Groundhog Blog

back to the grind...and this blog

2008-09-03T14:53:00.002-04:00

Okay, I've been seriously slacking on this blog, so with school starting back up it's time to get my ass in gear again. I'm taking Visual and Verbal Rhetoric. The first class went well. The work doesn't seem too heavy (of course now it will wind up that way since I said that) and we got out early, so that put a smile on my face. The class is geared toward the analysis of writing more than actually designing anything, so the fact that i still have some freelance stuff going on should satisfy my appetite for design this semester.

Football!!
I can't even tell you how stoked I am for football this season. I realize my Redskins will probably need a year or two under Zorn to get his offense down (my one buddy predicted 3-6 wins this year), but I love the fall weather and football season, so I'm excited nonetheless.
We had our fantasy draft on Saturday night. I drafted 12th out of 12 teams for the second year in a row, so that blew, but I did keep Adrian Petersen from the prior year, so that helped my first round outlook. With the snaking draft board, it just sucks picking 12, 13, and then having 22 picks between your next two selections. My team looks like this:

We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 D, and 1 K.

Drew Brees
Jeff Garcia
Adrian Petersen (keeper)
Jamal Lewis
Edgerrin James
Chris Johnson
Jerious Norwood
Wes Welker
Jerricho Cotchery
Donald Driver
Vincent Jackson
Reggie Williams
Owen Daniels
Ben Watson
Arizona D
Jeff Reed

One thing about my league that I can't fucking stand...guys who draft a few spots before me are always like, "is so-and-so available??", and then they don't pick that guy...who happens to be someone I am eyeing up to draft. That shit is just wrong. First and foremost because now they gave the other idiots ahead of me an idea of who to pick, and second of all because they should be paying attention!! As commissioner, i may have to make some sort of "idiot rule" for next year, or have my IT buddy build a program to show the players who are still available.

...and lastly

I'll try to blog more this semester than what I have been this summer. Of course if I didn't do another one until December, that would still be more, but you catch my drift.

projects; this and that

2008-07-17T15:02:00.002-04:00

Projects:
I've been keeping busy this summer without taking classes. I've officially had 3 freelance projects I've been working on, with 2 more on the horizon before the Fall. I'm certainly getting my fill of brochures. Out of the 5 projects, 3 of them are for brochures. The project I'm currently working on is for the Moms Club of Bel Air and their 2nd annual vendor fair to benefit the Casey Cares Foundation (benefits critically ill children). It involves 3 pieces: flyer, brochure, and bookmark. I almost have the flyer finished and just got a great idea for the other pieces last night. Everything is based off of this great image I found of a child opening a holiday gift. Next up is a revision of a shitty....yep, you guessed it...brochure. Practice makes perfect...I just have to find out the best way/printer to get the duplex so the sides match up.

This and That:

I just had a revelation this morning that my life will be busy for the next 18 years at least. I guess I always have in the back of my mind that I just need to get through the day so that tomorrow I can relax. Shit...with two kids, projects, home fix-ups, and all the other crap that goes on in life...that's a pipe dream, but I wouldn't trade being busy for the world. I do think it is valuable to stop and smell the roses before I turn around at 50 and wonder where the time went.
Kind of related to above, but every once in awhile I get a serious yearn to head out with friends for a few drinks. Once I'm out, I miss my boys at home and get a serious yearn to be home with them. Grass is always greener...never truer words spoken.
I'm so looking forward to Fantasy Football this year. Bout time I reclaimed my throne.
HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!!!!!
I think that the O's need to convert Adam Loewen to a 1st basemen after his latest arm injury. Look, the guy could have been drafted as a hitter or pitcher (ala Nick Markakis) and has said in the past that he likes playing in national league parks because he gets to hit. This is definitely a stretch, and not to say that he'd be another Rick Ankiel, but the guy is big, he's left-handed, and this might be a way for the O's to get a great return on his big contract and for him to save his career. It certainly wouldn't hurt to give the guy some at bats in the minors on his way back from this arm injury. The guy was a great power hitter prior to being drafted...let's see what he has and improve our position-player depth!

logos

2008-07-10T05:28:00.007-04:00

Definitely too long since I've posted something, so here are a few images of some logos I was playing around with for a friend's auto-shop:

soccer brochure

2008-06-22T22:12:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately I cannot upload my jpeg images because of an internal error. WTF!!!!! Why can't thie damn thing just...um...WORK!!!?

Any suggestions on how to get the images on there? I tried saving as something else, I tried sending to work and uploading from there and either I'm a complete fucking retard, or this damn thing just doesn't like me. :)

SHIT

this and that

2008-06-12T16:10:00.002-04:00

I've been really bad about maintaining the blog the last two weeks or so. My apologies to my wide fan base. I have some recent pieces to add to this, but I always forget to follow up on that when I get home at night.

Currently waiting to hear back on a job interview I had. I feel like it went pretty well. The interview was supposed to be 30-45 minutes and it wound up being and hour and 45 minutes. I guess that's a good sign. We'll see ...

Could a "MacGyver" considered an occupation? I mean, I always hear people who pull a MacGyver, so why couldn't that be an occupation? Like if I made a business card, I could put:

Chris Bland
Maverick, Innovator, MacGyver

Even though it's a proper name, the word does indicate a high level of resourcefulness and being able to work with limited tools to accomplish great goals...in some cases this may mean diffusing nuclear warheads with a pack of matches and a staple gun. Thoughts are welcome on this matter.

freelance projects

2008-05-28T11:16:00.002-04:00

I have stumbled upon my first 2 freelance projects of the summer. One is a brochure for a soccer camp that started out as a mockery of all that is good in design. This was created by a non-designer who happens to be the husband of this girl I work with. They didn't ask for me to redo it, but i told them i'm going to show them what it should/could look like and basically do it pro bono in case they want me for a later project or can refer me to friends.

The second project, and one that could potentially be quite exciting is for this vendor fair for the Mom's Club of Bel Air, to which my wife belongs. The vendor fair they held last year kind of bombed, so this year they have a sparkplug in charge who has a ton of sponsors lined up, including possible sponsorship by the O's and Ravens. She has promised some great exposure for me and with the sponsors she has, this looks promising. At any rate, the project consists of a brochure and flyer, and they want me to present them with a couple of design ideas based on the concepts they want to incorporate. This will be somewhat daunting as they have a few ideas that all need to be incorporated, namely the charity they are donating to, holiday shopping, and a mom's night out. I have some great concepts already though...stay tuned for those postings!

free at last

2008-05-21T09:22:00.002-04:00

This was the first Monday morning I can remember in a long time where I felt rejuvenated and stress-free. Not that I don't have things to occupy my time now that class is over, but being deadline-free is certainly a wonderful thing. My plans for this summer (in no particular order)include:
1. spending time with my boys
2. losing the weight I gained during my wife's pregnancy.
3. redoing my resume/portfolio/looking for a design job
4. yard work/landscaping my backyard
5. reorganizing our basement
6. softball!! :)
7. golf
8. start freelancing

final process

2008-05-16T22:17:00.005-04:00

I couldn't get my jpg images to upload for my final process...not sure what the hell is going on. So. I did the next best thing and included two images that I used for the revised booklet. I went back and forth on the design...so much for the easy week. I'm enjoying a Miller Lite now, and I can safely say I'm done. Not certain I'm satisfied with the final process booklet, but I'm done regardless...stick a fork in me. Time to throw myself at the mercy of the crit and see what grade I get for the semester. Hard to believe the stress will be officially over tomorrow. Finally hitting dinner with the wife tomorrow night...which reminds me, if anyone wants to switch time slots for the individual session, I'd be much obliged.

process re-revision

2008-05-15T16:21:00.002-04:00

I'm not going with those organic lines mentioned in my last BLOG after all. They are too distracting and random. I'll post the pages as soon as i figure out which way I want to go with them. Should be a late Thursday night.

Process revision

2008-05-14T12:04:00.002-04:00

For whatever reason it's been very hard this week to focus. I'm betting it's because I see the light at the end of the tunnel. At any rate, I did make good progress last night on my revision and have made the following decisions:

I won't be adding pages in even though I got feedback to that effect. The reason it was suggested was to make the pages less cramped, so I am adding more breathing room instead by adjusting the leading and removing all of the images. I may bump the page sizes up slightly as well, although it's looking like that won't be needed. I also avoided adding pages in because it would have screwed up my yard-line theme and the math with how the yardage lined up.
My comp felt kind of rigid, so I'm taking a chance by removing the images and replacing them with X's and O's running through the pages (like plays drawn out on paper). Not only does this make the pages feel more organic, but it adds to the flow by adding that line running through it.
I changed my title to "Drafting With Purpose: A Guide for Fantasy Footballers", instead of "How to Have a Successful Fantasy Football Draft", and adjusted the font on the cover from Nueva (you were right Stacey!)

I hope to post examples tonight, but they weren't cooperating before, so we'll see what happens!

favorite words

2008-05-11T20:55:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: This list is certainly not all-inclusive as I hear words every week that I'd add to this list. If I knew we were going to open the door to curse words, I'd have about 50 more on here.

menagerie
sommelier
recockulous
poppycock
Wenceslaus
henceforth

Logo

2008-05-11T20:37:00.003-04:00

Okay, first of all the colors on this upload are all f'ed up and I have no idea why...any suggestions? The browns and other colors have gone haywire!!! F it, I'm posting anyway!

My wife and mother-in-law have been making stylized burp clothes and changing pad covers for gifts to expectant mothers and for craft fairs that'll be coming up this summer. My wife's maiden name is Cipolloni, so I actually suggested their business name too of "Cippy Stitches". I designed a logo for them and recently revamped this ("recently" meaning before the Words & Images class...I mean, I'm a glutton for punishment, but I'm not f''ing crazy!) for them. Any feedback is appreciated. I think maybe the start of the "S" thread (bottom of the S) could be faded slightly to blend into the background, but up for additional suggestions.

process samples

2008-05-10T00:09:00.003-04:00

I have been trying for the better part of 2 days to upload sample jpeg pages from my booklet: "How to Have a Successful Fantasy Football Draft", but it's not working. Toot tired to deal right now.

We had to go to the emergency room for 4 hours tonight...apparently Matty (newborn) is allergic to milk. GREEEEAAAAT.....

this and that

2008-05-07T10:28:00.003-04:00

I'm hitting a serious friggin wall energy-wise. At times I feel delirious. The baby didn't sleep AT ALL last night and neither did my wife as the baby was up screaming. In think I may have gotten 3 hours...maybe. Just a week and a half left, just a week and a half left...and I'm all about Brewer's Art after our last class if anyone wants to go for a beer. I could sure use one now...and a whole helluva lot of sleep.

I'm adding 16 additional images to my Flash project. That will have to do cause I just don't have time to add more. Tonight I start putting them into the program and try reorganizing things. We'll see if the music still synchs up.

For the process, my idea was coming together and I had an epiphany last night about a design idea, so I will continue implementing that tonight along with my Flash nightmare. Thursday and Friday will bring printing adventures and more Flash headaches I'm sure.

I've had some people say to me "I don't know how you're doing it", meaning grad school with the new baby. You have to want it bad, plain and simple. Not that other people don't want it, but this is an opportunity I've been waiting for for a long time and a little strain on my time isn't going to stand in the way of me attaining my goal. I'm just really lucky that my wife supports me in this. I guess I'm being rewarded from supporting her through grad school to become a speech pathologist a few years ago. As soon as I think I've had enough, I think of how trivial staying up late to do a project seems when you consider there are people accomplishing far greater things such as persevering through illnesses, or fighting for our country, etc. Just this thought alone gets me motivated to stay up and crush whatever I'm working on.

another busy week

2008-05-04T21:36:00.002-04:00

I feel better about this week than last in terms of how much work needs to get accomplished, but I'm still going to be busy as hell. We have carpet getting installed this Thursday, but I do have off the whole day, so that day could go either way in terms of how much crap I get done. My goal is to pound out some good work tonight, Monday and Tuesday so the last part of the week isn't so grueling. Good luck to all...almost there people!!

collection

2008-05-02T18:15:00.002-04:00

I'm a huge traditionalist when it comes to the holidays...specifically Thanksgiving and Christmas. Big family get togethers, old XMas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas Carol with Alistair Simm, Christmas Story...okay, that's not old), etc. I love the going to Kenilworth mall and seeing the huge train garden. My mom actually started collecting these Dept 56 houses and accessories which are the small intricate houses you typically would see in a Christmas train garden. She wound up getting me into it and now every year she buys our family a new Dept 56 house. Maybe one year I can put them all together and make that train garden myself for our family. At any rate, these houses often remind me of The Christmas Carol since they are replicas of old British homes (they even have a Dickens collection within the Dept 56 brand), so that's why I like them so much...

thoughts

2008-04-27T23:16:00.002-04:00

As I sit here taking a break from my Flash project at 11:15 PM, it's hitting me that this is a little tougher than anticipated (duh) just do to the fact that I don't have experience moving around within the program and I spend half my time trying to find the stuff I already thought I created. I was honestly just going to do the damn thing in I-Movie since I know that program, but it doesn't have the flexibility of Flash and I'm a glutton for punishment (see grad school with 2 kids in tow). I find it funny...or just downright annoying...not sure which...that I have some instances where I figure shit out and I'm like "Oh this Flash thing is cake, I got this", and other times when I'm like "F*** ME!!!!".

funny

2008-04-25T14:39:00.002-04:00

These are from an amusing old e-mail I received. To appreciate these, you have to just think of how cheesy Chuick Norris is. Anything to lighten the mood for the tough week ahead.

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.

Chuck Norris lives by only one rule: No Asian Chicks.

The original theme song to the Transformers was actually "Chuck Norris--more than meets the eye, Chuck Norris--robot in disguise," and starred Chuck Norris as a Texas Ranger who defended the earth from drug-dealing Decepticons and could turn into a pick-up. This was far too much awesome for a single show, however, so it was divided.

Chuck Norris was the fourth Wiseman. He brought baby Jesus the gift of "beard". Jesus wore it proudly to his dying day. The other Wisemen, jealous of Jesus' obvious gift favoritism, used their combined influence to have Chuck omitted from the Bible. Shortly after all three died of roundhouse kick related deaths.

Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't fuck with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf.

Chuck Norris once shot a German plane down with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"

Chuck Norris frequently signs up for beginner karate classes, just so he can "accidentally" beat the shit out of little kids.

To prove it isn't that big of a deal to beat cancer. Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. Beat that, Lance Armstrong.

When Chuck Norris's wife burned the turkey one Thanksgiving, Chuck said, "Don't worry about it honey," and went into his backyard. He came back five minutes later with a live turkey, ate it whole, and when he threw it up a few seconds later it was fully cooked and came with cranberry sauce. When his wife asked him how he had done it, he gave her a roundhouse kick to the face and said, "Never question Chuck Norris."

Chuck Norris can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying "booya".

Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.

Chuck Norris once went to a frat party, and proceeded to roundhouse every popped collar in sight. He then drank three kegs and shit on their floor, just because he's Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

In one episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Chuck Norris replaced Carlton for one scene and nobody noticed.

Chuck Norris took my virginity, and he will sure as hell take yours. If you're thinking to yourself, "That's impossible, I already lost my virginity.", then you are dead wrong.

Chuck Norris found out about Conan O'Brien's lever that shows clips from "Walker: Texas Ranger" and is working on a way to make it show clips of Norris having sex with Conan's wife.

Chuck Norris once tried to sue Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr., insisting that that actually is "his" way.

Chuck Norris has every copy of National Geographic in his basement. He also has the ability to lift every single one of them at once.

Takeru Kobayashi ate 50 and a half hotdogs in 12 minutes. Chuck Norris ate 12 asian babies in 50 and a half minutes. Chuck Norris won.

The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

Chuck Norris doesn't have normal white blood cells like you and I. His have a small black ring around them. This signifies that they are black belts in every form of martial arts and they roundhouse kick the shit out of viruses. That's why Chuck Norris never gets ill.

classification

2008-04-23T20:05:00.005-04:00

Here are my spreads for Saturday. My publication is ESPN Mag. I almost feel like the second spread needs another page element...maybe the magazine title like the first spread, but I'm kind of waiting for the crit to tell me what i need to know. The this white lines get lost in spots, so suggestions are welcome. I will say that using black or thickening the stroke from 1 to 1.5 has not done the trick, rather, made it look better.

Process

2008-04-23T15:45:00.003-04:00

Fantasy Football it is! Actually, my official title will be "How to have a successful Fantasy Football Draft". I'm going to attempt to have the booklet cover and back as a distressed-looking playbook. The inside cover will explain fantasy football. Here is what I've come up with so far for that:
How Does Fantasy Football work?
We’d be remiss to assume that everyone understands how Fantasy Football works, so here is a framework to get the novice up and running!

Fantasy Football has grown in popularity and become a multi-million dollar industry. The great thing about this hobby is that you can be as involved as you want to be depending on if the league is just for bragging rights or whether you are trying to win money. Each league can be unique in the way they are structured, but the basic concepts on how to play are simple:

1.Draft a team, choosing individual players from actual NFL teams.
2.Your fantasy football team will be assigned a weekly schedule in which you play the other fantasy teams within your league.
3.Your individual players are attributed fantasy points for their success during their actual NFL games. “Success” may include scoring touchdowns, catching passes, accumulating yards, etc.
4.The fantasy points which are accumulated by your players are totaled to give you your team score for that week.
5.Your team score is tallied against the team score of your opponent’s fantasy football team for that week, giving you a win or loss for that week.
6.Final win-loss records usually determine playoff seeding. Using the normal 17-week NFL regular season, a fantasy league might play a regular season of 14 weeks and leave the last 3 weeks for your fantasy playoffs. Hypothetically, in a 12-team league, only the teams with the top six win-loss records would qualify for the playoffs.
7.Last team standing wins the Championship and eternal Fantasy Football glory!

While the concepts above provide you a basic understanding of how Fantasy Football leagues are operated, there are some key steps you can take prior to your season to prepare yourself for Fantasy success. It all starts with your draft, so make sure you are ready by following these guidelines…

My process steps will be:
1. Know your League's Rules
2. Decide on a Keeper
3. Research Research Research!
4. Create a shopping list
5. Formulate Draft Day Strategy
6. Prepare your Draft Day materials

As you can tell by the FF explanation above, this will be a challenge due to the amount of copy, but I think it is a good thing in that that inside cover will allow me to come up with a typographical solution. We'll see how this evolves.

flash question

2008-04-20T22:13:00.003-04:00

Actually, this is more an audio question as it pertains to Flash...anyone know the difference between MP3 and MP4 files (aside from the obvious)? My audio is an MP4 and logic tells me that if it should work in Flash, but I'd like to confirm whether I need to convert the sucker...thanks!

random thoughts

2008-04-19T22:53:00.002-04:00

1. This week is gonna be a doozy, especially with trying to get some of this Flash project in place.
2. I think I may talk about the wife and kids too much in class, but maybe that's just because it's in the forefront of everything in my life right now....so F it. :)
3. I'm happy I took advantage of the lab today and scanned my images in for this Flash project. That saved me time later this week dicking around to try and have the images scanned in somewhere else.
4. Damn I'm tired.
5. ...but I'm really hoping it doesn't rain in the AM because my first softball games of the season are tomorrow.
6. Just watched the O's notch another win. It's starting to scare me.
7. If the Orioles have a 6 game division lead , say, 2 weeks before the trade deadline...does Brian Roberts get dealt?
8. This Fantasy Sports idea that was mentioned during the brainstorm has my interest piqued. My friends and I have been running a Fantasy Football league for about 13-14 years now and I was commissioner for a long period of time. I also run the draft and have won the league a few times, so I know how to approach the set-up, and strategy, etc.
9. I hate pollen
10. The last day of class I'm gonna splurge on sushi again.

storyboard

2008-04-16T20:53:00.002-04:00

Is anyone else finding their storyboard to be quite long? Mine is already 8 pages (3 captions per page) and I'm thinking it'll wind up being 12-15 pages. I'm very much liking the way it is turning out though...I guess the proof will be once I put them into Flash and see how the images synch up with the music. Mine will be very fast paced though, so lots of images.

Flash

2008-04-13T20:52:00.002-04:00

I already know exactly what I'm doing for this. My wife's labor came on very quickly with our first child and our car ride to the hospital was an adventure. The story will be from my perspective and I'm going to illustrate the images for the movie as well. I was thinking black and white, but in color may indicate mood a lot better. I also have in mind a particular sound track for the my movie, which may actually add some light-heartedness to the situation. I'm looking forward to working on this!!

Classification #2

2008-04-13T20:44:00.007-04:00

Well, it looks like I am going to stay with the "type of sports fan" idea. I just need to find images to complete the design and to tighten up the concept and the direction it's going. My roughs: