Sunday, November 29, 2009
Another New Blog Layout
I'm not the only one that felt the need for a layout change. Check out Stéphanie's Blog "Pencil Addiction".
Friday, November 27, 2009
How Designers Feel...
Making good design is like giving somebody an orgasm: There's a lot of sweat and heavy breathing and sometimes you're totally in the dark. In the end, you just keep fiddling about until you get it rightI got this from a must-own book if you're a designer: 401 Design Meditations. It was way too good for me to not share it with you guys.
---Stefan G. Bucher, 344 Design
New Blog Layout
As you may have noticed, I have again changed my blog layout. If you haven't, I highly recommend you go see an optometrist ASAP.
For a long time I wanted a look that represented what I was about and what I wanted my blog to be. I wanted a clean "design" feel with a "modern grunge" accent and with a much wider real-estate space for both the posts and the right-side column.
I decided to sit down and find a new template or find ways to fully edit the one that was in place. I was lucky enough to find a template that reflected exactly what I had in mind. It's Natural Gloom by Klodian.
There were some tiny bugs with some of the stuff I had implemented in the old layout, but the new look and new features (such as editable top menu) outweighed the little bugs.
For a long time I wanted a look that represented what I was about and what I wanted my blog to be. I wanted a clean "design" feel with a "modern grunge" accent and with a much wider real-estate space for both the posts and the right-side column.
I decided to sit down and find a new template or find ways to fully edit the one that was in place. I was lucky enough to find a template that reflected exactly what I had in mind. It's Natural Gloom by Klodian.
There were some tiny bugs with some of the stuff I had implemented in the old layout, but the new look and new features (such as editable top menu) outweighed the little bugs.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sunday Duck Photos
Today was a beautifully sunny Sunday. Me and Stéphanie went for a ride, but not without me grabbing my camera.
See more on Flickr
See more on Flickr
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Breaking Posts (Jump) in Blogger
Something I've been looking to find out for quite some time, but just didn't have the time to check. I wanted to know if it was possible to break posts in Blogger (Blogspot).
I finally decided to look it up and I found my answer.
I finally decided to look it up and I found my answer.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Where have I been?
A very complicated question since there's not a single answer. A lot of things happened since September that required a lot of attention and time. Time that I couldn't put on blogging, designing, or programming. To be honest, I barely had time to game in the past two month.
First, we finally did the photoshoot for the album material of my dad's youth choir "La voix des jeunes" (The voice of the youth). This meant that a lot of work in the upcoming month or so had to be done to complete the design and post-production of all the graphic-elements of the album.
Sadly, this was compromised by a breakdown on my car. When the "Check Engine" light comes on it means "don't panic, but don't ignore me". But when it flashes, it means "get me to a mechanic right the **** now". This caught me really off guard. I had started saving a bit more money in order to potentially buy a new car, but I really didn't feel ready and I hadn't been shopping dealerships either. What I feared was that the repair was going to cost more than the value of my car, making me lose money regardless of what I chose to do. Fortunately, the repair wasn't that expensive.
Needless to say that this was a major kick behind to get me looking for a new car. The load of information when shopping for a new car is simply staggering. I spent evenings crunching numbers and adjusting my budget. Two exhausting weeks later I made the decision.
You'd think the troubles would be over and I could sit down and dive in the album design. But the Influenza A H1N1 pandemic got to a phase where our priorities for my department at work changed from "full speed" to "are you nuts?". I haven't done so much overtime in years. But it's alright. The only downfall is that I can't work on the album design and I'm really far behind.
I can't say I'm really back on my regular posting schedule. But things are starting to die down.
First, we finally did the photoshoot for the album material of my dad's youth choir "La voix des jeunes" (The voice of the youth). This meant that a lot of work in the upcoming month or so had to be done to complete the design and post-production of all the graphic-elements of the album.
Sadly, this was compromised by a breakdown on my car. When the "Check Engine" light comes on it means "don't panic, but don't ignore me". But when it flashes, it means "get me to a mechanic right the **** now". This caught me really off guard. I had started saving a bit more money in order to potentially buy a new car, but I really didn't feel ready and I hadn't been shopping dealerships either. What I feared was that the repair was going to cost more than the value of my car, making me lose money regardless of what I chose to do. Fortunately, the repair wasn't that expensive.
Needless to say that this was a major kick behind to get me looking for a new car. The load of information when shopping for a new car is simply staggering. I spent evenings crunching numbers and adjusting my budget. Two exhausting weeks later I made the decision.
You'd think the troubles would be over and I could sit down and dive in the album design. But the Influenza A H1N1 pandemic got to a phase where our priorities for my department at work changed from "full speed" to "are you nuts?". I haven't done so much overtime in years. But it's alright. The only downfall is that I can't work on the album design and I'm really far behind.
I can't say I'm really back on my regular posting schedule. But things are starting to die down.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The War in your TV
There's a war waging right under your noes... if your noes is in front of the TV right now. The cable and satellite providers are attacking the networks (ironically the networks they are providing) using pseudo-consumers in their ads about a, wrongfully used term, "TV Tax". On the other you have the big networks trying to defend themselves begging the fact that local TV matters.
This war is really disgusting because both sides are manipulating information for their own benefits/agenda. One side is a humiliating plea to save local TV and the other is a badly executed fake Vox-Pop formula with incredibly bad actors and a "host" so full of himself that you just want to punch in the face until he deflates (this statement is meant in a figurative style, not a threat).
How did we get to here? Where one corporate group doesn't want to have their consumers to pay (although they already are paying extra for local TV since last Spring with most providers) and on the other you have the networks that wants to survivability of local television.
This war is really disgusting because both sides are manipulating information for their own benefits/agenda. One side is a humiliating plea to save local TV and the other is a badly executed fake Vox-Pop formula with incredibly bad actors and a "host" so full of himself that you just want to punch in the face until he deflates (this statement is meant in a figurative style, not a threat).
How did we get to here? Where one corporate group doesn't want to have their consumers to pay (although they already are paying extra for local TV since last Spring with most providers) and on the other you have the networks that wants to survivability of local television.