THE IDEA FACTORY
My angels are ideas that never stop, even when I’d prefer to rest. My angels are an idea factory. I have ideas as often as most men under 50 think about sex. I’ve had to reconsider the possibility of how many ideas I need to research, resource, and realize. So I will pen them up instead on my first new page on this site in years – The Idea Catalogue.
A cheese and carrot grater that comes with a knuckle guard, a wheelchair lift for small spaces and heights, using compressed air to inflate and raise the passenger to the correct height. A chef’s chair combining a captain’s chair with a wheelchair and an office chair. Office chair should be the place to start, but will need more height and brakes. The spin and multi-directional casters are great! How about cup-holders for bathtubs? Oh, and Slurpee’s for seniors, you read it here first! Sweetener choices Splenda, or Steva; major franchises Ensure and Boost. Also iced coffee versions, and on the assisted dying front…how about Booster Noose?
This weekend I was thinking of ideas that would prevent me from skinning my knuckles in a cheese/carrot grater, and a way to use compressed air or pneumatic/hydraulics for lifting wheelchairs a short height, like the one to the stage at Sam’s Place. I figure the good people at Sam’s will likely find something to work as a ramp, but ramps take up so much space. What if it worked like a heavy-duty air mattress that inflates for the chair to gain access a short vertical distance. Checking google there are any number of people working on these solutions.
Safe Graters
The one on the right, would be the safest that’s currently on the market. I worry that over time the crank and its wheel would get clogged and would be hard to clean.
I like the look of the Microplane Graters, but they hardly qualify as safe….unless you use on of these gloves.
A separate post about the new developments in wheelchair and accessibility designs is warranted and will follow soon.
The Ministry of Empty Spaces
I propose an installation of public and private empty spaces, as we do less in-person, and shun institutions, those spaces empty. Rural depopulation. Empty churches. University lounges after hours, when not in session. Lobbies after dark. The Hudson Bay Store. Theaters when not in production, which can be most of the time. Funeral homes. Churches and Synagogues.
I propose to become the Minister of Empty Spaces, appearing intermittently to celebrate their emptiness, documenting emptiness, taking pictures of emptiness; working against my own instincts and make nothing happen, refusing even to read, write, meditate or be mindful. Sitting, standing, lying.
Until somebody walks in. Then I get up and leave.
Iconoclasts Incorporated
Not original I admit, as one of the members of General Idea actually served as a corporate iconoclast in the hip Toronto of the seventies. Stripped down, prairie lean and mean, only receptionist, and a rental agent, three shifts of 8 hours/24/7. Mobile apps. Get your Corporate Iconoclast Now! Offer 30 minutes or their thinking is free service. Iconoclasts supply their own box, or will accept yours. In-person service only. No wankers.