It's been a while...

...but I'm back! I've had plenty to blog about lately, but it seems like I either don't have the time, or I have the time and just don't feel like it. I go in cycles like that, with everything, really. But anyway, here I am! It's time once again to dump out the mass of links that have accumulated in my "To Blog" folder. Brace yourselves...

Note to Firefox: I love you, I really do. Honest. I'm lost without you - when I use IE I feel like the internet's been shut down, and there's nothing to do. But I can't help but be a little irritated with you when you decide to force a Quality Feedback Form on me, and close all my windows! Sure, I can disable it, but how am I to know that until you've done it once? How would you feel if you had just typed a long blog entry, only to have it disappear through no fault of your own? Play nice from now on, and we'll get along just fine.

Do you love the logos that Google comes up with? Have you ever looked at one and thought you could do better? Then Logoogle might be right for you. Some of the designs are rather poor quality, but there are some that are pretty nice. Take a look.

If that's not enough Google for you today, try Guess-the-Google, a nifty if easily conquered game by Grant Robinson. His other projects are definitely worth taking a look at, too - especially his Onion-skin prototype, which (thanks to my Fundamentals of Animation class) I now see a practical use for. :)

Another site worth your time is the NPAA's Best of Photojournalism 2005. I don't really care for the site's usability, but once you get to where you want to go, you'll be glad.

I like the design and concept of Pixilate. Of course, being a font nut, the fonts are my favorite part. But alas, they're not free. And we all know how cheap I am at heart.

Also scoring points in the design area is Jo Knits. I'm not quite sure what Jo knits (I haven't actually read any of the site), but I think her header image is quite unique and refreshing. And if you're looking for a change in your desktop background, check out DJ-Designs v18.

Ever wished you had a mini you? Yeah, I know you have, you're vain like that. WeeWorld gives the self-absorbed internet junkie the chance to indulge. They'll even put your image on a coffee mug so you can stare at yourself and put off all the work you need to get done. You don't even have to register to save your WeeMee (that sounds so weird) - just do a screen print when you're finished.

And now for a few games. In Bobbing Bob, your job is to take a bunch of coconuts across a river on barrels. I know, I'm easily amused. But when that gets old and you want to have to think a little bit, go play Tork. I have to say that I really like Tork - it's one of the most challenging but fun games I've played in a long time. Which is exactly why I'm linking to a Tork walkthrough in case you get stuck, or if you get halfway through and then are too lazy to figure the rest out on your own.

Speaking of lazy, Lazy Tools is a site that lists all those nifty little utilities everyone loves. I especially like that it tells you exactly why a utility is good for it's lazy users.

One of the places I've been hanging out on the Net since I last posted is DPChallenge. I even got up the nerve to enter the Minimalism challenge this week. I'm having fun over there - especially when I find a link like Black & White. There are some awesome B&W photos on that page!

Well, I have to get started on my final project for Intro to Visual Communications, so that's enough for now. Maybe later today I'll post the picture I entered on DPChallenge.

By the way...

That weird little mini-poem that's below that last picture? It wasn't an original, you'll be glad to know. It was courtesy of Angie McKaig's random poetry generator, which you can find by Googling her name, since I'm too lazy at the moment to make a handy-dandy link for you. So now that you'll be able to sleep knowing it wasn't my writing, I think maybe I'll go sleep.

Backward

backward, turn backward
last midnight
renew the vision of delight
when i looked into your eyes

Finding some inspiration

There's only about two weeks left in the semester, and this summer weather must be really getting to me. I don't know what it is, but there's something about the sunshine that just really inspires me to get up and do something. That can be good and bad this year, since it's inspiring me with website design - and I'm getting plenty of ideas that I just don't have the know-how to implement as yet. *sigh*

Nevertheless, I'm keeping a notebook filled with little sketches of layout ideas that come to me during the middle of Workplace Principles. And I've started on the huge Website Design book I bought, which should really help with CSS. I really like this book - it tells me all that stuff about HTML that Ryan tells me here and there, but all at once. It tells me about a lot of the HTML tags that are outdated now and what to use instead of them, and stuff like that. It will definitely be helpful in the long run.

I've also been using the web for inspiration - bookmarking sites with great layouts and designs, looking at who actually designed them. I found one last night while browsing The Sneeze. Way down on the sidebar is a little button that says "design & skinning by Moxie design studios". So I clicked.

Wow.

Check out some of these blog designs from Moxie Design Studios. These are only a few of my favorites.

Vermilion Dreams
Finding the Joy
Fremont Dads
The Little Hedgehog
Mama Write
Paper Frog
John's House of Pancakes
DaisyDo.com

On several of these sites (if not all), you'll find a little drop-down menu on one side that allows you to change the skin/design of the blog. Most of these skins have also been designed by Moxie, and all are awesome! Looking at these designs just makes me that much surer that this is what I want to do. Now if I can just be patient...

So...

I'd like to start this entry out by saying that it's been about seven months since I started this blog, and I've really enjoyed blogging to absolutely noone.

Seriously. Seven months and seven comments. Even though seven is my lucky number, that's just...sad.

Now I know I might be being a teensy bit hypocritical here, 'cause I read The Roman Empire every day and rarely leave a comment. But to be honest, my entries are soooooo much more interesting than all that ColdFusion stuff!

Something I've said or posted in the last seven months was interesting to you. I don't blog about the same thing every single day; I try to keep it a little bit interesting. Even if you find it boring, post a comment and let me know so I can work on being LESS boring.

Just give a little something to let me know you're here every couple weeks, alright? 'Cause if things keep going like they are, then I'll delete the whole thing and you'll never get to see the awesome spring photos I'll be taking.

So.

If I stand

There's more that rises in the morning than the sun,
And more that shines in the night than just the moon.
There's more than just this fire here that keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger than this room.

And there's a loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiment,
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing.
Stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the giver of all good things.

So if I stand, let me stand on the promise
You'll pull me through.
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You.
And if I sing, let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs.
And if I weep, let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home.

There's more that dances on the prairie than the wind,
And more that pulses in the ocean than the tide.
There's a love that's fiercer than the love between friends,
more gentle than a mother's when her baby's at her side.

And there's a loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiment,
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing.
Stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the giver of all good things.

So if I stand, let me stand on the promise
You'll pull me through.
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You.
And if I sing, let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs.
And if I weep, let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home.

And if I weep, let it be as a man
Who is longing for...home.

Knights & Sheep

I like to play games, but I like the ones that will give me a mental challenge - puzzles, logic, word games, whatever. However, most of the popular games out there are action games, like Collapse, or the common get-three-in-a-row-and-watch-them-disappear games, like Bejewelled and countless others. So I'm always on the lookout for a good game that requires some actual thinking. Here's a couple that I've found.

I came across Knight Moves Problem the other day, and I kinda like it. Your goal is to turn all of the brown squares pink in as few moves as possible, using only legal knight chess moves. (If you've forgotten, like I had, the knight in chess moves in an "L" shape.) So far, I've completed it in 69 moves, but I still want to see if I can get less. If you play it and get a lower score, post a comment and let me know!

Another I like is Puzzled Sheep. It has cute graphics (something that's really lacking in mind games) and a good challenge. I do suggest that once you get to the higher levels, you write down the code so you can skip ahead next time - it can get old starting over once you've figured out the easy levels.

Here's a multiplayer online version of Boggle. After each round you can scroll down the page, and on the left side it'll show all the words you missed, or words that only you found. Nifty.

Like I said, I'm always looking for more games like these, so if you run across any, send me the link!