August 31st, 2007
I got a really cheap digital camera a while back that I haven’t really had a chance to use it after I discovered it was not really suitable for the purpose I bought it for (taking semi close pictures for Urban Cultivation which I will update again one of these days).
So rather than leaving it to get dusty in the corner I thought I would take it into the city and take some random shots all over the place. The thing actually has really good battery life and it is quite small so it’s not so bad for this.
So the above photo is an alley of course here in Brisbane, taken in the early evening on my way home. The one thing I hadn’t noticed until I looked at the picture is the card on the ground in the middle front. I can’t make out what it is but it looks like a football card. It was just interesting that I completely missed it.
Let me know if you’re interested in seeing more of daily life in Brisbane.
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August 30th, 2007
Here I was praising what I thought was quite a cool name for the Punisher sequel and then they go and announce they’ve changed the title to Punisher: War Zone in line with the comic series.
yawn
what’s the emoticon for rolling ones eyes?
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August 29th, 2007
I’ve been thinking about getting Guitar Hero for a while now because it looks like a barrel of fun and after discovering even on easy mode I’m not in Van Halen’s class I can confirm my suspicions that IS a lot of fun.
It was a nice pick me up today buying Guitar Hero two because I’ve been having a few teeth problems (hopefully sorted out tomorrow morning - 11:20 to be precise) and so I wasn’t really able to get into it tonight because my mind set isn’t quite there.
I did discover however that whenever I played air guitar in the past I was doing it in the wrong direction. As if I was a left hander.
Man now I can’t wait to play guitar hero 1 - smoke on the water.
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August 29th, 2007
A little while ago I was tagged by Captain Incredible to do the meme of four and in all perfect honesty I just haven’t brought myself to do it. Laziness being the main culprit here and a devastating one at that. But the good Captain took the time to think of me when tagging so I thought the very least I could do was at least do something (well actually the VERY least would be nothing). Maybe I can make it up to him by drawing him a logo?
So I’m adapting the Meme of Four to be Four things I like about the dude who tagged me.
- It’s like the coolest name ever. Captain Incredible.
- The fact that he is the defender of Neptune, a planet I thought was relatively secure and safe but obviously requires someone’s protection. (oh hang on he only defends Cable City - perhaps Neptune is not so defenseless as we have been led to believe)
- I like that there is something coming - check press for details
- He quotes the Princess Bride on his site.
So go visit Captain Incredible, don’t mention I lamed out on his meme of four though. Actually don’t mention me at all. Forget you were even here. Who the hell are you!? These are not the droids you are looking for…
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August 29th, 2007
Something a little different this morning…
When you are designing a website or a blog or really anything deployed over the internet or intranet your content is always going to be the most important aspect of the entire design process.
I was reminded today of the situation where a client has a particular look or feel that they want to focus on and they avoid answering the questions that really matter. Of course the flip side is that if you don’t have the right designer they aren’t asking the right questions.
What is your content? And variations of this question (where is your content, how big is your content etc etc) are the most important question you can ask yourself or for that matter be asked when planning out a new website.
More often than not people have an idea or a concept that sounds like a cool concept and would be ideal as a website but that is where it ends, or they get caught up worrying too much about the colours and not enough about what is going to be in there.
The look and feel are important, really important, but it shouldn’t overshadow the purpose of your website or blog. You need to get that clear in your first before you start worrying about what it is going to look like.
The way I like to explain it is using milk.
Think of milk as your content, the information that you will be putting into your website. Now picture going to the guy who designs milk containers and asking him to build you a container but the only information you give them is that you want something to contain ‘milk’.
How much milk are we talking about?
“I dunno, but I want the container to be blue.”
So the poor milk container guy doesn’t know what to build to suit. Is it lifelong milk and need to be in a tetra brick? Is it two litres or 500 ml so they know how big to make it?
I’m sure if you were pressed and being creative you could come up with at least another 20 or so variables that would affect the design process for the milk container.
It’s the same as a website. If you have a lot of content we’d need to work out how best to display it or find it. If your content is mainly photos then we should look at a way of displaying those in an innovative way. Maybe the site is going to be interactive, or restricted to who can see everything.
The tone of your writing may be playful, dark, moody, cheerful, miserable, energetic, peaceful (now this is a list that could get out of hand!).
If you’re thinking of building a new website or blog it’s just something to remember. Think about what you are going to be writing/presenting before worrying too much about what the colour of the borders are going to be!
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August 28th, 2007
No post today guys, feeling a little down and not in the right frame of mind to put anything decent up (not that there is any kind of excellence bar here!).
I dunno maybe I’ll put something up later this evening.
Sigh.
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August 26th, 2007
I want to make it very clear from the start that I am not a Phantom expert at all. I inherited an amazing collection of the books and have yet to even open one and read it although I have read them in the past and am very familiar with the character and generally the way that King Features delivers them in Australia.
So one would wonder why it is that I who am not a regular reader of The Phantom should even suggest that the American comic companies (mainly DC and Marvel actually) could learn anything from The Phantom comics. I who would even go so far to suggest that a renaissance could occur within the super hero books as a result.
Well it’s simple.
It doesn’t matter which issue I pick I can generally in an instant orientate myself and read a satisfying story with a beginning, a middle and an end. The Phantom is the king (excuse the pun) of the one shot story lines. As a newcomer to the series one can quickly identify the basic premise of the character and read the one story. No previous experience needed.
For someone with a casual knowledge of the Ghost Who Walks you may put down and pick up at any stage during the series without the feeling of disorientation or unfamiliarity.
Can the DC and Marvel books boast the same?
If I were to pick up Fantastic Four presently with only general knowledge of the characters would the latest issue make a lot of sense or fulfil me? If I’m not entirely mistaken at present Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman are currently on a break from the Fantastic Four for reasons best explained during the course of
Civil War. Storm and Black Panther are currently the replacements in the F4 I think (I know Storm is I’m not sure about Panther). Isn’t Storm an X-Man? (the X-Men are another good example of a book that is not friendly to outsiders - shame on those mutants you would think they knew better!) Oh and somewhere along the line Storm and the Black Panther got married.
Ummmm ok. That’s cool. Were they always married? No don’t worry I know they weren’t but I’ve got no idea how they got together. No please I’m not interested enough to care.
DC and Marvel are both guilty of this. I mean if DC resets their universe again that’ll make what fifty times? A hundred? Feels like it anyway.
So how, pray tell could they learn from The Phantom?
Simple.
Stand alone stories that don’t require you to know what an OMAC is. Stories that are either outside continuity (but not the premise of the character) or at least aren’t driven by it. Batman did this with Tales of the Dark Knight. Stories about the Batman usually told over two to four issues from any time in his career. They generally didn’t require some background knowledge of his history and to my knowledge didn’t really shape things to come as deeply as the Detective or Batman issues.
I don’t even require they do it in the monthly books either. I mean I love a bit of continuity and there are some amazing character moments in some of these long reaching, universe shattering cross over events that you would never find in The Phantom.
But wouldn’t it be nice to just pick up a well written, well plotted and well drawn comic book featuring a character that you know but haven’t maybe read for a while and just be entertained.
Bring out a series that just uses one shot character driven stories. It could be a great way to trial new writers and artists and an even better way to introduce characters to new readers. And no more collectable glossy multi cover lenticular hologram free poster rubbish. No these comics should be pulp comics that are meant to be read and passed on to someone else to read.
What do you guys think? Would you give a cheap stand alone Superman or Spider-Man story a read? Is there a better way to give us accessible reading?
Have you ever read an issue halfway through a giant crossover and felt a little let down?
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August 24th, 2007
I’m not comfortable drawing women. I have no idea why. I guess it all comes down to experience, I simply don’t draw female characters even half as much as I would male comic book characters. So now I’m forcing myself to draw female characters more and more. Here is a character study sketch:
This weekend I’ve got a couple of online tasks one of which does cause me a little sadness. I’ll be taking down the Crypt Hunter blog and placing the site on a holding pattern for the coming months. It’s just something I can’t dedicate any time to with working full time and studying. On Monday I begin my Mythology Studies and Popular Culture Studies classes which I’m told do take up a lot of time. There’s also the daily gym sessions which slice a little time off my day too.
I’m also going to be redoing my homepage (not here - my Sarge Design page) since I’m off the market for the time being. I’m also going to update some of my plugins and of course I’ll be doing the stories that have been sitting in the forecast plugin that displays some of the topics I’ll be writing about at the bottom of the page.
Oh and I finished Civil War finally, whew. I’ve got mixed feelings on it. More on that later.
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August 23rd, 2007
I’m thinking that the upcoming season of comic book movies is shaping up to be a mighty exciting time. First off there were the released photos from the new Batman film and now I just discovered the title to the next Punisher film. Punisher: Welcome back Frank
That’s a cool title and the director seems to know what she wants in the film. The actor they got to replace Thomas Jane doesn’t (so far) disappoint either.
Good time to be waiting on comic book movies.
Yes I’m working on my Phantom post (hey that works on a couple of levels).
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August 22nd, 2007
Despite the rainy and windy weather that Brisbane is currently facing (please note I am not complaining about the rain, we need that too much!) this morning was really satisfying.
First things first the bus that we were waiting for in the cold fine mist that was working itself up into actual raindrops came on time. Tracey and I got a seat together, the bus driver was quick and efficient but not unsafe and the bus was only leaking a little. Because rain isn’t a huge problem here in Bris-Vegas the buses don’t tend to be maintained to keep the water out and often leak like a poor man’s submarine.
T he big thing though this morning was to discover that our favorite breakfast place that had been closed for around a year because the building they were in was being refurbished have moved (near work!) and reopened. Reopened with the same staff it would appear too, there was a young lady who bears a fairly striking resemblance to Christina Aguilera who disappeared just before their closure but is now back.
The great thing too is the food is exactly as we remember it, and fast. There was once a time when we ordered and were looking for somewhere to sit down and before we could sit the orders were already ready. Brilliant for us who wish to eat something quickly to get to work on time with full stomachs and not pay a fortune.
So yeah this morning was great, now to see what back breaking misery the rest of the day has up its sleeve.
LOL I’m kidding… probably.
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