My work on the "Giving Stories" site for the University of Michigan was notable for translating a designer's vision in the shortest time possible. The XHTML+CSS aside, a considerable amount of the time went into using MooTools, for the first time, in creating animations and transitions from scratch, while also providing the opportunity for AJAX content for the client.
In these trying times, with the various markets going up and down faster than a yo-yo in zero gravity, I think of comforting issues. This impetus usually leads me in only one, predictable, direction: comics. Don't ask me why, but the proverbial black-and-white of comic books makes for a lovely change of pace. In this regard, video games come second, but a close second. Yet, in this advancing age of comics, one finds the harsh realities of the real world thrust into tranquil, in so far as one ignores the many buildings destroyed, realms of comic books. How did this come up? I have been following Grant Morrison's run on Batman R.I.P. (don't ask how disappointing it is) and as with any major event in D.C. (or for that matter Marvel) comics, it spills over into accompanying issues. In that vein Nightwing has been having his own battle, as he tries to save a prosecutor, charged to do this by none...
Sometimes you have a loss, the profundity of which makes you feel vulnerable. That happened to me last night. It is actually through a large part of my stupidity that I not only had this loss occur, but also feel it so sharply. In case you are wondering, far be it from me to drag this thing out further, I lost my USB drive. At the moment a lot of you will scoff. "This is hardly noteworthy", you would say. I however have to disagree. The loss of a USB drive can have little pain, but the loss of a USB drive filled with work and documents is a loss most profound. The reason is simple, work, much like education, is an extension of the self. When a portion of this is taken away the loss is further punctuated. So how did I lose my USB drive? In the stupidest of ways... While walking home I was talking to Sean,...
I will be honest with you, the work required in getting to the engagement, when you pop the proverbial question, is a lot of work! I suppose it prepares the groom for the work to come when planning and organizing the wedding itself. I suppose you could a really simple affair, but I am not one to put a dash of style in an affair, particularly an important one. So when did I decide to propose to Camille? To be honest for the past few years it has not been a question of "if", but rather "when". A lot of it I would have to chalk up to timing and, oh yeah, money. The latter has always been in flux and through my Master's years I have been consistently broke. That does not bode well for proposing to a girl (what girl wants a ring from a crackerjack box?!). Later, when I got a job, a lot of it came...
I haven't posted here in a while, particularly what one might call a status update. For those of you who don't read the reviews, well you are of course missing out on some great (ahhh ego) writing, but also on a majority of the updates. On the other hand, I know of a few people who frequent the site for the personal updates and less for my own attempts at literate writing. So, I guess for those people, here is an update, not just about the weeks past, but most importantly, about the weeks ahead. The next few weeks are going to be intolerably busy and thank god I am getting some time off from work. For one, I find work these days to be utterly uninspiring. Mostly, I am learning that it is our job to succumb to the lowest common denominator. When coding for these folks, and trying to out-think their stupidity, their stupidity once again rebounds back...
To say Pixar has done it again would be to dabble in redundancy, but this time one can say that Pixar has out done themselves. Wall-E is based upon its characters and the team at Pixar have done a splendid job lovingly creating these emotive creatures that rival our wildest fantasies of touching and feeling robots. Mindful of the adults that see their movies, they have imbued poignant themes of humanity's state and mindset in a burgeoning crisis.
Rajeev Raghavan © 2002 - Today