January 24 2006: Well howdy and a belated Happy New Year. The Magic Lake Lantern Festival eased in another baby year and saw old Father Time floating off. Besides photographing the spectacle for Three on the Tree Productions I made the shadow play puppets this year. Each year I try to take part in some new-to-me aspect of the event. Oh, and I made the poster, which you can see here.

Yes, I finally got around to updating the Posters section of my website. And realized that my website needs a quite a bit of updating. Why don't you loyal viewers give me heck when there's nothing new?

'Cause there is new stuff. One of the two books I worked on last year is now available: Shelley Easthope's Reflections of Medicine Beach; Conversations with a Place. I learned much while laying out the two books. Of value to authors who are looking to publish: we highly recommend Island Blueprint's Printorium service over the Other Publisher (who shall remain unnamed; although if you care to ask I'll fill you in).

On the cultural front I've a few recommendations:

Great Film: City of God; a powerful and brilliant film and if you get the DVD you'll get to see a documentary on the true stories behind the film.

Great Books: I'm now a big fan of Ian Rankin's Rebus series. Leaves all those stodgy detective fictions I wrote about previously blundering about in the fog. I think I've now read the complete series and never felt let down. Currently I'm reading, and thoroughly enjoying, Bill Gaston's Sointula.

Pretty Good TV: OK, that's saying alot from me. I'm not a big fan of TV. But LOST has my attention. Maybe it helped that we rented the DVDs of the complete first season to get up to speed. No commercials, no waiting, just 18 hours of fun and games. Other than the occassional movie I watch The Simpsons, required watching if you're living in this crazy, mixed up, beautiful world.

April 7 2005: Well, over two years and still on the same page. You could hardly call that a 'blog' now could you? But then, as it says just up there^ ":projects and artistic flings:" A lot has been happening. Really. Big news this Spring: my new Nikon D70, long ago written about on this very page, and finally acquired. Digital meets SLR quality. I'm so happy. Look for more photos on this site (yikes, my photo updating is almost as slow as this page). The wedding season's started on Pender and the camera's hard at work already. The image quality is amazing. OK, I'll stop raving.

The PenderCreatives web site continues as a growing concern. This May 21-23 the first PenderCreatives Exhibition takes place on Pender. I'll be exhibiting a painting from a new series incorporating "depleted" Epson inkjet cartridge inks.

The Golf Island Disc Park web site's now active (see below). And for more new web sites check out my Site Design Portfolio.

December 10 2004: Another stormy day on Pender with huge waves rolling by in front of our windows. Thank goodness we get the occasional sunny day even in the short days of winter. Usually it's Sunday when we're playing disc golf. The new discgolfisland site's coming along. If would like to see it in its formative state click here.

I had an email back from Imodium (see previous entry), thanking me for my feedback. I sent them a hint on how to improve their advertising. Hopefully they'll take it to ... heart.

Meanwhile I've also had an exchange with eBay.ca. And I won't link to them because their site frequently crashes my browser. No problem with eBay.com or eBay.uk but the .ca one has problems. So I alerted them and received a rather condescending return email suggesting I make sure I have the latest browser (I do) because "eBay is constantly updating the features on the site to take advantage of advances in technology and security. As a result, using older and/or more basic browsers that do not take advantage of recent technology updates can cause the trouble you describe." Excuse me, but is eBay not in the business of selling people's items over the internet? And not everybody uses the latest technology. Duh.

Then I received an email from a firm surveying the level of satisfaction amongst people who'd emailed eBay with a complaint. I filled them in.

Then I received an email from someone purporting to be eBay and asking me to go to a site to clarify my eBay account info. That one I sent to spoof@ebay.com to ascertain its veracity. It was a scam. The bad .html gave it away. But I'm sure some folks just click away. Want to be educated about email scams and web hoaxes? Go to hoaxkill or take a look at the Symantec Security Response page. Please never ever send me (or your other friends for that matter) warnings about viruses. One - I'm using a Mac (virtually no threats) and Two - most of the time they're hoaxes.

November 30 2004: A cool near winter's eve sitting at the computer listening to the Ramones. The music lives on...

Occasionally I get my butt off this chair and move to another chair to read a book. This past weekend I read my third ever P.D. James novel: The Original Sin. How did this author ever get so much acclaim. OK, I read it right through in two days but about an hour into it I started wondering "will she use another of her favourite words, 'exophthalmic', again?" And sure enough, within hours, there it was (it means bulging eyes). Good grief. I love language and discovering new words but P.D. James seems to cherish a limited vocabulary of interesting words. Besides that she's too wordy by far. Personally, if I'm in the mood for an English mystery, I prefer Deborah Crombie's novels over either P.D. James or Elizabeth George. And if I'm stuck waiting in a terminal I'd choose Elmore Leonard for scintillating, clean writing and black humour. And now a small plug for my cousin Karen Irving, a mystery writer living in Ottawa. I just need to read one of her books though....

While I'm on a critical stream: it's about time I made a list of my top ten best/worst ads. Number one worst TV ads: Imodium - definitely the most tasteless ads I've ever seen. Now I've found their web site I'm going to email them and let the company know where they can put their ads. (there, got that off my chest ... or whatever) I'll give some thought to the list. Promise. Check back soon.

November 11 2004: hello, hello ... n e 1 there?

I'm back... one small house renovation later.

Somehow my graphic design biz continued during the house reconstruction chaos. The new Pender Island Museum Society calendar went to the printers and can now be found locally. If you're interested in other Pender activities check out the Save the Razor Point Neighbourhood site (sorry, now that it served its purpose it's off-line) and the Pender Islands Car Rally page. Or... if you're interested in current California theatre sneak a peak at what's really going on in the Golden State.

A few of my photos of the Magic Lake Lantern Festival will be appearing in the Last Glance section of Sea Kayaker magazine's December issue. The photos capture some of the zaniness of the event but you really have to be here to appreciate the spectacular dynamics and exuberant colours.

Of course the record obsession continues. The above slice comes from my record rack the night of the US election. It's too depressing to get into. The election spawned numerous humourous sites such as marryanamerican.ca.

June 18 2004: Summer solstice in a few days but the summer heat arrived this week. Terrific kayaking weather and 50 year record low tides. The sealife cycle seems about a month or more ahead of its usual cycle. Thick viels of plankton obscure the bottom while pulsating herds of jellyfish float by. It's a whole other world drifting along in a kayak.

We're buying a house.

I did buy the fisheye adaptor for my Coolpix. I made one panoramic VR of Pender Island's local Golf Islands Disc Park so far. A web site for the park is in the works.

The Orca whales returned to our area and swim by every few days. I continue to photograph them and scream and shake my fist at boaters following the whales too closely. A couple of weeks ago a friend and I witnessed Sound Watch hook onto a harassing yacht. ... too wild ... as I'm writing those words whales come by ... here's a photo of a whale leaping not 20 minutes ago ....

April 14 2004: Yep, still here loyal reader(s). A bit of a lapse as I spent considerable time working out the panoramic VR thingie. Figured out the Quicktime and java based viewing of the VRs. The next challange is to create spherical VRs; so off to town to pick up a fisheye adaptor for my Coolpix.

Going to town means perusing the thrift stores of course. Below's a slice of some graphically related albums. Click on the image to see the covers and a rundown on the who and what.

The tourist season's begun here on Pender which means a return to my parttime job as a kayak guide for Kayak Pender Island. Expect to see some new on the water photos.

March 22 2004: Spring's here! A lovely warm westcoast day today. Had a great game of disc golf this morning (more on disc golf soon). A bit of relaxation after the steady pace getting the Pender Creatives website up. Still more artists to come but I think the site promises to constantly evolve as the artists produce new work.

Also working on my first Quicktime VRs. I look forward to creating my first 360° VR; they're one of my favourite viewing experiences on the net. Take a look at the Quicktime Cubic VR Gallery if you're not familiar with the medium.

February 24 2004: It's been awhile since I've been to Victoria, but bright, or at least, early, I traveled into the city today. I buzzed around on a cup of coffee and no food and did my biz and on to my favourite pastime, indulgence whilst in town::going to thrift stores and heading straight for the record bins. do i look at anything else? seldom... is this an obsession then? have we seen this somewhere before? most likely... the saga continues with today's finds.

February 18 2004: Time flies by when you're busy. The Pender Creatives* web site's coming along but what ate up a lot of time in the past week is the poster for our local Pender Solstice Theatre's upcoming production of Under Milk Wood. Around 70 layers in the Photocopy file for this poster. I admit: I love doing posters and sometimes get carried away I'm having so much fun. Hey if you want to see a 60k image of the poster click here.

February 7 2004: Spent last weekend helping Mr. Clark (see below) with the Animania workshop at the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival. Very cool. Spent two days making a minute of very hand done animation and then saw it previewed at the Capital 6 Theatre in Victoria. Saw some excellent films including Totem and Cuba Libre. Plus got to hang out and shmooze. Even saw my first synth bunny up close.

Meanwhile work's begun on the Pender Creatives* web site and when I feel it's safe to preview it to you, my faithful blog readers, I shall reveal its URL.

Kind of excited about the new Nikon D70, too. This might be the one that answers all my prayers for a digital camera at a reasonable price.

January 21 2004: Most recently I participated in the First Annual Pender Islands Film Festival (see the poster here). Organized by Scott Clark, who's a juror with the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival, and with material supplied by the VIFVF and CineVic our first fest was a sellout! During the day Scott led a Kidz Animation workshop, teaching the young folks how to do direct application animation and how to combine it with live action footage. In the evening we watched a series of short films on both film and video at the Pender Island Library.

Finally getting around to some of those updates too. In the Print section I've updated the calendars and finally started fleshing out the miscellaneous print project category. More to come in the next few days as I roust through my portfolio.

January 6 2004: Yep it's a weblog, which means I should be doing frequent updates. This year I resolve to update my blog on a regular basis, if not daily at least every few days. Yes, the Xmas season was a busy one for me.

Before Xmas I was working on the Laughing Indian Riders newsletter, one of the more entertaining jobs I do. The photos of the old bikes are terrific and the stories amazing.

After Xmas we leapt into the annual Magic Lake Lantern Festival, produced by Three on the Tree Productions. This year I became a giant puppet, topped by an incredible Killer Whale transformation mask. Local carver Victor Reese pulled the strings to facilitate the transformation. Thanks to Mel and Soloman who helped guide me. This year the festival featured some new characters, both on land and water. Unfortunately being a giant puppet meant that I was unable to take photos of the event but I did get a few of the building of lanterns and sea monsters!

December 6 2003: Finally a new section of my travel photography is online: West Coast USA. I love driving down the coast, especially Highway 1 north of San Francisco (although there are no photos from that particular scenic route here).

November 12 2003: hmmm... the promised updates slowly approach... in the meantime please feel free to have a look at this website nearing completion: Bardofilm, featuring the artwork and animation of Scott Clark (this entry & link updated '04)

Awhile back in a copy of How Magazine I read an article on designers and their obsessions/collections. I thought I collected nothing noteworthy or obsessively. Then I met Jim on the Golf Islands disc golf course just down the road from us.

I discovered that Jim ran a small record store in a small geodesic dome. In talking with Jim I learned that he sold some records through eBay. A web site seemed a natural. Jim came by one day and sorted through my and Sue's record collection, separating out a small group of worthy discs. Some of his choices surprised me: like the record I'd found at the Pender Island Recycling Depot's Free Store: Stick Shift Twist by The Duals. On Sue Records! I picked it up for the cover but it sounds fine considering its age and where I found it. I spent an afternoon in Jim's stacks picking out many long missing favourites. I took the time to get up and change records while working and started looking for more vinyl. I was hooked again.

Jim once told me that one of the most exciting things that could happen to him was to be in a thrift store when a new stock of vinyl got dumped in the racks. Well sure enough there I was a few days later at a local thrift store and a gentleman came out with two big armloads of records. I selected fifty-six albums, some known but many unknowns, at .50 each. Most of 'em are pretty good, some are excellent (including many new to me) and a few exceptional discoveries. Obsessed? Well, yeah ... and that's why we have this:

... a slice of my album collection, sitting in a display rack. In the rack I've placed albums chosen primarily for their graphics, and not necessarily for their musical content. I'm going to be frequently documenting the changing rack scene and commenting on the appeal of the various combos of covers. If you happen to enjoy this little project let me know!

October 9 2003: Typically the last projects designers work on are their own. I love my Palm desktop for keeping me organized and also for letting me know how long it's been since I last updated my site. As part of the latest round of updates you'll be seeing some of kelly i's latest print projects, a much needed update to the Links page, additions to the Travel Photography section, updates to the Wedding Photography, a new bio page (with a downloadable Curriculum Vitae) and a whole new section on my artworks. If you don't see all this really soon email me and give me heck!

January 5 2003: A new year and time, time slips away. Last year I started these pages dedicated to wild, unrestrained creativity. I published Travels with my Aunts here as the first project. This little album of re-visioned his/herstory came about as the result of a class in creativity I taught the winter of '01-'02 for a few Pender Island Highschool students. Every project I assigned for them, including the final one, I completed myself. For my final project I made a photo album using old family photos into which I introduced new modern skies, laid out on a digitized copy of old album paper and then photocornered into a replica antique album. I created a loose narrative; the kind of narrative you make up as you browse old albums. You don't know all the characters or places because they're not always named but you can make something of it all.