This is in my opinion ’s greatest achievement (musically, the pay-what-you-want download was nice too though). OK Computer is a close second though…

New format will accommodate somewhat “live” design and development, which is uber-fun for me. Last night I debated switching my publishing platform to something new, mostly for no other reason than to experiment, but WordPress is just so snazzy these days. I was tempted to dive into Symphony, Habari or Drupal but maybe on the next re-design. If I get a little more free time I’ll re-install Expression Engine and pick up where I left off, but here we go.

So I’m still wrestling with the design but more so with content. What, really, do I want/need to be adding to this site? My photos (and some design work) go to Flickr, I’m on Twitter instead of this blog and I’ll be adding videos to Vimeo. Since I’ve been into poster design and illustration lately perhaps that is what the new Sursly will highlight.

That being said, this blog isn’t going to disappear, the focus will just be somewhere else. My goal is to re-launch by the end of August, but that depends on a few things, Jonah’s sleep cycle being one of them.

Which is what my site used to be. Or something similar.

The problem is that I use this place as an outlet for design that doesn’t fit in at work. The look for this blog/site inspired and influenced the AWP re-design (and brand, in some sense). And WordPress (which powers this site, and the blog at work) is powerful and coherent enough (for a designer) that I feel compelled to challenge myself and change things in spurts.

But enough about techy stuff. I’ve also realized that I haven’t worked at all (nor do I plan to) on getting “readers”. I assume that my friends, family, enemies, whoever, will find this site somehow. So my audience isn’t to 100s of 1000s (see: dooce) or event a targeted group (see: web designer wall). And those people who know me - or get to know me by checking out sursly - also know that I’m a bit impulsive with this and more concerned with making something I like than something you like. 

So I’m not sure what the future holds. I’ve recently been inspired by onepagelove which reminds me that there are too many sites with too many pages out there. We’ll see what happens. 

I did return from vacation to find the postcards I designed for a client sitting on my desk. They look pretty sweet, check it out the rest on the work flickr account.
 

Actually, it has been in the works for a week now, but I never would have had the time to really finish it if Meg and J hadn’t taken off for Ohio and left me with the burden of: what to do (take pictures, build this site)?

So I’m blogging again here for the first time in 10 months, and I might have to delete some old, junky posts. There’s nothing worse than reading things about your own life from a time when your own life was pretty dull.So the whale… even though this site went from design to web in a week, the whale has been kicking around for about a month. It made total sense to me, for reasons I won’t get into now, but I suspect that it will be around a while. And I’ll put it on everything. Mostly because it makes me smile.

Still using WordPress. Also still having trouble getting used to the new version (2.5.1), which aesthetically is a huge improvement, but not so much on the functionality aspect if you were really used to the old blocky beast. But I’ve been blogging a few times a week from work and am finally getting used to it. Whatev.

I won’t try to fill the gap of dead posts from July of last summer until now, but I will make a conscious effort to update this thing with some frequency. I’ve been able to do it on Flickr, so this seems do-able, for now. But things will be tightened up in the next few days, and updating the blogroll is first on my to-do list - which is really only about 5 items long.

note: *no helvetica was used in the creation of this new site*

But there is a Starbucks a few miles up the road now. The multi-million dollar library is done and only three blocks away. The grocery store has $1.00 movie rentals?! And yet, the three houses to the left of us are all for sale. Ohhhh Ohio.

But there are some things here you can’t get in Ithaca. Like common courtesy. Or a decent conversation (even if it is about Jesus, or W). And people here don’t look at you (and avoid you) like you’ve got smallpox because you’re young and have a kid. Take that, New York.

This will all wear off soon. The three playgrounds (and giant park) within walking distance will be missed, of course. So we’re going to enjoy it. It is vacation, after all (can you get a vacation with kids?), and the second time we’ve left Upstate NY this year.

If you need us, we’ll be on the seesaws. With ice cream.

So OCD has kicked in, and we know that coming home to a dirty house next Tuesday after 7 hours in the car would probably result in this kind of brawl.  And what better way to top of a successful cleaning up than having the cat knock over a plant onto a floor I finished vacuuming less than an hour ago.

Now hold it right there.  That last sentence says a lot.  1) I vacuumed, which is a rarity in itself.  2) The recency of this rarity should have resulted in the immediate disposal of The Most Annoying Cat In The World, because there is no other way to clean up some freshly watered soil and plant crap than with a vacuum.  Again.

At 8 o’clock.

After Jonah has fallen asleep.

And of course this happens when Megan is out doing bidness. Something random and stupid like this always happens when she leaves me alone for more than 10 minutes.   But she came home with a half pound Hershey’s bar, which is waiting for me right….over…there…

Your welcome, neighbors.

Oh, but you’re still here, because you know the books are that good.   Literary CRACK, I tell you.  Not because you can just crank through each one and can’t wait to get your next fix, but because I’ve sacrificed sleep to re-read books that I flipped through less than 9 months ago.  Exactly.

And of course this is because the fifth movie (which was one of my least favorite books) and the final book (which will pretty much make live less worth living once I finish) will be here in less than a month.  Soon.  So I’ve started at the beginning, again, and won’t see the movie or read the last book until I take in every addictively wonderful word.

Sure, I could be reading The Bible or something else I haven’t read but know I should…like Moby Dick or some other classic stuff, but then Megan wouldn’t be able to make fun of me for talking about how I want a magic wand instead of an iPhone (unless you can cast some spells or something with the iPhone, which I’m sure Apple is working on).  So that’s that, and there goes half of my already small audience.

Annnd Jonah has a cold, which he has managed to avoid for a while now.  We’re hoping that he didn’t contract it today when he ditched his delicious ice cream cone with sprinkles for a little bird poo on the picnic table.  To his credit, they looked a lot alike:  some white creamy stuff with flecks in it.  He did stick his tongue out after realizing that it was not ice cream, but not before Megan and I screamed and made sure that no one from Child Services was watching.

Live and learn, little one.

While I do receive pretty steady traffic, it appears to be from the same folks, half of which are likely related to me or Megan.  Thanks guys.  But the other half, those of you I don’t know, have never met or spoken to,  you’re still giving me hope that what I write here might be somewhat interesting.  So thank you too.

That is all.  Go tell your friends!

I don’t care if it is really really really shiny, will play my music, and can display this website (and allow me to blog from it?!)…since the iPhone can’t change diapers or prepare a vegetarian meal for three, I can think of a few other places to invest $500.  Like a medium soft serve in a kiddie cone on my way home from work for the next 250 days.  Or a few plane tickets to get us the hell out of Ithaca for a weekend.  Or a goon to rough up whoever controls the temperature in my office building. But it will likely go to more diapers and food for vegetarian meals.

Company has left until next week, so I can once again melt in to a useless pile of mush at 10:30 and watch Scrubs.  Dreamy.  And is it ironic or pathetic that we can’t finish An Inconvenient Truth because it is too hot to sit still in our living room for that long?  Sorry Al.  I’m actually writing this from our balcony because using  a three-year-old PowerBook inside right now would melt through our desk.  And make us have to yell over the fan (combustion system?) inside it.  That’s 0 for 2 Apple, 0 for 2 (and cut your damn prices in half).

It’s times like this that I wonder what ridiculous things I’ll be complaining about in five years.  I mean, it’s not like I don’t have a roof over my head, or clean water to drink.  But really, the fact that the temperature inside right now would have felt cool to me on any of my days in India really does put things in perspective.  Like, no wonder I kept getting soft serve from McDonalds in Jaipur.  And like, some of the kids on the streets in Delhi have to put up with the heat and no food or shelter?  Jonah, you have it pretty good, with your Elmo and sippy cups, and clothes…

Six months from now you’ll find me in one of those remote, white “tundra” areas you see on the globe.  Eating ice cream.

Annnnnd, we have company again, hence the lack of actual posts.  Besides, I’d probably end up bitching about the heat, which I clearly hate to do.

However, Meg and her visiting family decided to make some old-fashioned home-made ice cream in one of these nifty balls, and it was pretty yummy.  There was one injury in the making of the ice cream, which could have had something to do with the ball being made of hard plastic, or it could simply be further proof that someone around here has to get hurt while trying to have fun.

But gosh, it was worth it.

I laughed about this a few years ago when my sister went through The Experience, but I couldn’t even chuckle when I looked into the mirror this morning and saw it smack in the middle of my head: The Grey Hair.

And why shouldn’t I laugh?  I’m young.  I’m healthy (ok, slightly malnourished).  I don’t care about a tiny, grey hair.

But there it is.  Flat, dull, and void of color, on top of my shiny red mane…the product of almost two years of parenting, nine years of avoiding assholes on the road, 17 years in school, six years of photoshop, and countless late nights watching Point Break.
What comes next, glasses? Arch support inserts? I guess I should be grateful, I mean at least I sill have hair.  Although I’m sure I’m not far off from that wonderful milestone.

This is such a lame, trivial moment but it is hard to overlook.  What happened to all those things I was supposed to do by 25?  You know, the cool, cliche stuff like skydiving, backpacking through Europe, headlining Lollapalooza, showing my ta-tas for beads…meth?

And does this mean I’m too old to play Super Mario Bros. 3?  Excitebike?

I guess I don’t know what it means, aside from the ritual that I’ll have to perform momentarily, which involves plucking The Hair from my head with chopsticks, igniting it with the flame of a sandlewood candle while listening to Phil Collins…naked.

And this probably isn’t a good time to bitch about our car hitting 100,000 miles either.