Category: Blog Posts
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Megan and Rocco tag-team a logo design
In rummaging through an old sketch book, I found an old sketch that my wife drew for a client that we were working with about five years ago. I thought it would be neat to share a sequence of images showing how much an idea can mutate from start to finish. I remember that I really wanted the client to select Megan’s beautifully illustrated logo, and for a short while it seemed as though they would. But finally they chose a different concept altogether. Fonts used: Barrista and Catwing.
Here are the images, enjoy:
Megan’s in.itial sketches
After a few iterations, I digitized and colorized using Illustrator.
The completely different concept the client settled on.
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Wedding Planning Time Hop
I was rummaging through my art supply drawer and I found an old sketchbook. Inside were some rough drafts for our wedding invites drawn by the illustrious Megan Tripaldi. I was dumfounded! Luckily I had a speech prepared. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece on which the following words were written:
“I love you Megan Tripaldi. You were still called Megan Jackson exactly 3 years ago when you drew these drawings I found in a drawer tonight. I am glad that you said that you’d marry me.”
I’ll now take the effort to scan in the aforementioned rough sketches, as well as the final draft. Enjoy.
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A duckload of ducks at Evergreen Cemetery
Urban ducks do not fly South for the winter, because they have a food source all season long: humans throwing bread and Cheetos™. I did not have any bread on me. Sorry ducks. But i had my camera to capture this chilly gallery of duck photos.
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Happy Birthday Derek Smart
Today is the birthday of Mr. Derek Smart-Golden. I sometimes call him “The Golden Boy”, “Mr. Pizza”, or “Kevin Klein”.
We work together writing computer code, and for those of you who don’t know, when two adults write computer scripts together, an interesting bond forms.
This blog post is really just a verbal high-five to the dude.
Happy Birthday Derek. Had I not met you, I would have mounted my bicycle long ago, and peddled far away from this nutty business. I raise a glass and toast you:
May your Javascript stay DRY. May your pizza stay piled high with fine meats and cheeses. May your coffee keep you alert and not hasten your bowels. And may you never find Tupac.
Drawing by ML-Cloud9 -
Playing PacMan on the streets of Ferry Village
The Google Maps Pac-man prank is one of my favorite April Fool’s gags of all time. Not only do you get to play Pac-man, but it is super fun to search through familiar places to find the perfect level.
Check out this level from Ferry Village in South Portland, Maine.
It is a fairly challenging and fun level. Have fun!
If you find any difficult levels, please reply.
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Start your week off right
So I’m finding that it is good to start my week by watching a presentation on computer programming. It really sets the tone for the days to come. Today, I have my co-worker Enej to thank for sharing the following presentation by javascript developer Angelina Fabbro:
There are a lot of nice things to say about this presentation. It taught me what “grok” means, and it is a fine word. You can use it even if you are not a programmer. Look it up. The nicest thing I can say, though, is that is a helpful piece of advice for any intermediate programmer who is looking to get to the next level. Some key bullet points:
- Ask “Why?” obsessively
- Teach others, and speak a lot about the work you do
- It is okay to be reckless when experimenting
- Have opinions & principles
- Think like a programmer when AFK
I’m thankful that this video fell into my laptop at this precise time. It is very inspirational and just what I needed. Let me know if you watch it.
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Span tag paintings
My pal Chris is artist always experimenting with new mediums. He was excited to find that if instead of a traditional canvas, you were to use a web browser, and instead of paints and paintbrushes, you were to use HTML span tags, you’d get an interactive image resembling 8-bit artwork. What the heck is that? Here’s the Mono Lisa, for example:
Note how the appearance changes dramatically if you resize the browser. Span tag paintings are responsive.
In trying to create a photorealistic span painting of President Barrack Obama, Chris found that it was a rather tedious process. Thanks, Obama! I told Chris that using PHP I could teach a computer to make these paintings faster than he could. He was thrilled when my script produced the following image before he could finish his painting.
I then extended my script into this neat Backbone.js app, allowing Chris to upload any image which would automatically be changed into an HTML painting. I even built a color picker so you could limit the colors in your painting to a pallet of your choosing. Here is an image of acclaimed painter Bob Ross which was produced by script.
I’m glad that Chris made these paintings. You can see some of his favorites here. I like how you can make different patterns by resizing the window, and then BOOM! the image jumps out at you as soon as you find the right size. We also discovered that image will repeat itself at regular intervals.
Pretty good. Pretty neat. Please reply with your own painting.
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Fear of Growing Old
And when I lean my head against the frosted shower stall
I see stuff through the glass that I don’t recognize at allObligatory trigger warning. Possible severe tire damage ahead.
Tonight, I was reading articles on the AV Club and creating some killer playlists, when I suddenly remembered that not only am I mortal, but I’ll likely have to suffer through old age before facing death. Just an other Friday night. Heh. It’s so common there ought to be an emoji for it.
I’m sitting at the kitchen table yet feel like I’m are drowning underwater. And looking slowly to my left at the happy family photos throughout the years makes me start to choke up even more. You’ve felt it too. Sure you have. It always comes as a surprise, or maybe you’ve grown used to by now. I envy you if you are that strong.
Then a song called “Till My Head Falls Off” starts playing. It is a song I used to play LOUD when I was a teenager. I never really thought about the lyrics, but listening to them tonight, it occurred to me that the song was about growing old, and stubbornly remaining smart against impossible odds.
It was nice to have I song that had me dancing as a young man return to save my life on a dark night light years in the future. My fears went dancing away. Please enjoy the song.
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Maine WordPress Meetup summary March 2015
At this month’s meetup, we tried something different. Our intention was too lead a Node School style gathering, where we work on a project and learn to use the WP REST API. Host Gary Thayer called it ‘Hands-on with JSON’. Though I got some good feedback after the meetup, the workshop didn’t go quite as planned.
I hoped we’d have a social coding session, where we’d each write our own javascript app. I made a fairly simple spec doc for the app, called Game-a-tron, and gave the option to write your own from scratch, or follow a step-by-step guide that I deployed t0 Github. There was a bit of reluctance to participate, and I instead used the overhead projector to walk us through my guide.
What I learned
If you are going to lead a coding workshop, you have to set the mood. Instead of participants sitting with their laptops on their laps, next time I’d like to provide tables. There should be open refreshments, and music. I think if I had put more effort into creating an informal hangout, people would have been less shy. We’ll get ’em next time!
Personally, I found the endeavor worthwhile. I gained a deeper understanding of Git, and how it can be used as a teaching tool. Seriously folks, checkout nodeschool.io. They are doing some amazing things with educational Git robots, and interactive CLI lessons. I also became acquainted with Backbone.js, and how it is an ideal tool for communicating with APIs. Not too shabby.
I’m thankful, as always for Hall Internet Marketing for hosting the event. Be sure to join us next month!
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Why do cats make that face?
I thought Jasmine looked so beautiful in the morning sunshine, so I grabbed the ol’ camera box. Little did I know I’d capture a rare shot of her making The Face. If you are a cat owner, you are no doubt familiar with The Face.
The Face, as it’s known in the Tripaldi Household, has a scientific name. It’s called the Flehmen Response. Many animals do it, and often “over a site or substance of particular interest to the animal (e.g. urine or fæces)” *giggles*. Basically it allows the cat to inhale the delicious wisps of urine deeper into their mouth so they may better analyze the stench. If you see your cat doing it, you can rest assured that he or she is enjoying the transmission. Here are some pics of Jasmine demonstrating the Flehmen Response, as well as enjoying the aforementioned sunshine.
The Flehmen Response
The Flehmen Response
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Flight of Phrase
Children excel at silliness, often ad nauseam. Children are better than adults at learning new things. Can we learn more by being silly? I’d like to think so.
In my first full-time gig as a web developer, my boss would sometimes sit next next to me as I built a website and micro-manage every color, every pixel, every word on the page. It could be frustrating to say the least, but at least I was getting paid to do what I love. And in spite of my complaining, I was learning a lo.
One day this gentleman had a strange request. “When someone clicks on that button, I want a bunch of words to fly across the screen and then disappear,” he requested. “Why?” I asked. “Because I think it’d be cool,” he retorted. Touché mutha fuckah!
Now what I should have said was, “That’s silly! And pointless besides. Let’s not waste a lick of time on it.” Instead, I built the feature. It took me a few days. I was really into ActionScript at the time, and because I’m a winner I built it with Adobe Flash. And that was it. I moved on to the next thing. The feature was barely used other than on that one website, and in the months going forward, ActionScript became less and less relevant. 3 days wasted. No big deal.
F0ur years later, while looking through some old sites I had built, I clicked on a button, and whoa! Some words went flying across the screen. I thought, “Heh. I remember that.” I proceeded to convert the ActionScript into a jQuery plugin. In the process I learned about 2 concepts that I still use quite a bit in my work today.
- Object oriented javascript
- Github
Today I can thank my old boss for teaching me that it is good to be silly sometimes. Check out FlightofPhrase in the jQuery directory. The plugin still works. It still makes words fly across the screen. It can’t be much worse than this.
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That time I gave a talk about Chris, and was nervous
Chris Sullivan is a pal of mine, a real stand-up dude, and a heck of a good artist. This one time, I gave a 4 minute talk about one of his art projects. You can watch it on the internet.
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A trip to the vet is always worth it
For months I put off scheduling vet appointments for Pekoe and Jasmine. “It’s too much trauma for all involved,” I said. “A cat doesn’t need a check up,” I said. “It is too much money,” I said. We went earlier today, and dude, it was worth the trouble.
Packing the cats into small cages, placing them in a fast moving vehicle, and bringing them to a strange place that reeks of other cats is a traumatic experience for sure. But it wasn’t ‘too traumatic’ to be worth the effort as I originally thought. The experience was a jolt for Megan, Pekoe, Jasmine, and myself. It made us feel alert, and it put us in the strange position where we held both the power of jailer and comforter. We’re the ones responsible for their imprisonment, and yet they needed hear our soothing voices on the drive to the Cat Doctor.
We learned solid information about our beloved cats while there. We need to clean their food bowl daily. That may seem elementary, but we never thought it was necessary. It is the reason Jasmine gets chin acne. We learned how to clean the plaque of their teeth, and how to clip their nails. We learned that our outdoor cats need tape worm pills at least once a year, and yearly rabies shots. We learned that flea and tick season runs from June, as you’d expect, but it goes into December, later than you’d expect. And we learned all this from a responsible grown man who loves and understands cats better than anyone I’ve ever met.
It was expensive and slightly traumatic, and we will one day have to make that final drive to the vets. Think about it, but don’t dwell on it. A trip to the vet is family bonding, it is the only way to learn how to best care for your furry buddies, it is a meditation on death, and it always worth the trouble.
