the General
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…
Adventures in Cooking
I like to cook and a few days ago I tried my hand at a new recipe for Chinese Beef that I was fortunate enough to get from an awesome coworker (thanks Liana!) after I noticed how good her lunch smelled. Here's the recipe.
First, you'll need a crockpot (slow cooker). I was fortunate enough to remember I had one packed away in some boxes that I hadn't opened in years. Here are the rest of the ingredients you'll need: Continue reading…
She Walks in Beauty Poster
Another type experiment, this time using Gill Sans. The poem is She Walks in Beauty by George Gordon, Lord Byron. The piece was made in poster size (18×24), but I also have a convenient iPhone wallpaper size for download.
Robert Frost Also Writes Poetry
New typography experiment featuring Robert Frost's poem In a Disused Graveyard. In the same vein as my last piece, Walt Whitman Wears Shades, which is basically just me experimenting with new techniques and typography. The typeface used is Lucida Fax. Purposely made the original poster size — 18 × 24 — so maybe one day I'll get some printed up. Enjoy.
Independence Day in Orlando
Last night Orlando celebrated Independence Day in its usual fashion, with a huge fireworks display over downtown's Lake Eola. Apart from the time when a mortar tipped sideways, skipped across the lake and came with 25 yards of going into the crowd, and what looked like a misfire when the raft shooting the fireworks had a couple fireworks explode before they were launched, the show was pretty good, albeit interesting.
Check out the pics in my Flickr photostream.
A Reflection on the Design Industry
A few weeks ago a student from a local college emailed me to ask me a few questions about my thoughts on the design industry for a class she was taking. I was glad to help. I thought about the questions carefully and replied to her email. I had almost forgot about my answers until I saw the email again in the bottom of my inbox (almost inbox zero, ha!). Anyway, I thought this would be a good thing to share with everyone, so here are the questions w/ responses.
Q) Could you describe your specific day to day duties and responsibilities?
A) Since the company I work in is smaller (about 13 people w/ 4 designers) I work on almost every creative project that comes through the door at some point. I mostly split my time between web design mockups for miscellaneous client websites and doing UI work for NFi's main product, MemberFuse. My time on Memberfuse is split pretty evenly between front-end coding and actual design/UI mockups. Meetings, emails, feature planning and giving the others direction and support also take up decent size parts of my day. Continue reading…
Superjail!
If you watch AdultSwim you may have heard of Superjail - possibly the weirdest, most original animated show to ever spawn from a human being's imagination. The loose animation style reminds me of early MTV animated shows like The Head and Aeon Flux but with a severely twisted sense of humor and lots of gore.
Shiny New CoLab Website Coming Soon
Here is a quick preview of the brand spanking new CoLab website that I'm working on. Its due to launch Oct. 1st just in time for the opening (fingers crossed). Learn more at colaborlando.com.
Time for Some Campaignin'
With the presidential election less than 2 months away you can barely get away with avoiding the media throwing in it your face every other minute, and believe me, I've tried. Don't get me wrong, I like to talk about politics and the state of things over a couple beers with friends, or even watching a few minutes of the DNC (and pointing out their Socialist points and hypocrisy; I missed the RNC but I think I'd do the same). To tell you the truth I already made up my mind about who I'm voting for (see if you can guess who!). Even with all this I still felt like writing my thoughts about the election and the candidates, so, here they are.
Aside from the usual non-issues every election seems to bring up (guns, abortion, and religion) there are a few real issues out there, namely the war, the economy and the looming "energy crisis." But instead of talking about the important stuff I'd like to focus on some things that are fresh in my mind.
recent TALK