This just in...

I didn't watch the "debate" tonight, but I understand that (1) Bush won, (2) Kerry won, and (3) it was a draw.

I've never liked the idea of actual debates during a presidential campaign. I'm not at all uncomfortable with the idea that these "debates" are really "simultaneous press conferences." The American voting public is already too willing to make decisions based on the shallowest of impressions, and a high school debate format does nothing to elevate its judgment. I think we're all better served by giving each candidate the same question then not leaving until he's answered it. But, really, I don't care one way or the other. I've already made up my mind based on four years of real life and nothing in these little dog and pony shows will influence that decision.

Say, I'll bet you didn't notice that I deleted one of my posts from earlier this afternoon. After looking at it again, I couldn't remember why I wrote it, nor could I think of any possible reason for someone else to read it. So...poof...it's gone. Take that, MSM!

In closing, you should know that in today's Wall Street Journal online poll, 53% of the participants think that the new Washington, D.C. baseball team should be named the Senators. I guess "Representatives" is too long to fit on a ball cap, and "Justices" is too highbrow. I was happy, for some inexplicable reason -- I care less about MLB than I do about presidential debates, now that the Rangers' season is ended -- to see that "Expos" and "Monuments" each have garnered only 6% of the votes. Both are lame names, James.

The ideal name, IMHO, wasn't even one of the choices: the Interns. Now that's a great name for a D.C. team.

See, I told you.

Four posts (five, counting this one) today. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I am NOT a blogaholic. Yet.

I've seen references to this quiz on at least a half dozen blogs, so I'll just make all of them mad by not linking to any of them (and thereby contradicting my response on one of the questions).

Anyhoo, my score is 64%, which, according to the eminently wise and perceptive author, makes me "a dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You're the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!" So, I've got that going for me.

I can't wait to go to bed tonight so I can dream about this.

OTOH...perhaps it's TOO quiet where you live...

My recent post about the absence of silence in today's busy environment attracted a good number of comments; it's something that many of you have contemplated on occasion. But Cowtown Pattie over at Texas Trifles has a different perspective on silence, in a post that will definitely stimulate some memories for anyone over the age of 40.

Her premise is that air conditioning has caused (allowed?) us to be virtual shut-ins in our own homes, at least here in Texas where a/c is no longer considered to be a luxury. It's good stuff, although her reference to "piggy wants a signal" lost me. Our motley crew of neighborhood urchins opted for a rousing game of kick the can most evenings.

I will contend, however, that neighborhoods are what we decide to make them, and knowing your neighbors, while perhaps a vanishing practice, is still a remarkably simple thing to do. I dunno; maybe Midland is different from some bigger cities. Evenings in our neighborhood are still filled with people of all ages and ethnicities walking, kids playing in front yards and in the park, folks waving from their lawn chairs at passers-by. Silence is a good thing, sometimes, but not when it's the defining characteristic of a neighborhood.

Catching Up...

It's raining (again). Has been, on and off, since 4:00 a.m. I knew I should have mowed the yard yesterday, but noooooo...we live in a desert and there'll be plenty of time now that the next drought has begun. Right.

At least Abbye and I made it down to the park and back during a brief lull. She was skeptical, poking her head out the front door then putting it in reverse when she saw the puddles in the drive, but I already had her leashed and so I exercised my dictatorial prerogative and put her in death-march mode.

MLB is in Houston again today (no, Shannon; she won't be having lunch with you...again). I drove her to the airport for the 6:40 a.m. flight. Being able to chauffeur her around like that is one of the (few) perks of being my own boss.*

Speaking of Shannon, he has a post on The Daily Briefing about website accessibility, specifically for the blind. This is an issue that any web designer worth his or her salt should always have in mind at the beginning of any project. Shannon links to this blog post on the subject, written by a blogger named Reagan. It's nothing terribly special on its face, but the fact that Reagan is legally blind (eyesight of 20/1500) bumps it off the chart in terms of credibility. It's a good reminder to me that there are real people behind those web accessibility guidelines, and my failure to implement them in the sites I design may keep them from doing business with or getting information from my clients.

On another note, I've been following with amusement the escalating battle between certain members of the MSM and the blogosphere regarding the status of bloggers. The latest such volley was fired by one Nick Coleman, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. For an expert dissection of Mr. Coleman's semi-serious rant, you need look no further than James Lileks' bleat of the day.

I'd like to write more about this topic. Not that I have any original insights, but it is ripe for over-analysis. And if I can find where I stored my pajamas over the winter, I might just take a shot at it. But at the very least, let me say this: that Nick Coleman is a very astute fellow, in that he has figured out the one way to get an otherwise obscure regional (local?) column extensive international exposure. That, my friends, is a phenomenon worth noting, and don't think for a moment that MSMers around the world are failing to perceive it.

Blog Recommendation

Dawn Eden has run across an excellent new blog named "The Penitent Blogger," and it's a worthy addition to any blogroll that includes people who write thoughtfully and transparently about being a Christian in our secular society.

How fallen are the mighty

So it's come to this. Two college degrees, including an advanced degree from a prestigious state university¹; a successful 25-year career with a Fortune 50 corporation²; a new career as a respected designer of award-winning websites³; a world-renowned blogger⁴; owner of a number of industrial strength power tools⁵...and I now find myself reduced to snapping photos of a Barbie-clone cheerleader doll and cropping out the background to make her more fetching.

Actually, the retouching wasn't as bad as the actual "shoot." Working alone in the client's storage room, under the hot lights, I resisted the urge to talk to the "model" as I tried to get her posed...

"Come on, doll, work it; you're too stiff! That's it...the camera loves you, babe!"

<Sigh> Next up: Ballpoint pens that play college fight songs when you press the clips.

Ombrophobic Canine

Today was the fourth consecutive rainy day in Midland. I know that doesn't sound like much to some of you, but this is the desert, folks, and we're more accustomed to measuring rainfall in terms of consecutive minutes rather than days.

If you talk to any real west Texan, they'll be ambivalent about a situation like this. We need the rain; we always need the rain. Nobody will seriously speak out against the rain. But, deep in our heart of hearts, we know that four straight days of rain is just too dang much. We also need the sunshine.

Still, in our household, the one who suffers most from this climatological situation is Abbye, the dog-like creature who shows up at mealtime but rarely any other. You see, Abbye is deeply ombrophobic. She hates being rained on. In her doggy little mind, those aren't just drops of water...they're radioactive knives coated with arsenic and acid.

The practical implication is no laughing matter: she will not venture outside to, um, do her business if there is actual rain actively dropping from the sky. She'd rather live with all four legs crossed than risk a precipitation-marred trip to the backyard. And just forget about walking down to the park in the drizzle.

I've taken her out in the drizzle before, forcing her outside before she literally explodes. After being dragged three blocks to the park, she'll take care of business -- after all, she's already wet -- but then she'll just sit down in the middle of the sidewalk and glare at me, her wet ears hanging from her head like weird forelocks. If I concentrate, I can hear her plotting the call to the SPCA in which she'll accuse me of abuse beyond belief.

The ironic thing is that Abbye is, by all indications, a water dog. She's got webbed toes and her undercoat is not unlike a duck's; I'm not sure her skin ever gets wet. She'll slog through standing water without flinching. It's those tiny drops of death from above that she just can't tolerate.

Fortunately for both of us, it appears that the rain is starting to clear out. For most of us in this part of the country, the thinking is that the next drought has now begun. For Abbye, it's just a brief respite before the next killing rain appears.

Monitor Update

I've lived with my new NEC monitor (a MultiSync LCD1960NXi, to be specific) for about five days and I must say that I'm very impressed.

Since its maximum resolution is 1280x1024, it doesn't display any more data than the Apple 17" LCD it replaced, but it makes what's being displayed more legible. And for apps which allow adjustment of font size, I can use a smaller screen font to take better advantage of the additional pixelacreage, assuming I can talk my eyes into cooperating.

I think the screen is brighter than the Apple display, although my memory is tainted by the partially darkened screen that made me decide to chuck the Apple to begin with. Color fidelity seems good (and I spent four hours yesterday touching up 60 product photos for a client, so I would have noticed any problems).

Design-wise, the NEC is a separate but equal answer to the Apple. It's black and metal, vs. the white/clear acrylic of the other, but it is more adjustable (swivels and raises/lowers, neither of which the Apple display will do), and the tilt is more easily adjusted. Interestingly, the black color actually works better, cosmetically-speaking, with my desk (which was MLB's initial observation). It also works better with my computer (surprise!) in that the Apple display had that elegant-but-impractical proprietary ADC connector that was incompatible with my G4, requiring me to invest in a $100+ adapter, complete with three new cables, a HUGE power block and a slightly smaller "black box" to do the signal conversion. The NEC connects with a standard DVI cable (which, unfortunately, I had to purchase separately). I welcome anything that eliminates a cable or two while maintaining functionality.

The only thing I miss about the Apple display is the way it integrated with the computer, allowing me to boot up by touching the frame. Oh, and I also miss the two USB ports that it provided.

If you're in the market for an LCD display, I've seen nothing thus far that makes me hesitate to recommend this NEC. I hope that someday, Apple will wise up to the competition and lengthen its pitiful one-year warranty on its monitors.

[It's interesting to note that Apple now offers only 20", 23" and the monster 30" (for a mere $3,300, plus $600 for the required NVIDIA GeForce video card) displays. Would you spend up to $4,000 for a monitor with a one-year warranty?]

Silence in the Darkness

Our pastor's sermon this morning was on the somewhat unusual topic of silence. The focal verse was the first part of Psalm 46:10, which directs us to "Be still and know that I am God..." and is one of a number of references throughout Scripture regarding the necessity of being silent (Ecclesiastes 3:7 probably being the most widely recognized of those verses).

It's almost impossible to find a place that's completely silent. Even the seemingly quiet areas and times in our homes have a continuous soundtrack that we perhaps sense only subconsciously. In my home, it's the whir of the computer fan, the chiming of the living room clock on the quarter hour, the A/C compressor cycling on and off, the garbage truck in the alley, and so on. Even in the dead of night, the house clicks and creaks and that clock chimes it's tightly wound little heart out.

Most of us go out of our way to avoid silence anyway (a glance at the iPod sales statistics seems to confirm this). We're uncomfortable with lapses in conversation; we'll generate filler material, even when the interval between utterances would have been much more edifying. (It occurs to me that the same thing could be said for most of us bloggers with respect to the written word.)

Another rare experience nowadays is that of total darkness. Abe Lincoln could have done his homework by the cumulative glow of the LEDs scattered around our house, what with alarm clocks, telephones, power strips, cell phones, various and sundry small appliances doing double duty as chronometers, etc. We even have actual night lights in each room of the house, although they seem redundant given the natural lumenosity of our surroundings.

Total darkness and total silence are, like straight lines, anathema to Nature. Light was the first thing God spoke into being, and the ability to stir the air -- to make a sound -- is one of the fundamental ways we judge something to be alive. Sensory deprivation can be used to either heal or torture. As with most things in life, the key is moderation. I suspect we all could benefit from a moderate increase in silence. I don't know if the same is true of darkness, but it's not likely I'm going to find out anytime soon.

Anything worth using is worth abusing. Just ask Stamps.com

We've seen a new development in the ongoing saga of the PhotoStamps service from Stamps.com. If you were planning on a limited issue to commemorate your great aunt Millie or honor Billy Graham, it's too late. Those subjects are now off-limits, along with all black-and-white images and images of anyone who appears to be older than twelve (I guess that keeps Ron Howard as fair game).

It seems that while this program has been wildly successful, with a million individual stamps being ordered since it began on August 10, a few naughty folks have pushed the envelope by ordering stamps with images of people or things with, shall we say, less than spotless reputations.

Regular Gazette visitor Larry Stephey alerted me to this new development via a comment left on this post, which describes the results of Larry's effort to help a close friend memorialize her late husband. I recommend that you read Larry's comment in its entirety, as it shows just how useful and meaningful this service can be to those who take it seriously. Unfortunately, it appears that no one else will get to find out firsthand.

I have a hard time getting incensed over someone trying to create a stamp with Jimmy Hoffa's picture on it. I can see, however, how Stamps.com has opened Pandora's Box with this service, considering the litigious nature of our society and the desire (if not constitutional right) of individuals to protect the use of their own image. Policing something like this is a nightmare, as Stamps.com quickly came to realize. It's sad that some worthy uses must fall by the wayside due to the abuses of a few.

How big is Texas? Ask the LHS football team

The Midland Lee High School football team is hosting a team from Arvada, Colorado tonight. Arvada is a Denver suburb on the north side of that city. Sounds like a pretty daunting road trip, doesn't it, especially for a high school team?

I would agree, but consider this. Last weekend, the Midland Lee team traveled to Port Arthur, Texas to play a non-district game. The distance they had to travel was 498 miles, just 65 miles shorter, as the crow flies, than the trip from Arvada to Midland.

Of course, it could be worse. An El Paso team playing that same Port Arthur team would have to travel 750 miles, and a team from Dumas (way up north in the Panhandle) would have to travel 728 miles to play a team from Brownsville.

Fortunately for LHS, they won the game last week, albeit in overtime. Otherwise, it makes a long trip seem reeeeeeealy long...as, I suspect, Arvada Pomona will find out tonight.

[Mileage calculator found at Greg Ingram's website. It ain't fancy, but it works.]

The Movie Planned Parenthood Won't Want You To See

Forgotten is an average thriller that suddenly morphs into a below average sci-fi movie. But it's the (possibly unintentional) message in the last ten minutes of the film that turn it into the worst nightmare for Planned Parenthood and all other pro-abortion organizations and individuals.

Frankly, I'm not sure how this movie ever made it out of mainstream Hollywood. But when a film's climax hinges upon a mother's innate knowledge that her unborn child is a living human being...and the movie still escapes and opens across the country on thousands of screens, then I think we're seeing something of a minor miracle.

I can't tell you anything more about this aspect of the plot without ruining the entertainment value of the movie, which is a little underwhelming to begin with. And some might believe that I'm inflating a very small piece of the movie into importance beyond its true significance. That's fine. Go see it and judge for yourself. But I guarantee you that hell will freeze over before you see PP promoting this film.

I look forward to reading some additional views about this issue from those who see "Forgotten," which opens today.

Curiosity Piqued about Peak Oil?

A quick scan of my referer log tonight revealed a solitary hit from a site named Dry Dipstick. This is proof positive that there's now a website devoted to every conceivable topic, as this site bills itself as "a metadirectory of peak oil."

The visit in question went to my post on Tuesday which gave brief consideration to the conflicting theories regarding the source and supply of petroleum, namely: (1) oil is non-renewable and rapidly depleting vs. (2) oil can be created naturally from non-organic sources and thus is renewable.

I presume that Dry Dipstick had a link to that post under its Breaking News and Commentary section, although the moderators apparently came to their senses and now link to something else by someone who knows what they're talking about. Nevertheless, if you want to know more about the facts and theories of the world's supply of crude oil and natural gas, albeit mostly from a "peak oil theory" perspective, Dry Dipstick seems to be a pretty good place to start.

Amazing Race -- Great Winners

[Spoiler alert: If you're coming here from, say, New Zealand, and you don't want to know who won The Amazing Race, do not read further! (Sorry, Rachel.)]

I took a break a few minutes ago to empty the dishwasher (yes, kiddies, the life of a web god is not always as glamorous as you think) and I switched on the TV just in time to see an interview on Fox with Chip and Kim, the winners of the latest installment of "The Amazing Race."

I confess that I've never seen "The Amazing Race," and probably never will. However, I was impressed with the latest winners, who live in southern California. They came across as level-headed, competent, articulate and attractive people with great personalities. But the thing that impressed me the most was their answer to the interviewer's question about what they're going to do with the million bucks they won: right off the top, they're going to give a tithe to their church in Orange County.

Chip and Kim have apparently raced around the world, and now they're putting feet to their faith. I don't want to read too much into all of this, but they seem to be winners in the most amazing race of all.

Monitor Blues Redux

A year almost ago to the day, I posted about the fact that my barely-out-of-warranty Apple 17" LCD monitor had gone bad. I later followed up on that post with a report of how Apple stepped up to the plate and did the right thing by giving me a free repair of said monitor.

It's unfortunate that I have to mark this anniversary by announcing that the repair has come undone. It lasted about nine months, significantly longer than the 90 days it was warranted for, but with two significant malfunctions in two years of life, I'm giving up on Apple, at least as far as monitors go.

I have no doubt that Apple's 17 incher suffers from a genetic disfunction which the company refuses to acknowledge. It's either a design flaw or a supplier problem, but, really, I don't care. I've already ordered a new NEC 19" LCD monitor, with a larger screen and better specs than Apple's, for essentially the same price but with a 3 year warranty.

Apple may still make the best looking products on the market, but when you rely on them for your living, function is going to trump form every time.

We're running out of oil! No, wait! We're making more!

Ran across another recent juxtaposition of opinons, this time relating to the state of the world's hydrocarbon supplies.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal documents the ecstatic reaction of members of the "peak-oil movement" who see the recent run-up in crude oil prices as vindication for their theory that we're approaching the end of the world's finite recoverable petroleum supply. (Assigning them a title like "peak-oil movement" makes them sound organized and cultish. The former is incorrect, but the latter is probably not too far offbase.) Their theory is based on the ironclad belief that petroleum is a non-renewable resource, and unless we have the creativity to engineer a bunch of dinosaurs and the patience to wait a few hundred million years for them to metamorphize into oil and natural gas, then we're just up the creek.

On the other hand, there's this little gem, appearing in last Sunday's Oil & Gas Report. It reports on renewed interest in the theory of deceased scientist Thomas Gold which holds that the earth itself is continually creating petroleum via naturally occuring inorganic sources.

It seems that some scientists have been able to demonstrate that when you squeeze and heat plain old water sufficiently, you can force it to turn into methane, the most common component of natural gas. The temperatures and pressures necessary for this transformation equate to those found 12 miles below the surface of the earth... about twice as far as the deepest gas well ever drilled.

I don't believe that any of us will live to see hydrocarbon-generating plants at work, but that may be because none of us will live to see the end of the supply of relatively cheap crude oil and natural gas. My personal opinion is that the peak-oil theorists will get their 15 minutes of fame and then disappear for another century or so. Never underestimate the creativity, tenacity and skill of the oil industry.

Memogate: A few innocent observations

I know we're all sick and tired of the CBS/Dan Rather/TANG/IBM Selectric fiasco, but that's no reason for me to ignore it. Permit me, if you will, to share a couple of observations about it:

• Because my parents are in town tonight, and because they prefer to watch news programs, I've been exposed to more TV pundits than usual, ranging from Lester Holt to Larry King to Greta van Susteren. Every one of them has focused at least part of their shows on Memogate, and most of them had other journalists commenting on the situation. Without exception, every guest has said that this is a story that now needs to go away so we can focus on the "real issues" of the election. What I find interesting is that none of these folks passed up the opportunity to appear on network or cable TV to express their opinions before stating that it's time to move on.
  
  In other words, it's time to move on...after they've had their say on the matter. I'm sure there's a good adjective to describe this situation; "hypocritical" is one that comes to mind.


• Speaking of Lester Holt, did you catch his show on MSNBC this afternoon? I caught the tailend of an interview with blogger Micky Kaus in which Holt was quizzing him about the changing role of blogging in the news reporting and analysis arena. I tried unsuccessfully to find a transcript of the show. Anyway, Holt lobbed a softball Kaus' way by asking if Memogate heralded a change in the way blogs would be viewed by the general public vis-a-vis the MSM, especially in terms of credibility. Kaus replied in the affirmative, with no hesitation. The answer was predictable, but the question wasn't, coming as it did from someone who makes his living in the MSM. (Of course, I'm sure all the MSM guys think that credibility is a problem for all the other MSM guys, and that they themselves are the trustworthy exceptions.)
  
  Holt also asked a question about the fact that blogs also tend to have agendas, and why they are anymore credible than the MSM. Kaus' response was that, yes, there are blogs all over the political spectrum, but the difference is that the blogosphere tends to be self-policing and self-correcting. He also mentioned a couple of popular blogs such as Instapundit and Josh Marshall who tend to act as "traffic cops," maintaining a more-or-less neutral stance on many issues.
  
  To his credit -- or perhaps because he was out of time -- Holt didn't attempt to argue the issue with Kaus; as a result, the program ended with essentially an unchallenged assertion regarding the increasing irrelevance of the MSM.


• Despite all of this fawning attention, I can't help but think of the old saying, "pride goes before a fall." Bloggers would do well to ponder that truth.

Saving Sudan

I was humbled and honored to receive a visit yesterday from Bishop Elias Taban. He is the National Bishop in the Sudanese province of Equatoria for the Independent Evangelical Presbyterian Church (IEPC). He is also the leader in a focused strategy to evangelize and disciple the entire region of southern Sudan and the northern regions of neighboring Uganda and the DRC.

Bishop Taban is in the States for a week or so as a guest of Stan and Deborah Fikes, the Midlanders who founded and head up BASIC Ministries International and its Sudan Project. I've had the privilege for the past several years to work with them as a volunteer webmaster, and thus have had access to the reports filed by Bishop Taban and his teams as they travel throughout the region showing the "JESUS Film."

I've been so impressed by this former child soldier as he uses a grass-roots strategy to reach out to the myriad people groups in the literally hundreds of villages and camps in the region...and I was equally impressed to meet him in person. He has a strong physical presence -- I'm no midget but he towered over me -- with a direct gaze, a ready smile and a mellow voice. This is a man who has seen death and destruction, but has a vision of peace and hope...and a realistic strategy for achieving it.

He is no naive dreamer, however. Bishop Taban is politically astute, but more importantly, he understands quite well the enemy's strategy, which is nothing less than to bring jihad throughout Africa, with the aim of eventually instituting Islamic law -- the Sharia -- in the government of every country. The battle is both spiritual and physical.

There's much more that I'd like to share with you about his visit and our conversation, but there are security issues to consider, and I'm not qualified nor authorized to act as a spokesman. From a personal perspective, however, the opportunity to pray with and for this man of God, and then to hear him pray for me by name and with great specificity was a wonderful thing.

If you want to be involved in this important work, there are instructions on the BASIC Ministry website. Take a look at the reports and photos that are being sent back by the evangelism teams, and see if God leads you to partner with them.

Healthy Kids...Healthy Adults

I skimmed over this article about an increase in whooping cough in Midland and didn't attribute any special significance to it. After all, even though pertussis has become relatively rare, the phenomenon of increased communicable infections around the time school restarts each year is not a new one. The classroom is a veritable bacterial frappé (to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld). Then I read this article in the Wall Street Journal, and noted an eerie coincidence that the two would appear on the same day.

The WSJ story reports on some research showing a direct link between infant and childhood infections and serious illness later in adulthood. Here's an excerpt (insertions in square brackets are mine)...

This is, indeed, fascinating research that transcends the theoretical and puts a new perspective on the perennial issue of whether the state-required childhood immunizations are a good thing or a bad thing. I've heard some parents argue that the risks of the immunizations themselves are greater than the potential benefit. I wonder if those parents would re-think that perception in light of this ongoing research.

It should also be a wake-up call to those of us who experienced some fairly serious childhood infections (in my case, at age 9, mumps that led to a bout of encephalitis). Even if all other factors indicate low risks for certain diseases, perhaps it's wise to err on the side of caution in terms of annual check-ups and other preventative measures.

Victory by Proxy!

I'm pleased to announce that my cousin, Bart Bryant, is now a PGA tour winner, by virtue of his 3-stroke victory today in the Texas Open. This was Bart's first win in 187 starts on the Tour, and he takes home a cool $630K for a week's work. Plus, he gets a two year Tour exemption, meaning that he doesn't have to qualify to play in future tournaments, which is a huge deal for pro golfers.

Bart and his pro golfing big brother (and Tour event winner), Brad are actually my second cousins...sons of my cousin on my mom's side of the family. They live in Florida but since all the rest of their family are Texans, we claim 'em for the Lone Star State. The fact that Brad's win came in Texas makes it that much sweeter.

The Sports Illustrated article I linked to above notes that Bart and Brad become only the fourth pair of brothers to win Tour events in PGA history.

I'm not a golfer, and many of my numerous cousins aren't either, but I can assure you that we all have followed both careers closely and there's great rejoicing across the state tonight!

Le Sabot is Back!

After a summer-long hiatus, the eminently reasonable and readable Le Sabot Post-Moderne is once again coming at you live and heavy from the Ukraine. And, obviously, Discoshaman lost none of his edge during the layoff! Welcome back, amigo!

"Sky Captain" Deserves a Salute

The paradox of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is that one of the most amazing achievements of digital technology results in the ultimate analog movie.

Part film noir, part retro sci-fi (ala Buck and Flash), part adventure (ala Indiana and Jurassic Park) and all camp, Sky Captain is a feast for the eyes and the imagination, especially if you sit back and let it be what it is...107 minutes of sly winks among the director, the actors and the audience.

I loved it, but here's the prediction that will likely allow you buy into my recommendation: James Lileks is gonna love it. Mark my words.

[Note: For those of you who like to run for the exits as soon as "The End" appears on the screen, you won't miss any additional footage...but you will miss an exquisite rendering of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by jazz vocalist Jane Monheit. It's so good, in fact, that as soon as I post this, I'm heading for the iTunes Music Store to acquire some of her work.]

Church Marketing Blog

The same distractions that have kept me from blogging regularly also served to make me forget to plug a new (to me) blog with a name that's going to get me in trouble with at least one reader: "Church Marketing Sucks."

This is a group blog (well, the group is only two at the present time, but open to expansion) with contributors who have extensive hands-on experience in "doing church." If nothing else, they're raising some issues that will stimulate some thought and discussion.

As someone who is involved in "church marketing" via web design, I agree that there's much we can do better to communicate the Gospel. The line gets fuzzier when the term "marketing" begins to imply making something out of nothing. Face it...the best marketing in the world won't bring a dead church back to life. And that's often a much bigger problem than overusing animations on a website.

[Thanks to Rob Stewart's Snippets" for the tip.]

The Daze of My Life

• NBC's new program "Medical Investigation" is a loser. I'm halfway through the third episode and it's obvious that no matter how you try to spice it up, the NIH is just not that exciting. Throw in a lot of really bad dialog and you have a program that deserves to be put out of its misery.


• OTOH, the first 20 minutes of tonight's season premier of "Third Watch" was possibly the most intense network TV I've seen in a long time.


• I'll never understand teenagers. For example, when did they evolve into a state of self-awareness? By that I mean, when did any question posed by an adult along the lines of "what in the world were you thinking when you _____________?" generates a response along the lines of "duh...I'm a teenager."
  
  Thus, we live around these semi-sentient beings who demand to be treated as adults, until such treatment becomes inconvenient, and then we must make allowances.


• The week's photo shoot went well, overall, and the client was very pleased with the images that we'll eventually load onto the website. I was never able to get the white balance properly adjusted, but Photoshop covers over a multitude of sins (or an abundance of incompetence or inexperience). Anyway, we've got UT out of the way; next up is Texas Tech, followed by A&M.


• I have a confession. I've grown to like the two guys in the Sonic commercials. Sure, they edged perilously close to obnoxious when they taunted the competition's McClerks over the size of their burritos, but I think they were just doing their jobs, and that wasn't really them. I'm pretty sure they're Mormons, by the way.


• This is all I've got. It's pretty pitiful, I know, but all I can do is throw it out there, and throw myself on your mercy. It's been a long, hard week.

Like Lileks, without the skill...

I put 40 miles on the Durango before 8:00 this morning, shuttling my wife to the airport for the redeye to Houston, then back home for breakfast with the Princess (a.k.a. the Niece) before driving her to school.

Now that I no longer have a regular morning commute, I tend to forget the zany antics of Midland's rush quarter-hour drivers. It's not a memory that I miss. The Princess wanted to drive, but I already had too much caffeine in my system for that.

I had forgotten about SYATP. I was pleased to see about 30 students at Midland High in a circle around the flagpoles, heads bowed in prayer. I would have been even more pleased had the five or six adults standing off to the side (whom I assume were youth ministers from neighborhood churches, judging by their not-entirely-successful attempts to be high school fashionable in their attire) also been praying.

Nice contrast here, in terms of who gets to spend my money and yours. There's these guys, and then there's this guy. Of course, the latter guy already makes more than the former guys, but I still appreciate the gesture.

Product photography is hard work. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I spent several hours yesterday afternoon working under hot lights trying to pose items ranging from cuff links (can't be done) to ball caps (piece o'cake) to bumper stickers (a job for a flatbed scanner, really). That's the easy part. The hard part is overcoming the inherent weaknesses of a non-pro digicam in Photoshop, which took twice as long as the actual photography. I stopped at 10:30 last night and started again at 6:30 this morning, in order to have something to show the client later today.

The really bad part is that each and every product bears the authorized logo of the University of Texas. I feel so dirty. The things we do to support our Starbux habits.

Domain Name for Sale

I notice that www.bloggerinpajamas.com is listed for sale on eBay.

Poor Jonathan Klein. He never knew what hit him, even as he pulled the pin and sat on the grenade.

Update: Julie Neidlinger is putting herself out for hire for those MSM outlets who are thus far behind the curve in coming up with "authentic" historical documents with which to skewer the candidate(s) of their choosing. I think she's onto something.

Update #2: It's a bull market for document forgery services. Wallace over at Streams has thrown his (fake) hat into the (made-up) ring.

Stamp Me Foolish

A few days ago, I posted something about the new service from Stamps.com, whereby anyone with $16.99 and an image editing program could create their very own "vanity postage stamp," said stamp being legal tender for snail mail sent via USPS. In my usual flippant manner, I dismissed the idea as a narcissistic endeavor.

And, as usual, I find that I'm oh-so-very wrong.

Regular visitor and commenter Larry Stephey (he of the original Bible haiku fame) left a lengthy explanation at the bottom of my post about why and how this service can be used in a truly special way. Here's an excerpt:

Here's a direct link to the image of the stamp that Larry and Ferdie designed in honor and memory of Ferdie's late husband. It's exquisite in its simple dignity.

There's more to this story, as Larry explains, and it's worth your time to read it. And, it's a good reminder to those of us who sometimes (often?) view things through cynical eyes...never underestimate the imagination and creativity of those who are bent on doing good things!

Resident Alien

This is going to be an interesting week. Besides trying to get caught up after being out of town much of last week, I've got a new gig. Starting tomorrow, I'll be taking product photos to populate a database for a new client's e-commerce website. The site and database was designed by a firm in Austin, but they don't provide the product photos, or at least not at a reasonable price.

Now, I've assured the client that I'm not a professional photographer. OTOH, I've taken literally hundreds, if not thousands of photos for website display, so I'm not a newbie when it comes to digital photography. I'm doing the photography itself at a bargain rate; it's the post-processing in Photoshop that will be more tedious and more critical to the quality of the final product...and therefore, more expensive. Anyway, it should be a nice change of pace, and will test my workflow organization skills.

Even more interesting is the fact that we'll have a houseguest for four days, as our niece is coming over while her mom is on a business trip. During past stays of this nature I've had the nephew, who is just a year younger, to provide a bit of buffer, but he's staying with a friend this time. And MLB will also be traveling on business for one day. So, I'm up for some quality time with one of the most mysterious and scary creatures on God's green earth: the seventeen-year old girl.

What's more, Friday is homecoming at her high school and she's got her first Official High School Date, and the boy (whom I've never met) will come to our house to pick her up. Guys, this is where I need a little advice. Should I be cleaning my Colt Python when he comes over, or would it be more effective to be practicing Kendo in the front drive? I've already been warned about being on my best behavior, but that leaves an awful lot of room for interpretation, if you know what I mean. I've been watching John Candy movies in preparation.

As I said, this will be quite an interesting week. Stay tuned...

Update: I just learned that mom has rearranged her schedule in order to be back in time to supervise the official Date Appearance. It's just as well; I was never any good with a pocket knife, let alone a samurai sword.

Daily Report from SA

While I'd love to throw in my two cents about Dan "They Swore They Were Real" Rather, I think the carnage is being covered very nicely elsewhere in the blogosphere (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not getting enough bloggage in your diet), so I'm going to stick with the softer side of things.

The following photos are from either the Mekong Delta (if you're a Kerryite) or from the River Walk in downtown San Antonio (if you're sane*). Heck, you can even click on each little pic to see a big ol' version, and see if you can spot Karl Rove in the vegetation.

The photo on the left is a view of the San Antonio River, just in front of the Marriott Riverwalk hotel (not to be confused with the Marriott Rivercenter hotel, which is across the street). (And riddle me this: Why the difference in the URLs for the two previous links?) The image on the right is from the Riverwalk, looking under a bridge or two just in front of the somewhat cheesy yet inexplicably compelling Rivercenter Mall, where just last night we witnessed law enforcement officers of at least four different branches interview a young lady who'd apparently been accosted in front of Foley's. The mall once had a Godiva store, which was a joy to visit, but it's now gone, and the fact that there's a compelling yet inexplicably cheesy Hooters doesn't come close to making up for its absence.

More, later, perhaps...although the Gazette will go black tomorrow in memory of the victims of 9/11. Don't know if I'll get around to another post by then or not. Judging by how this one turned out, perhaps it's best if I don't even try.

*Just funnin' with you...the Gazette takes no actual position on the sanity of its publisher, let alone any of its readers.

New Eyetracking Study: How do visitors really see your website?

CyberJournalist.net has a good summary of the results of the Eyetrack III study designed to measure what visitors actually look at when they come to a website.

Eyetracking is a relatively new technique of recording where on the screen a subject's eyes are focused at any given time. According to someone who admittedly makes a living selling the service, eyetracking is accurate to within 1 centimeter, which is probably close enough for the types of conclusions drawn from the studies that utilize it.

If you have any interest in website design (and all bloggers should fall into this category, by the way), you should find the results of this study quite interesting. It's not a "deep" study -- only 46 subjects were tested -- but it covers a wide range of variables.

I found the following to be the most thought-provoking of the conclusions (my observations are in parentheses):

• The eyes most often fixated first in the upper left of the page, then hovered in that area before going left to right. Only after perusing the top portion of the page for some time did their eyes explore further down the page. (This is not surprising, given that the test subjects were visiting English language pages and that the universal standard for such pages is to place the identity of the page at the top, and usually top left. Conditioning drives behavior.)


• Most people looked at text, not images, first. Dominant headlines -- not photographs -- most often draw the eye first upon entering the page. (This provides some vindication for those designers who insist that content and not eye candy are what bring people to websites. Nevertheless, I'm surprised that the eye isn't naturally drawn initially to images, even if only to quickly discard them as irrelevant.)


• Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best. (This is where I take small exception to the measurement standard: "eye fixations and viewing duration," with more/longer being judged better. I might draw just the opposite conclusion. If someone is fixated on your navigation scheme, it's non-intuitive and faulty. The nav tools should be easy to find, but otherwise they should be operable on an almost unconscious basis.)


• Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior (that is, reading the words), while larger type promotes lighter scanning. (Here again, I'm not sure that this is a good thing. Your goal as a designer is to provide the visitor with the information she seeks in the shortest time possible. If she can get that information via "light scanning" vs. reading every word, then I think that's a good thing. The fact that the smaller type meant spending more time focused on the text seems to indicate that comprehension was hard to come by. I think that's a bad thing. [Writers who cherish their every word will no doubt disagree. You know who you are.])


• When people look at blurbs under headlines on news homepages, they often only look at the left one-third of the blurb. In other words, most people just look at the first couple of words -- and only read on if they are engaged by those words. On average, a headline has less than a second of a site visitor's attention. (This seems intuitive, and I know that Dawn Eden, headline writer extraordinaire, will confirm it. The fascinating aspect of this finding is that even when we're presented with only a half dozen words or so, we'll still try to get by with reading only one-third of them in order to save time. We are busy, busy people.)

There's a lot more along these lines in this study. Read the whole thing...or at least scan it. ;-)

Fair Warning from Texas

In the unlikely event JohnSquared wins the upcoming election, the Lone Star State has a plan of action. Read all about it over at Bryan's Arguing with Signposts.

Quick Prayer

Dear God,

How about cutting Florida some slack? Thanks.

Your pal,

Eric

Now We're Cooking...

Just a quick update (I know you're all atwitter, waiting for these reports)...I've successfully configured a wireless LAN in our hotel room, using my trusty AirPort Express. It was harder than it should have been, due to my fumbling, but I still got it done in less than 20 minutes and now both laptops are internet-ready. Very cool.

And, just to prove that I'm really here, the photo at right is of the Tower of the Americas, taken from our room's window (which, unfortunately, doesn't look out over the Riverwalk). The TOA was built in 1968 for the HemisFair, and I still have fond memories of attending that event as a teen, with my parents and some family friends. (One of my most vivid memories was the exhibit of a brand spanking new and oh-so-hot Shelby Mustang GT 500.)

Now...about dinner...

Live From SA...It's Thursday PM!

This new-fangled technology still makes me feel like a kid in a candy store, and the fact that I'm blogging from the Marriott RiverCenter hotel in downtown San Antonio makes even the most mundane posting seem special. Well, to me, anyway. I apologize in advance for what will assuredly be a series of really lame reports, but that's who I am.

The drive down I-10 from Fort Stockton (where we dropped off the dog for safekeeping) was uneventful. I'm one of the few people in the world who actually enjoys driving on the interstate. I think the US interstate highway system is one of the wonders of the world, and vastly underappreciated by most of the population. I'm grateful for the dreams and foresight of the folks who made it come to pass. I also realize that it's badly deteriorating in many parts of the country, but the 300 miles we drove across today were silky smooth.

I can't recall when the countryside between Fort Stockton and, say, Junction has been greener, thanks to the more-than-ample rains this summer. Some might file this scenery under "D" for desolate, but to us, it's delightful. I guess you just have to stick around long enough to see the beauty (and, really, the interstate isn't conducive to helping you get to that point).

Anyway, we're checked in and MLB is getting registered for her conference. I've activated the high-speed internet account and everything hooked up smoothly. I'll be experimenting in a bit to see if I can get my AirPort Express to create a wireless LAN for both laptops, but for now, I'm cabled.

And, speaking of cables, I discovered something interesting...another difference between a Mac and a PC. I plugged my own ethernet cable into the modem and immediately connected my Mac and confirmed the connection. I then shifted the same cable to MLB's ThinkPad. Nothing. My immediate guess was that the cable was the problem, as I was using a crossover cable. I substituted the cable in the little baggie hanging in the closet, and the IBM recognized the connection immediately. See, the Mac doesn't care which cable you use; it can automatically detect the flavor and make the necessary adjustments. A small thing, perhaps...unless you're stuck in the middle of nowhere with just one kind of cable.

More, later...

A Philatelic Nightmare

I see that Stamps.com has entered into a deal with the USPS to let folks create their own postage stamps. The PhotoStamp service lets you upload a photo from your computer to its website, where a sheet of perfectly usable stamps in the denomination of your choice will be printed and mailed to you (presumably with a stamp of someone else's choosing). One sheet of twenty 37-cent stamps sells for $16.99.

This is the ultimate (up to now) in narcissistic outlets, and only someone aching for recognition would seriously consider paying for this service. Or, someone who fancies themselves a good hand with Photoshop. Any takers?

Tip o'the Hat to the MRT (no story link available) for breaking this momentous story.

Alamo City Blogging

Beginning tomorrow afternoon, I'll be blogging from one of my favorite locations: the River Walk in San Antonio. MLB is attending a conference and I'm playing the dutiful trophy husband (yeah, right). While she's sweating over hot credit union internal control manuals, I'll be strolling along the river, sampling the countless wonderful restaurants and perusing the shops both quaint and upscale.

OK...I'll actually be locked away in the hotel room, paying an exorbitant daily rate for an internet connection and trying to keep up with the flood of work that inevitably occurs when clients find out I'm out of town.

But a change of scenery is still welcome and I'm looking forward to it. Of course, if I was Roscoe Ellis, I'd be blogging from the River Walk every day. But, then, I'd have to come to Midland for a change of scenery and that just doesn't seem right.

Comment Gremlins Strike Again

I notice that the server problems we've had in the past have arisen again, making it difficult if not impossible to leave comments (you may get an "Internal Server Error"). Rest assured that I'm not singling you out for mistreatment; we're equal opportunity mistreaters here at the Gazette.

I've drafted a strongly worded demand letter (aka "pitifully whiny plea") to our webhost to get this thing fixed. Breaths will not be held.

Please accept my apologies. Again.

La Shawn Barber's Shop

Just when I get my blogroll set so that I'm sure that I've got an example of every good and lovely thing in the 'sphere, up pops something like La Shawn Barber's Corner, and I go scurrying around, rearranging my notions once more.

If you're a regular reader of the Gazette (thank you, thank you, thank you!), I assure you that you'll enjoy La Shawn's musings, perhaps so much that you'll forget this humble publication. But, that's OK; the world will still be improved in the net, as it needs to hear what she has to say.

Tip o'the Hat to Professor Rob over at Snippets.

Work Like a Dog

I was walking through our neighborhood this morning, trekking back home after dropping the car at the shop to have the alternator checked out, and as I passed in front of a large home the front door opened and a yellow Labrador retriever came bounding onto the circle drive.

He zeroed in on the plastic-wrapped newspaper laying on the concrete, but in his enthusiasm he skidded past it, all four legs extended in classic cartoon braking mode, tongue flapping out of his grinning jaws. He made a quick u-turn and pounced on the paper, fumbling it a few times while trying to get a grip on the plastic, then triumphantly headed back to the doorway, where I could see the shadow of his owner, waiting. This was obviously a regular ritual at that house, and the dog obviously loved his job.

It made me wonder about that phrase, "work like a dog." It's always used in a negative sense, implying that the task at hand is hard, menial and is to be performed utterly without joy. But, try telling that to a dog. Dogs love to work; they love to be responsible for something... anything... and they take great pleasure in doing the job, just for the joy of doing it.

I'm sure that yellow lab would have been even happier to be retrieving a bird from a pond, but he didn't dwell on what might be but isn't. He simply did the best job he knew how for the task he'd been given, and you could tell by watching him that at that moment in time, he was king of all he surveyed.

The lesson is pretty clear. It doesn't mean that we can't or shouldn't aspire to better things in our careers, but it does remind us that we can find dignity and even joy in any job, for that comes from who we are, not what we do.

Blogging with the Bard

Charles G. Hill over at Dustbury.com explodes every Okie stereotype that emerges from the Austin city limits. Take this post, for example, where he proves that Bacon Shakespeare could have been a blogger.

"Outrageous trollage." Indeed.

Tip o'the Hat to the endlessly charming Dawn Eden.

Things I Like

Jared over at Mysterium Tremendum started this pseudo-meme, which is a kind of variation on the "100 Things About Me" list that is found on some blogs. I've had a hard(er) time (than usual) focusing on a post with any meaningful content, especially on a lazy holiday, so I figured...what the hey?

These lists tend to appeal to our voyeuristic tendencies, except in the case of people like me who have no real lives, in which case the list offers some concrete evidence of existence.

OTOH, maybe it's just a good way to pass the time while the iPod is on shuffle, going through my country music playlist. Don't be surprised if some of my "Things I Like" list reflects this environmental influence.

• The near-silent whir of a freshly-lubed bicycle chain


• Almost any song by Chris LeDoux


• A mid-afternoon snack of Kozy Shack rice pudding (arroz con leche) dipped out with Honey Maid Cinnamon Stick graham crackers


• Garden eels


• "Crunch," the Beanie Baby shark whose purpose in life is to shield my tender eyes from the constant flicker of the lights on my router and AirPort base station


• Alan Jackson's "She's Got the Rhythm and I've Got the Blues," a song absolutely without imperfection


• west Texas sunsets


• The way Abbye sometimes resembles a saber-toothed tiger as she stretches while walking across the room


• the Fox Racing logo


• DeFeet cycling socks


• Flip-flops (although not in a presidential candidate)


• The smell of a new bar of Zest soap


• The pancakes at IHOP made with Malt-o-Meal (griddle cakes?)


• Huevos rancheros over easy served with frijole refritos and flour tortillas


• Geckos


• The hardware aisle at Home Depot


• The Texas Almanac


• Asado puerco served with flour tortillas


• Flour tortillas


• "Listen" by Cindy Morgan


• Japanese pruning saws


• Tailwinds

Advice for Physicists and Bloggers

Quote of the day, from physicist and Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli:

As they say: heh.

Tip o'the Hat to the Wall Street Journal

The Presidential Fix

So, Bill Clinton's scheduled for heart surgery, eh?

Let me state for the record that there's absolutely no truth to the rumor that Hillary has requested one additional bypass.

LOTR in 20 Seconds

This just in, courtesy of InternetNews.com:

You know what they say...a petabit here, and a petabit there, and pretty soon, you're talking real data!

[I'll bet the pºrn moguls are absolutely giddy with anticipation.]

Freelancing in a Conglomerate World

I was fired by a client last week, and a high profile client, at that.

Well, "fired" is probably a tad strong, but even though the parting was amicable, the end result is the same. Mike Conaway's congressional campaign manager notified me that he is moving the account to a company that provides a political website template with "all the bells and whistles."

I saw it coming a couple of months ago after a meeting in which a new vision for the site was presented to me by the campaign manager, and I argued against almost every one of his suggestions. I have yet to see a campaign website that would be improved by a Flash splash page, for example. I guess we'll see if the ranchers in Lampasas and Brady are impressed by the new-fangled technology.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to whine about losing a client; that's just business. But it did cause me to consider (again) whether there's really any future for one-man (or woman) freelance web designers.

When you consider the breadth of technologies and skills required to be a good designer, it's a bit intimidating. Besides the meat and potatoes of HTML and CSS, I've had to deal with PHP, PERL, ASP, mySQL, Access, Java, Javascript and Flash. Then there are the "softer" skills like graphic design, advertising and marketing acumen, business and promotional writing, copyright and privacy laws and issues and digital photography. I need to be up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices in website usability and accessibility and search engine optimization. I've had to advise clients about domain name selection and registration, webhosting considerations, email configuration, and why putting a hard line break between two specific words to make the paragraph look better on the client's monitor was not a good idea.

When I consider the scope of the things I'm expected to master in order to please 100% of my clients 100% of the time...well, it makes me feel old and busted.

Fortunately, my temperament and outlook are such that I can't get a good depression started, much less maintain one. So I focus on tiny accomplishments, one at a time, and hope that the arsenal of tools and tricks that I build will satisfy 90% of the clients 90% of the time. If I can do that, maybe that's good enough.

As I said, losing a client isn't the end of the world. On the upside, at least I can start blogging about the campaign and the candidates, now that I don't have that pesky consultant-client relationship to worry about.

Oh, then there's this. The "dear John" email came last Thursday. On Friday, I received a call from a political consultant in the Dallas area whom I hadn't heard from in more than six months. He wants me to design a website for a state congressional candidate in East Texas.

Easy come, easy go. And vice versa.

HTML in Comments? Okey-doke...

Now that I've heeded Scott's unfathomable wisdom and implemented MT-Blacklist, comment spam is scarcer than John Kerry's joke-telling skills. Thus, I've reactivated HTML tags in the Gazette's comments.

Link away, amigos; Blacklist will let me know if you're being naughty!