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Sunday, November 02, 2003 |
This week in Melbourne it has mostly been raining. Looking forward to summer which will be starting very soon! Yesterday we bought a pram which has made the imminent arrival of Baby Jaz seem scarily real. The pram is a transformer and by pulling and poking various levers it turns from a pram into a battlebot small enough to fit in the boot of a car. Currently I am enjoying the music of 'Puss' a duo who make great electronic music with two gameboys.
Jared Smith 4:23 AM
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Wednesday, October 29, 2003 |
The answer to how long we could do without a telly was 5 weeks. Now we are back catching up with Kath and Kim and The Bill. All very exciting.
Mostly busy at work building an intranet and generally being stressed!
Jared Smith 5:58 AM
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Friday, September 12, 2003 |
Do the Wu-Tang Clan know that the only people who wear their tracksuits are mentally retarded or middle aged women who think that they look colourful? We have finally managed to get ourselves together to rent a lovely little house in a Melbourne suburb called Yarraville. Yaraville is made up of pavement cafes, yoga centres and organic grocers which is quite odd as down the road is just about the biggest and nastiest chemical storage depot in Australia. In a brave social experiment we are 'living without a telly'. How long will it last?
Jared Smith 3:43 PM
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Sunday, June 08, 2003 |
Been having fun at my new job at The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in South Melbourne. Not having fun getting up early to catch the Metro train into Melbourne at 7.50. Went to see the Matrix Reloaded last night and spent 2 hours in bum agony waiting for it to end. I really can't do cinemas anymore. Thought the film was 'a bit pants' but there you go.
Melbourne has got cold and it rains like it does in the Lake District, big droplets and very wettening.
Jared Smith 4:09 AM
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Tuesday, May 13, 2003 |
I am very glad we escaped from Brighton and moved to Australia as the West Pier has had another fire, there can't be an awful lot left of it by now. I have started the ball rolling on application for permanent Australian residency - only 10 forms to fill in.
Jared Smith 3:13 AM
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Wednesday, May 07, 2003 |
This morning I got a new job and this afternoon I went to the pub. A very nice day.
Jared Smith 2:34 PM
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Saturday, May 03, 2003 |
My journal has been a bit broken recently but I have finally got around to fixing it up - still a bit of a botch job but it will do for now. For some reason Blogger won't update my archives which is causing me problems. Looking forward to my possible new job... or rather the money that goes with it.
Jared Smith 12:47 PM
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Friday, May 02, 2003 |
Congratulations to Matt and Chloe on the birth of baby Rowan, one of the best babies to come out of York UK for quite a while. I've had an exciting time with a job interview at the beginning of the week, my visa has been checked and now I am waiting on references. Fingers crossed as it looks quite sweet.
Just done some work for the BBC - check it out here!
Jared Smith 2:10 PM
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Thursday, April 10, 2003 |
Just seen that there is a new South Park episode coming out called "Jared Has Aids", I am so glad I am not 14.
Jared Smith 8:58 AM
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Tuesday, April 08, 2003 |
Stuart is Innocent!
Well turns out I must apologise to Stuart Low to some comments I made on my website ('Found this site today - legal action to come!' was the comment) regarding some images on his site which may or may not have been copied from my own site:
Dear Jared,
I've just been informed that you're going to take legal action against me. Please feel free to do so if you wish, however any legal action you attempt will be vigorously defended.
Now, for the record, I've never seen your site before up until today!
However, in the interests of fairness, I've had a look at your site and if you'd seen my site (designoverload.co.uk) in November/December you'd know how these pixel art images came about.
In October last year I had a page requesting submissions for pixel art. I asked people visiting my site, for some ideas for some pixel art scenes. I asked if any people had some old symbols for me to practice on.
In November, I was given some people symbols, desk symbols and an office layout by a girl called Sara Cowles ( sarcowles@hotmail.com ) who assured me that they were her own and copyright free. She gave me them as a "kit" to practice with and I then constructed the office scene from it.Simple as that.I also recoloured and reused some of the people symbols in the other scenes. - ie the newspaper scene and the atack of the clones scene.
I made every effort to ensure that I was not breaching anyone's copyright
The page asking for the pixel art help was removed at the end of December as I had enough to go on. However, at the time, I stated clearly that I was no pixel artist but willing to give it a go.
I see strong similarities in the office scene but this was not intentional, but what really angers me is the reference on your site and also naming me in your CV section. You should get your facts right or find out more information before threatening legal action. But above all, you should have emailed me about it - I'm not unreasonable and certainly not our to rip anyone off! Your comments are inflammatory.
Now, I will take these down and you can write to the girl named above if it bothers you this much, but please make sure that you take the derogitory comments about me from your site. I'll play fair if you do! I would also apprecite acknowledgement on your site.
Finally, the lorries, search engine scene and night time scene are entirely my own work and I can prove this. I work closely with some games companies in Dundee, such as Visual Sciences and Indioctrimat who make games for the Playstation. I was given the briefs from them and rough ideas to which I created theses pieces.These were derived from sketches from artists within these companies.
Stuart Low
Design Overload
Stuart sent this email to Sara...
>Hello Sara,
>
>I was informed yesterday that there is a note on this site
>http://www.pixeldeviant.com/journal.shtml stating that legal action to come
>against me.
>
>Last year you gave me some pixel based symbols which you assured me
>were ok
>to use. Now this other site is claiming presumably that I am ripping them
>off. I have never knowingly used other people's work without their consent
>and I am particularly angry about the comments on this website.
>
>Can you please sort this out one way or another and let me know the
>outcome.
>
>Regards
>
>Stuart Low
>Design Overload
Then I got this one this morning from Sara herself:
Dear Jaz,
I am writing to apologise for a genuine mistake I made with regards to your
pixel art and the www.designoverload.co.uk website.
I've also included an earlier reply to him.
First of all, please accept my apology. I saw your image a while back and
tried to recreate it for fun. I reused some of your symbols for the sake of
placement but I never actually got round to finishing it. However, I must be
fair and say that there are dozens of similar office scenes and yours is
extremely similar in style.
Anyway, sometime last year on the design oveload web site there was a call
for stuff for a new pixel art gallery so I submitted some symbols I had
lying around. I told him it was ok to use them so he did and gave me credit
for it on his site. When I submitted the symbols I mistakenly included the
people, chair and coke can figures. I meant to take them out so please
accept my apology. It was a genuine mistake. The rest of the symbols aren't
yours and I can back it up.
With regards to your image, I was using this as a source of inspiration and
I never intended anything to be distributed. I hope if anything you are
flattered that I thought your image was cool.
So to cut a long story short, I am sorry for any problems this has caused
and Stuart Low has informed me that he is going to remove these images once
he knows what the story is.
Sara Cowles
Mail from Sara to Stuart...
Hi Stuart,
I'm very sorry if this has caused you a problem. I really never meant this
to happen. Please let me explain.
I remember seeing this office scene a while ago and I borrowed some ideas
from it. When I gave you the symbols in the PSD file I included some symbols
I "borrowed" in a recreation of this image and forgot to delete them when I
sent you the symbols. This was my fault and I'm very sorry for this.
I sent you this kit so that you could create your own scene and you've done
a good job for a first attempt.
Anyway, the table, window, glass table, sofa symbols were all created by
myself. If you look closely at them you will see differences - angles being
the most obvious, HOWEVER, these symbols are available online and there are
a number of tutorials on how to create them. If this guy is claiming
copyright over these then he can think again! HUNDREDS of pixel artists have
created these and all in a very similar style.
The tree symbol is also from a tutorial piece, but I can't remember
where.(Sorry).
The mac and PC symbols are freely available as a download from the
iconfactory so he can't claim anything on these!
The people symbols, chair symbols and coke can are not mine. I think I
mistakenly included them in the PSD file I sent you. This was a real mistake
and completely my fault. I will let this guy know.
I've compared the two images side by side and if you take out the people,
chairs and coke can then there's nothing he can say about your image.
Obviously you did the trucks! Very cool.
Regards
Sara
x
Sara you are very, very naughty.
Jared Smith 12:45 AM
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Thursday, March 13, 2003 |
I have just spent all day updating the site, it has been somewhat neglected recently due to other work commitments and the Australian summer! If you pop over to the graphics/pixels section you should see my more recent efforts as well as a new pixel art FAQ. Did some bike stunts yesterday and today I am wearing my fine new second hand shirt. Life is so exciting!
Jared Smith 7:40 AM
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Tuesday, February 25, 2003 |
Came across this great Pixel site - www.supertotto.com. As Totto says "Make Pixels Not War". Like it. Pixels, that is, not war.
Jared Smith 1:04 PM
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Monday, February 10, 2003 |
Go Ash! (Check out my guestbook messages), you are the man.
Not much updating going on here as I am working on a brand spanking new Pixeldeviant.com to be launched sometime, featuring Pixel Melbourne! Also just started looking for some contract work as the cash pot is going down. Other new projects include a skateboard movie, we have the skateboard, the skatepark, the tower blocks and graffiti. Unfortunately none of us can skate. Could be a winner!
Jared Smith 4:12 AM
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Tuesday, January 14, 2003 |
Post Removed - See above for the Stuart/Sara saga...
Jared Smith 4:43 AM
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Wednesday, January 08, 2003 |
Yesterday it was 40 degrees.
Jared Smith 3:04 AM
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002 |
Hello! been in Melbourne for about two weeks, all very exciting and the weather is hotting up. Next Saturday is forecasted at 40 degrees.
Jared Smith 10:27 PM
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002 |
Hooray I found a backup copy of the guestbook! All back up and running like a dream. Been very busy finishing off some work and packing up our flat before our imminent departure to Australia next Wednesday. My friend Matty gave me a list of things to do in Australia - first one is to steal a 'Ute', so that should be fun. I may not be back online for a little while until I get myself sorted out so until then I'm signing off! See you in Melbourne.
Jared Smith 6:26 PM
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Monday, November 18, 2002 |
I appear to have deleted my guestbook. That's what you get when you try and do things in a hurry.
Jared Smith 10:36 PM
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Saturday, November 16, 2002 |
Went out with my friends Roo and Billy last night to the Concorde 2 club for an evening of full on rock! Saw Skindred and Downset, and had a little jump around. The highlight of the night was seeing Bruce Dickinson in the audience, shaking his hand and telling him I was a big fan before wobbling off home along the seafront.
Permission to let our flat has arrived from the mortgage company, so we rushed out to the travel agents and booked our flights to Australia - unfotunately the only flight available before Christmas was the 27th of November so now we are on full panic stations trying to get all our sorting out done. It is truly mental.
Jared Smith 6:43 PM
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| Jaz
Cam: |
|  Click
on the image to see my live webcam. If I am online then
the image will update every 80 seconds. If I am offline
then you will see the last image taken.
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