FuzzyCo

I'm sure this is not unique to my office environment: the cleaning staff will not throw anything out that isn't in a garbage can unless it has a dayglo orange sticker on it that proclaims its trashiness in three languages ("PLEASE THROW OUT, POR FAVOR TIRALO, PROSZE WYRZUCIC"). Very utilitarian, and has probably saved my bacon a few times when important, but scruffy looking, boxes have drifted a bit close to the trash can.

During the big office purging going on right now, I came across a whole pad of these 5"x7" cards. Look at the jaunty Admiral in his washtub boat. Check out the gorgeous, and slightly irregular, waves across the bottom. Are you ready to throw something out already, just to have the chance to use this guy?

Booooring

You can follow along as I design my brains out this afternoon in a Layer Tennis qualifying match. Starting... pretty much now. If you want to tweet about it, append #lyt to your tweet so that everyone can see.

At work today, some nice folks* got laid off which made the mood weird, as it always does. But no time to mourn, because I was off to another job where I'm editing some video game footage into a trailer. The trailer will have a contest associated with it, which puts some odd constraints on the way I'm constructing it, but I'm really happy with the second cut I just finished and for which I'm waiting, even as I type, to render out. The necessity of using Avid for this trailer puts different constraints in differently odd places -- oh sweet Final Cut how I miss you -- but miss you I will not for long, because when I get home I need to cut together some Goof Gang footage that Steve has asked me for for, well, probably a secret and I may have said too much already. Oh, not really, it's just that nothing will come of it, as it always does, until that day when lightning does strike. And then I need to get some sleep, for tomorrow I Layer Tennis. Noon CST, kids. Append #lyt to your twitters to discuss my awesomeness.

* No offense to the fine ones who've gone before, nor the folks today for whom I lack linkage.

I got a great email yesterday, inviting me to participate in an qualifying match of Layer Tennis this Friday before the main match (noonish, I believe). I instantly accepted and then went and asked my boss if I could have the afternoon off. And then... well, why don't I let my cartoon of the day tell you about my mental state:

I'm pretty firmly in stage two right now. I mean, I've talked a lot of smack about Layer Tennis competitors over the last two seasons and now it's my turn to face the criticism. And my opponent is a real designer and all and what am I? I'm an actor/video editor/server admin who dabbles. I dabble! And FuzzyCo is a mess! I should have cleaned up if I knew I was going to be having company!

Whew. Gotta talk myself down. You'll be fine, Fuzzy. You'll be fine.

The second season of Coudal Partners' Layer Tennis started last week with an exhibition match that featured 10 designers around the world passing along the layered file and adding their own spin at each step. Usually they release the layered source files for remixing and I was waiting for those to come out, but last night I just grabbed the complete rounds and threw together this tour of the Layer Tennis world. This afternoon's match starts at 2 pm and you can follow the peanut gallery on Twitter.

(The above video is available at a higher quality (or at least bigger) at YouTube.)

Update: Who's an impatient pants? Me! Just after I posted this, I checked my email and Coudal had just emailed out a link to the source files to Season Ticket Holders.