To the MAX

I haven't been to the Adobe MAX conference for a while. I missed the last two, so I thought I'd get in on it this year. It was out in Los Angeles, so pretty much the entire dev team from work traveled out to learn about Adobe stuff and have some fun.

I attended some sessions about game development, some of which were over my head and some stuff about CSS and image manipulation. The big announcements were that Adobe will no longer be selling software as a product. Instead you're only going to be able to get new software via subscriptions. We'll have to see how that pans out.

The other big announcements they made were that they have been working on hardware. One is a smart stylus called Mighty that can transfer drawings between tablets. Another is a short ruler called Napoleon that lets you draw straight and curved lines on tablets. The crazier thing was Project Context which is a Minority Report style system for a magazine editors room that had integrated tablets and wall displays and a table with a touch screen in it. If you're a multi-million dollar company you could theoretically afford one, but not so much if you're the average Joe.

They also had some pretty cool sneak peeks at what Adobe engineers have been working on. One of the crazier ones was the ability to transfer lighting from one picture to another. For example, the engineer showed a picture of Cinqueterre that he liked the perspective of, but not the lighting. He then found another picture with a sunset and nightime lighting. He then transferred the lighting from one to the other. It was pretty spectacular. A few other amazing ones were search results that changed as you modified an image and a perspective tool that allowed you to define planes over surfaces in a picture and then manipulate them in "3D" to alter their perspective.

After that we had the MAX Bash which is Adobe's big party they put on at every MAX. This one they did up as a street fair with different types of cuisine and people performing acrobatic stunts. The food was so-so, but the main draw was a concert by The Black Keys. They played a long set and rocked hard. I was stoked to get to see them. I had contemplated paying upwards of $75 per ticket to see them, so I was glad to get to see them for free. Plus I got to get close and take pictures and video, which I wouldn't have been able to do at a normal concert. It was a blast!

Sessions were pretty good at this MAX. In the past they've felt like review of basics. This time around I learned a lot more. Ironically, the conference became much more designer-centric. Coding and code tools seldom was mentioned at all.

On returning home, I unfortunately found that my car had been broken into. Well, perhaps "broken" is the wrong word. Nothing was actually broken, so I must have forgotten to lock the doors when I got my luggage out. I'm guessing it was just kids breaking in, because most of my CDs were gone (except The Weepies and Forro in the Dark, which I guess were undesirable), but they left my checkbooks and my garage door opener. They also stole my Bluetooth headset and my wheel lock. Replacing those will be expensive. The irony is that I usually lock my car even when I don't need to, like when it's home in my garage or I'm just picking up Brynn from Jen's parents' place.

All in all, it was a pretty good trip. I got to go to a cool party on a hotel rooftop. We had some amazing ramen at Orochon Ramen, which was a first for me. There are more pictures in my gallery. I dunno if I'll head back to MAX in Chicago next year if it is going to continue to be so designer-focused, but I did have a good time this year. Thanks to RealEyes Media for sending me!

Things I Like: Dance Music Edition

Lately I've been needing music with a driving beat to help me focus at work, so I've turned back to my old friend Electronic Music. FatBoy Slim and Moby and others got me through many college papers, but now I'm wanting a bit more. Through some remix albums, I came across Little Boots and The Glitch Mob.

Little Boots is now a guilty pleasure of mine. It's a bit saccharine, but undeniably catchy. The Glitch Mob also has some solid dance music without any distracting vocals, which helps my focus.

The next thing I want to tell you about has nothing to do with dance music. I've mentioned Strong Female Protagonist before. The current story line in this webcomic demands that I remind you about it again. I'll warn you that it is quite disturbing right now and totally amazing and thought-provoking. Brennan Lee Mulligan, who writes it, has clearly thought through some of the ramifications super powers would have. It is so, so, so good.

I just discovered Thunderpaw. It's very interesting. The art style is not my favorite, but has undeniably strong craft. The GIF animations are very cool and the plot thus far is intriguing and well executed. Jen, the artist, is really using some of the potential of the Internet and the unlimited canvas. So far there's not a lot in the archives, but what's there is really interesting and striking.

I was out in L.A. at the Adobe MAX conference, and I've got a lot of stuff to write about regarding that, but that'll have to wait until I sort through some pictures and get a long enough block of time. Well ... maybe it'll have to be done in chunks, because I don't foresee myself getting that long of a block of time for some years yet.

Happy Mother's Day, by the way, if you are in fact a mother. Today I'll be making balsamic and beer braised short ribs and parsnip puree for the amazing mother of my cute baby and her parents. It's a recipe out of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. If you like to cook and haven't hit the Smitten Kitchen blog, you really should. I've only had one recipe from it fall flat and everything else has been good to great to amazing.

First Birthday Party

We did it. We celebrated Brynn's first birthday. We had a birthday dinner with Jen's folks for Brynn on her actual birthday. Brynn's baby sitter and Jen had a mini-celebration for Brynn earlier that day. Then Saturday we had feast-ivities with a bunch of people, a bunch of food, and a bunch of presents. Here's a collection of videos and pics.

Brynn was excited about her rocking elephant.

She also was excited about the box the elephant was in. She has other uses for it. Look at her go!

Unfortunately, I found that I must have accidentally stopped recording right as we were singing happy birthday to Brynn, because I now have a long video of the bottom of the cabinet I set the camera on, and no video of her destroying her cake. I do at least have a video of the birthday party prep.

I also got this cute video of Brynn playing with Jen today.

She also is enjoying her Mozart cube that my folks got her. Look at her focus!

She also instantly took to her walker that her Aunt Christie and Uncle Joe got her.

Then here's a bunch of pictures:

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate our little girl!

One Year

One year ago today, our little girl was born and everything changed. A well of joy was unsealed and we have been drinking from it liberally as we have enjoyed this gift from God.

Tonight we had a birthday dinner with Jen's folks and Brynn got a great rocking elephant from them. Tomorrow is the big shindig with a whole crowd of people converging. We've been cooking every spare moment. Tonight was avocado salsa and spinach dip. Before that was sheepherder bread and this butterscotch sauce to be the filling for the cake. Tomorrow is meatballs and the cake. We'll see how I do with a big sheet cake; double the recipe. Wish me luck! We already are so lucky to have such an amazing and cute little girl as our daughter, but I'll take some more for baking cake at this altitude.

Snow

The weather forecasters in Colorado have it rough. They predict a blizzard. We get 3 inches. They predict rain. We get more than a foot of snow. That was the most recent weather snafu. We had 3 days of snow, with most of it falling on the first day, which was supposed to be naught but rain.

My commute home, which is normally about a 45 minute affair, took 2 and quarter hours. It was unpleasant. At least it was pretty.

On Wednesday, the last day of snow, we got a bit of a dusting. The roads were pretty much just wet. Every once in a while there would be some blowing snow as Jen and I drove in for a date night in Boulder. Otherwise the roads were clear.

We came up to the intersection of Arapahoe and Foothills, which is a major intersection. It certainly was not where I was expecting a hideous patch of black ice. I put on the brakes to stop for the light, and I kept going. I pushed harder and my ABS came on. And I kept moving. At this point, I know I have to either hit the car in front of me or swerve. A quick check shows a car a bit back on my right so I chance it and swerve. I thought I made it, and then I heard the sickening thunk of car hitting car. A truck and clipped my back end. Thankfully the guy was nice and his truck pretty much undamaged. I got an estimate today on my crimped rear quarter panel and broken turn signal cover, and it came in at just under a grand. Ugh. Time to call insurance.

Brynn at Play

You don't need anything more in a blog post than cute videos of Brynn, right? I didn't think so.

Lost Lake

The snow is coming tonight. Supposedly by morning we'll have around 6 inches or so. This last weekend, I came to the snow rather than the other way around. Ben, David and I went snowshoeing to Lost Lake up past Eldora. The snow was not in great shape, but we had fun and even cut our way up a stream bed through some good snow. It was a good hike and a good excuse to use my snowshoes.

The snow will hopefully help out the grass seed I laid down yesterday to patch the gashes left in our yard by last summer's high temperatures. Hopefully it hasn't all been blown away by the strong gusty winds that preceded the storm. In the little time and with the little energy I had I laid down seed with a little fertilizer and a healthy dose of water. Of course, before I did that, I had to rake out the dead grass and fight off the spring offensive of weeds that had colonized my lawn. So disheartening. I did also dig up some compost and put that on the seed I laid down. Today it looks like most of it is still there and it is not gone with the wind. We'll see if it pays off.