Jason’s Random Thoughts

Reiko and I were out shopping for our wedding rings today and I must say, I’m surprised that we can rarely find exactly what we’re looking for.  We’ve been to so many shops all over Gifu and Aichi prefectures, and none seem to have exactly what we’re looking for.  Perhaps it’s time we sit down with some graph paper and design our own.

It’s not that the rings here are not attractive or anything, really.  Instead, we’re just having trouble finding a matched pair of wedding bands that would look good on both of us.  Then there’s the issue of style.  Both of us are looking for something relatively simple and attractive, but the rings seem to be either overly functional (a.k.a. no imagination) or overly feminine.

We did manage to find a nice set here in Kakamigahara today, but it’s a toss up between two styles.  Tomorrow we’ll be going to another place to see if we can find what we want there.

Anyone know how much it costs to have a custom set of rings made?

Bookmark To:

Pictures play an important role in our lives.  They remind us of the people we love, and the good times (hopefully) from years gone by.  Before meeting Reiko, I had maybe 1 picture displayed at any given time; and that picture happened to be my desktop background.  I’ve certainly changed in the last few years and started displaying more pictures around the house, but there is one group of people that always have a large number of pictures on display:  parents.

When visiting some of my family this past spring, I was surprised by the number of photographs that covered the walls.  Almost everywhere you looked there would be another picture of siblings, cousins, distant relatives and those no longer with us.  The same is said with Reiko’s parent’s home and, if memory serves, every person that has children keeps a large number of pictures on display.  By surrounding ourselves with pictures of our family, houses become homes, and strong bonds are maintained.

But what happens when you have so many display-worthy photographs that you run out of wall space?  How about some digital picture frames?

In the last few years, the cost of digital displays has dropped significantly.  The benefit with this (aside from the larger flat-panel computer monitors and televisions) is the emergence of simple home electronics that make use of the technologies.

With a wedding ceremony less than 230 days away (May 1^st is just around the corner) and Christmas even closer, I’ve been considering gifts for friends and family that are both useful, and can be enjoyed again and again for years.  With this in mind, I started looking for some large screen digital photo frames.  What I like most about these devices is the ability to cycle through several hundred photos.  When people are married, there are literally hundreds of photos taken, but only one or two displayed.  Depending on the family, this could be one of the few times extended members are able to get together and enjoy each other’s company while also celebrating the joining of two people.  Why not have a “Ted and Jane’s Wedding” frame that cycles through several dozen photos from the big day?  Wouldn’t it be great to have a picture frame for each of the children with pictures cycling as they grow up?  I’m sure there are many parents and grandparents out there that would enjoy such a gift.

These displays are incredibly simple to use, and some even play music and video.  In most cases, we only need to put a memory card into the slot and the pictures will be automatically displayed in a slide show or mosaic immediately.  For the moment, 15″ displays seem to be the largest models available (for under $300 on eFrameStore.com, last I checked), but I’m sure there will be larger ones before Christmas.

The only issue I can see with these is the screen life.  How long can these displays be used, and are there problems with burn-on or dead pixels?  It would also be beneficial if we could set the display times.  I don’t think it would make much sense to have the picture frames constantly displaying images all night or while we’re at work.

That said, I plan on getting at least one of these units before the end of the year.  Reiko and I have taken thousands of photos in the last two years, and there must be at least 50 that are perfect for display.  Hopefully OLED technologies will be refined enough in the next few years to be incorporated into these devices as this would make the digital frames mature enough to start replacing some of the more traditional photographs in our home.

Bookmark To:

It’s official!  Reiko and I are now husband and wife
Earlier today we received the affidavit required from the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, and soon afterwards we were on our way to Kakamigahara’s city hall.  After almost two hours of paperwork, we finished up and walked out as Mr. and Mrs.

We still plan on having our wedding ceremony on May 1st, 2008, and I’ll be sure to post lots of pictures shortly afterwards.

Bookmark To:

With less than 300 days remaining before Reiko and I are married, it’s hard not to look at something and say “Hey, that would be pretty cool for the wedding!”

One item I have been looking for has been a place to produce some high quality photo books of both the days immediately leading up to and including the big day.  I’ve had some pictures printed into a book from Future Shop’s photo department, and while it’s alright for some things, it’s not really what I’m looking for when it comes to something as big as bringing two families together.

Reiko and I have already worked out several plans for the big day, and I’ve been sworn to secrecy for most of them (which is why I haven’t really said much about the specifics on here … yet), but one of the items that I wanted to make available for all the guests was a high quality photo book that would be around 100 pages with a nice library binding, a custom dust jacket and a linen hardcover case.  Of course, these standards wouldn’t be complete without also saying that I expect to use 80# gloss paper with colour fade protection.

After working at an international print company for five years and spending most of my childhood with my nose buried in a book, I tend to know what I like to see in printed material.

So imagine my surprise when I happened upon a startup called Blurb.  This company has been around since 2004 and makes it possible for anyone to create, publish, share and market printed books.  The books, which can be printed in full-colour in either hard or soft-cover formats, are of professional quality and a heck of a lot better than I’ve seen elsewhere for similar prices.

Making a book with Blurb involves downloading some free software from the site that looks similar to the web-based book making sites like you would find at Future Shop or Best Buy, which gives us a great degree of creative control over how we lay out the content.  What I find absolutely amazing is that this software has the ability to connect to your blog and download all the content, effectively turning your site into a printed word format book.  I had never considered doing such a thing with this site (for good reason), but there are plenty of quality blogs out there that post content worthy of the printed medium.  This software will also allow users to adapt their business plans, recipies, photos, email, Flickr sets, iPhoto albums, wikis, or any other printable digital content into a bookstore quality book.

All of this is possible thanks to the emerging Print-on-Demand technologies that have swept through the printing industry.  If you’re interested in buying only one book, then buy only one book.  If you want 10+, that’s good for a discount
Reiko and I will have a professional photographer at our wedding, and we’ll also be taking tons of photos together in the weeks and months leading up to the big day.  It’s my goal to take a few hundred of the best photos and put them in a high quality book showing not only our pictures, but with texts discussing the scenarios within.  From there, I’ll send one to each guest at our wedding with a hand-written message inside.  This will be sent along with a DVD (region-free, of course) of the ceremony.

If you have some pictures you’d love to wrap into a book, check out Blurb.com.  They might just have what you’re looking for.  Oh, and if you’re interested in a book, let mr know
Who says guys don’t get excited about weddings?

Bookmark To: