Koda

Today I had my first Aikido class for at least 10 months. It was fantastic… just being back in a familiar dojo with my old sensei. Boy, it’s such a wonderful feeling to just be thrown around for a while and rolling - it’s about the closest feeling you can get to flying in my opinion. I was embarrasingly rusty, but after a little while (and some prodding by sensei) it was pretty easy to get flowing again. It’s so great to be back!

It’s also made me very tired, so this will be it for now. Good night!

Infinity != Infinity

…?

I never did remember what it was I thought I forgot…

Four days ago, I wrote about an icon project I was working on for gmpc, the music player. A few hours of work and experimentation later, here’s a second (nearing completion) take on the artwork.

24x24, and labeled.

My main goal with this redo was for the server to look less like a piece of paper and more like a reasonable tower. Not surprisingly, the hardest part of the design was choosing a perspective and composition that looked good at the size. After a bunch of trial and error and Inkscape crashes (probably over 15 at this point for the project), things fit into place.

Version 1. Looks like paper!

At this point, I’m quite happy with the status of these icons - though I’ll probably find a few things to change in the morning.

All day now I’ve been catching these pieces of something I’ve forgotten. I’m not so sure what it is, but everything I do seems to be reminding me of it. It’s really starting to make me curious of why I’m getting these flashbacks. Is it the lack of sleep? Believe it or not, prolonged periods of 7 hours of sleep can leave me feeling pretty loopy sometimes…

It’s like that feeling when you’ve just about remembered a dream, but it’s lingering in the back of your mind in pieces; unprocessed. I remember some things: a global organization, competition, a group of people, computer hacking? It seems kind of silly down on (virtual) paper. Somehow I feel like once I realize what it is I’m unable to remember, it won’t be something so remarkable. Maybe it’s not even a something, but instead many separate somethings.

Oh, and my CDs arrived today. In any case, I’ll be drowning it all out with music.

If I need you to be complete, who am I?
If I don’t, then: who are you?

For a few weeks I’ve been thinking about and working (on and off) on an icon for gmpc. Similar to a previous vectoring of a logo for pympd, the program is an interface to a networked music player system. However, where with pympd the icon was descriptively referencing both the python code and phonetic “pimp’d” pronounciation, I wanted to do something more generic for gmpc, more suitable as a tray icon. I also didn’t want it to be just another music note, like the other popular players; because under the hood it’s fundamentally performing something different: networked media control.

24x24, for an accurate view.

Surprisingly, the hardest part of designing the icon was deciding how I wanted to represent the “networked” aspect of the program. I must have spent a huge chunk of time simply staring at that music note and trying to figure out what else I would put there. Earlier versions of the icon were littered with contorted music notes, and cables and ethernet plugs, which got really blurry and really didn’t do it justice. Putting in the tower made things so much easier! Once I realized the tower made a space for status indicators, everything just clicked into place. You’re looking at what I was finally able to come up with.

It’s still a little rough around the edges, but all in all I’m pretty pleased with the design. Right now, the tower looks a little too much like a piece of paper for my tastes - to be fixed tomorrow. Also, I probably won’t get a good idea of how well the icon fits until I see it up in the GNOME system tray. Though all given, not too shabby for a Wednesday night.

I keep noticing lately how some relationships I have with people will flow naturally forward. How there are people some who seem to be naturally open, and I am able to be open with too. And how there are also some that, no matter how hard I try to push, just don’t seem to be this way.

I think one thing I’ve recognized in the last few months is how important it is to appreciate these relationships in life. And to try to cultivate them as much as I can.