Author: russt

The Importance of Themes

Lately, I haven’t been posting much here. And believe me, there is a pretty decent reason for that. You see, lately I’ve realized that in order for a blog to have a following (and therefore make an difference, be it for better or worse), it must be focused on one subject or another. In my experience (which is far from perfect), people follow blogs, websites, etc. because they are interested in the content thereof.

When a blog randomly jumps from one subject to another, it becomes drastically less likely that a person will be interested in all content posted there. This means interesting things for bloggers, namely that they have to focus on one subject or another. If they ignore this, it’s very likely that the only people interested in that blogger’s site will be his or her immediate family and close friends. But this poses another problem: if a blogger focuses solely on other content, he risks alienating his family and friends that don’t share his precise interests.

I also stronly believe that is the precise reason why out of so many blogs, so few have a decent level of readership.

In order to be effective, a site must have interesting, thought-provoking articles. While many life experiences can provide that, they must be presented in a certain manner.

With the coming redesign of my site, I’m going to do my best to address some of those issues. I sincerely hope that it will work out well. If it doesn’t, my blog will simply remain a part of those with a low readership.

2009-03-19
Jack – In the Box

As I’m sure many of you know, I’m a big fan of well-designed things. In the last few days, I’ve been looking at quite a few re-designed corporate identities, including Jack in the Box. Those of you from Utah may not be all that familiar with Jack, though it’s quite prevalent in many places on the West Coast. I myself became much better acquainted with it because of my long stay in the state of Arizona.

Anyway, this is about the redesign of their logo and identity. Their original was just your basic, straightforward fast food logo. It’s got the “Here I am, look at me!” type of feel to it, if I may say so. Oh, and I seem to recall some people that I know complaining about the ‘Christian Fish’ type thing where the ‘O’ and the ‘X’ connect, though I don’t see why it was a big deal, even if it was put there to symbolize something.

The new logo, however, has a very different feel to it. I’ll say right up front that I’m not a big fan of the huge separation between the ‘Jack’ and the ‘in the box’ part. The parts are just too distinct, I feel. They don’t tie together well. But, as to the ‘Jack’ part of the logo, I’m really a big fan. It’s got a retro, cartoon-style to it, of which I’m a huge fan. The script they used is also quite catchy.

Overall, I feel that it really takes them in a different direction and separates them from other fast-food restaurants. It’s just got a really different feel to it than most fast food logos.

Oh, and down below, I’m a huge fan of the all-horizontal alignment in the first picture. I think it looks very, very nice.

2009-03-07
What the Dog?

[local /files//dog-eats-lunch.wmv nolink]

So, I figured that this video was pretty funny. My dear mother sent it to me via email.

I also wanted to test out what exactly my blog does with video. I guess I’ll find out soon, eh?

2009-03-04
I’m in the Future

I’m pretty sure that none of you knew this, since I didn’t even until a few minutes ago, but I can send messages to people in the future. Yeah, that’s right. I sent a not-yet-email to someone.

Mostly I’ m writing this because I haven’t written anything in awhile, and believe it or not, that makes me feel lazy. So, in an effort to make myself feel less lazy, I’m writing this post. There’s actually been quite a bit of interesting stuff that’s happened lately, like a trip to St. George, constant singing of the song (whatever it’s called) that goes, “Are we humans, or are we dancers?”

Plus, I’ve scored pretty well on a couple of tests, found a huge bug on Priceline, and been to Ikea for the first time. So, yeah. I’d say that I’ve had an interesting couple of weeks. But I have to blame the fact that I haven’t posted on one simple thing: I haven’t really been actively seeking topics about which to post.

So, from here on out, I’ll be better at it. I promise. Also, I promise that the redesign of the site will be up & running soon.

2009-02-27
The Intuos 3

Today I received my amazing Intuos 3 tablet from Wacom. So far, I’m super-excited about it. It took me awhile to get the settings figured out and whatnot, but man am I happy with it.

I didn’t get to use the Cintiq tablets down at BYU, sadly, since they wouldn’t check out the pens to my level in the program. But now, I’ve got my own. Well, okay, it’s not the same thing, but it has the same purpose.

Anyway, so far I’ve only played around with it for a bit, but what I’ve done so far has made me pretty darn happy. It should be awesome for when I’m designing stuff. Plus, it allows you to just draw. I don’t know about you, but my drawing with a mouse has always been sub-par. So, now I can draw with a pen.

2009-02-13
Scheming Pyramids

This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity of hearing a presentation about what can’t truthfully be called anything but a pyramid scheme. Well, that is, except for under the strict definition placed by the government. You see, pyramid schemes, strictly defined, are illegal in most countries. A straight-up pyramid scheme involves people dolling out money for no service or product with hopes that the people they recruited would fall for it and pay their money. The issue is that depending on the scheme, an average of less than 12% of the people involved in the scheme – those who got in early and were able to recruit effectively – are the only ones that actually benefit. The rest simply lose their ‘investment’. Despite the fact that pyramid schemes are illegal, organizations that deal in a similar fashion but that don’t do that specifically (for example, involving products or services) are not considered illegal.

A diagram of a pyramid scheme which has each person recruit six more.

The scheme about which I had the pleasure of hearing isn’t technically illegal, because it has to do with $30 bottles of juice (apparently extremely healthy, which may or may not be true). The catch is that you have to be committed to it. You’re set up buying a minimum of eight bottles every month. So, you’re stuck paying $240 every month so that you can get your bottles, which you can’t use all by yourself. They consider you to be a ‘distributor’ of the product, and therefore you’re set up buying their product and potentially trying to sell it.

Now, even that practice could be considered somewhat beneficial if you are really dedicated to the juice that you are shelling out large sums of money to purchase. However, the people introducing this plan to me were emphasizing only the benefits of the ‘business’ aspect. They claimed, “You’re not selling juice, you’re selling businesses.” The irony lies in that they were discounting the very practice that made the organization legal. It seemed to me that they did not understand the implications of a business model following that plan. After a short period of time, they are doomed to failure and imminent collapse, with only those in the very top tiers making a profit, while the rest lose all their investment.

Sadly, however, it seems that people don’t recognize these basic facts. A company supported on these principles is going against the fundamental values of the economy, which is based on transactions that benefit both parties involved. In these, however, the flow of money is endlessly up, and the approx. 88% that don’t receive any of the ‘profits’ are left stranded.

I guess that my point is that pyramid schemes are bad. They are the opposite of Robin Hood – they steal from the poor and give to the rich.

2009-02-07
Free? Free My Foot!

‘Free’ generally implies ‘free of charge,’ in my experience. How about yours? Well, apparently not for freecreditreport.com. The revenue that they generated from the advertisements and pop-ups on their site wasn’t sufficient, so they decided that they should automatically get anyone that applied for a free credit report and sign the up for a monthly service and charge them $15.

Apparently this has happened to a good number of people, as is made clear by the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles, which has listed 7800 complaints for the company in the past 36 months.

I’m sorry, but the whole idea that you would base something completely off of being free and then charge the consumer shortly thereafter isn’t the best way to conduct business.

I’m sure that they’ve got it listed in their terms of service, somewhere, that they were going to do it. But apparently they don’t make it all that clear. So, enjoy your extra money and questionable ethics, freecreditreport.com… And I’ll enjoy being ripped off. Thanks.

Note: I still do have to admit that I like their commercials. They’re pretty darn funny.

2009-02-07
Vancouver Special – Renovated

Lately, I’ve taken a liking to contemporary design. There are some things that I’m not incredibly fond of, but overall, I think that it makes for some awfully beautiful architecture.

So, it’s only natural that I liked this renovation when I saw it. It took a basic, old, rather ugly (if I may say so) design which is apparently heavily overused in Vancouver. But this renovation is just stunning. Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. So, without further ado, here you go.

Recently, I’ve been interested in doing something like that myself. Not that I’m in any position to do so currently, but sometime in the future I would like to purchase a somewhat small home and renovate it so that it looks absolutely stunning.

Hopefully some day I’ll be able to do that.

Via Contemporist.

2009-02-02
A Big Bowl

So, I figured that I had to write something soon. I was going to write something on Tuesday night, but I was disappointed with the outcome of the event where I was. So, I’m writing about the Superbowl as it’s going on so that I won’t be disappointed with its outcome and thus further delay writing.

Anyway, I’m mostly happy that I finally convinced my Dad to help me move the woodburning stove out from underneath our projector screen so that we could extend the screen and allow the projector to use its full 100-inch screen.It’s a beautiful thing.

Anyway, not so long ago I wasn’t at all interested in the Super Bowl. But lately (over the last several years) I’ve decided that it’s a jolly fun thing. I mean, I enjoy watching football, and the Superbowl is a big event. Plus, it’s a good excuse to sit down and watch some TV while chowing down on chips & salsa.

My point is, I enjoy it. This year, I hope that the Cardinals win, if for no other reason than that they’re from Arizona and are the underdogs. But as of right now (7:31 left in the third quarter), that seems doubtful.

Oh, yeah. One other thing: Superbowl commercials are almost always enjoyable. That’s another awesome reason to watch the Superbowl.

2009-02-01
Holy Amazing Presentations, Batman!

I just found (via a blog that I follow) the thing for which I’ve been waiting for an indeterminably long time. That is, an amazing alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint. I mean, I know, Powerpoint makes our lives easier (especially in school, for me), but still… It’s ridiculously… Ridiculous. Seriously. Who really enjoys using Powerpoint? Sorry, Microsoft, but it’s not my favorite thing.

But this thing you see above, entitled Prezi, is absolutely amazing! Right now it’s in its beta stages, but what I see so far is absolutely amazing. You should be able to see above. And man, I’m certainly not disappointed.

Anyway, take a look! I’ve applied for the beta testing, but it’s a ‘private’ beta, and therefore I have no assurance of actually making it in. But if I do, I’ll let you know.

2009-01-24