It was time. I’m surprised it didn’t happen a couple of years ago. But my beloved computer has finally died.

Three days ago, I turned my 12 inch Apple PowerBook on and I got the blue screen of death. Instead of OSX booting up, my hard drive just spun and spun and spun. It offered me nothing, not even the booting up dinging noise.

I hoped it was only the operating system and that a simple reinstall or repair would fix my problem, but I was pretty sure it was my hard drive. The Mac technician confirmed that today.

Two hard drives and almost five years later, I’m not mad. I’m just pretty stoked that my computer lasted as long as it did. But I won’t be replacing the hard drive this time. I have decided to purchase a new computer.

Here comes the hard part:

• I know enough about computers to know what will not work for me.
• But I don’t know enough to not pay too much for a system.

So I’m going to lay out my options for you, my dear reader, to help me figure out what my new computer is going to be.

I only have one must: It must be an Apple computer .

Why? Because I have invested a good amount of money in primo software programs and I don’t think it would be very cost efficient to switch to a PC. Plus, in my line of work, Macs are better.

I have two widescreen 19 inch monitors, a Wacom tablet and a Logitech keyboard and mouse. So I really haven’t been thinking about the iMac. I’m also not considering the Air because I need a DVD burner and don’t really want to purchase one separately.

Currently, I am leaning toward the MacBook, but I don’t need a laptop. My previous computer was a laptop, but I hardly take my computer anywhere. And it might be a good idea to cut out the temptation of watching TV and playing on the computer because I don’t get much done unless I’m at my desk without any distractions.

It would seem that I am leaning toward the Mac Pro, but my freelance designing isn’t paying enough right now to warrant laying down almost three grand for a computer.

I have looked into the Mac Minis, but part of the reason my PowerBook lasted so long was because I had plenty of room to upgrade as the programs I used became more RAAM and hard drive hungry. The minis don’t seem to offer this advantage.

So here I am again at the MacBook. I don’t think I need the Pro because I run Adobe CS2 and probably won’t upgrade for a while.

I remember the day I bought my PowerBook. I paid $1,000 from a guy who decided he didn’t like Apple’s operating system and wanted to get rid of it. Over the years, I put close to $300 into it.

The 2.4 GHz Aluminum MacBook starts at $1,600 from Apple’s Web site, so that’s only $300 more than I paid for my old one. And that’s not bad.

However, this is only how I’m feeling today. Yesterday all I wanted was the Mac Mini and the day before that I thought it was a good idea to hammer down and get the Mac Pro. So I’ll probably change my mind again tomorrow.

Any suggestions?

- “I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”

For all you font geeks out there, this video is for you.

I found it a while ago, but periodically check back in when I need a good geeky laugh. 

Font Conference at CollegeHumor.com

Just for the record, I really dislike Comic Sans. (If you watch the video, you’ll understand.)

But, I have a huge soft spot for fonts. If you watched me look through a font catalog, you would think I was looking at vacation packages to exotic destinations. I oh, and ah at really cool fonts and dream of what could I could design with each one.

My favorite part about fonts, is their ability to immediately set a tone and feel for a whole project. The process I go through to pick a font or fonts for a project always helps me get back to the roots of the message I am trying to convey with my art / design. In my opinion, a font can say a lot about the message.

Here is a short list of my favorite fonts in different font categories.

• San serif - Myriad Pro (I use semibold condensed the most)
• Serif - Caslon (I use Adobe Calson, but I like all the variations)
• Calligraphic/gothic - Black Chancery (I got this font from 1001fonts.com. It is a gothic variation of Apple Chancery.)
• Script - Burgues (I have not purchased it, but you can get this font from Veer.com. It is created by Alejandro Paul and I tend to like all his fonts.)

- “I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”

I uploaded a new header for the blog today. The vector of the woman on the left side is one that I got from Garcya’s blog . He has a collection of vectors called Art City that I absolutely love. I got them a while ago, but they are still rotating in and out as my desktop background. He also has a whole section of free vectors and the site is a great place to go to for ideas.

I decided to go with red as the main color for the header and I added in a bit of grey as well. I tried not to get too carried away with color because I wanted the header to remain simple and easy to take in at a quick glance. I used scriptina for the main font and myriad pro condensed for the tagline.

Do you like it? I’m open to suggestions.

- “I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”

Today I used a computer mouse for the first time in several months. A co-worker asked me to look at something on his computer and when I reached for the mouse, I realized how unfamiliar the feeling of using one is for me.

See, back in high school I broke my right wrist snowboarding (I’m right handed by the way.) and have always had problems using a mouse for too long. Given the fact that I am in front of a computer for eight-plus hours a day, I jumped on the tablet bandwagon pretty early on.

I have a tablet that I use at home with my desktop and I also purchased a tablet that I use at work. When I’m not using my tablet at home, I am generally on my laptop, which has a trackpad.

This experience led me to ask myself if the computer mouse might be in the early stages of becoming obsolete.

I look at the touch screen technology that HP is so heavily marketing, combined with the Apple MacBook Pro multi-touch trackpads and wonder where the mouse’s place will be in the future.

I say good riddance. I don’t like ‘em. I rather use a trackpad or my stylus. It is easier on my wrist and I like the versatility of pressure sensitive drawing.

My dream, is for Apple or Wacom to come out with a hybrid tablet/trackpad that is sans stylus and I can use my fingers to move the cursor. Why not just go for touch screen, you ask? Because I don’t want to be holding my hand up chest high for 8 hours a day.

- “I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”

I recently ordered a protective skin for my husband’s LG Dare from Skinit.com . This site isn’t new, but I didn’t realize the amount of fun I would have designing my own skin.

Skinit.com offers protective stickers that do not damage the electronic device and can be reapplied if needed. These skins are burly and are specifically die cut for whatever device you want to use: computers, cell phones, PDAs, iPods, etc.

About a year ago I purchased a skin for my Apple PowerBook, but all they had at the time were premade designs. But, now you can upload your own images and photos, or go into the Skinit customizer and choose between a combination of your own images and theirs.

After playing on the site for an hour, I finally decided to create my own vector image using some elements of a previous project, combined with a free beer glass vector I snagged from Benblogged.com.

I used Adobe Illustrator to create the design. I didn’t worry about size or shape; I just started having fun and then cropped my finalized design down a bit.

We use our phones, computers and iPods every day, and it has been pretty awesome to see a design I created on the outside of his phone.

These skins would make great gifts or they could be used to promote your own brand. Oh, and they also keep your expensive gadgets protected from wear and tear.

- “I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”

Hello, and welcome to I’m designer.

While this blog will primarily focus on graphic design, don’t be fooled into thinking that this is just another one of those graphic design blogs that you might check out once in a while to get a free vector.

What’s the difference? Well, I’m not a traditional graphic designer. By day, I am a visual journalist. I work for a newspaper doing page layout and design, as well as editing. And by night, I indulge in many different facets of the world of design. I work on freelance projects and create cool things for my friends and family to enjoy.

If you love to create, you’ll have a lot of fun here. I am a highly collaborative individual and enjoy discussion and feedback on my own work (which I will post here from time to time), and learning about the creative things other people out in the world are working on.

I welcome all traditional graphic designers and non-traditional ones as well as photographers, writers, editors, digital scrapbookers, web designers, etc.

Have fun on the site and keep in touch.

-”I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”