For the past decade, I have been following my father’s lead by not drinking alcohol in January. The idea is never to give it up entirely, but to simply withhold for a month as a “check-in” with one’s self-control. Over the years, I have inspired some folks to join in on no-booze January in addition to making additional rules for myself, such as Meatless March.

It turns out that Buster Benson has had the same yearly tradition, and has turned it into a monthly online game called Health Month. The site is currently in beta, but the idea is simply to give yourself a set of rules, (no booze, 30 min of exercise / 8 glasses of water a day, etc) that you want to try to follow each month. You check in daily, and it provides statistics, reminders, and encouragement. I only started using it during the last 10 days in January, but I’m a big fan of data visualization and the idea of turning the mundane into a game…. and I really need to work out more. So at the risk of creating another digital distraction, I’ve started using Health Month.

But I still hate going to the gym, not that I’m a member of one anyway…

That’s where the second piece of the healthy resolution puzzle comes in: Still only in alpha, and started by a geeky sports enthusiast friend of mine, Gain Fitness already looks like it’s going to be great. At it’s core, (currently) Gain creates customized workout plans that take into account factors such as your sex, what type of workout you are looking for, what equipment you have on hand, and how long a workout you want. Each exercise is coupled with helpful diagrams (videos on the way) in a very clean, attractive layout. The coming beta will see updates that allow the site to track a user’s progress and make future recommendations.

Between Health Month and Gain Fitness, the tools for keeping your New Year’s resolutions year-round have never been better.
Now only if there was a way to download more time & willpower…

I remember seeing my first 3D printer at SIGGRAPH in 2002 and thinking to myself “Holy crap, this is going to be huge”. The ability to simply “print out” digitally designed objects in a single pass is already a clear boon to prototyping & manufacturing, but it’s still going to be a while before we have 3d printers atop every desk, ready to create for us whatever part, toy, or mug that we decide to download or create.

However, there are now two companies that are bridging the gap from “3D printing? What’s that?” to a fabricator in every home: Shapeways and Sculpteo allow users to upload virtual objects and order them as physical 3D objects. Additionally, both sites allow modelers to upload & sell their creations to be printed by others. Sculpteo is currently limited to white plastic and a color compound, while Shapeways adds the ability to print in glass and metal, such as the octopus ring on the right.

So to all you modelers out there: Start sellin your models as 3D objects for the world to enjoy…and feel free to send a print to me if you actually start makin some bucks doing this.

I created this custom theme for SuzE Q based on the branding previously established on her business card.
I especially like how the background splatter effect changes depending on the size of the browser window.

Less than a week until Burning Man 2010, and it dawns on me that I never posted my photos from 2009, so here they are!

For those of you attending this year, be sure to drop by Decadent Oasis at 5:30 and Esplanade.

“Burning Man 2009: Evolution” photos

The theme used for this site is just the Nonameyet theme without a sidebar…

Way of the WASP was thought up as a lark over a few beers with my brother in law.
Amused by the idea, I designed a logo and made some shirts for the whole family.

Now, those of you who also want to wear the little pink & green wasp can buy your very own WotW polo shirts! (and once you’re in the store you can check out the “choose your style and color” area to order the wasp on all sorts of other gear)

I just upgraded my server to WordPress 3, activated the multisite feature, and moved all my sites to one installation under argentumstudio.com. Some stuff is still screwy, but fixes, upgrades, and a new theme are on the way…

My Godfather was Charles Addams, creator of “The Addams Family”. Right now he’s spinning in his grave fast enough to power all of Manhattan, but to be fair, he’s been spinning for a while.

As a cartoonist, he created hundreds of bizarre & macabre works, only about 50 of which included characters now known as “The Addams Family”. TV & Movie rights were given to his second wife as part of their divorce, and, although he helped in it’s creation by naming & expanding the characters, he hated the show.

His cartoons, being single moments frozen in time, forced the observer to fill in the blanks as the punchlines and results of the actions therein were often implied rather than shown. I think he felt that fleshing out the characters cheapened his work. However true that may be, the TV show, and later the movie, were, at least, generally faithful to what he had created. Gags from his cartoons were used frequently, and the “Addams” feeling of macabre whimsy was ever-present, even as the characters were expanded beyond anything he’d ever defined.

That’s why I was particularly disappointed in the musical: so many missed opportunities to create something funny that fit into the “Addams Family” canon. By my count, only 2 cartoons were referenced, the songs were mostly unmemorable, and the story, which involves Wednesday getting all lollipops & sunshine over a boy, was an absurd departure from anything Addams. That said, the set design was amazing, and I’m glad I saw the show, especially since I had the opportunity to go backstage afterwards to inspect the sets and props. I just wished the writers had read the cartoons, watched the show, or seen the movie.

After getting home from the show, I re-watched the movie to see if fuzzy memories were sprouting unfair comparisons, and felt vindicated when 2 cartoons were referenced within the first 2 minutes. I quickly lost count of cartoon references, often unsure if a given gag was actually pulled from a cartoon, or simply felt like it was. Every character was better, but most notably, Nathan Lane can’t touch Raúl Juliá’s fantastic performance of Gomez Addams.

If you’re a big “Addams Family” fan and like musicals, go ahead and check it out. You’d probably be more satisfied buying a Charles Addams book and renting the first movie, however.

16 years ago I was thoroughly impressed by the power of Photoshop/Photostyler’s cloning stamp tool in the hands of a decent artist. Soon, however, we’ll have content-aware fill, which is really cool, despite the fact that I see myself uttering the words “back in my day” entirely too soon. (followed, of course, by “we had to manually sample/paint image elements!”)

No, I didn’t do this. But it’s totally sweet.