Hoverboards

BREAKING NEWS: A Frenchman has built a functional prototype of the Back to the Future II hoverboard from this classic scene:

Now check the real deal:


No indication of whether it is stand-on-able, but it looks pretty legit, right down to the paint job.

I've been dreaming about having a hoverboard my whole life. Though the hot pink BTTF2 one is pretty rad, I prefer the design of the ones from ReBoot (see 1:00 through 1:40 of this video to see what I mean). I confess, I spent a lot of time thinking about this hoverboard when I was 12. Double confession: I still think about it, 15 years later. In the day I came up with a whole system of balance, propulsion, and storage of these things. I could still explain it all, but I'll save you the details. But seriously, if you want to talk about it I will gladly hold forth on my intuitive 360° movement system I "developed" (read: "played with in my imagination"). Using it I would look just like this, except (probably) not blue:





We will continue to track this story as it unfolds. Check back in about a decade when the next step in hoverboard technology develops.

Macksims

Sitting, working, listening to Satie in a coffee shop, I'm pondering one of my favorite quotes:

"When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

Recently I've been interested in François de La Rochefoucauld, a 17th century aristocrat/author. The dude published a whole book called "Maxims" which is quite remarkable. It's just a long collection of pithy sayings, with no narrative and no context other than that which the reader brings. Yet somehow it's really engaging, readable and relevant 350-ish years later. Anyway, I've always thought I'd improve upon quotation over my usual logorrheic way, so maybe I should publish my own books of "Macksims." But I write like I speak, and concision was never my strong suit. Maybe that's why I love punctuation so much: it just lets my thoughts keep on going.

_ . _ .
_ _ . _

The weather is nice and I wish that I owned a bike that wasn't currently being used by some West side thief. (We're coming up on the anniversary of when it was bikenapped out of the old apartment.) I'll get another one eventually, but in the mean time I'm just going to dream about these killer accessories:

Phrenology Bike Helmet. Hand-painted by the artist, all of these bike helmets are amazing. I think it would be well worth $80-$250. I also quite like the wood designs.

Hermes-style reflective pant clips. Are they built on snap-bracelets? There are like 10 cool things about this simple little product.

And as long as I'm dreaming, I wish I had an iPhone so I could put it in this. That's real wood folks! I'd get the bamboo one.

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THAT REMINDS ME: I think I'm developing an aesthetic fascination with phrenology (not to be confused with my already established love of Phrenology.) I can add this to my (similar?) fascinations with clipper ships, clocks and old maps. Clearly I am channelling some 19th century explorer, scientist, or general quixotic type.