• shirt design detail

I’ll give you one of these shirts if you click here and donate $35 to the City of Hope

On May 3rd, I’ll be joining Shannon and her sister in The City of Hope’s 9th annual San Diego Walk For Hope. We’re currently raising money for the effort, and I’m excited to announce that if you donate at least $35 to the City of Hope, I will make a shirt for you with my own two hands. Shannon had her 5th grade students draw a menagerie of hearts that I arranged into the design you see above (here’s an even larger image of the design).

Once you’ve donated, send an email to SandysHope@gmail.com and let us know your shirt size (we only have men’s and women’s medium, large and extra large American Apparel shirts) and if you want the design printed in black or dark pink.

If you live in the San Diego metro area and order before April 24, we will get you your shirt on or before the walk on May 3. If you order by June 1, you will get your shirts about two weeks later.

About Sandy

Shannon lost her mom, Sandy, almost two years ago to breast cancer. Sandy received treatment at the City of Hope in 1995. After that treatment, her cancer went into remission for six years. Shannon will always be grateful to the City of Hope for giving her those extra years with her mom. I never met Sandy, but I’ll love her forever for raising such a wonderful daughter. I’m honored to pay homage to her life.

About The City of Hope

In their words, the City of Hope is an innovative biomedical research, treatment and educational institution, dedicated to the prevention and cure of cancer and other life-threatening diseases, guided by a compassionate patient-centered philosophy, and supported by a national foundation of humanitarian philanthropy. It has become a personal mission for Shannon to raise as much money for them as she possibly can. Obviously, there’s no way to value the extra years Shannon got to live with her mom, but raising money for research is a great way to provide that miracle to as many other families as possible.

How You Can Help

Obviously, you can donate, but you can also spread the word. If you don’t have any money to spare, please take a second to share this opportunity with someone else who might be interested. Email it, post it on Facebook or MySpace, bookmark it, send a telegram (or click on the link that says ShareThis below and follow the instructions there).

Thanks for reading this far, now donate!

Shan and I are huge fans of This American Life, so when Ira Glass talks, we listen. The above video of Ira explaining the inner workings of This American Life struck a chord. I’d love to master my domain as well as they master theirs.

I have something of an aversion to adages. I don’t like the idea of reducing the secret to life to a few words or a catch phrase. That said, it’s hard to argue with Glass’s point here—that you have to work a lot and be very discriminatory (willing to kill and enjoying it) when it comes to deciding what you publish out. Pretty concise. Pretty logical.

I hope my readers let me know when I’m boring them.

via 37 signals

I’m battling bronchitis and the pesky initial stages of getting a few projects off the ground. The research, the buying of materials, the shock of the mounting fixed costs.

But I meditated this morning, which helped a ton. I cleared out my mind and a few solutions walked right in. I’m amazed by how many times stopping and meditating has helped me figure things out. I’m more amazed that I don’t do it more often.

Back to work!

• iraq war
• osama bin laden with mild profanity

One thing that keeps me from printing all-day everyday is my inability to crank out designs to print. I work very well with Photoshop and Illustrator to come up with things based on photographs or other source material, but I’m not a great illustrator and I envy the designers who are fluent with pen and paper. I wish I could download infinite original images from my brain.

Well, the truth is that I can download infinite images from my brain, but they look funny because I can’t draw. See the above drawings inspired by this week’s hottest news items for proof.

I’m starting to think I should just go with it.

Some might say that Shannon and I are too good at gardening. The evidence? This 2′ tall bibb lettuce complete with alien flowery tentacle buds at the top. It reminds me of the ivory tower from The Neverending Story for some reason.

Others would say that we’re not super excited about bibb lettuce and let this one go. I pulled it up yesterday and replaced it with some romaine. Leave a comment to reserve some caesar salad sometime in May.