blog of blake

Brand New Site Open!

blakejohnson — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:24:57 +0000

Well everyone, I finally did it. I finally built my own website from scratch to do what I wanted it to do from the get-go. So yes, many pats on the back are expected.

Also, if you’ve been subscribed for a while, I’m going to need you to cancel that subscription and go subscribe to the new blog over here, since the web addresses are different, and I won’t be posting to this blog anymore. Thanks a lot for your past interest in my ramblings, and I hope you keep up your subscription with the new site, and enjoy the redesign. See you there!

Posted in Blog, News, Web, Work Tagged: animivirtus, css, moving, redesign, site, theme, website, wordpress, xhtml

Quickie: Cool Artist

blakejohnson — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:51:31 +0000

Cool Artist: http://omen2501.deviantart.com/gallery/

Posted in 2D, Art, Graphics, Web Tagged: action, characters, cool, deviantart, dramatic, fantasy, omen2501, paintings

ZooBorns = Anti-Work

blakejohnson — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:18:51 +0000

OMFG a friend send me this site this morning and now I know I’ll never get anything done ever (and that there is a god in heaven). Seriously, this beats even CuteOverload for the title of ‘blog of cuteness’! This one’s dedicated to exotic animal babies! How much cuter does it get!?

Posted in Humor, Life, Nature, Video, Web Tagged: animals, babies, bird, cute, exotic, gorilla, mammal, panda, turtle, zoo

Befriend A Geek

blakejohnson — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:59:42 +0000

Oh wow, look, someone made a movie about me and my friends.

via YouTube

Posted in Humor, Video, Web Tagged: befriendageek, charity, christmas, geek, YouTube

Free Geek!

blakejohnson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:08:24 +0000

Alright…I just watched the redux on The League of Noble Peers documentary Steal This Film 2, as part of their campaign to help the three members of TPB during their current trial in Sweden, and not only did their talk about a new kind of internet connectivity and community and new ways of thinking about collaboration and community and a sort of technology/creativity-based utopia get me all geekishly excited but I just happened to stumble upon this site while looking for free packing supplies in my area (moving at the end of the month). Yea, no big deal, but cool nonetheless, until I saw the righthand menu section. “Upcoming Events”!? “Learn”!? CAN YOU SAY AWESOME!! (How about GEEKTASTIC!?) I got really excited when I saw the “Intro to Ubuntu GNU/Linux” coming up in March. Definitely going to have to attend that one. Except it’s full. Damn. Well it says there’ll be more in the future so I’m subscribin’ to ye ol’ newsletter then, see what I hear.

Oh yea, and their events are free, they’ve got an “earn a computer” program where you donate 24 hours of service to their organization and you get to adopt one of their aptly-named GeekBoxes (a Linux machine loaded with open source/free software), a computer thrift store (ooooh yeeess) and, under the ‘Free Geek Family’ section, ‘How to start a Free Geek!‘ Oh, and there’s a cluttered but kinda cool Wiki too.

Ooooh…this is going to be a long night of nerdgasms…

UPDATE: Check out the YouTube video below to see how the original Portland chapter got started. Pretty freakin’ well-spoken 13-year-old, huh?

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: Computers, cool, free, geek, linux, nerd, open source, tech, Vancouver

…yummy Photoshop

blakejohnson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:24:18 +0000

Yup, you got it, more o’ the good stuff. Found some more useful tutorials today. This one’s basically a crash course in the application, but I figured it’s a good addition to my growing list of resources. Can’t hurt to revisit your basics every once in a while. I’m exhausted at the moment, had a tuna burrito, then a lamb burger, then pizza and apparently it’s taking more energy to metabolize than I’d anticipated. But that’s fine by me. Sleep never hurt anybody .

Anyway…here’s the link, and here’s another random resource in case you were interested in that last building-custom-themes-for-Wordpress video series I posted about. Enjoy .

Posted in Coding, Computers, Design, Development, Graphics, Productivity, Resources, Video, Web, Work

Holy Photoshop!

blakejohnson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:13:47 +0000

I’ve been watching Adobe’s screencasts the past few days (one on web-based DVDs and one this morning on the Lightroom 2/Photoshop CS4 combo) and have found through them a bunch of new resources for this type of work. Coolness! So from this morning, Julieanne Kost was the host and her website is chock-full of Photoshop and Lightroom tips, with links to her videos on Adobe TV as well and a separate Photoshop Tip of the Day blog, as well as an additional resources page with links to other useful sites on the net.

Also, I’ve gotten hooked on the TutsPlus network of site (PSDTuts, NetTuts, AudioTuts, VectorTuts, AETuts) with their wealth of knowledge and tips and whatnot from all kinds of people. Lastly, I’ve been watching ThemeForest‘s tutorial series on making custom themes for WordPress (no promises, but possibly in the future of blog of blake).

Posted in 2D, Art, Coding, Computers, Design, Development, Graphics, Productivity, Resources, Video, Web, Work

Mozilla Ubiquity

blakejohnson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:41:52 +0000

Ubiquity is a term I associate with the internet, however, after watching this video, I’m beginning to think it may become more manageable in the next few years. Check it out.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

via NetTuts

Posted in Computers, Development, Productivity, Web Tagged: addon, cool, firefox, mashups, mozilla, ubiquity, useful

DeviantArt: ‘Wen-M

blakejohnson — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:06:46 +0000

I’ve been watching this artist for a while and just decided to post about this one piece I found today. It’s a pretty cool style, and though it might not be overwhelmingly good to some, I think it’s pretty sweet. So yea, here’s the latest, title “Romeo E.” Check their gallery out here.

Posted in 2D, Art, Graphics, Web Tagged: 'wen-m, anima, cathedral, deviantart, digital art, drawings, fantasy, knight, paintings, romeo e., sword

John Brickels

blakejohnson — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:16:00 +0000

“Buildings, Claymobiles, Robots and Machines” is this guy’s slogan, and he certainly delivers. I remember seeing his clay houses for sale in the window of Vermont Artisans when I lived near Brattleboro, and just was telling a friend about these houses and found his website. He’s got some kickass stuff, so I decided to show it off here. Check it out, it’s pretty sweet.

Posted in Art, Design Tagged: brickels, clay, house, john brickels, vermont, vermont artisans