Retro Web Design

So I'm still working on a design for the Old Skool webpage. If there is one design challenge that I have never overcome since I started doing web design, it's retro look designs. Oh sure this page has retro elements, but it's not a full on retro look. I think it's primarily because I'm trying to transfer a print design style to interactive screen design.

That said, I've seen some excellent designs online, and I'd like to emulate their look without entirely ripping them off.

Perhaps I'll never succed. Or perhaps I need to overcome this hurdle in order to truly forward my abilities.

A day in the life

http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=newser&func=display&nid=9342

This is really cool that these guys are doing this. This is so much cooler than writing a cheque or playing a celebrity golf match.

http://www.wral.com/apstrangenews/9436520/detail.html

Miserable prick.

http://www.escapepod.org/media/EPFlash020_PaulBunyanPhotocopier.mp3

Hilarious, absolutely hilarious

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/2006/06/videoeffects.html

This looks so cool in some places.

More great stuff from my journal !

Every twenty pages or so in or around a post I've written "Download Simon and Garfunkel". It happens a bunch. I just started to download some.

Woo... this one is harsh...
from Feb 23, 2006
"I am retiring Pilot's World tonight. I'm gonna go out, take a good picture of myself and Bootsy, write a goodbye letter and KILL PILOT."

Seems almost suicidal... it wasn't supposed to be, I just wasn't into blogging. Yikes.


On another note, I'm also listening to some really good music right now. if anyone wants to hear a beautiful cover that takes a song from it's true writer, go listen to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as sung by Johnny Cash (with Fiona Apple). I think Paul Simon is a brilliant songwriter, and couple that with the endlessly deep soul and voice of Johnny Cash and the ingenious production techniques of Rick Rubin and you have a song of unimagined brilliance. I think better even than "Hurt".

Three Days. Three.

So I'm coming up on 3 uninterrupted days off from work... and really the world. I'm gnna go through my journal these next few days and just kinda meditate on everything... maybe get some stuff together. But along the way, I'd like to share some things from my journal. It's sort of my blog away from the computer. Although I'm far more personal in my journal (thus it is mostly secret) I do often write in it what I would write in my blog for that day. It's also much more expressive, I've got poetry, drawings, random lines of things, quotes, a sample of my dog's hair. That kind of stuff.

Anyways, here's from my post last week,

Top 10 Favourite Concept Albums

Tommy - The Who
Pinkerton - Weezer
The Downward Spiral - NIN
The Redheaded Stranger - Willie Nelson
The Wall - Pink Floyd
The Final Cut - Pink Floyd
The Redheaded Stranger - Willie Nelson
De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta
2112 - Rush
Pinkerton - Weezer
American Idiot - Green Day
Ok Computer - Radiohead
Pinkerton - Weezer

And a poem from last fall when I went camping with Rob and Kat.


ailmi
I found a black berry
soft like a baby
deep red of dry blood
broken open to taste bitter cherry
Rob reminds me
of natural poisons

in berries

Photorama!

I just posted some pics from this weekend at Pilot's World Photo Labs. There are a couple different photo sets in the album, but it's marked Winnipeg Project.

I'm working simultaneously on the Old Skool website. I'm definetly walking the line betweend smug and mischevious and brilliantly cute. The idea is basically having the band's name featured in old rock monuments. Like stonehenge. So we'd have OLD SKOOL ROCK! Get it? Well I tried. Maybe I'll just change what's already there.

Check out where it's goin - http://www.old-skool.ca

ON LOCATION : Peaches, Boomer and Pilot

So entering day 2, we've got a few jams recorded and we're spending a lot of time on recording one song. I'm getting a bit leary about it all. I enjoy writing and crafting a song, but I don't think it's a practice best done in the studio if you have a limited amount of time. But perhaps we'll get it done.

I know I'm looking forward to recording a few more jams and going home with some material to work with. Should be a jam with Kleinbottle coming I hope and maybe some more Peached, Boomer and Pilot jams.

ON LOCATION : Winnipeg Manitoba

So I'm at the Roslyn studio at the moment, working on the Winnipeg project with Rob and Mark. I must say, we've done only 35 minutes of jam recording, and it's coming off great. I wish I could post it for y'all, but Rob says that if he can't make any money off the recording, so I guess we're slaves to his bling slingin' ass. Fucker.

Anyways, I'm gonna go on MSN and tell Mark's sister he's gay. I'm pretty sure it'll be a good time.

At least for me.

Catch y'all on da FLIP SIDE!

Holy Crap

OK 97% of the internet's users that technically break the law most of the times they're on the internet.

We won.

Check out this interview (link) wherein BILL GATES admits to consuming stolen copyrighted content on a regular basis. Way to go Bill, ya just fucked yourself. My my.

Now I can confess to all the haneous media thefts I've committed over the past oh... 10 years. Oh I know, I'd long ago given up software theft, but hey I still gotta keep up my impressive digitized music collection.... and a guy's gotta watch some TV on occasion.

Aboriginal Day

As well may or may not know, I spent a year of my life in La Ronge. While there I wrote a song I called "Sins in God's Country". It was my response to what I saw everyday in that beautiful place. All around me was beauty, grand sky, endless trees that turned every colour of the rainbow in September, unimaginable masses of water. Beautiful. I'm pretty sure Eden was within a 40 Km radius of La Ronge.

And yet on my walk to work I'd see people in the depths of emotional and physical pain. Slaves to alcohol, poverty, drugs (and we're not just talking the stuff we generally think of, inhalants and solvents for these guys), disease and injury. Amist all of God's beauty was a prime example of how disgusting man can be to himself. In a nation that prides itself on it's humanitarian service, the people who made that country great are withering away.

The reason I'm writing this is as my good pal Rhonda points out on her blog, today is Aboriginal Day. She has an excellent essay on what it's like to be aboriginal in Canada today, Please go read it. She is not exaggerating. These conditions truly exist. And yet, Bob Geldof hasn't made a concert for them, Bono hasn't walked among them and harrassed our Prime Minister, and our brave and wonderful Prime Minister has generously cut funding to aboriginals in favour of corporate tax cuts.


I think it's about time the people in this country got their fucking shit together. We elect officials who look after the rich and most vocal. As long as the budget balances, hey who fucking cares right? Well I have something to say to those with that attitude.

FUCK YOU.

I am sick and tired of our government wasting millions of dollars on scandals, elections, superfluous levels of government, war and all that other shit while our own people are starving. It's about fucking time we stopped caring about power, parties, skin colour, fiscal balance, religion and history and started to make sure that every single person in Canada is fed, clothed, housed, educated and respected. This can be done without disrespecting each others cultures and history.

There, I've said my peice. Call me a communist if you like, hell even disagree with me. I know I'd sleep better at night knowing that there aren't any children going to bed cold and malnourished only a few hundred kilometers away, while someone else drives a BMW to work.

The Oilers Lost, the Sask Party Won

To anyone in Weyburn, that the Sask Party won the bi-election is no real suprise. This is probably one of the most conservative corners of the country. Suprising considering Tommy Douglas once called this fair town home.

So next week I have a 3 day break from work thanks in part to the Canada Day weekend. I'm planning on taking those three days and going camping by myself. I've got alot of shit to work out in my head and alot of shit I want to get together in my life, and I just want to get away from the world for a few days and stew on my own thoughts. The wonderful thing about all this is that leading up to it, I've been putting alot of thought into what I want to think about and what problems I'd like to tackle. I'm wishing I'd done this years ago. I'm not saying that this trip is going to change me overnight, or possibly at all. But I think it will be therapeutic, and it just might do me some good.

Now all I need to do is figure out some way to get where I'm going.

I did the opposite of what I said - Plus the SaskBlog meet.

Ok so I went and voted, but did not get out to give blood. Just didn't have time. The clinic is a real hike from where I live, and I didn't have enough time to walk there, give blood and walk to work. Unfortunately that means someone is going to miss geting my blood. I'm sorry to that person, I hope you'll be ok.

But I did walk across the street and vote. It would have been a waste of time had I anything else to do, but I didn't so I did. We'll see who wins.

I've registered for the SaskBlogs Meet in Regina on the 22nd of July (also Soulfood's B-day incidentally). I STRONGLY encourage all my fellow bloggers to head over to the page (LINK) and register, then come on out. I'll be there, as I once mentioned, trolling for booty, so I hope some fine ladies show up. Failing that, I'll be the one not trolling for booty.

And finally, although I haven't followed the Stanley Cup that intensley this year, I have kept an eye on it. So I'd like to send a shout out to the Oilers ... BRING THE CUP HOME TO CANADA BOYS!

Weyburn Tommorrow

So if you're in Weyburn tommorrow, there are a couple things you could do. One is vote in the bi-election. The second is to donate blood at the clinic in town.

If you can only do one, I suggest the donating blood. At least that will make a difference.

This One is for Shanna and Jeff

Jeff who doesn't want me to quit, Shanna who's dedication to SADD and the anti-drunk driving cause is admirable to the greatest extent.

I actually had a really good time walking around bar hopping in the rain with my friends last night. We had a lot of fun, didn't put ourselves or others in danger and helped save the environment.

Not sure why everyone doesn't do it.

THE END IS NIGH!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/5048322.stm


HOLY CRAP, RUN FOR FREAKING COVER!

What me Worry?

You know I don't know why I'm so freaked out abut quitting this blog.

The world is going to end on Tuesday.

Big Whoop, Wanna Fight About It?

Gee for a guy who's quitting blogging, I'm sure blogging alot. Yeah well, I'm still not top of my game and I don't feel like doing anything. So I'm bored out of my FREAKING SKULL!! Jesus I even did dishes.

I really need to get cable.

Aww Yeah

I'd just like to say

Go CSIS it's your birtday! Gotta party like it's your birthday!
Good job guys keep it up!
(click here if you've been under a rock and don't know what I'm talking about)

Stupid eye

So the surgery went better this time than last, but the recovery is definetly worse. I'm getting some pressure in my cornea... some sort of reaction to the stuff the doc put in my eye. I've got drops and stuff for it, and it's gonna be ok, but it is making me a bit sick and groggy. I feel like I'm in a bubble or something. Not feeling good at all.

My band has a gig tonight (normally I'd be stoked...right now I just want to roll over and sleep). It's at Riverside Park in Weyburn for the Cancer Society's Relay for Life. So if you want to come check out some good oldies, come on by at 9-9:45. We'll be rocking the south side BEEATCH! I may actually sit through the set though.

Gonna go give myself more pressure drops and eat something...