The Final Word: 2003
After much indecision this has turned into a bit of a rant/weblog/diary kind of thing. I figured that sometimes it's best to vent into a harmless environment. Should be interesting...or really concerning.
22 December, 2003
On holiday...finally. I have let my brain start the process of forgetting about everything, a role which it has taken to with scepticism and a distinct sense of amateur ability. I'll give it time. For the record, my shin has healed and the spuds taste great. I simply can't see how life gets any better than this.
Due to the impending arrival of family (her side, not mine) I have been given the directive to "clean the flat". Considering her description of a "quick tidy" meant cleaning the fridge, lounge, bedroom and doing the laundry, I'm thinking I'll hire a bulldozer and do the job right. I head down to Moeraki on Wednesday for a few days of family Christmas and general relaxation.
11 December, 2003
Well shit, if I haven't just smacked my shin on concrete. Damn that hurts something chronic. It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't pulled muscles in my other leg yesterday...there's a point where you simply can't walk on two sore legs. I need to master the art of limping on both legs at once. Ironically the shin bashing happened just below the point I got hit with a hockey puck a few years back. Apparently damaged nerves don't forget.
Does someone want to take a stab at the future of web design? Is it in the crapper or are we just seeing some really major changes. I'm not talking about static web sites here, I'm talking about the future of the commercial side of all things webby. Seems to me that people just don't care about the presentation as long as the content is there which I can fully identify with. It feels like there has been a sharp decrease in the perceived value of the Design role. Just thinking out loud.
We won our our last game of inline hockey last night. Great game and some brilliant goals scored by Tim and Aaron.
5 December, 2003
Earlier this week I took a small trip to Wellington with two missions: 1) Catch up with friends, family and people in my industry with similar interests and; 2) scope out the city as a place to live. Number 1 was fun and due to the prevalence of pubs in Wellington the 'catching up' was great. Number 2 was also a success as I can now scratch another city off my 'places to live' list. The IT industry is feeling decidedly weary these days with very few interesting projects happening and very few people seeing the potential. I have to admit to finding my enthusiasm for the potential uses of the Internet waning quickly.
Flying back into Christchurch was fantastic. The clouds, from above, looked like a big zen garden all raked out and with the Southern Alps poking their heads through and a vibrant sunset the world was looking pretty good to me.
Our kitten is now a young cat and has started catching the mice in our compost heap. As someone who's kept pet mice I have mixed feelings about this. I'm guessing it's a bit like watching your child win a school yard fight...on the one hand - go kid, on the other - don't fight. He is, however, remarkably gentle with the mice (though I'm sure the mouse doesn't see it that way) and tends to lose them when he gets bored which goes against everything I understand about cats. I can only assume he is well fed and he has learned well the concept of play.
28 November, 2003
After two weeks of nothing but writing specs, costings, scopes and briefs I got sick of it all, burned out and decided to doing something visual...as you do. After scanning through some old 3D animations I found one I'd done of a shipwreck/underwater scene and thought I'd have a go at turning it into a style for this site. Interface 5 is the result. Visual style was the aim of the game with this one and the XHTML is a little dodgey...lots of nested div tags to build up the background images. What CSS really needs is the ability to stack background images within an element.
The shark in the top corner was part of the original animation so with a bit of tweaking I got it to swim in the right direction. I really like the way the light falls on it as it swims around. Plenty of room to play and keep adding to this one which is great.
Trip to Wellington on Monday to catch up with a few people. Looking forward to it. Completely by coincidence the premier of The Two Towers is on Monday.
19 November, 2003
Today has been a day of achievement. I completed a new interface for this site replacing the second interface which has annoyed me since its inception. It was done because I needed a second interface to experiment with switching...it was designed in about 5 minutes and was ugly. The new style took 5 hours to design and is not ugly...but I may be biased.
It got a bit tricky trying to figure out how to use the XSL files that drive the site to have a different heading image as a background image on the H1's. The solution was interesting in that it works and is about as ugly as the interface I was replacing.
Second achievement: I have managed to negotiate the perils of couriers and have received the Extended version of The Two Towers on DVD. It could be a late night if I can't wait until the weekend.
The following was on Zeldman.com today and, for some reason, I found it incredibly funny. I still can't see why it's funny but I'm still giggling so...
"Remove design from an inaccessible form, and what have you got? An inaccessible form with no design."
9 November, 2003
Made it out of the house today amid laundry, dishes and various other bits and pieces that have been neglected all week, to go and see Matrix: Revolution. Had heard mixed reviews so wasn't sure what to expect, especially after Matrix: Reloaded did it's job as a 'middle movie' and nothing more, but I have to say I liked it...in fact I was pretty much as blown away as I was by the first movie. The trilogy has expanded in ways I didn't expect it to which is always great and whole, human, machine, computer, virus, religion mix has proven to be a good one. Scepticism gave way to a weird sort of adrenaline driven happiness. Equally, I may just be mental.
Work continues. Following the completion of GINZ.com - Stage 1 I've been able to get out talking to people which has been great. Starting to wander through my music collection listening to the oldies. Even hauled out a Supergroove album. It's all good.
28 October, 2003
Those long weekends are the best thing since sliced bread. A five (or so) hour drive saw us in Queenstown for a couple of days of food, wine, a 50th birthday and general relaxation. Queenstown has changed since I was last there and I can't say it's all good, in fact it's not all good at all and I hope New Zealanders can stave off more places becoming so over run with the ugly wealthy. That aside it was great fun and a great chance to get to know C's family a bit better though I can't say I'm overly enthusiastic about being back home and getting back to work. All good things come to an end I guess.
Another recruiting agency has tempted fate by telling me they need things in Word format for their "internal systems" to "interface correctly". What a crock. Which numbskull designed your system if it only interfaces correctly with the Word doc format? At the very least it should be cool with RTF or PDF. Once again here's the link to Open Office and, for good measure, the Mozilla browser Once you go Mozz, you'll never go back.
22 October, 2003
Last night I ventured forth and went to a political debate on whether cannabis should be decriminalised. In short it was a shocker. Apparently debate meant every nutter come out for your twenty seconds of fame. As it was between the Greens (Mr Nandor Tanczos) and the Progressives (Mr Jim Anderton) it was always going to attract some colourful characters but, wow, what a bunch. To be fair a lot were fairly straight up people truly interested in the debate but the number of angry people, with little to say and lots of it was larger than expected. All in all a great bit of entertainment and as expected the televised, and subsequently edited, version was weak by comparison even managing to make it look like the audience had not drowned out Anderton every time he opened his mouth. I'm adding it to my list of experiences.
The effects of the building boom and the demand for housing have finally visited us in the form of a decent rent increase. After watching endless numbskulls cashing in by selling shitholes for large sums of money (presumably fuelled on by endless DIY programmes in TV) I have been waiting for it to filter down to us little folk. Greed is a wonderful thing and all I can say is "Remember the Internet". All booms come to an end with the nastiness of a sugar-rush.
17 October, 2003
Sunshine, new options and a fun, high energy game of hockey on Wednesday have made this week a pretty good one. My brain has decided that all the work and decision stuff is not worth worrying about and has started a regime of ignorance which I'm tending to agree with at the moment.
Finally start planting veges yesterday so hopefully all goes well and we end up with various bits and pieces on the table in a few months. After looking at our finances we might not much have much choice about eating the food we grow. Sounds a bit old school really but all good. Enough rambling.
29 September, 2003
What with the sudden downpour of rain we are experiencing and the associated mental strain this little Tribute to Ray Harryhausen fair made me piss myself. I wasn't expecting the sudden change in tempo. Reminds me a bit of the whole All Your Base Are Belong to Us thing that happened a few years back.
Also, good for a laugh is this glossary of terms from old detective shows: Twists, Slugs and Roscoes.
I am still somewhat reeling from the joy of having the home page simply update automatically as I add stuff in.
26 September, 2003
The end of a project and none to follow (hopefully not a long term issue) mean I have some spare time. The office is very empty at the moment as the other occupant is contracting so I have decided to start seriously using the technology I keep selling and work remotely (ie. from home)...and it is working really well. It's amazing what you can acheive with a 56k modem.
I have also spent some time sorting out some issues with the ZYPE sites (this one included) and, in my humble opinion, have done something pretty clever (for a Designer). The homepages both include a site summary which has been done using RSS which was embedded in the homepage XML file. I wanted it to be a separate file so it could be used for other things so I figured out, with some help from developer friends, how to combine two XML files on the fly. It worked so well that I moved on to another idea using the same technique.
The homepage of this site also includes the first item from the Word section. Originally I simply wrote the item in the Word XML file and copied it into the homepage XML but with the new technique the item I needed is taken automatically from the Word XML and included in the homepage XML. Suddenly my homepage is a collection of modular elements pulled from all sorts of places as the page is loaded and the Internet is interesting again.
22 September, 2003
Wow! Today was just plain crap. Admittedly I should never have tried to upgrade my install of Windows XP. Two hours of downloading and updating later I figured it was probably easier and faster to just get the latest virus and spend the time getting rid of it or rebuilding the machine (whichever was faster).
That leads on to a bit of a beef I have with computers in general. I am running out of workable operating systems to use. Windows is fast becoming a liability for any network with all the viruses winging around, Linux is still just plain hard and doesn't run Photoshop or Freehand yet and I'm not a big fan of the Mac OS, all those panels and woopy sound effects drive me nuts. I'm getting that horrible feeling I'm painting myself into a corner...or possibly more correctly, lots of people are painting me into a corner while I pay them to do so. Sigh.
Just finished reading the biography of Billy Connolly. All I can say is it's worth reading, anything else I try and say will just sound weak. It was great...see, weak.
12 September, 2003
Think that you're poor. The Global Rich List kind of puts things in perspective. My holiday is going very well thank you.
7 September, 2003
29 years ago today it all began for me. It's my birthday. The one day I can have cake and eat it too :-)
2 September, 2003
That holiday is edging closer every day now. One week of pure, unadulterated nothingness. Sleep, food, beer and sleep. I plan to do nothing, say nothing and the only computer I want to see is one with games on it. I haven't had one of these holidays in years and I am fair drooling with anticipation.
28 August, 2003
I scored a goal last night at hockey. Considering it was only my 5th game back after 3 years away from the game I'm feeling pretty stoked about it. Also crashed head first into the wall pulling almost every muscle in my back but that was less of an achievement.
27 August, 2003
It is that time of year when Winter is wearing thin and body, mind and spirit need a holiday to regroup and start again. I find myself wondering again about all the crap I surround myself with, mostly in the name of boredom. I also find myself on that train of thought that questions the reality of what I do for a living. I can feel a glimmer of creativity hiding away deep down somewhere inside, somewhat smothered for now but definitely there.
Spring is close, along with it my birthday and a week long holiday which I am hanging out for now. Hopefully as the days get longer and warmer, body, mind and spirit will start to work in unison again and that creativity will start to flare up again.
14 August, 2003
I wonder what those people in that office building across the road do? I wonder if they have also thought that it's a long way down from up here. I turn 29 next month. I still have bright pink hair.
12 August, 2003
Game on. I have started up with inline hockey again. Plenty of aggression to put into the game so if I can just remember how to skate and hit a puck with some force above that of a limp wristed weenie all will be well. It's about the only thing in my life at the moment with all care and no responsibility and I am living it up...excellent.
Finished a new t-shirt idea that involved hacking into a standard t-shirt and sewing like a maniac. I can see a future in modifying existing shirts to be a bit cooler. Must get a photo up at some stage. Now have bright pink hair...corvette red apparently.
Beginning to think most of the people who run businesses a wankers...where are all the people who run successful businesses who aren't complete geeks? They must be out there.
18 July, 2003
What a wacky week. Left overs of the flu have left me in a somewhat exhausted and, subsequently, delusional state. I have become infatuated with the Wombles and Danger Mouse theme songs and can't stop humming them to myself. I have also been spending too much time playing Diablo2 online with a friend in Auckland...apparently it's quite addictive. Interesting times.
Had a very weird dream about flushing the cat down the toilet...it was slightly more complex than that (as dreams usually are) but a bit nasty to write about. I'm sure a psychologist would have fun with that one.
8 July, 2003
Got the flu and with it time for some enforced rest and thinking time. Quite good really...I guess my body knows better than my brain :)
Lots of big things running through my head competing for space with the always present little ongoing things. Attempting to go for some major funding for a product I want to develop, trying to decide if heading to the UK for a few years is a good idea (pending the rule changes to that working/holiday visa) and trying to balance work with rest. Time to stoke the fire and get rid of this winter chill.
24 June, 2003
So tired...Is it just me or do computers still really suck. Maybe I just need to bring my expectations of the nasty critters back down to earth...or do more gardening or something.
13 June, 2003
How's this for a marketing idea gone wrong-ish. One of the supermarkets, in it's infinite drive to jump on the loyalty card bandwagon that is hauling it's ass through NZ, have a new card called "One Card". I am now constantly amused as the checkout folk ask me if I 'have a wanker'. Needless to say the TV ad is just priceless. If I didn't know better I'd say one of their Designers was doing an adbust on them.
8 June, 2003
Been watching the NHL Stanley Cup lately and have really got into the finals. Without any real reason to cheer for anyone I picked the Mighty Ducks. Just watched them take out game 6. Now have to figure out my week so Tuesday is clear to watch game 7.
The trousers are finished and quite comfortable.
21 May, 2003
I need to clean up my playlist...going from Bloodhound Gang to the Beatles is just way too much at this time in the morning. The trouser project continues...
19 May, 2003
Had a bit of a weird moment today as I realised I was listening to Bouncing Souls and Rancid while sewing up a pair of trousers. For a brief moment I hesitated to think about my stereotypical masculinity and then figured "what the hell" and kept on at it. Sewing is a bit like grafitti...not as easy as it looks. Okay, it's not like grafitti at all. The trousers are starting to look pretty cool tho.
For those who gave a damn, my jaw's still not back to normal but we're working on it.
13 May, 2003
No balance...it's all gone wrong.
11 May, 2003
Pain. I have been living with a somewhat dislocated jaw this weekend. Basically the bugger won't open fully and hurts like crap when I try. I am waiting with bated breath for the absense of pain. Funny how your priorities change quickly when the basics are attacked. I don't like pain, never have...also have a few choice things to say about doctors but that's a whole new issue.
2 May, 2003
Following on from the little rant last time I received some feedback suggesting I mention Open Office as an alternative to MS Word. Open Office is definitely a solid alternative and as it is a free download, uses XML behind the scenes and can open documents created in Word it has a more certain future than MS Word. There are really no excuses for accepting one format in life...you just make it harder for everyone else.
29 April, 2003
How's this for arrogance, "We only accept attachments in MS Word format. Can you please resend your details". Considering the original details were sent in PDF format and from a Mac that doesn't have Word on it this response is just plain fucked up. I suppose we could steal a copy for the expressed purpose of sending this one email....that'd be worth the download. I'm sure they are very nice people and I appreciate that computers are not very helpful sometimes but still....wake up.
...and what the hell is up with having a third series of Aussie Big Brother on TV? Give it up already, we're bored of seeing prepubescent adults wanking around a house talking about each others sex lives...get jobs!
15 April, 2003
Life carries on. Very tired. It appears that the US crusade continues. It seems that now Syria is the arch enemy and apparently have huge stockpiles of weapons capable of wiping us all off the face of the Earth as well as harbouring Saddam Hussein. It's a good thing we've got the US protecting us from the bad people...or is it just that they happen to have the biggest guns.
20 March, 2003
I remember a photo taken during UK riots (presumably around the 60s) that showed one particular demonstrator with a placard that read "When those who make the law, break the law, in the name of the law, there is no law".
It struck me that this is as relevant today as it was then. Despite overwhelming opposition a small group of stupid white men are able to break international law in the name of that same law so they can have a war. If the UN has no control over these men and there is no punishment for breaking international laws it is feasible to ask why bother having those laws.
Is the Australian prime minister now allowed to decide that the people of New Zealand have been a thorn in their side for too long and invade us? What could we do? Throw sheep at them? What's the point of demonstrating if public opinion can be so easily dismissed? Would it be more effective to simply beat up on the people we're opposing or who don't agree with us. Sounds like a dangerous precendent to me.
What kind of a world do we live in these days? It's not the one I thought it was.
18 March, 2003
Just looked at the clock which reads '9:11'. Funny how those numbers are now etched into world history despite being an American date format. That would be 9 November for us. I've stopped drinking coffee again in favour of tea. We need a drink that wakes you up without giving you the shakes if you stop drinking it.
17 March, 2003
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about business, people, war, history, recycling and being myself. All these things currently play a part in my life to some degree and when you look at the list like that it really highlights how silly life really is.
Probably due to my current reading list (Stupid White Men - Michael Moore, No Logo - Naomi Klein) I have been thinking about my business and the things I want it to accomplish and possibly, as importantly, what I don't want it to do. Currently ZYPE is on a 1-2 month lifecycle with no life lines and no one going to bail me out if I screw it up. There's work there, if not much, and I have products in development that may give me a chance to move ahead. Basically I've got no money but my dream of a sustainable company that hires a small team of great people is still strong.
I mention this to highlight the question I've been asking myself lately and that is: If I succeed would I know when to stop or would I simply fall back on the quest for growth and money that seems to be the goal of this society? I'd like to think I will be able to hold growth at a point that I'm happy with but it seems to be the exception to the rule to achieve that. I find that disturbing.
It's an odd position I find myself in. Working with computers while disliking them with a vengeance, running a company with no love for business and punk in a world with few choices. It's a very confusing time.
12 February, 2003
Just when you were thinking the Americans had completely lost the plot it is reassuring to see some voices fighting the idiocy. Punkvoter.com has some great articles by various punk leads. The downloads section is funny as hell...and a little scary.
Also found the web site for Michael Moore.
11 February, 2003
My life is revolving around little caterpillars at the moment...I kid you not. The first generation of Monarch caterpillars that were growing happily on the swan plants I had provided were destroyed in a freak hail storm but a new generation has risen up to take their place. Last night I noticed one acting really weird by hanging head first from one of the leaves. I then noticed it was slowly covering itself with what looked like green snot. I am assuming it is forming a chrysallis and not that it has a cold.
28 January, 2003
ZYPE is still doing it's thing and managing to pay the bills and the t-shirt designing has come along pretty well thanks to a major sale at Hallensteins and a big dose of creativity on my end. Three new t-shirts to wear now. Noticed a change in my attitude to Punk lately. The days of asking how I can break the system seem to have been replaced with asking how I can change the system. Interesting to see where that goes.
19 January, 2003
Just had some excellent service from DvdVideoPlanet which has been very refreshing. Sold out in stores, Steve found a copy of the DVD and got it delivered in record time.
The swan plants I planted a few months ago are now home to 5 caterpillars that should grow into Monarch butterflies. Save from a guy I used to know at school I have never seen anything eat so fast...and so much. I hope the plants hold out.
10 January, 2003
Looked at my little swan plants this afternoon and noticed the arrival of three monarch caterpillars. Mixed feelings as the plants are only about 40cm high and are likely to be decimated but I haven't the heart to kill the very caterpillars I was hoping would arrive at some stage. We compromised as I placed them on one sacrificial plant. Surprisingly fast little buggers and I had an entertaining few minutes watching one destroy a leaf. Kinda looked like a cartoon character eating corn typewriter style.
6 January, 2003
The New Year brings a few changes. After a great holiday that involved a balanced mix of physical labour and extended periods of doing nothing some things seem a little clearer...tho they couldn't have gotten much foggier. The nose ring is history after I realised I didn't need it anymore.
