blog
- Started 21 years ago
- Last post 6 hours ago
- 76,152 Responses
- Horp14
Read a few posts here and decided to blog.
Losing jobs, losing the illusion of security. It's not personal it's everybody (not literally everybody)
I dropped out of my career for over a year and for that year it seemed like it was ober and I'd never get back. Not at my age, not with my wildly diverse career path (its not even a path, it's a drunken trampoline park freestyle parkour)
But I got back into my career. I'm not entirely sure I want to be. But I am. Somethong comes up eventually. The world makes use of useful people. Heck, it manages to make use of useless ones so useful ones don't need to fear permanent obscurity.
Maybe go do somethong else for a while. Something more mundane, regular, blue collar daily job stuff. I did and I absolutely loved it.
===
Kids and music. My eldest - who back in the day during my time here on QBN was a little toddler who I posted about here regularly, so she was kind of a known entity on QBN when she was 3 - is now nearly 19. She has developed a strong interest in music which as she herself says was directly inspired by my music interests.
She started studying at Manchester Uni this year and has got herself a regular Saturday night slot on Manchester student radio.
There'll only be about 5 people listening, but it is so amazing to tune in every Saturday night to hear my daughter broadcasting on the radio.
===
The future.
Everything is changing fast. I'm not sure the design industry will survive in any recogniseable form.
It's good to be fluid and flexible, to not identify so strongly with a specialism and a title. It's no longer possible to lash our lives to reassuring certainty.
- awwwe thats sweetNutter
- and I'm sure you'll find a new job / path you are happy with!Nutter
- The future will be a prompt.utopian
- Good luck. Change is scary. But it's great to be alive. Fight and enjoy!OBBTKN
- Oh, to be clear... I'm working and I'm not in the design industry anymore. Although where I work does habe a design dept.Horp
- Ha, nice to see you back, Horp! I had a look at your new employers' website — are they as cool to work for as their refreshingly swear-y website would imply?Continuity
- "It's no longer possible to lash our lives to reassuring certainty." - Nailed it, unfortunately you need to stay frosty.thenohero
- These are good words I needed to hear!nocomply
- Yo... 'tinuity. Short answer to your Q is no
(Please don't name em here though)
:DHorp - Natch!
Eh ... disappointing, though. I liked the cut of their copywriting jib.,Continuity - They're very clear on their vision for the business, but the money isn't coming from that. Not yet. Young, punchy, chaotic as heck :DHorp
- jagara8
A no-politics news/information mental hygiene detox for me until Orange One's inauguration in january.
Tired of that shit. I'm not even American.
- Do it.********
- Your life will be better and it won’t make one lick of difference to pay attention********
- This so much, I use twitter for work and the amount of specifically American right wing crap I see is insane, even after blocking keywords and accounts.kalkal
- We barely knew you.palimpsest
- Me too, all it offers is unnecessary stress and distraction from the important things in life. You start feeling so much better, much more focused._niko
- Practically all my friends are "left-wing", which is why I use X to detoxOBBTKN
- But, yes, X is lately invaded by the same discourse. Damn, but it's fun!OBBTKN
- Do it.
- palimpsest0
"I'm sorry you feel that way."
- bjladams27
Old day catch-ups?
I’ve not been here for a bit.I lost my hearing kind of suddenly and was deaf for about a decade, then a few years ago got a cochlear implant and it’s all back and sound is so beautiful and I connect my brain to anything with bluetooth. I closed down my studio in the US and moved back to NZ and got a little spot on an island at a nude beach and spend my days painting and diving. I teach some figure drawing and work on a few private commissions. It's a slow and calm existence. Besides a twitter account, I’m not on the internet so much these days but do like to check in here and read through and I still recognise a few names.
- That’s amazing!monospaced
- damn! I thought about you this week! how are the kids doing? do you still have that studio?oey_oey
- oh, I just read your post.oey_oey
- :-) kids are all getting older and starting to move out on their own - but keep coming back for laundry and foodbjladams
- just like my brother at 44oey_oey
- so nice to hear from you man.oey_oey
- heyrenderedred
- yobjladams
- sweet :)Gnash
- I'm going through some serious hearing loss at the moment too. Thanks for the uplifts though man. Sounds like some good vibes. I need to visit NZIanbolton
- <3PonyBoy
- Dream life********
- Live your best life !d_gitale
- you're not missing much.pango
- damn Ian - feel free to send a note if you need to offload some of that; it can feel a bit lonely and everything is just offbjladams
- Woahhh... a dream life. Great envy. I tried to slow dowbñn, but apparently I still need this crazy life. Enjoy!OBBTKN
- Hey man. Life sounds good in many ways.Horp
- Good for you island boy!milfhunter
- sounds great - literally!Fax_Benson
- Glad your studio is still going, I remember seeing some pics of it when I first got back on here, it looked sweeeet.PhanLo
- I misplaced your IG, I absolutely loved your work and I'm glad you're still at it!kaiyohtee
- Have you seen the The Sound of Metal? That film was brutal. How quickly did you lose your hearing? Let me know how I can get in touch man as yeah, it weird!Ianbolton
- @kaiyohtee - i dropped the ig (although i'm still on twitter at @bja_nz)bjladams
- @ian - i've not seen it. I lost mine over about 3 mo. you can email me at ben@benjadams.com if you likebjladams
- srhadden0
Is Paul Logan dead yet?
- jagara4
To a degree where you can stomach it of course, having friends with opposing views, especially politically, is very healthy and beneficial.
IMHO...
- 100%! I have far right oriented friends and I'm totally OK with their views. We argue and shit but I respect them and they respect me and that's all that countsrenderedred
- One of my really close and dear friends is a fascist. For real.renderedred
- Same with religion, I'm an atheist and have a few very religious friends. That's fine too.renderedred
- whatever...oey_oey
- +_-oey_oey
- Fascists... that’s probably past the point of something I can stomach. I have conservative and religious friends.jagara
- It’s beneficial of course until their views are so disgustingly bigoted, racist, hateful and fear based nonsense that they can’t be stomached.monospaced
- Hence the stomach part.jagara
- i get what you guys are saying, but as long as the discourse is civil and respectful, i have no problem. and it is, even with the fascist. other than that...renderedred
- he's a great guy.renderedred
- he helped me more than once in various ways knowing fully what i believe. for example. and vice versa.renderedred
- 'he's a great guy'
absolute peak liberalism. all fash should follow their leaders and be hanging upside-down from lamp posts.face_melter - make them live in fear and crawl back under their fucking rocks. and if you're 'ok' with them, then you're complicit in their actions. sorry, not sorry.face_melter
- bUt TeH DiSCourSe!!!!11! fuck me.face_melter
- sMasH thE fAsh!Gnash
- To be clear, I never meant completely diametrically opposed views. That's probably not possible, at least bot for for most people.jagara
- *notjagara
- yeah but nah .. I have a very old friend who we have been drifting apart for a while now.. then called me a couple of weeks back and he has totally drunkenautoflavour
- koolaid and to be honest, i lost all will to engage. he has sent me a few messages and i have left it on unread. people can have opposing views, but yepautoflavour
- my life is busy enough as it is with people i dont have to struggle with, the thought of now dealing with this, especially given its not even his country, nope.autoflavour
- was disappointing tho.. made me question so much of our friendship now as I sense he has been like this the whole time and just hiding it..autoflavour
- and what kind of friendship can it be if one person has to hide who they truly are.. regardless of political flavour. bad taste for sureautoflavour
- and very disappointing.. you dont have to agree with everyone, but red hat is not my vibe at allautoflavour
- mg3323
Start day! Got laid off in March and FINALLY back to work today. For the past several years I've been focused on web projects, content experiences, and content hubs as a principal UX designer at a content marketing agency.
New role is leading UX strategy for a huge enterprise application project with a major US bank. I'm excited for something more focused and specific; my role for the past several years came with so many hats, and every ounce of eccentricity, egos, arguments, creative disagreements, and more that the ad and marketing world can conjure up.
I'm going to be back in the city three days a week and taking the train again, which I'm pretty excited about just to be around other humans again and not in my basement all day.
- Congrats. That’s quite a jump. Enterprise must be full on design-system land?mort_
- Good luck! Hope you will not be bored after a year, banking moves very slowgrafician
- Woot!!!YakuZoku
- Graf - that's one thing I'm actually excited about. I was staffed to an enterprise client years ago and the pace was nice. The world I've been in was a zoo.mg33
- mort - it sounds like it. I'll be doing less design work than I've been doing and much more strategy, which is a direction I wanted to go in anyways.mg33
- Go get itgarbage
- That's great news mg - best of luck!stoplying
- fargosted
- Great news. If a UX job takes 8 months to find, I expect a motion designer job to take about 3 years once I lose my job early next year.CyBrainX
- Congrats! 3 days in the city is pretty ideal. I'm on a similar routine.slappy
- Good stuff. It sounds like the right thing for you man. Good luck!pseud
- Cheers!!!! Congrats on having ownership over a singular focus where you can thrive!canoe
- Thanks everyone! I appreciate the congrats. Man it's wild to realize what a constant QBN has been across so many of our careers. :)mg33
- Congrats, hope it's fullfilling your "expectations";)
"be around other humans again" nice one! I miss it too, but only sometimes.OBBTKN - Congrats. Best move i ever made was from Agency world to Tech world. Work/Life balance is night and day. Enjoy!microkorg
- Congrats!!HAL9001
- Congrats!!!5timuli
- Congrats man! great to hear. onwards and upwards!lvl_13
- microkorg - RE: work life balance - I can't even get work email or calendar on my phone. I was surprised by this. Asked me boss; aside from security reasons...mg33
- they stressed that work life balance is hugely important, and don't want the expectation that employees are working outside of core work hours...mg33
- My 16 years in agency world brain just could not compute that. If I never do another "someone will have that done by midnight" gig again, I think I'll be happy.mg33
- Gardener4
Skylarking mix : 22/11 : mixcloud.com/Tak_Tent_Radio/
- OBBTKN0
I'm still addicted to tangerines. The latest twist was buying some Valencian tangerine juice.
I'm very disappointed. It tastes like old fruit ( •̀ - •́ )
- I thought I would save money by quitting smoking... but I spend it all on fruit!OBBTKN
- I'll be a year without smoking soon. But I can't find time to ride my bike... F!OBBTKN
- I wouldn't be drinking any juice that comes from Valencia for a while...Chimp
- I know... But it's packaged in summer, but yes, that and many other products :(OBBTKN
- microkorg19
Introduced my kids to Indiana Jones movies.
My 5yo son loved them and started Indiana Jones scenes in his sketchbook. Indi, whip, guns, action, bad guys, a submarine ... a swastika!
Woah, wait a minute there wee man, please don't start drawing Swastikas!
Immediately, the call that we would get from the school played out in my head 'we have a concern that your son has been drawing swastikas on his school books'.
Had to explain to him that it was a bad thing to draw. He seemed to understand and instead created his own symbol to represent the bad guys.
School call averted! WIN!
- You just have to say he's getting into Hinduism and it's a sacred symbol for them.Chimp
- When I was a kid, I used to draw Soviet planes in pencil on my desk, and they would angrily make me erase them...OBBTKN
- Until I was in high school and met a Stalinist teacher (A crazy weed addict). There my interest in many lessons ended.OBBTKN
- If I have to blame anyone for not becoming an aeronautical engineer, it is him ;)OBBTKN
- LOLcanoe
- lol that’s awesome, took my kids to a screening of raiders last year at an old cinema, and they loved it as well amazing how it holds up and how good it is_niko
- They could barely sit to watch the movies, always standing up and jumping about excited.microkorg
- Amazing moment @microkorg AND lolz @ swatika!
It's a great bit of graphic design for sure; @Chimp is dead on just tell their professor it's "Hinduism".ideaist - awesomeYakuZoku
- https://www.youtube.…garbage
- Considering my fav movies tied at first place include Raiders and Blade Runner I approve of this messageprophetone
- What a great post. I love this.mg33
- surely it's the perfect symbol to be put on bad guys. It's the ultimate (and probably the best design) bad guy logo of all time, ever!Ianbolton
- thenohero1
up @ 3:22 AM
still raining ...
back in bed @ 3:32 AM
- grafician0
Voted today.
Let's see if we will manage to get elected first woman President.
- Ianbolton0
i read at the weekend that 28 Days Later, the classic zombie flick by Danny Boyle, was filmed in 480p. I was trying to find a decent quality version to stream but the quality was always shit.
I'm guessing there's gonna be a ton of films from the early 2000s that are going to using shitty digital technology as we crossover form analogue to digital?
- Additionally: https://www.wired.co…Nairn
- Cheers. I'll have a read. I filmed by friends wedding on a Go-pro. It sounded awful but didn't look so bad.Ianbolton
- I remember seeing 28DL in a theatre and about 30min I noticed and thought, “whoa was this shot on digital?” (I minored in cinematography)********
- It was shot on Canon XL1, with better glass. You can see scenes where they faked DOF by layering out of focus footage over top.********
- they should do a release where it's played though a sony trinitron and kinescope'd in 4kkingsteven
- retro gamers are ahead of the game on this good CRTs are shooting up in value https://www.youtube.…kingsteven
- Some of the tech that went into CRT's was nuts.Ianbolton
- Built by squirrels?Nairn
- There aren’t a TON of successful films shot digital. Big films were still shot on film. Digital cinema cameras did get better pretty quickly, too.********
- One that comes to mind is Collateral. Michael Mann chose digital for the look but it’s not beautiful. Won’t age well.********
- Collateral and 28DL will look worse as digital tech gets better. Film hasn’t had this problem because you can rescan the film itself.********
- Many movies today are shot on digital, but the cameras are closer to film so there won’t be as much of a noticeable difference moving forward********
- I still believe analogue will always be better than digital. Happy to be proven otherwise though. And i know digital tech these days is fucking nuts!Ianbolton
- palimpsest4
The more we see, the less we look.
- I know you listen to Jimmy, but do you hear Jimmy?monospaced
- *Jimimonospaced
- Jiffy Lube.palimpsest
- lol mono, classic_niko
- The more we look, the less we see?!ideaist
- No. The more we look, the better we see.palimpsest
- Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing we see.palimpsest
- But we ain't even there yet.palimpsest
- whoawpango
- Believing is seeing.garbage
- https://i.haasie.com…palimpsest
- bind mlownmaquito
- It reminds me of that time...palimpsest
- Beans beans good for the heartstoplying
- discern for the win.thenohero
- Guys... Have mercy, it's Monday!OBBTKN
- I looked what you done thereFax_Benson
- jagara3
Is a lot of 4K video simply upscaled 1080p? I places like Youtube, i borderline can't tell the difference. They almost look the same, even up close. Is pseudo-4K a thing?
- I see a lot of upscaling, but also food 4K quality is much more gear dependent than 1080p; A camera lens needs to be good enough to "feed" a 4K sensor fully.evilpeacock
- Heh... "food" = "good".evilpeacock
- Also, 4K is exponentially larger to store/stream and a lot of the time is compressed *more* than a 1080 equivalent to compensate. So it gets softer.evilpeacock
- Very good explanation, thanks!jagara
- microkorg0
Prescription lenses.
For years I've just went with Specsavers or similar standard glasses, maybe opted for thin versions and anti-scratch coatings etc.
Got my eyes tested the other week and looking to get current glasses and the RayBan Meta's I got fitted with the new prescription.
Rabbit hole got me looking and pricing Zeiss 'SmartLife Individual 3' lenses with Photofusion (their version of transition lens coating - but doesnt activate in a car).
Come in at nearly £600-700 though.Whereas places like Lensology, Specsavers, Vision Express etc are about £300-350.
Anyone used Zeiss premium lenses?
Are they worth the price?
Folk on YouTube saying its like going from SD to UHD for your vision. Some don't like it because it makes everything so sharp and feels like information overload on your eyes.- I used Zeiss for many years, First Essilor than Zeiss. the last one Premium. Maybe I had bad luck but those were the worst lenses I ever had.oey_oey
- I bought them with all bells and whistles because I had good money at the time. After less than two years the coating was gone and the lenses were unusable.oey_oey
- Biggest piece of shit ever for the money. I have Essilor again, One option under the most expensive. So far so good. Progressive glasses. 500€.oey_oey
- Again I forgot that Meta stands for Smart Glasses, sorry.oey_oey
- Decided to go lensology for lenses for the Meta's as they are a novelty. Likely get a better set of lenses in the future with new frames to alternate with.microkorg
- renderedred3
mri and all prostate check-ups all ok. i have prostate inflammations sometimes in the winter so i was worried. fuuu. i was really worried.
- have you tried to stop playing with it?Ianbolton
- Glad all is well though :-)Ianbolton
- LOLrenderedred
- Good hear.
We can all agree it was worth it.palimpsest - @Ian: Playing with your wang is good for prostate, urologists say so.OBBTKN
- ^ Thanks. That's great information as I usually just feel guilt, disgust and shame. But that's a me thing, not a prostate thingIanbolton
- i was told too, sex is good for the aging prostate...renderedred
- Recent 'Diary of a CEO' vid on YT with doc saying so about the playing. Drastically reduces cancer risk. level something like 21 times/month.microkorg
- "An empty prostate is a happy prostate"theonlyengineerhere
- "man oh man, it's come to that..."renderedred
- Rub one out to Elena!
https://i.imgur.com/…utopian
- grafician0
Thinking about getting a Welsh corgi early next year.
Opinions on corgis?
- Corgis are annoying little shitssausages
- ...and the WelshMorning_star
- Oh nografician
- Welsh corgi is a tautology.palimpsest
- Corgi is self contained unlike shepherd or poodle that need a descriptor to specify the breed: German Shepherd or Toy Poodle.palimpsest
- He's likes to taut his vocab on the Nscanoe
- Sure...
https://en.wikipedia…grafician - Sweet dogs. Happy.jagara
- Also, adopt, don't shop(t)jagara
- palimpsest0
Reading makes me sleepy.