I’ve been thinking about a number of topics to write on. Topics relating to photography, design, programming, or even writing (as awkwardly meta as that is). I had a realization though, through all of these there’s a sort of thread, and challenge. The better and more comfortable I become the more difficult it is to maintain the ability to have the spontaneous, wonderful accidents that can happen when you have no idea what you’re doing.

I’m always striving to figure out what my voice is (cliché, yes, but true), and I’m starting to realize that it’s impossible to find without venturing out from time to time and exploring the edges. I find it easy to sit in the center where I’m comfortable, but the most exhilarating experiences happen when I’m a little off balance, pushed a little harder than I like. So I’ll walk out of the house for the day with a lens on my camera that I don’t usually use. I’ll shut off the computer and sit down with a pen and paper to write. I’ll try a new language. Something at least a little off my well worn path.

I think as paradoxical as it sounds, when I schedule time or an activity to break my routine it lets me grow directions I wouldn’t have otherwise. Stagnation can certainly easily be mistaken for comfortable efficiency.

I’m not even sure a “reboot” I the appropriate term. It’s a bit debatable that I had a solid “boot” to begin with. I tried to restrict my writing, or just address topics that I thought my audience would like. A silly exercise when there’s not really a particular audience. I’ve gotten some attention from the wallpapers and textures I’ve made, but I can only generate so many of those with my busy schedule.

Going forward my intent is to use this ase a sounding board of sorts on whatever topic catches my fancy. Yes, tech, the occasional wallpaper, the fleeting interesting (ooh, shiny!). I’m mostly looking to write more and catalog my thoughts, if others are interested that’s wonderful, but not the real point. Which is how it should have been at the start.

We’ll see how it goes.

Something I did recently to brush up on some of my Photoshop skills.  Yes, another room wallpaper, I don’t seem to be able to resist doing them.  Hopefully you enjoy it anyhow.

In preparation for Adobe’s CS4 release I’ve put together a set of icons. They’re fairly close to what I’ve seen of the icons for the upcoming apps, though I’ve guessed on the colors for most of them.  I’ve added nice rounded corners that match other similar sets.  It’s fairly complete, and has a couple extra apps not from Adobe also.  Enjoy! Download here.

I’ve put some work into my bit.ly application (I’m calling it Bit Pile for now), and I’ve got some screenshots from it to show. It still needs some work, but most of the functionality is there. I’d like to add mass import and export at some point, but those functions haven’t made their way in yet. Here’s the first shot (I’ll get to the others after the break).

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I’ve been playing around with the APIs for bit.ly a bit, and started mocking up a little application. Here’s a quick screenshot, I’ll outline my ideas afterward.

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Sort of a variation on a wallpaper I’d done some time ago (which is on my DeviantArt page). Having the dock sitting right on the floor looks great, and I’m extremely happy with how the lighting came out on this one. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.