Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

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!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland, technology on March 25, 2008 at at 9:43:00 PM 0 comments    

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....

Posted in: chaosgurl, easter, pets, portland on March 23, 2008 at at 9:31:00 PM 0 comments    

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...

Posted in: chaosboy, employment on March 6, 2008 at at 7:35:00 PM 2 comments    

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??

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on March 1, 2008 at at 4:20:00 PM 0 comments    

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!).

Posted in: chaosboy, general musings, united states on February 26, 2008 at at 2:55:00 PM 2 comments    

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?

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on February 22, 2008 at at 2:32:00 PM 4 comments    

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!

Posted in: adobe lightroom, chaosboy, photography on February 21, 2008 at at 12:59:00 PM 1 comments    

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!!

Posted in: chaosgurl, photography, portland on February 20, 2008 at at 9:44:00 PM 2 comments    

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...

Posted in: adobe lightroom, chaosboy, photography on February 17, 2008 at at 4:38:00 PM 1 comments    

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!

Posted in: chaosboy, music, party time, portland, shows on February 16, 2008 at at 1:54:00 PM 1 comments