Free Desktop Calenar for May

It's been over a year since I last did a desktop calendar design, but was inspired after shooting out in my garden after today's rain showers.

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A college girl's to do list

SO a friend of mine that lives in Manhattan, KS (home of K-state) found this girl's to-do list crumpled up on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. No more explanation needed.

February Desktop Wallpaper Calendar

The latest edition of my little hobby.

With February being inudated with hearts & cupids, I wanted to explore a little different. Parks can be a cold, lonely place in February.


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Movies of 2009

I stared thinking about all the movies I saw over the past year and decided to sit down and make a list of the movies I saw in 2009 and what I thought of them.

This only made me realize that I need to get my ass out and see more movies. I saw 16 movies released in '09, but have a list of 21 that I didn't get to but want to see.

Overall I think it was a great year for comedies with I Love you Man, The Hangover and Couples Retreat. It was also a pretty solid year for Sci-fi with Star Trek, Distric 9 and although I haven't seen it yet Avitar.


Here are the moveies I saw and what I thought:

Taken
5 stars
This movie is the ultimate suspense thriller.

Watchmen
2 Stars
I’m not a big comic book turned movie fan in the first place, but some are done better than others. This one was slow, boring and not fun to watch.

The Haunting in Connecticut
4 Stars
Had me thoroughly creeped out.

I Love you, Man
5 Stars
Great comedy. Paul Rudd does a great job switching to the leading role and Jason Segal is a star on the rise.

The Last House on the Left
4 Stars
This brutal suspense thiller had me white knucked and on the edge of my chair. It also contains probably the most brutal rape scene in the history of movies that will leave you feeling like you got kicked in the gut.

Duplicity
3 1/2 stars
A fun caper movie. How can you go wrong with Clive Owen, Julia Roberts and Paul Giamatti though?

Star Trek
4 Stars
Although I was born in the 70’s, I was never a Trekie. I remember hating having to watch it when my dad and brothers were watching it. That being said, I reluctantly went to this reimagining of the movie and I actually liked it quite a bit. It had a decent plot, not terrible acting and great CGI.

The Proposal
2 Stars
I was forced to watch this by my Girlfriend over Thanksgiving. Not horrible as chick flicks go, but a chick flick nonetheless

Transformers 2
3 1/2 stars
I was not a big fan of the first movie (and even less of a fan of Shia LaBeouf, but somehow – whether is was my low expectations going in or just the trance I was put in by Megan Fox – I actually enjoyed this one. Yeah, the plot wasn’t anything to write home about, but the action was good and there was a chuckle or two.

Ice Age 3
4 stars
I saw the first one, but missed the second. I watched the third over christmas with my nieces and it was great, just like the first one.

The Hangover
5 stars
3 words - Hi Lar Eous. This one has is at - It's quotable and every time you watch it you will find something new that will have you rolling on the ground.

Public Enemies
1 Star
This one gets my award for most disappointing of 2009. It had SO much potential, but was uber slow and did a terrible job of developing the characters. On top of all that, it was nearly impossible to decipher what Johnny Depp was saying half the time.

District 9
5 Stars
This might have been my favorite movie of 2009. It takes you through a wide range of emotions from disgust to sympathy and has great action scenes to boot. I hope a sequel is in the near future.

It Might Get Loud
3 1/2 Stars
I'm not a huge music buff, but this gave me chills at times. Such a cool concept to bring those three legendary guitarists together

Inglorious Bastards
3 Stars
A bit of a disapointment for me the first time I saw it. I was very optimistic through the first scene, where Terintino showcased his wonderful nack for diolougue, but as the movie progressed I felt that it lacked depth of chracters and too many lines went to Brad Pitt instead of the rest of the cast.

Couple's Retreat
3 stars
Not as good as Forgetting Sara Marshall, but in the same vein. As always great dialogue betweet Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. And what is up with Jason Batemen? He was in everything this year. Talk about a comeback!

Twilight: New Moon
1 Star
I took my girlfirend to this turd of a movie to earn brownie points. It could have earned me 999 billion brownie points and I still wouldn’t go if I had it to do over again. Unbelievably horrid dialogue and the CGI was amateur.

Now here is the list that I still want to see:
Up In the Air
Avatar
Hurt Locker
The Blind Side
Pecious
Crazy Heart
Sherlock Holmes
Knowing
Adventureland
State of Play
Terminator Salvation
Moon
Zombieland
Law Abiding Citizen
2012
Ninja Assasin
Funny People
Paranormal Activity
The Soloist
The Taking of Pelham 123
Where the Wild Things Are

I better get busy popping the popcorn!

January Desktop Calendar

So I know I'm a little late with this one, but there are still 26 days left in the month, so here is a desktop wallpaper calender for January. I was so busy traveling over the holidays that I forgot to post it sooner.








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December Wallpaper

Hey everybody - I had a little free time so decided to throw together a wall paper calendar design for December to enter into Smashing Magazine's monthy competition.
I decided to stay away from the cliche snowflakes and Christmas trees and explore a bit of a grungy urban treatment. I took the original image with my iPhone as a part of my iPhonography series while in NYC and created the custom typography and textures in Photoshop.

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A Case Against Email Marketing

About 6 months ago someone from the company I work for sold our email list to a marketing rep and since that time me and my fellow creative dept. colleague's inboxes have been getting bombarded with Email marketing from Photographers at the rate of 15 a day (and that's only counting the ones that don't get caught by the firewall).

At first I simply tried to ignore the incessant emails, and delete them as soon as they hit the inbox - but this became a full time job, as they come on average once every half an hour. I actually use photographers for photo shoots for my clients, but seriously there is no way that I would ever even consider using one that sent me one of these emails as they have simply become a nuisance.

The sad thing for them is that they are probably paying a good chunk of change for my email address and those of my colleagues without knowing that they and 2,000 other photographers are being peddled to our inboxes. It has gotten to where I now make it a point to opt out of each and every one of the emails out of spite, even though it takes up my valuable time (and the time that my company is paying me for. Hmmm, maybe they should have thought of that before selling our addresses).

Since I am now opening these emails in order to opt out, I have been exposed to some of the worst photographers I have ever seen in my life and some of the worst design as well. Today one arrived in my inbox that takes the cake and I felt compelled to share it with you. Enjoy....