Adopted by Stan Lee
A kid can dream, can’t he? I first hearing his voice from the Marvel Action Universe series on television about 20 years ago. Last night I heard him again, being interviewed by Kevin Smith. Such an exceptional, yet humble individual. According to one of Stan’s interviews,
“I go to sleep around midnight, then wake up about 5,” Lee says, pausing. “Doesn’t everybody get up that early? “
This morning I decided to do something I haven’t done in years… read a Spider-Man comic. The series I was reading was bringing up the question as to whether or not the spider that bit Peter was trying to pass on it’s power, before dying of radioactivity. Impressive how they can still bring up questions of his origin.
At the end of 5 part series, something obstructed my view of the comic page. A spider was dangling from our 16 foot ceiling, about 8 inches from the tip of my nose.
Life still has so many little surprises for me… but “No”, it didn’t bite me. I still have to get around without climbing walls or swinging on web-shooters.
Copyright Math Baffles String Theorists
Hilariously brilliant presentation on the major flaws in the calculated statistics presented by the motion picture industry.
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
If you enjoyed that, I highly recommend watching his TED talk, which has some a wonderful tale of a misunderstood artist who has become enormously successful, and demonstrates his sense of humor. Feeling impatient? Then skip to 15:00 on the TED Talk.
Thanks to Rick Jayx for reminding me of Ken Robinson.
Youtube’s Got Variable Playback Speed?
You can play at normal, double, 1.5, 1/2 or 1/4 speed. No joke. Check this link and see if it works for you.
But now that I’ve shared the link, the feature isn’t there anymore. WTF? Ok, I’m doing a video screen capture while this is still up. This is a pretty cool feature and a VERY cool feature for those that like to dissect visual effects in film OR for all the animators who are studying animation. Dear Vimeo, take note.
*UPDATE*
The Speed option is back again. It’s probably because I was jumping between browsers. I don’t see it in Firefox, but I do see it in Chrome (Chromium). I really am digging this (obviously). It seems that it’s an HTML5 feature that you have to opt in to.
Bob Flewelling: My Friend and Mentor
I met Bob over 10 years ago, during a very challenging time in my life, while I was unemployed and still studying for a new career in 3D animation. This good friend and mentor has provided me with many tools and advice that have been invaluable over the last decade. Some of the tools he referred me to include Many Lives, Many Masters, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, and (a favourite of mine) How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery by Lawrence Leshan.
I recently came across a list with a few other points of interest that he recommended to check out. I am digitizing them here for future reference.
- Global Consiousness Project at Princeton University
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepok Chopera
- A Road Less Traveled (with a summary available here)
- The Secret Life of the Brain (PBS documentary series)
- Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama by Daniel Goleman
Thanks again Bob. I hope to see you again soon.
Robbie Manson: The Mindful Designer
Another great talk on web design, that feels like it shifts a little outside of the World Wide Web. What I learned:
- We are more efficient when designing away from the computer.
- One of the techniques he uses is called “6-Up Sketching”, where you set a timer for 5 minutes and try to quickly come up with 6 unique concepts. After the 5 minutes is up, you and your team try to find the strong and weak points in each concept.
- Intent has to be balanced with Experimentation. As slick as CSS is, it’s not flexible and an accident usually results in an error, not an innovation.
My notepad…
Wilson Miner – When We Build
Wilson Miner‘s talk is about the power in design, interface and simplicity. He realizes that a website is not just a website.
I discovered this talk at a perfect time in my computing career. From I.T. support and development, to animation and visual effects… and now I am getting a little deeper into web development. I’m happy to see that the current world of web development is quite different from the world I turned my back on during the late 90s.
One of my favorite quotes that Wilson presents in this talk is from Alistair Smith.
“At times of change, the learners are the ones who will inherit the world, while the knowers will be beautifully prepared for a world which no longer exists.”
Thank you Wilson Miner. Your talk was a quick n cheap therapy session that I needed to experience.
Legos for CSS Design Patterns
Thanks to Natalie Downe‘s Practical Maintainable CSS slideshow for this inspirational idea of using Legos for design grids for laying out web pages.
MyPaint – Free and Under 10MB
Don’t be thinking that this application is a toy because… well.. it is a toy, but a very powerful one.
Download MyPaint (8.5MB) now, for Windows, Linux and Mac.
