Saturday, April 4, 2009

Moved on..

Since I've gotten a few comments, I have actually moved back to the USA and am now currently living back in New York City. I absolutely loved Århus and Denmark in general and felt extremely welcomed as a foreigner. If anyone has questions you can email me at coragano[at]gmail[dot]com and I'd be happy to share any Denmark related info.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Super siked

As the title of this post indicates, I'm super siked about my latest purchase.


Oh yes. Also thanks to Anders figuring out how the shit color profiles work, the colors don't get all fucked up when saving for web anymore which is nice. I mean, I've only gone like 5 years wondering about that. Also on a somewhat related note, when messing around with saving options I discovered you can check into subversion with photoshop. That is rad as shit. Another reason to be siked I suppose though I really doubt I'll ever use it.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

i <3 MG

I've seen so many ripoffs of this but I've never seen one giving love to the man that made it possible. Anyway, I love you Milton Glaser.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Berlin-tastic

So over easter break I went to visit my amigo MR in Berlin and it was faaantastic. You expect Berlin to be very gray and German, which it is in some parts. However, I was surprised to find how much it reminded me of Paris just in the way that it feels. I stayed in the eastern part of Berlin (the cool part) and though I have no basis for saying so, it is what I imagine 80s new york city was like; a little run down but charm around every turn. That said, I took some pictures though probably not enough, but I'll be back there soon enough so probably more then.


I booked my train a bit late so I had to switch trains 3 times which kind of sucked. This was switch number 2 in Hamburg.


A random building in east Berlin. I have no idea what it was, but it was pretty cool.


This was across the street. Yup i'm the guy that went to berlin and took pictures of old apple computers. Honestly though, this was all that was in the store, I really don't get the point. It was just a random side street as well. Go figure.


MR and Eric. MR was a year behind me at skidmore and eric was 2 years ahead. I had no idea Eric and Jules (next picture) even lived in berlin until we met up with them at a wine bar (which by the way was amazing, pay like 2 euro for a glass, drink a lot, then pay what you want on your way out). This was in a bombed out building converted into a multilevel bar. It definitely seemed to be well on it way to its transition to a tourist spot, but it was still cool.


Here is a crappy picture of Jules. Jules was the year above me at Skidmore, so with the four of us in Berlin, we spanned 4 years of skidmore history, that's kind of crazy but it was really awesome at the same time. Eric, Jules and MR are all much more artistic than myself and unlike me they are much more committed to making art so I can't wait to see what comes out of Berlin from these three soon!


Later we all went to a traditional German restaurant. In all honesty though it was fantastic. Denmark really doesn't have mexican and man, I missed burritos.


The Sony center in downtown Berlin. A gigantic superfluous structure that was actually pretty cool. It is one of the first strides in redeveloping the new downtown Berlin from what I understand and I think it's really neat to see a city kind of in the middle of re-inventing itself. It's odd because there is obviously so much history with the Berlin wall etc and the city is really doing its best to become an modernized and central German hub while still retaining ties to a somewhat embarrassing history. Not that it is, but I think Germans have a soft spot about it despite current generations having nothing to do with it. Perhaps I'm imposing a foreigners view, in fact, I probably am, but there you go.


In recognition of said history this is a picture of the holocaust memorial which is much cooler in person. If you look at it from the outside its actually a bit unimpressive. I didn't really 'get' the memorial until I walked down into the center of it. When you get there the ground actually sinks a bit and you find yourself enveloped by these huge stone columns. I was actually surprised how different the views were from inside and outside the monument. Under the monument there is a small exhibit you can walk around which was very nicely designed. Really nice organization of information and typography, I though it was really great.

This is in sharp contrast to the Checkpoint Charlie museum which I was anxious to see at the recommendation of many travel books. I was really disappointed when I got inside though. The exhibition design was absolutely terrible. There was simply too much information and it was completely unorganized to boot. I think there were a lot of great stories that were told in the museum (which was really just a collection of rooms connected by many flights of stairs and confusing corridors). I understand the problem of having too much fascinating material, but I think but putting it all in it diluted what would have otherwise been a very compelling exhibit.

I have a few more pictures that I may try to post soon but overall Berlin is really terrific and I can't wait to see it in nicer weather.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Web business

I was looking through the server on which my site is hosted and just noticed all the crap I've accumulated over the years. Here's a short list of some abandoned projects and miscellaneous treasures found on my server:

http://www.charliewhitney.com/awesome - My initial Papervision3d test
http://www.charliewhitney.com/dae/Untitled-3.swf - More Papervision, but this time a collada import test
http://www.charliewhitney.com/dae/pv3.swf - Yet more pv3d.
http://charliewhitney.com/hungry/hungry.swf - My much talked about recipe site that I never got around to finishing. (You can submit them, you just can't see them)
http://charliewhitney.com/cam/ - My attempt to make an image gallery that would be browseable by waving your hand right or left in from of your webcam. It sort of works..
http://charliewhitney.com/cgmap2.html - A google maps mashup that I actually used quite a bit for a while. I had dreams of turning it into a more full fledged application but again, never finished.
http://charliewhitney.com/flashblog - My ill fated flash blog. Someday I'd like to actually do this when I have the time and patience.

Random pictures -
http://charliewhitney.com/other/board.jpg - My old skateboard
http://charliewhitney.com/other/gameboy.jpg - I was really into drawing gameboys for a while for whatever reason.
http://charliewhitney.com/other/popsicle.jpg - "Lol. Remember sars?" I do.
http://charliewhitney.com/other/venus%20elephant2.jpg - Yup.
http://charliewhitney.com/other/walkR.jpg - I was trying to develop an adventure game where you clicked and your character walked around and stuff. Somewhere there is an animation of this guy walking.
http://charliewhitney.com/other/yay.jpg - The first time I solved that damn cube.
http://charliewhitney.com/other/charliestamp.swf - The only animation I think I've ever done start to finish in Swift3d. Good thing I got that grant to buy the program.

Well so much for the past, now onwards. I really want to register a new domain so the other night I was listening to rap and just typed in random lyrics to see what was available. Here are the results.

Domains unfortunately taken:
http://www.supermandatho.com/
http://www.picturemerollin.com/
http://www.whatitis.com/
http://www.damngirl.com/
http:/www.runthis.com
http://www.tickatape.com/
http://www.mywordisbond.com/ (registered by another whiteboy designer)
http://www.beatbiter.com/
http://www.shutupstupid.com/
http://www.getuponit.com/

Domains unfortunately available:
http://www.wordisbond.net/
http://www.picturemerollin.net/
http://www.wherethefuckaremykeys.com/
http://www.crackdatrobocop.com/
http://www.shortieswith40s.com/
http://www.stackthatpape.com/
http://www.fattransit.com/
http://www.twentyfoseven.com/

In the end I've decided not to go with rap lyrics though and I think I know what I'm going to buy but I'll save that for another time.

Friday, February 15, 2008

6 måneder

Today is my 6 month anniversary of moving to Denmark and unsurprisingly time seems to have gone by in a flash. Though I feel like I got here just yesterday, looking back I can tell just how much I'm gotten accustomed to life here. So here is a breakdown of what I've learned in 6 months.

Food
Upon first moving here I knew little about Danish food and when I asked Danes to describe their cuisine, it was usually described as 'kind of gross' or just unimpressive. In my expereince Danish food is a little dull though ultimately delicious. It's not exactly your fancy french cooking with wine sauce or anything. You're far more likely to run into "brown sauce" which doesn't need much more explanation. The diet is very meat and potatoes (literally) but I've become really fond of lunch.


These photos are actually pretty old and are back from the old office, but you should get the idea. Lunch is a huge pile of meats and cheeses and whatever else and you just dive in and make an open-faced sandwich. Anyone who knows me from my TODA days will recall that it was PB&J pretty much every day. Well NO MORE. I eat so many different things these days I don't know if I could ever return to the simple pleasures of peanut butter. How do you come down from rugbrøg, chili gouda, cream cheese and jalapenos? Well, I can't imagine it's pretty.


Here we've got rugbrød (the bread), roast beef, remoulade (the bright yellow stuff, much like a relish), tomates and dijonaise it looks like. Man that dijonaise is good.


And what have we here? It's a Denmark classic. Leverpostei (liver, but it's practically the danish peanut butter), cucumbers and roasted onions. In the background you can see the red beets which are very hard to pronounce in Danish.

Culture
While I can't really claim to know very much about Danish culture there are a lot of small things, some of which were raised in the post a couple of days ago. Bascially it's a little tough to get into Danish culture because I don't speak the language and am the foreigner and everyone treats you like it. Not that it's a bad thing, people are lovely here but mostly having lived in very large cities it's tough for me to get a grasp on a smaller, more intimate city. Also it's in Denmark. In general I've found people to be super nice, but perhaps a little hard to connect with. In contrast, in the states people are quicker to write you off initially but are quick to accept you as a good friend. If you can make it past that wall however, people here are really good to one another. Again I can't speak for the population one a large level but the friends I have here are some of the best people I've met in my life. Nearly every single one is one of those deeper connections you really keep with you. It's almost crazy. Because of the socialized government everyone in Denmark really has a chance to make it and I think homelessness is almost a choice you have to make. Most people are really seen as equal and I think people carry this over to their personal relationships. And to quickly touch on diversity, there really isn't any. I've seen like 5 black people here, but you do get a fair amount of middle eastern people as well as polish. Also the practice of picking cans out of the trash happens here, and it's always old chinese women. Whenever I see that I smile; it feels just like home.

The Langauge
Man, Danish is a tough language. It's not pronounced very much like it is spelled, and even then Danish people like to cram a lot of words together or just leave some out sometimes. "Tak skal du have" might become "tak sk'ha" It's usually spoken pretty quickly as well which leaves me, as a foreigner, in the dust. However, I think I'm making some pretty big strides. I take Danish lessons twice a week and I'm getting there. I even read a book. I went to Paris for New Years and it felt extremely foreign, I really missed hearing Danish actually. It started to become second nature to say 'tak' and 'undskyld' which I guess is a sign that I'm catching on. I feel a little slow on the uptake and it's probably because everyone in Denmark speaks amazing English. Everyone. Amazing. It's really pretty surprising at first. Of course one must realize that Danish isn't very useful outside Denmark save maybe Greenland (which is Denmark territory btw), but I don't think that even Danish people really want to go there. I've run into 2 people that don't speak it well and they are the pizza guy at Hawaii Pizza and the turkish guys who run the barber shop I go to. Fortunately all they do is make pizza and cut hair respectively, so you can't go too wrong. I mean, it's not like I'll go in for a pizza and walk out with new shoes or something. Worst case is I get the wrong delicious pizza.

Work
I really like my job. There are such good people there and the work is infinitely more interesting than previous jobs. I know like half the people who read this are my coworkers so I won't dwell on it, but yes. I think it's fantastic and I'm worried that I've been spoiled and will forever be thinking up reasons why future jobs aren't as good as hello monday. We've launched some cool stuff recently though so check it out.
http://www.hellomonday.com has some updates (notice '.com' mofos)
http://www.gudrunoggudrun.com designed by sebastian and programmed by me is looking good. A few more touchups and it will be ready for the award circuit
http://www.businessaarhus.dk designed by jeppe and given life through johanna, never ends but was a neat project to work on all the same

ME
I'm doing quite well myself. I'm pretty happy to be here and I'm nice and healthy. I think I eat a lot better than I did in the states and I'm also eating less. I initially dropped a cool 20 pounds when I first moved here and I've put a few back on though I am still 2 belt notches shy of when I entered the country. As of tonight I weigh 185 pounds (84 kilo) which is just about where I should be, so that's all good. And because peeps be askin, here is me in front of a canvas for my roommate that I will finish in another 6 months.


Random
I haven't seen tv in 6 months so I spend a good amount of time in front of my computer for entertainment. Invariably, you get popups and stuff, but though I never though about it, it was quite obvious that they would be different here. I try to remember to take screenshots when there is a good one so here are a few I've grabbed.

Working in the US isn't all that great. If only I could warn these people.

Also: Johanna and Pelle got married over the weekend and didn't tell anyone. That is crazy. Afterwards they got some Burger King. That is awesome. Since Jo and Palle are one of the big reasons I'm still alive in Denmark I'm thrilled for them. Congratulations!

The Next Six
I feel like I've had a great time here but now coming up is the back 9 and more importantly, nice weather! I feel like I should set some goals but I'm really bad at following through on doing things for myself. So instead here are some think that I'd like to do without calling them goals.
- kick more ass at work. I feel like I'm getting to be a pretty good programmer and each site is really a step up coding wise. I'd really like to kick up my production rate and make some really impressive work. I'd also like to try to design more in my spare time as I've gotten quite rusty. I think that exercising helps with thinking in that it helps stimulate your mind. In the same way I think designing and drawing helps stimulate your creativity which is essential for problem solving in code.
- meet some more people. I love the people I know now but it would be nice to know a few more people. I'm a huge stick-in-the-mud so I should just get off my ass and make the effort.
- exercise a little? I probably won't but it would be nice. Besides walking around 2km to work and back I don't do much else for physical activity. Hopefully warm weather will make me get out.
- travel. this one I really have to do and I'm sure I will. If you're planning a european trip anytime this year let me know and we'll meet up!

Otherwise I'll probably be back in MA/NY late may early june for a little so we should meet up and you can laugh at how i talk weird after a couple drinks.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Watch my feet!



My feet are famous. It's true. Foot model is going on my resume. What am I talking about you ask? Well if you visit toda.com you'll see a video some hairy legs connected to some large feet fit into socks which were obviously not meant for feet that size. Ya, that's me. That has been up, oh I don't know, 7 months or so? But just recently my feet got the shout out on the american apparrel website. Recognize (link)!