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I wonder who did Sisyphus’ MySpace page…

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I don’t know Lea Alcantara personally – but even a cursory visit to her website will show you the gal has design chops (and marketing savvy). So, when I came across this article she wrote for A List Apart about the dilemma of the designer having to redesign their own site I was quite emboldened; after all, if someone of her skills felt a bit overwhelmed with the “Sisyphean undertaking” of a redesign, suddenly I felt slightly less shame over how long I’ve let my own site go while tending to other things.

Now, reading her article and finding the stretches of free time to follow-through on such a self-serving (yet important) task are two different things; but I’ve bookmarked her thoughts and will surely find that they come in handy when I’m finally ready to take Montyland Productions into the shop for a tune-up. Enjoy.

A List Apart: Articles: Redesigning Your Own Site.

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big shoes to Phil…

Friday, January 2, 2009

Two weeks ago, Apple announced that next week’s MacWorld Expo would be the last at which they make an appearance. Also, their iconic CEO, Steve Jobs, will not deliver the keynote address.

The world of Mac geeks (of which I am a confirmed, card-carrying member) has been all aflutter over the impact and possible strategy or behind-the-scenes machinations could be at play; there have also been many blog posts written about the pluses and minuses of Apple’s decision.

For what it’s worth, I fall into the minus column – though I’ve never attended a MacWorld Expo in person, as an avid Mac fan I’ve watched every keynote Jobs has given; some watched live via satellite, thanks to DoIT at the UW-Madison where I was employed; others tracked via bloggers’ live accounts, and then followed up by watching the QuickTime video when it was finally posted to Apple’s website (usually at the end of the same day). Setting aside the specifics of which platform is your preference, I think it’s irrefutable that Jobs is a masterful presenter.

The Industry Standard published a great piece a day or two ago looking back at some of the most memorable moments from Steve Jobs’ keynotes at MacWorld Expo 1998-2008 (they have video snippets linked to larger pieces on YouTube). If you’ve never watched any of these, check out one of the clips in the series (they have twelve linked in the article).

The fact that Jobs will not be presenting is a major disappointment, as is the fact that Apple will not be appearing at the Expo at all after this year. Yes, Apple will continue to launch new products and software with dynamic press events (maybe even ones helmed by Jobs?) in the future, but there’s something special about the mystique, the anticipation, the sense of community (which I have felt all these years, despite having never been there in person) that come with Expo keynotes. I will, of course, be tuning in to various blogs on Monday to see how Mr. Schiller does flying solo. Poor fellow.

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presto-switcho

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

 

theme thumbnail

theme thumbnail

“Holy theme-switchereno, Batman!” – yeah, yet another new look; sometimes the “apply theme” button on Wordpress’ Design interface can bring out the fickleness in any designer; my schizophrenia of late was precipitated by some glitch in a previously applied theme that made my About page disappear. Can’t have that. (and by the way, I’m not at all pointing fingers at that particular theme’s designer – who simply by virtue of having created a WP theme is WAY ahead of the curve on this stuff than I am; my hat off to you).

 

So, I’ll be a little blue for a while. This, while I try to dip my fingers into this WordPress stuff more fully, via one of my Xmas presents: WordPress 2 (Visual QuickStart Guide) [one of PeachPit Press' great series of well-written, well designed, easy to follow how-to's].

Can a mild-mannered, geek-by-proxy, web-master with straight up HTML and CSS skills (via years with Dreamweaver and more recently, CSS Edit), tackle the world of PHP and WordPress and transform his site into what he has in mind instead of merely some content imprisoned in someone else’s themes? Tune in next year to find out…

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Amazon reviews

Monday, December 8, 2008

So today, for little reason more than that I had to shave and felt like doing something more the activity, I decided to shoot a quick product review for the beard trimmer I use – a Philips Norelco T980 Turbo Vacuum Trimmer.

I shot it in just five or six short pieces using my Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP with an 8 GB SDHC Memory Card that I got off Amazon for about $17.00 [it's now down to $11.00!]. The video quality, for a device this small is pretty good; the AVI’s it exported to my Mini via Image Capture moved seamlessly into iMovie and the editing gave me a good excuse to stretch my video muscles again (but this was like an appetizer; boy, I can’t wait to dig into something big video-wise soon).

Amazon has some strict guidelines for their reviews – no logos, URL’s, other promotions, etc., so it’s a pretty straight-forward, no frills piece; it took about two hours over-all (but that was mostly because I shaved and trimmed my beard in between, which with my curvy face always takes me forever…).

The review can be viewed here…

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morph-ology…

Monday, December 1, 2008

When I was home visiting my folks this past Spring, my Mom passed along to me a folder she’d uncovered with my old elementary school pictures. I didn’t have time then to do more than scan them, but I stashed them away with the intent of doing a little “morph” work some day.

Alas, thanks to a small pocket of nostalgia-driven free time this past holiday weekend, I ponied up for the standard version of Morpheus Photo Morpher.  It’s a handy app, very easy to grasp and use interface to create simple, straight-forward morphs; unfortunately, many of the refining features are locked in the higher-end Pro version (which I have yet to pony-up for; we’ll see what the new year’s economy brings).

The one major thing I fault the company for is that though you can download a trial version, strangely this preview allows you to export the finished product to Quicktime, once you pay for the standard version you find that this functionality is not available at that level, but rather you must purchase the Pro version – a difference between $30 and $60 (note to self: read the fine print on the website first, genius; but to be fair, I really shouldn’t have to – why would their preview contain functionality that would not be unlocked if one purchased a key?).

So, here is my first “test run” at a morph of c’est moi, circa 1972 to 2008…

monty-72-08

[Quicktime movie, 6.9MB]
(the initial export to animated GIF and then QT yielded a file that won’t downsize properly for iPod/email/web porting; I’m working on it, and will post a slimmer version soon – s.m.)

Addendum: until I fix the Quicktime issues, below is a Flash version…
Monty through the ages – flash

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Twitter reaches new relevance levels…

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Cable News Network logo

An insightful article on CNN worth a read, especially for anyone who is still unclear of the real usefulness or relevance of social networks such as Twitter. Quote:

“The minute news broke of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India, social media sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages.”

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(yet another) new beginning…

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Welcome to the Montyland Productions blog. This is not my first foray into a blog (actually my fourth if I count the various “experiments” with iBlog and iWeb iterations over at the old Montyland.net); and it is not my first time working with WordPress – my personal blog resides on the free site: http://sdmonty.wordpress.com/.

This is, however, my first time hosting WP on my own server (o.k., so technically it’s Dreamhost’s, I’m just a renter… at least I’m not a squatter), so you’ll please pardon my dust and missteps as I attempt to stretch WP more than I have over at Montyland and actually see what this robust publishing platform can really do (o.k., I should say “what an erstwhile geek with modest coding ability can really do with it”).

I’m still in the process of figuring out exactly what I’ll do with this space; the intent is to make it different than my personal blog, which will be for more… well, personal things – how I feel about what’s happening in the world, my interactions with pop-culture, my work in the anti-violence movement, etc. – whereas I hope here to expound upon matters related to my freelance work, the world of design, technology, and communications.

That doesn’t mean there’s not room here for informality or spontaneity, I hope. Or for some personal comments regarding political or social matters. For instance, I’m posting here a logo that I created for a logo design contest being held by Join The Impact.com, a coalition site established to help coordinate efforts to repeal Proposition 8 in California (it’s not a formal contest, really just seeking community input; I don’t believe there’s any cash pay-out… just prestige…).

Join the Impact - rainbow sun rising

Join the Impact - rainbow sun rising

I don’t consider this a finished piece; it was done Tues. morning, while I was eating breakfast; I’m still not sold completely on my font choices; however, I’m proud of the overall concept and design, and at this point I’m going to let the community at Join The Impact decide, or vote, or whatever the process will be and if there’s genuine interest I will put more work into it then…

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