Author Archive for avarhirion

TST featuring Element Text Mosaic tee

Published
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avarhirion
on September 10, 2008
in T-Shirt Tuesday
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Welcome to T-Shirt Tuesday on Wednesday. Sorry for being a day late, I had the choice of blogging or missing a homework deadline, I picked the responsible avenue.

Before I get to the featured shirt of the week, I got some news and noteworthies from the t-shirt collecting world. First, a web design/digital artist type guy launched a new company called Around Shirts. The site sells shirts inspired by places.  While each of the five designs at site launch are basically the same design with a different location’s name (e.g.: Tokyo, Los Angeles), the premise and about us page suggest some neat designs soon to come.

Kingdom Comes, a Finalist in the DBH $10,000 Contest

Kingdom Comes, a Finalist in the DBH $10,000 Contest

Design by Humans has lately been rather underwhelming in regard to new designs and promotions, but last week broke that trend with a quality release and continued it this week with announcing contest winners.   Released last week and still available is the bold Shark with pixelated teeth (terrible name), and also the mellow and chill I Love Hitchcock.  They have been running a few contests lately, and the winners for the Unity Through Art contest were announced today, with my favorite, entitled We just started with art, taking second place.  The DBH Logo is used in that shirt, and I always liked that logo for its lively feel, which means that this shirt is on my list for that reason alone. Also in DBH news, the big $10,000 contest has its 10 finalists chosen and they are up for a vote on DBH right now.  My favorites are Black Hole Sun (below) and Kingdom Comes (above), but go out and vote for your own favorites!

Black Hole Sun, finalist in the DBH $10,000 Contest

Black Hole Sun, finalist in the DBH $10,000 Contest

Other items of note:

  • Enclothe has a minor sale going on right now. Only 30% off two tees, but that is deal considering that if I had the money I’d get their shirts like Axis Mundi and Ghost Ship at full price!
  • A new company for me, with a BOGO free sale going on right now, is Reverie.  They have a small and great line including this one called Promise.
  • Marc Ecko, the man behind the Ecko brand, seems to love Star Wars, or at least loves exploiting the money of Star Wars fans.  He has created some beautiful shirts based on the Original Trilogy.  They are expensive, but amazing works of art.  Check out the Marc Ecko Star Wars collection.
  • From their about us, “[fivehumans] create hip, fashionable t-shirts so you can support your cause in style!”  These guys make stylish shirts that advocate a cause, like child welfare, cancer, diabetes, autism and more, and then donate a percentage of the proceeds to related non-profit groups.  The shirts cost about average to slightly higher than average and worth the money, especially with part of the money being donated.
  • And finally, as Andy at Hide Your Arms puts it, a shirt “that further dilutes political discourse in the USA”: the V.I.L.F. shirt.  No comment.
Element Shirt

The Element Mosaic Text Shirt

This week’s featured t-shirt is actually a mass-market shirt (gasp!) by Element Skateboard Company.  I am not against mass-market clothing, but I avoid it for two reasons: most brands carry an image about them that I don’t want to associate myself with–for instance Abercrombie portraying an image of preppiness and cockiness, or Famous offering a raw inner-city rough around the edges feel–and second I hate seeing people wearing a shirt I also own–or worse, that I am currently wearing.  But when a work of art comes in the form of a mass-market t-shirt, I won’t not buy it, so this shirt was quickly added to my collection.

This photo, in black and white, excentuates the textures by the mosaic text.

This photo, in black and white, excentuates the textures by the mosaic text.

I’ve owned Element shirts before.  I like the brand because its image of promoting social responsibility through the skate (aka, generation y) subculture.  The brand often has artwork that is primitive, natural, and oraganic in design, so when I am feeling earthy or enviro-friendly their shirts find their way onto my back. This Element brand tee isn’t exactly organic, but it is a sweet design and I picked it up without hesitation.

If you remember last week’s feature, you will recall my discussion on typographic designs making great shirts.  This one is no exception.  The picture to the left shows it in black and white, and it still looks great!  The text, in a newsprint type font, is of the company mission statement.  The blocks of text are cut up and mosaicked into a visually stunning design.  It is an awesome shirt, and worthy of the recognition of being one of my featured shirts of the week.

Element Mosaic Text Detail

Element Mosaic Text Detail

freudian slip?

Published
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avarhirion
on September 10, 2008
in Faith, News, Sports & Politics
. 0 Comments

The New York Times, one of America’s most reputable newspapers, is a decent source of accurate news but also moderately biased newspaper when it comes to politics.  I took this screen shot of a funny error, a likely Freudian slip, on a NYT online article just before the Republican convention.  Check out the first sentence of the second paragraph.

Accessed on Aug 31, 2008 on NYT.com

PS: Sorry I posted this 10 days after I found it.

awesome music video: Mountain Goats

Published
by
avarhirion
on September 8, 2008
in In General and Web Design
. 0 Comments

I like these guys, they have a great folky-alt-rock sound with a compelling message. I also like this video… it is wonderful example of design, typography, and breaking-of-the-mold. Check it out if you have a sec.

sometimes I wish there were more boy scouts around

Published
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avarhirion
on September 4, 2008
in In General and Scouts
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After my first class today (Finance 302) I needed to leave campus to run errands.  As you know from reading my blog, that means at least a 3 mile trip to my car.  I hopped on my bike, biked half the way, flagged the bus that I usually beat for the other half (it was hot, give me a break), and finally arrived at my car.  I hopped in, turned the key, and no go.

Last night on my way home, I passed a woman on the road whose tire had blown out.  I stopped, because I am a boy scout.  She had someone on their way to help her, but I stayed with her until her help came.  No woman should be stranded alone on the side of the road at 11 PM.  I would have changed the tire for her but she insisted that I not. Help arrived, and I departed after her grateful thanks.

Almost 12 hours later, I was stranded in a parking lot with jumper cables hanging out my engine compartment wildly waving to passing vehicles.  Apparently my battery was dead.  After 20 minutes, no boy scouts or good samaritans had stopped for me, so I called roadside assistance. My insurance company is now $60 poorer, and I am sunburned and out of an hour of my life.

Sometimes I wish there were more boy scouts around.

we all know McCain is older than dirt, but c’mon

Published
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avarhirion
on September 3, 2008
in Faith, News, Sports & Politics
. 0 Comments
McCain oh-eight, er 1908 (via Busted Tees

McCain oh-eight, er 1908 (via Busted Tees)

TST featuring “Finnish National Railroad” by Ambiguous Clothing

Published
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avarhirion
on September 2, 2008
in T-Shirt Tuesday and Web Design
. 0 Comments

Welcome back to T-Shirt Tuesday, now one month old.

The Threadless $12 sale continues this week and got even better, with select styles further marked down to $9.  While the selection of $9 shirts pales to the everything else selection at $12 each, there are still a few gems in the $9 sale (especially if you’re a girl or a size small guy) worth looking at.  Threadless released, like it does every week, a couple of new shirts and a couple reprints yesterday which are all only $12, including this one I am sure to pick up eventually (like, wow, UV color changing inks?  Crazy!).  I also discovered some great typography tees at Ugmonk… including a must-have called lowercase.

Finnish National Railway by Ambiguous

Finnish National Railway by Ambiguous

This week’s feature shirt explores another design trend in tee shirts, typography.  Typography is basically the study of and practice of design with typography, known in layman’s terms as the font face.  Great typography makes or breaks a design, case in point (Barack Obama’s bold yet comfortable feeling website design to John McCain’s rather bland and sterile website design).  Regardless of who I prefer, the design and use of creative typography on Obama’s website is superior to McCain’s. T-shirts also benefit from good type.  A beautiful design can suffer if the text used sucks.  On the other hand, some shirts can be simply words in different colors and fonts and be an awesome design.  This weeks featured shirt, which I call “Finnish National Railroad” is such an example.

Finnish National Railway closeup

Finnish National Railway closeup

This shirt was designed and wholesaled by Ambiguous Clothing, a skate and snowboard type company.  Ambiguous does not deal directly, but can be found in most “west coast style” stores.  These guys make some awesome typographic tees, including this one from their Summer 08 line and of course this week’s featured shirt.  What is cool about typographic design is that shirts like “Finnish” have simple artwork compared to something like “Refraction” but they still look great.  All it took was some layered fonts, a few lines, and a few colors, and the result was a stunning design that works well and looks great. I picked up this shirt two weeks ago at Pacific Sun Company (or PacSun) on half off sale for $15.  I had been eyeing it for weeks waiting for a sale.  I got the last in my size.  If you have one of those stores around you, check it out and see if you can pick up this gem for as good or better a price than I.

Until next T-Shirt Tuesday, I offer this advice: you may be a great friend who’d do anything for those you care about, but they can get their own t-shirts.

if polititians are out of touch, what is Diddy?

Published
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avarhirion
on September 1, 2008
in Faith, News, Sports & Politics and Infinite MPG
. 0 Comments

A new classic, from CNN via the AP:

Sean “Diddy” Combs complained about the “… too high” price of gas and pleaded for free oil from his “Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters” in a YouTube video posted Wednesday.

[...]

“I’m actually flying commercial,” Diddy said before walking onto an airplane, sitting in a first-class seat and flashing his boarding pass to the camera. “That’s how high gas prices are.” [...]

Haha!  I’d like to show him a thing or two about sacrafices because one can’t afford fuel!  How about riding a bus for an hour a day to school because it costs almost $6 a day to go to class.  Get real dumbass.

[EDIT: Found the Video]

ray nagin with “the idiotic comment of the century”

Published
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avarhirion
on September 1, 2008
in Faith, News, Sports & Politics
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In my past life I was a meteorologist.  I almost chose that path in this life.  After dedicating three or four years studying tropical cyclogenisis side-by-side my other primary education coursework, including spending two summers tracking storms on my 14″x22″ Atlantic Ocean map, I know a thing or two about the development of tropical weather.  Gustav had the potential to be big, but three days ago the science was against it becoming the next Katrina… yet the media wanted it to be so much more.

“You need to be scared,” Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba’s western coast. “You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century.”    Source.

The problem with Hurricane evacuations is that they take a lot of effort and have a huge economic impact.  People don’t like doing them.  Every two years or so people in some area will be urged to evacuate and then have the storm miss them by a bit or weaken before landfall.  These people can’t survive the economic impact… the loss of work, the time away from home, the cost of hotels, food, and gas, so after six storms that miss them or weaken, they give up and decide to ride it out.  Then, when fewer and fewer people leave… the big one hits.  And you have a disaster like Katrina.

People need to be strongly encouraged to leave… every time.  But Nagin’s ’storm of the century’ statement, only three years after the real ’storm of the century’ hit (I’d prefer, ’storm of the generation’) was just plain stupid.  He succeeded in getting people out, props for that, but he made the likelihood of more staying behind next time far, far greater.  His words will result in the people’s mistrust, and therefore, a less safe population next time, and the time after that.

This century’s most idiotic comment award goes to: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

thoughts on the dems convention

Published
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avarhirion
on August 28, 2008
in Faith, News, Sports & Politics
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The last few days through the end of next week are exciting moments for political junkies like me.  This week’s Democratic National Convention has been loaded with plenty of classic lines and unforgettable moments already, with the culmination tonight as Obama accepted the nomination.

i. Mark Warner Keynote:

I believe that Obama, if elected, has huge potential to be an amazing President, but in 2006 I wasn’t yet on his bandwagon.  In 2006 I was gunning for Mark Warner.  As a casual observer of American politics, I have often noticed that legislators suck at running the country.  Legislators make the laws and executives apply them.  The reason we haven’t elected a senator or congressman in decades is for this very reason.  I have faith in Obama’s executive potential because his community organizing required him to do lots with little resources, a challenge that builds character and leadership, two traits that are easily scalable.  Also, his relatively short career in the senate was not long enough to corrupt him.  Under most circumstances though, I’d prefer a former Governor to a Senator, and former Virginia Governor Warner was my man.  Early in 2007 he formally let down the thousands who had joined the “Draft Mark Warner” groups, myself included, saying he and his family weren’t ready.  With the honor of being the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, however, he is now well on his way to getting there.

Former Virginina Governor Mark Warner

Former Virginina Governor Mark Warner

Mark Warner’s speech was the one I was most looking forward to, and before tonight’s festivities, the one I was most wowed by.   His energy and idealism were nothing like Obama’s in 2004, but instead it was firm and decisive, strong and quote-un-quote Presidential. His message of the ‘race into the future’ was uplifting, essentially the content, and clear sequel, to Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” speech.  His message contrasting Obama to McCain echoed one of the prevalent Democratic themes of the election, that McCain would be more of the same, but he offered details to back up the claim.  His words were firm, detailed, and pointed, and though it may not have inspired people like Obama four years ago, it instead ignited people’s resolve to see the change we need actually occur.

The best part of his speech was his “greatest criticism of President Bush” which, according to Warner, was not about policy but inaction, when he failed to “tap into our greatest resource: the character and resolve of the American people”.  Here is a quote, definitely the most thought-provoking moment of Convention.

“People always ask me, ‘What’s my biggest criticism of President Bush?’ I’m sure you all have your own. Here’s mine—it’s not just the policy differences, it’s the fact that this president never tapped into our greatest resource: the character and resolve of the American people. He never asked us to step up.

“Think about it: after September 11th, if there was a call from the president to get us off foreign oil to stop funding the very terrorists who had just attacked us, every American would have said, “how can I do my part?” This administration failed to believe in what we can achieve as a nation, when all of us work together.”

With a future as bright as Warner’s, I hope he ends up on the short-list for the next Democratic ticket next time go round.

ii. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer:

Throughout the convention the headlining speakers have done their job to deliver the message in the way we expected them to.  I will save you all the trouble and not re-hash the analysis of most of these speakers.  But in Brian Schweitzer we had a minor speaker inspire, entertain, and impress us in a way totally unexpected.  CNN was decidedly ignoring the man’s speech, picking apart Warner’s recent speech to the utmost detail, until suddenly the crowd was overheard cheering like crazy.  The anchors shut up and cut to Schweitzer.  What a great cut it was.

Montana Governor Brian Schweizer

Montana Governor Brian Schweizer

Immediately what we saw was a good ole western cowboy whose level-headed look at what America needs, his energetic approach to speaking, and his calculated comedy back wit and charm made for an unforgettable speech. His occasional “whoo-weee” and guttural phrases characterize him as a modern loud and proud American frontiersman (cowboy), masculine and not afraid to rise up and speak out. I hope this guy makes it to national politics, we need a guy like him.

There were many memorable moments in his speech, including a one-liner about McCain’s forgetfulness about the number of homes he owns—which was followed by a “whew-wee” as the crowd cheered, a moment where explained that the best barrel of oil is the one we don’t have to buy, and another when he told convention delegates to “get off [their] hind ends” and let the world know we were declaring our energy independence.

iii. Hillary Clinton:

Hillary had a job to do.  She did it and more.  Among the many excellent things she said, I was most happy with this quote, which summed up the reasons I get so frustrated with old Hillary supporters that “can’t bring themselves to vote for Obama”:

New York Senator Hillary Clinton

New York Senator Hillary Clinton

“I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?”

Her words were spot on, uplifting, and well organized.  She made a case to her former supporters for Obama, and didn’t just say “I endorse him”, rather she told them why they must, for the sake of all they worked toward together, vote for him.

The next day when she interrupted the roll call of the states to motion to nominate Obama by acclimation, that was amazing.  I am proud of that woman.  I would have been proud to vote her.  She was and is good for America, and I am glad she had a role in this historic election.

iv. Obama:

After being picked apart by everyone under the sun, if you want to see some more intelligent commentary on Obama’s speech, check out any other website.  I just want to say this: it was great, at times it made me tear up, and it reminded me why he is my candidate.  Good job Obama, and good luck over the next few months.

v. See More:

All the speeches are archived on the convention website.  Especially check out Schweitzer’s speech if you have a moment.  You need Microsoft Silverlight (the new flash competitor) installed (boo), but the videos are high quality and worth it.