Seeking Definition

Holy hell, the last time I posted on here was March 2nd 2015!! Man, even WordPress has a totally new (and improved?) user interface that I was completely unaware of. It’ so …blue. What do these buttons even do? YES, there’s a word count 🙂

Anyway, I was just reflecting on how I was telling Kat that I felt really good and thought I should document this occasion and update this blog thing. I used to blog all the time about why I felt good, or if I had an interesting thought or if I wanted to start some new routine in my life. I used to LIVE on this blog. Yep, we shared some good times this blog and I… I was actually just thinking recently that I might need to delete this thing and start fresh, it’s got a lot of history on it. It’s sad that I would debate clearing it out for professional continuity.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah; so today is Monday and it’s about 11:00pm. As a little update to my life, I’m in my third year of the Bachelor of Interaction Design program at Sheridan and it’s almost Internship time! We’re just finishing up this semester and I’ve had to make my portfolio website to shoot out to unsuspecting (potential) future employers. Partially why I’m writing this post is because I’ve had to reflect on how far I’ve come as a ‘designer’ and what kind of work I’ve loved, and also hated. In my Interaction Design portfolio there is a surprising lack of ‘interactive’ projects. Which leads me reflect on how I originally set out to be a Graphic Designer and somehow began coding, and making physical computing prototypes and user experience wireframes… it’s been weird, but I’m liking where I am.

AND that is why I’m writing this blog post today. I like where I am.

It’s a simple but powerful thing to be able to tell yourself. Not just professionally but personally, spiritually, or whatever. Liking where you are goes a long way to liking who you are and who you wanna be. Making my portfolio I got to see my life work in front of me and I like it. On the side I’m making my yearly playlist of best albums of 2015 currently, and I’m listening to great music and critiquing it’s relevance on the year. I’m confident about my new tattoo design (yes it’s vain but it’s these small personal things that you should appreciate). And most importantly I’ve been slapped in the face with the idea that I need to treat myself a little better and take care of myself, no matter how tough school/life gets. A few of these I would have never figured out if it wasn’t for Kat. She’s pretty solid at helping me squeeze the most out of life.

It’s reflecting on these things that help me feel defined. I think definition can bring out the best in people; I think it leads to growth. And man am I ever anxious to grow.

I think that’s all for now… 500 words. Bam.

L8r.

Music Club.

 

We started this group called our Pub Pub Music Club at work. I think it was like ten of us getting together and painstakingly making a list of our top ten records of all time. Complete with favourite tracks and reasons why we chose them.

I had an exel sheet going with like sixty records on it. I narrowed it down to twenty and then finally ten. My honourable mentions are a few picks from my top twenty segment. I couldn’t help stylize a document around mine.

I used Pitchforks style for text arrangement, Helvetica Thin for body text and Lovela Thick for headings.

I wanted to add one last segment for favourite compilation records, but I thought other people might not have one, but I’d put Dark Was The Night in there, and I would have liked to put City & Colours Bring Me Your Love as well, but alas this is the final list!

Also perfectly placed, I have an assignment due tomorrow morning where I have to catalog my record collection! Fun times in music land.

Killer. I haven’t made a blog post in a while. I might post my record catalog results here, but then again… I’ll probably forget.

Later!

League

I made some banners and logos and things for mine and my brother’s League of Legends team so I wanted to post em. We suck but it’s fun to think about team coordination in this usually ‘toxic’ community. People in this game can be really shitty sometimes, but we make the best of it.

Hope everyone had a killer New Years! Today was a hangover day and we just gamed and vegged out. Really that has been my entire winter break so far, and damn I am bored. I’m ready to go back to working at the pub… but not ready for class yet.
Ah well, alright back to League. Later!

2014 – Year in Review

Hello folks,

and welcome to my good old fashioned year in review, 2014 edition! So grab a select beer or favourite cognac and join me in celebration for the end of a great year and the beginning of a new one. As I’m writing this thing I’m getting ready for a New Years celebration of my own, and I’ve started my drinking a little early (so if my sentences don’t quite make sense or I’m rambling more than usual just stop me). I find if I slowly roll into my drink count instead of plummeting into a desperate sprint around 11:00, I’m a little more socially tolerable. I’ve picked up the Mill St. Seasonal Sampler and I am hyped. I was drinking the new 100th Meridian from Mill St. last weekend and it was amazing. It’s an amber ale (which I love) with the Mill St. signature organic flavour. It’s probably my new favourite beer. But the sampler has traditional Organic, Tankhouse, and three other selections that I’m stoked to try out.

Hell, I think I’m going to have to start a beer blog… or do what I usually do and forget to post altogether but have high hopes of making a new segment on this here blog. Ah well, New Years Resolution anyone? If anyone has read my ramblings in the past you know I hate… hate, New Years resolutions. But I was listening to Indie 88 on the way to grab beer and, I think it was Matt talking about average attainable resolutions, which I thought was hilarious. He mentioned that he’s never been to Swiss Chalet so that was his resolution to eat there. I think my average attainable resolution will be that if I ever see a penny on the ground I have to stick it my shoe, so I’ll have good luck all day through. That will guarantee a great 2015.

Coming up with New Years plan is always a huge chore. There are a thousand options, and most of them quite frankly will suck, we all know this; Don’t kid yourself. But alas we ask our friends and family, “what are you doin’ for New Years” and we weigh the options and choose the best plan. This year I’m going bowling with the family and hopefully finding an after party not family related for the remainder of the evening.

Okay, on to the topic of the evening, music!
This year has been huge for music, as it always is. But for me especially with the discovery of Spotify my music listening and collection has gone through the roof. With the ability to grab any record as soon as it gets released, generate a playlist and shoot it over to my smart-phone to listen on the go; we as music listeners could not be more stoked. Now, I’m not too invested in how Spotify treats developers and musicians but as a consumer it’s a god sent service.

My favourite record of 2014 was from this band called Alvvays. They’re from Toronto and they embody this perfect blend of surf-rock and modern indie. Surf-rock and indie are my jams. It’s easy to listen to, it’s fun and it doesn’t take itself seriously. That is me allover. Lyrics are never my thing. I love certain lines in songs that mean something to me, but I don’t really care what the musicians intended. That’s their business. If I wrote songs it would be for me, and I wouldn’t care if people understood them or not, I would just want them to like the song. I alvvays catch these little snippets (see what I did there?) of lyrics from their songs, like the intro of Adult Diversion “How do I get close to you, even if you don’t notice as I admire you on the subway” and it just warms me up. I’m a pretty quiet passive dude and that’s totally something I would do. Admire someone and just be too scared to say anything about it. It just reminds me that we all always have growing to do, no matter how old we are.

Anyway that’s my pick for favourite record and you can see my list of 20 albums that I loved this year below. I usually make a playlist on 8Track but, I think I’ll just post my spotify playlist and maybe that’ll force you to download the service… do. it. now.

Alright, thanks everyone and have a killer New Years!
Later.

Favourite Records of 2014:

1. Alvvays: Self Titled
2. Rural Alberta Advantage: Mended With Gold
3. Hey Rosetta!: Second Sight
4. Shakey Graves: And The War Came
5. Mimicking Birds: Eons
6. Real Estate: Atlas
7. The War On Drugs: Lost in the Dream
8. Generationals: Alix
9. Bleachers: Strange Desire
10. Allah-Las: Worship The Sun

11. MacDemarco: Salad Days
12. The New Pornographers: Brill Bruisers
13. Jungle: Self Titled
14. Yellow Ostrich: Cosmos
15. Temples: Sun Structures
16. Andrew Bird: Things Are Really Great Here, Sort of…
17. Angus and Julia Stone: Self Titled
18. Bahamas: Bahamas is Alfie
19. Manchester Orchestra
20. Sylvan Esso: Self Titled

Favourite Tracks of 2014

1. Black Keys: Gotta Get Away
2. Alvvays: Marry Me Archie
3. Bleachers: Rollercoaster
4. Shakey Graves: Dearly Departed
5. Mark Ronson: Uptown Funk

 

April’s Song – Real Estate

It’s about 4:00am on Wednesday December 17th. It’s less than a week to Christmas and my classes are finally all finished for the semester. I’ve turned my room into this blanket cave and have been hibernating. I really just popped by to add a few new updates of my work. I finished this website for my friends’ band and it turned out pretty rad.

I started working on it last April and they finally needed it for their debut release record that came out December 5th. I haven’t checked out the entire thing yet (I know, I know, terrible), but they’re playing a show this Friday at the Boston Manor in Burlington (Open inviting to come along!) so I’ll definitely hear the whole record there. Looking back at my process on the website design and development I made some huge mistakes, and learned a crazy amount from it.

My design is super basic and I know how to move forward now but I usually don’t like anything I’ve made looking back at it. I hope people dig it because their band is stellar and it felt great to contribute to such a killer project. I made a lame little collage of screenshots to check out and I’ll post the website link.

AND CHECK OUT THE BAND!

I felt caps were necessary.

http://www.biglonely.com

http://biglonely.bandcamp.com/

And my second thing is a cool interactive band website application prototype I designed. The idea revolved (ha, revolved… you’d get that if you used the app.) around a ticket purchasing interface where you move a bus around to different cities where the band is touring. When the bus lands in say Toronto, the app opens up a ticket purchasing interface.

It’s fully functional and I 3D modeled Toronto and Montreal on an Earth and a tour van that rotates around the earth. I coded the thing using WebGL libraries so it’s ‘cutting-edge’. I’m not posting the app because it’s janky and it stinks, but I love it so I’ll give you some screenshots.

I’m also posting a movie poster design that I kinda dug. I took some photos in Toronto edited them (instagram style) and added some trimmings.

Okay, my next post will be one updating my life and thoughts and junk, I swear! And yeah, here’s a great tune by Real Estate.