Tis Hallowe'en this night, a brisk chill is in the air, leaves are blowing about, and little children are already beginning to make their ways through the streets to beg for treats, or tricks if they are not careful. Of course, as in most western cities, there are gi-normous parties and such to be attended by the ghouls and goblins, dead and undead. I myself will be attending one of Vancouver's hottest parties, held by the Playhouse. The costume is ready and was tested last weekend at the Lost Souls parade, super sexy witch (bitch) outfit, I opted not to go with the Mistress Menstruation idea, although maybe I should have since I am so very menstrual, I am the quintessential mistress menstrual. (ooh that sounded nice, say it again!) My sexy bitch outfit may not even fit tonight since I am carrying an extra few litres of water, not to mention an incredible amount of pain that the strongest of prescribed drugs probably couldn't tame. I am miserable and I wish it was just one of those parties you could say "Eeh, maybe not tonight." I wish I could crawl into bed with a hot tea and watch the tele. That is how I would like to spend my Hallowe'en. Oh, don't forget the large bag of chocolate.

•Anyone wondering what design is all about, should look at this great flash movie. It is all about the process baby.
•Like blogs? check out a blog by second graders.
•This is interesting, photo studios from around the world.

I was moved and inspired (almost to tears) after reading this article in The Morning News, about a regular guy who found thereputic qualities in drawing and how it helped him through a time of tragedy and mental exhaustion. Make sure that after you read the article, you launch the feature (a book called Everyday Matters) at the end of the article, it is worth a few minutes of your time to take a look-see. If you are feeling generous, as I am sure you are *hint hint*, I would love a copy of the book.
And one more thing, if this doesn't scare the hell out of you, then you are going straight to hell.

The twitching has not ceased. This morning as I was desperately trying to hold a conversation with a teacher, looking him in the eye, letting him know I was paying attention to every word, I had to try and hide the fact that my eyelid was hopping up and down, similar to what a Mexican Jumping Bean does, or those new, strange fad toys that are basically, well plastic Mexican Jumping Beans with faces (I would link to them but I don't know what they are called, or really what they are. I don't understand them and if someone would kindly explain them to me, or send me a link I would appreciate it, The toys, not mexican jumping beans. Mexican jumping beans are really quite interesting, they are catepillars inside of these beans, and they jump! I remember seeing them all over New Mexico when I was a kid. How they survive in there and for how long, I do not know. It is a natural wonder I suppose. Ok back to the eyelid story.). The twitching, right, like jumping beans. That is what it feels like. I am beginning to feel a tad worried that it is now in the second week of this constant twitching, maybe it is time to see a doctor perhaps? I have done a little research on-line (this can be a helpful resource, however I have noticed it tends to turn me into a slight hypochondriac, so be warned ( I like to talk in paranthesis)) This eyelid twitch is generally related to stress (yes, I have that – goodness it is quite difficult to keep up with punctuation when speaking inside of parenthesis all the time, forgive me) and lack of sleep (no, I have too much of that). I think it has more to do with sitting in front of monitors more than I do natural light, people, or uh..other things (things I don't know much about).BOOKS, that's it. That is the word I was looking for. Words on paper. (Paper(?(what is this, paper?)))

In order to prevent painful weeping from the slicing of onions, you have got to slice them quickly. Get a good, sharp knife, and cut them in a criss-cross fashion, really fast! Like at lightening speeds, but be sure to tuck your fingers! I don't want to be held responsible for those who take me seriously. The alternative is to wear some fancy plastic goggles that you might use for welding.

This is just a little too wierd for me to handle. There is a website for Segway owners, where they can go and talk with each other about being Segway owners. The wierd part is this discussion on how they can dress up for Halloween with their machines. I imagine these people being the same ones who attend Star Trek conventions and play Magic the Gathering. Now, I was going to make the above mentioned Star Trek a link to a star trek page when I discovered this lovely group.

I have got to start drawing again. The very foundation of my artistic abilities has been neglected for almost a year. Yeh, sure I doodle here and there, I usually am drawing lowercase g's and various ligatures, but I haven't sat down and really drawn anything in ages. There is a free life drawing class every friday night at school that I should start participating in and maybe even tonight I will clear of my drawing table and do some sketching. But first, I need to put on a damned sweater and maybe even a hat and gloves because I am FREEZING MY ARSE off.
If you are in or around Vancouver you must attend the annual Parade of Lost Souls tomorrow night here on the Drive. Look for me, I will either be Poetry in Motion, or Mistress Menstruation. I am still trying to decide which is more appropriate. They both fulfill the cool costume quota, however one will fulfill the bloody/scary one.

You know when you have been sitting in front of the computer for too long when:
• One of your eyelids twitches uncontrollaby for days on end. (it just did it again!)
• You don't mind if you forgot to pay your cell phone bill because you are simply easier to reach via e-mail and you check it more frequently.
• In that dreamy state early in the morning, all you can think about is how to manuveur through an application with only keystrokes.
• When asked questions by a teacher, you can only answer in keystrokes. “What is the difference between smart quotes and dumb quotes?” "Option [, Shift Option [ !” “What kinds of methods can be used to indicate paragraph breaks?” “Option 7! Shift Return!”

I am in serious need of a vacation.

You must read this post by my classmate, it is hilarious and I feel her pain.

tee heee...wanna see something really sick? Sick as in, slightly morbid, but more sick as in cool, skater-dude sick. Then go look at this website about AT-ST/Scout Walker kama sutra.

RARRR! my style sheets are all funkified. Why does this happen? It is so random..without changing a thing, all of a sudden my column width is larger than it should be, though the line length is way smaller(at least in IE, but not mozilla). And the same style sheets are different on the other pages?? WHAAA? if anyone has a solution, please let me know. Mozilla shows it one way, IE shows it another, and Safari...well I won't go there. Safari isn't all it is cracked up to be. Call me insane, but I find myself surfing the web (ya know that is beginning to sound so cheesy and mid-western American, surfing the web) with three browsers open, and I constantly switch back and forth so that I can have the optimal viewing experience. I am a time-waster. I know that I need to sit and spend some time reading CSS guides from beginning to end, rather than skimming through and picking out the information that I like. This task will be difficult, I am still trying to get through a pile of about 10-15 books that I was supposed to read months ago, some I have started, some that are just waiting in line patiently; school has prevented my leisurely reading, or the internet has.

•For a bit of on-line art that is kind of scary, but cool scary go here.
•Interesting flash experiments, go here.
•Funny Funny stuff that recently showed at the Sundance Online Film Festhere.
• Canadian conspiracy theory, written by an American.
•Article from the New York Times & BBC news (via Jake Squid's blog) about a talking fish. Couldn't find the original article, it has since been moved. Scroll to the April 23 post.
•Highly recommended blog by Jon Coltz, daidala, great writing about type.

The rain has been pounding this city for a great number of hours now, I hear there are some records being shattered. I believe it, I think my feet and pants legs were wet for most of the day. Even when I got sucked into a department store this evening in Burnaby, where I found happiness and dry thoughts in the yarn aisle. After I crawled back into my pajamas, I immediately started to crochet a new pair of legwarmers, with a goal of having them done by the end of the weekend, so I can show them off in the next downpour, and also so I can begin work on a knit camouflage hat. Oh yes, I found camouflage yarn and it is cooler than one would think.

Interested in viewing photos from the recent ATypI conference in Vancouver? Go here for an updated list of various pages that have been posted by typophiles.
Public transit, though occassionally convenient (especially during heavy rainfall when riding the ole bicycle doesn't seem appealing), sucks ass! The so-called convenience of the buses and the skytrain especially, caused me to be much later than I had originally intended. The bus wasn't so bad, or should I say the two seperate buses I had to transfer between. The train, on the other hand, this [not so] high-speed, monorail-esque, slightly tub-ish beast that arrives every 2 to 3 minutes, is highly INconvenient, especially during the early morning and afternoon rush. It was war between myself and the hundreds of others standing on the platform, hording around the entrances to the train like the media trying to get access to Kobe Bryant. With every opening of the automatic doors, I was pushed away in an instant, business women inconspicuously hitting the knees of others with their briefcases and purses that weigh 30 pounds. I stood there through 4 trains, each time hoping I would get a spot, then being crushed by the weight of the stronger, more aggressive commuters. When I had secured a place on the fourth train, breathing became the problem; forget about my arm that was twisted backwards to get a grip on something that would keep me from falling on the jolting ride through the city; forget about the dozens of anonymous hands, armpits, hips and asses touching me; breathing, that was rough. No one would open a window, "it might rain on my hair which I spent hours molding into the right place," the countless crack-heads and junkies who commute from the Drive and Chinatown to the downtown core for a days worth of panhandling and dumpster-diving whose stench you can detect from a block away, and you cannot forget the business women and their bags whose taste in perfume is similar to that of Liz Taylor's. Breathing is impossible in that kind of space, at least breathing without the risk of death or infection. Through it all, I still arrived at school soaked to the bone with rain, miserable and cranky. This is what I have to look forward to in the afternoon as well. When rush hour hits , think of me, I will be uncomfortably situated under some man's armpit on the train, who just finished weeding through the garbage of a woman who wears too much perfume.

Only..a..few..more...hours...ugh....no..more...comp...uters. Once again, deadline in the morning. I sit here, a I have been for WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS, making all the necessary changes and adjustments. What sucks the most is that my hands are so cold I cannot type very well. Oh and the fact that my shoulders are now beside my ears and I have a hunchback the size of a basketball. But hey, I got a high-speed connection, FINALLY! Yes yes, I have been living in the ice age for a few months now, but I am 100% digital baby. Thank god, I thought I was going to lose my mind! OK I have taken my 3 minute break, time to get back to work.

It happened. I never thought it would happen to me but it did. I am always the one telling people to remember to make duplicate files, "back up your files!" "create multiple versions!" I am the one who has turned file back-up and organization into a freakin religious effort. But nooOOO, I had to go and save repeatedly over one file, just asking for trouble. After many days of work, only minutes away from the final save and that last trip to the printer, InDesign let me know that it was out of memory. "Out of memory?" I cursed at the screen. How can it be out of memory? The file was under 10mb and it wasn't as if I was running Photoshop, Final Cut and Flash all at the same time. It didn't make sense. So I restarted, re-opened and nothing. "Out of memory" is all it had to say to me. I tranferred it to my laptop, more RAM.."out of memory." Nothing worked. I emailed it to various people, "Out of Memory."
file corruption. "File corruption just doesn't happen to me." I kept saying over and over as tears welled up in the corners of my eyes. Ok, I didn't cry, but I wanted to. I wanted to throw my computers out the window. Instead I took a walk to the nearest pub that sold offsale liqour, I even bought cigarettes (I typically don't smoke). Did it make me feel better? No, of course not. liqour and tobacco are NOT the answer to any problem, unless being too sober is your problem.
So my second Canadian thanksgiving was spent on the verge of an ulcer and mental breakdown. Today I reflect on the situation with sadness, since if course I still have to rebuild the project, but with a little lesson learned as well. Always, always, always back up your files and save copies all over town if you have to.

Sitting, once again, in front of the screen I can't seem to get away from. However, I am not here to complain as usual, I am happily making progress on a project (and surfing the web at the same time). I just came across this, may I say RAD site where you can beat the shit out of Arial! Sweet sweet stuff. And my advice for today, go buy Her Majesty the Decemberists.

Most of my projects have moved from the sitting behind a screen and figiting phase, to standing around for hours waiting for the damned printer to spit out the final product. I was here, at school, last night till round 12am, waiting in a long line of hopeful print-havers, patiently hoping for a good print. When the prints arrived, they were beautiful. All the waiting paid off. Around 1:30am as I was meticulously cutting and pasting my mini booklet together, I came to the realization that I had formatted six pages backwards, so I had all of these upside down holes in my booklet, therefore ruining it competely. So, now I sit, quietly waiting behind a long line of hopeful print-havers with 30 minutes to spare until the deadline. Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through all this. Digital printing is highly overrated, unless of course you have the finances to afford your very own, high quality laser printer for personal use, which still contains its very own set of problems.
More importantly, there is a big issue regarding "font stealing" and whether or not font bundles are a good thing for users and designers alike, or just a way of getting lotsa crap for a low cost. Read this discussion at typophile, it is an on going concern, similar to what the music indistry is facing with the mp3 trend.

The best possible cycling music is Speedy J. Even when it is pouring rain.
Certainly most of you have had experiences with the dreadful powerpoint application, maybe even cursed at it in the middle of a presentation. You are not alone, Abe Lincoln had that problem too. Really.
New things that I learned today (other than Abe's powerpoint issues) :
– A typical paragraph indent should be the same point size as the type you are using. 12 pt. type requires a 12 pt. indent. Of course this is one of those rules that can be broken, all rules are meant to be broken.
– The difference between using em and en dashes/hyphens and the required spacing.
– The older I get the more I become a baad spellr.
– Using screen typefaces in print will come back to haunt you.
– I am increasingly becoming an anal typophile.

A word of advice: when corresponding to a number of different people, via e-mail, through forwards and replies, be sure to erase the thread of messages that are attached. Unless of course you want them to have that information, otherwise you could get yourself into trouble.

By the morning I should have the image of my computer screen burned into my eyeballs, so everytime someone looks at my eyes, they will see a screen shot. I have literally been perched in front of one of three computers for most of the last 3 days. Scanning, tweaking, programming, kerning and leading are the only things I have thought about, last night I even dream about the layout for Underware's Read Naked specimen book, which showcases the oh so sexy Sauna typeface.
Finally the season has changed and my favorite of them all has arrived, autumn. There is something so wonderful about pulling your best turtleneck sweater over your head to keep you warm and fuzzy through out a foggy afternoon. If only I wasn't stuck inside.

wow- i can't even comprehend the amount of work I have to do this weekend. I am currently living under a pile of sketchbooks, pencils, pens and computers. Soon, it will all be on my bed like a heap of leaves, I will be hidden in there somewhere and rescuers will have to dig me out.
I finally purchased my ticket to London for February. I have a partial itenerary and it looks like we will not only check out tons of museums, designs studios and galleries, but also have a visit to the University of Reading and some type founderies and printing shops (the ancient kind, not the kinko's kind). Univerisity of Reading is probably the world's leading school in the study of type design. My current type teacher went there (as well as many important typographers) and Dutch type designer Gerard Unger is a teacher there. Super exciting, I really can't wait.

My workload it almost hitting its peak for the first half of this semester. Timelines, zines, broadsheets, essays, plus clients...I estimate I will spend about 90% of the next four days sitting uncomfortably in front of my computer, at times turning my head to allow my eyes to re-adjust, maybe even getting up to take a pee or make another espresso.
This poster got banned in Russia recently, apparently sexual relationships between glyphs doesn't go over too well.