So, as some may know I got accepted to UNC-Asheville for the fall. I’d been trying to go for 6 years and kept getting sent back to the minor-leagues, but I graduated last month — and got called up to the majors. I had nearly given up on my dream of higher education, and now that I’m really there I find myself to be childishly excited about all of it, right down to the droll and boring aspects of registration and orientation which I completed last week.
I’m stoked about my schedule. Here it is:
- American Indian: Pre-Contact to 1840
- World Civilizations to 1500
- Macroeconomics
- Tai-Chi
- Germany: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- The United States after 1865
I hope that I am challenged and accepted by my peers. At AB-Tech, I consistently felt that I had a grasp of the material that exceeded what was expected, and there were many missed opportunities to engage the other students because they had little broader educational context to plug in to. Just ask me about some of the PowerPoint fueled presentations that I saw get passing grades. Embarassing. Edward Tufte would have croaked.
I’ll see you on campus! I’ll be the one with the big smile.
For the past two years I’ve gone to the POP Asheville Festival, and I had an awesome time both years. I blogged about it, too.
The festival right now is in a little trouble — the money kind of trouble. Now, I don’t have any money to give but if I can support a great event by talking about it here, then I’m gonna do that. Please, Asheville, support this festival — it’s one of my favorite things about living here and gives such color to an otherwise grey January. I’ve discovered great bands, had an awesome time on LaZoom, and felt like I was stealing it because it was all so cheap. So yes, I would be willing to pay more. I’d pay $25 for two nights of awesome music and bus rides. I think it’s worth that.
Also, Congrats and Good Luck to my friend and former colleague Susanne Hackett of Pollinate Consulting on being named Director of the Festival.
I really hate awful ringtones. The ones that come with your phone I believe are terrible, and I think they are purposely bad to make you spend money on the provider’s tones. And then, you pay $3–5 for 30 seconds or less of music when you can get the same song for 99 cents on iTunes — and have the entire song! So forget about all that mess.
http://www.makeownringtone.com/
Ok, I know the website is really cheesy and there are lots of ads, but the interface works very well and even though they directly e-mailed the mp3 to my phone, they haven’t spammed me. Here’s my new ringtone:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
So get rid of that stupid “Verizon Moods” factory ringtone and get a one that won’t embarass you. It’s free.
Jon Corbin of the Firecracker Jazz Band asked me to design a new poster for the band. I love designing a poster and the Firecrackers are my favorite local band, so it was a really fun project. I was initially going to go art deco, but that’s a hard milieu to swim and make it look classy and not cheesy, so I abandoned it pretty quickly.
Typography has always been my strength in design, so instead of being frustrated, I resorted to what I knew. The only typeface used is Rockwell, which looks great pulled, pushed enlarged, suggested, shown, etc. I don’t think I’ve used Rockwell previously, but it is certainly in my palette now. Only six words are used and three images, including the piano aflame image by Jason Krekel that they use as a logo.
Problem solving + creativity = design.
I love doing it.
Here’s some of my inspiration. Smashing Magazine: Breathtaking Typographic Posters
