Artboredom

Last Call!

2008-03-02T18:30:08Z

Officially I'm closing up shop here on Movable Type and this version of my portfolio. I'm working hard on getting things up and running on my new site that's powered by the tasty Wordpress app and until then, I'm putting no further effort into this site.

When I get a chance I post things to my Tumblr account, but even now that's a stretch. Just want to get the new site live.

I know you all can't wait.

Learning to Tumblr.

2008-02-06T04:07:54Z

As if I didn't have enough things to do and not enough time to do any of them, I decided it would be a good idea to try out Tumblr. Tumblr is a publishing platform for tumblelogs. Tumblelogs are usually a conglomeration of everything that normally doesn't make it into a normal blog. When I'm writing for my regular blog I tend to overthink everything feeling the need to make things perfect. That also goes for the subject matter. If it doesn't feel important to post about then it never sees the light of day. That's where Tumblr comes in. If I see something that I want to write about, perhaps something that doesn't have any categorization whatsoever, then it has a home in a tumblelog.

I'm not sure where all this desire to share has come from. I'm an only child and I don't like sharing anything. I guess we all have our reasons. Now start reading my Tumblr!

Why is it so hard to decide on a site design?

2008-02-04T03:29:00Z

Actually, let me reword that. Why is it so hard to decide on your own site design? When I think about the amount of work that went into the last one, and the inevitability of another arduous code tasking for the new one I shudder.

I know I should keep it fresher than I have been regardless of all my additions and updates. I see some designers out there that can't go half a year with out having some kind of overhaul. I spend nearly all my free time on the computer, and there's no way that I'd have time for that.

But here I am, contemplating what I want my CMS to do, and why. More importantly-how it will look. Still pretty sure that I'm going to use Wordpress for this one. I've been taking another look at Joomla, but I still like the WP community better.

Even if I knew what I was going to use for my back end, I still don't know how I want my front end to look like. Things that I liked not more than a couple of months ago aren't tasting the same as before and I'm stumped. I'm guessing this is just a little design slump, but I'd better figure this out sooner than later!

What I did for my winter break

2008-01-30T19:50:18Z

Just so you know, I've been posting on another site that's just for cool people. You can't see it because you're just not cool. This site is for people that suck. Since I can't keep posting regularly to save my life; I suck too. That's why we're here.

Obviously I've been busy. I branched out and grabbed some logo work in addition to my coding. It was an eye opener to say the least. It also was the highest level of work I ever produced. Unfortunately since the project isn't finished, I can't talk much more about it.

Onto things I can talk about but you don't want to hear, I've been busy trying things out on the app front as well.

A big one that stands out for me is Curio. It's a combination of several different programs, but for those of us that really enjoyed OneNote from the Office Suite it's the closest thing I've found for OSX. I abhor nearly the entire suite except for that little gem of a digital notebook. I can put down my thoughts like I would in a sketchbook, brainstorm, and take notes during client meetings. It even has a decent mind-mapping element that does the trick when needed. The only thing that it's truly lacking is security. I'd really like to have the ability to lock down a certain page like you could in OneNote. Perhaps that's in the future.

Another icon in my dock is the sexy leaf of Coda from Panic.
I've completely made the switch from Dreamweaver and it's been relatively easy. I'll admit there are a few things that I enjoy form DW that I'm missing in Coda; mainly the ability to save and upload the page file I'm presently working on (Cmd+Shift+U I think), but that's just a small thing in comparison. I have to admit that some impetus to make the transition was that I wanted to code with the cool kids. Too many people whose work I respected were hooked on it and I figured there has to be something deeper. The biggest thing for me has been the sites page. Double click on the screenshot and all the pages you were previously working on are loaded, and your FTP hierarchy is instantly set up. That's so genius that I can forgive having to click on the little arrow next to the file to upload it.

I don't however utilize the CSS editor in Coda. I'm working with CSSEdit and loving it. Moving things around on the page has never been easier since giving this app a try. I'm still hand-coding, but it's MUCH easier to debug and correct things as you go. The biggest help is actually seeing the site change in real-time as you alter the code. The X-Ray tool allows you to focus on specific areas pointing you its corresponding CSS rule. For me it's simply guiding you to where you want to go faster than scrolling through several hundred+ lines of code.

Bookmark synchronization between Safari and Firefox with Bookit

2007-11-24T02:56:14Z

Although the process of migrating my design workflow from XP to OS X has been an relatively easy one, there have been some issues that have arisen. Like most designers (especially web) I have a massive tome of bookmarks. And as a web designer who works on both Mac and Windows systems I need to have my bookmarks regularized between them. I don't want to have to create separate accounts either; I want the same pages marked in the same hierarchy as they are on all machines. Not too much to ask is it?

For a long time now I've been using Foxmarks for Firefox on the PC. It backs up all my saved pages and sites to a server that can be recalled by any of my other machines running the Firefox plug-in. When I create a bookmark in one, it syncs with the server which in turn syncs with my main machine at home.

Now on the Mac side, .Mac takes care of my bookmarks between machines as well as creating a backup so I'm not left aimless on a fateful rainy day. Obviously I can utilize Foxmarks to make the leap from the blue-screened world of Windows to my MBP and iMac. But how, besides an unsyncable import from FF, do I get Safari on the same page?

My search led me to a small software developer named Everyday Software and an app called Bookit. While I still have to have some manual contact to get things started between Firefox and Safari, the idea is that the bookmarks will be exactly the same no matter what machine or what browser I'm looking at. It doesn't sync the Safari on my PC, that's not a huge deal at the moment. The app works as expected so there isn't much need for verbosity describing the truly dazzling process of synchronization. They did a great job so give 'em some money!

As corny as it sounds, I can't describe the feeling of having redundant access to all my stored sites on all my machines.

Yes it even syncs my iPhone (via .Mac) as well. Delicious indulgence!

What kind of life do I lead when the introduction of Gmail IMAP leaves me feeling alienated and jubilant in the same week?

2007-11-01T14:37:05Z

Rich. As in rich emails synchronized over all my devices and warez. After nearly a week of excruciating waiting and wondering Google has knighted my Gmail inbox with the power of IMAP. That in turn set me on my holy quest to discover the secrets of my Media Temple mail account. They too know the art of the temple; fashioning my POP into the all seeing, all knowing IMAP. I now have my .Mac, Gmail, and Media Temple accounts all synced between my iMac and iPhone.

I wonder if my old Hotmail account that I haven't checked in a year is still active?

I start every design with the express intent of implementing Comic Sans.

2007-10-30T05:40:31Z

Most designers shudder at the thought of Comic Sans, but yet it still shows its face everyday. Just for fun, yet probably not as I'm looking for a job, I'm going to use it for my portfolio site. Maybe a little Courier as well...

What do you get when you cross an iPhone, Twitter, and a mobile blog post? You get a stupid idea with a worse execution.

2007-10-22T23:32:14Z

Who says i can't make the title my post? I like the concept of using Twitter as a micro-blog so why not take it over the top by doing the same on my own blog within the title? It may seem ridiculous but that's my middle name!

This is a test. This is a test of the emergency blogcast system. This is only a test.

2007-10-21T20:26:49Z

Lots of freelance work. Interviews. Regular job. No time for you!

As with most designers trying to make it in the industry I've got my hands in everything but finishing none of it.

My life is in Beta...

Broken Windows (crash art)

2007-09-18T16:21:57Z

Behold the intrinsic beauty of Windows. If you've ever moved windows around while a program was dying in background you've seen this effect. I've played around with this before but I never took a screenshot of it before. I didn't spend any time on the movements, I shot the first two that I produced. Yes, that is an OSX skin covering the garish visual disaster of XP.

Enjoy.

I HAS INTERNETS!

2007-09-16T04:59:44Z

Nothing more pathetically impotent than a web designer without internet access.

The Verizon dudes have left and I have wonderful FiOS installed in the new Artboredom offices. Yes it is fast. Yes, it is REAL fast! My initial broadband measurements haven't hit 30 mbps, but it has reached a blazing 27+! The fastest that I ever recored with Comcast was 1.7. I never hit the 5 mbps I was paying for, so I'm not paying for it.

As it stands now, I'm using their behemoth sized router as a pass though to my gleaming white cube otherwise known as the Airport Extreme. Eventually when I have both time, and some more money, I am going to set up the mother of all network attached storage. But I have to reformat several of my drives to do this, and I don't feel like doing that just yet. Mmmmmm...NAS!

Not to fall by the wayside, but I also have the tasty FiOS TV service as well. I have to say, it makes my 10 year old Trinitron look mighty good! Fiber optics are good. Fox Soccer Channel is good. Turning on the TV and seeing AC Milan vs. Sienna is good! We got the DVR for the office lounge, so there will be many recordings of American television. Very nice!

Technorati Tags: FiOS, Verizon, internets

Office Moves.

2007-09-09T05:22:15Z

The official Artboredom offices are in the process of moving to a shiny new 2 bedroom apartment. We're packing up the Apple IIe super computers and refiling the floppies of my design softwarez I had strewn about. Do you know anything about floppy disks? Well floppy disks are pretty expensive...

I'm not a fan of the moving upheaval at all. But I am going to enjoy not having my desk in the freaking living room like it's been in the last 2 one bedroom apartments we've been squeezing ourselves into. I'll even have an office the new place. Of course it will double as everything else we can think of but there won't be desk in the living room.

We're giving up on the sham that is Comcast cable during the move as well. It's not that Comcast was bad, it's just that they weren't that good. I don't think I ever saw the upper end of their claimed download speeds. I'm not sure what it was i was paying for, but it frequently ran at DSL speeds. I was paying more than that though. We are instead going to give Verizon FiOS a shot as our building was one of the early adopters in the area. We're going for the 30 MB down; why not go big? We're adding the TV package as well with their DVR, which is a nice addition to the deprecated '98 Trinitron setup that I'm rocking. Maybe I'll have to drop the TV down the stairs during the move...

So I'm obviously going to share with you the wonderfully mundane details of my experiences with my new broadband connection. You don't have a choice.

ABD ADD.

2007-08-21T23:47:52Z

I'm currently starting my last class with the Art Institute Online and the warm, fuzzy realization that I may actually gain some of my spare time back is creeping in. Ironic that I still want to spend that same spare time attached to the computer. Here are a few of the things keeping me glued:

Artboredom Webodega.
Web bodega (third on the list, fourth occasionally). I started making t-shirt designs back in the early 90's and now I want to sell them. As much as I want to code the backend, I think that ZenCart is getting the nod for the brute work. I'm also working on how they're going to get screened as I have no room to do this myself. I've looked into web based solutions that aren't CafePress, but none have truly stood out. Anyone have ideas on this?

When I'm procrastinating on my school work I'm usually on Illustrator hammering out some shirt designs en masse. I'm pretty excited about the bulk of the work I've been doing, but they all need some refining. I also want to do posters and stickers, but I think that those might have to stay on the backburner for the time being.

Playing with web apps.
When you're pressed for time you always seem to find something that looks cool to play with, but you know that you'll never get your work done. I've been looking at a ton of apps to add to the site but haven't had the time to check them out.

Simple Pie is one that I think I'll give a try. It's a simple RSS parser similar to Magpiebut from what I've seen and read it looks like it has more features. I need to have my blog feed update itself on its own. I'm tired of updating the links myself. I'm sure I'll find some other sweet uses as I really get into it.

I've been experimenting with the JavaScript framework mootools lately. I've tried in on a few pages that I haven't released to the public as of yet, but it looks pretty tasty so far. Their demo and help pages are very well done making it easy to get familiar with everything. This is one of those add-ons that can get out of hand quickly, so I have to use them sparingly. But there's interactivity on the screen and it doesn't involve Flash; how perfect is that?

For anyone that hasn't seen them, in addition to mootools you could check out: script.aculo.us, which is based off the Prototype framework, the Dojo toolkit, and moo.fx which is an effects library for both the mootools and Prototype frameworks. I know there's more, but that was getting ridiculous.

Technorati Tags: JavaScript frameworks, script.aculo.us, mootools, dojo, prototype, moo.fx, web applications

Coda from Panic

2007-08-02T05:06:35Z

I'm a sucker for trying new things when it comes to nearly anything that deals with computers. I'd go so far as to say that it's sometimes to my detriment. On a much less substantial level, I find my decisions swayed sometimes by something as simple as "cool factor." While that's usually not the greatest reason, it does open me up to a much broader technological horizon.

Other than the short time that I started hand-coding on Notepad I've been coding on Dreamweaver. I don't touch the WYSIWYG part of the program as well as a host of other features the Adobe program offers. My workflow has become streamlined while using DW so I've hesitate using anything else. That all changed when I got a used iMac G5 this year.

What the Mac community isn't lacking is cool factor. There's always an app or site that does similar things offered for Windows, but with that distinct Mac twist. Coda from Panic is one such application. Coda is essentially a "text editor + transmit + css editor + terminal + books + more!" Nearly anyone that's designing and developing on a Mac has been freaking out about this app. I had heard about Transmit long ago, but there was one thing that I didn't understand about web work on a Mac: why were a bulk of the programs all separate elements? Aside from Dreamweaver and some other forgettable programs, the good ones were all separates. While I see the benefit of separates in buying component speakers it eluded me why it existed in Mac web development.

With the release of Coda that's all changed. You have the ability to do all the tasks mentioned above in one app that has that Mac twist. In addition it simply looks sweet; that never hurts. I'm going to give this a trial run here for a little while and see how it turns out. I'll keep you updated to things I see that are stupendous and things that aren't.

Technorati Tags: Coda, Panic, text editor, css editor, Mac, Dreamweaver

I like my Buzz.

2007-06-27T23:24:37Z

Rabid romantic diatribe.

I'm going to declare that I was a coffee lover way before I ever knew what a Starbucks was. I have fond memories of 45 minute drives just to sip coffee lounging homeily* on what obviously was someone's discarded (w/ good reason) sofa or easy chair, gazing at art worse than the peeling paint on the walls they were covering. My friends and I reveled in the neo-bohemian aspect of it all; scribbling in worn, black sketchbooks the words and images of a new beat generation.

Flash forward to today, where the "Big Green" is more ubiquitous than McDonald's swallowing up all of the dark, original shops whose decor wasn't decided in a boardroom. Like all of us that enjoy real coffee that isn't push-button spewed into unclean espresso pitchers topped off w/ re-burned frothless milk, we're ecstatic when we find solo shops that truly get it.

Diatribe over.

My wife found the reason for this post a while back, telling me that I had to check it out. I'm glad I have. While I still love the charm of sitting in someone else's old furniture, it's nice to actually get some customer service, rather than the tattooed, "hip"-shirted indifference that you typically get (one con of cool coffee shops). Now don't get me wrong, you have to remember that I was a Fine Art Degree having coffee pouring, barista extraordinaire myself once. I just want your decision to look at me through your thick, black-rimmed glasses not to be because I have the latest Sub-Pop or Polyvinyl t-shirt, but because you might just care. (btw- I just got a Mates of State tee; I'm IN!!!)

Buzz coffee is just outside of the heart of Alexandria, VA or at least it feels like it. They're part of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group (pardon the atrocious website) and are right across the street from an affiliate, Rustico.

You are going to talk about coffee, right?

They serve the Illy brand for all espresso and coffee drinks. Illy may seem like a strange choice for a shop like this, but it makes sense. The Italian brand produces impeccable quality beans assuring that every shot or cup will taste as you want and expect it. This and the fact that the coffee shares the stage w/ some of the most decadent desserts you've ever seen; beyond most chocolatiers and bakeries. I'm a huge fan of their "Buzz Bombe" (semi-sweet chocolate & peanut butter mousse coated in a rich chocolate glaze!) They've even added dessert friendly wines, beers, and martinis to their ever increasing menu.

My wife and I stopped by a few days ago around 8:00 PM, and while they had customers, the vibe was very chill and unpretentious. We were able to relax and enjoy injecting some sugar powered calories into our bloodstream. I had my usual doppio macchiato, and as usual it was made to perfection. If you ever want to test a shop's expertise, ask for that drink. You'll be amazed at the variations you'll get; some good, most are awful.

Anyway, enough of my love fest. You can see I like their design aesthetic as well; these pictures are from their card and menu/flyer. It's been very well done w/ the menu providing a little tongue-in-cheek humor as well.

*homeily (adv.)- in a manner or behavior that befits your own home.
Yes, I made up a word.

Technorati Tags: coffee, design, buzz coffee shop