Peeking
I’m here. Just very busy juggling various projects. Be back soon.
Silvertone 2015
This set was given to me by a friend and business partner as a Christmas gift somewhere around 1997. The Sears company produced this set in the 50′s (this fellow dates it at 1956) but it still has a lot of characteristics left over from the late 40′s-brown bakelite case, inventive use of the material for the grille (and use of grille cloth), and retro script on the dial. It shares several design elements from older sets—for example, the GE radio I have, but with more class. Mechanically, there’s nothing wrong with it; it has great sound and pulls in distant stations easily. There’s also a helpful metal badge on the back with a unique serial ID; the original owner would call Sears, give them this number, and they would be able to run down parts and service for that specific model. It’s not a radio that would have stopped me in my tracks, but as I’ve owned it, I’ve grown to appreciate its lines and condition, and I’m happy to have it in my collection.
Still On PDX Time.
Jen and I are groggily sipping (nay, gulping) coffee this morning and attempting to wake up. Last night’s curtain call came at 4AM, after a long day of edits and new page layout for her and pre-production Photoshop work for me. She’s been pulling these hours for two weeks now—we were talking via iChat at midnight PST last week while I was in Oregon—but this is the final stretch. The client is still trying to stuff new pages, pictures, and random changes into the mixture this morning, but she has slammed the door on their little fingers (the deadline is Friday) and we are in cleanup mode from here on out.
At one point last night, she asked me if all this was worth it, and I had to remind myself that we aren’t working for someone else on a salary, we get to work together (shockingly well yesterday, I might add), and we get to make the decisions as to how far we’ll go for our clients (which is usually pretty far).
Yeah, 4AM sucks, but the commute is pretty sweet.
RE: LOST.
Tonight’s guest: Everybody’s favorite character and evil-voice actor Clancy Brown!
A quote from the IMDB: “All the movies where I play nice guys don’t seem to do very well.”
Preview Vs. Acrobat
Preview Vs. Acrobat
Worth its weight in gold. I hate the fact that Acrobat Reader takes 15 minutes to start up and another 15 to shut itself down, after it’s gummed up my system looking for web updates.
Home Again.
I landed in BWI at 6:10 this morning after taking a red-eye from PDX, with a whirlwind layover in Vegas. (Note: the Vegas airport blows. It seems the only thing they are interested in doing is putting as many slot machines in between you and your connecting flight as they can. Good times.) After Jen picked me up from the airport, we returned home and crashed for two hours of restless half-sleep before getting the day started. The front half of the lawn is now mowed—just in time for a meeting with one of our larger clients—but the back half is two weeks overdue. I’m sorting through a pile of cords, peripherals, papers, mail, and the remains at the bottom of my carry-ons trying to jump-start my brain, but it’s pretty slow going. I’m going to need massive quantities of coffee and red wine to self-medicate my sleep cycle back to Eastern Standard Time.
MacBook Review.
MacBook Review.
This looks like a VERY nice update to the iBook line, something I could easily purchase to replace my 2005 iBook (1920 x 1200 external monitors with true spanning is enough to sell me. The Core Duo processors are a nice bonus.) I’ll have to see how I like a 13-inch display running 1280×800 though.
The Dot And The Line.
The Dot And The Line.
Norton Juster changed my life with The Phantom Tollbooth. This is a cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones, based on another Juster book. I’m buying the entire Juster catalog for my kids. (via)
Have Gun, Will Travel.
I’ve been out here in Oregon for the past week doing some contract work with some old friends from the dot-com days. Right now I’m sitting on a couch relaxing after a day’s ride from Brookings to Portland (the work was in Brookings, my plane is in Portland) through the redwoods in California, up the coastline on I-5 and into the city. Oregon is a pretty beautiful, interesting place. I feel at home in a state which features an espresso stand every quarter-mile, and where free wi-fi is offered at state parks and rest areas. Now, the whole state isn’t like that—you can’t get wi-fi in the mountains, but you can always get espresso. Seriously, I’ve seen more coffee joints than liquor stores, and the only thing that outnumbers both is adult novelty stores, which seem to be everywhere. And the coffee isn’t watered-down bullshit, either; the McDonald’s in Brookings sells better coffee than I’ve had in most Maryland Starbucks.
People here are friendly and welcoming; we had two people stop their cars and let us cross a busy street in downtown Portland, something I’ve not experienced since being in Maine ten years ago. Everybody waves as they drive past, something that must be difficult to do while speeding down the highway (no lie.) However, these people all apparently pack serious heat. Oregonians take possession of firearms seriously, like owning shoes—concealed-carry is not against the law, it’s expected.
Classic cars are abundant, to the point where a native Easterner like me weeps when I see a mid-50′s sedan in near-perfect condition, or a Scout with brushguards, mudders, and a winch pass by on the highway. And they’re sold for pennies out here—T-bucket roadsters in the low teens, or early 60′s coupes for two or three thousand (with a fresh motor).
We set up shop in a house about a half-mile from the edge of the water, opened up a card table, and got to work. The job itself is great—it’s an application for mobile phones that could really take off with a large demographic—and it felt good to brainstorm out some ideas and develop some creative solutions with two people who are much, much smarter than me. And every day, weather permitting, our host C. would take us to a different beach to walk off some of the stiffness brought on by five hours of straight typing, which allowed for some great photography. The southern Oregon coastline is just incredible—miles of rocky surf, completely different from the Jersey shore I grew up on.
We also took some time to travel out of Brookings, into the mountains, and up a one-lane fire road to a remote firing range, where C. and J. broke out thir rifles and we commenced to exercising our second-amendment rights, in fine fashion:
J’s Mini-14 is a compact, solid rifle with a utilitarian feel and a comfortable weight. We single-loaded and shot with iron sights, because the clip didn’t make the trip and the scope mount was being uncooperative. I did some pretty successful plinking at the 50-yard targets (the close ones in the shot above) and some woefully inaccurate shooting beyond that. C’s AR-10 is a specialty target rifle, and he has a huge scope mounted and dialled in for very accurate fire. The rifle is a lot heavier and offers more kick (being a larger shell), and I did some frighteningly good shooting at 75 yards (the medium-range targets above) before we packed it in. I’ve forgotten how satisfying it is to do some simple target shooting with a rifle, and I may look into a lightweight, dependable target rifle like John’s in the near future.
We drove back into Portland this afternoon (Sunday) and J. took me to look at Powell’s Books, a bibliophile’s candy store unique to the Northwest. We hit the technical bookstore first, where I quickly dropped $25 on two used books that normally would have cost $70, and then to the “big” store, where my mouth fell open as we toured the multiple floors of books. My pusher J. convinced me to buy another book before we left, and then we headed off for some dinner.
Oregon Coastline
Down the street from the house I’m working out of, there’s a short path down to the beach. We took a walk after a day’s work and explored the coastline, and I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures. Follow the Flickr link to see some other shots.
Twin Peaks.
I believe that’s Mt. St. Helens smoldering there in the foreground, and (possibly) Mt. Ranier in the background, framed by the wing of my 737. It’s 4:33 local time, (7:33 EST) and I’ve been up for 17 hours, with a five hour drive down the coast ahead. More to come…
Christmas Tree Policy.
Did you know that Delta airlines will let you bring a christmas tree on board as baggage? Also, check out their antler policy ($100 extra, unfortunately.) Who knew?
Alpha-Bits.
The U entry on the Alphabet Project is live this afternoon, and there are a few minor changes to the presentation. I’m moving further into the caricature end of things, and so what I posted shows the original pencil sketch and the final artwork that resulted. I also added a pencil sketch for Tarantino from last week.
This one didn’t happen as easily as the last few have. I would up cutting it three times—the scale on the first version was too large, and the second suffered from uneven linework. This version is closer to what I have in my head, but isn’t one of the top five. Now, I face the difficult task of finding a subject for V. Any suggestions?
Confused.
I don’t know which is worse—the fact that after Spetember 11, our government has been reviewing our phone call histories, the fact that the three big telco vendors sold our records to the government (no big surprise there), or the fact that half the country doesn’t seem to give a shit. One of the key reasons I’m socially Democratic is because I am a firm believer in my civil liberties (those I still have left, that is.)
It’s not so much that the government is looking at who is calling who (when one caller is in a foreign country, from what they claim). It’s that this administration does everything under the nebulous veil of “National Security”, without consulting my representatives in Congress, something that is, um, AGAINST THE LAW. Or, at least, that’s what Mr Fahey taught me in public high school seventeen years ago.
Jobim & Sinatra
Jobim & Sinatra
Awesome. Dig how Sinatra does the introduction, lights a cigarette, and KEEPS SINGING. They don’t make singers, or guitarists, like this anymore. Beautiful stuff. (YouTube link)
Learn To Write.
Learn To Write.
Message to designers: writing well will improve your design. Right on. (via)
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