Soothing the Itch

Posted 9 years, 30 weeks ago.

Earlier this year, Russell Ivanovic convinced me that I needed to add a new show to my repertoire. It didn’t take much, really; I’ve wanted something new for a while, but I just didn’t know what it would be. Over the next few weeks we tossed around the idea of what the show might actually be, but it wasn’t until we decided on the idea of a short, focused show about a single topic that I really got that interested.

Today we’ve announced Topical, and released episode zero. It’s funny to release it now, after having recorded several more. There’s still a lot of upheaval and change going on while we find our rhythm, but it’s all exciting. Personally, I feel like the direction we’re going has potential, and maybe we’ll get to talk about things that don’t get much attention in our little world. Maybe we’ll get to talk about some things that are entirely stupid. Who knows.

If you’ve joined us for the ride, thanks! We appreciate your support and are crazy excited (we’ve been chatting about stats all day like giddy school girls), but most of all, we really hope you enjoy what we’ve got planned. If you haven’t listened yet, you can subscribe in Pocket Casts, iTunes, Overcast, directly via the RSS feed, or even via Twitter.

♥️

Stringing the Pieces Together

Posted 9 years, 35 weeks ago.

Recently I talked about building web services and backends with the other co-hosts of Mobile Couch (…and Rusty… hi Rusty!). We talked about everything from spooling up a VPN and building something in your language of choice, to using a service like Azure or Parse to string together other third-party services into a cohesive platform.

When we discussed backend services on the show, timeframes were a big part of the discussion. Spooling up a server and rolling out a web service does take time, but my argument then, and still is, that you can build a level of expertise, as well as have tools in place so you can do it over and over again. This means that you’re ready when you need to do it, and it becomes easier to manage.

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My Process for Illustrations

Posted 9 years, 40 weeks ago.

I’ve wanted to share my current process for doing illustrations for a while (it’s changed a lot over the years), but never had a good, simple example to work with. This year, I felt like it was time for an avatar upgrade: my previous one was an illustration done in 2011 for my wedding. So! Time for a new self portrait.

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A Letter to Palace Electric

Posted 10 years, 35 weeks ago.

This weekend, I went to see the new Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit at Palace Electric with the ladies from Silver Screen Queens. The movie was OK, maybe 3 stars, but the experience I had was the worst.

In their defence, they did reach out to ask me for feedback, and so I wrote a rather long email to explain what went wrong, and how they could have improved it.

This is that email.

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Working for Equity

Posted 10 years, 41 weeks ago.

Imagine you want to build some form of house. You don’t have any money, really, but that shouldn’t stop you. There are heaps of people making millions in the housing market according to your sources, so this will be easy money. You draw up your plans, buy the plot of land, and call a builder.

“Look, I can’t pay you any money, but how about I give you 20% of the value of the house when I sell it?”

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