Dog Love, In Photos
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
You didn't come here for a hot take on a 20 year old album but that's what this is. Yesterday I saw a tweet, and it made me anxious. Because I'm …
Once a month I'll inevitably get an email from Paypal saying that "a nice dafont visitor" threw a couple bucks my way. Almost always $5. It's awesome …
Well, RBG died tonight and America is literally on fire. Metaphorically too, but not in a rad way. So, perfect timing for me to rebuild this blog …
I've been working on revisions to seven ETC typefaces for almost eight months now. Before that, I had high hopes for a little project called Public …
I haven’t mentioned this on my website but on January 1st I began a 52 week long project . The goal? Record one song every seven days. All year. I …
What better way to start a quarantine/lockdown than with semi-ominous instrumental music, right? These six ambient tracks span three years of …
I didn’t think I’d be writing a “love letter” to a certain device today, but here I am. The last time I did this was about my favorite ebook reader, …
It's been five years since I blogged photos from the New York State Fair, and you know what? We still hit the same spots and eat the same food. Fewer …
I'm writing this on a Monday, but the title comes from the fact that I spent many hours yesterday finalizing on improvements made to League Mono and …
This blog post started as a silly note on my phone. Less than a note really, just a list of every digital camera I've owned and used and loved and …
I just finished downloading all of my content from Flickr. It amounts to 21 ZIP files that Flickr prepared when I requested my archive, totaling …
This is a quick (relatively, it's 18 minutes long) video tutorial on converting an existing single style font to a multiple master/variable …
For the past few months I have been working on converting my typeface League Mono from eight weights (up from 5 when it launched) to a variable …
Kingston to Negril and back, with a mountain adventure in between. March-April, 2018. Allison rented a car for us that I had the pleasure to drive …
I recently made a quick (15 minute) video tutorial on introductory letter making in Glyphs Mini 2 . I think it is an improvement over my previous …
This is a follow up to last year's running infographic. I'll just let this thing do the talking for now, and get down to some of the details after. …
The world has more free fonts than ever, at a higher quality than I can handle (in a good way). I'm not going to make this a regular Friday thing, …
It has never been a better time to be a graphic designer in Ithaca. I write this as someone who has made a living here doing just that since 2006. We …
I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about how I get by. Many of those years I was an employee with a salary. Some years were 100% …
I packed a microphone for my annual trip to Maine. You can see it in the photo above, very small, in almost the exact center of the frame. Aside from …
I began work on League Mono  at the end of 2016, and had the bulk of it in a usable form in March of this year. Why? I had been looking through the …
This isn't a race recap as much as it's my experience as a bystander, but here we go. The date: Saturday, May 13th. Location: Philly's Pennypack …
Create Upstate is a great design event that has lived in Syracuse, NY for the past three years. It was wonderful there, but this year the organizers …
I'm not the first person to write something like this and given how much I love my Nook, I probably won't be the last, either. So I'll keep this …
In September of 2015 I quickly and quietly launched New O'Clock , a website that publishes and tweets an interesting, true fact every day at two …
I still have a soft spot for Gluten, now more than ever. Literally. Figuratively. In food, especially, but I'm talking about my font. I've recently …
My friend Josh returned home to record his third album at Wilburland . He invited me to the studio to document some of the process. I showed up with …
I’m writing this on a bus to New York City. A last minute getaway with my wife. After admiring the winter scene that also distracts me when I’m …
I’m going to try something new with upcoming typeface releases: overdramatic fake movie posters. So I set out to make a simple design and realized …
I was late to join my local (Upstate NY) AIGA chapter, and even later to hop on the chapter’s Slack list. Deplorable, I know, but I tried to make up …
I ran a lot over the past 12 months. More than ever, which was a surprise to me. I didn't have a goal of running over 100 miles each month for a year …
I visit a used book store in Ithaca’s Commons at least once a week. It’s called Autumn Leaves and sits on the ground level above a record/cd store, …
The Rio Summer Olympics kicks off tonight and even though I don’t often watch sports, hit the track, or the road if I can help it, I look forward to …
The Planetary Society (a non-profit with thousands of dues-paying members) needed a few different print pieces created. An advocacy pamphlet, the …
In the fall of 2015 I created a birdfeeder using a single sheet of 24″ x 12″ birch plywood. I designed the three dimensional object in two dimensions …
Yesterday after my son (age 10 at this posting) and I finished up some collaborative Portal 2 levels he went up to his room. He came down about 10 …
A few years ago I had an idea to create ambient music from classic literature. The concept was simple: choose a piece of writing, remove every bit of …
As I always say, if you want one of your fonts on a book cover, you’ve got to do it yourself. Okay I don’t say that, and honestly I’ve seen my stuff …
A simple thought popped into my brain during a run in the rainy woods today: replace the word “fight” in key quotes from the movie Fight Club with …
If only everyone had paid 50¢ per download It feels like not too long ago I wrote a similar blog post about hitting 1,000,000 free font downloads. A …
Things I'm Over India Pale Ales Higher education Apps “Entrepreneurs” Google Chrome Coffee that costs more than $2 Reddit Road races Seeing social …
This isn’t science, it’s personal. I don’t drink a lot. That is to say, when I enjoy a grown-up beverage, I do so in moderation. There are three …
In a flurry of awesomeness and dollars flying everywhere, the first expansion deck for Assumptions is here. After finding, hiring, loving Louie Chin …
I’ve never met Lauren Baker But back in February she emailed in response to my tweet looking for character illustrators for an upcoming project. In …
I got sucked into a bit of a 90s black hole when /r/typography shared a link to screenshots of every title shot from the show Seinfeld …
Sometimes all it takes to find great talent is a tweet asking for exactly that. Looking for the first expansion pack artist led me to Louie Chin, a …
When my friends at Adjacent asked me to take a few photos of their freshly updated space, I was happy to say "absolutely" and wise enough to bring …
I used to love bright, busy, vibrant wallpaper/background on my phone. They were fun but made the locked view/home screen busy, especially at night, …
In 2012 I put out an instrumental album called The Return Voyage of Christopher Mackenzie (TRVOCM). The music is kind of wacky, but it is exactly …
Jonah and I have been going to the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk ever since my sister moved to that area over five years ago. My favorite room/exhibit …
My kid busted out a brand new hoodie recently. Not one he bought but one that he designed! He is still slightly obsessed with frogs, which I think is …
There was a lot going on in town yesterday, but I was able to stop by Singlebrook's latest hackathon (hosted at their place, sponsored by many other …
A few days ago I saw this and got really excited: #twithaca this friday, come make paper creations on the laser cutter @IthacaGen …
A lot of times I try to zoom out, or step back from something, to gain perspective. In this case I got in a close as I could. Closer than possible …
My kid is getting bigger, smarter, faster, older. Summer is gone. Even our schedule is completely opposite what it has been for the past 5 years. Our …
I've used Southpaw quite a bit since Allison and I brought it to life earlier this year. Almost every day, at the Beer co. actually. In fact, it is …
The fairgrounds are in Syracuse, just over an hour away from our home. It hosts the Great New York State Fair, an annual celebration of epic …
We've left Ithaca, barely, but it feels like a wonderful new world. Actually, we’ve been out of “the city” for almost two months now, but that time …
It isn’t new but it is hugely popular, and I’m using it these days in place of Rockwell Extra Bold (which is lovely, but not Chunk). I’ve also been …
That’s right, I made these three pixel fonts in 2007. Flash was a big thing that I seemed to spend a bit of time with, and tiny text was huge (lol). …
Had it been a clear day this view 👇would have included Mount Washington and the beast we hiked on the exact same day last year, Mount Madison. But …
For the second time in my life I was treated to a Lips experience that stimulated every sense and also left me more inspired than I could have …
Last week I received an email from someone asking about a specific usage and style stuff for one of my fonts blah blah blah. I linked them to the …
An Adirondack High Peak Adventure I packed light, aside from the dog, and pitched a tent near the trail as the sun went down. Thunder and lightning …
So when I do manage to get off the ground I find myself amazed at the experience. Luckily I’ve been able to share the past few trips with my son (who …
It’s rare for me to write about concert experiences. Over the past few years I’ve enjoyed MIA, Flaming Lips, Phoenix, and Fiona Apple (among others), …
One day at AWP I took a few hours to conceptualize and design a new kind of text overlay app. I started with the concept, a simple interface, and …
My sister has lived within an hour of New York City for a few years now. I'm not a city guy, but I can certainly love it for brief periods. How …
We went to find scarred landscape. I needed to see the environmental catastrophe that everyone around here has been talking about, trying to prevent. …
Metroid has been on my mind lately. It started when my kiddo obtained Nintendo Land / WiiU and found the Metroid level, which begins with the …
My friend Keith lives in a pretty sweet spot in New Hampshire. So the day after Christmas, while we were all in the same area, my life long friends …
Last month Adam Baker had a very impressive photo show in town. Having only seen his work as large as my browser window would allow I was blown away …
Seriously. Justin James Muir takes a good photo. When he sent me a few sample portraits for his beard book, titled A Book of Beards, my (bearded) jaw …
"Also known by the Indian name Tahawus, meaning Cloud-Splitter" I'm not really hiking all 46 Adirondack high peaks and it seems like cheating a bit …
Each year at the end of May all of Ithaca seems to come out for the Ithaca Festival parade! Sometimes it rains but this year we had beautiful …
I’m standing on what used to be Route 61, the now closed off southern path into Centralia, Pennsylvania. Underneath the road, and much of the old …
I recently released an instrumental album that tells the story of a spaceman (whose ancestors originated on Earth) returning home. I, for better or …
I posted this on Vimeo . I’ve been holding on to it for too long and putting off making the video, but here it is. This is in my opinion Radiohead’s …
Had it been a clear day this view 👇would have included Mount Washington and the beast we hiked on the exact same day last year, Mount Madison. But after only several minutes of abuse from the wind and snow we made our way back down. Because a lot of the time, the summit is only the halfway point of the hike.
So back up from that video three and a half hours to 10AM at the trailhead/parking lot.
The forecast predicted about four inches of snow but since last year we hiked through about a foot of fresh powder (with no snowshoes) we really didn’t have any concerns or reservations. Other hikers recently reported quite a bit of ice, too, so we welcomed the precipitation. Leaving the trailhead two hours later than planned wasn’t exactly ideal, so we started with a fast pace.
We moved so quickly that I had to shed my hood(s), hat, and big mittens. The elevation gain for this climb was 3150 feet over only four-ish miles. But by the first mile I was soaked in sweat. The air was 20 degrees Fahrenheit and the trees protected us from a pretty intense wind that we would ultimately have to face at the exposed summits. The goal was to make it to the top of Eisenhower first, then turn around and hit Mount Pierce on a slightly different descent. We passed seven people (I think) by the second mile and didn’t see another living thing during the entire hike.
We thought the snow started to fall harder and heavier but realized that we had left the tall trees behind. Without the comfort of branches above and around us the drop in temperature and increase in wind were extremely noticeable. I put my hat and hoods back on.
We found ourselves at the junction with the Webster Cliff Trail (at 4250 feet). The Appalachian Trail merged with our Crawford Path route and that is what we took to the top. It was noon, two hours after we had departed the parking lot.
This is where things started to get a little crazy. Like an idiot I left my goggles (and spare water) at home. The sunglasses I brought prevented my eyelashes from freezing, but didn’t help with the visibility at all. Pete led the way, only able to see one, sometimes two cairns ahead of us.
We knew we were close but had no idea where the trail would lead us. Despite being only 1.6 miles from the junction, it took us over an hour to finally make it to the top. It was tempting to ditch the switchback trail and plow over the fragile alpine plants in a straight line toward what looked like the top, but we kept on the path. Also, only a few days before this, two hikers blazed their own trail on Mount Adams (just a few peaks north of us, also in the presidential range). They ultimately had to be rescued in the middle of the night, after losing their way. Stay on the trail, people.
The summit: 4760 feet.
The wind was intense. 40mph, at least, with snow in the air. We couldn’t see anything. I don’t think our stay was more than five minutes. No celebratory food/drink, just acknowledgement of the first leg of our journey and return back to the tree line. Despite our intention to do the Eisenhower Loop, we returned the way we came (in the interest of time).
Food, glorious food. This was the first thing I had eaten since inhaling two donuts in the car in North Conway. I drank half a Gatorade and realized that my hands were numb (so were Pete’s, but he didn’t say anything about that until later). Even though our stop was only five minutes long, I worried that I paid for it with my fingers. Aside from being exposed to the elements for a bit, I think my sweaty mittens had cooled off. So sticking my freezing hands into something cold and wet didn’t help. They didn’t even feel cold, I just couldn’t feel them. But after about 15 minutes of hiking while blowing on my hands, the numbness turned to pain. Pleased that my fingers were still working, I took out my camera for more photos.
I don’t think we stopped at the summit of Mount Pierce. We weren’t even positive that we were at the summit, but we were still on the AT (and now on the Webster Cliff Trail) heading toward the closed Mizpah hut.
The hike down from here to the hut was challenging. It was steep and incredibly icy underneath the new snow. We fell/slid/baby-stepped our way down. It was a slow 0.8 miles.
We found fresh footprints at the hut, but didn’t see anyone. I can only imagine how great this place is when it is open. According to AT thru-hikers (Pete completed the trail from start to finish a few years ago) it is a pretty hot spot.
We took the Mizpuh cutoff to meet up with Crawford Path again, and made our way down as quickly as possible. I kept almost falling, unable to lift my feet high enough to clear the smallest of rocks. It was actually easier to move at a slow jog than it was to walk. We remembered that the bridge was near the start of the trail, which meant that our journey was almost over.
Success. It was 4pm, exactly six hours since we had started hiking. More importantly, it was 9.8 miles of hard work. Most of the cars that were in the lot had gone, and daylight was about to go, too. We had a 2.5 (traffic, snow, blah) drive back before the trip was officially complete. I think I ate food for two of those hours.
📍Ithaca, New York
Currently I write and release one open source song every week and make new type on Google Fonts through ETC👍