Some Random Dude

Very early on in the process of setting up the new Some Random Dude, I mentioned that all work done on and for this site would be made available as open source and/or free. It is something that I feel very strongly about and am deeply committed to following through on for as long as this blog is active. As a small first gesture, I am offering up the theme used for the Some Random Dude Tumblr site. Feel free to use it, alter it and improve upon it as you see fit. If you do not have a Tumblr account yet, I highly suggest that you get one — it is a genuinely great service. Read the rest of this post…

If you have spent any time talking with me, you are probably well aware that I am putting significant time into lowering my environmental footprint. This is a pretty common sentiment nowadays, with everyone taking a different path to achieve their goal. One day, on a walk with my wife after getting a remarkably hot cup of coffee, I took notice of the generic cardboard cup sleeve on my cup. It dawned on me that, along with the cup, there was no reason why a sleeve to insulate your hand had to be disposable. While it is easy to find a non-disposable cup (duh), I have yet to run into a reusable cup sleeve. I soon thought, why the hell not make my own? Then I thought, why not share the template so anyone can make one (hopefully better than mine)?
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A little over a year ago, I wrote on the short-sightedness of the visual style which had been named after the technology it had been associated with - Web 2.0. As predicted, the masses have begun to tire of the current trend. Additionally, designers are beginning to write about their dissatisfaction towards the Web 2.0 visual trend and are proposing alternatives to it. As the visual style attributed Web 2.0 wains, we are inevitably going to see the rise of another all but arbitrary visual style take its place which will be adopted by the design masses without a second thought.
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It has been a (very long) while since I written about design at all on this blog. In order to ease myself back into the design subject, I thought I would post some of my favorite typography blogs that I have found. I have come across some pretty hot typefaces through my browsing these sites - I know we are always itching to find that font family that will allow us to default back to Helvetica/Garamond. Font design is such an amazing craft in my opinion, that I enjoy looking at new typographic designs/trends whether I am looking for a new font or not.

Here is my list (in no particular order):

• Font Shop: Font Feed
• Typographi
• Type For You
• Mark Simonson
• Daily Type
• Ichy Robot
• Typophile
• Typographer
• Typotect

Please, do add to this list - I am dying to get some new sites to gawk at.

My wife and I had to fill up our car with gas, (something I am beginning to loath more and more with each trip to the gas station) when we came across something new (at least for us) at the pump. It seems that at certain gas stations, dealing with the fact that we have to fill up our cars with toxic chemicals for ridiculous amounts of money will be the least of our worries. Yes, now we have to be subjected to advertising. Bad advertising.

These ads are not your basic billboard advertising. No, these are full video ads… With very loud sound. So unless you are willing to close your eyes and plug your ears while pumping your gas, you are going to be stuck getting pounded by some 30 second plea for you to spend your money on whatever the person on the screen is peddling. Gas just got that much more noxious.
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