duct tape clothing

It came up at lunch. We were discussing fur coats and came up with a cheap and easy way to make a fur coat, well, in fact any coat.  Design the inside from duct tape, with the sticky side of the force facing out and attach fur!  This principle could be used as a kit approach for designing all sorts of outter wear.

Imagine showing off the cool lining of your duct tape coat. Everyone will be impressed.

Genius I say! Genius!

Deutsches Weinachten

My friends Christoph and Britta sent me this picture on a walk in their town of Weil Der Stadt in Germany.  When I lived in Germany I always felt that Christmas was more, well, correct there. The atmosphere. The Christmas market in the old town square.  The hot spiced wine. The vendors in their stalls displaying their wares. The first time I enountered the German Christmas market (Weinnachtmarkt) was in Vienna. I was passing through on my way somewhere in early December and the market was in full swing.

But, for the rest of my life, the only Weinnachtmarkt will be in Hauptmarkt in Trier. The old buildings. The large open square. Beautiful.

playing not to win

I’ve been playing more tennis these days. My sister got me a trial membership to the Weston Racquette club which has a great guaranteed match making service. So, I played nice match against a gentleman named JP.  I won 6-2, but get this: I wasn’t trying to win. Instead I was playing to improve my game. I broken down his game pretty quickly–a good forehand but a poor backhand when he doesn’t have the chance to setup. So, keep him on the run, especially to his backhand. He also has a tendency to shift is weight backwards when hitting his backhand which pushes the ball out go long or he hits soft and short. Did I attack his backhand by perhaps approaching the net on his backhand side or just pounding shots consistently to his backhand? Nope. Instead, my backhand wasn’t working on that day so I tried to construct points that would practice my backhand. Was I going to big serves aiming for the corners? Nope. I instead I needed to work on my consistency so I just hit my serves straight at him and focused on my toss and seeing the seams of the ball as I tossed it into the air.

For now I’m playing to get better, winning will follow.