I’m really thrilled with all the attention identi.ca is getting. Identi.ca is a new open-source microblogging platform. I think we’ve all felt a need for more competition in the microblogging field - rather than depending on a single microblogging company (Twitter).

I’ve also been disappointed with the lack of progress with Twitter. I’ve complained before that while most new applications suffer from feature-creep, Twitter suffers from feature-sleep. They’ve done almost nothing to make the service more useful or compelling since they started. It seems like all their time is spent trying to keep up with the growing demand for their servers.

Feature Idea for identi.ca

Respond to direct messages via email

In Twitter, you often get direct (private) messages sent to you via email. But to respond, you have to log back into Twitter and message that person. If someone is direct messaging me - it means they want to take the conversation off-line. There should be an option in identi.ca to allow users to take their conversations off-line and respond to direct messages via email.

Update: Go read Hugh McGuire’s post, “Why identi.ca matters” - this is basically the post I wanted to write.

These shirts are printing and shipping.

The script on the shirt is hangeul - which is Korean writing. Each of the four blocks represents a syllable and together they say “Oh-jing-aw-go”. Ojingogo.

I’m pretty excited to get mine.

If you buy one, please mail photos of yourself wearing the shirt to pics AT topatoco.com. They’ll go in this Topatoco flickr gallery.

I was asked to create a “sinister-looking flower” to accompany an article about microenvironments and cancer for the McGill News.

I had a lot of fun with the colours. I wanted them to be a little unsettling but also a little Sci-Fi.

I’ve had a few conversations in the last few days about this city and how much it means to me. Yesterday was St-Jean Baptiste day here in Quebec - a provincial holiday which gives us a chance to reflect on what is unique and wonderful about this place.

There was a party on my street, with the local shop owner giving away free Kefta to all the neighbours.

I’ve been here for three years and it’s simply my favourite city in the world. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else right now.

Bonne St-Jean.

Playing with different and elements colour schemes for the Ojingogo book cover.

This cover is taking an especially long time to pin down for some reason.

A short film written by Miranda July.

Oh Miranda… let me count the ways.

So I would go see these techno-thrillers, and the technology was totally wrong. You wouldn’t make a movie about ancient Rome in which people were driving hot rods, unless you’re Mel Brooks or something. It just doesn’t make any sense, right? If the movie is a historical film about Victorian England, you wouldn’t egregiously stick a bunch of televisions in the background. But there are all of these movies that are putatively about the technology we all use. In all those Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movies and so on, there’s technology that we all use. And presumably, from the last word of the screenplay being written to the last cut of the edit being made, hundreds and hundreds of people look at this film who use computers every day. And none of them seem to know that computers actually don’t emit a soft chime every time you type. It’s like they’re running Hollywood Operating System.

It’s not Windows, it’s not Mac, it’s Hollywood OS, and Hollywood OS not only doesn’t exist, it’s kind of dumb. And they’re doing it to create these artificial moments of plot tension, and you don’t need it, because technology is incredibly, inherently exciting. So wouldn’t it be great to write a techno-thriller that really just tried to talk about technology as it is, or as it plausibly could be, and still made it thrilling?

It’s like none of these people know anything about computers, and yet they’re purporting to—you know, M*A*S*H at least had the decency to hire doctors to advise them on medical terminology. It’s like these guys can’t even bother to go out and find a 12-year-old to tell them how computers work.

Last month I asked people to vote on their favourite T-Shirt colour and grey won by a landslide, with blue coming in second and orange a distant third. Twenty-seven kind souls responded with strong opinions. Thanks to everyone for their feedback, it was really great and confusing to read all the opinions.

My new T-shirt shop is over at the incredibly-awesome Topatoco.com - which is basically Jeffrey Rowland’s one-stop-shop for web-comic creators. They have tons of awesome shirts in the shop by Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), Kate Beaton (Glasses makes you sexy), and many others - including this new one by Jeffrey himself:

There are more over at my Flickr page also. (Trying out the new Wordpress gallery feature… what do you think?)

Also, I had the grey spots in mind when I sketched these in Morocco and then slapped them on this morning in Photoshop.

Each year I focus on a few things I’d like to improve in my illustrations. Last year it was buildings and landscapes. I’m still working on getting where I’d like to be, but I’m much more comfortable.

Morocco gave me a chance to work on my composition and landscapes and by the time I got to Paris I felt like I’d turned a bit of a corner.

Here are some sketches from Paris: