Down to Earth Tent

Youtube video of me talking through the concepts.

Way back in 2002 I had this idea for a light weight tent I call Down To Earth. That link goes to a Flash animation used to outline teh concepts.

I contacted New Zealand tent and outdoor gear manufacturers MacPac and got emailing with a designer there. The MacPac fella was encouraging enough for me to create the above Flash presentation of the idea, but after sending it, I never heard from him again. I can't say I've noticed an obvious link between new MacPac tent designs and my Down to Earth, so I guess he didn't like the idea.

I have tried numerous times to have the thing made here in Australia, but it seems that all the tent making people live in China these days. I have found one guy in the Blue Mountains who thinks he might be able to modify an old Quest tent of mine, but he's been sitting on that promise for quite some time now.

If anyone does go ahead and make something like this tent, I'd love to test it out for you. Down to Earth is the perfect tent for me. I'd love to have just one. There simply isn't a good tent on the market these days. There are of course thousands out there, but none of them get it right in my opinion...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

The Ideas Man

Ideas can keep me awake at night. I have a draw full of scrap paper with all sorts of them.

In Australia, being called 'an ideas man' can be a bit of a payout. A put down. A comment on that person's inability to see things through. I get it all the time. Probably because I tend to express ideas verbally, and at perhaps less than ideal times, to not quite the right people. Here's an idea! Blogging ideas is a better way to go.

I see ideas and action as 2 in the same. If I express my ideas here for example, isn't that action in itself? Who knows, maybe that will inspire further action elsewhere. Maybe someone will just miraculously give me a wad of cash or a job and say, "hey, great idea man! Go for it!"...

That'd be nice...

But in the meantime, I need a space to blurt out my ideas, good and bad, unique or not, free from demotivating put downs. I place where they can accumulate in the crispy versatility of the digital format, building up a log, renewing themselves as time goes by.

So stay tuned if you're into random ideas on just about anything. I'm prolific, broad-ranging, easily distracted, and very defensive. All the usual weaknesses of an ideas man.

BTW, I am back dating this blog with ideas from the past... the blog ws actually started in October 2005, but I keep shifting this post's date to before the oldest idea...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.