To everyone in my office who spoke to me post-lunch break (as nearly as I can recall, 10-12 people) thank you for not mentioning the large piece of oregano in my teeth. Really, I appreciate it. I absolutely adore walking around with a SPICE RACK in my grill and talking to people… completely unaware that I have a DORSAL FIN SIZED LEAF in my mouth. Really. Spices everywhere thank you.

Oh snap… Bible Gateway has a beta redesign you can test out. Lovely.

Have you ever had occasion to deal with a design or marketing or identity or branding firm? Not like your friend’s nephew “who can, you know… like photoshop stuff”, but a for real “we make our money doing this and supporting multiple employees and their families” firm? If so, you might have realized how overtly pretentious and full of themselves some can be. (Not all, mind you, but certainly some). If so, you’ll enjoy Huh Corp for it’s apt satire. The stock photos really sell it well. Bonus points for “Our office is really modern and we’ve got nice computers and stuff. If you ever saw it, you’d say “Wow, cool office. These guys are legit.”… so very true.

If you’re up for a less corporate version of the creative world, you should check out Hugh McLeod’s How To Be Creative post. There’s some fantastic insight in there, and he writes quite well.

A couple of videos for you…

1. The one and only swimming pool moron. Ouch… Just ouch. Link via the (also one and only) Mike Cina.

2. As promised, our lovely IT Assistant Jeff Gilden giving an impromptu one minute speech on the importance of punctuality… while yelling. Scooter, you’re famous now.

Why do I like bizarre design-related things like this? Better question; why do you keep reading the various design-related musings on this site? Even better question; why am I still up considering I must rise at the hour of 6:00am? Hmm… I think we’ll leave the pondering to those better suited to it. Is that you? If so… ponder away.

Nashville was a nice little trip. The abridged version goes something like this: 1 drastic haircut, 936 miles of driving, $67.00 spent on gas, $73.78 spent on food, 1 iPod full of music (put to good use), 2 mostly-asleep yet still fun travel companions, 1 stop by the famed Pancake Pantry (it’s a Nashville tradition), 1 or 2 “deep” conversations, uncalculatable laughter and mocking, 64 kept photos, almost 16 hours in a vehicle, 2 meals partaking of country ham (?), 1 ridiculously enjoyable show from John Mayer and Maroon 5 (I don’t recall the last time a band impressed me enough live that I wanted to buy their album afterward, but the M5 boys have done well in that regard), 1 random byrd sighting at that show, 1 North Carolina Arby’s employee with gross dirty fingernails, 1 more step towards making a slightly awkward internet friendship with Jeremy feel a bit more like a real friendship, 1 all-natural and all-awesome strawberries & cream popsicle at Las Paletas, 3 or 4 are we going the right way?’s, 5 different stores/eateries (in one day) playing ’80’s music…

1 pause for effect…

2 trendy shoe store employees who actually had personalities and weren’t trying too hard, 1 surreal sighting of Bocephus’ ex-wife and daughter, 1 fairly unimpressive stop by the supposed “it coffee hang” Fido (whose wifi was broken), 1 Saturday morning spent with TLC eating, laughing, catching up, and getting 1 explanantion that Fido was no longer the “it coffee hang” and has apparently been recently dethroned by The Frothy Monkey (which is one of the better coffeeshop names ever… and we saw Toby Mac there today, so it must be cool), 1 scheming Wertz fan who overheard mention of his name from TLC and started chatting with us, and 2 restless nights spent sleeping in a free, yet still wretchedly uncomfortable grandma bed with canary yellow sheets. Top that. Sucka.

Or something.

I think I might fly to Orlando for vacation in October. I’m all drived-out.

I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time last night. What a good little book.

Mcd and Karl went to Atl to see Thornley last night. I opted to stay and finish up some work… and I stand by my decision. But I will not miss the Thornley the next time they roll through with mack-truck rock force.

Besides, if I went, I would have missed out on finding the fake tattoo dispenser machine and getting this guy. During the summer between 4th grade and 5th grade, I went on vacation with my friend Cory’s family to Myrtle Beach and we both got fake tattoos from one of those beach-ware stores that are on every corner. Mine was a classy red Chinese dragon that covered my entire bicep (I mean… it’s not like my biceps were that big in middle school.) It lasted for three whole weeks and yes, I was bathing. It was awesome.

True story.

It is straight up BEAUTIFUL outside right now. Mmmm…

Did you know that you can beatbox and play harmonica… at the same time?

Last night I worked on some print design into the wee hours. Your Creativity Dollars worked hard. Getting ready to go on vacation is always hectic. Is this what growing up feels like? Boo. Nonetheless, I think I might start posting some of the stuff I do for New Spring here from time to time… just to clue those of you who aren’t local in on what we do and how much fun it is to be able to design the things I do for a church of all places. I like my job a lot.

Jump, Little Children is playing at the Handlebar Friday. Any takers?

Mute Math finally goes live with a nice website to promo tomorrow’s ep release. These guys are just the deal. Pick up the ep… show some support. It would be a low down dirty shame for Mute Math to suffer the same fate that Earthsuit did.

They’re playing at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach on October 19 opening for Chevelle. I am tempted to roadtrip, but i’m fairly sure i’m all talk.

Rain, rain, go away…

Not that I mind rain all that much, it just casts a bit of a dreary shadow on days at the office. Perhaps if I had a better view it wouldn’t be so bad. We saw a nice staging of Our Town at The Warehouse Theater in Greenville this weekend. The West End is getting nicer and nicer these days. They just opened the finished portions of Reedy River Park… and it’s swanky. Winding walkways, suspension bridge out over the falls, subtle lighting. Almost makes you wish you had a date to share it with. Props to Greenville for putting a few million into a downtown park.

Vacation countdown: 11 days.

Also, Casey updates thadwiddle.com beautifully.

I just got my Bike back from The Great Escape. A tune-up, new shifters, a new chain, and a new saddle later… it rides better than ever. Now that i’m firmly entrenched in the lack of vehicle season of life… i’m going to try riding to work until it gets unbearably cold, at which point i’ll hopefully have enough saved up to buy a dependable truck/suv/car of some type. It’s only a (hilly) 3 miles or so from the house to the office, so I should survive. (And get that pesky cardio out of the way on a daily basis.)

Most folks get some variety of spring fever… autumn hits me and all I can think about is being in love. I’m such a sap… and the leaves haven’t even started changing yet. Sigh…

Nazarin updates Absenter again… proceeds to rule the world. And check out that information page! Beautiful typesetting on the internet of all places. Who would have thought?

Also… a hefty download, but worth the wait… Los Angeles to New York via convertible in about four minutes. Just a clever, well-edited idea.

I’ve been stockpiling lots of fun links that, as usual, have no cohesive theme other than I happen to like them for various reasons that shall go unmentioned:

McSweeney’s posts the Journal of a New COBRA Recruit… and I laugh and laugh. Speaking of going Joe… I had a dream last night that I went and got a new tattoo and it just so happened to be the ninja clan insignia that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow sport on their forearms. What? Even my dreams are nerd-ish. And speaking of Snake Eyes… this poster rules you. And i’m a nerd.

Any of you fellow Apple users tried Skype? It looks like what awesome feels like. Or something.

I absolutely cannot get enough of Mute Math. I’ve been listening to them non-stop for two days… and I rarely go on the repeat spree with music. Don’t believe the hype? Watch and learn, sucker. (For those who recognize the voice, it is in fact Paul Meany from the now defunct but still ridiculously amazing Earthsuit.) Their EP releases on the 28th.

Great small-ish typeface foundry MAC Rhino has some tasty work and a few nice (free) typefaces for your dowloading pleasure.

A brief return to the nerdery gives us our first look at the cast of the new Fantastic Four movie. The freaking COMMISH is Ben Grimm? I don’t buy it yet. Then again, my standards for wretched comic book adaptation casting can’t get much lower after they ruined Daredevil… so maybe it will turn out better than expected?

My favorite new designer who does the inspiring-while-depressing-me thing is Kerry Roper. Just absolutely amazing work. (And by “depressing” I mean “i’m depressed i’m no where near that good.”)

(Yet.)

And finally… some funny. The vast array of Rumsfeld’s fighting techniques is clever and smile-inducing.

And now for something completely different. Yet somewhat the same…

Booyah.

YourCreativityDollarsAtWork is taking a little bit of a break. Nothing major… nothing cataclysmic… I just don’t have much to say and I have lots of things to do. Soon, we will be back to your regularly scheduled daily helping of random information (and most likely will return in some variety of re-designed fashion) in a few days.

Thanks for stopping by… we’ll talk soon.

Shatner owns you.

Sorry for all the semi-short, semi-cryptic, borderline-annoying posts lately. I’ve been in a “funk.” (Which is a complete misnomer… I mean, after all, “funk” is actually quite the cool word. Funk music… funky individuals… these are good things. Why does “funk” get the bad rap when people are feeling blue?)

No Sleeping At Last show last night. We got about 50 miles or so from Atlanta and could no longer really see due to the rain from the hurricane and made a command desicion not to ruin our day off by being miserable and wet. Besides… most of the Atlanta clubs canceled their shows last night, so we’re hoping Smith’s Olde Bar did too. (I did have a dream I was at the show though…. weird dream. Very weird.) We did see Without a Paddle last night. An interesting way to spend $5… not great, but not terrible. Besides, after sitting through the wretchedness that was Twisted the other night, my gauge for bad movie-ness will let a lot slip by now.

Hostetler updates UPSOD with 50 more illustrations and basically says “BOOYAH!” to us all. I particularly enjoy #39 this time.

I got Tara Leigh’s new album in the mail today. I’ve been listening to it for a few weeks now, but it’s nice to have the actual physical product. It’s great, you should pick it up. (And I should finish her tour posters. Oops.)

I am Joshua’s complete lack of interest in anything. I hate feeling like this.

I need a vacation.

The best thing to ever grace the internet is back up again.

“Oh yeeeeeaaaah!”

Is it October yet? Because that would be grrrreat.

The London News Review asks the simple question “Should I rip this?”

Great NY Times article on bribery called Allow Me to Introduce My Friend, Andrew Jackson… worth the read. (The NY Times site will most likely ask you to register… it’s free… they don’t send you anything.)