Tag: Jeremy Keith

Categories
General

Roll Outs

As mentioned a few weeks back, I recently had the pleasure of staying with Jeremy and Jessica’s Brighton home. On one of my last days in town, Jeremy told me he was adding me to his “Bedroll,” which is his blogroll (Editors note for mom: A “blogroll” is a set of links to other people’s sites you like) for people who have stayed in his home while visiting Brighton. It is found on the lower right hand of his blog at http://adactio.com/journal/

That got me thinking, I’ve played around with having a blogroll here before, but I’ve always wound up removing them. I’ve typically decided I didn’t feel there was an excellent semantic reason for me to include people on them; it still felt like a form of favoritism. I’d feel guilty not including some people over others. Jeremy’s solution hit me as a fair and fun way to handle it.

Sadly though, I don’t host a lot of travelers. It’s not that I’m opposed. It’s that usually, I seem to do more traveling myself.

With that in mind, I’ve stolen Jeremy’s idea, but flipped it. Instead of having a blog roll for people who have stayed with me, I am now going to have a blog roll for people whom I’ve stayed with while traveling or have traveled with me. I figure if you can tolerate me for any significant length of time, there should be some form of badge of honor.

So check out these excellent people listed on the left, it’s the very least they deserve for all of there generosity.

Now, if only I could figure out how to add “link category descriptions” in WordPress…

Categories
General Photography Travels

Brighton in Review

Last week I began the lifestyle that will define me for the next few months; that of a backpacker. My goal is to explore the world, learn about other cultures and meet new people all through the aid of digital tools and social media. Armed with an unlocked iPhone and 7 days worth of clothes I am making my way based on recommendations of friends and followers.

I arrived in London Tuesday morning and soon made my way via bus down to the coastal city of Brighton. It was early afternoon when the bus pulled into my stop where I met Jeremy and we walked over to the Clearleft offices. There I got a good rest in their nook and enjoyed my first legitimate cup of British tea. The office got a good laugh when I wasn’t sure how I wanted it (I went with milk and minimal sugar after asking the crowd.)

From there we made our way to Jeremy’s home. We enjoyed some delicious homemade pizza made by Jessica and had few glasses of wine and then it was off to bed, only to awaken the next morning to explore the city.

The next morning I took another pitstop to the Clearleft offices and then headed south with the intent on wandering the coastal pier area but soon found myself at the Brighton Pavilion, a bizarrely out of place, but beautiful structure. The Pavilion was built for Prince Regent (later King George IV) as a seaside retreat to be deliberately over the top, and it shows even today as it poorly mimics eastern architecture and design practices in a way that winds up being charming in it’s own right.

Wandering the area I stumbled upon The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and found myself spending more than an hour exploring it’s halls and learning about Brighton’s history. The city was first known as a health resort spot and later as an epicenter for underground rock culture complete with fights between motorcycle rockers and mods on mopeds. All in all, my kind of place.

Once I tore myself away from the museum I finally made my way to the pier where I purchased a 99 flake and then was promptly attacked by Brighton’s infamous seagulls, eventually escaping into arcade portion of the pier.

That night we got together with the Clearleft folks for drinks and attended a night of “Geek Comedy” as part of the Brighton Digital festival. It was definitely the only time I’ve heard jokes about CD-ROM video games, rocket scientist sex magik and carbon atoms in the same show. It was a blast.

The next day on the suggestion of Jessica I visited the old pier on the west side of the city. Due to fire and suspicious activity the old pier has collapsed into the channel and what remains is mostly a haunting charred skeleton of a structure just a few meters from the shoreline.

That evening I met up with Jeremy and Jessica at The Grey’s Pub for a hearty meal and a round of drinks.

Brighton was a great time, it was a comfortable and friendly place to visit with obviously more culture than one can take in a few short days. In addition, Jeremy and Jessica couldn’t have possibly been better hosts, I look forward to seeing them again soon.

Photo set here!

Next up: London!

Categories
Chicago Design General

Waking Up

Late last year, I noticed I had lost a few things from my life. I had fallen into a rut; I wasn’t happy. To make matters worse, I’d fallen into a routine, and this routine excluded doing a lot of things that were important to me: Things like designing websites.

Ultimately this discovery lead me to try something drastic and pick up and move to Chicago from New York, where I had spent my entire life until that point. While I miss NY and I miss my friends, I’m happier now, and I’m carving out a new niche for myself here. I’ve missed web design a lot, and I’ve lagged behind. Well, I decided to do something about it, and last month I attended An Event Apart: Chicago with the hope it would get me back into things.

Boy, was I right! Since the conference, I’ve had design on the brain non-stop. I found myself creatively inspired in particularly by Jason Santa Maria, Jeremy Keith, and Liz Danzico.

I’ve been fussing over a site design for this site here for over three years, and it gave me the guts to finally scrap everything I had and start rethinking. I’ve found myself re-energized. The new header graphic treatment is hopefully a taste of things to come as I plan to be a much more active participant in the design community, so stay tuned.