Christopher Michael Pastore

mecoloredpencil-1

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:25:55 -0800

You've Got Great Expectations

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:31:46 -0700

It happens at every event that Apple puts on. It doesn't matter if it's the World Wide Developer conference, Mac World or a special event that is announced through an invitation a week in advanced. It's inevitable; it frustrates me and at the same time makes me laugh. Have we come to expect too much from Apple? I think so. It reminds me of back when I was a Professional Wrestling fan. Yes the endings are pre-planned and yes some of the moves are discussed between each wrestler before the match, but most of what you see in the ring is spur of the moment. Over the years fans in the wrestling world have come to expect too much from the wrestlers. It all started back in the late 1970's when Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka came along with his signature finishing move, which was a flying jump from the top rope into the center of the ring unto his opponent that was laying on the canvas face up. Chest to chest they would hit and the ring would buckle from the impact almost throwing Snuka off his opponent. You knew the match was over then. It was amazing at the time and no other wrestler was doing anything like that. The crowd began to look for it all the time and would have been disappointed if he didn't finish every match like that. He knew it and obliged them. It was only a short time later that he did this from the top of a steel cage into the center of the ring onto his opponent and the crowd went wild. After that, the crowd wanted more and more. It made his original finisher from the top rope seem unimpressive now. Fast-forward to the late 1990's and you would find that this type of move was becoming more and more common. I saw the peak of this when a wrestler by the name of Mick Foley started doing really crazy things in and outside of the ring just to get a pop from the crowd. The two events that stick in my mind are when Mick was thrown from the top of a steal cage at "Hell In A Cell" through the announcer table at ringside. This was a forty-foot fall and the crowd when insane. He became such a fan favorite after this fall. The second event was when he was body-slammed onto the top of that same forty-foot tall cage and the cage broke which resulted in Mick falling and bouncing off the canvas of the ring. Both falls hurt him a lot but the fans didn't care because they went insane again. So the question is how can you top that without killing yourself? It slowly began to show that the fans were expecting even more amazing things than this. To repeat the same thing again wouldn't get the same response as last time. When you keep pushing the envelope there comes a time when you can't push it any harder. The wrestling business sat back and took notice. They began to see they couldn't keep doing it anymore. When Owen Hart fell to his death at Kemper Arena in 1998 from the rafters during an entrance stunt gone wrong it was clear it had to stop. It's just a shame it didn't stop before we lost such a great human being and wrestler. You can apply the same logic to Apple events, the hype that is created leading up to the event and the high expectations we have as users and fans. We all know that Steve Jobs is a great speaker and he may distort reality a little bit during the event, but it's all marketing and should be expected. What we really should not be expecting, is that each event will top the next. There is only so much a company can come up with. Each event is not going to be the event that tops all events. A football team can only win so many championships in a row. The bar can only be raised to a certain level; it's going to hit the top at some point. It's our own faults for being disappointed when we don't get awed at an event. We are the ones that set the expectation level. As my Mother used to say to me, "Don't get your hopes up and you won't be so disappointed". WWDC is an annual event; it's not going to be cancelled because Steve Jobs doesn't have enough news to report to the public during his keynote. The real reason for the event is what developers learn at the rest of the event that usually lasts for a full week. It's a resource for developers, to better themselves and to get answers to questions. It's a place that Apple becomes available more than they would normally. On another note, Apple is in this to make money, they are a business. If they see a new opportunity that could further the revenue or broaden their horizons you should expect them to jump on it. I would be disappointed if they didn't. They're not just going to cater to Macintosh computers. Their biggest product is the iPod and very well can become the iPhone in second place. Don't feel abandoned because they aren't solely doing computers. It's called growth and should also be expected. Start panicking when Microsoft matches Apple's products in quality and innovation. We all know that'll never happen. So instead of running around crying about your woes about Apple sinking or loosing it's focus, maybe you should sit back and take heed in the fact that you're using the best products, sit back and enjoy the show. It's still the best show on earth and I enjoy it every time. It could be worse, you could be using a PC and running Windows as your main operating system. Now that's bad!

Time To Say Goodbye

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:09:39 -0700

There comes a time in everyone's life when you can't ignore the changes going on inside. Whether it's the way you think or the way you feel about things. Back in the early 90's I was closing out my rock and roll bad boy lifestyle with a move to Virginia. I came here apprehensively with no clear direction in life or in a career and was greeted with a culture shock I was clearly not prepared for. Between the lack of a music scene and everything closing so early, I went from a 24-hour party city to a relaxed layed-back place. I eventually accepted it, but I never truly happy here.

I eventually became interested in computers and started running my own BBS with the computer I purchased. That eventually grew into a 100 phone line internet service provider business over time. I knew one thing though, I excelled at computers and eventually got into designing web sites and other graphic things with computers. At the beginning of the new millennium, I found myself employed with The Virginian-Pilot within a subsidiary which was PilotOnline & HamptonRoads.com. During my employment there I learned a lot and and grew into the current frame of mine I am in now. With the combination of growing older, becoming open-minded about music and ideas, switching to Macintosh and becoming so deeply involved in web standards and web site accessibility I found my new passion in life... visual design and Macintosh computers but most of all a career I enjoy doing. I have grown to excel in semantic coding practices and the time has come for me to move on in my life and career.

Today I formally submitted my resignation at The Virginian-Pilot and will be moving to Texas at the end of May. Our house recently sold for a lot more than we paid for it. This allows us to pay off all our debts and arrive in Texas with a totally clean slate and new life with the hopes of also finding a job that pays more than I was making at The Virginian-Pilot. We will be living outside the city limits of the Houston area where I have seen they pay a lot more. Houses are a lot cheaper in Texas and they come with land around them... an acre or two would be nice for us. Once the Dodge Durango is paid off with the money from the house it will become Kathleen's vehicle and I will get myself either a Ford F250/350 Heavy-Duty 4x4 pickup or something similar with a suspension lift and large off-road tires. We're going real southern now. Look out democrats and liberals I'll be running you all over in your hybrid cars.

So the time has come to say goodbye to the friends I have made here and Virginia but I had a good time here still. The people I worked with at The Virginian-Pilot are all great people and I don't regret a minute of my history there. I consider the people I worked with as friends and I will miss them all greatly. I hope to keep in touch with them all. I don't know if I will ever come back this way to visit but each of them has touched me in one way or another and I will bring memories of the fun we had while we worked and the friendships that were formed over the years with me to Texas.

The Switch Is On

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:58:58 -0700

It is well known that there is a deep bias against Macintosh computers in the Windows users world. I know about this bias because I too was one of those who made fun of Macintosh computers and the users of them for over 15 years. If you must ask why I did this, I can honestly only tell you it wasn't from any personal experience with them. I was merely just repeating what others told me about them and they were probably doing the same me. In early 2004 after falling in love with the look of Macintosh OS X and making my Windows XP operating system look like OS X, I decided perhaps it was a time for a change or at least maybe I owed it to myself to fully look into Macintosh computers and what they were really about. It dawned on my that I had no experience with them and I've learned in the past that I can't judge a movie by what a movie critic or even what a friend of mine might say about the movie in question. There were many times someone loved a movie that I went to see later only to not like it. At the company where I work there were two fellow employees who had Macs at home and only one of those used one at work. In fact she was the only employee in the company that had a Mac at the office. She was the print designer at our company because even a web based company must advertise in print from time to time. I remember for a long time I used to tease them about it and I always called them Crapintosh and numerous times I asked them when they were going to get a real computer? Funny how things change, isn't it? So in July 2004 I finally took the plunge and purchased a PowerMac G5 Dual with a 20” Cinema Display. Probably the most expensive computer I had ever even thought about buying and there I was buying it. At the same time my Mother, who came with me to the store, purchased a PowerMac G4 with the same display to go along with it. So we took the plunge together. From the opening of the boxes to the set-up everything was so well thought out and done. So many minor details that you would never even think of doing with a product was done by Apple and like they said, everything just worked out of the box. It took me about a month to get out of my Windows habits whether it had to do with keyboard shortcuts, the way of thinking and just all around usage. One of the things I've noticed is that 75% of the things I do on my Macintosh I never even thought about doing on my Windows PC and the ones that I used to do on it actually work and don't crash me. Gone are the random involuntary reboots my machine did to me. The lag is gone when I have twenty applications running. OS X handles memory better. I watched a lot of video podcasts now, listen to a lot of audio podcasts now and read RSS feeds like mad. My how way of thinking has changed, I am more open to things and my way of designing graphics, ads and web sites has changed as well. I understand that white-space is my friend and that a paragraph can be made easier to read by line-spacing. I think it has to do with the presentation I see on Apple's own web site and how minimalistic is good and easier to focus on content. There are so many things I could list that have changed for me but that would make this story even longer than I had intended it to be. It can not be denied that Macintosh usage is on the rise and the switchers are coming in droves, especially since the switch over to Intel processors. We are in the news, we are everywhere. So let Microsoft continue to believe they are number one and the best operating system out there. We know better and nothing lasts forever, especially monopolies. They tend to stagnate with innovation and no competition leads to someone else comes along and blowing them out of the water. There are many people in the company where I work that have either switched to Macs at work or at home, actually close to 20 people so far. We are on the rise, we can run Windows on a Mac (if we are so evil) and not only should Microsoft be wary of the future, but even more so, Dell, Gateway and HP should be even more so because why would I buy a PC when I can get a Mac that can run every OS there is all on one machine and all at the same time if I choose to do so? How long will it take for people to realize that OS X blows Windows away and that we don't need Microsoft for anything, not even Office. There are free applications that does the same thing and they are fully compatible with Windows Office file formats. It is said that Mac users are extremely proud or snobbish about their Macs but the truth is we feel a deep love for our machines. They do so much, so much easier than you're doing on Windows and to be fair to yourself if you haven't given them a full, fair try you should. Everything is different so expect to be frustrated for awhile while you unlearn your bad Windows habits. Free your mind and the rest will follow or so I heard once and it's so true. There, I've had my say and it was all done on a Mac.

300 Unexpected Surprises

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 05:36:58 -0700

This past Friday the Designer and Developer teams from PilotOnline & HamptonRoads.com were treated to lunch at California Pizza Cafe at MacArthur Mall in Downtown Norfolk which is famous for it's trendy eateries and shops. The service was good and the food was good but nothing special. It certainly isn't a place I would eat at again. Afterwards we were treated to a movie and the choice by all except me was "300". You may find it strange that I never heard of Frank Miller or the epic comic book series titled "300" but it's the truth. The teams were anxious to see this movie. Earlier in the week we were able to read the comic series which I have yet to do even after I saw the movie. "300" is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel "300" by Frank Miller about the Battle of Thermopylae. The film is directed by Zack Snyder with Frank Miller attached as an executive producer and consultant, and was shot mostly with bluescreen to duplicate the imagery of the original comic book work. Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fight to the last man against Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive army of more than one million soldiers. Facing insurmountable odds, the Spartans' sacrifice inspires all of Greece to unite against the Persian invaders. The story is based on the Battle of Thermopylae which took place in 480 BC, although a narration by Dilios (David Wenham) gives a historical fantasy feel. At Sparta, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) attempts to rally support for her husband. It turns out the movie was damn good! In fact it's probably one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The camera work and effects during all the fight scenes is amazing! It's a stylized movie so even though it is really gory in detail it's not that bloody at all. Most of the blood came off as comic-book-like which isn't a bad effect. If done right it fits right into the depiction of the events in this movie and follows the comic well. I have skimmed through them and I might even read them now that I have seen the movie. I'm thinking about going to see it again over the weekend. Yeah it was that good and it's one of those movies that you have to see in the movies to get the full effect. To see this on a television screen won't do it justice. I recommend this movie as a must-see for fans of the comic book and even if you never read it or heard of it. It's money and time well spent but see it in the movies!

Twitter is Twitterific!

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 05:34:11 -0700

A month ago or so I joined up with one of those new Web 2.0 Social Networking sites called Twitter (www.twitter.com) and I said to myself what a silly idea! The first thing is who really cares about what I am doing now (posting to my blog if you must ask, sheesh!). Second thing is what a pain it would be to have to visit the web site each time to post what you're doing all the time! So like I was saying it's been a month or so and out comes this little free application for Macintosh OS X called Twitterific (iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific/). It really is small and sits in your menu bar tray at the top right hand side of your desktop. When it's on screen it's really small and nice looking so it stays open on my desktop all the time. The thing is this thing really makes it easy to post what your doing now. I still don't understand what the big fuss is about this Twitter web site but hey what do I know? It just won best blog idea at South By SouthWest (2007.sxsw.com). It's a huge, annual media, film, music, design, blogging, web developer conference that takes place in Austin, Texas. So okay, Twitterific is installed and running and I guess I will play your silly little game! Oh and if you're bored and looking for someone to stalk I guess you can follow my every move at www.twitter.com/cmpastore.

SXSW Interactive 2007

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 05:32:35 -0700

I've never been to SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas and I was hoping to go this year but two other designers from work were chosen instead of me this year. There's no hard feelings, both of them are friends of mine, but I would have loved to go. There is just so much stuff that goes on over the span of the conference that I would benefit from knowledge wise and of-course it's a lot of fun as well. I think one the great things is meeting new people and other designers. Social networking is on the rise and the more people you know in the world the better off you are in your career because you have more people you can learn from and there is a lot of exchanging of ideas at this conference. The other day we found out that Nick Jones was interviewed by Amanda Congdon for ABCNews.com. She video blogs for them now, but you should remember her time doing RocketBoom because that is where she became famous for her video PodCasts and actually was on the cover of Time Magazine at one point. If you would like to see the short interview which is now airing on the web site you can. He's the fourth person interviewed in the hallways of SXSW. For more on Nick Jones you can visit his web site called Little Robot Head where he is blogging SXSW amoung other things.