/ Designed and published a DVD for Bongo, Giant Ant’s documentary about a group of young Tanzanians who get the chance to record a hip hop album.

/ Designed a website to promote Christopher Swain’s 1000-mile swim across the Atlantic.

/ Worked on set of a video shoot for the “Dirty for Swain” campaign.

/ Met Lisa Bettany of MostlyLisa fame (!)

/ Acted in a commercial for an upcoming iPhone app (thanks for the opportunity, Ryland and Lisa! Photo by Lisa)

/ Blew bubbles and saw a real-life cartoon creature (AMAZING photo by Lisa and animation by Pasquale D’Silva)

As far as in-office stuff goes, it’s been pretty sweet! We work in a quaint little office building in Gastown, about a block away from my old workplace, so I can eat lunches at Zero One again (yay!). Jay and Leah, the co-founders, have been really nice and supportive, and Jess, the social media guru, is hilarious. The atmosphere is pretty chill, even during crazy deadline times, which is great to be around.

So all in all, an exciting first week! I’m pretty stoked about getting the chance to be here, and meeting the people behind the work that I follow and admire. I hope next week is as eventful!

April has been very quiet so far.

A few weeks back, our “Getting Ahead” team was interviewed by “Tricities Community TV,” a local talk show that covers various news and events in the Port Coquitlam/Port Moody/etc area. It was pretty short, and we all look sleepy, but I think it went alright. I was more interested in the camera rigs they were using (old Toshibas) than the interview itself, but I didn’t want to look like I was just staring at the cameras so I kept my focus on the paper on the desk during the majority of the interview. Adrian, on the other hand, is giving a pretty wicked death-stare to the wide camera (dude where are your EYES haha)! Anyway, click here to watch it!

Besides that, there’s not much else to report. I’m applying for jobs here and there, but nothing major. I’m starting to lose a bit of that enthusiasm and fire that I initially had back in January when I left my old job, but I still get excited at the possibilities that are out there, enough so to keep me going. It gets hard sometimes, though, sending out resumes/portfolios/emails, making calls, and not hearing anything back. It’s the nature of the job-finding beast, I suppose.

While watching CNN last night, I heard Donald Trump echo a sentiment that I’ve been hearing a lot lately: right now, during this recession, is the best possible time for entrepreneurs to start up small businesses, as there are so many unemployed talent out there, and you can pick up used office furniture, supplies, and spaces on the cheap (among other factors). It got me thinking about all the times I, my friends, and basically everyone I know, have talked about “starting something.” You know the conversation when you’re like “Dude, screw working for someone else, we should start our own thing!” Some of the smartest and most talented people I know are currently jobless like me, which is the most unfortunate thing, so it would be pretty awesome if we got together and did something… I guess the three things that are hindering progress on said “thing” is:
1) motivation
2) lack of startup capital
3) getting people together and united, “X-Men 2″-style

I was going to list “ideas” as the 4th factor, but I’m confident that, especially with the SIAT group of kids I know, ideas are more than abundant, and if given the opportunity to exploit our creative idea-generating abilities, we can come up with some pretty amazing things.

We just need to get together and think and, more importantly, do.

And I need to get my ass out of bed and off this blog— it’s 12pm!

Tuesday — Doritos Top 5
Tuesday was pretty nerve-wracking. I’d stayed up pretty late the night before, so I was already a bit out of it when it came time to present the Top 5 of the Doritos Guru commercial contest. The website claimed that the winners would be posted on the homepage by 5pm EST (2pm PST), so you can bet that from 1:55pm-2:00pm, I was hitting that refresh button every other second.

The results came in about a half-hour late, but it didn’t matter, as Brad had informed me that we didn’t make it (they’d uploaded the Top 5 on their Youtube account before changing the homepage, which Brad saw). Worse, we didn’t even crack the Top 20 :( Oh well, the world just wasn’t ready for Joel yet.

Friday — 48-Hour Challenge
Friday was a lot calmer than Tuesday. Early in the afternoon, I met up with Ross and bagged a couple of his sweet new shirts, in Party Purple and White.

Get yours at: penpaperapparel.com

Eddy and I met up and headed to Hollywood North, a film supply store that sells a bunch of film-related odds-and-ends. Eddy picked up a clapboard, which is pretty awesome (I couldn’t stop toying around with it). We trekked back to the school and hung out until 5ish, when Brad and Kirsten picked us up to head to Port Moody for the screening.

All the entries were shown at the Inlet Theatre, on a full-sized theatre screen. The place was sold out, which was nice to see. The films were a LOT better than I’d expected, with two in particular standing out— one was from Jason, a former SIAT student, who made a film about a hitchhiker, and another about a repairman who ignores a group of hot chicks to fix some dude’s sink (or something). Our film looked very soft/blurry (in some scenes) when shown on a large screen— made me cringe.

After the screenings, there was a 20 minute recess, where we ate cheese, crackers, vegetables, and beer. They handed out third and second place (I totally forgot who won those, as I was pretty nervous and buzzed at this point), and then…

Word up, we got first place! We won that sweet trophy and $500, which, instead of splitting 5-ways, we used on…

Celebratory steaks!

We tried shooting that one action over and over for at least an hour, the problem being each of us breaking out laughing whenever we locked eyes! Oh, and then there was the guy on the bike who molested us… I’d rather not get into that one.

Come back soon to see what we finish over the weekend!

For those who don’t know, during a 48-hour film challenge, you’re given an “inspiration package” that contains 4 things:
1. An object
2. A location
3. A character
4. A phrase

You then have to write/shoot/edit a 5-minute short film within 48 hours. Sounds pretty easy, right? Totally not.

Friday
On Friday evening, Brad, Kirsten, Eddy, and I drove down to Port Moody to collect our inspiration package. We were given:
1. Object: Blue cooler bag
2. Location: Park
3. Character: Personal life coach
4. Phrase: “Someone ditched it.”

My first reaction was “Wow, we got some weird shit.” The cooler bag and life coach items really threw me for a loop, but I was sure that with this many minds working on it, a good story would eventually form. As we were walking back to the car, everyone was already throwing around some neat ideas.

The full team, consisting of myself and Brad, Kirsten, Eddy, Adrian, Majid, and two of our main actors Eduardo and John, then met at the campus and brainstormed story ideas from 7pm to 4am. Early on in the session, the idea of having a head in the bag was introduced, which I initially thought was ridiculous — an entire story wrapped around this idea of having a talking head in a bag, and a guy carrying it around and being totally fine with it… I mean, come on! It walked a very fine line between awesome and cheesy, and I wasn’t about to make a cheesy film.

Brad came up with some interesting ideas, though, such as having the head be a completely over-the-top character like Richard Simmons, and having the main character go through socially awkward situations with the head, and after a few hours of fleshing the idea out with the rest of the team, I was sold… but still a bit hesitant.

It’s a head in a bag!

Saturday
We started the day at 9am. Everyone, including all the actors (Eduardo, John, Alannah, Lacey, Devan), met at the Mezzanine, exchanged pleasantries, grabbed some coffee, and headed out to our first location: the park.

We were a bit concerned, as it was supposed to rain on Saturday, so we tried to shoot the scene as quickly as possible. Lacey, the actress on the left, looked amazing and totally nailed her lines on first attempt. (Sidenote: Catch her on Driving Television with Zack Spencer on Global!). John, homeboy on the right, with little direction and dialogue, managed to bring our “everyman” character to life with his incredible acting. Any doubt that I had about our film completely cleared after seeing the actors on our in-field monitor. We wrapped up about an hour and a half later, and headed back to the campus to get the rest of our shots.

The next five or so hours went by pretty rapidly, with dialogue and actions being created on-the-spot. We shot some great stuff in the parkade elevator, which included a cameo from the production crew! I was thoroughly impressed with both John and Alannah (our female lead), and their ability to come up with realistic reactions and dialogue, especially with the whole head-in-a-bag thing.

In the evening, we traveled to Eddy’s awesome house to shoot the last remaining scenes, eat, unwind, and edit. Before we got down to business, Brad ordered up a bunch of pizzas for the entire cast and crew, and Eddy provided a seemingly endless supply of beer— this is how all of our movies should be made haha!

We ate, hooked up our camcorders to the TV, and watched all the footage we had shot to this point… upside-down (an unfortunate by-product of using 35mm adapters). It made for an interesting image, seeing everyone with their heads tilted to the side to see the screen upside-down.

After pizzas, we went right back to work. Eddy and Kirsten did an amazing job lighting the kitchen scene, making it look like 7am when it was really around 7pm and pitch black outside. We also shot closeups of Eduardo’s face in the bag, as well as recorded voice overs.

Sunday
Around midnight, we captured all our footage and started the editing process. I was delightfully surprised with how smoothly this process went— someone would start editing, take a break, someone else would step in and pick up where the other left off, take a break, and so on. Brad and Kirsten handled the majority of the editing, with myself, Adrian, and Eddy jumping in whenever we were needed. Eddy and Adrian took care of all of the special effects, and absolutely nailed the head in the bag effects.

This process went on all night and well into the morning (except for about 3 or so hours, when everyone took a short nap from 6am-9am). The rest of the day was pretty quiet, with hardcore editing and compositing going down. We finished up around 4pm, watched the finished version on the television, and high-fived one another. Since we didn’t have to hand it in until 7, we decided to shoot some fun team photos in front of Eddy’s wicked wood panel wall, and slide them into the credits sequence.

And that was the 48 hour experience. It was long and tiring, but having a group of talented people really made the process smooth, efficient, and most importantly, fun. I can’t wait to work with this crew again!

(PS: Thanks to Brad for all the photos! Also, I’ll have a link to the film as soon as I get clearance from the rest of the team!)

And a short message from us a few days before, during our day of reshoots.

Yoshi, Jack, and I arrived to the hotel around 10am, said hi to Kitty, Karen, Anita, and a handful of other SIAT kids who were there, and then proceeded to the “booth room” to check out all the various company booth setups.

A lot of design companies were represented, including R/GA, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Cooper, and Adobe, but once my eyes caught the “HUGE” logo, I immediately bee-lined to their booth. I introduced myself to Pete, an interaction designer, and Caitlyn, their recruiter, and just geeked out. I told them about my interest in their work, their company, and my desire to work for them. I talked about SIAT, the work that we do in our program, and my own work, and just went back and forth about school and traveling and whatnot, which eventually lead us to a conversation about Italy (score!). Apparently both had been there before, so we chatted about our experiences in Milan and elsewhere, and then I dropped science about the Italia Design Field School, which was cool. We then exchanged contacts, and I left feeling I had accomplished everything I’d wanted to do at the Conference… and it was only 11am.

After the Huge talk, I went over to the Adobe booth. Adobe was showcasing the CS4 suite, specifically Fireworks. I know, right? Who uses Fireworks? Karen and I asked the Adobe crew if they could give us a quick demo, and Alan, the friendly Fireworks developer/guru manning the station, showed us how to automate all the tedious steps in Photoshop/Dreamweaver with Fireworks. He showed us how to use Fireworks as not just a tool to export images, but a tool to quickly create and upload prototypes. Pretty awesome stuff, and convinced me to give the software a try. We also bagged a couple CS4 shirts ’cause we’re nerdy like that.

At 12, Yoshi, Jack, Anita, and I went out for Japadogs, delicious Japanese-style hotdogs from the world-famous Japadog hotdog stand across the street from the Scotiabank Theatre. It was my first time, and it was pretty damn tasty!

We went back in time for Jon Kolko’s presentation about design process, which was another fresh look at methods we could try in our own process (detailed information escapes me, as I was dumb and didn’t take notes). After the presentation, I ran into Ben, Woojin, and Kurtis and decided to follow them for the rest of the day. We watched a handful of other presentations, ranging from gestalt theory in design to brainstorming methods to the growth of private data usage on the web. All pretty interesting, though hard to remember (I really should have taken notes).

Around 5, the presentation portion of the day was over, and we had a 2 hour break until the reception dinner. After unsuccessfully trying to get into various restaurants and bars as a group of 20, we decided to break into smaller groups— I went off with Kurtis, Ben, Kitty, Woojin, and Charles to A&W to get root bear floats!

At 7, we headed back to the hotel for the reception. We were the first ones there, so we took advantage and went nuts on all the free food. Ben, Kurtis, and I met a nice dude from Razorfish, another company I’ve had my sights on for a while (next to Huge). Unfortunately, I forgot to get his info, so no luck there! We spent the rest of the night just walking around and talking to anyone/everyone, which was cool.

At the end of the night, I had a pocketful of business cards, a bag of free stuff, and a big old [tired] smile. Thanks for the motivation, Yosh!

Laptop
The next morning, guess who finally calls— motherloving Best Buy. My baby is home! And what do you know, they didn’t have to format the hard drive like they said they would, because the only problem was the logic board (which is what I told them 3 weeks ago and they didn’t believe me).

Camcorder
Same day, I also finally received the Opteka Macro lens that I ordered a couple weeks back for my camcorder. It helps reduce the harsh vignetting (dark borders around the screen) that I’ve been experiencing with my lens. Only downside is it added an extra inch or two to the length of my 35mm adapter, making the cam a total BEAST. Check the before/after pic below!

Awesome weekend.

The contract work
For the past week, I’ve been working on a website for… an organization that is loosely associated with my former employer. Nothing major, just a short ditty where I get to stretch my creative muscles a bit more than I did in the old office. It’s pretty awesome knowing that people at my old work are referring me to others for quick jobs— I’m always game for a short term contract!

The non-school all-nighter
I was pushing myself to have at least three layout options for the client by this morning, so I pulled off my first official non-school-related all-nighter. After 5+ years of rocking these all-night situations, I’m pretty used to doing them… dealing with them the day after, though, is always a nightmare, and right now I’m totally paying for it. I ended up finishing the layouts and presentation around 5am, so I said F-it, and stayed up until 8.

The Talk that made me change my title
At 9, I left for the school to listen in on a talk about why we shouldn’t call ourselves “experience designers” by Jon Kolko of Frog Design.

What he argued was that we, as individuals, have “an experience” with other individuals— and in these experiences, the way we act/interact is shaped by our own individual complexities, the complexities that others bring with them, and the designed artifacts that make up our surroundings. We, as designers, can only control one of these things (the artifacts). And by designing these artifacts, we create opportunities for dialogue among the individuals that come into contact with them… but the way that they interact with the artifacts is something that we can never control. I can make a door, but I can’t tell you to open it with your hands— you can open it with your foot or your mouth or by any other means. So, we can never really design “an experience” because we can’t control how each person interacts with what we make; what we should be doing, then, is taking these unique interactions into account when we design and build things, and let them inform our design decisions, by actually observing people and not relying solely on things like stereotypical personas or uninformed scenarios (though it is alright to have them as inputs during our process).

He made a lot of good points, and I felt better coming out of it. I went ahead and deleted “Designer of experiences” from my portfolio title.

The short film
After the talk, I had lunch with Nat, Rob, and Kiks. It was nice getting together with a group of school kids again— it’s been a while since I got together with some good peeps at the campus. Brad arrived a bit later, and we headed out to Bear Creek park to film an impromptu (not really) short. Brad and I have been hankering to shoot for the entire month, so this was a good opportunity to scratch both of our itches— nice, sunny lighting, a handful of props, and a 35mm-enabled camcorder (geek out!).

Short film coming soon!

At first, it wouldn’t wake up from sleep, but after a nice hard boot, it’d come right up. And then, the next day, it wouldn’t load at all. No whirring hard drive sounds, no “bahhhhhhhh” opening sound, nothing. Just lights. Holy shit, right?

I do some Googling and come across similar situations that have occurred to other MBPs, and it could be one of two situations: either the battery is dead/dying or the Logic Board is busted and needs to be replaced.

Normally, in this situation, a person would bring their Mac to Apple and they’d get first-rate service immediately (assuming their warranty is still intact). Unfortunately for me, I’m one of those idiots who not only didn’t buy their Mac from Apple (in my case, Apple retailer Best Buy), but also decided NOT to get Apple Care. No, I was wooed into getting Best Buy’s 3-Year Warranty Plan instead. “If something goes wrong, bring it to the store, and we’ll fix it immediately.” Sounded good at the time.

Fast forward to Monday: my Mac wouldn’t load up at all, so I decide to go to Best Buy to get my baby fixed…

The following is my personal log of me trying to get my MacBook fixed.

Day 1: Monday, January 19, 2009
- I stop by Best Buy around 5pm, and go to the “GeekSquad” counter
- After waiting about 10 minutes, a clerk greets me. I tell him my problem (“computer won’t load up”), he takes it to the back.
- Comes back 10 minutes later, tells me it’s “an LCD problem” (red flag in my mind goes up), and says he can ship it to their “fixing department” and I’d get it back in 2-3 weeks.
- I leave with my computer, thinking “I need a second opinion.” I set up an appointment with the Genius Bar at the Apple store downtown.

Day 2: Tuesday, January 20, 2009
- I go to the Apple store at 2:15pm, have a nice one-on-one with a lady clerk there. I tell her my problem (“computer won’t load up”), and she does a number of tests in front of me, and explains every step she’s doing.
- After about 30 minutes of trying different things (removing the battery, plugging in different adapters, removing my RAM and using in-store RAM, etc), she concludes that it’s likely a problem with the Logic Board and gives me an estimate on the cost to replace it: $1700. Fuck me.
- I get a print out of their diagnostic, thank them for their time, and head to Best Buy to try my luck again.
- At 5pm, I arrive at Best Buy, go to the GeekSquad counter, and wait in line.
- I’m greeted by a new clerk, and I immediately say: “Hi, my MacBook is acting up. I’ve already talked to one of your GeekSquad guys, I have a 3-year warranty, I’d like to send my MacBook to wherever you send computers that need to be fixed.” The clerk takes my computer to the back, and 10 minutes later says “It could be a software problem- if it is, the warranty won’t cover it.”
- I politely tell the clerk that it’s not a software issue, and is in fact an issue with the Logic Board, which needs to be replaced. I tell him again that I’d like to have it sent out to be fixed immediately. The clerk replies “I will run some diagnostic tests to see if it’s a software issue.”
- Getting worked up, I tell the clerk that a test would not be necessary, as I’ve already had a Mac expert look into the situation and was told it was an issue with the Logic Board, which I’d like to have replaced. I then mention that I was in the day before, and they misdiagnosed it as “an LCD problem.”
- The clerk gets upset and asks me who I talked to and I say “a guy in a blue Best Buy shirt,” to which he replies “Well you should have talked to someone in a Black Shirt.” Awesome, thanks, I’ll keep that in mind next time.
- He tries to push the diagnostic tests one more time to determine if it is a software issue, and again I tell him I just want it shipped out a.s.a.p. He finally says okay and gives me a sheet to fill out.
- I hand in the sheet, and I watch as he makes additional notes, including “scratches all over cover… no need for data backups…” Odd, I think to myself.
- He tells me they will call me tomorrow with an update.
- I leave the store thinking “They’re going to fuck me.”
- Why does this have to be so complicated? Whatever happened to “If something goes wrong, bring it and we’ll fix it immediately”?
- Pray for my laptop…

Day 3: Wednesday, January 21, 2009
- I realize I’ve gotten pretty worked up over this situation, so I take the day off to calm down and clear my head.
- Thanks to everyone who’s been supporting me on the blog and on Twitter!

Day 4: Thursday, January 22, 2009
- Said fuck it, took another day off.

Day 5: Friday, January 23, 2009
- Stopped by Best Buy at 2pm, asked for a status update on my laptop. After 5 minutes of back-and-forth conversing between three Geek Squad members, one eventually came to me and sad “Uhh we uhh sent it to our depot.”
- Success… for now.

Not a bad view, eh?

I’m back at my old job full-time, either until next week (when my contract officially ends) or in June, if I take up the new offer they’re giving me. I’m a bit hesitant, though, as I’d finally come to peace with leaving this place and moving forwards, trying my luck elsewhere.

I’ve been working on my portfolio since the holidays, and I’m nearing completion (yey!). My original gameplan was to finish this badboy, update the resume, and then start applying at all my dream companies… but it seems like this plan may have to go on the shelf for now.

On the skytrain ride home, I weighed the positives and negatives if I were to take this new deal:

Positives

• Pay off my student loans for good
• Have time to plan my “dream job hunt” better
• Beef up my savings account
• Have some safety (at least temporarily) during these ‘rough economic times’
• Spend more time on my portfolio

Negatives

• Become even more lazy than I currently am
• Lose a bit of my “new grad” fire/passion
• Miss out on possible opportunities elsewhere (at least, for the next 5 months)

What’s really eating at me, though, is this possibility of setting a precedent that may follow me for the rest of my adulthood: taking safety over taking chances and experiencing the new. I’d hate to think that there could be a job opening at the WWE headquarters, for instance, or at IDEO or Apple or whatever, that would be perfect for me, but I couldn’t apply for it because I’m still 3 months away from finishing my contract.

Some context: This job started as a 2-month contract to help develop and maintain some websites. After it ended, I was offered an extension for another four months. I took it, thinking it would provide some good money while I was finishing my last year of school. This loop continued every four months, lasting over a year— from July 2007 to right now, January 2009.

And I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining or anything— quite the contrary, in fact. I really like my job. My co-workers are incredibly nice, my workspace is big, my view is top-notch (I overlook the harbor!), I’m right in the middle of Gastown which means I’m surrounded by great places to eat and shop and get haircuts and watch movies… And I have it pretty easy— I come in when I please (usually 10am), leave at a reasonable hour, take long lunches if I want, and so on, and everyone is cool with it (at least I think so). In retrospect, I have it really good here.

I just really don’t like the work that I do.

Well, that’s not really fair to say. I do enjoy it… sometimes. For instance, when I get to work on non-web stuff, or when I get to work on projects that require more than your basic HTML and Photoshop work. This past summer I got to develop a campus website entirely in Wordpress, which totally increased my understanding and proficiency with that system. I also got to learn how to rock InDesign, which I’ve been putting off for years. This new offer that they’re giving me will allow me to build an entire site using Drupal, a content management system that’s interested me for some time. These opportunities to learn, though, rarely happen, and I end up spending a lot of my days making little updates (correcting typos, adding news items, removing old content, etc) to various program websites.

Perhaps I’m looking into this too deeply. It really only is a 5-month contract— it’s not like I’ll be there for the rest of my life. Or maybe I will, I don’t know. As my boss once said, “this is how you get sucked in.” It starts as an extension, and it snowballs from there. Before I know it, I’ll be discussing medical and dental benefits and maternity leaves. Damn fork-in-the-road situations!

… My view is pretty spectacular in the mornings.