Congratulations to all my friends who are graduating this year. Your hard work has finally paid off–you’re done w/ school (well, at least another portion of it) and you’re ready for the next part of life. Now you’re off to the working world…enjoy.
Monthly Archives: May 2006
The 1,200 Pound Man
Have you seen this story: Man weighing 1,200 pounds seeks life-saving surgery on Yahoo? The gist of the story is that this Mexican man weights 1,200 pounds and is going to die if something isn’t done. It’s sad, no doubt, but as I was reading the story, I was caught by this:
Uribe made an impassioned plea for help earlier this year on Mexican television, saying he weighed a more normal 130 kg (290 lb) until aged 22 and did not know what happened to him.
He didn’t know what happened to him? What? How could you not know what was happening to you as you kept on eating. I would guess somewhere between 290 and 1,200 pounds you would realize that something wasn’t right, and you would stop eating so much. But that’s my guess. But mainly, this is sad…I kinda feel bad for the guy for two reasons: 1) he weights so much that he can no longer do anything, 2) to experience this for 20 years and still not be able to understand what is happening to you. Talk about a-one oblivion…
Falling in Love with the Details
Have you ever designed something only to sit back and stare at what you just created?
It happened frequently during my studios in college-I would glue a piece on a building, sit back, and leer at my beautiful craftsmanship. Or when I design a website, I’ll recline and look at my completed work, admiring work I’d done.
As I was working on some Helpdesk software at the church, I realized that I had fallen into this trap once again. You see, there were a couple details that I had fallen in love with. A few buttons. A few navigation elements. A few icons. Each piece was nice, but I was forgetting that they were only pieces.
As I was discussing the project with my boss, he made some suggestions regarding one of my favorite elements. In an instant, my attitude shifted from one of discussion to one defense. I became completely defensive and unresponsive to suggestions. Why did this happen? This happened because I was enamored with a piece of the puzzle.
I think this happens all to frequently with designers. You work with a project so long and hard, that you see certain elements as the best. Those elements somehow “make” the project in your mind, and when someone questions these pieces, you no longer respond reasonably.
You may fall in love with an icon, a link, a corner, a font, a color, a logo, or an image-a piece of the puzzle of your design. The key is to be able to step back from the design and take the critiques and suggestions, even when the suggestion is about the detail you fell in love with.
What the Hail?
Yes, that’s a silly play on words, and yes, it did hail today in Houston. It marks the first hailstorm of my time in Houston, and hopefully it will be a while before the next. Thankfully, though, we (Chris, David, and I)were given the heads up by Scott (he works at the church) and moved our cars to the back portico. All told,we squeezed seven or eight cars underneath the cover. Thankfully so…the hail was fairly large (as you see below). We had racquetball / tennisball sized hail (at least one or two of them) but mainly some icy golfballs. The hail below is some of the larger stuff. I could see bigger pieces out in the field, but I opted not to get them–I didn’t feel like getting jacked in the head by falling ice. Oh yea, the hand model is Chris…I figured you wanted to know…
A Strange Duality
Recently, I have noticed a strange combination of outlooks in my life: 1) Procrastinating…waiting, putting off, delaying what I should be doing, or 2) Wishing I was doing something other than what I am currently doing.
Case in point: whenever I have work to do at home, I poke around at a variety of websites, looking for something interesting to hold my attention, and maybe in the process, learn something new. This leads to much wasted time as I think about working, but I don’t actually get much work done. And once I start working, I begin to consider all of the things I’d rather do. Or when I’m running, I can’t wait to be done… or when I’m reading, my mind begins to wander and think of other things I could be doing. This happens during movies, tv, games, etc…
I think it’s kinda interesting that my attention span is so short…. Does anybody else have the same thoughts sometimes?
More Procrastinatorial Fun
That’s right folks–I’m at it again–procrastinating, that is. You may ask, “Andrew, what are you procrastinating about?” And I respond, “Well, nothing really, but I’m just sorta looking for entertaining ways to occupy my time…” And so this kept me entertained for about half-an-hour yesterday. High Res Maps on Google Maps.
I headed across the Atlantic to Paris to scope out the sites I saw a few months back: How about The Louvre, Notre Dame (notice all of the people in front), The Opera House, The Arc de Triumph, or even The Eiffel Tower. I mean, these are some amazing shots.
Then I found the hotel we stayed at here. (I’m pretty sure it’s in the field next to the traffic circle…I’m guessing it wasn’t built when the satellite image was taken.
However, I could not find the location of my friend’s (Bethany) apt. So I’m calling out to B…check out the maps and send me a link to your place, I’m dying (and procrastinating) to see what your building looks like from above.
That’s it.