I'm writing to express my concern regarding the plan to regulate and censor the internet. I understand the good intentions and motivations behind the scheme, but am deeply concerned from a logistical as well as ethical point of view. I will keep this brief as you will be receiving contact from thousands of other concerned Australians and I do want my voice to be heard.

We can't stop the flow of undesirable content on the internet, and to attempt to regulate the policed parts of the internet misses the point as the vast majority of the kind of content you're seeking to protect us from isn't located or disseminated in the same way as regular internet content. Protecting people from this kind of content is problematic at best.

Logic dictates that on the well regulated sections of the Internet can be more easily monitored and traced for law enforcement which would yield far better results than treating it like it doesn't exist. I (and the rest of the Australian internet community at large) would personally much prefer to see more resources put into the hands of the federal police and groups who tackle these sort of issues on the ground than in something we know to be fatally technically flawed from the outset.

The other technical issues aside and I'm sure you've heard them all before and are not likely to be dissuaded on this, there's a greater ethical issue at stake. It is inherently dishonest to represent this as an effective tool to fight child predators as banning access to websites certainly doesn't help identify them. The moral imperative to protect our community and our most vulnerable means that the most effective approach is surely the approach we must take.

It simply unethical to proceed down this road when there are other avenues that offer a much greater level of protection to our community. To squander our resources in this way when it could be more effectively used is sickening. Simply restricting access to certain sites provides no deterrent, it provides no way of monitoring these people, and it doesn't achieve what it sets out to achieve. I'm asking you to please reconsider and have a full and frank discussion with experts and the Australian public. We care deeply about our freedoms and we care deeply about our most vulnerable and we're convinced there are better ways of dealing with these issues.

Get Up - Save the Net

Uh oh. :)

So I got some great news today. There's a book I submitted work to ages ago and they are printed and I get a copy. Hurrah!

A little bit about the book. Ethan Bodnar, a seriously talented young designer had a bit of an idea where he would call for designers to show a.) a bit of their regular work, and b.) be assigned a task which is not something they normally do. I got digitally manipulate a photograph, which basically entailed combining my vector illustration style with a photo. Now I'm actually quite scared to see how my work stacks up beside all the other amazing designers but I'm really happy to have been given this opportunity.

And quite just stunned at how talented this young designer is. I know he's embarking on what is likely to be an amazing career, and it goes to show that inspiration comes from the least expected places.

Thanks Ethan, you rock.

You may find more about the Creative Grab Bag Book here and I will add some snaps from the book when it arrives!

(p.s sorry for cross posting this for anyone who reads this blog and my work one)

I am so lucky to have very close mates and sometimes I don't remember how amazing it is to have these huge extended family and collection of people that care for me. And it's not just that they've put up with their kid's friends, but welcomed us all in as surrogate family members and I'm so grateful for each and every kindness they have shown me. I know that they've helped me become a better person and I love them all.

It's an awesome mix too as I will be sharing the building with a new gallery which is also very exciting. I will share more details on that as they are ready for public consumption.

So - This is my new space for being creative and messy. I will share more pics as it's cleaned up and made ready to use - I've got some measurements and the next few weeks are already looking totally flat out so I will be concentrating on planning and getting it all worked out in my head.

I will also be updating my flickr stream with more pics as they happen.

I've found some space to do printmaking in! Super excited! I will document that as it happens, but right now, just really happy to have found a spot to make a mess in and do some printmaking with my letterpress and screenprinting gear. Can't wait to start getting some details and plans in place.

Lovely tumblog with letterpress love and other really nice stuff. I found this person through twitter and am so far convinced it's the most useful/inspiring thing to come out of twitter for me.

Midwest Kern

There's a story behind this link. When I was in 1st year at Art School our course teacher bailed and before the replacement came, we had this guy (Chris Downes) came in, and he was our lecturer in design for about half of first year. Maybe more, I can't remember. I was drinking a lot of cask wine back then.

Anyway, he was an awesome teacher and he made a huge difference to my experience of art school, and really helped me think about design in a different way. Having the confidence to do stupid, self indulgent type treatments and illustrations on gig posters sprang from my experience learning from this guy. Some times you realise that people play a larger and more important role in your education and how you do what you, and it was only on reflection I realised how much Chris had helped me out. It wasn't just me either, I was talking to some other ex-art school graphic design students and their faces literally lit up when they talked about him and how he affected them. That's something pretty special I reckon.

A few weeks ago, (the day I proposed to Jen actually) I bumped into him at the Odd + Even market and got the chance to say a thankyou to him for being awesome. So I did - and even though I was a bit embarrassed it was totally worth it.

He keeps a semi daily comic blog and it's just bloody beautiful. Check it out, as he's a nice guy and does lovely work.

Diary of a work in progress.

And finally, for video game love, there's just about no nicer pair of sites to visit than Offworld and Rock Paper Shotgun. A plan for later this year is to see if I can design a game visually and get it up on Offworld to see if I can hook up with a coder to make it happen. I got Offworld'ded a while ago and I think I could do something nice and see if I can add another string to my bow.

This one really goes out to my Hobart peeps, but if you know anyone...

I have a towering pile of work to do and I really have struggled to get on task with the combined effect of being completely over the moon about getting engaged followed up by random headcold.

As soon as I'm feeling up to it I desperately need to get back to the gym. It's frustrating but I don't want to go there while I'm sick and get worse. Blech.

Heaps of our lovely friends have been in touch to wish us well and I think I've realised how lovely people are in the world. So that's just lovely - thankyou everyone because it's a really nice reminder about the cool folks we know and have become friends with over the years. Especially the Melbourne folks who we miss heaps.

I have setup an account for jen to post to this and we'll have a go at blogging together to share our experiences over the next few months and to see if I can trick Jen into playing on the internet.

With a sideways thankyou to pip stafford who jen and I think probably coined the best ever way to say yes (please).

:D