Hypertext Jockey

Hey, what's goin' on on this side?

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:28:55 -0400

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything up here, and that’s because I’ve been insanely busy. For the record, if you work alone and get three project requests in the same short span of time, I don’t recommend saying yes to all three of them. But of course, you don’t know if they’re actually all going to land, so you have to say yes!

Ow.

It’s been a little nuts around headquarters lately. Fortunately, one of those three has been completed, and another got put on hold by the client due to the fact that no one really knew what was going on, so that’s left me with full time to devote to the most difficult of the three.

Either way, looking to launch this one in a couple of weeks, and then back to pick up where I left off on the one that was put on hold (which is now back on track and back in progress).

Hoping that’s not the 5:45 out of Penn shining bright at the other end of the tunnel.

Mondayne

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:06:04 -0400

Back at UVM, I took a film course and the first assignment was ‘a day in the life’. My life at the time involved working on a dairy farm, helping out in a research project on dairy cattle, and playing music with friends.

This is what I cobbled together for that assignment.

Mondayne from Rob Maurizi on Vimeo.

I'm Really Not a Cat Person

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:01:11 -0400

Not in the least bit. When Katie chose to adopt her friend’s cat in 1998 or so, I figured “oh, that’s nice”. No one warned me of the itchy, burning eyes. No one mentioned the endless river of snot dribbling out my nose. I never heard about the fact that cats are attracted to those who don’t want them around like some sort of living torture device.

I’m a dog person. I grew up with dogs, I can understand dogs, I can relate to dogs. In college, I studied wolves and I believed that I was a canid in a past life. However, at the time, I never acquired a dog because I never felt I was responsible enough to take care of a living creature. And that was okay because two of my roommates got dogs, and the countless hippies who migrated through my apartments had dogs as well. All was okay.

And then the cat arrived.

She sleeps on my head at night. She lies on my arms while I try to type at my computer. She takes my seat at the dinner table. She commandeers any piece of furniture that should be kept hairless and scratch-free. I wake up in the night to see her staring at me. And when she sees my eyes open, she head-butts me. Listen, cat, I’m trying to sleep, okay?

But she is cute and she’s part of the family, so what can you do, right?

So, you need a font.. Flowchart?

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:33:00 -0400

So, you need a font.. Flowchart?:

I may give this a shot next time I need to do me some designing. Beats these alternatives:

All fonts starting with A or B (or Z or Y)
Using Italia for Italian restaurants
Using a font whose name matches a word in the company (University, Futura, Comic)

via @typekit

My Super-Budget iPad Stand

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:45:48 -0400

As I was waiting for my iPad to arrive last weekend, my mind was racing in numerous different directions about what it would be like, what I’d use it for, and how I would show it off the next day when my whole family was over for Easter dinner. While I never figured out the display/stand portion that day, I put this option together on the cheap (free, since I had everything on-hand) this morning. Here’s the finished product:

Mine has two main ingredients:

Here’s how to assemble it:

Use a more recent 30-pin USB cable that has the smaller 30-pin end vs. the older iPod ones that have the push-button release mechanism.
Attach the binder clip to the middle of the bottom-front-edge of the bookend.
Feed the 30-pin end of the USB cable through the metal handle of the binder clip that’s at the top, and fold the one on the bottom back so that it’s underneath the bookend
Lean your iPad against the bookend using the binder clip as a way to keep the iPad from sliding forward

I’ve been laying the chamois that came with my old cinema display on the top of the bookend to create a little bit of friction to keep the iPad stable. I’ve also got some Ikea bookends that sell for something like $.49 apiece that are a little bit shorter, which make them better suited for typing.

Here are some more photos:

iPad Orientation CSS

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:29:42 -0400

iPad Orientation CSS:

This is fantastic; Safari for iPad supports landscape and portrait orientation in media queries so you can deliver CSS targeted to a particular orientation, say a stacked layout vs. a 2-column layout. And you don’t even need an iPad to actually take advantage of it!

Via Cameron Moll

Biking to School

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:31:00 -0400

This morning, Nicholas woke me up and reminded me that last night I told him that today we would practice riding our bikes to school so that we knew how long it would take us in the mornings after vacation was over.

So, that’s just what we did today. It took about 25 minutes, the longest part of which was getting up the first little bit of hill around the corner from our house. After that it was relatively smooth sailing, although he insisted on stopping a block from school when he heard the train coming so that he could turn around and watch.

After lunch, he asked me what day it was and I said “Wednesday”. Then he counted off the days until Monday and said “I can’t wait until Monday so we can ride to school!”

Neither can I.

RHM Interactive

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:34:49 -0400

RHM Interactive:

My freelance web design & development business. Hook a brother up!

Tommy and me

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:25:58 -0400

Tommy and me

Trying Out Tumblr

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:24:25 -0400

Trying out Tumblr for the first time. I might start using it as a “blogging platform”. That’s in quotes because I hardly ever blog. But it’d be a cool place to start throwing all of that stuff that you come across during your day on the interwebs.