iPhone mania is coming Friday. People are posting on Craig’s List hoping to hire someone to stand in line for them (lines have already started at one New York store.) I smell a career opportunity here. Find a wealthy businessman and offer to stand in line for him at the post office, the grocery store, the DMV…yessir, big money!

Last week I finally bought the new Adobe CS3 suite. Kinda buggy, but overall I really like the new look and feel of the applications. The new menus and palettes are a bit disorienting at first but I’ll adjust soon. So far my only complaints are that merging layers in Photoshop feels clumsy, Bridge keeps crashing, and Paris Hilton is still in the news.

Today I went to the book store and bought some new software reference books for CS3. I also bought Designing a Digital Portfolio by Cynthia Baron. I’ve been wanting to re-design my website for a while now. This book, combined with a workshop I attended at Flashbelt, has me convinced that my site doesn’t just need a fresh look, it needs a major overhaul. I enjoy tinkering around in Dreamweaver, I may even try using CSS in the new design. If I can find the time (which will be tough if this standing-in-line thing works out.)

My sleep schedule has been off lately, thanks to insomnia and converging deadlines. When I was single I would often stay up all night working on freelance projects. One of the perks of working at home and living alone was that I could work, eat, and sleep whenever I felt like it. For several years I went through a strange cycle where I couldn’t sleep until I had been awake for at least 20 hours, causing my waking hours to gradually shift around the clock from nights to days over about a 3 or 4 week period. Now that I’ve got a wife and baby that’s not working out so well. I’m trying to get my body to adjust to a normal schedule, but every couple of weeks I still get attacked by insomnia. I wonder if being a night owl is something innate, like being left-handed, or if its something that can be unlearned?

Have you seen the new Geico commercials? (“There are better ways to spend 15 minutes on the internet”). The caveman thing was funny but is getting stale. It’s great to see them trying something new. You’ve got to hand it to the Geico ad folks, their campaigns have consistently stood out amidst the cluttered advertising landscape. Not an easy feat.

Finally, my wife and I have joined Blockbuster Total Access. Not that we watch that many movies, but we have a Blockbuster just down the street so it will be nice to exchange movies immediately instead of waiting for tomorrow’s mail. The no late fees thing will also be nice since movies sometimes sit on our shelf for quite a while before we finally get around to watching them. We rented “Pursuit of Happyness” twice and still haven’t seen it. We’re trying the cheapest Blockbuster plan (2 movies a month for 6 bucks) so we’ll see how it goes. We’re going to start with the classics we’ve never seen. Cassablanca is first, then it’s Bonnie and Clyde, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and eventually Little House on the Prairie season 3.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave you’ve heard about the upcoming release of Apple’s new wonder-gadget, the iPhone. I’m a bit of a Machead, and I’ve been excited about the iPhone ever since Steve Jobs introduced the dazzling new product back in January. It’s a truly amazing device…but also an expensive one. The “cheap” model is $500, and the more expensive model with twice as much memory is $600.

To use the phone you have to switch to Cingular/AT&T with a 2-year commitment. Fortunately I’m already a Cingular customer. However, the rumors are that Cingular will charge an additional fee of $30 or $40 per month to use the iPhone’s internet capabilities. Add taxes and fees and you’re looking at a minimum of $400 per year, times two years equals $800. Add in the $600 cost for the phone, and suddenly the iPhone has a total cost of $1,400.

But the iPhone is such an amazing device that for me it just might be worth it. Maybe. To learn about all of its incredible features, visit the official iPhone website or watch Steve Jobs give a snazzy demonstration. A quick Google search will also reveal that there are plenty of websites praising (and criticizing) the iPhone. Either way, its sure to revolutionize the cell phone industry.

Here’s a list of some of the Pros and Cons that I am personally weighing as I consider whether or not to buy one:

PROS
(My current cell phone has some nice features, i.e. syncs with my computer’s address book and calendar, so for me this is a fairly short list).

1. Virtual voice-mail is a smart feature. But I would rarely use it since I don’t get that many voice mails at once.

2. Being able to browse the full internet and check my e-mails anywhere, anytime would be great. I would use that feature a lot. I mean a lot. Take shopping for example. If I’m in a bookstore and considering the purchase of a book or DVD, I could jump onto Amazon.com and see if someone is selling a used copy cheaper than what the bookstore is asking. If you can access the internet anywhere, anytime, that opens up a lot of possibilities.

3. I could listen to podcasts and other iTunes content even if I don’t have my iPod along. However, it is unclear to me whether I could listen through the speakerphone or if I would have to carry headphones with me.

4. It would be great to easily enter new events into iCal.

5. The Google Maps application looks like a great feature. You can even save certain locations as favorites. For example, my sister moved earlier this year and I always had trouble figuring out how to get to her new place. It would have been nice to have it saved as a favorite so I didn’t have to look it up every time.

CONS

1. Price. This phone ain’t cheap. Can I really afford it? Are the convenient features really worth the cost?

2. A slow connection. The phone theoretically will let you surf the web and send an e-mail and talk on the phone all at the same time. If you are in a free wi-fi environment that should be no problem (although free wi-fi environments are rare). But if you are out and about, the only option is AT&T’s Edge network, which I hear is disappointingly slow compared to their competitors. Maybe even as slow or slower than regular dial-up. (EDIT: According to this article, it takes half a minute for a web page to load on the Edge network.) Clients frequently send me e-mails with attachments, and I’m not sure I want to wait five minutes or more to download my latest e-mails. And if Apple ever does get around to supporting faster networks, could that be fixed with a software update or would I have to buy another iPhone?

3. A related problem with e-mail: How does that work with two devices (my computer and my iPhone) both checking the same e-mail? When my computer downloads e-mail, I can tell it to either delete the e-mail from the server or leave it there. If I have it set to delete, and then use my iPhone to check my e-mail, the message will then disappear from the server and my studio computer will never be able to retrieve it. On the other hand, if I have it set to NOT delete, then both devices will download the same messages each time they check for e-mail. Either option sounds inefficient to me. Or is there a way to work around this? (If you know of one, please leave me a comment.) (EDIT: Apparantly this problem is solved with something called “push e-mail”.)

4. The phone may not have voice dialing, a feature I use a lot on my current phone (especially while driving). Apple has not said whether it does or doesn’t. Since Apple has repeatedly drawn attention to all the other features, I worry that no news is bad news.

5. The iPhone’s memory is pretty small. The only options are 4GB and 8GB. Add in all the software and you won’t have much room for storing video (i.e. TV shows or movies). I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if a year from now Apple releases new models that are 10GB or 20GB in size (that’s the strategy they’ve used to get people to keep buying bigger and better iPods). Maybe I should wait until a bigger model comes out before plopping down my hard earned-cash?

6. The truth is I don’t really NEED an iPhone. It’s pretty much just a luxury item that would make certain aspects of my life a little easier. And as a Christian I’m not supposed to covet. So I really should only buy it if I truly believe it would be a worthwhile purchase from a practical standpoint. Which it might be. Maybe.

Either way, I know I won’t be buying an iPhone when they are released on June 29 since my local Apple store will be a madhouse. I’d rather wait a couple of weeks and read what iPhone users have to say online. Maybe the product will have some as-of-yet unknown flaws. Or maybe it will be more amazing than expected. Who knows? Besides, Apple will probably sell out on June 29, forcing me to wait a couple of months before more arrive in stores.

Is anyone else planning to buy one? Let me know what you think.

Introducing a new art blog by the amazing and talented Sherwin Schwartzrock. He’s not only a terrific artist, but he can play the Star Spangled Banner with his armpit. Okay, I made that part up. But he really is a stellar designer, illustrator, and comic book artist. Check it out.

Allow me to veer off the artistic path for a moment…

According to this USA Today article, if we wanted to pay off the Federal Government’s debts right now that’s how much every American household would have to pay. If you don’t happen to have half a million in spare change lying around, how about an installment plan? You could pay $31,000 a year (or $2,580 per month) for 75 years and that would do it.

If you’ve got a lot of credit card debt, you might find some comfort here. You’re spending peanuts compared to the debts the government is racking up for you.

Does this concern anyone else? The next time you hear a politician complain that we aren’t spending enough on this or that program, ask yourself…Isn’t the government spending more than enough already?

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Greetings, faithful blog reader. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’m in a bit of a time crunch. I’ve taken on a large project that I’m super excited about. I can’t say too much, but thanks to a referral by the guys at FunnyPages Productions I’ve been hired as a character designer for a new animated tv show that will be airing soon (this fall I think) on one of the major networks. The show is funny, the concept is clever, and it’s produced by a company that I’ve always wanted to work for. In many ways it’s my dream job.

There’s only one catch. The gig will likely only last a couple of months and then its back to regular freelancing. Which means if I turn away my regular clients now to focus on the show, they won’t be there when my involvement with the show is over. By then they’ll have found other artists. That would not be good. So, I’m essentially trying to work two full-time jobs for a couple of months. Fortunately I have a very understanding and supportive wife, and because I work at home I can take short breaks throughout the day to spend time with her and our baby girl. But for now I won’t be posting as often as I have been. But there are plenty of great art blogs listed to the right to tide you over. Give them a looksee!

In other news, I’ll be down in Orlando next weekend (May 24-27) for the Reubens, the annual get-together of the National Cartoonist’s Society. It’s a weekend conference on cartooning capped off by an awards banquet. The awards (Reubens) are named after one of the NCS founders, I think. I’ve been an NCS member for several years but this will be my first time attending a Reubens weekend. From what I hear its a ton of fun, and the event is attended by some pretty big names in the fields of cartooning, illustration, and animation. Personally I don’t put too much stock in awards when it comes to the arts (Oscars, anyone?). When you reach a certain level of excellence, there’s no real way to single out one excellent artist as “more excellent” than all the others. But it should be a fun weekend nonetheless.

Finally, I’ve discovered a new website called Illosaurus that seems to be a great collection of resources for illustrators. A lot of it is UK-centric, but the site is helpful nonetheless. Check it out.

It’s 3am and I just got home from the midnight premiere of Spider-Man 3 at my local Imax theater. All I can say is “Wow!” These guys sure know how to make a good movie. In fact, this may be the best Spider-Man film yet.

First, they’ve topped themselves in the special effects department. The action scenes and sense of vertigo were pretty amazing in Spider-Man 2. Who’d of thought the bar could be raised any higher? Of course, it helps to watch the movie on a giant Imax screen that is six stories tall and completely fills your field of vision. Still, the eye candy was pretty amazing.

But what really makes it a great film is the story. In the classic Spidey tradition, Peter Parker’s personal life is a mess during most of the film, even pushing him into heartbreak and depression. But unlike the previous films, this time his problems are mostly his own doing. Parker spends part of the film wearing a special organic black suit that “feeds” off of him like a host. The suit heightens his powers and gives him a rush of exhileration, but it also draws out the worst in his human nature. I don’t want to give too much away, but Peter does some pretty awful things and his bad behavior has very real and tragic consequences. Yet given the circumstances his actions are understandable and we sympathize with him even when he is being a total jerk. There are also some humorous chuckle moments sprinkled throughout the film which keep it from taking itself too seriously.

The movie also explores powerful themes like revenge and forgiveness, and even the importance of self-sacrifice in marriage. In one scene Peter decides to propose to Mary Jane. Before giving her blessing, his Aunt May tells him, “A husband must put his wife’s needs ahead of his own,” and asks, “Are you ready to do that?”

Even the three villians are sympathetic (well, two of them are anyway). When I first heard there would be three villians I rolled my eyes, fearing the writers were running out of good stories to tell and instead trying to pad the movie with over-the-top action. I needn’t have worried. While the movie does ask you to suspend disbelief–I had a hard time believing that a living, breathing human being could be made entirely of sand–somehow the movie’s larger story draws you in to even the most implausible moments. I think that’s part of the appeal of Spider-Man. He’s a superhero who deals with very real problems we can all relate to. Despite having super powers Spider-Man is very flawed. As are we.

The first Spider-man film had an underlying moral theme (“With great power comes great responsibility”). This film also weaves a morality tale. Towards the end of the film one of the characters tells us we all have a choice in how we respond to our difficulties. We can either do the natural thing (be bitter, hold a grudge, get revenge), or we can do the noble thing (forgive, put other’s needs ahead of our own). Forgiveness and self-sacrifice are powerful Christian themes. If we are honest, when someone hurts us our sinful natures prefer bitterness and revenge. Why is it the right thing to do is often the hard thing?

I happened to have a few Are You a Good Person? mini-comic gospel tracts on me. So as we left the theater, I stood outside the door and handed them out. “Did you get one of these?” I would ask. Due to the movie’s themes, it seemed like a good thing to do. I was pretty nervous, but amazingly most people took them and some even asked for more. Maybe watching a cool superhero movie put people in the mood for reading a comic book?

Anyway, go see Spider-Man 3. And if you can, see it on a giant Imax screen. This Spider-Man truly is amazing.