As part of a class I’m taking called “writing for online media” I’ve set up yet another blog.

I decided to write a blog that talks about movies with a focus on movie previews. Rather than make my readers wait for a movie to be released in the theater to do a review, I plan to judge movies based on the quality of their trailer. Why wait for Roger Ebert and the billions of wannabe film critics on the web to do a review when I can critique the film before it is even released?

So please go check out my new blog: I’ll be in my Trailer

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Topics: Movies, School

In my effort to snare a few freelance gigs to build my portfolio and keep my bank account through the summer I have constructed an online design portfolio. I went with a constructivist color scheme and a fairly simple grid layout. You can take a look here.

As always I appriciate any feedback.

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Remember a few months ago when I said I didn’t have time to “Twitter my every inane thought?” Well it’s summer now and with the break in my schedule it turns out I do have time. Well, sort of. I mean, how long can it really take to write 140 characters?

So go follow me and I promise to limit most of my Tweets to my less inane thoughts.

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Google is having a competition for students. I entered and was instantly rewarded with this:

The deadline for entry is today of course, but I don’t mind posting their propoganda anyway. You can see my entry here. Wish me luck.

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Topics: Contests, Photos

Why would anyone post a year in review in May? It’s the end of the school year, that’s why. I just finished Spring term and I’m looking forward to a 3 month break. Of course, I’ll still be working 29 hours a week but at least I won’t have 3 to 4 hours of homework each night.

In the realm of design, I’ve been able to build my portfolio a bit via my Illustration class. I do feel that my skills have improved greatly over the past year. With any luck I’ll be able to pick up a freelance gig or two over the summer.

Of all my pursuits, writing has suffered the most from my busy schedule. This Spring I took an academic argument course which monopolized most of my writing energy without providing any of the enjoyment I normally get from the craft. Writing academic argument is like eating plain white rice, or over-baked chicken. You may be eating but the flavor is lacking.

As far as academia goes, I’ve had a pretty good year. I maintained a 4.0, I was honored with an “Excellence Under the Stars” award for academic achievement in Computer Illustration and History of Graphic Design, and I landed a Bethel Ells Scholarship. I also became a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. Not a bad bit of resume fodder, if you ask me.

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Topics: Career, Design, School, Writing

I know it’s only been a little over a month since I last revamped my logo, but it just wasn’t sitting right with me. We’ll see how this one lasts:

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Topics: Logos

I spent all weekend in CSS Hell to complete my new theme. I hope everyone likes the new look. I’d love to hear any oppinions anyone cares to offer. If you notice any bugs, please E-mail me, or leave a comment.

Filed under: News by Ed 3 Comments »

Topics: CSS, Web Design

Yes, I caught the logo revision bug again. I know experts on building a corporate identity would not approve of such frequent, and drastic, changes. Good thing I’m just a dude with a web site, and not a corporate giant. Below you can see the evolution of my logo throughout its brief history. As always, comments are more than welcome.

I also created a new favicon, which I like much more than my previous favicon:

And of course, I made up new business cards for me to hand out to imaginary clients:

The new logo sparked an idea for an entire site redesign. If I’m lucky I should get around to doing that sometime before I retire.

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Topics: Logos

I just found out that I won the Photo of the Month contest over at Photographer’s Warehouse! I can’t wait to get my new light!

Filed under: News, Photos by Ed 1 Comment »

Topics: Awards, Contests, Photography

I’ve been wanting a digital SLR for a longer than an Oscar acceptance speech. I’ve been eyeing the Olympus E510 for about the past year. Thanks to a big fat birthday check from a very generous Aunt, I was finally able to buy one. I ordered this set witch comes with 2 lenses. One lens is good for wide angle shots, and the other is better suited for telephoto zooming. I bought an additional lens specifically for macro (extreme close up) photography.

The package arrived today while I was at work. My girlfriend opened it up and plugged in the charger as I had asked her to, so it would be charged by the time I got home. She was even nice enough to put everything back in the box so I could enjoy the ritual of opening the box myself. Unfortunately the battery takes almost 5 hours to charge, so it still wasn’t quite ready until a couple hours after I got home. By that time the sun had gone down, so I had to rely on indoor lighting and the flash.

But that’s OK, because this camera kicks more ass than Chuck Norris fighting ninja donkeys. Fresh out of the box, without even reading the manual, or fiddling with any of the settings, I took my first picture. As you might expect, it was of one of our dogs:

Now, this picture won’t be winning any contests (though the couch might win an ugly couch contest), but considering I didn’t even make an attempt at arranging the lighting, and the camera was on full auto mode, I think it came out pretty good.

Here’s a cropped version to help fix my crappy job at framing:

More cropping:

This was the last picture I took, after trying to learn the settings a little better:

Check out the detail in this 100% crop:

I can’t wait to learn the camera a little better and see just how much it can do.

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Topics: Photography