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I recommend Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. This simple story is essentially about coping with the inevitable changes that one goes through in life, even once we get settled. The book teaches us to accept and appreciate change and to treat it as viewing new opportunities in life, including regularly reviewing our current situation so that we are not blind to change coming. I thoroughly recommend this cute and simple story for allowing readers to open their eyes. Change is something that we have all been through, and this book prepares us for accepting and embracing the inevitable to better ourselves.

This book describes how and why brands are adopted and describes that consumers ultimately seek individuality as well as a sense of identity when they accept brands. (Even unknowingly, all people buy in to brands.) The author, Rob Walker, draws inspiration through several brands (including Red Bull, Converse, Hello Kitty, American Apparel, Timberland, Apple) and meeting with the individuals who created these brands.

Technology is helping to create 'ownership' and bringing people together to create and market brands through artistic similarities and word-of-mouth advertising. The word 'murketing' is coined to explain, essentially, the concept of anti-marketing. (An example of the term relates to the beginnings of Red Bull with a kiteboarding event held on Miami Beach; the marketing strategy was not clear, but the event drew a community which promoted the energy drink in extreme sporting events.) According to the author, this type of 'marketing' started in the 1980s with skateboarders and fashion. The book gives examples of other brands and their appeal while stating that we all adopt brands to show our individuality.   

This book, Personal Effectiveness (2nd Edition) by Alexander Murdock and Carol N. Scott, for managers discusses several topics and theories about being an effective manager. The book discusses team building, communication, ethics, results, strategies, personal drives, influencing others, decision-making, and other topics. Although some of the book is useful in allowing managers to become aware of their strengths and weaknesses and how to get the best out of their staff, another portion of the book seems to be based on common-sense and dated in some areas, like presentation and information management. The book seems to be written for those without trained management skills (or little management skills), which is probably common in today's workplace. It's worth a skim, but there's much more to managing than the scope of this book.

This book (CSS Mastery by Andy Budd) provides a good introduction to CSS, but it is also a useful resource to those who have been creating their own CSS designs for a while. The book refreshes the material and provides some hints and tips and cross-browser knowledge based on the author's experiences. It covers all aspects of CSS from the positioning of elements to changing the appearance and layout of elements and best practices for accomplishing some common tasks. I recommend this book to all CSS developers, no matter how advanced they are.

I love living in Bath and browsing the shops on my walk back to my apartment from work in the afternoon. On one of my window-shopping experiences on the way back from work, I noticed some interesting books in a little card and gift shop. I have always been a fan of art and architecture, and the drawings reminded me of some of the artwork I created when I lived in London in 2000. My drawings were mainly sketches of buildings or the detail of a building.

I've just finished reading through "Universal Principles of Design" by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler. Overall, it is an excellent book containing about 210 design aspects (80/20 Rule, Color, Consistency, Alignment, Readability, Rule of Thirds, Symmetry, etc). Each design aspect fits on a page and is accompanied by graphics to illustrate.

I am going to Edinburgh in a week. As I've never been there and have never discussed the place with anyone, I went online and did some research and ordered an Edinburgh "tour guide". I was thinking: "Oh wow! An Edinburgh Tour Guide! It will tell me what there is to do and see in Edinburgh!" I have never been more wrong in my life. In the packet that came today that I requested, I received an A4 brochure with a couple general large-font paragraphs about Edinburgh and approximately 50 pages of accommodation. Go figure! I am not going to Edinburgh to visit guest houses and hotels! Had I not already booked my flights and everything else and was looking at Edinburgh and a few alternative places to go, I would have changed my mind based on this "tour guide." (Not really.) Not only that, but a CD-ROM for the Midlothian region came in the packet as well. Look, I wanted an Edinburgh tour guide, not a Midlothian one and not a book about accommodation in Edinburgh.

This is a wonderful resource for students learning about graphic or web design. The book is witty, beautifully written, and easy to understand. This book educates readers on understanding the basis of good layout. Robin Williams provides four principles of good layout: proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast. These principles are illustrated with examples of layouts using the principle contrasting with designs that do not use the principle.

                       

When I taught the university class 'Intro to Web Design' a couple of years ago, I used this book to teach my students to understand the elements of good design. My professor for my first Visual Communications course (Bachelor's Degree) used it too. To go further, I showed the students examples of web sites illustrating Williams' four principles of good design.

                       

Overall, this is an excellent book for those beginning to learn about graphic or web design and I would fully recommend it to any aspiring designer.

I have updated my résumé/cv, viewable in HTML or PDF format. I am currently working on a redesign of this web site, but don't expect this to be finished anytime soon. News: I've watched a couple new films recently. Sunday night I saw Sideways. Although it was an interesting film about the relationships between the two main characters and their feelings of insecurity and other flaws and, to a lesser extent, their strengths, it lacked originality. In a sense, it is a movie about life and disappointment, and in my opinion, it offered little. On the other hand, Monday night's viewing of The Aviator was more promising and I am disappointed that it failed to pick up 'best picture' at the Oscar awards, although I haven't seen the film that won it. The Aviator kept me interested, despite being three hours long, and it offered a good story and good characterization. It is possibly the best film I have seen for the 2004 year, though possibly sharing that place with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (I did see Team America in early February, and it offered a few laughs, but I feel it went overboard on the humor at times too. This is similar to how I have felt about South Park in the last four or five seasons.)