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February 28, 2005

The Domestic Life

I've become my worst nightmare: the suburban housewife. With the kids in school and the husband away at work, my life has become routine and stationary, like a Keanu Reeves facial expression. I'm putting up designs for a newly-renovated bathroom. I'm preparing dinner four hours in advance. I make sure the cookie jar is never empty. I exercise on the NordicTrack for thirty minutes while Debbie Travis gives her next victim a makeover. If I had blonde hair and waxed legs I might as well be fucking the gardener and driving a Ford AeroStar. Do they still make those?

Posted by Charlie at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

ことば

For those of you who are aspiring polyglots like myself, I have stumbled upon the coolest little learning tool. It's called Kotoba, it's easy to use, and you can customize it with different dictionaries, so if you want to brush up on your Japanese, or Chinese, or French, you sotally can.

Posted by Charlie at 01:39 AM | Comments (1)

February 24, 2005

Ashlee Smiled At Me

Summer has arrived in Seattle, four months earlier than expected. Pretty bois, arisen from winter hibernation, are now spilling into the streets in tight t-shirts and designer shades. Slackers like myself have invaded Alki, sunbathing in the sands. Japanese tourists have rampaged downtown, gripping their digital cameras, maps, and shopping bags. Evidently Coach is back in style. Liz and I had fun people-watching during lunch. I found out I have really high standards in guys. There was this hot guy eating lunch with his co-workers; I saw a City badge so I think I'm gonna go stake out Key Tower tomorrow.

I was in downtown taking pictures for this project that I'm working on, and the awesome weather was a perfect opportunity to add some much-needed pigment to my skin. I think I walked like ten miles snapping photos, from Pioneer Square to Belltown to the Pier, and somehow I ended up near the Paramount, where I ran into Ashlee Simpson. Strangely enough she was by herself. She gave me a smile; I gave her a polite nod, then went back to my photo taking, while she went into the Paramount. She's really pretty in person, I must say, although I would not know how to sing any of her songs if my life depended on it. Evidently she has a "concert" in town tonight.

An early summer also entails allergy season arriving two months early, and thus I had to make a quick retreat home in a fit of sneezes and runny noses. I think I had a pretty productive day today, minor celebrity sightings aside. See, if I had ran into someone like Erik Spiekermann or Debbie Travis, I would've shat in my pants.

Posted by Charlie at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

New iPod minis

Not that this is a cause for celebration or anything, but Apple just updated their line of iPod minis with a higher-capacity hard drive and longer battery life. They also got rid of the gold iPod mini; evidently it wasn't selling as well as they had hoped. They're small, cute, light - get one now!

Posted by Charlie at 06:05 PM

shhhhh...

I'm having way too much fun with this.

Posted by Charlie at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

Pulling Out The Guns

I can never say that I am above accepting help, but if and when I do it's going to have to be on my terms. It's a sad, hard fact: It's not what you know, but rather WHO you know that greatly determines your success in life. I absolutely detest people (read: jealous) who use the networking card in order to gain that awesome job or contract. I've always been one to seek out positions on my own without the help of others since I'm so stubborn when it comes to asking people for favors. I still can't even bring myself to ask for rides, preferring still to take the bus or taxi. It's a rewarding feeling, knowing that you accomplished something based totally on your merit, portfolio, or professional credentials, and not just because your father is friends with the CEO.

Well, now I'm backed into a corner. My finances are finally starting to run dry, and I can't look for a job right now because I am going to be on the road in about a month. It just wouldn't be feasible for for prospective employers to hire me knowing that I will be leaving them by month's end. It sucks, being in this transitory stage. To that end, and although I hate myself for doing this, I've asked one of my mom's best friends for advice. She and her husband flew over from Thailand this past weekend to visit their son, and spent the night at our house while she was in Seattle. I gave her my resume to see if she can forward my info to some of her many powerful contacts in Thailand. Although I am not expecting much, come June I might be on my way working for a marketing firm in Bangkok. I need something to keep me occupied before I make that giant leap into graduate studies.

Posted by Charlie at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2005

Ho Hum...

I'm floating down a lazy stream on an innertube, the sunshine bathing my body with its golden warmth. The waters are calm and clear; the skies are blue. I'm listening to my iPod Shuffle and it's currently playing Kristy MacColl's 'In These Shoes.' I am not concerned where this innertube will eventually carry me; I'm too busy studying the ripples in the water and staring at the darting fish. Life is good.

Posted by Charlie at 03:53 PM | Comments (1)

February 20, 2005

Wacky Weather Water Works

Meteorologists have all said that Seattle will be covered with rain clouds this weekend, but so far I have not seen any sign of rain, or of clouds for that matter. Has summer arrived here early, or what? The skies are clear and the sun is bright; I can see the Cascades from my bedroom window and the frame that they create around downtown is a visual treat.

Posted by Charlie at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2005

Meta Typefacing

I recently broke down and purchased Meta after years of promising to myself that I would not pay such a ridiculous amount of money for a typeface. I'm now having a fun time updating my resumes and various documents to fit this ten-year trend in typographic design. My purchase may have been ill-timed, however. People are starting to graduate to Unit, Meta's older, more mature sibling. Damn.

Posted by Charlie at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2005

MANPLUS 4EVA

Posted by Charlie at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

Transexuals and Wood

Matt made me this uber-cool art piece out of newspaper clippings of mixed-race transexual escort ads glazed on a 1x4. I love it when people put the thought and energy into creating gifts such as this. My mom is probably the most unmaterialistic person I know; she never asks for anything fancy for her birthday, but she does request that I write a poem or paint a picture or compose a song for her. It's been a long tradition that I have, on more than one occasion, griped about, but in retrospect I appreciate her push for me to be more artistic and her lessons on the material world.

Posted by Charlie at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

R.I.P.

MANPLUS' last show will be this Monday, February 14th, 2005. It has been a great ride, filled with awesome memories of screaming fans, drunk old men, shirtless Asian drummer hotties, and horrible costumes. Jared decided that it was time to take on a new direction in his music; after all, all four of us are at some sort of transitory periods of our lives, and while MANPLUS was the glue that kept us together, creatively, with every beginning there is an inevitable ending. There will be tears tomorrow, but it's also an exciting opportunity for new creative challenges. It'll be fun to come up with new songs that are more... chipper in nature.

Posted by Charlie at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

At Its Finest

Celebrating Fat Tuesday in Seattle really isn't anything to boast about; this is a town that - with its strong liberal atmosphere and strong GBLT community - has only ONE lesbian bar. Nonetheless, it seemed as if the entire population of this quaint city was in a celebratory mood. In the beginning of the night in Pioneer Square there were more cops walking around than one can shake a stick at. As the night wore on, however, the streets began filling up quite considerably with inconsiderate drunks. Pioneer Square was crazy! Bryce's band was playing at the Central that night, so we got there early to get our drinking started. We were already a little buzzed from happy hour at Von's, but after the 2-mile walk from Belltown we sobered up quite nicely to begin a second round. After a few cups of really bad Long Islands, Chandra and I went to the Fenix (you know, the club owned by Aidan Shaw of Sex and the City) to dance our silly silly asses off, and came back in time to catch Bryce's set. They were awesome, and the entire time I was mesmerized by what it looked like to be Booga's male counterpart: an eclectic clothes wearing, trumpet playing hapa hotcake. To top the night off, I met Captain Morgan, someone for whom I great respect for. He was bomb-diggity.

Posted by Charlie at 01:40 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2005

The Outsourcing of Design

These days, with a computer and several hundred dollars in computer design programs anyone can call themselves a designer. Gone are the days with designers hunching over their light tables, x-acto knives in hand, meticulously carving out letterforms to be typeset. Gone are the all-nighters of trying to make sure all the acetate plates are properly aligned and registered. Although the computer is seen as the graphic designer's best tool these days, it has raised an interesting and note-worthy issue.

Go online these days, and you'll find websites that will create custom logos for as little as $75. Some of these companies are charging as little as $50 for a custom-built, custom-designed webpage. This may seem like a lucrative deal to the prospective customer, but to me this is bullshit. Browsing their portfolios, anyone can see that their work is mediocre, amateurish at best. There is no consideration for the shape of the letterform; no grid systems; abundant usage of illegible typefaces. I can't believe these people are in business. And the fact that people are actually paying for their services, well, that just puts me over the edge. Whatever happened to the formally trained designer? What about influences and teachings of Tschichold, Weingart, Morris, Rand, Glazer, Bernhard, Marinetti, Lissitzky, Rodchenko, Bass, among others? These names are now lost in a sea of bad design, a reflective memory of better times when superstar designers existed. Nowadays names like Mau, Koolhaas, Scher, Doblin, Kehl, and Kamekura are overshadowed by the likes of Armani, Versace, and McCartney.

Sometimes I wonder if the career track that I'm taking is the right one for me. I mean, it's good to know that I will be making on average a 6-figure salary once I'm out of grad school, but at the same time I will be competing in the same field as these do-it-yourself designers and catering to clients who don't understand the concepts of proper visual communication. It seems are currently undergoing a state of transition in the world of visual communication, and I think pursuing a career of designing logotypes, brochures, magazine layouts, and webpages will become a lifetime of pursuing low-paying projects. I'm really not sure what the next wave in design will bring: Broadcast design? Motion graphics? Medical imaging? Who knows. We'll find out when it's here, and I hope I'm on the bandwagon when it does. 

Posted by Charlie at 06:23 PM

February 07, 2005

Motion Graphics

Posted by Charlie at 02:19 AM | Comments (1)

February 05, 2005

Drunkards With Webcams

Last night was the most fun I've had in a while. With a case of beer, a laptop, a video camera, and several friends willing to make silly in front of the lens, virtually anyone can turn a low Friday night into a fun-filled event. We recorded approximately thirty minutes of us dancing and being silly, and once all of the editing is done, Phil is going to send it over to his friends' internet media companies. We're all going to be famous!

Posted by Charlie at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2005

Gay Marriage in New York

The New York Supreme Court ruled today that gay couples must be allowed to marry. Awesome news.

Posted by Charlie at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2005

Gasworks

Seattle has been going through some unusually warm weather lately. Temperatures are at record highs, and during a period synonymous with snow and ice, people are wandering out to the beach side in their shorts and shades. I'm not complaining. Taking advantage of the natural lighting, Jared and I drove to Gasworks Park to take promotional pictures for the Generation MIX Tour. I think we had a little too much fun; we were starting to attract curious onlookers with our displays of juvnille delinquency.

Posted by Charlie at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2005

New PowerBooks

Well, it looks like the rumors for a G5 PowerBook can be put on hold for a while. Apple introduced yesterday with what might be the last update to the G4 PowerBook line, with improvements such as a (slightly) faster processor, 512MB standard RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, new trackpad features, and a higher capacity hard drive. If there was any time to buy a PowerBook, it would be now; I have a feeling the G5 won't be out for a while. A long while.

Posted by Charlie at 10:17 AM