A quick bio

Here’s a quick bio written for me by Nick Mendez:

I was sent to a special Web Design camp at Harvard, after which I traveled to Tibet and taught 100’s of monks how to design their own myspace pages. Then, I met with the Prime Minister of New Zealand to bring FLASH to the country. I was later given the Nobel Peace Prize for enlightening people of the world who thought presentations could only be given in Power Point. The End

Posted on : May 3, 2007

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Sir Ridley Scott Interview

Watch this.

Now. Think about this for a second. (I’ll get into Ridley’s insights in a moment.)

According to his IMDB profile. Sir Ridley Scott is 70 years old. How the hell does he do it? I can only pray that I look as good as him and that I have as much sense as he does at his age. (I think I will considering that I constantly push myself to learn and read.)

The question of “what the hell happened to Hollywood” is a good one. No, I’m not addressing what some people consider a lack of creativity in current film (people who say this usually haven’t watched the films that I have). But I digress. Being the master that he is, Ridley brings up an amazing point. What happened to production budgets?

Watching Ridley talk about design and advertising gave me alot of hope. There is hope for me to still follow my dream. There are alot of matte painters and directors that started out in web-design/advertising. I hope to become on of them.

Posted on : March 21, 2007

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Life like a movie

I didn’t want to call this post life imitating art because I think that phrase is somewhat cliche’ and ill-used since most modern movies can’t be considered art.

I love it when I see real life becoming a visceral mesh of moments that are just too good to be true. Like something you’d see from a movie. The following is proof that life can really be as cool as a movie.

A group of high-school students formed a band (not sure how long ago) and scheduled their band to play at the school talent show.

Their musical choice was a theme that was probably known by every male in the audience. The Halo Theme Song by Marty O’Donnell for the game Halo.

The first time I played Halo this theme struck me like an piece of rebar between the eyes. It is one of the most memorable themes ever composed for game. Scratch that. Ever composed. Period. It’s on my top 50 list of memorable themes.

The band Corporeal plays an astonishing rendition of the theme that is both awe inspiring and technical. Their performance and stage presence is exciting to watch. They break durring the music to play another theme that causes the audience to go into an uproar. Their set ends with confetti and ribbons and the stage being rushed by the audience. Everyone cheers and just when you think it’s over the band cracks back into the theme and the audience on stage begins to dance. The curtain falls.

I’m sure there will be greater moments in these artist’s lives, but I think that this moment will be the greatest moment of their younger years.

Posted on : September 13, 2006

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Pencils!

One of my favorite blogs has a post about pencils. Since I’ve been sketching everyday and creating some new hand drawn art for a client lately, I thought I’d share some of my current favorite tools.

The PrismaColor Col-Erase Erasable Pencil (BLUE) is what I like to use for all my sketching. The lead is smooth (maybe the wax in it) and holds a finer point than most of my other pencils. It copies on a copier or scanner well enough and sharpens easily to short or medium point. (long points are for amateurs )

When all the other people in High School where clicking away with their mechanical pencils, I was using a #2 Dixon Ticonderoga, and LOVING IT. Dixon Ticonderoga was my first pencil love and I’ll continue to use them when I can. Their good for just about anything and they can hold a fine point through lots of sketches.

I discovered the BIC Atlantis recently and in my mind it is the finest mechanical pencil I have ever used. It’s great for fine detailed work and rests comfortably in your hand. The grip is soft and seriously puts me at ease. The eraser is a smooth white eraser that is just the right size.

The KUM wedge sharpener is just the right size for carrying around and produces a fine point that holds. It’s blade doesn’t cut too far back to destroy the lead and remove it, Instead the thick blades cut fine shavings away from the end of the pencil. It comes with extra blades that hold thier sharpness for a long time.

The Sanford Pink Pearl Eraser stick is an adjustable version of the Pink Pearl eraser. I like this because it’s easer to carry (since you can hold the stick in your mouth) and it’s easy to adjust for different erasing types. It’s best to use on standard sketch or copier paper and has been known to not work well on heavily textured paper.

Hope this gives any new artists some insights.

Posted on : September 11, 2006

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Talking around the watercooler about … websites?

Working with alot of web-designers, flash guys, and marketing people you’ll sometimes hear the watercooler talk drift towards something along the lines of “Oh did you see that website? Do you read his blog? I use this online service called…” Typically these social circles visit a grouping of the same websites on a daily basis and there’s a small chance for crossover in usage. Wouldn’t it be great if people ha a definitive answer for “the site, thing, person, idea, service website of the day?” How would it change your conversation.

Jitsu is that answer. Jitsu is a website that “provides a new website (almost) every day, promoting the coolest, neatest, sweetest, and swankiest people, products, places, and things!”

This sounds great considering that most of the other “site of the day” or “product of the day” proclamations are geared towards niche demographics. Jitsu takes it a step further by opening up the possibility of seeing a cool product on the Jitsu site or even an mp3 file. Basically anything that you can link-to on the web can be featured on Jitsu.

Why am I sneezing this? Despite my warnings to my friend Aaron, I am sneezing this because I think It’ll do well and is yet another great idea from 30 Second Rule and Forty Media.

I warned Aaron that I have some bad mojo and that I am usually buzz-kill, the thread killer, the conversation ender, and the opposite of a sneezer. If you search through the web you’ll find alot of forum posts that end with my post. I’ve been on irc channels where multiple conversations have been ping-ponging off the walls until the moment I say something, and then the room goes silent. *crickets* I have tried to get the word out for various 30SecondRule launches , but it always seems to end up with me waving my arms and people saying, “who’s that crazy guy with the orange on his head screaming ‘refresh’ ?”

Despite my role of being one of the blackholes of the web universe, I am pushing this bright idea because I think it has merit. And because it’s bright enough to escape even me.

Posted on : September 5, 2006

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Back to the Future truck

Shalin and I saw an 80’s toyota truck today. It had the roll-bar and was lifted. I was driving, and like a warm breeze I could feel the nostalgia wash-over both of us. We both kinda sighed and smiled.

“Back to the Future”, I said under my breath.

“Yeah…”

“You are the just about the only person who ever remmembers that, and wanted that truck as much as I did.”

I’m sure there are alot of other people that like that truck with the rollbars and KC lights, but they’re probably a bunch of really wierd guys and besides, they’re not as pretty as my wife.

Posted on : August 31, 2006

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Enchilada Casserole

This is a recipie I came up with and hopefully I perfect it.

This is a work in progress. Photos and updates as I cook’em.

Mix:

1 can green chiles
1 can black beens
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
2 tablespoons green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon sesame seed
1 teaspoon, garlic salt (not sure this made any difference)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons of brown sugar (heat up the brown sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it up and then mix it up with a fork to get it granulated)
1/2 a cup of enchilada sauce

Heat on low and stir a bit once every two minutes. usually is about ready when it starts to boil and smells like brown sugar.

Pour a centimeter of enchilada sauce into a baking dish. Fill up this dish with the tortillas.

Drip about a 1/2 dollar amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on a plate. Rub the tortillas (preferably corn) in the oil, on both sides. Put the “mixed sauce” stuff inside of a tortilla with a small cube of havarti chees and a small cube of mozzerella. Roll it up, (don’t worry bout em breaking) and put it in the baking dish. Once the tortillas are in there cover it up with shredded mexican cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Posted on : August 29, 2006

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M&M’s and Revenge

Both are best served cold.

Does anyone else like their chocolate cold? for some reason it just tastes better to me when chocolate is cold.

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testing, staging, the production…web design?

“We developed it, tested it out, went into staging , and then we went onto production”,

Sounds like a group performing a play. Right? Well yes, but in this case I was actualy describing the process of developing for the web.

What?

Yep. This is the process any web-designer should go through in order to create anything for the web.

Let’s take for example, a flash website:

I develop the basic flash files and put them onto my 200 mhz “dev” box running College Linux, via ftp and then I can view the files in my web browser or edit them directly on that box just as if they where on my pc. Every so often I save backups…no biggee.

When the files get to a point where I feel good about showing them to a client, I push them to another box running windows. This box is called test. Why would I put them on a Windows machine? So I can make sure that all my work will run perfectly on any server regardless of OS. From this test server I can show my work to any associates or clients. Once I’ve verified that it works correctly, I’ll push the files to a staging server. In most cases this is an actual web server. Sometimes even the same server that the production website is housed on. Much like a play, the work is “staged” before it goes onto production. Everything should work EXACTLY the same way before the files go into production. The night before the files go into production there is usually a “push”. This typically means that all the developers involved test everything out on staging and then test and pound the server immediatly after all the files are on production. This is why you’ll see developers coming in an hour later the morning after the push. It typically means they where up anywhere between 2- 6 am.

This whole process is important because it really cuts out allot-of the bugs you would typically have and allows you to save multiple versions of files for version control purposes.

I find it funny how many great developers don’t even use stagin servers. But here’s a great developer that does.

From Sproutit:

IMHO, having a staging server, where you have a daily or even hourly process that automagically updates the server with the latest development code, and is accessible by your team to be tested and hammered on from anywhere, is the closest thing to a daily build you’ll get for a webapp.

Posted on : August 28, 2006

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Sunday Meme: Checklist

As seen on Kapgar

Just bold the things you have accomplished in your life.

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain (even a small one) I wouldn’t consider it a mountain but people in Arizona would. LOL
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone My wife, Shalin, and I luckily bought a house with a tub big enough. This was the first time.
8. Said “I love you” and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game — World Series game, baby!
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot-air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight -somehow missed this one.
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit-faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken Thank you Shalin!
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish)
89. Had a one-night stand
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol -Hey! All of the above!
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper — several times!
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey - I honestly have but not counting because I only read it for school and didn’t really enjoy it. Liked the Iliad more though
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating — a fish is an animal, right?
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident - Don’t ever drive in snowboard boots.
150. Saved someone’s life

What have you done?

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“Four” the Love of Pete, Another Meme!

Four jobs I have had: Pizza slinger, Lawn Arreation specialist, Snowboard tech, Web designer.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Star Wars Episode 4 : A New Hope
2. Dances With Wolves
3. The Rocketeer
4. Gladiator

Four places I have lived: Worland, WY. Payson, AZ. Phoenix, AZ. Mesa, AZ

Four TV shows I love to watch: Lost, Battlestar Gallactica, Eureka, Treasure Hunters

Four places I have been on vacation: Cancun, Mexico. Keystone, CO. Aneheim, CA.

Four websites I check every day: TheOnetoGoTo, SteamCrow, The Duh-mension, Matt Bob Jones

Four favorite foods: Macayos Enchilladas, Guedo’s Tacos, Chido Bandito Chille Rejeno, Nando’s Mexican Pizza.

Four places I’d like to be right now: New Zealand. Aneheim, California. Cancun, Mexico. Bora Bora

Four people I am tagging: Aaron, Daniel, Shannon, Matt Bob

Posted on : August 25, 2006

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Arizona geeks love the sports page

Why?

Because the Fry’s ad is printed on the back of the Sports section in the Arizona Republic. What’s Fry’s? It’s like a Super Wal-Mart for electronics…or like a Costco for electronics…lets just say it’s HUGE.

Why the hell would they print an ad full of videocards, 1GB of 3200 SD RAM and AMD FX processors on the back of a Jock page?

I honestly have no idea.

What idiot at the marketing dept. of Fry’s thinks that’s a good idea?

Sure. there are alot of Java Developers and Visual Basic programmers that love the sports section. But unfortunately there aren’t enough Jocks who can tell you the difference between the the processor architecture of an AMD and an Intel processor.

And How is this a problem?

Jocks can’t seem to stop themselves from stealing the damn Sports section! I’ve seen it at numerous workplaces. At OVS I would find our copy of the sports section in the bathroom on the floor! And now…at my new job…I NEVER SEE IT. Some Jock always steals it. People better watch their hands cuz my Logitech keyboard is very sharp on one side….

Posted on : August 22, 2006

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Snakes in a theatre durring ‘Snakes On A Plane’

Authorities said pranksters released the young venomous rattlesnakes in a dark theater at the AMC

read more | digg story

Screw this I am moving to New Zealand.

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Lost Superbowl Commercial

Big thank you to ifilm for posting up this 2006 Superbowl Ad-spot.

I had been wanting to show this to everyone after the superbowl. Probably one of the best ad-spots for a tv show I’ve ever seen. ABC really “gets-it” and they know their audience. If you’re a lost fan or work with some then you’ve probably heard the phrase “addicted to lost” more than once. ABC found a way to incoroporate that into an ad and get viewers even more excited about a great show.

Posted on : August 8, 2006

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The traditional Te Rauparaha Haka

aka: the Ka Mate

This is the traditional All Blacks Haka and so I couldn’t just go without posting it.

Posted on : July 31, 2006

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All Blacks Rugby Team Haka

I’m not a big “sports guy”. One of my reasons for this is my disgust with some of the technical things American sports teams do (like calling time to keep the other team from playing). I appreciate watching team sports that play with true tenacity, a sense of tradition, and good sportsmanship.

Last year I was impressed with The Arizona Rattler’s (Arena Football, awesome to watch) and their ability to exude these qualities.

However, I’ve never seen an American team use a war chant before their game.

As an American, I would be dead scared to play this team in Rugby, but not only that, I would respect them for their traditions.

My hat’s off to the All Black Rugby Team and NZ.

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Lazy Recruiters

For some reason Phoenix is filled with JSP-using companies that could care less about using Ruby or PHP, because “Damnit! JSP is what we use! And our developers are too old to try out anything else.”

Since, there are so many companies in Phoenix that think that JSP is the end all-beat all, recruiters are constantly searching for JSP developers.

In job websites, using a search to come up with JSP developers brings me up. I’ve worked with JSP developers before, and I’ve designed around their code…but I AM NOT A JSP/JAVA/TOMCAT/JAKARTA DEVELOPER. I am a web/graphic designer. I design user interfaces, graphics, and do things that make the front-end of a website functional.

So recruiter…get off your lazy ass and look a little deeper. I have put your email on my shitlist and I have flagged you as someone who could “care less”.

Example:

Hi Matt,

We noticed your background in our searches and thought that you or someone you know would be interested in this great job opportunity for a JSP Developer / Programmer, located in Tempe, AZ.

Wait…it gets better…

I probably got the email because the company is looking for someone who memorizes hex colors and can program object oriented code. For the jury, I present exibit A:

* Designing and developing advanced web interfaces using JSP & DHTML
* Working with product managers and operations in requirement specification, testing and release planning
* Architecture design and implementation

What we need from you:

* 3 or more years JSP / DHTML development experience
* Experience with web user interface design and frameworks
* 3 or more years HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming
* Strong understanding of object oriented analysis and design
* We would also like good Java and SQL experience

Ok.
1. HTML is not a “programming language”

2. That job better pay PRETTY DAMN WELL.

3. I know of only one man that can fill that job and do more. He’s not the best graphic designer, but he can pretty much do everything else on the list. Jason Warner

I editied this because I was actually thinking of including Aaron Post on that list but decided not too because I don’t know if he’s done JSP…but thinking about it further I am sure, just like Jason, he could pick it up with no problems.

Posted on : July 28, 2006

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Only 3 parachutes

Daily meme: Only 3 Parachutes

You’ve been given 3 parachutes, but there are 4 people who need them. Who will you not give one to: Scooby-Doo, Fred Flintstone, George Jetson, or Captain Caveman?

(Of course, all 4 of them are up really super duper high in the air, and the parachute is truly the only way to save them.)

“is truly the only way to save them?”

Well…Ok…the only character that could survive without a parachute is Captian Caveman and his Inspector Gadget like club.

For the court’s review I submit exhibit A: Captian Caveman’s Club

“Powers/Abilities: Superhuman strength, able to fly - pulled through the air by his club. The end of his club could also open to produce virtually any gadget he needed. …Caveman’s fur also seemed to serve as a storage space for an incredible number of things, including living dinosaurs far larger than he was -by reaching into his chest hair he could produce almost anything.”

Ok. so no club and Captian Caveman just shaved?

Give the parachutes to Captain Caveman, Fred Flintstone, and George Jetson. Scooby can be downright annoying sometimes.

Posted on : July 26, 2006

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Restaurant Review : Chino Bandido Takee Outee

Posted on : July 25, 2006

1 Comment »

Stranded

Daily meme from: musingonmovies

You’re on a desert island with a TV, DVD Player and 5 DVDs (plus enough batteries to run them). Which ones are they?

Because I love Star Wars too much to watch only 5 of the 6 episodes over and over again, and get sick of them…I would just put Episode 4 : A New Hope on my list.

Some of these are in my top 10 favorites, a few are favorites that I think would be beneficial to me even if I was on a desert island.

Here are my 5. In order

1. Star Wars Episode 4 : A New Hope
2. Dances With Wolves
3. The Rocketeer
4. Laurence of Arabia
5. Gladiator

What are yours? Feel free to comment here if you don’t have a blog.

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How the Myspace-Generation is killing movies.

It’s just a simple exercise in Freakanomics. X happens, makes Y happen, and then makes Z happen, and results in A.

Myspace users, famous for their focus on networking horribly designed user profiles with other horribly designed user profiles, is killing creativity in cinema, and killing movie theatres.

Myspace, a social networking site, allows users to easily create web content and network with other users for the goal of becoming connected to the most people. Some people have used myspace to connect to old friends but for the most part, myspace users are teens who ooze towards a path of least resistance.

These Myspace users, the Myspace Generation, is so focused on finding a way to get in on the action of networking, that it has given up good design, functionality, and usefullness, for an easy way to create a blog without any effort.

So these thousands of users connect, and through a domino effect of sorts, Emo music ( a derivitive of punk), finds it’s audience. Thousands of Emo bands get on myspace, and with the style’s popularity, a fashion style arises.

The look, of this style:

Perpetuates a blasé, uninterested, stupid is cool attitude. Embrace technology like a drug, sap every last bit out of it to attain mediocrity with-as-less-work-as-possible, and blame your overabundance of emotion on society.

But, in defense of Emo, at least there’s not as much E being passed around.

But at least the Candy Kids would come to the theatre to watch cult-followed films like Star Wars, and give the movie theatre experience the proper respect and manners that could make any parent proud.

Now I see kids that think that they won’t miss anything in the plot of the movie if they walk in and out of the theatre 20 times . (A result of the blase attitude, they actually believe that nothing will happen in the next 20 minutes).

They also open their Razr phones 20 times and it shines in my face so bright it breaks the 4th wall and I remmember that I’m sitting in a theatre. (Thier way of embracing technology)

Giggling incessantly after every scary part (showing their emotions. Yes, I understand that some people giggle when they are scared, but not for 15 whole minutes after.)

Ok. So this kills the theatre experience for everyone else. But how does that destroy the creativity of the movie?

Hollywood has started to become more focused on creating films that will rake in the dough through DVD release. Movie-goers are becomeing so fed up with bad experiences that they spend the bulk of their entertainment money on a home theatre experience. Hollywood is shifting to compensate.

As of late, films are being edited for a society with A.D.D. Story Arcs are so flat they look like…well…an electrocardiogram flatline, and characters that are so two sided that the standees should have been hired to play the part.

I’ve just recently seen 3 onesheets (film posters) that listed their main websites as MySpace pages. But, I can promise you, it is not just the advertising that is being tailored to MySpace, it is also the film itself.

So the next time you hear an Emo kid claim that “Hollywood Sucks, they just re-use old ideas, and just do remakes”. Point your finger at them and say, “well that’s your fault.”

Posted on : July 21, 2006

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Where are you from?

I hate this question.

I’m from a small farming community in Wyoming. It’s surrounded by mountians on all sides, it blocks most of the big storms so it’s actually a desert, but it gets snow in the winter, so it’s what they call a temperate climate.

It’s pretty much a no-where. (Think Tatooine ‘cept less sandy and without the tusken raiders.)

No-one’s ever heard of it. And when I say I’m from Wyoming, people get all excited and expect me to say “Jackson Hole”, or “Yellowstone”. They take up about an 1/8th of the state yet no-one seems to visit anywhere else, yet they make up 90% of people’s idea of Wyoming.

Why not just say you’re from Arizona? Well, that would be lying. And besides, I don’t want to categorize myself with the typical Alcoholic - There’s nothing else to do - I don’t know what to do with my life - Arizona Native. Like this guy :

Maybe the next time someone asks, I’ll just say I’m from “Cali”.

UPDATE! Someone even VideoBlogged their boredom while driving across Wyoming!
Caution: (harsh language)

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Net Neutrality followup

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have a great followup to their first net neutrality coverage. It explains net neutrality very well…check it out:

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The Daily Show : Net Neutrality

I’m not a huge fan (it’s not that I don’t like it…just never watch it) of The Daily Show, but this addresses an issue I feel very strongly about and Jon Stewart said everything I’ve been meaning to say.

Thanks Jon.

Posted on : July 13, 2006

1 Comment »

Dreamhost vs. MediaTemple

I’ve used Media Temple for years and will continue to use them. My hosting however, is with Dreamhost. So a friend recently asked, “What’s the difference?”. Here’s my response.

Dreamhost:

• Easy installs of commonly used web programs (wordpress, phpbb, zencart)
• Space and bandwidth increases every month (like gmail)
• Hefty Refferal bonuses
• Company weblog and updates on server outages
• Very good pricing
• Ruby support
• CVS Repository
• Subversion Repository (SVN)
• Jabber Server
• No phone support for basic or even mid-level setups

Media Temple:

• Longest running “cool company” in the business
• Prestigious Name
• Company donates hosting to worthwhile web organizations
• All of their employees understand “edgy designers”
• Amazing customer support
• Best control-panel I’ve ever used/seen (they built it themselves)
• File upload and txt file editing via the control panel
• Easiest control of htaccess
• Awesome dns support
• Almost complete transparency regarding server operations, facility, and staff
• Top-of-the-line servers, structure, and facility
• Typically a little “pricey”

So there you have it. It’s not the most complete comparison of the two services, just my observations.

Posted on : July 11, 2006

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Airports influence

Aaron Post, of 30SecondRule fame, has a great observational post on his personal blog about Airports and their influence on our perception of a city. More importantly, it is not the Airport itself, that changes our feelings, but it is the people that work in the airport.

Read the full post: The Airport Difference

I can’t say that my experience in Dallas six years ago was the same as Aaron’s but I can give Dallas the benefit of the doubt, but I have certainly felt the negative effects of bad airport service on multiple occasions. And I know that other people have had the same experience.

Coming back from Salt Lake we where in the baggage claim in Phoenix. We heard the extremely loud screaming of a mid-aged man, and his embarrassed family followed in procession.

“Welcome back to the Sh*&$!st city in the US! Welcome back to the Sh*&$!st airport in the world! They don’t even treat me this bad in New York!”

The guy was probably just an a-hole, but it’s also possible he was affected by poor service. And it sounds like his opinion of Phoenix was affected by this service.

Posted on : June 14, 2006

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The definition of luxury is changing.

As the cost of luxury products gets lower and lower a new shift in interest and demographics is emerging.

Millionaires are getting younger because the time it takes to become one is getting shorter.

With 20-30 year old’s interest in brands being different from thier parents, it’s easy to see why the definition of luxury is changing.

A great example can be seen in Vantageous, Media Temple’s new advertising network. “Vantageous is a network and site representation company focused on placing luxury brands with influential creative industry web publications.”

With barely a look at their design and photography, you can get a very good idea of who their target looks like and probably acts like.

The dirty sweaty models in Calvin Klien ads, Vogue, and Details have given up their latchkey status and have gone from acting like the movie “kids” to acting like “studio54″. It’s no longer cool for the trust-funded youth of big cities to dress like their older yuppie counterparts. Instead they are wearing torn designer t-shirts that sell for $150 dollars. Each.

More evidence of this lifestyle can be seen in well crafted brands like Naked & Angry as well as Serum vs. Venom. A cool blog that follows these current trends is Cool Hunting. But, of course, Now that I’ve said it’s cool . . . it’s no longer cool.

Posted on : June 12, 2006

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What do you trust?

It’s becoming an old cliche, “Buying products just supports ‘the man’ and feeds the machines of commercialism”.
After hearing this for so long, it got me thinking about what products I trust. Because I don’t subscribe to the idea of living like a hermit away from ever buying ANYTHING, I instead try to focus more on what alot of people do. I buy products that I trust.

Here’s my list of products that I put my trust in:

American Lawnmower

Ever since I was a kid I have wanted one of these. This type of lawnmower is so much easier to use than a gas or electric lawnmower. Just take it out, push, sweat a bit, and you’re done. It’s human powered.

No gas, oil, chords or motorized blades to worry about. My American Lawnmower never lets me down.

Seagate External Harddrive

We had a hardrive go out in one of our computers a-while ago, a platter inside basically exploded,and when I asked alot of technicians and harddrive people what they suggested, every single one said SEAGATE. One harddrive technician went even so far as to say, “I buy Seagate because I’ve never had to fix one…I’ve never seen one come into our shop”. I have plugged this great drive into numerous computers and it works great in all of them. It also is very inexpensive.

X-Box

Play games on it, and watch DVDs.
I don’t know how Microsoft did it but the laser inside of my X-Box is better than any of the lasers in any of our other DVD players. Our home theatre system has a 5-disc changer, and we don’t even use it anymore because the DVD changer doesn’t read scratched dvds from rental services like the X-Box does.

Sennheiser HD201 Headphones

Best headphones I’ve had. I know they’re not the most comfortable, or best sounding, but for the price, they are the best I’ve had. They sound great, but they’re not too expensive to worry about someone stealing them, losing them, or a friend sitting on them (don’t ask).

Dyson DC14 Cyclon Animal Upright Vacuum

Dyson, like all of these products, “just works”. We’ve had it for about a year and it works just as good as the day that we bought it. I could go into all the different attatchments and options, but I don’t need to.
If you own one then you know, if you don’t, get one and find out just how well it works.

My Dlink network

Router

Wireless AP

Much like my hard-drive situation, I asked alot of networking guys what they used and they all said D-Link. In comparison to other networking companies D-Link saves me time and doesn’t stress me out. I also use the Wireless AP as a psuedo wireless card to connect my server downstairs to the rest of the network.

Dragon DX snowboard goggles

When you have to be able to see in a blizzard. Dragon works and doesn’t make me look like an idiot.

Apple iBook Notebook 12

I actually have an ibook g3 700mhz, but I trust all of apple’s products. Even the flunks are great products. The thing that I love the most is the OSX architecture and interface is both trustworthy and easy to use.

Posted on : June 4, 2006

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Restaurant Review : Z~Cafe: Food from Z~Heart

Posted on : June 1, 2006

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Ctrl+Alt+Enter: Smack your forehead and say duh.

Going back and forth between Mac and Windows everyday can sometimes be a study in patience. Lately I’ve had alot of moments where I press Alt+Enter instead of Ctrl+Enter to test a swf, because I am so used to the command key being there.

So yesterday I was working on a moviclip in Flash, and I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Enter.

*SMACKS FOREHEAD*

Ok. That hurt.
And behold, there was a test swf that displayed the SCENE of my movieclip. And it was good. *sings* Aaaaaaammmmmeeeeeeeennnnnnn.

I blame it on keystrokes. I never look at the menu options at the top of the Flash IDE. Clearly, up there in clear lettering, under Control, is Test Scene, I didn’t think about it but MovieClips have scenes of their own.

Posted on : May 19, 2006

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Is my blog alive?

This is a test to make sure my blog is still alive after my server switch to dreamhost.

Posted on : May 16, 2006

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Structured blogging and restaurant reviews

I am going to be testing a new category of posts in my blog for resturaunt reviews in Phoenix, AZ. So if you see any test posts with-in the next few days then that’s why.

Posted on : May 3, 2006

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May 1 Reboot

I am a big supporter of the May1Reboot, but unfortunately due to timing, the fact that I only redesigned this site back in January, and because I have been very busy with work and living, I won’t be participating this year. I have felt very good about this version of the site and I think I’ll keep it around for a while but there’s always may1reboot 2007.

Posted on : April 29, 2006

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Joshua Davis quote

As most of my friends know, I’m a fan of Joshua Davis as a designer, leader, and visionary. I am however, more impressed with Joshua as a teacher, and public speaker.

Unfortunately I’ve never had the chance to see Joshua live, or in person, but I have relatively kept up on his preso’s and news. For some reason though, it took me a-while to stumble across this great article concerning a FITC class that Joshua taught.

In the article, Brandon Flowers, gave a quote from Joshua that really hit home:
“the type of work you project, is the type of work you get”.

Posted on : April 26, 2006

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Designspotting

Choose your future. Choose to design.

A little background info: I have always gotten a kick out of the original “Adminspotting” design. It took the greatest line from the film Trainspotting and put it into the realm of our everyday lives. Even as a designer I related to it. But for the past week I’ve been up from 5:00 in the morning till 2:00 in the morning and I’ve been thinking about that adminspotting graphic. So I decided to pull a typical “spoof-of-a-spoof”, an homage to an homage, if you will and create a graphic that I think all designers can relate to. I tried to create this for the 3d peeps, the audiophiles, the concept artists, the print designers, the mograph slingers, the pixel pushers, and last but not least….the web people.

Posted on : March 31, 2006

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Fine Teas and Fine Design

As some of you may know, I’m not a tea afficiando, but I don’t mind a good spot of Earl Gray.
I am, however, very drawn design that uses serif typfaces, family crest/seal type logos, and an attention to detail in the little things that most people will never notice.

Yesterday I was introduced to Harney & Sons fine teas. This tea is top-notch in taste, identity, and design. I can’t believe I didn’t try their teas sooner.

I almost slapped myself for drinking this tea out of a coffee mug. This tea is so crisp, so distinct, that drinking it out of a coffee mug is like driving a sports car and never leaving 1st gear.

It was my mother that introduced me to Earl Gray, and it’s been years since I had a cup of Gray that tasted RIGHT. Harney & Sons gets it. They do it right.

As you can see, the design is details oriented. No expense is spared at branding and packaging. Their identity/mark is vector based and doesn’t have the typical roughness that comes with most crests/seals. They’re choice of color in all of their packaging makes sense and it isn’t the stereotypical adolescent color scheme you see with most teas that are marketed to the individual who only has tea on a rare occasion.

Browsing through their catologue, you really get a sense for their tasting room and their business philosophy. Everything about their marketing says, “When it’s this fine, it can’t be rushed”. I can’t wait to visit their tasting room someday and compliment John, Paul, and Mike personally on their vision, their teas, and their company’s choices in marketing.

Peruse their stock and selection at: Harney.com

Posted on : March 29, 2006

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Magic as a form of presentation training

It sounds very obvious, to practice public speaking and presentation with magic tricks, but recently I have been practicing a trick in front of the mirror and recieved good results.

I have forced myself to look how I do a presentation from an audience’s perspective, and to focus on misdirection, speaking with fluidity, and facial expressions while delivering the magic trick.

You could just practice a presentation in front of a mirror but practicing magic tricks forces you to hone your skills daily and will give you a solid base to build your public speaking off of. I’ve used a mirror before for public speaking, but I often get distracted and begin pacing. Magic forces me to look into a mirror and to focus.

I recently gave a presentation where I started out with alot of UMMMs UHHHHs and EHHHHs. But when I remmembered my magic practice, I delivered the rest of the preso with fluidity and professionalism.

If you need any tricks to learn, try slight of hand, coin, or card magic. You can get a plethora of magic books from almost any library.

Feel free to ask me about magic shops, gimmicks, and even presentation ideas.

Posted on : March 21, 2006

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Quotes from How Magazine article about Play

Article by Megan Lane for How Magazine, December 2000

“To coax clients into a playful mindset, the reception desk is actually a bar. When clients first walk into Play, they’re greeted, seated at the bar and offered a cold drink. Built into the lobby ’s ceiling is an enormous cage filled with hundreds of Four Square balls. ‘As guests come in, we give them a ball,’ explains Geof Hammond…’We ask them to write the word play in their handwriting, and that’s a reflection of our approach to creativity,’ Hammond says. ‘It’s very collaborative. There aren’t any parameters…’”

“But how do suits from cubicle-land react to this unusual space, which includes neon signs posted on giant pillars and umbrellas hung upside down from the ceiling? ‘For some reason, people embrace it,’ Hammond says. And if they don’t , he’ll say, ‘OK. Let’s go outside and play Four Square .’ That’s really what it took to land one client who didn’t quite comprehend the Play concept. ‘We grabbed a piece of sidewalkchalk, took her out into the street and drew a giant Four Square court. We played with her for an hour and answered her questions ,’ Hammond says. “We said, ‘See how we took you completely outside and how it opened your mind to what we’re doing? This is the same approach that we’ll take with your folks who attend the creative session.’ And she immediately got it. Actually, after an hour she got it. It was a hard game .�?

“…when Play staffers moved into their new office space, they naturally wanted to create the Play experience for clients from “tarmac to tarmac .�? Play used a new, plain parking lot as an opportunity for an internal creative session. All 30 employees got together to brainstorm.’ (Courtney) Page rattles off a few of the many ideas that are still under consideration: ‘Are we going to just write ‘Play’ in the parking spaces? Are we going to write a question in the space so visitors have to look at the question and answer it when they come in? Are we going to put up a sign that says, ‘This parking space is reserved for people who ate their peas’ or, ‘This parking space is reserved for people whose favorite color is blue?’ Was each parking space going to be a Four Square court? Were we going to wash everybody ’s windshield while they were inside and put a note on it that says, ‘We just wanted you to have a clearer view to look at more stuff and think about it harder’ ?’ But the group didn’t sit at its desks or on the floor or even in one of their creative spaces to come up with these ideas. ‘We went out there ,’ Page says. ‘We went into our parking lot. We all sat in it. We moved all the cars out of it, then we put all the cars in it. We looked to see if we could park cars in different ways. That’s how we approach each project. Look at everything. Question everything. That’s the way we brainstorm .”

“Play’s creativity goes so deep that it even helps the team deal with the financial realities of running a business. One of Stefanovich’s favorite stories is the time his dog “sent�? a fax to a client with an overdue bill. ‘Her name is Gekko ,’ he says , ‘and when one of our clients was late in paying a bill, we sent them a fax written by Gekko that read, ‘I understand there’s a problem with some receivables at the company, and I’m coming home to an empty dog bowl. I don’t know ifthat has anything to do with the accounts receivable at Play or not, but if it does, I would appreciate any consideration .’’ The payment was 120 days late, but the day after sending the fax, Play received full payment and a dog bone for Gekko . ‘That’s just the way we think,’ Stefanovich says. “Whatever it takes to get the business issue done, we’re going to use creativity at the core to get it accomplished .”

Posted on : February 28, 2006

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A tradition of feelgood

As a kid I had strong attachments to brands that took an emotional route to their tv spots and advertising. This feelgood advertising has seemed to fall out of style as I’ve gotten older. I have longed for the emotion and feeling advertising agencies used to create. I think it’s important to realize that advertising and good marketing can sometimes go beyond the focus of selling a product, and instead sell an idea.

I can vividly remember running into the living-room, Dad already in his recliner, everyone feeling groggy from the wonderful feast my mother had made, and the “Magical World of Disney” would come on. Micheal Eisner would walk on screen and deliver a “fireside-chat” introduction to the movie. His warm demeanor made me look up to him, and during that time it was easy to. This of course faded away when Eisner became focused on quick money and less about maintaining a wonderful brand. I can pinpoint the moment I became aware that magic was fading. It was when I heard that they where coming out with a straight-to-video Alladin 2. Disney also phased out their “Magical World of Disney”, and had started focusing on quantity of dollar bills in their bank account instead of the equity of the brand.

At the end of Superbowls, athletes where asked what they where doing after the Superbowl, Athletes replied “I’m going to Disneyworld!”. This was the height of the Superbowls for me. This brought the family element into the experience, after all…no one goes to Disneyworld alone. This was actually an ad that Disney ran every year and was called “what’s next”. Until recently, I didn’t know that it was actually a “bought” and well placed ad. This year’s Superbowl had a spot by Disney that resparked this tradition. The ad showed athletes practicing the phrase , and dreaming about saying it in front of the cameras. Instantly I was brought back to my childhood.

Another spot that brought my childhood back was the United spot called Dragons. When it comes to classy, United embodies it by using the Rhapsody in Blue theme. The variations on this theme used by the ad where better than I could have hoped for. Gershwin’s theme is nothing short of luxury and bliss. And every time I would see a United plane fly by with those beautiful notes, I dreamed of flying first class aboard one.

Many advertising execs only see the value in measuring the direct response and quantifiable results from feelgood advertising. But sometimes brand equity can’t be directly measured. Sometimes emotion can’t be measured.
However, I stumbled upon some strong scientific facts to show that the Disney ad was strong selling and elicited a dramatic response from the audience. A feelgood response.

I can only hope that someday my children will be able to grow up loving theses brands and will be able to enjoy the feelgood traditions that I had.

Update: Found the Dragon and Disney Ads:

Thanks IFilm

Posted on : February 27, 2006

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A theory on how to lose profits…charge more

The idea of repeat customers seems to be lost in some industries.

Bally fitness requires you to pay extra if you need the benefit of using any of their gym’s besides the “local” gym that you visit most often. I really think that they are missing out on a large demographic of customers that might use their gym if they would embrace the idea of customers who are addicted to feeling healthy. With case studies of “cult” businesses everywhere, I would imagine this would be a no brainer. But instead, Bally wants to charge extra if I visit one of their locations close to my work.

Can you imagine the implications of a bank doing this? A deciding factor in banking is the convenience of branch locations I can visit. How upset would you be if your bank started charging you fees for visiting one of their other branches? The bank I have chosen is a Federal Credit Union but they have locations everywhere…This puts me at ease.

Bally’s current revenue stream is based off the notion of getting customers to pay big fees to get in and then passively pay a large fee each month. I really can’t see the possible benefits of this for the customer. Customers will jump ship and go to another gym as soon as they realize that the benefits are equal or greater to their current experience with Bally. The local YMCA isn’t quite as nice or as close as my local Bally, but the idea to cut Bally off and hang at the Y has crossed my mind.

Working out WHEREVER you are is a good thing. That’s why so many hotels have gyms. They have found the value in using the gym as another piece to leverage more clients into visiting their hotel. These customers are essentially addicted to working out. They are REPEAT customers who would rather visit a hotel with a gym than one without. They probably would also pay the same gym fees YEAR AFTER YEAR.

So here’s the basic idea. People often get excited about working out when they sign up for a gym but lose the urge within a matter of weeks because of the stress of getting-to the gym, and getting into the habit, of going to the gym. Getting people into the habit is the hardest part, but maybe it wouldn’t be if you could get people to go to your gym by being addicted to feeling healthy. But in order to do this you need to give addicts their fix more easily. Open up the system to allow “roaming” workouts. Give me (the average american) instant gratification, and I will buy more, visit more, and tell people more because I will be coming into your gym MORE.

Posted on : February 22, 2006

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Caught Creatures Trailer

Daniel Davis has released his trailer for Caught Creatures, a delicious haiku book.

Awesome little flash trailer. Buy his booK! The trailer is only a teaser to the artistic genius you will find in this book.

View the trailer here

Posted on : February 20, 2006

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Brand New School Quote from How Magazine

From an interview with Brand New School, by Jenny Wohlfarth for How Magazine

“..What if the client didn’t have an easy way out and had to choose between ideas that all move design forward, rather than spinning our wheels creatively just to make something the client is comfortable with? If I’m doing my job right, there should be a piece of crap up there for the client to choose from, and none of the choices have to be watered-down versions of a progressive idea.”

-Jonathan Notaro

Posted on : February 8, 2006

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Notes from Refresh Phoenix meeting

• Daniel Davis has the highest standards of almost any digital illustrator/artist/animator I have ever met
• Some people still don’t “get it” and are working on late-90’s type projects with a late-90’s type mindset and late-90’s methods
• Adrian Sannier is very animated. But more importantly, he has a forward thinking vision. He presented some “case studies” and ideas for innovation in his “industry”. Some of the same ideas can be applied to modern business.
• I am very familiar with, but unfortuanately I have not read Snowcrash. I need to. And Nueromancer.
• Things are lookin up

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Walt Disney Quote

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.�?

- Walt Disney

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Version control

Speaking with a fellow flash developer the other day I asked if his company had any form of version control or backups for their work. The short answer was no.

Developers where asked to keep files on their local boxes. This had caused problems in the past when the designers lost a week’s worth of work when 2 hard-drives failed.

What is version control and why is it important? Why do I use it and is it really that useful for freelance designers or small businesses?

The term Version control is somewhat non-verbose.
(how ironic that the term verbose isn’t verbose)

Imagine this… you are working up until the deadline on a big php application. You work on version 2.0 of the file for about 3 hours, and then you decide to move on to the next part of the problem. You get to about version 5.0 of the file and push it up to the server only to realize that almost everything you did tonight won’t work and you need to go back to version two…but you only have just the one copy of the file…

In steps Version Control. If you where working with version control you would probably be able to “rollback” the changes you made and save the file from it’s 2.0 state. Your life is saved.

This can be applied to graphic artists as well. Various version control systems allow you to save just the updates you have made to graphic (binary) files and not just text files (php, xml, xsl, jsp, asp, txt….).

Most designers and programmers who don’t know any better would typically rather save 5 copies of a file and fill up their hard drives. Doesn’t this begin to take up space?

Avid film editors, can you imagine saving 5 different edits of a movie that are 500 GB each? No. Of course not. That’s what the bin is for. You have a master tape and then various edits that get spliced together from the source footage in the “bin”.

I believe using a systematic approach to file handling and version control. A computer program assists with this tremendously.

Because vast majority of agencies/companies do not listen to the suggestions of their employees it becomes the empoloyee’s responsibility to install a version control system.

Installing a version control system doesn’t neccesarily mean loading a computer program.

In an enviroment where the employee is forced to use clever methods to keep files from being overwritten, the employee can “install” version control into how they work:

• Use layers, layer comps, and history snapshots in photoshop instead of saving copies of the psd file
• Create some form of a development server (often reffered to as a dev server), and save a copy of the file there. This can be a a folder that gets copied automatically by your computer on a nightly basis, a cheap networked computer, or even a sub directory on your web server. Dev servers are great because they allow you to work and test before bad files go live. (Often reffered to as “going to production or pushed to production)
• My friend Aaron Post Suggests a file naming convention that uses _ underscores to denote file directories that are subject to update often. _img, _style, _dev
• If you do need to save multiple copies of a file, use a file naming convention that is strict and is immediatly recognizable. I have used dates behind the file name (cjb_05012006.psd), versions (cjb_08.psd), and even “the unix Z” (zzzzcjb.psd, typically denotes a corrupt file in unix but still very useful). These work fine but it is imperative to remmember that the newest version of the file should ALWAYS be the file with the newest date, version number, or lowest amount of Z’s. If you have a higher version number in your directory than the version you are working on, rename the file, delete it, or put letters behind it (cjb_08a.psd, cjb_08b.psd…b) should be the newest file. Naming conventions aren’t always right but when you implement a rule, good or bad, work becomes easier when sticking to that rule.
• And always follow the mantra: “Save backups, Save often, Save your life.”

So is version control important for freelancers and small businesses?
Yes. Extremely important. Big business can sometimes care less about the cost of 2 weeks. Developers sometimes spend years working on projects only to have it scrapped by the client because it has lost it’s value and the client is interested in other venus. Small business can not afford this cost.

Can you?

Posted on : January 12, 2006

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