Sunflowers

Growing out my hair

Experimentally I have been letting my hair grow for about a year.  It's almost to the middle of my back.  Reasons?

- wonder how I would look.
- learning to let go of people pleasing
- rebellion
- I like my natural colors
- tell people I am off the rails
- what if I go bald and never get my chance?
- Will it raise my confidence?
- maybe I will donate it at some point
- I've always had good friends who grew there hair long.
- round appeals to me more then squares
- I like it so far...

Still Learning Basic Life Lessons

Seems like as soon as I think I'm really getting to be more enlightened or aware I get reminded how far there still is to go. Yesterday my son was playing a soccer game and I was there watching. On the opposite side of the field one of the coaches and some of the parents turned into complete poor sport jerks. They where yelling at the ref's, throwing tantrums on any fouls called against them, and just showing their worst. At first I ignored it but as it continued through the game I had as much as I could take and starting yelling back at them that calls where just fine and they needed to chill out over there. I also yelled "Goal" whenever we scored, probably a little bit to happy to rub it in their faces. Well, I've felt bad about it ever since. Why couldn't I just let it alone? How quickly I stooped to their low level of living and allowed myself to become angry at them.

Well, these experiences are actually good as they encourage some self analysis. What should I have done? Well I hope this happens again so I can find out, but my plan is to not ever stoop to their level again. I want to just enjoy the game and each bad behavior I need to laugh at and let go of. Transcend and rise above bad behavior without becoming engaged in it. Then go for a run or exercise if some of the left over bad feelings remain.

Verio team pictures

Kind of a nice work blog got started: http://mcsblog.securesites.net

Had a great hike

I got up at around 3am and started hiking with the new moon last week. Went up the mountain in Spanish Fork Canyon above the windmills. The trail above the Cross was pretty good until I got up a long way and in the shadow I could not see very good anymore. So in brave stupidity I decided to bushwack strait up the mountain. Needless to say I learned how hard it is to go through dense brush that never really opened back up until I got really near the top. However tough it was, it became worth it as I saw the best sunrise I have ever seen as you can look a long way from that vantage point and it was awsome. Going down was absolutley crazy as there was no trail and I ended up in a snowy ravine. It reminded me of Romancing the Stone when they slide through the dense jungle mud, except in my case I was sliding down the steep snow filled ravine barely under control. It was really fun and reminded me of being a kid.

Got Laid Off Today

Not sure how to describe the feeling of loosing your job. I felt a bit of heartache like I lost a part of me. 10 years is a long time to work somewhere and then leave it behind. I'm pretty sure it's all for the best, yet its definatly a big change. I feel free, yet to do what I'm not sure. Should I chase my dreams or find the quickest way to another job? Friends are telling me "I'm sorry", which makes me feel I'm sorry. Most of all I think it must take some time to sink in, as it's too much all at once.

Helvetica Documentry Review

I've always wanted to know more about fonts but I never took the time to really figure anything out about them until tonight. My goal was to pick a show that was not super exciting so I could do some homework on my laptop, but instead I ended up turning the laptop off and watching the documentary intently. It's on the Netflix instant queue and the director is Gary Hustwit.

You can really modify a message by changing the font, which I'm very happy to learn. I already knew how great it was to use colors, but did not have any font knowledge in my tool set on how fonts can be used to add character and expression to words.

Here is the gist of what I learned:

• Helvetica is a classic swiss made type which the later Arial type has much in common with.
• Like music, its the space between the notes that makes the music great, space between the letters makes the type great. My recent experiments with music tell me that paying attention to the spaces/quiet is as valuable as filling it up with noise.
  
• Coming out in the 50's and 60's and used heavily by corporations it was the default for a long time and people are used to seeing it everywhere.
• The 70's and 80's had a lot of experimental types to counteract the Helvetica and I guess that was the balancing Yin/Yang effect to come to more of a balanced use of different types.
• You probably can't go wrong if you use Helvetica except it does come across as boring to people who pay attention to type choice.
• I really liked the guy who had some super boring article about a singer and since the content was not good, he chose a font that was undecipherable. It had not occurred to me that this also is a choice and I already want to play around with that notion.
  

I also found a nice explanation of Arial vs Helvetica
http://ilovetypography.com/2007/10/06/arial-versus-helvetica

I'm going to experiment with blogs using different fonts to get better at understanding how and when to use them (too bad I get so few choices in the editor here). I'd also like to make my own font someday just for fun.