Mark McClellan

At work, I am required to change my password every three months as a security measure. Every stinking time I do, my wireless access stops working. Then about two months into not having wireless I get ticked off enough to chase someone down to help figure it out. Once I get it figured out it’s only a matter of days before I start getting the email reminders that I have to go and change my damn password. The cycle begins anew.

I can’t stand security measures that are supposedly there to protect me but instead tie my hands, hamper me, and sometimes completely lock me out. Why even have something like wireless access if the people that are supposed to be using it cannot? Completely worthless.

My father-in-law, Bob Pommerville, passed away one week ago yesterday. He went rather quickly. He was anxious to be with his wife, my mother-in-law Arlene. She died a little over a year ago. Now with both of her parents no longer living my wife is an orphan.

We will miss them both.

That was the feedback my 7 year old boys gave me in my car tonight. I was playing an old Cyprus Hill CD left over from my college days. Here I thought I was going to have to censor or explain what “hits from the bong” meant but they didn’t care. They could not get past unique vocal stylings of B-real and Sen Dog.

My 3 year old daughter, on the other hand, could not get enough of them. Her feedback; “louder daddy!”

Only seems like I struggle to write on this blog with any regularity. Perhaps I just need to write shorter posts more often. Yes, another reformat is in store…

I spent today working on a set of 12 pixel, monochromatic icons for a toolbar mock up. Talk about minimalist…

Two things I learned from working with one color at such a small size: First, simple is better. There is always another detail that can be removed that contrary to what your brain is telling you, will enhance the overall clarity of the icon’s metaphor. Second, simple icons reinforce their descriptive text. I guess the opposite mentality would be having descriptive text present to explain what the heck that cryptic little glyph is on the menu bar.

At the time of this post, my website looks really odd, plain, even broken. For reasons I do not care to discuss, my blog has lost its look and styling. It is entirely my own fault for running the automatic update provided by my host without backing up my files first. I was doing things a little unorthodox, sharing theme styles and images between Wordpress and PixelPost and well, pretty much everything other than Wordpress got blown away. My theme is still there but because I had moved the CSS and images outside of it, they have up and disappeared like a fart in the wind.

Given the amount of time it took me to get this stupid thing up and looking like I wanted it, I probably should be a lot more upset with myself. However, I was watching Schindler’s List at the time of this little mishap and seeing what the Jews were going through at the hands of the Nazis pretty much put my problems into perspective. I am actually dealing with this loss quite well. I am seeing it as an opportunity to fix shortcuts, clean things up, perhaps even try out a new design. I am also giving up on the Pic Of The Day and ditching PixelPost. I think I’m going to start using my Flickr account more.

I have to quit talking about it now because I fear I may lose my cool if I dwell on it anymore.

I read an article titled Let’s Be Civil today and my hope for common sense in the world today shot up a few notches. The author, Mark Simpson of the UK’s Guardian dares disagree with the vast and very vocal majority of gay advocates and allies. The comments on his article are predictable, essentially, how dare he.
Read the rest of this entry »

It started with a cold that wouldn’t go away. I knew something was wrong after several weeks when it was getting more difficult to breathe. I went to the Doctor. That’s a huge deal for me because, no offense to doctors, but I just really do not care much for visiting them. Anyway, the doctor said I had a severe case of bronchitis that was showing the signs of early pneumonia. I took antibiotics and things started clearing up.
Read the rest of this entry »

I am a mormon. I am employed by the LDS church. I do not live in California and therefore did not vote on Proposition 8 nor did contribute to the campaign. That said, I had family members and friends that did work on the Yes for 8 campaign and had I lived in California during this past election cycle, make no mistake, I would have voted YES on Prop 8. Some people say my religious affiliation and political opinions amount to me being a bigot. Other people go farther and claim I am a brainwashed robot acting at the behest of the leaders of my cultish, bigoted religion. However, my favorite people are those that lay it right out there, pure and simple, like the person in the picture above with the sign that says “Mormon Scum.” Mormon Scum. It has sort of a nice ring to it.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is something I have been meaning to post for a while now but have been reluctant to do so given the ugliness that Election 2008 has brought out of the American people. At this point, I am sure that come November 4th, Senator Barack Obama will become President-elect Obama and while I am not really happy about this, I can honestly say that I hope his presidency does not live up to the pessimistic predictions I have for it in my head.

That said, I wanted to put up some side-by-side comparisons of Obama’s campaign artwork and some classic communist propaganda posters. Obama can laugh off the notion that his policies amount to socialism and I do not care to argue that here. I am posting this to critique something that I do know a little about which is art, style, and particularly design. In my mind, there is no question that Obama is using a style similar to the communists of yesteryear, a style I have dubbed “Obamaganda.” The real question that absolutely fascinates me is why Obama, being a left-of-center politician running for the highest political position in a nation that has had such a major anti-socialist/communist past would be comfortable using this Obamaganda style.

Read the rest of this entry »