Yesterday, I finished a project for Geek Girl, Inc. A simple website built on WordPress.org: mysweetgeek.com. I had no idea how much fun it was to play with WordPress. It is a great CMS, super easy to use for clients who want to be able to maintain their websites. I created her own WordPress private theme. I also created the illustration n the homepage but the entire idea came from Geek Girl, Inc’s head.

This made me want to start to offer web development services to others. This is it. We shall see where this takes me… You can find more information on my web development service page. My company is M.B. Works. Cara came up with the name without really thinking about it. I like it. It’s simple.

We will have a super fun booth so come and see us. More info here (http://ubenice.com/pridefest) and below:

Join us at Pridefest this year in the West Village:

Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. & West 14th St
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Come check out our handmade, organic, super fresh t-shirt collections, hang out, take pictures and buy plenty of shirts for you, your peeps, lovers, family…

Sign-up for our newsletter on our site to receive any Pridefest updates and possibly discover many other amazing and interesting things.

To learn more about this super gay weekend visit NYC Pride.

Cara & Marine
Founders of Be Nice

A little late since it is from March… Cara and I went to France. I took her to Praz de Lys, that alpine city I would visit every February growing up. One of my favorite place on earth.

This is a fun video of Cara sledding while I was filming.

We sell organic cotton t-shirts with super fresh designs on it. We print the designs using eco-friendly water-based inks (from Matsui). We also use eco-friendly cleaners.

We offer shirts for women and men although more shirts are available for women. For now there are only 6 designs but as we grow we will be able to offer more.

You can purchase the shirts online with your credit card or through your paypal account. We ship anywhere in the world. Shipping is free of charges in the United States. We are also going to start appearing in places, mostly in the New York area.

I built the website. I might add games in a near future. Wouldn’t that be fun? It would.

Here is a stilll image of the site.

80% sewed by hands. 20% thanks to my magic sewing machine.

Her and the bag in Spanish Harlem, Manhattan.

I bought him a box for Christmas, and bought one for myself recently. I have always been a big fan of the wooden tees, white. But I was ready to change my old habits and enter the world of biodegradable tees!

So I tried the Zero Friction performance tees (Me trying the tees in the video above!), 2 3/4 inches, white. And let me tell you all about it. Except for the fact that they are biodegradable and allow nearly no friction with the ball, I only have negative comments about them:

- too flexible, very hard to keep in shape and to insert in the ground
- the top where you put your ball in is not soft at all and I was almost cutting my finger every time I was trying to tee my ball
- did not see any improved distance

Overall, it was taking me too long to tee my balls, once done, my fingers were hurting and I could see my ball was not stable at all.

So let’s look for smaller, stronger and softer biodegradable tees. It must exist! As soon as I get to try them, I will update this post.

The Fertile Tees

“The worlds first biodegradable and organic golf tee made from fertilizer.” It’s good for the golf courses, good for the earth and great to play, as it is super light according to their website. And it’s cheap too and can be bought in bulk. I absolutely cannot wait to try this one. Per their website, they also say that this tee will disintegrate within way less time than other biodegradable tees (for which it usually take about 9 months).

Bamboo Golf Tees

“Fibers run vertically from head to toe making bamboo tees much more robust and tougher when whacked, offering the player greater consistency and reliability.” They will last longer than wooden tees and they are made of bamboos which as you know grow so fast and so easily, not a problem. And of course they are also biodegradable.

UPDATE: I tried them on this Monday, May 19th and I must say I was a little disappointed. Every two holes they would break, while I was playing with a driver, not even an iron. And it had rained a lot the day before so the ground was not dry at all. If I have to change my tees every two holes, this to me is a waste of money and most importantly an environmental waste. Nevertheless I would like to thank the company who graciously sent me this bag of tees for me to review and I hope my feedback can help them improve their product.

Evolve Golf

They make the epoch™ tee similar to the Zero Friction ones, but they seem way less hurtful for the fingers. Now the question is do they bend or not. I will try them and let you know.

UPDATE: So I tried them early this morning and they are great. They are soft, strong and super stable.

They are also launching a new tee this year, vireo™ made from recycled material. Still biodegradable. Love it. Looks so smoooooth.

Ecoty

I got these this morning at the Golf du Medoc (my Club from when I lived in France) and I will try them shortly and update with my feedback. It is a FRENCH brand and the tees are made in the USA. They seem pretty solid and they disintegrate within 8 to 10 months. I also shot them an email to see where you can find them on-line. They look like this below (beige color, not white):

Stinger

More biodegradable tees allowing less friction with the ball, as all the ones presented above.

Apiona®

“Apiona® EnviroTee™ is mainly made from natural renewable polymers and based on aliphatic polyesters such as corn starch and Poly Lactic Acid, which are fully biodegradable, environmentally safe and one of the most abundant resources of the world. [...] Apiona® EnviroTee™ disintegrates into carbon dioxide and water according to the composting conditions. “

That’s all!

In the beginning, I wanted a good looking fierce watch that runs on solar power. After having seen what is being proposed to me, I now have to extend my research to all watches that do not run on batteries.

Note that I will not mention brands such as Seiko, Swatch or Orient, and others which are great but not what I am esthetically looking for.

Runs on Air

The UR-202 by Urwerk is the world’s first watch featuring a winding system regulated by compressing air utilizing miniature turbines. Its predecessor can be found around $40,000 so I am afraid to guess how much this one costs.

Kinetic or Automatic

I found one to my taste: the Bell & Ross 01-92 Carbon. Still too expensive for me, between $3,000 and $8,000.

Ventura has nice Automatic watches. I could not find their official website, only a reseller. Their prices are way too high.

I also liked the Ceramic Player shown below from Nixon at $1,400, automatic and has a self-winding mechanism. In the same collection, Elite, note the Capital Automatic and Zillamatic.

Vestal and its Fathom watch are closer to my budget at $336. Although it does look a little too classic.

Water powered

While there are many water powered clocks, I could not find one water powered watch… If you know about one, even still in prototype mode, feel free to share.

It seems it might have been more popular about 20 years ago. I found in fact people who bought it from Edmund Scientific’s for instance, but could not find it on their new website. Here more people talk about their knowledge of water powered watches. But nothing for today. Ebay also does not return any results.

Good news is Samsung is working on water-powered cell phones which might come out by 2010. So the water-powered technology for watches might come back soon on the market.

USB powered

I found a couple of brands and models (edge, xonix, Mr. Gadget, ) up to 4GB, but my favorite stays this one… but wait, it’s not out yet and might never be… There are in fact a couple of USB watch prototypes or concepts and so my winer is the iRiver, photo below. It also does MP3.

That’s all. Still unsure what I will get for myself. I might go towards one of the Nixon Automatics.

]]> http://www.marineboudeau.com/blog/2008/04/i-want-a-solar-watch-or-any-watch-that-does-not-run-on-batteries/feed/ 0 http://www.marineboudeau.com/blog/2008/04/playing-golf-in-new-york-city/ http://www.marineboudeau.com/blog/2008/04/playing-golf-in-new-york-city/#comments Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:24:26 +0000 Marine Boudeau http://marineboudeau.wordpress.com/?p=92

So one of my other projects for 2008 is to start playing golf again. I used to play when I was younger, roughly from 10 yo to around 17 yo, that’s when I went to college. I had reached a 12 handicap, mostly from 10 to 16, after that I am not sure but I think I was not really motivated anymore.

After I entered college, I played a couple of times a year and until I got in the States, where I play about 1 time per year. Since golf is about training and confidence… Well anyway. I have now decided I will go down to a 5 handicap by the end of the year. I am playing the qualifying round of a national women amateur competition in May in NJ so I need to practice, hence this post and what I’ve found.

I actually cannot believe I have been living in NYC for about 3 years and the only place I had played was the Dyker Beach golf course located in south Brooklyn, not too far from Brighton beach.

Below, I will review what can be accessed by subway. We all can rent a car but if you are looking to play a couple of times per week, it can get expensive.

One thing you should know is you can get a New York resident ID that will allow you to play cheaper in most golfs of NY State. The card costs $6 and you can get it at any golf (bring a proof of address and an ID/or picture).

Manhattan (driving ranges)

I often wish I am given the project to dedicate and develop a part Central Park to a golf eden.

Chelsea Piers:

PROS:

• You can get good deals on the balls if you come off-peak hours. Good if you are a student or like to get up early.
• You can buy $ cards for balls and use them whenever you want (for instance: $50 for 323 off-peak balls and 197 peak time balls).
• Hours: open from 6:30 AM till 12 AM

CONS:

• Quite annoying to get there: located on the Piers (West manhattan), between 18th and 19th Streets.
• It gets busy and you usually have to wait to play, even if you come at 11pm (they give you a number and you wait till it’s you turn).
• The driving cages are on 3 different floors so don’t be scared of heights…

Randall’s Island: Currently closed, management has changed and they are waiting for the City’s green light. Will update when open.

So for Randall’s, it is hard to give a judgment as we only went there once and the place was closed. Actually we went twice and the first time we could sneak in when the second time, they had closed the open gate. Once this opens, I will go and update the below pros and cons.

PROS:

• Awesome view of the Triboro bridge, try to go when the sun is going down
• Although it was free for us, it seems the prices were cheap (from the board we could see)
• easy to get there from the Upper East Side / East Harlem neighborhoods

CONS:

• TBD

Bronx

Mosholu Golf Course

They only have a nine hole, which is very small (par 34). There is no par 5 throughout the course. The greens are very slow and easy to deal with. The course us pretty flat. The green fee is quite cheap, $15 for 9 holes (with the NY resident card) and the carts are also $15 (per person). But the course us is so small that you really don’t need a cart. Most golfers carry their bag. It is also easy to get there. Take the 6 train to the last stop, then there is a short 5 min walk to the golf. Ask directions at the MTA station if you are not sure once you get there.

Below, me at Mosholu! :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRit90CwI7A]

Brooklyn

Dyker Beach Golf Course

I played this one about 2/3 years ago, with some people I had met through work. I barely remember it. I will have to go there again to re-explore. The quality of the course might also have changed since then so I will not comment on it. To get there, take the R train to 86th street stop.

For more golf courses around the city, go here. I will add more to this post as I explore more.

To be continued… Feel free to share your experience on these courses or others.

A year ago, Cara had asked me to build a crazy website to display her photography. I finally recently put myself to it, one of my 2008 resolutions. Well she made it one of my 2008 projects :)

Her expectations were high and I had a lot of work ahead. Finally, after 512 reviews (!!) the version 1.0 launched a few hours ago and I am super happy. It just feels so great to finish a project. Of course there will be additions and changes to this version but come on, our windows in the apartment are wide open, I am wearing a long shorts and summer is right at the door. I am double super happy!

Go to carareynolds.com; you can use your keypad to move around, and there are many not obvious links. Actually all of the links to her photographs are not easy to find, so enjoy the hunt! Also, as a side note, the photo gallery is powered by Triworks.

If you have any comments, please share as this project will always improve.

Now I have all the time to finish my other projects: Art-Fag.org, the revamp of FrenchDontEatFrogs.com and a certain solar bag. :P

Stay tuned…

First of all, how does a solar watch work?

According to different sources, Solar watches were also very popular in the 80s with models for kids. If you are interested in vintage solar powered watches, you can check this link here. And if you want to learn the history of the solar wristwatches since the 70s, click here.

From what I have seen every solar watch uses lithium batteries, rechargeable for life. “Because watch batteries contain a small amount of mercury, [...] solar watch[es] [are] a green and non-toxic choice.” (Source: CBS News)

There are two main players in the solar watches market: Citizen and Casio.

All the Citizen watches are solar powered (eco-drive program) and when fully charged, can last for 180 days without being re-charged. Not a fan of their design especially as I don’t want to spend $795. My top budget is $200 and what Citizen has to offer at this price does not fit my aesthetics.

Casio offers the Casio Shock in several designs; very sporty look, not what I am looking for either.

Back to my search. There are many different watches available on the market, which incorporate the functions of a MP3 or 4 player, or of a USB device; HP is also working on a super cool communication watch device. But I am only looking for a simple solar watch.

Here are my solar watches findings:

	1. Healthy Sky Limited sells solar powered watches. You should be able to purchase on their site by emailing them. I sent them an email to know how much was this watch but haven’t received any response yet. Will update this entry when I do.
	2. Timex, Oceanus, Pulsar and Junghans also make Casio and Citizen style like watches, but I am not looking for this style of watches.
	3. Here you can find more solar watches. You can get a great wholesale price: 20 for only $97!! ;)
	4. At Deal Extreme, I found this very inexpensive watch: $8.37. I cannot believe the price, mostly justified because it is not a metallic watch, but who cares. The design is still not what I am looking for. They also have other models around the same price.
	5. The National Geographic Aviator II Watch, priced at $160.
	6. The Prada, only available in Europe and not out yet will be sold at €1500
	8. I also found a Solar Powered Braille Watch (shown left) which looks really great and was designed by a certain Jeonjun Cho. Also, a Solar Spy Watch Camera but could not find any retailer for neither of them. So if you happen to know how much they cost and where to find them, please share the info!!

That’s it. Unfortunately, no real solar watch to my taste so if you know some, share it. The one I will probably go with for now is the #4 from Deal Extreme. I wish solar watches would be like this, this or this. But it is not reality yet… :(

On this note, I will do a new search on other eco green watches, non solar powered.

Good night!