I admit I’ve been a bad blogger over the past while. Until a week or two ago, I had hardly written a thing. Sorry about that. It’s been a great year for new work, which makes me happier than a preteen girl at a screening of Twilight. Unfortunately, it has resulted in rather limit time to write.

For those who’ve been around me lately, I fear I’ve become a bit of a bore: Yet another “Glum Gus” trying to run the math around the way we interface with our planet—and perpetually finding results somewhere between daunting and terrifying. I won’t talk specifically about this today, but I will in posts to come. For now, I want to consider a strange paradox I find myself facing. I suspect I’m one of many asking the same series of questions, which seem to have so few clear answers.

Want an iPhone 4 in Canada? Well, you aren’t getting one… at least not without a long, long wait in perhaps one of the nerdiest lines one can imagine. That is, until tomorrow. My source says this Tuesday marks Apple’s “real” launch date for the iPhone 4, up here in the lovely, “great white north.”

Ominous clouds move swiftly upon an otherwise placid summer sky, blanketing it in darkness. A brief flash of light gives way to slow thunder that groans achingly in the distance. Our hero looks up past the brim of his dusty, worn hat—knowing and weary. An epic battle is afoot…  and this is how the movies begin.

The following is in response to an interview with Paula Scher on the blog Pr*tty Sh*tty. In it Josh Berta asked Paula questions about her work and design in general. A few of her remarks, surrounding socially-concentrated design, felt troublesome. Read the interview here and (if you’re so inclined) look over my response:

I begin this post with some misgivings. In writing it, I stand to alienate some, and potentially paint myself as short-sighted, unpatriotic, and even curmudgeonly. What I can’t quite shake is the sense that it needs to be said, even if many (perhaps even my mom) think less of me.

That’s right… I’m going to fail this year. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t really want to fail. Truth be told, it’s the kind of thing that completely messes with my head. Even contemplating doing so makes my uneasy, but I worry about the consequences of doing otherwise.

I probably haven’t ever noted this, but these Random Observations are a running project for me. In ways, they prove a respite of sorts from my otherwise lengthy posts. As I observe some kind of a rule or occurrence, I make note of it as succinctly as I can. (Some I admit, are contradictory—as is much in life, it seems.) Here are the latest:

Engineers need to complete a certain amount of schooling, coupled with applied practice, before earning their “ticket.” After doing so, they gain increased responsibility as they’ve worked through a structured and rigorous training process. I want to make the case for similar training and accreditation for designers.

It’s awfully easy to profess expertise when you’re playing with someone else’s money. Perhaps that’s part of why we remain skeptical at smashLAB. There are some great new tools out there, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to build a brand. That’s why we take on our own projects: so we have some skin in the game.