Aaron Hoffmann Principal UX Product DesignerI've a deep passion for solving problems, be they digital or physical, UX or UI, product or brand, or some impossible Tetris stack. Data-driven design philosophy; data-backed decisions are the most logical and defendable. I lead by example, choosing my roles based on team chemistry, ability to exercise my broad skillset, and opportunity to make a positive change in the world. I speak Geek and Japanese and would be delighted to explain the most unusual sushi I've ever eaten.
so i spent most of today re-painting an image from the upcoming legend of zelda: twilight princess for gamecube. the original was too small, low-res, jpg-artifacted, aliased, and plain. i’m not done yet, but i’ll get there soon enough. compare to the original, immediately following.
twilight princess link in hi-res
original
i do have one other example, but in the interest of leaving content for another posting sometime this week, i’ll hold back on it for now ; )
enjoy!
broken hearts could be more fact than fable
interesting article, that. i don’t foresee myself in any immediate, imminent danger; though it is fair to predict that this year’s valentine’s day will suck completely. six months ago, i would have anticipated just the opposite, but unfortunately january just doesn’t seem to be my lucky month with love; and as i am, it takes more than a couple weeks or even a month to develop a real closeness with a girl, so of course i’m s.o.l.
but that’s life, i suppose. at least this year to help re-adjust myself back to the life of lonely bachelordom is the fact that the holiday falls during the work week, plus i was thrown into a ‘deadline week’ quite last minute, so i’ll be plenty busy to distract me from the depressing thoughts of what isn’t.
i was thinking the other day how love really isn’t very romantic unless frosted with illogicalness, sorta like how we couldn’t see the sun’s shape without some darkness surrounding it to bring out its edges. and perhaps i’m too logical, that i recognise the boundaries of insanity against the backdrop of romance; they’re two different colours to these eyes. that would explain how despite my every good intention, someone could find them inadequate compared to another guy who might (knowingly or not) succumb to the myopia and jump off a bridge with a heart-shaped parachute or circumnavigate the globe on a tricycle to raise money for a box of chocolates. i guess in the future i should just squint a bit more to blur the lines.
of course that’s not to say i’ve an unhappy life by any means. i can’t even believe how beautiful and temperate this month has been. the past two weekends have felt more like october than february, with sixty degree weather enabling one of my favourite hobbies: detailing my car. the z is one love which has never disappointed me; it’s too bad more women aren’t as reliably affectionate. heh. on that note, i was able to both wash/wax and photograph her yesterday, and will include said photography below. there is something beautiful and unique about the sunlight during the non-summer months which can add an ethereal, dreamy haze and dramatically enhance nearly any scene. most are hi-res enough to be wallpapers or make prints of, so enjoy!
listening to:
Results May Vary
Limp Bizkit
two might moan at god
redden a pole and befriend it
manipulate behind a forest rose
spring a bare breast after worship
after last night’s quick post, i was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity to capture this photo this morning on the way to work. i actually stopped my car to take it…and worth every drop of gas.
i got an honourable–albeit indirect–mention on a national mac news site the other day, for my work creating add-ons to my favourite chat application featuring one of the things in life i am most passionate about: super mario bros! 🙂
although i posted links when initially created, you can download the mentioned sound set here
i’ll try to muster some time away from my busy work and work-out schedule to post more later. enjoy what’s left of the changing leaves!
been another whole week again. and another lovely weekend to enjoy. z is in prime condition after a half-day of washing/waxing/babying yesterday; of course there’s not much to do at that point except drive around town a bit to show off my handiwork, hopefully blinding a few people with glints of sun on the shiny surfaces. 
aside from the usual cleaning, laundry, etc. which tends to be the brunt of weekend activities, i managed to get some creative productivity in, completing two whole poems. yes, some people can just whip something out in a few minutes or even an hour; but real poetry is written many times, and meticulous care and detail are put into each word of each revision until complete. this can be from a few iterations to a hundred or more. i wonder how many people will take the time to analyse and interpret these, and then write in to share? i can say they’re both quite a bit more involved and much less direct than the last work; but then again, the last one was never intended to be covert in the first place. anyway… enjoy!
half a world away
freedom’s villain
listening to:
Hero
Tan Dun
what a lovely weekend. after a long week, i am ecstatic that i wasn’t forced to sit inside for its duration. granted, i ended up doing that for some of it anyway, but what else am i supposed to do at 10pm? oh yes, i went for a 2 hour walk. blistered the shit out of my feet, but it was a nice walk nonetheless.
in the past week i’ve learned two things about technology: i love wireless networking and my new ipod. both are just so handy! for someone like me who enjoys music as much as i do, i don’t know how i lived without an ipod until now. yes, i could play 6 cds at a time in my car, or plenty of mp3s on my various computers, but being able to shuffle between 5 thousand of my favourite songs instantly is unbelievable.
i’m working on a new poem, but it seems to be a verse short; as if i have one more idea to squeeze in that would complete the thought. speaking of poems, i received an email from someone who apparently wanted to share his analysis of my last poem. interesting that he prefaces it by saying that he only spent 10 seconds doing so (alluding that the work was that shallow, i’m guessing) and that was because he needed assistance from his infant son. add that to the fact that the analysis itself was riddled with so many misspellings and grammar errors that it was nearly unintelligible, leading me to believe his son typed it as well. needless to say, his interpretation was way off-mark, because he chose to attempt a psychic siphon of my mind instead of his own. as they say, ‘never assume; it makes an ass of u and me.’ of course this happens to be someone i don’t know, who has never met me, heard my voice nor anything about me–first-hand anyway. i did also find it utterly interesting/humorous that he (and the rest of his family) immediately associated the word ‘assclown’ with the patriarch of their family. they must not know it generally means ‘douchebag’, or maybe they do? i wonder why this man doesn’t take offence that his family thinks this of him?
