Geek Perspective

A few months ago, I started thinking about all the things I got from other people. I noticed things like how I have different laughs that come from different people. When I started making the list though, it turned into mostly what I’ve learned from other people.

Without further delay, here are some of the lessons other people have taught me and other things I picked up from them.

I’m done with another semester at AAU, and holy smokes does it feel good. I flew home yesterday right after my last class. Every few hours, “I’m done” pops into my head and I smile.

So here’s a selfish list of random things I want to do, preferably with wonderful friends just like you.

This is very important.

1. Grill some steaks and/or have a Star Wars marathon.
2. Go ice skating in the temporary rink at the Hotel del Coronado.
3. Have a lazy picnic on a sailboat some afternoon, preferably with a piña colada and a bucket of chicken wings in addition to whatever else we decide to bring. (Don’t judge me, Mason. I still want more wings.)
4. Watch every remaining episode of Kitchen Nightmares.
5. See Sherlock Holmes.
6. See Avatar.
7. See Princess and the Frog.
8. Go to Knott’s Berry Farm.
9. Find a new coat.
10. Go to a Charger’s game.
11. Convince my dad to make his unbelievable rack of lamb one night.
12. Get down to Clayton’s for chocolate chip pancakes, and maybe some corned beef hash too.
13. Eat a bowl of Applejacks, just because it’s been like ten years since I’ve had a bowl and I was reminded of them recently.
14. Make cookies— from scratch for once. With lots of chocolate. And spices.
15. Spend a sunny day finding out how many cherry pits fit in my mouth.

Bonus: Shave my beard so I can see what I look like without one for the first time in years.

Also, I’ll post up the final versions of all the stuff I made for my design classes plus the video presentation I made for my art history class. But that can wait. Stuff from my narrative storytelling class is already up anyway.

Update: I uploaded the work to my Deviant Art. They wouldn’t take my video files though, so you can watch them here. Watch out, they play kinda fast. It feels that way especially because of chaotic camera movements, but hey, not bad for having used that particular program for only two weeks, right? I’m happy with all of them.

I switched to Fontcase a few weeks ago, and I’ve been very happy with it. I feel like it’s more of a pleasure to use than the other font management programs I’ve used. It just feels like more love was put into the design of the interface itself.

I’ve begun the long process of adding things like ratings and tags to all my fonts. While doing so last night, I rounded up 30 sans serif typefaces that I think are pretty good. Being able to print out a sample page for a typeface is pretty standard for font management programs, so I went ahead and made a PDF for those 30 fonts from their sample pages.

Enjoy.

Just look at those fonts. Aren’t they beautiful? They’re my favorite 30 sans serifs right now, but I keep changing my mind. They’re in alphabetical order since I keep flip-flopping about how I’d rank them against each other. Five that would definitely be around the top though are Interstate, Din, Puritan 2.0, Droid Sans, and Trade Gothic.

I uploaded the file for anybody who likes typography, but for people who also need professional font management programs, I think it’s also a good example of how Fontcase just has a more polished, attractive way of presenting everything. The sample pages are meant to be printed out, but I still think they’re beautiful on the screen. And obviously there’s a boatload of other ways to look at fonts.

Anybody who says typography isn’t super interesting  is full of baloney.

I just got back from registering for my next classes at AAU, and here they are.

Winter Intercession
January 11 to 29

1. Art History Through the 19th Century – Monday through Friday, Online

I’m taking a class during the intercession to get more credits out of the way, and it’s going to be tough because it’s compressing a 15-week class into 3 weeks. To put it another way, that’s a 1-week module of art history per day, so I’m going to hate my life for a while but it should be over pretty quickly. And since it’s online, I can still come home at least.

Spring Semester
February 1 to May 22

1. General Psychology – Tuesday, 12:00-2:50 pm
2. Digital Design 1 – Tuesday, 3:30-6:20 pm
3. English Composition: Creative Persuasion – Wednesday, 12:00-2:50 pm
4. Digital Photography – Thursday, 12:00-2:50 pm

I’m at the point now where I’m starting to take electives, so I think my spring semester is going to be really enjoyable. I don’t think the workload will be super heavy like the semester I naively took Fundamentals of Graphic Design at the same time as Materials, Tools, and Comping Techniques. I might even join the swim team too.