I love my Pats. But there’s just something special about a cinderella story team that’s never ever been to the Super Bowl, having an amazing season, facing one of the most deadly teams in the league. I’m not a stat-nerd, I can’t tell you who plays what position, or how many yards so and so threw for, but the heart of the New Orleans Saints team really has really impressed me the whole year. Drew Brees is an amazing man first, and a phenomenal quarterback second. The game in itself was amazing. Vegas had its moneyline and -6 for the Colts, and most everybody followed suit, putting down cash on Indianapolis. Even up until halftime it looked like the Colt’s had this one in the bag. Manning’s laser passes were on the money, they were stopping the Saints’ running game and forcing 3 and outs left and and right. The second half was ALL Saints. And a crucial interception for a touchdown (pick 6) thrown by Peyton Manning sealed the deal for the New Orleans Champions. Ok. Great game. But what really topped it off for me was seeing Drew Brees celebrating the Super Bowl Championship with his adorable little son, who was wearing small earphones because of the loud noise level. Look at the pictures below. These images will be the new symbol of a true champion. Drew Brees is a hero we can all look up to. He was the first NFL player to move back into the city of New Orleans after Katrina, turning down opportunities to homestead out in the suburbs. He takes walks with his wife all over the city and everybody thanks him for being so loyal to the city. It’s so good to see the underdog not only win the Super Bowl, but literally stomp all over the Colts’ who were picked by all experts to win the game.

Found a new tumblr site that is fast gaining traction in the blogosphere. Without further ado, I present to you — Unhappy Hipsters.

• There it hung— a bicycle built for two, an exclamation point to her lonesome heart.

• At the art opening, he’d been convinced the blank canvas symbolized endless possibilities. Back at home, it was just one more reminder of his own desperation.

• For once in his life he was on the inside looking out. And for all his effort, there was no one to witness his arrival as an arbiter of culture.

• She was the kind of person who had not one, but two fruit bowls. And she was just fine with that.

• The stale smell of disappointment permeated the room.

I bought a new hard drive to store my pictures, video, freelance work, and software. It took me over 3 hours to get everything on there. Today that hard drive crashed with all my stuff on it. I’ll be honest I’m still in denial about losing all my precious files. I don’t know what I’m going to do, other than go insane. So mad right now. I hate computers.

I need a cheeseburger.

*update* I was able to recover most of my files with some fancy data recovery software. It’s days like this that remind me all this stuff that I want to keep safe is just 1’s and 0’s. And it seems to me that if I want my stuff to be around and readable in 50 years to my great grand kids, a hard drive is a really lame solution that probably won’t even interface with the technology of the future. Example: Let’s say my dad has some crucial data saved from 1992 on a 5.25 inch floppy disk. How in the heck am I going to read that? I have to find a computer laying around that still has a big old floppy drive. And the chances of that happening are getting slimmer as time passes. Basically what I’m saying is we need a solid way to back up electronic data that is both durable and timeless. The only viable option I see for the amount of data I have is burning backups onto Blu-Ray discs. But that is only a short-term solution. I’m sure in only 8 years Blu-ray will be referred to as ‘limited to ONLY 50 gigabytes per disc.’ I’m thankful I was able to retrieve my pictures and scans today. There was a few hours there when I was swearing like a sailor.

Do you find yourself working at your computer for extended periods of time? Designing web pages, hammering in code, adjusting photos, video editing or writing volumes for your blog? I’d like to let you in on a secret of mine. When I have to sit down and concentrate on something and plow through it and get it done, there is only one way to do it.

With classical music.

And none better to jam to than Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The 9th was Ludwig Van’s very last symphony in 1824. It is the most interesting, confusing, and mysterious classical work by any composer. You know it when you hear it. The first two notes and consecutive descending octets set the stage for one of music’s greatest most triumphant anthems. There are many layers to the 9th. If you take the time to carefully listen to each movement. Musical scholars to this day have not been able to figure out the 9th’s ubiquitous nature. Historians have been left guessing and coming up with all kinds of conclusions at to what the symbolism behind it is. Personally I don’t think it matters what he had in mind while composing it. It matters more what it means to you when you listen to it. In my opinion the 9th is one of the greatest artistic and musical masterpieces of all time. It keeps company with the Mona Lisa, Pietà, the Statue of David, and the Sistine Chapel. I urge all you creative people out there to use Beethoven’s 9th Symphony to fuel your creativity, pave the road to inspiration and open the doors to a clear mind.
Metallica, Shiny Toy Guns, U2, and all my other favorite bands have their place, but it’s usually not at the office desk when I’m trying to get work done, son. We can all thank Ludwig Van for the greatest symphony of all time, the 9th!

• Step 1: Get a nice pair of headphones
• Step 2: Cue up the 9th Symphony (preferably the long version)
• Step 3: Turn it up to 11
• Step 4: Be amazed and enlightened.

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Finally taking the time to curl up with a good book. No, not New Moon. Tonight I raided the bookstore for everything I could find about learning Objective C and building native applications with Xcode. When I realized recently I can be putting my design chops to better use (outside conventional print and web platforms), I concluded I had to know more about the process of iPhone and soon-to-be iPad apps. So tonight I had a hot date with Xcode and Objective C. Not bad for a Wednesday night.

PS. The blog redesign is on the back burner, but for those of you that asked, rest assured it will be released soon.

night. in the middle of nowhere.

The greatest thing about the iPad is that I won’t need an iPhone anymore. I can just go back to a $50/month plan and a phone that’s just a phone. I know that seems weird, but I believe it will make more sense when the tablet pc’s infiltrate the market.

Apple has a keen ability to create buzz about new products without even saying word one. What other company can rent out a movie theater for 2 hours in January and have 37 satellite TV trucks show up ready to stream the unveiling of a new gadget? As you all know, today Steve Jobs took the wraps off his newest creation, a tablet computer named the iPad. I’m still not sure about the name, but the device itself resembles a large iPhone or iPod Touch. This surprised no one. But I believe the real impact here is the technology of the iPhone in a device large enough to create an entirely new computing experience. When Steve Jobs speaks, he does not do so from the hip. And when he says ‘This thing is so cool. You have to hold it in your hands to feel the gravity of how amazing it is’, I take note of that.

Development on the iPhone has intrigued me to the point of trying to wrap my brain around Objective C and Cocoa, the programming languages that power both the OS X operating systems, the iPhone, and now the iPad. I know when I’m in over my head, and low level programing is something I will have to leave to the Pro’s. I have been doing research for an iPhone app of my own recently, mostly notes in my moleskine, and audio recordings on my iPhone of crap that comes to me in the middle of the night. With the debut of the iPad, this makes the quest for creating and finishing the app so much more appealing. Although I will have to find a suitable programmer who can throw together code in Objective C, every other aspect of designing apps for iPhone and now iPad are orders of magnitude more interesting and exciting. If you’ve ever thought, ‘Is there an app for that?’ — there’s no better time than now to capitalize on that idea. 48 hours ago, critics might have said the AppStore is flooded and room for innovation is sparse. With the new size and form factor of the iPad for all types of applications, the AppStore is now a white field ready to be harvested.

I threw together a blank document of the life-size iPad in Illustrator using dimensions taken from Apple’s website. Originally I just did it for myself to help me in the visualization stages of application design, but then thought it could benefit others doing the same thing. So here it is.

Enjoy!

Last night I took the new 7d to Velour to see my friends from The Elizabethan Report and The Vibrant Sound play a few songs for the Provo crowd. Even with a cheap 1.8 50mm lens this camera exceeded my expectations in low light situations. We had a great time, it’s always fun see Tony (ER) raise the energy through the roof, and not to mention Spencer’s amazing ability to melt you face off with a guitar.

I have been scanning all of my old 35mm film prints from growing up. It’s been taking forever because I have so many. Putting it off until now was easy. Now I can use a decent scanner that straightens every picture out. It’s a breeze. So far I’ve managed to knock out all my photos from my Boston mission from ‘97 to ‘99, about 1000 photos in all. I can’t begin to explain what a great experience it was to look through those photos, re-live old memories and feel all nostalgic. It was a very poignant and definitive time in my life, and only takes a few photos to transport myself back into my old worn dr. martin’s. Here’s a couple winners from Boston a little over ten years ago. The first week in Mass, I was punched in the face by a drunk guy. D’oh!
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Finally picked up a Canon 7D. It’s a step up from my 30D, which will most likely be my new timelapse camera, and I’ll continue to use it for product shots at work. I think I’ve taken more images on it at work than for personal use. Weird. This new toy will help me on my way to achieving some of my new years resolutions. I wrote about the 7D back in August and was so excited that 1080/24p was available for under two grand. Just turning in on out of the box and shooting crisp HD video was very refreshing. There are several short film ideas that have been collecting dust in my moleskine for too long now. It’s time to realize those ideas.