Spoonflower

The actual fabric! (rotated)

The design

Spoonflower inspired me to start designing fabrics that I could use to make Arm Pillozzz. Spoonflower is a neat site that allows you to upload images and tile them to create patterns. Then you can order them or just post them online so that other people can order them. You get 10% of any sales and you get a 10% discount on your own fabrics. Ordering a pattern on the basic cotton fabric is $17.50 per yard length (the rolls are 42" wide), so it's expensive compared to commercial fabrics. But you can make pretty much anything you want. It's like a zazzle/cafepress type site for fabric.  Most of my patterns are rigidly geometric, but I think I'm a pretty creative geometrist (Geometrician? Geometer? Whatever, I like geometry.) I think pattern design is math intensive considering that to effectively repeat a unit block, the boundaries of the block have to be consistent when repeated. Also, there are a lot of colors, and the way they interact and compliment each other is very interesting. Here's my first pattern!

The Cuddle Sutra

The Cuddle Sutra is exactly what you think it is: a collection of cuddling positions. I, for one, am glad to see that someone has put in the effort to create this book (the author Rob Garder, and the slew of other people that it probably took to make it happen). It's a bit of de-sexing in an oversexed society. Now for my shameless plug, the Arm Pillo, as it's name implies, is a pillow that wraps around your arm and is great addition to many cuddling positions. In addition to cuddling positions that are enhanced by the Arm Pillo, the Arma Sutra (get it?) contains positions that you can comfortably sleep in by yourself in random places (like at a desk, in a car, etc).

New Travel Pillow- The Arm Pillo

Edit -  The armpillo is no more. A competitor (the Nursie) has stuck with it over the last decade, while I have moved on to other projects. My current project is a micro-real estate marketplace, that is essentially a Zillow or Redfin-like website for electric vehicle chargers, vending machines, shipping container farms and other small pieces of hardware/machinery. 

So, I would consider myself a sleeping expert. I get a lot of practice, probably far more than I should. Therefore, I would like to introduce my foray in to the fray that is the travel pillow marketplace. No doubt you've seen the neck pillows that look like a toilet seat. Do you want a toilet seat around your neck? Do you want a toddler mistaking it for a potty in the airport? That's what I thought. Then there's the total pillow which bends and twists and lasts for about five minutes. Another neck pillow, shaped like a dog bone, a few seat belt pillows, yaddah, yaddah, nothing interesting.
Heretofore and forevermore, I humbly present to you the Arm Pillo. Developed and perfected over a time period of twenty-three years, it allows you to sleep anywhere. It also prevents your arm from falling asleep when you lie with your arm over your head (see picture 4). Sleep at a desk (napping has been shown to improve productivity), in a car, on a plane, cuddle with you significant other (your arm/arm pillow under their head), wear it to parties for when you inevitably pass out, etc, etc. Take a gander at its glory below or get one of your own at the amazon.com product page or from www.armpillo.com

Sleep at a table like this or...

like this.

Napping in the car

After a long day (prevents your arm from falling asleep)