Blog

  • Sketch

    I have the app, I’ve played with it, made some icons, and I still don’t get it.

    think folks who use it a lot aren’t fluent html/css coders. For me, it’s a lot easier to do the things people say Sketch shines at directly in code.

    Do you use Sketch? Do you consider yourself a fluent front-end coder? I’d love to know if I’m just doing it wrong.

  • The most beautiful soft rain

    is falling outside my Lyons office window.

     

  • Mystery Meat Icons

    Icons are everywhere. As the contexts within which we interpret content become more unpredictable, so does our reliance on iconography to communicate ideas and messages. The use of iconography has exploded as dissemination of information must reach a multitude of user contexts. Icons can summarize universal ideas and complex actions with a few shapes.

    Icons undergo intense scrutiny. They clearly “work” or “don’t work”. If someone is confused by a message, icons are often to blame. An icon which is not understood may be assigned the undesirable label of “mystery meat”; the stuff found in the lore of public institutions tasked with filling countless sandwiches to feed cretinous populations.

    What we are experiencing is the construction of a new, universal language. But instead of taking millennia to evolve, it’s happening as you read this post. Symbols that best express universal messages are hotly debated, not only regarding what index they carry (see Meggs’ History of Graphic Design), but on whether the style they carry is appropriate (google skeuomorphic design for more on this).

    My question is, who has the loudest voice as this language is constructed? The answer may carry insights about who determines what, as well as how, we communicate.

  • The best cole slaw recipe

    I only post recipes that I make up and are simple, easy, and cheap. I’m a terrible cook because I’m impulsive, lazy, and AADHD.
    However, this one usually works:

    • Half a cabbage, cut up however you like it. I sliver mine with a razor sharp Global.
    • 1 TBs Sesame Oil
    • 2 TBs Rice Vinegar
    • 1 TBs Black Pepper
    • 1 Ts Salt

    Mix it all up and eat it now or wait until it gets even better.

  • New MacBook OLE Keyboard thing

    Finally figured out a reason to like this thing.
    I stopped using function keys for years, once it became necessary to hold FN to modify them so you weren’t, like, turning the volume down.
    Sure, you could set it up so they would behave normally, but then you had to hold FN to, like, turn the volume down.
    The new keyboard settings lets you have them switch automatically. If I’m in Adobe, editing code, or anywhere I use them heavily, they switch on by default. If I’m browsing or doing less work-productivity stuff, it switches back.
    Now if I can only muscle-memory my pinking from accidentally resting on that ESC key all the time…

  • Studio window

    Studio window

    I have a bunch of birds that hang out in the trees outside my studio window. I got my good camera geared up with a zoom lens and I try to take photos when I see them. Still getting used to the camera, so expect improvements over time. Here’s the latest: