Monthly Archives: August 2010

1000HP

Posted on 4 August, 2010 by Justin Fox


Chinese dinner last night with the VWGolf.net.au crew.

Hmmm 500HP 4WD twin turbo Golf R32 or 500HP 4WD twin turbo R35 GT-R? As much as I think AP’s Golf is absolutely bonkers I’d still go for the GT-R (what a perfect daily it would make!).

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See-Saw – Day 1

Posted on 4 August, 2010 by Justin Fox

Yesterday morning I headed over to Gaffa Gallery to begin the 2 day See-Saw project (a part of Sydney Design 2010). The 4 students I’ll be mentoring over the 2 days received the brief, basic design materials (paper, card, tape, pens, knives et.c) and a room to work in (a video camera in the room projected our progress in real time into the main Gaffa Gallery space).

Our theme was typography and semantics and our brief was fairly open ended. After an hour or so of bouncing ideas around we ended up de-constructing the golden mean into basic shapes (like a tangram) and using these basic shapes to form a typeface which we’re also creating in 3D for people to play with on opening night next Saturday.


Basic materials we were given to use. No computers? Oh noes!


Our progress was projected all day into the main gallery space which was open to the public.


My team (is awesome).


No compass set. Irina and I creating the golden mean with the tools we were given.


Tracing the logarithmic spiral.


Using the ancient Chinese tangram game concept we cut up the spiral into basic shapes.


Lunch break on the rooftop (so good to get out of the studio!). Food was supplied by The Commons in Darlinghurst (yum yum).


Kids these days, so hip.


Back in the studio we started designing our typeface using the various pieces we cut out of the golden mean.


Numbering the separate parts of our tangram made documenting each letter design easy.


Cressida working on the letter “a”. We made a grid using string and tape and using cardboard cut-outs of our shapes we started laying out our typeface in the gallery.


Ben working on the 3D element.


Yerevan working on 3D element.


One 3D shape almost done.


Type wall almost done.

Yesterday was a blast. We’ll be at it again today from 10am – 6pm so feel free to drop in and say Hi! Otherwise be sure to check out the final show on Saturday where the results from all 5 groups will be on show.

For more information visit: http://www.sydneydesign.com.au/2010/index.php/exhibitions/see-saw-a-collection-of-short-stories

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BIG – Part of Sydney Design Festival 2010

Posted on 3 August, 2010 by Justin Fox


Yup that’s me x 4!


My desk.


Some of my toys.

I was recently photographed for an exhibition at the Object Gallery in Surry Hills titled “BIG” (a part of Sydney Design Festival 2010) where Stephen Goddard and photographer Keith Saunders have captured the stories and the small spaces of Sydney based creatives doing big things.

I stupidly missed the opening night last week. Apparently the 1st image above is presented on a big lightbox! I’ll go check it out this week some time.

For more information visit: http://www.object.com.au/springseries/event/big-sydney-small-studio

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City Performance Track Day – Eastern Creek

Posted on 2 August, 2010 by Justin Fox


Ah… track days.


Art.


Killer C63.


I was doing consistent 1.58’s all day and for the last session I grabbed an instructor and he helped me to nail two 1.57.2’s in a row. He said my turn-in was great but I need to unwind the wheel a little earlier on corner exits (ie: use the whole track).

I took the MKV out to Eastern Creek yesterday for a blat. I was pretty close to not going (bit broke atm and I’ve got a lot of stuff going on too) but after fitting up the Brembo BBK last week and a few gentle pushes from track day first timer Nath I couldn’t resist!

The gauges were awesome and as is the car can handle 5 hot laps before I would do a cool down lap and pit. I noticed a lot of people out there fanging their cars hard for 7-8 laps (ie: the whole session). I’d say they were doing harm to their cars but hey, no gauges, no worries I suppose!

Brakes were awesome too. ABS kicks in if I stab the brakes hard (and just doesn’t feel great) but I can modulate a lot more now. I can definitely pull the car up. The brakes faded a little bit but not much and at the end of the day I still have brakes (whereas last time I had mush).

My R888’s were great. Front drivers side tyre pressure post session was reading 37 and all other tyres were at 32 so I adjusted accordingly (lots of hard left turns at EC!).

DSG: I’ve learnt to never floor the accelerator pedal all the way down to avoid automatic down-shifting (there’s one extra little click of the pedal on DSG Golf’s). In one session I experimented with Auto/Sports mode and let the car upshift automatically for me once it hit redline. Each lap was 2 seconds slower this way. IE: Leaving it in manual mode and shifting up gears earlier (mid range is where the power is on my car) made for much faster lap times than driving it in auto mode.

Seats: I was pretty upset I didn’t have my seats in on the day. I really noticed how much I was moving around on the OEM seats and how much I had to brace the wheel to compensate the lack of support. Seats should be in soon though, can’t wait! :)

You can view a lot more images from the day here: www.vwgolf.net.au/showthread.php?1815-PICS-City-Performance-Track-Day-Eastern-Creek

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Mia’s room

Posted on 1 August, 2010 by Justin Fox

Our baby Russian Blue kitty Mia will be with us next week and Christina and I have been getting her room ready (she’ll stay in this room for at least a week until we slowly introduce her to the rest of the house).


Yep I’ve got to get my guitar gear outta there quick smart.


Pink? OK but only if I can have skulls on it.

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Aquarium update

Posted on 1 August, 2010 by Justin Fox


My Uncle John, who like me, also spends a lot of time in his man cave (which is his shop!).

Today I visited my Uncle John at Beach Aquariums in Bondi Beach. He had a LOT of stock from 2 aquarium shops that have recently gone down (Coral Sea from Randwick and another from out west somewhere). He’s basically helping these guys liquidate their stock so I picked up some bargains.


I picked up some salt mix and 4 100W heaters. I would have gone for 2 x 200w heaters but they wouldn’t have fit in my tiny sump. These 4 will fit just fine and I can now remove the massive Jager heater in the tank (which has done good for the past few years despite the condensation happening inside the heater).


Heaters in place in the sump.

My new nitrate test kit read 50. 50?! 50 is really bad as it really should read 0. There are a lot of potential contributing factors: I’ve realised that the RO unit I’ve been running for top-up water hasn’t had cartridges changed since 2007 (my bad). I’ll sort that out ASAP. No water changes for months, no skimmer maintenance and old filter media in the canister would not have helped and the huge rock wall I had in the tank was always against me (so much detritus build up back there).

I decided to remove a LOT of rock work to aid flow and I’ve basically made islands (no rock is leaning up against the rear glass any more).


Latest FTS.

More updates (and water changes) to come!

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