The Website of Kai Conragan

The Just Say No To Gradiens and Drop-Shadows Version.

Follow me on Twitter: kconragan

Recent Tweets

10 Mar, 2010

  1. Stoked! Just found that, not only do we have hardwood floors in all the bedrooms beneath carpet, but also the living and dining rooms.

05 Mar, 2010

  1. I love how even simple instructions for how to make coffee in the Metaweb kitchen end with complex equations.

04 Mar, 2010

  1. @ParkerDVaughan well said dude

02 Mar, 2010

  1. Don't panic, but we're out of espresso at the ol' Metaweb HQ. #firstworldproblems

27 Feb, 2010

  1. Amused that our pink flamingo lamp made it in the first carload of necessities.

  2. Just walked into our new house with our own key for the first time.

19 Feb, 2010

  1. @ParkerDVaughan hang in there dude. House hunting is stressful.

11 Feb, 2010

  1. With the chaos of the past 48 hours I forgot to mention: I haz house! http://flic.kr/p/7Cispa

09 Feb, 2010

  1. @ParkerDVaughan dude, tell me about it. You having any luck?

  2. @towslee we should receive official word today. woot!

06 Feb, 2010

  1. Pro Tip: When buying a house, buy a nice pen. One that is a joy to write with. You're going to be signing your name. A lot.

29 Jan, 2010

  1. Worst Muni ride EVER. Time to get the tire fixed on my bike.

22 Jan, 2010

  1. Some days design just flows. Today is not one of those days.

21 Jan, 2010

  1. It's absolutely baffling that realtor.com doesn't give you an option to sort listings by newest.

15 Jan, 2010

  1. @ParkerDVaughan Sorry about your car dude. Yeah, house stuff is crazy! Gonna need you to come down and help me build a fence ;-)

  2. Wishing for the millionth time that Photoshop had a "collapse all" for layer groups.

14 Jan, 2010

  1. Just faxed over an offer letter for my first house. gulp

  2. I nominate @tyler for a Shorty Award in #food because that dude made the best roast chicken I've ever had. http://bit.ly/shorty

08 Jan, 2010

  1. @spawrks dude, Stella is looking badfuckingass

01 Jan, 2010

17 Dec, 2009

  1. The threshold seems to be -1839px. Anything higher causes the flicker to return. Page specific or a webkit bug?

  2. Hmm, playing with -webkit-transition I was having a terrible screen flicker. Changing text-indent to -1000px instead of -9999px fixed it.

30 Nov, 2009

  1. @haseman I could use an invite

13 Nov, 2009

  1. This is awesome: 15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee: http://tr.im/ETNJ (via @simplebits )

10 Nov, 2009

  1. Good surf at #sfob. Rejected twice before making it out at Pacheco. Got a handful of solid overhead peaks that made it well worth it.

  2. Hmm, just had my first good tangerine of the season. I love this time of year.

09 Nov, 2009

  1. @panic I got faith you'll nail it. Coda is already awesome. FWIW, this was the tipping point for me (esp. question 4): http://tr.im/EDwB.

  2. @nevenmrgan Sorry, last one: autocomplete on custom functions/variables.

  3. @nevenmrgan also would love to be able to Open Quickly into a split pane.

  4. @nevenmrgan I'd love to see select entire line, move line up/down, smarter auto-indent when pasting, multi-placeholders in snippets. Cheers!

  5. OK @panic, the Coda trial is over and I'm ready to switch from Textmate, but I'm crossing my fingers for text editor improvements in 2.0.

  6. Fresh sourdough bread in the Metaweb headquarters this morning baked by @mikeshwe. Woot!

08 Nov, 2009

  1. Hmmmm. Freshly made warm biscuits made by @julieBrookman. Brought to me in bed no less. Q

05 Nov, 2009

  1. @shazy My white smoking bunny is looking particularly pissed off this morning. This must be why.

02 Nov, 2009

  1. Alright Lucero, let's do this.

  2. Think I'm sold on Coda. Reading through Get Satisfaction, it seems Panic is already working on my major gripes. Notably, the text editor.

01 Nov, 2009

  1. Been staring at the waves for two hours. Despite new swell and light winds, it's still a jumbled mess. #sfob #surf #whereisfall?

30 Oct, 2009

  1. @ParkerDVaughan why you going vegetarian bro? Man, trips to Tres Amigos together just won't be the same.

23 Oct, 2009

  1. Seriously considering dropping Textmate for Coda at this point. TEA and zen-coding recover a lot of what's missing from Coda's text editor.

18 Oct, 2009

  1. Surf session in the morning and now chilling with @spawrks while @julieBrookman works on a custom-tailored shirt for yours truly. Good day.

14 Oct, 2009

  1. What is it about rain that makes me instantly reach for jazz in my music library?

11 Oct, 2009

  1. Drinking a pot of 70 year old pu-erh with @julieBrookman to celebrate our 1 year anniversary.

  2. OH: it's abbreviated for brevity. @tyler

03 Oct, 2009

  1. @barakmich yes please

28 Sep, 2009

  1. Hmm, the San Francisco Bomb Squad truck just went racing down 2nd street, lights blazing and sirens blaring.

  2. Two long sessions at OB and my arms feel like noodles.

  3. @ParkerDVaughan Favre foils us again. We're looking good though.

26 Sep, 2009

  1. OH: Sometimes genius comes through me so strong that all I can do is poop. @tyler

15 Sep, 2009

  1. @shazy booo. Not going this year. Let me know how it goes.

09 Sep, 2009

  1. Updating my iPhone to 3.1 led to complete failure and now a complete restore.

  2. Sweet. It's 09:09 09/09/09.

  3. Awesome. Bike was stolen.

10 Aug, 2009

  1. @jameshome relieved to hear it. Give her my best.

08 Aug, 2009

  1. The afternoon sun hitting my face right now is reflecting off a west facing building. I need an open ocean and blue skies in front of me.

05 Aug, 2009

  1. Just launched a new Freebase homepage. Congrats to @jameshome and all involved. More site improvements soon. http://www.freebase.com/

25 Jul, 2009

  1. Caffeinated and driving. Chasing the much hyped, ever elusive south swell.

24 Jul, 2009

  1. @tyler Pretty sure those aren't boat shoes on your feet. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

23 Jul, 2009

  1. Why didn't I hear about this when I was in China? I was only 75 miles away! http://tr.im/tBtZ

13 Jul, 2009

  1. What are you tweeting on? http://yfrog.com/5ifrxyj

  2. OH: Uh oh, I'm getting my lazy eye. @julieBrookman

  3. OH: I'd much rather fart and vomit at the same time then be drunk and shit myself. @roktales

  4. OH: Show me your armpit fat. @lilmissdressup

10 Jul, 2009

  1. Heading to see Chuck Ragan play at Cafe Du Nord tonight. This is going to be awesome.

03 Jul, 2009

  1. Way more fun than I thought it would be. Any surf session with dolphins is a good one. #ob

23 Jun, 2009

  1. Wow, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival lineup is starting to look incredible this year: http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/

22 Jun, 2009

  1. My grandma-in-law passed away last week. She was an awesome artist: http://tr.im/pmQ3

19 Jun, 2009

  1. SF friends: Swing by the Museum of Craft and Folk Art today between 4-7PM to see glass art by @julieBrookman and others. http://tr.im/p6gc

04 Jun, 2009

03 Jun, 2009

  1. OH: "I think in pair programming they blow a whistle every 30 minutes and you go and trade underwear."

02 Jun, 2009

  1. @jfry we'll be sure to get a screen grab for posterity.

29 May, 2009

  1. Making tortilla soup for a sick @juliebrookman

27 May, 2009

  1. Aesthetics should never be decided by committee

  2. Reminded what it's like to implement changes at the request of a client that cause my design instincts to recoil. #notmissingclientwork

26 May, 2009

  1. Made need to invest in a new bike helmet that doesn't leave a red mark on my forehead. Co-worker asked if I was growing horns this morning.

  2. Espresso machine is broken at work. This is not good.

22 May, 2009

  1. Umm, is it not opening night for Terminator? There's like ten people in this theater. Are expectations that low?

21 May, 2009

  1. Cup of coffee. Then settling in for some light reading about HTML5 microdata proposal. http://bit.ly/13nUyO

  2. @barakmich I love instapaper in principal. In practice, however, I find that I never actually go back to read anything later. Discipline?

  3. Need to work on tab management. I have 47 tabs open, and that's just in Safari. Most are articles I want to read, but haven't gotten to yet.

19 May, 2009

  1. @roktales where are you taking classes? whatcha taking?

15 May, 2009

  1. Hmmm. Philz coffee + sunshine + fragrant jasmine.

14 May, 2009

  1. New bone bridge and trust rod adjustment made my guitar sound and play awesome. Thanks @spawrks.

10 May, 2009

  1. Standing on a bluff overlooking my favorite stretch of beach in the world with my Mom on Mother's Day.

08 May, 2009

  1. Thank you Photoshop for quitting. As always, your timing is impeccable.

06 May, 2009

  1. Heh, that reminds me. Remember when iTunes was this nice little app for organizing and listening to music? Those were good times.

  2. Hmm, typing "Boniver" yielded no results, but iTunes was kind to suggest that perhaps I meant "boner".

  3. Loading up the iTunes playlist. Need some serious design inspiration today.

05 May, 2009

  1. Awesome. I just got a 500 error trying to report another 500 error.

29 Apr, 2009

  1. @jameshome drool. I've shot with a few Voigtlander lenses and have been impressed. Their price point is much more attainable than Leica's.

  2. Joy of working at home: having Four Barrel coffee to look forward to.

28 Apr, 2009

  1. Adobe: do you expect anyone to use the default settings in the stroke effects dialog? 3px bright red? Really?

27 Apr, 2009

  1. My forearm is angry at me for all the guitar this weekend with @spawrks.

06 Apr, 2009

  1. I bought the @MacHeist 3 Bundle. 12 Top Mac apps worth $900+ for just $39 AND I just got Delicious Library 2 FREE! http://mhtweet.com/RvYEJe

  2. I must say, pretty fucking epic Sunday all things considered

27 Mar, 2009

  1. Why, oh why, does Twitter show me its mobile version when using Safari 4. Yes, the user agent is set properly.

25 Mar, 2009

  1. Bummer. Flat tire and my spare tube is at the office. Fail.

23 Mar, 2009

  1. @shazy hah, that is awesome! Pretty sure I don't have one. Or do I? Hmmm....

22 Mar, 2009

  1. @shazy massive congrats!!! When are the celebratory drinks?

11 Mar, 2009

  1. @tyler Stoked to have you here and been a part of it.

28 Feb, 2009

  1. im helping my wife with something in the car while @spawrks destroys my reputation by twittering for me

27 Feb, 2009

  1. The talk @tyler gave on oCaml, though excellent, reaffirmed my love for being a designer. My head just doesn't bend in that direction.

26 Feb, 2009

  1. Just set Dieter Rams' ten design commandments as my desktop background. http://bit.ly/10designcommandments

20 Feb, 2009

  1. OH: "We need more semantic web hip-hop crossover"

19 Feb, 2009

  1. Saw a woman scraping posters off a telephone pole in the Mission with a razor blade over my morning cup of coffee at Four Barrel. #futility

13 Feb, 2009

  1. Inhaling deeply and picking up the pieces.

12 Feb, 2009

  1. Crazy day. Gonna miss all that will be gone--it's been an honor and a joy. Undoubtedly, tomorrow arrives with many surprises in hand.

07 Feb, 2009

  1. Aiming for a productive weekend. So far have done yoga, had coffee with the @julieBrookman, and returned bike wheel. Now to clean the house.

06 Feb, 2009

  1. @jameshome don't eat yellow snow?

  2. @fbase how about a timeline of film noir movies? http://bit.ly/filmnoirtimeline

04 Feb, 2009

  1. @micahsaul Definitely some room for improvement: brakes are soft; front derailleur slightly off. Good learning experience. Hmm, fixed-gear?

  2. @micahsaul kind of. I've worked on bikes a bit, replacing/upgrading parts here and there. But never started from scratch.

  3. Maiden voyage on the rebuilt bianchi was a success. Fine-tuning still required, but fairly satisfied for my first build-up.

31 Jan, 2009

  1. Happiness is my cat stretched out before the fireplace, belly up and toes outstretched.

29 Jan, 2009

  1. Ridiculously morose tonight. Tear in my new leather jacket hasn't helped. Thanks to @spawrks, @micahsaul, and tyler for drinks & friendship.

27 Jan, 2009

  1. @juliebrookman and where would that be?

26 Jan, 2009

  1. Bittersweet shopping at Stacey's. So sad they're going out of business, but so many good deals at the moment. May need a new bookcase.

23 Jan, 2009

  1. @julieBrookman why? I'm kind of enjoying it today.

20 Jan, 2009

  1. Sincerely hoping that the refund amount TurboTax is giving me is correct.

16 Jan, 2009

  1. Pondering where to be for the pending swell. Down the coast me thinks.

12 Jan, 2009

  1. Working on the December08 mixtape has just gone to show that I am, in no way, a music hipster.

11 Jan, 2009

  1. Two good surf sessions this weekend was just what the spirit needed. Alright Monday, I'm ready for you.

06 Jan, 2009

  1. Wow, epic fail trying to create a Dropbox account. Pretty awesome error page though.

05 Jan, 2009

  1. Adding a new virtual machine for IE6 testing. Cue sad music.

01 Jan, 2009

  1. Well, all in all, 2008 has been pretty fucking fantastic. A sincere thanks to all that have been a part of it. Off to ring in the New Year.

30 Dec, 2008

  1. Fuck, Freddie Hubbard is dead. Hub-tones will be in heavy rotation today.

  2. So where is the Python sugar for Espresso?

  3. Wanted to go surfing this morning but the body doesn't seem to recover as well anymore from 14 hour road trips.

29 Dec, 2008

  1. Didn't have the heart to beat my old man at backgammon in the final round. It's hard engineering a game that's based partly on chance.

24 Dec, 2008

  1. Heading to the Inner Mission bar to celebrate Julie's birthday. Come and join us! http://bit.ly/inner-mission

  2. Bummer: http://bit.ly/T9LF

23 Dec, 2008

  1. Celebrating the fact that rewriting the html of a core site component netted a 9% reduction in page size across the board. Huzzah!

22 Dec, 2008

  1. Oh, and a happy winter solstice to all. Off to enjoy the longest night of the year.

15 Dec, 2008

  1. Crafting the mother of all image sprites.

  2. @micahsaul: just had a helping of some awesome lamb and barley stew I had going all day. Fucking digging this weather.

13 Dec, 2008

  1. I don't know what it is, but Fleet Foxes is setting the perfect mood right now.

11 Dec, 2008

  1. Reason #137 I hate facebook: just received an email telling me that, after being compared by friends, my weakness is "cutest" and "smartest"

09 Dec, 2008

  1. Does anyone else find cutting your fingernails such a satisfying experience.

07 Dec, 2008

  1. Tough paddle out for one solid wave. I don't care what anybody says, surfing OB is as much voodoo as science.

05 Dec, 2008

  1. A steaming cup of of Yunnan Chitsu Pingcha is setting me right after a wee too much whiskey last night.

03 Dec, 2008

  1. Pretty sure I want this: http://typedeskref.com/

30 Nov, 2008

  1. Trying to come up with a game plan for organizing the 40,000+ pics on my hard drive, plus the uncounted thousands of slides still unscanned.

28 Nov, 2008

  1. One last test

  2. Alright, let's see if this script is back on track.

  3. How did my python script that syncs my twitter updates with my website get so fucked!? Worked flawlessly for months, now not so much.

  4. Great friends and food, copious amounts of alcohol, LOTR interlude, a few fine games of backgammon, pie, more alcohol, coma. Happy T-day.

27 Nov, 2008

  1. Homemade bloody mary is kicking of Thanksgiving just right. Looking forward to a day with friends and loved ones.

20 Nov, 2008

  1. Relieved to hear that a friend is not, in fact, kidnapped in Belize.

13 Nov, 2008

  1. @jfry my first experience was on a ferry in Indonesia crossing from Bali to Java. Welcome to the club.

06 Nov, 2008

  1. Beautiful candid photographs of President Obama by Callie Shell. Be sure to click Show More Images at the bottom. http://bit.ly/2f2Cu6

05 Nov, 2008

  1. Change

31 Oct, 2008

  1. We've just launched the redesign of http://freebase.com. woot!

25 Oct, 2008

  1. Heading to the Bridge School Benefit with backstage pass in hand. Should be a good show. Little bummed ZZ Top won't be playing though.

23 Oct, 2008

  1. @surfpulse Agree. All the ingredients were there, but the tide just softened things out. Tried moving a few peaks north, but same result.

  2. Operation Dawn Patrol: mild success. Beautiful conditions, fun-size swell, but high tide made things a bit soft. Seals were cool though.

20 Oct, 2008

  1. Finished run to market for cookie ingredients. Now sitting back and waiting for fresh cookies. This whole marriage thing seems pretty cool.

17 Oct, 2008

  1. Accidentally dropped a 10.2mb PSD file onto the Textmate icon instead of Photoshop's. Interesting results.

  2. @juliebrookman: should I bring home some newcastle?

11 Oct, 2008

  1. @micahsaul, @jameshome, @shazy, @tyler, and all others: thanks for last night. Couldn't have spent it with finer folk. Off to get married.

03 Oct, 2008

  1. The NY Times dedicates a paragraph to state McCain is the only candidate to not wear a flag pin. Mighty fine reporting. http://bit.ly/sISUm

02 Oct, 2008

  1. Seriously, three separate pigeon attacks in one day. wtf?

29 Sep, 2008

  1. I guess there's always working as a divemaster in Borneo...

26 Sep, 2008

  1. America is imploding, massive deadline at work, Mars is in retrograde, and I've got a squeaky right shoe. What gives?

20 Aug, 2008

  1. Absolutely floored by @veen's talk at AEA. Pure inspiration.

19 Aug, 2008

  1. "Hurray for humans" @veen

  2. Twitter's color picker kinda sucks.

  3. "If you think communication between men and women is hard, try designers and developers." - Kelly Goto

18 Aug, 2008

  1. Wonderful talk from Jason Santa Maria at Event Apart SF entitled Storytelling by Design.

  2. Just finished listening to Zeldman's talk at Event Apart. Awesome stuff.

11 Aug, 2008

  1. Feeling good after a weekend of cold-water diving. Nudibranchs and sea lions oh my...

07 Aug, 2008

  1. VMware Fusion could kick Parallels ass in a fight any day. Just sayin'...

04 Aug, 2008

  1. Mom's homemade olallieberry peach pie with brown-sugar glazed oatmeal topping. Pure bliss.

03 Aug, 2008

  1. Good surf at Pomponio followed by a San Benito house sandwich. Feel like I've been transported back to HMB 90's style.

29 Jul, 2008

  1. @micahsaul: 1 keg in tablespoons

  2. Firefox searchbar instant unit conversion is freaking awesome.

19 Jul, 2008

  1. Just received a lesson in how graph databases work using cashews and pistachios as props.

03 Jul, 2008

  1. Now I know what the "double" in double IPA stands for.

21 Jun, 2008

  1. Someone needs to remind San Francisco it's supposed to be foggy and miserable during the month of June. My goodness it's a beautiful day.

17 Jun, 2008

  1. Note to self: sunrise salutations + cappuccino seem to be two different means to the same end, and should not be combined lightly.

10 Jun, 2008

  1. On second thought, Gladiator Sandals...

  2. So, umm, what browsing/purchasing history with Amazon led them to show me Gladiator Sandals as an item I might be interested?

05 Jun, 2008

  1. Any other web designers seeing a troubling amount of rendering differences between FF2/3? I'm seeing the pixel equivalent of a grand canyon.

04 Jun, 2008

  1. Finding myself gravitating more and more to the AP articles on Google News for their clean, uncluttered delivery style.

25 May, 2008

  1. Sad about the wildfires in Santa Cruz and the majestic redwoods now burning. Reminiscing on my year spent living among those beauties...

22 May, 2008

  1. That wonderful Duke Ellington and John Coltrane recording is just about perfect right now.

  2. Got my Event Apart SF confirmation. Who else is going?

21 May, 2008

  1. Dear Webkit: I love the latest work you're doing. Really. It's fantastic. But could you please make updating not such a pain in the @ss?

  2. Why does my cell phone ring style change to loud every time I plug it into the charger? Oh wait, maybe because it cost $9 at Radio Shack...

20 May, 2008

  1. Finally going through the articles I've saved in Instapaper, and finding I quite like the app.

19 May, 2008

  1. Wait, it's Monday?

18 May, 2008

  1. Horse trailer is unloaded. House is overloaded.

17 May, 2008

  1. Just made a pledge to KQED and now have a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Not to mention a subscription to Cook's magazine. Hmmm...

  2. Said horse trailer now has a flat tire.

  3. Getting ready to unload a horse trailer in the middle of the Castro.

31 Mar, 2008

  1. I am sorely tempted to make the switch to Coda. Come on SVN integration!

  2. Why do all my tweets have typos? And to think of all the little gold start I used to have next to my name in the kindergarten spelling chart

27 Mar, 2008

  1. Enjoying the early evening light falling on the buildings downtown out the window of the the office. Oh, and it's time to go home.

23 Mar, 2008

  1. Really enjoying printing some of the photos from my Asia trip on an Epson Photo R2400. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaiconragan/2271519239/

19 Mar, 2008

  1. Liking the war protesters on the corner of Market and Sutter singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the melody of Barabara Ann.

16 Mar, 2008

  1. I now know how to install toilet. Is this a good thing?

04 Mar, 2008

  1. If you gave an alligator a bunch of lemons, would it get a sourface?

27 Feb, 2008

  1. Why am I more amazed by successfully sending a fax than an email? "Did you get that? You sure? Wow. Cool"

25 Feb, 2008

  1. I'm so glad Once won for Best Song and not that rubbish from enchantment.

22 Feb, 2008

  1. PYTHONPATH...I love you

  2. PYTHONPATH...I hate you

21 Feb, 2008

  1. Once again...

  2. Nothing to see here, just testing a cron script.

16 Feb, 2008

  1. I think it's official: Mexican food beats all others hands down.

  2. Putting off testing a site in IE is like putting off going to the dentist: you know you should, but you know it's gonna suck. sigh

13 Feb, 2008

  1. Getting close...

06 Feb, 2008

  1. @towslee: http://tinyurl.com/yqkwos

03 Feb, 2008

  1. OK, these The Wire marathons simply have to end.

02 Feb, 2008

  1. You know, for as much as I love technology, something irks me about just having spent the past 9 hours staring at a 2-dimensional surface.

29 Jan, 2008

  1. Umm, so why didn't I know about all grateful dead radio all the time?. radioioDead.

27 Jan, 2008

  1. Woohoo. Just got twitter.py working in my lastest Django project.

15 Jan, 2008

  1. From Chris: "MacBook Air! Thin like a super model in prison begging for cigarettes."

03 Jan, 2008

  1. Packing for Mexico. Has visto mi mono que esta llevando una corbeta roja?

12 Dec, 2007

  1. Hmmm. Fresh eggs from the chickens at my mother-in-laws hose. Now, where's the bacon?

  2. Feeling late to the party

  3. Testing out this whole IM device thing

  4. Fighting off the inevitable winter cold. I will not succumb!

11 Dec, 2007

  1. Updating the old portfolio so I can start looking for a J-O-B

28 Oct, 2007

  1. Working, working, work

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About This Site

Hi there. I'm Kai: a graphic designer focused on building usable websites following current web-standards. I currently live in Half Moon Bay, CA, though I recently spent eighteen months working, living, and traveling through Asia. On this blog you'll find my portfolio , a journal section in which I write about and link to things that interest me, as well as photos that are cross-posted to Flickr.

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