Harebrained News is the blog of Maija Graham, an artist, educational media developer, graphic designer, and schemer.
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By Maija, on July 9th, 2010
I had intended to avoid Cambodia while I was in southeast Asia. It had opened up to tourism only four years before after decades of war, brutal genocide, and deprivation. The countryside was littered with landmines, armed militias were still the de facto authority in many areas, corruption was rampant, and first world amenities were largely non-existent.
But after being charmed by the modest ruins at the old capital of Ayutthaya north of Bangkok, I wanted to see more. When I asked fellow travelers about where to go to see more ruins, their eyes would focus on something distant and unseen, a faint smell of incense and the soft tinkling of bells would fill the air and they would breathe: Angkor. Okay, not quite, but Angkor did exude a magic allure of remoteness and adventure.
Continue reading National Highway No. 6 »
By Maija, on May 18th, 2010
By Maija, on April 15th, 2010
I like to think that wisdom is knowing that I was a fool yesterday, and tomorrow I’ll know I was a fool today, though hopefully not the same fool! I have a story from ten years ago that I have never told anyone (at least not in full) because it really does show me for a fool, but perhaps it might be a helpful lesson, or at the very least, amusing.
Continue reading Mai pen rai »
By Maija, on April 8th, 2010
 Click to see additional views Un bel di vedremo, 2010
Mixed media
7cm X 15cm X 15cm
This was an exercise in letting go. I went to an event this evening for which we were asked to bring an “artifact” to leave behind. This broken and badly repaired teacup seemed to fit the bill. Why do I have a broken and badly repaired teacup in the first place, you might ask?
Continue reading Un bel di vedremo »
By Maija, on March 25th, 2010
In addition to virtually “big” projects, I’m occupied with several physically tiny ones. Who knew that small things could be such massive time-hogs? I mean, besides every scale modeler ever?
By Maija, on December 19th, 2009
 Robin told me she wanted to add a section to her site where she could post new things but she didn’t want a blog. So I came up with this swirling 3-dimensional cloud of non-linear randomness, which Robin has called Curios.
The cloud includes the capacity to post images as well as random words constructed from Robin’s cut-out letterforms. The images can be clicked on to see larger images, and although no text has been added yet, the pop-up view can include text and links. It’s all loaded dynamically with XML. Actionscript (and some trigonometry) puts it all together in this crazy, swirling cloud.
Click here to see Curios in action.
By Maija, on December 9th, 2009
By Maija, on December 1st, 2009
 Once upon a time, I slipped a little piece of romantic fiction into Australia’s history. This was long before Wikipedia, back when you had to do it by hand.
I had just spent six months adventuring around the southwestern Pacific Rim and I was ready to head home, but I was stuck in Sydney. I couldn’t get a connecting flight from Singapore to Vancouver for another week. I was annoyed, homesick, and tired of Looking At Sights. What was I going to do for a week?
I took a ferry ride just to get out on the water and think. As the ferry was passing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we met a haphazard fleet of small vessels. They were jostling around an odd, colourful wooden ship that bobbed and pecked at the water like a little chicken. I love tall ships (though she was hardly “tall”) and this funny little vessel in her vivid colours was enchanting.
Continue reading The Chook, the Squid, and the Sweetheart »
By Maija, on November 30th, 2009
 ...times ten thousand three hundred and some-odd A week ago this past Friday, I got an email from my friend, Janine Vangool at Uppercase, asking if I would be able to assist with assembling ten thousand hand-made books for a client’s Christmas mail-out.
I said yes.
It has been a long week.
But we got it done! We had a team of about ten lovely ladies (and one fellow!) with four to six working at a time. The actual order was for 10,250, but we overshot the mark and made ten thousand three hundred and a bit. Plus there were a few that were botched, but our error rate was incredibly low—maybe two dozen in total (we are pros). The book pictured above is one of the errors I kept for myself, which is why the angle and depth-of-field are so arty: so you can’t see the stray gobs of adhesive on the cover.
The books are Janine’s Uppercase brand called “Eclectonotes”, made from recycled and re-used papers. The ones that we made for the client include random trimmed pages from the client’s old catalogues, interspersed among lined recycled notepaper.
You can purchase your own hand-made Eclectonote from the Uppercase store. These ones include vintage papers from old recipe books, fashion magazines, textbooks, and maps. Be sure to browse around and see the other lovely products that Janine makes.
Continue reading 30,750 staples later… »
By Maija, on November 16th, 2009
 Click here to see examples of a rollover interactive
Rollover interactives are a compact way to show more information about a diagram than will fit in the space available. These were used frequently in the courses I collaborated on, typically to show forms and documents and the information to be filled into each field, or oil field equipment and the identification of parts or functions. It’s a simple way to show an image without having large labels covering up areas of the diagram. The “hot spots” where the user’s cursor can trigger the rollover effect may be highlighted or hidden.
Continue reading Rollover interactives »
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