I have a bunch of blogs and stuff for all my activities
Dorian's Design Notes is my web design blog
Douma Cycles is my bike-building & fixing business
I use Soundcloud for my mashups as DecadeSelector
I use MixCloud for my DJ activity as D-VohX'n
I live in Toronto, Canada, and I love it
I moved here from Victoria in January 2007
whenever I leave I can't wait to get back
I have kissed the ground at the airport
everywhere else I go reminds me how special Toronto is, and how well-suited it is to me
I have gone from hating them streetcars and loving the subways to being totally the other way around
streetcars have a stabilizing effect on traffic speed, even though they slow it down
they're so damn smooth - perfect for texting and facebooking on your cellphone
subways get you down in a cave, where you're vulnerable, where you can't be online, you're cut off from your communication devices etc
the public here are seriously so sweet and polite, and they don't mess with each-other too much
cycling around Toronto is very very doable, but the laws, streetcar tracks and infrastructure are all against you
you basically have to ride with the cars, at high speed on a fast bike, use signals and shoulder checks, use the back alleys and laneways, avoid streets with bike lanes (you can't use the other lanes if there's a bike lane present and the bike lanes are part of the parking lanes and aren't wide enough to allow cyclists to pass each-other... it's terrible)
it seems like the City wants to make it appear that they're bike-friendly and are encouraging people to ride more, while at the same time making it as dangerous as possible
luckily I've refined a cycling style that gets me where I want to go quickly and safely, and I help whoever I can by showing them little tips
there is no cyclist education situation going on, so it's kind of up to us to educate ourselves and each-other on safety issues
I'm getting political about improving commuter safety, so I want your help and input on that
am an autodidact and a DIY-er, so I
avoided all post-secondary education
except I was gonna attend this Emily Carr course on User Interface design but it was cancelled due to lack of interest
and have been reassured by people in my field who have taught courses on what I do that I should stay out of them
taught myself several careers' worth of marketable skills like
HTML, CSS, web standards
Business Development, Promotion, Copywriting
Event Promotion and Execution
Graphic & Industrial Design
Audio Production, Recording, Mastering, Composition, DJing
have never gotten an IT job based on my resume or portfolio
have gotten several jobs where I submitted a resume and portfolio, and they were never looked at
really want to live in a treehouse somewhere in the GTA
I mean like... a full-on apartment inside a tree
It's not so crazy - if we'd left the trees here we could just build inside them instead of having to build our own infrastructure
they're so easy to train... you just shape them as they grow and we could have these big cube-shaped spaces inside of them
think about how warm it'd be in the winter, and how cool it'd be in the summer
and because everything would already be raised off the ground, we'd have so much more ground space, so getting around would be so much easier
the city in general could be so much higher-up
most of Toronto is just three stories high
we could have double that with a forest city
and we'd never have to pay for construction, tearing down etc
love how DIY-friendly Toronto is
I think it's because it's so innately disorganized and confusing, like:
so many intersections with not enough street signs
not much in the way of signs in public spaces either - you're like "what is the name of this park???"
the transit system is just not into being organized
when you get off a subway car, often you can't tell which way to walk to get out the way you want to get out, because there's hanging signs next to the exits, which are too far away from each-other and the middle, and that's pretty much it
when you're going out of a station, the signs will be confusing, like "this way to the north side, west corner, buses going this way" when they could just have a map
the transit maps inside subway cars, when they're there at all, don't list the cross streets of the stations, so you often won't be able to tell which one to get off at
it's not always easy to find a full TTC map, and they are really hard to read
it's so bad, I want to walk around with paper, tape and a marker and just put signs in where they need them
(see what I mean? Toronto makes you want to Do It Yourself !)
I think I could shame the TTC into putting up proper signage
they're DIY everything up in here
electronics workshops
computer hacking clubs
bike fixing co-ops
weird street art
people are really nice about directions
My background, on both sides of my family, is really arts & science, politics, conservation, religion
my mother's a teacher/translator
she toured around the world as a celebrity ambassador for Canada and as an ESL teacher
she continues to do english/tibetan translation
her family ran an auto mechanical and body shop as a small business
her father was on his city's city council
my father's an electrical engineering contractor
his family ran their own marine farming operation
he found his niche in independent problem-solving and improvisation as an electrician
in pursuing his interests and curiosity wherever they took him, he never limits his abilities or creativity, and he always finds new skills
I love working with computers of all stripes
but I especially like the Ubuntu distribution of the GNU/Linux operating system
my favourite era of computing was when it was Windows 2000 vs. MacOS 9
they were both so stable and so refined
the subsequent versions of each of these platforms (XP and OS X) were so ostentatious and hastily-released that they wasted a lot of users' time before they became stable enough to use
in the case of OS X, they were trying to take the OS that Steve Jobs made after he was ousted from Apple, and combine it with OS 9, and add a new look
WindowsXP was a combination of Microsoft's two different prongs of Windows development: Their professional line, which was NT and then 2000, and their consumer line, which was 95, 98 and ME, and they wanted to add a new look as well
the hasty combinations and unrefined new looks of these operating systems really set users back a lot, and they took away a lot of my interest in these Operating Systems
I love using Macs for professional production work. The Finder has become so good for organizing multimedia files.
I still use Dreamweaver for HTML editing, just because it's the best program to use when you're trying to do word processing with HTML documents
When people talk about how they hand code everything, and how real web people don't use WYSIWYG programs to do everything, they're not talking about what I'm talking about - I know how to get good and bad code out of Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver lets me change a text block to be in paragraph, h1, h2, h3 etc formats just using key commands, and I can't find that very useful feature anywhere else
it doesn't insert any bogus code when I'm just trying to edit some text in an HTML file
it's got all these weird little features that make working with images, links etc, very very fast and easy
I know every single little bug in the program – to the point where I can sometimes use them as features
I can't find the same complex find and replace features in any other program, and for web designers, find and replace is a huge, huge deal
I use Adobe Imageready for complex web graphics, even though it was abandoned by Adobe after CS2!
it has slicing and exporting features that aren't in any subsequent release of any Adobe software (they basically killed essential features that web developers need)
my favourite web coding program is Coda
it does the code editing part, it handles CSS very well, it covers basic file management and FTP, and it's from Panic software, so it's rock-solid and very usable
I use Sony Vegas (formerly Sonic Foundry Vegas) for video editing
I hate Premiere so much, it's so slow, it's so buggy, it's so hard to figure out where the features are, it's like Photoshop but in a bad way
I'm getting into using AfterEffects along with Vegas, and holy moly, is it ever an amazing app
I also cannot stand Final Cut Pro for making videos, like Premiere, it's just so heavy-duty, if you just want to do a little quick video project, it won't let you – you have to jump through all these hoops (it does have great natural-looking slow motion though)
Vegas is based on Sonic Foundry Acid, just like Nuendo is a video-enhanced version of Cubase.
I love and highly recommend Ableton Live for all music and audio needs
it has a lot of great music slicing and dicing functionality that I think is borrowed from Sonic Foundry's old audio program, Acid, which I didn't use very much
it is much less professional than Cubase or ProTools, and not nearly as much of an industry standard, which means:
it's much easier to use and much more stable
it works with your audio in a more computer-y way, and doesn't try to emulate the inconveniences of physical gear without any of the nice sound
you don't have to deal with irritating know-it-all producer friends when you need help because your program crashed and won't start (again)
everything that everyone has told you about Ableton Live is wrong:
it's not just for DJ
though it is tied with Traktor and WinAmp as the best DJing app
Yes – Winamp: because of its library feature, two instances of WinAmp, along with some pitch shifting plugins, is basically the most practical DJing setup ever
but of course, there's a catch – you better not need to beatmatch anything
it's not just for looping
although it does have the best looping situation around
it's amazing to create whole songs out of little looping chunks, this is what musique concrete and hip hop are all about
it's not just a synth program
and really, if you want a nice synth sound design app, Reason is always where it's at
it brings together the most important aspects of brainstorming, composing, arranging, recording, producing, and mastering music, from beginning to end
it makes each part of the process easy to get into, easy to do, and easy to bring into the next stage
it's not a barrage of bad design choices and sad usability fails
there are no overlapping windows
there is no classical composition scoring view – so you'll have to export your MIDI tracks and open them up in a program that makes scores out of MIDI tracks – every other feature I need, except for Reason's crazy routing situation, are here in this one program
you can use it like a 4-track tapedeck to make simple recordings
you can use it like a loop pedal, to build on one idea – in fact, it has a plugin that makes it work as a loop pedal
the built-in effects are wonderful, and it also takes VST effects and instruments
I used to have an eMate 300 and it was so cool
and I see them on eBay for $25
and I totally want one
somebody get me one for my birthday
it is the best little productivity monster out there
I really want an install of NextStep
I feel like Next was the pinnacle of productivity computing and I want to touch it and learn
I have not been able to get it to work in VirtualBox, and I have no idea what I'm doing
I'd love to get it going on my ThinkPad T21, but I know it might be too new of a laptop - but my T21 has no windows key, and I take that as a sign
In addition to my IT and Design consultancy services, and my multimedia production services, I'm doing bicycle maintenance and sales and hairdressing
IA/UX as my focus
(IA is Information Architecture)
technically, it means the study and implementation of information organization systems
practically, it involves analysing information, understanding how people in general sort and navigate information, finding out what names people will expect to use for certain things, and then putting it together into maps, charts, diagrams etc
the process usually results in site maps, page titles, keyword notes and a few options for breaking down information
(UX is User Experience, or Usability)
technically, it's the applied study of human-computer interaction
practically, it's about understanding how people use things in general, how people react to things and how "common knowledge" is established
in my case, I have a sense of what people do and don't like on the internet, and I test websites on people so I can find where they trip up, change things, and test it again
I've been sort of "touting" Blogger as a great loophole for people who want to do super easy, quick, free web publishing
including great web fonts, visitor statistics, domain name integration
because it's free, easy to use, and you can make it look and work like a normal site
because the only things I've found I can't do with it are either really unimportant, are unnecessary for most projects, or are things that I recommend against anyway
so I've been working on my blogs like crazy over early 2011, documenting everything I figure out and promoting the Blogger
after having successfully completed three commercial projects with it
(one of which includes an amazing photo gallery that I've never seen anybody else implement in a non-hosted, free service before! I had to hack the living daylights out of it!)
I'm still available for the production work I've always done
like graphics, logos, layouts, making sites work on mobile phones, making sites work in search engines, all the stuff that normal web designers do
and I charge like $30/hr for this type of work, which is the upper end of the industry average, because I'm just that good
for some types of this stuff, and really you'd have to hear about it from me in consultation to figure out what I'm talking about here, I charge $20/hr, which is at the bottom end of the industry average, because I'm only that good
I'm teaching Internet Literacy, HTML, web stuff etc at St. Christopher House on a volunteer basis
this is a great opportunity to get in on some free computer tutoring!
because everybody has something interesting to do on the 'net
because I believe in internet literacy as a right
but also because I want to make more money
I have some refining to do on my training skills so that I can add value to my paid services
I want to more confidently and aggressively pursue corporate and personal training contracts with potential and current clients
and it really helps to have quotes from students and experience to point to
and because I think that my students will end up referring me to people they know who have work that needs doing and money that needs to be spent and I'll be there to take that money and offer them sweet sweet services
just by chance, I've gotten into this thing of finding old bikes, fixing them up and giving them to friends or selling them, which
is hard for people to believe, because they really don't think that anybody would just give away, or leave out for the taking, some of the things I'm finding, and some people actually think I'm stealing bikes and bike parts
I'm really starting to see how Igor Kenk got the reputation for being the world's biggest bike thief without ever having been caught stealing anything, or buying any stolen property
it's incredible how many bikes and bike parts are left outside in the garbage - it's unbelievable, actually, until you start finding this stuff for yourself and realize, oh my gosh, some people think this stuff is worthless trash and then you take it into a bike shop and they're like "oh my gosh where did you get this incredible gem of 80s german engineering???"
I even get people shouting theft-related comments and accusations at me just because I'm cycling while pulling another bike along with me - this is how crazed Torontonians are about bike theft, even though we have very low rates of it
there's a few telltale signs that somebody is not actually committing theft when they're removing a lock from or taking parts off a bike on the street:
a lot of repair is needed before resale
flat tires, rusted chain
once I had to remove a couple broken locks from my bikes, my friends got wind of it and started asking me to cut their bikes loose when they lost their keys or broke their locks, so I know personally that, unless a bike is registered, even if you see somebody cutting a lock off of one, it still doesn't mean that they're committing theft, and nobody can prove that they are except the person with the key to that lock
if you see what looks like a bike theft, and there aren't any police cars right nearby, there's pretty much nothing you can do, unless you're really determined:
call the police and carefully describe the suspect
maintain your own personal surveillance of the suspect (follow them around) until the police finally find you - this should take much longer than you'd expect
expect the police to either discover that the apparent thief was actually the owner, or that there is no registration for the bicycle, in which case there's no way to verify anything
register your bike with the police when you finally realize how hopeless it is to try to accuse someone of bike theft - it's basically your word against theirs
even if a person has a photo of themselves on a bicycle, it doesn't prove that it wasn't sold to someone else in the meantime - a proper registration is the only way to track ownership
if you bought a bike off someone and didn't check to see if it was registered and transfer the registration, you could end up being charged with bike theft if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time - so when you're going to buy a bike, write down the serial number and check it with the cops!
takes materials out of the waste cycle,
reduces industrial demands for new materials
takes advantage of all the skills I've learned in other areas of design and consultation
is just so much fun
empowers my customers with a superior product that gives them the freedom and comfort they're looking for
am getting my hairdressing services started by offering free cuts to friends in return for before-and-after photos, even though
I'm the wrong combination of gender and sexual orientation for this
it's not easy to get someone to agree to a cut, especially for free and outside of a hair salon
I know that people aren't necessarily going to understand how doing music, web and bike work could possibly go hand-in-hand with being a great hairdresser
am in the process of designing and prototyping the synthesizer of my dreams
the first software prototype is being refined
I made it in Reaktor
it's a refinement and extension of an old idea I had and some earlier Reaktor synths I made
once the software prototype is finished, I can start on the first hardware prototype
I'm going to use a netbook inside a keyboard case, and set up the controls on the case through a MIDI control setup
I'll use the first hardware prototype to refine the control layout, the case, and the software prototype so that they all work together
once the first hardware prototype is sufficiently refined, I can create the second hardware prototype using 100% analog electronic components, to bring a proper controllable analog synth to the market
it'll offer a simpler, cheaper and more genuine alternative to Nord's expensive synths
it'll appeal to those who would gravitate to vintage analog synths but aren't interested in necessarily owning a piece of history or maintaining aging parts
the 1-osc 6-voice polyphonic version is going to be called the Turquoise Hexagon Sun, and is going to be made of literally turquoise wood
it's going to be a work of art and I can't wait to see them in Long & McQuade, totally outselling all these other terrible new Moog, Korg and Yamaha keyboards
I'm partially doing this because I want a really great synthesizer myself, and there are no synths out there like the one I'm looking for, and also because this is not a quirky, unusual need that I have, and it makes me smell money
I also have an alias: Pema Tsering
it's the Tibetan name given to me by my mom's main Buddhist teacher, the late Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche
this is a massive bragging-rights and luck thing: Dilgo Kyentse was one of the last heavyweight superstars of the old school of Tibetan Buddhist teachers - the Dalai Lama went to him for instruction
"Pema" is pronounced "Pemma"
pronouncing the "Tse" in "Tsering" is kind of like combining the "Ts" sound that you get in "artsy" with the "eh" sound that Canadians really do make
yes, I am a Buddhist, and I'm also a Christian
they only conflict in the peripheral details of mythology and theology
the primary tenets and deep meaning of all the details are in fact the same