The Perfect Setup.

Keep them Coming!

Yanko design brings us yet another simple idea that you wish you came up with.

More and more people are getting laptops instead of stationary computers. We all want to be flexible and mobile. Or at least have the possibility to be. And with everything mobile it's better when it's small. Smaller laptops and notebook means less usb ports. This idea could solve that problem.

Check out more designs at yankodesign.com

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Good with fall. Part 1.

The Flea Market.

There are a few things that are actually good with fall and that the weather is beginning to turn into crap.

One of the nice things to do in fall is to go to flea markets. The old things, the people, the whole set up works better when the leafs are turning gold and the air is a bit chilly. The mood is something special when you get up on a Sunday with a flea market day ahead. Just drinking a coffee to get yourself up and then going straight to the restaurant for brunch. Brunching in Berlin is like a hobby for some people and the interest in this way of eating had given the city a good supply of affordable brunch menus. That all-you-can-eat mentality really works in the city.

After you have filled up on to much food and to little drink it's time to go to one of the many flea markets. And the Berliners love their flea markets. You can find them on Saturdays but on Sunday it's for real, then it's business. And people have stuff to sell. Maybe people got a bit crazy and bought to much stuff in the 80's or they simple need the money, because flea markets are big business.

If you pick the right one you will get a nice mix of normal people selling off their memory's and professionals with € signs in mind. But some of these pros are artist trying to get by or young designers that want to get there brand going. It's that mix, a smoke, a cup of coffee and the fresh autumn air that makes the Flea Market one of the really good things about fall.

The only hard thing is to manage to get up to make a day out of it. I'm usually to hung over to walk out the door at 10 in the morning on a Sunday.

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A Hoody.

Sip the style.

A basic combination piece like this works almost anytime. Combined with your favorite sneakers it will not let you down. And it can be acquired at rodeo drive as well as at the suburban mall.

Why grey? Why Zip? Why not? Unlike a white jacket or hoody a grey one will not get dirty just by you sitting down on a bench. Grey will not let you down that easily. I like the zip much more than the original collage sweater or hoody. With the zip you are more flexible and if the temperature gets to high then valuable seconds can be gained. But most of all, you can sport that clean white tee you bought last weekend. Since it's all about layers.

And now as the temperatures get lower this will work under the coat or any other jacket.

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Monopoly City Streets.

Googleism.

Two days ago Google released a world wide edition of Monopoly. You can buy any street that appears on google maps. After you get some streets the building begins.

So far pretty straight forward, but here's the twist and also a bit of a odd thing. You can play dirty, you are even encouraged to play dirty. I was surprised that monopoly would allow you to demolish other people's houses. And that you can without a problem put a prison or bio-hazardous factory on other players street. I guess Google and the Monopoly franchise view the world as a dog eat dog place. Which is not to strange for a company that thinks that all you need to stay out of prison is a small piece of paper with get-out-of-jail-free-card written on it.

This might be a really fun game later on as more players join and as time passes. I just like that fact that I own one of the fancier streets in Stockholm and one of the cooler streets in Berlin.

I might just go and party on one of my streets later this evening.

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Entourage.

Let's hug it out Bitch.

The show might be a bit cheesy, even a bit to much of Americana for a normal person. And yes Mark Wahlberg is a producer of the show. And of course Seth Green has a tendency to show up now and again. Set that a side and you got yet another good HBO show.

But what really makes this a show is the character Ari Gold played by Jeremy Piven. The leading role's agent that will do and say anything to get his way. Take this quote for instants - You so much as eye fuck an agent in this building and I will deport you naked to the Taliban! The best part is that this quote is just one among hundreds. And they are just getting better and better as the show goes on.

So if you haven't already, get a bunch of episodes and watch the master agent at work.

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Dice cuff links.

Player got Style.

Last week I told you about the cleanliness of a white shirt. I also mentioned that if want to run in the big league you need to have a pair of cuff links instead of normal buttons. And here we have them, the players choice.

Not only is the color combo on these guys very clean, the shape and the feeling that goes with a dice is close to unbeatable. The dice is something that gives ideas about Vegas and just risking it all on one roll. Perfect for the one who likes playing games. And who doesn't like a good game?

Cuff links are details. And in my mind true style is something that lays in such details. The fact that what you carry is not a coincidence but a active choice. And with that said, make some choices and go out there in the jungle and show them that you got style.

After all it's Friday :)

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Nintendo Clock

Game Clock.

What time is it? Check the game and you will know. When getting your living quaters in order one detail that should not be overlooked is the time. In other words clocks.

And there is alot of cool ones out there. And that's what makes it so much fun. You can make a clock out of pretty much anything. Like here a NES game. But don't let your imagination end there. The favorite cd that broke can be a clock. The weird LP record that you can't even listen to can be a sweet clock. And then there's all the strange and wonderful clocks that people have already made. Check the design stores for new ones or go to the fleemarket and buy some old junk that you can turn into a one-of-a-kind.

And who doesn't like a original clock? And if you made it yourself then you're gona get a lot of credit for it. If you didn't know it already, here it is one more time. Everybody loves an artist.

So go out there and be somebody!

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Adidas Originals Top Ten HI

Blue and White Baby!

Here we have a very clean sneak. Two colors, classic Adidas blue and white that's whiter than snow. This is the type of sneak I would like to see more of on the streets. And it's cleanliness will surely turn some heads. Those heads might be sneaker freak heads but that still counts. Off course not as much as other peoples heads, but still.

Match these bad boys with blue jeans and a white tee and your set for the last summer days. If you really want to make it clean then have blue details on the tee and wear a NY Yankee's cap. I think you know where I'm going with this. And the same goes for the lady's but you should have some short jeans shorts and over all just show some more skin. ;)

There's so many sneaks but so little time...

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Solar Power

The One True God.

Let there be light and there was light. It's not a coincidence that that is right in the beginning of a certain book. It illustrates how important the light is. The Christians got the idea of the one god from the Jews. The Jews got the idea from Egypt. The place where Ra was the sun and the sun the one god. What are you really praying to in your church?

And what would we do without the sun? Hide in bunkers under the earth? Hiding like rats. In the long run we would not have a chance. We would starve and wither away.

It's good that we're not in that situation. At least not yet. The sun holds so much energy. It is the real reason we exist. And none of the fossil fuels that we use today would be there if it wasn't for her. And even though this planet sucks up every little ray of sunshine it can get, there is still so much to go around.

Without clean energy we will never be able to stay on this planet. The reason for our energy and resource problems is the lack of clean energy.

It's time for all nations on this rock to start building. Use the desert and the hot valley's. Build vast solar parks that stretch as long as the eye can see. That will be a big part of the solution.

The only time that exists is now.

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Rene Magritte

The Son Of Man 1964
Rene Magritte 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967

I saw a painting by Magritte on TV the other day and thought that more people should know this painter. He is one of the most famous Belgian (if not the most famous) painters. But Magritte has a very interesting life story. When he was 13 his mother killed herself by drowning. Something that would most likely haunt him for his entire life.

His first paintings date back to 1915 and were impressionistic. He later studied and married and went off to serve in the Belgian infantry. He stayed in Brussels during the Nazi occupation. After the war he was tight on money and to solve this he started to make fake Picassos, Chiricos and Braques paintings. He later also went in to the fake money printing business. Not long after that his career got started.

He seems to have been a interesting person, but most of all his paintings are somehow just very intriguing. So if you get the chance, then see one live.

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Tetris.

Game or a Lifestyle?

by Olle.

I’m looking at the wrist-watch before I start my Lexus LF-A. It doesn’t really matter what time it is though, I am thinking as I drive through central Manhattan on my way to work. I get to set up my schedule quite on my own anyway. I start the day with some finger-relaxing movements. Some stretching and some bending - it’s important to loosen up any possible numbness and rigidness in my fingers. I use professional finger-stretch utilities, and my personal coach is scrutinizing everything I do. After doing this for about half an hour, we’re going through some neck-stretching techniques and some other body exercises in order to get my body in a perfectly relaxed condition before we go through the tactical part and talk through the goods and the bads of yesterday. I need to be 100 % fit for my task, my mission – it’s another day at the office.

I work as a professional Tetris player and have been doing so for three years. Among my merits I have gold from Tetris World Cup from 2007 and 2008, Tetris Olympics 2009, silver in Tetris Grand Prix Slam 2007, and a also humiliating bronze from the Annual Uzbekhi Tetris Pride Festival Competition in 2005. I have also, of course, participated in the World All-Star Tetris Team every year since 2003 (a world team will come in handy in case we one day face an invasion from aliens ready to battle us in Tetris).

My career started off with a normal childhood Tetris-obsession, the one I think all normal kids born after 1980 have had for at least a couple of weeks. Only for me it never stopped. I never got bored and quit, I just kept playing. As we all know, the goal of Tetris is to place the randomly falling pieces (or “tetrominoes”) together so that one line of the playing field (the so called “matrix”) gets filled without any gaps. There are seven different tetriminoes, and they can all rotate with 90-degree steps (but the so called “O-piece” doesn’t change as it rotates, for logical reasons). They fall, you rotate them and try to fit them in to clear a line. When a line is cleared, it disappears and gives more room for the upcoming tetriminoes. And on it goes. Faster and faster. Its genial in its simplicity.

You gain points in Tetris. There are many different ways of scoring points, and all games have different systems. The most common way to get extra points are to clear several lines at a time. Clear four lines at a time is known as a “Tetris” and gives you way more than four times a single line clear. You build up a four lines high mountain of pieces, but leave one row free. Then you wait for God to drop the I-piece and you neatly place it in the gap – bang – you’ve got a Tetris, and earn “a tremendous amount of points”, as the guide on Tetrisfriends.com calls it. Or how about the T-spin – you leave a T-shaped gap somewhere on the matrix, in a way that you need to drop your T-piece down and then by rotate it in the right direction “lock it” in to position in the created T-slot. This is a very effective – but hard – way to get a lot of points. The possibilities are endless! Clear a line with a T-spin! Clear consecutive lines and finish up with a T-spin line clear!

There is a large Tetris community out there. Internet forums and discussion boards, constantly discussing what technique is the best and whether T-spins should generate points or if it’s more honest to be more old-school and save up to tetrises. The discussions are wild, hot-tempered and controversial, boiling with different opinions in a mist of lifelong Tetris experiences. I don’t think you can imagine how many Tetris geeks are out there – and they are waiting for your opinion! Get in shape, get the shapes right, and go beat them!

As for me, I’ve just finished a day at the office. Now I’ll roll down to see a new sport car. My Tetris sponsors just offered me a new one with the exhaust fumes coming out as tetriminoe clouds in the back.

For the interested Tetris geek:

Basic facts about Tetris: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris

A Tetris wiki: http://tetrisconcept.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Tetrisfriends’ Tetris games: http://www.tetrisfriends.com/

Tetris forum: http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/3422/

Twitter: @tetrisfriends

Olle writing for The Best Stuff I See.

The Coffee Table.

Die Fabrik. Tisch 433

The coffee table is one of the more important things in the living room. So choose wisely.

Stefan Hoelldobler designed this table by putting venetian blinds together to create a original look. I love the way it plays with the different colors of wood. I really good idea. The name of the table is Tabel 433 after the 433 pieces that it's constructed of. This table will go really well with the other things in my virtual living room here on thebeststuffic.blogspot.com.

Good news on the hunt for shelter. After a visit in a WG in Neuköln I have now found a place to stay. Moving will begin on Saturday. And until the move I'm staying with my friend Olle in another excellent WG. I like there apartment and especially there kitchen. Keep an eye out for Olle he will post here on his addiction to tetris in the up coming weeks.

Any questions or comments? Send a twitt or a message here. And if you like what you see, digg the thing.

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Wind Power.

The Wind Turbine.

Imagine a world where the city's reach for the Sky's and the turning of this wind makes the turbines spin and sway like trees among the green rooftop parks and gardens. Imagine the dreams you has about a clean future city being real. That is not a utopia that we should see only when we drift off to sleep, it's what we should see when we wake up.

When tracking down a way to make things better it is all about energy. It is the foundation that makes us what we as a civilization are. Energy is what makes things happen. Wars are fought over energy and the ways to produce it.

Are we not cleaver and rich? Are we not able to take what we have bin given and create clean energy that is for the better of all who lives on this planet?

I believe we can, I believe we must. Let's build wind turbines and solar panels. Let's build the future we are all hoping for.

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Andy Warhol.

Mr Warhola.

Have you ever seen a painting by Warhol. You should.

I don't know much about art, but I do know what I like. And Warhol's pictures are something that really makes one think and one can enjoy. Simple and cool. My favorite is Mao. A painting of the Chinese leader Mao. The painting it self is very big, many meters across. It takes something that is uses as propaganda and changes it into something more. But you all knew this stuff from before.

If you get the chance, take it!

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Magic Eight Ball

Oracle.

The magic of eight ball. It would be nice to have a true voice that knew the future.

I like the Eight Ball, and I guess I'm not the only one. It's clean and it's a classic. Something that you can have standing around and it's just nice to have it there. Off course unless you actually find a magic one it's not gonna know shit but it can create a dialog, give you new ideas. Or you can let it take the decision away from you, let fate do your bidding.

A way to float to somewhere else.

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Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug

Gone with the heat.

The Bill of right seem to be disappearing and it is. So here's a mug that shows that. When the heat goes up the rights fade.

A funny way of pointing out that what ones was is now slowly disappearing. Sometimes it's a bit scary that rights seen as set in stone now seem not to be worth the paper there written on. And when basic human rights are removed we move towards a place that reminds me of 1984. I like the idea but the design could have bin a bit better.

I hope the right of free speech will survive here on the Internet.

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Starwars USB

May The Stick Be With You.

Information, communication and transportation. Three very important things. And anyone working in an office knows that a Usb stick will come in handy. This stick can do all what a normal Usb-stick can but this one adds one more thing, design.

These guys just show that today everything is designed and that everything can be redesigned as the product's importance change. And why not? If the price is not to high there is no reason not to choose the thing that is designed to make you feel just a bit happier. If the aspect of humans well being on a more "feeling" based level would be incorporated in the design of everyday items, we might all live in a better world. Or it would just be nice to have something that might put a smile on your face.

I just say I like these small star wars guys and I would like to have one. But I'm not going to go out of my way to find one.

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Rubik's Cube.

The Magic cube of Rubik.

Got to thinking about this puzzle. Once the trend of yuppies everywhere with one goal, to have it solved on your desk. I guess it was to show off how smart and therefore how powerful you are. And it must have worked. For a while. I wonder how many math students got pay in cash or cocaine to solve this cube for the party boys of wall street. Probably not as many as the positions in which it can be set, 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to be exact.

But I don't see it as just a toy, a puzzle game or something to brag with. I see it as a very well designed piece of art. Something to have laying around for it's optical purposes. Bragging or not, cool thing to have.

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Don't forget to Digg, Mixx and make Delicious ---> And follow me on twitter @thebeststuffic

American Dad

Cartoon Americana.

There the core family, two kids, two cars, a pet, a house in suburbia and off course an alien. The all american family.

I really like this show. Seth Mcfarlane got it right with this one. He got the practice from Family Guy and moved on with this. The references and jokes are more out there. As well as the characters, how could one not like Roger the alien drunk?

The show has not hit Europe the way Family Guy or The Simpson's has, over here it is hardly known at all. I think it has to do with the way it was brought to us. The first season was aired on MTV in many EU-countries. But the mistake was that they put it late at night and that they dubbed it to the different countries native tongue.

If it was not for the Internet and nice people ripping it and uploading it, I would never be able to see it. You know what that means.

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Self Shelf.

Shelf your self.

Could not help to think, why didn't I think of this. A bookshelf made by books giving the illusion of books glues to the wall. Maybe I should allways have a pen and paper to write these things down. Atleast when I'm in that state of mind.

Dutchbydesign.com bring us this shelf as well as alot of different designed peaces. Simple but still clean. Something very important when it come to what one puts in the livingroom.

Things that put that little smile on your face is worth more than the £19.95 that is asked. Smart ideas should be supported.

Do you have stuff that you think should be on The Best Stuff I See? Then send a message.
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