Ostrich Nap Pillow
I’d had my share of days where I just HAD to take a nap in the middle of the day to keep going. I envy countries that have longer lunch and nap breaks in the middle of the day. Italy? France? Mexico? Anyway, I stumbled across this odd nap pillow where you can bury your head like an Ostrich. I know this wouldn’t work for me…I’d end up suffocating myself and my coworkers would end up finding me dead in this thing 4 days later. (via Cool Hunting)
read moreSpiral lounge chair
For my woodshop class in Art school I made a wooden stool shaped like a duck. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world until I actually took it home and found out (1) I didn’t make it very comfortable to sit on and (2) the thing weighed a ton. Meanwhile, other people can build amazing looking spiral lounge chairs like the one above. Go figure. I get the last laugh though…I bet that thing weighs more than my wooden duck stool. Hmmmpf! (via Toxel)
read moreBig Island
So we’re back from our short tiny vacation to the Big Island. As always it felt SO short…really, it was just 2 full days there, so it wasn’t a big trip. In hindsight I think an extra full day there would have been nice. We stayed the Hilton Waikoloa Village which turned out to be really nice despite the fact the place is over 20 years old now. I was expecting to be disappointed because I remember going there as a teenager when the place was brand new. As it turned out, I think we were all happy with the stay. The view was...
read moreBirthday
Another birthday gone…not just any birthday but it was the big FOUR ZERO. As a student put it recently, “Oh I didn’t know you were so OLD!” It’s one of those benchmark years where you have to look back and evaluate life a little bit. Well, as it turned out, today passed uneventfully. We took Kingston to the park and then spent the afternoon at a farewell party for a colleague over at the college. No real attention on me. It’s ok. I’m not one for fanfare. I think I might have been traumatized in my...
read moreAdvice for my son
I ran into a former student last week who was graduating and heading off to an art academy in the Mainland. She was a little nervous about it. I offered her some encouragement to reach for the stars. It got me thinking about what advice I’d like to give Kingston one day as he starts encountering issues in his lifetime. I guess God willing, I’ll be around to impart my own wisdom to him in his adult years, but just in case…it’s probably not a bad idea to start listing some ideas down isn’t it? I’m no Mahatma...
read moreFull circle
Here I am a few days away from turning 40…Kingston is napping and I’m hungry. There’s nothing in our refrigerator. I realize I’ve come full circle. In my college days I’d be too lazy to cook with nothing in my fridge. So I’d have a cup noodle. Now, I’m married, have a kid…too lazy to cook. Nothing in my fridge. So I’m heating up a cup noodle. And we wonder why I’ve lost 8 lbs in the last year?
read morePhotoshop Apps
Apparently the Photoshop Apps I’ve been hearing about via NAPP are now available on iTunes. I’m on the fence whether I’ll get them all but I think I’ll try them if only for the fun of it. One of the apps let’s you pick your Photoshop tools from the iPad, another helps you mix colors just like you would on a paint easel, and I believe the final one lets you draw on your iPad and then be able to import it straight to your desktop Photoshop. A bit gimmicky, but it definitely opens up possibilities about how these...
read moreHow Loading Time affects your Bottom Line
Another infographic demonstrating how your site’s loading time can affect your bottom line. It’s definitely food for thought. I mean, reducing a site’s load time has been something web designers have been doing since forever, but I did personally notice that around 2003 – 2006 that agenda seemed to have been temporarily brushed aside a bit when Flash websites were getting fancier and fancier and the upsurgence in broadband allowed us to get away with better looking graphics. Since then, the tide has gradually shifted...
read moreAnother semester over…
So the Spring semester of teaching finished last week. It was an encouraging semester…I’m aware of at least a handful of students I’ve taught this semester have been accepted into the program to go on as future animators or interface designers. Attendance this semester was a little better. I actually got most of them to show up for perfect attendance until they started to drop out like flies in the last project. I know, I really should impose stricter penalties for attendance but I couldn’t be bothered chasing down who I...
read morePlay day
So I brought Kingston to a playgroup today. Easter Seals offered us as a weekly opportunity for him to get some social interaction before he starts preschool. It turned out pretty cool. I got to see how my kid handles himself around others his age…will he be a pushover, a loner, a bully? Turns out he wasn’t so bad. He initially didn’t know how to react. Ended up on his back spread eagle in on the floor when we first walked in but it took him about 30 seconds to get up and do a beeline towards the nearest box of cars and trucks....
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LoweStudio Inc was founded by me, Raphael Lowe, a Honolulu based illustrator and web designer. I presently design and manage a few dozen commercial websites, but my main focus these days is acting as the head developer for Kapiolani Community College and teaching