missing you

Nicole
06.30.05 @ 11:37 AM CST
listening to: sublime
feeling: umm food is good

I am so glad that Jon and Joc are not coming this year at Thanksgiviving because guess what I'm still going to be in Rome . But I will be home in time for Christmas and you guys are coming up around then so I'll actually get to see you .

Side note...

Being lucky

Nicole
06.28.05 @ 12:17 PM CST
listening to: none
feeling: not to bad

So I've found that people will often tell you that you are lucky under certain situations. I feel that I am lucky because I'm smart, not ugly, part of a good family, and in love. But at the same time it is this "luck" that forces me to deal with the smaller "unlucky" pieces of my life and focus to try and appreciate the better points. Anyway, this all came up because while I might be lucky for getting to go to Rome, it also means that I have had to deal with all of the other crap that goes with it. Aaaahhh. I just want to be there already. Grr.

Remind me to Write this essay...

Jon
06.28.05 @ 10:02 AM CST
listening to: The Best of Don & Mike
feeling: Fine...

What is a Logo?

Here's my hypothesis: A logo is the visual representation of how you do business. It's arguable where logos began. Signet rings, Cattle Brands, or a simple signature. Wherever you believe it began, it began as a way of visually identifying something you made, or something you owned. People traded with you, or bought (or commissioned) your work, or believed what you said because your mark was on your cow, or painting, or letter.

A logo is a symbol of the trust you have earned from your customers, and it should be defended as you would defend your good name...because that's exactly what it is.

Anyway, some day I will write that essay.

What to do with my old Powerbook...

Jon
06.27.05 @ 10:28 AM CST
listening to: Don & Mike
feeling: Sleepy

So, I've decided to make use of my old powerBook. I think what I've decided to do is turn it into a web server and use that web server to develop stuff that is a little more advanced than the stuff I have been doing.

My problem now is, do I leave it as a Mac (It won't run OS X because of its small-ass HDD), or do I run UNIX or LINUX in some form.

If I leave it as a Mac I can run GoLive on it and sit there in the living room and code directly on the files being served...but at the same time, if I convert it to Linux or Unix it might run faster...and I get to/have to learn my way around Unix or Linux (more than I already know from using OS X).

Most webservers that I deal with are Unix or Linux and run Apache in some form. So, I think that I would like to run MkLinux or NetBSD or something. I could always set it up to dual-boot.

There's also this program that lets you run MacOS on Linux in a shell, but I don't know if it works with Classic or just OS X.

Anyway, anyone have any opinions?

At any rate, if you want to check out what's going on on my little powerbook server, go here: http://powerbook.sandruck.com.

Tired all the time

Nicole
06.23.05 @ 06:57 PM CST
listening to: tv in background ?
feeling: okay

Well, as it is summer time and I am a college kid you would think that I would be relaxing atleast part of the time but no not me. Between my full time job as an architectural intern and my full time job as thesis prep student, oh and don't forget about the full time diet, full time girlfriend, wonderwoman, etc. I am a busy person. That's right but we'll talk about the wonderwoman thing another time. The question is how do I get other people to do some of my research for me without missing out on the big picture?

Jackasses and Inspiration

Jon
06.21.05 @ 11:59 AM CST
listening to: Pugs & Kelly
feeling: Fine...

I read this really great interview today.

It was talking about how there is so little original work on the web because the vast majority of people who design and build websites are using other people's products to build their own. This leads to a lot of sites that look and work the same, because you are stuck with the limitations of the system you use to build.

I know a little bit about this...because I use GoLive 6. I need to upgrade, because I've played with GoLive CS and now there is GoLive CS2, and I know CS dealt with CSS (that's cascading style sheets, don't you know) a lot better. Now, I tend to do most of my work in CSS, and I like to use a lot of CSS2, so it's silly that my IDE (that's integrated development environment) doesn't deal with it well at all. I've basically been using it for the syntax highlighting and some Javascript.

Design Psychology

Jon
06.19.05 @ 12:33 PM CST
listening to: NPR - Car Talk
feeling: Good. I love a big breakfast and a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.

Okay, so my problem relates highly to Nicole's.

I am doing a little research on the psychology of design because I hope to learn something useful for my work as a graphic and web designer. More than just a set of rules though, what I am searching for is a set of questions.

Design questions always have more than one possible correct design answer...but the research into interaction design (at least that I have seen) rarely leaves room for that possibility. What I am searching for in my research is less an answer or set of "best practices" but an understanding of the general principals that are innacted through there "best" practices.

I am approaching it like physics. Newtonian mechanics worked, until we were able to go fast enough or observe small enough to make the concept of absolute time irrelevant. As it turns out, Newton was right, under specific circumstances, as may well be the "rules" of design and "best practices" of design, web design, marketing, interaction, etc...that we believe to be correct now. But like Newtonian mechanics, it could be coincidence that it's worked thusfar. As people change, just as the scale and speed of physics changed, that serendipidously/coincidentally true condition of our best practices will be removed or made false, and the system will fail.

We've already seen major changes in web design as computers have become faster, larger sites have gotten more complex, graphics and graphic designers lost their fear of the web, and databases became d'rigeur for even small personal sites (like this one and most 'blogs). As bandwidth increases across more economical background, we even see graphics themselves becoming more coplex, "prettier", and larger.

Through all this, however, we have not seen interaction design change significantly on the web for some time. Something, beyond acceptance, budgets, and bandwidth, is going to have to change before we realize that interaction may be less governed by this coincidental analog to time, but instead by a more universal psychological truth.

What we need, in order to discover this truth, is more design that flys in the face of the "best practices" developed by software developer types and works will either in spite of it, or because of it. Only then can we track backwards to the common thread of these designs and hopefully strike upon some universality.

How much better would it be if we could all design based on a universal truth of human interaction, and not an artificial set of "best" practices? It would free us to be true to our message, and create for our audience, instead of being correct. It would be the world wild web all over again.

Help

Nicole
06.17.05 @ 05:12 PM CST
listening to: none
feeling: anxious

So I'm having trouble finding helpful information on my thesis topic. I can't just google because most of the websites that come up are useless. I can't use the scientific journals through school because the topics are so broad and speratic that it's hard to find something that actually relates, although I've picked up a few articles for basic knowledge on the way that the brain functions. So if anyone thinks of a keyword or phrase that could assist my search I am open to ideas.

I'm here

Nicole
06.17.05 @ 11:37 AM CST
listening to: mm
feeling: okay

This summer is going okay. I've started my research for my thesis project. Every night after work mom and I work out (go for a walk) and then I read up on the difference between the way we precieve things that are right in front of us. I've also started to collect articles on the way that brain waves work and how we can control what people are thinking or feeling by overlapping the sense that can be controlled in different environments. Although I don't understand all of the tech. terms and scientific terms that are used I know that I'm learning alot. But even if it doesn't work out I will have more odd knowledge to build up my vocabulary.

I'm listening to "Slim Shady" because it helps me releave my anger at work..... but that's for a different blog.

I am paralyzed by my inability to make decisions...

Jon
06.17.05 @ 10:41 AM CST
listening to: Don & Mike
feeling: Fine.

...so, I have not been posting to the blog, even though I know that I need to, and I have plenty of things to talk about.

I think it comes from this need to post my rambling thoughts on random personal crap, and also my want to write thoughtful professional essays on Design and creativity, and websites and technology.

But I don't want them to overlap.

I also have more ideas than I have time, and rather than choose a topic and post, I don't post at all because I can't decide whether to write about how Fight Club is Walden (although Chuck ain't Henry David...but maybe Tyler Durden is), or what a hard time I am having thinking of a really creative way of redesigning my web site.

I tell you what, I'll post about something insightful really soon, but for now, digest this. BATMAN BEGINS in IMAX, TONIGHT, fuckers!

Nicole

Jocelyn
06.14.05 @ 03:26 PM CST
listening to: XPN
feeling: Lovely

Nicole, and really, anyone else who is reading this,

Write something. Tell us how the summer is going.

Where's Batman when you fuckin' need him?

Jon
06.13.05 @ 10:03 AM CST
listening to: Old Don & Mike
feeling: Fuckin' crap...

Okay, so here's the big news of the day:

Someone stole my God damn lawnmower.
They stole the God damn lawnmower out of my God damn garage, which I left open because I was home, and the garage was starting to stink because it gets fucking hot in there with the cars and the door shut all the time, and the garbage can in there too.

Well, here's the great part about it, I hope you enjoy the mower you fucker, because right before I put it away I ran over a fresh dog turd because my dog, Mabel, took a big fat crap right in the one 4x10 swath of unmowed grass as I was finishing, and I had to mow over it.

And if you are the operator of the pawn shop that they probably sold it to, well, this is what you get for dealing in stolen goods, my friend. Your place is going to smell like shit, or you are going to have to clean that shit off. So, have fun. Fuckers.

promoting myself...and someone else...

Jon
06.13.05 @ 09:22 AM CST
listening to: old Don & Mike
feeling: Sleepy

In case you've seen the links to TLCgraphicDesign.com and haven't gone an visited the site...here's the job I wrapped up last week.

Oh yes - Thank you Tahra, I got the check already.

Really, I just like to post pictures in my 'blog.

Fun with Flyers...

Jon
06.10.05 @ 12:47 PM CST
listening to: Pugs & Kelly
feeling: Decent

This is what you get when you give me an hour and a half and a little bit of freedom.

So...who else's mother-in-law is their most "gettin' it" client? Huh? That's right, bitch, nobody.

I mean, it's not fine art or anything, but it is fun, and there's something great about busting out the creative juices first thing on a Friday morning. Damn. I hope this is just the beginning of a good weekend.

In all seriousness...this is the type of thing that will set you apart in real estate (known to many as simply not sucking). It's fun. If we keep using cool stuff, there will be no stopping the croneyTeam.

losing weight vs. getting healthy

Nicole
06.09.05 @ 11:25 AM CST
listening to: Andy Griggs
feeling: still hungry

Okay so Mom and I are doing this weight watchers thing and although I don't mind going to the meetings or counting my points I do have a problem with the diet and that is the giant loop holes that are left open everywhere. Did you know that I can have an ice cream sunday for dinner and as long as that's all I have I won't go over my points?! As a person that likes to find the easy way out this is a problem because when I feel like being bad I know that I can be, and part of me is okay with this as long as I continue to lose weight. I guess the really issue will grab me when I hit the wall one week. Anyway, I'm only 21 and if "knowing is half the battle" than I'm half towards being healthy now to work on that other half.

Conundrum...

Jon
06.09.05 @ 10:41 AM CST
listening to: Don & Mike
feeling: fine

Okay, so here's the problem. I just finished a website that I designed for another designer. I'm really proud of it, and everyone I have tried to explain it to fails to understand that it's all me, except for the samples in the portfolio themselves.

It's so tough, because I think everyone thinks that every designer does everything. Tahra doesn't do websites, or the style of illustration I do. I don't do stuff that she does.

So, here's the thing. It was really cool doing a site for another designer. She let me do stuff that other clients would never let me do. But how much good is it for me if noone understands what I did on the site?!?!

Why web design sucks...

Jon
06.08.05 @ 05:22 PM CST
listening to: Russ Martin
feeling: Good

Web design sucks because people like to dictate random crap about web site design. It's absolutely assanine to dictate the OPTIMAL pixel dimensions of a logo on a page, or where it should be placed on the page.

This happens, in my opinion, because there are a bunch of very smart, yet completely uncreative, people involved in the computer industry. Unfortuntely, web design begins and ends on a computer for most people, so there poeple feel that they have some sort of authority in a medium that could otherwise (and really, on a small scale, has) be governed by the creatives.

What we need is a bunch of really smart , really creative people, who aren't affraid of the tech, to step up and take the reigns in web design. We need them from both fields. We need a bunch of really creative technologists to get involved too. People who aren't beholden to 'best practices.'

I hope to become one of these people. Because I am smart, and I am creative, and I am only a little scared of the tech.

*EDIT* — I almost forgot to add: Please visit TLCgraphicDesign.com. I just finished this site...for another designer. It's wierd to design for another designer. Cool...but weird. I designed and illustrated everything on the site, with the exception of the actual portfolio. It's pretty cool.

In the Red

Jocelyn
06.06.05 @ 01:58 PM CST
listening to: XPN
feeling: Full from lunch

Whoever reads this and pays bills online via their bank website head my warning. Check your bill amount over and over. AND check it again once you submit it to pay. There was a computer error when I paid two of our bills online. Instead of paying a total of $122 over $12,200 were taken out of our account.
Getting support from the bank took 3 calls. Calling the two vendors that were grossly overpaid accounted for 4 hours of my day last week and guess who still doesn’t have a refund issued yet? That’s right. Its easy for them to take so much money but to give it back takes days.

easily annoyed

Nicole
06.02.05 @ 05:20 PM CST
listening to: none
feeling: grrr

Okay so this weekend I'm supposed to go visit Kevin's mom with Kevin and you would think that this wouldn't be a big deal but I have a hard time understanding her and this lack of knowledge keeps me from being able to accept the decisions that she makes. Now this weekend has been planned since the end of the school year, about a month, and what is she doing but spending all day up at the farm, where Kevin lives. Now I understand that there has been a family emergency and that things are kind of bizzar right now but still this happens almost everytime, something has to get done or comes up so that he drives 3.5 hours to be with her and spends almost no time with her. Now I would drive 4 hours no matter which house I'm visiting so should I care no, especially since he doesn't care. Somebody help me, I need to calm down.