InformationJunkyard

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Went fishing on Saturday with two major forest fires bookending the LA area. The sky started clear and as the day progressed, the smoke from the two fires converged creating a very apocalyptic glow to the sky and water. Guess this is a preview of what global warming will look like!

living, photos, randomness Burn, Fires, fishing

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So a longstanding Friday morning habit of mine has been to spend the first hour or so catching up on my design rags and blogs. This inevitably leads me on the wild goose-chase from site to site; destructively loaded on caffeine and bumping aimlessly through the pretty pictures of a dozen sites or so. At the end of which, I’m feeling a little mentally numb and begin feeling that everything I’m doing with my design career is equivalent to running in place at the retard farm. It’s a frustration that use to drive me nuts after architecture school, but as the years have past, I’ve become more comfortable with doing little and looking at the great work of others. And then you bump into a truly bad-ass site with people doing good work. Hell, they had me sold at the studio name, “We should do it all”. No shit, that should be MY name. I want to do it all too!

Then again, they probably didn’t just spend the first two hours of their morning wearing off a tequila hangover by surfing. anyhow, nice site, some great work, and maybe the envy will motivate me to do something other than sit here: http://www.wsdia.com/

UPDATE: Now I know why they hit so far into my creative gut – they’re architects gone designers! nice little interview with them at Archinet: 

Architecture school is the highest test for anyone who wants to be a designer/creator. It’s an incredible test of your love for this profession, and you don’t love it…architecture school will definitely weed you out. The most appreciated skill I gained from Kent’s program was being able to communicate my ideas about concepts and ideas through heavy critique. This tool is vital for our studio in expressing our designs to our clients. Being able to critique your own and other’s work, and being able to take criticism, is something I am proud of.

big thoughts, living, randomness coffee, cool websites, designers, Random thoughts

This past August, I was fortunate enough to visit the Galapagos Islands and hike the inca trail to Manchu Picchu. There is so much more about it I can say, but not in this post.

Some of the better picts are online at: http://photos.kaloupek.com

living, photos, travel Galapagos Islands, Links, Manchu Picchu, photos

This one had me laughing till milk came out of my nose…. It’s like a man diaper from west hollywood…

What more can I say, I love me some Ikea Hacks.

living, randomness funny shit, Ikea, WTF

So I’m just going to take a moment and try and reflect on where the term Information Junkyard came from…. 

Following graduating architecture school in ’98, the passion to create “something” was still burning strong. After relocating from Virginia to Seattle, Information Junkyard became the visual playground I used as an attempt to continue collaborating with my friends from school, as well as experiment and grow. It served it’s purpose, an outlet for all the bullshit photoshop experiments and pseudo-artistic ideas that haunted me after college. Then somewhere along the way, the things I did while screwing around, suddenly became a profession. And as it became my profession, the interest in coming home, sitting in front of the machine and dialing up an idea began to fade. What was once artistic, now became a career and finding that spark to create became harder and post fewer between. Could be said that a failed marriage and a shitload of beer also didn’t help too much.

So now, 10 years that initial spark, I find myself in a much better place in life. And I find myself at place where I feel like trying to share again, whatever the hell is in my head. Guess that’s what a blog is, right? The place where you hang your virtual hat? The junkyard for all those ideas that slip by in the morning in between coffee and some lunch? The dusty sketchbook that I use to carry everywhere with me, no becomes Helvetica Neue and the white glow of a computer screen.

With luck, no one will look too closely at any of this, as I have no intention of doing anything except recording the random shit that comes through my life, and occasionally posting a pretty picture or deep through that I’d probably be too embarrassed now to say out-loud. 

So, here we go. informationJunkard gets reborn for it’s second, painful time.

big thoughts, randomness Random thoughts, trepidation, WTF