Preserving Traditional Bookbinding Techniques

The DODOcase philosophy is simple, manufacture things locally and help keep the art of book binding alive and well by adapting it to a world of e-readers and iPads. Each DODOcase cover has its own unique character as it was hand made in San Francicsco using techniques developed hundreds of years ago.

Wow, I have so much potential material to blog about! It has definitely been a long time since I was last on here, but I hope to start blogging more again. I was really proud about moving for the most part out of the Apple Universe, but it is definitely hard to stay out of the Apple-verse. I’ve been using my Macbook Pro for about four or five years now and this past Black Friday, I bought a used iPhone 3Gs and unlocked it legally through AT&T. Well at the beginning of this month I purchased an iPad Mini 16 gigabyte model! Needless to say I believe this is probably the best tablet on the market, but I was really tempted by the Nexus 7.

I subscribe to engadget’s RSS feed and I recently saw this company in their newsfeed. Throughout the last few months, I have been going crazy over buying little notebooks for writing notes and taking notes for some online classes that I have been taking. So when I saw this, I thought it was a very clever idea.

We live in a world where everything is mass produced and unlike the mid to late 1800s, items no longer have a story with them. Since everything is made in a factory, we loose a pretty cool aspect with how the products are made individually and personally by artisans. I think the DODOcase for the iPhone is fairly cheap considering the novelty of the product, but the story that comes along with the product is even more compelling. I love how these artisans have taken century old book making techniques and have revived them in the modern age.

I have just ordered my DODOcase and I am looking forward to getting it. Hopefully I will get my case sometime next week. My 25th birthday is this coming Monday, I actually bought it as a birthday gift to myself! Anyways since I have the iPhone 3Gs, I am not sure if it will fit exactly, but I believe the elastic band will keep it in place. I emailed the company and asked them if it would fit, they replied back and were not sure if it would fit. They did tell me that I have a 45 day time period to get a full refund, so if the case does not fit my phone in particular, I can return it. I will let everyone know once I get my DODOcase!

DODOnotes: The First iPhone Compatible Paper Notebook from DODOcase on Vimeo.

Today I am still sore, I’m just trying to take a day for recovery. My students are getting closer to taking the MSL, so I hope I can get back in the classroom tomorrow. I think for the next few days, I will need to take some pain relievers and some anti-inflammatory medication. So thanks for your prayers! They definitely helped! God is good!

The purpose of the internet is to promote democracy and certain unalienable rights. I strongly believe that governments should refrain from trying to dictate at to how the internet should be run. The internet is owned by the people and for the people.
In an age where the freedom of speech is increasingly under threat and the plutocratic powers that have silenced innovation and creativity, the internet is the only viable avenue for individuals to be heard. If you support a free and opened internet, please make a statement today! If you are interested in reading the bill, I posted a link to the American Congress website’s post of the bill.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3523:

The book Jacob Deshazer is about a man who joined the air force at an early age. During his training, he was asked to join a top secret mission to bomb the Japanese shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Jacob Deshazer was part of the Doolittle Raiders, who were renown for their brave attempt at first bombing a major Japanese island. Shortly after fulfilling his mission, his aircraft headed straight to supposed friendly territory in Mainland China. Except, it turns out that his aircraft landed in enemy occupied territory by the Japanese and was captured by the Japanese. Jacob Deshazer would then spend the next 4 years (give or take) as a prisoner of war to the torturous Japanese. During WWII, the Japanese were brutal to their POWs, completely disregarding the Geneva Convention. Deshazer watched over the years as the Japanese brutally abused both him and his companions. Several of his friends died throughout the years of mistreatment and understandable, Jacob’s heart grew even colder to the Japanese. The story continues like this until a close friend of Deshazer’s eventually had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him. After the death of this dear friend, Deshazer began to contemplate their conversation concerning salvation. About three years or so into captivity, Deshazer gave his heart to Christ.

Remarkably at one particular internment camp that Deshazer was transported to gave him a Bible. Throughout the remaining time at that internment camp, Deshazer and his companions would share their one copy of the Bible, memorizing Bible verses. The Japanese guards began to see a difference in his life and began to ask him about his sudden change of personality. Having been in captivity for three years prior to this prison, he was able to share the Gospel to them in his limited Japanese that he acquired over time.

After the war, Jacob along with a couple of his companions were released from captivity. God was calling Jacob back to Japan, to preach to the very people who had made his life a living hell for the previous four odd years of his life. Though at first many of his friends and family were against the idea, they could not deny the change that have overtaken Jacob’s life. Jacob along with his wife, spent the next forty years dedicating themselves to spreading the Gospel to the Japanese. Jacob at one point was even able to witness to a major military leader for the Japanese army during WWII and helped him give his life to Christ. These two individuals became great friends and even began to speak about the Gospel at major events in Japan! No more than five years before had they been enemies at every description of the word.

This story is definitely extraordinary, but something like this had already happened long before WWII. Jesus Christ was hung on the cross for our transgressions and was tormented in the most horrific ways. He bore our sins for all to see and despite his anguish, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (ESV Luke 23:34). He knew what was going to happen in the garden of Gethsemane, yet He continued on with the plan, so that you and me may have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. The fact of the matter is that we all have turned our backs on God, yet He forgave us and even died for each and every one of us. See this motion of love is extraordinary and unfathomable, but thats what our God is capable. The love that He first showed us is possible with the help of the Holy Spirit. Jacob Deshazer’s love for the Japanese was a manifestation of Christ’s love for us and was a direct result of someone who gave his heart to Christ. Christ’s redemptive power is capable of greater things than we could ever obtain by our own means. I hope that you get the opportunity to read this powerful testimony in Jacob’s book, but more importantly, I hope that you personally will be able to experience the life changing moment of Christ coming into your life! God bless!

I have intended to do this post for quite some time. Similar to the Grizzly Bear group, I discovered this group listening to The Q on CBC radio. I have never heard of this group before, but after listening to several of their songs on YouTube, I quickly went straight to Amazon MP3 and purchased their latest album. The name of their latest album is My Head Is An Animal. The album is available on iTunes also, but it is cheaper on Amazon. They have a very familiar sound to them and the female vocalist’s voice, Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, reminds me of another personal favorite of mine Wanting. The group surprisingly is from Iceland and is a pretty new group on the music scene.

The blog post is pretty quick today! I hope to upload some more stuff sometime this week! Hopefully tomorrow! But I was searching YouTube a little while ago and I stumbled across some Cantonese Pop… There are some Cantonese singers that I am quite fond of, such as Vincy Chan or Khalil Fong or Mr. But this girl sounded pretty good in a couple songs. At least it sounded like a cute song. Anyways hearing the Cantonese singing reminded me of Hong Kong. I am quite home sick for Hong Kong… 我好想香港！！

On a different note, a lot of stuff has been happening lately. I have so much I want to blog about, so what I am going to do, is write the titles for all of the things I want to write about, and release them throughout the week. Hope you enjoy the music recommendation and if there is any song in particular that you found in the New Year, please leave a comment and share what it is! I love sharing music and learning about news bands!

When registering for Mixi you will find that they ask for a Japanese cell phone number and a Japanese cell carrier. Well I am not in Japan, so there is no way that I could enter in that kind of information. I tried to skip over it, but the website would not allow me to continue to the next page. After searching for a solution, I found out that if you register using a .edu email address, it does not require you to enter in a Japanese phone number. Thankfully I had one that was given to me through my university, even though I do not really use it. Once you have registered for your Mixi account using a .edu email address, if you do not speak or read Japanese, I think the best thing would be to download or use Google Chrome. The reason why I prefer this browser is because I am currently learning Japanese and I cannot comprehend a lot of the words I am reading. Google Chrome will allow you to translate the page so that you can at least navigate around the website. One nice thing that I also liked about Mixi, is that they have a really nice iOS app and they also have an Android app!

So for those of you learning Japanese or wish to learn more about the Japanese culture, I hope that this information was a good recommendation! If you found this useful or have any other recommendations you would like to share, please leave a comment or like this post! (^o^)v

I have a big fan of Canada and Toronto is one of my all time favorite cities that I have been blessed to visit. Some of my friends are Canadian and I have heard some of them mention a place called Tim Horton’s (which is sort of like a McDonald’s). Well in Fayetteville, North Carolina there are no Tim Horton’s, so I decided to see what I could find on the internet! I found out that the closest Tim Horton’s was in Virgina and I was not about to drive that distance for a cup of coffee! So thankfully Amazon had it where you could order a package of Tim Horton’s coffee. I have never purchased edible items from Amazon before, but I figured since it was coming from Amazon directly, it would be safe. Amazon Prime had my coffee even quicker than they had previously said in an email and I received it within one day! Once I opened my package, I headed straight to my one cup coffee maker and I used my re-useable kcups I had ordered off TV. After trying this Tim Horton’s decaf, I was not impressed. Actually I did not enjoy it to say the least. It tasted something like instant coffee and I was pretty disappointed. I cannot say if Tim Horton’s regular coffee is any better, but I can say I won’t be purchasing their decaf blend ever again. Often I have joked around with my friend’s that I was going to obtain dual citizenship with Canada, so I was really wanting this coffee to taste good because it came from the Great North!

Well too be honest I was already drinking Gevalia’s coffee before I switched to decaf. I think the Swedes have a lot going for them and especially their coffee! When I opened this bag of coffee, I thought that the coffee’s aroma was quite impressive. After drinking Gevalia’s regular coffee and having switched to their decaf blend, I cannot tell any major difference in their taste. I am a very picky coffee and tea drinker, but I must say, I will definitely be purchasing this type of coffee again. When I drink my coffee, I like to keep to the original taste of the coffee beans, so I will only add a small amount of cream and two packets of sugar. One last brand of decaf coffee I am looking forward to trying is Seattle’s Best! Gevalia and Seattle’s Best are my two favorite brands of coffee. In fact I prefer Seattle’s Best over Starbucks!

On another note, one other decaf I tried was McDonald’s decaf coffee, but I think McDonald’s should stick to fast food! lol