I’ve been losing weight lately.  No in fact, I haven’t been running or lifting weights since before my ear surgery back in November.  No, I’m still eating crappy McDonald’s lunches on my way between meetings and classes.  I’m now lighter then I’ve been in yeeeears.

What’s the secret?  I call it the Kingston diet.  It’s a program where you get yourself a 1 month old that will somehow manage to cry just at the moment where your head hits the pillow, or when you decide you feel like you need to eat something.

Try it, you’ll like it.  No money back.

You know when I was a kid I distinctly remember being fascinated by new crayons.  I mean they just looked so perfect and cool when they were sitting in a new box next to each other…everything so matched with the next color.  I hated using them because then it just somehow spoiled the effect.  Disturbed huh?  Look, I daydreamed a lot as a kid.

Anyway, this artist does his thing using aligned crayons to create his portraits and artwork.  I’m feeling the old OCD feeling rise back up in me, “My precious….crayons, oh so perfect crayons!” (via: Cristian Faur)

There was a stealth release of one of my website projects.  I completed this project for Kapiolani Community College more towards Summer of last year but it took a while for them to go through the process of getting it approved and online.  It’s nice to see it finally show face.

I kept it pretty simple, relying mostly on the mood of the student photos that we had.  God, CSS coding made this way easier to produce then the old-school method. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being amazed at how much simpler some things are in web-design.

I keep getting asked, “How’s fatherhood?”

Here’s some of the experiences I’ve found so far in this first month…let’s see:

1. You get absolutely no attention from the get-go.  I think right from the hospital fathers get a sign of what’s to come.  They feed the baby and bring full meals for the mom.  Meanwhile dad sits on the side and just stares at them eat.
2. Right now, my house is full of gifts for the little one, and even some for the mom.  Dad?  I’m here on standby to help carry the gifts for them.
3. The baby is doing fine. But he’s nothing but a pooping machine right now. When he’s sleeping, he’s an angel.  When he’s awake, he’s a little growling Hulk.  Dad can try jumping around, making all the goofiest faces he can, buy all the fanciest toys he can find right now, and STILL, the little guy would prefer sleeping in mom’s arms.
4. Keeping a baby happy is a bit like having the world’s most sophisticated Tamagotchi without any manuals.  One time he was crying so inconsolably I couldn’t get him to stop no matter every which way I flipped him over.  Mom picked him up and figured “oh he just probably has gas”.  Sure enough, he rips a couple of loud ones and then the house is quiet again.  WTF!

Sigh.  That’s alright, I’ve had this period documented. Kingston, one day I’ll get my payback on this period.  Bwaaahahahaha.

Concept artwork by Alex Broeckel.  Neat stuff there.   Reminds me I gotta get some prints like this up on my wall.  (via AlexBroeckel.com)

I needed a little humor today. I ran across this little clip. As cheesy as it is, it’s got a bit of oh-so-painful truth to the experiences those of us in graphic design face.  Where is the Graphic Avenger when you need him?

Yeah I know…I’ve been sort of remiss from posting up much lately.  Sorry about that.  For obvious reasons (below) I’ve been juggling being a new father and trying to finish up some major deadlines at the same time.

Plus…it’s coming up to tax season which is always NOT fun.  I dunno though…if all goes as originally planned by my tax guy last year, I should see some significant changes to my taxes this year.  But…I digress.

I thought the vid above caught my eye.  I don’t know if this was done the traditional way via just stop-motion and pencil sketches, but I wondered to myself if this sort of treatment could be done in Flash?  Maybe so…it’d be interesting to try.  (via Colectiva)

Here are fairly recent photos of the little guy…. oh to have such a carefree existence again

Kinda crazy-busy for me lately.  On top of work, being a new father has been challenging.  I liken parts of fatherhood a bit like getting a new gift surprise every 3 or 4 hours — wrapped up in a nice warm steamy bundle of diapers. You never know what you’re going to get.

Anyway, here’s just a couple of samples of recent projects I’ve been working on.

I’ve been working with this organization CARH for the past few months helping them get some new logo and branding. It’s been challenging…a new website should be up within the next week or two.

Consumer Service Analysis is a “mystery shopping” company where they send anonymous people into a retail or service business so that they can help the management review the their level of service.  This logo is one of the few type-oriented logo designs I’ve done.