SamBragg.com

The Greatest Man That Ever Lived – Weezer & Warren Miller

Tags: music, skiing, video, warren miller, weezer, youtube

Check out Calatrava.com

This weekend I was working on a Flash project, and I ended up looking for inspiration online.  While I found a few helpful resources, I was mostly taken in by this website, www.calatrava.com.  It is the official website for Santiago Calatrava, one of the world’s leading architects.  I remembered studying some of his work in my design class at Sacramento State University.  I was impressed at the time, but I am even more impressed after seeing more of his projects.

Take a look at this landmark opera house with the dramatic tidal wave shaped roof design:

Tenerife Opera House by Calatrava

Building: Tenerife Opera House
Location: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Completed: 2003

Both the exterior and interior of this building are absolutely amazing.  You can find several pictures on his website, or using your favorite search engine.

Calatrava has a distinctive style. Almost all of his bridges share common features, and the buildings all embrace contemporary design.  I love the turning torso building in Malmo, Sweden and the sundial bridge in Turtle Bay.  I was amazed to find out that bridge was completed in 2004 practically in my own backyard of Redding, CA.  Ok, it is a few hours away, but I will definitely check that out in person sooner rather than later.

 After being immersed in the high-profile, physical work of Calatrava, the flash work for his website seems more trivial.  Still, I am really impressed with the form and function of the website.  You don’t find a lot of websites completely designed with flash that load so quickly and combine simplicity with visual appeal.  There are a couple of navigation quirks that I noticed, but ultimately I was inspired by www.calatrava.com.  I hope you enjoy!

Tags: architects, buildings, contemporary, flash, sacramento state university, santiago calatrava, spain, tenerife opera house, web design, website reviews

Check out SeekingAlpha.com

One of my favorite web sites for market analysis is www.seekingalpha.com.  First of all, the content is free, and that is a pre-requisite for me!  But honestly, they have really good analysis on almost everything I have looked at investing in and new articles are posted regularly.  Most of the mainstream finance sites…yahoo, CNN, MSN, bloomberg, [insert media conglomerate here]… are like lemmings when it comes to market analysis.  One week they are all saying “the sky is falling” and the next week the mantra changes and they all fall in line.  I’m really over those sources for analysis other than to know what sentiment they are pushing that day.  For real substance, this site provides plenty of food for thought.

No matter what you like to invest in, Seeking Alpha provides easy to find information.  I really like the way they break up the site.  Features are posted on the Home page. The Macro View is perfect for getting a variety of views on the current trends in the overall economy and staying in touch with economic reports.  Stocks & Sectors breaks articles down into a handful of focused areas…I tend to focus on the Energy sector.  Then there’s Global Markets, ETFs (I spend a bit of time here also), and Investing Ideas.  It works for new and experienced investors.

I like to look for swings in oil and natural gas, and try to buy undervalued funds or companies.  Right now there is a feature article at Seeking Alpha about such a company, China Natural Gas.  Here’s a link to the article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/162508-china-natural-gas-deeply-undervalued.  I wouldn’t buy something based on one article, but it did peak my curiosity.

Happy Trading!

Tags: China Natural Gas, investing, market analysis, money, natural gas, websites

Check out MapMyRide.com

So I had a killer fun ride this morning.  First off, we had a pretty good storm come in last night and it was still raining this morning.  I dressed accordingly with a parka and layers.  Being rather dark and dreary I set off with my headlight on and a flashing light attached to the back of my seat (I haven’t picked up any extra gear for the new bike yet).  I headed down Wise Road and turned right on Millertown Road.  I had never been down this road before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a pretty nice stretch of road with a few good hills.  Eventually I ran into Mt. Vernon road and turned right to head up a pretty steep section.  At this point I forgot the name of the road I was supposed to turn right on to head back down through Ophir so I just started looking for something familiar.  There was nothing I wanted to take a chance on, and before I knew it I came over the crest of Mt. Vernon and entered the Auburn city limits.  I felt pretty good about what I had accomplished and proceeded to head back down the hill to Newcastle.  I ended up cruising down Nevada St. and merging briefly onto I-80 West where I promptly exited on Ophir Rd.  The ride was about 12 miles and took about 50 minutes.  By the time I peeled my clothes off they were soaked pretty thoroughly.

So that was my ride this morning.  I ended up on Google to find out what that street was that I missed, and I wanted to find out how much elevation change was involved.  So I surfed my way to this site, MapMyRide.com, and I decided to create a free profile to try it out.  The tool was a little slow but easy to use.  The trickiest part was adding my foray onto the interstate.  Here it is, titled the Millertown Auburn Loop:

Millertown Auburn Loop

I’ll post more routes as I add them.

Tags: auburn, cycling, google, hills, mapmyride.com, millertown, mt. vernon, nevada, ophir, raining

Check out SeanFavero.com

Sean's Cosi table...one of my favorite pieces.

After talking to one of my “brothers from another mother” a few days back I looked through his website, www.SeanFavero.com.  (Apparently we have similar tastes in domain names.)  Sean is a seriously talented designer and I recommend you check out his stuff.  He is also actively posting to his blog at blog.faverodesign.com.  Take a look at the license plate lamp Sean is designing and building right now.

I was talking to my 7 year old son about design and what Sean does, and he asked me “Does he make swords?”  Not only is that a great insight into my son’s mind, but I’ll have to throw that out as a challenge to Sean!

Tags: design, designers, furniture, sean favero, swords, table, website reviews