Hello there people. If anyone does read at all, a-lo a-lo a-lo..

I’ve been working with VentureDive for a few months already, leading their UI/UX side. It’s a good team to be working with and I m enjoying too. Over the past couple of months I had been busy with some internal and client projects, though one of the most important project was to get venturedive online thoroughly. We had a website and a facebook page, one that barely passed for their designed jobs, a logo with text in helvetica regular (no styling, nothing unique or distinct). Fast forward to current date and we have our minimalist logo, a live website (still killing a few bugs here and there and updating some graphics and copy). It’s functional and it’s working.

Next in line is getting our official blog up, where our team members will put in an effort to put up atleast one blog post a week, I think that makes for a good start. And then obviously we’d like to get rolling with our Facebook page as well.

These are the only details I’d like to throw in right now, I’ll throw in more details soon about our projects and products we’re working on.

You can go check out the website and send us some feedback — venturedive.com

It’s almost the end of 2012, about a day more and then we’re done with it. No more of 12/12/12 crap.. no more of the Mayan’s Ending our world.. No more of ‘Oh god we’re gonna die’.. End of all that.

It’ll be time of a fresh start for alot of things hopefully.. I look forward to seeing alot of good stuff, Inshallah.

This post is a little welcome to 2013. It also is a reflection on what happened in 2012, to say the least.. 2012 hasn’t been the kindest year to me, so I m looking forward for 2013, to be a change in course on the brighter side.

The start of 2012, got me back in dating.. That didn’t go well for a few reasons, but the sad part of it all was that I lost a friend.. I’ve been kicking myself in the nuts ever since. In the same month, I happened to burn half my face which took a few months to recover, the pain and all is gone, but the scar’s still present..

Then I bought a car.. A car that has given me more headaches than most things but then again it’s been most helpful in more ways too.. specially saving me some money and carrying people around like a happy driver

In the month following my car purchase I lost some 70 grands on gun point.. Including my cellphone and watch.. This was also the first time ever I had given anything away like that.. I’ve been on gun point before, but Alhamdolillah have always managed to evade the situation.

Soon after that I lost a bunch of other friends because they didn’t like the other friends I hung out with.. I get it, I understand why.. But I wish that wouldn’t have happened. I miss these people alot. Not that I haven’t made more friends in that same time, I’ve met some incredible people, discovered new good sides of other people I knew from before, found new crushes for myself (which didn’t last long) and that’s awesome.

Then there’s Game Ventures closing down it’s office in Karachi, that was a major blow for me. Game Ventures had been a place I had come to love, the work, the people, the environment.. All of it. It’s closing down didn’t bother me much immediately.. But when you start to know other people, work places and their environment, you learn a lot about the place you’ve worked before.

Right after that was the car sandwich accident.. My car was hit from behind by a speeding car, it was hit so bad.. my car jumped to the car in front.. damaging my car from both ends.. I was alright.. Mostly..

Then on and off I get this feeling that I m losing more friends.. But I guess that’s normal.. It’s not something that happens every now and then.. But I m still human.. it happens.

The only things I do remember that didn’t go well for me are, the friends I’ve lost and the burning of my face.. I sometimes still feel the flames and it freaks me out.

There’s a lot more that has happened.. and I know I missing out on a alot, some on purpose. But there’s mostly negative stuff up there, maybe because I dont feel so good right now.

Any how, it’s the new year coming up, so Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope the new year is good for everyone. Inshallah.

I wish the people who’re now far from me, in terms of communication not distance… All the best for their lives.. I wish we meet some day and laugh at our mistakes.

I’ve been busy lately, which is why this blog hasn’t been updated in a while, not that anyone cares or reads..

Anyways, here’s a few things happening lately. I’ve joined Venture Dive, which is a mobile + web apps company mostly. We have a small range of products and the list is expanding. The team is small but fun. Maybe not the same as it was in Game Ventures but then the team still not as big either. In time I suppose.. In time.. and I look forward to that.

On the other hand I had gotten tired of the Nokia X2-01 I had. Finally went out and bought myself an iPhone 4. This piece of technology is just fuckin awesome! So glad to be back. Which by the way will also explain all my activity on Instagram (username: dehog), Path, Facebook and Twitter.

There are a few apps that I just love. Not just because of their uber simplicity in design but because of their functionality as well. Here’s a small list of app love.

Clear App

The beauty of this app is in gestures and the simplicity with which you can create to-do lists and tasks on a list. No annoying confirmations. No buttons. No stupid UI. It’s plain awesome UX.

It has become one of the first things I see every day to remind myself what I have to do. If you like simple apps, you’ll love this one. They’re launching for mac as well.

Website. App Store.

Instagram

I doubt anyone needs any sort of introduction to this application. It’s a pretty easy, and well quite annoying app at the same time. Annoying for the rest of the world who’ll have to bare with all te food pictures I’ll be taking. Sorry people.

On the plus side it does a pretty good job with those funky filters.

Website. App Store.

CarTunes

This has officially replaced my iPhone’s Music player. Why you ask. First of all I love Album Art, and this displays that very art, very beautifully. And the only visible UI element on the main screen is the track bar. The rest is all gestures. And yes it does have all your music listing shenanigans.

But it does a really kick ass job on it’s primary objective. Play music, and display it well.

Website. App store.

Path

Other than the basic facebook app, facebook messenger, along with twitter’s iOS app, this is one brilliant piece of software design. The one thing that caught me on this was it’s pretty UI and properly thought of UX. Even though I have a fairly less number of people who use this, but I m guessing in time that will change. This functions as a journal, but the fact that I can see updates from family and friends plus I get to post to other social networks is awesome.

Recently I’ve only been posting from Path, and it goes to Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare, with the option to include tumblr (I dont use that much so.. bleh).

Website. App Store.

And then a few more

Other than these apps there are a few other that I use a lot (listed below). Needless to say there are alot more apps on my iPhone, but I think these were the ones that I thought I should mention.

Reading

• Feedly
• Flipboard

Social Networks

• Facebook Messenger
• WhatsApp
• Twitter

I’d love if you can send me a few more recommendations about any apps that you think might interest me.

This was more of a improvised piece than anything in mind.
Wanted to make something with an elephant, turned more into a mouse sort of stuff.. and the most famous mouse I know for as long as I can remember is Jerry.

A little something I did to kill time, but the concept behind it still stands.. Controlling the beast.

Credits: Original image modified.

I m sure most of the people now know that Game Ventures where I used to work as a Creative Director has ceased operations as a progressing company, and gone into maintenance mode. What this means is it’s no longer going to be actively developing it’s products, it’ll just keep them working and make sure there are no bugs and the products works fine even on auto pilot.

This also means the most of the development staff is no more part of Game Ventures. Infact some of them have already started working else where. This is a good thing and a bad thing at about the same time. It’s a start of a new road for many, experiencing a new front, a new flow of product development, maybe client projects for many others.. But for some it’s a long struggle to finding another good gig/job.

So right after Game Ventures, I joined this another start up venture ‘Vulcun’, where we’re currently experimenting with different sort of products and revenue streams. Let’s see how this works out.

This does not mean that I m not part of Game ventures any more, I  worked here for around 3 years and 11 months. That’s a lot of time to be left behind. I miss that place already.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all. Grow Strong.

Something I made to kill some time at work.

Merely took like 30 minutes.

It’s Eid here in Pakistan now.  So please accept my religious greetings for the day, Eid Mubarak.

I do agree if you’re going to tell me this is not one of the better works I’ve put online. Something quick and dirty was in my mind.

Posting this a day earlier, so you guys can actually get a glimpse of it. Otherwise it just gets lost in the dozen other images that go up on the same day.

So Happy Independence day to all my Pakistani behen bhai’s.. specially the behens

Something random that comes out of boredom.

Looking for the wallpaper.