Mike Browne’s Blog

Monty Python’s Eric Idle hates the FCC. He sings about it in this oh-so nasty mp3. Beware! It’s not for little ears.

Thanks to TommyBoy for this graphic he put together calling it Bush’s Bumper Sticker Solution to the middle east.

Right… He was a funny guy but, methinks, still dead. I’m not buying this at all. Apprently he even has his own blog. The hoaxster probably had set this up with his friends.

Have a computer? Vancouver restrooms and reviews

CBC Sports: Flames reach Stanley Cup finals

Don’t you shit the bed on us.

Oh my, what a long day. Thio spost should have been on the 18th, but I didn’t get in until after midnight, so… It was a full day, that’s for sure. It all started off with a great speaker, Karen Salmansohn, acclaimed author, giving her How to Be Happy as a Designer, Dammit! shpiel. It was pretty funny stuff. I enjoyed it and I think I may even have learned something other than the fact she loves to call people on the phone and say the word “PENIS” to them to make an impression. LOL!

Next it was off to Hillman Curtis’s session called Putting Your Heart Into Your Design. Awesome work and an intersting speaker. He spoke a lot about how the current state of affairs worldwide has gotten to him and affected his design work both for better and for worse. He was in NYC for 9/11 and very briefly touched on that. I was thousands of miles away and still feel the effects of what I saw and felt that day. I guess artsy fartsy types are just more sensative to that stuff. Either that or it’s more important to us so we pay closer attention. I’m not sure whci it is, perhaps a bit of both.

The third session I attended was by Jay Jung, Creative Director of New Product Development for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Yes, he supplied enough fresh doughnuts to feed the entire room more than once, and no, I didn’t cheat. I went doughnutless. Jay’s talk was called When Executives Have an Idea (something all designers have dreaded from time to time). He gave creative solutions on dealing with the problems that may arise as a result of an executive’s idea. Interestingly he shared four Krispy Kreme related stories about brand development and dealing with creative tasks.

The fourth and final session I went to today was called The Process Makes the Difference by Deb Fiorella of Franke+Fiorella. Simplifying and defining the creative process brilliantly Ms. Fiorella gave her firm’s re-branding of Cargill Foods as an example of how the creative process works i application.

This evening I went out to dinner with Brendon (who I play first-person shooters with) and his wife Brandy. Brendon is in the US Navy and Brandy works at the San Diego Airport for the Department of Homeland Security as a security guard checking people’s baggage for nasty stuff. A very patriotic family to say the least. We went to Seau’s and I had another steak. Afterward we went back to their place where I got a fix of Call of Duty on Brendon’s gaming machine and showed them my lunch and this blog; nice folks. I’m always surprised by how comfortable I am with these people I’ve never met face to face. After the final session tomorrow we and a few of the other dudes we game with are going to see Shrek 2. Could be fun!

Finally, I went to the How Conference Tuesday Night Reception aka The White Party put on by Neenah Paper a good time was had by all. Everyone was dressed in white and was given blue glow sticks and little battery operated and magnetic LED lights to decorate them selves with. Here are three pictures I took … … …

‘Odd Couple’ Star Tony Randall Dies at 84

How sad. I can still hear the theme from the show whenever I think about it. Bye Tony.

This pretty much sums up the conference so far. I am having a great time and learning a lot. I wish I had come with someone as it’s pretty lonely not knowing anyone, but oh well, Pauly just called from Vancouver which was nice. I needed just to yack at someone. Thanks Pauly. Carol and I have been calling each other on our cell phones pretty much non-stop. I shudder at the thought of our next bill. We should have just paid the extra cash for her to come along.

Anyway, I’ve been taking a ton of pictures at all of the sessions I’ve been attending as well as a few of San Diego’s beautiful architecture. An interesting site I saw in the hotel was on the way to my room from the elevator. I thought it looked like the hallway from The Shining in which Jack Nicholson’s character sees the ghosts of murdered twin girls so .

The first session I went to this morning was interesting to say the least especially with my love of film. The speaker was Alexander Laurant from Industrial Light & Magic a.k.a. ILM and the topic of his talk was Designing Illusions for Film. Especially impressive was his work on ‘Minority Report’ designing the elevated super-highway that Tom Cruise’s character uses among other effects. Another film of note was his design work on ‘The Mummy’ designing both the scenery and the villain Imhotep. The crowd was huge, I estimate at least 3500 people from the size of the room. , of course.

The second session I attended was with the hilariously charismatic Joshua Davis who’s topic was Flow: Leaving Room for Chance in the Design. He awed the crowd with his super cool and self written design generating software. You can see examples of it at The Department of Notation and Once Upon a Forest.

The third and final session before escaping for a huge steak and more picture taking was with Jim Krause of Pinwwwheel.net who’s talk was titled Creative Sparks: Strategies for Fostering Creativity. I bought three of his books Idea Index, Color Index, Layout Index for work and will most likely pick up the new Creative Sparks for myself tomorrow.

It’s only 9:30 and I’m bushed. Must watch some TV and drink some Diet Cherry Coke (I bought a 12 pack) before bed. I think I’ll read a bit too.

What a surprise this was. Bye Jimmy. Expect more crappy SNL-style flicks. Secretly I love them.