Up the Tree

  • I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the Wookiee win.

    C-3PO

  • IBM’s new font shares a lot of the little details which made their Paul Rand logo so great.

  • Namely Daughters…

    When D was born, I really didn’t have any idea what to expect not only from the experience of childbirth, and a homebirth at that but of what babies and later kids would mean for my life. I don’t think it is ever possible to anticipate the impact children will have, and I, living in the moment, really did little to plan my next steps. Julia and I had our new bundle of joy and improvised as usual. At almost four years old, D is an amazing little girl who loves everything stereotypically girly.

    1. The color pink in every shade
    2. The movies Frozen or Moana or The Little Mermaid or…
    3. All things ballet
    4. Ghostbusters… all three movies. Yes, all three, even the reboot. Not really sure that is girly, but I love it.

    As a parent now of a second amazing daughter V, I can surely say that all kids are different. The lessons I learned with D are not the same lessons I am now learning with V. I thought I had figured it out. One kid down, I got this, but that is not the case. It is also like every time you think you have parenting figured out, your kids will test the boundaries where you failed to prepare. Kind of like Jurassic Park.

    Clever Girl

    All that being said, my daughters are the best thing I have ever done. Some folks out there may sneer, “YOUR CHILDREN ARE THE BEST THING YOU HAVE EVER DONE?” I get it. The idea that my hopes and dreams are projected on these two little girls who haven’t done much of anything at this point. Yeah, yeah. My life shouldn’t be wrapped up in my children. But on the other side, all the parents out there get it. My girls are my everything. They are literally the reason I want to get up in the morning (and often are the reason I wake up at 5:30). Their view of the world is why Donald Trump doesn’t fill me with ongoing fear. My daughters will be president. BOTH OF THEM.

    They certainly have the best last name to get them there.

    All this is to say, I also blame them for the lack of all my creative inklings. They are where I put all my energy. They are where my podcasts, my writings, my paintings, my doodles, and my dreams lie. Right now, all the energy goes to them. But, good news, we will all reap the benefit of these amazing engines of creativity and positivity. Eventually, the compound interest in these wiggly, giggly little bank accounts of humanity will pay out dividends of awesome things. I’m sure of it.

    They already brighten my life exponentially. We all just need to be patient.

  • Dear Diary it has been more than 2 years since my last confession.

    I have been listening to David Sedaris’ Theft By Finding, which is the first collection of old diary entries spanning 1977-2002. It made me realize I really don’t write as much so used to. Chalk it up to starting a family and having a career, but the writing thing just hasn’t been a priority lately.

    Just today I was on my PS4 ready for friends to come online to play some games. I realized that only one person was online and not someone I normally play with. It’s times like these that I wonder if I’m missing something. Is it the Oscars, the Emmys, or do people have actual lives?I feel like I would be the one person playing games as a world war broke loose and would be utterly oblivious to the fact.

    If it weren’t for J, I would be far less connected to the world, although her tastes usually center around the deaths of celebrities than truly horrific current events… of which there are tons. I’m often taken aback by how often people in my life, especially those at work love being the bearers of bad news.

    “Did you hear, ______” is often the start of a sentence I wish I hadn’t heard.

    It’s never “fireman saved a kitten” or “I made lasagna from scratch and it’s in the kitchen!” Instead its something far more… dubious.

    Its cliche but true, bad news travels faster than good.

  • Bonsai provides freelance work contract templates for creative freelancers like designers and developers. Sounds pretty cool, will give it a try on our next project for sure.