But I thought I would have more time.

More time to set up my own projects, more time to spend blogging, more time to socialize, more time to learn and more time to work on my hobbies.

Except I don’t.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked such long hours.  All my own projects, my pro-bono work, and even just keeping blogging (weekly blogging here sure hasn’t consistently happened) have taken the backseat.  I love my clients, and I’m keeping them on good timelines, but I say I’ll have them something in a week, and I blink, and a week has gone by. Of course we all know that everything in web design takes longer than we expect, and I’m getting better at estimating and managing this, but it’s still a big thing.  I must be doing something wrong, right?

This is a public display

I’ve put off the following things too long.  I’ve been reading a psychology book that says people that go on weightloss programs on tv lose more weight because they are held accountable by more people.  This study said that this works for lots of other things too:  Tell lots of people what you’re planning on doing and you’re more likely to complete them, out of sheer will not to have to try and explain later.  So here it is:  a list of things I don’t get paid for, that I need to finish this month.

-A Smashing Magazine article that I researched in late January

-A pro-bono website for a non-profit learning program for kids that I started in January

-My own professional face, for more serious clients that I’ve been talking about making for months

-Design for an iphone game that my friend has developed that I’ve been toying with for months

Now, hopefully, out of sheer embarrassment, these four things will get done.  Now remind me not to take on any more client work… I need to have fun one of these days too!

P.S. If you want me to berate you for anything, leave it in the comments, and I will make your life a living hell on march 30th!

Don’t worry, I have replaced his head with white snow, and he is happily hanging out in the Great White North!

My snow sculpting leaves a little to be desired... maybe more of a snow llama? Poor safetygoat!

Arty shot. Notice hair peaking in! I had to use my computer covered in a plastic bag to get the shot...

His lifejacket doesn't fit very well! He is a growing boy afterall... Maybe he needs a new one for his birthday!

Here’s my view from my window today: try training for a marathon here.

It's snowing today!

The media in other nations are critical though.  Things aren’t going smoothly.  There’s hilarious, embarrassing, annoying happenings.  Every event has them.  Just because you try hard, doesn’t mean that people can’t criticise you.  People will always complain.  People will always be critical.  People will always joke. Get over it.

I am quietly proud of being a Canadian.  I love our snowy, boring nation.

What I hate is this arrogance.  And the arrogance at being polite and modest.  How can you be declaring yourself modest? How does that make ANY sense?

Skeleton champion belts out Oh Canada. He's got the right idea... he's just absolutely 100% ecstatic about winning.

I’m all for the cheering, singing oh canada, flag waving (who said Canadians don’t wave flags?  I happen to think we have a beautiful flag!), and glorifying the athletes.  We’re going to cheer louder for our countrymen, there’s going to be more of us than other fans, and tell me of a country where this isn’t true.

Canadians aren’t that interesting (with a few notable exceptions).  We are nice, and we’re doing our best, but we should learn how the world works.  We’re not very often in the world media, we don’t get criticism very often because we’re often not a big player.  Now that we’re in the spotlight, we’re boasting with arrogance about our modesty.

These Canadians that are hurt by the criticism, that say we should just focus on the sport, have lost their grip on reality. Grow some thick skin, Canada.  The Olympics are going fine.  They suck at times, they’re great at times.  That’s life.

Speech writers/media content creators:  Your arrogance makes us look bad.

I’m sure most Canadians flinch when someone goes on about how AMAZING we are.  We have a beautiful country, and we’re nice.  Let’s not forget that we usually let people discover this themselves.  We’re not perfect, but I think some of the public data is misrepresenting us.  If we were acting like proper Canadians, we’d be proud, but acknowledge that we’ve made mistakes and things haven’t gone perfectly.  We’d be able to laugh at ourselves.

I also look forward to 2012 in London, where I know cynical Brits will have no problem criticising  their own nation’s attempt at Olympic glory.

The dress that was the start of my fashion inspiration

I just heard the tragic news… Lee McQueen, founder of Alexander McQueen, has died.

I am shocked.  He is one of my favourite fashion designers, and his dress design, shown here, was actually what prompted me to create my own fashions, back when I started sewing 3 years ago.

I remember finding this dress (displayed with a soft sweater in a winter wonderland in the magazine spread), with its a-symmetrical wrapping that was neither traditionally tartan, nor over the top, and I thought, “wow, I would love to make something like that.” While my efforts to distill his piece of art were not entirely successful, I was hooked, and I often spent hours routing through his collections, in awe of his ability to create such uniqueness.

Fashion week is coming up, and he was supposed to be unveiling his latest collection.  What a shame that this is the last time we will see new creations from him.

Mr. McQueen, your creativity has inspired me, and you will be sorely missed.

My talented neice's fancy fruit bowl... very creative!

I’ve just read this article by Andy Rutledge on creativity, and while I cling to my creativity, I have to agree with his sentiments…for the most part.

He seems to believe that you need to be properly educated. He’s written other articles on creating a set curriculum and adding a few letters after your name.  I’m self-taught.  Some of the best designers I’ve met are also self-taught. I learned web stuff by little bit of luck, mediocre-levels of innate talent, and a lot of sheer will.

Growing up is hard to do

By doing things wrong, I actually knew why those rules were important.

Knowing the fundamentals and being able to apply them do make designs better.  Every designer with a few years under their belt should know that.  But I still think a creative mind still makes a fantastic job.  Any dunce with a bit of discipline can apply the principles to a bit of information.  That doesn’t make it good design.

Designers should be creative

The definition of creativity has been warped a bit.  Most people say that children are very creative.  My niece is a fantastic artist, and she comes up with some really good stuff.  In the past, I’ve often confused expressive creativity with useful creativity.

Design, by definition, is inherently  useful.  For most professions (architecture, engineering, and hey, why not… accounting), I think of it more like problem solving.  And those curious and perceptive will work and niggle until a design works, and every pixel works towards its goal.  Fitting components onto a page coherently and effectively requires more than just a knowledge of design fundamentals.  Sure, they give you a framework for putting things in place, but the elegance that comes from a beautiful design usually comes from creativity mixed with a whole lot of empathy (whether it be artistic, typographic, structural, or any other type of creativity).

More to learn

Some of the design experts that we’re supposed to admire don’t really impress me that much, and a lot of their stuff doesn’t strike me as unique or creative, but their mastery of design theory and care and attention to details do. Within the confines of a new distinction between useful and expressive creativity, most of the problems associated with the terminology disappears.  I can say that yes, they have solved the problem, so I guess they are being creative, but they haven’t found the most elegant solution (if your initial reaction is, “Meh!” then can it truly be the best design for that content?).

I ultimately think you can’t hide behind design’s rules either though, just as much as you can’t hide behind ‘creativity’.

Go ahead and read his article.   He really says it well.

Take the fast route baby!

There are so many resources out there on keyboard short cuts out there. Some really good ones that just got published include Mastering Photoshop: Unknown Tricks and Time-Savers (where I learned how to commit the text I had just written when my toolbars were hidden:  It’s cmd enter!) and I’ve just finished installing Zen Coding into my Coda and Textmate, which will save me a lot of time formatting boring static text, definitely.

Shortcuts are great…

I know quite a few shortcuts in the Adobe package, and I can get around my mac pretty easily with a combination of key strokes.  It saves me so much time, and it makes it so much easier to get into my “zone”.  We all have our techniques for efficiency when we’re on the computer.

…but they’re also really frustrating

The problem is, they’re not universal.  I hit the “V” key constantly in flash in order to get my direct select arrow.  I hit “command D” constantly in Illustrator to place an image, but that’s the command for inDesign.  After a while I get frustrated enough that I’ll go and change them in the settings, but by then, all flow has dissipated.

They also make teaching difficult

I have often gone to show people how to do something very simple in Photoshop, and to be honest, it takes me a while to find certain things in the menus.  I hit keystrokes to change tools, and they are shouting, “Wait!  What is that?”

Remember these words: patience and repetition. I think people should always learn the long ways of doing it first.  Menus and panels often give a context that learning shortcuts do not.  It’s like at school with math:  the teacher would show you once or twice how a formula was derived, and then you just remembered the formula, but understood its context.  It meant memorizing the formula was much easier, because it had something to connect to in your brain.

They make “experts” out of “amateurs”

I’ve met a few people who are whizzes at Photoshop, could talk to the talk, do the shortcut walk and then I saw their stuff, but it turns out they couldn’t design themselves out of a paper bag.  Just because I’m really good with the drill and the hammer, doesn’t mean I should be designing the house.

This short-cutter has mistaken tool mastery with real skill, and that’s a huge problem.  For those who strive for mastery in design, shortcuts are not important.

We combined two tickets, by changing the date of one, so we’re not spending more on flights as we’ve already bought them. But when it comes to common sense, Air Canada has really thrown it out the window.

Here is our flight itinerary:

Here is how our trip will look like

Ottawa and Toronto are a 5 hour drive apart, so we thought, “Let’s just drive to Toronto and pick up the flight to the UK from there.”  Sounds simple: it benefits Air Canada as now they can sell our seats on the San Francisco leg.  It benefits us as we save about 14 hours of air time, don’t have to fly through the states with the increased security (I can just imagine explaining this to the customs guy in the states), and I can see my friend who’s living in Toronto.

Our proposed trip

But Air Canada said ‘NO’.

We’re not asking for a refund for the unused portion and we’ll make our own way to Toronto, so it’s not a route change.  But APPARENTLY it IS a route change.  Their rules state that if you miss any portion of your flight, the whole ticket is void.  I’m not sure when common sense went out the window, but it seems a bit crazy to send us all the way there and back, when they could sell that seat.  Of course, the flight TO San Francisco is with American Airlines.  If we don’t make our connection in San Francisco, do you think Air Canada would void our tickets?

Update!  Good news!

Well, the counter staff at Air Canada have saved us!  She said, “That’s ridiculous!” and told us that we were lucky we got her to serve us.  She said, “I’ll take your money for a change though” and now we’re just flying from toronto tomorrow morning!  YAY!

Anyway, here’s the first week’s post.  Sorry it’s so boring.  The plan is also to make them progressively more interesting.

I still haven’t got a vinyl toy of safetygoat made, I didn’t make half as many new clothes as I planned, and I definitely didn’t do as much spraypainting!

2009 was a great year though!

I launched my first apps, thepickuptruck and graffed, and I’m close to getting theboxcat out in private beta.  I also started writing for Smashing Magazine,  and will hopefully become a more regular writer this year.  I also quit my job at bview in September to go traveling for a while, and have realized I am more of a projects girl than a traveler.  I’ve realized that you’ve got to try things to find out if they’re for you.

I’m really excited about 2010, and I think this decade will be very good, but I’m not sure what this year will bring.  I’m not sure about my visa for England, so I’m not sure where I’m going to be living, but there’s something a bit exciting about that.  In that sense, it’s hard for me to make resolutions for next year, but it is fun to do!

1. Get a job

Travelling these past few months have been fun, but I really want to focus on my web design. I would love to see if I could do part time somewhere, and then do freelance part time, but as long as I’m doing something that challenges me, with interesting people, I’ll be happy.

2. Refine and refine

2009 was great for new websites for me, and I’ve learned so much about coding, designing and usability.  I’ve done some good work on some websites, on safetygoat, on graffed, boxcat, etc, but they’re a work in progress, and I’m looking forward to refining them!

3. More drawing

Last year, I occasionally used my lunch hours to do sketches, mostly of cbc radio 3 songs.  It was really rewarding, and a good way to keep drawing. I want to get my “lunch time sketches” up and going and at least once a week, if not twice a week, to keep me coming up with visual concepts.

4. More arts and crafts!

I’ve bought some books on dress making, and I’d love to learn how to make clothes in a bit more traditional way– ie not me making it ALL up as I go!  Whether I get my safetygoat made, or continue to experiment with moulding them myself, I want to continue trying lots of new things.

10. “Bird poop island” AKA the White Islands

And when they call them the White Islands, it’s definitely the “few feet of guano” that they are referring to.  I didn’t get pooped on, so it was definitely a successful boat ride!

9. Beautiful  churches and ruins

If you want to see Inca ruins and 16th, 17th and 18th century South American churches, Peru is definitely going to satisfy your craving.  We saw many many fantastic Inca ruins, including Macchu Pichu, of course, as well as Inca cities even bigger than that between Cusco and Puno.  The most stunning church was probably San Pedro de Andahuaylillas, considered the Sistene Chapel of America (incredible painting and art pieces).  I preferred the more rustic churches, though.

Convent of Santa Catalina

Considered the most important building in Peru, it’s easy why people are impressed with this place.  More like a mini city than a building, it’s got a few streets and it probably the most beautiful, colourful place I saw in all of Peru.

8. Sheep, alamas, alpacas, cows, donkeys, one goat, and oh so many stray dogs!

It’s no wonder their hats and scarfs are made from llamas and alpacas, as they are everywhere!  They really have a different relationship with their dogs in Peru.  We thought the dogs were all strays, but it looks like owners just let them wander around during the day.  I was in love with all the animals we saw EVERYWHERE!

Oh, and eating guinea pigs!

It’s the traditional dish in Peru, and they eat them on special occasions.  Even their paintings of the Last Supper features guinea pig!  It was actually delicious– tasted a lot like chicken actually!

6. Chivay’s dancing and hot springs

Near the Colca Canyon, we stayed in a little town called Chivay.  While we weren’t keen on the “touristy meal” idea, their live band and hilarious dancers really made our night.  I was the first to go up and boogie with the guy, and then Ollie was roped into a 10 minute long dance fiesta!

El hot spring-os

What could be better than a hot spring in the mountain side?  More like a swimming pool than a spring, yet it was over 39 degrees celsius in the pool, and 87 degrees where it came into the pool!

5. Our new card playing friends in Puno

We went to the bar and were going to play some cards.  Somehow I dealt our bartender in to a simple game of 31.  I’ve never seen people having so much fun playing such a simple game! Our friends played some great tunes, and we had an absolute ball that night.

4. Sanddune buggy riding and sandboarding

Well, let’s just say my throat was killing me after sandduning in this buggy from screaming so much!  We’d go down almost vertical hills; it was MENTAL!  We also got to try sandboarding.  It’s just like snowboarding, except not as fast and not as cold.  Ollie was brilliant on his first few attempts, so we think he really has a future in it!

3. Playing soccer with the kids on the floating islands

They build their lives on floating islands made of reeds from lake titicaca, and yes, it’s definitely a touristy thing to do.  Their lives are hard but simple, and they seem to be a very happy people.  This little guy approached us to play soccer with him, as we got some free time.  After almost kicking the ball off the island, we managed to get a little game going, and then his brother joined in.  They wanted to practice header balls, which was hilarious as the older guy would just launch the ball at his brother’s head and knock him over! We were sad to leave, but at 3800m above sea level, you can’t run around very much without feeling like you’re going to die!

I then got to row a traditional boat… It looked so easy, and I’m an excellent rowboat rower… The guy who was taking us on the ride let me try, and then was cracking up at how horrible I was at it!

2. White water rafting near Cusco

We signed up the day before, and had no idea what to expect, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ollie so excited!  He must have swallowed half the river from grinning and laughing like a madman!  It was the start of the rainy season, so the water levels were pretty high, and the guide said they were level 5!  A few close moments of almost falling in, definitely, and “surfing” under the rapids was hilarious!  We had an AMAZING time!

1.  The Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu

Well, no surprise here, but the Inca Trail is absolutely beautiful, and Macchu Pichu is stunning.  The walk there in itself is difficult, there’s lots of stairs, and with the altitude, it’s slow going.  We were so lucky to have a fantastic group of mostly Australians, and while everyone kept up, no one held anyone back either.  The porters and tour guides we had with SAS Travel (Paull, our main guide, and Rodney who has sexy legs!) made up our camps for us every night, and we had a trained chef who made our meals (which was incredible considering what he had to make it with!).  We had lots of laughs (“stop peeling your corn”, “stunt cow” and so many more retarded jokes!), and at least one of the nights we all went to bed crying from laughing so much.  While the journey made your shoulders and legs ache, knowing that we did it, and seeing Macchu Pichu from the trail was an epic experience!

Overall, we had a fantastic time, didn’t get robbed, didn’t get hit by a car, and spent a fortune doing all the things we could! El-tripio was a huge success, and as Ollie would say, “Vamos!”

If you’re looking for a few more pics, you can check out all the albums on Ollie’s flickr.  Here’s the highlights album!