2011: 94 posts.

• Jan 02, 2011
  Tumblr, continued.

  Well, hello, happy new year. It’s time to get back in the swing of things after a long hiatus. Back in March of last year, I wrote a long piece about Chris and I blogging over at nuevaciudad.tumblr.com. Well, We have not stopped. Just assume the good posts are all by Chris and not me….

• 
  Jan 02, 2011
  ArtLung, 2011

  More noodling (since this noodling) with Illustrator.

• Jan 09, 2011
  Anecdote of the Day

  Fragment from Bruce Sterling: I once had a long bus-ride with a reeking, sweaty, jittery madman who had clearly once been a formidably intelligent and very well-read scholar. It seemed pretty clear to me that it had been a long time since anybody had been able to indulge him in a conversation. Although, he couldn’t…

• 
  Jan 11, 2011
  The Power of Graphic Design: Politics

  Sneak Preview of the Cover of The Stranger This Week, Created by Dan Savage and Aaron Huffman The power of graphic design to communicate sometimes rattles me to my core.

• Jan 14, 2011
  Fancy

  For some reason this video–Fancy by Reba McEntire–has stuck with me as a kitsch cheese masterpiece since I first saw it maybe 20 years ago. The song and I think the video too were released in 1990. It is over-the-top melodrama and until I looked it up, I had no idea it was a cover…

• Jan 14, 2011
  Memorial in Arizona

  Speech by President Obama.

• 
  Jan 14, 2011
  Mile High

  Back at Thanksgiving, I got a chance to carry around my Mom’s iPod Touch while travelling. During that time I experimented with Foursquare (which I had some time back) and Gowalla. One of the things I did was mention I was on a plane in a tweet, and I got many twitter replies from random…

• Jan 15, 2011
  Warren Ellis Notices Massive Sqwertz

  Well this is cool: Warren Ellis noticed Brett’s article “How to sell your book or comic for the iPad & iPhone without Apple’s help.” Warren Ellis is pretty awesome. You may remember Massive Sqwertz as the site I did the theme for. I also read and enjoy it. You can follow Massive Sqwertz too: @massivesqwertz.

• 
  Jan 15, 2011
  Precious

  It’s rather hard to believe that it was only 13 months ago my Mom, Leah and I were going to see the film Precious at a local movie theater. Sometimes it seems utterly impossible that she won’t be going to see the latest Oprah-endorsed film with us. Perhaps we’d go to Roadhouse afterwards. Perhaps she’d…

• 
  Jan 15, 2011
  The Best Life A Pot Can Have

  Joe Bennion has a beautiful post over on his blog: The baking dish. It’s about different ways to work. Here’s the crucial bit: …he and I work differently to get to the same point. His approach involves a series of thumbnail sketches and maquettes, from which one is chosen to be executed full scale. I…

• 
  Jan 16, 2011
  That Time When My URL Appeared On The TV Show Bones

  In August of last year I got an email from a fellow who was watching Bones on Netflix, and, well, here’s what they said: Hi Joe, You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I saw something odd in a fraction of a second on a TV show, and it lead me to…

• Jan 20, 2011
  Comics and the Law

  In about 1985, at San Diego Comic-Con, I received a free copy of the weekly Comic Buyer’s Guide (Wikipedia says it’s the longest running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry). I got myself a subscription and I was hooked. It was a tabloid, newsprint at the time. But I loved getting that…

• Jan 20, 2011
  Miserable sick

  I currently have the flu, bigtime. Correspondence is at zero. I’ll try and catch up later today and tomorrow. I regret the lack of communication but hope to catch up soon.

• 
  Jan 24, 2011
  Interview with Brett Jackson, creator of Massive Sqwertz

  Brett Jackson is a designer who’s been working the web since 1997. He left his cushy gig as Art Director for Google in New York to move to Switzerland with his wife. He has recently relocated again to Los Angeles where he freelances Flash and graphic design. In April 2010, Brett began working on a…

• Jan 27, 2011
  Bruce Sterling on Vernacular Video

  Closing Keynote: Vernacular Video by Bruce Sterling on how media morph over time. Chief insight I’ve read before but never heard: to look forward in time, you have to also look twice as far back into the past.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Askew and Askance, 1992

  Since I’ve known how to draw or create, I have made self-portraits in words. I always include down the places I have been, and where I may go next. I also include how I identify myself. (this was made on a Mac and used to be part of the non-professional part of my portfolio, I’m…

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Self Portrait, 1993

  Age 23. I was dabbling with Micron Pigma .005 pens, an extremely cheap but fine-line pen I discovered a few years before. The style and attitude of this rendering I will leave the viewer to judge. Color added digitally, 1999.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  First Digital

  This is the first digital self portrait I ever did. An acquaintance was getting tattooed and my pal Erin took a picture of me in this biker vest – something I can’t imagine wearing otherwise, by the way. Anyway, I matted that to a postcard of some Italian Basilica (giving me a somewhat strange messianic…

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Emergency Room Wallpaper, 1997

  When it was slow in the California Hospital – L.A. ER I would sometimes play in Microsoft Paint. Operating System used: Windows 3.1.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Ferris in Repose

  From 1988, this is a charcoal sketch of my sister’s cat Ferris. Ferris, a girl, was still a kitten at the time. She is shown here lounging on my backpack.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Girl Illustration Photo (1989)

  I only have this photo to show I made this illustration. I used to draw, sketch, and paint headshots of women all the time. It was a real habit for a while after high school. Most of that work was pretty much useless – but this is an image of one illustration I’m kicking myself…

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Self Portraits 86 / 91

  The first self-portrait was executed in high school. I didn’t like high school. My appearance is anxious, as I no doubt was. The medium is marker on paper, and I watercolored on top of a photocopy of that marker drawing. It’s the first self portrait I ever made I was really happy with. It’s from…

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Watercolor Spacesuit

  I think I did this in about 1989, but I’m not totally sure on that. Pen and ink, with watercolored. I think I must have been thinking about Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s work when I started. I’m reminded again that watercolor is a heartless, well-nigh-impossible medium. Folks who can do it, even as hacks, have my…

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Strange Landscapes

  Exclamate in Desolation, Oxymandias Melancholia Revisited Parenthetical Postnuclear Mise En Scène The Holy Visitation of the Floating Asterisk of Concrete Giant Semicolon; Dusty, Arizona, 2106 A.D.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Watercolor Girl

  Ink and watercolor, Summer 1988, based on a pencil sketch of a friend.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Self-portrait photo, 1988

  Black and white self-portrait. I was 18, thus the incredibly self-conscious narcissism.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  “Art”

  I’m not sure what I think of these now. They’re interesting graphic designs, and definitely I used what I learned from them when I made my headers. I’m not sure they qualify as art. Untitled, 1997. Untitled. 11 June 2000.

• 
  Jan 28, 2011
  Receipt Poetry, 1999

  http://artlung.com/soundmedia/realpoetry.mp3

• 
  Jan 29, 2011
  Vampire

  Another oldie, an illustration enhanced with Photoshop. It makes me wish I had the original drawing.

• 
  Jan 29, 2011
  Prom Program, 1987

  For my High School Prom, I was asked to do the program. It was quite an honor. What I wanted to do was have a kiss featured. Here’s a sketch of what I presented: I used to consider it censorship, but I suppose that was my first big run-in with design and audience considerations. This…

• 
  Jan 29, 2011
  Animated GIFs

  Hey look! For no reasons! Ancient animated GIFs I made.

• 
  Jan 30, 2011
  Vertical Capital Letters

  After High School, I flailed. Which is to say I took classes at Mesa College without much of a focus. I enjoyed these classes. Drawing, History of Film, Psychology, Design, Architectural Drafting, Philosophy, Marketing, Broadcasting, Broadcast Studio Operations. This was in 1987-1988 — before we moved to Roanoke Virginia and I shifted my focus to…

• 
  Jan 30, 2011
  The Tan Punk, 1985

  High School. Loved to draw. Back of a notebook. Anger is an energy! I remember the marker – it was one of those intensely smelly Japanese markers. It was short and oh-so inky.

• 
  Jan 30, 2011
  Cigarette Man, 1985

  Another back of a notebook, like this one previously. I’m so glad my Mom saved these old papers.

• 
  Jan 30, 2011
  Brush Pen Doodles, 1988

  And here is more notebook detritus from my spotty post-High School academic career. From the evidence this was from my Philosophy class at Mesa College.

• 
  Jan 30, 2011
  1980s Punk

  Prior punks: tan punk, post-punk, cyberpunk, leather jacket girl punk.

• 
  Feb 01, 2011
  The Business Cycle

  Sometimes I took really, really pretty notes. Here’s “The Business Cycle” from the marketing class I took at Mesa College. It was held in one of the rooms in building B-100. I think I learned a fair amount in that class. For a seventeen year old, I think I did well. I really like the…

• 
  Feb 02, 2011
  Filtering a Podcast Feed with Yahoo Pipes

  I like podcasts quite a bit, and one of my favorites for many many years (at least since 2004) has been IT Conversations. If I loved all their stuff, all I have to do it load up iTunes and subscribe. If I’m old school I can get the RSS feed link and do Advanced ->…

• 
  Feb 02, 2011
  Professor Pidgeon

  Patrick Pidgeon was my Philosophy Professor at San Diego Mesa College in 1987. It was a great class and still ranks among my favorite in-class learning experiences. Pidgeon had a way of dissecting philosophical material, and especially language in a way that was challenging and engaging. It was such a good experience for me that…

• 
  Feb 02, 2011
  Notebook Cover, 1984

  More messy doodles from High School. I like some of the ink work here, as spot illustrations I really like them. I wonder, is anyone reading this?

• 
  Feb 02, 2011
  Redman

  Made with the Brushes app for Mom’s iPod Touch. It is rather small and awkward to work on, but I’m starting to get a sense of how to use it creatively. Update: I’ve added the Brushes video export to the New City blog: making of. It’s really fun to see the strokes.

• 
  Feb 02, 2011
  Leah’s Messenger/Laptop Bags

  Leahpeah has been making some really, really wonderful items in her etsy store.

• 
  Feb 03, 2011
  Virginia Landscape

  I have a lot of old images on my site that are unseen. Here’s one that I upsized from an older version. I remember making it in the late 1980s and scanned it in the 1990s. I also found pieces of what were old headers–from September 2002. I’ve recreated them from the images as 9/1/2002…

• 
  Feb 03, 2011
  Visualizing and Emerging Blog Content

  As I mentioned, I’ve been doing extensive reclamation of my blog archives in such a way that old headers get displayed. So you can see that in action for the Blog Archives from September 2002. The first row is is a set of buttons: back one year, back one month, archives for the current year,…

• 
  Feb 04, 2011
  Notebook Cover, 1985

  YET. ANOTHER. COVER. From High School. The kid in the uniform is called “The Punk” and I have a few drawings of him. Not particularly interesting in retrospect. The backstory for The Punk was something rather like Kick-Ass. Basically, a teenage kid, trying to be a “realistic” superhero. No powers, some cool gadgets. In some…

• 
  Feb 06, 2011
  Reagan in a concept car.

  President Ronald Reagan (born February 6, 1911) driving the GM Citation IV concept in 1984. via New City, a blog my friend Chris and I co-curate.

• 
  Feb 08, 2011
  Batman, 2011

  New sketch: Batman.

• 
  Feb 10, 2011
  Strange Landscapes #4. The F-clef misses her contrabassoon.

  The F-clef misses her contrabassoon. previously

• Feb 10, 2011
  Reading on the web

  Back in November I talked about using my Mom’s old iPod Touch. In 2009 I got a second generation Kindle as a gift for my birthday (I asked for it) and that got me reading a bit more, but not as much as I thought it was. I’m an avid Podcast listener, and I kept…

• Feb 11, 2011
  I cried when these people died.

  Which is to say, I cried when the following people who I never met in my life died. I’ve been thinking about this for about a week and this is my list: Stanley Kubrick. Andy Warhol. It’s a shorter list than I would have thought. I can’t remember specifically crying when any politicians died. For…

• Feb 11, 2011
  Headline of the Day: “Microsoft Buys Nokia for $0B”

  Read it: Microsoft Buys Nokia for $0B via Daring Fireball

• 
  Feb 12, 2011
  Sat. Sketch.

  This morning I was playing around with Brushes App on an iPod Touch. I just found out that the Brushes Viewer can export existing drawings at higher resolution, or even a stroke-by-stroke video. Play it below or watch it on Vimeo: Sat. Sketch..

• 
  Feb 14, 2011
  RoboCop Valentine by Dresden Codak

  Crossposted to New City.

• Feb 19, 2011
  TEN YEARS

  As of today I have been blogging for 10 years. Here’s my first post. I’ve had a website for 15 years now. In that time a lot has happened. I’ve gotten divorced. I’ve gotten married. I’ve been on the radio, twice. I became a stepfather. I’ve moved several many times. I founded several blogs and…

• 
  Mar 01, 2011
  Go West Young Man!

  Leah and I managed to get all the way across the country in just 4 days. Then we picked up the kids, piecemeal, and turned right around and went to her parents’ house in Southwestern Utah! It’s been a driving extravaganza for us and really a joyful trip all around. This fine morning I find…

• Mar 04, 2011
  “Push Again!”

  view this video on Flickr Grandpa: “I pushed down and nothing happened…” Grandma: “Push again!” This is from March 10, 2009. Futzing with the camera to take a photo of the flowers in the front yard, and a perfect microencapsulation of my grandparents and how they worked on things together. My Grandma had a pretty…

• 
  Mar 06, 2011
  Bas and Me plus Grief

  A nice post by Leah. For quite a while, and maybe even now, all photos of me have the character of Grief in the room.

• 
  Mar 07, 2011
  Mother Mary Comforts Me

  So here’s a photo from the room I’m staying in at Grandma’s house: And here’s a photo, maybe a year or so old, of my Grandmother: On Friday I opened an account for her on Facebook. She used to be an avid emailer. In fact, her email addresses was one of the first I used,…

• 
  Mar 07, 2011
  I only made this because Claire de Lune is a COFFEEHOUSE with no WiFi.

  (And I am not sure whether that is good or bad) (Good coffee though) (Thanks for reading)

• 
  Mar 07, 2011
  Workplace content filters are useless.

  Apparently Bluecoat‘s web content filtering product thinks my portfolio or my older portfolio have nudity on them. That is not true. I have never seen a workplace content filter that was worth the money paid for it. They always seem to make research harder.

• 
  Mar 08, 2011
  Batmobile by Chris Greazel

  Absolutely WONDERFUL Batmobile design by Chris Greazel over on our New City Blog.

• 
  Mar 08, 2011
  WebSanDiego Mailing List Visualization

  So I’m back in San Diego. And part of my identity when I lived here was starting and cultivating the websandiego mailing list. It started on ONElist, and they were bought by eGroups, and eventually Yahoo! where it is now. It all started in March of 1999. We’ve moved from Usenet and Friendster to MySpace,…

• 
  Mar 09, 2011
  Santa Claus! (in March)

  Hey look! Noodling in Brushes.app (when, exactly will I stop noodling in that program? NEVER!!!) has produced a holiday-themed image. Santa Claus! Holidays have been good to me since I was a kid. I loved to make custom greeting cards. Loved it! I got wonderfully positive feedback about them from anyone. I remember meticulously copying…

• 
  Mar 10, 2011
  Leah.

  Yes, that is a terrific photo of you, Leah.

• 
  Mar 11, 2011
  A Night Out

  Last night Leah, Erin (my friend of, uh, 23 years?), and I went out, and after dinner at CrazeeBurger, we landed at LeStats on Park, a coffeehouse that is open 24 hours. It was great to reconnect and hang out, and Leah even got some fabric out of the deal. Yes, I did some drawing….

• 
  Mar 14, 2011
  Ray at Night and Other Delights

  On Saturday night Leah, Alexandra, Tamara Leeper and I went out to Ray at Night, an art walk on Ray Street here in San Diego. I mentioned attending Ray at Night in 2003, but I’m not totally sure what year I first went. They’ve been putting it on for almost 10 years. Before we went…

• Mar 14, 2011
  Coffee Bean!

  The Coffee Bean & Tea has been good to me in the past two weeks. Here’s a coffee bean of thanks, courtesy, AGAIN, Brushes.app.

• Apr 28, 2011
  Enough with the death, please.

  On the day before yesterday, my grandmother, Jean (McCrainor) Crawford died peacefully at home. That makes my Grandma, Mom, and Grandpa all in the last two years. You can read a bit more about my Grandma in Leah’s post Grandma This Morning. You can read about my Mom in a lot of places, especially her…

• 
  May 04, 2011
  Everybody’s going surfing

  Water temperature is 62°F (16.7°C). A very nearly perfect break for me. Next: back to life, back to reality. Also: catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world. Related: Charlie don’t surf. However: I bodysurf at the beaches and swim at the cove. This ocean, this coast, this birthright of the citizens…

• 
  May 06, 2011
  Medication Board for Grandma

  In my Grandma’s last weeks, keeping track of her medications grew more complicated. She was unable to swallow some meds, and at other times refused them. Bedridden, her needs would change. This board was an effort to keep everything straight for all us caregivers. Also: San Diego Hospice was great.

• 
  May 12, 2011
  Jean Crawford Obituary

  Jean (McCrainor) Crawford, 90, of San Diego, beloved Mom and Grandma, passed away in her sleep in her Clairemont home on April 26, 2011. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska on September 20, 1920. She was the youngest of three daughters born to William and Emily McCrainor. Her father died when she was 3 and…

• 
  May 27, 2011
  Robin, Batman & Douglas Crockford

  From my commute viewing list. Crockford on JavaScript. Always enjoyable.

• 
  Jun 01, 2011
  Flowsheet

  Leah made this flowsheet. It was to help keep track of care for my Grandma in her final months. When did she eat? What were her vital signs? What medications did she take or not take? Leah did a really nice job with it. Leah is not a medical professional, but she’s the finest untrained,…

• 
  Jun 05, 2011
  Moorpark High School Graduation Panorama

  Moorpark High School Graduation

• 
  Jun 10, 2011
  What Has ArtLung Been Doing?

  What have I been doing? I’ve been taking photos with Instagram. It’s iPhone only. I want it for my kids on their Android phones. I’ve been working with I’m using jQuery Mobile and the jQuery tmpl library and Underscore.js and Backbone.js. I’ve been reading JavaScript Web Applications from O’Reilly. I now understand why and how…

• 
  Jun 12, 2011
  Leah.

  Wow.

• 
  Jun 13, 2011
  Visibone Mouse Pad, from 2005.

  I referred to it often. And I’ll be referring to it again now. Get one for yourself!

• 
  Jun 19, 2011
  Dad

  Happy Father’s Day, Dad. You are a fine person, and a dedicated person, and a wonderful father.

• 
  Jul 07, 2011
  New Header!

  The photo was taken with instagram by Brent Nelson at Art in the Streets a few weeks ago. The rest of the header is CSS. I also tweaked the code on the headers page to use delegate() properly.

• 
  Aug 26, 2011
  “Sorry, reblog is not an acceptable word.”

  Yes, I tumblr individually and as a collective.

• Sep 11, 2011
  I did not post in September 2011

  This is just a placeholder.

• 
  Oct 01, 2011
  My Leah

  taken at the Moorpark / Agoura game last night; originally on Instagram

• Oct 02, 2011
  Let’s get big stuff done.

  Innovation Starvation, a short essay by Neal Stephenson (via Bruce Sterling) Still, I worry that our inability to match the achievements of the 1960s space program might be symptomatic of a general failure of our society to get big things done. My parents and grandparents witnessed the creation of the airplane, the automobile, nuclear energy,…

• Oct 09, 2011
  Steve Jobs

  John Lilly: (Steve Jobs) was also a gifted, gifted operator. One of the struggles we were going through when he came back was that Apple was about the leakiest organization in history — it had gotten so bad that people were cavalier about it. In the face of all those leaks, I remember the first…

• 
  Oct 16, 2011
  I miss my Mom.
• Nov 11, 2011
  I did not post in November 2011

  This is just a placeholder.

• Dec 15, 2011
  Intuitive Interface

  Although, the user appears to be disappointed in the results of using this skeumorphic* interface.

• Dec 17, 2011
  2pac’s Pal on the 20x South Bus

  being a list of my tweets from last night THIS bus has a fellow claiming 2Pac as a friend and he’s alive. Arguing with fellow saying “Nig is DEAD.” They have opposing choruses too. Q:“Why you with a crazy girl?!” A:“Dude, I’m 36. She’s 21. She’s playing MY game.” This dialogue is GOLD. Mamet on…

• 
  Dec 18, 2011
  Me and Leah, Christmas
• 
  Dec 24, 2011
  Central California has some real beauty.

  Leah and I, as well as the 3 boys drove north to from Moorpark to Burlingame. It’s near the San Francisco Airport. It’s pretty here, but cold. Cold enough for me to look up a quote by Mark Twain. Sadly, the quote is not a true one. Mark Twain never said, “The coldest winter I…

• 
  Dec 26, 2011
  Did I mention Merry Christmas?

  Spent some time with this dog, in addition to all my stepkids and my lovely wife. It was a great time. Coming up next: 2012.

• Dec 26, 2011
  Thomas P.M. Barnett’s “New Map” Brief in 2002

  Via Thomas PM Barnett Thomas Barnett’s thinking has been inspirational to me for years. It’s, what, idealistic realpolitik? I love the word realpolitik.

• Dec 28, 2011
  Stew & The Negro Problem: Curse

  New album releases this month! Warning: Explicit Lyrics

• 
  Dec 31, 2011
  My Specialty is Roofing

  (I did not make this)