Propaganda Party » General

Link Tank: April 19th

Jen — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:32:58 +0000

Here are some delicious links for your enjoyment and edumication:

6 hi-res wood textures | highresolutiontextures.com – 6 high quality images of various sorts of wood or bark.

Lost and Taken – Lost and Taken – A Little Dirty: 8 Subtle Grunge Textures – A Little Dirty: 8 Subtle Grunge Textures

Photoshop Light brushes | Qbrushes – Photoshop Brushes – Blurry light Brushes (Bokeh), 3 shapes (circle, hexagon, octagon), 9 brushes total.

Photoshop Skyline Brushes | Qbrushes – Photoshop Brushes – A set of 9 wonderful city skyline brushes for Photoshop 7 and up. Sizes range from 1000px to 1300px.

Grungy Brushes from QBrushes – Valley of the Dry Bones is a set of grunge brushes by seudavi with an average size of 1500px/

Link Tank: April 14th

Jen — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:00:20 +0000

Here are some delicious links for your enjoyment and edumication:

Function Web Design & Development [ Blog ] » How to Spot Quality within Web Design: Examples & Tips – Tips from the folks at Function Web Design & Development on what constitutes quality web design. I don't agree with everything written but there are some things that they bring up that make a whole lot of sense. Especially the whole "attention to details" part. It's the minutiae in design that takes it to the next level.

Versions – Mac Subversion Client (SVN) – Versions, as the title says is a Mac Subversion client. However, that's not why I bookmarked this site. The simplicity of the design astounds me yet it's so well done and has quite an impact. You're to notice their brand, and boy, do you.

Of course, it's also a useful piece of software for those of us Mac users who want to use version control.

Sending Well-Wishes to the folks in NOLA

Jen — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:14:33 +0000

There is one moment in my life that has had a huge impact on me—setting foot in NOLA after Hurricane Katrina. The utter devastation I saw there was just disheartening. To know that the folks there have still not recovered breaks my heart. Unforetunately, Hurricane Gustav seems to have that great city in his path.

What is frightening are the following images:

Hurricane Katrina path 8/28/05

Hurricane Gustav path 8/28/08

Please take notice of the dates. What’s worse, is this will be the first test of the federally repaired levees and rumor has it from a whistle blower, that the pumps are not working. I hope this is not correct and I hope the levees hold because NOLA and the nation cannot afford what happened in 2005 to happen again.

Best Ringtone in the World

Jen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:17:10 +0000

I know it’s a bit odd to be enamored with a ringtone but when I heard this one it was almost as if I didn’t have a choice.

Enjoy and know if you call me, this is what I’ll hear.

Download audio file (ring-ring.mp3)

…

I’m an Official Washington, D.C. Suburbanite

Jen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:15:12 +0000

I moved the weekend of July 19^th from Norfolk, VA to Silver Spring, MD. Unfortunately, me and the folks that moved to Maryland, didn’t get the right size U-Haul so we had to go back last weekend to move the rest of our things—mostly, still didn’t get them all. I’m sore, living out of boxes and contracted my first cold in several years. Other than that, my initial impressions are that I like the area much better with the exception of not having a suitable independent coffee shop in close proximity. I’ll have to make my own coffee in the mornings now; oh the inhumanity.

My office is currently filled with an overwhelming amount of boxes and I don’t have my usual computer configuration set-up meaning I’m missing my hard drives, my printer and most importantly, my iPod—it’s just me and my laptop these days. I have to learn new cable channels and have yet to venture to one of the many conveniently located Ethiopian restaurants but I can tell I’ll have many adventures to come especially with the Metro a seven minute walk away.

Update: April Showers Bring May Flowers and Tornado’s

Jen — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:23:51 +0000

So I got up this morning and saw that I had a voicemail from my mom at almost 3am; that’s never a good thing—ever. So I call her to see who’s sick or dying or dead and come to find out, while I was complaining about the weather in my last blog post, we have 3 tornado’s ripping through our area. That explains quite a bit to me now and makes me kinda feel silly I didn’t know about it until my mom, who lives in Missouri, called to ask if I was alright. Seems no matter how old I get I’m always scaring my parents.

Anyway, my little pocket of Norfolk didn’t receive any damage but I feel bad for the folks not twenty minutes away from me who got hit hard.

April Showers Bring May Flowers and…

Jen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:28:20 +0000

Frustration! Sorry, I’m feeling the need to rant. One thing I really hate about Spring in Norfolk, VA is the rain. Especially thunderstorms. It would seem the utility folks in this area don’t find it prudent to run utility wiring underground. Every time there is a thunderstorm in my neighborhood, I intermittently loose my cable connection because my power briefly goes out. When I say briefly, I mean less than a second but enough that I lose my Internet connection. In the last half-hour I’ve lost my connection at least 6 times since I started counting. I cannot stress how much I’ve really grown to dislike this city since I’ve moved here almost five years ago. I have a friend living in the DC area and she keeps trying to lure me up that way. I think I’m going to have to ask about how “sturdy” the utilities are up there.

Advertising Banned in My Local Mall

Jen — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:22:58 +0000

I live in an area where the 700 Club is headquartered. For those of you not aware of the 700 Club, it’s an uber-religious organization run by Pat Robertson (who is also looking into buying our local newspaper). As most of us know in the design business, sex sells in advertising and Abercrombie & Fitch use that to great advantage as well as Victoria’s Secret and other popular chain retail brands. That said, I was amazed when I read about “complaints” made about a photo mural in our local mall at the A&F store. Apparently some folks found the following image offensive, as well as another of a woman who had bared breasts but the nipple covered with her hand (couldn’t find that image).

What I find utterly fascinating about this, besides the ridiculousness of it all, is the Virginia state seal; shown below.

If you haven’t already surmised the issue here, let me spell it out; that’s a woman on the flag of Virginia, our state seal, with her left breast bared. Hmmm, somehow, that isn’t offensive but a guys’ butt crack, which might I add, I see way too much of just walking around in the general public, is offensive. I think the small-minded people who brought this complaint need to reexamine what is important—one murder every 32 minutes, one violent crime every 6 seconds, one robbery every 57 seconds and one physical assault every 7 seconds. While the Virginia Beach, VA police were busy “saving our virtue” the real crimes went on without the officers’ help where it’s truly needed.

I Took the iPhone Plunge

Jen — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:09:45 +0000

I swore I was going to wait on a newer version of the iPhone before purchasing one but yesterday, I finally succumbed to the internal pressure building within to have the newest Apple toy. I haven’t figured out everything it is capable of but so far I’m impressed with it. Up until yesterday I was using a Blackberry 7130c and was growing frustrated with the lousy sound quality and sticky scroll wheel. The only thing I really don’t like at this point about the iPhone is how dirty it gets; I realize that’s what the spiffy cleaning cloth is for but still. Another issue I have is having to pay $2 for a 30 second ringtone. However, that was quickly remedied by a Google search. I can now make as many custom ringtones as my heart desires. Just FYI, I’m currently rocking Aretha Franklin’s ‘Rock Steady’.

Another feature I’m slightly impressed with is the camera. I have a Fuji pocket digi and it doesn’t take pictures near as good as the iPhone. My final impression with the iPhone is the Wi-Fi Internet access, much better than the ‘Edge’ service with the Blackberry. Overall I’m happy with my purchase, now I just have to find a suitable Bluetooth hands-free set for long conference calls. If anyone has any suggestions for a Bluetooth hands-free headset, that will fit small ear canal’s, please feel free to pass them along. Obviously sound clarity is of high importance as well.

Brad Renfro, Heath Ledger & ?

Jen — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:47:24 +0000

The saying is “It happens in three’s” so I wonder who’s next. What is it about young Hollywood and younger deaths? I know this is seriously off-topic but when I saw the news about Ledger, I was just blown away. To make matters worse, in my opinion anyway, he was found dead in Mary-Kate Olsen’s apartment (according to the CNN article I read earlier).

Anyway, I think the real tragedy here are the young being consumed and spit out by the Hollywood “glamor” machine; how this doesn’t happen to more people amazes me.