Last night was the opening of the Curved Paths Exhibition at East Sydney’s MTV Gallery, featuring the work of artist and designer forcefeed:swede and snowboard photographer Dan Himbrechts.

I was there with my camera and have posted some snaps on my Flickr page.

Sweet spot, as in preferred time to work, or get things done.

Here it is after midnight (on Wednesday morning, original time of writing), and while the rest of the building I live in is quiet and in darkness, the disassociated studio is still abuzz with activity.

While I enjoy working at this time, it’s not entirely out of choice. And it’s not because I’ve been asleep all day either. I woke up just before 10am this morning. Having been working until 1 or 2am the previous night of course.

The “work day” usually commences at around midday, but for some reason afternoons seem to be terrible times to work, if output is anything to go by.

To little avail I make lists, remove distractions, schedule appointments and non-work tasks outside, or around my work day, so I have a solid five or six hours during the day itself to work.

The plan is then to stop for a couple of hours and resume for an hour or two mid-evening. That sort of arrangement can work here, by the way, since there is no TV here to otherwise intrude on me.

In fact just about all about entertainment takes place off-premises, so it’s not like there’s raves or glamourous dinner parties sidetracking me either. Still there I am, at 1am, burning the midnight oil.

And I don’t buy into the idea that more is accomplished in a structured, nine-to-five environment either. Procrastination, web surfing, personal phone calls, emails, instant messaging, Facebook, and psychopathic colleagues, are all there at the office.

So maybe for me, and other work-from-home night owls, it is the opportunity to indulge in sleep, that proves to be the ultimate impetus to get on and work. Eight or so hours luxuriating in what feels like a state of suspended animation is certainly enticing.

The hours may not be particularly sociable, but the arrangement seems to work. Like it or lump it, here is my sweet spot, in the dead of night. Lucky then I live a city that mostly never sleeps.

Maybe I’ll yet find a way to be more productive during daylight hours, but I’m not holding my breath. As I say though, it works for me, and most of what I need to do does get finished.

Besides, the feeling of fulfillment and achievement I find here, at work day’s end, has eluded me in any other work situation I’ve been in so far.

A Burger Fit for The King

Burger King in the United Kingdom are set to elevate the humble hamburger to the upper echelons of fine dining with plans to include a mega-gourmet burger on the menu… at a mega-gourmet cost of £85, or about A$175.

How’s that for a, wait for it, whopper…

Burger King is rumored to have plans in the works to introduce a “premium burger” in select London upscale neighborhoods and suburbs. The sandwich will be made from top-quality Kobe beef from Japan and topped with foie gras, a French delicacy, and a gourmet blue cheese.

It better not have gherkins in it for that sort of price…

Are soloists just corporate misfits?

Are soloists, those who work alone, or for very small businesses, misfits?

No.

Are soloists, those who work alone, or for very small businesses, corporate misfits?

Yes.

And, over here, proud of it ;)

After all, it is hard being a cog in an engine when you would rather be the driver of the car. Employment makes you a cog, while flying solo lets you drive and plan the next trip.

Movie buffs listen up!

The guide for the 2008 Sydney Film Festival has hits the streets, and with 16 World premieres and 135 Australian premieres, there’s going to be a lot to take in :)

This year’s 55th Sydney Film Festival will host some of the world’s most dynamic and renowned filmmakers. From 4 - 22 June, the festival program will include 16 World Premieres, 135 Australian Premieres and a stunning array of red-carpet galas at Sydney’s majestic State Theatre.

Vincent Fantauzzo’s Heath Ledger portrait named Archibald Prize People’s Choice winner

On a recent visit to see the Archibald Prize portraits on busy Sunday afternoon at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Vincent Fantauzzo’s portrait of Heath Ledger was, not unsurprisingly, the hardest work to get to see close up on account of the interest in the painting, and its subject.

“I wanted it to be dealing with self, your own consciousness and your thoughts,” says Fantauzzo. “An artist is their own biggest critic. I had seen his eyes wander off or stare into the camera while doing interviews and wondered what he may have been thinking. I felt that being a celebrity, you are always under constant scrutiny with so many demands made of you that you have to hold part of yourself back and not give too much away.”

Happiness is … not having the children

This according to Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University, who was speaking at the Happiness & Its Causes conference in Sydney yesterday.

He said people’s happiness goes into steep decline after they have children, and never recovers its old level until the children leave home. As a source of pleasure, playing with one’s offspring rates just above doing housework but below talking with friends, eating, or watching TV, research has shown.

Watching TV is more fun than playing with your kids? M’kay…

Mid-thirties crisis? You’re having a thrisis

Let’s while life away lurching from crisis to crisis. The quarter-life crisis kicks in at 25. Mid-life crisis kicks in at 45. What to do in the intervening years? Have a thrisis… a life-crisis especially for people in their mid-thirties.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised, given our accelerated pace of life - kids drinking alcopops at 13 and reporting signs of burnout before they turn 18. Little wonder that, by 35, many of us feel exhausted, not to mention a little nonplussed about what’s next. Gladeana McMahon, co-director of the Centre for Stress Management, knows the phenomenon only too well. “I work with a lot of highly successful, driven people,” she says. “By their mid-thirties, a lot of them are tired. They’re sick of life and they wonder what it’s all about. They start questioning their values and what they’re doing.”

Combine that with anxiety as a teenager, the depression people in old-age experience, and you’d really begin to think life is spent lurching from crisis to crisis.

Why don’t we call the whole thing a lifisis, a whole-life crisis, and be done with it.

Zebra Striping: Does it Really Help?

Jessica Enders challenges the notion that “zebra striping”, that is applying faint shading to alternative lines of text or information, assists in better comprehending multiple rows of data, especially online.

Her research revealed there was a 4 per cent difference in comprehension error rates when reading zebra striped data against non zebra striped information.

Many believe that zebra stripes aid the reader by guiding the eye along the row. However, despite being in use in both paper and electronic mediums for almost half a century, there is practically no evidence that it actually assists users in this way. In June and July 2007, I conducted an extensive review of sources such as the International Association of Paper Historians, the Business and Forms Management Association, and the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, but found absolutely no information on the origins of or rationale behind zebra striping.

Zebra striping becomes an issue on websites as it can be a lot of effort to bring about (and to be honest it’s something I’ve not actually tried to do myself).

This in-depth article is certainly required reading for anyone considering incorporating such presentation into their web projects.

Juno: Creating the title sequence

Those who enjoyed the movie Juno as I did, may also enjoy this photo set which shows how the hand-animated title sequence was put together by Shadowplay Studio.

There’s actually an ironic reference to Shadowplay designers Gareth and Jenny in Juno, which some people would have found memorable.

(The same ironic sort of references apply here in Randwick also :)