I wonder if they’ll release the Cordless Stereo Headset for the iPod nano before Christmas? Because that’s just straight up hotness.

I gotta say, Whiskerino 2005 has been a joyous little interweb gathering to be a part of. Nerdish male-bonding at its best, combining a few of my favorite things: beard cultivating, creativity, and photography. In celebration of nothing (other than perhaps my late night boredom) I thought i’d post a top ten list of my favorite individual Whiskerino photos thus far. The following list expresses views soley owned by my own bad self and does not necessarily reflect the views of Whiskerino 2005, or its staff, curator, judges, and/or participants.

In no particular order:

1. Chad Pugh‘s beard is luxurious. (aka the best t-shirt ever.)
2. Herr Neas does his best General Zod.
3. Joey‘s intro. It was sad to see him exit.
4. Paul and his pipe.
5. Sibhod fraternizing with the Whiskerino Judge.
6. Mat and his huge lighter. (Or tiny self?)
7. Mackle gets spiffy in preparation for beard domination.
8. Dave Knapp pipes, points, and makes me laugh.
9. Mason‘s spare tire.
10. Bean. The end.

Here’s to another few months of cultivating and creativity.

Oh, by the way, happy Thanksgiving.

How to carve a turkey. (Might come in handy today.)

Relevant Magazine has one of my poems featured right now.

Ah… roads I know. People I know. PUBLIX DELI SANDWICHES I WILL SOON KNOW. It’s good to be home.

I stopped in to see my Sister and Brother-In-Law on the way in and as I sat on the couch talking, the unthinkable occurred to me… I HAD MISSED LOST while I was driving. Of course Sister saves the day with a simple, “Duh… we TIVO-ED it.”

Holy shnikes I love technology.

Happy holidays. Road trip time. I’m packing up and heading back to the grand state of South Carolina, home of rednecks, trailers, big trucks, more meat-n-three restaurants than you can shake a turkey leg at, and mi familia. (All of which I can probably find here in Tennessee, minus the fam.)

Can I say how much i’m NOT looking forward to attempting to drive through Atlanta on Thanksgiving Eve? The amount of bad, slow drivers between me and my parents house is most likely legion. However, I am thankful I have an iPod full of tasty musical goodness and various spoken delectable bits.

What are you thankful for?

It’s Thanksgiving Eve so we’re shutting down the office and going BOWLING, suckas. To live vicariously, you can browse some Flickr photos tagged bowling.

There’s a parked 18-wheeler trailer on Amnicola Highway that I pass every morning on the way in to work. Its got a huge banner for BiggerBetterToiletSeats.com. Do with that what you will.

del.icio.us redesigns. As nearly as I can tell, it’s certainly busier and uglier, but maybe it’s actually more usable now, too. (I still say they need to take notes from the lovely digg.com on building a simple, but still attractive interface.)

I bought some new hair product last night (impulse buy) because my fro is about to start getting out of control. Said product smells like cucumbers. I’m not sure i’m down with that.

The end.

Scott just launched a new version of ISO50. Great work. Go buy some posters or tees.

Chuck’s Luxurious Beard. Be sure to refresh a few times.

I stumbled across this Adidas blog while looking for some new kicks via Google. It’s sort of like three stripes porn. This guy REALLY loves his Adidas. (And thanks to that blog, I think I might have to snag these soon.)

KNEEL! You have reached GeneralZod.net I dig the internet specifically because things like this exist on it.

There’s a new site for The Favorite Website Awards. Be sure to check out the interviews section. I love interviews.

Great selection of typefaces at Village.

This is a sort of follow-up to the aftermath post yesterday. Good thoughts all around from everybody, and many thanks for the feedback. A few of you touched on some very valid points, but I thought i’d talk it out some more here as opposed to the comments section.

Hynes said, “If… you envision yourself to grow beyond just yourself and morph into a firm one day, I say stick with HRTWRK.” So here’s my related thoughts based on some various conversations I had (or overheard) with a few of our cre824 speakers this weekend (mainly Elisabeth Prescott, Mike Jakab, and Bradley Grosh.)

I think what’s happening in the industry (and maybe has always been happening in the industry and i’m just realizing it after meeting more and more people doing high-end work) is that there are a few designers who do time working for a large design or broadcast firm (like Imaginary Forces) and then move on (or move back) to a freelance career, but they still do work for the same firms fairly consistently. In other words, the freelance life (for a select few) isn’t so much an “us versus them” situation. It’s more of a “a few people do a lot of work in major design hubs like SF and NYC.”

I say all that to say, so what if I have an industry job or I don’t? If I put out good work and continue to do so, I can hopefully get good work. And in my mind, having a brand name (especially a brand name i’m not exactly constantly trying to push to the forefront) in between me and the people who may want to use my services will only serve to cause confusion and put another party (even if that party is me) in the mix. I don’t have aspirations to run a studio or turn HRTWRK into anything of the sort. I’ve got some business knowledge, but i’d rather spend my time making art and serving clients than developing a business. I want to develop my portfolio by doing good work. That being said, I think it will be easier (and more natural) to brand/develop/upkeep marketing myself than marketing a brand.

As a sidenote, I think I need to lay off the parenthetical thoughts. It’s getting a bit out of hand.

I shot the Actress live show for the cre824 Awards Show. You can check out the whole set on Flickr here. I’m really pleased with the results.

How to build the best paper airplane in the world.

Very fun Flickr set of a public pillowfight in Toronto. It doesn’t get much better than this one.