Here’s a cute little social experiment where a little autonomous robot is set out into Central Park guided only by random passerbys. Neat little happy story. Check out the video on their page. (via Tweenbots)

This flu remains persistent.  I might wake up feeling pretty good, but an hour or two into the day I start feeling crappy here and there.  It might be something where like I feel my sinus burning slightly, or I feel a dull ache in my right lower jaw.  What’s irritating is that it’s not so horrible I can’t function, BUT it’s JUST enough annoyance that I just don’t feel like working at all.

A client of mine summed up the problem pretty well yesterday. She suggested my muse just wasn’t available to me now when I’m under the weather.  Well…. my muse is not only unavailable, I think she’s just about checked out and left town.  I don’t feel creative at all right now.

I have this one website project where a client has paid me good money to get this done.  Day after day I’d sit here for hours and I just can’t do it…I’m completely blocked.  All I can think of is my burning sinuses and my throbbing teeth.  UGH!  It be one thing if I just had a data-entry job just punching numbers into a computer and not having to think.  But it’s another thing trying to create something beautiful when your just not all here.

I really don’t know what to do but to just force my way through this….come up with something that will keep the project moving ahead until my head clears up and my muse decides to come back from her vacation cruise.

Who say’s nothing is free?  Here’s a good compilation of resources where you can get free vector graphics for any art projects you might have. Vector graphics allow you to stretch, pull, yank, enlarge, recolor, etc without any degredation in quality. (via Tutorialblog)

I’ve recovered about 90% – 95% of my flu.  There’s a lot of hoopla these days over the swine flu. Who knows what type I had…I’ll just call it the “sucky flu” because it really sucked ass. There were times I really wished to die I keed you not.  A friend of mine told me, “oh when you get to the point you feel like dieing is when you usually feel better the next day”.  I thought to myself, “Hmmm…nope, I think I felt like dieing for a few days now.”

Now I’m just left with an occasional cough and about a week’s worth of backlog projects. Not TOO bad I suppose.

I did manage to pull out the new camera for some shooting this weekend. Got some new kid shots of course, but my favorite so far is this one I took of my dad.  Yup, that’s Grandpa Lowe.  See the resemblence?  Anyway, this shot was taken handheld with no flash at ISO1600.  The camera pulled it off pretty well I’d say.  Can’t wait to feel well enough to take it out to some park and really experiment with it!

The doctor said I have the flu.  Nothing I can do about it except to let this virus run its course.  Ugh I’ve never felt this bad in years.  There are moments I honestly think killing myself would be a relief I swear.

I picked it up from my boy. EVERYone has been telling me the same thing, “this is but the first of many flu’s you’re going to get up until he passes 3rd grade”.  Great.  He’s going to get sick for 2 days and then pass it on to me where I’ll get sick for 2 weeks.  That’s just what happened this time around.

Here’s where I’ve noticed some differences.

The baby gets sick:

• Mom & Dad come the rescue, he gets hugs and comfort when he’s crying & coughing.
• He gets fed whenever he’s hungry.

Daddy gets sick:

• Dad gets pushed out to sleep in the living room so that Mom and Baby don’t get sick
• Nobody wants to touch Daddy much less give him any hugs
• Daddy still has to feed the enemy the baby who made him sick in the first place

How sick am I?  Let’s just say my camera arrived yesterday in the mail – the very object I waited 3 years to pick up saving every scrap I could manage… right now I could care less about it.  I just want my head to clear.  UGH

I’m a sick as a dog. Fever, headache, cough, dizziness…the gamut of fun stuff.  It’s a relapse of the flu I had a week back I picked up from my little boy.

Such as it is, I’m not getting much done lately.  To my clients… please accept my apologies for any delays to your projects. I’ll do what I can to jump back on the projects as soon as possible.

Students in my 112 class. There will be no class tomorrow (April 22). Please continue making progress with your Flash projects and we’ll work towards critiques when we reconvene next week.

Athough not particularly new, I’ve always admired Hawaiian Air’s logo for quite some time now. I can’t seem to find information on who designed it though.  Anybody out there know?

It’s got a good balance – while it uses very common symbology I see all the time with Hawaiian logos, this one with the profile of the woman feels very friendly and positive to me. The colors is nice too…especially set against the tail of their planes.

The type feels a little retro to me. Although I do like the weight of it next to the mark.

Nice work whomever did this!

Anybody notice that Jack in the Box has been using a new logo as well lately? I really like it as well.  The old one has this 80′s-ish balloony font that needed to go, while the new one has a more contemporary 3D box feel to it mixed in with some nice font that reminds me of House Industries fonts.

I even like the fact it’s off kilter a bit…that’s probably intentional to leave enough space for the smiling tail of the “K”.  Not everyone likes it.  More discussion about the Jack logo can be found on Brand New

This was an experiment to see how many of you I could get to yawn while looking at this image.  Pffft, bullshit you say?

You’re right, this was actually a photo from the collection of photographer Peter Funch who apparently stakes out New York City streets two weeks at a time taking photos and then composites them into a single image using Photoshop.  I like some of the other patterns he has…the ones with all the nurses walking around, all the homeless people pushing their carts, or the one where the pimp was caught with all the other ladies in pink.

Amazing what you can do if you had the patience eh?

Whilst I’m in the photography mood lately, I thought I’d mention this list of 50 Great Photographers put together by HONGKIAT.  I looked thought a few so far and you can color me impressed.

I’m still not sure why great photographers feel like they have to rely on annoying Flash websites with bizarre navigational puzzles you have to try figure out each time, but nonetheless these photos are truly inspirational.

It really gets me amped up….when is my camera coming in the mail damnit!

FINALLY, I’ve nailed the head on this coffin once and for all.  I finally clicked the “order” button today to pick up a new Canon camera. I’ve been looking and drooling over all this new camera goodness for 3 years now.  I figured, heck, Uncle Sam was generous to me this year, I deserve something for myself for a change.  “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough…. and damnit, I’m going to get this camera”

Despite really being attracted to the Nikon camp because I think they’ve had some exciting momentum lately and I like their focusing strengths, I just have TOO many friends who have Canon gear to ignore the fact I’d be better helped and supported sticking to the Canon side.

Oh I can’t wait!   Shit….now I have NO excuse at all when I take shitty photos. (photo from DPreview)

How was your Easter weekend spent? I spent mine in bed with a snotty nose, splitting headache and aching body parts.

Other people, like artist Franc Grom spent the time drilling a billion and one tiny holes into perfectly fine eggshells. The result is actually quite amazing.  I wouldn’t mind having one if I didn’t know my wife would crush it to bits the instant she tried to “dust” while cleaning house, just like the rest of my toy collection she’s “cleaned”.

Bitter?  NOOOOO!  (Photo via Boston.com)