I’ve also realized, during my interview time, that I need to revamp my website (again, haha). The portfolio section needs major updating. Similarly, I don’t post to my blog as much anymore, so that needs to be secondary, and have my portfolio up front. Then a separate link to my blog. As well, I’ve been feverishly getting into photography. I’ve been way lazy updating Flickr, and currently I’m torn between using my Flickr account and having a photo-blog. I feel that Flickr images are too small, and I’m also too lazy to write the proper tags for EVERY image. I’m leaning towards photoblog… (I’m not even that good yet haha)

So ya, just that quick update. Stay tuned for a new site come September? I’ll shoot for there. I should be at a new job and living in a new place. I should also have a new site with an updated portfolio, then links to my personal blog, photo-blog, and possibly new city-blog-thing? I don’t know, but I’m pretty excited for new things this 2009.

Anyway I ran into those files while spring cleaning my harddrive and wanted to show you guys. Here’s my two favorite, but click the small one to see them all.

UPDATE: Back from Miami! If you want to see the pictures see my flickr. First real adventure with a DSLR and I think they came out really cool (some of em). Barbados is next week =)

Then on April 20th I’m flying down to Barbados to stay at the Crystal Cove Resort. That’s the trip I won from a Holiday Raffle! Should be a nice relaxing week after a (hopefully) hectic/fun week in Miami. And its All-Inclusive, so I don’t have to leave the resort!

Expect many pictures from my travels, and few updates. Especially to my twitter, which I will be neglecting. I don’t set-up twitter via my phone…I don’t like having the phone out while I’m with others.

I’m way past due on some obvious updates. I’ve created The Heavy Edition, as well as a few portfolio sites. Look for quick posts on those soon. On top of those and my usual updates, I want to start writing tutorials. Of course, they will be at what I’m good at: front-end design/development. They’ll be some ‘from photoshop to css’ tutorials, css tips and tricks, ‘how to write semantic html and css markup,’ … etc etc. The world could always use more, considering I’m often asked how to do these anyway.

So this sites not completely finished, so to close I’ll leave a short checklist:

- Finish Portfolio page
- Add form to Contact page
- Start writing some Tutorial posts
- Take more photos and post to Flickr more

His new work IV is merely a collection of many of his columns and interviews throughout his career, so he divides the book between things that are true (fact), things that might be true (speculation), and something that isn’t true (which feels more like speculation to me). The most intriguing section to me was things that might be true…this is where his real insight is realized, in his speculation. However, unique to this book are small hypothetical questions he adds before each Chapter. They aren’t really commentaries on culture or music, but they provide some interesting questions to ponder. Some of these hypotheticals are extremely well-posed, and I’d like to share a few of them with you, hopefully without getting in trouble for posting them. Read them all after the break…

Klosterman Hypothetical #1

Think of someone who is your friend (do not select your best friend, but make sure the person is someone you would classify as “considerably more than an acquaintance”).

This friend is going to be attacked by a grizzly bear.

Now, this person will survive this bear attack; that is guaranteed. There is a 100 percent chance that your friend will live. However, the extent of his injuries is unknown; he might receive nothing but a few superficial scratches, but he also might lose a limb (or multiple limbs). He might recover completely in twenty-four hours with nothing but a great story, or he might spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Somehow, you have the ability to stop this attack from happening. You can magically save your friend from the bear. But his (or her) salvation will come at a peculiar price: if you choose to stop the bear, it will always rain. For the rest of your life, wherever you go, it will be raining. sometimes it will pour and sometimes it will drizzle - but it will never not be raining. But it won’t rain over the totality of the earth, nor will the hydrological cycle be disrupted; these storm clouds will be isolated, and they will focus entirely on your specific whereabouts. You will never see the sun again.

Do you stop the bear and accept a lifetime of rain?

Klosterman Hypothetical #2

At the age of thirty, you suffer a blow to the skull. The head trauma leaves you with a rare form of partial amnesia - though you are otherwise fine, you’re completely missing five years from your life. You have no memory of anything that happened between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-eight. That period of your life is completely gone; you have no recollection of anything that occurred during that five-year gap.

You are told by friends and family that - when you were twenty-five - you (supposedly) became close friends with someone you met on the street. You possess numerous photos of you and this person, and everyone in your life insists that this individual was your best friend for two years. You were (allegedly) inseparable. In fact, you find several old letters and e-mails from this person that vaguely indicate you may have even shared a brief romantic relationship. But something happened between you and this individual when you were twenty-seven, and the friendship abruptly ended (and - apparently - you never told anyone what caused this schism, so it remains a mystery to all). The friend moved away soon after the incident, wholly disappearing from your day-to-day life. But you have no memory of any of this. Within the contest of your own mind, this person never even existed. There is tangible proof that you deeply loved this friend, but - whenever you look at their photography - all you see is a stranger.

Six weeks after your incident, you are informed that this person has suddenly died.

How sad do you feel?

Klosterman Hypothetical #3

Assume everything about your musical tastes was reversed overnight. Everything you once loved, you now hate; everything you once hated, you now love. For example, if your favorite band has always been R.E.M., they will suddenly sound awful to you; they will become the band you dislike the most. By the same token, if you’ve never been remotely interested in the work of Yes and Jethro Tull, those two groups will instantly seem fascinating. If you generally dislike jazz today, you’ll generally like jazz tomorrow. If you currently consider the first album by Veruca Salt to be slightly above average, you will abruptly find it to be slightly below average. Everything will become its opposite, but everything will remain in balance (and the rest of your personality will remain unchanged). So - in all likelihood - you won’t love music any less (or any more) than you do right now. There will still be artists you love and who make you happy; they will merely be all the artists you currently find unlistenable.

Now, I concede that this transformation would make you unhappy.

But explain why.

Klosterman Hypothetical #4

Think about your life.

Think about the greatest thing you have ever done, and think about the worst thing you have ever done. Try to remember what motivated you to do the former, and try to remember what motivated you to do the latter.

How similar are these two motives?

I highly suggest you go buy the book because it’s truly a great read.

I am going to get more into photography and I’m getting a good beginner camera for Christmas, but… I’m not sure which one to get!! I’ve check a million sites and reviews. It’s come down to Portability vs Functionality. The Canon G10 I would be able to take with me everywhere in a coat/sweatshirt pocket, for when I head into the city with friends or go to parties, and attempt to take quality photography rather than the usual people-hanging-out photos. It’s one of the best cameras just underneath DSLR quality. I would use it probably 5x more than the EOS because of this, what I would call, feature - size. 14mp on a great sensor that isn’t quite DSLR once again, but from the reviews I hear it takes real quality photos in bright light. It is quite grainy at low-ISOs and not the best for low-light however. Also the depth-of-field in point-n-shoot cameras is too large for a nice bokeh effect, and I’m a fan of portrait photography.

Now the Canon EOS XT(i) Digital Rebel will give me much more functionality, being an entry level DSLR and having an actual lens. The quality of the photos will be better and I’d be able to use it in low-light and high ISOs, and have a nice bokeh effect if thats what I want. However, like all DSLRs, it’s not even jacket-pocketable, so taking it with me is a bigger hassle. I can’t just have it when going to hang with friends in the city, or bring it to a concert where I’m in the crowd. It would mainly be used when I took the time of day to go out and shoot, or bring it with me to hang with friends and try not to annoy them as I take pictures all night long. However the quality would most likely be far superior to that of the G10.

So…is the amount I would use the G10 out-weigh the quality of the EOS XT? I’m not sure, and I need to figure it out by Saturday! (camera sales end)

Update: So I decided to go with the DSLR. If I really want to get into photography I should get a decent beginners camera that can only make me better and allow me to upgrade. Store deal also got me an extra telephoto lens! Unfortunately I must wait till Christmas day to have it, but expect a new Flickr to emerge when I do have it. Also a photo section on my site here.

This is always something that bugged me. Regardless of what you think of Youtube, it’s the most widely used video sharing site and it’s here to stay. I personally like other video sites for their nicer visual player, but many people enjoy Youtube’s. I personally think it’s a little bulky, but it is easy to use. However, the design leaves something to be desired, so I tried my hand at updating it.

I kept the same size and overall look. I merely updated it to be more consistent, cleaner and crisper. It provides a nicer overall design that most people won’t find agitating to have within their clear websites. Most notable are the toned-down background and simpler slider. Here is a side-by-side comparison, with my updated bar on top:

This could be accomplished by Youtube easily with some small updates to their glyphs. A little bit goes a long way.

PS - I still hate WoW

• Mac OSX functionality…c’mon Microsoft
• Harddrive functionality sans hack
• Smart playlists & editing playlists on the fly
• Custom EQ & Better ratings system per track
• Alarm clock & Countdown timer
• More codec support (.aiff & .wav especially)
• The price needs to be lower than the ipod if it ever wants to compete
• Also somebody suggested that it have a simple RSS-reader. That would be amazing.

If these came true I might actually get one…but as it is already the same price as an iPod with half the functionality, it will never take a bigger piece of that pmp marketshare.

A month or so ago I made a post about Favtape and discussed other music websites, like its ancestor Muxtape. Well I’m pleased to announce my new favorite music site: Grooveshark. Grooveshark is a flash-based web application that works very much like an ipod…someone elses ipod that has 5 million songs uploaded. It has a similar look and feel as an itunes/ipod mashup, with it’s own unique styling. And as an interface designer/developer I have to say I’m in love with the design. Very sleek, smooth, and crisp design that is easy to navigate and use. The best part about it? It’s extremely fast for a Flash site. I’m not sure how they managed that but the animations and everything are very smooth.

Grooveshark also has an Autoplay feature, which makes it basically a new (more stylish) Pandora. And unlike Pandora, Grooveshark allows you to add (via drag&drop no less) songs into the playlist wherever you’d like. You can vote yay or nay on whatever song you want to come out with a good playlist. They also have a social network of sorts where you can favorite tracks and see others playlists and save and share playlists and songs…etc. I’m not sure if I’ll use this feature but I’m sure plenty of others will. Also, the advertising is out of your way and unobtrusive…awesome.

Something I think they need to add is more links for artists. There should be a link to the artist’s homepage, their amazon page (maybe a buy this cd button), maybe a link to their itunes, and also their last.fm page. Also the lyrics of the song would be a fun tool. And speaking of last.fm, it would be great (read: probably won’t happen) if the tracks you listen to could be scrobbled to your last.fm.

Grooveshark is still in ‘beta’ but instead they call themselves Grooveshark ‘lite.’ I like it, I think it works. There is a flood of beta apps around and I think it helps establish them better. But even still, the app works perfectly and I highly recommend it. Maybe autoplay your next party?