I signed up for 3 Coursera Classes

Know Thyself (already in progress) because it offers a wide-ranging view of what a self can be.

... viewpoints of philosophy, psychoanalysis, experimental psychology, neuroscience, aesthetics, and Buddhism.

Writing II: Rhetorical Composing because it's a "II" and I'm impatient with long introductions and I missed "I." I also like the attention to "rhetorical", a word I've long wanted to have pinned down.

to help you become a more effective consumer and producer of alphabetic, visual and multimodal texts.

It's visual and multimodal that's appealing.

Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society because I'm always willing to learn more about design. Karl T. Ulrich, the instructor, has a wide-ranging view of design and artifacts and he offers a free book to match. After reading the first chapter, I signed up for the class.

Creativity, Innovation and Change because these are my favorite topics. There are three instructors. I'm hoping to get some far-ranging views as well as some practical application in work and life. Wish it started sooner.

All of the classes are free. Registration was the most pain-free account creation ever as was registering for multiple classes. It really is one-click. Good thing I've learned a bit of restraint along the way or I would have signed up for ten classes.

Neon Birthday

for my niece

With a bit of help from this tutorial for the "21" and sign gradient. The other neons were made with standard Illustrator styles. I saved some time by using a standard dot fill from the basic dot swatches. The entire design took over an hour to complete.

That tutorial is a good way to learn a lot about the Appearance palette menu.

nasty

Here's a real mess and I don't care.

Merry Happy 13th! You lucky ones ...

Adventure in Text Effects

I started off thinking I would make my name into a Hobbit style effect. I did find a nice related font and then segued into steampunk followed by this.

I'll try again another time.

As an aside, this journey also led into wondering how I could make my website more individual. I ended up with three books from the library but not really any closer to making a new design.

January 2011

January 2011, a photo by TracyU on Flickr.

This would make a nice 365 Make Something project. Easily doable electronically - which is my primary criterion.

Via Flickr:

0123 - Words and Art

... my generation and we have other issues now an[d] worse has happened. greater innocence has been lost--like ours. that 's the theme of this generation: loss of innnocence: Vietnam, kennedy, drugs, martin luther, our own acquisitiveness, kids. so there it is. mission acquisition. (2003)

this is not right not good and not the way it was supposed to be. the w[a]y it was supposed to be i was to marry a nice rich man who would care for me and have his children and they would be wonderful children who would grow up to have wildly successful careers and be filthy rich and take their grandma around to lots of interesting places and have scintilating conversaions and know many foreign languages. and after they were grown and gone my wealthy husband and i would travle around and have a wonderful relaxing life on the beach.* (2008)

Name Tag (1999)

*Hah!

pound cake and hot water

Fifteen dollars for a slice of pound cake and a cup of hot water. Would you do that? Me either but I did. I actually thought I would be getting a real breakfast. I suppose the old guard think fifteen dollars quite generous for the privilege of sitting at their elbows. Yes, I was surrounded by mostly old guys in suits. All I could think was, "Fifteen dollars for this?" Before that, I had to get out of bed early and be in town by the barely respectable time of 7:30 a.m. Why did I do that? For an inside chat with MWV and a bit of a discussion on their rebranding at the 1708 Gallery. Because it was sponsored by C3 and I expected something a bit edgy. Nope. Standard PowerPoint exhibiting all mistakes of your basic slide show (too many words, rehash of the speakers content, few images). That's the last time I pay for the honor of sitting in a recreational board room listening to someone spew corporate speak and talk about reaching the little people on the front lines.

As I sat there I wondered where all the vital young people were, the ones who are shaking it up, the ones making things happen. Making things happen elsewhere, obviously. This was old news no one wanted to hear. Most of those present had been involved in the rebranding or were business associates of those involved. What was the point?

I did learn two things. One, the "tried and true" method of rebranding has been inextricably married to organizational development. Two, the market has changed on a global scale and you'd better get on the bus. MWV has just managed to catch that bus.

Things that make you go AAAAAAAWWWW!

Number one in the cuteness factor contest is a baby. Anything a baby does from lying around with a glassy stare to opening a time bomb is cute. Next, diminuative females and puppies. Why not kittens? I don't know. And what about diminuative males?

Those of a certain age redefine cute in a highly structured and targeted way. Again, where are the corresponding males?

And then there are things that may seem to fit the cuteness definition and yet aren't cute. The diminuative female at the birthday table is bare plain greed training. Not cute!

Do your own search at Jupiter Images. What's cute to you?