Leaving out world events, this is the last decade in review for me, complete (mostly) with some photos (a few embarrassing ones too):

2000

I was 14 years old. I “graduated” middle school and started high school. My days consisted of school work, home work, and video games. The only class I can remember taking this year was a double-paced micro/macro-science class. I was not one of the popular kids, but I considered a good deal of my classmates my friends. I had a pretty tight group of friends that would last for the next several years. We mostly got together to play video games like as Super Smash Bros., Starcraft, and Diablo II. LAN parties were de rigueur.

2001

I was 15 years old. I transitioned from my freshmen year to my sophomore year in high school. I got braces. I spent most days in classes. Evenings we’re spent watching movies, playing video games, or dicking around on the computer. In 2001 I got my first Macintosh – a G4 733 MHz Digital Audio Edition. Around this time I received a pirated copy of Photoshop – I’ve bought every other version since – from a friend, which began an interest in the graphic arts that I was to continue with for a long time.

2002

I was 16 years old. I moved on from my sophomore year to my junior year of high school. Not much changed from the previous year. I was still a big nerd; didn’t participate in any sports. My social life wasn’t the greatest, but I had fun. Our LAN parties became bigger and began to focus on newer games, particularly Counter-Strike – Counter-Terrorists and Terrorists were the Cowboys and Indians of our day. I got my drivers license, and lost my braces. I had no foresight into my future, I had no real idea what I wanted to do in college, much less where I even considered going.

2003

I was 17 years old. I finished my junior year and started my senior year of high school. I became more serious about art, but still played video games almost every day. I took my ACT very late in the game and started applying to schools at the trail end of 2003, pretty much last minute.

2004

I was 18 years old. By January I had sent out all my college applications, except for one, the one for the University of Michigan, which I had forgotten to send until a month after it was due, which also happened to be the due date for portfolios for entrance to the School of Art & Design. I decided to attend Michigan State University for Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media, which was the closest thing to graphic design and multimedia at the time at MSU (their art department was lackluster in my opinion). I became a freshmen all over again that September. I moved into a dorm, Akers Hall, and had 3 roommates; Ben, Kevin, and Scott. I fell in love with film photography and began developing black and white film in the dorm bathroom. In September, my Grandmother died. This year I met “notorious” hacker Kevin Mitnick and Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak.

2005

I was 19 years old. I started blogging on my own domain, and I began learning more about web development and coding for the web. I drank alcohol for the first time in last half of my freshmen year. I contemplated transferring schools, to the University of Michigan. I began my sophomore year and moved into another dorm room in the same building on the MSU campus. I had 3 new roommates, Kevin (a different Kevin), Scott (a different Scott), and Travis. In September, my Grandfather died. In October, I officially applied the University of Michigan School of Art & Design.

2006

I was 20 years old. Early in the year I was officially accepted as a transfer student to the University of Michigan. I got dumped for the first time. I started dating a wonderful Indian girl named Shrotriyee, who was every bit the geek that I was (and more). That September I transferred to the University of Michigan, effectively lost a year of college by transferring and became a junior in the university while staying a sophomore within the college. I lived in an apartment in Ann Arbor just off the UM Central Campus with Paul and Tim, two friends that I attended high school with back in the day. This year I met Firefox creator Blake Ross.

2007

I was 21 years old. I was an art school student, I went through the motions and got my classwork out of the way to do the things I wanted to. I focused on my graphic design, photography, and web development in my free time. I had my first graphic design internship with a company called Q Ltd. I lived in the same apartment for another year, Tim moved out and Mario moved in. I started working out three or so times a week. I drove from Ann Arbor to East Lansing many times to be with Shro.

2008

I was 22 years old. I continued with the whole art school thing. I took a bronze casting class, which I absolutely loved. Photography continued to be a big hobby of mine. I started my senior year as an art student which meant taking a year long thesis project class. I started work on the longest and most involved project I have worked on to date, it was a combination of graphic design, programming, and fine art. I moved into a house with Tim, whom I lived with two years previous, and two new roommates Bryan and Chris.

2009

I am 23 years old. My senior project came to an end; it turned out very nicely. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. I had an internship with the University of Michigan College of Engineering doing graphic design work. As my internship was ending, I looked for some more permanent work in the area. I applied to two design jobs within the University. I was, to my surprise, ultimately offered the position as senior web designer for the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning. I now had a well paying job with benefits, in this recession, in Michigan no less, a state that sports the highest unemployment rate in the country. I moved into a new apartment a mile or so from my job with my girlfriend Shrotriyee, and her golden retriever Bogart.

—

In the last decade a lot has happened. It’s been quite the decade going from finishing middle school to graduating from a major university and being lucky enough to be employed full-time in my field, amidst a recession. I have certainly changed a lot from that video game obsessed scrawny middle schooler in the last ten years. I wonder where the next ten will take me?

I was asked recently to introduce Helvetica to an auditorium of folk at the University of Michigan Helvetica Screening (sponsored by UMMA, University of Michigan School of Art & Design, University of Michigan AIGA Student Group, and AIGA Detroit). I happily agreed and last night I made my way through a completely packed auditorium (the isles were full as well and people stood outside the doorways in the halls to watch) to introduce myself, the sponsors, Craig Steen the president of AIGA Detroit, and finally introduce the film itself to get things rolling.

The movie itself is amazing; it’s very well produced. The interviews are very interesting, insightful, and overall extremely funny. These interviewees are leaders in their fields and while they are all respected for their work, a lot of them have outrageously contrasting viewpoints as far as typography and “good design” goes. It certainly is a group of very opinionated designers. Seeing two renowned designers such as Massimo Vignelli (whom I just wrote about) and Erik Spiekermann get so worked up over this one little ubiquitous font is really interesting, though I think Spiekermann would win if they came to fisticuffs over the matter (being 16 years his junior).

After the film we facilitated discussion to a smaller audience on the opinions expressed in the movie and on the movie itself. Some interesting points and questions were raised.

For our first UM AIGA Student Group event it was an amazing turnout and super successful. This movie is definitely a must see, but good luck finding it at your local Blockbuster.

For a long time I had been lusting after a myriad of fisheye lenses if for anything but the sheer novelty of having a fisheye lens. Many of the lenses are quite expensive, at least for a college student so I didn’t really give much thought to these lenses at all. At some point the Lomography Fisheye Adaptor from Lomography.com caught my eye. I made mental note of the existence of a such an attachment that allows for fisheye photos.

Not so long ago I found myself revisiting the thought of fisheye photos just for something different to do. And so I took the plunge and spent my $85 on the Fisheye Adaptor. And from the fun I’ve had with it, I’d say it was money well spent.

My biggest problem with buying new lenses is that I prefer taking photos with my old Canon camera and the majority of lenses aren’t made with the proper mount for this type of camera so I have almost limitless possibilities for what I can’t buy. The Fisheye Adaptor was exactly what I was looking for; I could attach it to both my film SLR and my digital SLR via the 4 different sized thread adaptors.

The fisheye adaptor comes packaged nicely stuffed inside a little pouch inside a nice little green box, the 4 (49mm, 52mm, 55mm, and 58mm) filter rings come each in their own little boxes. Also included is a Universal Holga Mount, complete with the little screws for securing it, so you can mount the adaptor right to your Holga camera if you so have one. The lens itself is about the same size as our standard 50mm lens, perhaps a tiny bit smaller. It feels pretty solid for a plastic lens, and it’s got a nice hefty weight to it which just feels nice, unless it happens to be thrown at you that is.

Now, depending on the type of lens (and camera) you attach it to and the level of zoom you’re at, you’ll get a little different effects. First off, if you attach it to a lens on a digital camera you might note that the fisheye effect isn’t as strong as it is when attached to a film camera. This is because there is a 1.6x conversion ratio between film and digital zooms, digital 28.8mm zoom is about the same as 35mm zoom on a film camera. Either way, you still get the nice fisheye effect.

The more you zoom in on your subject the less of the fisheye effect you’ll get. In this photo below I’ve zoomed out to about 24mm on my digital camera (equivalent to about 38.4mm on a film camera). You’ll notice that you don’t see the inside walls of the lens in the corners anymore, and you get a little more of a vignetting effect, and you’ll also notice that the severity of the fisheye effect is lessened. While the effect is lessened the fisheye distortion is still better than the usual wide-angle lenses.

If you attach this thing to your standard 50mm lens you’ve got yourself a full frame fisheye that acts more like super wide-angle lens. I find that attaching this thing to a zoom lens, something in the range of 18mm to 55mm on the digital side or 28mm to 80mm on the film side, is really ideal. With a zoom lens you can choose the amount of fisheye effect that you want.

The only complaints I have is that there are not filter threads on the front of the lens, but that’s no matter as I can still attach them to the lens behind the filter adaptor.

Pretty nifty for a $85 lens.