EM

My name is Erik Mallinson. I draw pictures, make music, and some other stuff. I like playing the ‘ukulele, riding my scooter around Boston, and playing board games.
Follow me on Twitter (@erima) if you’re into that sort of thing. You might also check out my illustration and music studio (@gravel).
Got a question? Ask.

With audible murmurs of “This is no way to live,” “What the hell am I doing here—I hate it here,” and “Fuck this place. Fuck this horrible place,” all 8.4 million citizens in each of the five boroughs packed up their belongings and told reporters they would rather blow their brains out with a shotgun than spend another waking moment in this festering cesspool of filth and scum and sadness.


notebook
waterbrush
watercolor tray
pen
pencil
eraser
iPad

More portable and modular than a laptop, this has become my portable desk layout lately. It fits perfectly on our ottoman as well as on my lap in the car. I carry this (as well as a few more pens, pencils, and a few odd items – a magnifying glass, a monocular lens, and a cleaning cloth) around each day. If I want more portability I can take the notebook and iPad and stuff the rest of the items depicted here into my pockets.

My Desk Setup (by Erik Mallinson)

  • notebook
  • waterbrush
  • watercolor tray
  • pen
  • pencil
  • eraser
  • iPad

More portable and modular than a laptop, this has become my portable desk layout lately. It fits perfectly on our ottoman as well as on my lap in the car. I carry this (as well as a few more pens, pencils, and a few odd items – a magnifying glass, a monocular lens, and a cleaning cloth) around each day. If I want more portability I can take the notebook and iPad and stuff the rest of the items depicted here into my pockets.

My Desk Setup (by Erik Mallinson)

I datestamp my project files and folders using TextExpander in order to keep track of when something happened and to easily generate multiple versions of a file while working on it. Works great.

But things tend to pile up in my downloads folder and on my desktop. I created this simple Automator folder action that automatically adds the datestamp to any files that enter these places. I hope it will help better sort stray project files, as well as help me assess if I still need that app, mp3, or PDF I downloaded.

2010-08-31 note – If you have this set up on a Dropbox folder it will stamp the date once on each computer that runs the Automator action, eg- I have three computers that share my Downloads folder so the date stamp is added three times to each file. Not my intended goal. I’m going to look into a more complicated Automator action that will parse the file name before stamping. It works well on my Desktop folder, regardless.

I datestamp my project files and folders using TextExpander in order to keep track of when something happened and to easily generate multiple versions of a file while working on it. Works great.

But things tend to pile up in my downloads folder and on my desktop. I created this simple Automator folder action that automatically adds the datestamp to any files that enter these places. I hope it will help better sort stray project files, as well as help me assess if I still need that app, mp3, or PDF I downloaded.

2010-08-31 note – If you have this set up on a Dropbox folder it will stamp the date once on each computer that runs the Automator action, eg- I have three computers that share my Downloads folder so the date stamp is added three times to each file. Not my intended goal. I’m going to look into a more complicated Automator action that will parse the file name before stamping. It works well on my Desktop folder, regardless.