Saltwater

Funky Fish Cafe Open for Business

2009-11-22T17:17:00.009-05:00

Completed a logo, decals and final touches for a second building in the HO Scale Sardina diorama. The patio was constructed from a Model Power brick texture sheet, plants were created from a Busch Garden Design set and the tables and chairs which were painted blue, are by Preiser.

New photos of scenes and buildings from the Serres Bay diorama can now be found on Flickr.

Serres Bay HO Scale Diorama

2009-10-12T11:47:00.008-04:00

Created a logo and posted a new article and photo series at SerresBay.com for an HO Scale diorama currently in progress. Since the diorama is taking so long to complete, I decided to take some photos of the construction in the interim.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-03T01:44:00.004-04:00

Created a festive and whimsical splash graphic for Cat Senate; Happy 4th!

The Elusive Tunisian Cat

2009-06-25T11:04:00.007-04:00

Finally got around to posting on Cat Senate the short story to go along with the photos I took last summer of feral cats in Tunisia. Not quite the Hans Sylvester success I envisioned the collection to be, but not a bad start. I will be sure to be properly equipped with a digital SLR and an arsenal of lenses next trip.

Read Full Article

Alya & Bocelli: Up Close & Purr-sonal

2009-04-30T11:17:00.007-04:00

A new clip featuring our new Cat Senate kittens Alya & Bocelli, up close & purr-sonal.

zeroflux Euro Dance Pandora Station

2009-03-26T23:50:00.009-04:00

Pandora is amazing. Throw in a few of your favorite seed songs and the software very accurately finds similar tunes. You then can refine the selection of music and even directly purchase mp3's from Amazon or iTunes.

The zeroflux online radio station is open for business; bringing rhythm and angelic Scandinavian vocals flowing to the "internets" (sic):

zeroflux Euro Dance Radio

World in Conflict AI Overkill

2009-03-08T19:32:00.002-04:00

World in Conflict has tremendous graphics and gameplay, but the AI is overly aggressive. There is not enough downtime in the Single Player scenarios for selecting units (would prefer if scenario timeline was frozen during this process), proper recon and map exploration and setting up defensive positions. Basically, from the beginning of each scenario, the player is bombarded with waves of incoming enemy units before waypoints can even be reached or a comprehensive strategy (short of throwing units at the challenge) can be formulated. That said, the graphics and gameplay are pretty awesome.

I am hoping there is more downtime and logistics in Multiplayer mode. If not, I also purchased Company of Heroes Gold Edition this weekend which I'm hoping has a pace more similar to Desert Rats vs. Africa Korps or Panzer General 3D.

LDF Snow Ops

2009-03-02T00:54:00.006-05:00

Snowy conditions and a highly detailed McFarlane action figure in the appropriate gear make for an ideal late night photo shoot. See Pics

Kutcher-Stupid

2008-12-13T15:29:00.004-05:00

The purpose of signing a celebrity spokesperson in commercials is twofold: to enhance the brand or product’s image and to increase name recognition of the brand through an association with said celebrity.

With those two goals in mind, I am at a loss why Nikon is using Ashton Kutcher to promote its line of cameras, specifically the COOLPIX series and higher end D60. In the D60 Wedding Commercial, a clumsy Kutcher is portrayed as capturing great shots despite his alleged lack of photography skills or professional gravitas; the message appears to be that anyone regardless of skill or intelligence can take great pictures with the D60. While the Kutcher-Stupid storyline is very effective in making this point, I wonder if Nikon is misjudging who the target audience is for its digital SLR line of cameras? The D60 SLR can range in price from $299 to over $1000 depending on the type of lenses and accessories purchased for the camera, so I doubt that Ashton-amorous teenie-bop girls is the correct demographic to be targeting.

Being in the market myself for a higher end camera, I find the silly and vapid tone of the Ashton commercials to be a detriment to the Nikon brand. Personally, I am not a fan of Ashton and would rather not have an association between the camera and a male Kutcher Barbie. While I will still consider the D60 for my next camera, I will most likely purchase a Canon model price, features and variety of lens kits being equal.

Rockn' the Holiday Season

2008-12-10T00:12:00.008-05:00

One of my favorite finds this holiday season is Rock'n Frames, a specialty e-tailer based in Payson, Utah selling hand chiseled photo frames made of various types of stone; the selection of sizes (3) and variety of stone material (3) is somewhat limited but the uniqueness of the concept more than makes for the limited selection.

I am contemplating using the rock frames for marketing some of my photos commercially, specifically images from the Tunisia Collection. The authentic natural look, weight of the stone and Flinstones general feel of the frames adds a whole new dimension to the overall presentation, especially with pictures of nature scenes or with a heavy cultural/architectural flavor.

New Hookah Clock

2008-11-15T22:53:00.005-05:00

More work at Hookahead. I am in the process of re-tooling the shop at CafePress; a new exciting addition is the Aluminum body Modern Wall Clock.

The Island Apple

2008-10-26T18:59:00.005-04:00

I finally overcame a bad case of Writer's Block today and finished an article that has been in the works since August. I published
The Island Apple at Hookahead.com

Dance-Tourette Euphoria

2008-10-26T03:48:00.008-04:00

When it comes to hyper-active nervous activity I am King. Much to the often annoyance and occasionally to the amusement of those around me, I excel at simultaneously drumming and dancing to the tune of completely original, repetitive nonsensical lyrics which I make up on the fly. My mind races at warp speed in different dimensional planes simultaneously; Its like drinking several energy drinks after chasing down a couple of No Doz caffeine pills with an Espresso.

My outbursts of eccentric highly electric song & dance earned me the nickname “Tourette’s Boy” once from a female co-worker. Add to that my often obsessive and addictive personality (or so they say), my taste in music naturally gravitates to EuroDance, Techno, Trance and Techno… anything with a turbo- fast beat, lyrics that are incomprehensible or random at best and enough repetition to hypnotize a full cage of excited gibbons during peak mating season.
I rate my latest Dance-Tourette find, which I promptly downloaded on Amazon and listened to at least 20 times on the way to work a high score of (5) Glow Sticks. Bonus points for the weird accent and the bouncing boobalas in the video production. Me Likey!!!

Writers Block & the Anti-Blog

2008-10-05T14:22:00.005-04:00

I decided to start this blog to get the creative juices rolling again. I fancy myself as someone who can write adequately however in my ever increasing quest to generate content, I find myself fatigued and metaphorically tongue-tied when trying to put words to paper. In my line of business, original content equal web traffic which in turn breathes life into the brands and websites I create. Problem is, writer’s block sets in pretty quickly when a single article involves a lengthy task list extending beyond the sometimes difficult task of writing a logically flowing, grammatically correct piece replete with graphics, photos and meta keywords for proper search engine marketing.

With writers block, the obstacle is not always creativity. My Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) riddled brain often pieces together brilliant openings and ingeniously crafted paragraphs, almost always when I am NOT in front of a word processor. Of course the moment I sit down to actually complete the task of writing the article in question, I find myself gazing at rolling tumbleweed… stuttering like an idiot-savant before wandering off into the endless reaches of cyberspace in search of inspiration.

Perhaps you think starting off a new Blog admitting to erectile-writing dysfunction is a bad omen? If so, the second part of this post is going to do nothing to ingratiate myself to the blogging community:

Until now, I have been an anti-bloggite (if you recall the famous episode where Kramer accuses Seinfeld of being an anti-dentite). Obviously, it would be difficult to continue down this path of soft bigotry given that I now actually do have a blog.

Let me clarify at this point that my distaste for the word “Blog” has little to do with the concept itself. My alienation was caused by confusion on the part of many Internet “novices” who would ask me how my political “blog” was going in reference to Capitol Grilling, a political site and discussion forum that I am co-founder of. I felt that referring to Capitol Grilling as a blog minimized the endless hours over the years it took me to design the site and build a respectable size online community. You see, a Blog by definition is generally a template site where a single writer (there are exceptions) publishes content to an audience restricted in their interaction to posting comments. My personal bias as a result relegated the blogosphere to a lesser endeavor not worthy of professional designers or writers, since I viewed Blogs as a Facebook or MySpace style exercise in self-edification; In my worldview at the time, a serious author publishing content would do so on a dedicated website with custom graphics/branding and more impersonal writing style. Of course in hindsight, my “bias” overlooked hugely successful blogs which later morphed into major professional Internet sites by virtue the large audience they developed.