So, I’ve been doing Crossfit for over a year now. I’ve done the Lean Turkey Challenge (lost 5% body fat and 17 lbs in six weeks). I’ve signed up for a new challenge this new year. I’m really doing it for the focus on accountability and nutrition. On a whim this morning, the kids and I started the 100 Day Burpee challenge.

What is it?

Day 1 = 1 burpee
Day 2 = 2 burpees
Day 3 = 3 burpees…

Day 100 = 100 burpees.

What’s a burpee?

Jack, Spencer and I started today. Why am I already regretting this?

I completed a logo design for JGroups which is a project under the JBoss umbrella. What is it? “JGroups is a toolkit for reliable multicast communication.” It needed to show precision and accuracy in delivery. We used abstract airplanes in formation to convey this sense of precision.

I also added it to the JBoss Cafepress store and created some swanky desktop wallpapers for the project’s community.

Learn more about the JGroups project.

A while back, the Visual Design team did a branding project for the Teiid project on the JBoss Community site. The name is a play on “eii” (Enterprise Information Integration). Turns out, there are very few names that contain eii in them. What the project team came up with is a type of lizard. I had some fun with working up the logo.

What does the project do? “Teiid is a data virtualization system that allows applications to use data from multiple, heterogenous data stores.”

Learn more about the project.

As part of our on going changes to the infrastructure, we’ve moved our design files outside of the old “labs” environment. We’ve got a cool new place for our stuff.

Check it out at design.jboss.org

So, I’ve dove head first into Mountain Biking over the past year and change. I purchased a used Santa Cruz Blur and rode if for a long time. On one of my Sunday rides with the local Bike Mojo crew I met a few guys who rode single speed (SS) and one crazy nut job who rode Fixie. Anyway at one of the breathers on the trail, I took a quick spin on one of the guys SS. Wow, it was nice. No worries about what gear to be in… just go. And I took it up a hill and I was amazed. It was light and climbed like a billygoat.

So, I got my hands on a cheap single speed and rode it for a couple months (exclusively) and really love the experience. It was an entry level bike and it was fully rigid so I was killing my shoulders on downhills. Hey, I never claimed to be a good rider ok. I decided to get a suspension fork on the front to make the rides more enjoyable. Well, needless to say, it would have cost more than the entire bike. So a discussion was had between me and my MTB mentor about it. He said I should get a quality steel frame and go from there.

That started my quest for frames and after a month of searching and test riding I fell into a deal on eBay for a custom Waltworks frame. This guy is a reknowned frame builder from Colorado. Anyway the frame on Ebay was built for a guy who matched my measurements exactly and it was a fraction of the cost and wait time of getting Walt to build me one from scratch.

So I bought it. My buddy Jason built it up and it’s been love ever since. I’ve been riding this bike exclusively for about six months and have no desire to ride anything else. It’s to the point I’ve put road slicks on my Santa Cruz and use it for road riding.

Here are some pictures of it in all it’s manliness.

I’ve been riding with a group of Single Speeders for a while now on a weekly ride on Mondays. Quite a few of them all race together under the banner of “Tender Gooch Racing”. I figured they needed to meet their quota of overweight balding middle aged guys so they made me a member. Suckers.

They like to make fun of other “race teams” so the idea of a mock jersey came up. So, being a designer who can’t seem to say “no”… I couldn’t pass on the chance to help some friends out.

Check out the design.

I just completed the logo design for a renaming project for an open source project at work. HornetQ is a project that deals with messaging between applications. The project lead wanted something a bit on the “sporty” side.

Here is the logo:

Here is a better look at the logomark:

Check out this iphone wallpaper I created for it:

In my day job, I’m the Visual Design Lead for the JBoss Community site. I’ve been working for JBoss.org for several years. My role is is quite interesting in that I’m responsible for the brand and the usability of the site as well as I help the individual projects with their branding. I also help with the usability and user interface design on the projects from time to time too.

Anyway, that being said. I’ve spruced up the site a bit by adding spiffy new desktops for the site and several of the projects. We’ll be adding new ones from time to time as we complete branding exercies for projects.

Check all of them out.

So, a while back, I picked up a Santa Cruz Blur on Craigslist. I posted about it and told some of my friends from Poland to check it out. My buddy Tomek was aghast. “Why do you have that grungy pigeon on it” he said. The previous owner had put a “Deutschland” crest sticker on it and I hadn’t bothered to take it off.

See the proof…

After awhile, I get this in the mail…

Tomek’s Gift

So, in honor of my Polish friends, I’ve scrapped off the German Chicken and have replaced it with a proper Crest.

New and Improved

Enjoy Tomek.

Just when you think the internet no longer holds any value, you run across a nice gem like this:

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/