in sleep. As a matter of fact, sleepiness is a common symptom of habitual eyestrain, and when the sight improves the need for sleep is often reduced. But this doesn’t mean that every time you’re sleepy it’s because your eyes are under strain. If you don’t get enough sleep you’re also prone to sleepiness.

“It requires an effort to fail to see and requires no effort to have normal sight.”

According to the book, in every case of imperfect sight, it can always be demonstrated that the nerves of the whole body are under strain and in every case of perfect vision it can be demonstrated that no effort is made. “Imperfect sight is the result of hard work; effort produces strain; perfect sight is attained with ease; lack of effort produces relaxation”.

I thought about this and took off my glasses to read the book. At first I couldn’t see the letters clearly at all but I kept thinking about relaxing my eyes, blinking and breathing, seeing one part best, and not making an effort to see. It took a while but my eyes adjusted and I was able to read more clearly up close and slowly also within reading distance. When I put my glasses back on after reading, however, I began to have a headache. I took off my glasses, and again the words were blurry and unreadable.

Reading about relaxation of the eyes reminded me of the eye massages my mother taught me when I was in fourth grade, when I started to have poor eye sight. Massages relax the eyes, thus reducing strain. Doing them consistently may help relax the tension in eyes but consistency is hard to attain.

I think I should spend a few hours each day not wearing my glasses and gradually increase the time not wearing glasses and/or get glasses that are not as strong yet still allow me see well while driving.

This article is a continuation of Relearning to See: The First Principle–Movement.

“It is impossible to see, remember, or imagine anything [clearly], even for as much as a second, without shifting from one part to another, or to some other object and back again; the attempt to do so always produces strain.”

According to Relearning to See, the human eye can see only one point clearly at any given time. It is impossible to see without centralizing; peripheral vision is never seen clearly. Centralization is a subconscious mental habit such that the central point of interest is the only place within the visual field that is clear and most colorful.

Generally, people who have blurred vision do not centralize–they diffuse. That is when clarity lowers. This is because anatomically, cones are mostly located in the center of the fovea and cones are designed for clarity and color perception in medium or bright light. The fovea is a centralized point in the back of an eye.

“Centralization goes with movement; Diffusion goes with rigidity.”

A person with clear vision is constantly moving from one point of interest to another with both the head and eyes moving. When a person is trying to see everything at once, there is no reason to move. The problem with this is the head, neck and eye muscles become “abnormally and chronically tight”. The visual system cannot tolerate the tension and vision is blurred.

Something you can do to practice centralization is to focus your eyes on an object about ten feet away from you. Then hold a pencil in front of you vertically with the bottom near your mouth. The top of the pencil should be near your forehead. Continue looking at the object farther from you and you should begin to see two pencils rather than one. One pencil is to the right of the object you’re looking at and is seen by the left eye; and the other pencil is to the left of the object seen by the right eye. If you are not seeing two pencils then you are not doing this activity correctly.

Now, as if your pencil and hand were attached to your head, move the pencil, hand, arm, and head together slowly to the left in unison. As you move, keep your attention on the objects in the distance within the “window” or area of focus. Notice that the objects in the center of the window are more clear than the objects outside the window. This helps one to notice one point best at a time.

There is an occasion when the center clarity disappears however. In extremely low levels of light, the cones do not register light so only the rods function. Since there are no rods in the center of the fovea, there is no sight available exactly in the center of the visual field.

The following are from tutorialsgarden.com:

This milk carton is from visualadvice.com. It represents the product through word and image.

This is from thinkofthe.com. Using this “moldy” zip-lock bag almost guarantees that no one will steal your lunch.

This is from reubenmiller.typepad.com. The can can be closed to ensure freshness.

These shorts are packed as if it were meat. The original can be found at popsop.com.

This shoebox is simple and cost effective. It’s also stack-able. Instead of using additional paper and materials the shoes are stuffed with a pair of socks and reusable shoe bag. The original can be found at sustainableisgood.com