My Best Desktops is in the midst of a Halloween desktop wallpaper blowout! Head over there and download ‘em while they’re hot!

For a few years now, I’ve been designing or using some of my photography to make desktop wallpapers for my personal use. Sometimes, I would even make these available to the world via a couple different web outlets like my work site. The downloads have really been phenomenal for quite some time, so I’ve finally decided to launch a site just for these desktop wallpaper downloads.

Say hello to MyBestDesktops.com!

At this site, I’ll upload ALL of the past desktops and continue adding new desktops practically everyday for the foreseeable future! That means vector desktops, photo desktops, text based desktops, fun desktops, serious desktops, animal desktops, travel desktops and everything between!

So, check out MyBestDesktops.com and get downloading! I’ll do my best to remember to update it as often as possible.

I can sum up the 11th Annual Webby Awards proceedings which I attended this year in one word: lame. Seriously, Rob Corddry hosting was extremely not funny. So much so, that one of the winners used their allotted 5 word acceptance “speech” to point that out by saying: “funnier on the Daily Show.”

The rest of the proceedings were similarly flat, even the seemingly effervescent Mentos and Diet Coke fountain capper. I mean, when will people let that gag go?

The only fun came at the after-party at Hiro when DJ Jazzy Jeff spun some old-school jams to a floor of geeks and surprisingly sexy girls.

I should remember that in some way it was cool having contributed to a winning project and to only attend these functions for the free drinks!

Producing large websites the likes of sixflags.com for a company as unique as Six Flags Theme Parks is an undertaking so large, so full of potential pitfalls, and so amazingly complex that it’s no wonder complete interface to infrastructure redesigns of this size don’t happen all that often. That said, the all new web presence for Six Flags is a huge step into the future everyone involved should be proud of.

Highlights include large expanses of space for gorgeous new photography on nearly every page, massive video streaming at HD resolutions larger than many HDTVs, immersive 360 degree panoramic photography users can use to experience what it’s like to be at the top of the scariest rides on the planet, two original Flash games, over 2000 pages of rewritten copy, and more image assets depicting more rides, stores, events, entertainment, emotions and experiences than you can imagine across numerous park sites coast-to-coast!

The best part is that the new site will only just keep growing with more new content, new features, sweepstakes, partnerships with leading companies and more. So, sign up for the all new Team Six to stay up to date with the latest Six Flags news, but remember that despite the fact that this new site is chock full of experiential content, the only way to get the full Six Flags experience is to visit the one closest to you! Get your tickets, Season Passes, or VIP tours here and enjoy!

I gotta remember to visit Six Flags Great Adventure as soon as it opens!

Yes, I signed up for a GameFly account a few months ago. I thought, hey, my enjoyment of my relatively new Xbox 360 (and my gamerscore) could benefit from the membership, so why not. I set up my account with dreams of playing the latest and greatest games in existence floating in my head. What was delivered, again to be clear, was far from that pipe-dream.

I started by putting Just Cause in my number 1 slot (hey, I played the demo and was somewhat interested). I them placed a number of secondary games in my queue. I got Just Cause and played it for a month of so. I liked the idea of taking over regions as I had done with Saint’s Row, so I was in to it. But, fairly quickly the game began to drag on (hell, those cut scenes sucked, sucked, sucked). So, back it went to GameFly.

And what did I receive back from GameFly? None other than the third game on my list! A game I had placed on there basically just to have something in my queue. (I mean I owned the great games for the 360 and was using GameFly to spread my wings a little.) I wasn’t miffed or anything. I just tried to play the game, was barely interested and sent it back.

Then, I once again received the third game on my list. (I can’t even remember what it was, it sucked so bad.) So, after a couple attempts at playing it, I sent it back…

Then, I once again received the third game on my list! WTF is the problem with sending me some Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas!?! I want it. I’ve been wanting it. And yes, I still want it! But no, they sent me Enchanted Arms! Have you played this game!? It’s horrible and the voice acting could single handedly make anyone hate video games. After about 20 minutes of attempting to play this game, I packed it up and sent it back.

Than, I once again received the third game on my list!! No Kidding! Yes, Phantasy Star Universe was on it’s way to me. When you think about it, this game wasn’t really number 3 on my list, but actually something like number 6! It only became number 3 after I received a bunch of other game I had little interest in.

As you can imagine, I was miffed. I filled out the form on GameFly complaining. On February 2nd, I wrote:

I’ve consistently received the 3rd game in my queue rather than the first ones. This is very disappointing and I expect I’ll cancel my service if I can’t get the games I want.

On February 5th, I received the following:

Dear Patrick,

If you would rather wait for the game to become available and NOT have the next available game ship, keep an open rental slot by removing all other available games from your GameQ and return a game. When a copy does become available, it will get sent to the member who’s had it in their GameQ the longest and has an open rental slot at that time.

Please note that we do not recommend removing all other games from your GameQ as you would be missing out on receiving games and we will not credit for unused service time.

Wait a second. Did they just say that they’ll ship the first game when they’re good and ready and instead of receiving my 3rd in line, I should just wait for my number one and keep paying monthly dues!?!

Am I wrong in thinking that I pay monthly dues to receive games I want when I want them, and not wait for months (it has been that long) to receive the game in my first slot? I didn’t think so, so I went to their site to cancel my account.

This was additionally fun.

First when I started to cancel my account, I received the following:

Patrick, you still have 12 days left until your next billing period. If you choose to cancel your account now, your cancellation will be effective as of today, and you will not receive a refund or credit for unused time. Are you sure you want to cancel your membership now

Hmm, I’m canceling my account, yet they still want to hose me on the membership. Thanks. I bite the bullet and hit “continue canceling” only to receive:

While GameFly’s in-stock rate is far higher than any other online rental service can offer, we realize it can be frustrating if the game you want is not available. As compensation for your availability issue, GameFly is happy to give you a special, one-time offer on your next month of service for only $9.95 - that’s a 30% savings!

Bastards! So, they don’t want to service me correctly, but want to give me a 30% savings instead!? I would be happier getting that extra 30% of service rather than the 30% savings! Why don’t companies understand this!? This only made me more upset, so I continue canceling only to get this:

Yes, they remind me again, that I’m losing money by canceling their crap-ass service, but the most important thing to notice is this:

All rented games must be received by GameFly within 7 days of cancellation or you will be charged the full retail price.

Whoa! Not another month’s price? Not something fair? No, the entire retail price of the game! I know there have been many exclamation points in this post, but seriously, WTF is up with this? That’s literally 5 to 6 months of membership at my plan’s cost.

Of course, with the approximately 5 day postage on GameFly games, no matter what, you’re cutting it close… But I hadn’t even received the game yet!

The bottom line is, that until GameFly can offer service on par with NetFlix (which I never have trouble getting the number 1 movie in my queue) then they’re offering a service that will frustrate and confuse people. Add to that their “screw you if you don’t like it” attitude and they become a company I will never do business with again. It literally becomes cheaper to buy the games yourself and return them, then play their game.

I’m sure I’ll have no problem remembering: GameFly sucks.

It’s amazing how fast things can grow online through shared interests, especially around major events like the New York City Marathon. After checking out the marathon passing less than a block from my place, I uploaded a couple photos to Flickr. I guess because the marathon wasn’t even done by the time I did that (and since I’m only 6 miles or so from the start) no one had started a Flickr group to cover this year’s marathon yet.

So, I started the NYC Marathon 2006 group and put my couple measly photos in there… Under a week later there are now 36 members with over 619 photos!

I need to remember to use more online groups to check out other people’s creativity.

I feel like I’ve been so unbelievably consumed with working lately, that’s I’ve forgotten why I enjoy creating things in the first place. Back when I used to spend almost all my freetime drawing and painting, a girlfriend at the time confusedly asked me why I spent so much time creating stuff when I never attempted to get exposure through gallery exhibitions, etc. It was such an obvious question, but never occured to me before. I created because I created. It was what I did. What I always wanted to do.

Anyway, getting a job creating can leave you not wanting to do any creating when you finally get some free time and that’s been the unfortunate circumstances as of late. Luckily, I can still try to at least remember to check out other people’s “pointless” creations like the ones by H. Hoogerbrugge. I’ve noticed this Flash artist before, but had forgotten about him.

Remember to check out his Modern Living — the Neurotica Series.

Via Screenhead.

It seems like I often find myself digging through Federal Government sites for forms from copyright info, to other small business stuff. Well, in some freak of the cosmos, the US government decided to make something easy for me. Now all federal forms (other than spying and bombing related ones I would imagine) can all be found in one somewhat attractive web site. It even has the top 5 “Frequently Used Forms” on the front page.

If they’re not careful, I might start to think that my tax money is actually going to things that make my life easier. Thankfully, I’ve got this Death and Taxes map to remind me otherwise.

Via Lifehacker.

Being that this site is all about memory (or the lack there of) and that I do interactive work for a living, I was bound to come across something from the design world not only directly tied to memory, but also something I wanted to remember… if that makes any sense.

All that convoluted mess aside, Getty Images “collaborated with five leading designers to create 10 ways: interactive experiences that explore what makes visual language so powerful.”

Some of the pieces are interesting (some maybe not so much) but obviously the one that caught my eye was Memory. Created by the Barbarian Group, it initially displays an image inviting the user to draw on top of it. While drawing, the image fades away. I really can’t decide whether I enjoy the concept or not, but the execution is engaging and thought provoking.

Don’t forget Memory or the other 10 Ways explorations.