I need to sleep. But there’s just so much to do!
Monthly Archives: July 2007
Informationally Overloaded ~ Gordon McLean
I’m only 14 blogs into my 100 and I’ve gotta be honest with you, this is going to be a challenge for me to finish. There are some days, like today, that I really don’t want to go reading through someone’s archives. Thank goodness then that I randomly picked Informationally Overloaded to be the latest blog in my little project. The design is easy on the eyes and the reading is easy to enjoy.
Gordon has been on the Net for about a decade now. That makes him precisely “old.” Just kidding, really. Actually, I have a confession to make, I already knew about Informationally Overloaded. I remember some time ago during one of the half-dozen 9rules open submission rounds I saw that this site had been accepted. I clicked over to it and said, “Hmmm. I’ll have to check that out later.” As usual, “later” never came and now here I am actually reading the blog for the first time.
Gordon doesn’t just blog, he also runs, writes and designs cool websites. One of the charms of Gordon’s writing is that he’s from the UK so he uses words like “bloke” and “numpty.” Oh, and I really dig his views on Modern Community.
Gordon Allport - Tangles in Life Which Require Laughter
“So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.”
Finally Got Home From a Full 1…
Finally got home from a full 14 hours of church work.
Just Got Back From Tuesday Nig…
Just got back from Tuesday night "visitation." What a joke.
My Son Is a Lion.
My son is a lion.
Loss Is One Thing That Binds Us
Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U. This video always gets to me. You know why I love this video? It’s her facial expressions. Sure, she’s got a tremendous voice, but the look she gets on her face toward the end of the song, as she starts to cry … you can see the mix of anger, bitterness and despair all at once on her face.
I think this song is so powerful because everyone can relate to it. Everyone has had their heart broken by a girl/boy friend, lover, the death of a parent or grandparent, or what have you. And while this song may be specifically about losing a lover, it overlaps effortlessly into losses of other kinds.
Loss is just one of the human experiences that we all have in common no matter our age, race or religion. It is one of the things that binds us as humans one to another.
The video is after the jump ↓
Thank Goodness, the Piano Tune…
Thank goodness, the piano tuner is done and gone!
The Piano Tuner Is Tuning the …
The piano tuner is tuning the church piano 2 doors down the hall from my office. Have you ever heard someone tune a piano? It’s not good.
Just Got to Work.
Just got to work.
Phil Bowell ~ Electric Weekend
Another day, another site. Today it’s Phil Bowell’s Electric Weekend. Phil’s a graphic designer and a mighty good one at that. In fact, he just graduated from uni (that’s college to us Americans) with a degree in graphic design.
He recently redesigned his site. Seems he got hacked before the WordPress upgrade! Yowch! That’s a deadly fear of mine. Now that I’m thinking about it let me go and backup my site… Alrighty, much better.
Anyway, Phil doesn’t just blog about design and the web. He also blogs about his faith and his Mac love.
Phil Bowell, Mac fan, graphic designer, man of faith. Subscribed.
I Don’t Care for Chocolate
I am one of the lucky few people on earth who has not been cursed with a wicked “sweet-tooth.” If I eat more than one Hershey Kiss I will get a stomach ache. In fact, I don’t care for chocolate at all. Similarly I don’t care for sweets either.
Instead of sweets for dessert I much prefer a cup of hot coffee. I don’t know why it is, but coffee for me is the perfect finishing touch to a fine supper.
The lack of a sweet-tooth is what is going to help me lose weight … in theory.
Paul Erdos - God May Not Play Dice
“God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers.”
—Paul Erdos
Grades Don’t Mean Squat - TWOB
“What really matters is not the meticulousness to avoid mistakes, but the courage to try and the tenacity to keep trying, when lesser people would give up. Grades don
Glenn Wolsey
So, evidently everyone is reading Glenn Wolsey except me. That’s about to change. His blog is the twelfth one I’m featuring in my project and I’m here to tell you that this one’s a real joy to read.
I think a lot of the draw Glenn Wolsey has for me lay in his web and blogging type of articles. I’m also a self-professed geek so when I see his office computer setup I’m instantly captivated.
What amazes me about Glenn is that he’s only 15(!) and has developed quite a web presence. This guy is going places, keep your eye on him.
Glenn Wolsey, you just got another subscriber.
One of the Reasons I Blog
There are many reasons I blog. But one reason I’d like to briefly point out is discussions like this. Yeah, both parties were relatively passionate about their view. Yeah, I think at one point I got a little frustrated. But you know, in the end I feel sharpened, as iron sharpens iron. This, for me, is one of the main reasons I’m completely and hopelessly addicted to blogging. Thanks to Armen, Chris and others who contributed to that conversation and really challenged me to think though what I believe.
Saw Transformers - Great Flick
I just got back from a date with my wife. We rode the bike 30 minutes through the country to meet some good friends for dinner and a movie. A double date. Ruby Tuesday was very good as usual. I got the Mini Burgers which I highly recommend.
After dinner we rode to the local theater and saw Transformers. No spoilers, don’t worry, but it’s a great movie! Highly recommended. It was a typical good vs. evil story, but isn’t that what everyone wanted? I think so.
I laughed, I cried, I was gripping the sticky movie theater armrests for most of the movie. See it on the big screen, I think you’ll be glad you did. Oh, and there are some good bits during the end credits so stick around for those.
Earth Patrol ~ a Blog About Skating
Blog number eleven in my most recent blogging project is Earth Patrol. This blog is so rad! I’d even go so far as to say it’s non-heinous — Hooray Bill and Ted!—
If you haven’t already clicked over to Earth Patrol you should do so now. I’ll wait …
OK, now you see what I mean, this stuff rules. I used to be a skater for a whole 2 weeks! I’ll bet you didn’t know that. In fact, I even broke my toe skateboarding. See, I’m right handed, but I ride with my left foot on the front of the board, right foot in the rear. I think that makes me goofy-foot or something, I forget. Anyway, I was pushing myself along with my right foot and then, somehow, I managed to run over my own right foot with the very board I was standing on. I think I bent the laws of physics that day. At any rate, I haven’t skated since. This site makes me all nostalgic for the good ol’ days.
I say that, but something you’ll notice right off when you visit Earth Patrol is that skateboarding isn’t just for kids. Nor is it just a guy sport and that rocks hard (as I play my air guitar).
This post warmed my heart. Why? Well, just look at the setting. A couple of families have gotten together and are just hanging out having fun. The men (and I’ll bet some of the women) are skating on a home made skateboard ramp (called a ‘mini’ I learned). The kids are playing together, people are chatting, strengthening relationships. It’s just a family event, and that’s hard core.
The skateboarding articles are sprinkled with other stuff like music and art.
Earth Patrol is definitely a cool niche blog that I just subscribed to. Love it.
A Bit More on This Design
I previously mentioned that I redesigned openswitch, but upon further thought I think there’s a little more of a back story that might be of interest to someone.
This latest redesign is easily my favorite. Why, you ask? Because while I may be been inspired by other designs it’s by far my most original design. In fact, I find myself sitting here at my computer just staring at my own blog. I love this design. In the past, all my other designs on this site were me taking a pre-existing theme and modding it. But not this one, and that’s why I love it.
I’ve redesigned this site a lot in the past:
There are those of you out there who would probably like to to know where my inspirations came from for this design. The more obvious one, at least to me, is Cutline. Especially with that random masthead image. The XHTML structure is somewhat similar to the DePo Clean Theme and I used some of the CSS selector conventions from that design.
At any rate, I’m sure that at some point in the future I’ll redesign but for now I’m extremely pleased with this one. I’m calling it defrotzed.
Chicken or the Egg ~ Chickybabe
Blog #10 (lucky number ten) in my masochistic blogging project is Chicken or the Egg. Chickybabe — as I’ll refer to her — is a pseudonym as the woman who owns this blog covets her anonymity. Makes me kinda jealous, actually. There are many times I’d like to be able to write whatever I want without fear of personal and professional repercussions. I wonder if her husband knows of the blog? Surely he must.
If you’re looking to jump right into a great post of hers, here it is. And then when you’re done with that one, read this.
Some of the posts are a almost a little borderline risque, but even those make for great reading. Check out Chicken or the Egg, A Technorati rank of 86,894 can’t be wrong.
<rant>That last part about Technorati was sarcasm, but it wasn’t too obvious. I stopped caring about Technorati a long time ago, ever since I broke the top 100 but can’t claim the fame because it was gained through the “illicit” means of releasing a WordPress theme that became a runaway hit. </rant>
