Designer & bike rider in British Columbia, Canada

Blog

  • Graphic: Yo La Tengo

    A graphic design for a Yo La Tengo music album.

  • Optical Gears

    One of the more amazing optical illusion sites I’ve seen in a while. Note: link has been updated to Akiyoshi’s web site, a Prof. in the Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. Thanks to Darb for the link.

  • Logos: Photo Club and First Year Guide

    Mock-ups for UVic Photo Club logo and a cover for a first year student guide.

  • Current Tracks

    Tom Waits – The Piano Has Been Drinking J. Dowland (1563-1626) – Lachrimae J.S. Bach – Suite No. 2, BWV 1008 in D minor

  • Transit conversations and Cereal DVDs

    Standing with me on the 76 bus to the big boat on Friday were two first year rower jocks. Funny thing, snippets of their conversation were actually interesting. Definite keeper was when they described a friend of theirs who had recently undergone some hour-long erg, heart rate all 190, working himself so hard “his deodorant…

  • Simpsons, PWGSC and Sir WC

    Speculated on for years, more concrete testimony is popping up re: Simpsons: The Movie. See Yahoo article. Choice quotes: Groening thought South Park’s movie was the only based-on-TV feature that wasn’t horrible, while Simpsons producer Mike Reiss cuts to the chase: the Simpsons movie is “gonna suck pretty hard.” I say honesty’s always the best…

  • Logo: Transit Coalition

    First attempt at creating a mock-up logo, this one for a hypothetical public transit coalition.

  • Eugene Levy’s Accent

    Was having trouble pinning down the source of Eugene Levy’s accent in A Mighty Wind (2003) last night. Thought I’d nailed it as Dieter from Sprockets, Mike Myers’ regular SNL sketch featuring a German-accented, 80s avant garde talk show host. But that wasn’t quite as stilted as Levy’s portrayal of a mentally unstable, recovering 60s…

  • Cleaning, Cooking and Squash

    The Brother is coming over for dinner tonight. I’m de-thawing a 5lb lasagne and planning a fourth attempt at baking focaccia. Also vacuuming the furniture and floors and reclaiming the bathroom. The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988) is not on DVD yet, so will try and rent Kurosawa’s Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai) or…

  • Portfolio: Williams in Vancouver

    Launched the Williams in Vancouver web site today, a three week project I undertook for the University of Victoria Alumni Association. See its entry under Web Design for more information.

  • Hockey Fights

    This site has video excerpts of NHL hockey fights. Some clips are dubbed with heavy metal music (one was a Ween song I think). On another clip, the announcer calls the play-by-play action: “Laus with the right going to the side of Downey’s head. A couple of times. The helmets are still on both players.…

  • Current Tracks

    Ween: Quebec Tom Waits: Nighthawks at the Diner Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Joan Baez: Sings Dylan Andre 3000: The Love Below Aesop Rock

  • Nardwuar and The Evaporators

    I just got back from seeing Nardwuar and his punk band, The Evaporators. Friends of mine came by totally unexpected at like 9:30 tonight. Came onto my half-completed porch and banged on my kitchen window, a big chunk of which fell out (not their fault really), while I was doing dishes. Hopped into the Toyota…

  • Gymnast Nadia Comaneci

    I don’t know the first thing about gymnastics, but have been reading up on Romanian Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first perfect 10 in gym history at the ’76 Olympiad in Montreal. Comaneci ended up with a total of seven perfect 10s in Montreal and three gold, one silver and one bronze. She was 14.

  • Lethbridge Alderwoman: The Film

    One of the stranger news stories I read two years ago has returned even stranger, so I read in today’s Globe and Mail. It will make a great movie along the lines of A Beautiful Mind, Fight Club, et all. The gist: in

  • A Good Pot of Tea

    Actually, I’m asking: How do you make a good pot of tea? Mine always seems bitter and I’ve been using a quasi-scientific method of elimination to determine the cause, but no luck. I try steeping in fresh boiled water for two, three, five minutes, or just leave the dang tea bag in there. I usually…

  • Portfolio: Retro Site and Writing

    New portfolio entries: In Web Design, the previous version of this website; created a new section for Writing samples.

  • Porch Renovation

    There are currently two men hammering, pulling and all-together dismantling the large back porch of my bachelor suite. The landlady has come through with her promise to replace the entire balcony, which hovers six feet over steep jagged bedrock and sags when walked across. Around 10 am the deck looked rather carefree and daring sans…

  • Groceries and Martinis

    Access to the g-friend’s parental unit mobile (parent’s car), combined with a basic lack of essential nutrients, led me to spend over $100 in an orgy of food shopping on Saturday. I even used a grocery cart, which I usually contend feels too domesticated and gluttonous, rather than a hand basket.

  • Bug exhibit

    Took to lunch yesterday at Sam’s Deli downtown with a couple museum chums of mine, one of whom works a few blocks away at the Royal BC. Had the special: tomato soup with egg sandwich, of which I only received one half of (the sandwich) from the counter girl. Fairly tasty nonetheless. Strolled back to…

  • Stormy plumbing

    Awoke disoriented (and naturally, disturbed) at exactly 4:44 AM this morning and could discern the leafless tree outside my window, menacing and skeletal in the orange glow of the porch light, stabbing the air at 45, 75 and 180 degree angles. What actually awoke me, I soon realized, were the deep bemoans and gurgles emanating…

  • Current Listening

    OK, wanted to revise and expand this entry to include albums/artists I don’t skip over in Winamp over the last few days, weeks and months (in no particular order, missing many, listed by Artist: Song/Album (and my comment on it)): Aesop Rock – (highest impact and most alluring, intelligent rap voice, ditto lyrics to boot)…

  • White Ninja and Joey Little Light

    Two things that really cracked me up today: the White Ninja from a few days ago, and this sound clip (download file), borrowed from Show and Tell Music. The voice is from a ventriloquist children’s album, Joey Little Light.

  • Analogy: Love and GPA

    Relationships are like classes; love is like your GPA: At first, each course matters a lot to your overall grade, but after a while a few bad classes don’t make a big dent overall, and sometimes you take a bunch of easy courses just to try and boost your mark. This seemed like a good…

  • Mike Rowe on eBay

    Is Mike Rowe, the guy who registered mikerowesoft.com and was under attack from the “real” Microsoft, a looser? First, the Bill Gates company offers him 10 bucks for the domain. Rowe, Victoria teenager that he is, dutifully counters and asks for $10,000. Bad move, apparently, as this appears like he purposefully registered the pun domain,…

  • The Non-Expert: IKEA

    Ikea Walkthrough v2.3.1 Just a day after I post my Ikea experience, an unawares friend shows me an Ikea survival guide in text-based adventure game format. Excerpt: IKEA is a fully immersive, 3D environmental adventure that allows you to role-play the character of someone who gives a shit about home furnishings. In traversing IKEA, you…

  • HY’S Seasoning Salt

    Hy’s Seasoning Salt has been my favourite seasoning salt since childhood. Moms used to cover my green beans with its golden brown crystals. The red-capped, perfectly cylindrical bottle of Hy’s (name on the black and red label in medieval lowercase cursive) was always on the mantle of the kitchen stove. It was a really old…

  • Victoria SB Email

    Just watched the new Strong Bad email and the letter was from Steve in Victoria, BC. Good going Steve, rep-wa-sent.

  • Big City: Emily Carr and Ikea

    Spent the weekend in Vancouver with the girlfriend visiting the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design and the giant Ikea store. Soul searching ensues.

  • Google standing

    Search for “Jeff Werner” on Google and I come up no. 2 in the list now, compared to 200th place over the last month. Took a while for jeffwerner.ca to get trolled by googlebot. The old site, which was titled “Jeffrey Werner” still comes up in spot no.2 as well.