relative velocity

Live, from New York..

2005-05-25T17:04:00.000-04:00

Finally, my friend Ryan graduated from school. Seven years and he's now got his Bachelors in Engineering. Major congratulations to him as he starts the next stage of his life. (it's grad school, not real life yet. muwahahha)

Let me tell you being back in New York was just so exciting! I had the best time. I swear I knew it was off to a good start when the car trip up to new york itself was a positive thing. I had a rental that had a CD player in it. You have any idea how long it's been since I have heard music? OYE! So I stopped off in Cleveland, got me a CD that I liked, and listened to it the WHOLE way up. :) When I got there, well it was late. I was tired, but man I was happy. :) The weekend itself was a blast and a half! They had a party for all of the graduating seniors, a limo bus, and several bars to hit! We had fun. Most of us were drunk, of course, but heck we had fun! Then there was shopping (isn't there always when you're in New York?) and then the Lilac festival. It was just very calming and relaxing to be back. I liked it a lot. The weekend went by TOO darn fast.

Ahh but alas, that monday morning came and bam. back at work I was. :sighs: It's time kiddies to get the resume back out again and to get myself a new job. the one that I have now.. ehh. not so much. More on the whole work thing soon.

Don't force it. Get a hammer.

2005-05-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

Today's post is a tribute to some of the all time greatest bumperstickers. Lately road rage has continued to rise as more and more of America's great highways and byways give way to the fact that some idiot didn't think we'd live this long, and now they need repaired. Columbus of all places has become the orange barrel capital of the world if you ask me. To keep us calm while we're driving, and to salute the creative thinkers that thought some of these up, I'm including some of these bumper stickers that I have seen and looked up online. Guarenteed to make you smile.. a little bit. check it out. And then leave your favorite one.

"We are NOT all united, some of ya all are sittin down!" • "I feel like I'm diagnally parked in a parallel universe" • "Honk if you love peace and quiet" • "A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." • "very funny Scotty, now beam down my clothes" • The Gene pool could use a little chlorine. • I brake for no apparent reason • "If you can read this, thank your teacher. If you can read the whole thing, you're too damn close" • "Few women admit their age. Few men act it." • I have not lost my mind! It's backed up on disk somewhere..."

And there you have it. so what's YOUR favorite?

holy shittake mushrooms

2005-05-12T11:01:00.000-04:00

Okay people. Adobe does it again. Photoshop CS2 is out and.... my work place gots a copy! ::does happy dance:: Okay okay, I am calmed down now. hmm. I think my first project will be to see what's new in this stuff and then of course post some online examples so you can see just why I would go a bit.. crazy.. over this software. :)

They say they took the best and made it better. hmm. We'll see. Stay tuned for the "review".

back

2005-05-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Well thank you Lord! I am much much better than I was! Praise be to medicines with alcohol in them! At least for a little while, and not a long while, they knocked me out. I for one was thankful since I had a fever from Thursday afternoon to Saturday evening. Way to feel like crap. Like twice baked over and left out in the sun crap. Not the good crap. I think we've clarified that.

Breathing once again, I have rediscovered the joy that is the allergy meds. They are nice except for one thing, they make you tired. I didn't HAVE a problem being tired, I was plenty tired to begin with! (see job, see job make kyle tired. See kyle fall asleep.) So here I am with no caffinee to keep me up and waitin for lunch to come around so I can go out and GET the caffinee.

Nothing is really going on with me except for the overtiredness. is there a thing such as sleeping too much? hmm. I'd like to explore that one for a bit. I'm just gonna rest my eyes... yeah. That's it, rest my eyes... and ponder.. on this.. deep... thought...

2005-05-05T12:35:00.000-04:00

Okay. my turn to feel like crap. :( the weather is sucking; I now have a fever, my ears hurt, glands swollen, I'm spacing out aaaannnd.. I am at work. Maybe I should just DESIGN something sick huh?

best resolution

2005-05-03T09:44:00.000-04:00

Today's discussion isn't about DPI, nor is it even about the best fit for lines per inch. It's about accentuating the positive in your life. It's about being able to see the best in you, and others around you. Too often, the negative is what drives us, what influences us and keeps us going. You can't even turn on the evening news and see one single decent shred of positivity. How, in a world like that, are you suppose to keep your head held high?

For me, the spiral downward began about five years ago. In a rather devastating turn of events, I lost my mother to breast cancer. I was in New York at the time working on my design degree while everyone else was at home taking care of things. It was nearing the end of my senior year with one month to go until graduation. I had no idea how badly it had progressed until I was called back home. By then, there was nothing left to do but just let go.

That was when it hit me. It was time to change. Time to become very serious about what I was doing and where I was going. In the process of becoming serious however, it felt like I had lost my 'edge'. Like I had the part of me that was brave and daring enough to try different and new things, taken out and put to pasture. It seemingly happened almost overnight. Returning to school weeks later, I just threw myself into the work. Then again, I had to. The work was mounted awfully high. It was a test. A test to see if I could do it, and get it done on time without losing creativity anywhere along the way. It was a long, long four weeks. However, I managed to make it. Things got done, no creativity was lost. A lot of sleep was tho.

So what does this have to do with anything? Everything. Since then, I've been all about the work. Moving ahead from project to project, somewhere along the way I simply forgot to have fun. You know, that silly word where you actually go out and DO something that isn't sleep or work related. It's been so long, that I have forgotten what it was even like to ENJOY the mall. (well then again, there's no one to shop with... yet) Remember when we were young and would just run wild outside until the sun went down? (or until your mom called you in for dinner) Those were the days when we used our imagination to keep us occupied. No television shows. No video games. Simple imagination. We need to get that back. So with this post, this is my first resolution: to achieve balance. Work and play. Because living your life should mean exactly that, living it. Not just slaving away to make ends meet. So the next time you're feeling down, the next time you are feeling overworked, read this again and hopefully be inspired to go out and PLAY!

got Tiger?

2005-04-29T11:37:00.000-04:00

Today's the day that Mac debuts it's new operating system, Tiger. While most of us are still swimming in the awe that is OS X, it appears that "innovation never sleeps", but it may steal. One of the things in Tiger that's new is the onset of dashboard. That is, if you've had konfabulator, on your desktop, then you've already seen dashboard. It's the same thing essentially, however you can't leave dashboard RUNNING in the background like you can konfabulator. If you have never heard of either one of these, basically its little widgets that help you to do little tasks that you may or may not like. Eveyrthing from "you've got new mail" notices to "traffic camera images" are in Konfabulator. As for new widgets for Dashboard, at press time I have no idea where those are going to come from, if at all. Slated to be released tonight at 6:00pm, I am sure that it'll be a media circus just like when os X first came out. Long lines all the way around the store, patient consumers waiting to get their hands on what promises to make the best, better.

In other news, Adobe is "partnering" with Macromedia. ::cough:: take over ::cough:: What this means is that well, I really AM going to become the adobe poster child now that all my flagship programs will be under one banner. What the heck are they going to do to my dreamweaver MX! Oye or even what will they do to flash. I am sincerely hoping that they don't try to merge these products with already existing Adobe stuff and force the rest of us to migrate to it. THAT would be a shame.

I've been talking with a new friend of mine a lot lately! Unfortunately he's been under the weather a lot. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. No one likes to be sick, not even me! Get better soon Chris.

I also am crossing my fingers and toes for my very good friend Shannon! She's has tremendous amounts of interviews for positions and is due any day now to hear back from some of them! I know how it is to job hunt, and how frustrating it is when you are looking for one! (heck, did I stop looking for one?) Best of luck to you, and keep thinking "Florida!"

hmm, you think I should design stuff today? oh? Yes you say? Okay. Okay.

2005-04-28T09:14:00.000-04:00

Today is going to be a strange day. When I woke up, it was like coming out of a dream. I could still remember the sights and sounds (yes! There was sound!) of the dream. It was one of those filmed in "super reality vision", and geez don't you just hate those? It feels like you're awake when you're actually asleep, and when you finally DO wake up.. sheesh you're tired! So I woke up tired. That's what sets this day in motion.

As I am on my way into the office, I remember today is the next to last day for our in house Photographer. She's takin off for parts unknown in Arizona! She's taking a big risk with the whole thing. No new job, just some friends to stay with while she searches for one. Sounds a lot like a new lease on life. No more Ohio Winters at least for her! And while I am happy for her, the rest of us are realizing that we're going to need a photographer even if administration doesn't want to admit it yet. Gonna be hard to replace someone with her talent. Heck, gonna be a bit of a challenge to design without being able to set up photos!

Of course as I am thinking about all of this in the car on the way into work.. I realize that I forgot my freakin wallet. ::sighs:: I swear. How did I manage to forget my wallet? So now at lunch time I need to run my body all the way back home, pick up the wallet, and pick up something for lunch on the way BACK IN to work. Mother freakin foulin fooin, freakin! hmm. Let's get to designing shall we?

2005-04-27T12:15:00.000-04:00

wavelength
Finally, after years of waiting I am going to the HOW Design conference in Chicago! If you haven't guessed by now, I'm a graphic designer who works for some graphic people who have some sorta idea of what design is. (sometimes I wonder.) I am all excited about being able to attend finally because it's the designers dream to be among other designers talking about.. work. :) Things they hate. Things they love. How we find the energy to keep going without smacking the living crap out of that one single client who thinks that "bright neon pink" is the new "red". Of course the simple things like getting the hotel, the airline tickets, and finding time to shop are going to take some doing. Why do I say that?

Well, simple reasons. I'm not only a designer. I'm a deaf designer. (anyone who asks me to help them edit their soundtrack, I'll be a REAL big help..) Traveling to design conferences is suppose to be fun, but in the past it's been nothing but a nightmare. Normally, I would pack along my alarm clock that vibrates.. (yes it vibrates without the added 25 cents) but airlines broke my last one and that's not an easy item to replace! So I've been asking the hotels to do what they are suppose to do; provide a TTY (a phone thingie), provide an alarm clock that vibrates (yeah like sound is gonna work here?) and something for the door, preferrably a doorbell light. Let me tell ya, if you knock on my door, you're just gonna get pissed off when no one answers. :) We'll see what happens with the hotel. It is downtown Chicago. They HAVE to have had deaf people stay there before! (wouldn't they?)

So I'm jazzed. Having just come off of a huge whoppin design project for a client where we just redesigned their entire identity.. (it's still in progress, they have to decide what design theme they like so I can't say much yet) I am feeling more like a designer instead of the guy that "makes things pretty." Speaking of making things pretty.. Check out Communication Arts latest article called "the Blog that ate the Internet", you can even snag yourself some pretty snazzy blog layouts! Heck. I chose this template. Whatcha think?