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	<title>a . g r o o v e</title>
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	<description>i.knew.that.agroove.was.in.your.heart</description>
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		<title>Morocco episode 2: the desert, yalla yalla!</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/05/08/morocco-episode-2-the-desert-yalla-yalla/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/05/08/morocco-episode-2-the-desert-yalla-yalla/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 07:12:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[see the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[atlas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[berber]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[desert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gladiator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morocco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sahara]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=567</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After 3 nights in Marrakech, we set off to the Atlas mountain / desert tour. The tour was 2 days drive to the Sahara desert with bunch of stops, ride a camel out for a couple of hours, then spent a night in a camp, and then back to town on the last day. We were the last group to get picked up so we ended up sitting all separately, which is not a big deal because we all made new friends! There were all sorts of people on the tour &#8211; koreans, greeks, spanish, french, americans, italia, austria; some people were on vacation, some people had been backpacking for 8 months already (2 crazy korean girls!), and I sat beside the Korean dude who&#8217;s beem travelling for 2-3 months along the Europe coast then down to Morocco. We drove through some of the craziest mountain pass I&#8217;ve seen from Marrakech to Sahara desert, totally initial D, and our driver [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>After 3 nights in Marrakech, we set off to the Atlas mountain / desert tour. The tour was 2 days drive to the Sahara desert with bunch of stops, ride a camel out for a couple of hours, then spent a night in a camp, and then back to town on the last day. We were the last group to get picked up so we ended up sitting all separately, which is not a big deal because we all made new friends! There were all sorts of people on the tour &#8211; koreans, greeks, spanish, french, americans, italia, austria; some people were on vacation, some people had been backpacking for 8 months already (2 crazy korean girls!), and I sat beside the Korean dude who&#8217;s beem travelling for 2-3 months along the Europe coast then down to Morocco.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/village.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-570 postbanner" title="village" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/village.jpg" alt="gladiator!" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>We drove through some of the craziest mountain pass I&#8217;ve seen from Marrakech to Sahara desert, totally initial D, and our driver was super speedy and rude. We made bunch of stops on the way for scenery pics, he always said &#8220;Take phoootooo!&#8221;, and then when we had to be on our way he honked the van and yelled &#8220;Yalla yalla!&#8221; (lets go lets go!) There were always people selling souvenirs at these photo stops, and they were literally middle of nowhere, I still wonder how long it took them to bring all the goods out to the highway. We saw all sorts of cool oasis like villages where there&#8217;s a forest and a small clay village, and absolutely nothing around it, and that&#8217;s where these &#8220;berber&#8221; people lived. Main stop for the first day was this village I can&#8217;t remember what it was called, but it was where they filmed part of the Gladiator movie &#8211; the first time Maximus had to fight in some outskirt town. To give you some sense of their culture, when we went to see this village, we had to cross this small river, where bunch of sand bags had been placed for people to step on. There were these kids just hanging around, when they saw us coming they all came up and held our hands (or tried to) without us asking and helped us cross the water. When we finished crossing the kids would stick out their hand and asked for money. Some people just gave them 1-5 DH, while I refused to give any, then the kid just kept harassing me, asking me for candy, whatever he saw on my backpack, even asked me for my flip flops. Some kids just left if they couldn&#8217;t get anything, while others said nasty things. It was pretty sad in some sense.</p>
<p>Anyway it was an awesome sight to see still, and we ended the night in some funky small hotel right next to a river and mountain, the type of place I thought would be pretty sweet for camping. Next day we visited a local berber village, saw the local&#8217;s way of life &#8211; donkeys transporting insane amount of goods, people carrying stuff on their head, villagers trying to sell us hand made carpet and get as much out of our pockets before we leave, the usual stuff. We also stopped at this super pretty gorge where apparently it&#8217;s like rock climbers heaven, but I saw no rock climbing, the river water was definitely refreshing though. The driver got pretty annoying cause it seemed that we were going to be late for the camel ride, so he started to constantly rush people. We finally got to the desert entrance around 5pm I think, which was a place I thought it was kind of funny because it was like the gate to the desert, one side flat land, other side desert, in between a line of hotels.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/starrysky.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-571 postbanner" title="starrysky" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/starrysky.jpg" alt="stars!" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Riding a camel was a lot more uncomfortable than I expected, I felt like I was going to fall off to all the time, but it was still pretty sweet, with everyone and their sand turban on. I was joking with my korean buddy on the bus that seeing a sand storm would be an awesome crazy experience, and just after 30 minute on the camel trek, we saw some massive gray clouds building up behind us. Another 20 min we heard thunder, then crazy wind that blew sand in our face, then crazy rain thunder wind sand that felt like Storm&#8217;s hail super on my face, arms, and legs. It got so bad we had to stop and everyone put on these massive heavy blanket to cover, meanwhile I was trying to capture a video of how crazy the weather was, and take picture of the sunset in the storm. When we finally arrived at the camp site it was almost dark, everyone was cold, soaking wet and tko&#8217;ed, we went inside our tent only to find no light (or candle), wet mattresses and blankets, couldn&#8217;t get any worse. Good thing for modern technology, my cellphone turned into my flashlight for the night, and we ate dinner in this central tent. The desert guide cooked us this beef stew with rice, and it was probably one of the best meal we had on the whole Morocco trip oddly. After dinner prerty much everyone went back to their tent and crashed, and I think I was the only person who was still up and about in the pitch black. I ended up hanging out with the guides for some time; drank some mint tea and spoke some broken English, then I sat outside for another 30 min or so just looking and taking pictures of stars by myself&#8230; So I thought. When I got up to go to bed, I saw a shadow in the dark and I just stood there and stared really hard into the blackness thinking, wha, I didn&#8217;t hear anyone come out&#8230; But someone was sitting at the next table! Turned out it was the Italian girl in my tent and she came out to look at the stars too lol, had a good chat with her before I went to bed. And I just have to say, it was one of the worst sleep ever as well. Our door didn&#8217;t close properly so when there&#8217;s strong wind, I felt sand built up on my eyes and lips, so I ate some sand while I slept&#8230; And then there were holes on our tent so I also got raindrops on my face occasionally. GG.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sahara.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-569 postbanner" title="sahara" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sahara.jpg" alt="desert trek!" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Next morning we woke up early and I caught a glimpse of the sunrise. Someone found a snowboard woth broken binding so we were trying to do ghetto sand boarding, while the Austria girl actually brought her skis and geared up, but because of the rain the sand was super slushy (or whatever the equivalent term for that sand condition as snow), she skied about 5 seconds and stopped, she did get some cool pics though. The camel ride back was 100x better cause it was nice and sunny, and my seat was 100x more comfortable. We got back to the hotel rendezvous point, and ate breakfast for about 15 min and then we got yalla yalla&#8217;ed by our driver. Except no one listened lol, we were supposed ti get time to relax ,eat, and shower, but pretty much only the eating part happened. Hence ended the epic desert journey and a long long ride back to Marrakech.</p>
<p>Overall, despite all the ridiculous crap we went through, I still think it was one of the best part of the trip, I just wished we had a camp fire around the desert camp, and our driver wasn&#8217;t such a random jerkface &#8211; he randomly put on loud music, talked super loud on his cellphone, and on the way back he even made a random stop and bought some meat for himself! Besides, part of the desert will always be with me because there are sand stuck in my lens :-( don&#8217;t worry still usable, but my poor Canon definitely went through some hard time.</p>
<p>Almost done, last episode, Fez &#8211; Andy defeated!?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Morocco episode 1: Marrakech &#8211; Japan? Korea? Arigatou!</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/05/01/morocco-episode-1-marrakech-japan-korea-arigatou/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/05/01/morocco-episode-1-marrakech-japan-korea-arigatou/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 20:42:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[see the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[djemaa el fna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marrakech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morocco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[souq]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=558</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(Awesome flickr pics here!) I forgot what it was that I saw a while back, but when I saw it, it left me with a distinct memory that, I have to visit Morocco, it looked super duper awesome. So when I found out Ling and Germaine were planning a 1 week trip in Morocco, I had to tag along no matter what. This was the first time flying Ryanair for me, and they did not disappoint. For some reason, even after you checked in online, you had to go to the counter just to get a stupid stamp, or else you couldn&#8217;t get on the flight. They were uber strict on your luggages &#8211; one meant one, not small sling bag, no empty bags, no plastic bag, you had to shove everything into your carry on. At the boarding gate, they had people waiting to weigh your bag, and if it was over the limit, then pay £50 to check [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/agroove/sets/72157629940837217/" target="_blank">(Awesome flickr pics here!)</a></p>
<p>I forgot what it was that I saw a while back, but when I saw it, it left me with a distinct memory that, I have to visit Morocco, it looked super duper awesome. So when I found out Ling and Germaine were planning a 1 week trip in Morocco, I had to tag along no matter what.</p>
<p>This was the first time flying Ryanair for me, and they did not disappoint. For some reason, even after you checked in online, you had to go to the counter just to get a stupid stamp, or else you couldn&#8217;t get on the flight. They were uber strict on your luggages &#8211; one meant one, not small sling bag, no empty bags, no plastic bag, you had to shove everything into your carry on. At the boarding gate, they had people waiting to weigh your bag, and if it was over the limit, then pay £50 to check it in last minute (my was 9.6 or something, just under, whew). After all that, we found out that our flight was hit by lightning so it was delayed for 4 hours.</p>
<p>We arrived around 12am at the airport, and things got intense right away. Wikitravel told me a taxi ride from airport should be about 70 dirham (which is about £5.5 / $8.5), so we talked to one taxi guy, he said 120, we said 100, and he just turned around, ignored our offer, and started talking to some other drivers. The next guy came up tried to make some money, same deal, and same result. Third guy, same. Basically we were forced to take 120, and just before we gave into their deal, this Korean girl came up to us asking if she can come along cause she was by herself. We didn&#8217;t mind at all but the drivers did, the price went up to 160 right away because an extra person, and another driver came over started arguing because the Korean girl was her customer, and he was actually trying to pull her away. Anyway, we hopped on this ghetto taxi while drivers were still going at it, and off to our stay.</p>
<p>So I thought. Turned out that our taxi driver didn&#8217;t know where our hotel is, so he dropped us off at some weird back street with bunch of random people standing around. We got our stuff, and when we tried to pay he demanded 200 DH instead. Obviously we weren&#8217;t going to get ripped off right away so we had to argue with the guy for about 10 min, ended up paying him 160 cause we didn&#8217;t have exact change and he didn&#8217;t look like he was going to give us any anyway. Now we were standing in this back street no idea where to go, we were basically the perfect prey &#8211; helpless tourists in the middle of the night. Some kid came up to us, started asking us where we going, and offered to take us there. Of couse we said no and walked the opposite way he pointed, he started to follow us and kept saying it&#8217;s the wrong way and he will take us &#8211; quite persistent and annoying people sometimes. We then asked some local people and they offered to take us to the hotel (finally some nice people), then the the kid from before got super pissed, kept yelling something at the locals and didn&#8217;t sound like very nice things. I assumed it&#8217;s something like, &#8220;You bastards I was so close to scam these Asians!&#8221;</p>
<p>Our hotel, or &#8220;riad&#8221; &#8211; which is like a Moroccan guest house, with a centre open court yard, quite lovely, was in the old town/medina, and actually right next to the Djemma El Fna square, and it was really nice. The style and setting were quite simple and comfy, showers and bathrooms were outside unless you&#8217;re on the ground floor, but they had wifi and the basics. At this point, we never had dinner yet, so we basically dropped off our stuff, rest for a few min, and went out to hunt for some amazing food in the square. The famous big square is called Djemaa El Fna, it was like&#8230; night market with ONLY food. Super lively all around the square area, people everywhere still after 12am though they were mostly locals. On the side there were people playing music, dancing, watching something, selling crap etc. We stood out like fat wallets walking around the square, so food stall people swarmed us everywhere we walked. For some odd reason, they ALL called us Japan or Korea, they loved asking us where we were from, what&#8217;s our name, and, they won&#8217;t leave us alone! In the end, we went to some random stall, and ordered a few small things to fill our tummy for the night. One good thing about the square was that, prices were fixed so there was no overcharge, but they did try to bring all sorts of food to you without you ordering it, so they could charge you after. Sneaky bastards.</p>
<p>(omg I&#8217;ve written this much and I only got to an hour after I landed in Marrakech&#8230;)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/souqs.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-562 postbanner" title="souqs" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/souqs.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Next day we went out to explore the souqs, which are the markets. The market was a huge area, with long streets and many many intersections / forks. There were some main parts like Dyers and Glass souqs, but really it was the place you go and just become lost for a while, and surprise yourself with wherever you end up. And that was pretty much what we did. I had no idea where we went really, we did see most of the main stuff, we walked for a couple of hours, took tons of pictures, and got out on the other end somehow. Which was good because some nice tourist spots were located on the other side, so after a quick lunch we went to Ali Ben Youssef Medersa and the Moroccan Museum. If I remembered correctly, medersa meant school, and Ali Ben Youssef was one of the most beautiful school built. It had some amazing wood/stone works on the wall, and the best thing was that, it was so quite and peaceful compared to the souqs. We wandered for a good hour in there.</p>
<p>After the museum it took a hour or 2 again trying to make our way back. We had dinner again in the square. It felt like, whenever you go into the square (or the market too), you were prepping for a battle, which was quite stressful for dinner. So I changed up my tactics, instead of being on defence and tried to push everyone away, I decided to give in and embrace. It made a huge difference, in fact, it made my market experience quite fun for rest of the trip. All these people came up trying to get you, and I just tried to be &#8220;buddy buddy&#8221; with them back &#8211; I greeted them, shook hands, made introduction, had some Japanese conversation, it was almost like playing a game ha.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/djemaaelfna.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-563 postbanner" title="djemaaelfna" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/djemaaelfna.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>As much as I want to keep writing about everyday, this is getting too long and well, we didn&#8217;t do as much on the 2nd day anyway. So I&#8217;m going to try to skim day 2&#8242;s &#8230; day. We set out towards a different direction to find few other tourist spots.  Took a while to find Dar Si Said because people keep telling us it was closed (seriously, what do they get out of it, I don&#8217;t understand), and hit up Bahia Palace after. Then we took a taxi into New City, where it&#8217;s all more modern and have actual shops. We shopped at a super market for some local goods, and of course, I had to make a stop at McDs.</p>
<p>Anyway, that&#8217;s the Marrakech part, sorry I cheap out on 2nd day but I&#8217;ve been at this for hours actually. We set off to our desert tour next day morning, which I will write about soon hopefully.</p>
<ul>
<li>Things we were called in the square and the souqs &#8211; japan, yakuza, karate, kung fu, jackie chan, jet li, yamaha, honda, kawasaki, momotaro, and a few more I didn&#8217;t remember</li>
<li>Common greetings from the locals
<ul>
<li>Japan? konichiwa, arigatou</li>
<li>Where you from? Japan? korea? china? ni how</li>
<li>Where you going? I take you there</li>
<li>it&#8217;s closed, [insert tourist destination] is that way</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Number of times called Japan and Korea &#8211; I don&#8217;t know, like 524878 times</li>
<li>Most popular dish ordered at the square &#8211; aubergine / calamari (it&#8217;s a tie!)</li>
<li>Best drink deal (IMO) &#8211; spice tea for 2DH</li>
<li>Worst food deal &#8211; &#8220;Spicy&#8221; sauce for 10DH</li>
<li>Food I wish I ordered &#8211; minced meat sandwich (which you cannot order from menu, the locals order it somehow)</li>
</ul>
<p>About the food &#8211; I had this high expectation from all the readings that there would be a food fest in Morocco. Everything sounded awesome &#8211; market food, traditional food, crazy street stall food, home/hotel cooked feast. But, even just after 2-3 days, it felt like I&#8217;ve tried almost everything, and gawd, so much bread all the time!</p>
<div>About shopping &#8211; bargaining is the way of life. Be strong, bargain hard. My rule of thumb is, whatever they offer you in the market, you offer 20% of their price, and you try to settle around 30 &#8211; 40% (with exception of course). Best trump card move is just walk away, offer your &#8220;final price&#8221;, which they will ask you like 10 times, and if they don&#8217;t take it, just leave.</div>
<p>To be continued &#8211; part 2, the desert!</p>
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		<title>Where should I go next? read #10</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/30/where-should-i-go-next/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/30/where-should-i-go-next/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[g33k t4lk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[randomness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[haiku]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UX]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=554</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Too many cities to see. Yay regular poop. #uklife #haikustyle That almost sounds completely random, but it will be explained on my posts for Morocco, I think it will be an epic post trilogy. Meanwhile, here&#8217;s a huge backlog of the readings. 18 Beautiful Examples of Parallax Scrolling in Web Design A systematic approach to logo design The New Google+ Is More Beautiful Than Facebook (But It Doesn’t Matter) What NYC and Beijing Would Look Like, Without All The People UI Patterns For Mobile Apps: Search, Sort And Filter Using Origami To Mock Up Ingenious Gestural Interfaces]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Too many cities to see.</p>
<p>Yay regular poop.</p>
<p>#uklife #haikustyle</p>
<p>That almost sounds completely random, but it will be explained on my posts for Morocco, I think it will be an epic post trilogy. Meanwhile, here&#8217;s a huge backlog of the readings.</p>
<p><a href="http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/18-beautiful-examples-of-parallax-scrolling-in-web-design  " target="_blank">18 Beautiful Examples of Parallax Scrolling in Web Design</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.adhamdannaway.com/blog/branding/a-systematic-approach-to-logo-design  " target="_blank">A systematic approach to logo design</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669497/the-new-google-is-more-beautiful-than-facebook-but-it-doesn-t-matter  " target="_blank">The New Google+ Is More Beautiful Than Facebook (But It Doesn’t Matter)</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669479/what-nyc-and-beijing-would-look-like-without-all-the-people  " target="_blank">What NYC and Beijing Would Look Like, Without All The People</a></p>
<p><a href="http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/10/ui-patterns-for-mobile-apps-search-sort-filter/  " target="_blank">UI Patterns For Mobile Apps: Search, Sort And Filter</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669513/using-origami-to-mock-up-ingenious-gestural-interfaces" target="_blank">Using Origami To Mock Up Ingenious Gestural Interfaces</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Freeeedom! I mean Edinburrrrgh</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/27/freeeedom-i-mean-edinburrrrgh/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/27/freeeedom-i-mean-edinburrrrgh/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:03:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[see the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[braveheart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[edinburgh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[highlands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scotland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uklife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=544</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was desperately trying to find somewhere to go on Easter weekend, and I found out my friend Tai and his buddies were heading up to Edinburgh, so me and my flat mate Linda hopped onto a last minute trip out to the north. Edinburgh was one of those cities in UK I really wanted to visit, but last minute travel on a long weekend was not cheap, flights were about £100-200, and train was £80-150, even if you travel on crappy time (ie. Arrive at 11pm) you didnt save much. In the end, we went with the cheapest and worst option of travel &#8211; ~8 hour overnight bus there and back, but it was only £60! Trip breakdown First day: Arrived about 7ish in the morning, ass feeling uber sore (worst.seats.ever.), put our luggages away at hippy style hostel, randomly booked last minute day tour and were off to learn about the history of Scotland. Saw some bridges, visited [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was desperately trying to find somewhere to go on Easter weekend, and I found out my friend Tai and his buddies were heading up to Edinburgh, so me and my flat mate Linda hopped onto a last minute trip out to the north. Edinburgh was one of those cities in UK I really wanted to visit, but last minute travel on a long weekend was not cheap, flights were about £100-200, and train was £80-150, even if you travel on crappy time (ie. Arrive at 11pm) you didnt save much. In the end, we went with the cheapest and worst option of travel &#8211; ~8 hour overnight bus there and back, but it was only £60!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/edinburgh.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-549 postbanner" title="edinburgh" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/edinburgh.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Trip breakdown</strong></p>
<p>First day: Arrived about 7ish in the morning, ass feeling uber sore (worst.seats.ever.), put our luggages away at hippy style hostel, randomly booked last minute day tour and were off to learn about the history of Scotland. Saw some bridges, visited to church of Robert the Bruce, hit up Stirling castle, saw statue of William Wallace and field of Bannockburn, screamed &#8220;Freedom!&#8221; (well, more like whispered) and relived the story of Braveheart. Ended with the mysterious Rosalyn Chapel and solved Da Vinci Code.</p>
<p>Second day:  Woke up extra early for the Loch Ness and highland tour. Met the super awesome tour guide who knew like everything about history of Scotland, listened to celtic/folk music, and slept through most of his stories. Stopped at photo spots, took some jumping pictures, saw scotsman playing bag pipe with dramatic highland scenery. Took an adequate boat ride on Loch Ness with this whole other asian tour bus, stopped at random towns for coffee bathroom break, and got back in town 12.5 hours later. Had some awesome Mexican food, drank some more, slept like a baby.</p>
<p>Last day: Woke up early for a nice Scottish breakfast, tried some haggis, ate some bacon. Took a free city tour in Edinburgh, enjoyed beautiful cityscape, visited Edinburgh castle, drank a Irn Bru (scottish cream soda), bought some kilts, spent all our Scottish pounds. Ate Scottish steak, drank some wine, back to the bus stop, spent another 8 hour on bus to go back home to London.</p>
<ul>
<li>Amount of time spent on bus &#8211; ~30 hours</li>
<li>Most random tasty dinner &#8211; Chinese</li>
<li>Number of Scottish words learned &#8211; 5
<ul>
<li>Loch = lake</li>
<li>Glen = valley</li>
<li>Wee = small</li>
<li>Och aye = of course yes!</li>
<li>Bonnie = pretty</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Number of whiskey (and coke) drank &#8211; 3?</li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/agroove/7084580191/in/photostream" target="_blank">Number of Nessie sighting &#8211; 1!</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Would I go back? Yes, this city is so pretty, loved the feel of it when I was walking around, and it&#8217;s upposed to be a big festival party central in summer. And makes you want to watch Braveheart. Haggis not so great, but better than blood pudding.</p>
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		<title>Traaavelling &#8211; March part 2</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/09/traaavelling-march-part-2/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/09/traaavelling-march-part-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:43:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[see the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[france]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[geneva]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[les arcs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snowboarding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[switzerland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uklife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=532</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like I mentioned before, March was a busy month, but then again, so is April with the last minute Edinburgh trip, not that I&#8217;m complaining, my credit card is probably extra happy, but my wallet and bank account are. Les Arcs, France Last week of March I went out snowboarding in France with bunch of friends for 4 days. I haven&#8217;t done a full on weekend boarding trip for a while, not to mention I keep seeing everyone back home were going Cypress every weekend still, made me so jealous, so theres no way I&#8217;d pass on this trip. But I didnt bring any of my snowboarding gears here so it&#8217;s either buy everything or get them sent to me. Not sure why I didnt plan ahead to get my parents to send it, I just sort of left it til last minute to deal with it, and asked if my boss could bring it. That didnt happen so literally [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Like I mentioned before, March was a busy month, but then again, so is April with the last minute Edinburgh trip, not that I&#8217;m complaining, my credit card is probably extra happy, but my wallet and bank account are.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/lesarcs.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-536 postbanner" title="lesarcs" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/lesarcs.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Les Arcs, France</strong></p>
<p>Last week of March I went out snowboarding in France with bunch of friends for 4 days. I haven&#8217;t done a full on weekend boarding trip for a while, not to mention I keep seeing everyone back home were going Cypress every weekend still, made me so jealous, so theres no way I&#8217;d pass on this trip.</p>
<p>But I didnt bring any of my snowboarding gears here so it&#8217;s either buy everything or get them sent to me. Not sure why I didnt plan ahead to get my parents to send it, I just sort of left it til last minute to deal with it, and asked if my boss could bring it. That didnt happen so literally the day before I went and bought brand new pants (yellow!) and went on the plane with only pants and my HH rain jacket. Talk about under prepped.</p>
<p>We flew to Chambery on awesome BA, the plane was like only 25% full and so spacious compare to Easyjet. We were staying at this chalet in town and they even picked us up from airport. I totally thought we were staying on the resort but turned out it was a town at the bottom of the mountain, and then you take this &#8220;funiculaire&#8221; up. It&#8217;s like Grouse Mountain except its a train, which turned out to be quite decent and convenient considering the money you save from staying at bottom vs on mountain). After we settled in I continued my shopping since I can&#8217;t go boarding without goggles or gloves. I tried to cheap out on everything and I found a decent pair of Anon goggles for €30, and the cheapest possible gloves for €15, which surprisingly never soaked through. Now the mountain itself, this ski resort is uber massive. Bought a 4 day pass for about €180, chairlifts and runs are everywhere, its just wide open, I was only able to hit up maybe 30-40% of the mountain in 3.5 days. The weather was amazing, I only wore a long sleeve dri fit and tshirt under my wind breaker, and most of the restaurants have lounge chairs set up and you can just totally chill out under the sun, so genius.</p>
<p>The chalet was quite interesting, its basically a big house that sleeps about 12 people, and they actually prepared breakfast and dinner for everyone. Its not like just microwave food or mac n cheese, its like full on proper cooked meal, we had full on cooked meals like baked stuffed chicken breast + pasta, and turkey pie with mash. Quite delicious and with wine on the house, I dont mind going back there at all.</p>
<ul>
<li>Highest point reached &#8211; 32xx meters</li>
<li>Number of times gotten lost &#8211; 3</li>
<li>Number of front size 180 executed &#8211; 1</li>
</ul>
<p>Would I go back? Yes, definitely bringing my gears here from home next time I fly from Vancouver, I still got more than half of mountain to hit up</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/geneva.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-535 postbanner" title="geneva" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/geneva.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Geneva, Switzerland &#8211; Bonus day</strong></p>
<p>We were all supposed to head back to London on Monday night from Geneva since its a bigger airport, there were more flight options available. but when I checked flight on Easyjet, flight on Monday was like £100+ and Tuesday was £30 something, so I thought eff that, looked up a hostel, booked for 1 night for about 30 Swiss Franc, and done, I saved about 50% cost and staying in a new city for a night.</p>
<p>Since I still have to work (yes, I do have work), I only took the morning to quickly check out the town. Went along the water, checked out the flower clock, went into old town and the cathedral, then walked towards the Reformation wall, then headed back taking the &#8220;moules&#8221; boat and saw the Jet d&#8217;Eau on the water. Yep I did a Geneva city tour in about 2.5 hours, the only other main thing I missed was the Nation Palace because you had to take a bus out to visit.</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of strangers met &#8211; 4</li>
<li>Number of boat ridden &#8211; 1</li>
<li>Number of chocolate bought &#8211; 13 &#8211; 15 bars?</li>
<li>Most expensive item paid &#8211; $5.5 cdn for bottled water</li>
</ul>
<p>Would I go back? Probably not, one thing about Switzerland was that its one of the most expensive countries to visit in Europe. I paid about $12 cdn for a reg Mcd meal, $20 cdn for my Starbucks mug, but I did bring back a ton of chocolate bars, all send back to Mr. Perez to delegate ;p</p>
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		<title>the no broadband challenge &#8211; read #9</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/03/the-no-broadband-challenge/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/04/03/the-no-broadband-challenge/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:20:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[g33k t4lk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[randomness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UX]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It sux balls. I was going to write about the whole process of me signing up internet, but it annoyed me so much I just gave up half way. Basically my flat doesn&#8217;t exist, and I can&#8217;t sign up a new service because the current address already has a service (which I&#8217;m assuming is upstairs). The solution was so simple &#8211; manually write in a new address! Don&#8217;t use the &#8220;look-up-address-by-postal-code&#8221; form they provide you. It only costed me almost all my credit on my phone, and hours with customer support between BT and Sky. GG. Symptoms Of An Epidemic: Web Design Trends Tomorrow&#8217;s Cool World-Changing Brand Design That Works: 5 Case Studies The Dying Art Of Design One Is Not Enough: Why Creative People Need Multiple Outlets Google Finally Puts Captchas to Good Use and for a bonus fun, Hipster Branding]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It sux balls.</p>
<p>I was going to write about the whole process of me signing up internet, but it annoyed me so much I just gave up half way. Basically my flat doesn&#8217;t exist, and I can&#8217;t sign up a new service because the current address already has a service (which I&#8217;m assuming is upstairs). The solution was so simple &#8211; manually write in a new address! Don&#8217;t use the &#8220;look-up-address-by-postal-code&#8221; form they provide you. It only costed me almost all my credit on my phone, and hours with customer support between BT and Sky. GG.</p>
<p><a href="http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/15/symptoms-of-epidemic-web-design-trends/" target="_blank">Symptoms Of An Epidemic: Web Design Trends</a></p>
<p><a href="http://retinart.net/creativity/tomorrows-cool/" target="_blank">Tomorrow&#8217;s Cool</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669273/world-changing-graphic-design-that-works-5-case-studies" target="_blank">World-Changing Brand Design That Works: 5 Case Studies</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/08/the-dying-art-of-design/" target="_blank">The Dying Art Of Design</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.good.is/post/one-is-not-enough-why-creative-people-need-multiple-outlets/" target="_blank">One Is Not Enough: Why Creative People Need Multiple Outlets</a></p>
<p><a href="http://gizmodo.com/5897661/google-finally-puts-captchas-to-good-use" target="_blank">Google Finally Puts Captchas to Good Use</a></p>
<p>and for a bonus fun, <a href="http://hipsterbranding.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Hipster Branding</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Traaaveling</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/03/30/traaaveling/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/03/30/traaaveling/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:02:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[see the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bruges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brussels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[france]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[monaco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nicoise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uklife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=496</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;&#8230;Haru no yoru no yume no kotoshi, Traaaveling kimi wo Traaaveling&#8230;&#8221; So goal is, every month, there must be one trip, preferably 2, maybe 3 is it&#8217;s somewhere cheaper. In March, I traveled quite a bit, and of course, spent quite a bit as well. Not to mention I also moved into a new flat in Clapham North, super busy month. It&#8217;s going to be a bit hard to recap it all ;p 1st Stop &#8211; Brussels / Bruges (Belgium) Eurostar had a deal a while back where you can get a return trip for £59, which was a really awesome deal (I totally should&#8217;ve bought tickets to Paris as well &#62;.&#60;), so me and my flatmate Linda bought tickets to go out to Belgium with Nicole and Steve. Spent first day in Brussels, 2nd day in Bruges, 3rd day back to finish up random destinations. We got quite lucky as there was a Museum Fever Night event where whole bunch [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;&#8230;Haru no yoru no yume no kotoshi, Traaaveling kimi wo Traaaveling&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>So goal is, every month, there must be one trip, preferably 2, maybe 3 is it&#8217;s somewhere cheaper. In March, I traveled quite a bit, and of course, spent quite a bit as well. Not to mention I also moved into a new flat in Clapham North, super busy month. It&#8217;s going to be a bit hard to recap it all ;p</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/brussels.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-507 postbanner" title="brussels" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/brussels.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>1st Stop &#8211; Brussels / Bruges (Belgium)</strong></p>
<p>Eurostar had a deal a while back where you can get a return trip for £59, which was a really awesome deal (I totally should&#8217;ve bought tickets to Paris as well &gt;.&lt;), so me and my flatmate Linda bought tickets to go out to Belgium with Nicole and Steve. Spent first day in Brussels, 2nd day in Bruges, 3rd day back to finish up random destinations. We got quite lucky as there was a Museum Fever Night event where whole bunch of museums stay open til 1am with all sorts of events, so we basically museum hopped and went to 3 or 4. The one I was really curious that I didn&#8217;t get to go was the museum of musical instrument, even though I have absolute no interest in it, the mass amount of people lined up for it made me want to go. Yes I know, typical Andy thing. At the same time, we were also quite unlucky that we went to Bruges on a rainy day and didn&#8217;t get a chance to do the canal cruise. Bruges is a very nice town, it&#8217;s a must see in my opinion. I also had these amazing langoustine prawn something there for lunch, SO GOOD.</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of beers drank ~ 8 (Chimay Bleu, Duvel, Geuze, Rochefort, Hoegaarden Blanche, and 2 taster drinks at Cantillon Brewery)</li>
<li>Number of chocolate shop visited &#8211; 15 &#8211; 20+</li>
<li>Number of meals with moules / frites / waffles eaten &#8211; 2 / every meal? / 2</li>
<li>Number of times denied for dinner &#8211; 2 (seriously)</li>
</ul>
<p>Would I go back? Yes, cause there&#8217;s about 216 more beers I haven&#8217;t tried, and I&#8217;m always down for mussels and fries (who would&#8217;ve thought they go so well together)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/nicoise_salad.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-506 postbanner" title="nicoise_salad" src="http://www.agroove.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/nicoise_salad.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>2nd Stop &#8211; Nice (France) / Monaco</strong></p>
<p>Ling/Germaine invited me to hit up Nice with them, so bunch of us (including Anthony and Gita) went out to Nice for a nice beach getaway. Before I continue, I have to say, I know nothing about Europe other than the fact that there&#8217;s a million things to see, which is the main reason why I&#8217;m here in UK. Lot of times I don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m seeing, but as long as I haven&#8217;t seen it, I&#8217;m down ;p So it was like, &#8220;Hey want to go to Nice?&#8221; &#8220;Yes! &#8230; where&#8217;s that?&#8221;</p>
<p>We took 1 day to visit Monaco, which was a bit underwhelming&#8230; You can easily do it in half a day, or a day if you go into any museums/aquarium. Spent 2nd day exploring Nice, and 3rd day we random toured nearby cities like Antibes and Saint Paul de Vence. Of course I didn&#8217;t know that Nice was a city by the water with super nice beaches and random palm trees/cacti everywhere. Our lunch was super yummy, we just went to the market and bought fresh tasty ingredients like sundried tomatoes, saucisson and proschiutto, fresh mozza, and baguettes. Took it all to the beach and just made sandwiches (French style?). Oh and totally recommend a visit to St. Paul, it&#8217;s like an old stone city on top of a hill, and had super awesome nicoise salad there.</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of gelato flavors tried &#8211; 25</li>
<li>Number of cheese sticks bought at the bakery next to hostel &#8211; 9 or 12</li>
<li>Number of photos taken in the giant picture frame in Monaco ~ 34 (something like that)</li>
<li>Number of fancy car spotted at Monte Carlo &#8211; lost count</li>
<li>Number of uncooked socca eaten &#8211; 1</li>
</ul>
<p>Would I go back? Maybe, though I think I should visit Paris first if I ever go back to France, and I have to walk around with a baguette, it&#8217;s like an accessory, it&#8217;s so French.</p>
<p>Thats enough writing, Ill save the sn0wboarding trip for the next post.</p>
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		<title>2 month London timeline &#8211; read #8</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/03/14/2-month-london-timeline/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/03/14/2-month-london-timeline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:31:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[g33k t4lk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[randomness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[london]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[moving out]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UX]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=486</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Arrived in London, UK, on Jan 15th. Headed up to Middlesbrough for a few days, 1 day in Immingham. Back to London and stayed in Holiday Inn, Gloucester Road for a week+, moved to Wyndham Chelsea Harbor for a night. Moved to 2 different flats in Marylebone for about a week. Went back up to Middlesbrough for a night, then Hull for another night, landed back in Hoxton for a month and half. 3 more days I&#8217;ll have a home home in Clapham North. It&#8217;ll be a nice gift to myself. Posts about all my travels are coming next! As usual, the readings, Rimino, A Radical Concept For The Future Of Mobile Computing 4 Elements That Make A Good User Experience Into Something Great Google&#8217;s new &#8220;batshit crazy&#8221; UX What Your Product’s Design Says About You Wireframing Mobile Apps or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Index Cards Designing Engaging And Enjoyable Long-Form Reading Experiences]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Arrived in London, UK, on Jan 15th. Headed up to Middlesbrough for a few days, 1 day in Immingham. Back to London and stayed in Holiday Inn, Gloucester Road for a week+, moved to Wyndham Chelsea Harbor for a night. Moved to 2 different flats in Marylebone for about a week. Went back up to Middlesbrough for a night, then Hull for another night, landed back in Hoxton for a month and half. 3 more days I&#8217;ll have a home home in Clapham North.</p>
<p>It&#8217;ll be a nice gift to myself.</p>
<p>Posts about all my travels are coming next! As usual, the readings,</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669047/rimino-a-radical-concept-for-the-future-of-mobile-computing" target="_blank">Rimino, A Radical Concept For The Future Of Mobile Computing</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669048/4-elements-that-make-a-good-user-experience-into-something-great" target="_blank">4 Elements That Make A Good User Experience Into Something Great</a></p>
<p><a href="http://dcurt.is/batshit-crazy" target="_blank">Google&#8217;s new &#8220;batshit crazy&#8221; UX</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.getfinch.com/2012/02/what-your-products-design-says-about-you/" target="_blank">What Your Product’s Design Says About You</a></p>
<p><a href="http://lytol.com/articles/mobile-wireframing.html" target="_blank">Wireframing Mobile Apps or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Index Cards</a></p>
<p><a href="http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/07/designing-engaging-enjoyable-long-form-reading-experiences/" target="_blank">Designing Engaging And Enjoyable Long-Form Reading Experiences</a></p>
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		<title>missing out! &#8211; read #7</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/02/15/missing-out/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/02/15/missing-out/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:15:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[g33k t4lk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[randomness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[concert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uklife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UX]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=467</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[it seems like, everytime i decided to look for something to do, it will just had happened over the last weekend, last week, etc. I sat at home playing Terraria all day when they had the biggest Chinese New Years celebration at Trafalgar Square, I missed Fish Leung&#8217;s UK concert by 2 days, and now I just found out that Music Bank Kpop Festival was last weekend in Paris!!! SNSD! T-ARA!! Kill me now #FML as usual, a list of articles I went through as I try to keep up with this mad world, my favorite is definitely the dungeon and dragons article, quote the author, This is also true in the real world. It’s totally possible to do both design and development, and in the early stages one will actually aid the other. But as you undertake one project after another you’ll find that it’ll take you longer to become an expert in either. So it’s great if you’re [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>it seems like, everytime i decided to look for something to do, it will just had happened over the last weekend, last week, etc. I sat at home playing Terraria all day when they had the biggest Chinese New Years celebration at Trafalgar Square, I missed Fish Leung&#8217;s UK concert by 2 days, and now I just found out that Music Bank Kpop Festival was last weekend in Paris!!! SNSD! T-ARA!! Kill me now #FML</p>
<p>as usual, a list of articles I went through as I try to keep up with this mad world, my favorite is definitely the dungeon and dragons article, quote the author,</p>
<blockquote><p>This is also true in the real world. It’s totally possible to do both design and development, and in the early stages one will actually aid the other. But as you undertake one project after another you’ll find that it’ll take you longer to become an expert in either. So it’s great if you’re an all rounder in a team of all rounders, but becomes difficult to carve out a meaningful niche amongst a group of experts.</p></blockquote>
<p>am i a thief or a bard?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.designstaff.org/articles/design-details-2011-11-29.html" target="_blank">Why you should move that button 3px to the left</a></p>
<p><a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/02/11/costco-typography/" target="_blank">Costco Typography</a></p>
<p><a href="http://typographica.org/2012/features/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2011/" target="_blank">Our Favorite Typefaces of 2011</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2012/01/web_design_disciplines_explained_through/" target="_blank">Web Design Disciplines Explained Through the Medium of Dungeons &amp; Dragons</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.good.is/post/what-does-it-mean-to-teach-creativity/" target="_blank">What Does Teaching Creativity Look Like?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/02/14/designer-myopia-stop-designing-for-ourselves/" target="_blank">Designer Myopia: How To Stop Designing For Ourselves</a></p>
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		<title>the New #UKLife</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/02/01/the-new-uklife/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/02/01/the-new-uklife/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[randomness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[london]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uklife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=460</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You know, new, like new new. This is it, I&#8217;m gonna be here for a while now, need the agroove UK/Europe edition just like the Japan edition 5 years ago I came back mid January, so been here just about 2 weeks now, and by 1st week of February, I would&#8217;ve dragged my giant luggage &#8211; my life in a bag as I call it, to Middlesbrough, Immingham, 2 hotels and 3 flats in London, which then the journey would finally end in Hoxton ish area, where I will be living for 2 months. But the last 2 weeks has been quite a blast, since Neil, my buddy who also works with me, was also here traveling along on his business trip. Nothing too exciting happened, since Neil isn&#8217;t exactly the exciting guy to be around with hahah &#8211; I got him to eat seafood at least &#8211; which for him, was &#8220;adventurous&#8221;. His goals were drink as many different [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You know, new, like new new. This is it, I&#8217;m gonna be here for a while now, need the agroove UK/Europe edition just like the Japan edition 5 years ago</p>
<p>I came back mid January, so been here just about 2 weeks now, and by 1st week of February, I would&#8217;ve dragged my giant luggage &#8211; my life in a bag as I call it, to Middlesbrough, Immingham, 2 hotels and 3 flats in London, which then the journey would finally end in Hoxton ish area, where I will be living for 2 months.</p>
<p>But the last 2 weeks has been quite a blast, since Neil, my buddy who also works with me, was also here traveling along on his business trip. Nothing too exciting happened, since Neil isn&#8217;t exactly the exciting guy to be around with hahah &#8211; I got him to eat seafood at least &#8211; which for him, was &#8220;adventurous&#8221;. His goals were drink as many different beers as possible, visit old pubs, and play some darts, so we did just that. I checked in to about 10+ pubs in 7 days, he had probably at least 15 different kinds of beer, and found one pub to play some darts.</p>
<p>The most interesting pub for me was probably Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet St, by Temple/St Paul area, it was pub (re?)built in in 1660s, it felt like a dungeon as you walked further into the place, went down the stairs, through with metal gates, and tall people kept hitting their head on the door frame cause people back in the days were a lot shorter I guess, and yes it was packed on a weekday.</p>
<p>The nicest pub was Gordon Ramsay&#8217;s The Narrow (of course) on Narrow St, sorta close to Canary Wharf I guess? I found this place thanks to Jen&#8217;s tweet on some Vancouver Sun writer&#8217;s London eats article. Right by the water, and resto section had all windows seats to look out to the place. I ordered bangers and mash, and will assume that it&#8217;s the best bangers and mash (at at affordable price) I&#8217;ll have. We also ended up in some random pub called The Grapes few blocks down, which apparently is partly owned by Gandalf &#8211; Ian McKellen.</p>
<p>Other notable things were:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can get massive portion of fish and chips at Rock and Sole Plaice (I think that&#8217;s the name) on Endell St for ~£17, 2 pc + chips</li>
<li>For a fancy dinner I recommend Circus to everyone, you eat and watch a circus show, literally, if you wiling to pay</li>
<li>20 pc nuggets is only £4.75! I had 4 orders during the 2 weeks lol</li>
<li>If you want to play darts at a pub, go somewhere further out cause obviously city pubs are all packed</li>
</ul>
<p>Now I&#8217;m on a Tesco Meal Deal diet, where I go buy a sandwich, small bag of chips and juice, it&#8217;s been my last 4 out of 5 meal. For £2.50, I&#8217;d be stupid not to get it.</p>
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		<title>Jan 2012s readings &#8211; read #6</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/01/31/jan-2012s-readings/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/01/31/jan-2012s-readings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:29:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[g33k t4lk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UX]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=455</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Man, i really really REALLY want to redesign my blog, i drew up a design like half a year ago, and&#8230; it still looks as is, I&#8217;ve been trying to read up on this &#8220;Responsive Design&#8221; thing, it seems to be where it&#8217;s at, and really, it just makes sense. Oh and those negative logos, are sick. Eva Zeisel, The Late Modern Master, On The Hazard Of Too Much Innovation 20 things you can do this year to improve your user’s experience Hey Dummy: This Is What “Responsive Design” Means Inclusive Design 40 Negative Space Logo Designs]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Man, i really really REALLY want to redesign my blog, i drew up a design like half a year ago, and&#8230; it still looks as is, I&#8217;ve been trying to read up on this &#8220;Responsive Design&#8221; thing, it seems to be where it&#8217;s at, and really, it just makes sense. Oh and those negative logos, are sick.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665744/eva-zeisel-the-late-modern-master-on-the-hazard-of-too-much-innovation" target="_blank">Eva Zeisel, The Late Modern Master, On The Hazard Of Too Much Innovation</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/improve_your_users_experience.html" target="_blank">20 things you can do this year to improve your user’s experience</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665748/hey-dummy-this-is-what-responsive-design-means" target="_blank">Hey Dummy: This Is What “Responsive Design” Means</a></p>
<p><a href="http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/01/12/inclusive-design/" target="_blank">Inclusive Design</a></p>
<p><a href="http://designm.ag/design/40-negative-space-logo-design-for-inspiration/" target="_blank">40 Negative Space Logo Designs</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Last Reads of 2011 &#8211; read #5</title>
		<link>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/01/12/last-reads-of-2011/</link>
		<comments>http://www.agroove.net/blog/2012/01/12/last-reads-of-2011/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:51:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ghosty</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[g33k t4lk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UX]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.agroove.net/blog/?p=452</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[and then 2012 is here, we got like 6 months left? cause worlds gonna end soon, maybe life is too short for reading ha Web Design Trends in 2012 The 22 Best Infographics We Found In 2011 A simpler and faster alternative to wireframes 5 Lessons From The Best Interaction Designs Of 2011 The Value of the Designer Who Codes What being a graphic designer means]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>and then 2012 is here, we got like 6 months left? cause worlds gonna end soon, maybe life is too short for reading ha</p>
<p><a href="http://webdesignledger.com/tips/web-design-trends-in-2012" target="_blank">Web Design Trends in 2012</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665705/the-23-best-infographics-we-found-in-2011" target="_blank">The 22 Best Infographics We Found In 2011</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sachagreif.com/a-simpler-and-faster-alternative-to-wireframes/" target="_blank">A simpler and faster alternative to wireframes</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665677/5-lessons-from-the-best-interaction-designs-of-2011" target="_blank">5 Lessons From The Best Interaction Designs Of 2011</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.inc.com/garry-tan/the-great-value-of-the-designer-who-codes.html" target="_blank">The Value of the Designer Who Codes</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/12/27/graphic_designer_imprint/" target="_blank">What being a graphic designer means</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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