The robot is in the mosaic
February 10, 2010
It started out as a simple homage to my favorite color which, other than black, is green, I guess, of the lime and chartreuse varieties. Green Robot is a little darker green than I prefer, but it seemed a pity not to invite him into the picture to liven up the Post-It and note pads. Can you see him? It’s easier when it’s thumbnail sized. Or maybe it’s just because I know what the original looks like.
I had uploaded the original, unadulterated photo. Then my friend uploaded his own homage which was in mosaic form and I was off to the races. I realized that making mosaics is an interesting way to develop color palettes and that for me, a graphic designer, it could be a useful tool. I certainly don’t think I’m the first one who ever thought of doing that, but to paraphrase the NBC network’s former marketing slogan, if I haven’t done it, it’s new to me.
So I went back and mosaicked several other photos, in both 50 pixel and 100 pixel tiles. It was fun! You can see them here. I like the larger tiles better. If you want to see the originals, you’ll have to look back at various days on Tweak Today—I’m too lazy today to make any kind of effort to pull everything into one location. The image titles in Flickr roughly correspond to the mission titles on Tweak Today.
Stacks and piles
February 10, 2010
I like to say that I never finished moving in four years ago. I suppose it’s more accurate to say that I never finished unpacking. It’s entirely true that I simply have too much crap.
Meet my kitchen table. I used to eat meals on it, back when it was in my former apartment. But ever since it moved into my condo, it has pretty much been in this state. I have yet to sit at it and eat a meal. There is plenty of room to put all that stuff elsewhere.
It just hasn’t seemed very important to liberate it. It is in a disadvantaged location. I informally envision that I would sit at the near end in this photo, which is out of eyeshot of my main television. If I sat at the other end, I’d be able to see my small, auxiliary TV. I have never though that I’d sit at the long side, because who wants to face a blank wall?
That I live alone also instills no sense of urgency about the project. I have a quite large desk that is in eyeshot of the big TV and that makes a very nice dinner table. Even the cats eat there (though that’s because my desk is the only stable, easy-to-get-to location for their food that is inaccessible to my mountain goat of a rabbit).
It becomes inconvenient when my parents visit, but we have gotten used to gathering at the coffee table in the front room for those group meals. On their last visit, though, my mom brought a little TV table because she had gotten tired of bending over to her plate on the low coffee table. (We were never plate-in-the-lap eaters.)
The kitchen table isn’t the only location that suffers from piles of stuff. Even the high-traffic front corner of my desk is always fighting off a stack. This one developed over the course of a 24-hour stretch when I thought I was going to get to some writing, which I do on my laptop. There was the envelope of related work materials, a catalog from our main client, a new book that I’m trying to get to reading, and the TV and stereo remotes and my iPhone, which always live on that corner. Then I grew the stack by adding nearby items, just for fun.
I have been trying to gear up to follow along with the Fly Lady, who gets you to declutter by tackling it 15 minutes at a time. Seems pretty reasonable, if I’d only actually do it. Maybe tomorrow. Probably not.
My friend Green Robot
January 11, 2010
This is Green Robot. He and I made our debuts on Tweak Today on the same day. He was one of five random things of the same color that I scrounged up at my office on that fateful day. He has since made several appearances.
1. July 20: Photograph five things that are your favorite color. I would probably say that black is more my favorite color, but I do like lime green and chartreuse quite a bit, too. On that day, green was simply the color that I found five things of first at my office. Green Robot was actually the last to join the group. I guess technically, Green Robot is stolen property. He doesn’t seem to mind.
2. August 22: Photograph the same thing in three different places. It was a hot day, so this was all not too far from my front door. Then Green Robot told me he’d like to be in a movie. That’s at the bottom of the page.
3. October 10: Play copy cat. We looked at the photos of stuff that were posted before we made our submission, and assembled our own versions of previous seen items. Somebody else had already included both a rabbit and a robot. Green Robot was chuffed.
4. November 29: Photograph something in different places around town. Again, Green Robot was most pleased to be out and about. It was a raw November day and the outing didn’t last very long or go very far afield. The close-up on the fire hydrant at the top of the page was used in a special Advent calendar mission.
5. January 10: Take an inanimate object to a meal with you. That was today’s mission. Green Robot and I enjoyed a nice smoked salmon frittata and tomato juice for breakfast.
I am certain Green Robot will find a way to appear in many more missions.
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