Wall
Of
Scribbles

Come on, it’s only been one… two… three.. fou–well damn. I am lazy.

February 15, 2010

You know, every time I have one of these impromptu hiatuses – hiatusi? hiatusae? – I always try and recall just what caused me to stop posting. It’s not like I was posting every other day and got burnt out, no no, I was posting once a week. But of course the cycle dies off and you end up with what, a five month break in posts?

That’s not kosher.

The irony is that if I had just managed to keep up with my weekly posting, I would probably have a more complete list of things that I have actually done. It’s a self-defeating cycle of suck, and I seem to really enjoy the ride. Never mind that I ride it in a busted up canoe, or that the ride takes me through a course that would make most white-water rafting professionals crap themselves just a little. I do it for the thrill.

Alright that may have sounded a tad insane, but I was on a roll and went with it.

So as stated it’s been a good 5 months since my last post, and I’ve got no good explanation for the break in content. I did just get back into school and I did start applying myself more for freelance stuff, but that’s hardly an excuse. Regardless, I’m back on the horse for now, and I’m feeling if not inspired, than at least motivated. To kick things off, I’ll give a quick rundown of everything that’s been going on with me recently.

I swear I’m not that self-involved. No, really I’m not. I am not a self-centered arrogant prat! Good god, you kiss your mother with that mouth? That’s sick man. Sick.

8 Things I’ve learned from going back to school

December 18, 2008

So a while back I mentioned going back to school. In fact, I even recall writing a collection of articles all about the subject. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in my twitter (or at the very least, bitched about it). Well unlike the real world, College gives you large, void-filled breaks between semesters. This allows people like me ample time to run out of excuses for things we should have either done, or been doing during the academic time frame.

In my case this revolves around:

• My portfolio
• Posts with real content
• Reading books
• Spending time with Theresa while she is down from that god-forsaken place North Bay.
• Aimlessly trying to catch up on my games

Now since only a couple of those are actually proactive (I’ll leave you to decide which) I have to pick and choose what and when I do these things. What is the result? Well to give you a glimpse, it’s almost 2 AM as of the start of this post. This is after I applied to many, many bursaries through my school. Who knew that working two jobs wouldn’t be enough to actually stay out of debt? Guess I’ll have to get some more!

My financial woes are not what I plan to talk about today though. I plan to talk about what I can take away from my first semester.

Okay, technically this would be my seventh semester if you are counting the six from the last time I was in school. That is also part of this so read on!

Blog Action Day: Poverty in Canada

October 15, 2008

As a bit of a change of pace, I’m going to talk about Poverty. I’ve joined with many, many other online writers today to join in and participate in talking about this years subject (Poverty, in case you forgot).

I thought at first about writing about Poverty all over the world. Then I thought about writing about Poverty in your own country. That’s when I realized I could talk about my own country, because damn it, I live here and this shit’s important. This is probably one of the issues closest to my heart on this planet and I’ll be damned to give up an opportunity to help.

I got into school for graphic design.

July 28, 2008

That’s right, I’m school-bound once again. Two more years of weird sleep schedules, assignments, cliques, teachers, and too many people walking around in pajama-bottoms.

Joking aside, I’ve decided to go back to school for Graphic Design. Over the past two plus years, I’ve felt that though I’m reasonably good at programming, it’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve had a good run at my current place of employment, but I feel that it’s just not the direction I want to go in the long-run. You see, as I worked along side everyone I constantly felt myself obsessing over certain points; namely UI design, usability, and common sense in design.

Designapalooza – Part Seven

June 5, 2008

This is the seventh and final part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Though this is the last article of this particular series, trust me when I say there will still be many more.

My First Project: A Reflection

May 8, 2008

So I’m nearing the end of my first major project. Well alright I’ve had many projects in my life, but this was my first professional project. I was … many things in my project: Lead Developer, Lead Architect, Psudo-Business Analyst, Negotiator, Trainer, Mediator, Whip-cracker. The list goes on.

As the project is finally winding down, I feel it prudent that I write down some of the nuggets of information that I have gleaned from the experience.

Follow along and learn with me as I half-rant life tips.

Inconsistency Melts Brains

March 6, 2008

Everyone’s done it. We get lazy, we’re pressed for time, or we otherwise don’t care enough to standardize our stuff. I can note this most prevalently in code, but it easily extends into design and every day life.

I cannot claim to be innocent of this crime, nor would I. It takes effort, experience, and an iron will not to cut corners in everything you do.

How far I’ve come

February 7, 2008

I was once a student in college. During one of my summers I had a summer placement where I was put in charge with creating an entire CMS-based website for a certain not-for-profit company. To that note, there was not CMS, so I was expected to create that too. This company had many facets, most of which had their own way of doing things. I had four months to do this, and I was on my own. Did I mention that it also had to have a total multi-tiered user-management system thrown into it as well? Like I said, I was supposed to create a CMS-powered website.

Suffice it to say, things didn’t go well.

Coffee Shop Relaxation Technique

January 21, 2008

I had an amazing 20 minutes of utter relaxation at work the other day. I didn’t even realize it until it was nearly over, but I think I’ve solved the equation. As it turns out, I think I finally understand why coffee shops are so damned relaxing.

Designapalooza – Part Six

January 16, 2008

This is the sixth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

More learning

This is a continuation from the fifth portion, because had i combined them the article would never be read through fully. They’re long people, I can’t help that. Well yes I can, but I refuse to censor myself. Here I will continue to explain to the best of my ability questions that I had asked way back in the first part of this series. Let’s continue.

Designapalooza – Part Five

December 19, 2007

This is the fifth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Don’t Freak out.

Now for the section that makes or breaks a would-be designer. Realizing that you know nothing about design. Everyone hits this when they start, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Have you ever shown someone some of your work and when asked why you did what you did, you responded with something like “because it looks cool”? Believe it or not, this is not a valid explanation for artwork. Well okay, sometimes it is but most of the time, this is the stamp of an amateur, or someone who knows how to use a program.

Let me stress now that knowing how to use a program in no way dictates your understanding of design.

Designapalooza – Part Four

December 3, 2007

This is the fourth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Mess around.

In this section I’m going to be fairly resource-heavy, and hope that it helps some people out. When I say ‘Mess around’ what I mean is literally get your hands on some of the tools you know you’ll be using, and go to town. If you don’t know what tools you are going to be using, do some research. Check out those schools I talked about previously, and find out what software they’re going to be using. Dig around a little to see what others in the field tend to use. Since I’m trying to get into graphic design, I know that my primary tools will most likely consist of the Adobe family, though I will also give an honourable mention to 3Ds Max, Maya, and ArtRage 2 (if you want to have some really impressive paint effects).

Designapalooza – Part Three

November 26, 2007

This is the third part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Self-education in the workplace

I admit this part is properly inaccurately named, since it really bleeds into other posts that I will be making in the future. Therefore I shall clarify: this article relates to actions you can take to get yourself educated while you wait for your school of choice to accept you, job-wise.

Designapalooza – Part Two

November 23, 2007

This is the second part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Choosing a school

As stated, this is a difficult section to write because a lot of this comes down to the personal feelings of the person.. I’ll do my best, but in the end it is obviously up to you. Having said that, I will pass on my own thoughts on the subject, as they have been fresh in my head for a while now.

Designapalooza – Part One

November 21, 2007

Recently I’ve made it an active mission of mine to learn more about design. I’m not talking about what colours go well together, or what Web 2.0 looks like when dissected into XHTML valid bites. These are a part of design to be sure and things that should be given at least a passing thought, but not what I’m talking about. One of my life goals is to become an honest-to-God graphic designer. Anyone who has talked to me in the past year or so will tell you that this was something I’ve wanted to do. But going along with an earlier post I made, I’m trying to make it happen for myself. Hell, I will make it happen for myself. I’ve gone about this a couple ways, and I felt that I would share my scheming with the internet. Probably not my brightest idea, but whatever. I’m a fan of open information.