The IAM1 Amsterdam Journey from Nalden on Vimeo
via-Joshspear.com

I saw a beautiful sunset, giant rockets engine housings, many gizzled men, and a lot of little pink orchids. It was very peaceful. I like walking alone sometimes to clear my head…or in some cases fill it up. Now I am listening to Shoutcast “Dinner Jazz Excursion”. I just finished a tall cold glass of OJ and am looking forward to work tomorrow. I will be heading up to Vancouver to do a little fabrication work to help resident magician Jeff Fleury put some finishing love on the Hoopfest elements before sending them over to Spokane for Hoopfest 2009. This project has been quite amazing from the design side. So many elements, so little time. I think we did an awesome job and hope that karma helps Jeff get a little kickback from all of the tireless hours he has put in to bend time and space…frealzie-cakes.

This past weekend, I went to visit my best friend, Mr. iLan Epstein up in Seattle. I also had the pleasure of hanging out with my friend Don Hogan and one Ms. Vanessa. We roamed Seattle, had a typically delicious breakfast at 5-Spot in Queen Anne and I wound up buying a pair of these:

I got some looks in the office when I strutted in these! They are super cozy and really move with me. I used them to bike in, but would love to do some buildering with them to see how they sweat with some real work. Kudos to Vibram for making the ultimate in nerd appareal.

Almost time to feed the sugar gliders and get in bed for Family Guy.

Have a great night and if you are in PDX, be sure to grab some strawberries ASAP from Safeway, holy balls are they huge and sweet and awesome!

~G

I really feel like this weekend wasn’t anything more than a moment to catch my breath. I actually think of this as a good thing. Keeping pace is something that I’ve started to romance lately. My legs are soggy from running today. I made a candy cane-shaped path around the parks that are around 42nd and whatever st. around the house. I ran until I couldn’t; which just happened to be right when I got home. Shower was magic. I got called into the office for a little fire drill. All’s well now. I was a little irritated when it happened, but I think it was due mainly to my lack of caffeine and protein. I certainly hope certain senior national account managers understand that it wasn’t their fault that I was in such a horrible mood…;)

I rode through the Rose Festival craziness before heading home, hopped on the computer for a bit, found some relaxy time, and then Lesa came and hugged my face while I sat in the computer chair. It was very comforting. We decided to walk down to SE Grand and SE Stark area. It was a nice breezy day. By the time we walked home,  I felt like a van with four flat tires and no gas. I made us some yummy mashed potatos and watched Ali G…(horrible horrible horrible). Sacha Cohen is brilliant though. I think I was just in the wrong mood for the type of humor that was displayed.

Alright, enough yapping. Time to feed the sugar gliders and hit the hay. I’ve got some more renders for SBUX to do as well as some more adventures in Nike land.

Sweet dreams!
~G

I am a very loyal customer with the majority of my PCBs being encased in some sort of Sony enclosure. My VAIOs are awesome. My DSR-42 is amazing, my Walkmans worked all the way up until they were stolen, and I love my Cyber-shot DSC-P200. This week has, however, challenged my love for the brand.

The week really started Monday at 4pm. One of the account managers asked me to pull together some renderings for concepts we had shown the week before. This was quite a tall order on multiple fronts.

1. I wasn’t familiar at all with the program except through hear-say and passing open doors of conversation.
2. No initial geometry had been built so I was really starting from scratch.
3. The designer on this project, John Schreiber, was out of town and I had no context for materials, finish, or messaging.
4. The only imagery I had to use was from the brand guidelines book from 2007.
5. It was 4pm.

With the oversight from my CD, Jeff Brummer, I pulled together quite an awesome set of renders for 6 hours worth of work. I compiled the deck and sent it out. It was quickly followed by a distinct feeling of angst as with every program that leaves late in the evening. I just felt there would be a fire storm in the morning. I was right.

Internally, we really want to put our best polish on the work so we ‘gained’ an additional chunk of time to pull together some refinements on the renders. As there was no time to rerender anything, it all had to be done in post production. So with John back in town, we sat and redeveloped the family look and feel as well as increasing the call-outs.

I’m happy to say that the verdict is still out because it bought me some time to focus on Hoopfest deadlines. So through the week I worked on that, some SBUX madness, and a few clients I can’t mention here.

In the off hours-

1. Finally got a copy of the OST from Mirrors Edge by Solar Fields…AMAZING ambient songs. Oh and Lisa Miskovsky…stick to making melodies because your voice is good for nothing but car commercial singing. Sorry but it’s true.
2. Got my faculty ID card for The Art Institute of Portland. I start July 15th. Free coffee!
3. Watched the video for T-Splines 2.0 whoa! I can’t wait to use my teacher ID for software discounts.
4. I think my favorite part of the week was either when I went out for a night bike ride while listening to M83 watching downtown glow with the Rose Festival lights or getting hammered by rain while riding home listening to 01 Liquid Love [RHC Mix] [Caspar Pound Secret Life of Trance, Vol. 1 Disc 2.wma]

This morning I got up and went over to the CDs house to help him move. He has good karma going his way, but damn does that man have a lot of stuff! It is good though, I love actually getting to use my van.

Tomorrow I run.

This was quite a week! Very busy. And I still LOVE Sony.