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  • Building a Quality Blog

    Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about building an effective blog – and I’ve been realizing how right all that I’ve been reading is. It’s mostly stuff that I’ve mentioned before, things that help draw people to your blog. And really, the key is specialization. (more…)

  • An Indian’s Paintbrush

    Indian Paintbrush

    Sometimes I’m awfully lucky. For example, with this photo, I didn’t even plan to get out of the car to capture it. But, at the insistence of my girlfriend’s parents, I strolled down into the meadow off the side of the road and captured this shot – which turned into one of the best shots of the whole day. Gotta love it.

  • Wordle.net

    worldle-netI figured that I’d post this in conjuction with the typography post that I made not so long ago, as I found this to be pretty interesting. I found this yesterday by reading a blog post by one of my cousins, in which she used wordle.net to create a new header for her site. (more…)

  • Makin’ Fun of Apple


    Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

    I just had to include this. It’s not that I’m totally anti-Apple (not that I haven’t ever been), but I thought that it was pretty funny. So, I figured that I’d share it with all of you. It came from the onion, which is always a funny site.

  • Don’t Kill Creativity

    I truthfully could not tell you how in the world this video ended up on my computer. As a matter of fact, somehow it managed to replace all of my old podcasts, like CNN’s daily news and whanot. Somehow, all of them disappeared, and this video (from over two years ago) appeared out of nowhere. So, while I haven’t the slightest idea where it came from, I decided that I should watch it, because it had an intriguing title, one that I had been in support of for quite a long time.

    The point of this video (entitled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”) is all about how public school systems, though probably not intentionally, stifle creativity. I had been thinking that same thing.

    Anyway, it’s a really stellar thing to watch. The man is very intelligent and speaks qutie a bit of what steps could be taken to resolve that issue. Anyway, if you get the chance, I suggest that you watch it. No, really, do. Find the time.

  • Google’s Hidden Treasures

    google_lego08I know that I’m not the only one that greatly admires Google. Since I first discovered Google in the eighth grade while studying for a paper in my Social Studies class, I haven’t looked back. I haven’t once turned to another search engine. As a matter of fact, on several occasions, I have been heard to say that Google has never failed me. And I stick to that.

    Before the days of simple, effective searches, I used to use Hotbot. Surprisingly, it still exists, though it now serves only as a portal to other web searches. In those days, I remember spending much time failing in my searches. Very rarely did I actually find what I wanted to.

    But since, Google has taken central stage. And that’s not just for me. I sincerely believe that Google has made many other people similarly happy in their lives. Heck, it even has its own verb now! (See dictionary.com)

    Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

    One of the greatest parts of that whole thing is that Google has maintained a great sense of humor throughout. So, in honor, I’d like to post a link to a blog that recently wrote about it. It’s got a list of 10 of Google’s ‘Hidden Treasures’, including some of Google’s April’s Fools jokes, a flight simulator built into Google Earth, and a few other random (yet interesting) things.

    So, I guess the point is, if you’re a big Google fan like me, it’s a fun thing to check out.

    Via MakeUseOf.

  • Snow. I love it.

    I wanted to write this post for the sole purpose of saying that I love snow. I’m not the biggest skiier (I haven’t been in quite a few years), and I don’t snowboard. But, all the same, I love snow.

    It’s one of the top things that I missed during my sojurn in Arizona. I just thought that today I should express my enjoyment of having beautiful snow cover the ground. I love watching it fall in huge flakes, I love trudging through it, I love brushing it off the car (without ice underneath… Ice just makes it hard…). It’s safe to say that I just about love everything about it. I don’t even mind shoveling it.

    Anyway, I love snow. That’s the whole point of this post.

  • Best Timing Ever

    Today, whilst  I enjoyed a lovely session of my biology class, a wonderful thing happened. You see, we had just finished a nearly two-hour lecture when the teacher abruptly stopped and said, “I suppose it’s time for the quiz.”

    Now, I knew the whole time that this had been coming. But I also knew that I was not completely prepared for it. I hadn’t had sufficient time to complete the study guide, and therefore hadn’t reviewed all the necessary information to get a good score on the test.

    But what occured approximately 10 seconds after the instructor’s statment was nothing less than a sign from heaven. A loud whining erupted from the wall behind me. Simultaneously, strobing flasehs lit the room. After several seconds, a calm voice began to say, “An emergency has been reported in the building. Please evacuate calmly. Do not use the elevators.”

    With our lives at stake, we had no choice but to leave the building. Because class was nearly over, we quickly packed our things and departed before any of us suffered painful deaths by fire. Actually, I’m pretty sure that there was no fire at all, as I saw no plume of smoke erupting from the general vicinity about 20 minutes later.

    Thankfully, I still live. But even more miraculous was my escape from the quiz. Woot.

  • The Ferocious Gabon Duiker!

    The ferocious Gabon Duiker, also known as Cephalophus leucogaster, is an animal known to inhabit parts of Africa. It is related to the antelope, though it is much more dangerous. Its venom could kill an elephant in a mere three minutes.

    If I were to tell the truth, however, such would not be the case.

    This Gabon Duiker is stuffed and has been living for quite awhile in the Bean Museum on the BYU campus. Yesterday, during my sketching class, we spent a few hours there sketching random animals, such as the Bat-eared Fox, some crazy mountain goats, the Wahoo (a surprisingly dangerous-looking fish), small deer with fangs, a large weaselish thing called a Civet, and, of course, the Gabon Duiker, along with all his other Duiker friends.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I found many of the names hilarious, not to mention the animals themselves. This particular Duiker had what appeared to be a rather deformed head with huge eyes. The classmate next to me, drawing another species of Duiker, commented that Mr. Duiker (my name for this Gabon one) had an expression on his face that seemed to say, “Please, come eat me!”

    I had to agree with her.

    Anyway, it was a rather interesting field-trip. While my sketches didn’t turn out quite as well as I had hoped they would, it was a very entertaining time. Maybe I should consider going in to anthropology…

  • I’m Reasonably Happy

    It’s true, I am. First off, I’m happy because I’ve almost got the styling and whatnot done for the site. Well, ok, at least I’ve overcome all the major errors. That’s the biggest thing. Hopefully I’ll be able to wrap everything else up in the next few days.

    I’m also relatively happy because lately I’ve been watching the Olympics, especially the swimming part. There have been some incredible performances by members of the United States Swimming Team, specifically in the Men’s 4×100 relay, which can be found here. I would highly suggest that you watch the video of it – or at least the last 15 seconds of the race if you can manage it. It’s pretty stellar.

    So, yeah. That’s what it comes down to. Mostly I wanted to write another post so that I could see something else while I’m working on my site’s content, because I’m getting tired of the other post.