Super Ginormous

Blog

  • 8-Point Star Flower

    8-Point Flower is the first of several pattern packs I’ll be releasing over the next few weeks. (If you like these, please let me know!) It’s inspired by Islamic geometric patterns (which are pretty fascinating/incredible, I might add).  The zip file contains: 6 PNGs (2 transparent versions not shown); Adobe Illustrator CS5 (.ai) files – single block or large pattern; and a Photoshop CS5 (.psd) file. Older versions of Illustrator or Photoshop should open the files. Best of all: It’s free and it’s licensed under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.

    Grab Pattern Pack 01

  • Using data sets and variables in Photoshop

    Hop on over to the OnWired blog where I’ve posted a brief tutorial on how to start working with variables and data sets in Photoshop. When I spoke in front of RefreshColumbia/CAUG a couple of months ago, I showed a brief demo of how to do this and many in attendance didn’t know this was possible with Photoshop. (If you have any feedback on the tutorial, I’d love to hear it.)

    Using Datasets in Photoshop

  • Weightloss

    Officially I’m down 17.2 lbs overall, but I didn’t weigh-in this past weekend. (I’m certain I’ve gained since last weigh-in.) I’ve started making excuses for myself. I haven’t been active. I’ve been feeling pretty defeated. WeightWatchers works, but I haven’t kept track of my Points, and I’ve allowed myself to cheat far too often. When you’re losing a pound here and pound there without really trying, it’s easy to trick yourself into thinking “this one bad snack/meal/whatever” is okay this one time. The problem is that one time turns into several if you let it.

    I’ve got a lot more weight to lose. So much so that I’m starting to consider seriously trying to get on The Biggest Loser or gastric bypass surgery. I refuse to give up. That’d be the easy way. I’ve got a long way to go and I’ve only just begun. I need to push myself harder. I need to be more realistic about what I can and cannot eat.

    How do you keep yourself motivated?

  • 15 Days Down

    It’s been 15 days since I started my “hiatus” from Facebook and Twitter. It hasn’t gone quite as I had hoped. I still find myself reading Twitter from time to time and I’ve played some games on Facebook, but overall my usage of both sites is significantly down. I feel like I’m missing out on lots by not keeping up with either site, but I still feel like this is something I need to continue on with.

  • Strange Encounter

    Last night, around 11:30pm, I was on the way home from picking Kim and my niece up from the Daughtry concert. We stopped at a Burger King to get something to drink and eat for the two of them. While in the drive-thru I was approached by an older woman who asked if we could help her get gas. She was shaking; said she was from Waynesboro and was using her brother’s van because she had to take him to the hospital today. She continuned to tell me that her purse was in her car in her brother’s driveway in Waynesboro. It sounded sketchy, as most requests for money usually do, but I helped her out anyway. Why? Well, I’d like to think that if I was ever in her position, assuming she was telling the truth (and I feel like she was), someone would be willing to help me out as well. I told her to drive across the street to a gas station and I’d buy some gas for her. I paid for enough fuel for her to easily get back to Waynesboro. Shook her hand. Wished her luck. And went back on my way home.

    I hope she made it to hers. I hope she’ll pay it forward.

  • CSS Best Practices for Team-Based Development

    CSS Best Practices for Team-Based Development. Great post and great advice from my friend Emily Lewis.

  • Support 5by5.tv

    5by5 kicks ass!The 5by5 network has created the premiere network of podcasts for geeks, designers and developers. Their broadcasts are free, but now you can support the shows by becoming a supporter. If you’re not familiar with 5by5, my personal favorite is The Big Web Show hosted by Dan Benjamin & Jeffrey Zeldman. But, to be honest, you can’t go wrong with any of their shows.

  • Enabling Extensions for Safari 5

    Safari 5 was released yesterday, and it finally allows third-party extensions. The inability to extend the browser was one of the things that kept me going back to Firefox, and forced others to switch to Chrome.

    So about those Extensions… They ability to add them isn’t turned on by default. (Probably because your average user doesn’t even know what extensions are, what they can do, etc.) But it’s easy enough to turn on:

    1. Open up your Safari Prefences and click on Advanced.
    2. Select the checkbox next to ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’.
    3. From the newly appeared Develop menu, select ‘Enable Extensions’.
    4. A great place to find extensions is http://safariextensions.tumblr.com/ – It’s not an official resource, but I’m sure that’ll come in time.
    5. Install extensions. Enjoy!

    (I’d love to see Chris Pederick’s Web Developer extension – which is available for both Firefox and Chrome – ported over to Safari 5!)

  • Stormtrooper Effect

    The Stormtrooper Effect attempts to explain why Stormtroopers are such lousy shots. tl;dr: They aren’t lousy shots. It’d be stupid to allow a minor character to kill a major character before the story moves along.

  • Hunt the iPad

    OnWired HQ infiltrated. Enemy agent escaped with iPad. Your objective: locate agent and recover device. First operative to complete mission will receive iPad. Intel on enemy agent’s whereabouts to be distributed via Twitter. Follow @onwired to be kept apprised. The search has begun. If you’ve figured something out, share what you know.