Sixfoot6.com - Putting Stuff Away.

On the Hollywood Scene

posted Aug 29, 2003, 12:05 PM | 4 Comments

My girlfriend lives in the heart of tinseltown, and parking a car at night is no easy task, especially in my boat. But the reward for finding a space at 11pm on Hollywood Blvd is a long walk humanity spectacle: the skinny fellow staring at the ground, a jittery white woman with frizzed hair trying to give a cigarette to a twenty-something punk passed out in a doorway, a red-eyed bearded man buttoning up his shirt on a bus stop bench, the shifty-eyed gentleman in the dirty grey tank top. There's the big dark fella charging his cell phone on the wall inside the check-cashing store, and the occassional ugly drag queen. When it comes to freaks, we've got Boston beat. Still, people don't scare me much.

One small errand

posted Aug 27, 2003, 12:24 PM | 10 Comments

Today I went to the bank to deposit three checks. "Wow," you're saying to yourself. "Three checks. You get paid, man." Well, you're half right. I am indeed a man, but that's about it. The only thing worse than depositing one small check at the bank is depositing three small checks. A small check is cool when you deposit it alongside a proper fatty Friday paycheck... as if to say, "Look, I get paid for working hard and my gramma loves me on my birthday. I am simply tops." But three small checks tell a different tale, something more along the lines of ,"Yes, hello, I am essentially a wanker with multiple sources of inadequate income".

Today I endorsed all three of my small pieces of paper using a pen I'd brought with me. The "pens" chained to the glass counter never seem have any ink. Funny looking people of different ages huddled in the immediate vicinity, grumbling about the pens. Too many people were already hovering in the velvet line, mopy. I grinned to myself, knowing that I wouldn't have to join them... all thanks to the power of my branch's Quick Drop Box, a remarkably lo-fi apparatus that accepts NO CASH PLEASE deposits through a hole in the top. This method of manipulating funds—scribbles on paper dropped into some old box in the corner—is an oddly satisfying anachronism, a devilish analogue stepping-stone back towards the days of banknotes, slide-rules and inked quills. Presumably, some after-hour bank automata will get to chomp on my checks like gold-doubloons, pouring their contents back toward the modern world.

In the one intensely curious moment before I slid the envelope into the metal bin, I surveyed all of those people, the clear bulletproof glass, and the individual teller stations. Then, for ten seconds, I thought about how much fun it could be to rob the Studio City branch of Washington Mutual Bank. If I was 8 inches shorter, I think I'd make a great professional theif. Then, as I walked out through the double glass doors towards the hot San Fernando Valley, I realized that I never steal from stores anymore.

Bursting with Flavor

posted Aug 26, 2003, 03:43 PM | 10 Comments

I stood in front of tables and tables of overpriced colors; I stared at bags and buckets of red, green and orange fruit. I had hovered in the same spot just 14 months before, and the basic effect was the same: the noise, the shiny hues, the faint fishy scent. I didn't even bother taking many pictures, because the ones I could remember taking during last year's trip seemed lovely enough. My camera had grown a bit testier in the interim, too. It's a pretty crappy camera, really. I can't afford a new one yet. There were tourists all around us. Josh and I spent a lot of money on produce, there on Pier 39. I've never eaten such delicious cherries; as we walked across the thick, wooden wharf, trash barrels appeared every few paces, perfectly timed for our pits and stems.

Design inspiration comes sporadically, but never when I'm doing client work. I'll stare at a monitor for hours, like I'm tired and stoned, mesmerized by cherries in the sun. But catch the right glance at some random photograph... and a fruity layout designs itself within three hours. I take inspiration when it comes. I miss color, even when it's right in front of me. Hello again.

DOMsel in Distress

posted Aug 26, 2003, 01:10 PM

I've replaced the disruptive {overflow:auto; } scrollbar on my portfolio news page with a DHTML scroller script. I generally don't go in for these sorts of scripts, but it seemed appropriate considering the layout problem that needed to be solved. Thomas Bratti's scroller script was quite intuitive and easy to implement. Thanks to Leonard Lin for all his criticism and suggestions regarding the portfolio design - I think I'm pretty happy with it at this point.

Leonard also pointed me to the Intro to the DOM (Document Object Model) tutorial over at Brainjar, and I'm finally developing a clearer understanding of how the DOM works and where it can take us.

Portfolio Completion

posted Aug 10, 2003, 01:06 PM

Today I finished adding the captions for the experimental and all three graphics sections of my portfolio, so be sure to check those out. I'm presently proofreading all of my copy, but it seems like I nearly always miss something. If you have any thoughts on design or content, please don't hesitate to let me know.

I'm having a little trouble configuring the Paul Sowden style switcher from A List Apart Issue No. 126... I'm trying to use "OnClick" events to switch to a blank stylesheet, which seems to work fine, but the re-enable click wont seem to work. I'm hiding the links until I figure it all out, on account of the cookies, but those of you using Mozilla can now switch between "blue jean" and "blank" styles on the View menu.