Watching and Reading

(Online) Comics I’ve been reading

• Butternut Squash – Start at the beginning. Polished style. Crude humour. Hilarious. (Thanks for pointing this out, Jon!)
• Kukuburi – Start at the beginning. Elaborate style. Adventure. Bit of a slow start. Actually the plot’s still unravelling, but the art is pretty and the story is getting interesting. (By the same guy as BNS.)
• Octopus Pie – Start at the beginning. Well written. Funny. Simple style.
• Basic Instructions – Start Anywhere. Sterile “instruction manual illustration” style. *gasp!* Kinda wordy, but has its moments.

Some fascinating TED videos I’ve been watching

• Colour and pattern changing sea life (the octopus is amazing!) All the following videos were in the “related” section.
• The Mantis Shrimp will kick your ass. I remember my diving instructor pointing one of these little guys out to me, but warning not to get too close, because it could crack my mask. 😮 Very cool.
• The odd Mola Mola fish. Great presentation and presenter.
• The life of ant colonies from someone who’s been studying them for 20 years.

Some books I’ve been reading

• Python – Essential Reference by David Beasley: This book is exactly what it says; an essential reference. The first section is an incredibly concise introduction to Python and should be read by everyone. The rest is nice to scan over to see what’s available and keep as a reference. I’d compare it to the K&R C programming book. This book is meant for programmers.
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman: Pretty much considered required reading material for usability folk. Well written, lots of examples, and often entertaining.
• Character Design for Mobile Devices by NFGMan: I’ve looked at every beautiful, full-colour page. Some great pixel art and history in here. But I’ve read almost nothing. I didn’t really get it to read, I guess. Makes my desk look h-a-w-t.