Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

To be continued?

2010-11-13T06:11:00.000-08:00

This blog isn't over but its purpose has been deflated as such as I find myself in a state of much less anxiety and a need to document my days. Less sleep also adds to the issue as writing seems like a luxury I once had to do whenever I wanted. I find the most time I have now is when I'm feeding Ryden. This takes up approximately 6 waking hours and me needing something to do while dozing off. So blogging may live on but I should be moving forward instead and finding resources to keep my mind in the game, attached to the outside world.

We have achieved baby!

2010-10-09T14:41:00.001-07:00

YouTube Video

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Day 1-11

2010-10-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Oh man.

So much has happened in the last week that I feel this post is not only tardy but will never be able to cover the overwhelming amount of emotion, and events that have flown in and out. My life has flipped inside out and the ride isn't even near over. Testing your true strength is the name of the new game and I have been tested from every possible angle.

The birth went great, as best as births could go as I got a healthy baby out of the deal and I made it out in one piece. Ryden arrived at 6:30pm on Saturday night, October 2nd which was his due date. It was a one day affair, when I started to labor at about 1am and had Cam massaging my back until 1pm until I finally gave up and accepted the epidural. It was a beautiful and magical drug but I felt like I was letting myself down by taking it. There was no way to progress without it though, I was in desperate need of a rest. The end had not yet been predicted. As my designated OB was unavailable, I was working with a slew of wonderful nurses and a different OB, a woman who more or less already had a lot of patients on her plate that day. A few procedures were done in order to speed me up which were all hard to fight against in my position. The baby was in no danger, but my amniotic sac had ruptured Friday afternoon, so time was of the essence when it came down to my risk of infection. My cervix was not behaving due to a small bit of scar tissue which would not efface with the rest of the tissue and solving this problem took the team much longer than anticipated to resolve. If it hadn't been for that scar tissue, which was the byproduct from a procedure I had had two years prior to remove squamous cells, Ryden would have been out in 6 hours tops, drug free. Despite that the process took much longer, and put everyone through more exhaustion, nothing beats the moment when Ryden was suddenly evicted and I was reminded 5 times to open my eyes to see him for the first time. It's a pure wonder of science that I was able to create the organism put on my chest who then started to emit a cry. I looked up and saw Cam crying and the hyper reality of the situation hit my brain and all I could do was stare at this new being and think "God, I did it!"

When it comes down to recounting the greatest moments of your life, I cannot think of an event that seemed like such an impossible journey to seeing such a welcome outcome like giving birth to perfect, breathing, adorable Ryden. I feel I need to put this momentous deed on my resume, outlining the steps taken to achieve the goal, bulletpointing the challenges I faced and lastly, pulling through to the end of the deadline. Such achievement! Of course, I shouldn't be giving myself all the credit. Not only did Cam do his fair share of labor, but all of the wonderful nurses who were on shift that night who waited on us hand and foot to make sure we were doing ok. My amazing sister who showed up early expecting a birth only to hang around for hours and hours and eventually have to participate in the action by holding my legs up for when I had to push! And my supportive mother who showed up just in time to cheer me on (much to the nurses' annoyance) when it down to the prime moment. There is no way I could have done it on my own.

But wait, theres more! Not only do I feel at the top of the world for creating a baby, but now we get to raise him too! It's almost like I hadn't thought this far into the future. When Cam and I finally had to leave our resort-like hospital accommodation, we were giddy at the fact that we were able to put this new being in our car and drive away. An odd feeling that the car seat that we'd installed weeks ahead of time was finally being used and its purpose skyrocketing into dutiful action.

Ryden didn't say much about the beautiful nursery we'd prepared for him or the adorable clothes we put him in. He really wanted to sleep and for the first couple of nights, Cam and I had to rouse him in order to feed or change a diaper. It swung differently soon after when Ry took the wheel and let his attendees know when he needed attention. The work is no doubt demanding but rewarding every time we see Ry's little face looking so placid in his sleep.

Ryden has forced us to slow down. We ponder a bit more, when feeding him, soothing him and rocking him. My hormones are ramped up to 11 and sometimes I can be deep in thought looking at him and burst into tears. The sound of a heartbeat from the baby noise app on my iphone can also emit a gush as I think about him listening to my heart his whole existence to this point and me listening to his throughout the entire birth process on the monitors. Such an intimate sound it is to me now. Cam is calm and understanding through of all this which makes us a very happy team and we couldn't feel closer together than we do now.

Pictures on Chaosgurls Flickr page!

The Plan!

2010-09-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Alright kids, I know a lot of you have specific dates and flights and agendas but unfortunately, Ryden never got the memo.

What we hope will be a timely delivery on the 2nd of October, I predict that he will emerge later than that, all bets aside. Therefore, a plan has been devised while my cervix is sealed up tighter than a hobbit door buried in a lava tube.

If the weekend comes and goes, and no amount of spicy food or swimming helps my progression, I will be going in for an ultrasound on the 5th to make sure my fluid is in plentitude and that Ry is still doing ok. If that is the case, I will see my OB again on Friday the 8th and if Ry still isn't wanting to budge than the inducement is scheduled for the 11th. My doc won't be available on 10-10-10 so its up to Ry if he wants that particularly special birth date.

Meanwhile, speaking of swimming, I hadn't done that for awhile up until today. Turns out, there is a swimming pool walking distance from the house! Of course I looked into season passes and swimming lessons for Ryden (he can start at 6 months). The facility is spartan with no lockers and a broken vending machine but the pool was large, clean and EMPTY. My goodness, I had no idea how buoyant I was! I could just float on my back without moving and still float which I have never been able to do! I swam some laps but mostly just floated around until the paranoia creeped upon me that I might be making the lifeguards nervous. Afterwards, upon leaving the facility, I couldn't help but to notice how much stronger gravity was today. Maybe the Earth's spinning bumped up a notch?

FYI

2010-09-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

The Hospital I plan to end up at:

http://www.providence.org/oregon/facilities/hospitals/providence_portland/default.htm

Blurb on the Maternity Center:

More than 2,800 babies are born at Providence Portland Medical Center each year, and the staff sees each birth as a unique and special event. Providence Portland gives each family a private, safe, spacious and thoughtfully designed haven in which to welcome their new baby. Jacuzzi tubs, nurse-provided comfort measures, and 24-hour anesthesia coverage are available for laboring mothers. After giving birth, each mom can relax in one of our postpartum suites, knowing she will receive the best of care in a quiet, family-centered environment. Babies may be kept at the bedside in the suites, and fathers are welcome to stay overnight.

However, about the same distance away is this swanky spread:

The Family Maternity Center at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center is the largest birth center in Oregon. More than 6,000 babies are born here each year. Services include an award-winning Level III neonatal intensive care unit, 24-hour anesthesia coverage, 24-hour parent education programs televised on the hospital Baby Channel, the Postpartum Care Center for moms and infants, and a Breastfeeding Clinic and Store staffed by certified lactation consultants. For medically fragile infants, the Providence NICU is staffed by full-time neonatologists and specially trained nurses, pharmacists and respiratory therapists. This is the only NICU in Washington County.

Pretty exciting!

I quit my job

2010-09-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Its a bit disheartening to walk out of a job you've attended and thrown yourself into for the last few years without much hurrah. No cake, no flowers but then again, this is life. A couple hugs were had and then I headed out the back door. Sometimes I expect so much as I was always the one to be obsessed with buying cupcakes for someones birthday or celebrating someones long standing employment with a big signed banner. I know that I held an important role and the knowledge and repore I have gained from the company is rich and memorable history now. I'm really happy its been had and done.

Cam and I headed over to Babies R' Us which I thought would be a fun activity to jump start our new upcoming life. He had been given a cute surprise baby shower at his workplace and his adorable workmates had stocked him up on clothes, toys and a carrying backpack that we already had a duplicate of! They are pricey items, the backpacks, and Cam was very apologetic that we already owned one but promised he would swap it with something just as fun.

So at the Babies, we browsed around but soon fell into an overwhelmed state. The amount of plastic and cheaply made overpriced goods dragged my spirit down and eventually walked out of the store with nothing. Rampant consumerism is something that most of the time I can get quite excited about but when you boil down to the nuts and bolts of what I need to raise a tiny human, I don't need a lot. Over time, he will collect a lot of things but as of right now, he can already count himself very lucky with all the amazing stuff we have.

I am just ready to mother. I've been done preparing for a long time. When I think of the 180 my life will take to do this, I get ecstatic. I consider this venture the most extreme I have ever tried and am determined to be the best at it. I still have never changed a diaper and I was never a good babysitter but this is a game I'll win and will do it with ease.

7 days left!

I have captured him on video!

2010-09-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Ryden likes strawberry yogurt.

Two weeks left!

2010-09-18T22:30:00.001-07:00

Cam is very excited about the Dr. Who suit we found for Ryden today :D

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Location:N Arlington Pl,Portland,United States

How do Newborns work?

2010-08-25T21:11:00.001-07:00

Our class tonight was fantastic. I wasn't expecting much. How to wrap and bathe a baby were the skills I was expecting to walk away with. It was a 4 hour class though so we had to cover a couple of other things at least.

Needless to say, Cam and I are better people now and will certainly be better parents. Besides the old VHS videos, the class was upbeat and full of useful information. Initially, we were asked what we were concerned the most with when having a child. We gave a vague answer about establishing routine and the overall experience. What I really wanted to say was much more selfish concerns such as the birth itself and our financial state once I stop working. Better answers that other couples had were the concern with crying, handling in-laws, managing poop, ect. Once everyone had answered, Cam chimed in with the relationship itself with your partner. A good concern but I'm sure we'll have no problem on that front. However, I am not in denial that we are naive and have never been exposed to a crying baby with lack of sleep. It has always been something you can walk away from. You hear a cry at the supermarket, the airport, you can always turn a blind eye or just turn up the music.

We are excited to see what happens to us like some sort of mad science experiment. We know everything will change but we don't know how yet. The baby situation seems to fit into some formula that we will eventually fall into too. There are charts and statistics of hourly increments when baby will cry, you will feed, change the diaper. It's been studied for years with millions of infants. I want our experience to break the mold. I'm hoping to revert to instinct than follow the step by step instructions that have been given to us. But we'll see. These methods are tried and proven and most likely, we'll get tired of being rebels.

The baby shower went great! I felt like I was 4 again with all my besties over giving me large frilly gifts. The only thing missing was the cake and ice cream. It was all so well planned and perfect and everyone who said they were coming showed up. My mother and Kim certainly had their moments of disagreement but made sure that I was to do nothing. I was so grateful as exhaustion comes to me very easily and just cleaning the house had been overwhelming.

The boys took off on a hike in the Gorge and us ladies just clucked all afternoon. I loved witnessing all walks of life coming together to talk about babies or plants or hair or whatever was clucked. There was plenty of champagne and catered food goodies (from the prestigious jewish deli Kenny and Zukes) which was delicious. Kim had worked hard for a group participation activity of everyone coloring in a fabric square in order to make a quilt for little Ryden. It was the perfect placeholder for games as everyone poured their energy and creativity into their squares. The results were very impressive and we look forward to see the finished result after Kim sews it all together. It's the most precious gesture I have ever had done for me.

Ryden got a whole load of fun stuff to get him started in life. Onesies, towels, burp towels, a tub, slings, a bouncer.... I think we can finally say we are ready for this arrival. I am furiously trying to get out Thank Yous this week as it means the world to us and these people that we have in our lives are so special and even though some are much farther than we prefer, we hope that they can always be a part of our and Ryden's life.

Belly Day!

2010-08-16T19:27:00.001-07:00

Today was about the belly, not to mention the contents inside. I was über excited for my ultrasound today which seemed to take place at a slightly swankier lab. I had the same tech whose only mission was to look at my cervix but gave me a tour regardless. Ryden was being fussy or perhaps overly stimulated by the instrument sweeping across his shallow egg shell. The tech was unable to see the cervix due to Ry's head being in the way so she tilted my chair back so I was nearly upside down to get him to lay off. She was able to capture some mediocre pictures so she moved on to get me some cute face shots. She whipped out a slightly larger hardware the size of a deodorant and tried to capture a 3D image of the face.

3D ultrasounds are tricky. I was unaware that the clinic had this ability but since I had extra time the tech gave it a run. The software threatened to crash the computer while she navigated to find a perfect profile. Once the device finds it's target, it locks on and the software circumvents the object to create the 3D image. The moments of opportunity are fleeting and nothing can obstruct said object. So she focused on the profile of the face in order to capture the front in 3D but at the last second, Ry would put his hand in front of his mouth ruining the image. We tried everything to get him to move it. She poked and I rolled on my side. He put up a good fight. At last when the offensive hand was removed he came down with a bout of hiccups which once again ruined the images. The only one we got is a profile with his thumb seemingly up his nose.

Back on the 2D, it was discovered that Ry's face was difficult to capture anyway as there was little amniotic fluid between it and the uterus wall. A picture was managed from the view angle below looking up his nostrils in the middle of a yawn. Awwww....

Ryden weighed in at about 4lbs. 10 oz. Getting too big for this ultrasound business. His torso measured average within the 49% percentile of his age, the femur a bit on the shorter side and the head circumference in the 91% percentile. The tech asked if big heads ran in the family.. (Thanks a LOT Cam!)

After visiting with the doctor, a different woman, since my normal OB was unavailable, I was a bit clearer of the process of what to expect when I found myself in labor and how to get to the hospital and what to do. Useful stuff! Now, onto the super fun relaxing part!

Melanie at Blue Lotus Design is a wonderful henna artist and is influenced by all different cultures but has found her own style and niche in the market of body henna. Having grown up in Auckland and traveling all over the world from India to Thailand, she is a fascinating person to work with and talk to. The design took maybe an hour and a half and is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. Last time I worked with Melanie, she had had to help me out of her house after doing henna on my arms while I was still on crutches. Regardless to say, she remembered me well. At this point, Ryden was on a rampage. I can hardly get him to so much as blink when I ask people if they want to touch the belly, but the henna made him wild. Melanie compared my stomach to a waterbed in the way it was flowing around. She has worked with over 40 bellies and said mine was one the most active she'd seen. Some of the design had to be retouched from the baby wrath but all in all, it was a beautiful result that was not of the conventional preggy design. Now I feel all pretty for the Shower on Sunday, but still slightly self conscious to go to the store with just the belly bared.

33 weeks

2010-08-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

Yep. I'm almost done! I kinda don't know how I got here so fast. This summer has breezed by, like summers always do. Only this time, I have gone to far less festivals and bars and it's still been a blast. I can feel the lull now though. The cumbersome third trimester is taking its toll. I can feel the extra weight pulling me down and the whining and self pity going up. Cam and I laugh about it as I am not in denial about this. I work all day on my feet and want nothing more than to just go to bed when I get home. Food is still an issue and I find myself avoiding meal times; able to eat a carrot here or a yogurt there. Its a struggle to put away the proper amount of calories as I just don't feel I have the room. I'm trying though, don't you worry.

Ryden is roaming more and more every day. Despite my lack of mass nutrition, I can feel him growing larger and stronger. Cam and I have desperately tried capturing the alien movements made just underneath the skin on film to no prevail. Regardless, he is getting more and more attention. The bigger I get, the nicer of folk I deal with at work. I'm not sure how pregnant women get such a bad rap in the third trimester for being so moody and bitter. I am overly bubbly for my condition. For the record, not a single stranger has tried touching my belly and I'm kinda disappointed.

We feel unbelievably well prepared for Rydens arrival. He has a beautiful nursery, a name, insurance coverage, two passports in the making, two parents bursting with love and a birth plan. Coming home seems like a brick wall of boredom now. Working on the house or Ry's room has come to a halt as we are now happy in the space we are living. You cannot create personality in a space. It is something that develops over time. So thats all we have to wait for now.

Speaking of birth plans, what a perfect example of an American absurdity. Since everything needs to be planned and perfect for the precious moment, lets make sure that our doctor knows that we want to be in a specific space with specific people with specific music playing on our favorite speakers and our professional photographer present and our car to be valet parked on arrival. I guarantee any birth plan ever made has been disregarded the moment of the water breaking. Its a game of survival from there on out. You'll be lucky if you get to the right hospital not to mention the right doctor being there. Sorry to be the cynic but I'm looking forward to the spin of adrenaline and avoiding death in the delivery room. Thats my birth plan. To squeeze out a baby and get to keep it.

This weekend is fun preggy pampering time! I'll be trying out how a pregnant massage is done and then getting my belly hennaed to look pretty for the baby shower next weekend! Should be a nice relaxing time where I can just concentrate on all things ME. Don't get me wrong, I love solving people's problems all day long, I just think I need to be milking the preg thing a bit further. Women seem to coo over a pregnancy stating that "boys love their mommas!" quite consistently whereas guys are just really proud that you're actually pregnant after asking "so when are you due?" and wiping away a bead of sweat. What can I say, the bump is a conversation starter.

Mural

2010-07-19T16:22:00.001-07:00

Is in progress! We should be wrapping up by next week abouts. Cam and I have had an awesome time doing it. This is what owning a house is all about and although we have already done a lot of painting and preening, Ryden's room is by far the most extensive when it comes to color and comfort. Full wall coming soon!

Crikey! Its the Third Trimester!

2010-07-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

A client at work confessed a secret to me. She thought she was pregnant. She hadn't taken a test or told her partner, but she felt pretty sure and was excited to reveal this to me. I of course shared in her enthusiasm, as I was very suspicious from the beginning that my body was trying to tell me something and its only a feeling that you can keep to yourself until your tested. With my new superpower of trust, I had never had a stranger divulge such sentimental information and was kinda touched. I have talked to plenty of women who have already had their first and they are always excited to talk to me about what I'm going through but this recent situation was the first where I have been ahead of someone else, being able to be the wiser, the elder with homegrown advice.

In contrast, another client comes in with her 4 month old. She tells me that I shouldn't expect the first 3 months to be as dreamy as everyone claims. As a matter of fact, its grueling and exhausting- but it all pays off eventually. I smiled and nodded in understanding. Sounds like she had been through the ringer but her rose cheeked cherub did indeed to be bubbling with happiness at the moment. I, of course, couldn't really relate to the poor woman. I have good strong support from a loving husband and friends around me. I am prepared to take on the work and it will pass, and I'll say "that wasn't as bad as they said it would be." There's bigger things to be worried about that come with the territory of raising a family.

On the other hand, I had another appointment and ultrasound today. Not a lot of information except that my cervix looks "perfect." I know you were dying to know the condition of my cervix. I also talked to my OB about flying at the end of the month as Cam and I will be cruising around Yellowstone for a weekend. She shrugged and stated that I could fly up until my last weeks, 40 being the week I'm due to deliver. Her theory was if I am on a plane with a couple hundred other people, that somebody has to have a condition that could go awry and it would most likely not be me. The main problem with flying in my 3rd trimester is that I can cramped and swollen if traveling for a long amount of time and walks up and down the isle every hour are recommended.

Also, the delicate issue of circumcision came up as the majority of people I have talked to are against it. Culturally, at least %60 of Americans are for the cut, but I would say in Oregon that number could be more like %20. Being primarily a cosmetic surgery, I would say that larger metropolitan cities would have a higher rate but there is no extra medical reason to have the procedure done. I asked my OB what reasoning new parents had for getting the surgery and her reply was simple; daddy wants his son to look like him. There are religious and tradition reasons as well, but without having these legs to stand on, I feel that I would be a sheep to do this non-concensual procedure. Any feedback is welcome!

After that discussion, my OB measured my tummy. Her eyes widened as both of us are a bit incredulous at how big I've gotten in the last two weeks. As you can tell from the pic above, I feel like a spontaneous birth could happen at any moment. I have made reservations for the hospital we plan to land at and have also chosen a pediatrician from the recommendation of a friend. I would sign up for pre-schools already if I wasn't so taken aback by the tuition rates for some of the schools. Apparently, if you want to get into a "good pre-school" doing it a couple years early doesn't hurt. But I don't want to pay as much MY college tuition for such an opportunity. Meanwhile, we have to throw more money at IKEA in order to get Ryden's room together before August! Hopefully pics soon!

Advice

2010-06-27T16:14:00.001-07:00

There is a lot of information out there for pregnant women to learn about what's happenning to them physically and emotionally but the department for future dads seems lacking. In my 26th week, I can read about latest devopments in deep scientific detail of Rydens new form on my iPhone with an app called iPregnancy. However, the opinion from the doctor, whose view the app is based, has a hilarious idea of what the role of dads is. We must have missed the focus group meeting.
Week 26- Daddies

• This week it would make your partner incredibly happy if you would clean the bathroom, top to bottom, as a surprise. Maybe you could fold the laundry, too, without being asked.

• While you’re at it, one day, why not surprise her with a snack while she is watching TV?

• Another way you could make her day would be to pack her a delicious lunch to take to work. If you don’t know how to do this or to cook, go to a gourmet store and buy the ingredients there. She is worth it.

• Finally, take her to the movies. A romantic comedy would make her the happiest. This may be the last time you two can go to the movies for a long time. Even if you would prefer an action adventure film, enjoy the one she would like!

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Location:Boardman,United States

Ch Ch Ch Changes!

2010-06-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

How peculiar to suddenly become recognized as a future Mom in so many different places. The first guy was on the plane on our way to New York and asked how months in I was. Coming from a guy, this question was a bold move on his part but I was thrilled to answer and chat with him while waiting in the narrow bathroom line. His wife had had 5 so far therefore felt experienced enough initiate discussion. The bump is moving in and there is no stopping it.

While in NY and Rhode Island, the cute dresses I chose to wear were nothing more than exposing of the bump situation and I feel like I am settling into more and more. I have noted however, that I have lost weight although Ryden continues to gain it. He may weigh as much as 2lbs as we approach the 3rd trimester but the other 8lbs seems to be just collected water and placenta weight while I continue to lose mass in my arms in legs. I can't be complaining I suppose but I hope that I am doing everything I can to get Ryden what he needs to grow. Plus the lack of exercise is starting to cause my inactive calves to cramp at night.

Fortunately, I just recently won a gym membership at a gym one block from work. Working on the elliptical machine is all I need to not feel fat and stretch all the tightened ligaments from sitting around airports and idle standing around at work all day. It's all I need to feel human again and less grumpy about not being athletic anymore.

Cam takes great interest in the bump. He can't help but to reach it for it first when giving me a hug or see if Ryden is dancing around as we go to bed. The movement is much more pronounced now even slow turning under the hand. I can't see this interaction ever getting old.

I gave Cam a wonderful Father-to-be Day gift on Sunday morning of a hand-bound baby book for Ryden personalized with his name on the front and many custom pages for information inside that will be filled in over time. We spent the good part of an hour filling in the family tree, favorite books and movies, current day fashions, alternative names if we had a girl and lastly, our reactions to finding out he was a boy. Of course you have to be careful when you put this information in a baby book as its words will burn their way into the history of family lineage. It was such a picture perfect family moment as we placed the first ultrasound picture on the first page. I hope Ryden is ready for all the love that will be flooded his way as he floods out.

So handsome!

Im the only one that looks cute in this picture, therefore it has been uploaded

Nursery Thematics

2010-06-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

Since you ask, here is what we've compiled. Taking pictures of colors seems to not work well so here are some links to the samples. Colors on your screen may differ from mine, but it shouldn't be a concern as this nursery is not going to be pictured in a magazine anytime soon. Maybe it will for eccentricity though..

Cam and I have plans. The foundation color is light green.

Light Green

And then accenting with stencil designs will be ....

Green

and

Cityscape

and

Gabardine

And I have ordered a rocking chair and ottoman that will offset the whole group..

Orange Chair

The crib and matching changing table are a rich dark brown wood so will match anything. The whole thing is a work in progress but will have personality in due time! Stay tuned for awesomeness.

Meet Ryden

2010-05-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

The newest member of the Garbooth family has made his existence known more than ever this week. Reaching a new height of awareness, not only has he performed well in ultrasounds but is starting to thrash a storm and ready to expend new energy with his new little body. We are excited to have him on board and by shaping the path of our lives from here on in, let us reminisce of past Friday.I was as anxious as ever, having dreams all night of the fateful appointment where we would finally know wether I was carrying a boy or a girl. Although a boy had been hinted at in the past, I'll admit, I had always envisioned a girl. Cam and I played upon this fantasy with a ring on a chain test and talked about people we knew whose child had been diagnosed the wrong gender. I had seen myself with a baby girl since the night I had a dream about her and two weeks later I found out I was pregnant. Even with these high hopes, the possibility of a boy loomed and I was struck by that reality at the last appointment.

Going into the ultrasound, the tech immediately asked if we were interested in finding out today. Cam and I were more than enthusiastic. It maybe took the tech 30 seconds to locate the group of pixels that she clearly identified as a scrotum. I was immediately accepting of this fact and gave Cam's hand a squeeze. The burden of mystery was off our shoulders but there was little time to dwell on it as the tech took us on a tour of other features our new addition had to offer. He had what looked like a handsome profile with no trace of a cleft lip or, my worst nightmare, missing facial features. He had the right number of kidneys and chambers in his heart. She traced the main arteries which showed up on the grey screen as red and blue and all seemed to be in order due to her bird like head reactions as she gauged the screen. Along the journey, she took some adorable pictures.

little feet!

a beefy man leg complete with bones.

boy bits complete with white arrow.

and a beautiful silhouette of our protagonist! He's kinda grabbing a foot while a hand is suspended above his face. Looks like that head is going to be as big as Cams... *wince*

The session was done in no time and soon we were wisked off to talk to the doc. She had nothing to report as nothing looked awry on the charts but before she could sneak off, I had her do a quick doppler of the heartbeat so I could record it for everyone. In a couple of weeks I should be able to hear it through a stethoscope!

->Download heartbeat MP3 HERE<-

With no crises to panic about, my mind wandered back to how to analyze my gender preferences. After calls and celebration drinks with Kim, I had to still push myself to believe I could get along with a baby boy. My reasoning wrapped around the fact that everyone I seemed to know had a boy. Good friends, coworkers, neighbors had all produced boys. Cam had only grown up with brothers and was ready for a change to the feminine perspective. The ratio seemed unbalanced, the world off kilter. By having a girl, I could be unique, standing out with an adorable pink clad being amongst the masculinity. Barbies and bows are what I know and Thomas the Tank Engine is not what I want to get into. My little breakdown didn't last too long while Cam and I talked it through when our new little guy broke into a fit of thrusting and kicking. Within minutes, the grins on our faces couldn't be removed. Already a little attention seeker, he soothed my mind with his eagerness. And with that he was graduated up from our baby boy to little Ryden. He told us we needed to buck up and stop whimpering and that he needed a double of mango juice asap. So wise for his years. Our little bub.

The next day I felt like the new chapter had begun. My life has been chartered and I'm pretty excited to get going. Quitting my job will be sad but giving Ryden the best start in life and staying home for a year or two will be ultra fulfilling. His room is coming together nicely with the new crib from Grandpa R and matching changing table that I picked up today. Despite that paper lanterns and paper crane mobiles sounds a little girly, I'm putting them together anyway because Ryden will like them regardless. He will need just a couple of more things to get him up to speed so I have put a registry together here. Many small things are playful and suggestive and I have collaborated a lot of sites together here so registries may not be at all sites visited.

-> Cam and Christine's Bundle of Joy Registry <-

Memory

2010-05-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

The child walked up to his mother and asked "Mommy? Did I used to live in your belly?"

Startled, the mother said "Yes sweetie, you certainly did. Do you remember that?" The child contemplated and then nodded.

"Yes, it was really dark and I was curled up reeaal tight, like this." With that, the child brought his fists up to his small face and crouched in a ball. Becoming a bit more alarmed, the mother asked if he had been comfortable there. The child replied, "Yes, it was ok but there was something poking me." The intense memory of displacing a rib rushed back to the Mother's memory just as the child added, "and there was something loud always behind me." During the pregnancy, the baby had his head facing downwards as the Mother's heart was always beating over his back.

Suddenly, the child gasped "Mommy! Did I hurt you?" and with tears rolling down her face the Mother hugged her son to her tightly.

"Yes dear, you hurt me"

"It hurt me too, Mommy," the child said through her hair.

-Conversation with Lee Ann about an account between her friend and her four year old.

17 weeks 4 days

2010-04-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Just a regular appointment today... kinda.

I was a bit anxious about this one. In the last couple of days, I've been concerned that my clinic wasn't really meeting the bar when it came to client service standards. According to a few people who are either expecting or have already given birth, my clinic seems sub-par. Being draped with attention isn't what I demand, but neither do I want to just be treated as a number as I felt yesterday when calling my clinic hoping to get an answer about a mild twang of pain in my lower abdomen. The receptionist answered and as I expected, informed me that a nurse would pull my file and call me back with an answer to my query. I wasn't satisfied with this answer as I had just stepped out of work in order to make the call. Waiting for a call back could take a matter of a minutes to half an hour depending on the rush of calls that they were having and my call would be would be attended to in the order it was received. Being put on hold wasn't an option and the receptionist was not qualified to make an opinion. Annoyed, I didn't leave a message but hung up. I had an appointment the next day and it wasn't urgent. I had just wanted to test the waters of the system and found the results tepid. I just want to be able to call when the matter IS urgent and to speak to someone immediately who can help.

After a fretful night of thinking I was going to walk into my appointment and lose my temper, I thankfully found the whole experience refreshingly communicative. I was thrilled to actually speak to my OB, as opposed to the nurse, who reset my expectations of how the office works. She would never be available to speak to me over the phone unfortunately as she is helping patients all day long. In an urgent situation, my call is bumped to priority and as there are only one or two nurses in this small clinic, they would call me back asap or page the nearest doctor if the case turned out I was giving birth. My OB is the type who is always leaning toward the door unless you can throw another lasso of questions at her so I made sure to quickly verify that she would be able to make it to the hospital when I go into labor. In reply, she explained that within the clinic network was a group of doctors who responded to the page if she was out or off duty. If she was not present for the actual delivery, someone responsible and dependent would be. I understand why the process needs to be done this way, and it has been successful, no doubt, in dozens of instances. However, perhaps the American in me, was expecting to get her cell number from day one so we could be best friends and she could listen to every pregnancy woe I could bray. In the real world, if you want to have your baby in a hospital with insurance, you follow the protocol. In other cases, like a friend of mine who's having a home birth, the personal attention level between her and her midwife will greatly differ from my experience. My friend and this woman are no doubt getting to know each other on a much more personal level. I've chosen my path and others will choose theirs and I should just consider myself damn lucky for having insurance at all with a house to go home to and a gorgeous wonderful husband who cooks me steak for dinner. And for going through the paces of todays appointment without a hitch, with a regular heartbeat, and donating a pint of blood for more tests that I'm sure will come out negative, no wonder I don't get any extra attention. Amen!

So just a run down of what ELSE happened at the appointment. I signed up to do the AFP (Alpha-Fetoprotein) test which is the final step in making sure the bub doesn't have Down Syndrome. Always good to know I guess. Cam and I declined the Cystic Fibrosis test which is an expensive test that may not be covered under insurance. It was explained that either of us could be a carrier of the disease without knowing it and if we were to both have it, there was a 25% chance it could be passed to the baby. It's nice to know that these tests are available but the chances of the CF test being applicable to Cam and I were a bit unrealistic. Although I didn't have an ultrasound at this appointment, the heartbeat was still audible using a small handheld doppler device. I wish they could record that sound for me so I could share it. Next appointment should be a big one though coming up in 3 weeks! The sex should be determined as well as us being able to make sure all the major organs are in the right places! Fun!

I hate food

2010-04-10T20:11:00.001-07:00

Well, I've killed the stereotype of the pregnant wife barefoot in the kitchen. I can't stand the sight of food. But then all of the sudden if I don't have a banana, someone may get hurt if they are in my way. Luckily, with my husbands invested interest in my condition, I am suddenly presented with a spread of pork medallion, potatoes, brocolli, biscuits and gravy. If I wash it all down with glass of milk, then my aversion is suddenly set back to square one and the cycle begins again.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Fred Meyers

Moving: The Movie™

2010-04-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

Moving day was awesome, tiring, annoying and fun all at the same time. Thanks to all our wonderful friends who pitched in and made the day go quickly... the beer was all the sweeter because of your hard work! We're now well and truly settled into our new home, although there's still much unpacking and cleaning before it truly feels "ours"!

A Human!

2010-03-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

It's gettin real over here folks. Just look at this bub just laying back waiting for it's next feed. Just moochin away with the legs all stretched out floating comfortably in placenta. These images seems to show you so much if you trust the pixels you're looking at. The skull and brain are all in good form and bones are standing out more on the images than before. The heart was visibly pumping blood and the tech noted the kidneys and bladder were all up in full filter mode. Definitely has Cameron's nose I'd say...

Now it's just waving hey!

A footsie!

And cut to wide shot

Checkup 12 weeks 4 days

2010-03-25T12:07:00.001-07:00

Pictures are coming but we still have to find our scanner in order to share them! The doctors appointment yesterday went swimmingly and Cam finally got to meet our normal OB.

First, of course, we had another ultrasound which is still very novel to us but can see how it may become a stressful practice as more detail will be noticed each visit, and discrepancies pointed out. This time, the whole fetus (as it is now officially called!) was viewable, laying on its back with the legs up. The tech pointed out that its position couldn't have been more perfect but was concerned with a particular fluid building up behind the neck. When asked what kind of fluid, she said she couldn't be sure. But meanwhile! The heart was steady, kidneys and bladder were seen and functioning, and of course, the brain seemed to look like a real brain! The tech had a guess on the sex but couldn't be completely sure until my next ultrasound which will be another 8 weeks. What she said we won't repeat so we can keep you all in suspense!

Meeting the OB went well and she did her own poke and prod exam. A vial of my blood was taken in order to perform the nucleal transparency test and Cam nearly lost it as she drew it out of me. After she answered a few of our questions and we arranged my next appointment, Cam said that "she was cute" and didn't know what my beef was. She was definitely nicer, as my tests previous had all come back negative which makes everyone's lives easier.

Afterwards, with our after-appointment-glow, we went and cleaned the old house. I was pretty exhausted after working and then going through the exam and tried to contribute the best I could. We are pretty much done with the old place and ready to hand back the keys! Can't wait to finally throw our energy into the new house which needs some big time TLC. My overacting olfactories are completely against the "new house smell" and re-cleaning it seems like the only way to diminish my opposition. More pictures of the house coming soon too! We really need to get our internet in gear so I don't have to write blogs at work :D

Edit 3/26:

Cam feels the need for me to explain the full scope of the fluid issue. The previous account states how I understood the fluid to be a concern but really all is perfectly normal. The tech needed to measure the amount of fluid as part of the nucheal trans test and too much or too little could have led to further tests to make sure that Down Syndrome was not a possibility. The blood test was a follow up to make sure that all was sound. Cam would also like to voice that the blood did not put him off. It just gushed into the test tube in a way that was unexpected and therefore a short breath was heard from his direction.

Luggin the Lime

2010-03-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

Thats preggers talk! Check out some Cannon Beach photos when Cam girl-napped me Wednesday night to celebrate the signing for our new house!

2010-03-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

These days things are getting interesting! Today Cam and I sign a hundred pieces of paper for our new abode! I'm feeling anxious of moving everything and accomplishing everything that I want to do to our new house. Luckily, there is no fixing up to do but there is a lot of painting in order to make it our own. Moving day is Sunday so far and we will have a few friends helping us move boxes of transformers and goods. Hopefully, I'll feel up for documenting the event, maybe with some video!

Cam has been supporting me and my mood swings a lot lately. Yesterday, I felt on top of the world but last night I felt so drained and heavy, I had to go bed barely able to eat a PB&J. Our photo shoot of my preg progress has fallen behind as I have little energy after work to get any of my million projects worked on. This morning, having nothing in my stomach I was super nauseous and caused more concern to Cam who now knows he has to force me to eat when I'm feeling my lowest. Other than that, I have forgotten for awhile that I am pregnant. I eat the same as I always have but am more conscious of eating more vegetables and better nutrients. I should be eating more than I am, but it is difficult to get past the mentality of feeling gluttonous and heavy after always feeling the need to be fit my whole life. As I begin to show more, which is very slight at the moment, this mentality should pass and I'll start to accept the whole thing.

Work hasn't changed too much and neither have people's attitudes toward me. When I first told coworkers, they would go out of their way to help me out but now it seems to have fallen out of attention. I pay slightly more attention to children than I used to but am still wary of them. They are strange and unpredictable. Cam is a child's favorite as proven when he went and hung out with a friends two year old the other day. He has also had little contact with children but really enjoyed reading to him and playing with his toys with him. The kid was a wreck when he finally had to be put down to bed and made quite the commotion.

Doctors appointment is next Wednesday so more pictures are coming! Stay tuned! Hopefully, we will work with our regularly scheduled OB and all goes well!

Tuesday

2010-03-02T16:35:00.001-08:00

Had a great weekend entertaining long lost friend Carrie who I went to school with at Sydney Uni! I had promised her bands and booze a few months ago but the my new ordeal changed things up a bit. We galavanted all over Portland and Cam and Kim loved hearing of her round the world adventures. The timing may have been off, but good times were had and Cam and I are now working to move into our new house which closes on the 19th! Once in, then the nesting can begin... And expect a couple more updates from me now that I have this new iPhone app to help me keep the blog alive and not bother the Facebook folk with growing pains. Until next time..

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Work

8 Weeks 3 Days

2010-02-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

Back from the second checkup today!

This time with Cam in tow, we had an ultrasound which was much clearer than only two weeks before. The head and little stub arms were visible as well as the tiny heartbeat going the rate of a squirrels. The tech measured the heart rate to make sure it was regular and checked around the area to make sure nothing else strange was growing near the fetus. Lastly, she let us hear the heartbeat through the equipment and sure enough the thing was beating away making us realize that this being was now on it's own, making its own blood, making its own journey from here on out. We just had to guide it and nurture it and see how it shapes out. Now having two hearts in my body, I was still a bit foggy how the machine was able to determine that one little beating organ from the other dominate one. Cam on the other hand was going through a life changing epiphany complete with shivers and a momentous sense of awe.

From there we were then directed to the examination room where I met my substitute doctor as my original OB was on vacation(?) The new doc was extremely personable and made us laugh throughout my poke-and-prod exam. From there we sat with him in his office as he put on the serious doctor face and gave us the low down of what to expect in the next few months. There were tests to be taken, if elected, including a Nucheal Translucency to test for Down syndrome and a Cystic Fibrosis Carrier test. Both sounded like the chances were slim but risky if not caught early. He went over meds I could take and drugs I should stop taking (cocaine and meth will be the hardest) but I felt like I had already been educated in most of the topics due to some heavy book reading in the past couple of weeks. Cam, of course absorbed the info like a sponge and was so glad that he came along. I thanked Dr. F as I was so grateful for his welcoming attitude and cool demeanor. Unfortunately, I could not betray my original OB and switch teams, not because of loyalty, but because she was the only one who would travel to my insured hospital for the delivery. C'est la vie! As Dr. F is in the same clinic though, its nice to know that he is there, always looking out for patients whose regular docs are on vacation.

Meanwhile, Cam is taking care of me in the best way he knows how. His support is through the roof and I couldn't be any luckier. And as for the gummy bear, you don't know it yet, but you're pretty lucky too.

7 Weeks 1 Day

2010-02-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

It's Cam's birthday today! So far I have made him feel extra special by reminding him of the miracle of life inside me and the nausea that it brings. By not eating in my sleep, I wake up feeling fine for about 20 minutes until my body turns on me. Of course eating crackers in the middle of the night is not very appealing and I'm still getting into a rhythm of how this all works. Tonight we'll have a few people over, grill up some steaks and see how I last. Having quite a few errands to run today, hopefully I can keep it together enough for Cam to have an enjoyable day :)

5 Weeks 6 Days

2010-02-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

I am starting this blog a bit late. But as with all situations as delicate as this, rushing is something that one needs to resist. But now, all seems "safe" enough to proceed and publicly shout "Hey look! Im not broken after all!"

My first appointment to the doctor produced these results with the ultrasound. The technician seemed disgruntled at her findings as the details are difficult to make out. I pointed this out to her and expressed, I was more than thrilled to see what she was seeing. However, I am still a bit disappointed at the quality of ultrasounds as I feel technology should have developed a bit better by now, being a futuristic year of 2010, to be able to see a 2mm speck in my uterus as clearly as if was being featured on BBCs Planet Earth. But alas, its still grainy black and white and we see a large black blob, being the yolk, with a tiny arrow (not part of the fetus unfortunately) pointing to what should be the important developing bits.

My technician didn't seem to be enjoying her job when I couldn't think of anything more exciting to do every day. No worry though, my bubbliness will see me through this, until I met up with my doctor.

She meets me in her office and looks over my chart. With an intense glare, she demands why I haven't been in in the last year for a check up on a procedure I had back in late 2008. Good question. My excuses are meager, like having no idea that she wanted me to come back for a check up. There could be complications down the road if I have any high level CIN squamous cells left in my cervix she explains. I agree, that should be made a priority for my health that this be taken care of. We make an appointment for two weeks from the day and she leaves the room. Kind of left in a shock, I leave the office wondering what I should be more concerned about: my doctor being furious at me, or me just being happy because the appointment was indeed a success. To be continued...

Interstate Diagram Print Sample!

2009-11-20T12:43:00.001-08:00

Interstate Diagram Print Sample!, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

First print sample of my Interstate Diagram poster came in today. This one is from an online on-demand printer - I love the size (36" x 24"), and the colors look great as well, nice and bright! I could even make the type a little bit smaller at this reproduction size, which could neaten things up a bit. Still waiting on a couple of different printers before I make a final decision on which way to go.

~~Prints will be for sale soon - let me know if you're interested by emailing camgbooth -AT- gmail -DOT- com!~~

UPDATE: Posters - in both 25" x 17" and 36" x 24" sizes - are now available for purchase here.

Eisenhower and H.C. Beck's Love Child

2009-10-29T21:13:00.001-07:00

Eisenhower Interstate System in the style of H.C. Beck's London Underground Diagram, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

UPDATE: Prints of this diagram are now available for sale here.

Here's the result of my latest "designing stuff because I feel like it" phase: a map of America's comprehensive Interstate highway system in the form of a metro or subway map.

I came across a very different take of this on the internet last week, an incredibly simplified, very rectangular (and very orange!) diagram by Chris Yates. Many viewers of this map were calling it a "Beck style map" (after H.C. Beck, the originator of the London Underground Diagram) or a "subway style map", but on the whole, I disagreed with that point of view.

The best examples of subway maps use strong colour codes for separate lines and a clear hierarchy of detail (interchanges, major stations, minor stations, etc.) to convey a lot of information rapidly and clearly. And while there is some degree of geographical distortion in most metro maps (the centre of London in Beck's diagram is greatly enlarged compared to the outer suburbs), there should always be an underlying sense of the relationship between destinations in reality and on the map.

So that's what I set out to create - a simplified diagram of the Interstate system in the style of the best transport diagrams. Armed with Google Earth, Google Maps, Wikipedia, a gridded pad of paper and pen, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Chris Yates' map and another excellent map by Rebecca Brown that I found on Flickr, I began my Herculean task.

Early on, I decided that the "major" highways (those divisible by 5) would form the framework of my diagram. These would be thicker of line than the minor roads, and would be distinctively colour coded. Their termini would also be called out in a bolder fashion than the other roads. This was done relatively painlessly, with very little rejigging required to make all the major intersections line up. I was surprised at how much this simple grid already looked like America's borders, which gave me great hope that things were going to work out well.

Then it was onto fitting the minor highways into this grid. Even though these roads don't have specific colour codes, I strove to give some extra information in the shades of grey used: a darker gray was used for even-numbered roads (running from west to east; lower numbers to the south, higher numbers to the north) and a lighter grey for the odd-numbered roads (running from north to south; lower numbers to the west, higher numbers to the east). Each road has its number marked at each terminus, with a full key at the bottom of the map for cross-reference. A bit of tweaking was required here and there to make every road and name fit neatly (it gets a bit crowded in the eastern states!), but in general everything worked out beautifully. I even managed to show concurrency of Interstates by running the "lines" next to each other, just as they do on subway maps.

Then I added the Great Lakes, coastline, borders and the key. Done!

All up, this project took around a week to complete. There's still some little tweaks and fixes to make, and I feel sure that road aficionados across the country will be only too ready to point out my errors as time goes by, but overall, I'm extremely happy with the way it turned out!

Some oddities: I-99 breaks the grid by being placed to the WEST of I-95. Apparently, the number was written into Section 332 of the National Highway Designation Act of 1995 by Bud Shuster, then-chair of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the bill's sponsor, and the representative of the district through which the highway runs. Why? Maybe he thought 99 was a cool number for his local highway?

I-97 is to the east of I-95 (as it should be), but it is the only Interstate that does not intersect with any other. In fact, all of I-97 lies in one little county just outside Baltimore.

Oh, and here's a direct link to a much BIGGER version (more pixels than can fit on your screen!)

A Tale Of Two Cities (Bicycle Edition)

2009-10-12T21:23:00.001-07:00

Bike Culture, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

Here in PDX we think we've got it pretty good when it comes to commuting by bicycle. After all, Portland is far and away the best city in the US for biking. It's compact, (relatively) flat and easy to navigate (hurrah for the grid system). There's also an increasing amount of infrastructure at very little cost to the taxpayer: bike lanes, special signals at intersections, lots and lots of bike only parking... yep, things are good in Bike City USA.

That is, until you visit Amsterdam and see how things really should be. Bikes are absolutely everywhere and the amount of infrastructure to support and encourage bike use is simply amazing. Bike lanes thread their way through most of the city, often separated from the main roadway by a median, always coloured red to signify them clearly. Traffic lights almost always have bike signals on them and everyone gives way to bikes as a matter of course. The main railway station - Amsterdam Centraal - has a multi-level parking lot for 2,500 bicycles and there are secure and patrolled lots dotted throughout the city as well.

The other thing that's really different is the complete lack of bike snobbery and one-upmanship that is prevalent in Portland. Hardly anyone rides a fancy 21-speed Bianchi or a Cannondale with titanium forks, nor are there any hipster fixed-gear bikes. Instead, everyone rides big, clunky, black bikes with just enough gears to get you over the steepest bridge in town, barely functional brakes, a kickstand, fat fenders and a chain guard (hence no one in Amsterdam has to roll their right trouser leg up to save it from being ripped by the front gear sprocket, the sign of a hardened Portland cyclist). These are commuting bikes, make no mistake about it. And because everyone's bikes are so similar (black, old, dented), theft also seems to be much less of a problem - most people use a simple chain to secure their bike instead of super-hardened whiz-bang Kryptonite locks that are required here if you want to see your ride again.

Also not to be seen: that old Portland favourite, the cute little tricycle baby cart that trundles along behind your bike. Babies sit in little "car seats" mounted on the handle bars, while older children just climb on behind their parents and hang on. Older people give friends lifts on their bikes just about everywhere; we often saw women wearing incredibly chic outfits perched side-saddle on the back of a bike as it whizzed by.

Things aren't perfect in Amsterdam, though - a huge amount of tourists hire bikes every day and ride around as if they're immune to the very real dangers of the road, seemingly thinking that Amsterdam is Disneyland and they're on the latest theme ride. I saw countless numbers of people get their tyres caught in tram tracks and just have a general lack of awareness that put them in danger. However, drivers in Amsterdam all seem to have a great awareness of cyclists (probably because they're so omnipresent), and this lessens the risks somewhat.

In the end, the main proof of the difference between the two "bike cities" lies in the statistics. Portland's bicycle commute rate (ie, to and from work) just hit 6.5%, up from 4.0% a couple of years ago. Amsterdam's lies at around 40%, a truly staggering number.

One Last Flaming Hoop: Addendum

2009-10-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sighhhh.

Why are things never easy when it comes to dealing with the government? Christine and I returned from our European sojourn (more on that soon!) to find that my I-751 application had been returned to me in our absence.

Why?

Because it arrived at the processing centre on the 18th of September, which is 91 days before my Green Card runs out. And you have to send them the application within the 90 days preceding the expiration date. That's right, it got there one whole day early, so they packed the whole thing up and sent it back to me.

The really funny thing? The date stamped on the included cover letter which explained why the application had been returned was the 21st of September, which is well within the 90 day window. Ah, stubborn bureaucracy at its finest!

One Last Flaming Hoop!

2009-08-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

The records of this Service indicate that you entered the United States as a conditional permanent resident on 12/18/2007. In accordance with Section 216 of the Immigration and Nationality Act you must file Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence. Failure to do so may result in the automatic termination of your Status. You can obtain Form I-751, as well as filing information and fees, from www.uscis.gov or call 1-800-375-5283.

With this tersely worded letter, the final part of my immigration to the United States has begun. It's hard to believe that something that was set in motion back in 2006 will finally come to an end at the end of 2009 (or, more likely, some way into 2010 if the usual processing speed of the USCIS comes into play).

Because I entered the US on a fiance Visa, then got married to claim residency, the US Government basically doesn't trust me an inch. They've seen every single marriage trick and scam in the book, and in their eyes, we're all suspicious until proven otherwise. The first Green Card you get when you enter the country is only valid for two years instead of the usual ten (because they don't trust you), and you must start to renew it within 90 days of its expiration, or you get booted unceremoniously from the US.

To renew it, we have to send in yet more evidence that our relationship is a bona fide marriage – joint bank account statements, lease notices, photos, notarised affidavits from friends, that kind of stuff. Oh, and another $500-odd for the processing fee and yet another set of fingerprints... this'll be the third time! But really, it's one of the simpler tasks we've had to complete on this long road, so I can't foresee too many problems. And then... freedom!

We've been married for two years!

2009-07-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all for your warm wishes and support!
Cam and I have had such a blast this past year and it all has been going by so fast! This coming year brings us into a realm of real security and comfort as Cam establishes work in America and we start going on trips together such as Amsterdam coming up in 6 weeks! With him having steady work and me getting done paying medical bills, we know that this year will have a lot of good times in store. We had a lot to celebrate and last night we went to Rocky Butte where we were married back in our youth and had a picnic of bread, exotic cheese and local wine. If my foot was in good order, I would have brought the trampolines. But we did bring the space helmets, of course, for photographic moments!

Golden Gate

2009-07-12T10:10:00.001-07:00

Golden, Golden Gate, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

Well, I'm back from my little jaunt down to San Francisco. Even though I worked hard (staying in the office until 10:30pm the night before the presentation), I did manage to get out and about and play the tourist a bit.

Here's my favourite shot so far – the always impressive Golden Gate Bridge (coincidentally, the subject of the presentation) as seen from Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. The place is way too touristy, but it does offer spectacular views of the bay, especially at sunset!

More soon!

2009-07-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

Seriously, its getting too geeky on here. I need to fill this space with some gore! It hasn't been all puppy dog tails over here. Cam has been working REALLY hard with a full time job and taking care of my crippled self. Tomorrow he is off to the great land of San Francisco to do amazing things and move ahead in the world. Me, on the other hand has just managed to make Mac and Cheese by myself without toppling over and calling 911. No but really, I am doing ok these days and I have my fingers crossed that two weeks from now, my doctor will give me good news like "go ahead and walk out of this office."
For the last two months, it has been a bit of a hardship and I have been sitting around a lot but Cam and I have gotten out and done all sorts of crazy stuff that normal people with broken ankles don't do.
Lets take work for example. For a month now, I have been helping the masses in a wheelchair with a laptop on my lap where I can sort out all their needs on the spot. It's been very gratifying for me and my customers to not have to stand behind a counter, stare each other down or print out giant receipts for them to sign. I take credit cards wirelessly and send them invoices via email and most people are "impressed" by my abilities although it is nothing special. It's how I get by. In reality, its just pure laziness on my part. One gentleman told me the other day that he was "glad the store hired people like me" and quickly backed it by saying "my happiness was pleasant to work with." Yeah, yeah. I do feel like people treat my like they have just entered a Goodwill sometimes, smiling instantly down on me when they came in with a frown. I can't say the wheelchair has hurt sales. I actually think business is doing better.
Outside of the store, the wheelchair has been a novelty. I can sit down in long lines. Women in heels run to get the door for me. People in coffee shops offer help when I am just sitting quietly by myself waiting for Cam. I think I have renewed hope for the human race at this point. Everyone loves to be a hero helping someone who "looks" like they are in need.
Everyone has hurt themselves this summer. As we rolled around town yesterday observing the Blues Fest by the waterfront, I was counting the casts, crutches and fellow wheelchairs go by. I used to think it was a heightened sensitivity, but I am pretty sure now there is no mistake, people are getting out there and slamming themselves. Can't blame them, this summer has been gorgeous. We have been able to go on a road trip, camping, festivals, concerts, or just out for drinks as if my hinderance were nothing more than a skin rash.
Other than my new profound outlook on life, let it be known that its going to be an exciting week of Christine's Birthday Festivus! With the bad leg and all, the video project of everyone dressed up as dinosaurs in the forest will be postponed to another date. I might just be up for sitting around in good company with a cold beer in my hand on a hot summer evening. Oh and Im sure Cam has some sort of crazy party in space planned for me *wink wink* right darling??

Star Trails!

2009-07-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Christine and I headed on out to Homedale, Idaho to attend Water on the Ditch, the annual party/jam session thrown by some of our good friends each year. As always when travelling, I took my camera with me, but I wanted to make sure I tried some new things out. Because always taking the same kind of shot gets boring, y'know?

The one type of photography you simply can't do in Portland is star trails; the light pollution from the city simply outshines the faint imprints left by the stars. I did try some when Christine and I camped out in Central Oregon (now forever known as "The Ankle Trip"), but I obviously wasn't thinking straight and shot at ISO400, adding so much noise to the shot as to render it useless.

So I tried a shot on both nights. The first one was okay, but nothing special. However, the second night's shot turned out perfectly:

This is an hour long exposure facing almost directly north. The camera settings were ISO100 at ƒ/8, 17mm focal length. A lot of people suggest opening the aperture all the way up, but I was concerned that doing this would totally blow out the foreground detail (which I was hoping would be the best part of the shot), so I closed it up a few stops. Of course, the camera was mounted on a sturdy tripod and the exposure was started and ended with a cable release. I had the long exposure noise reduction option in the camera set to "On", but I have since read that you shouldn't really bother with this, as post-production noise-reduction in Photoshop or via a plug-in like Noise Ninja will always produce a better effect.

I really am amazed this turned out so well. The foreground is everything I could have hoped for and then more. The light from the stage on the trees surrounding the house is quite magical, and there are lots of little details from lights that went on and off during the exposure as well: someone walking with a flashlight, headlights from a car turning into the property, camera flashes and so on.

Post-production was limited to noise reduction (it still needed it, although not to a huge degree), cloning out some dead or hot pixels in the image and then adding some extra saturation/brightness to the colors. It prints beautifully at 13"x19" on our Canon Pixma Pro 9000 and we plan on giving one to our friends who host the Ditch each year as a token of our appreciation for this most excellent of parties!

The more we get out of the city, the more of these I'm going to take... I can only get better with experience!

Cleaning my camera sensor!

2009-06-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

The one major, major flaw in older digital SLR cameras like my Canon Rebel XT (that's a 350D for those outside the US) is that they are dust magnets. Changing lenses or even using the zoom on a telephoto lens seems to positively suck dust and dirt inside the camera, where it sticks to the mirror, the focusing screen, and – worst of all – the sensor array itself.

Newer DLSRs have fancy vibrating ultra-sonic cleaning mechanisms that can shake dust loose from the inner workings of the camera, mine does not. As a result, my nearly 3-and-a-half year old camera was becoming something of an embarrassment... clear blue skies were covered in dust spots that had to be cloned out in Lightroom or Photoshop, and any shot stopped down below ƒ/16 was absolutely covered in horrid little black dots as the dust was brought more into focus. I'm using a tripod, stopping down and doing a lot more long exposure photography these days, all of which are guaranteed to show off those spots in all their unsightly glory. After our trip to Central Oregon last month, these spots crossed the line from "slightly annoying" to "I can't stand these damn dust bunnies!"

So what to do? I could just take my camera into a pro photo store and have them clean the sensor, but there were many reports on the web of cameras returning from service either exactly the same or worse than when they went in. That sounds like $60 poorly spent to me. So I decided to look into self-cleaning solutions, as scary as that sounds! Again and again, the same name kept coming up: Copper Hill Images. Their website posts the most detailed instructions on cleaning the interior of a digital camera I have ever seen, and they sell the kits that give you the tools to do it as well. So, after reading and rereading the site and other people's opinions of the method, I went ahead and ordered a kit. It arrived yesterday, and I have spent the morning giving my camera a thorough, well-overdue cleaning. How did it go? I think pictures tell the story. These are shots of my computer monitor with a sky-blue image filling the whole screen (the dust is always more visible against the sky in real-life, so that's what I set out to simulate on another grey Portland day!). The aperture was set to ƒ/22 for all these shots to bring the dust into focus as much as possible.

First up, a shot taken before any cleaning:

Disgusting, eh? There must be over 100 individual spots here, including some really big ones. This is what comes from changing lenses out in the open and rarely cleaning your camera!

After taking each shot, I brought them into Photoshop and ran Auto Levels (Command-Shift-L) on a duplicate layer of the image. This allowed me to really see each and every dust bunny on the image, which I've circled in red.

My first step was to get the SensorSweep brush, give it a light static charge by blowing air on it from a blower and lightly – oh so lightly! – brush it over the sensor to remove any loose dust particles. This done, I took another test shot:

A huge improvement already! You can see that the large spot has moved because I used a different focal length to take this shot compared to the last shot - indicating that this one is on my lens or filter, not the sensor.

Next, I thoroughly cleaned all my lenses and filters with the brush followed by lens tissue moistened with optics cleaner. Getting there! Now for the final, most daunting step... wet cleaning the sensor itself. This uses lint-free photographic wipes moistened with a drop or two of Eclipse optic fluid, carefully wrapped around a little stylus to do the job. With a steady, light hand, you brush the wipe across the sensor one way and then back the other, using one side for the first stroke, then the other side for the second stroke. Whatever you do, don't go back in and do another wipe after this - you'll just end up depositing all the removed dirt back on the sensor array!

And the result:

Still not perfect, but what an improvement over the "Before" photo! The big spot still seems to be on my lens – I'll have to investigate its exact location further – but we're down to a handful of dust spots on the sensor. Hopefully, with regular cleaning sessions, I can continue to reduce this number even further!

I am already very impressed with this method of cleaning, but it's certainly not for everyone. If you have poor eyesight, unsteady hands or are terrified of damaging your camera, then I would recommend that you look into alternative methods instead!

More images selected for Getty Images' Flickr Collection!

2009-05-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Yay! Getty have selected five more of my photos for inclusion in the Getty Images Flickr Collection! While it's true that I haven't made a sale yet through this system, I feel that that Getty is capable of reaching a much larger audience than I ever could, and eventually I'll reap the benefits. These are the photos they've chosen this time around:

Fire: this is a simple little shot of a bonfire that I took at a party last December - the high shutter speed (1/1250th of a second) does a good job of freezing the licking flames in time.

Nom Nom Nom: This is one of our pet gerbils enjoyig a little snack in her cage, taken with my 70-300mm lens from a distance. I really like the shallow depth of field in this, which - for once! - has focussed on exactly the right place.

Folds II: One of my abstract shots from the Painted Hills in Central Oregon. I'm ecstatic that they've chosen one of these, because they really are one of my favorite series of photos.

Washington Bound: A shot taken from the passenger seat of our car as we drove across the Astoria Bridge from Oregon to Washington. I've always really liked this shot because of the combination of sharp detail, motion blur and even the rain on the windscreen.

Lunar Eclipse, 20th February 2008: Yes, yes, yes! If this isn't a saleable image, then I don't know what is! I put a huge amount of work into this composite image, and I really think it shows.

Interestingly, the last two images are being marketed as Rights Managed shots, rather than the more usual royalty-free model. This means that each and every use of the image by a client is negotiated separately, and often for more money per use... we shall see what that brings!

The titles of each image above links to the relevant photo in my Flickr stream. See also my previous post about the first images chosen by Getty Images.

P.S. Getty also just sent me an email saying that I'm allowed to choose five images that I would like to send to them for inclusion in the collection, and I'm somewhat stumped so far. Any ideas?

First camping trip of the season!

2009-05-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

The best – the absolute best – thing about having our own car is that we can get out of Portland on a whim and go Elsewhere. For once, Christine and I both had the same two days off (Sunday and Monday), so we decided to head out to Central Oregon to see the high desert sights.

We decided to camp at the Cove Palisades State Park, simply because it had the best facilities. I had originally wanted to stay at Smith Rock State Park – an area that looks absolutely stunning in photos I have seen – but their camping facilities were limited to a bivouac area with a pit toilet and no open fires allowed (due to the sensitive nature of the park), and what fun is camping without a roaring campfire and marshmallows at the end of the day?

Because we organised so quickly and changed our preference of campsite so late, we didn't really have much idea of what Cove Palisades would be like... were we in for a pleasant surprise! You can't see much as you approach, but gradually you realise that the high, flat plain is intersected by deep river canyons, well over 1000 feet deep. Further downstream, the gorge has been dammed (for hydro-electric power), filling the canyons with a large lake, upon which boats of all descriptions were enjoying the beautiful weather.

We had arrived too early to check into a campsite, so we hiked from the valley floor to the top of the escarpment for spectacular views over most of the park:

The isolated plateau between the two arms of the lake is known as "The Island", and is one of the last remaining areas of never-farmed grassland left in the United States. As such, it is a vital habitat for eagles and other raptors as well as being an important research site – it is closed to all public access to preserve it. It looks like something from "The Land Time Forgot" to me, and I half expected to see dinosaurs roaming across it. That's Mount Hood you can see way, way off in the distance. This area of Oregon offers the most amazing views of the Cascades mountain range I have yet seen; from Mount Hood in the north all the way down to Mount Bachelor (near the town of Bend) to the south. Here's a shot of some of the mountains that I took on Sunday morning:

To the left is Broken Top (most southerly), followed by the "Three Sisters"; South Sister, Middle Sister (almost obscured) and North Sister, also known (apparently) as Faith, Hope and Charity. In the foreground, you can see more of the spectacular gorges of the Cove Palisades State Park.

However, our trip was not all fun, games and awesome photos. Late on Saturday, we were at a fun little beach within the park to take some photos of what promised to be a beautiful sunset. Christine ventured out along a pier and onto some floating pontoons that eventually joined back on to another wooden dock at the other end of the beach. The gap here was wider than the first gap, but Christine was confident that she could jump it, rather than having to walk all the way back along the pontoons to the first pier. I decided to take a photo of her leap...

... which turned out spectacularly well, but unfortunately the jump itself didn't end quite so happily. Christine's left foot slipped on the wet wooden dock, and when her right foot tried to compensate, it got bent in the wrong direction, causing a horrific sprain in her right ankle. However, we didn't know this at first, as the initial pain was in her shin. Thinking she'd just grazed her shin and that she'd be fine after the initial pain died down, we sat around for a while, telling concerned onlookers that we'd be alright in a minute.

However, when Christine tried to stand, the real injury became apparent and its serious nature sunk in. Christine was in immense pain with every little movement of her ankle, and I had to enlist the aid of a nearby burly gentleman to help me carry her back to the car park. We headed back to the campsite and got directions to the nearest hospital, which was in the nearby town of Madras. We set off on our way, with me trying to drive both quickly and smoothly at the same time, as every bump in the road caused Christine excruciating pain. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, we arrived at the little hospital and checked Christine in. After an interminable check-in process ("Do you have a religious preference?" was one of the questions!), Christine was attended to. X-Rays confirmed no break, just a serious sprain and we were soon on our way, with Christine's ankle safely held in an air cast,armed with painkillers and a pair of crutches, which the hospital were very reluctant to give her until they realised she had insurance!

Remarkably, we went back to the campsite (which we had set up earlier in the day) and camped out as intended... although we arrived back at camp after 10:30! On Sunday, we drove down to Bend and had lunch at the excellent Deschutes Brewery and Public House before returning to Portland in the afternoon. Quite the adventure!

Driving a point home (pardon the pun!)

2009-05-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes you realise just how darn fat you were more than some good old fashioned before and after photos... and I've got some of the best, thanks to the DMV. The one on the left is from my instructional permit, and was taken on November 20th last year, when I was probably at my portliest. The one on the right is from my new Oregon Driver's Licence, taken last Tuesday.

Freakin' scary.

Now I can drive on BOTH sides of the road!

2009-04-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

So I finally got off my butt and went and got myself an Oregon Driver's License today. I just realised that there was no reason not to get it apart from procrastination. While procrastination can be fun, it was time to join the real world... so at 8am in the morning, Christine and I headed off to the grandly titled Portland Drive Test Center... really just a ginormous DMV.

For some reason, this is the only DMV office in the entire Portland metropolitan area where you can actually do the drive test... totally unlike Sydney, where every RTA (Roads and Traffic Authority) office does it.

Anyway, of all the hoops I've had to jump through in my quest to lead an American Life™, this was probably the easiest of all. Sign in, fill out some paperwork, show my Green Card, pay the test fee of $9 and then go for a drive. The tester was a pretty relaxed guy and I really didn't feel nervous at all. And drive tests don't really agree with me – I failed back in Australia five times before I got my license. I kept getting the same drive tester, and for some reason, he just didn't like me and failed me for more and more ridiculous reasons each time. On the sixth time, I got someone else, and – surprise, surprise – I passed!

So I made a couple of little mistakes in the test – I stopped too far into the intersection at a couple of stop signs (a matter of inches!), and turned into the middle lane when turning left into a multi-lane one way street (you have to turn into the left-most lane). Nowhere near enough to fail me, anyway! I was slightly annoyed that after diligently practicing reverse parks all week, I didn't actually need to perform one in the test – I just had to pull in to an empty curb as if parking, and then reverse two car lengths in a smooth manner. No other cars anywhere near me!

Back at the DMV, I paid my $59 for an eight-year license (showing my Green Card again), and then had my photo taken by another staff member for my license (third time for the Green Card!), which will be mailed to me in the next week or so.

Road trip, anyone?

Graphic designer: the amazing job-absorbing career

2009-04-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, I've been filling in my non-working time (of which there's been a little too much lately, unfortunately) by teaching myself CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) design for the web. It's a necessary skill to have as a designer these days, as table-based layouts are very much frowned upon these days. CSS basically helps to separate the content of a site from its style (the way it looks), which makes future design changes and updates easier - in theory! Of course, there's all sorts of little hacks and workarounds that you have to know to make your code work with all browsers, some of which are surprisingly non-standards compliant (I'm looking at you, Internet Explorer!).

As I set about my task, it occurred to me that modern graphic designers probably have a higher skill set and have absorbed more jobs than any other job out there. Let me explain...

When I started as a designer over 15 years ago, computers were just starting to gain a foothold in the industry. They were used to create black and white "keyline" artwork that was output by a high-resolution imagesetter, then mounted on board and painstakingly marked up by hand with instructions for the film house. I've lost count of the number of times that I had to write something like, "Enlarge transparency #3 120%, strip transparency to keyline, delete keyline" on the overlay sheet for a piece of artwork - just to get one picture at the right size in the right place. And everything was defined like this: colours, pictures, fills, gradients. In its way, this was the CSS of the day – instructions that gave style to the basic wireframe of the black and white artwork.

Back then, you trusted the film house to interpret these instructions and produce an output that could be used by the printers to make plates for the final printing. But as computers got more powerful and software more sophisticated, more and more work began to be done by the designer, rather than the film house. Files began to be produced with all the colour information and images already included, moving far more of the creative process directly into the designer's hands. In effect, graphic designers started to absorb what was traditionally the role of the film house. They still scanned images and produced the film and proof for printing, but all of the "magic" they used to do was now in our hands. Move forward to now, and film houses all but extinct – artwork now goes directly from designer to printer, where printing plates are made directly from the digital file.

Much the same happened with image retouching. Once Photoshop entered the market, expensive and wizardly "systems work" began to be done by (the much cheaper) inhouse staff, sometimes disastrously, sometimes very well indeed. There's still no substitute for a professional retoucher, but a lot of designers come very close in most instances, especially on a budget.

Then came the internet revolution and a whole new set of skills for designers – web design. Suddenly designers had to know HTML and Flash, and if they knew how to code, even better. Designers who had worked solely in print suddenly had to think in RGB and in terms of time and animation. Of course, the inverse is also true, because there's a whole generation of young designers out there who started in web design and now produce some of the sloppiest finished art for print that has ever been seen.

So... print designer, web designer, image retoucher, film combiner, coder and often concept developer, illustrator and copy writer as well. Not bad for one job, eh?

Snowboarding fun!

2009-02-18T13:03:00.001-08:00

For my birthday this year, Christine decided to treat me to a day of snowboarding up at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. We hired some gear and headed up yesterday - cheap lift tickets mid-week made the deal more attractive and the slopes were pretty empty, so it was a good day for a beginner like myself. Christine, who hadn't snowboarded for a few years, jumped straight on her board like it was an old bicycle and was carving up the mountain, no problems at all. And, looking at this photo, you might think that I got the hang of things pretty quickly...

Looks pretty impressive, eh? Unfortunately, this was not the normal position for the day. Most of the time, I looked more like this picture...

Seriously, I lost count of the number of times that I fell flat on my face or butt. Snowboarding is really, really hard, and I just couldn't get the hang of certain necessary techniques, especially the all-important turns that move you from the toe edge of the board to the heel edge. As a result, I spent most of the day on my toe edge: in effect, standing on tippy-toes facing up the hill for extended periods of time. My calves got a thorough stretch, that's for sure!

Every time I'd try to transition to the heel edge (resting on your heels, facing down the hill), I'd lose control and fall down again. And again. And again. A couple of falls were real bell-ringers, as well... I slammed the back of my head hard into the snow a few times (not as soft as it might sound), and winded myself a couple of other times when my arm got caught between the snow and my ribs when I fell. Ouch. Still, everyone says that the first two or three times you go snowboarding, falling down constantly is simply part of the job description, so at least I'm not alone!

One thing I can't fault is Christine's instruction. She was a great teacher all day, even when I was having little temper tantrums... she showed far more patience than I ever thought possible. She laid out all the theory and techniques perfectly, but my body just couldn't turn theory into actuality! However, despite feeling like I have the body of a 90-year old with severe arthritis this morning, I actually had a really good, fun time yesterday and will definitely be back for more.

Just as we were leaving, the thick cloud that had been blanketing Mount Hood all day long suddenly blew away, leaving us with this spectacular view of the mountain to remember the day by. Stunning!

Flickr, Getty Images and me!

2009-02-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

Recently, Flickr – the fantastic photo-sharing service and community that I've been using for the last few years – announced that it was entering into partnership with Getty Images, one of the world's foremost stock photography sites. Together, they're working on The Flickr Collection, a library of rights-managed and royalty-free images derived entirely from the millions of photos that are on Flickr.

Over the last few weeks, Flickr and Getty have been sending out emails to select Flickr members, asking them to contribute images for the launch of the collection in March. So I was pretty excited to receive my email on the weekend asking for my participation!

Now, let's just say that I have a lot of experience with stock photography, both as a designer (buyer) and as a seller. Most stock photography sites out there (iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc.) are what are known as "micro-stock" libraries, where photos are sold extremely cheaply and contributing photographers receive a correspondingly tiny amount of money per image sold. Getty is not one of these sites – it's world wide, almost ubiquitous within the design industry, and sells photos for what they're worth.

I've tried to sell photos through these micro-stock sites before and haven't had any luck at all. Finding and submitting an image that they feel they need and meets all their quality guidelines seems to be almost impossible, and I've usually given up in disgust shortly thereafter. I've had much better luck with people simply finding my photos on Flickr and entering into negotiations directly with me. So, hopefully, this new Getty Collection will take that success and multiply it by Getty's ability to promote their photos... if they actually accept my shots!

Because all I've done so far is upload the images that Getty is interested in to their servers for review. So I still don't know whether they'll accept any of them, but I'm hopeful that at least a few of them will make it through. Then, as the service expands, maybe they'll pick up on some other images hat I think are worthwhile.

In case you're interested, here are the seven images that Getty initially selected for review...

Ampelmann! One of my favourite shots, but I declined to nominate this one for a few reasons. Firstly, I don't have a high-resolution version of this shot (I was new to digital photography when I took this shot and only kept the final, Flickr-sized version of it for some reason), and it also contains copyrighted elements – the Ampelmann itself and the Dorling Kindersley map which it is sitting on.

Houses, Burano: I'm kind of surprised that this was selected, truth be told. It's a nice, colourful shot of an interesting location, but I don't think it's particularly wonderful.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Kiss: I'm also not submitting this one, for the simple fact that I didn't take it! This beautiful shot – of us – was taken at our wedding by Linda, Russ' wife... which kind of precludes me from submitting it as mine!

The Perfect Kiss: Christine and me sharing a smooch. Still deciding whether or not to submit this one... it's a very personal shot, plus the model release forms are a bitch to fill in!

Boats, St. Ives Harbour: This has always been a favourite of mine. I love the gentle curve of the boats as they recede into the distance.

Through The Grass: Another good one! Taken in Yellowstone National Park, I only hope that the quality of this pic is good enough – it was taken with my little Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot, which only takes 5MP pictures and they tend to be a bit JPG compressy...

Venetian Sunset: One of my most absolute most favourite photos ever! The colour really was like this on the day I took it – from the back deck of a vaporetto returning to Venice from the lagoon islands – and the little Nikon film camera I was using at the time (thanks, Dad!) somehow managed to capture it perfectly!

Winding Path: Paths are obviously in demand at Getty Images! I really like the curving composition and subdued colour palette in this image.

That's it so far! Hopefully some of these will make it through, and then maybe more in the future!

Obama-rama!

2009-01-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

At noon Eastern American Time (9:00 in the morning here on the Pacific Coast) yesterday, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America – a club almost as exclusive as that of Australian Test cricket captain (there are only 42 of them!) and arguably, a job almost as stressful. (Please, I'm joking!)

While I could watch the lead up to the inauguration, seeing the motorcade, the vast throngs of people lining the mall in front of the Capitol and the introduction of all sorts of dignitaries and past presidents, I had to head off to work before Obama made his inaugural speech and was actually sworn in. I did get the pleasure of hearing Dubya booed slightly before "Hail To The Chief" was hurriedly struck up by the band, and – even better – seeing the hateful Dick Cheney wheeled onto the podium in a wheelchair (he hurt his back packing his office!), almost invisible to the crowd – a forgotten man, as he should be.

So I had to wait all day to hear what Obama had to say to the world, but the wait was worth it! Here was a quietly confident new President (one capable of stirring, emotional, riveting speech, rather than one who could barely string a coherulent sentence together) who is well aware of the monumental task ahead of him. His speech was a powerful statement of intent and one that left me in no doubt that his election mantra of "change" was not just bluster. To expect one man to change the world is ridiculous – but at least America now has a President they can be proud of to represent them on the world stage. The sheer number of people who turned up in Washington on Inauguration Day (1.8 to 2 million people!) to wish him well is testament to this, and with that kind of support behind him... who knows what can be accomplished? Hope and belief are very, very positive things in these difficult times, and Obama inspires these ideals more than any other politician in recent memory.

Exercise Update

2009-01-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

So it's been almost two months since I started my Nike+ exercise program, and all I can say is that I'm loving it. Each week, I'm getting a little bit faster and running a bit further - my average time taken per mile has gone from 12 and a half minutes to 11. This may seem slow, but my program is slowly building me up to running from walking in a very gentle fashion, probably to stop my body from dying through shock at all this crazy exercise. It's definitely improving my fitness - from barely being able to jog for three minutes without being totally out of breath, I can now run along for 10 minutes without many problems. The best thing is that I definitely look forward to my workouts each day and want to keep doing better every week.

Snowpocalypse 2008

2008-12-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

For the last week or so, Portland has been in the icy grip of winter come early. It's been snowing pretty much every day: everything from a light sprinkle to a full blizzard with howling 50mph winds over at Troutdale, where cold wind has been roaring down the Columbia River Gorge. When the snow first started, the weather teams on the news were fairly unconcerned. They expected less than an inch of snow in Portland itself and told us that the system would move on soon. Here's Christine out in the light snow of the first day, when it was a fun novelty (as an Australian, I'm easily impressed by snow and still find it fascinating!).

However, it soon became apparent that the cold, snowy weather was going to set in for a longer period of time, and basically, all hell broke loose. As I may have mentioned before, Portland TV news is obsessed with the weather, and any sort of snow storm at all was an excuse for that obsession to become full-blown scare-mongering. You'd think it was the end of the world based on the coverage that a couple of inches of snow is getting. Entire news bulletins have been given over to the weather (Seriously! There was no other news at all, nothing local, national or international!), filled with radar and satellite images, ODOT highway camera shots and a veritable horde of reporters stationed at every potential motoring trouble spot around town. They went to tire shops to report that snow chains had sold out, we were warned to stock up on food in case we couldn't leave the house, they told us that roads were icy and impassable and that we shouldn't leave the house unless our needs were imperative and urgent. In short, a media-hyped "Snowpocalypse" was upon us, and yea verily, Portland trembled in fear.

Christine, having grown up in Idaho Falls – where they can get huge amounts of snow each winter – was incredulous. People interviewed on the news who were from Spokane and Montana were similarly dismissive of Portland's hysterical attitude to a tiny bit of snow. Because faced with the terrifying prospect of 2 to 3 inches of snow, the city basically shut down. Schools closed for the entire week. Businesses told their staff not to come in to work. Churches cancelled services. The roads are almost entirely devoid of traffic.

In a way, the hysteria is somewhat justified, purely because Portland just isn't used to snow. It rarely snows on the floor of the Willamette Valley, and sticking snow is rarer still. Until this last week, I had only seen tiny flurries of sad, wet snow that lasted for 20 minutes or so in Portland, melting almost as soon as it hit the ground. Sustained snow like this is a rare occurence and Portlanders don't know how to deal with it. Multnomah County only has a handful of snow plows and de-icing trucks. Even working around the clock, they can't keep all of Portland's roads clear. People aren't used to driving on snowy or icy streets - many people interviewed on the news have admitted to not knowing how to fit snow chains at all - and accidents then ensue. I've seen something very similar to this when I was in England in January 2004. A light dusting of snow across the south-east of the country basically brought everything to a complete standstill for three days for exactly the same reasons - little or no infrastrucure to deal with it, and a lack of knowledge amongst drivers.

The weather only really got nasty last night, as the snow turned into what is known as freezing rain. This rain freezes instantly upon landing, and covers every surface with thick, crunchy ice. The snow, which had been fresh and fluffy up until then, suddenly had a creme brulee-like crust of ice on top, which broke as you walked upon it. Cars were rimed with thick ice, which has to be broken off before going anywhere.

Here, Christine inspects our car as we attempted to thaw it out this morning. The engine is on with the heater at full blast to defrost the window from the inside - you can see a lighter patch of ice where it is beginning to detach from the windscreen. Then it's a matter of scraping and tapping the ice off the windows until they are clear. The process took us over half an hour; some of the ice on the window was a good 5mm thick!

This is the view as we drove down Interstate Avenue after freeing our car. A good few inches of snow mask the lane markings and the curb, but the All Wheel Drive of the Subaru does an admirable job of making driving in these conditions relatively easy. Certainly not anywhere near as bad as the news would have you believe. One thing to note is that the MAX light rail (the tracks are in the middle of the road above) was not running along the Yellow Line through our neighbourhood today. The points down at the Rose Quarter have frozen solid, making it impossible for trains to come our way! Trains are also not running to the airport for the same reason - not that it matters, as most flights out of PDX have been cancelled. I-84 through the Columbia River Gorge has also been closed due to the blizzard through there last night. This turn of events certainly merits the media's attention, but after having been told that the End of Days is upon us for over a week now, it kind of feels like the boy who cried "wolf!" to me now - if you sensationalise everything, then what do you do when things actually get bad?

From the WTF? Files

2008-12-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

The ad shown above is possibly the most reprehensible piece of television advertising I have ever seen. Whoever thought this concept up should be taken out and force-fed the advertiser's product until they throw up or something.

It looks to me like the ad is trying to play off the success of Borat – simple people from a strange foreign country who are all craving the taste of America. And therein lies the problem - surely there should be places in the world where people just don't eat burgers. It's not part of their culture or their way of life. What right does an American burger conglomerate have to come in and feed them this stuff, even for just an ad? It smacks of arrogant cultural imperialism to me and makes this ad extremely unpalatable.

Note the way that the ad actually says very little that actually backs their claim that "the Whopper Virgins have spoken". There's no "9 out of 10 Inuits tested prefer our burger to the competitors", the ad just says "these individuals prefer the Whopper". So maybe only the three or four people we see actually prefer the Whopper. What if they fed burgers to 400 Thai tribesmen and only one liked it? Ah, weasel words at their very finest.

Finally, the look on some of their faces as they point out the Whopper seems to suggest they'd rather be eating anything else than a burger (Check out the Romanian lady at 19 seconds). However, they're only given the choice between the two burgers in front of them. It's almost like they're being asked "which pile of mud tastes better?" and a victory seems damning with faint praise.

Really, the only way this ad could be worse, be more cultually insensitive, is if they'd decided to take their beef-filled sandwiches to a small village in India and ask them what they thought of it.

Car!

2008-12-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

We have wheels!

Although Portland is a great city for biking around and has great public transport options, there are times when you just need a car. Whether it's for a shopping trip, a party in the far reaches of south-east PDX or – most importantly for me – for getting the heck out of of town on weekends. Up until now, we've got by with using Zip/Flex cars for shorter trips and hiring cars/hitching rides for those longer journeys, but these do require some degree of planning and aren't exactly spontaneous methods of transport.

So we started looking around at options for a car of our own. By the strangest of coincidences (or not), Christine's mom was looking to get herself a new car and was more than willing to cut us a good deal on her old Subaru Forester. We just had to come up with the cash in a lump sum, as she rightly said that monthly payments to her would put an unnecessary strain of family friendships. We had around half of the money already, so set out to obtain a loan for the other half.

To cut a long story short, it was an adventure in itself. We found out that while I am on my "interim" 2-year Green Card, I actually don't exist in terms of a credit rating. My rating is ZERO and will not move until I qualify for my full 10-year Green Card. This meant that Christine had to qualify for and take on the responsibility for the loan all by herself - my income could not be added to hers as proof of ability to repay the loan! In the end, we had to take a secured loan where the car itself stands as equity and the interest rate is somewhat horrific. The good news is that Christine will have an awesome credit rating when we finish paying the loan off!

Once the money was secured, we just had to get ourselves to Idaho Falls to pick up our new car. Plane fares the day after Thanksgiving are possibly the cheapest fares of the holiday season, and the planes themselves amongst the emptiest I have travelled on in the US. We spent a couple of happy, lazy days with Keener and Karen (gotta love having a beer in the hot tub out on the deck!) before taking possession of our new wheels and driving back to Portland.

I had made sure to get an Instructional Driving Permit from the DMV before we left, meaning that I can drive so long as a licensed driver is sitting next to me. It's kind of embarrassing to be treated like an "L" driver when I've driven for over 10 years in Australia without a single accident, but them's the rules! This meant we could share the driving on the way home, some 760 miles (1,200km) away. We took two days to drive home, taking the (slightly longer) scenic route rather than racing home along the (very dull) Interstate. Along the way, we stopped off at two of the most amazing places I have ever seen – Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and the Painted Hills in Central Oregon.

Craters of the Moon is a giant lava field spreading across the Snake River plain, a huge black scar that suddenly appears as you drive along the highway. Within the park, giant cinder cones rise up above the twisted black lava, while underneath your feet lie huge lava tubes – caves left behind as rivers of lava cooled over, forming long tubes. We spent a long time exploring the park, going down into one of the lava tubes, Indian Tunnel. This tube is the only one you can explore without a helmet and a light source, as regular roof collapses have left many "skylights" along the tunnel's 800 foot length. The tube is over 50 feet wide and 30 feet high and is an amazing sight. One day, we will return properly equipped and explore the other tubes, some of which have permanent ice on the cave floor!

The Painted Hills – which we saw on the second day – are part of the John Day Fossil Beds, one of the most important sources of prehistoric mammalian fossils (and their entire ecosystem) in the world. The hills themselves are an ancient riverbed, with layer upon layer of different coloured alluvial soils – and their attendant fossils – now compressed into beautiful folded hills. Much like Uluru in Australia, the hills can change colour completely depending on the light and the forms created by light and shadow are nothing short of amazing.

We were treated with more spectacular sights as we reached the home stretch – the Cascades mountain range spread out before us, high volcanic peaks dotting the horizon from north to south, with Mount Jefferson (below) and Mount Hood being particularly view-worthy as sunset approached.
Finally, we reached home and began our new life with our own transport. Now we just have to get enough cash together to register the car in Oregon, and I have to get around to getting a real driver's license!

The realities of the holiday season sink in

2008-12-13T19:41:00.000-08:00

The end of year holiday season lasts much longer in America than it does in Australia - it starts at Halloween and continues unabated until New Years. Between candies in October, turkey dinners in November and the festivities of Christmas still to come, I have come to a horrible realisation – I'm gaining weight in an appalling way.

I hadn't weighed myself since I arrived in America, but I knew that when I arrived I was around 80kg (176 pounds). Well, someone thought it would be a good idea – believe it or not – to have a set of scales at a Thanksgiving dinner (why, God, why?). Weighing in for a laugh, I was shocked to discover that I was weighing in at 190 pounds (86kg), which is as big as I have ever been. Last time, I had the benefit of backpacking around Europe, walking 10-20km a day and living on a diet of bread and sausage for six months to help me get back down to a svelte 70kg (154 pounds). This time, however, I'm going to have to do this the hard way.

Even though I ride my bike all over town, it hardly seems to count as exercise anymore. My body has got so used to riding that I barely get puffed even going up the big hill along Interstate Avenue on the way home. With a gym membership out of our price bracket at the moment (not that gyms have ever really worked for me before!), I decided that I would have to start jogging to get a better all-over workout. Christine got me an iPod Nike+ kit cheap through her store, and I set out for my first run. For my first run, I thought I'd start easy and do a 4-mile loop along a cliff-top road near our house. Boy, was I in for a shock.

I could barely run for three minutes at a time without being completely out of breath and getting a really sore back. Walking at a moderately fast pace was okay, but I'm going to need to do more than that to burn some calories. Fortunately, the Nike+ website that links to the device you put in your shoe has a training program that builds you up from a walk to running over a 12 week period. I've been doing it for just over a week now and I'm already feeling a little more capable, although there's still a way to go! I find that the training program is all the incentive I need to get out and do my half-an-hour a day, although the incredible cold snap (temperatures well below freezing from Tuesday through Friday, with a big chance of snow sticking in Portland itself) that Portland is about to go through may tax my resolve over the next few days! Here's to continued exercise and weight loss... kind of like a New Year's Resolution a few weeks early!

Should we talk about the weather?

2008-11-09T18:32:00.001-08:00

Let's get one thing straight: Portland – or more specifically, Portland TV news – is obsessed with the weather. Maybe it's because the four local stations, KATU 2, KOIN 6, KGW 8 and FOX 12 all seem to have four news shows running directly after each other and they need to fill them with something. And I'm not kidding here... the evening schedule on KATU looks something like this.

The 4 o'clock news (FIRST AT FOUR!)
The 5 o'clock news
The 6 o'oclock (national) news
The 6.30 news
Some other TV programs getting in the way of more news
The 11 o'clock news

Geez! Really? Portland ain't that big of a town and, when it comes down to it, not a lot happens here. So for one network to give us more than four hours of local news a day (there's also the morning news to consider!) is kinda ludicrous.

So it ain't surprising that they fill a lot of this time with inane banter between the anchors and that great time-filler, the weather. On a really slow news day, the weather can be the big top story of the day. "And in breaking news, we cross to Rod, our chief meteorologist, for more news on that rain that could be coming our way on Veterans' Day." I made that story up, but it's not too far from the truth.

Each channel prides itself on its extensive weather coverage: "Your Storm Watch Team!" intones the Voice Over Man™ solemnly, or, "your trained local meteorologists!" followed by, "Doppler 8000 radar!!!" (whatever that actually is!) and every channel has a veritable arsenal of weather cameras dotted around northern Oregon. Out at the coast, along the Columbia River, on every tall building in Portland – just waiting to show you what it currently looks like outside. I dunno, if I wanted to know what it was like outside right now, I could just... go outside.

Look, we all like to know what the weather's going to be like (although at this time of year in Portland, "rainy and cold" is probably the answer pretty much every day), but do we really need vast tracts of time every night given over to the subject? I really bet the forecast hasn't changed that much in the five minutes since they last gave it to us...

Election Night!

2008-11-04T19:27:00.001-08:00

Voting Machine, originally uploaded by John C Abell.

It's almost 7:30pm Pacific Time here in the United States, and the race for the Presidency - the most powerful job in the world, as they say - is almost over. At the moment, Barack Obama holds 207 Electoral College votes to John McCain's 135. Under the US's remarkably obtuse voting system, once a candidate reaches 270 votes, they have a majority and are declared the victor.

More importantly, Obama has just (and I mean minutes ago!) been declared the winner of the state of Ohio. Much like the Federal electorate of Eden-Monaro back home in Australia, it is the bellwether state - you just don't win the Presidency without winning Ohio.

I haven't commented on the election yet on this blog, basically because the one thing everyone hates is a know-it-all foreigner telling them how things should be done and who you should vote for. But, on the actual night, and with America on the verge of history, I feel that I can offer a few observations.

The electoral process in this country takes far, far, far too long. The initial primaries and caucuses to select the Presidential candidates begin in January, the election itself is in November! The period inbetween is filled with campaigning, saturation of television with increasingly negative and vitriolic ads, followed by more campaigning. It's draining, annoying and ever present. The amount of money raised and spent by the campaigns over this period is staggering, ridiculous and even slightly obscene. At least electoral campaigns only last six weeks or so in Australia - a blessed relief!

Sarah Palin. I'm not even going to dignify her with a comment.

The Obama campaign has done a remarkable job encouraging young people and minorities to get out and vote.

The financial crisis couldn't have come at a worse time for the Republican party - if you preside over a meltdown like that, it's always going to be difficult to win an election, even with a new President at the helm.

The Senatorial battle in Oregon between Jeff Merkley (D) and Gordon Smith (R) has to be one of the dirtiest, nastiest no-holds barred fights I have ever seen.

Finally, I feel that Barack Obama is the right choice for this country. He's not perfect - no politician is - but he is a statesman, something America desperately needs after eight years of President Stupid. At this point in time, change is needed and that's what Obama offers.

An evening with Al Gore

2008-10-25T08:28:00.001-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, our good friend Leah called me up in a bit of a tizzy. Leah works in the campaign office for Jeff Merkley, the Democrat's Oregon candidate for the US Senate, and needed my help in a hurry. Her usual graphic designer had gone AWOL and they needed some posters and postcards for a huge campaign event – Al Gore was coming to town to talk and endorse Jeff – and they were needed yesterday. Could I help? Never one to let a friend down, I stepped up to the plate and produced the material n record time. The front of the postcard is above... not ground-breaking work, but it does the job and was commented on favourably by all parties.

Leah, recognising my hard work, went to her boss and asked that he pay me for my work. However, asking a campaign manager for money for what they consider to be "volunteer work" a few weeks out from election day tends to be a fruitless exercise – how can you pay for all those interminable TV spots if you're handing cash over to some graphic designer? Leah stuck to her guns, saying that I had have earned something for my work, and in the end managed to score Christine and I free tickets to the event. And not just any tickets, these were "have your photo taken with Al Gore before the show" tickets, which were being offered to the public for the tidy sum of $1000 a head.

I'll admit that initially I was quite bemused by the offer of the tickets: while I admire Al Gore, especially for what he's done outside of politics regarding climate change, I felt a little distanced from him, like I didn't know enough about him to deserve the chance to meet him. However, by the morning of the event, I was pretty excited.

We both dressed up for the event – it's not often you meet ex-Vice Presidents and you'd like to look your best – and headed down to the Convention Center after work. We found Leah soon after arriving and she made sure that we got what she had promised us. Another volunteer only wanted to give us general admission tickets – Leah was having none of that! Pretty soon, we were lining up with all the others to meet Mr. Gore, but we were waiting for almost an hour. Christine's (very cute) shoes weren't designed for standing around in for so long and the small waiting room got hot very quickly. Surprisingly, for a $1000 price tag, there was no food and drink available for the people waiting, but everyone was extremely happy and patient.

Finally, we were told that Al Gore was on his way down and to form a queue. As the event was starting soon, we would only have time to greet him, shake his hand and have our photo taken - no time for chit chat or political discourse! We gradually made our way into the room where the photos were being taken, and we were both struck by his immediate presence: he's a tall, barrel-chested man with an extremely calm demeanour, which seemed to affect everyone in the room. When it was our turn, he somehow managed to make us both feel very welcome with just a few words and a confident handshake. I wasn't starstruck by him, but he definitely has an aura. Photo taken (it's going to be emailed to us soon!), we headed into the auditorium to hear people speak.

The first few speakers were other Democrat candidates for all sorts of public offices (Americans vote for everything all at once on Election Day), who all exhorted us to vote Democrat all the way down the ballot. Some of them tried a bit of cheerleading... "Who are you going to vote for??!!" and expecting everyone to chant "Merkley!!!" back at them, which frankly, was a little embarrassing. That kind of stuff is best left to high schools, football games or rallies with around 50,000 people.

Jeff's speech was somewhat better, but everyone else's words were forgotten the moment Al Gore came to the stage. His speech was amazing, there's no other way to describe it. Powerful, thought-provoking, funny... tying together the economic crisis, alternative energy, the war in Iraq and more into a tangible and spell-binding narrative, all of them giving reasons to vote for Jeff Merkley. Easily one of the best political speeches I have ever heard and totally inspiring. Listening to him speak like that, one can't help but wonder how different a place the world might be now if he had won that election eight years ago... I certainly can't imagine that he would have reacted to world events in the same way that the Bush administration has...

Fame!

2008-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Flickr is awesome. Not only does it enable me to share my photos with family, friends and like-minded photographers from around the world, but it also acts as my agent. Companies of all sorts need photography, and it seems to me that they are increasingly turning to sites like Flickr instead of traditional (and highly expensive) photo libraries like Getty Images.

The image above is an initial cover concept for a novel that is being produced by a Dutch publishing house - and that's my photo on the cover! They found it on Flickr and asked me whether they could use it for a fee. After some negotiation, we came to an agreement and the result is above: I think it looks great!

This is the third image I've sold through Flickr in the last year, the other two being this and this. I've also donated this image to the Bath Abbey Trust, and a whole heap of images to the Crater Lake Trust – I'm always open to helping non-profits out with my photos, especially ones where I feel a connection.

Recession! (may be in your head)

2008-09-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

When it comes to a declining economy and everyone, including the media, always reminding you so, begins to sink into your mind. You begin to think, that your calm little world is about to explode into a chaos of havoc and crime and will to sink into a demise similar to Gotham. That's kinda how I feel this week.

At work, people every other day come into report that their computer/ iPod/ hard drive, etc. was stolen and we are meant to do something about it. These people, I do take seriously and we send out emails to staff reminding them to keep an eye out for so forementioned stolen object. That gets 10X more serious when your own sister experiences her first break in by some desperate meth head/kid who saw her shiny white laptop and made a run for it. The guy (we'll assume its a guy) busted in through her bedroom by pushing in the air con and the continued to scavenge his way through the small apartment, nabbing a backpack in order to throw the laptop and a digital camera into. On his way through, he spots Kim's vintage cookie jar with "Munchies" painted on the side in old 70's style. He snags a chocolate bar and takes a bite of it. Upon realizing its baker's chocolate, he abandons the unsweetened bar and proceeds to grab Kevin's screwdriver in order to hit up the next door neighbors' apartment. (They had fortunately moved out the week before). The police made their stop at the apartment and went through the protocols but the forsenic inspector found the best fingerprints, nonetheless, on the abandoned candy bar in the kitchen. If this guy has every had his prints logged before, an arrest can be made on account of a CANDY BAR.

Meanwhile in other news, that same night, the lights were stolen off my bike. This is very unfortunate for me because if I get anywhere, its on bike. However, the situation is almost laughable.

Meanwhile today, two more people reported stolen laptops. What kind of country are we living in?

The best part about living in economic decline is seeing your friends on the daily news – alone sitting at a bar, as was the case with a co-worker friend of mine. The story was about how not as many people are going out to eat or drink in this past few weeks. I'm going to vote that drinking has not been affected.

But there's hope!
Get out and vote!

(New) Penny For Your Thoughts

2008-09-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

I saw on the news the other day that the US Mint is planning to introduce new designs for the penny in 2009 to celebrate the bicentenary of President Lincoln's birth. I have a better idea - get rid of the useless things.

Coming from a country that discontinued use of its one cent coin in 1991 (the year after I left high school!), the use of the penny here shocks and astounds me. If I get one in change, I just don't take it. I see no reason to clog my wallet/pocket/house up with a coin that I'll never actually be able to use as a meaningful piece of money. The sooner the Australian system of rounding purchases to the nearest five cents happens, the better!

On a side note, one bank here does do rounding up to the nearest five cents - but on electronic purchases. Let's say, you spend $24.43 on something and pay for it with your debit card. The bank extracts $24.45 from your checking account, but puts the extra two cents into your linked savings account! Clever! One could imagine that all your transactions over a given period of time might add up to a considerable boost to your savings.

On a further note, when the designs for the new penny were unveiled, certain conservative members of the community worked themselves into a lather. According to them, the words "In God We Trust" had been removed from the penny – a sure sign that atheists and communists were running the country and the end of the world wasn't far away.

What they were (conveniently?) forgetting was that all the images of the new coin designs are only showing the obverse of the coin. The reverse of the coin is remaining the same, and on that side of the coin is Lincoln's head... and the words "In God We Trust".

Playing God! Mwhahahahaha!

2008-09-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

I was a little surprised the other day when Christine brought home a new computer game for us to play. Christine's not much of a gamer, thinking that everything since Super Mario Bros 3 has been unworthy of her efforts. However, the concept and potential of this new game had her itching to try it out. The game? Spore.

The only way you couldn't have heard of Spore is if you've been hiding under a rock or have negative interest in games, your brain actively repelling all the hype that's been thrown at you about it. Basically, it's the ultimate God game - in the vein of, but far surpassing, all the "Sim"-type games that have been around since Populous and the original Sim City. You start the game with a single celled creature and evolve it all the way into a space-conquering civilisation.

The game isn't perfect by any means - it's more like five completely separate yet increasingly complex mini-games than a continuous narrative, and a lot of the gameplay is either far too simple or repetitive. I'm not even going to get into the whole storm about copy-protection that's blown up around the game's release, as it hasn't affected me at all. Where the game really shines is in its total customisation abilities. You get to shape pretty much everything about your creature (and later on, their cities, vehicles, planes, ships and spaceships). Think your creature would look good with five heads? Maybe eyes on its knees? Eight legs? Whatever you can think of, it's possible. There's something strangely addictive about creating your own monsters and then watching them interact with other strange beasts, all of which have been created by other people around the world.

So while Spore isn't a multi-player game as such (there's no direct head-to-head competition with other human players), the game is a veritable menagerie of creatures, constantly changing as new creations are uploaded by players around the world. That's what keeps it interesting and fresh - getting to see what other people are doing with the amazing God-like tools contained within the game.

Here's a couple of our creatures as a sample. We've only been playing for a week or so and still have so much to learn about how to make truly unique creatures, but at least we've gotten past our initial, "oh look, I've made a dinosaur!" phase.

Crater Lake!

2008-09-09T21:52:00.001-07:00

Tired of being stuck here in Portland all the dang time (one of the few disadvantages of not owning our own car!), Christine and I resolved to take advantage of a small gap in my work schedule and get the heck out of town for a few days.

So we rented a car and drove on down to Crater Lake, an enormous clear blue lake that is entirely within the enormous (6 miles by 4 miles) caldera of a volcano that blew itself apart a mere 7,700 years ago - a mere blip in time geologically speaking. In a few weeks' time, the area around the lake will be covered in snow that will last until June next year, so this was probably our last chance to see it for a while. The drive down was fairly uneventful and quick - the I-5 corridor may be dull, but it does get you places quickly!

We entered the National Park from the north and soon achieved our first view of the lake. It certainly didn't disappoint!

No photograph can possibly do justice to the scale and majestic grandeur of this remarkable place (although that didn't stop me taking almost 200 shots over the next couple of days!), with sheer, soaring cliffs over 700 feet tall surrounding the bluest of blue waters that you have ever seen.

After soaking in the view from this initial view point, we quickly headed down to the campground, 7 miles south of the rim and set up our tent for the night. We were warned that bears frequented the campground and took all necessary precautions to secure our food in the provided bear-proof lockers before heading back to the Rim Village to view a beautiful clear sunset over the lake.

The small island is known as Wizard's Island, supposedly because of it's resemblance to a wizard's hat. It is a small volcanic cinder cone that rises from the lake's floor, and has a small crater of its own on top - a crater within a crater!

The next day, we drove a complete loop around the crater rim, stopping often for photographs. Our main goal was to walk to the top of Mount Scott, the highest point within the National Park at 8,929 feet (2,721 metres). The trail itself rises 1,200 feet over its 2.5 mile length, making it a pretty strenuous climb, especially for those unaccustomed to exercising at higher altitudes (i.e., me!). However, we made it to the top in just over an hour and were rewarded with absolutely spectacular 360 degree views, including the whole enormous lake laid out before us. Totally worth the effort!

(Our car is parked on the road at the absolute bottom right of the picture, just to give you some idea of where the trail has come from!)

In the evening, we climbed to the top of Watchman Peak on the exact opposite side of the lake (it's just to the right of my hat) to view another sunset - this one completely different to the previous night. Forest fires were raging to the south and the north of the park and had covered large parts of the sky with a thick pall of smoke. So where there had been crystal clear blue skies, there was haze and smoke, which was spectacular in its own (slightly eerie) way.

After the sun sank under the horizon in a blood-red blaze, we descended the mountain ( much easier path than Mount Scott) and retired to our campsite for a very well-earned beverage and meal. We left pretty early the next morning, as we were unable to secure seats for the boat cruises around the lake itself (curse you, large tour groups, for booking out all the early cruises!).

Video fun!

2008-08-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night, Colin Lake and Wellbottom played their first gig at one of Portland's main music venues, the Crystal Ballroom, as a support act to the Bodeans.

What made this show different from the usual old Colin gig was that he asked Christine to bring our video camera along to see if we could get some footage for a demo reel. Colin had been in contact with some people who are trying to organise bands for the 2010 World Expo – in Shanghai! Needless to say, Colin jumped at the opportunity to apply, but it meant that he had to get a press kit – complete with a live performance DVD – together in less than a week! And while he could rely on me for all his graphic design needs, he was getting a little desperate regarding the video. Christine had done a great job just the other week with an impromptu video for Kevin's benefit shows, so Colin turned to her in his hour of need.

We turned up at the show early and got some footage at the soundcheck, then hung out in the green room with the band - playing at being groupies - until it was time for the band to go on stage. It was Kevin's first gig back with the band after his recent illness and everyone was raring to go. Christine spent the entire show getting footage from every angle, climbing all over the stage, yet aiming to be unobtrusive for the appreciative crowd. Because, quite unusually, the crowd responded very warmly to the mere support act and gave them their full attention. I tried to help out by shooting some video on Christine's new little Olympus camera, but the format ended up being tiny and pretty much useless.

Christine worked hard in tandem with Colin over the next couple of days to produce the demo DVD, or - in essence - a music video for one of their songs. The audio captured by our little camera was pretty sketchy, so Christine ended up having to meld audio from a live track recorded on Wellbottom's Spring tour with the video from the show, and she did a pretty good job of matching elements up to give the illusion that they came from the one and same event.

In the end, Colin met his deadline and everyone loved the finished product - I think it's amazing, especially considering the timeframe it was produced in. I'm in awe of Christine's ability to work with time, something that this little print designer still has trouble wrapping his head around. So without further ado, I present Colin Lake and Wellbottom, through the lens of Christine:

Lightroom 2 and why you should shoot in RAW

2008-08-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

Adobe has just released version 2 of Lightroom, their photography management/development application, and all I can say is that it is amazing. There are so many enhancements and upgrades that it's hard to know where to start. It's probably best to say that unless I actually want to do a whole heap of tricky retouching, I'm hardly going to fire up Photoshop at all anymore.

It's not perfect, however: a rather nasty bug in v2.0 stops all your old keywords from v1.4 from exporting with your photos, although a very simple SQL command (so simple, even I could do it!) fixes that problem. There have also been reports of Lightroom being everything from somewhat sluggish to completely glacial in performance, although my Mac Pro makes light work of just about anything, so I can't really comment on this!

Of all the tools, the selective adjustment brush was the most touted. With it, you can now mask areas and apply exposure, sharpness, colour, clariry (and more!) edits to specific areas of your photos without having to hand the image over to Photoshop. All your edits are non-destructive - just as in the previous version of Lightroom, all your edits are simply saved as instructions that are applied in real time to your image. The interface takes a little getting used to, especially for us Photoshop mavens, but once you've got the hang of it, it really is intuitive and extremely powerful.

However, my favourite tool is the adjustment brush's poorer, less glitzy cousin, the graduated filter. As its name suggests, this tool emulates the coloured or neutral density filters that you can physically place in front of your camera lens to achieve certain effects. My use for this tool so far is extremely prosaic - I use it to fix overexposed areas of sky.

We've all taken photos like this. While the foreground is fairly well exposed and detailed, the sky is completely blown out. If I had shot this picture in JPG, that would be pretty much the end of things - an 8-bit image simply wouldn't contain enough information for me to be able to regain all that lost detail in the sky. White is white, and would always remain so.

But when you shoot RAW, there is a ridiculous amount of information contained in the file (4,096 levels as opposed to JPG's 256 levels). And the important thing to realise is that most of this information is in the lighter areas of any image. As explained in this excellent article at Luminous Landscape, exactly half of the 4,096 levels of information are contained in the brightest fifth of the image, while there's a mere 128 levels of information in the darkest areas, the shadows.

What this means is that it's very possible to restore missing detail from overexposed areas when you shoot RAW. However, this was kind of a painful process before the new tools in Lightroom. To retain the properly exposed foreground but also get the corrected sky, I would have to export two versions of the file to Photoshop (one exposed for the foreground, the other for the backgroun) and then use layer masks to blend the two versions together. It's not something I'd do except for a photo I really thought was worth it.

With the new graduated filter tool, all I have to do is specify my exposure adjustment for the sky (around -2.0 to -3.0 stops, depending on how blown out things are) and drag out my gradient from top to bottom. The gradient is fully adjustable to taste after it's been applied, both in location and intensity. The results are nearly instantaneous and it's ridiculously easy to apply. Here's a before and after of the shot above, just so you can see how much detail can be regained using this technique.

This is an extreme example, requiring a full -3.0 stops to regain the detail in the clouds - probably about the absolute limit of this technique. But just think - there is that amount of information and detail just hiding in that brightest part of your image, and you have to shoot RAW if you want to be able to release it.

Flugtag Fun!

2008-08-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Portland played host to one of the craziest days of entertainment that I have ever witnessed - the Red Bull Flugtag. Flugtag means "flight day" in German (Red Bull being an Austrian company), and it certainly lived up to its name.

A crowd that has been estimated at being in the vicinity of 80,000 people crammed into Tom McCall Riverside Park, the Hawthorne Bridge's entire southern sidewalk and one east-bound lane, and even the Eastbank Esplanade on the other side of the Willamette River (which was jam-packed with boats both big and small) for this event, which is interesting in itself.

You see, ol' PDX generally prides itself on being staunchly anti-corporation, looking somewhat down its nose at coffee and fast food chains because we're better than that here in Portland, don't you know? Except when afore-said corporation is promising a day chock full of idiots throwing themselves and their home-made magnificent flying machines off a 30-foot high runway into the drink. Then we'll drop everything and turn out in droves.

And we did. I've never seen the riverfront so full, not for the Blues Festival, the Brew Fest, Barack Obama or anything. I arrived a little late and tried to force my way through the seething masses to take some pictures from down the front - it was impossible. I eventually found a few good locations on the periphery of the park, but things were hectic the whole time.

As for the flugtag itself, it was all about showmanship and spectacular crashes and the crowd loved it. We had a giant plane made out of "Lego", complete with "Lego Men" pilots, the Winnebago from Spaceballs (crowd favourite), pots of gold, sporting mascots, hot dogs and more. Some of the "planes" didn't even have wings! The winner flew some 60-odd feet, but no one really cared. Distance was irrelevant; the crowd only cheered for suicidal death plunges into the murky water below and everyone went home happy.

Boston Party!

2008-08-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well, we've actually got a few seconds to spare and can finally post an article about our big Late Wedding/First Anniversary bash that we recently held in Boston, MA. Certain persons have been clamouring for a review of events, and we just love to share, so here we are!

Ever since our humble little space wedding atop Rocky Butte just over a year ago, we had wanted to throw a bigger and better party for all our extended families (Booth, Moore and Garcia!) to attend. As things turned out (mainly because of my parents' travel itinerary), Boston presented itself as the perfect venue and plans were set in motion. Our spies in the area (Ann Elise) searched high and low for the ideal party spot, accommodations were found, airline tickets were booked and we soon found ourselves on the Atlantic side of the USA (via Minneapolis and New York airports!).

After settling in at our comfy hotel, we ventured out into Boston in search of a restaurant to celebrate Christine's birthday. With the help of her swanky new iPhone, we located a wonderful restaurant in the North End, just off the main drag, Hanover Street. The difference this 100 feet or so made was incredible: every trattoria, ristorante and cafe on Hanover Street was spilling out onto the sidewalk, while our restaurant was only about two-thirds full and quite relaxed and romantic. The food was exceptional, and the wait staff knowledgeable and friendly. Here's a pic of us about to enjoy some delicious desserts:

Early the next day, Keener picked us up at our hotel and whizzed us off to catch the ferry from Wood's Hole to Martha's Vineyard, a small and somewhat exclusive island just off the coast of southern Massachusetts (next to Nantucket, if that helps any). Christine's Aunt Alison and Uncle Peter were to be our hosts for the this day and the next, and they made sure to show us all the sights of their island. Peter took us out on his boat and we took full advantage:

After enjoying the warm sun and water for a while, we tried our hands at waterskiing. Keener, as you can see, is obviously a salty seadog and had no problems whatsoever.

... while the less said about my attempts the better. Needless to say, I never actually stood up. All too soon, it was time to return to Boston, where we met up with my friend John who had flown in all the way from Sydney via Yosemite and San Fran for the party. As my "guest of honour", we spent as much time as we could with him and even managed to walk the entire length of Boston's famed Freedom Trail... on a day where the temperatures climbed into the 90s!

Finally, the night of the party rolled around and all our hard work and planning finally came to fruition. After some early doubts about the size and suitability of the area that he hotel had set aside for us, everything turned out perfectly and a fantastic time was has by all. In honour of our first anniversary, the theme was paper and everyone turned up wearing paper hats of all shapes and size. Some people even commissioned artists to make a hat for them! Here's a rogues' gallery for posterity's sake:

The happy couple: me in my Aussie cork hat and Christine in her amazing papier mache chicken creation.

The two mothers. Karen and Keener made hats for my parents, as they probably wouldn't have had time to do it themselves, having just flown in from France.

King Nick. Or is it a court jester? He seems to have a mischievous grin either way...

And finally, here's Peter proving that a hat doesn't have to be an enormous production number to be a winner... the happiest dang pirate I ever did see!

We finally rolled out of the hotel at around 12:30am, quite a bit later than our original booking was for! Quite a few people had been incredibly sensible and had booked rooms in the same hotel the party was in, smart thinking! The party was an incredible success and it was wonderful to see so many members of our extended family. A big thank you to all who attended and to all those who couldn't make it but passed on their best wishes - it means a lot!

Long Term Employment - At Last!!!!

2008-07-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

It's true! The work front has been good recently and has just got a whole lot better.

I've been working at a fantastic design studio called Downstream for the last few weeks and it's been a lot of fun. They mainly do large scale environmental design for universities and financial institutions, which is something I haven't done a lot of to this point in my career. I came in to help out on one specific job, a series of big informational screens for an enormous financial advisor. The screens show a ridiculous amount of stock exchange, commodities and currency information, all in real time and I had to take the general design and apply it across every screen, while still making sure that it was technically possible to produce! I spent the entire first full day researching actual stock market data to use in the mock ups to present to the client... my brain still hurts three weeks later.

While I was working there, 52 Ltd let me know that Wacom were interested in getting me back for a couple of weeks, but that there was also a long-term contract job designing and producing a huge Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a multi-national infrastructure development company downtown. This is the first time I've actually had to choose between two jobs since I've been in the US. While I loved working at Wacom the first time around, the lure of long term employment meant I had to at least enquire about it.

I interviewed for the position on Tuesday and was accepted by Thursday. The job will see me gainfully employed all the way through until January, although the hours will vary quite dramatically from month to month as the EIS goes through approval and revision cycles. During August, I'll probably be working 50-60 hour weeks, while September may drop down to less than 20 hours a week. We'll see! I just love getting my teeth stuck into large projects; I see them as huge puzzles that have to be solved... and they don't come much bigger than this! Multiple authors, huge rounds of internal and client changes, diagrams, charts, maps... and I have to make it look attractive and easy to read! I start July 21st – wish me luck!

This season's latest toy craze

2008-07-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today was day that embedded itself into history. July 11th marks the worldwide day known as the release of the new iPhone just in case you didn't notice. Crazy geeks and hipsters gathered at Apple stores and AT&T outlets in order to claim the ultimate prize: a phone.

But wait, you say, who took all these pictures? Uh, that was me of course; in line to get my phone, because I am neither above or below everyone else. I am a whore to new shiny gadgets. It is all Sam's fault really. He is my capitalist consultant. It was Sam who got me to sit in front of Toys R Us to get a Wii at 3am in order to buy my $299 Wii in order to sell it on Craigslist before Christmas for $500 and now it is Sam who convinced me to sell my old iPhone for $400 and buy the new one for $199. Sam is going places in life.

Anyway, back to the Opening! Sam and I arrived at the Apple store at 6:30 in the morning. The line was pretty timid. Maybe 75 people back after some of these folks had been CAMPING outside the mall since midnight. Their determination makes them much more worthy than us to receive the coveted iPhone. Sam and I had to work sometime that morning but we were pretty confident that the line would scoot along pretty speedily. I began to feel like we were in an airport after awhile wainting to check into our flight as stood between our rope barriers. But the Apple staff were very genial and passed out bottles of water and even cups of coffee as people piled up behind us. We half expected a breakfast cart to come out next stacked with hotcakes.

We did find a fellow coworker at the beginning of the line - excuse me, not the beginning but NUMBER ONE in the line. He had been there since 12:30am. The store opened at 8. Sam and I waited another 1.5 hours before we got in the store. We were so relieved to get out of the halls of the mall as it has become very claustrophobic.
Getting in the store was a breath of fresh air. The staff was overly friendly and helpful and my iPhone was purchased, activated, and in the bag in under 10 minutes. We met up with our coworker who had nothing but trouble buying his iPhone as activating it with AT&T is mandatory and the network kept failing. So although he waited nearly 10 hours for his phone we ended up walking out around the same time. Poor Sam on the other hand was not granted the miracle of the phone as he was not the sole account holder for his AT&T account. He took it well enough, although I'm sure he would have killed someone given the chance. He had to go to and AT&T store to get his iPhone. But by the time he got there, the phones had sold out.

This whole AT&T shenanigans is the whole reason why Cam could not participate in the good times of waiting in line to pay money.

Afterwards, Sam and I went back to work 2 hours late and had to apologize to customers that although we were an Apple Reseller, we didn't have iPhones to sell them . *insert evil laugh here*

If you are wondering what is so great about an iPhone but don't want me to write 5 more pages of blogginess then you can check it out here!

This is the Ditch!

2008-06-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

I really wanted Cam to do this post. But since I am the one home today and HE is at WORK, well I guess we know who's in who's place!

Last weekend we went to the Ditch! which should always be spelled with an exclamation point on the end. A friend through Kim whose family owns a large plot of land in Idaho, has a tradition of throwing a party on their property every year which is dubbed "Water in the Ditch" due to the ditch in the back of the house which has water in it. This tradition has been celebrated for 25 years and the generations that have attended keep coming back and bring their next generation with them. I would love to go into great depth of the great times we had but first.. here are some pictures so you can get the main idea :)

First of all, Kevin shaved his beard off which no one, including Kim, had ever witnessed before. He sported instead a giant walrus mustache.
Some people arrived days ahead of us to set up and when we arrived Friday night after midnight, lawn real estate was hard to come by. It was a very cozy community with plenty of utilities and easy to meet your neighbors.

Yay for sunshine! We had a lot of it!
Overlooking the fire pit to the stage.
Among just camping, we tried many new fun things... like acupuncture! Beth Hazzard, a girl I met through Kim, has been studying Chinese medicine for the last 5 years or so. She is skilled in the philosophy of Chinese medicine as well as the science of the practices in the Western world. She had brought on the trip a few needles which she then proceeded to poke into me in stragic places in my legs, wrists and my head! I had told her that I had told her I had specific pains in my back and my dreams had been been very vivid lately. This was enough for her to find the exact spots on me to plant her pins. I can't say I'm completely sold on the idea of acupuncture although I'm sure it can be helpful in certain circumstances. Being pinned down in a chair listening to loud rock right next to me from the stage certainly had a certain calming effect on me.
Looking a bit ramshackle, Kim and I both get visions of grandeur of owning something just like it someday.

The band list for the evening. I regret not being able to get a picture of its creation. Damon created the type with nothing but a magnifying glass in which he burned the titles in.. even in cursive!!
Cam succumbing to the joys of the pool. I had sadly forgotten my suit.
The main house and everyone clear of the area in order not to get too sunburned!

Saturday afternoon brought hot clear blue skies and then suddenly with his Aussie sixth sense, Cam sensed a storm coming in and in an hour and half the sky was gone. Dust rose over the horizon and wind pumped up to a near 40mph. Everyone ran to rescue their poor tents which the wind picking up fron the ground. The bands continued to rock out on the stage and everyone was in a frenzied chaotic state. Cam took a cute picture of me protecting my eyes with my bonnet from the flying dust. I for the most part went and laid in the tent and watched the tent violently shake and shift. It was so soothing to me I was able to take a sound nap.
The storm evaporated as quickly as it had formed about 2 hours later and everything was back to normal.

Nothing like a weekend of crazy people, crazy rock, crazy wind out in the middle of nowhere to regain your senses!!

You can't hold me back! (oh.. yes you can)

2008-06-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks back I got serious about this Australian immigration thing. Now that Cam is affixed here in the USA, now I want to be able to get back to Oz. At that point we would have free reign to go wherever we liked with the freedom of birds. Up till now, I assumed marrying Cam was my ticket to get back in and override the ban that was put on my VISA almost two years ago now saying I could not come back for a total of 3 years.

So, I called the embassy.

I talked to a nice woman, whom I was thrilled had an Aussie accent, and told her about my situation, and the reasoning that I had been granted this ban when my Uni was handling my VISA extension in my behalf so I wouldn't have to go to the immigration department and wait in line all day. Had I have been told to go there, instead of just sending Sydney Uni a piece of paper, I would have done so. The Immigration building was only right down the street!

So the nice woman laid her cards on the table. I would have to fill out an application online stating my case and applying for Visa 676 which would essentially override my current ban. Having married an Australian citizen had no merit in this process. Once the application was submitted and approved I would still have to contact an immigration officer for final approval for admittance.

A few days ago, I received my reply. Australia said no. They still needed a bit more from me and if it was the country's best interest to let me back in. If I could not prove my worth I was labeled simply as a RISK. As much as I would love to pursue this issue, I would not win by saying that I was just misinformed or that the Uni messed up. And, obviously I have no other reason to go to Oz other than getting my tan back, therefore my argument is already been brushed off the table.

The 75$ fee isn't all that much to have gone to waste but I sure could have used it on something a bit more worth while if I was going to be told off so quickly. I was hoping Cam and I could get somewhere warm in the cold month of November but I guess we will have to go somewhere else!

Trajan Is The Movie Font

2008-06-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have seen this video on YouTube (it's rather popular, apparently!). As a designer, I find it absolutely hilarious - mainly because it's absolutely true!

I do disagree on one point, though: Trajan hasn't totally overrun the entire movie industry quite yet. There is one segment that resists the classical charms of this font, that being comedy movies. Don't worry, though, they have their own lazy designers who more often than not, resort to this:

BIG FAT SANS SERIF FONTS.

Almost always Gill Sans Bold (possibly one of the ugliest sans serif fonts ever, and an embarrassment to the Gill Sans family) or Futura Extra Heavy. If you can squish the kerning up to join all the letterforms together, then you're well on the way to the perfect comedy movie title.

So why does this repetition happen? Laziness, for sure. Why think of a new font/logotype for each new movie when you know that something that was done previously will work just as well. In a way, these typeface choices act as a kind of visual shorthand for the viewing public: Trajan = Epic. Distressed Trajan = Horror. Big Fat Sans Serif = Wacky Comedy. Adam Sandler. Jim Carrey. Straight away, you have some kind of idea about the movie. That's a plus on a crowded video store shelf, where you've only got a few seconds to attract a potential viewer. Not that I'm condoning this kind of design at all... I can't stand lazy, no thought typography. I was always taught to pay close attention to the appropriateness of type, and I think it's a great thing to remember.

Let me give you an example. At a previous agency, a client asked us to design a logo and brochure that evoked a stylish, 1930's kind of feel. I briefed the job into a junior designer and went away to do my own work. A couple of hours later, I checked in with the junior and was horrified to find that they had typeset the whole thing in Helvetica.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

The junior simply replied, "Because it's a nice font".

And it can be, if set well. There are agencies out there who only use Helvetica Neue in every job they do, and it looks fantastic. But in this case, Helvetica was not an appropriate font to use. Helvetica was not invented until the 1950's and shares none of the aesthetics of the 1930's period we were trying to evoke. I explained this to the junior, who just looked at me a little blankly and asked which font I would use.

The short answer was "Futura" (because we were on a deadline), but there's more to consider than just the obvious answer. Take a look at this:

Here we have four fonts, all set at the same point size. Firstly, we can see that Helvetica displays none of the characteristics of a 1930's style font: it's what's known as a grotesque font (so called because purists thought this type of type was hideous when first introduced in the late 19th Century), while the others all display elements of the humanist style of sans serif fonts.

The next font, Futura, is appropriate to the task at hand because it's from the 1930s. You can't get more authentic than the real thing. Gill Sans is another font from around the same time period, making it another possible choice.

The last two fonts shown, Neutra and Nevis, are modern, computer generated fonts. But they have the look and feel - the elegance - of a 1930's font and are therefore appropriate. Neutra's extremely small x-height is particularly redolent of 30's style, while Nevis is very heavily based on Johnston Sans, another Eric Gill typeface that is famous for its use on the London Undergound.

A good typographic designer has an innate sense for this kind of stuff - a knowledge of the history of type and the ability to find new fonts that fulfill old roles in design. There's always an obvious choice for a typeface, but sometimes further investigation makes a good design great. For my part, I wish I'sd told the junior designer to use Neutra for that brochure, because it's a lovely, lovely typeface.

It's All Relative

2008-06-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

The big news here in the US lately has been how the national average price for gas has reached $US4 per US gallon (oddly, not the same as an Imperial gallon). Apparently it spells the end of the world as we know it or something. So I did some quick sums based on a recent Sydney Morning Herald article that stated that petrol prices had reached 171.9 cents a litre in Sydney.

Works out Sydneysiders are paying the equivalent of $US6.13 a gallon for petrol or thereabouts. Ouch. There's always someone worse off than you. Makes me glad I ride a bike, that's for sure!

Colin Lake & Wellbottom - updated site!

2008-06-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

I've just finished revamping the website that I design/manage for Colin Lake & Wellbottom, a local blues band. I've mentioned them plenty of times on this blog before, I'm sure.

The old site was perfectly functional and even looked better than 95% of band sites out of there, but it lacked a certain panache in my eyes. That, and it had been added to in a very hodge-podge manner as the site grew from its initial 3 or 4 pages to the fount of knowledge that it is now. The whole thing is definitely more unified and "designed" now, and it will be much easier to amend and expand in the future.

The real reason I went through all this work to fix a website that didn't have a lot wrong with it? Because it looks awesome in my portfolio! I don't have a whole heap of web stuff in my portfolio, so a quality piece like this will strengthen it immensely!

But is is awesome!

2008-06-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Penny Arcade is so damn funny at times. That is all.

America - land of the disclaimer!

2008-06-09T10:25:00.001-07:00

We're all familiar with them: ads on TV that include a little warning in them, either as a caption or a voice over. Do Not Attempt, they say, or Consult Your Doctor If Pain Persists... that kind of stuff. In general, they're a good idea: no one should take their new Audi out and attempt handbrake turns on the freeway like you see on all the car ads these days.

It's just that in America there are so damn many of these disclaimers. Sometimes it seems like every ad on TV has a disclaimer warning you about something. There's even car ads which proclaim Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt. when all the car is doing is driving within the speed limit down a perfectly ordinary road!

Or how about the ad for earwax spray which shows a guy sticking a toilet plunger onto the side of his head in a futile (and obviously comedic) effort to dislodge earwax. Do not attempt, the caption solemnly intones, like we'd all think that a plumber's friend is the instant solution to waxy buildup, rather than the erstwhile product the ad is spruiking.

I know that the advertisers are just covering their butts in today's increasingly litigious society, but where will it end? And is the general public really that stupid?

And don't even get me started on the plague that is pharmaceutical TV advertising in America. These ads totally dominate prime time viewing and have to be seen to be believed. They tend to be a minute long, as they have to list every single potential side effect and problem that could arise from use of the product. And they're for everything: Viagra (and all the other "ED" products), osteoporosis, high blood pressure, sleeping pills and so on, ad infinitum.

It's fun when the advertiser tries to integrate the disclaimer into the narrative of the ad, such as making the protagonist actually visit a doctor (resplendent in white coat, of course) who proceeds to list all the side effects in excruciating detail, finishing with "and of course, see me if any of these things occur." It's all terribly reassuring.

But most of the time the ads just admit defeat and just show our heroes dancing around or leading happy, full lives while Serious Voice Over Artist™ runs through the litany of things that could happen to you for a full 30 seconds or more. It's kind of surreal, because the side effects always sound worse than the problem they're trying to treat. "Oh, so I don't have a blocked nose any more, but I might have headaches, blurred vision, a bloody nose or experience extreme nausea. Great!"

Finally, there's car ads which include financing offers. These tend to display an entire screen of miniscule terms and conditions (the real "small print") for a period of somewhat less than a second. Having worked on some car ads for the Daewoo dealership network back in Australia, I can safely say that you'd never get away with this there, as all type shown on screen in an advertisement has to be readable by a "reasonable" person. This would force these US car ads to be about half an hour long however, so it's probably best the way it is. I feel that Full terms and conditions of your lease agreement can be found at your local BMW dealership might be a better and more transparent way of going about things, however.

Logo design - Kildeen Moore Research Fund

2008-06-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

Design time – here's a logo that Christine and I combined forces to create.

Dr Kildeen Moore was Christine's much beloved aunt, who very sadly died from brain cancer a few years ago. Members of the family wanted to honour her memory by setting up a research fund in her name, and asked us if we would be able to come up with an appropriate logo.

The idea is all Christine's - she remembered Kildeen as always being the life of the party, so the conga line motif seemed perfect. Her initial concepts actually had the conga line facing left; it was only after we had "slept on the idea" that it occurred to me that the main character would resemble a stylised "K" (for Kildeen) if we flipped the whole thing. I redrew Christine's characters a little bit, added the type and submitted it. The family loved the concept and approved it after only a few minor revisions.

The stethoscope on the "Kildeen" figure was requested by the family: I personally find it a bit fussy for such a simple and stylised logo, but I can understand the reasoning behind it - an instant identifier of this figure as "Dr Kildeen".

New look for the blog!

2008-06-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

So, after more than a year, the ol' white type on black was getting a bit grating. Time for something new! I spent most of the day scouring the internet for information on how to get/create a new Blogger theme, with varying levels of success.

I finally found this neat theme, which I've spent a bit of time tweaking to my liking. There may be some more fiddling over the next little while, so forgive us if things look a little wacky at times. I'm still getting the hang of using CSS to determine pretty much every element on an HTML page. It's extremely powerful, but also quite hard to get your head around on the fly. Let us know what you think of the new look!

Famous?

2008-06-04T13:53:00.001-07:00

So Colin Lake and Wellbottom's album, Bullet, is finally being released properly. I did the artwork for this way back in February and while I've had my own sample copy of it for quite a while, it's quite exciting to think that it's out there for other people to see. As well as being in bricks and mortar record stores, it's also available on iTunes (as seen in the image above; click on it for a full size image) and Amazon.com (where it's currently rated #639,331 in their Music category!).

Of course, now that I think about it, Colin's fine recording isn't the only artwork of mine that is available for sale on the ol' interwebs, as the CDs I did for Hillsong Church are all out there too. (See here, here and here - they're on iTunes as well as Amazon). Maybe I just have a bigger sense of ownership with Colin's work, helping a new artist out with some quality artwork and design. Whatever - I'm just chuffed for both him and me that it's out there.

An "I love Portland" moment

2008-06-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

Crowding In, originally uploaded by chaosgurlpink.

The Mac Store has been marking the Grand Opening of their Clackamas store in a variety of ways: the usual special deals on hardware and software, and (perhaps more unusually) with a series of live shows by local musicians and bands in both the new Clackamas store and the Portland store.

I came down a couple of times to meet up with Christine, and the music was always of very high quality. And Christine said that about the acts that I missed as well. The problem was is that it was generally played to an almost empty store, or to customers who wanted to shop rather than listen to great music. Sort of "live in store" elevator muzak, if you like.

That all changed when Laura Veirs showed up for her gig on Saturday. Suddenly, the store was full of enraptured listeners who found a position wherever they could to listen to her. As you can see in the picture above, there was even a guy who pulled up his old G5 tower that he'd just picked up from the service department as a seat! No one was interested in picking up an iPod accessory or even in the free pizza on offer until after Laura finished her set.

Of course, this reaction was to be somewhat expected - Laura Veirs is a pretty big name on the Portland scene. As Christine noted, she's the only one out of all the acts booked who has her own Wikipedia entry! She's released at least three albums that get proper distribution (ie, she doesn't rely on selling them at the end of gigs to get them out in the market) and has had successful tours and collaborations with The Decemberists, amongst others.

And that's what's cool about this small Portland moment. A successful local act who isn't above playing a very low key gig in a rather strange location (a computer store?!!). And she's rewarded for this, as the large and appreciative audience shows. A big win all around!

Portfolio updated!

2008-05-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

When I was first arrived in the US, I quickly threw together a web portfolio of my design work to make applying for jobs easier. No need to send a huge PDF of samples with my cover letter and resume; rather, I can just send a link to the site. However, it was very hurriedly done and probably didn't show my work off in the best way.

So I've spent a little while over the last few weeks redoing it, and I couldn't be happier! It looks very slick now, with a neat three column layout that works really well across the entire site. I think I now have a better portfolio site than some of the agencies I've worked at, but then, it always seems hard for agencies to find the time to sit down and do some proper self-promotion!

So head on over to take a look. Let me know what you think!

One Year On

2008-05-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

It's kind of hard to believe, but today marks one year since I arrived in the US to live. One year already! And in that time I've done so much:

1. Married my wonderful girl
2. Gone head to head with US Immigration (and emerged victorious... eventually!)
3. Found (some) work
4. Flown to the other side of the country and back (up to 10 states visited now!)
5. Gone on a road trip
6. Made great friends
7. Discovered that good beer does exist in America and most of it is in Portland!
8. Clocked up more than 1,500 miles (2,400km) on my bike

And that's only the tip of the iceberg! Things have been a little tough at times, but Christine and I have managed to muddle our way through it all together, and I can't say I've ever felt happier in my life. Every time things look grim, financially or otherwise, something will come along and rectify the situation; whether it's Christine winning a prize through work, my back pay from Vein finally coming through or whatever... life is good, and the weather is starting to get nicer, too! Roll on the next year!

Questions...

2008-05-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we all question our job. Are we getting enough out of it? Are we getting paid enough? Are we advancing ourselves? These are the questions that have been going through my head for quite sometime. However, last week, my boss Dan made it clear that something was going down on Friday and I had to be there in order not to miss it.

Now, life on my front has not been so interesting in order to blog about lately although I had been on repelling excursions and jazz shows... although this definitely was. I tend to blog when a train of thought has been altered. And I can say now that my renewed faith in the company which I currently serve has been preserved.

A business division of our company called Irisink ran a contest starting 3 months ago allowing individual salespersons to refer customers to their services therefore getting the lead transfered into tickets for a raffle. Irisink received many leads from all 7 Mac Stores and transferred them all into the pot. We were all told about this back in February. Apparently May was the the month of the drawing and Yours Truly was in for a surprise.

Those crazy guys had me in suspense all week that I was either going to get a promotion, get fired or get transferred but instead they gave me a giant check accompanied by a surprise party complete with an adorable cake. I was put on the spot and hugely shocked how above and beyond they went just to tell me I'd won. It was gorgeous. I might stick around just awhile longer with the Mac Store. :)

Decision time

2008-04-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

This last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I got a gig from 52 Ltd to temp as a production artist at a downtown advertising agency called Leopold Ketel & Partners. They have about 30 staff and have some great accounts, including a lot of not-for-profit organisations like Planned Parenthood, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Oregon Humane Society and more. It's always nice to see an agency with heart, rather than one that's just interested in making money.

The work there was pretty simple stuff - presentation and pitch boards and books and some finished artwork. However, I handled it all with my typical ruthless efficiency and so wasn't particularly surprised when my supervisor came to me early on Thursday morning and asked whether I was interested in a full-time position. We had a brief discussion about it and I told her I'd get back to her next week with a decision.

Full-time work would be great, that's for sure - it would bring a lot of security that we currently don't have. Struggling for enough part-time work to meet the rent each month sucks. But this position is only as a production artist with no guarantee of any creative work whatsoever. We didn't really discuss pay at this early negotiation stage, but you can bet it would be substantially less than what I was earning in Australia. On the other hand, LK&P seems to be a truly creative agency (with no egos!) and I feel I could learn a lot there. Who knows, if I keep blowing them away with the quality of my work, there could be plenty of opportunity for advancement.

So I feel that the best course of action is to let LK&P know that I'm interested and see what pay they are offering. If it's below a certain level (I do have standards!) then I'll pass and keep on with 52 Ltd, maybe asking them to start looking for full-time creative work for me instead of just part-time. But if LK&P's offer is good enough...

A tale of (drinking in) two cities

2008-04-16T11:25:00.001-07:00

Drunken People Crossing, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

The photo above is a sign at the entrance of a brewpub's car park in Missoula, Montana. It vividly and visually portrays the huge difference between Portland and Missoula when it comes to drinking alcohol.

The sale, distribution and consumption of alcoholic beverages in Portland (and all of Oregon) is controlled by the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission), who rule with something of an iron fist. Venues are regularly tested to see if they are checking the ID of patrons or letting underage drinkers in; so much so that most bars will ask everyone for ID, even if they're way above 21. And once they've asked you for ID, no one will turn a blind eye if you've forgotten it. No card, no drink.

Whereas, as this picture shows, Missoula almost seems proud of its hard drinking reputation. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Top Hat Club has a "$5 Tap Beer" promotion on Wednesday nights. What this means is that for $5, you get as many pints as you can drink between 10:30pm and 1:00am! Guidelines for bar owners in Montana suggest that encouraging binge drinking isn't such a great idea, but it doesn't seem like that message has quite sunk in yet for some bars. Missoula is a university town, so I would expect that a large proportion of the drinkers who would want to take advantage of a $5 beer night would be college kids. Spencer (who grew up in Montana) told me that bars would do "Quarter Beers" - 25 cent pints!!! and "cheap drinks until the first person goes to the toilet" nights.

As a final demonstration of the differences between the two cities, Spencer's sister - who is 23 - forgot her ID when she came to the Top Hat, but was allowed entry anyway. It just wouldn't happen in Portland.

Road Trip!

2008-04-15T13:08:00.001-07:00

Click on the map above for a full-size image.

This last weekend, I got out of Portland with Kim, Spencer and Jaime as we headed off to Spokane, WA and Missoula, MT to see the last two shows on Colin Lake and Wellbottom's 2008 Spring Tour. Colin is a good friend of ours (and I've designed his logo, web site and latest album cover as well) and Kim's boyfriend Kevin plays bass for the band. So it seemed like a great idea to pile in the car and cheer them along the home stretch. Christine couldn't make it on the trip with us as she has to work weekends and we kinda need the cashola at the moment, but she certainly didn't begrudge me going off and having fun.

We headed off after lunch on Friday, out along the stunning Columbia River Gorge towards Umatilla, where we entered Washington State and headed up to Spokane, a 350 mile journey in total. The weather was beautiful, the first 70°F (21°C) day since last October, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The familiar verdant green and waterfalls of the western Gorge soon gave way to the very different – but no less beautiful – desert-like eastern part and plains of Eastern Oregon. Much of the area is kept alive and productive by extensive irrigation; an aerial photograph of the area near Umatilla shows all the circular fields that seem to be the norm for irrigated farmlands in this part of the country.

We finally rolled into Spokane (pronounced "Spo-can" for all the non-locals) at around 7:00pm, where we met up with band and headed up to the house of one of Kim's friends to freshen up and have a few drinks before the show. The gig was at a small bar called "The Swamp" in a semi-industrial area of town, but attracted a pretty decent crowd, all of whom seemed to appreciate the show that the guys put on. Touring for a few weeks has definitely helped the band sound really tight, the show was pretty flawless. Here's a couple of photos:

After the show ended, we headed back up the hill to the house, where the party continued until 3:00am or so, after which everyone crashed where they could. The start the next morning was slow to say the least, with no-one even stirring before 11:30am. We finally got out of the house for a late breakfast at 1:00pm at a great cafe before everyone hit the road for the next leg to Missoula, Montana – a mere 200 miles away.

This leg of the journey took us across the "panhandle" of Idaho, a narrow strip of mountainous land that extends all the way north to the Canadian border. Looking at it on a map makes you wonder why a state would bother to claim such a narrow strip of land - and it actually all comes down to a mistake. The original surveyors were meant to mark the edge of the territory along the US Continental Divide, but went the wrong way and were almost at the Canadian border before they realised their mistake. The border should have been much further to the east, but the mistake has remained. After a mere 80 miles or so, we crossed the border into Montana, the "Big Sky State", the 10th US State that I have visited.

The scenery from Coeur d'Alene in Idaho all the way to Missoula was quite spectacular, with huge snow-covered mountains and pristine lakes. We also passed the town of Wallace, which holds quite a few claims to fame. It rose to prominence as the biggest silver mining town in the US, then had the last set of traffic lights on the US Interstate system: these were removed in 1991 when the bypass around (and above) the town was completed. Finally, in need of some tourism to help the struggling town, Wallace decided to declare itself "The Center Of The Universe", with a manhole cover downtown (seriously!) denoting the exact spot. I think that Rome and Greece had that idea some 2000 years earlier, guys...

We arrived in Missoula at around 7:00pm and got ourselves something to eat before heading off to the Top Hat Club, the venue for the last show of the tour.

Note the "$5 Tap Beer" sign... I'll be talking about that in another blog soon. While fairly unprepossessing from the outside, the Top Hat was a very atmospheric bar on the inside, and had a great big stage for the guys to perform on. Another great show, and a lot of the college kids in the audience got up and danced, which was fun to see. We were way too cool to dance ourselves.

The show finished right at closing time (2:00am) and we were treated to the Missoulan way of closing a bar: the chairs and tables were all instantly stacked on top of each other while the bartenders shouted things like, "If you don't work here, GET OUT!" and, "What are you still DOING HERE?!". We helped the guys load their gear into their rig, then headed off to a nearby hotel where we got half-price rooms for the night. Some of us headed off to a nearby 24-hour diner, but I took the opportunity to get an hour's headstart on sleep.

Sunday was the whole 550 mile trip in reverse, which took pretty much the whole day. We were all pretty tired and glad to be home, but felt for the band: in their big and slow rig, they didn't get back to Portland until late in the night, well and truly tired of this whole touring thing. Kevin had to get up and go to work first thing Monday morning as well, ugghh!!

Pix of work!

2008-03-25T21:43:00.001-07:00

I took my camera with me to work today to give you all a little look at where I'm at and what it's like... nothing amazing, but at least you can visualise things a bit better.

First off is the commute. Piotr is in Ottowa for Easter, so I'm having to make my own way to work at the moment... what is a rapid 20 minute drive in the car becomes a one hour-plus saga on public transport. I have to walk half a mile to the MAX station, as seen here:

I have to catch this three stops to the north, where I transfer from Portland's Tri-Met system to Vancouver's C-Tran. The number 4 bus takes me over the Columbia River to Vancouver's town centre, where I transfer again to another bus, the 37, which takes me all the way out to far South-East Vancouver, an area known as Mill Plain. Fortunately, tickets purchased on either system are valid on the other, so the transfer is quite easy.

I should mention here that Vancouver's "CBD" (such as it is) is incredibly dull and empty at 8:30 in the morning. Vancouver really is a satellite suburb of Portland, and almost everyone has already headed down the I-5 to their jobs in PDX by this time. So there's just a handful of people waiting at the bus stop for the long trip east with me.

The bus travels along a main east-west thoroughfare called Mill Plain Boulevard, which is basically a giant strip mall, with shopping centre after shopping centre lining it all the way. Occasionally a hospital or car yard will break the monotony, but otherwise it's wall to wall consumerism for a 10 mile stretch.

Finally, I arrive at my stop and it's another half-mile stroll to Wacom's office, in the middle of a stereotypical industrial park, pretty much the same as anywhere else in the world. You know, the ones with street names like "Innovation Drive" and "Technology Blvd"... we've all seen them. Their building isn't exactly awe-inspiring:

Once inside, I have to grab a visitor's pass from the front desk each and every day and sign in. Then it's off to the studio, a dimly lit room with no windows. Here's my workstation:

They've given me a MacBook Pro just like mine and a big monitor as a second screen. I've also got an Intuos 3 tablet hidden behind the laptop and I also have access to a Cintiq 12 – a tablet with an integrated screen, possibly the coolest thing ever invented – if needed. The mouse is mine, an old favourite that I love to death. Of course, working for a company that makes products that are meant to replace computer mice, I've been given a lot of grief about my choice of equipment. What can I say? I'm still faster at certain things with my clunky old mouse!

Work is still a lot of fun and I've worked on heaps of different projects, which keeps things fresh each day. And having money in my pocket doesn't hurt, either!

Easter + Ferrets = fun times

2008-03-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

hey blog!

nice to see you again!

Portland is getting warm and I have reacted with allergies that continue to haunt my sinuses. No biggie though, Cam and I have had plenty of distractions with his new job and me thinking babysitting a co-workers ferret while she is away was a thrilling idea. All in all, we have had a fun filled week and I'm sad its at its end.

I am always complaining to Cam about wanting a pet. Unfortunately since we have signed a lease that says "no pets allowed" that rules out even owning a goldfish. People are always asking us when we would consider having kids. How can I even consider such an idea if I have never even owned a cat on my own for awhile? Having a ferret for a few days is a perfect starter pet. She was brought home after work in her own cage as my co-worker had to California for the weekend. Julie, as the ferret is named is a very young and charismatic ferret.

She immediately showed her cleverness as well by ignoring Cam and I's attentions by mapping out her territory. Starting at one corner, she headed her way around the entire perimeter of the room, being sure to go behind large items in order to stay close to the wall. Once that was established, she managed to master the stairs. As soon as she saw there were no other ways to get behind the closed doors we purposefully shut, she then saw us suitable to play with.

Ferrets are extremely active for about 5 hours total a day. The rest of the time, they sleep. We let her run around in the evening until she exhausts herself and curls up in an obscure place to sleep. In the meantime, she spends all the entire time finding places that we haven't thought of to escape through. I dub these places "holes to Narnia." If she was to find a hole under the cabinets that we hadn't known of, then we would have no track of her. The hole doesn't connect to anywhere that we have access to!

Anyway, Julie has been a super fun addition to our little domestic life and I'm sad I have to give her back tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, don't tell our landlord you know anything of Julie.....

Easter was put into full swing this year. Kim and I made a few eggs and Cam and I watched a bit of Moses on TV, because it just gets more entertaining everytime you watch it. Here are some eggy pics.

We went to Kevin's brother Joe's house for a luscious Easter brunch that felt more like Thanksgiving. Full of food and mimosas we spent a good part of the day lounging around and talking about nothing and everything while it poured rain outside. Spring does look a lot like winter....

News from the front

2008-03-06T19:35:00.001-08:00

So I've been working out at Wacom for a couple of days now and I just have to say... God, I've missed doing this! Designing is what I do, and I have just realised how much I need it to get my brain in gear: solving problems, dealing with technical issues, getting things done.

The teams is small, but a lot of fun to work with. They produce a lot of material, both internal and external, so there's plenty to do. I seem to have come on board just as they've hit a busy patch, so my initial three day stint looks like it may be extended into next week. Who knows? Piotr, another freelance designer who also came in through 52 Ltd, was originally signed up for a three month contract. He's still there a year later.

The commute to far south-east Vancouver (by both MAX and bus) was pretty simple, although it takes a long time: almost an hour and a half. Fortunately, I've only had to do it once, as Piotr lives fairly nearby and has a car... makes things a lot easier and lets me sleep in a bit in the mornings...

Work!!!!

2008-03-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited!

Almost a year after I left my last job in Australia, I have paid employment! It's just a short term assignment through 52 Ltd, but it's a start!

At the moment, it's just a three day stint at Wacom (purveyors of fine graphics tablets) in a production-only role, but it could be a little longer as well, maybe a week or so. Everything I do there will be Top Secret; I have to sign a confidentiality agreement when I start. Getting there will be interesting, as they're way out in the far south-east of Vancouver on the other side of the Columbia River. There is public transport there, but it's going to be a long trip at each end of the day. At the moment, I don't really care - I'm going to make some money!!!

52 Ltd have also given my name to Nike for a 6-month contract doing design on-site with them, which would be very exciting. Could be a while before I hear back on that job, however.

Have I mentioned that I'm excited??

Oh How I Laughed!

2008-02-26T14:55:00.001-08:00

In news today from America, Starbucks will be shutting down its 7,100 company-owned stores this afternoon in order to – and this is true, I swear!– teach its staff how to make coffee.

Not surprisingly, Starbucks' competitors are having a field day with this, offering half-price or even free coffee to ensure that everyone gets enough caffeine during those dark hours. I could insert some witticism or comment here, but in this case, actions really do speak louder than words.

Read the full story here.

And this is kind of funny too (Not to mention true!).

End of the dream...

2008-02-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

After promising results for their "W+K Seeking" competition by February 15, Wieden + Kennedy finally got back to me today. I didn't get in.

I have actually suspected as much for a while, as another entrant in Belgium received his "golden ticket" by FedEx on the 18th. So it was a pretty safe bet that if I hadn't got anything by FedEx within a couple of days of the magic date, I wasn't going to make it. Part of me was still believing that they weren't in any hurry to notify me that I had won because I lived here in Portland... it's a very silly part of me and shouldn't be listened to in the future!

I like my entry, I really do. But looking at the few winning entries I have seen (there's links to a few in the blog above), it's obvious that W+K are after something more "left field" and "out there" than what I submitted. They're after people who can provide them with that tangential solution to a problem that hasn't occurred to 99.9% of the population, and my entry didn't present that.

On the bright side, now I can concentrate my efforts on other ways to get employed without the distraction of W+K's carrot hanging over my head.

In closing, I also have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the way that W+K lets you know you haven't been selected. It was simply a postcard-sized sticker on card that says "Wieden + Kennedy gave me this sticker" on the front, while the back is simply a rubber stamped (literally!) message that reads:

SEEKING haiku

you shared your story
one in forty made the cut
not this time for you

Ouch! Not only does the front suggest the old "My parents went to Maui and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" joke (or in this case, "The guy from Belgium is going to W+K and all I got was this lousy sticker"), but the back is brutally to the point. I understand they have thousands of rejections to send out, but surely it could be done a little less harshly than this? People have poured their heart and soul into these entries, hoping for a way into one of the best agencies in the world, and this is what they get back?

Lunar Eclipse!

2008-02-21T12:59:00.001-08:00

Lunar Eclipse, 20th February 2008, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

As promised, here's my night's work from last night's spectacular total lunar eclipse. This is a composite image of exposures taken at 5 minute intervals from 6:13pm to 7:03pm, by which time totality had been achieved. The moon started very low to the horizon, hence the yellower cast in the first few exposures.

I did a lot of reading on the web on how best to photograph the moon during an eclipse, and was quite surprised to see how little exposure is required to shoot a normal full moon... 1/125th second at ƒ/11 at ISO100! Any more than that and the brightness of the moon causes everything to blow out totally.

So I was armed with a handy table of exposure times by the time we headed out, and it proved to be pretty much spot on throughout the night. Which was good, because my attempts to bracket my exposures by using the Automatic Exposure Bracket function on my camera were a dismal failure... something about using the mirror lock (vital to not getting camera shake and a little ghosted reflection of the moon in my shots) caused it not to work, leaving me with three identical exposures instead of some nice bracketed ones. When I got to sorting my images in Lightroom, the first thing I had to do was simply delete two-thirds of my shots... Ah well, you live and learn!

Lunar Eclipse Night!

2008-02-20T21:44:00.000-08:00

I cannot recall the last time that I stood and stared at the moon. Sunsets are usually the more dramatic activity, but tonight was different. Cam and I don't get out of town much and a lunar eclipse always makes for a good excuse. It also was a good excuse to visit our favorite wedding hill, Rocky Butte. It was the highest point we could think of and since it miraculously wasn't raining in Portland, we took off, prepared with cameras and food for later.

We rented a Zipcar and got up the hill with plenty of time to spare. I wasn't sure if it would be completely packed or deserted. But it had to be one or the other. As it turned out, there wasn't much parking when we arrived and shortly after, there was no parking at all. Families poured into the park, equipped with cameras, telescopes, astronomy books and of course, all their kids, who couldn't care less about the moon having a shadow on it. One kid was enraptured with the rotating spotlight in the middle of the park and I overheard his dad say "Hey bud, the moon's over here!"

Many people came poorly equipped and were disappointed when the moon didn't show up with their cell phone camera.

I don't think I have ever seen Cam so excited about a photographic endeavor. He took nearly 200 photos in two hours of the phases passing through. I of course, had to do my best with the littler camera that I had and took some of these great beauties.

It was a super fun time and there were definitely a lot of interesting people there as well. But for Cam and I, we will be visiting Rocky Butte for the next galactic event, whatever and whenever that shall be... stay tuned for actual REALLY GOOD photos that Cam took!!

Photo Post-Processing: A New Approach

2008-02-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

I've long believed that the computer, along with photo-editing software like Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop, acts as a digital version of the traditional darkroom. Instead of chemicals, paper and manual dodging, burning, pushing and pulling we now rely on the power of the computer to treat our photos. I've been using Lightroom as my main photo editing software for just over a year now and I love it. It allows me to sort through the thousands of pictures I take each year, adding keywords and other metadata quickly and easily and then get on to the important task - making the best photos really "sing".

Lately, however, I've been feeling that my photos were a little still a little flat... that maybe I could take my processing a bit further somehow. To that end, I bought Scott Kelby's excellent book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book For Digital Photographers, to see if I could glean any useful hints and tips from this renowned expert. While I have a pretty good grasp of what all the sliders and controls in Lightroom do, Scott still had a lot of useful tips and information that will allow me to approach things in a slightly more organised fashion.

But the main thing I got out of the book is that he still uses Photoshop for his final photo editing, something that I have rarely done since starting to use Lightroom – I guess the simplicity of doing eveything in one application was a little too beguiling for me! He has some fantastic techniques that you can use to really make the colours in your image "pop" - he calls it painting with light, and it's not a bad description at all. I'm not going into the technique here: it involves converting images to LAB mode, using the Apply Image command (which I have never used before in all my years of Photoshopping, shame on me!) and then painting on Layer Masks with a screened duplicate of your image. Sounds complicated, but after a few goes it becomes quite simple to understand and execute.

It's probably best if I just show a couple of examples. On the left of each image is the shot exactly as it came out of my camera (a Canon Digital Rebel XT shooting RAW files), on the right is the image after all my processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. Lovely, innit? It really brings out a lot of hidden colour detail that is sorely lacking in the original images, although I must stress that you always have to do some post-processing work on RAW files to make them look good: they are simply showing you the raw data from your camera's sensor, with none of the contrast, saturation or sharpening that you'll automatically get when you shoot JPG. If you click on the pix, you should get to see a larger version of the image...

Happy Birthday To Me!

2008-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

I turned 35 yesterday! Scary, huh? Here's Christine and me enjoying our joint Valentine's Day/birthday dinner at the wonderful Lovely Hula Hands on Mississippi Ave last night. The food was gorgeous, one of the best meals we have had together. Afterwards, we met up with all of our friends and headed off to the Doug Fir Lounge to see The Gourds, a great all-American party band if there ever was one. Needless to say, I had quite a few drinks bought for me and I'm feeling a little under the weather today... maybe I'm gettin' too old for all this nightlife!

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself...

2008-02-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, on February 13th 2008, Kevin Rudd – the new Prime Minister of Australia – will say the following words in Federal Parliament. They constitute a long overdue apology to the Stolen Generations of indigenous Australians, where aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families and assimilated into white culture as a matter of government policy. And it is amongst the most beautiful things I have ever read:

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

It says everything that needed to be said and more. After such a long time of the previous government's refusal to acknowledge the sins of the past, hopefully now we can move forward as one. At this moment, I feel proud to be Australian.

Hooray For Nature!

2008-02-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

One of the worst things about not having a car is that it's very easy to become trapped in the city. Which is made even more horrible in Portland, as it's surrounded by a lot of natural beauty which I'd love to be able to see on a more regular basis. So it was a wonderful day on Sunday when our friend Spencer rang me and asked if I'd like to go on a hike in the Columbia River Gorge. Would I? Heck, yeah!

Now I've been up to the Gorge twice, once with Christine's dad, and once with my parents. Both times we've taken in the views and waterfalls that are located near to the highway (Latourell, Multnomah, etc), so I was pretty excited to have to walk through this beautiful area to see some of the slightly more remote waterfalls.

Spence took me to one of the most popular hiking spots in the Gorge, the Eagle Creek trail, which leads up to the renowned Punch Bowl Falls - about a 4 mile return journey. The path itself was quite difficult, often gouged out of a sheer cliff face. The cliff face itself was home to many intermittent waterfalls, meaning we got an impromptu shower as we passed underneath! Here's a picture, showing the steel cable handrail embedded into the cliff; there's probably a 100-foot drop to the river below at this point.

The path settles down into a more normal hiking trail after this exciting beginning, but going was still difficult thanks to ice and snow covering the path occasionally. The scenery was beautiful, including some very tall and arrow-straight trees, all trying to grow as high as possible as quickly as possible. Light is a limited commodity in this narrow gorge!

Finally, we reached our destination, Punch Bowl Falls. There are actually two sets of falls, the creatively named "Lower" and "Upper" falls. Our first stop was the Lower Falls, a short 10 foot drop only, but still a lovely sight. I was glad I had brought my tripod all the way with me, as hand-held shots would have been almost impossible in the gloomy gorge.

Just upstream of here is a rocky beach that Spencer told me is very popular in Summer, when people come here to swim and relax. Sounds great! People also wade out into the stream to take pictures of the Upper Falls upstream, a classic and iconic waterfall photo. However, late-winter water is a little too cold to be trying that trick at the moment! A reason to return in Summer, though!

So we had to retrace our steps to the main path and continue on a bit until we got to the lookout over the main falls:

A spectacular sight as torrents of water spilled over the cliff into the huge bowl-shaped pond... apparently, these falls gave their name to this class of waterfall (they're the original punch bowl falls, so to speak) and I doubt there's a better example anywhere.

52 Ltd Interview

2008-02-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

So I finally had my interview with 52 Ltd - the main graphic design recruitment agency here in Portland - today. It all went really well, the Talent Manager who interviewed me was very impressed with my skill set and experience and later told me in an email that my interview was the best of the day. Nice! I told her all about my Wieden + Kennedy prospects and that I'm still waiting to hear about that, so I'm more interested in part-time/freelance work at present. To be honest, I'll probably want to freelance for quite a while, just to get a feel for what's available here in Portland, rather than tying myself down to the first job that comes my way. So hopefully, some work will be coming my way soon! Huzzah!

Super Sunday!

2008-02-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the day of the biggest sporting event in the US... one that households tune in to watch by the millions, one that true sports fans acknowledge as the ultimate test! And no, I'm not talking about that silly old Super Bowl - this is the Widmer Bowl, contested annually on the same day as that other football game by Widmer Bros employees, ex-employees, friends of employees (ie, me!) and anybody else who feels like joining in.

Having experienced my first game of American football at Thanksgiving, I was a little more prepared this time (shoes with grip and a change of clothes!) and probably contributed a bit more to the team effort. Seriously, last time I had no idea of what was going on and where I should be on the field! I was also helped by the fact that players wore detachable tags around their waists, so you could effect a "tackle" simply by pulling off a tag. It certainly helped when Colin, who is over six feet tall and over 60 pounds heavier than me came storming my way:

Yes, my eyes are closed. But can you blame me? I managed to fend off his palm with my right hand and snag the tag with my left, all without seriously injuring myself. Here's some more action shots:

Yay to Christine for coming and taking some shots for us before she had to head off to work, and for dealing with flat batteries in both of my cameras, whoops!

The game ended at 8 touchdowns all, including a game-tying miracle pass from Colin on the last play of the day, curse him and his athletic skills! Much fine Widmer product was imbibed at half time and after the game, including a bit of a drinking contest to determine the real winner, during which I proved that all these so-called "big drinkers" from the US are nothing compared to a boy from Down Under. :-)

And the Super Bowl itself? Actually a fantastic game of sport (despite my general misgivings about American Football), with the result not determined until the very end. And we always love an underdog beating the overwhelming favourite, don't we? And as a guy in advertising, some of the ads were quite fantastic as well.

Job Hunting Update

2008-01-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

In short: still looking!

I had lunch with my cousin Meg (I finally determined that she's my first cousin, once removed!) last week, who – by a pure coincidence – works in the design industry as well. She looked at my book and gave me the names of some people to contact, as well as adding my résumé to her list of freelancers to use in peak periods, saying, "Looking at your book and understanding your experience and skills make me feel quite comfortable about adding your name to that pool as a production artist, designer, and senior designer. This wide range of skills will be helpful when a variety of needs come at us." Quite a vote of confidence, I must say!

Like many other people in town, she uses 52 Ltd to fill a lot of positions, but also pointed me towards Jackie Mathys Creative Staffing, who mainly fill production (rather than creative) positions. After emailing my portfolio through yesterday, I had a long talk on the phone with Jackie herself today. I could sense that she was a little reluctant to consider a senior designer like me for production only positions, but after talking about my experience and reviewing my portfolio, she could see that I'm not a "prima donna, no gruntwork for me" type of designer. I love getting my hands dirty, working as part of a team and finishing what I started. So, I'm on her books now, although she's a bit short of clients to place designers with at the moment.

I also finally got an actual interview with 52 Ltd organised today! I see 52 Ltd as more of a long term solution to my employment prospects, as they will place creative positions, but they've taken a long time to get back to me. Apart from assuring me that I was on their "yes list" – meaning my portfolio impressed them – I hadn't really heard from them before today. So I'm meeting with their Talent Manager on Thursday week... can't wait!

Wedding Anniversary Plans...

2008-01-29T20:41:00.000-08:00

Because our awesome space wedding was at such short notice, we weren't able to have a big family/clan celebration - there simply wasn't enough time to draw everyone together into a big cohesive mass. Our notice to family before the wedding indicated that we would try to have a larger event somewhere near our first anniversary... and the time is already upon us to start organising!

My parents had already planned to be in Portland for the actual anniversary before we could pitch the idea of moving the whole shindig to the East Coast to them. The reason for moving to the other side of the country simply stems from the fact that most of Christine's family lives over there – New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan and so on – and we figured we would get better attendance if we brought the party to them, rather than getting them to all descend upon Oregon.

After to talking to my parents, we determined that they would be flying into Boston from Europe and would be there for three days... just the right amount of time for a party! Once the festivities are done, we can then fly on to Portland with them and show them a good time without having to worry about another party... sounds like a plan, eh?

So now we have our spies in Boston searching for the perfect location for us, while we try to think of a theme for the party and what exactly it is we want to do. It's early days yet, but there's a lot to plan!

Australia Day Festivities!

2008-01-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Australia Day... yes, the day we celebrate a bunch of convicts arriving in some god-forsaken land half a world away from their home some 220 years ago. When I was still back at home, it amounted to little more than a public holiday - a guaranteed day off work. But being so far from home seems to have awakened my patriotic pride, so Christine and I planned a fitting party!

We planned to organise a cricket match with our friends, followed by a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ. First though, we had to find a cricket bat... not an easy task in the US! We left things too late to order one off the internet, and phone calls to all the sports stores in Portland came to nothing. They all knew what cricket was, but thought we were crazy for thinking they had any equipment. One store used to have lots of them, but they were all bought for Shaun Of The Dead Halloween costumes and they haven't bothered to restock since. (If you've never seen Shaun Of The Dead, you really should! In it, our English hero – the eponymous Shaun – uses a cricket bat to ward off attacking zombie hordes... true!) In the end, Kevin's brother-in-law came to the rescue as he had a cricket bat in his office at Nike.

However, after five days of glorious sunshine throughout the week, Australia Day dawned raining and icy. We walked down to the shops to get last minute supplies in the morning and almost slipped on black ice on the pavement several times. We had a temperature of 33°F, rather than Sydney's more usual 33°C. The rain didn't let up all day, so – unfortunately after all our efforts to acquire the equipment – our cricket game had to be cancelled.

However, the BBQ still went ahead and we had a good gathering of friends to help us celebrate the day. I tried explaining cricket to everyone and was probably partially successful... they were definitely all impressed by the rock hard red ball! Most people made an effort to be "Australian"... Kim wore her summer clothes that she used most of the time while she was in Australia (under her rain gear!), Ryan and Spencer turned up in rugby jerseys from a high school in Perth that they had bought at a Salvo's in Perth years ago, while Lindsey had a strange shirt that proudly proclaimed "Tulips Down Under" in English and French!!!

Here's a couple of pix: Colin wielding the cricket bat in a most unorthodox fashion, and Ryan and Spencer doing their "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" impression. Fun times!