latest entries
Why I’m Moving to Tumblr
In the immortal words of Egon Spengler, "Print is dead." And now so is blogging. At least for me. Instead I'll be doing my writing over at derekbender.tumblr.com for now. I'll eventually be switching this site from WordPress to Tumblr and compartmentalize my blog (for lack of a better term), my portfolio and a few other ideas I have into a whole new derekbender.com design powered by Tumblr.
Tumblr excels for small blog posts along with other types of content like photos, videos, quotes, links and more. It compliments the way I like to write; short and informative. Plus it allows for a fully customizable design. Until I get all that squared away, check my new thought dump over at derekbender.tumblr.com.
How to Replace the Harddrive in Your MacBook Pro
About a week ago my harddrive crashed. Bummer. Luckily I didn't lose much data (thanks to Time Machine) but I still had to go through the hassle of replacing the harddrive. Leaving it at the Apple store over a week to fix wasn't an option since I also use it for work. It looked like that was the only option; so I took it to the Apple store.
Once there the Apple tech (I think his name was Kevin) gave me two options: 1. Leave it there to replace the harddrive which would take a week and cost $260 or 2. Go to an electronics store; buy a 2.5 inch internal SATA, a couple computer tools and do it myself... Tough choice. I picked option 2. After finding all the necessary items (the new harddrive from BestBuy and tools I borrowed from Derek Gallo; thanks Derek!) I started the impossible: dissect my beautiful MacBook Pro and replace its heart! So here's the tutorial...with pictures! Continue reading…
The BarCamp is Coming! To Orlando!
Always a good time. I will be there; talking, drinking, drinking and maybe some talking too.
Nude Nite Orlando 2010
The Nude Nite art exhibit was this last weekend for those local art lovers in Orlando. The big news this year (at least to me) was two of my pieces were chosen to display among all the other wonderful works of art, live performances and displays. Yeah, I was pretty excited. Continue reading…
Year of the ‘Stache
I had a great idea. Why not grow a moustache like I did last year but only this time, document it and put the pics on a website? Upon further research I found the domain mymoustacheand.me to be open. It was in the stars. So I bought it and got to work. In less than a month I put together the site and January 1st it was launched.
After that I had to justify it a little more so I took the opportunity to hand craft some HTML5 and CSS3 along with a tiny bit of jQuery (I'm slowly learning)!
I have no idea what I was thinking but the feedback so far is positive with the word "ridiculous" followed by laughter coming up quite a bit. Take a look and let me know what you think.
And Color of the Year Goes to…
Pantone LLC, the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today announced PANTONE® 15-5519 Turquoise, an inviting, luminous hue, as the color of the year for 2010.
Pantone goes on to explain Turquiose as envoking images of tranquil oceans, lush beaches, tropical paradises and healing during stressful times. Its also a popular color in fashion.
Depending on your point of view, Pantone may have missed the mark with last year's pick, Mimosa, which "embodies hopefulness and reassurance in a climate of change." Mimosa may have been wrong with "hopefulness and reassurance" but definitely lived up to the "climate of change" part.
Here's hoping 15-5519 Turquoise lives up to the predictions in 2010. Now I'm off to buy a turquoise t-shirt.
Grizzly Bear’s Two Weeks Music Video
This music video of Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks has the best concept & art direction I've seen recently. The video isn't official either; it was all made by a fan of the song. At first glance you'd probably think it was hand made, stop-motion work but its actually CG.
Check out the interview with Gabe Askew, the maker of the fan video for Two Weeks.
Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.
BarCamp Tampa Bay
Another quarter, another BarCamp. At least that's what it feels like between all the BarCamps taking place between Orlando, Miami and Tampa this year. This past weekend was Tampa's second annual BarCamp at the USF College of Business Administration, and my first BarCamp in Tampa.
Talks on Saturday included the latest IT & web development technologies and Sunday's talks (which I didn't attend) centered around new media. Standout talks included James Tryon talking on how to be a better freelancer, Steve Bristol's giving Advice to Startups, and a couple different talks on iPhone development. Another talk demonstrated the some really interesting, new technology called Augmented Reality. Continue reading…
Change the Look of Your Snow Leopard Dock
With the update to Snow Leopard Apple decided to modify the Dock's user interface. Personally, I don't like some of the changes, especially the blue glow around windows when using Exposé. Here I'll show you how to change the Dock's graphics to anything you'd like. If you've ever used Candybar, or a program like it, its the same thing, only we'll change the graphics manually.
I adapted this tutorial from TweakOSX's Customizing Leopard's Dock post, but the techniques are still the same. Start by navigating to /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock in Finder. Right-click Dock and select "Show Package Contents." Next navigate to /Contents/Resources and you're there. All the .png files are in this Resources folder. Continue reading…
Big Book of Awesome
Some time ago I had ordered The Big Book of Contemporary Illustration from the publisher and it finally arrived. Normally I wouldn't write about a getting a new book except that some of my work is featured on its pages! Yes, on pages 195, 198 and 200 you can clearly see a few of my illustrations. The book is also full of amazing work by some very talented folks including illustrators Si Scott and Nik Ainley.
About 6 moths ago the author of the book, Martin Dawber, contacted me about putting some of my illustration work in a new book he was putting together. Of course I said "yes" and I gathered some high-quality examples and sent them off. Six months later, here we are with the book being released earlier this month. The pieces published exist on this site already, here, here and here. Continue reading…
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