Kottke posted a link yesterday to photos of people just before and just after they died. It reminded me of a documentary I watched the other night from PBS’ P.O.V. series called A Family Undertaking, about the growing home funeral movement.

After the civil war, American funerals moved out of the home and largely into the hands of undertakers, now a large industrial funeral complex. As a person who’s seen plenty of open casket services, my first thoughts were “Eew.” But I found myself strangely touched by these families, and surprised by the dignity in their home funerals. Gone were the artificial parlors with their ostentatious floral arrangements, plaster columns and faux victorian furnishings. There were no grim undertakers or officiaries lurking about. Read the rest of this entry »

Since I’ve been absent for so long I thought I’d post a nice surprise for those of you who still subscribe; an April mix.

Blah blah yes I know about Muxtaping, but you can only make one 12 song mix.

Album artwork is included in the download, enjoy.

1. Shout Out Louds - South America
2. Au Revoir Simone - A Violent Yet Flammable World
3. Beach House - Gila
4. Great Lake Swimmers - There is a Light
5. Grand Archives - Sleepdriving
6. A Weather - Oh My Stars
7. Headlights - Catch Them All
8. Peter and the Wolf - Safe Travels
9. Alela Diane - My Tired Feet
10. Songs of Green Pheasant - Boats
11. Dirty on Purpose - Your Summer Dress
12. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Trouble

Download April 2008 Mix (75mb)

Due to last week’s blizzard the CWSA’s first purely social event had to be postponed and is rescheduled for today. A note to all you foodies, Bier Markt/Bar Cento chef Jonathan Sawyer will be appearing on Iron Chef America tomorrow night on Michael Symon’s team. If you’d like to have the best burger in town, or just want to geek out, swing by at 4pm.

After watching Alien Saturday afternoon Alana and I decided 80s and early 90s action classics are sorely missing from our DVD library. We decided to brave The Exchange last night (and I do mean brave, the last few times we were there employees had to oust rowdy/violent clientele) and see what we could find.

We returned with:

• Blade Runner
• Aliens
• Terminator/Robocop combo box
• Predator
• Rocky
• Total Recall
• The Bourne Supremacy
• Martha Inc.

Yes I know Rocky is 70s, but the series spans the 80s. Alana hadn’t seen the second Bourne movie so we grabbed that too, and I couldn’t resist Martha Inc (the Cybil Shepherd made for tv Martha Stewart movie.) I couldn’t believe our luck finding Terminator and Robocop packaged together. Also of note is the Predator cover, hologram FTW!

Next on our list would of course be the rest of the Terminator/ Rocky/ Predator/ Alien/ Robocop series, the Rambo series, Commando, Kickboxer, Die Hard series, (a little burnt out on Die Hard so will probably add them last) Demolition Man, Judge Dredd, Escape from New York and Escape from LA.

I’m contemplating adding Van Damme movies as a separate endeavor (need at least Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Lionheart.) I’m also not counting Indiana Jones since that’s more action/adventure, and I won’t be buying and of those movies on DVD until the last one is released and I can get some crazy box set. Also in their own genres which I will get at a later date: Mobster movies, assassin movies (Assasins, Point of No Return, The Long Kiss Goodnight are all on my list), 80s fantasy/adventure, and 80s sci-fi & computer/adventure.

So, have any suggestions within the constraints of 80s and early 90s? Please note I’m not interested in Stephen Seagal, Chuck Norris, or Westerns.

This Saturday, March 7th the CWSA would like to present:

The First Semi-Annual Convocation of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Markup

Are you interested in CSS? Want to geek out? This is an opportunity to meet and socialize with the Cleveland Web Standards Association, as well as drink beer and eat some of the best food in town. Spouses and significant others are welcome! Come right from the Cleveland Film Festival! If you haven’t been there before, the Bier Markt is located across the street from the West Side Market. There’s free parking behind the Market, or pay parking in a lot behind the Bier Markt and Great Lakes Brewing. If you haven’t been to a CWSA meetup yet and would like to get to know everyone in a more social environment, this is the perfect opportunity!

We’ll be there from 4pm until we feel like going home. Please RSVP and get details for the event on meetup.com. I hear the weather might suck, so if you end up not being able to make it, please remember to change your RSVP.

I was in Agile training for two days last week while simultaneously kicking caffeine. Suffice to say I was desperate for something to keep myself awake, and some semblance of focused. So I started doodling. Some of the doodles are actual notes (see “pearprogramming”) most are random.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never had healthy habits, but until recently they never seemed to be a problem; when I was younger I took for granted how active my job really was. I was surprised to find when I got my first post-college “real” (desk) job how the calories started to pile on. For a while now I’ve been talking about wanting to join a gym, but I haven’t really had the time or motivation. Fortunately, my new job has an excellent on-site gym. I figured since the rest of my life is changing, I may as well change my unhealthy habits too. Maybe it will help alleviate some of the stress that comes with all the transition.

So last week I made an appointment with one of the personal trainers for a customized fitness program. I was apprehensive, with visions of some muscle bound dude with veins popping out of his neck telling me to drink raw eggs and sprinkle protein powder on all my food. Thankfully, instead I got a totally normal, down-to-earth guy who really understood my needs. He didn’t scoff as I revealed my sedentary past few years. Read the rest of this entry »

The past two weeks have been incredibly busy. In addition to assimilating to the new job, I’ve been swamped with freelance and work for my class. Alana also started a new job, at Evolved in Columbus, probably the most reputable tattoo studio in the state. We’ve had a lot of work getting everything ready for the transition, since she’ll be in Columbus four days a week. Last week we hired a dog walker. The dogs have not yet eaten any furniture, so I consider it a success. I’m hoping to get some time in at the office gym soon, I have an orientation tomorrow. The art collection is amazing. Once I’m all caught up I expect regular posting to resume, but in the mean time I’m turning off the Twitter updates for minimal clutter.

The first tattoo of this episode is a crane on a girl’s ribcage. As Kat’s applying the stencil some dude Corey’s tattooing is ogling her and making rude comments. If this ever happened to me when I was getting tattooed, I would never come back. If I were the artist working on a client who behaved in such a way I’d tell them to knock it off or they’ll have an unfinished tattoo. A woman getting tattooed is not a piece of meat. There’s a reason artists need private stations. She shouldn’t have been parading this poor girl around the shop half shirtless. Overall the tattoo turns out pretty good, Kat seems skilled at wildlife and should perhaps try her hand at that in lieu of traditional portraiture. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night’s CWSA planning meeting was a great success. We’ve had a lot of new faces, some of them traveled pretty far to attend. Some topics discussed last night:

• Trying to advance standards in the local web and business communities without being the CSS gestapo.
• Involving other industries in our group. (Maybe we can find a lawyer to present on the topic of Section 508 compliance or some other aspect of web-related law?)
• Becoming involved with the Email Standards Project.
• Finding a venue for a Cleveland BarCamp.
• Creating our own business case for standards, with examples and success stories from our local community.
• Improving the workflow between front and back end developers.

We had some faculty representatives from a local college show up. They talked about how a group like CWSA benefits them, because it can help their students understand things like being required to validate all assignments.

What I’ve begun to notice is smaller schools and community colleges are really pushing to embrace standards, and at a significantly faster pace than large universities. I don’t know if it’s because of their size they’re able to adapt quicker to industry changes and adopt best practices? Or maybe their high ratio of part-time instructors tend to attract a more passionate faculty, who work in the industry now, not 10 years ago before they became a teacher? It’s my sincere hope that this group can help our local higher learning institutions, community colleges and universities, move forward.

Lastly, I’m trying to plan a purely social event for us next month. I’m hoping to make it coincide with the Cleveland Film Festival, so if there are any fellow geeks in from out of town they can meet us.

• Symphony CMS. Symphony is a pretty nice looking, free web publishing system powered by XML and XSLT. I can’t wait until I have some free time to try it out.
• IDSA Mideast Conference ‘08 (Columbus, OH)
  

  Art + Science, the Mideast District Conference in Columbus, Ohio will explore the dichotomy of art and science, the similarities of the two, and the way we as designers pull them together to create new and better products and experiences.

• Pure CSS Data Chart. I haven’t peeked under the hood to see if/how this differs from Eric Meyer’s CSS Chart, but it looks nice.
• Viktor Schreckengost, Cleveland Industrial Designer Dies at 101. I’m embarassed to say I didn’t know who he was until a friend told me of his death. Definitely a huge loss for Cleveland the the design community as a whole.
• Instapaper. For when you find things on the web you want to read but don’t have time to. Not sure I’d use this, a “to_read” tag in del.icio.us works just fine for me, but this is an interesting idea too.
• You’re Not a Programmer, We Won’t Pay You That Much. The bane of a front-end developer’s existence.
• Evolution of a Header. A great look inside Garrett Dimon’s design process.
• And lastly, American Cannibal, perhaps the most absurd documentary I’ve ever seen. Actually the documentary itself was mostly well done, but the subjects were so over the top it took me 30 minutes into the movie to realize it wasn’t a spoof. From the IMDB entry:
  

  A brutal Survivor-style reality show produced by the publicity-obsessed promoter of the Paris Hilton sex tape was shut down suddenly in September 2005 when a contestant was critically injured. Closely following the train-wreck production and the industry that spawned it, this film documents the human cost of popular entertainment.

Things have been kind of quiet on this blog, as the speed of my life seems to have doubled. I just came home from vacation, and will be starting a new job at Progressive Insurance.

I’m sad to leave my coworkers behind; it’s not often one gets to work with such a talented and knowledgeable team. I’ve learned a lot in my time at AG Interactive, and really enjoyed the creative culture. I will, however, relish never having to slice a PSD again.

I’m excited about my new opportunity and future as a User Experience Developer. Progressive is passionate about web standards and usability; they’re very active in NEOUPA. I’m elated to shift my focus to UX, and work in their eye tracking equipped usability labs.

I’m also teaching an introduction to web design/WYSIWYG class at Tri-C. I have a new found respect for teachers, they make it look so easy when in actuality I spend a great portion of my week preparing lessons, assignments and grading. It’s great experience, and really forces me to hone my public speaking skills and be extremely organized.

Lastly, the CWSA is starting to taking off. Last month we (and by we I mean not me because I was snowed into my house) showed Helvetica. We have some great plans for the future, and are beginning to see a lot of interest. The group has phenomenal ideas. The social aspect of getting to geek out with a bunch of other designers and developers is just as worthwhile as the educational resources. I hope that we’re able to help the local web community embrace standards. If we do nothing else, we’ll at least certainly learn a lot from each other.

The theme of the episode is Kat’s dramatized self-intervention. She gets wasted, says something to upset her boyfriend and decides to stop drinking. Hmm, probably a good idea since her party antics got her fired from Miami Ink, and it appears she doesn’t have much involvement managing her own shop. The last thing I ever needed to see on television was her and Captain Crustache sitting in a bath tub, sobbing together about her wino ways. Read the rest of this entry »

We had a really good and much needed trip, though I think next time I’d prefer to drive rather than fly. Priceline doesn’t honor your seat selections, so Alana and I were seated apart on most of our flights. Someone was nice enough to switch with us on our last flight so we could sit together. Priceline also doesn’t show you the seating arrangements or what kind of plane you’ll be flying on, otherwise I might have opted for something besides Air Rickshaw. Additionally, the US Airways self service kiosk interface is terrible, and doesn’t allow you to step back a screen. So if you make a mistake, an airline employee has to come clear it out and start the whole process over again. Other than the flying/airport part our trip was great.

The weather was pretty moderate, so we didn’t swelter and there was always a nice breeze. We had an excellent day at the beach and barbecued. We took Alana’s little sister to the park and a playground where we fed egrets.

I bought a great bottle of single malt, a Macallan Cask Strength (annoyingly if you want to visit that link you must first go to the main Macallan page and enter your age or nothing will display.), which was also the first cask strength whisky I’ve tried. It’s a deep red color, with notes of vanilla and apricot. I also had some of my old standard favorite, the Macallan 18. Both go quite well with La Gloria Cubana cigars. Read the rest of this entry »