Second attempt at using our new charcoal grill. 🔥 Heat issue is resolved. Although now, the temp might be a little too high.
📷 #2: Photo. The cover of a 1970s photo album.
📸 #1: Switch. Keychron K2 with red hot swappable switches.
I’m starting with a clean Micro.Blog slate. Still trying to configure things so I post on my Squarespace blog, it comes to Micro.Blog and then posts to Twitter.
The Curious Case of the Missing Apple Logo
Two notable logo trends from Apple This post was originally posted on April 22, 2021 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. Apple has one of the most recognizable logos in the world. Which isn’t surprising because they are the largest company in the world. I’ve been watching a couple of trends over the last few months about how Apple uses their logos and this week, those trends have become even more apparent.
Podcasts are the new special interest magazines
Detailed, up-to-date and authoritative This post was originally posted on July 4, 2019 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. I grew up loving magazines. Any time I’d be interested in something, I’d head to the magazine aisle in the bookstore or grocery store and look for magazines on the topic. Computers, cars, boats, science, model railroads, photography, sports, baseball cards, comics, design and more.
Captive Social vs. Open Social
Language matters. This post was originally posted on January 13, 2019 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the language we use to talk about social media and content creation on the web. And as I’m writing about social media — especially microblogging and the indie web movement — I feel like we need a phrase to refer to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others that try to lock in users and leverage their private data to sell more ads, compared to the other newer services with revenue models that are less interested in ad sales or lock in.
Design + Math
Designers don’t want to admit it, but math is important to the profession. This post was originally posted on September 29, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. My first class in graduate school was a quantitive research class and I really enjoyed the statistics side of things. As I’ve told my designer friends this, they typically respond with something along the lines of “Ugh.
The parable of the third soap dispenser
It never runs out of soap… This post was originally posted on August 9, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. The bathroom at my office has four sinks and three soap dispensers. Each soap dispenser has a clear plastic front so the cleaning crew can see how much liquid pink soap is left and refill it if necessary.
I made a red velvet cake. And learned an important lesson about fear.
This post was originally posted on January 7, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. I made a red velvet cake last week. From scratch. It was a recipe that my mom made when I was growing up, but it was originally my Grandmother Wertz’s recipe. My grandmother died when I was very young, so to me, red velvet always makes me think of my mom.
Twitterless, Part II
A year ago, I decided to lessen my reliance on Twitter. Here’s my progress so far… This post was originally posted on January 3, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post pondering what would change in my workflow if Twitter disappeared. At the time, Twitter was actively looking for buyers and had just shut down Vine.
“You choose your dysfunction.”
I’ve used this phrase for years to describe changing jobs. Maybe I was wrong… This post was originally posted on May 8, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. Every place we work has its own dysfunctional elements. And when you change jobs, you move from one group of challenges to another. Every job has challenges.
I’m excited about indie microblogging.
This post was originally posted on January 20, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. – Manton Reece has big plans for microblogs. A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about what would happen if Twitter disappeared or became unusable. I started to explore other options for connecting with others in the design community.
What I love about Draplin...
This post was originally posted on November 19, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. This man loves to create. I saw Aaron Draplin for the fourth time on Thursday night when he came to the Half and Half in Columbia. Over the last years 15 years or so, between CCAS, AIGA South Carolina and Converge SE, we’ve had a bunch of awesome designers come through Columbia… DJ Stout, David Carson, Chip Kidd, James Victore, Seymour Chwast, Michael Beirut, Sean Adams, Sagmeister… and that’s a really incomplete, partial list.
Formatting a really long web address
This post was originally posted on November 15, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. 4 steps to simplifying URLs I was behind a truck in traffic yesterday with an URL boldly printed across the back. And since traffic was moving slowly, I got a nice long look at it: www.reallylongwebaddress.com/home Okay. I may have changed the address to protect the innocent.
Twitterless
What would happen if Twitter disappeared tomorrow? This post was originally posted on November 9, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. I’ve been on Twitter since 2007. It’s part of my daily routine and probably my most vital social media channel for finding and sharing news. But Twitter has had some lingering financial issues and when they recently tried to sell the company, no one stepped up to make an appropriate offer.
My most influential classes
This post was originally posted on October 17, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. Some classes just stick with you. I was talking with a friend a couple of weeks ago about influential classes that I took in college – classes that helped shape my world view and approach to life. I noted that it was interesting to look back and see what has stuck with me after two decades.
ASAP: The lowest priority
This post was originally posted on September 12, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. Real jobs have deadlines. As a designer, I hear “As Soon As Possible” an awful lot. Most people are shocked to learn that ASAP is actually my lowest priority. Jobs with concrete deadlines are always in line ahead of jobs with no real deadline.
i dont care about my business @gmail.com
This post was originally posted on March 23, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. All professionals need a personalized email address and a home on the web. And Gmail accounts and Facebook pages don’t count. I saw a branding consultant recently without a branded email address. Who hires a brand consultant who doesn’t invest in their own brand?
Stealing time
This post was originally posted on January 12, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site. 2015 was a long year for me. Literally. My 2015 was three hours longer than 2014 because I rang in the new year on the West Coast. For me, 2015 was 365 days and 3 hours long. But here’s the thing with stealing time.