The new SethGeib.com
March 26th, 2010
So this is it, the new site has finally been launched! Many of you have been waiting a long time for any change to my site, let alone a complete remake. The old site was dated because it did not show my current web designing skills and no longer represented me the way I felt my online portfolio should. I started working on this revision of my site a couple months ago and have not looked back at my old site since.
Some of you might notice that new site resembles Apple.com, and you are correct. I took much of my inspiration from Apple because I like the style and minimalist look of their site and wanted to challenge myself to duplicate it as a study for future web development. By studying or replicating another artist’s work, one can learn new ways to think about their own methods, techniques, and workflows; I definitely learned a lot doing this project.
I wanted to give the site a more professional feel by not having my blog be the first page you see. The homepage now highlights one of my articles as the main content. I thought this would be a good way to direct people to a new piece of artwork or a important event in my life. Below that is a series of four smaller boxes that highlight four main categories of my blog, My Life (news form my personal life), My Work (new artwork or tutorials), My Freetime, (media reviews and gadgets), My Goodness (random articles or awesomeness).
The blog has become easier to use in a lot of different ways. The entire blog is now driven by ajax, which means much snappier loading of content without having to reload the entire site. The new search feature highlights the words you search for in the articles it returns. I have also added a blog navigation bar that can be used to filter the posts in my blog by their categories and dates. My sidebar now contains more dynamic information like my Facebook/Twitter status, recent Flickr pictures, my Pandora activity, and my latest run using Nike+. This way even if I don’t update my blog for a while, the content on my page never gets completely stale. I plan to add more sidebar features in the future as well.
The portfolio and résumé sections of my site have changed quite a bit as well. The static way my old portfolio was displayed drove me nuts, so I designed a much more interactive and colorful way to display my work. I also added descriptions and dates for the majority of my work to let people know more about it. My résumé was also in desperate need of some style, so I tried to add some color and even some humor by incorporating images into a new layout.
Anyway, enough talking… cruise around the site and let me know what you think. I will be adding more features and doing some tweaking over the next couples weeks so let me know if you run into any issues. Glad to be back!
Filed under: My Work. | Tags: websites, work. | . | Top
Google Nexus One.
January 5th, 2010
I may have a relatively new phone (LG Versa) but that does not stop me from wanting a phone with a little more oomf. Oomf in the way of a bigger screen, faster processor, beefier graphics capability… not to mention a decent web browser or GPS. I have always been a fan of the iPhone, but have steered clear of it because… well… it’s an Apple product. Now if you don’t know me, you may be saying, “how can this guy not like Apple products when his site looks just like Apple’s?” Well to make it short I love Apple as a design company, as a marketing company, and as a minimalistic guru. I however have issues with Apple’s business model. They put mediocre parts in a sleek case and charge you easily twice what you should be paying. Anyway I won’t get in to the whole discussion at the moment.
The point is that I have been on the lookout for a comparable phone to the iPhone and it is getting close. The Nexus One is a phone designed by Google Labs and will soon be released to just about every major cell service. One of the main reasons this phone stands out from the pack for me is its Active-matrix OLED display. OLED displays are far superior to the usual LCD display in terms of black levels, color balance, power consumption, and generated heat. This is one of the first cell devices (besides overseas) to have one of these awesome displays. The phone also runs on the newest Android OS which is also another huge plus. I won’t go on and on about the specs. There is a pretty good review over Engadget if you are interested.
Filed under: My Freetime. | Tags: gadgets, Google. | . | Top
The Beatles: Rock Band review.
September 9th, 2009
I used to make fun of my friends for liking Guitar Hero and the other various “band games”. I used to tell them how ridiculous they looked and that they should spend their time learning to play real instruments. I will be the first to admit I was wrong. These games can be pure gaming bliss… and The Beatles: Rock Band has shown me the light.
Like other band games, the premise of The Beatles: Rock Band is keeping rhythm with the games colored bars as they fly by the bottom of the screen. This is done by strumming or banging on whatever plastic instrument you choose, or you can be the poor sap that gets stuck with the microphone. All this seemed moderately amusing to me before The Beatles: Rock Band came out. Sure it is fun to make-believe you and your closest friends are in a band together. Sure it is fun to watch them curse at little colored bars and tiny plastic instruments. And yes it is even fun to get intoxicated enough that you actually want to be the poor sap with the microphone. Still, band games always seemed like party games and not “play at home by yourself” kind of games. I think this is mostly dues to the selection of songs. Yea there are a few really great songs in Rock Band 2, but there are also only so many AFI and Paramore songs that a man can withstand before he goes insane. Solution for me: Make all the songs Beatles tracks!!
The second the game starts up you can tell that a lot of love was put in to it. George Harrison’s son Dhani was one of the main collaborators in the making of the game, which explains the attention to minute detail. The menus are fast and responsive, the graphics are clean and crisp even on the Wii, and the sound effects and music in the background just scream Beatles. Online play is a lot of fun even on the Wii, even though it is still a pain networking with friends; a problem that is circumvented by getting this game on another system. Harmony vocal sections have been added so you can use up to three microphones. This mode is particularly nice if you are playing an instrument and singing since it does not require the tapping of the microphone at certain sections. You can also purchase special Beatles style controllers for the game… I picked up Lennon’s old Rickenbacker 325. Awesome.
The only downside to this game I have found is the releasing of downloadable content. The game comes with 45 tracks and three DLC albums set to be released by late December, but after that it is anyone’s guess. While there is potential for the entire Beatles catalog to be made available, this will be unlikely, according to John Drake of Harmonix.
All in all this is not only an amazing game, but also an amazing piece of art and a wonderful addition to any Beatles memorabilia collection. Even if you are not a Beatles fan I would still pick this game up, it may just turn you in to one. I give The Beatles: Rock Band an 8 out of 10.
Filed under: My Freetime. | Tags: gaming, reviews. | . | Top
What’s this? What’s this?
September 30th, 2008
Filed under: My Life. | Tags: home. | . | Top
Post-o-rama!
September 3rd, 2008
The past well… 6 months, have been very sparse in updates (a.k.a. none) and I intend to rectify that today a bit. To start things off, I got a job in Perrysburg back in March at a small website company. Because of this job I was able to move in with Becca and Sam here in Perrysburg. Many fun times were had cooking, hanging out on weekends, and going to the studio to work on Becca’s posters. We ate at a restaurant called Zingo’s a lot and practically used it as a meeting spot after work. Still we were not completely content. Our family seemed incomplete and the place we were living was not quite a “home”.
It was because of this that we started looking for a new place to live and also adopted a new member of the family. A small blackish gray tiger cat named Oliver Teagan Talouse. He was, and still is quite the handful, albeit a much larger handful now that he is bigger. Around this time I began to tire of my job and needed to find some place new… a place where management actually took the time to understand what their employees did, and I don’t know… paid them more. I got this call from a very nice guy that worked for a company called Toltest in Maumee Ohio. I could not pass it up. Finally I work in a place where I feel like part of a team instead of just a cog in a machine. Everyone here is very nice and extremely supportive. I even have an office with a window now! I work on designing and developing the user interfaces for all the web applications the company uses internally, as well as working on the public website and public web applications. Because Becca and I were looking for a new place to live Sam started hunting around as well. She found a nice, new loft apartment above some stores downtown and moved out. With one less person in the apartment and an extra room, Becca and I began molding it in to a place that felt a tad more hospitable. Becca was also done at the studio in BG, so we decided to give it up and attempted to rebuild Sam’s old room into a work place.
Becca and I have been trying to spend as much time with our families as we can lately. She finished up her posters so she has a bit more free time to do other things; but my new job makes it a bit harder to get out on weekends. Still we have managed to go kayaking, celebrate the 4th, go to fairs and baseball games, help with a 5k run, go to the parks, play with alpaca babies, and watch the Olympics (grats to Michael Phelps!) with our families. Yet our families have yet to meet each other. Hopefully we can take care of that soon.
Well, that is about it for now. I have to get going, but I will be back soon with more updates and even more pictures. I hope you like the pictures below from some of our random times over the past few months.
Filed under: My Life. | Tags: Becca, family, food, outdoors, pets. | . | Top
