This year I didn’t actually have any clear travelling plans. Usually these things fall into my lap, or it’s a standard trip to Greece. This year however I’m not in the mood to go to Athens again. Sure the parents are there but I need a bit of change. Having said, with the upcoming elections in Lebanon and several other bits an pieces I’m packing my bags tomorrow and I’m off to Lebanon.

I’ve not been down to Lebanon in close to 2 years, and so all my aunts and uncles, cousins, second cousins etc etc have all grown up. Some have moved on, and the country has changed for sure. Unfortunately internet access will be sparse so I doubt I’ll be online much. I might update once or twice in my stay but it’s not going to be a regular thing. I’m back on the 5th of June which effectively means that I’ll be posting all sorts of things when I get back.

I’ve been pretty down on the whole design front as I’ve had a bit of a lull and really needed a break from it all. I think this break will provide me just that. Time to energise the batteries, restock on ideas and get that flare for design and illustration all over again.

Just as an update to all the projects I’m involved with right now so that people can have a better grasp of it all: Shuttle We’re actually started discussing how this is going to be built between a 7 man team. That’s Joshua, Matt, Chris, Joen, Michael, myself and the ever excellent Ryan. It’s not been as fast and furious development as it was in the begining but that’s mainly got to do with the fact that it’s no longer just a small beautification of the WordPress administration panel, but a whole lot more. It’s an elevation of what is already well put together into something that will set the standard.

WordPress Portal Ah you thought that was all just talk. Hardly. After that post I got a nice e-mail from Mark from weblogtoolscollection.com asking if I’d like to redesign that site, and that it would house all the ideas etc that we talked about. I explained that this was something I wanted to be a community driven thing, so I wanted it to eventually move over to the WordPress main site; so off we took this idea to Matt who said that parts of it might get incorporated but it’s all a bit of wait and see. However he did say that we could have a sub-domain of wordpress.net and he’s put up the bandwidth for us, which is pretty damn awesome I think. So where do we go from here? Well not sure. I’ve set up a mailing list that I’m trying to get to grips with, should get start detailing it in the near future, and then the fun starts I guess.

Once I get back I’ll start the first mock up and paste it for everyone to have a play with. People can then play around with it and pass it around. That way we’ll all have some say in it’s design.

Once that’s done we’ll jump into the coding aspects.

Once that’s done, then we’ll make a decision as to where/what it should be hosted/named.

Broken Kode Update 1 year of Broken Kode is coming close (I’ve been blogging for about a year and a half, but only bought the domain a little less than a year ago) and I’m planning on a few things for this special event for me. 3 of these things involve a few additions to the shop ( 2 of which will be sent to all those that bought the print as a thank you for their stuppendous support). Broken Kode version 4 is getting prepped, and it’s going to be unlike most blogs you see out there; trust me it’s unlike anything I’ve ever done, and I can’t wait to get cracking on it (I’ve got germs of ideas floating in my head and a few loose mock ups but nothing concrete, and yet I’m very excited.)

Sublime Never ending story. Well I’m going to be working on this I think. I didn’t get a print out of where I’m at which is a bit annoying, so hopefully I’ll find a printer down there, but I’ll be sure to get into it and start writing like I’ve not done in a while.

Drawing and Painting This is what I’m hoping to get back into. Actually draw and paint something every day. It’s going to be tough for sure, but I want to get that buzzing feeling I get once I’ve finished a painting. I generally use water colours, so hopefully I’ll doing this more and more. I know it’s only 2 weeks, but it doesn’t take much to spark a start really.

Hopefully the spammers will be nice and not try and fuck me over. They’ve been good this past month or so I’m hoping this keeps up.