mugwumpian mumbles

Beauty in the absurd

2008-11-10T16:07:00.003-06:00

Okay, maybe not beauty. Absurdity in the minimal?

Chainsaw Suit

I have long been a webcomic nerd, and I've been noticing somewhat of a trend in where my taste for webcomics is leaning. Stick figures. Either in the realm of the philosophical, as is the case of pictures for sad children, or else the absurd, as is the case of Chainsaw Suit above. Maybe with less focus on drawing there's a greater time to focus on the writing? There are lots of very beautifully drawn comics out there with terrible writing.

Some other comics in the stick vein are xkcd and Cyanide and Happiness. I'm consistently impressed with these comics. Are my expectations just lower?

Aggregate!

2008-10-15T02:37:00.003-05:00

So here's the plan. I'm going to figure out how to pull updates from my flickr, twitter, miscellaneous blogs, youtube account, and so forth and have them all show up on MyrthCo's front page when I update. It'll be like Facebook's newsfeed, only all about me and my internet addiction.

It's going to be off the chain. As soon as I work out the details. I hope I can work out the details.

Let me show you what I'm working with

2008-10-07T00:41:00.003-05:00

The past few weeks have seen me working on a few different web projects. I am putting the final touches on an artist portfolio site for my old painter professor Jen Dietrich. She does really amazing, textural paintings dealing with the themes of Americana seen through the lens of barns, baseball, and Kennedy. Her "Earthly Flesh" series is especially inspiring to me.

When not painting or teaching, Jen is also a filmmaker. I've been helping do a special site/blog for her documentary on Philip Pearlstein, entitled Not Made in Heaven, which is a reference to an article Philip wrote for ArtNews on figure painting in the age of Abstract Expressionism. I really like the simplicity of the film site I'm doing for them. The content is still being shuffled around somewhat.

The joy of social networking

2008-10-05T18:39:00.002-05:00

After reading the New York Times's article Job Hunting Is, and Isn’t, What It Used to Be last week, I first felt extremely discouraged that a majority of my job hunting has been done through Careerbuilder and Craigslist, which due to the high volume of unqualified applicants, are mostly useless. Then I decided it was time to plunge into the world of adult social networking (no, I don't mean xtube). So... yes. I am now hoping to become linked in. On LinkedIn. Here's to another great social experiment.

A newfound love of gifs

2008-10-03T14:03:00.004-05:00

Would it be amiss for me to say I miss animated gifs? The internet of my youth was littered with them. I suppose I should be looking in the darker halls of MySpace to find them again. Our dear once-clean Facebook won't animate them.

The reason I bring this up is that I was without internet at the laundromat yesterday and decided to investigate whether Photoshop could make gifs. I was pleased to learn it can.

Naturally, this lead to a few quick experiments.

The first two feature my sister and the last two are from childhood home movies. The last one is my father in boxers and monster mask. More on those home movies in the future.

In order to feed my new old obsession, I stumbled across Loopable, which is a blog devoted to gifs. Sadly it hasn't updated since July.

The archives, however, yield amazing results:

The joy of leading

2008-09-28T01:00:00.002-05:00

Kerning inaction, originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

An entire day spent Googling™

2008-09-22T12:52:00.004-05:00

That subject line could imply some extreme narcissism with ™ being my initials and all, but that's not what I was doing today. For once. I instead have been streamlining my life and entering all relevant marketing information into the Google Cloud. I think I read putting all my cyber eggs into one basket was an excellent idea.

I could claim by consolidating I am becoming more efficient, but all that I've really accomplished is making my procrastination more efficient. All of my design blogs are now in one place! Wowee. I am one of the many people with multiple Google accounts, which is annoying since there is no way to currently merge said accounts. There are ways around thankfully, so now I am redirecting, forwarding, or associating my Google and other e-mail accounts into one consolidated, folder-less lump. Yeah, labels. Thanks for the future on that one.

Speaking of the future (and websites I can consolidate under the Google Cloud...)

Content Aware Image Resizing (Seam Carving if you're nasty). This is practically the rotational/enhancement that is featured so prominently in Bladerunner and CSI. Not quite, but having never heard of it before today and then discovering it might be an included feature in Adobe Creative Suite 4.

I think my awe over this new technology and the ability to post on blogger from my other gmail account have overridden my usual eloquence. Yes. I am very eloquent.

Oh, and I Twitter now. I'm not really sure why, other than it is a good way to feed my internet and social network addictions.

Christ through JavaScripture

2008-09-20T00:36:00.001-05:00

Description
Are you interested in using your talents in web design for a Christian ministry? Bible League, a Christian ministry located in the south Chicago suburbs, has provided Bibles for more than 70 years to people in need around the world. Bible League partners with local churches worldwide, training and equipping Christians to use the Bible to make disciples and establish new churches. We are currently seeking a Webmaster in our international headquarters office.

The Webmaster will be responsible for management of the website which will include implementing web pages and managing content assuring quality and clarity of Bible League’s mission. This person will design, develop, and execute site architecture and navigation including redesigns and upgrades and help determine needs, strategies and goals for the web ensuring site is optimized. Will also collaborate with creative staff on design and layout to facilitate multi channel marketing.

Requirements
Qualifications include being a Christian and agreeing with the Bible League’s Statement of Faith. Candidates will possess strong web design skills including the ability to edit using HTML and JavaScript skills.

Candidates should also have 2 yrs experience with web design and programming languages such as HTML, CSS, ASP, ASP.Net, JavaScript, PHP, XML and SQL and experience with development tools such as Visual Studio, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash for website development. Will also have experience with relational databases such as MS-SQL Server along with a thorough knowledge of SEO techniques.

In addition, candidates should have experience running and evaluating online marketing campaigns along with excellent communication and interpersonal skills, strong analytical and problem solving skills, and be team oriented.

HIPHOP? HIPSTER?

2008-09-14T15:54:00.001-05:00

0914081508.jpg, originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

I really question the target market of this ad. Maybe it's because I'm not it. Still a pretty great poster for the Logan Square...

Surrealism in advertising

2008-09-06T14:53:00.001-05:00

Surrealism in advertising, originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

There's something very Magritte about the illustration in this. What are these types of ads even called? It's not a billboard, and it's almost a mural.

Visible Means opens in Duluth

2008-08-29T19:10:00.002-05:00

Visible Means Exhibition Announcement Back, originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

This is so awesome to be featured in an exhibition with David Wojnarowicz, who is one of my favorite artists and inspirations. The show is at the Duluth Art Institute in Duluth, MN and runs August 28, 2008 – November 16, 2008. I missed the opening since I am in Chicago, but it looks like a great show by all accounts. The show is curated by my former print and drawing professor, Robert Repinski, who is an amazing artist himself.

Here's some random press.

"Check inside machine for children, pets, and foreign objects before loading and starting."

2008-07-23T21:39:00.001-05:00

"Check inside machine for children, pets, and foreign objects before loading and starting.", originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

Clarity of design and content is important in preventing disasters.

things not okay by me

2008-06-20T17:44:00.002-05:00

Papyrus. On my trip back to Minnesota last weekend it felt like half of the billboards used Papyrus. Why is one typeface used to represent ancient egypt (ha), greece, the southwest, organic elegance, woodsy downhomeness, and trendy alternativeness? Why do people think papyrus lasercut into brushed aluminum is classy?

I'd include images, but that would require putting Papyrus on my blog.

As a sidenote, in Egypt, most of the cheap "papyrus" you buy from street vendors and tourist shops is actually banana paper. The skins/leaves of a banana are much cheaper to process than real papyrus. The end product is also a lot more brittle. And cheap. Let's rename Papyrus to Banana Paper Sans.

things ok by me

2008-06-20T17:02:00.001-05:00

$2 PBRs, free wireless at the Charleston, Bud and him doing all my design for me. Such a good night.

New website design and a blog template to match!

2008-06-17T15:39:00.005-05:00

I've also got a fancy new portfolio section and a profile at aiga design jobs. I'm still doing tweaks to the site, which will probably include some new portfolio images. I am also on the hunt for a job in Chitown.

view my portfolio:
aigadesignjobs.org/topher

Tokyo

2008-04-13T20:59:00.001-05:00

The Tweed sent me to Tokyo for a very short trip in March. Here's a video I cobbled together from my footage.

leaving home... again

2008-02-21T15:22:00.001-06:00

basement, originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

Now that I've graduated college, I feel once again in a very transitional state. The photo is from Thanksgiving 2005 when I had to help my mother pack up my childhood home. She was leaving South Dakota for a more lucrative job in Minnesota. I'll soon be leaving Duluth, which has come to feel more like home than anywhere else, to hopefully find a job in Chicago.

This is not art. It's a pipe.

2008-02-21T15:15:00.001-06:00

artangst44, originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

Cheerful

2007-12-22T02:38:00.001-06:00

Cheerful
Originally uploaded by tofu mugwump

I've finished my undergraduate career, assuming they don't find something else and withhold my diploma. Now it is time to make good art. And organize my flickr!

2007-12-17T20:27:00.001-06:00

"Mythology is one step beyond nostalgia."

blogs, internet, and dancing

2007-10-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

What are "things that can damage your future chance of a career" Trebek?

So, let's see, I have a deadjournal dating back to 2000 (high school, angst), a livejournal dating back to 2003 (freshman year of college, super angst), a myspace blog, a facebook account, this poor excuse for a blog, and a class blog. As you can see, only one of those is really safe to link to though they can all be found easily enough.

I need to compile all the entries someday into a private file and then burn the computer it is stored on. And then make a machine to reburn those ashes. And then burn that machine.

Anywho, someday soon I need to consolidate/remove some of the ancient more embarrassing blogs and make the final blog look halfway decent. I also need to update portfolio site very badly. At least my new flickr is pretty. My mnartists.org profile is also gaining in content.

Some day Topher. Some day.

oh my blog

2007-02-15T23:21:00.000-06:00

how many blogs does one person need?

lots. obviously. please ignore the css for now.

Harumph.

2005-11-09T22:11:00.000-06:00

What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs and
Rolls over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack and fits on your back?
It's Blog, Blog, Blog!

It's Blog, Blog, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's Blog, Blog, it's better than bad, it's good!
Everyone wants a Blog! You're gonna love it, Blog!
Come on and get your Blog! Everyone needs a Blog!

Four books of Plath verse later...

2005-08-18T22:58:00.000-05:00

I rushed through Ariel, the Colossus, Winter Trees, and Crossing the Water, so not much beside a few well turned phrases clung to me. I retained the ability to analyze poetry only as long as it was essential for a grade. Reading comprehension for pleasure is negligible, but I think I mentioned that. I am working on Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, and perhaps Plath's short stories will stick with be better.

I find it hard to avoid being a conspicuous consumer. I was in the Electric Fetus today and decided to leave before the urge to buy five CDs overcame me. I am still breaking myself from the thought, "it's only money." I do not need more stuff to be happy, but I did buy a brand new used vintage suit at Vintage Duluth, which I am sure I look snazzy in. The suit was my first clothes purchase since being stateside. My aversion to American fashion is waning, and someday soon I might again gleefully run through the aisles of Target and Old Navy en route to Ragstock and Hot Topic. I am a whore. Not at this moment, but soon.

Today I allegedly finished working on the Communication Arts Teaching Portfolio template I have been working on this summer. I doubt my competence and the practical competence of my supervisor in the project. She is a free spirit, and I am clueless. A professional person we do not make. Perhaps a return from the east of another personage will solve these problems.

Competing for jobs with friends sucks. So does my ability to not go on tangents.

Listening to the radio on a six hour drive from Duluth to Brookings, South Dakota makes me want many things dead. Listening to KUMD (103.3 FM) at night in Duluth makes me want a radio. It also makes me want my friends back. Calling the station to ask for the call numbers and not acknowledging you've slept in the same bed as the person who answers the phone seems suspect. Maybe I was just task orientated. How does one work, "remember that time you made me explain how to give good head, and why don't we call each other?" into casual conversation? Later that night, which was last night, I realized I knew yet another dj. I called to confess my love, but conversation was brief. Most conversations these days are lacking in either length, breadth, or depth. I think the problem might be on my end.

The problem is self. Identity. Individuality. I missed the realization of my own awareness somewhere along the line. Only now, at age twenty, am I starting to grasp that other people are not the same as me. My ability to control and manipulate the actions of others can only go so far. I have been trying to avoid acquaintances as of late (acquaintances and solitary figures walking towards me in empty hallways being my biggest social fears), and I think I am starting to understand.

I fear the conflict of unknowns. I have absorbed the personalities of friends into my consciousness. I can predict (not always accurately) their responses to my actions. Running into a half-strangers forces me to put my self-awareness against theirs. I have no idea who motivates them, what they are thinking. They are entirely apart from me, which emphasizes that I am apart from everyone else. Whether or not a collective consciousness exists, loneliness and isolation are much more readily apparent. I am a mote in a dust rag of six billion entities. We exist on the same surface, but we are not contiguous. The realization of self (loneliness, isolation) scares me, yet my current line of thought is based on mundane observations. For example, I realize I like different music from my friends and others; personal preference is still alien to me. In high school I assumed my friends liked what I did, and they did. Is liking bad music a sign of personal growth?

Aging, maturing, and time become paradoxes whenever I focus on them. To my five year old self, the concept of being twenty was impossible. In two or three years, months, or decades, I will look back on how stupid I am now. I am the oldest I have ever been, but I continually recognize my ignorance and shortcomings in everyday living. What can I learn from my new mental isolation, real or imagined? I think it's different from teen angst or college emo, because I don't feel sad. I feel empowered by my disconnect; I control me. On the other hand, my unique identity often means no one wants to go to Perkins with me every night.

I believe this is what Milan Kundera meant by the concept of "eternal return."

a summer reading list (abridged)

2005-08-10T00:08:00.000-05:00

No television and no easy internet access do not make me a dull boy, unless you think reading four books on your day off is dull.

A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf

Tumble Home Amy Hampl

*Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera

Immortality Milan Kundera

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera

Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut

Here to Timbuktu Kurt Vonnegut

*Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

Catch 22 Joseph Heller

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Douglas Adams

Life, the Universe, and Everything In It Douglas Adams

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish Douglas Adams

Steppenwolf Herman Hesse

*Arcadia Tom Stoppard

Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro

A Matter of Life and Sex Oscar Moore

The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story Richard Bach

The Possessed Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Diary of an Art Dealer Rene Gimpel

Myra Breckenridge Gore Vidal

Haunted Chuck Palahniuk

Mysterious Skin Scott Heim

*second time reading

I have also worked my way through various books on HTML and CSS. I am gathering strength for more complicated web matters, but I am on techo-holiday. Or just too lazy to learn more. I tend to speed through books, focusing more on finish them than content, and since I never discuss the books with anyone, I forget most of the essential elements. The Possessed took me a period of almost nine months to read, and I am not sure if I understood it at all. I read The Bell Jar today, and I must say it was not as depressing or man-hating as I had been led to believe. Plath was a good writer, and now I am going to invest time into her poetry. I have never been into reading poetry, but if this goes well I am going to check out Rainer Maria Riilke. I think most of my reading habits are cliche and a bit too influenced by what's popular to read, but I read what I like or what I think I will like. My second time through Catcher in the Rye was odd since I am now older than Holden Caufield. I am also a year older than Esther of The Bell Jar and six years older than Charlie of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Can I outgrow the coming of age novel when I, myself, have not come of age? After a year abroad I do not feel any more "centered" as a person. Parts of me are more mature, but the old self does not die so easily.

I think it means it is time to find a new genre of books. Though, Steppenwolf's protagonist is 50 and the story reads very much like a coming of age novel. Will I connect more with Hesse and less with Salinger as I grow older? I barely remember Franny and Zooey, so maybe I should read more Salinger and see what I find.

Part of me wants to hunt down Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, but who reads those for pleasure? Maybe I am ready for Ayn Rand and Nietzsche. Or maybe I should find a new project.