July 26, 2002

windshield, 7.26

Starting tonight, Jen and I are on a long-needed vacation up to my folks' house, so I probably won't be posting here too much in the next week. But I will come back with a ton of pictures, a relaxed demeanor, a killer tan, and hopefully some more freelance work. Stay tuned.

It's pretty wet out there today, but it's supposed to get up into the 90's next week. I worked out all the kinks (hopefully) in my irrigation system in the backyard, so during our vacation the plants will be watered.

Song of the day: Mongrel, DJ Shadow.

Speaking of, I will offer an opinion on the 'Bonus Track' offered with the CD I wrote about yesterday: Big deal. I used my Windows machine, and went through all manner of steps just to bring up a Windows Media Player to play a streamed remix of 'Giving up the Ghost'. So every time I might want to hear this 'Bonus Track', i have to insert the disc, jump through the hoops (enter my personal information) and then I have to use WMP to hear the song. WMP sucks. And from a marketing perspective, it seems pretty worthless to not advertise the 'Bonus Track', as well as make the customer go through all the hoops to hear the song, just so they can collect info on my marketing demographic.

I found this link via kottke.org today: True Porn Clerk Stories. apparently it's had some exposure on NPR lately as well. | link

July 25, 2002

I went to the CompUSA nearby my office yesterday to find a PCMCIA adapter for my camera's flashmedia, and while I was there, I played with the new iMac and iPod up close. I was very impressed with the engineering on both products- wow. I love the size, shape, feel, and interface of the iPod. I would love to buy one of these if I could hook it into my home stereo system and get high-quality sound from it. I do like the fact that it now can hold contacts and calendar information; I would actually have a reason to sell the Palm and buy an appliance that handled more than one task. eBay has a bunch of new Palm IIIxe's for $75 or so. Unfortunately, the cheapest iPod is $299, and it's only 5 GB.

Midnight in a Perfect World Department:
I found a link off kottke.org about Gracenote, better known as CDDB, the helpful folks that provide the track information when you pop your new CD in the drive. I poked around, and found this link to the DJ Shadow bonus content. Pleasantly surprised, I popped the disc in my player on the PowerBook and hit the site. I was greeted by this message.

I know this is not Shadow's fault for setting it up like this, but shit, man, is it too hard to take the extra half-hour to add the code in to make this stupid site compatible with Macs as well? Thanks a lot, guys. I would take a wild stab here and say that there's a good chance a large percentage of his fans use a Mac as their primary machine, and that Macs were used to produce the album.

It seems that it is impossible to find the frickin' batteries for my cellphone anywhere besides the AT+T store. I'd like to be able to walk in somewhere and buy them, instead of paying for the shipping as well, but it's looking more and more like I have to bite the bullet. | link

July 24, 2002

sushi tonight!

July 23, 2002

I got the pictures back from the Scout guy, and they are not as good as I had hoped. There is some bubbling and rust over the passenger rear fender; the tailcap on that side is bashed pretty good, and there are dents over other parts of the body. I have some thinking to do about it this next week, while I'm off.

I also have a few ideas for an illustrated story that I want to attempt to begin; I've been waiting for a simple way to get some reference material, and now that I have a digital camera I want to start exploring the visual style.

More thoughts on the Bank Of America online billpay system:

1. Setting up recurring payments is a three, possibly four-step process; first, entering the payee information, then entering the payment information, and finally entering the recurring payment information. There is an entry page, a confirmation page, and a review page. This could be shortened into two steps and handled in fewer screens—the importance of warning screens are not to be taken lightly, but there's room for simplifying here.
2. The review screens are split apart into several different ares. This makes sense on one hand, but not having all the information in one area, preferably in a calendar format, is confusing and possibly misleading.
3. I would also like to see the payment information come with a 'hold' button, so that when people like me, with an intermmittent paycheck, have cash flow issues, we can hold a payment up to avoid overdraft fees.

—link

July 22, 2002 - Monday

My Dad is in surgery today for his prostate. Hopefully it will go smoothly and quickly, and he will fly through it with no problems. Good luck Dad. I love you.

Jen and I had a good weekend planting and working. We found a pair of boxwoods, a butterfly plant and bought a bunch of dirt at Lowe's, and planted it all, as well as repotting the crepe myrtles. Unfortunately I think we're going to lose one of them—it fell over on its side and cooked for a while before I got home and righted it, so all the leaves are shriveled and unhappy.

Through my buddy Tim, I found this site, which has a really interesting primer on relational databases.

Update: Dad is out of surgery, doing well. | link

July 18, 2002

My alma mater, while being one of the top-rated Visual Communications schools in the country, suffers from having one of the worst college websites ever. They had built a cutting edge site in 1998 and did nothing to it but tack on extra sections and pages, none of which look alike. Right now the alumni pages are down and I can't look at the drawing schedule.

Another late half paycheck. This is so damned annoying...

10:05 PM On the way home tonight, with two large crepe myrtles stuffed into the back of the Scout, I crawled down I-83 waiting for a blinding summer thunderstorm to slacken off. She was running smoothly, NPR was murmuring about the Enron scandal, just barely audible above the engine rumble and slick sweeesh of wet car tires on pavement. I merged south into clearer lanes and at the bottom of the hill I noticed a red truck off in the distance with a distinctly old profile. I sped up just a bit, and his slow pace made the distance narrow quickly. His truck was another International, a mid-60's pickup, with the name 'ESTHER' written in broad brushstrokes on the left of the stamped metal tailgate. I pulled up behind him, craned my neck over the swirling branches clogging up my rearview, and pulled out to the middle lane. ESTHER motored along in the slow lane, carrying a big canoe on work racks. I pulled up alongside and waved to the guy driving, a heavily tattooed man who waved back to me, smiling. We drove like that for a little bit, and I overtook him doing 50, grinning widely. He got off somewhere between the two ends, and I was sad not to be able to talk with him about ESTHER. I've seen her around town over the years, usually when I'm driving the other vehicle, and I haven't seen the driver.

It's rare, and sometimes it doesn't happen for a long time, but when I get an occurrence like that happening, it makes me feel better about a lot of things, and like I belong to a secret community. Sometimes that's all I need to feel better about life.

Unfortunately, my digital camera was under the seat, so I couldn't get a picture of ESTHER. Maybe next time.... | link

July 17, 2002

Here's a selection of sites from my Favorites list over the past year, now that I'm cleaning up the computer following completion of the game: Urban Archaeology.

Interesting subject, horrible execution: Ghost Towns. Somebody, anybody, please tell the good people of the world that dropping white text on a textured, picture background is about the most illegible design choice possible. I can't even select the text to read the knockout—it's a block of white. Forgotten Stations is a site which does it right: easy, intuitive organization, a ton of links, clean grammar, and intense documentation. Another good urban archaeology site, while not being a great example of design, is Forgotten NY, which is broken down into convenient sections. The wealth of this site is the sheer number of links; the site itself breaks the rule of having blocks of text over dark photos. I am a fan of painted outdoor advertising signs, and the section here is fantastic. Friends of the High Line is a site dedicated to the preservation of the old West Side elevated rail in NYC; it's beautiful, contains an extensive gallery, and works very well as an informational site. Dinercity is an documentary site about classic aluminum diners; unfortunately it overlooks the one closest to my folks' house in Auburn, NY. (pictures coming soon.) Roadside America has a day's worth of reading about all manner of American oddities, including the ubiquitous Muffler Men.

Here's a new set of sketches from last night's studio. It was a good night, but by 9:30 I was losing focus, so I packed up early. sketch one | sketch two | link

July 16, 2002

The Internet is boring today.

What I learned in Art College, Revisited or I Still Don't Like Patchouli:

1. The Greatful Dead didn't inspire me to make great works of art when I was in school. Box of Rain may be pretty, but I always hated sloppy jam bands.
2. Turpentine still makes me queasy.
3. If I can't resolve a short-pose drawing in 15 minutes, it probably isn't happening.
4. A number-two pencil is my friend.
5. I love to draw, but I suck at painting.

Somebody sent one of those totally annoying email viruses to my Verizon address. Apologies to any of my friends who may have gotten it from me. | link

July 15, 2002

Ellicott City, Monday July 15

Katie made a good point tonight when I ran into her at the grocery store: I didn't have a good way to get people to the pictures other than the links buried in the text, so I added a list of links to the sidebar. Thanks Katie! (duh, bill)

This morning on the way back from the Saturn dealership, I happened to pass through Ellicott City and a Model T club meet. For a wonderful summer morning, I was easily able to imagine the main street in 1925, bustling with commerce and people.

I spent some time looking at the BMW Films site last week, and explored it further today. Following the lead of some of the clues in the additional movies, I found a website where they had left clues to set up a covert meeting for people to pick up a package, most likely of BMW materials or some other promotional gift, tying in with the 'secret agent' feel of the series. What a fantastic use of the Internet as a marketing tool. I wonder if the series did anything for them in sales, because they sold me on a variety of different aspects of the BMW line. If I had the discretionary income to afford an entry-level BMW sedan, I would surely buy one. And from a marketing standpoint, this is a company that gets it.

Jen and I went to a great party on Saturday a t Tim and Sue's place, got to see the spread and meet the dog, and spent Sunday looking at antiques. A very relaxed weekend. Jen found a teapot in my mother's pattern that I'm going to buy her for her birthday; hopefully it will look good with the rest of her collection. It was also really cool to be able to take pictures of the items to cross-check with my Mom.

Unfortunately I missed Bill the Scout Guy when he was in the field this weekend; he called at some time on Sunday when I couldn't hear the phone. Darnit. | link

July 12, 2002

I had the first drawing class of the summer last night, and it felt really good. I walked with a bunch of good stuff for having taken almost a years' sabbatical from drawing. sketch one | sketch two | sketch three | link

July 11, 2002

It is a balmy and comfortable 70 degrees outside today; I drove the Scout in to work even though I barely have enough gas in her to get home. This cash flow problem at work is getting ridiculous, but the weather sure is nice.

Interesting article on the discovery of John F. Kennedy's PT-109. NPR did a really great job on this. As a kid, I was a military history buff (still am) and this story captivated me. Robert Ballard has what could be the world's best job; he gets to go find sunken ships all over the world, do research on them, meet the veterans, and write books about the experience.

On a related topic, there is a consortium based in Seattle who have just completed building a brand-new ME-262 from plans drawn up from an existing original. The thought that one of these planes could be flying again—even if it's a copy—is amazing. I'm still waiting for the Collings Foundation to fly the Dragon and His Tail near Baltimore so I can see it up close.

OK, duh. Did they really think that we would be stupid enough to just ignore the history there? And everyone is amazed to find that consumer confidence is taking a beating? Wake up, guys.

11:55 PM: Paul Newman is on Letterman. He is something like 80 years old now, and I swear to god he looks not a day over 55. And he moves like he's a mischevious 50. He either has the genetic makeup of the Greek gods, or the best plastic surgeon money can buy. | link

July 10, 2002

Some thoughts on Bank of America's billpay system:

• The list of cooperating companies is long and impressive. I was able to set up all my phone utilities last night in a matter of minutes.
• The signup process is easy and painless; it appears they have done some good thinking as far as finding out when the lead time is for payment of bills and made sure each partner specified this.
• One suggestion would be to have some kind of scheduling calendar set up, where visually-oriented people like me could see when the bills were due in a calendar table and step back a few days to schedule payment. Providing my paychecks arrive on time (a difficult proposition these days) I would like to schedule blocks of payments on one or two days a month after the deposit of funds in my account.
• Another suggestion is for BoA to have some kind of flag as a failsafe to send an email to you if your scheduled pay date arrives and there are insufficient funds to cover your payables; a trigger to advise you of deposits in your account, and a 'successful' message to advise you of your payments being made on time.

I know, it's a lot to ask of a web app, but I see good things begun here and I'd like to see them get even better, so that the site becomes more of a smart appliance and less of a tool. | link

July 9, 2002

The game is done.

This is a real nice set of fonts by Susan Kare, the original designer of icons for the Macintosh. At some point, I will have to pick some of these up.

I set up online bill paying via Bank of America today; we're going to see if I can pay a few of my non-essential bills (mostly phone and utility bills) with it for a month or two, and then if that is smooth I'll switch the mortgage and insurance bills over as well. It's good to see they finally made the service free (since May 1); seems to me they will save even more money in transaction costs if they make it free.

Jen called me today to giggle at the new Cidera site; somebody over there got hired on to make some kind of a Frankenstein monster out of the original 2000 design, some of the 1999 graphics I developed, and some of the old advertising materials. Wow. | link

July 8, 2002

Catonsville, Thursday July 4

Well, the weekend was a good and productive one. The Fourth was kind of blown by the work situation, but we made the most of the rest of the weekend and had a good time. There are updates on the planters- lots of good news and good luck there, and there is joy in Mudville. Jen and I happened on a massive sale of dirt at Home Depot (and those of you who garden know how frickin' expensive dirt is) where they had pallet loads selling for $10. Pallets covered with bags of dirt. So we bought about 800 lbs. of dirt and hauled it home. Finished are the two square planters and the front circle planter; long with the dirt I bought about $80 worth of pretty flowers and herbs and we put them all in on Sunday, through clouds of yellow smoke from the Canadian forest fires.

I also got online with T. Rowe Price and finally updated my account information, and I think that next week I'm going to do some careful looking and divest some of the meager amound I have left in some of the funds. I've taken a real beating but I think I can make some of it back, or at least spread the blow out somewhat. | link

July 3, 2002

We may be here at work tomorrow for the 4th, depending on how much we get done on the game today. Jen and I have destroyed our 4th plans because of this, and we are both unhappy about it.

At some point in the next month or so, when I get a few back due paychecks (hopefully), I'm going to buy a good-sized IDE hard drive for this Powerbook and set up a dual boot install of OSX. Jaguar, the new update, is apparently a month ahead of schedule, and Apple is submitting OSX to the government for security clearance. There are native versions of Dreamweaver MX and Photoshop 7 now available, and when money frees up somewhat, I'm going to make the jump. I've actually wanted to for some time now, but when the project is finished I should have some time to really devote to it. (now I also have to figure out what to do with the 7100 in the basement running MKLinux...) I'm hoping that Scout will be able to handle the new graphics rendering engine shipping with Jaguar, or I may be once again behind the curve...

I have to check and see if there are OSX drivers for the digital camera, the Palm, and the USB hard drive, or I'm going to spend a lot of time switching back and forth. | link

July 2, 2002

I'm downloading a free trial version of Adobe Golive this morning; can somebody tell me why the Windows version is 100MB and the Mac version is 161? (update: they are providing installs for both OS9 and OSX.) I also found a really amazing spam tracking diagram on this site.

My good friends Jason and Shelly were laid off from their jobs yesterday. As well as being some of the best people I know, they are both some of the most talented and loyal employees as well—and happen to be husband and wife. In a display of the worst kind of knee-jerk shortsightedness, their management laid them both off directly after Shelly gave her two weeks' notice.

In a rare shining moment today, I've taken the front end of this game and redesigned the selection screens to all follow some kind of process. Where before the screens jumbled buttons, checkboxes, language, sizing and pictures from screen to screen, the new front end has a unified size, language, layout and order.

I got an email from a nice man who told me he lives on Bill Dugan Drive in Etters, PA. I checked the map and it's not too far away from Harrisburg off I-81, so I think the next time i head north to the folks' I'm going to detour and find the town to take a picture. | link

July 1, 2002

Canton, Sunday June 30

I found a few interesting articles on web usability through Boxes and Arrows today; this is an interesting take on user expectations, done in 2000 (so it's out of date for 2002) but still interesting.

Dad's surgery is scheduled for the 22nd; I'm planning on heading up there for an extended visit the weekend afterwards to be by the family. I also made plans with my Scout guy to take some pics with a disposable camera when he's out there, and he actually offered to call me from the field where it sits so that he can describe its condition to me. I just have to get him the cameras now. What a nice guy. | link

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