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I just got back from a quick trip to New York City where my ridiculous Office Space meets Minor Threat band, PowerPoint, played a show at ABC NO RIO. We sounded as bad as ever, but I think everyone still had a really good time. And considering we’ve only practiced 1.5 times (with different members mind you), things turned out quite well. One of my favorite parts of the show was our delivering of a giant check to the city of New York for “One Rocking Show” (explains the above image). Anyway, you can find pictures here, here and here. I think there’s more out there in the world wide web somewhere too.

Another quick note… I wrote a small article for the “Focus On” section of .net magazine. It’s in issue 180 which just came out yesterday. So, go pick up a copy!

The newest rendition of the Factory Design Labs website I designed finally went live yesterday (including separate iPhone and Careers components). There was a lot of effort by a number of people to create this site on top of all the client work we have right now at the agency, so it feels good to see it up. Overall, the site has been scaled way back compared to previous versions to focus on what’s important for a portfolio: the work. I’ve been wanting to create a scaling/full screen video site for a while now and am glad I finally got the opportunity to do so. This was the right project for that type of execution. There were some pretty cool ideas that didn’t end up making it in to the final version for a variety of reasons, but I’m still pretty happy with the end result.

That being said, I have only 4 more days left with Factory. Since I started about 2.5 years ago, I’ve seen the company about triple in size, completely change it’s clientelle to huge international brands and move to a fancy new office… all of which has been pretty unreal to experience. The company has grown and learned a lot and so have I. What I’m most thankful for, though, is all the great people I’ve been able to work and hang out with. I’ve made some great friends. It’s become time for me to make a change though.  I’ve got some great projects and opportunities in the works and look forward to talking about them more soon… but not… just yet.

I got back from the roadtrip I went on a few days ago and have been trying to catch up with living since. The trip was a lot of driving (I put 4,000 miles on my car) but a lot of fun too. The journey included floods in Iowa, a trip to Ikea in Toronto, an amazing Bed and Breakfast in London, Ontario, quality family time, being hassled at the border upon returning to the states for no good reason, creepy Jesus shrines, lots of bbq and soul food, Graceland, great dj’ing by Darcie, a glimpse into the local music scene of Nashville and lots more.

So, with all of the driving we had to do, Darcie and I played a number of games to pass the time. One of my favorites though, involved simply spotting cars (American manufacturers seem to be best usually) and replacing the maker name with the word anal. So, instead of a Ford Explorer you get an Anal Explorer. Stupid, maybe. Hilarious, yes. Some of our favorites included the Town and Country, Venture, Dynasty and Avenger.

Anyway, if you’re curious about the trip at all I’ve posted some photos on my Flickr Account.

Over the weekend, my friends’ Kyle and Jaimie got married up in Estes Park. The whole event was beautiful and it was so much fun to hang out with everyone (and eat pizza rolls out of bucket at 1 in the morning). I learned an important lesson though… I’m old. I bought a suit about 2 years ago. I went through the whole fitting process and everything. That might say enough in and of itself, but it gets worse. I’ve only worn it once since I got it and didn’t really consider the idea of trying it on before the ceremony. When I was putting on the pants right before the wedding I very quickly realized they don’t fit anymore. I basically had to go through the whole night with my pants unbuttoned. Luckily the jacket covered up this fact, so hopefully I didn’t look completely ridiculous.

Anyway, I’m headed out on a road trip up to Canada this week, but when I get back I’m buying a bicycle and a gym membership.

In between working on 4 freelance projects in the last week, 3 at my day job, moving (of sorts) and everything else that happens in my world on a regular basis I managed to get pretty sick this week. It was great timing. Because of all the craziness going on I couldn’t wait for the weekend to finally have a chance for some quality rest and relaxation. Anyway, since I’m just hanging out at my house tonight I thought I would give my response to an interesting little questionnaire I saw floating around some blogs a while ago about my iTunes library…

Total Length
» 11,969 songs, 28.2 days total time, 50.08 GB

First and Last Songs (by title)
» “À Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)” by Megadeth
» “*******” by Jets To Brazil

Shortest and Longest Songs
» “All” by The Descendents, 4 seconds
» “Cassandra Gemini” by The Mars Volta, 32:32

First and Last Albums (by title)
» “Abbey Road” by The Beatles
» “1984″ by Van Halen

First and Last Artist (by name)
» ABBA
» +/-

Top Five Most Played Songs
» “The King of Carrot Flowers Part One” by Neutral Milk Hotel (37)
» “Just Like Movie Stars” by Matt Sharp (36)
» “Back In Your Head” by Tegan and Sara (31)
» “The Good Life” by Weezer (31)
» “In the Garage” by Weezer (31)

Search for the following words. How many songs show up?
» Sex: 67
» Death: 76
» Love: 473
» You: 1,267
» Home: 116
» Boy: 354
» Girl: 131

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle
» “Green Is Good” by Rival Schools (who are going to write a new record finally!!!)
» “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who
» “Beam Me Up Denny” by Sicko
» “Bugs” by Shat
» “La La Love You” by The Pixies

What about your collection?

I’ve had some issues with my hosting company this week and have had limited access to both email and my website admin. Things seem to be cleared up now and in all honesty, I’ve been far too busy this week to post about anything anyway. I did, however, take the opportunity to update my blog to Wordpress 2.5 which I will say is HUGE step up on the CMS side of things. The design isn’t half bad anymore and the functionality and IA is much improved.

In non geek related news (or at least a different kind of geekiness), season 12 of South Park has finally picked up the pace a bit. The first two episodes were pretty weak in my opinion, but the last two, especially Canada on Strike, have been awesome. If you missed the airings check out the brand new South Park Studios website. They’ve made a huge upgrade there and you can now stream the entire catalog of episodes on the site for free. It’s pretty awesome.

This last weekend was amazing. Probably one of the best I’ve ever had. It was a perfect way to send out the old and introduce the new. I was so sore (as you will be able to understand if you watch the video below) that I could barely even move on Sunday but it was all worth it. I’m just getting old. A big thanks goes out to all my friends that made this weekend possible, whether it be through flying out to Denver and “learning” how to play “songs,” making props, videos or just offering moral support. I’m truly grateful for knowing so many amazing people. FYI - PowerPoint is planning an east coast trip for May or June. Next time maybe we’ll even know how to actually play the songs!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about (or even if you do), just check out the following:
PowerPoint pics from Ryan
More pics from Darcie
Some live Video from Vin and Frieda

There should be some Dartanian footage soon as well.

Between work and trying to prepare my two bands for the big show on Saturday, this last week has been crazy. I’m really stoked for this weekend because of the festivities as well as for everything to get back to normal. All of this hasn’t stopped me from coming across some cool stuff though…

My friend Vincent has a premiere for the latest music video he created. This time for the song Kursk by Ian Cooke. Showings are this weekend at the Esquire. I highly suggest you check out the video and any of his other work as he is definitely one of the most gifted and creative people I know. Check out his site for all the details.

Another good friend of mine, Aaron Ray, had his very first solo art opening this past weekend. If you live in Denver, stop by the 400 on 10th and Bannock to check it out. He did a great job and also celebrated his 30th birthday last Thursday. Nice job dude. Check out a recap of the art opening at Joy Engine.

I finally got around to setting up an account on Flickr. I’ve been really impressed with the interface thus far. Lots of cool Ajaxy scripts going on. Hopefully this will encourage me to start taking more pictures. I did get a new camera for Christmas after all.

Speaking of nerdy stuff… if you’re into that kind of thing check out this post about powerful CSS techniques. Lots of really great ideas and tutorials.

I also wanted to give a quick thank you to Joy Engine, CSS Mania and the Daily Slurp for linking to my site… Now, back to work!

I’m writing from San Francisco, where I’ve been spending a lot of time the last few months on a pretty sizable project with the folks at Pivotal Labs. Things are going well and there will hopefully be a private beta of my project within the next month or so. This trip has been a bit more fun than the last few as I got to spend Monday afternoon exploring the city. I walked down to the Mission District, grabbed some tea at Ritual Roasters, bought a bunch of music at Amoeba and even saw some redwoods. I’m so pathetically out of shape that all of the walking really took its toll on me, but hopefully that will be improving now that I’ve started playing hockey again. I’m finally getting some exercise!

Anyway, just wanted to give a general update on things. Also, if you haven’t seen, the portfolio section of my site is finally up and running. I’m still working out a few minor tweaks but go check it out and let me know what you think. Oh, and check out this great article my friend Suz sent me yesterday… 14 Shopping Days Until Inappropriate Card Day!

Wow. A new music project I’m working on with some friends called PowerPoint just got a little blurb on Wired. I’m speechless. Speaking of bands. An old band of mine, Dartanian, will be playing a final show on March 1st in Denver. Coincidentally this will also be the first show of the new band. Should be a really fun night!