Although about as technologically gifted as a gorilla’s bum, The Leither (a local magazine I occasionally contribute to- if only in loud hand gestures and stilted opinions) has signed up to Twitter this month. This is a piece I wrote to celebrate this move. Although technologically akin to turning up late to a student party with three empty bottles of blue nun in a ragged paper bag we’re tweeting…

twitter is the latest online service to be hyped to such a lofty a lofty degree, in a rash of himalayic superlatives, that you could be forgiven for thinking it offers a cure to swine flu, a solution to toxic debt, or the answer to life’s persistent questions. it does not.

twitter (once you’ve signed up at twitter.com) lets you share a few choice words with friends. think: “anyone fancy a film tonight?” don’t think:
“anyone fancy a beer with the editor?” your message is limited to no more than 140 characters known as a ‘tweet’.
tweets can be trivial “i’m at the beach, mmh Seafeild”, or it could be a link to an article you’re reading, a photo of your new puppy. simple stuff you’d like to share. once logged in you can find and add friends near and far (you can choose to ‘follow’ bands, there’s a few celebrities on there… @BarackObama) their tweets will appear on your homepage where you can reply to messages or just keep an eye on what’s happening. friends can choose to follow you by searching your name or through invitation. by connecting with these other twitter users you create a global conversation, accessed easily through your phone, IM, mobile browser, or old- fashioned web. at home at work at play.
Read On »

I don’t have a clue how to explain my 9-5 life. Recently I’ve noticed, when trying, I either play-down the creativity (and freedom) I have in my job or fail to mention it at all. I think I’m a graphic designer, but I’m not really sure… the deal is I work for a small family-run (not my family) print/design place in Edinburgh (Leith to be exact). We’re a busy, happy bunch, the company is very much established and our customers are all sorts- from nice nobodies looking for a one-off poster print for someone’s birthday, to the ‘clients’ who are mainly architects or local businesses who don’t have in-house designers (a flyer here, a brochure there- mainly business cards) then there’s the advertising agencies or PR firms who need rush print jobs or print finishing and then we have the nobodies who think there somebodies who don’t want to spend any money, but want it now – miserable rich bastards, Edinburgh’s full of them.
Read On »

i have subscribers? apparently so. i’ve moved my feed over to this address:

update your bookmarks if you’d like. also, there may be a new podcast coming some day soon, keep up to date via the Podcast RSS Feed. i know it has been 3 years already.

has anyone seen my black coat, last seen in March 2006. i have a funny feeling i left it somewhere and said I’d be back for it…

now i’m back for it. its from the 2002 Autumn / Winter range from next, and I can’t find anything like it in edinburgh today. reward for any information.

like poo. i’m not really that angry… this has happened before. I’ve lost everything, at least the data on my mac is current and alive, just a bitch about people’s photos being destroyed. I can re-download all that tormented Seinfeld and Sopranos. May this be a lesson; a backup only works if its backed-up twice.

i.e. a backup isn’t a backup without a backup.

get me? what I should do is keep my aperture library – of raw originals or ‘masters’ on both my mac, my backup disk and periodically (by client or month) on DVD. this is the only way it works. that kind of backup is even built into the app.

start from scratch then. can someone send me all my favourite Godard films again. thank you.