Erik’s Blog

As I’ve probably mentioned way too many times across my multiple blogs and friendly spams (forgive me), I now have a MacBook. Naturally, my old G3 iBook pales in comparison. However, I don’t want to get rid of it because it’s still a cool machine.

Soooo… For no particular reason I decided to do the unthinkable: remove MacOS X from my de-commissioned iBook and try to install a free, open source UNIX.

At this point, folks whose eyes are glazing over and folks who are rolling their eyes at yet another UNIX on Mac story, I’m going to be merciful and let you continue with your lives without suffering the details of my journey. The rest of you, click somewhere on this page to get the rest of the story. (more…)

…is like watching the zucchini plant in our backyard die. I think it’s been dying for about a week. This installation has taken almost that much time.

It’s almost as bad as watching Windows98 install on a PC. What amazes me most is Microsoft’s definition of 20 minutes. Every Windows installation I’ve performed has been completed in 20 minutes according to Microsoft.

Those are like dog minutes: 7 for every 1.

WTF…

I knew some day I’d be able to play the Illustration Friday game, but so far I’ve been SOL. This illustration was actually created a number of months ago for a school project. I may be the only person who likes it. The jury’s still out.

Those of you who glance occasionally at the stack of Flickr photos to the right of this post have undoubtedly noticed a poorly lit, creepy, Mr. Ed version of Yours Truly. I took that photo using an application called Photo Booth. This application is only available from one source: new Intel-based Macs. In my case, it’s a brand spankin’ new MacBook.

Would it be premature to say I’m in love?¹ Weird perhaps, but no, not premature.

I won’t bore you with poetry or any other homage to my new Mac. Suffice it to say my old G3 iBook and my mysteriously slow G4 iMac will be getting a nice, long rest now that this screamer is in my grubby little hands.

¹Give me some credit. I’m not THAT crazy. It is a very nice ‘puter, though.

When I moved to Utah in 1995 I was a Republican.

Those of you who just figured out that politics matter and who have chosen the Democrats, don’t get your panties in a knot over this. The Republican party of the early to mid 1990s was not the same Republican party that you see today. In fact, that era of the Republican party more closely resembles today’s Democratic party. Back then, Democrats were suing Dead Kennedys for the poster in their Frankenchrist album, banning non-PC books from schools, knocking gasses off of the Greenhouse Gas lists and defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.

The latter two, by the way, were brought to us by Bill Clinton. Don’t believe me? Look it up. The whole parental warning label and objectionable content hubbub a la Frankenchrist was Tipper Gore’s brain child. I’m not sure who started banning books, but it was definitely being spearheaded by the Dems.

So naturally, when there was a chance to change the guard I did what I felt at the time was the right thing to do: I voted for Bush in 2000.

The story goes downhill from here. I won’t bore you with it, don’t worry.

Love him or hate him, Bush is out of here in 2008 and I hope he will be the last of his kind to live in the White House. Knowing how lazy your average Democrat is, I’m sure this wish will only result in disappointment. (People, by taking the lazy way out and not voting in 2004 YOU VOTED FOR BUSH. NOW do you understand why people are so intent on getting you to vote?) Regardless, one can wish.

Barring the unlikely event that Democrats get off their lazy asses and elect a Democrat in 2008, the most effective action we can take against out of control neoCons is firing their poster-boys. This won’t be easy.

In Utah, Orrin Hatch is almost automatically elected to the Senate. No matter how much the guy sucks (and he DOES suck) he manages to be re-elected every time without breaking a sweat. However, in the mid-term elections later this year, if we’re lucky we can at least make him sweat a little.

Pete Ashdown, local Internet entrepreneur and funny looking guy, is running as a Democrat against Hatch in the 2006 mid-term election. He won’t win. I don’t say that because I don’t want him to win — I do — but he won’t. What he will do, hopefully, is send Hatch and the rest of Utah a message: nobody is so entrenched that they can’t be (eventually) toppled. The fact that Ashdown isn’t a career politician, rich lawyer, close relation to an existing entrenched politician, or any other kind of insider will be icing on the cake.

Not that anyone gives a rat’s ass, but I’m endorsing Pete Ashdown for the Senate. Take that however you want.

And for the record, I have no more love in my heart for today’s career Democrats than I do for Republicans. Don’t kid yourself, they all suck, they’re all too connected and entrenched to give a damn about you, and they all need to leave. I just feel a more urgent need to slap the neoCons at the moment.

Recall my recent bitch and moan session about our neighbor to the west wanting to “appropriate” the concrete pad in the back of our property? I’m happy to say that chapter in my life is over, and now we’re playing all nicey nice together.

Here’s the scoop: the guy that confronted my wife on June 1st about wanting to steal our pad was not the owner. He was a renter. And not a good renter either; more like a deadbeat renter. Since our encounter with this guy, he’s been evicted and has moved to California. None of this was because of us, though. He’s just stellar enough to warrant his own eviction. In fact, the owner may be suing him not only for months of rent that he neglected to pay but also because he trashed the main house (hence the large dumpster that I’ve mentioned before. The inside of the main house needs to be majorly overhauled).

I learned all of this when I encountered the brother of the owner of the property. He apologized for whatever crap his previous tenant caused and assured me that nobody has any claim to any of our property, nor are they interested in pursuing one. He couldn’t have been a nicer guy, and for that I’m grateful because he’s well over six feet tall and probably could have squashed my office worker ass into the cracks of the sidewalk.

So it’s over. No more neighbor issues, no more lawyers, nuthin’.

(Did I mention the tree in our backyard died from a tree disease, not from the neighbors removing half of the branches? I can’t remember. Either way, we’re calling off the hounds.)

Is it just me, or is Gmail severely suckin’ during daytime, weekday hours? I don’t mean kinda suckin’, I mean HOOVER suckin’. I get more daytime server errors with Gmail than any other web site that I frequent. It seems to be a recent thing as I don’t recall having these issues a month ago.

Whatevuh.

On a completely different note, this morning when I folded my laundry all of the socks in the load were nicely paired up in the laundry basket. No fishing for the other socks this morning, nope. I can’t explain it. Perhaps this is a sign that Gmail may heal soon? Who knows.

I’ve been concentrating so hard on dealing with meatspace issues (and reading… Okay, I admit that I’ve willingly tuned out at least a little bit) that I’ve almost completely forgotten about my online haunts, particularly DesignObserver. While “gone,” an article was published by Pentagram design guy Michael Beirut that addressed the ongoing issue of doing spec work, or doing design work for a potential client with the hope that your designs will be chosen and paid for. If that’s not clear enough, here’s another term: design contests.

I have no beef with pro-bono work, nor the occasional participation in a design contest where the folks running the show truly are piss poor. But spec work for large, successful companies is where I draw the line. It seems I’m not alone. The AIGA (of which I am a member) speaks harshly of spec work, as do my design professors, as do most designers that I know. Regardless, solicitations for spec work appear to be on the rise.

A designer named Andy Rutledge has spoken out about spec work a number of times, one of which is his article about six apart’s majorly sleazy spec design contest in which they got lots of folks to give them design work, paid a few for their designs, then used all the “losing” work anyway without paying for it. Rutledge says six apart hates designers. I don’t know that I agree, but I do think they suffer from the same disease as many other businesses: they think design work is easy and cheap.

Friends, design work is NOT easy and it’s NOT cheap. Every problem looks easy when you’re staring at the solution. Case in point: everyone who ever looked at a painting or a design and said “yeah, I could have done that.” No, you couldn’t, not if you weren’t already doing it. There’s a universe of difference between duplicating something that’s already been created and CREATING — FROM SCRATCH — SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT EXIST YET. Try it. If you’re not experienced, one of two things will happen: either you’ll end up with something you’ve seen hundreds of times already or you’ll get frustrated and give up. Creation is very, very difficult.

If the previous chat didn’t illuminate why spec work is bad, let’s try different angle: dating. The fore mentioned Rutledge offers the following in the intro to his diatribe against Wikipedia’s “re-design our site and we’ll pay you nothing for it” contest:

I’m hosting a competition. I need a partner with whom to have a serious relationship but I don’t want to invest any time or effort in finding the right woman; I shouldn’t have to. I’m a great man and any woman should be proud to be with me, so I’m holding auditions. I’d like for all interested women to visit me and show me your “wares.” I’m definitely looking for someone with a hot bod, and not afraid to show it off. Extra points for staying the night and letting me sample your attentions and enthusiasm. One lucky winner gets a $400 wedding ring and the prestige of having me for a partner (‘cause I look good). The rest of you just get screwed. Awright, who’s with me?

Ladies, would you? Guys, if this was reversed and a woman posted this, would YOU? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess “no.” This is literally what people do when they solicit spec work.

And if THAT’S not clear enough, I guess we just don’t see eye to eye…

(For what it’s worth, I’m not an elitist. All levels of art/design/whatever are valuable, but professionals need to recognize that some levels require more training, more expertise, more time, and more MONEY, and should be ready to pay accordingly. If one more person asks me to create a mind blowing design by saying “oh, you’re good, that would probably take you about a half hour, right,” I’m going to blow a gasket.)

How’s that for a title?

First, the big news: I took the plunge and ordered a MacBook. It’s not my first Mac, of course. It’s actually my fourth Mac if you count the old SE/30 that I got in the mid-90s. This is definitely my first Intel Mac, though. My iBook has seen better days and is probably (just a guess) going to be unsupported soon, plus I’m entering the last year I can take advantage of student discounts, so…

Blah blah blah, justifications, justifications. I’m actually going to use it so it’s worth it. I should have it in my grubby little hands within a week or so.

With that out of the way, a boring Summer Book update:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t the mind blowing read that I expected it to be. It was a very well done first book, though, and I’m not adverse to reading other Smith books, but I’ll go into the next one with slightly more down to earth expectations. White Teeth was worth the read but I don’t think it’s top shelf material. Just my unwelcome, unenlightened opinion.

Up next: McSweeney’s #16 and Samuel Johnson Is Indignant by Lydia Davis, another McSweeney’s book.

Um, yeah.