After what was a rough couple of weeks, where work obligations and some health issues I thought I’d mostly put behind me reared their ugly head, I’m finding my way back to posting. I did not have it in me to look at a computer screen any longer than was absolutely necessary.

To kick things off here, I'll throw in a brief status update.

Work

I won’t really get deep into the subject, but I just crossed the four year mark at DataStax. And the milestone has me thinking about some things. I’ll probably have more to say about it at some point here. Especially in regards to the last year, where I found myself swept up in the pivot to AI, and the perspective it gives me. It's definitely changing the picture, for where I might be heading as a designer and illustrator.

Home Life + Side Projects

My dog, Ripley, is nearing full recovery from her TPLO surgery. That involved months of rehab, and it’s nice to finally enter the light at the end of the tunnel. While there is a chance she’ll need an additional surgery to remove the metal plate that held her leg together during the bone's healing process, she’s easing into activities that involve running and jumping, and things are feeling somewhat back to normal around the house. The couch is no longer off limits!

And speaking of the house, I’ve pulled the trigger on a new project — updating my attached garage. It’s maybe not the sort of thing I would bother mentioning here, but there’s an element to it that could affect my ambitions for design-related side projects. As things stand, the spare room where I store all the vintage print ephemera I collect is so full of stuff I can barely navigate the space, let alone document anything. BUT… if I can relocate some of that mess to the garage, then I’ll regain the space to work and photograph things I’d like to share. And going a step further, if the garage is clean enough after the remodel and I can introduce some climate control out there, maybe I can devote an area of it to those activities. So we’ll see how all of that goes.

Then, next on my to-do list is drawing up a plan for how we might revamp Speculative Identities over the winter months, for a relaunch of that project.

Books

Some new additions to the library:

Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola (2024) →

Waneella Decade (2024) published by Volume →

A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places (2024) by Christopher Brown →

Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself—While the Rest of Us Die (2017) by Garrett M. Graff →

Comics

Last week, I received my backer rewards for comics creator Simon Roy’s latest Kickstarter project, REFUGIUM, which included the hardcover sci-fi graphic novel, a companion “Refugium Creature Compendium” guidebook, and an original inked page from the comic.

And Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu showed up today.

Design

I’ve really slowed down on my collecting as of late, but I did pick up a great 1968 brochure from McDonnell Douglas Corp’s Douglas Missile & Space Systems Division, on “The Space Age World of Manufacturing Engineering.” I’ll share a look at the cover, but the interior is equally impressive. Like so much of what is stashed away in my collection, I really need to scan and document this one in entirety, and share it in the COLLECTED section of my website.

Music

A couple of albums that showed up last week:

The Official Score from Scavengers Reign. Loved this animated series! Sadly, I was too slow to get Mondo’s special edition pollination vinyl.

And Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition), which is probably my favorite thing he’s done.