I’m tempted to buy this tee-shirt. It’s mainly true, but not as true as it should be sometimes. Of course I would say that, I work in design (well, technically). In fact, I could very well be lying. Design is certainly lying if it claims that it’s not using overusing common typefaces with solid block backgrounds as an easy way to create a strong visual identity. I’m looking at you, Vodafone and Channel 4 OD!
First things first, I think Apple make some great stuff. Work recently put a 24″ iMac on my desk and it’s great to work with. Sure it’s not exactly crash-proof (although this is more Adobe’s fault) and the keyboard is awful, but the Apple/OS X experience is pretty good, especially with that lovely vibrant screen. I was recently in the market for a new laptop and was going to buy a 13″ Macbook. In the end a friend of mine stepped in and let me have his old 13″ Sony Vaio for much less, so I bought that instead. I think maybe in his wisdom he was trying to save me.
This trailer for an upcoming film about Mac users called ‘Macheads‘ is terrifying. I’m a pretty huge geek who uses a range of Windows, Linux and OS X machines, but the thought of getting quite as attached to a computer as any of these people makes me glad that I only use a Mac during office hours. As someone with a keen interest in design, I can sympathize a little with someone who collects old Macintosh boxes, but lines like “I have never knowing slept with a windows user” are just disturbing.
At least in the old days (before the iMac) all the hardcore Mac users had beards so were recognizable. Now they have started shaving. God help us all. I still want to see the film though.
See the trailer in question here (found via Gizmodo)
It’s been low-blog count limbo round here for a while. I’ve been over-rung with websites to maul at work so I’ve been somewhat terrified to even look at a TinyMCE text entry box. What else have I done? Well, I’ve been all the way to Westminster in London Village to try and help raise some more funds for soon to be internet-sensation Catch21 Productions. Well, we hope. We’re certainly going to try. I reckon we could do some pretty exciting stuff with it anyway. More on that, hopefully much more, later in the year.
I’ve also been to a wedding, a stag do, paintballing (ouch), go-karting (crunch) and to see some downright awesome bands like 65daysofstatic (for the 4th time!) and A Silver Mt. Zion (for the second time, but this time wasn’t half as good - slackers). I went to watch ‘28 Weeks Later‘ which was disappointing, but not surprisingly so. I just loved the prequel far too much and naturally the usual disappointment in a sequel followed. I also watched the start of Big Brother UK Series 384, but I’m too ashamed to talk about that…
BBQ this weekend down ’sarf. Maybe next week I’ll reveal some shiny new website designs I’ve been working on. Oh larks oh lawdy! Hurrah!
A colleague pretty much ordered me to install the new(-ish) Firefox plug-in Firebug onto my machine at work. Now it’s on my machine at home. Why? Because it makes my job at least twice as easy as it was before. I won’t bore you with details; I’ll just say that even alongside other helpful tools such as the Web Developer plug-in, it’s super-handy if you’re building pages, regardless of whether you’re an amateur, a pro, or someone who fools himself into thinking he’s both. The drill is basically as follows: Hit F12. Press ‘Inspect’. Hover over any element on your page and click on it to see what css values that element is using (or not using). You can even change values ‘on the fly’ and the page will update in front of your very eyes (locally at least). It’s the perfect bug-fixing tool.
I’m now going to go do a little bit of fixing elsewhere. Previously, I wouldn’t have been arsed to bother with it had Firebug not made re-understanding previously forgotten old tag soup so easy.
Get Firebug here. If not for me, then for your own sanity!
Well, it’s finally happened. I’ve got a job. No… more than that, I’ve got a job I actually want. I’ll be working for a small Sheffield company called Rocket Science. They make websites and I’ll now be responsible for helping them do this. What seems exciting about them is that they have the similar passion about creating the sort of standards-compliant, accessible sites that I do (please don’t go and attempt to validate my page now and see it failing, that’ll be terribly embarrassing). Of course, this all means that I have to once more relocate myself to the other side of the Pennines, back in Yorkshire. Last time I did this I ended up in Hull, but Sheffield isn’t quite that far. I’ve been to Sheffield a number of times (the best visit was when I saw Belle & Sebastian supported by an as yet unknown Franz Ferdinand) and it seems to be a pretty decent city. Still, I admit to being a bit intimidated by it all. I’ve moved away from home before, sure. But that was university! Everyone’s in the same boat there and lets face it, for many it is a 3 year drinking binge (myself included? maybe not). This is different. I’m trying to find a house/flat share and this is pretty hard work. I visited on Wednesday and saw a few places (one of which was worse than the worse house I saw whilst a student in Hull) and I’m visiting tomorrow to check some more possibilities out, one of which is temporary. Fingers crossed ‘eh? I want a place sorted soon, because I’d like to get working and make myself part of the company, I don’t like the situation I’m in now; seemingly strung between two towns and without very much to do.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll be busy but not too busy to let you know how I’m getting on. Wish me luck!
I like Banksy. Okay, sometimes it feels like everything he does is “a pathetic cry for help” but it’s a consistently funny pathetic cry for help. His latest stunt? Replacing copies of Paris Hilton’s new album with a doctored copy. 500 copies apparently, spread across the UK. The changes are a little less than subtle but he’s left the original barcode on so they can still be purchased. The music has been replaced by a basic beat and some choice Paris Hilton ‘catchphrases’. The cd cover and inlay are all doctored and include Paris with a dogs head and some choice wording, my favourites being “Every CD you buy puts me even further out of your league” (qft!) and “Why am I famous? What have I done? What am I for?” Poor Paris. She is taking rather a bit of flak recently. I wonder why that is? Jealousy over her fortune? Her well-photoshopped good looks? Musically I’ve heard worse pop-music but maybe she just personifies all that people hate about the current state of celebrity? Hey, I guess this means Jennifer Lopez can continue unchecked now then.
Picture shown is not the Banksy job, I should warn you that his is a little NSFW. More details in the Indie and thanks to Flickr user Sharl for this wonderful set where you can see Banksy’s alterations in the flesh (as it were).
Here lies the only excuse for animated .gifs. I don’t believe I said that. But really, I added this Australian fellas livejournal to my bookmarks a while ago. He creates these cute, yet strangely disturbing animated gifs in a very ‘Metal Slug‘ style. If you appreciate the pixel-art, ultra-violence in miniature thing as I do you’re going to love this. Usually we just get to see his short gif animations, but he’s done a 5-minute long video starring his creations. Watch as our the two heroes take on hoards of mutant schoolgirls, slugs, aliens and the almighty pirate baby with a combination of weapons including baseball bats, angry dogs and Walter Sobchak (You are entering a world of pain…). Don’t ask. Seriously. Just watch.
The lack of posts recently is due to these pesky exams I’ve got at the moment. I had one yesterday and it went well, although I could just be lying to myself (as I’m known to do from time to time). Still, when they’re done I’ll have the great pleasure of finding a job and we all know how much fun that can be.
I didn’t know that Drew from the frequently chortle-tastic Toothpaste For Dinner and Natalie Dee were married. There’s an internet-pseudo-celebrity factlet for you. Well now we all know because they’ve done a website together and it’s called Married To The Sea. I’m not entirely sure quite why I find it funny, but it certainly has its moments. I’d be interested to know where they get the original pictures from. But lets face it, these guys were never about artistic prowess, they were all about getting down with the clown. Enjoy or, y’know… don’t. > Visit Married To The Sea
Shockwave flash. So frequently overused in my opinion. But when it’s used properly, gawd can it be good! tokyoplastic is best known for its drummers but they’ve recently done another brilliant animation; The Little Fella. The whole site is an awesome orgy of sound and visuals and its eastern edge is simultaneously freaky and cute. It is one site that demands some time to be spent checking it out. In fact, I demand you take some time to check it out!
“Move this ship out of the asteroid field”
This is just damn cool. This couple are putting on a show, well… a ‘visual experience‘ and this is the promo vid for it. They took thousands of photographs (over 9,000) of this Che/Stormtrooper sticker and put ‘em together to make the video. Now for a scratch version of ‘The Imperial March’ over the top and it’s brilliant. I’d check out the show but LA is a little out of my way. *sigh* Guess I’ll just have to keep reading Wooster Collective to get a feeling of the whole street art scene.
