watching my roommate put electronic circuit boards into the microwave

matt magnuson won't let his dog have a warm, home-made, delicious beignet... such a cruel owner

thinking superheroes and self-identity make for wonderful intertwining to make authentic self-representation

Thinking that the Constructivists' art was wonderful but that the Constructivists were just angry and empty

a weekend with my favourite historical figure

#isral.mad.confused .nesting.sharepoint TD, .crying.amused

immensely enjoying Joy Electric's new album "My Grandfather, The Cubist."

on a lazy monday

looking forward to a weekend of homemade latte's and staying home, vegging out

ladytron's new album, "Velocifero" is perfect and their best ever.

???

Sharepoint Themes and Master Pages

Excuse me creating the following imaginary and temporary jargonyms.

In the context of the “look and feel” of a Sharepoint Site (SPS), there’s Master Pages (and two types of MPs), Content Pages, and Themes that control the appearances and layouts. Master Pages control the layout (the placements of stuff) of the SPS. The Content Pages (CP) control the actual data ⁄ content, etc., that is inserted onto the published pages. Themes control the colors, fonts, images, etc., the appearance of the content (unless that content is a field control).

MPs come in two varieties: System Master Pages (SyMP) and Site Master Pages (SiMP). SyMPs control the behaviours associated with views, webparts, forms, etc. Branding tasks, etc., probably shouldn’t need to modify or make new SyMPs. SiMPs are the MP type that controls look and feel of published pages and subsites within SPSs. SiMPs are inherited across all levels of a SPS unless a subsite is associated with a different SiMP or even a different CSS file. Thus, branding tasks, etc., would then edit or create a new SiMP(s) for something like the Citizens SPSs.

CPs are the part of the SPS hierarchy within which the actual content is presented, be it from a database, or what have you. The positionings of all the stuff on a CP is controlled by the SiMP with which that CP is associated.

Now, the appearance of all that stuff that is inserted onto the CP is controlled by a Theme. Themes dictate the colors, fonts, etc., of all the stuff that the MP lays out on the CP. Themes must be programmatically applied to all levels in a SPS even though MPs (SyMP or SiMP) are automatically inherited across all levels by default.

Droid ← Calibri ← Gill Sans

Hm, in a table-turning manner, it seems Google has copied MS.

Droid Sans, one of Google’s fonts for the upcoming Android platform (i have to admit i am a sucker for androids since the days of ‘Otherworld’ and of course, Data from Star Trek TNG ) is actually a nearly 100% rip of MS’s Calibri / Segoe.

Calibri / Segoe was influenced by Gill Sans, yes, but influence is an honor; sure, imitation is flattery.

Yet, one thing pains me… Droid has proper crossbars on the uppercase “i” while Calibri doesn’t have them.

Links:

Droid

Calibri

Gill Sans

Being Content

Being content is a sign of trust in God. Being content is a sign of trust in God because i realize, better still, i live in the knowledge of God’s provision for my needs (Genesis 22:14). i know from Jesus’ own lessons that God will care for me and see to it that my basic needs, and sometimes even my wants (within civilized parameters) (Psalm 37:4), aren’t unmet.

i have a lot of reasons to be anxious sometimes: [[ Will i impress the client? Will my boss buy me Adobe CS3 for use? Are my parents going to work this out? Will she like me? ]] These are not bad things for my attention, true, because then i can take them to God in prayer (1 Peter 5:7). Yet, insisting on dwelling upon them to the point of worry is like yanking them from God’s hands and pulling them to myself, when i can’t even change me own hair color (without salon help) (Matthew 5:36). The advertising world leaves all kinds of other reasons at the doors of my heart to be anxious: [[ Ooh, look at that car! Hm, all these new shareware apps. Man, i want a new intel Mac! ]]

When i am not content with God’s provision for the basics (1 Timothy 6:8), i actually open the doors for envy and materialism, a forever spiral into incessant, unending cravings for things that do not fill me. In his book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis, through the mouth of Screwtape, explained addiction: an addiction is anything for which there is an increasing need and a diminishing pleasure return — bankrupt joy. Not being content, then, is a spiritual equivalent of chemical dependency. Thus, it is important for me to be content.

How then, should i now live in contentment? This is something i ask of myself right now. Honestly, contentment is something i am working on! It was my prayer request for last week.

Here is where i have begun my thoughts: maybe i can’t be content until i’m thankful. What reasons have i to be thankful? Thankfulness establishes in my own mind the things which God has already done in my life. Knowing the things which God has already done in my life establishes a basis for knowledge that He will continue to provide. This is the first reason to thank God.

Raymond Douillet-Chevoleau Opening at Angela King Gallery, New Orleans, LA, USA

The Angela King Gallery, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, opened an exhibit for French painter Raymond Douillet-Chevoleau on 2 November 2007, Friday. Mr. Douillet-Chevoleau was in attendance for the exhibit. The gallery obviously wanted his second time to exhibit in New Orleans in seven years to be something special. He was to exhibit his second showing in 2005 instead but Katrina cancelled those plans. There was little room even to stand, less for those who had multiple glasses of the wine offerings.

On to the art.

Douillet-Chevoleau’s paintings are executed perfectly. His works make you think of Dali for the slope towards surrealism, Hieronymous Bosch for the allegorial hints, and even Raphael’s School of Athens in his “L’Heures qui passe.” He references other artists too, though usually in an editorial fashion: his mockery of Mondrian is magnifique and he rants about Rothko’s rhetoric.

At the gallery’s links, you can see the images which were on display. while small web sizes won’t do the details and precision any justice, it shouldn’t be less stated that Douillet-Chevoleau’s technique is on par with the classical masters. Peruse the gallery and you’ll find that his pencil work, yes, there were pencil works too, is perfect. The lines on the paper are sharp (i guess he continually sharpened his pencils while working) and even the colors applied on a couple of those pencil works are ink sharp.

Freud held that sublimation, the substitute for unrequited sexual desires, is why artists make art, writers write, and musicians play. Hm, looking through Douillet-Chevoleau’s work you’d think he made art to cope with a controlling female who used sex to control him. In all but a few works the sexual innuendos were prevalent; you’d not need any kind of imagination to force the interpretation either. While Douillet-Chevoleau’s wife was also present at the show, i couldn’t help but stare at her wondering if she was the giant woman who held the tree in her hands and whether her artist husband was getting back at her for an affair or two.

All that being said, Douillet-Chevoleau’s work is destined for a museum, for the Louvre next century, and the loo for people shy of any hints of sexuality within art.

George Lucy Quote

“These painters are great men, and must be flattered; for ‘tis the custom here, not to think themselves obliged to you for employing them, but they oblige you by being employed.” — George Lucy, 1758 (as read in Houston Museum of Fine Art, October 2007).

i certainly hope George Lucy was being sarcastic when he penned that statement — if so, then the Houston Museum of Fine Art has misread his intent. i think one of the problems preventing society from fully appreciating art is the artist. Their smug aires of superiority, condescending attitudes towards those who don’t get their ‘work,’ and the fact that so many artists fabricate items which aren’t ever given a spirit of usefulness.

Art work should record & communicate while ‘expressing.’ i am certain there are those who will say that these are the ideals of a designer, but these are the ideals of an artist who is employed in usefulness to society. Smug off.

Proacting in Love is the Best Memorial

i imagine that today's holiday might have some people thinking back to the WTC and becoming angry. Remember that forgiveness enables progress because it dissolves the negative bondage of the past from the feet of the future.

Our enemies are not people, our enemies are not nations: our enemies are ideas that propel violence into existence and ideas that enforce the belief that Christ wants people to unfairly impose our beliefs onto others. Christ wants people to be able to choose love, to choose Him and the Father. Christ wants us to forgive any and all who may have harmed us. After all, He's forgiven us for the wrong that each of us has done as well.

Reacting in violence is animal, proacting in love in response to violence is evolution.

ideological Human Wreckage

Okay, i just can’t take this anymore. Leading environmentalists claim that driving is worse than walking for all of the emitted pollutants. Now, someone else claims that walking does more damage to the environment than driving. Granted, i am, here in this blog entry, glossing over the nuances of food production, energy requirements and carbon emissions, &c.

So i propose a new solution to global pollution and minimizing the human footprint. We should all commit seppuku by throwing ourselves into volcanoes, where we won’t pollute the air, ocean, landfills, or McDonald’s parking lots.

Yet, even this drastic solution is not without setbacks. By proposing that all humans toss themselves from the prying pan into the fire, we are making mass assumptions about various cultural, ethnic, special interest, and lobbyist focii. This would, in effect, imply (in no certain order (for certain order implies preferential treatment (which is exactly what the Arabian mathematicians and Hindi mathematicians wanted when they devised numerical systems)) that:

• Gays have polluted the planet as much as everyone else when their quest has been only for the ability to come out and play right in front of everyone(and don’t you even think of not giving them preferential treatment) and if you don’t watching two penises play twister with other you must be a playa hater



• it would also suggest that republicans endure the same fate as democrats (oh, surely you don’t mean that i can’t build a loophole for myself)



• it would suggest that democrats wouldn’t be able to demand — no — whine for special consideration for all the evils they want to rid the world



• This solution also doesn’t respect the inconvenient truth that even Al Gore uses global resources



• it would mean that anti-faith ascetics couldn’t research on more ways to convince the world of the evils of religion through conditioning modern education (when, ironically, reading standards are still appalingly low)(but they claim that lack of education is the fault of the Christian religion even though the central repository of Christian ideas is a book (a thing which requires literacy)



• various ethnic groups (including white supremacists) could no longer claim to contribute to sociopolitical unity by isolating themselves from every other group in tax-funded compounds community centers for making all people “aware” of them while making them ignorant (and ethnocentric of themselves) of other ethnic groups



• organized religious groups would be averse to this because they would get no exclusions to social repercussion because of their beliefs that they hear God in jelly sandwiches (but then those living in France have grown used to this (and remember that the French are progressive for their promotion of artistic expression yet killing religious expression))
  
  
• you’d also imply that the myriad of artistic types have actually NOT enriched the world but rather added to global demise by placing an absurd demand on resources in a non-profitable manner when we all know that artists, as they often tell us, only enrich human cultural history



• this would prevent pro-choice advocates from preaching that nature is evil for making us do things that increase the quantity of humans on the earth when we should be to circumvent nature (hm, but this would seem to unfortunately imply that nature makes mistakes, which, for all the gays tells us, nature made them that way (a mistake?)(i wonder if pro-choice advocates and gays are aware that they contradict each other?)

i could go on, but it seems that the only way to prevent ideological inconsistency is to drown out all dialogue, but then isn’t that a mark of totalitarianism?

maybe humans are their own problems. maybe people should consider that every action has a consequence and that even the cognitive ecosystem has become polluted by evils as well.

Ah, but that would imply that some ideas are bad. The ACLU would demand that i compensate them for that.

Andy Warhol is not an Artist

Artists create images, forms, objects, to give meaning, to enrich. Artists do not steal from meaning to kill it. Any Warhol is like a thief who comes to steal, takes an elderly couple's cane, and uses it to rob them. Andy Warhol is the counterfeit who pretends to show us irony, but really twists the essence of a thing until we do not recognize it, until the point that we don't know anything anymore.

Any Warhol is not an artist. Andy Warhol is a thief.

Artists give life, they don't rob life.

Two Watches

To answer a question recently posited to me on several occasions: there are a couple of reasons that i wear two watches, and it’s not because i am child of the 80’s. (In fact, i am not a child of the 80’s. i am actually a child of the 90’s.)



i like the font on the round, minimal watch and i also like its minimal design. The bigger, more ornate buckled watch is also appealing to me. As a designer i notice the details that go into something and this watch, though i normally am a minimalist, said, “isral, you simply must have me!”

Also, because my watches don’t have network time synchronization, i keep track of the time without looking at my cel phone by noticing the deviation between the time reported on each watch. Okay, this isn’t true. The design reasons are the true reasons.

-i

Updates (This is several entries in one)

Job:
I am working as a designer for a software company. My tasks are really enjoyable and the time seems to pass quickly. I will be doing print design soon as well as a plethora of electronic design (user interface, icons, websites, &c.) already in progress.

My boss, a self-admitted nerd, (honoring me with the “nerd” label too) recently gave me a Motorola Q phone. Now, when your boss buys you a toy (even if it does pertain to actual work), surely, most technological obsessifetishists will reserve a special place in their heart’s core for the boss. Hey, he even bought me a MacPro to play with work with even though he’s an ardent Microsoft man!

We’ll be developing stuff using Silverlight technology soon. I have been learning to use Expression Blend too, which, right now, is essentially a Flash competitor. Soon, it will be a viable application development platform.

Silverlight, as a development platform, means that designers and programmers will have the access to use Windows app code as a plug-in in websites, drastically improving the kinds of work that websites can do. We can build applications and interfaces that reside immediately on the page itself, rather than waiting for server communiques with the client. (at least it‘s how i understand it so far.)

I spend the weekend in Dallas, TX, for my grandparents’ birthday. It$lsquo;s the first time that i have even visited them without them asking me how school is going. in fact, when i first walked into their house this time, i reflected that it was the single proudest moment at which i had ever entered their house, for now i finally entered as a graduate, but especially as an employed graduate.

Honorable Mention

i have recently been awarded Honorable Mention in an international poster design competition. The contest, sponsored by DAAD, the group who handles the university exchanges between the United States, Germany, and Canada, was open to university students. i received an informal email telling me that i had placed, but i have now received the official results. i am really excited to have placed in this competiton. it was a great experience working with a wonderful organization.

Honorable Mention in International Design Competition

I submitted an entry to an international poster design competition hosted by the DAAD, the group which handles American and Canadian exchanges to Germany. I received an email from them yesterday informing me thus:


“Dear Isral,

I am pleased to inform you that out of a highly robust number of design submissions, the poster committee has selected your design for Honorable Mention in the DAAD Poster Competition.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your distinction and to thank you for your fine work.”


Well, I won't be going to Germany (gosh golly darnit blast shucks), but at least it's valuable resumé and portfolio information. I can now say: "I am an almost international jet-setting designer."

New website in progress

I am working on a new website. It’s in progress: that means some things may be a little kooky.

Job

i have accepted a design position with a software company here in Baton Rouge, LA. i'll be doing print design, web design, and interface design. Their offer was tremendous and the benefits are beautiful. i look forward to the future. Wow, now i can get some real furniture for myself.

-isral

isral Duke: graphic Designer

isral Duke is a graphic designer who has also worked as a prepress operator for offset and digital environments. His favorite projects tend to be those of technical, industrial, or scientific nature. “These are the really useful, informative projects. My work, in its best manifestations, is informative rather than persuasive.” isral feels that graphic designers are inherently tied to the dissemination of information. “We [designers] started out as the book scribes in the middles ages who created and copied manuscripts, we moved to the press when Gutenburg hit the scene, and now we’re into digital text smelting too.”

DSVC

So i spent the weekend at the Dallas Society of Visual Communicators. Wow, i really enjoyed myself and this was the best weekend of the year so far!

i got to hang out with my Dallas family, they got to meet two of my friends, and i got a job offer at a kick ass interactive media company!

i am going to put together a presentation to show my them my own creative process: which, i think, is quite similar to theirs and would fit well with their workflow and i feel that i would click very nicely in their intraculture. It seems like this could be what i want, but i have to see first. Guys, i'll let ya'll know what i think after the ichat interview.

i also met this girl that seems like she could be really cool, but, we'll see. if she doesn't respond to my message, oh well.

Life feels like it is moving in fast-forward now, and i like it this way. Man, i cannot wait until graduation!