Wow! This page is pretty clunky looking. Although I think there was briefly a version before this which didn’t use frames, this is the initial version of my pages. I like the puke-inducing pastel colors (seriously). I still enjoy the raw, whos gives a crap about usabilty feel of this version, and the oversized, safe-for-toddlers navigation. Otherwise..eccchh!
One of the first things I did when I bought by new computer was update my personal site. I was and am still pleased with this result. It was my first serious use of style sheets, and for awhile had some cool animated buttons at the top. The animations were kind of flaky so I got rid of them early on. I liked the organization and relatively clean text layout.
The big problem with this version was that it rendered rather poorly in Netscape 4 despite the fact that it used a different style sheet for Netscape. A problem I still deal with in the current site, but to a far lesser degree (Please leave Netscape 4 to die, it is a really terrible browser…6 looks promising though). It was also way too table heavy for my more simplified HTML structured tastes, making it tedious to update and change.
This version is many ways a slickened up version of v1.0. It uses much of the same color palette, but uses frames in a much more… er… elegant way. Say what you will, I think frames are a great idea and wish they wouldn’t get phased out like it looks like they will be. Anyhow, this site was typical of its time in that it was loaded with plug-in requiring sound effects, bloated rollovers, and lots of tables. Although, I was rather pleased with the liquid design that would fill the browser no matter how wide you stretched it.
A little something gets lost in the translation when our friends across the Pacific try to write in English.
Here is a little sampling of the exotic flavor and grammar of the orient. This is the actual packaging from a Taiwanese brand of snack crackers.
Well, I just finished watching the first debate of the 2000 election. Here is a doodle I made of Al Gore during the broadcast. All the pundits talk about how great a debater Al is, but I just can’t get past his overplayed emotions and his I’m-talking-to-a-6-year-old delivery. Hey, and has anybody seen his eyebrows!?! My ol’ uncle Mervis P. Napkin once told me, “Never trust a man who ain’t got no eyebrows… they gets all that sweat in their eyes and that ain’t right.” There’s definitely something above his eyes, a weird lump of skin or something. Perhaps some silly putty clumps?
They do a lot of Democrat/Al Gore design pieces in the design studio where I work. They make a point out of covering up or cropping his wispy bald spot in the photos they use. I wish they would just airbrush in some Dekaukus/apeman eyebrows. It just ain’t right. Or as Mr. Gore like to say in his best, condescending tone, “That would be unconscionable, and that means… BAAADD!!
Here are some pictures of my workspace from about 2000-2007, which was just a corner in my apartment. I work primarily as a woodcut printmaker. Of all the printmaking processes, woodcuts (relief prints in wood) are perhaps the least toxic. This means I can get away with doing my work in the confined space of an apartment. The process also requires very little in terms of equipment. A knife, wood, paper, an ink roller and ink are the only supplies one needs.
This is about the extent of my studio space. Because I can’t get too sloppy, I don’t really have a place to print my blocks, I usually move to my kitchen for that. What’s missing from this view is the TV and Stereo which are usually on while I work.
Despite the photographic chairoscuro of this scan, desk is usally very well lit. Like many woodcutters/engravers, I have have a whole bunch of tools for cutting, yet, I seem to revert to the same couple of tools (seen on the lower middle) all the time.
Here is my current series of woodcuts in progress. The two on the bottom which are completely black are the ones that I have already printed.
These days Nova’s drawing and painting supplies have taken over my space. You can see a hint of the print I am currently working on (when I have the time and energy to do art).
I’ve added some more art to my gallery under illustrations. These are a series of digital paintings I created for a self-promotional presentation for Ajenda Interactive Media. Here are some shortcuts to each of the images: Start, Approach, Profile, Strength, Experience and Next Steps.
Pictured to the right is the spectacular meal that I ate the other day. When I took the picture, I was going to have something hilarious to say about how different it looked from the image on the box. But, now that I look at it, it really isn’t that far off.
As quickie lunches go, it wasn’t all that bad. I found it a rather enjoyable forty seconds of eating. Now I know this will send the tongues of my foodie friends into a death spin (with their organic-fair-trade-free-range tomatoes, decimal place free menus and their fancy square plates), but when considering Italian food, I think the difference in quality between a five star dinner and a can of Chef Boyardee isn’t all that huge. You can take that as either a slap in the face of Italian cooking or praise for the awesomeness of all things Italiano. I’ll go with the latter.
I’m pretty sure I am only only person who has subscribed to my RSS feed, but, in any event, there’s trouble brewing with the feed. I want to reorganize the home page a little and that means I need to change the RSS script at Feed43. The problem is that I lost my password when I moved to the new computer and they don’t have a password recovery service. SO, if you are a subscriber and don’t hear from me for a while, please check this page occasionally to see if I have updated my RSS service.
I’ve kicked up the geekery a few notches this week by building a desktop computer from parts rather than by ordering from Dell or Compaq. It has gone rather smoothly considering all the articles I read on the Internet that warned of of the potential headaches that accompany such an endeavor.
As you can see from the photo, the new rig (that’s what us über nerds call our computers these days) uses a Rosewill Conquerer case with a fancy transparent side panel and moody blue interior lights. I bought the case and all the parts from Newegg.com for around $750. No sales tax and about $18 to ship it. I felt even better about the price when I was perusing the Apple Store down on Michigan avenue this afternoon and saw comparable systems going to two or three times that price (and that price doesn’t include the heart break one feels when they realize you can’t really run Team Fortress 2 very well on a Mac).
Anyhow here the complete stats in case you are interested:
The only thing missing is a decent audio card. The on-board sound of the motherboard can’t really handle ASIO and live music recording very well. My old Audigy 2 ZS can handle it, but the pins don’t match the connector ont case’s from audio ports.
