cuties

I made a library of cute/funny facial features and vectorized them for the purpose of making non-cute objects cute. This is just version one (very rough), but this is about what they would look like and everyone would be able to use it this easily.

oh, btw, joel, I stole your pics

Post-Sexual Nerd Culture?

It’s quite possibly simple coincidence, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that nerd culture is again shifting.  While this based on little other than anecdotal evidence, I think it’s worth discussing the possibility of a new sub-culture (although I’m sure such mutations occur by the minute).  That which is the post-sexual nerd.

Yup.  Apparently I'm supposed to like this.

Spiderman and "friends"

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pop-shuvit

That’s actually how it’s spelled. Or… I think that’s how they spell it in Tony Hawk. Sorry to double post, but it’s been a day, and also Emma posted, so at least it’s not two in a row. I had the day off today from my freelance job. And when you have a day off from a freelance job, it means you really don’t have a job at all, because there’s no more work for you! I’m sure they’ll call me back soon though. It kind of comes and goes in waves so I’m not too worried yet. I really needed the time to work on my portfolio, so I cleaned my studio area and worked on something besides my portfolio! I’m great at budgeting my time. I’ve been trying to work more in photoshop, adding different layers and masks. I wanted to make something GLOW.

I am in real life doing the trick, but unfortunately I do not have the ability to create an aura of magic. The wings and halo are also fake, but I think I may have fooled a few.

the after party


Alli took me with her to the Iveys, which was very nice. I had a good time, as made evident by this well crafted video done by moi. The after party was in the IDS building, which was surreal because I used to go there every morning for coffee while I was at YWFT.

(p.s. don’t you love this little whistling song? I found it on my itunes listed as “Track 5″. I don’t know what it is.)

things I did this weekend in poster form (kind of)

HURRA TORPEDO

WOAH. So I just found this band via Alex Bowes and YouTube called Hurra Torpedo. The band is comprised of one guitar and a bunch of appliances. I think they’re Norwegian. Here they are playing Total Eclipse of The Heart. Balls, that’s good!

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Moving to New York (and other crap)

Woah hey, SO! I just bought a one-way plane ticket to New York, leaving October 8th. I’ve got a sublet all setup out there and enough money saved up to not have a job for awhile, should push come to shove. I’m getting more and more contacts out there so I think that things will even out. Also, it will be much easier to find a job if I’m actually in the city and when people “could you come in to talk?” I won’t have to say “Oh, actually I’m in Minneapolis right now.” Soo… that’s happening. Finally.

Also, I just False 3D in Flash: Displacement Maps">posted this over at my lab.blog mostly because it was more work-related than anything. Plus, does anyone here really care about displacement maps in ActionScript 3? I won’t be offended if you say no!

BUT, something you should care about (and have probably noticed) is that Shambot’s got some new polish! Centered, cool-gray background, flash header. Yes, my friends, this is e-paradise with a touch of class. I will be posting something more in depth about the header and how it came about.

Also, I played Call of Duty 4 with Tim on Xbox Live last night! Fun city! It’s always more fun to play with people you know. There was lots of “Go on without me!” and “Damn it I won’t leave you!” Good times all around.

Here’s a video of the last year of my life compressed into three minutes and ten seconds.

August 7, 2007 – September 13, 2008 from Joel Gillman on Vimeo.

Fermi Problems

I was thinking of a good way to celebrate two New York Times articles that are hot off the presses right now. The first the Fed’s $85 billion dollar bailout of AIG, and the second is an article on the habit of making absurd estimations known as Fermi Problems. So I decided I would estimate the number of semi trailers it would take to send AIG the money in 20 dollar bills. Hey, it beats doing my Mechanics homework. (Full disclosure: I allowed 1 use of Google per problem which is technically against the rules, and before posting this I checked my answers with a calculator so I wasn’t embarrassed.) Estimates after the jump. (more…)

mah postcards. i haz them.

MY POSTCARDS ARE HERE!

I got new postcards! The old bunny ones ran out and I also found out that maybe you can’t send rounded corners through the mail. I’ll make a mental note of that one (oops.)

WHO WANTS ONE!??!?! (p.s. everyone lookit the new shambot logo! Joel’s makin’ it purdy!)

If you don’t understand Twitter

then you should watch this video. Actually, even if you think you do understand Twitter this is very informative.