Say What?!

Giving Bri a little "Edge"

2009-09-26T17:18:00.004-04:00

This was just a little photoshop experiment to jazz up a quick picture of Brianna in her skates on the front porch. Even she likes the embellished picture better.

Thumbnail Sketches

2009-08-30T23:32:00.005-04:00

Very nice fall-like day and peace and quiet inspired a few sketches. I need to get back into the habit of doing this.

UROL #6: Sweat Factor

2009-06-27T15:41:00.004-04:00

Time for a new entry. I'm not sure whether or not this qualifies as a UROL, but after sweating 10 minutes after going outside to wash the car, I couldn't help but create a new entry.

Sweat Factor is a single measure used instead of temperature or humidity and is the true measure of just how freakin hot it is on any given day.

Sweat Factor = 1000 / # of minutes before you begin to sweat. The lower the amount of time it takes, the higher the sweat factor. For me, today's sweat factor is a whopping 100. Early in the week it was closer to 1!

Obviously, this has ZERO science behind it, but I feel this is a truer measure of what you really want to know at the beginning of each day...is it a multiple shower day. Hmmm....maybe that's another measure to be considered.

Unwritten Rule of Life #6: I am nothing without my PC

2009-05-20T23:33:00.002-04:00

Rule #6: Work in an IT field is virtually impossible without a computer.

And even if you have said computer, you better be able to log into it or it is worse than not having a computer in the first place. I'd have to say it's a form of "Techie Torture". You're staring at a perfectly capable PC that is perfectly incapable of helping you get any work done.

What's equally torturous is watching hundreds of e-mails pour into your Blackberry and not being able to reply to any of them because your inbox overflowed it's limits because you can't log into it to delete the incoming barrage of e-mail. Note to self...prior to having your PC reconfigured, clean out your inbox, dummie.

Well, that's my rant for the day. I'm off to sharpen my pencil.

Unwritten Rule of Life #5: Children Smarter?!

2009-05-19T23:45:00.006-04:00

Rule #5: Children will always think they are smarter than their parents.

nuf sed.

Unwritten Rule of Life #4: Tailgating

2009-05-19T20:41:00.004-04:00

Rule #4: Unless you are at Daytona turning laps at 185 mph, tailgating on the interstate will not get you there faster.

I've seen this over and over again in medium to heavy rush hour traffic, drivers will be cruising along in the high speed lane keeping a reasonably safe distance between them and the car in front only to have someone tailgate them. I assume this is an attempt to move them out of the way but I have no clue where they expect this person to go. Some believe they can get a nice draft going, but I seriously doubt this is possible at 55 mph behind anything other than a semi. And even then, your bumper would need to be touching the semi's Yosemite Sam mudflaps.

A big part of the reason there is heavy traffic in the first place (other than the obvious) is all of the braking that occurs. If everyone would just be a tad more patient, we might all get there quicker.

Exception to the Rule: This rule does not apply if you've got someone in front of you in the left lane doing 15 mph below the speed limit. This could be the start of another rule on its own, but I'm not going there today.

Unwritten Rule of Life #3 - The Man Toilet

2009-05-17T17:15:00.003-04:00

Rule #3: Under no circumstances is it ever OK to look anywhere but forward when standing at the urinal.

I believe this one is reasonably self explanatory, but for the curious minds out there I'll elaborate. So, I'm taking a break from the muzak prior to Star Trek and I happen to notice out of my peripheral vision (trust me it was my peripheral vision because I follow the rules), a kid staring at me from the left. So, what exactly is the appropriate response in this situation. "Hey, what are you looking at?!" probably wouldn't be the best. Oh, and no worries, this was one of those restrooms with the nice little partitions between stalls. :-) Needless to say, I ignored him and got back in time for the movie.

To reiterate, it is not OK to look anywhere but forward in this situation. This is why some of the "higher class" restrooms have Today's News or the Sports section right there for your reading enjoyment. Although, I have to say, who's got time to read this?! If you were supposed to look at each other and strike up a conversation, wouldn't the urinals be facing each 0ther. "Hey, Bob, how's it goin'?" "Oh, it's goin..." I mean, really, just get in there do your business and get out.

Unwritten Rule of Life #2

2009-05-15T19:05:00.004-04:00

On a typical drive home you can expect to find at least 1 bare foot hanging out a passenger side window, especially if you're in the Midwest.

I understand why dogs may want to stick their head out the window to get some fresh air and enjoy the breeze, but what is the deal with the feet. Is this an attempt to increase circulation to the brain or are you in need of a good pair of Dr. Scholl's? I'm clearly missing out on something big here, so feel free to clue me in.

Chris' Unwritten Rules of Life - RULE #1

2009-05-14T20:04:00.002-04:00

Because I believe it is irresponsible to let an unfocused mind go to waste, I've decided to start a new series of blog posts dedicated to observations about "unwritten rules of life". I plan to update this on a regular basis and reference it via twitter (using hashtag #UROL for all you twitterers out there). We'll see whether I can keep it fresh, but I've come to realize there are just too many oddities in life that need some perspective.

Feel free to build on my list by adding comments at the bottom of each of the posts or just reply to the tweets.

RULE #1: While cutting the grass, it is customary to wave to your fellow grasscutter.

Ok, seems rather silly but this really happened today. I'm cutting my front yard and the neighborhood grasscutters (these are the guys that go around cutting the common spaces with their riding mowers) each drove by and one by one waved to me and me only. I don't believe I was related to any of them so I can only assume that there is an unwritten rule that grasscutter's have a common bond that requires us to extend a pleasant greeting. Who knew?!

Simple space scene

2009-05-03T11:00:00.002-04:00

I used to enjoy astronomy and space so decided to spend some time learning how to create a space scene from scratch. This came from a combination of two tutorials and took about 30 minutes so gave me a chance to break away from my other works in progress.

Jolie - WIP #2

2009-04-19T14:59:00.007-04:00

Here's an update...

Ok, so I didn't provide more vacation updates here. I just found it much simpler on Facebook and twitter. Note my Twitter feeds in the right margin of this blog.

Here's the latest update of my Angelina Jolie portrait (WIP #1 here). I have all the key features blocked in so hopefully just a lot more shading to complete and then it will be a finished product.

Once I'm confident in using the tablet and Photoshop to do this, I'll return to Alexa's half finished portrait.

Clearwater, FL - Day 1

2009-04-07T08:44:00.007-04:00

Our first full day in Clearwater was an interesting one. We just completed the 4.5 hour drive the night before from Brianna's cheerleading competition in Fort Lauderdale. This drive took us through the Everglades. NOTE #1: Make sure you get dinner BEFORE you drive across the Everglades. The only food available was Alligator jerky and make your own Ramen noodles! NOTE #2: Don't use Google maps directions in Florida. For whatever reason, they have a peculiar habit of having you "continue straight" on a road other than the one you are on and veer right and left on a road you are already on. So, instead of turn right on X and turn left on Y, you get 8 lines of directions. Makes for a bunch of fun in the middle of the night.

In any case, we arrived late at night and were surprised to find a very nice condo with great views. Turns out the beach was just around the corner and HUGE. Clearwater definitely has a very wide, white sand beach and amazingly not very populated. Could have been the weather. Because it was sooo windy (and still is) the kids were feeling the pain from white sand projectiles flying into their legs.

They still seemed to have a good time looking for shells. I was planning on sharing more, but I have to admit using this blog posting software isn't as simple as it could be. Once you get more than a few images, it gets real difficult to line everything up unless you want to maintain html. :-) Also notice that the font decided to magically change.

I'll end with a picture of the family heading out to the beach later in the day as a cold front approached. You can see the sharp contrast between the white sand and dark clouds. After the front passed through the winds were stronger and much colder (55 degrees) for Florida this time of year. We'll still take it versus the freezing cold back in Cincinnati.

Another experiment at my daughter's expense

2009-03-29T10:40:00.002-04:00

I apologize in advance but since Alexa and Brianna got a kick out of this, I just had to share.

This comes from a technique shared on Worth1000.com where they describe how to stylize a portrait in Manga form. If you aren't familiar with Manga, it's characterized by big eyes, narrow chins and atypical hair colors. I'll leave it at that.

As you can see, we had some fun with this one.

Girls on Rubik's Cube

2009-03-28T01:15:00.002-04:00

Ok, now this was definitely an experiment. I saw an idea in a photoshop tutorial and wanted to do something like this for my profile picture on Facebook.

Once I realized I needed two images, I just decided to drop the kids into the cube.

There's probably quite a bit more I can do with this. If you have any ideas, please comment below.

Dancer 1

2009-03-22T20:27:00.005-04:00

Tried something new today. Ended up watching parts of Step Up with my daughter so decided to try a new style of popping the main character out of the background using freehand painting.

Grape Crush Sketch

2009-03-12T18:37:00.003-04:00

This is a quick sketch done during a break at a "Discover Your Strengths" class I was helping to facilitate. I created it because I was looking back at my notes from the last course (about a year ago) and wrote down that I would draw something once per day.

I haven't been drawing once per day so I felt guilty. :-)

Guess the Celebrity #1

2009-03-08T14:25:00.002-04:00

Changing gears a bit, this is a work-in-progress so I thought I would put it out here as a "guess the celebrity".

I've just started this one so I'll be posting a few steps between now and the finished product. In the meantime, take a stab at guessing this famous celebrity.

I'd also love to get your comments, so just click the icon below.

Thanks!

The Girls "On a Rainbow"

2009-03-07T14:34:00.002-05:00

Still learning, but really like this picture of the girls superimposed on a rainbow background. I personally wouldn't have chosen a rainbow background, but I'm confident they will like it.

Still need to remove the redeye but I'll leave that for later. Too nice a day today.

Learning Photoshop

2009-03-03T22:42:00.004-05:00

Ok, I took a break from drawing again but this time it was to learn Photoshop. Must be the A.D.D. again.

In any case, here's an example of how it's fairly simple to add an image inside of text for some pretty cool effects. It basically involves creating some text, bringing in the image, making the image transparent, dragging it into the original image that contains the text and converting it to a clipping group.

What's nice about this technique is that you can then change the background, manipulate the text, edit the text and add more images to the text very easily.

Clearly I've got more to learn but this is a good start.

Mouth study

2009-02-15T20:06:00.005-05:00

Just a simple study of mouths and lips in an attempt to resurrect my skills. I've noticed this sketch paper is a bit on the rough side so everything turns out grainy once scanned.

Bubbler Fountain

2009-02-06T22:13:00.002-05:00

So, here's one of the many sketchbooks that I have that are almost completely empty. I like this one because it's very small and I can take it anywhere. I believe this means I'm supposed to sketch in it more often!

As you can see, the last sketch is from the summer. I had just finished building a bubbler fountain for our patio and needed something to sketch.

Buyer Beware - Sony Projection TV

2009-02-02T20:07:00.002-05:00

So yesterday was an interesting day. It happened to be the SuperBowl and about a month after my 2-year extended warranty ran out on my Sony TV. Yeah, you know what that means...something bad was going to happen.

Sure enough I noticed my immaculate picture had lost its luster and now a nice brownish-red band appeared across the top of the screen. 2 hours before the SuperBowl...yikes! Luckily I had ordered a light bulb a few weeks earlier so I replaced it. Well, the image was brighter but still had the dark band. Turns out, this is a known problem with these TV's. After about 2 years (length of most extended warranties) the optical block burns up. Apparently, this is a widespread issue and cause for much frustration for Sony owners to the point where Sony has stopped making rear-projection TV's.

Long story short, this particular model happens to be on a list of those Sony which get a warranty auto-extension. This means that the really expensive repair is paid by Sony. Woo Hoo, internet research pays off. This is such a big deal for Sony, they are even offerring an upgrade to a flat screen version for $500 as an alternative.

So, if you have issues with TV's or other products, always keep your receipt, warranty, and take a shot on Google. You never know what you might find!

Brain Dump

2009-01-30T00:12:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick mind map depicting what concepts I'm either already pursuing or would like to pursue.

Renewal

2009-01-30T00:03:00.005-05:00

Ok, so I'm re-starting my blog with a shift towards ideas and sketches. I'd like to shoot for at least one new drawing a week which I'll post here. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, here's my first sketch which happens to be a depiction of my digital pen tablet which I'm slowly learning how to use. I guess I know how to use it, just not well. This particular sketch was done with a single mechanical pencil on recycled sketch paper (good for the environment).

Also, expect to see changes to the blog to make it more interesting. It's still very plain vanilla. Ideas welcome.

Driving better Collaboration

2007-08-12T20:25:00.000-04:00

Self-fulfillment is becoming a bigger factor for job satisfaction than ever before. Employees need to feel important and recognized for a job well done. This is more difficult as teams become dispersed across functions, geographies, etc.

One way to foster a better connection amongst teams and a forum for recognition is through facebook, blog, wiki type collaboration spaces. Facebook would enable distant teammates to better understand each other in and outside of work. A different person could be spotlighted each week and sub-interest groups could be established to exchange ideas.

Random Thoughts

2007-07-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Is it possible to modify Twittervision to focus on only a particular location in the world (U.S.) and a particular subject? http://www.twittervision.com/

How can we leverage twittersearch to graph buzz/trends in the "twitter world"? (See chart) Can this be modified to track a rolling date range?

The Power of Many

2007-07-23T20:08:00.000-04:00

Many problems today are too big to be solved by one person or one resource. This is what led to the idea of grid computing and programs like SETI that utilize spare CPU cycles on personal PC's. There are numerous applications of this today, but those I find most interesting actually leverage YOU as the key resource. Big "problems" or tasks can be doled out across hundreds or even thousands of people to complete. Because humans are generally interested in helping the fellow man, we are compelled to "do our part".

As an example, local newspapers are turning average citizens into a mass army of local reporters simply by having a presence on the web and providing a "Get Published" button. Instead of focusing on a large reporting staff to create broad appeal stories, the paper can reduce staff and offer sites tailored to news to that locale and thereby solicit more advertising to offset the losses with the printed version. The Cincinnati Enquirer is doing just this.

This idea can be applied to numerous other situations both inside and outside the office. For example, if a company is trying to keep up on it's competition it could harness the power of all employees to post competitive new products, trends, insights to a central blog, wiki, or micro-site providing instant visibility to all other empoloyees. Not only is this data more timely than formal competitive assessments, it is likely more rich in terms of the information and insights uncovered. Additionally, others can build off the findings through on-line comments, etc.

Ambient Information

2007-07-23T19:50:00.000-04:00

With the amount of information overload in the form of massive streams of data coming at us in all directions, what if we could provide key information in a less intrusive, but highly visible way. This is the idea behind ambient information ("Psst! You're Wasting Electricity" - Wired, August 2007).

The concept is to place a light that glows different colors in plain sight such that it would indicate when you are using too much electricity or similar information. This is especially useful in situations where it isn't always obvious how much of a scarce resource we are using. This could be applied to bandwidth usage, # of e-mails sent per day, etc. The information could even be made available on the internet on a MySpace page, blog, etc.

Considering I exceed my budget every month, maybe I should link my checking account balance to such a device!

Just Starting Out

2006-02-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

Hello, world. This is my very first entry into "blogspace". Thought I would give it a try and see if I can keep it current.