Craig Butcher

The best Web Developer hint.

2012-02-16T13:38:00+01:00

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the steps.

Confucius

A to B

2012-02-13T13:38:00+01:00

Somehow, somewhere we all get from A to B.

The task in between is the juicy bits.

We don’t know how it gets there but it forms along the way.

Dreams, plans and sketches will be altered along the way, the initial feel of the idea changes and we ride on that seeing where it takes us.

This is what we don’t know about and we create the journey from getting to A to B.

Sometimes it is B to A and then back to B.

The toing and froing.

The mind takes over, dreaming up different ways to get to where we want to be.

Sometimes it happens in an instant.

Sometimes it takes a while.

Somehow, somewhere, we will get there.

There is no ‘end’ to this journey.

Sometimes going from A to B can lead to C and further.

The further we go, the more creative your mind can become.

People wants to make the effort of getting there where there isn’t any.

Things can happen on their own accord.

You can’t rush an idea.

Things takes time and there is a reason for that.

Some people want to dissect it to bits.

Some people just want to understand.

But for some of us, we just know it is there and learning it in a slow and consistent manner, the results gets better.

The only way to get from A to B is to be effortless.

Try it. You might be surprised.

Tweetbot

2012-02-08T22:25:00+01:00

“It just looks gorgeous on the iPad. It makes sense.”

Tweeted by @craigbutcher

Education is never enough...

2012-02-08T19:47:00+01:00

“You cannot educate anyone enough. Their natural curiosity will always prevail.”

Quote by Craig Butcher

Honeywell vs Nest

2012-02-08T13:16:00+01:00

When you want to change an existing product to the vision that you have in mind. Go ahead and be daring with it.That is what Apple has been achieving year after year. Product after products. They patented them as soon as they have the idea and act simultaneously. They are acting on impulse knowing it can change the way people do things day in day out. They refine the idea over and over and then move onto the next big thing aka where they think the puck is going.

Unfortunately, for some people, they write and do nothing about these ideas, some of them produced crass version of it without any styling and sell it.

Nest has taken on an existing idea and improved on it. It was about time somebody did this as nobody can make sense how a thermostat works. What did Nest do? They gave it a more human and friendly connection.

Honeywell went and sued Nest for patents infringements. Just as much as Motorola sued Apple for phone parts. The suing culture just never ends.

But when someone produces a better design and outlook than the next person, like Honeywell in this case, their message is saying:

“We hold the patents, we’re going to sue you for this”.

In translation:

“Shit, someone produced a better design and how it should operate. We’re fucked. Let’s sue because we got the patents”.

Remember when Apple introduced the iPhone back in 2007? The mobile phone industry knew they were in serious trouble.

Honeywell is clearly at fault here, their products as I have researched contains no innovation, clumsy set ups and dull objects marred with complicated instructions. Instead of suing, Honeywell could at least look at their product range and decided that they will have to change and adapt before it becomes a ‘catch up race’ like RIM have done.

Embracing competition is one thing, but suing will get you kicked out of the park.

Counter

2012-02-02T11:25:00+01:00

The facebook like counter is the hit counter remix from the 90s.

Quoted by Craig Butcher

iTunes? AOL? B'uh?

2012-02-01T11:25:00+01:00

Whilst firing up iTunes on the Mac the other day, the login screen for iTunes appears and that AOL logo still catches my eye.

Apple, it is time to ditch that AOL login or perhaps merge it into a single login. Clean the box up and make it iOS/Lion-ifed!

hey 2011

2011-12-31T11:25:00+01:00

I would like to talk about three things that happened this year.

First, it is about beginnings.

We moved back from Brighton to settle in rural Suffolk. We had no idea what was going to happen but we decided that we take each day as it comes. Every night before we go to sleep, it is encouraging to look at what you have done and knowing that you have lived for that day. No matter how big or small it is, it counts.

Hannah started a new job, meanwhile I looked towards freelancing. Every obstacles that occurs is a challenge for the mind, it amends your ways, it change the way you deal with people and furthermore, it hones your skills new or old into a tool for life. What it also brings in is a test of character and strength leading us to the second thing I would like to talk about. It is a subject that nobody wants to speak, almost taboo.

It is about death.

The meaning of this word can strike fear into people, it can bring comfort knowing that they are ready to leave this world and for some, it can bring many unanswered questions.

I wrote about this in The Aces and The Joker where I learnt that death brings a celebration of their life, it brings hope, comfort, strength and courage to yourself that you know that you can change the way you want to live your life in an instant.

To bring this letter to a close, I would like to talk about ‘stickiness’.

It is a beautiful and unique human connection that can make a relationship stay together. For some, people can fall apart at the first hurdle. For others, they can climb over it and deal with the next one. It is one after the other that proves that strength and bonding goes hand in hand to increase the ‘stickiness’ in relationship. We had our joys, we had our sadness, we had our fights, we found new beginnings, we let go of the old, we welcome in the changes.

2011 was the most incredible and intangible year ever.

On the subject of adverts...

2011-11-14T19:51:09+01:00

With a gentle nudge into the direction of the latest Charlie Swinbourne’s post about the Thai Life Insurance’s advert that recently causes an Internet sensation. It was disheartening at how the content that the author wrote slamming the advert as if it was a parody, a cheap shot, whatever he likes to name it.

The video in question is this:

It has a powerful emotional feeling drawing you into the mystery of a short story. Advertising as we know can be brilliant, straightforward and can do wonders at your heart strings if done right. Just like the popular Embrace Life - always wear your seat belt advert appeared last year.

What made me squirm is how HERO DEAF DAD is presented throughout – in a very cartooney way. Obviously he communicates visually, but his signs and expressions seem particularly exaggerated (that said, I’m no expert on Thai Sign Language). Strangely, for a deaf person, he seems unaware that his daughter keeps looking at him with an angry stare, until that fateful birthday.

Sign language, in its own right, is a form of expression to deliver the tone of what we are trying to say just like speech itself. When we are angry, we tend to frown easily with a sense of emotional change charging our speech and body language. When we are happy, we are compliant, open to suggestions, etc.

Sometimes, we can go unaware missing the signs what is there. You can be a right shit today, a good person tomorrow, receptive the next. The main purpose to be driven here is that we think we are perfect the way we do things where we have underlying flaws.

What really bites is the final voiceover which says: ‘There are no perfect fathers. But a father will always love perfectly. Remember to care for those who care for you.

and…

Hold on… ‘no perfect fathers’? He seems pretty perfect to me. He’s even made the ultimate sacrifice for his kin. Ah I see. Something makes him imperfect… what could that be?

What was in the advert was a humble human being who believes that he tries to do the best in life he can be for the daughter no matter what. When we are deeply flawed in something, a hidden strength in us can come out of the depth to do something great for the purpose.

We are all human and we try our best to do what is right in our lives. You cannot control the elements out there and that undeniably makes us infallible. On the flip side of the coin, are we missing out the real terms of the advert is that Thai culture sees things differently than we do?

Doers by Bruce Lee

2011-11-07T19:51:09+01:00

This never fail to make me smile.

“The doubters said,

“Man can not fly,”

The doers said,

“Maybe, but we’ll try,”

And finally soared

In the morning glow

While non-believers

Watched from below.”

Bruce Lee

The 'tache that rocks

2011-11-01T19:51:09+01:00

I am taking part in Movember, a charity that raises awareness about men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. It is a great cause and I have joined the team Reasons to be cheerful (thumbs up to Stephen Collins who is our team captain), a fantastic and up and coming show doing a tour around the country in 2012. My wife, Hannah, is taking part as Mo sista being artistic with a pen to support us.

Over the next 30 days, I will attempt to grow, groom and wax a moustache.

It is a great cause and you will gain kudos, hugs, whatever makes you glee with happiness when you donate.

Support us and watch the madness unfold!

Update:

We have done it. 30 days of growing the mo… We have raised nearly £2000 (or more by the time this update goes out!)

Here is a little video to thank you, the people, for donating.

Mondays

2011-10-31T12:09:20+01:00

It is the start of the working week that the general public puts it. Here are a few comments about this day:

“I hate mondays”

“Mondays sucks”

“I got work on monday” (said with groan)

The list goes on and on. The real question that you should be asking yourself:

“Why do I say this every week?”

Now you can have a dozen answer to this question and perhaps, the real answer is:

“Perhaps you are not doing what you are suppose to be enjoying?”

This may be a cryptic answer but think carefully about that sentence.

If you think about what you love to do, you get excited by that idea.

Now think about what you are doing now, what’s the feeling like?

It is quite the opposite.

Sometimes, people get stuck in the wrong job or doing it for the sake of working to get a source of income. That is perfectly okay, but nothing can be more frustrating to see yourself being in this routine that you don’t like. You can free yourself from this.

It isn’t an overnight process, you have to figure out how you can do the transition from your current situation to something that you love to do.

Now, what is monday again?

(Note: Bank Holiday Mondays? Count that as a extra weekend play day, you deserve it.)

Tangled Heart

2011-10-19T00:00:00+02:00

“Our hearts, do you have any idea how much of a tangled web it is?”

Drawn on 20x28” canvas.

Available for sale, please do get in touch if you are interested to buy.

Time

2011-10-15T21:27:57+02:00

I saw something interesting at the weekend that represented something that I have always noticed in life.

My wife and I was at The Window Coffee in Norwich which is the smallest coffee shop in the world, as we sat down, there were customers appearing out of nowhere.

For Hayley, the owner of the coffee shop, it seems like an incredible ordeal to go through. She became a cool and calm barista knowing those kind of people are there for one reason and that is good coffee.

Each of those customers were happy to wait, to chat among themselves, to look around the smallest room filled with coffee bags, cups, pictures. Nothing seems to trouble them at all as if it was being in the moment knowing that their coffee fixation will come.

You just can’t rush the process of making coffee. There are no shortcuts. If you are an instant coffee person, you have not tried coffee at its best.

The principle of producing good coffee is the same as making a cup of tea, making dinner, designing a product, producing websites, etc. If you rush through the process, you will have no understanding or thought into the way you do things.

By understanding this simple principle, you will discover that the finishing product will be worth it in the end.

Out with the old, in with the new

2011-10-05T00:00:00+02:00

I cannot think of a way to express my thoughts here about the passing of Steve Jobs.

This year has been quite emotional and sometimes hard to take at times. I wrote about The Aces and The Joker earlier this year about my personal losses and how I dealt with it all. My wife, Hannah, and I have been an incredible amount of strength for each other throughout this year and have a deep sense of belief that we are going to get there. Along the way, we all know that death is inevitable as Steve Jobs talked about this subject at his 2005 Sanford commencement address and one of the many lessons to do something about your life.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

R.I.P Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

Getting smarter

2011-10-04T00:00:00+02:00

During the keynote, I have been watching the world buzzing away in hope of the 5th version of the iPhone to appear where Apple announced the 4S.

The uproar was amazing to watch.

People have been expecting too much of Apple to bring out something totally new to the game. Everyone jumped in, everyone wants a piece, everyone read everything. They believed in the rumours.

Every rumour I have read about the iPhone 5 were completely absurd. There was the talk about the teardrop style design which looks great but useless in the real world use. It is all about practicality.

We have reached the technology ceiling again with the 4S. New A5 chip, new camera, HSDPA, a world phone, battery, the list goes on. Apple kept the spec talk to a minimum because they want to demonstrate the real meaning of this keynote.

Siri.

The personal assistant.

The ultimate item that appeared in numerous Sci-Fi shows and films like Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Red Dwarf* and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

The details about this are sketchy at the moment and it will be interesting to see how this works when the keynote appears on Apple’s website.

* I have to include this brilliant British sci-fi comedy show. After all, Holly is a computer that isn’t too sure of anything.

The Way Of The Vintage

2011-10-01T00:00:00+02:00

This Vintage lark is a bit of fun no?

Drawn on 12x9” canvas.

Available for sale, please do get in touch if you are interested to buy.

Geek post

2011-09-26T00:00:00+02:00

The website went through a couple of changes involving the layout and presentation. I was using WordPress to drive the website until I discovered Jekyll and Markdown. I have played with it for a couple of days and decided it was good enough to switch over.

What is Jekyll? From the repository, it says:

“Jekyll is a simple, blog aware, static site generator. It takes a template directory (representing the raw form of a website), runs it through Textile or Markdown and Liquid converters, and spits out a complete, static website suitable for serving with Apache or your favorite web server.”

That means that every page on this website is now static which means that it will be delivered to your screen quickly. The search box is now linked to Google, drawer (and soon to be button clicker) has the infinite scroll with jQuery Masonry showing past work I have done in a very neat animation.

Also, it means I can get to be a geek again for about 5 minutes.

A revelation

2011-09-19T00:00:00+02:00

After a year returning to the web industry, learning and working with design and development picking up contracts in decent sizes. It is amazing how web browsers has reached modern web standards at last. Among the changes, we have gone fully mobile at last.

This means learning new skills and applying it to our existing methods or completely innovate the way we deal with websites.

The portfolio based here at web tailor has grown in the past few months and the views on web design and development has changed completely. Every website that was built has the common standard of headers, content, links, images, everything you need to put a website together. Every client is different, every layout is different, every idea is different. That is the very thing that I love about web designing and development because the challenges are fun.

With a growing portfolio, I decided it was time to apply for web positions at companies to go further into the industry. After dozens or so applying around with very few interviews leading nowhere, I have decided to stick two fingers up to the web industry.

The industry is huge with competitions swarming everywhere, it is becoming a common place for anyone to get involved in. Anyone can label themselves as a web designer to use some software and set up camp. If you are in it for the money then forget it, you don’t have the passion or belief to do this. If you care that much, you want to be kicking and screaming to produce something.

Where people online are looking in one direction, it is best to look the other way to see what we are missing. It seems cliché but it is true. It is time to rethink everything about the web nowadays. Granted it takes a lot of work to do so but the rewards are huge at the end of it.

I am going to start focusing on a personal and creative project that I have been meaning to do for sometime and I am looking forward to it. Exciting times are ahead and I am going to enjoy the ride.

Creative Connections

2011-07-27T00:00:00+02:00

A commission drawing for the up and coming web agency Creative Intent based in the beautiful Southwold, Suffolk.

Zigs 'n' Zags

2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00

Could somebody stop them?!

The Cloud

2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00

As we are heading towards the Post-PC era, I can imagine it will be colourful like this.

Oh... hello

2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00

They are out and looking around while posing for the camera.

Available to buy. If you are interested, please do contact me.

Digital Handprint

2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00

Digitised!

Complexity

2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00

Singularity complexity non?

Coffee Monster

2011-07-17T00:00:00+02:00

I drew this after drinking one strong black coffee while laughing like a maniac.

That sound.

2011-07-12T00:00:00+02:00

Hearing is a mystery. The complete mindset is perhaps developed there because it enables further enrichment to our lives. We have the other senses such as smell, touch, feel, look but hearing is the best one out of the pack of five. If you want to ask myself the experience of this, I am still exploring as the rest of the world is.

The world can be a noisy place as the moment I switch on my hearing aids. Click, beeps, sound rushes in like turning up a volume on the car stereo. The rush of sounds, the brain’s computer cpu spikes dealing with those sounds, the eyes pupils widen, the body jolts into a sense of mini stress, anxiety and decreases as in matter of seconds inspecting or learning to ignore sounds.

Sounds are so important in our lives because it helps us to understand where we are. It is in the same league as look as look is in the same league as smell, etc. You know when you are about to taste something, your eyes are looking, your ears are taking in the sound of yourself crunching and the orgasmic hunger sounds takes over your body’s senses of indulging in the piece of food.

Stripping away the sound, it becomes isolated in matter of seconds. Communication goes out the window, the mistakes comes in understanding words, sentences falls to pieces in an instance. Nothing makes sense until you realise you are at an advantage. You are no longer hearing the world and you are sitting in silence. The silence that you have craved for so long that other people want.

The silence brings in intense waves of emotions of clear thoughts as they echos around the mind, the eyes widen looking at colours that bleed beautifully from everyday objects, the mind whizzes at a speed as it takes it all in. You observe people more, you observe nature more, you observe tiny things that you thought you knew became microscopic.

Sounds become distance material, a material that presents a different level of sound. A booming sound in the distance becomes a muffle, the clumps of the feet pounding the floors disappear into nothing as the sound waves whooshes past our head. The slam of the door closing become rich in bass hitting our ear drums in matter of nanoseconds.

For some people, they cannot handle the silence and rely on digital hearing aids that gives them the artificial sound, are they experience hearing for real or the microchips given them false impressions? Is our hearing different? Are you experiencing the sound of singing the same as the next person? Is it all emotional attachment per words? If I say “love” what does your hearing takes it as? A word? An emotional rush to the brain? Chemicals shifts? The brain hums quietly when we listen in different spades.

With sound comes with feelings. Sound waves travels everywhere like tiny ping pong balls, our ears catches them where inside the brain cells decipher into sections of translation codes to absorb. Will we ever learn what that sounds mean in a different way? What if we are hearing those sounds in a false way? Is our brain telling us something else that we never understand?

When we dream, do we hear anything? I do. I hear beauty as much as a blind person dream of seeing (this could be false but one never knows how much they want to see as much as we want to hear), the rest of the world may not understand what it is like to be given something so precious in the beginning become an every day tool. If you ask a photographer, they say it is the way of seeing, if you ask a musician, it is a way of hearing, if you ask a chef, it is the way of taste and smell and if you ask a blind person, it is a way of touch.

Will we ever reach perfection of senses? Maybe. We are always evolving, ever changing in senses, our bodies is constantly evolving at a slow rate that we never notice per millennium. In time, society will be offering us a choice or a default must-have option to correct our faults at birth to be part of a human race to be perfect. This is what mankind have been striving for years and it will become a waking life before anyone notice that it is an extreme act of madness to modify the brain to absorb in everything.

And that extreme act of madness comes with belief. Look at the past and you will see madness has changed the way we do with tools, life and beyond.

Wear stuff out

2011-07-04T00:00:00+02:00

I have been a fan of howies for a few years, I have bought a fair amount of items from them and the motto I have learnt from everyone is to “wear stuff out”. As I am a minimalist learning how to keep clothes down to a minimal of 15 (except socks and boxers), I cannot believe how many items that still last.

For example, this jean (100% organic cotton) from the small company based in Cardigan, Wales. I bought this back in 2007 and it is still going strong apart from the colours fading gracefully over the years through countless washing.

This cost me around £80 and for that kind of quality, cheap jeans of £20 or so would have fallen apart within a year. I bought another pair back in 2009 that is still going strong with the same colours intact, it is a wonder how quality can be something that is worth paying for.

Other howies items that lurks around the wardrobe are the classic “Smile [resistance is futile]” and wonderfully worded “Get Excited And Make Things” tees as well as Kick Back shorts and Westerlies outdoors slacks. All the other tees of howies ended up as recycle products by Hannah (my zany australian wife of AuburnRoo). The best example was that she produced this amazingly cool MacBook Pro case from my old howies tees as seen below.

How neat is that? By recycling your items into something refreshing to carry around is quite an unique experience.

If I was to part with the item that I no longer wear, it goes through the list:

Can we make something else from it for us to keep?
eBay for cash to replace the item or save for a rainy day.
If the item isn't sellable at all then it is a good idea to give it away.

Wear stuff out? I agree.

Tardis Roadmap

2011-06-29T00:00:00+02:00

The TARDIS roadmap at 12”x9” after deciding that the roadmap is bigger than I thought.

A Vintage Life

2011-06-29T00:00:00+02:00

The vintage times are ahead again.

Update: The good times are rolling in as this work has been sold! Super nice!

Here is the work in the vintage style frame before it flies away to the new owner.

The Aces and The Joker

2011-06-17T00:00:00+02:00

If you are going to be dealing with life itself, the trick is to have the joker ready in your pack.

Because that card is the deal breaker.

To understand that clearly, this is one and the only way of explaining this to you.

In the last few weeks, I have dealt with 4 personal deaths in the family.

Our son, Joshua, was one of them.

My wife, Hannah and I went for a routine 20 weeks scan and was aware of the look on the consultant’s face. The gut feeling inside of me knew we were about to face with a traumatic time. What the case was, we had to wait a few days later after being referred elsewhere for an in-depth scan.

I never forget sitting in the room with Hannah with her parents when we were told the news that our baby cannot survive throughout the pregnancy due to Edward’s Syndrome.

To be dealt with the full aces, the emotional and physical state of our minds was nothing we could be able to deal with. When Hannah cries, I support her. When I cry, she supports me. The very simple dynamic part of our marriage is based on this motion to gather strength from one another is what being human is all about.

Joshua was born peacefully on 16th June and to see such a tiny figure the size of my hand was magical as we could figure out whose lips it is, whose nose is that, look at those tiny toes! To see the baby is not what we think is distressing where it turns out to be acceptance as part of the grieving process. Right now, we are relieved and knowing that he is safe without complications, Hannah looking marvellous as she ever been and for myself?

I had the joker card. The card that I say “enough is enough” to life to deal me with those aces.

From today, the world looks completely different.

The kind where you know things are just going to be alright from now on.

The Chair

2011-05-30T00:00:00+02:00

My Nan passed away recently.

98 years of age. A long innings. A incredibly long one at that.

I saw her a couple of times in hospital and all she was saying that she wants to go home to her chair. She was going senile and it was listening to a broken record on loop.

The chair. A central point of her life. If you had something in your life time, it is always going to be one thing you will be focusing on.

An hour before Nan died, I went in to see her and she was drifting in and out of consciousness. Every time she was awake, she said “I want to go home”. Everyone including myself said “You will go home soon”.

I had an eureka moment.

When she asked me the question on loop, I said “You can go home any time you want. Maybe in an hour.”

Within that hour, she died.

It was strange that a question that was searching for the answer and I found it for her.

She took peace in that.

I went back to Nan’s place and the only thing was staring at me was that chair.

The chair of laughter.

The chair of wisdom.

The chair of memories.

Changing tactics

2011-05-24T00:00:00+02:00

Being a deaf person myself and after reading Charlie Swinbourne’s article “Cinemas are letting deaf people down”, it was hard to relate to this because it is a common problem for deaf people to target and put the blame onto others.

With relying on the cinema staff, deaf people would expect them to do all the work to improve the accessibility and the crying crowd would be satisfied with a bottle of happiness.

Not so. Cinema and staff are not fully aware or trained in this area of expertise. It is an issue that deaf people can address for them. Think how you would improve it for them, everything on this planet is for you to tell them how they can improve. With each improvement, everything will start getting better, better, better.

Think about this. It would be a great idea that when you watched a subtitled film at the cinema. Voice your happiness to the staff, tell them how you thought it was, tell them that it would be great to go and see a repeat showing on a certain day. They will get it. Trust me, the power of talk/signing can go a long way rather than a disgruntled person complaining about the lack of standards.

Think how you would feel that a person come up to you and wreck your day by saying you are not doing your job properly. Think how you would feel by that. That is what is happening right now and they don’t feel that from you. Now translate this to that hearing person behind the kiosk, they would become more defensive and more likely not to bother with you.

Start telling them how you think they could improve it.

Start making them feel good about themselves and they will get it.

The staff will remember you this way.

In order to change the way of how cinemas provide great services, we need an attitude change on both side of the fence.

They can’t do anything without you.

Nor you can do anything without them.

The original TARDIS roadmap

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

I think the next version will be ones, zeros and a couple of circles.

Update! The bigger version on 16” x 12”!

Star Wars? Death Star?

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

I think Darth Vader would approve this artwork. Providing he has got colour vision in his mask…

Square Off

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

Anything to compete on paper.

Single Serving

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

+++

Show Off

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

They are like this all the time.

Poirot's Little Grey Cells

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

I did wonder how it would look like.

Neptune Submarine

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

+++

Forest Blocks

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

+++

Ever Changing

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

We are always ever changing.

DNA Tree

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

A new take on the science world.

Disco Lights

2011-05-12T00:00:00+02:00

At nights, they like to perform as disco lights.

An open letter to the entertainment industry

2011-05-11T00:00:00+02:00

To the entertainment industry,

For the past year, I have slowly become a minimalist which meant chucking out a lot of stuff that I did not need and it reached a point where I gave away my films, TV collections and the DVD player away. Keeping a physical copy does not make sense where I can grab it a copy online and watch it via Apple TV. It makes perfect sense that we can grab anything at any time.

This sneak little black device has changed the way we enjoy TV. Easier to access, beautiful presentation and it does not get in your way.

But one thing is holding myself back from buying or hiring content on iTunes or LoveFilm online.

And that is subtitles (or known as closed captioned in the US).

My wife and I are hearing impaired and having this option present is important to us. I had a good look through the iTunes UK store and only find that 208 films are subtitled. For TV? Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

Lovefilm? Absolutely nothing.

The choices of films that are subtitled on iTunes are sparse with big blockbusters films such as Tron: Legacy, The Social Network and Black Swan.

What if we want to see The Godfather? The King’s Speech? Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1?

What if we want to watch classic TV shows like Life on Mars? The Mighty Boosh? Big Train?

We can’t. We are left out here. If you want to experience how we feel. Watch a film or TV show and turn the sound off. Watch it from start to finish.

How do you feel?

Frustrated?

That is our frustration and we cannot wave it aside because we want to be part of the experience that everyone is having.

Subtitles are there to help us to understand and be part of the film community.

Subtitles are there for the international audience to understand.

Subtitles are educational.

It is time to step up, get more subtitles implemented into those films and tv shows and who knows?

You could end up being the leading standard in this industry to provide this for the international audience online.

Thank you for reading.

Craig

Updates - 20th September 2011

Decided to rent a film, Hanna, on the new Apple TV as it was subtitled/captioned. The result? The service is very easy to use and the subtitles are bang on perfect. Let’s hope there will be more subtitled/captions films coming soon.

Updates - 18th May 2011

Lovefilm has replied!

Dear Craig,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the availability of subtitles with our watch online service.

I would firstly like to offer my apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment caused.

I can confirm that we do we plan to make our service more accessible to customers who are hearing impaired. At this stage, it is prohibitively costly, and likely to be breach of license agreements, for us to unilaterally develop and implement open or closed captioning for our on demand titles but we will continue to raise this with our licensors. It is worth noting that nearly our entire VOD catalogue is duplicated by our DVD catalogue and most DVDs have some form of English language subtitling and, in some cases, full captioning.

I am sorry that at this time I have no further information relating to this although any changes that shall be made shall be communicated via our website. If you have any other questions or queries then please contact us again.

My thoughts:

If Lovefilm knew that it would be costly, it would have been a good idea to implement it in the first place to avoid further cost?
License agreements? I don’t understand. Is this preventing further development to display subtitles to us, the audience? Whatever the matter is, it should have been long resolved years ago.
Subtitles/Captioning is still a dark issue for everyone. The kind that is at the bottom of the ‘to do’ list.

I have been writing and rewriting this paragraph for the past 15 minutes because I want to increase the awareness for the need for subtitles/captioning. If you want to talk the business side of it, you will be making money out of this by providing this additional service and set the standard for the industry.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at Netflix at how they have developed this for the iOS app (iPhone/iPad). As it is only 30% of their library, it is a great start for them.

Apple, I believe it is your turn to talk about iTunes. I’m interested to hear from you. Let me know your thoughts via my contact page.

Expand your creativity

2011-05-08T00:00:00+02:00

How creative are you?

Let me rephrase that.

How creative are you today?

I saw a this time lapse video on Vimeo named “The City Limits” via twitter (mentioned by @Lambda_Ry) and it is amazing to watch. Although, I should mentioned the fact that I had the sound off when viewing it and noticed my sound box in my brain was mimicking the sound effects of the cars, the light changes, even it was making its own soundtrack to this.

Then when I put the sound on to accompany the video, I’m hypnotised already.

I call this alternative creativity inspired by what is already there but filled in with my own imaginary sounds.

Have a go by turning the sound off when you watch a film, TV or online content. Let your imagination take over for once. It may not be doable at first, just let your mind wander and before you know it. You feel like a kid again with cool and silly sound effects.

Smile

2011-05-06T00:00:00+02:00

A week ago, howies has a phone photo competition and it was left in the back of my mind thinking “I’ll enter something in soon”. Due to the little cells in my brain, I ended up doing my web tailor work, typing up posts for Gradual Panic, running around, cooking gorgeous food for the other half and the bambino, and of course, getting things done.

After having to nip out to the town, the first thing I felt was the warm humid breeze, sun shining down and I remembered the t-shirt I was wearing with the print “Smile (resistance is futile)”. The power of suggestion can truly work and when it works, it is truly magical. A simple and basic human expression that does wonders.

A quick snap on the iPhone, processed through the microchips inside the iPhone and I got a picture that I am quietly proud of.

Then the competition I remember came back to me. I checked the e-mail when is the closing date and it was 3rd May. I didn’t feel pooey about it because I looked back at what I had done in a week and it made me smile with one thought.

Life is good.

Repairing Japan

2011-04-27T00:00:00+02:00

Drawn on white board, gel pens.

The Stage

2011-04-20T00:00:00+02:00

I won something today.

It’s called the “Welcome Back” award.

The kind where you know about yourself and you fought hard to get to that stage.

The stage of where you have left during your lifetime and now you are back on there.

The character is called Confidence.

Confidence is scary.

Confidence can be amazing.

Confidence is what we practice every day.

We all know this.

There are days where confidence can leave us for a while and we look around for it.

Some people just don’t know where it goes and they leave the stage for a while.

We shouldn’t worry at all about this.

Because when the moment calls, our confidence can wander back in with a renewed sense of purpose.

Purpose helps us get us back on the stage.

The stage is always there and we grow old with it.

As time goes by, you become familiarise with the stage.

And that stage is our life.

Experience

2011-04-14T00:00:00+02:00

I have been looking at what I have been doing throughout my life and what made me get to each stage. How did I get to that point and what I was driven by?

It is called experience.

Last night, my wife and I went to see the Derren Brown performance “Svengali” at Norwich Theatre Royal. The only noticeable difference is that we are hearing impaired so when it comes to performance like this, an interpreter would be suitable for us. After a few e-mail exchanges with the theatre, it wasn’t possible to have an interpreter because Derren is what you call unpredictable. You have no idea what he would do!

We went ahead to go for the experience and it was the best move we have done. By just going and being positive about this. We understood what he was going to do, we watched him perform them and we were interacting immediately from the start.

What happened there?

The trick was that we have seen his shows before on TV. We have experience in dealing with people via lipreading and watching body language throughout our lives. Our brain became so wired to this (think 10,000 hours) that we were able to understand this plus the fact we can kind of predict what is about to be said. The brain reaction can be incredibly sharp to respond before we notice what is happening.

Experiences moves us and help understand our limits in life. It also breaks our nature set of laws we built for ourselves.

Experiences are happening all the time, you are reading this post.

Start investing into experiences and remember to accept whatever happens, it is something you can learn from.

The Next One

2011-04-07T00:00:00+02:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the very best of… no wait, that’s an album cover. Bit too cliché.

We are so excited to announce the news of our baby which is at 12 weeks and a couple of days!

Here is the photo below… Say hi!

Update:

Unfortunately, our beautiful baby boy Joshua passed away peacefully on June 16th 2011. To understand, please read “The Aces and The Joker”.

See you soon.

City of Chaos

2011-04-02T00:00:00+02:00

Drawn on white board, gel pen.

Grannies Wisdom

2011-03-31T00:00:00+02:00

Grannies are great because they offer word of wisdoms.

Although some of them can be off their trolleys and then we all look at each other wondering what the heck is going on.

Remember, they have been through a lot of things, saw changes, say unknown sayings from the past and the list goes on.

They do have this amazing tendency to act like children sometimes which shows their true youthful side that they haven’t lost.

So we raise our cups to the grannies. Keep on telling us your word of wisdom, your useful gardening tips, your memories and the view of the world from your eyes.

Get Excited and Make Things!

2011-03-30T00:00:00+02:00

Back in 2009, Matt Jones produced this beautiful and simple idea who got inspired by reading The Guardian article about the famous “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster. I absolutely love this as it is one of my motto and I purchased a tee via howies® a few months ago in gorgeous tomato red colour.

If you aren’t aware of this, then let me show you the poster in the original online form:

I’m telling you this.

Print this off and stick it on your wall in your office so everyone can see it.

Make it your wallpaper background on your computer.

Show everyone this when they are stuck in a rut.

This is the motto you have been looking for today!

Improving accessibility within photography multimedia

2011-03-27T00:00:00+01:00

I wrote all this back in May 2010 when I decided to speak out what I really thought about all this and where it is going, how to improve it in many ways. It is amazing how much in a year that accessibility within multimedia has gone strength to strength. The realisation and the power of the iPad has gave this a much needed kick to improve the standard.

Read on, indulge and have a good look at your offering for today’s audience. Please do contact me if you have something to contribute towards this or have something profound to say.

First of all…

I have to mention that I am an advocate in web accessibility and am not clearly impressed by the current offering that audio slide shows that exists today. They are broken, literally broken, that it does not deliver the work in full quality.

This may sound like a harsh statement and I want you to think positively on how we can improve it. Today’s devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Android phones (including up and coming Android tablets if they materialise), they are fast becoming the product of accessing and viewing your work anywhere in the world.

What is wrong with existing audio slide shows?

You have an edited collection of photographs and audio from your documentary shoot then you compile it altogether in a Flash audio slide show player, display it online to the world on your website, you dive through your contacts to spread the word and you sit back to admire your work. What is wrong with this picture? You forget who your audience are.

Your audience are the main staple diet, the driving force to propel you, the photographer, upwards to recognition. Let me tell you this, if you are reading English as your first language, congratulations, you are one of the many people who are just 3rd in the world of the languages. The world’s number one language is Chinese followed by Spanish as second. The list is huge and you have to remember that everyone does not use English as their first language. That is fine as long the fundamental basic of the English language is there.

And when it comes to web technology, Flash is immediately your top choice to promote your work because it is easier to put it all together and upload it up online. This is presuming you think the world audience are using Flash on their computer. What about people who do not have Flash installed on their computer or using mobile devices? How are you going to show your work from that point?

Why am I telling you this?

It would not have bothered me too much, but I have a lifetime hearing impairment that when it comes to multimedia like TV, online streaming (YouTube, BBC iPlayer) and cinemas, subtitles are available to complete the whole picture of what is there. For a better understanding of this, watch a foreign film without subtitles or put on any film and turn the sound off (don’t cheat, put on a film you have never seen before). The chances are that you will be struggling to watch it all without a clear understanding within less than a minute.

I am a strong believer that subtitles is for everyone and for the international audience too. For a long time, it was widely misunderstood that it was for the deaf people and for world cinema. People forget the misconception that not all of us can understand the language spoken in their videos.

What can we do to improve the situation?

To understand this problem, I will introduce you to a varieties of audio slide show currently available online.

To bring back one example from my previous post is Media Storm. Each work is immensely thought provoking with stunning photography work with a transcript for you to read alongside the video. The screenshot below is an example how I am following the video.

The left window contains the video and the right contains the transcript. This can cause a few headaches since you would be tracking the transcript in a separate window while trying to watch the video. I naturally adapted to cope with this quite easily, although, this technique is not particularly useful in the long term. There are other ways that this can be much easier to ‘read’.

Update: March 2011

Good on Media Storm! They went and updated their player. Although, it is still in flash and it is a great start.

The second example is DuckRabbit. They are the only journalism/production company in the UK and their training to work with photography and audio are simply stunning. I have seen some videos that is just jaw-dropping rich, especially with videos from other countries with foreign voices with the translation on the screen. This is what I am talking about how to offer translation/subtitles like the screenshot below:

Now to be constructively fair about this, I have seen other examples that has English voices being talking while using the ‘captions’ option to display what was being said in the audio. This means there is a delay per photograph, perhaps in order to allow people to ‘read’ what was being audibly said. I must stress that using ‘captions’ are to display what the photo is about in description rather than subtitling.

Whilst exploring other audio slide shows on the website, I came across one slide show that demonstrate confusion in between displaying caption descriptions of each image and spoken voice, your brain will be trying to interpret two ongoing information.

The BBC audio slide show player also demonstrates this.

Those beautifully crafted work can reach its full potential once subtitles are offered there and then. I believe that it should be compulsory for multimedia work by photographers to insert subtitles in their work. And for that reason alone, I will explain why.

Why should it be compulsory?

In terms of web accessibility, it is easy for person to view a website, read text, listen to news article, moving the mouse to click on links, etc. When it comes to myself, a person with a lifetime hearing impairment, that world is suddenly different. You have my visual attention to the screen, my eyes are scanning for texts for bits that means something to me and then, I get to click on a news video article or an audio slideshows with pictures. When I click play, I hear a ‘foreign language’ and quickly click on the subtitles button to bring up text to recognise the foreign language and I’m set to understand everything.

I am only one of the many examples of disability out there, there is a wide range of people with disability such as blindness, short sighted, motor control issues, etc to view anything goes online. We are solely focusing on the issues of subtitles on this matter.

Having mentioned these points, it is fair to raise the issue of legal implication based in the UK according to the Disabled Discrimination Act:

5.26 (p68): “For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include … accessible websites.” (note: this applies to visual impairments as well)

What does this mean in simple layman terms? In a way, it means that your website is accessible on terms of layout, fonts, colours and your video(s)/audio slide show does not contain subtitles. This means your website does not pass the[link] web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) as explained:

“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.” - WCAG20

Note: This varies per country for example, in the US, it is Section 508. In Australia, it is Australia Disability Discrimination Act.

Designing for now and the future.

The future of the web is constantly changing as new modern web browsers are demonstrating the latest technology of HTML5/CSS3. And for some time, YouTube, Vimeo and many other websites has HTML5 video ready in order to show content to the user without the need of Adobe Flash. To add weight to this argument, Apple’s mobile devices has the capabilities to display HTML5/CSS3 goodness and their recent unveiling was the iPad.

We know clearly for a fact that Flash has no place on mobile devices and the solution to replace this is to use HTML5 <video> tag. The technology is new and it is available for us now to use.

After a few hours of research online exploring the idea of the HTML5 video tag, I have found the HTML5 video subtitles experiment by Ilias Ismanalijev which uses javascript to display the subtitles timing sync in the video. However, each web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera) has their own video UI that does not help the user visually wise.

I have tested and observed various UI skins that is easy compiled using CSS to overlay the current player that web browsers are using such as OIPlayer and various others.

The result is all very clear to see and the work flow goes like this:

Produce your multimedia via your choice of video/audio software (Aperture 3, Final Cut, iMovie are great examples). You can produce Quicktime and OGV movies easily.
Produce a subtitles file. It is very simple to do and require basic knowledge to learn how to produce excellent timing of displaying the subtitles to the voices.
Produce the web page with basic HTML/CSS coding.
Put the content online and do essential PR work.

What skills would you gain from this?

You will gain skills in producing a subtitles file, how to produce excellent syncing of displaying subtitles to the voices and knowledge in basic HTML/CSS coding.
You will gain more awareness of how your work is presented to the audience.
You will gain a sense of pride in knowing that your work is fully accessible and that extra mile is worth it.

To conclude, the essential key aspects to take note of:

It should be compulsory for multimedia work by photographers to install subtitles into their audio slide show work. This, I strongly believe should be taught during any photography courses especially in modules that focus on promoting their work using websites.
It is best to try and avoid using Flash where the web is moving forward onto new technological grounds. Imagine demonstrating a beautifully structured HTML5 audio slide show player with subtitles options available on the Apple iPad which will give you an advantage lead in the provision of information.
Your audience is the world and that includes those who are reliant on subtitles.

I hope I made an impact into changing the way you view multimedia online and remember, technology is constantly improving and changing to new standards. Embrace this and you will find yourself ahead of the competition.

The wallet of your dreams

2011-03-21T00:00:00+01:00

If you are here to find out the wallet of your dreams, then you have come to the right place because the idea of this is simple and cheap. If you are looking for a fashionable, charcoal felt, leather trimmings and all that, then I suggest for you to look elsewhere and perhaps rethink what you are trying to do with your life (need vs want).

I have owned a fair amount of wallets in the past and they are all badly designed in terms of size, design and colours. Those kind of wallets are overpriced that you know you will not exhibit them in public.

And now, without a moment hesitation, this is my wallet.

It is an elastic band. A strong and cheap elastic band that holds only my cards and notes.

If you think I am barking mad, have a look at your wallet again and look at the photo above how light and compact it is. Where are the coins? I don’t carry a fair amount of them, take a look at Do no.12 and no.13. As soon I get home, I sort out the coins and keep the ones I know I will spend.

With this easier and lighter option, it is a good quick way to eliminate what you are carrying in your wallet. Therefore, you probably would wonder why you are keeping cards that has no sentimental value to you at all.

Business cards

2011-03-14T00:00:00+01:00

When we receive or pick up business cards, they seem to be confined to the drawer, bottom of the bag or misplaced for a while. Why business cards has become a burden in today’s modern world, we just don’t know.

There are many creative business cards that are shown online redefining how to represent yourself to the public. In this case, I have my own version created in the style of a bookmark as show in the photo below:

This grabs people’s attention in seconds. It may appear to be strange at first and remember, it is all about first impression. The finishing touch was the ribbon to give the idea of the tailor part.

Recently, I was at a local cafe/bar which I believe should have its own website and got chatting to the staff there. They were keen as local musicians and DJs always appear in the cafe/bar at nights. I looked for my business card in my bag and could not find anything. The only contents I had in the bag was a notepad and pen and with this, I did the on the fly business card.

The front:

The back:

I was pleasantly surprised at what I have completed in a matter of minutes because it was random and unique. By doing this, inspiration can appear out of nowhere and by drawing/writing, it shows to them your personality.

I must say that the staff loved it while I was grinning at the thought of what I have wrote because it drove me to write, draw and design more on paper.

The freedom to create and show is a powerful act in the making. And boy, do I love it.

Downtime

2011-03-01T00:00:00+01:00

On 24th February 2011, I was diagnosed with an acute appendix, this has no effect on me at all because I was very keen for the surgeon to take it out. I was delirious with pain not knowing the full implication of what the organ can do apart from the fact ‘it is a useless part of the body’*

After spending 2 days in bed recovering moving very little as it was exhausting to use every muscle in the body. I found out the results of the operation which blew my mind and it was so infected that it would have reached bursting point within 2 weeks. Any time before the operation or up to two weeks was life threatening.

I spent a day in shock and disbelief about the entire thing. It was something that I never experienced in my life and with the support of my wife, Hannah, family and friends, I have made it and the road to recovery has begun.

Coming to terms with this is the tricky part and what is happening with myself is that I am embracing life more than before. I rediscovered my faith and belief in myself that I knew it would come back after being so absent for years.

I do believe that I am no longer alone and have accepted that being on your own those days is not a big issue, you discover the true core of yourself. As the Tao of Pooh mentioned that we all need to seek this in order to understand. Just let things be and enjoy that time there and then.

What I have learnt along the way was:

Asking questions always contains more questions than answers ~ it is down to you to accept the Cottleston pie or go up that spiral of knowledge trying to be like Owl.
Creativity comes in waves. When it happens, it’s surf time.
You no longer worry about things ~ this is the beauty of life.

Recovery is brilliant downtime. I was worrying about my freelance work for a few hours and my amazing wife and PR, Hannah, dealt with it all. The responses was all full of get well soon messages.

To bring this post to an end, I would like to express my thanks to the hospital staff keeping myself well along with everyone else wishing me well, you know who you are.

* Ongoing research shows that it can be useful as it ‘houses’ good bacteria.

Good software makes us happy

2011-02-15T00:00:00+01:00

What is amazing about good software is that they have the tendency of making us happy.

Over the last decade, I have seen software improved in so many ways that it is unimaginable what we were using back in the 1990s and the early 2000s. There is so much to learn from what software can do for us.

For this, I want to focus primarly on Mac OS X and iOS apps.

They are designed with minimalism.
They are easy to navigate with chock full of hidden extras.
That’s about it.

Take a good look at Alfred App. See how clean and manageable this software is?

It doesn’t get in my way. For example, I call up the dictionary using ‘define tea’, what about finding the correct version of Firefox or Safari? Easy.

Another beautiful example is RipIt to show how easy it can be to rip a DVD and compress for Apple TV, iPhone or iPad.

That is all I want to do. I have time to do other things. Other software such as Coda, Transmit, Pixelmator and Sparrow are gorgeous and powerful to use that you can get on with what you want to do.

On the iOS platform, Flipboard is an insanely beautiful social magazine for your iPad because the thought process is so fluid that it does not get in your way. You can pick it up any time to read at your own pace. Other iOS apps such as Mail, BBC iPlayer, Twitter and The Guardian Eyewitness are evidence that producing well designed and minimalism apps do make us happy.

Smelling the breeze

2011-02-04T00:00:00+01:00

One of the family’s dog, Amber, is about to become 17 years of age on March 1st and that is about 119 in dog years.

She has gone deaf and blind a couple of years ago.

Yet she still lives on.

Today’s weather is an overcast.

The back door was opened and Amber sat near the door as she always have done for years sniffing in the breeze that blows around the garden for 5 minutes.

This taught me something that I have known for years.

“By being content and still.

By understanding and recognising what is there.

And by knowing things will be okay.”

With this lesson alone, once you get it.

Everything falls into place.

(R.I.P Amber. Passed away on Thursday 26th May 2011)

Do what you love to do.

2011-01-26T00:00:00+01:00

This is quite a humble and personal post on what I have learnt throughout my life and how I get to this stage at the age of 31.

I am incredibly fortunate that right now I am in a great place that I never thought I would be. The future? I don’t think about that any more as I am enjoying today as I am typing up this post dreaming what I could provide, make, do. Every day is never the same.

When I was growing up, I was a quiet and timid child because of my deafness that I rarely talk about because I didn’t think about it at all. Attending school was quite tiring but stuck at it somehow. I made and lost friends over the school years because that is how you start to learn about your own make up of character. I suffered from being bullied at school throughout middle school up to the end of high school.

I made sure that I kept going without giving up. Sometimes I was alone in class and during breaks but that didn’t stop me from dreaming things that I want to do as I knew I am bright with tremendous and inspirational energy.

At first, I love working with computers, it was an escape for me because I love how they tick, how did it work from start to finish. I talked so much about the Internet in 1997 because it was to me a huge thing that you can go online, chat to people, surfing websites, reading up news, etc (yahoo was the no.1 search engine back then!). I fell into learning more about web design and coding while geeking out in Linux.

What I didn’t know that it had set me up a decade in IT and loved every moment of it. I was hired by School of Mathematics at the University of East Anglia as their only IT technician. From there, my strengths in working with just a handful of UNIX workstations and server, meeting new people was amazing. And I got introduced to my first Mac and the world of Apple.

As time went on, I was longing to be creative yet I didn’t know where to start. I had only one camera which was the Canon IXUS 400 that I had for years and bought a Canon DSLR 400D to explore more about photography.

At the beginning of 2008, I had a mental lapse where I didn’t take care of myself and that when I went through a breakdown colliding moving to a new location and new job. I had a health assessment and they found out that I was suffering from anxiety for many years.

Nobody nor myself knew what would had happened and to this very day, it is like hitting the reset button in my head and start learning everything all over again. Taking anti-anxiety medication was something to take allowing myself to feel ‘free’. It didn’t stop there because I had to deal with what my mind, body and soul was telling me.

I turned to creativity to type, draw, take photos, experiment with designing, getting obsessed with details. Before I knew it, people were praising me what I was doing. I went along with this and with a hint from my parents “Go out more, say yes more… just go and do it”.

Over the years, I slowly came off the medication as I was ready to learn and deal with anxiety again. It took a couple of years until I was completely off it. It is an amazing feeling that I got there with tremendous support from my close ones.

I have done so many things since that moment, all the ‘yeses’ was going somewhere and before I knew it, I met my beautiful and loving wife. With her alongside on my journey, she has been actively encouraging me to carry on being creative, inspire people with design, thoughts and talk utter nonsense because it all leads somewhere.

That ‘somewhere’ opens more doors and possibilities.

Do what you love to do and embrace it.

Bye bye TextRelay

2011-01-26T00:00:00+01:00

I have been using TextRelay for nearly a decade. It is a service for deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired people to make calls. To use this, you call the number 18001 + area code + number, it will connect you via the operator at TextRelay sitting in between speaking for you as you type.

For years, I had ditched this service completely and rely solely on e-mails, contact forms on websites, Skype, texting and twitter.

A quick lowdown on the minicom used for TextRelay

A minicom (it is known as a textphone) looks like the one in the picture.

What was once brilliant last century is now obsolete in today’s world. These minicom are bulky device with one or two line text display where you will have to remember much of the conversation and scrolling up during the call is nigh on impossible.

During TextRelay, you will sometimes experience the handover of operators bringing frustration because the flow of the conversation get disrupted among other issues such as garbled text and confusion of ‘who said what?’.

With the new call systems where you press umpteen digits on the phone, the TextRelay operator cannot keep up what you require to get through. There have been many times in the past where I have felt like giving up trying to get somewhere.

TextRelay belongs to the past.

Now we are in the new decade with the Internet reaching all corners of the globe and now all businesses are online ready to serve you via many communication methods available. We are now living in the information age where we know that we can contact someone within reach instantly online.

If we have issues with the services provided to us, it is a simple contact form via their website or tweet to the services. It is amazing how the Internet has changed over time where we are socially interacting with anyone at any time of the day.

With all this available at my fingertips, it is a thought why TextRelay still exists today.

The Bicycle Portraits

2011-01-18T00:00:00+01:00

Tell me more about Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler, who are you? Where are you based?

I’m a photographer/publisher based in Cape Town, South Africa. I love bicycles and I have an interest in contemporary South African culture. Nic is from a motion graphics background and he’s from Johannesburg, South Africa.

How did you come up with the project ‘Bicycle Portraits’?

Nic and I share and obsession with bicycles and the culture and sub-cultures that exists around cycling and bicycle ownership. We knew each other for some time before we realized our mutual interest. We started talking about bicycles and these amazing old 70’s racing bikes hat are still out there on the road as hand-me-down commuter bikes. Nic was interested in doing a documentary about bicycle commuting culture and I wanted to photographic study of people with bicycles that have been modified out of necessity - like covering abicycle into a single speed bike because the gears don’t work. Somehow our ideas melted together and we came up with the basis for the BicyclePortraits project. At the same time I discovered the pledge-for-reward fundraising social-network Kickstarter, and we decided to give this brilliant way of funding truly independent projects a try. It was a great fit considering the independent nature of bicycle owners and riders - and our first leg of fundraising was a big success!

How did you feel that the target achieved on kickstarter has been accomplished?

Really great! It’s amazing to know that there is an independent group of people out therethat believe in your vision so strongly. The whole Kickstarter concept is based on mutual trust and is really cool to know that you backers want to see you vision succeed as much as you do.

Were many of the bikers happy to be approached for photographs and what striked you most about their characters? How did you get over the language barrier?

Every single person we’ve met so far was very happy to be part of the project. People really get it. Everyone wants to have a voice and a project like Bicycle Portraits give people that opportunity. What struck me most was that even though many of the people we’ve met are in real need they were still happy and friendly and accommodating - since we are doing this project form our bicycles I like to think that an immediate bond is formed between usand the riders we meet. Re. the language - in a country with so many diverse cultures language is always going to be a problem. We try to always make it clear that many over the people we interview do not have english as a first or even second language. Whenever communication is just too hard we try and do the interview in whatever language the subject is most comfortable with and translate it later.

Do you believe that the bike community will continue to grow in the years to come in the face of growing commercialism?

It only makes sense that it would. The benefits of human powered transport far outweigh any other way of getting around and we feel it’s now more clear than ever. It’s clean, it’s free, it’s good for your mind and body - why would you want to sit alone in backed-up traffic in car for an hour if you can ride a bike?

What would you like your audience to gain from seeing this project and what do you hope this’ll achieve for the people of South Africa?

Through this project we hope to promote cycling as a means of independent transport to empower the underprivileged, and in fact, to encourage everyone capable to ride a bike as an alternative to driving a car, or even using public transport. We want this to lead to the kind of infrastructure development in South African cities and towns that is designed with all people in mind, not just cars.

Thanks Stan and Nic!

Links: Official website and The Kickstarter’s project that started it all - The Bicycle Portraits

Follow them on Twitter ~ @bicycleportrait

hey Do Lectures

2011-01-18T00:00:00+01:00

I wrote this e-mail to Do Lectures on the subject of subtitles/transcripts for their inspiring videos on their website in early 2010. I got a response back from Alex Heslop and the founder, David Hieatt, and it seems that the public were very quiet towards this when it was mentioned on their website. On the last look, Do Lectures has redesigned their website and the post seems to linger on tumblr in a need of a revive which I did to put back on this website.

When I write with a belief, boy, do I write. I care about this matter and I strongly believe we can get there for everyone.

Update: Jon Heslop replied!

“Hey Craig,

We’re in the middle of building a new website that will utilise HTML5 to embed and play our lectures, we’re planning on bolting on subtitle support too.

We’re also hoping to launch some sort or transcription and translation project later this year.

As of now we only have one talk transcribed and time stamped, which you can get here. https://github.com/ecarnevale/do_lectures_subs

Thank you so much for offering your services.

At the moment we’re busy getting the new website ready but I will definitely get back to you later this year to let you know how we intend to get all the talks transcribed.

Thanks for your enthusiasm.

Jon”

Once you get started with belief, the people you know love to ride on that.

Here is the e-mail that started it all:

Hey Do,

I thought I drop an e-mail to talk about an important matter about accessibility on your website and I believe that this e-mail will provoke some thoughts and excitement how to cover this base.

The subject? Subtitles/Transcripts.

At first, I came across your website and see a huge potential, so huge that it has the power to change our ways of thinking, to be inspired, to do something. I want to be part of that, to share the understanding and experiences of other people of what they have to say and I’m denied because of my hearing impairment.

Not only this, there is an international audience out there that would love transcripts in their first language. Are you feeling this little buzz I’m getting here? Your website already has the power to connect with those people and being a multicultured world we are in, the power of subtitles/transcripts will take it one further so they feel they are involved and spread the word.

Now I can imagine the issue of subtitling/transcript can be time consuming to do along with the cost of paying a company to do the writing, subtitles implementation, the list can go on a fair bit. The word ‘cost’ can have a few downers, bring doom and gloom and bad cups of teas.

Let me turn that downer to a smiler with my suggestions.

Websites like TED.com(1) has asked people to contribute subtitles, transcripts and translation of videos featured on their website and a big smile on my face was permanently fixed after having to guesswork what was being said over the course of the years. Hundreds of videos at my fingertips and I’m ready to be inspired.

Another brilliant website demonstrating photography and video work is Media Storm(2) uses transcripts on their website to make sure the audience understand what is being said. It is well known that people often doesn’t understand a voice particularly well and quickly has to guess ‘what is being said next?’. The flow of spoken words is important and it makes us to be fluent in our own language.

What should you do? You have an army of followers out there who are willing to do something. A huge Internet community, imagine them contributing transcripts in many languages and your website goes from strength to strength.

How is this going to work on your website? I quickly took a screengrab of your website and did a rough mock up of what should be a great idea to do. (3)

You could put an additional text on the video interface labeled ‘transcript’ that is clickable (it will change to ‘transcript off’ to turn off… uhh… transcripts). This will bring down a slide box behind and beneath the video that comes with it own scroller so the user can scroll up and down what is being said. Want to dismiss the box? Click on ‘transcript off’ and it slides back behind the video.

It is simple as that (I could hear the designers and coders going ‘hmmmm’ at the thought of that) and I hope this e-mail will inspire Do Lectures to produce further unique talks.

Best wishes,

Craig

(1) http://www.ted.com/OpenTranslationProject and http://blog.ted.com/2009/02/unveiling_teds.php

(2) http://www.mediastorm.org/

(3) Mock up work of displaying transcripts (below)

Minimalist desktop

2011-01-05T00:00:00+01:00

Towards the end of 2010, I challenged myself to make and do everything minimal as possible in all things I do. One of the biggest challenge is my laptop and where I keep information on, the question I have asked myself was:

“Can I genuinely aim for a minimal laptop? How can I go about to achieving this?”

Before, I had my work, personal photos, music all over the place. It was a bit like walking into your own office with paperwork, books, notes, what’s have you everywhere. A crowded place does not bring harmony to the mind.

As I read a tweet about someone who is thinking to use his workstation solely for work, editing and use his mobile devices to check e-mails, tweets, notes. I don’t know how it turned out for that person but it struck me that it is possible to achieve this. It made me think, really think of how I can change the way I do things.

The desktop

There is nothing on my desktop. Just the menubar and the hidden dock.

The only time I use the desktop is when I take screen shots and moving files around. Treat it as your desk and aim to have a clean desktop before you shut down your laptop. This way that you start and end with a clean slate.

Applications

I believe when it comes to using applications, it is a self discovery that you take on yourself. Friends can recommend you to use x and y, I could say a and b to you.

Go and explore how the software can work for you. Give it a whole day or a week of using just that software and if you feel something is not right, research to find out how people worked with that.

I have a small collection of software that are mostly free and some are so cleverly designed, that I end up paying for them. Here are the softwares that I use:

Alfred - A fast and amazing software that calls up applications, search for what I want on the web all from the cmd and space key combination.
Coda - As I offer web tailoring service, this software fits the bill for what I need to do.
Dropbox - I store files online rather than on this Mac because I like to run a lean and minimalistic computer.
RipIt - Wonderful little DVD ripping software I have discovered when getting rid of things during the minimalist clear out.
VMware - A powerful virtualization software that I need to run Windows on the Mac to check out websites build in IE ~ Update: I am looking to ditch this soon because it is a huge waste of disk space to load purely for IE testing.

Storage, socialising and e-mailing

I only store music, videos and photographs on this device. Documents are produced using Pages and they are automatically stored in iCloud. For other storage to share with people, I use DropBox via iFiles. For universal compatibility, I always e-mail my documents as PDF.

Tweeting is solely done on the iPhone using TweetBot. E-mails? It is very straightforward. I stick to a couple of lines when replying and I set to receive e-mails every hour. It is important to have less distractions to get on with what I am doing.

Achieving digital zen

This may not be for everyone to do but in today’s world of fast paced life bombarded with information at every angle. I believe we can achieve quietness with our digital life and enjoy what you like to do more on.

The next time you see someone with a busy and chaotic desktop, you can tell that they are all Bisy Backson.

(If you haven’t read The Tao of Pooh, then I strongly suggest you do so. An example of Bisy Backson are the people who are all busy and waste time foolishly. Where you can do the opposite and spend time wisely.)

Talk the talk

2011-01-03T00:00:00+01:00

Talking is our main way of communicating and how we are saying things today matters to us and everyone. If you are going to be saying a whole bunch of interesting things, start putting some passion and soul behind what you say. Delivering nonsensical crap does not get you anywhere.

The best example of people talk the talk are the people featuring on the grand stage of TED, Steve Jobs at his Stanford Commencement speech and documentary photographers interviewing people. Trust me, the way you talk right now will be transformed by those videos.

Towards the end of the last decade, I decided to improve that area of delivering what I think in the manners of straight talking because I want to achieve results in a good matter of time. I don’t believe going in and saying words that is not me. With my wife, Hannah, gently nudging me in a new direction that I have passion and soul in what I believe in.

When I want to write online, I make sure I say in the way I want to say it. Damn, shit, and pooey as I would write it all in because that is myself and I love it. I can make this post more fun to read, I can give it a stir of emotion so you can feel what I am feeling, writing and talking are two combined things that I can hone and improve altogether.

With this method, I decided to deliver it in interviews that I have attended because it is who I am. To me, going to an interview is like making new friends, put the feelers out, see what makes them laugh, think and how do they make a good cup of tea.

If you have that little voice in the back of your mind while listening to everyone chatting away, let that grow slowly and it will appear in the right time and the right place.

And that is when everyone starts listening to you and you will be surprised how glad it is for that voice to come out.

Start talking, start enjoying.

Minimalist clear out

2011-01-03T00:00:00+01:00

It is not an easy task to become a minimalist if you have stacks of everything.

What do I have on my list?

Clothes, shoes
DVDs
Books
Gadgets
Magazines
Notebooks and pens
Cameras
Everything else.

Along with being better at dealing with things as I have mentioned in my Changing Shirts post, it was time for this clutter to go and start enjoying the benefits.

What exactly did I do to achieve this?

Clothes

I have downsized the clothes and shoes to the following:

1 smart coat, 1 drizzler waterproof jacket and 1 tweed jacket
3 shirts
4 tee-shirts
2 jeans, summer shorts/swimming, 1 baggy fit trousers for biking/outdoors
1 smart shoes, 1 trainers
1 beanie hat, 1 trapper hat

(excluded from the list are obviously boxer shorts and socks… Going commando is not an option)

The principle of this list is if I want to buy one shirt, one of my shirt I own must go. I got to value that item in terms of ‘Will I wear it all the time? What shirt should I sell on?’. We fall into the trap of buying stuff and it never get any use out of it. Stuff are meant to be worn and wear out as much as possible.

DVDs

I had over 90 DVDs and they all sit there gathering dusts. I have tried the following method by putting them into 3 piles:

Keep
Maybe
Bye bye

After 5 minutes, looking at the piles proves that method didn’t work. Which films/TV shows would I really watch again? So, I sorted it out again into 3 piles:

Keep
Rip and send to 3.
Bye bye.

The total number of DVDs I have is 15 and I will be trying to reduce that. I believe that on demand films/TV will be the industry standard eventually phasing out DVD/Blu-Ray in the next few years. As for ripping and converting for Apple TV, I use RipIt and Handbrake (here is my quick guide for doing this).

Update: I am now DVD free.

Books

As for books, I never keep them as I read them once and give them away to people or charity shops. The sorting order for this is:

Keep
Bye bye

Now I own 10 books that I know I will read again and again. From now on, I will be using the public library or second hand book shops to get books I like to read.

Gadgets

I have a small range of Apple’s products and they are brilliant to use because I get things done whenever I want, wherever I want. Everything is tied to each other without any issues and that is how I like it. Simplicity is a must for myself to getting things done.

Magazines

I used to get magazines a lot in the past because it is nice to sit down in a cosy place with a cup of tea. Nowadays, it is all about using the iPad and using apps like Flipboard and The Guardian’s EyeWitness. The only magazine subscription I have is the British Journal of Photography and hope that eventually in time, an iPad version will appear. I would subscribe to it in a heartbeat.

Update: BJP has an iPad app and it is utterly gorgeous to use.

Notebooks, pens

I am a huge sucker for gorgeous looking notebooks and as for pens, I can’t help but being incredibly fussy and opted for a LAMY Safari. I love writing, sketching, drawing and doodling in notebooks.

I make notes on my iPhone/iPad which is in sync with my gmail account rather than having to write it down on paper which to me seems a waste. I could use some ‘to-do’ apps but they make no real sense to me. I want to exercise my brain in remembering those tasks.

Cameras

This is not for the bravest people. I love cameras and collected a fair few of them in the past. The concept of ‘less is more’ can not be any more clearer here. I used to own around 10+ cameras and now I am down to 2. I did a lot of experimenting with different cameras ranging from medium format, SLR, rangefinders and digital. It was a great deal of experience of learning what you can do in photography and I believe that the number of cameras I own now will have a huge deal of effect on my photography progress.

Everything else

I do have a small collection of knick-knacks such as my favourite Mr Stay Puft toy, the harmonica to play some thoughtful tunes, plants that I learn to maintain and be inspired from, the list is endless.

The life style

To lead a minimalist life style is an unique experiment in itself. The saying of ‘less is more’ is so incredibly true nowadays. My mind is clear in being able to get on with tasks, write posts, take photos, spending more time with my other half (she nods wonderfully to this) and understanding what is ‘there’ and dealing with it in a positive way.

Fast meetings

2011-01-03T00:00:00+01:00

One thing I have learnt when I worked for East Sussex County Council’s web team was 30 minutes fast meeting that happens once a week was to discuss what is happening, expressing thoughts and checking up on everyone how things are progressing.

When I say 30 minutes. I mean 30 minutes and boy, it is all you need to know immediately. When 30 minutes are up and you felt something should have been said in that meeting, you know what to do and speak up next time. It is a quick confidence building exercise.

By saying that, you will have to say what is on your mind and go with your guts instinct on it all. Once you have done this, you know you are adding your 2 pence worth to the meeting each time. People will always want to know what your thoughts are because they always lead to something. May it be something you saw on online, something you have heard in public, etc. Everything has an interaction with us.

Fast meetings are all about working together, understanding what each team member are doing, how you can share work load and who should be making the tea on a friday.

Goodbye Flash

2011-01-02T00:00:00+01:00

Latest: 9/11/2011

Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

Only the desktop version remains now.

What Flash has done for the web was changing the way multimedia was presented online. It had become the de-facto for designers who think it is great to design websites, deliver photo slideshows, adverts, the list goes on. It became the standard in delivering online streaming video used by YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Channel 4oD to name a few.

Anything that the fancy designers have dreamt of, they stuck it on the tack board of the web with a grin on their face.

Not any more. I had enough. The implications that Flash has done to the web is not healthy, produced unnecessary waste and provided more distractions.

I went ahead by doing the dramatic thing and removed Flash from my Mac. Here is the shortlist of my experience with Flash and the irritable muck it had brought in through the stable doors.

It takes up battery life ~ I don’t want a resource hog.
Flash adverts ~ I detest distractions. I want to be able to focus on what I am reading on the website.
Time killer ~ It can bring down a web browser or tab easily . I don’t want delays, I want to start reading.
It produces cheap and unaccessible design ~ Go to the City College Norwich website and see that page curl in the top right corner? That has made links untouchable on the iPhone and iPad. This and other tiring shit proves that designers or developers have no understanding what Flash has ruined for the web in terms of accessibility. Update: City College Norwich removed the page curl. I bet you it will be back.
To continue from 4), I have seen photographers, designers and many others decided it that Flash is the only way to showcase their work in a professional form. If you decided to think that, then you are instantly killing your audience and your own mojo. I don’t want to load a full website like Reportage by Getty Images has done. Have you seen that hulk of crap? It is like clicking through treacle with jerky animation on this modern Mac.

Wait! I hear you cry! What about “Click to Flash”? Why would I want a reminder of grey transparent box reminding me where Flash is on the page? No sir, I want to experience your website without a fuss.

It is time for designers and developers to jack in Flash, start understanding what HTML5, CSS3 and the range of javascript libraries out there (jQuery or Moo tools, whatever takes your fancy) can do. If you think there is something missing in the current market, use the tools above and produce something amazing.

When you start producing something beautiful, clever and fast to load then I will start paying attention what you want to show me.

Designing websites

2011-01-02T00:00:00+01:00

As I have started working in web design back in 1997, I self taught myself how to build HTML pages with the infamous inline elements and everything was captured into <table>, <td>, etc. The Internet boom happened around 2000 onwards and I ceased web designing until 2007 when I picked the first edition of “Designing with web standards” written by Jeffery Zeldman.

What made me return back to website designing was the method I have originally done back in the late 90s was designing in the browser, a belief in accessibility that applies to everyone (adults, children, able bodied, disabled, blind, deaf, etc) and a new look unique way of presenting the content.

I prefer designing websites on paper first. When was the last time you broke out your artistic stride and seeing what you can conjure? Draw out the framework on paper, is it a static page, is it animated, does it make a brew for the web audience?

From paper to designing the framework in the web browser is considered as best practice for you to visualise what happens next. For designing graphics, I recommend using the up and coming Pixelmator because I believe that Photoshop no longer has the market in this area.

Designing a website in Photoshop is just tedious, slow and unimaginable where working in the browser enable you to play and design using the latest web technology. Did you know that amazing stuff happens when you play?

Clients want to see a realistic demonstration rather than a static image. They want to know how each click/tap works, the page download, how does it look on the iPad, the list goes on as there are so many factors that you can take back to improving the website. It is a playground for the clients to give us, the web designer/developer, the feedback we need.

With inspiration exhibited from many web designers such as Andy Clarke with Hardboiled Web Design and the ever so useful 24 ways website. I believe the method I’m using will continue to develop over time and improvising what I can do with the technology.

I know many people probably will not agree to what I am saying here because of this technique. I know I will get told x and y because it is not possible but you know what?

Then how come this simple formula is working for me?

Changing shirts

2011-01-02T00:00:00+01:00

For the past few years, I have became one of those people or some strange potpourri put together that lurks online reading consistent rubbish such as the social media world, blogs, RSS, and numerous news online. Those kind of drugs made me go shit-bang-whizzi for about a minute of glory of happiness and that’s that.

I have decided that it is time for a change and it is time for that shit to go. It was making me tired, confused and not sure what I should be focusing on in this hyperbole of a world that we have generated in the past decade. We are in the age of information where it is our eyes are capturing far too many information and it’s exhausting.

To do something about this, it is time to cut back on the virtual drugs and make changes for the better. Turning the inane chatters of the Internet off is the beginning to achieve a sense of well being again and start building a better world for myself.

The road to getting better has started to become much clearer that it was before. To learn all this, we have to start at nowhere and learn how the shit goes along the way. That is the secret of life and it is much better exploring this way. You get to be a kid again and start having fun the way whatever happens.

Here comes the bullet points of getting there. You love those fancy bullet points because it brings the entire post into one wet dream.

Do things with passion.
Say ‘dammit’ more.
When anything comes in, do it there and then. Don’t dillydaddle.
Make more mistakes. I do it all the time and I love it. It makes myself more memorable and things happens because of it.
Be different and unique. My wife practically drills this in my head every day.

If this all works, I know I’m going to be a merry and content hoopa master.

Accessibility

2011-01-02T00:00:00+01:00

See that word?

It is everywhere in our lives. Even on this page you are looking at right now whatever device you are using. I am tired of the useless bullshit out there right now that people keep going on about accessibility on their website or wherein it is proven and it is time to say what I think about it.

Let’s talk about the web.

First, let’s get the ‘we already know this’ crap out of the way. We already know about design, writing, blah, blah, blah.

There is more to this. We have to use devices to access the website out there. It can be either a mouse, ball mouse, touch screen, screen reader, etc. The obvious statement of ‘oh, I already know about this’ does not apply here. What I can strongly recommend for you is to start using those devices, investigate how they use it, use it yourself if you don’t already know. I don’t want this reading whatever online and then you automatically know about it. That kind of information to you is false my friend.

Let me tell you something here, I am hearing impaired and I managed to get by through life with lipreading and using the latest digital hearing aids (I really appreciate everything that I hear around me, you sir/madam perhaps will never notice this at all). What frustrated me with people out there is that when they look at a website, they sign it off thinking it is just fine on terms of everything.

I rely on my eyes and I see things perhaps more than some do and in some cases, I’m a fussy person when something is misaligned by a pixel and nobody fixes it.

Accessibility is so important that you ought to give a shit about it. Believe in when you write for the web, people want to know and understand what you are telling them, show your website in a clear and decorative form (I have seen so many out there including some top web agencies producing wrong colour scheme on their websites. Seriously. Do better) and if you have videos to present, please provide subtitles/transcripts as soon as possible.

The web is a huge international audience for goodness sake, don’t ignore anyone out there, start understanding from their point of view and get on with it.

hey 2010

2010-12-31T00:00:00+01:00

A year on from the last open letter to 2009, I thought to write to you, 2010.

From the moment you came in, I was battling with the mind in the bleak January period discovering that I had some ways to go. I don’t know how I got through it all but I know that I have discovered an incredible numbers of things.

I started reading “The Tao Of Pooh” again after Hannah picked it up and told me to read it. Something made her do that and after reading it throughout the week, suddenly things began to make sense again. A spiritual journey commenced and it was a guide to finding oneself once and for all. The pieces are there and it is the time to put them all together.

I decided to dispel one of my long standing stance and applied for a photography degree. I was invited to various places for interviews, showing my portfolio and I had a strong gut feeling that this isn’t really for me. I received rude responses and a lack of communication from other Universities regarding the outcomes of the interviews.

Trusting your gut instinct is something I learnt very fast during the process and it helped me out here.

Guess what? We got married in the beautiful Southwold at the Swan Hotel in March which was such a milestone in our lives. It was a beautiful sunny day filled with such emotions I cannot explain. Everyone that I have spoken after the wedding knew what we were talking about.

Opportunities were coming in left and right over the next few months. Many of them were astonishing. I had an amazing interview in London that we ended talking about my photography work for 3/4 of the interview. The following sentence “Get your work out there. It is that good, it’s raw.” was delivered to the core center of my brain and I was stunned for hours. My wife knew by just looking at my face. How often do you get a small well known agency that changed the entire interview to a subject close to my heart?

We made a fast decision to go and live in Brighton. Hannah returned to nursing and I snapped up a temporary contract at the brilliant web team at East Sussex County Council. From June onwards, we came across many discoveries such as brilliant people, awesome cooking and baking, a month sabbatical from the Internet and bringing in new changes to this website, creativity soared to the sky and beyond.

We are now located back in Suffolk as we knew this is our place to be as we discovered that all the signs are pointed this way.

Most people wouldn’t do what we do and I admire ourselves to go out and try.

That became our way.

And we love every moment of it.

See you 2010 and by the way, remind 2009 all this will you?

hey 2009

2009-12-31T00:00:00+01:00

I thought I write you an open letter before you disappear onto the pages of history from tomorrow and I just would like to say thanks for bringing on the highs, the mediums and the lows. See, I didn’t expect quite a number of things to happen this year.

You brought on huge changes to everyone this year. A year that people would probably go ‘ugh, that was just plain shit’ without a thought how things has turned out. What they don’t know is that the negatives brings the positives. When people recognise this, they can make the inroads in their lives.

For me, it has been such an interesting year as I continued the ‘Yes Man’ fiasco into 2009 and ended it on my 30th birthday. Saying ‘yes’ made me learnt a whole new bunch of things as I learnt that confidence is a thing that drives us to do many things. I featured in a short film for a friend of mine and that led me on to do a short film of my own. Popularity brings about more opportunities, an increase in the social circle and delivered me one unexpected thing in my life.

Other things such as jobs, changes of locations, self awareness, design, self esteem… ah.. self esteem is one huge thing that got me going places.

The lows? Gee, I’m going to keep this short and simple. I left a job that I felt was hampering my abilities to do ‘work’. An appreciation for what I am doing. I found out the hard, cold way that people doesn’t do this often and it left me wondering whether people are blind to this kind of thing. You learn about the crap that gets thrown at you and you get toughen up from it.

My depression kicked in during those awkward time and thanks to the love of my life, friends and family for propping me up the wall to make sure that I don’t go down that road. You know who you are and I thank you for that.

Now, let’s look at the mediums. I moved around a couple of times with my future wife, decided to go freelance doing website design with the name (you’ll like this!) “Blue Pants”, went and bought a scanner to finally scan in the huge batch of developed negatives to put onto my newly redesigned photography website, applied for various jobs, started writing a batch of posts… the list goes on.

It’s the mediums that keep me sane in between the highs and lows.

See 2009, you aren’t going to win this time around because I’m going to take all those experience and make 2010 a brilliant place to be.

Let me tell you how I am going to do this.

I’m not going to fear failure any more. I’m going to face it head on. If I didn’t get something right, I get 10 times the experience than the next person who haven’t done it. Granted it is going to be a kick in the teeth and the end game is that you learn from it.

I’m going to ask people for guidance when needed. I have survived for so long without help and now I need some experience first hand how to get this right over time.

I’m going to write posts, I’m going to make brilliant websites, I will make photographs that speak volumes, I will make good inroads in my life and how am I going to do it?

I got to start somewhere and that is from the foundations I have built in 2009.

So long 2009.

Mind the door on the way out.