today went to fast >> sunshine and thoughts of summer

today went too quickly I only had a short time it seemed until I was eating lunch with maria and jules. I couldn't resist taking this picture. It was of part of my lunch, it looked so good in the spring sunshine. after that the day simply flew past.
we had sunshine pretty much all day today. just spoken to gabes he was full of the joys of a spring day he had got down to the beach even had a skate as well. specially for him I thought I would add this publicity picture for the 60's film endless summer a surfing classic. it says a lot about how things have changed but even gabes at nearly 14 can relate to parts of the surfing lifestyle or his perception of the that lifestyle, any way it is a great picture.

whilst on a nostalgic theme I have to include a picture of a man that I hold in particular high esteem, george greenough (pictured here in about '73) who was and still is a phenomenal surfer and photographer and if that wasn't enough a very creative designer as well. surf boards, it was george who really brought kneeboarding to the notice of other surfers and non-surfers in the late 60's early 70's.
he is responsible for designing the 'spoon' the board he is holding in the picture. as well as camera housing equipment, and inspired many through his use of film images set to music. echos (pink floyd) at the end of the classic surf film crystal voyager being his most famous film. It is amazing how different a day can be just because it is bright and sunny, I was busy all day but don't really feel I produce much of the things I wanted to do.

I did finally get my podcast to work check it at dgthekneelo.podbean by going round in circles but eventually sorting it out. then after that davidthedesigner left me a very welcome message telling me about some audio software audacity (I had not heard of) I also downloaded an extra patch in addition to audacity enabling me to export to mp3 LAME no excuses now.
already I have had a play with and it seems it is an answer to making the audio podcast bursts I have been trying to create for the past couple of weeks, at what is good is that it is free! thanks for the tip davidthedesigner.

any way must get on I have too many projects on the go at the moment and to really need get back in to the design for 'the hub'.

ideas >> associated place >> learning >> create

funny isn't it how ideas just seem to happen (or not) I always think it strange when creative agencies have a time and a date to have an idea.
I find that ideas happen, but the more I work at it the more they happen.
I am not one of those people who just has a great idea and then goes away to create.
when I have an idea usually I try it, realise that it doesn't or wont work, but the fact that I am trying to work at it makes other ideas come through. this can happen lots of times before I reach a solution to the original problem.

the reason for mentioning this is because in the normal run of things we wait for a problem think about it then spend ages working on it eventually solving it by one way or another. this includes for me pretty much everything I do from the smallest pre-prepared hand out for a specific lesson plan or a complete corporate identity.
must say the last major id I did was a few years ago and it was for a surf-wear company (flip-flops and surf sandals) three peaks see picture.

the thinking behind it took weeks but the actual design was relatively quick to do, and it came to me reasonably easily. we all have our own ways of creating and I believe it is experience that makes us able to re-think and re-design and while we continue to do this we will be able to maintain a design life. I find it much harder to try to instill in students the confidence to try.

I have had some ideas about the room I work in, teach in, spend hours in, that I am currently working on, in the hope that something may come of them.

I really believe that by changing the way the room looks/works I can start to challenge the way the students entering the room think, while challenging I hope to motivate and encourage even draw out some kind of creativity from an otherwise quietly compliant youth, who consider using msn, myspace and bebo as creative, perhaps surprising of all create graphics in ms paint 'cos thats what they have got at home', even though they have the complete macromedia studio package available to them!
we will see what happens?

short but sweet >> calm >> beach time

I have been chasing my tail for the last few weeks sort of achieving. I have so many different design projects in the air and combined with the hectic workload of a teacher to think about I don't seem to be as productive even as successful as I would like...
I am really missing an important part of my life.
I hardly have had time (or when I have had time) I haven't bothered to even go to the beach.
I am so lucky in that I can walk to a really beautiful cove (takes about 8 minutes!) but I haven't got near to even visiting it. yes the weather has been cold and wet, and its dark and I could go on listing any other number of excuses.
I am in no way complaining or moaning even if it sounds like it I fully realise just how lucky I am. however I need to motivate myself to get out to the beach, even though I can't surf at the moment because of the shoulder problem I can and should still be able to enjoy the feel and smell and look of the ocean.
I will add to this post in the morning until then I am going to rest from the hypnotic power of this amazing media and turn my computer off.

different >> but all linked

It has been a long funny kind of day, long in the sense that I have been awake for a long time, funny (I don't mean full of jokes) but I had to see a few people to discuss stuff as well as contact people who are making decisions that could effect my future.
oh yes and teach!

just a normal day you think for most of you I would expect. but I also spent some time talking to students and their parents who are currently making decisions that will at least make a difference to the next 2 years of their lives (probably more), if not the whole of their lives.

amongst all this I was sending and receiving emails and even twittering a little.
I received a very interested email, fully work related and I will hopefully attend some of the events that were documented in the email. it had a list of interesting links with it I thought of adding all the links but to put them all on one post would have been too much information would be too much so I have added just 4.

I am posting them out of context but I don't think that really matters have a look you might well find some interesting I did.

kurator
pirate university
signwave
andy pink

still not feeling good >> too much time to think >> NCDS >>

it's only a title so don't worry I haven't reverted to the self indulgence of another blog I ran few years ago, if anything I have too much to write today.

haven't been to proper work just not well enough but have spent some time on the long over due surf98 re-design see picture "big shock work not being done on a Mac!?!"(work on both PC and Mac), the finished website is way off yet I'm still at the illustrator stage.

I/we at home are learning sign language to help ben our eight year old son who is deaf (well hearing impaired if you want to use the trendy term). each Wednesday for the last five a very patient/caring man (mark) has been coming to our house and spending sometimes a couple of hours teaching/helping us to communicate using signing, during this time I have been humbled by the phenomenal visual language used by people who are dismissed by so many. at eight ben's visual recall is amazing but it is only now that we can get close to tapping in to it. ben's drawing and computer use is already surprisingly advanced but he will always be held back in the hearing world as he wears hearing aids and sometimes misses things that are spoken.
anyway just a thought have a look at NDCS and BSL. remember next time you have the chance to tap into a "hearing impaired" persons visual memory give it a go you may well be amazed.

oh yes I took this picture in the kitchen, the daffodil was broken in the strong wind today. I just had to bring it in and include it, as it's so yellow.

not much time >> surprised to be 46

well I didn't think I would manage to get a blog written tonight been at work and had a whole heap of stuff to sort before indulging myself. I will not be long and very few words of wisdom (nothing new). I did spend a long time today discussing the way that the adobe applications photoshop CS and illustrator CS series software that we have used for ages. are not as intuitive for the students we currently are teaching as the macromedia suite with fireworks as the main web graphic software, but much more of that another time.
I also spent a long time reminiscing today with my line manager/boss bob, about the first few Apple Macintosh's, the Archimedes, and the Amiga computers that I worked with in the '80s. we were both thinking about how we would like the the 17" MacBook pro as it seems a good combination of power and usability and it looks nice! just a bit pricey. that's from two people who have to spend all or most of our time working on PC's.
however it could be all the reminiscing today was because I was thinking about the passing of time as it was my birthday (not that I have an issue at all with age) but I was actually very surprised to realise that I was 46! thanks for all the cards and presents, especially carol.

lazy day >> papers and non-achievement

hardly done anything today, a long (well sort of long) look / read of the newspaper this morning and watched the rugby this afternoon.
so many ideas that I have been thinking of don't as far as design stuff and software stuff have been moved aside by other stuff but they are still in there.
had a nice chat with gabriel today "go with what you will be interested in for two years and remember there will be many boring bits!"

I will have to make some time to get the work stuff done tomorrow.

I have played around with the Firefox browser a bit downloaded/updated some of the new add ons. I like it, really useful stuff (it's cross platform so works as well on Linux, Mac and Windows) oh dear! I am even beginning to a bit too geeky even for me. must remember that it is the design and usability that is important. I will just have to think 'cow gum', to make me get things back it to perspective!

hours in front of computer screens ends in pictures of fins

strange isn't it I have spent so many hours in front of different screens today. testing software, running and evaluating new applications. looking at endless websites, blogs and virtual spaces and in the end I have to find something real to touch and look at and hold it happens to be a surfboard I mentioned a few posts ago when I was talking about the twin fin, this is a quad fish and it's is mine I love the look of it and setting the fins in a formation such as this really does make the board very fast as there is no central drag. it was made in byron bay, australia by ex-world champion david parkes a master when it comes to making surfboards that work.
so rather than write about stuff I have spent the last 12 or so hours looking at I will list some of the good stuff I have seen today + open office 2.1 + russell davies + lindsay.at + chocolate and vodka + my flickr + ma.gnolia.com + firefox2.com + 1-2know +
I won't go in to the 'educational' stuff that I have been trawling through for work as I want to stay awake a little bit longer. don't worry I will save that for another day.

I didn't go to the beach

I didn't go to the beach but ben and the others did, when he came back he had brought me this stone. I thought he had found a TV remote as we find all sorts of stuff washed up. so we made it in to one anyway. he insisted that it had a button for subtitles, coincidence then Robert Adler the co-inventor of the TV remote died at age 93 today. I think it looks like a rune stone or something any way that's about it really. funny it seem I do less the more time I have!

this weeks >> end >> my twitter >> open office

I have been doing a lot of this this week I don't mean creating documents (i do that every week) but making sure every thing is in place, to say the stress has been on would be an understatement. I am sure that others involved will say that I didn't have to do much but it is all about perception. I now have a week to reflect and prepare for the next challenge, it is really odd that the enjoyment of a stressful situation is after it has happened.
I have been testing open-office for the environment I work / teach in and have to say it is pretty good so far, will be testing it more this week but would love to hear from anyone who uses it in a network situation. finally set up a my twitter account, not sure why, it is not like I don't have enough to do! will be out visiting things tomorrow.