September 07, 2005

Aw, shucks, Apple, you shouldn't have...

I know it's my birthday, but don't you think that releasing the rumored iPod phone, iTunes 5.0, and a new freakin' iPod is a bit much?

I have to admit it, as stupid as the thing is, I find myself excited about that phone. What the hell is wrong with me? Do I need my phone to play music? Absolutely not. Then I start to think: maybe this one can withstand being run over in the hockey rink parking lot.

Hopefully they'll improve it by the time my contract with Verizon is up, next summer.

Posted by kenji at 03:32 PM | Comments (3)

September 06, 2005

Atlantic City

(Sure, I'm filing you under "travel")

My first time in AC and the inevitable comparisons to Vegas were immediately raised. I wanted it to be like the desert gambling mecca, only on a boardwalk. Sadly, it was not. More spread out, seedier, and much more expensive, I'd pick Vegas over AC any day but for one amazing little discovery I made: I love poker more than any other table game.

Sounds obvious for those of you who know me, but that's only because poker is the most home-friendly of the table games. No one wants to come over and play blackjack, and craps has that whole table/felt/dice thing going on that makes it tough (although there was once talk of building a table). I always thought that craps would be top dog in the casinos--it's exciting seeing all your money out there, all at once. Due to the stiflingly high price for all the of table games, I braved the poker room for the first time.

Eight hours later, I stumbled into the 24-hour diner and ordered a bacon cheeseburger because we all know that zombies like cheeseburgers and bacon, and that's precisely how I was feeling right then. It was five in the morning.

So back to the AC-Vegas comparison. For almost everything--poker and travel to and from--Vegas is cheaper, cleaner (imagine that), and generally more entertaining. And yet, if all I'm going to do is sit there and play hand after hand of poker, who needs the strip and its $6 yards of just about anything?

Posted by kenji at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)

September 01, 2005

Don't be a fool, school is cool

Yesterday, we learned about gestalt theory, which adheres to the idea that the whole of things (in this case design) is greater than the sum of its individual parts. For our first assignment, we'll be arranging solid black shapes in ways that practice strong gestalt, emphasizing proximity, similarity, flow (can't remember the precise word here), and closure.

So it's good to be back in school. We get so bogged down with everyday things that we forget that there's sometimes a "higher" part of our brain, one that likes to dilly-dally in theory, argue about concept, and generally waste time talking about things that most people could care less about.

I've always approached design from a very intuitive perspective. I do what looks good to me, and that usually works for others, with only vague ideas about why I did it a certain way. I'm taking this class to learn the why, and I have to trust that theory will lead to it.

I'll try to remember to post my finalized assignments here, for those of you interested.

Posted by kenji at 11:08 AM | Comments (1)