I just typed an eloquent post about today’s festivities before Katie’s dog Buddy managed to close the window with his little paws. Further proof that animals do not belong indoors. (But impressive that he managed the apple+w keystroke while quickly traipsing across the laptop).
Let’s continue. (Or, in your case, let’s begin). There are a number of things that one might expect to see when exiting the dinner destination of choice in Auburn, Alabama. Khaki-clad college boys. Layered tank top ladies. Lots of things painted orange.
Or maybe your truck on fire.
Wait, I should back up a few steps to build the tension. I came to Atlanta today to see my friend Sarah, who I hadn’t talked to face to face in months, and then to pick my friend Katie up from the airport and deliver her safely to Auburn. Mission(s) accomplished. Once we hit Auburn is where it gets a bit squirrely. Our dinner destination of choice was the always great in any state Mellow Mushroom Pizza. Good food and conversation ensued, as well as semi-decipherable chatting with the three year old girl at the table next to us and her stuffed animal (that somewhat resembled a skunk. Don’t ask. It’s Alabama… that’s all you need to know).
As we exited Mellow Mushroom for a short walk around quaint downtown Auburn, I see my Honda Passport in the distance and realize that the inside is COMPLETELY FULL OF SMOKE and the white puffy stuff is billowing out of the slightly open driver side window. Minor freak out. Katie managed something along the lines of, “Um… I think your car is on fire” in that amazing interrogative tone that attaches invisible question marks to the ends of sentences.
The following events occurred more or less in the order in which they’re described. I opened the passenger side door and immediately started choking while simultaneously going blind. I then stumbled my way to the driver side door and, having learned my lesson, closed my eyes and held my breath while opening that door and fumbling for the hood release. Surely the smoke is coming from the engine, right? (This is the way someone thinks when they’ve owned an Isuzu Trooper that has blown up on more than one occasion). I pop the hood and… nothing. Welcome to the non-smoking section. The fire isn’t engine-related at all.
“Should I call the fire department?” What the heck is burning? I check under the mats, in the glove box… “Joshua, do you want me to call the fire department?” Something is still on fire. Maybe in the back seat? Nothing… “Joshua…“
And as I open the back tailgate, there it is… a smoldering, smoking, charred TOWEL. Not just any towel, either… one of my favorite towels… ON FIRE. IN MY TRUCK. I toss it out in the street where a crowd of curious onlookers has started to mingle and Katie heads for a nearby bar to procure some water. I stomp out the offending towel as much as possible in my flip flops and turn to see her crossing the street with a pitcher full of water (quite the amazing scene) which she proceeds to empty on the still smoking towel. And thus we narrowly avert disaster. The end.
I figure there are two options. Either someone tossed a cigarette into my open window and it miraculously landed on said towel… or said towel SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUSTED IN THE MIDDLE OF ALABAMA. I vote for option two, as it somehow makes more sense. I have pictures of the entire thing, so i’ll post them on Flickr when I get back home.
We smell like s’mores and campfire. My truck now has a large charred area in the back and the overall olfactory experience of riding with me will never be the same. Welcome to Alabama.
I’m off to Atlanta/Auburn for an indeterminate amount of time. Being self-employed does has a few advantages from time to time. I watched Moulin Rouge for the first time last night and enjoyed it so much I feel like singing everywhere I go today. I promise i’m straight.
I downloaded WordPress the other day and finally got around to messing with it tonight. For those not “in the know”, WordPress is a blogging tool similar to Blogger, but with some major differences like a lot more flexiblity (adding extra pages and being able to change templates with the click of a mouse instead of long republishing times) and being hosted on your own server instead of Blogger’s servers.
It took me all of 5 or 10 minutes to have everything set up and to post. Very impressive from a usability and functionality standpoint. WordPress does most of the work for you, unlike Blogger, which fights with me like a 16 year old daughter every time I ask it to do something nicely. After 18 months, I think i’ve reached the breaking point. It’s a great tool for simple blogging, but I get more and more frustrated everytime I want it to do something that it’s not designed to do. I outgrew it. We’re going in different directions. It’s not Blogger, it’s me. Etcetera.
As the fine folks at Neubix have been thinking and planning a possible blogging-related content management system (you can get the scoop on that here if you’re interested in such things) they’re realizing that while a new app for those of us who are dissatisfied with Blogger would be great, we’ve got hundreds of posts already… what are we supposed to do about them? (Apparently they call that “data migration” in the biz). All I know is I have a year and a half of more-than-daily posting that I don’t want to say goodbye to.
Leave it up to Mason to do a little research for me. Someone in a similar predicament has paved the way and you can migrate all those posts from Blogger to WordPress with very little effort. You can see all the steps here. I already tried it with one of my secret blogs (scary thought, eh?) and it works like a charm. If you use Blogger’s built-in comments, it will import them too.
I could switch over to WordPress, move the blog over to joshuablankenship.com, add a bio page, a poetry page, a links page, etc. in the space of about 15 minutes and generally make your visits here a much more pleasant experience. You’d have post categories (just want to see all the “Dear So-And-So” posts? Just want to see all the random links posts?), improved search functions, a previous/next set-up for you RSS readers, more content, and a very happy writer behind the whole thing.
It’s settled then, right?
There’s a catch. One of the main draws of WordPress (or ANY real content management system blogging tool) is that the comments are included with each post. The only reason I never used Blogger’s built-in comments was because it was slow and clunky. To combat that, i’ve been using Haloscan for comments since I started blogging. There’s no way to import those comments into WordPress’ comments system. It’s an either/or. Stick with Haloscan and lose the selling point of attached comments or move to WordPress and lose all the comments so far (or spend the next week copying and pasting comments. I think i’d rather stab steak skewers in my eyes than try that).
So… what do you think?
Rob Bell (of nooma fame) has a new book coming out called Velvet Elvis: Repainting The Christian Faith that looks interesting.
I’m fairly sure i’ve been remiss in giving the link love to Michael Eades‘ t-shirt endeavor Reverend Rainbow. Amazingly odd site; great shirts. File under: go support seriously cool things.
There’s an article in the new Rolling Stone on Christian celibacy. You can read the whole thing here. It’s yet another example of America’s recent (seeming) fascination with Christians who aren’t bomb-throwing right-wing raging bores. I’m not sure what to think of the article, although the fact that the writer continues to refer to young, celebate Christians as an “army” absolutely cracks me up. Nothing like sexual frustration and deferred hope to make you completely militant.
FedEx Furniture. No further explanation required.
King Kong. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll accidentally step on Jack Black.
Ken just informed me that there’s an IM extension for Firefox now.
Anyone tried it yet?
…potential alternative to my beloved Treo. Too bad it’s not out anytime soon. I dig my Treo, but I admit it’s a bit heavy and clunky for my tatses. Then again, the razor is so small that I would probably lose it.
I turn 26 today. I have a favor to ask you.
I know all of you are heartbroken that you can’t be here to help me celebrate today. It’s tough on you, i’m certain of it. But dry your eyes, faithful blog reader, there is a solution! (And an exclamation mark, just so you know i’m not playing around here). While I know there are a variety of gifts that you’ve been perusing in malls, online stores, and local deli meat counters while searching for the “just right” present for yours truly, i’m here to tell you I can make it easy on you.
All I want for my birthday is a new Canon camera.
In the wake of my resignation from New Spring and my launch into the ridiculously inconsistent world of a bottom-rung freelance designer, i’ve managed to gather most of the necessities like a functioning vehicle, a new Mac, a printer, and a good secretary (in the form of my Treo) completely debt-free. The missing piece of the puzzle (the piece that puts the “photography” in the oh-so-catchy “HRTWRK is Design and Photography”) is a pro-level digital SLR camera. Lee has been kind enough to lend me his little Canon Powershot in the interim, which has eased my suffering and kept me from going crazy while sans real camera, but it’s certainly a temporary remedy and doesn’t do much for my ensuing professional photography excursions.
This is where you, the camera, my birthday, and Paypal collide, my friends. Paypal is great, so if you don’t have an account, this is the perfect opportunity to sign up. If you feel so inclined (whether out of sympathy, pity, unmerited grace, sheer obligation, guilt, because you think i’m hot, because you think i’m not, because you think I take pretty pictures, any motive will do really, i’m not picky) click the graphic with the little camera at the top of the page and wish me a happy birthday in a way that says, “Hey Joshua, this one’s on me.” Think about when i’m a household name and you can say, “Yeah, I helped him buy that camera. I’m freaking AWESOME.”
Thank you. And I promise I won’t bother you again about this. The little camera graphic will just haunt you every time you visit until I have a real one.
I’m not over, i’m not under, i’m just whelmed. Whatever the case, watching someone walk full tilt boogie into a glass wall always cheers me up. By the 7th or 8th time, I was smiling big, carefully studying the subtle nuances of how his left hand crumples so completely on impact, and enjoying being back to my normal jolly self.
I absolutely hate going to a blog (and I visit far too many, I assure you) only to have an article title, the first paragraph of the article, and a “continue reading” link that takes me to the full article. Why would you take me off the front page of your site? Don’t you think that will decrease the amount of time i’ll spend on your site reading your content?
Suppose i’ve missed three posts on your site. In order for me to catch up and see all three of those posts, you’re INTENTIONALLY making me click more times than I have to; you’re taking me off your front page almost immediately in order to ping-pong me back and forth between sub-pages. Why? Why not provide all the content on the page at once?
If your answer is something along the lines of aesthetics, that by cutting off each article the user now sees each post taking up the same amount of space on the front page, then I would counter with, “You’ve not only made every post on your front page seem equally important (even though we know they aren’t), but you’ve increased the potential that the user will NEVER read certain articles.” You’ve put the power in their hands to access content, or not. As a web user, i’m inevitably going to skim… it’s my nature and my way of sizing up a site before I ever actually start taking in anything beyond the visual content. But i’m much more likely going to read something provided to me in full rather than something I have to go hunting for. Stop making me work so hard to get to THE ONLY REASON YOUR SITE EXISTS.
Yes, I know it’s only one click to get to the full article. But then it’s another click to get to the next article; so it’s technically two clicks. And if the user happens to ignore using the sidebar, they have to click once to get to the first article, again get back to the front page, and then again to get to the next article (and so on and so forth). For some less-web-savvy users, that’s THREE clicks to read TWO articles you simply could have provided me on the front page without all the fuss. Make me do that enough times, and I never visit your site again. My time is important, stop wasting it.
Can anyone offer up any positive reasons to layout a blog like this?
Addendum - My friends at Neubix do this on their company blog The Big Noob, but I think it works there because of the unique layout and the simple fact that they have five contributing authors. It’s a different feel.
Counting the musicians, there are 26 people at the altar. One catches my eye. And no, it's not the bridesmaid I think is the cutest of the baker's dozen. (Don't judge me. Every guy does this at weddings. We make a sort of mental note of which bridesmaid we might talk to at the reception if given the invitation. We have a back-up maid, too). The only life of this party that I see is the flower girl. Glowing white and innocence, yawning, stretching, arms crossed adorable, comfortable in her skin but not in the dress. Too young to have picked up insecure. The only one in the entire room more bored than me.
I’ve started to notice something recently. In all of my conversations about life and God and decision-making and such, especially with people who (for whatever reason) talk to me seeking advice, my answers have become much more simple than they used to be. I know more and I talk less.
Lee says it’s sort of like geometry, and I think he may be right.
Geometry doesn’t really make sense on the surface when you first begin to study it in school. (That was 9th or 10th grade for me, but I live in South Carolina and we’re not exactly known for being a hotbed of intellectual prowess). When you start with geometry, you can solve the problems and find the forumlas and do the work, but you don’t really understand WHY it’s working. I doubt that most of us grasp the theories underneath the formulas until years later when calculus initially scares our feeble high school minds to death, but then starts to pull it all together and help all those formulas make sense. You already understand how to make it work, but now you understand WHY it works. And then geometry becomes this wonderfully simple and understandable thing in theory and in practice.
My faith has struggled through its share of calculus; especially in the last three years. My attempts to sort through those big questions, coupled with my desire for more than a cursory understanding of what I believe in have led me back to the same child-like faith that I stepped out on initially. But it’s not a blind faith or a relationship that ignores the hard questions in favor of a false assurance of blissful ignorance, this faith rests firmly on a foundation of complexities. I’ve sifted through enough calculus to begin to see the bigger picture; now I can be free to revel in the tension of equally true things that used to seem like contradictions. That sounds like less resolution than most of us think we need, but when I hear myself responding to questions with simple answers, I don’t feel the twinges of uncertainty with my own words that I used to.
But simple answers to massive questions do not come easily. They are built on the backs of years and months and days and mornings of searching and questioning and praying and talking and living and trusting. The hardest, and most dangerous, part of the entire equation is the pre-calculus season. When it’s beginning to make sense and to become clearer in your mind, but it’s still not quite there. A few pieces don’t fit into the puzzle in the right places and even though the edges are clear, the middle still has some sizable holes. Pre-calculus is the easiest season of your life to just walk away; half-understanding things, frustrated, and with an incomplete understanding of something that you almost already know. If that’s you, then I encourage you to keep pressing and learning and questioning and (especially) talking.
I love being on this side of that particular part of the learning process. I love giving simple answers that I know exist because of the complexities of the character of God that hold them up. I love talking with clarity and simplicity and knowing that those things bring with them an authority that is sorely lacking in what poet Taylor Mail refers to as, “The most aggressively inarticulate generation [ever].”
In short, I love knowing more and talking less.
I have to admit… it was completely weird to see you again today. What has it been? Two years? I had almost forgotten you were there, so I thought i’d check in on you, let you get some sun, take you for a walk around town, etc.
I apologize if i’ve been a bit socially awkward today when introducing you to my friends. They’re not used to you. Heck, i’m not used to you. It’s nothing personal, I promise. (Although, you are a little shorter than I wish you were, but i’m guessing there might be an old proverbial saying from some bizarro old proverbial saying-filled dimension about chins taking after their owners much like pets take after their owners. It’s probably all my fault anyway. Bygones).
In the time being, don’t be rude. Chin, meet the internet. Internet, meet my chin. Thanks for dropping by in all your unfollicled glory mediocrity. You should do it again sometime… like in another two years or so. Or never. Never would be ok, too.
Looking like i’m twelve,
Joshua
The growth of MySpace mystifies me. I try not to rail on things I haven’t had firsthand experience with, so I set up my own profile to hopefully help me understand what was going on. It didn’t help.
In two weeks i’ve managed to make 12 “friends.” Not bad at first blush, but probably a little sad considering that I already actually know 11 of them from various other internet/music/design worlds. If this is socializing these days, i’m glad i’m a hermit. By the way, this is THE ONLY PURPOSE MySpace serves from what I can tell… making “friends” that aren’t really friends… building up your contacts list… it’s basically a nerdish popularity contest with banner ads.
If you are on MySpace and check it several times daily, chances are you are single, unemployed, very lonely, or have hair that swoops over one eye. - Chuck
I couldn’t have said it better. And doing a little bit of web research, I keep finding bands and musicians that say, “Being on MySpace is an absolute MUST!” to which I respond, “I always thought actually getting out and PLAYING MUSIC was an absolute must, thank you for enlightening me as to how to be a musician these days!” I can understand how the networking can help them out, but I still don’t get it.
Yet another way for us to waste time dorking around the internet. Sort of like reading blogs, right?
The most awesome awesome that has ever awesomed.
Today is Perry’s birthday. He has a very purple website, a large collection of fashionable shirts bearing some variety of 45 degree angle stripes, and has been at different times over the past three years my pastor, boss, friend, fellow-creative-type, leader, teacher, and a million other things.
I love you, P.
It’s 4:00am and no one I know is awake. (At least no one that I know of is awake). This makes me sad because I just finished the last one of four editorial illustrations for an upcoming Michael Jackson spread in Law Of Inertia, a tasty little music magazine, and I want to show them to someone because dangit… I think they’re the best thing i’ve done in MONTHS. Speaking of months… that’s how long we’ll have to wait to see them in print. I think that story runs in issue 26, which is the September/October issue.
Learning patience takes too much time.
…collection of killer 80’s-inspired Ninja Training Videos you’ll see today.
The weapon descriptions are also quite entertaining. Who can pass on writing like, “Hand Claws - At some point in their life, every single Ninja will go flying up the trunk of a conifer tree and fire an arrow into another man’s eye. These are for that.” or the pet-conscious “Sectioned Staff - Let’s just say that if a Ninja starts swinging this thing around, in a pet store for instance, every single pet would be killed in five seconds.”
You should be laughing right now.
…because it is a magnet for negative people. It’s like a front porch bug light that unfortunately doesn’t kill them; it continues to make whining more accessible to them. The web is an oasis of loathing for negative people… they can complain and moan and be SO COMPLETELY UNIMPRESSED with virtually everything in the world while comfortably sitting in the friendly confines of their office, disgustingly overpriced coffeeshop of choice, or parent’s basement. Since they don’t have to actually look anyone in the face, they can finally say all the things they’re far too weak-willed to even think about uttering in public. On the web, everyone is 6ft tall and bulletproof and ridiculously talented and omniscient. Didn’t you know?
If you think this is aimed at you, it isn’t. (Unless you’re one of these people, and then it is aimed at you and you should get your act together because you really do suck the life out of people when you act like an idiot).
Examples of the widespread negativity are almost everywhere, but if you want a concentrated dose, I suggest visiting a messageboard or the comment section of your average widely-read blog. (Not this one, you people are far too cool). These “communities” (don’t get me started) foster an environment where everyone can have a say… how wonderfully democratic. The problem is, in real community we have to be accountable for our actions and our words because we know (and can see) the affect they have on people. Face to face it’s clear that words can literally crush people or, put to better use, lift them out of whatever pit they’ve fallen into. We can see the power of words in action IN PEOPLE. And make no mistake, that’s where they’re going… in people. In web world, you just type, type, type, rant, rant, rant, and hit the submit button and, let’s be honest here, don’t really care where it goes, who sees it, or what affect it has on anyone. In short, the internet might quite possibly be the most self-centered tool for being inarticulate, sarcastic, and spiteful in the history of mankind.
Or it might just be the way for cowards to finally feel good about themselves.
Again, if you think this is aimed at you, it isn’t. (Unless you’re one of these people, and then it is aimed at you and you should get your act together because you really do suck the life out of people when you act like an idiot).
Now, the wonderful thing about my place in the world is that designers and music fans are the WORST at what i’m talking about. By and large, most people spouting off about design and music on the web are, at best, ignorant novices who are a bit uneducated about what’s actually going on to produce the results they’re hearing, seeing, feeling, taking in, etc. or, at worst, bitter, petty people lobbing condemnation grenades from the sidelines of a game they’ve never had the guts to actually play. A typical internet exchange would go something like this:
Protagonist: I really like this band. (or) I really like this site.
Dissentient #1: They suck. (or) This sucks.
Dissentient #2: They’re so five years ago. (or) Why don’t you use Flash?
Dissentient #3: I’ve heard way better stuff than this. You should listen to [insert indie-cred band that they deem worthy here]… they’re actually doing something different and creative and awesome. (or) This is just a rip of [insert website that they think is a rip off because it uses things like a grid system or, oh... I don't know, colors].
Protagonist: Do you guys play? (or) Do you guys have a site?
[offstage cricket noises]
Everyday. Every single day of my life that I sit in front of this computer, I sift through negative, whiny, ignorant, spiteful, careless conversations that aren’t actually conversations… they’re one-sided diatribes we think will shed light on our own brilliance. Apparently we love the sound of our own voice SO MUCH that it doesn’t even matter if we can hear it; the sound of computer keys will do. And the saddest part is that i’m writing about it… on the internet… thinking I have something to say and that people need to hear it.
So yet again, if you think this is aimed at you, it isn’t. It’s aimed at me. (Unless you’re one of these people, too, and then it is aimed at you and you should get your act together because we really do suck the life out of people when we act like idiots).
P.S. I don’t take too many things personally, so this isn’t where this post is coming from. But in the for what it’s worth category, if you’re going to rail on someone’s work, you better make sure you’re doing work that backs up your mouth. Because these days it seems like those who can, do, and those who can’t?
Well, they just complain.
I own a few different domains… hrtwrk.com, joshuablankenship.com, and the classic yourcreativitydollarsatwork.com. With the advent of this new season of writing, I think it’s time to make some decisions about what goes where.
It would be smart business to separate this blog from HRTWRK simply because this blog has very little to do with the company itself. This blog is, and always has been, more about me and more of a reflection of a personal brand than a company brand. Add to that the fact that I want a place online to showcase some of my poetry (and maybe occasionally music) and the picture becomes clearer.
I *think* what will occur sometime in the next few months is that i’ll move this blog over to joshuablankenship.com, which i’m working on layouts for now, and use that site to post poetry and songs and anything generally related to me and to writing. HRTWRK will remain the brand for design and photography, and i’ll continue to use the NEWS section on that site to blog about design-related things, like sites you should visit and new friends in the design world. I doubt either site would suffer in the fresh content realm, considering I have no social life and love what I do.
YourCreativityDollarsAtWork (aka YCD@W) will become something special. Here I go saying it in public and thereby forcing myself to actually follow-through on it again. It worked out well last time, with the Valentine’s Day launch of HRTWRK, so maybe my track record is good for such things.
I want to launch an online boutique store the day after Thanksgiving.
YCD@W will sell posters, high-quality photography prints, greeting cards, t-shirts, limited-run t-shirts (think 7-21 of each design), hand-printed/hand-stitched one-of-a-kind pieces of clothing (via a bidding process), tools for designers (like EPS sets and cheap stock photography sets), and, hopefully, work by wonderful artists like Lee McDerment, Lanna Coates, and other friends i’ve made along the way.
This is exciting. I’m currently in the process of designing the site, researching eCommerce and shipping solutions, talking to printshops and screenprinters, talking to people who sew better than I do, and trying to find a t-shirt company that makes quality, comfy tees without using porn to sell them.
What do you think?