Sunday, October 26, 2008

UNIQLO 小敗家紀錄


自從在札幌逛過UNIQLO之後,完全就是上癮了,當下決定下次到日本一定找個有UNIQLO的城市。於是,這次有機會到New York玩,完全衝著New York有UNIQLO就去了XD

這邊好看的衣服真的不多,不過我的確也對衣服有點挑就是了。為了防止衣櫥被「間隙牌」、「香蕉共和國」、「香港腳」這三個品牌佔滿而缺乏多樣性,所以有機會當然要衝UNIQLO啦!

紐約UNIQLO SOHO旗艦店店面正面看起來很不起眼,小小的門面。走進去卻大得誇張,簡直可以開半家家樂福的面積了。跟一般歐美店家的陰暗沉穩不同的,走明亮多彩風格,門口兩側就兩面挑高的牆擺滿有如64色SKB喜洋洋彩色筆一般多顏色的喀甚米爾羊毛衫。擺明就是要告訴美國人說「我是來自日本的怪咖」!

除了顏色以外,店內的品項、風格、款式都很多彩多姿。整個店面逛起來很舒服而新鮮。不過有個小缺點,它一樓是男女裝混雜擺放,要自己去辨明哪個區塊是男裝、哪個區塊是女裝。另,大致來說價格都還算合理,但打折明顯不像在札幌那樣的大方,另我有些失望。老實說,UNIQLO在日本自家是大眾品牌,所以會打價格戰;在這卻是異國風,當然就少了些打價格戰的必要性了。

UNIQLO最特別的就是他們的T-shirt啦。他們有一系列很日本風的T-shirt走漫畫風格,而我最喜歡的是走傳統水墨畫風格的,也只有這個,因為太有東風文化特色了,就算原價我也給他敗回來了...

極簡風精美紙袋、T-shirt一件跟收據。聯美國這邊開的收據都特地打日文ウニクロ (uniqlo),大概是特地強調來自日本吧。印象中日本的收據上頭是打英文的UNIQLO標誌阿。

吊牌上有說明每件T-shirt上圖樣的來歷。這次挑的是UNIQLO找上芸艸堂把復刻版北斎漫画搬上T−shirt的。之前在日本逛UNIQLO時,芸艸堂系列的就已經是我最喜歡的了。
嘿,我也可以在美國買M size的T-shirt耶,看來就算賣到美國還是日本的尺碼標準。


正面照,網站上說是「拿著武士刀的天狗」嗎?


背面照,這次是「狒狒,住在山中,會吃禽鳥猛獸」。真是有趣的解釋啊XD

恩,到頭來,跑那麼遠找UNIQLO只買了這件。本來還有很多想買的冬季保暖衣物,結果UNIQLO都是用高級的羊毛(羊毛衫卻比人家合成纖維的便宜,真強大),全部都只能乾洗。這窮人沒錢乾洗,結果都不敢買了......

Saturday, October 25, 2008

New Mexico Pinon Coffee ~ testing conditions

昨晚終於狠下心到Trader Joes敗下的這灌咖啡。本來想說ground coffee很怕很快就壞了;但又一直找不到喜歡的磨豆機,於是就很久都沒買咖啡。不過這隻咖啡在TJ's的試喝實在是太香了,讓我驚訝這種預磨裝罐還用美式drip coffee還可以煮出這種品質,一掃我對drip coffee的壞印象。於是想說,用法蘭絨手沖一定會更棒,就忍不住敗下去了。

(什麼是法蘭絨手沖?可以看這裡

試了三次,發現這咖啡很「性格」,condition不好抓。首先,在試喝時的印象是它有濃烈的奶油香,然後有細微的酸甜;但因為試喝是drip coffee,缺乏油脂感是料想中的事。

不過回家手沖
第一次:
一匙半的粉(茶匙,還沒買咖啡匙)+半杯水
-> 水太多,水味過重

第二次:
兩匙半的粉+半杯水
-> 水溫太低,帶微酸的鹽水味 (最悪だ!)

第三次:
三匙的粉+半杯水(這是是等完全滾之後的水馬上下去)
-> 香味終於出來了,微酸微甜都有,還會在舌根後方帶出一點甜甜的後勁。油脂感還是稍弱,有空還要再試試看;但手沖時,沒有看到明顯的油脂泡沫在從粉中浮出,也許這本來就是一隻"low fat"的豆子XD 咖啡冷一點之後,香味馬上消失,鹽水味越冷越強烈。總之這是一隻越燙口感越棒的咖啡,而香味消散的非常快。一般咖啡本來就要稱熱喝,這隻更急迫一點,沖完要在不燙口的前提下儘快喝完。下次在沖泡前把水溫再拉更高試試看好了。

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

New Aluminum MacBook anouncement and implications

Apple just announced the new generation of MacBooks today, and there are many pretty interesting points I'd like to share here.

First of all, from the product announcement event video, it is once again apparent that Steve Jobs is getting thinner and older. Many people are worrying about his health and what this means for Apple, which was pretty much a company that thrives on his charisma. However, it is also apparent to me today, that Steve is gradually taking back stage and leaving more and more work to the others. Mostly, today's star of the event was not Steve as he always was; instead, as today's focus is more on the new design and manufacturing process of the aluminum unibody structure, the spotlight is clearly on Jony Ive (Senior Vice President of Industrial Design). It seams to me, that today's Apple is much different then what is was 5 years ago, in product design, company development and many other ways, and it seams to me that Steve is gradually handing down the power leader ship to the other in the company.

Second, the changes today unifies Apple's product line even farther. Metal & glossy black glass brings together the iMac and the iPhone/iPod touch, the iPods (although more colored) , and now the MacBook family. Even the iTV and windows in Leopard looks similar. This leaves the AirPort/Timecapsule, Mac mini and the Mighty mouse as the other major products in white plastic land. It might be quite logical to move over at least the Mac mini in the near future.

Third, the new unibody is amazingly technological advanced with high precision. This has 2 major implications.
  1. Since Apple products are now 100% made in China, and the first leaked photo of this unibody is also from China, this means that Apple is exporting high precision CNC to China. I am no engineer so I don't know to what degree of advance CNC processes does this require. But I have heard in the past that the US govenment has rules in place for providing CNC technology to China in fear that they transfer the technology to military applications such as missile manufacturing. I don't know if the rules are still in place since China now already have the technology to go outer space anyways, but it still is a very intreiguing thought to it.
  2. Apple has previously mostly focused on software and exterial design, now they are moving into industrial technology innovations (as previously mentioned, showing that Jony Ive might be taking center stage). This makes the computer market much more exciting. Previously, the only company highly advertising their engineering technologies was Sony, who went from plastic cases to ultrathin magnesium cases and then, more recently, carbon-fiber, the pinnicle of this development being the Japan-only Vaio X505 extreme. Sony is now building most of it's Vaio ultra thin product line out of carbon-fiber. In fact, Sony came out with it's own unibody aluminum casing on the recent Z series (months before Apple's new MacBooks), but they sandwitched that unibody aluminum palmrest/keyboard frame in a carbon fiber bottom and screen casing. But we all know the media has always loved Apple (especially Engadget) and Apple is much better at advertising these things; while Sony keeps a rather low profile. This is farther shown in the product designs it self: Apple made the product exterior all aluminum showcasing this technology blatantly on the outside; while Sony kind of hid it inside carbon-fiber casings with a coating that looked more like conventional plastic. Yet, what matters here is that Apple has entered a field that Sony had held to it self for years, and with this much fanfair, might be forcing other manufacturers to innovate in one way or another on their casing designs, too. Because Sony Vaios had been too low profile in this regard, it is fair to say that Apple is actually the one to make this technology have a real market changing impact.
And one last clearification. The new Nvidia graphics chip in the MacBook makes many think it's finally got an independent GPU. Well, looking at the architecture in the anouncement, what they actually did was swap out the Intel chipset and plugged in an more powerful Nvidia chip. Is it more powerful, yes; but it is an integrated chip, it still uses your main RAM memory, not dedicated memory as with a real "independent GPU".

Well, so those are the interesting thoughts. What does all that mean to me as a consumer? Not much, my first generation MacBook is still going strong and I see no reason is switching, nor to I have the dough to make the purchase.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

ぜつぼうした!

まあ〜たぶん、じょしのことは三、四つ月くらいの知り合いの前に、好きはできない。どんな寂しいもしょがないな。

やっばだめた、俺orz