FreeFrog's Frogblog

Something is amiss with this blog!

2010-09-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yep, I ditched my Blogger blog for my Tumblr blog. I just like the tools and options better for my needs.

Fare thee well Blogger; you've been a good friend for quite a few years.

If you are subscribed to my blogger RSS feed you'll want to resubscribe to my Tumblr feed.

The gamer in me wants this helmet

2010-09-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Simple post. The gamer in me wants this HJC helmet solely for it's paint job. The helmet probably ain't bad either, but the dragon is cool!

It's a long way to the top

2010-09-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

My part-time design job at a local PR firms is now so minimal, it's really a joke to call it a job. Fortunately, FreeFrog Designs is doing well and consulting business keeps picking up. Suffice to say, barring an amazing job opportunity arising, I'll probably just keep working for myself, since it's actually more stable and there's a future in it. Companies seem about as loyal as water on a hot roof.

To compliment my new freelance push I'm planning on moving back into design areas I love -- gaming, icons, logos, interfaces and merchandising -- and forgoing all this governmenty sh%t Sacramento firms keep offering me, since that's about what they pay and expect from creative types. Another year of such drivel and I'll go crazy. I don't care if it's print or web -- they're both great mediums to design for -- but I just need to be allowed to flex my creativity again, instead of consistently asked to dumb down my designs, whereby I can't even proudly display pieces in my portfolio. :-(

Also, the rumors are true...an all new FreeFrog.com website in the works. The ALL NEW website is almost ready – along with matching branded print materials.

The next post will probably be about the new site going live, so stay tuned my little tadpoles, stay tuned. Good things are in the works. :-D

A Dream Begins

2010-07-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

I’m am very proud of my mumz. After years of considering it, she’s finally taking her travel photography hobby to a professional level. Beside upgrading all her camera equipment this year, she’s now a bonafide business as Marlo McClurg Photography. She initially has a presence on her Tumblr blog and will be posting photo galleries as time permits, but more importantly, she’s now showing and selling her photos at local art shows, such as today’s Midtown Bazaar. Congrats mom…I know this is a long time dream of yours!!!

Lazy Frog

2010-05-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

Alas, Memorial Day weekend always turns into a crazy weekend running around, socializing, road trips, camping or even working occasionally. That's all well and good, but this photo reflects what a FreeFrog really wants to be doing on Memorial Day... laying about and catching a few zzzzzzzzz's.

Best LOLCATS ever!

2010-05-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's just my fascination for long pig, but this is the best LOLCATS ever!

Tesi 3D in the wild

2010-05-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, I saw a Bimoto Tesi 3D in person today (crappy iPhone photos to prove it). Some crazy ass fool with too much money and apparently a butt of steel bought one of these ultra exotic bikes and actually rode it Sport Bike Night. Very cool. Me and some South African guy named Paul were the most taken with it.

Technically, any Bimota is bike porn on two wheels, but this thing didn't even look like it was from planet Earth. UBER cool.

Two greats go down in one day

2010-05-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Holy crap...two creative legends have passed away today!

The unstoppable Lena Horne has died at 92. Her amazing acting persona and magnetic singing shall continue to wow generations to come I'm sure. What can I say...she's a legend.

Likewise, the epic man that is Frank Frazzeta has died at 82. His indelible mark has been made in the world of fantasy and science-fiction art -- including TV, movies, books, album covers, posters, comics and the list goes on. What can I say...he's a legend.

You'll both be missed, but never forgotten. R.I.P.

Oh Mother...

2010-05-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

It was a fun-filled Mother's Day weekend. We took Renee's mom to a play and dessert on Saturday (we took my mom the previous Saturday), then while Renee took her mom to brunch on Sunday, I did the same for mine -- awesome Chile Verde and Sierra omelets at Mary's Gold Miner Cafe by the way. I then took my mom on a long meandering excursion to the Sierra as a photography road trip -- me on two wheels, and she on four. We got caught in a nice downpour along the Mosquito Ridge, but that didn't hamper our fun one bit.

So long and thanks for all the fish

2010-04-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today marked the end of my long-standing love affair with a certain Suzuki V-Strom 650 motorcycle. It's treated me well since 2004 and we've had many an adventure. At 10pm this evening an upstanding gentleman rode away on my baby with a giant s%7t eating grin on his face. He seemed like the right person for such a fun, yet practical bike, so I've no doubt it's gone to a good home. I'm a little misty-eyed, but it was time to move on. To you, my lovely V-Strom, I say "so long, and thanks for all the fish."

Now it's just me and my Yamaha FZ1000, which is to say, I'm still in good hands. ;-)

Trying out Tumblr

2010-04-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm putting Tumblr through it's paces as a means of mini site building, as well as embedding into client sites. Hell, I may even replace my own embedded Blogger blog with Tumblr, since it's so flexible and easy to use. It's far more enjoyable than Twitter, and purposeful than Facebook, and adaptable that Blogger. The jury still isn't out yet, but here's my own Tumblr, apply named FreeFrog's Pond.

Seaside and memorials

2010-04-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots taken with my Nikon D40 between Sacramento and Bodega Bay. A day for seaside breezes, sauteed calamari, and family memorials taken in via a motorcycle ride.

Fallout Birthday

2010-04-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Nuclear stacks hold a place both dear and fearful to my heart. How could I pass up this Mad Max meets Fallout photo, sans the mohawk and ash-colored sky.

A bit of perspective: As a child growing up during the super escalation of the Cold War, both sides promised they'd would leave the world in cinders -- two suns in the sunset so to speak. Impressionable as anyone, my youth was spent convinced we'd all die long before 2010 came around. This wasn't debatable in my mind for many years. Thus, as a coping mechanism to an inevitable doom propagated by popular culture and governments, I became a fan of post-apocalyptic science-fiction. Unrealistic...sure, but it makes for great adventure and exploration of the human spirit to survive all odds. Unlike some dystopian future fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction is gritty and more about pure survival in a world run amok. From films, books and games, I've probably watched, seen or played them all -- with the Fallout series being one of my favorites -- but also including The Road Warrior, The Terminator, A Boy and His Dog, Wasteland and too many others to list.

Suffice to say, my birthday this year is a pause for reflection, as mutually assured destruction -- at least between Russia and the United States -- seems to have been avoided. For this, I call this my Fallout birthday, because I'm, make that WE'RE, still here in 2010. Who'd have thunk. ;-)

Of course, the Cold War may be over, but tensions religious, racial, eco, biological and territorial seem to be rising. It's hard to say when we'll kill ourselves, but if we don't the planet probably will. For now however, I'll enjoy the fantasy that is post-apocalyptic and that fact that I don't need to use my plasma rifle to fend off mutants. Tomorrow's another day.

Chasing Rainbows

2010-04-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Innocuous post: I saw an amazingly complete rainbow this week while driving. Nee tried to get some quick shots with my iPhone, but the rainbow was simply too wide to capture both legs with a phone camera lens. Here's just one leg. Twas purty!

Designing for a cause

2010-04-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

I wish I'd known about this contest earlier, as I might have submitted an entry. It's great to see creative industrial/functional design applied to vital causes. Hats off to Core77 and the contestants!

Opera for iPhone coming

2010-03-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Exciting news...according to CreativeBits the Opera Mini web browser might finally see the light of day in Apple's App Store for iPhone. It's been a long wait. Safari for iPhone is slow as a dog, so any option that speeds things up is welcome, plus Opera makes great mobile and desktop browsers. Schweeeeet!

Spring time!

2010-03-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Spring time is finally here and man have I been lazy about exercising the last couple of months. I got out for an extended trail ride along the wonderful American River this weekend to jumpstart my Sprint/Summer goal to do more hiking, running, bicycling and kayaking!

St. Patrick's Day a little early

2010-03-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

In an effort to get into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day early, I attended the local St. Patty's Day Parade in Old Sacramento on Saturday. I downed a pint-o-Guinness and a corned beef sandwich ta boot. it was low key, but now I'm warmed up for this Wednesday's festivities!

Elder god needs work

2010-02-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's the little things that make you smile. In my perusal of one of my many web design resources I discovered our favorite bad boy of dreams needs a job.

Sport Bike Night anew

2010-02-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

Mike Summers is back on track (above: Mike on the left, with son Shaun on the right) with Sport Bike Night. After a long hiatus, he had the first Sport Bike Night at the Sacramento Hard Rock in Sacramento on Feb. 22. It was a good show…mostly talking tech stuff -- a snore for the squids I'm sure -- but good info for yours truley. I got some tire questions answered and the mystery of why my TechSpec tank grips never stuck right last year was solved (bad batch of adhesive). Again, it was a night for the moto geeks.

Of course, since the Sacramento Hard Rock is closing at the end of March 2010 -- which is a good thing given the crappy service I got last night for such overpriced food and beverage -- SBN is moving to Hot Italian as a venue next. Personally, I can't imagine a more suitable place.

Browser wars anew

2010-02-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well crap, I hate to say it, but the browser wars may begin anew soon. I lived through the Netscape vs. IE wars and let me tell you it wasn't fun for users or developers.

Enter Google Chrome, Google's new web browser. I'd tried the first Windows and Mac betas of Google Chrome and I was underwhelmed. That said, I tried the new beta 2 of the Mac version and it's really pretty slick – in particular it's extensions system. I don't think in the short term it'll threaten Internet Explorer or Safari, since both of those are really bundled browser with their respective OS' (i.e., they're default browsers for most non-technical people), but FireFox and Opera have reason to worry. Opera seems to be creatively developing it's amazing Unite feature, so it's hardly stagnant, but it needs to grow its install base and Google's a monster.

I cringe and smile, because as a web user it's always a thrill to see news browsers enter the fray, however, as a web designer it makes my job that much harder. I'll wait until the first non-beta is released to see how it really impacts the browser market.

::FreeFrog out::

Wire Fu

2010-01-28T07:00:00.001-08:00

Oh brother...my Internet connection is dead at home (along with the landline). Hope they can fix it asap or my biz is dead in the water. Thank you iPhone!

- Posted from my iPhone

Towering Design

2010-01-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

Though currently just a design submission for a local city, given the design guidelines, I'm hoping my water tower design is chosen. I'd love to see it looming over the park it's supposed to be erected in where even in the scalding California sun, the illusion of cool bubbling water might keep ya cool.

Portfolio Eaten

2010-01-20T07:04:00.001-08:00

My portfolio is currently down after a slight programming snafu ate the code...slurrrrp. Please check back on 1/25/2010 to see the new portfolio.

Off and running in 2010

2010-01-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe this is my first post of 2010, but with holidays, vacations and a plethora of work projects I'm just now coming up for air. Admittedly, I've been doing more Facebook and Twitter than blogging...I need to get back on the ball.

Key on my agenda is a total website redesign for FreeFrog.com. It's looking dated and it needs more WOW factor.

Other side projects include getting my fantasy universe, Rhunyen, finished and printed (or at least in PDF) for mass market. Also, I need to see how the Go'Mo Invasion is coming. My other game universe, Timeon Rizer, is on hold at the moment -- has been for several years -- but ideas and motivation are brewing, so I hope to do something with that this year. Finally, I hope to radically diversify the type of design projects I'm doing...I'm feeling stuck in a rut lately.

Enough talking. Time for me get in gear or it'll be 2011 before I know it.