Pity that posting to my own blog has come to feel more like a chore than when I first started it eight years ago. Of course this site has been around pre-blog for an additional five to six years, but somehow having more streamlined tools like Wordpress to ease the process of updating seems to have an inverse psychological effect where I’d rather wait until something big needs to happen or be posted instead of quickly publishing smaller things of less significance.

Speaking of big, it’s been awhile since the site has had a design refresh. I like the direction, but things need a little facelift. Look for that and some other creative work to be posted soon.

In the mean time, check out a couple panoramas from a visit home earlier this summer:

listening to:
Essential Best
Hiroko Yakushimaru

took a little walk to the ocean the afternoon of valentine’s day, and noticed the sunset casting some really wild colours across the western edge of north america, especially as it tries hiding under some thinly laid haze.

A few panoramas, click to enlarge: Dusk at the lake home. Mother’s Day 2009 at the edge of the continent. Christmas 2009 under the chills.

Spent my internet-free day tinkering in Flash, mostly with my banner image atop this site. Looks pretty good for a start and for a first time project in the application, but even as 100% vector, it will need some heavy optimisation for the file size to be small enough to replace my static header!

listening to:
Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
Eels

I’ve come to understand that the iPhone is something that I will never, ever own. Not by any fault of the device itself because I think it’s a beautiful and amazing bit of technology (plus I’m a diehard lifelong Apple fanboy to boot), but because of its ubiquity here in San Francisco and the methods by which people use it.

Occasionally I’ll hop onto the municipal bus, and it never fails… at least one passenger has one. How do I know? Because anyone who has an iPhone carries it IN their hand and fucks around with the screen incessantly. It doesn’t really matter how thin or lightweight it is for portability, because nobody carries it in their pocket; just the hand. I honestly believe people hold it and dick around just to show other people they have one, yet strangely they are oblivious to everyone and everything around them. That just makes them massive tools more than anything hip or enviable.

A couple years ago I remember reading an article exploring the negative impact iPods were having on society because they isolated and internalised the listening of music when it has always been a social activity. Another reason I plan to steer clear of the iPhone is that it very, very clearly escalates this strange, anti-social behaviour to an entirely new level.

Not only are the finger-flicking, touch screen zombies filling our public transit system, but also malls, restaurants, bars… even birthday parties. Yes, I have witnessed a birthday party devolve not into boys on one half of the room and girls the other, but the iPhone users secede into their own (literally) dark corner to iChat with other iPhonies; maybe each other for all I know. Or touring a chocolate factory, the iPhone users hung around at the back of the group with their faces and fingers planted strictly to their screens doing whatever was more interesting somewhere else.

I could list countless more examples… bottom line is that even for a techy geek like me, I know where to draw the line between life and not living it; that line seems to be the dotted signature portion of an AT&T contract. No thanks. I’ll go about impressing people the old fashioned way… with expensive clothing.

listening to:
A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars
I Monster

People have been asking me all day if I feel old. Not just older… but “old”. Some ask if I feel wiser. No more than yesterday. I think you gain many things with age; their sum worth more than whatever things you may lose along the way.

One thing I wouldn’t quite have dreamt even a year ago—let alone 30 of them—would be my eyes seeing the things I now see on a daily basis. Conveniently ignoring the social issues of homeless people and related, here are just a few things snapped while out and about over the last week. Enjoy!

Click to embiggen it!

A couple years ago I was dumbstruck to discover the existence of peculiar, creative watches. Not surprised as there are always oddball versions of just about every product out there, but something about the attention to detail and geeky allure of this brand really caught my eye and never let go. I’ve always liked nice watches for whatever reason, but these elevated my taste to a new level entirely.

Among the first bunch to fry my noggin was the Eleeno Kion Elite (shown, right) in blue and black, a stunning gem that has since been discontinued and become hard to find. If you’re curious why it has but one time-telling hand, it’s because the striped pattern forms an arrow that also points. Originally selling for about 160$, I kick myself for not jumping on it then. If you found and bought one of these for me; I would gladly gestate your future babies.

Since then, I can’t help but froth all the way from the pleasure centre of my brain right out my mouth like a mammalian cappuccino machine as I browse the shops and online galleries like Tokyoflash. Pictured below are a few of their current darlings, a couple of them quite “cheap”, relatively speaking, so you could find yourself a surrogate for less than you’d think.

P.S.: This is what I’m currently sporting.

I’m particularly fond of the TiBiDa (centre) which also displays time in Binary. Sweet Geekus Derivis.

After attending a media event hosted by EA Sports last week to check out some of their new, unreleased games, I came to realise that while most of the sports they had on display were within my realm of understanding, the number falling into the completely unknown far outnumber those that do.

That had me wonder if I couldn’t use that fact to some benefit as a feature here on my blog: to write and describe popular sports in as much detail as possible, except from my perspective… a sports half-wit using only my observational skills to deduce the rules and premise. Look for my first entry soon!

listening to:
Light Grenades
Incubus

a couple more images from projects long-since passed. one is just a collection of strange iconography, the other is a group of gift card concepts for a digital music store. enjoy!

listening to:
Get On Your Boots
U2

finally uploaded some design projects to the gallery now that i feel comfortably past the expiration date of the projects they represent: five sheets of logo/identity designs, one rough sketch, and one flyer layout. enjoy!

listening to:
Second Sight
Jami Sieber