Archive for the ‘general’ Category

I’m starting on another major redesign at work, and trying to stay open and mindful of my process as a designer. Here is what I’ve learned so far: design is like sanding a piece of wood before you paint it.

Much of design, like sanding, is about prep; I choose some fonts and some colors and a grid, and only after that’s done can I start playing. The formative work makes the fun stuff possible. No groundwork = lame design. Like sanding, design is heavily iterative. When you sand a huge chunk of wood–a banister on a staircase for instance–it slowly dawns on you that it’s possible to never be finished; in the right light, you will always see what you could have done better or differently. The real trick to being a designer is giving yourself permission to stop, and be alright with the fact that what you’re doing may not be attractive to you anymore in six months, but at least it will be done.

And like sanding, design feels better when it’s part of something bigger and when it’s finally done. This time around I’m trying to embrace the administrative aspects of this project, and I’m starting to ease back into the notion that there’s more to life than hairlines and swatches and CSS rules. Not much more, but more.

I’ve also discovered that it is infinitely useful to see design as something easy and pleasant with only fleeting moments of pain, rather than the opposite: something fundamentally difficult and laborious with fleeting moments of joy. It’s hard to see it this way when it seems as though design is being elevated to the level of science or even religion on a almost daily basis; (even I wasted ninety minutes of my life watching a movie about a font, when twenty would have done nicely. It’s a great font, but come on.)

Revel in the ease of your work. If you’re a designer or a developer, your work means never having to break the news of a loved one’s death, or having to shoot other humans or rescue other humans from burning cars. In fact, when you get right down to it, it’s a lot like sanding a big board. Even better, there’s no splinters and your sandpaper says “Designed by Apple in California” on the bottom.

The truth is that I’d like to quit my job and start a rock band.

The truth is that I hate my commute, except for the part when I cross the bridge and the part when I pull into the drive way. The truth is that I stay pretty tired, but it’s okay cause our bed is pretty comfortable. The truth is that I desperately need to get into the gym, and write more posts, and take more photos with a real camera and fewer with a phone. The truth is that Juno was much better than National Treasure Part 2, or whatever is was officially called.

The truth is they might sell the company I work for, and I’m not having much luck caring or even understanding what that might mean—the truth must be that consolidation is Good™.

The truth is I bought a two pound bag of jerky, and have convinced even my wife that it’s awesome stuff. The truth is my XBox finally caught the red ring of death, and we might get a Wii assuming I can find one. The truth is it feels good to tell the truth, even a small one.

One joy in life for me is reading Daring Fireball; John Gruber is a sharp critic and is possessed of a keen wit about all things tech. No Apple product announcement experience is complete without a trip over to Gruber’s site to see what he has to say.

Being a keen listener, my fiance surprised me with a DF membership this past Christmas, which for $29 gets you access to a variety of members only RSS feeds and a coveted DF t-shirt. Well the t-shirts must be very coveted indeed, because in all these months I’ve not seen mine. I sent a cheerful email to Gruber (to an address he admittedly doesn’t check very often) wondering aloud about its whereabouts. But still no explanation or t-shirt; I’d have been happy with either.

Someone asked Gruber at SXSW what kind of person he might hire into his small development company. His answer?

“Someone to send out t-shirts.”

You can’t be mad at that.

A very nice guide to eating sushi. I’m glad to say that my companions and I have abided by most of these suggestions when eating sushi without having seen the guide. It’s really pretty easy since most of them are based on politeness (and my new best pal common sense.) ~

I made it home today in time to flip past Anderson Cooper on Oprah. I want to like him, so I watched for a few minutes. In all honesty, despite his lineage, he seems to be genuine about not relying on his name or family to do what he does. I found his coverage of hurricane Katrina to exude the perfect mix of compassion and outrage, and I credit him in some ways with helping to turn the tide on Bush. I’d agree that he ends up becoming the story sometimes instead of merely reporting it, but such is the way of television news.
I was unaware that he left a decent job with a teen-focused news show to shoot his own stories in Myanmar during the 8888 Uprising, without anything to fall back on and only a gut feeling to guide him. As obvious has he can be at times it’s often just what the world needs; I told someone the other day that often we need someone to remind the world about that thing called “common sense.” ~

Exhaustive list of characters from Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Tomorry the Ostrich was so great. ~

Some good ways to pass the time on a rainy, icy “spring” day in NC: send off resumes to far flung record labels. Watch some Mr. Show episodes. Practice for your first band audition in five years. (By the way, if you happen to run a great record label I know a kick-ass designer with indie cred to spare…) ~

Just because you’re paranoid…Conspiracy theorists and the search for the truth behind the 9/11 attacks. Pretty good read from Mark Jacobsen. (Via New York Magazine. Here’s the whole thing in one long page- thanks, daHIFI.) ~

Nicholas Lemann on O’Reilly’s ‘Baroque Period’. As a “pugilistic conservative’ in a need of a ‘liberal foil’ in order to perform, how long can he keep it up? After all, it’s pretty hard to act like an outsider when you’re shilling for the party that’s currently in power, and fully support all of its policies without question. (via the New Yorker) ~

Letter to Alex and Chris, Twelve Years in the Future. I want to be this parent one day. ~

Could you draw the Coke logo from memory? Monochrom has asked people to do just that, as well as drawing some other famous brand marks from memory. Pretty fascinating check on how deep this stuff gets in. (via MetaFilter) ~

Why did ‘Brokeback‘ lose? I think everyone with an interest in film has an opinion, but I think we could all agree it has something to do with the fact that mainstream Hollywood just isn’t ready to take this on yet. The conservative rise to power has had a chilling effect on entertainment, so giving the nod to ‘Crash‘ I interpret as a sort of punting technique. It’s Hollywood’s way of communicating that it is in fact sensitive to the difficulties of people who aren’t straight and white, but that it’s still easier in 2006 to recognize a film that espouses better race relations than one which invites us to examine homosexual relationships. Essentially Hollywood has not found a ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ for homosexuality, a film that can present this subject matter in a light that middle America will find non-threatening. And certainly a movie that hinges on infidelity and gay relationships is not that film.
It’s still very sad to me that until Hollywood allows it to be otherwise, gays and lesbians in mainstream films will be the serial killers, oddballs and comic relief.
This is what makes some films so tough for me to watch, in fact: it’s the necessity of stating everything for the record, of making an issue of sexuality or other traits simply because of the linear qualities of telling a story in filmic language. It’s a deeply flawed way of doing things. Right now, the moment a character announces he or she is gay in a film, the film instantly becomes “about” homosexuality. Is ‘Lethal Weapon‘ about the fact that Danny Glover is black? Of course not. But Hollywood is still in a stage where it wants us to be proud of it for having gay characters, so they turn homosexuality into an opportunity to preach.
How about a buddy cop movie where a guy and a girl are both detectives. They get off work and go to the local watering hole to meet their partners–for him a wife, and for her (tadaa) a wife. No one flinches. No one explains it. It just is. The characters aren’t fighting any prejudices, or asking for anyone’s approval. They’re demanding it, assuming it. That would seem like a much bigger victory to me than ‘Brokeback’ winning an Oscar. ~

Neko Case’s new record drops tomorrow. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is drenched in reverb and Case’s own bell-clear instrument, and was four years in the making. This is especially good timing for me, since I’m in the process of rediscovering my love for classic country and what they now call “alt.country”. It’s something about the sinister sadness of a Telecaster through ten feet of plate reverb, accompanied by a lonesome female voice that really makes me happy. Go figure.
Case’s solo records highlight her dynamism as a performer, as they’re so different from her output with The New Pornographers, Cub or Maow. She describes the thread connecting these various styles for her thusly:

“I was 19,” she once explained to an interviewer. “I was heavily into punk rock, and punk rock was really dogmatic and macho. But this record made me feel like, you know what, these people are singing about something they really care about. These ladies aren’t kidding. And they sing about religion with more passion than anybody sings about anything — not about love or sex or violence or anything. It’s like their voices are these crazy cannons or something, and they could just blow shit out of their way with them. I wanted to be able to sing like that, because I thought that must’ve felt really good.”

But no matter who she’s working with the fact is that her voice is without a doubt one of the strongest you can find working today, pitch perfect and rock steady even in live environments where poor sound can render such things a luxury. I’m going to go ahead and predict this record showing up on lots of top ten lists at the end of the year, including mine. ~

Yoga with David Lynch in Indiana-$115 plus hotel. “Um, Mr. Lynch, when I was doing downward facing dog just now I noticed a severed human ear next to my mat. Any idea what that means?” ~

I admit it. I’m hooked on “The IT Crowd“, the Channel 4 tv series about the IT department of a Wernham-Hogg type company somehwere in the UK. There’s humor, nerdy in-jokes for nerdy folks like me, and of course cute British totty. And Welsh accents. Can’t forget that. Don’t bother trying to watch the episodes online, though, unless you’re in the UK. Those of us across the pond will need to grab some torrents. ~

Attention all DC design nerds: it’s that time of year again, the DC Paper Show.

It’s the biggest paper show around and we pull it
off every year. NRECA is easy to get to and the vendors bring
all their best stuff for you to investigate and bring
home to fill up your shelves with. And, as always, there will be
yummy snacks for you to shove down your throat before perusing
the samples. This event is not to be missed!

Free paper schwag rules, and a good time is always had by all. ~

According to a CBS news poll, Bush’s approval rating has fallen to just 34 percent, an all-time low. This is not really shocking considering the myriad scandals and evidences of near total incompetence and cronyism that have emerged from the Bush White House. ~