Amazon is pretty epic for clothes

Like a true nerd I get loads of my clothes off the internet. Recently I ordered some stuff off Amazon – and they’ve got some GREAT deals. I mean, I got some Gelert (for those of you who don’t know who they are, they’re a big hiking brand) trousers for 6. Delivered. I got some Nike sports tees for 8 a piece and then a South Park tee for 12 quid. All delivered! This is some pretty slick stuff, Amazon! Just a bit more cash and I’m getting some Killers/Stereophonics stuff :P

Also, I’m thinking of selling the server I have now and buying a more powerful one. I could upgrade the RAM (I’ve found 2GB for 29.99) but really that’s awful when I could buy a whole new server from a wholesaler I know for 70 ish, with Dual Procs instead of the single I have now, and more HDD space (and faster HDDs!). So to be honest, I think I’ll buy a new server and selling the old one, or buying a new one and keeping the other and turning it into a WHS or something. It’s got 2 HDD slots, I could always bang 2xSpinpoint 1TB drives in there and use it as a backup solution? Or turn it into a gaming server, James is forever whining about those :P

So what am I doing with my life?

I was thinking while I listened to MTG today. What do I ultimately want to achieve?

What does any 15 year old boy want to achieve?

I suppose by now you’ve gotten that I’m not your typical 15 year old boy. I don’t want to be a footballer, I don’t really want to be famous… I’d like to be respected within my circles. Hell - I’d like to change the world! I’d like to be one of those people all the nerds and geeks look up to, the one with all the answers, the one who’s great at his job but also a right laugh. And to be honest, I reckon I’m quite on track to getting there.

So anyways, I was thinking.. what do I want to do?

There’re a few things.

I love graphic design. I seriously, seriously, seriously love it. I do a lot of it now,image and I’m starting to get really good at Photoshop – which is great. It’s interesting, it’s different and it’s creative. I also love user interfaces, and designing them. I’m good at it! I hate to blow my own horn, it’s so awful, but hey, I’m being frank. Designing them: yes. Implementing them: getting there. Expression Blend is amazing. I love it – but I’ve not spent much time in it recently, so I’ve gotten a bit rusty -  but I recently learnt that with Blend 3 you can import PSDs into it – which is an interesting turn, and that’s definitely something I’m interested in playing with. My problem is that I while I pick things up with relative ease, I just can’t be bothered. I need my motivation. So since I’m already pretty decent at Photoshop, and I want to get as good as I can at that, (for some reason my motivation to become the best I can at Photoshop is never-ending, I just wish it was the same for doing homework on time, or maths) being able to use Blend would sortof tie in with that.

imageI’ve also got a lot of interest in advertising. I’ve never really expressed this or explored it, but I love it. I’ve got a couple of books here about advertising campaigns, and I think they’re really clever and interesting – creating one would be a dream come true for me. After listening to MTG, I’m only more interested in doing something like that. The best thing, I think, is that I can combine both advertising and graphic design. By the way, Creative Advertising by Mario Pricken is a great book, it’s basically a picture-book of all the coolest advertisements. Great for inspiration. Great picture of me, too, right? :P

Out on a different tangent now – performances. I absolutely *love* running shows. I’ve been doing it for a good couple of years with school now, and I’ve recently done some work with M.A.D Sound and Lighting recently, and I’ve got to say, Arwel and Dafydd didn’t do anything but cement my thoughts that that could be a great, fun, unusual/interesting career. I’d hate to be cooped up in an office – I love how hands on the work is, whether it’s setting stuff up, pulling it down or just running on Red Bull fumes at midnight after working for 15 hours straight (I’ve done it, it’s great!). Not that being cooped up in my own office would be bad, I love being alone in my zone, with only messenger and GTalk and email to keep me company – I hate being interrupted from my workflow by real people. But when I’m on my PC, music blaring and creative juices flowing, I love being cooped up in an office! What I’d hate, more to the point, is being cooped up in an office doing boring crap like data entry. No offence to those of you who do data entry. It’s just it’s not my cup of tea. And I don’t like tea, so I reeeally don’t like it.

Politics. Seriously. I always thought that politics would be really boring and not really for me. But recently, with Obama being so pro-IT and the Pirate Party coming into the spotlight I’ve seen a whole new side to politics. It’s interesting – and I reckon I’d enjoy it. Then again, I wouldn’t want to be the type of sly, underhanded, rat bastard politician who effectively defrauded tax payers, I’d be the kung-fu shake up one, fighting for the right to download free-to-air television and music without the BBC or RIAA wanting to murder you! I’d be the Obama of British politics, shaking stuff up and changing our bloody retarded nation. No more welfare for lazy bastards without a job. No more fiddling the system for dodgy old codgers who want a duck island! Yeah, I’m talking about YOU. Make things fair, make things right. Would be hella cool.

So er.. discuss. I really want some opinions on this, because I’m at that bit in life where it’s really kinda important. Thanks.

This is some funky shizz

Ah c’mon, this is some awesome stuff! I’ve got to resist the urge to make hilarious jokes at this. C’mon. I’m eggagerating. OHNOIWENTTHERE.  But on a more serious note… can you imagine how hard/time consuming it was to make these speakers? Epic stuff. I bet they sound crap but… wow. Kudos just for having the vision to make something so cool!

Flickr via Gizmodo

Other funky shizz:

I’ve been doing lots of animation in Photoshop recently. So to plug my own work and promote a friends site at the same time, check out Girl Developer!

I got these from @davedelaney/www.davemadethat.com

Managing the Gray – This is a great podcast about New Media and just how the internet/social media can help your business. Even if you’re not in that game it’s great to listen to to see how the advertisements etc. around you are actually really cleverly crafted by some amazing minds.

The Bugle – John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman’s podcast is EPIC. It’s so funny I could cry. In fact, I might cry at some bits of it. You just got queen’d!

This is why Bebo sucks

<rant>image  I am neither a Penis nor a Vagina. Bebo sucked because of all this stupid crap I’d get. Basically, I think this is the most retarded crap on the planet. Seriously. Why would you create this questionnaire? Why would you take this questionnaire? How effing bored would you have to be?

I am neither. I have a penis, sure, but I am not A PENIS. How can this be “SCARILY accurate” - either way its incredibly wrong, so how can it be accurate? It’s so stupid.

This is where Facebook goes from being cool, to being effing stupid. This stuff is annoying, and I really don’t want to see them. Can’t I just get my friends updates, share some pictures, look at their profiles. Sigh :(

 

I feel like I could make a better argument out of this. I just can’t be bothered right now! :P

Making your Photoshop animations web-ready

Lloyd, you lazy rats ass! You didn’t teach us how to make our animations into GIFs for the web. Well yeah, sorry. I forgot. I’d been on granpa’s ol’ cough medicine. So here it is.

Got your animation? Good, because this tutorial is a bit useless without it.

Hit up the File menu, then go to Save for Web & Devices… or hit the stupidly complex  shortcut, Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S. To be honest, I could probably click faster than it’d take me to position my fingers in the right place.

image

A little (or large, depends on your media size) window will pop up giving you a few options.

image

You wont need a lot of the options in the side panel, if you’re sticking to simple. I’ll explain the more complex things in a later tutorial, where I’ll explore more in depth animation.

File type: pick your poison

image

Looping options and frame stepper – step through your frames, and change the options of your animation repetition. Do you want it to play once, or repeat? Just bear in mind.. repetitive animations can be a royal pain in the backend if you abuse them on your website. They might look great to you, but do they distract from the actual function of the site? Keep it in mind.

image The other stuff is a bit more complex, but like I said – that’s for another time.

Animating in Photoshop

Is incredibly simple. So here I go explaining it to you guys’n’gals!

Today I’m going to make a counter that counts down from 5, movie-style. You’re going to need to be familiar with layers, but if you’re not you’ll probably be able to follow anyway. If you can’t – that’s what comments are for, right?

Start by setting up your workspace. Head to Window > Animation and make sure it’s checked. Make sure your layers window is open too.image

I made a 640×480px canvas with a dark grey background. Make a circle on it.

Continue reading ‘Animating in Photoshop’

Team Fortress 2

team-fortress-2-4 copy Team Fortress 2 is on Steam for a free weekend, and it’s also half price – only 7 squids! Bargaintastic considering the fun I’ve had out of it (you’ll probably know I’ve been playing waaaay too much if you follow me on twitter)

So go pick it up, drop me a tweet/IM and lets play together! See you in the dustbowl..