Interviewed by HoggWorks' Gideon

Brian Hogg was walking around FiTC with a puppet and against all odds managed to talk a bunch of cynical web-nerds into interviewing. I was the first. I'm not that cynical. Of puppets, anyway. I deal with client service reps every day. HA! I'm so bad!

Gideon interviews yours truly

FiTC TO over for another year.

Sniffle. Just like that, FiTC TO is over. One last lunch with some folks and off they go to their respective locales.

James Patterson's work is incredible. It's really evolved. I look forward to seeing his universe unfold. I wish I knew him better personally, as he's a hell of a guy.

Robert Hodgin continues to impress with his incredible work. Plus, his dry wit and sharp tongue is a boon to all of us that have the pleasure of knowing him. And he has some wicked people to work with at Barbarian Group

Grant Skinner and his wife Bobi are two people, that if I missed them, I'd miss them. Plus, Grant's words of wisdom taken from his years of speaking was a tremendous help in calming me down before, and after, my session.

Erik Natzke and his lovely Tobey left early but they were catching a flight to Norway so who can blame them? Seeing his work has always inspired me. Plus, he punches hard. I get to punch him back and he doesn't mind since he's built like a tank.

Phillip Kerman has been doing some really funny videos.

Chaos-101. Keith Peters. All she wrote, yo.

There's lots more, of course. Josh is even more of a brand, partnering up with Umbra. I don't see them on Umbra, but he also designed bedding. So if you've always wanted to curl up with Josh and drink a hot chocolate with him while watching the English Patient, here's your chance. I'm pretty sure he won't do that in person, unless it's the extra-long director's cut. He's a sucker for Ralph Fiennes.

Lastly, this was year was different because Libs got to join me once in awhile and meet all the people I've been talking about for the past however many years. She finally managed to have a nice chat with most of them. And we brought Declan to the festival for a short while where he captured the hearts of every onlooker with his crush on the Seneca bee.

and stole a beach ball from Aquent.

Faïk Tattoos

My presentation at FiTC TO went well, from what I can tell. Not everyone will agree, but such is the way. I did get some really great feedback following the presentation which I truly appreciated. Everyone seemed interested in the source materials. This is a good sign. So for those of you that waited the 12 hours, here's everything. And thanks to everyone that attended my session. It was extremely rewarding to see so many faces. I hope you got something out of it.

OOP for the OOPless

Navigation is as follows:
S (s) - show slide navigation
H (h) - hide slide navigation
if slide navigation is opened, you can click on individual slides to jump to a slide.
right arrow key - next slide
left arrow key - previous slide
down arrow key - progress through slide


Once the slide has 'opened' (meaning the background image has come in) you can just burn through the slide to get whatever you were looking for. I probably should have visual titles on the navigation, but I'll get to it, I promise.

Source Example Files from the presentation.

FaïkTattoos
Not too shabs for a week's worth of work.
Source files

Thank you, Shawn, for the opportunity. I haven't spoken publicly for a couple of years and it was fantastic to come back at such a prestigious event. I look forward to taking money from everyone in poker. Or having a little cry in my beer as I sit on the sidelines after being busted out.

FiTC TO in Two Days!

My talk, OOP for the OOPless, is in two short days! I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

There really is nothing better than FiTC. It's a lot of fun and the speakers are top notch.

I haven't spoken for them in two years. Jeez maybe three. I had a downslide of public speaking since going fulltime and my little Libs getting pregnant with our little Declan.

So I'm very nervous. VERY nervous!

Hope to see you there!

Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk! Still...

Tomorrow night I finally get home. Here's a brief synopsis, since I promised I would blog about being here and to be honest, I just want to go home.

Here's my room. Where I've basically been sequestered for a week.



Eric Miranda. Awesome dude.Ming Dynasty, Eric's band, is so close to getting their LP finished. I swear to God, I can taste it.

Josh's wife and little girl are sick (or were over the weekend) so I couldn't visit. Too bad.

I painted for the first time in a couple of years. Much to Libs' chagrin, it wasn't for her.



My palms get sweaty typing on my laptop because the metal is slippy and hot.

Times Square is so lame even someone like me, visiting the city, hates it.

Fontana's is a cool bar in the middle of Chinatown.

Connelly's and The Perfect Pint are two bars located next to each other, are owned by the same people, so are not particularly competing. It's like a huge lie. I feel cheated. However, the bartender DID give me a free scotch.

I gave myself a heel blister by walking approximately 50 blocks round trip. Ghey. So now I basically limp around like a goof.

Geoff Lillemon is capable of getting anyone, ANYONE, to do pretty much anything at any time. Just witness the majesty of the pineapple.

I'm a confirmed speaker at FiTC TO. My presentation is called "OOP for the OOPless". I'm very very excited. I haven't spoken since, ah heck, DesignFest a few years ago. Mostly I've been hanging out at events, looking like a tremendous hanger on.

It's hard to work on a laptop in a hotel room.

My new favourite quote. "I'm gonna punch that Bleeker kid in the weiner next time I see him" - Mac, Juno's father. Juno, released 2007.

FiTC. Over for Another Year.

My body nearly gave up on me this year. I missed the entire first day (nearly) due to exhaustion.

Declan had some weird croupy cough Saturday night, so we brought him to emergency as a just in case. We were there from 10pm to 2 am. Now that's good, efficient healthcare.

On to FiTC;
- Craig had a nice dinner for some of us at the Korean Grill.
- Grant and Bobi came over to meet Declan and for some BBQ.
- I saw some pictures that looked suspiciously like Gmunk, Hoss, Marcos and Colin in a hot tub.
- Watched the sun come up with Dale, Marcos, Simon and Shawn.
- Someone made the mistake of saying "Hugh's more Scottish than you." To Hoss. HOSS! Seriously. I just kind of looked and thought, "That's not even close to true."
- Tink's newly bald head makes me want to rub lotion on it. C'mere you silly bastard!
- Shawn didn't make me pay for anything. Which is really nice.
- Mario and Alexandra once again show themselves to be truly nice people. And honestly, Mario's sincere enthusiasm just gives you more energy.
- Josh is one bad-ass poker player. So is Mario. Who knew? So I only won one game.
- Had to watch Lordalex explain once more that, "yes, really, my name IS Lordalex." That's always fun.
- Joshua gave me a nice print.
- Shawn yelled at me. I might have deserved it.
- John continues to rock. Even with short hair. Chris rocks, too, just not as hard or as well as John. It's not personal. It's a fact.
- I finally remembered Phillip and Keith's name(s). For some reason, I continuously forget both of their names. So I feel better. And they too were good sports about my particular personal foible or forgetting some names.
- No chance to wrestle Bradley, but give it time. And Chicago.
- Met Aral and Niqui. Two very nice people. First I called Aral "Raul" (honestly, when he spelled it, i thought that's what he said). And I thought Niqui was Autralian. Turns out, South African. At least she was a good sport about it.
- I DID forget more names than I remembered, but still it was great.

Another year gone. Another boatload of braincells given their pink slips.

Panic. Don't Panic.

FiTC, formerly known as FlashintheCan, is a week away. Have you got your ticket(s)?

Chumby, Part Deux. Thanks FiTC.

Although I said, “sent some of the people involved with FiTC their alpha prototype Chumby.”, I should have said that FiTC, namely Shawn Pucknell, made it happen. I guess he figured we might want to do something cool and be intrigued by this little bean bag of fun.

So thanks Shawn.



I may not be talking this year, but it's gonna be a blast.