Sunday, January 14, 2007

She makes all things new...

No, I haven't adopted a feminist manifesto to incorporate into my system of belief.

One of the benefits of being married to a graphic designer is that she has the capability, talent, and desire to do cool things with images [even things as frivolous as making new headers for my page]. On my birthday, one of her presents to me was a favicon. In short, a favicon is representative of its site. If you are reading Blogosaurus Rex, you may be thinking "dinosaur!" Hence, the favicon she created is indeed a dinosaur that looks like the king of dinosaurs himself.

The header above is the third she's made thus far for this blog. The first two were, of course, for Summer and Spring. The summer header actually utilizes one of the pictures we took during our trip to Chicago in July, 2007 [with a little Birmingham flair a'la Vulcan]. She's mentioned doing something googlish like creating a new header for holidays/special events. Here's for hoping!

If you haven't checked out my wife's blog, please do. In addition, she's put up a lot of her artwork at www.e-twilley.com - she has a BFA with concentrations in Printmaking and Graphic Design. You can check out her blog while you're at it.

All to say, if there's any praise to be had for this blog's header, it all belongs to my wonderful, loving, and thoughtful wife.

Another change you might notice is that I've limited the page view to 3 posts. I thought that it would be a little "less messy" when folks stop by. Of course, all the older posts can be found in the archives on the right.

Thanks for stopping by, and for those of you who are interested, there is a followup to Westerncentricity in the works!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Deep down, we were all stalkers...

NPR : How iMet My Neighbor on iTunes
I heard this today on my way to work and thought it was wonderful. You should give it a listen.

The program sounds like it should be on "This American Life," and is wildly entertaining. It really questions our connectedness in the era of the world wide web and "global neighborhoods."

What happens when we push through the boundaries of the WWW and really try to engage our neighbors? Give it a listen and find out.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

New review....

It's been a bit of time since my last Amazon review, but I've written a couple tonight. If you are at all interested in early English-American history, then I high recommend reading Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. You can check out my review on Amazon, but I'll sum it up here by saying that it's a pretty freakin great book that was hard for me to put down.


Of course, if you're not interested in history [or early English-American history], then it may be easier for you to put down.

Other books I'm reading right now are:


I'm reading PM Times w/two other guys. If Only He Knew is a book that was given to me by a friend who passed away last year...

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Bad religion...

What happens when you mix a desire for all things Christian with a desire for all things [i.e. general and mass consumerism]? Enter forth: Thomas Kinkade's Paint by Number distributed by Rose Art.

As every day passes, I am ever more amazed at what one is able to purchase at my favorite online retailer [amazon.com]. I found this gem while looking in the "Toys and Games," section [always on the prowl for a good game and a great deal - Amazon had an advert for percentages off on certain toys and games] and was blown away not only by the product I'd found, but the single review of the product I found.

The reviewer was "totally disappointed" by their purchase and warned that only one "skilled at manipulating paint" would be able to salvage the project.

I left what may have seemed like an "unChristlike" comment on her review [because you can leave comments on amazon now, which is a wonderfully fun feature]. You can feel free to read it there via the link that is the picture of the paint by number product on this page, but the tone is about the same as this post.

Note, I did say "seemed" at the beginning of the previous paragraph.

I just don't think that Christ would really dig a Thomas Kinkade Paint by Number product either. It just doesn't seem pleasing or good or excellent. As with most speculation, this may be worthless.

All to say, I don't think I'm an art snob because I'm married to an artist. I'm just vocally opinionated about crap trying to be passed as something "good." I mean, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, smells like a duck...you know?