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Heading out of studio and wanted to show you briefly what my studio project looks like.

Compiled CAD work

Just put this image together to be printed on A1 size paper for Tuesday! Looks pretty sweet seeing all of my work together.

Jewish Memorial

Yesterday I took a break from doing homework.  I longboarded aaaaall the way across the city of Berlin to take pictures of the Jewish memorial. It's really cool to walk around in and around the blocks. 

Hmmmm...

Can't give all of my stories away, you'll have to guess what this is!

Sieben days left!

Almost home, just have to finish up my studio project then present it, and pack. Hopefully I will have the project done tomorrow so I can enjoy my last week here!

Sneek peek at Copenhagen!

Can't give it all away yet, so here is a glimpse at the city! This city has been a lot of fun!

I'm rich!

... Not really though. The money here is a lot different than I am used to, 100 US dollars is 570 kroner. When you go to get a drink it will be 25-60 kroner. Really messes with your head. I am so used to seeing low numbers that I don't want to buy anything because I think things are pricey. After doing the conversion the price is almost the same as back home, but some things that are higher priced. I am also guessing that the prices are driven up because the area I am in is a large tourist spot. 

Hotel Fox

So far I have spent two days here in Copenhagen and its been great. The hotel is really cool. There is art all over the hotel from various artists. Each room has a different theme to it that's been done by a different artist. Before I go I'll have to take pictures of the rooms of my classmates so you can see what they all look like.

Bubbles

We made it to Copenhagen! Last night as we were out and about we found these guys blowing
Assigns bubbles! Pretty cool. He was able to put one bubble around another bubble...bubble-ception!

Copenhagen tomorrow!

My time is almost up here and tomorrow I will be going to Copenhagen. Flight leaves at 9:something in the morning. Returning to Berlin on Thursday. I can't tell you what I will be doing in Copenhagen because the teachers haven't told us. All I know is, "its going to be a good time".


Hopefully I will have internet at the hotel so I can keep blogging! If not, I will post come Friday!

Almost home

In case the time has flown by and you've lost track, I will be home in two weeks...

...or...

14 days,
336 hours,
20,160 minuets,
1,209,600 seconds,
120,960,000 milliseconds!

Times ah tick'in!

The cat, all charged up

So here is my first "flashy" portfolio piece. I am trying to think of a slogan or saying that goes along with the theme of electric snowmobile. 

I've been thinking of a few..
Leading the charge.
Ready to charge.
Charge. The Cat.

If you could add one...or two...or waste an hour of your time and think of 100 that would be awesome! I uploaded two images below because for some reason this blog is changing how they look. If you could turn your head 90 degrees and cross your eyes and combine the two images, that's how it should look. Not repulsive neon green or a dull shade of gray.

Arctic Cat Charger

Just finished a quick rendering of my charging station for Arctic cat snowmobiles. Sorry for the lack of posts, about 80% of my work is due Friday! Let me know what you think of the charging station. There are some of my inspiration pictures below.

Final CAD assignment

Soon in the not-so-distant future (Thursday), my final CAD assignment will be due. It is going to be a charging station for any vehicle of our choosing.

Keep an eye on this blog to see what I chose and how I designed it!

Bellow is a close up of the charging plug for today's electric car.

A mans breakfast

Home fries, sautéd peppers and onions...sounds like a good breakfast to me!

Dad if you didn't notice I got a little inspiration from the boys weekend breakfasts we always have.

River taxi

Yesterday we did a lot of traveling. In the city of Potsdam there is a water taxi. It was slow, but really cool! The one we took home had tables for dining and patrons can order beer. I think the Charles river needs a service like this!

Scott, this egg is for you

I saw the man next to me open this carton, he looked at the feather and closed it. I then grabbed the carton, we exchanged glances and I left.

I know how much you hate dirty eggs Scott, so this ones for you.

Sheet metal lamp

I just finished this weird sheet metal lamp in SolidWorks. This exercise was to practice using the sheet metal tools. Once you build your part in the 3rd dimension SolidWorks will flatten it as if it hadn't been bent yet, cool stuff! Don't judge the design, I didn't focus to much on it. Although, I did get carried away and made it into a LED lamp.

The Bauhaus

The Bauhaus  may look like just another building but its where my major was created. Originally a school for design and the arts. During WWII the building was taken over by the Nazis. They wanted to tear down the building because they did not like its design however, they didn't because the Nazi party needed it for a meeting place. Today it serves as a museum. Inside there was a small exhibition with work from famous designers and their original works.

The reason I look exhausted had something to do with the fact it was 90 and humid the day we were there!

Where in the world is Monson?

So some of you might know my friend Brendon Monson. He has been know to travel at random. He will be in Vermont one day, then thumb his way to South Carolina the next. I just received an email from him...he is in Foshan China! I am having a great time here in Berlin however, I would love to travel to China; only for a short time though.

The death strip

Last Friday we went on a field trip to the Berlin Wall. Our tour guide was born in the former east and had tried escaping to the west until he was caught and put in jail. For those that don't know, the wall was not just one wall dividing the city. It was two walls with many obstacles in between. If you somehow were able to make it to the middle guards watching in towers would shoot to kill. Bellow you see me standing in this death zone. Today it looks like a an overgrown field, but if I was standing here thirty years ago I would not be posting this blog.

At a different place along the wall there is a memorial for a church that was demolished be the Nazis. the wall was build around the church, isolating it from the rest of the world. The reason for the demolition of the church was, it sat between two guard towers which blocked there view of escapees. On the inside of the memorial there is a piece of the original church. You can see the Nazis defiled the original church; carving away the most important biblical people.

CAD Assignment

Some of you may recognize this bottle. I have drawn it in a surfacing program (Rhinoceros) once before. However the program did not understand what I was trying to do. Now that I am learning SolidWorks I drew it again, and this time the program knew what I was trying to do!

To help better understand How the bottle is made I have a section view bellow. There is an insulating layer of air. This space could also be a vacuum for even better insulation.

Hallo, guten Morgen

Finally able to put a post up! This week is a crazy one. I have to presentations due Friday for one of my classes. I also have a lot of CAD homework due tomorrow!

I though I would post an image from Lauterbrunnen (again) showing how clean the water was there. There was a stream out front of the office at the place we stayed. 

I asked the lady behind the front desk, "can I drink that water?". 

She responded, "You can drink from any source of water here in the valley. Well all except the toilets!".

This small river was super clean. I have never had fresher water. Poland Springs has got nothing on Lauterbrunnen!

Climbing

One of the people that I met here through my roommate knew of a place to climb. It was one of the coolest locations for a rock wall I've seen.  It is nestled in amongst an indoor skate park, and two beer gardens. All around the gym there is graffiti. Back home we would think, this must be an unsafe area, but here graffiti is actually street art instead of gangs tagging. I will be collecting some picture of the art for future blogs.

House of Wannsee Comference

Today we went on....another field trip. Not complaining, just seems like every post is of a field trip!

The building we visited was built in 1914 by a toothpaste factory owner. Later in 1940 it was purchased by the SS to be used as a hostel for SS members visiting berlin.

To think that SS members were in the same exact room as I was had a very creepy feeling.

I'm melting...

It is so hot and humid today that I am actually going to find a place to swim!  Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Studio is hotter than outside, so I wont be posting any photos today.

Video of Lauterbrunnen valley, another video tomorrow!

Lauterbrunnen Switzerland from Jonathan Holland on Vimeo.

Lauterbrunnen is...fantastisch, erstaunlich, unglaublich

I made it back safe and sound from Lauterbrunnen. I don't really know how to put into words how awesome it was there. The people reminded me of "Mainers" they were incredibly nice and friendly, and there waves were always complimented with a smile. While in the small downtown on each side there were massive cliffs so tall you couldn't see over them. To get out of the valley and see more of the mountains we hiked up to the base of Eiger. As we were hiking the fog aka clouds started to burn off and by the time we got to Eiger we could see nothing but Swiss alps!

On Saturday Steve and I took the tram out of the valley to a town called murren. This town was perched wright on the top edge of the cliffs seen in the valley of Lauterbrunnen. While we were up there we talked with an 80 year old women that owned a clothing shop in the front room of her house. She had lived in town since 1952. She took us through the shop, then to her back porch where we saw where base jumpers jump off the cliff and fly down to the valley.

Later that day we saw a group of cows being herded down the street. Because these towns are so small (240 people in Murren) they have to live off of the land as much as they can. Almost all of the locals have a large garden, cows, sheep and/or goats. I saw whole families out in the fields flipping hay by hand.

For me, this is the ultimate vacation place. It beats Chamonix by a longshot. Hopefully I will be able to go back and snowboard Mt.Schilthorn.


Below are pictures of the Lauterbrunnen valley

 Picture of us after the clouds cleared! Eiger's northern facing slope is on the left

Here I am...face...to...face with Eiger.

The next three pictures are from the town of Murren. It was so peaceful there. 

Heading to Lauterbrunnen tomorrow!

T - minus 13 hours till lift off! Tomorrow is going to be a travel heavy day for myself and the guys going with me. We will be flying to basel at 6am, then taking two trains to get to Lauterbrunnen for 12/1PM. The valley this small town sits in is know around the world for its waterfalls (73 of them). 

We have decided that we are hiking Eiger mountain  It is well know for its very steep northern face. Many people try and rock climb Eigers' face. We will be hiking around the face to the top of it! Bellow you can see a picture of the mountain and its face.

I am unsure if I am going to be able to post while I am nestled in the swiss alps. Worst case there will be new content Monday the 17th!

Want to see more pictures?

If the pictures here I post aren't enough and you just want more...I have uploaded 235 pictures to my Flickr account.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICTURES!

DMY Design event

Last Thursday I went to a design event held a Tegel airport. It was inside two massive hangers, which was very cool. Design events are great to go to because you see a lot of awesome products that make you say, "man thats so simple, how have I not thought of that"? As I was walking around I found myself taking more pictures of the patterns made up by the products rather than the products themselves! I have a lot of photos I would like to share, however I have tried to choose my favorite ones.

The first two pictures are of two different lamp. The top one is made out of paper, and the second is made of plastic called acrylic. 

These two chairs are made up of inflated bicycle tubes. It looks very comfortable, however I didn't sit on either.

Wool coaster sheep, pretty punny!