Evolution of the Hip
First off, if you are expecting some musings of old folks and their leg troubles, sorry, not what I had in mind. But since you are here, you might as well keep reading, or click on one of those ads on the right...
My thought today is directed at the ever changing world of design. What was cool 20 years ago was not cool 10 years ago and is starting to become cool again. My case in point is wallpaper. If you want to be ahead of the trend go ahead and start wrapping your walls in all their papered bliss. Maybe not you say? Take a look at web design today. I find it fascinating that trends on the web seems to mirror trends in life just at an extremely elevated pace. In our example of wallpaper, it was all the rage when people started figuring out that you 
could place graphics on web pages. In fact it got to be pretty ugly and it was a rare site you saw that knew how to use wallpaper or a graphical background correctly. Most of the time it was an offense to the eyes. That seemed to fall off and solid color or 2 or 3 colored backgrounds became the dominant force. But now, I am seeing on a lot of contemporary sites (developers and designers that have a voice in the community) the trend back to a graphical background. This time however, they are very subdued and classical. It is interesting how this very renaissance look can be so modern.
I think what I like about it so much is the fact that it is subtle enough not to overpower the content on the page, yet is intriguing enough to warrant a deeper look. I think the word "intrigue" probably describes it best. You will notice that in my efforts to "be with it" I also have this type of background for my pages. I have done quite a bit of searching for these specific types of backgrounds and have found very little. Most of the stuff along the same lines is very cheesy and doesn't convey that specific sophisticated classical look. I did find one website that has quite a few of these. Here is the link. If you follow the link you need to scroll a little bit. The patterns in the examples on this page are great but you would still need to take the opacity down quite a bit in order for them to not overpower the content on the page.
So, if you are looking to lead the way, contact your nearest wallpaper store and have them print you some of those.
Subconscious Marketing
So here's the deal...every week we get a mailer advertising 3 incredible deals for our local grocery store. A lot of the time its things like a gallon of milk for .99 or free bananas, etc. The last few weeks however there has been a coupon for .10 off each gallon of gas you purchase from the store's gas station. Cool, right? Maybe not - at least for me... See when I realized I had saved a little over a dollar on my gas purchase I thought to myself..."hmm self, you could use a Gatorade right about now...and since you just saved a dollar you can go into the convenience store and get one for only .50!" Wow! That's a great deal!!! So I did. Only later did I realize that I had been taken by the scam of getting me in the door.
See, today people pay at the pump more and more and rarely go inside. This, I believe is hurting a lot of gas stations. So they need some way to get you inside to see all of the high priced goodies. Enter the coupon that conveniently (or not) you have to use inside...and thus my flavored drink purchase. Pretty smart.
I need to work on my "spitting"
I just came across this article and had to share it with all peeps in the hizzle...
I from time to time have been known to bust a rhyme...okay not really but I do like to make drum noises with my mouth (otherwise known as "vocal percussion" or "beat boxing"). So I have a little spot dedicated in my heart to free stylin' rap. I like to think I'm cool and break out with a little rhyme every now and then, but I always need to rehearse it for awhile before I try and get spontaneous on anyone.
So, this morning I found this article in the inbox in my rss reader.
"How to Survive a Freestyle Rap Battle" Wow! Does it get any better than that? You can click on the link for the full details but let me give you the basics.
- Listen to great freestylers
- Practice, practice, practice (there is no substitute for this-ever)
- Start writing rhymes (that would be lines and words that sound alike, here is an example...Jesusa loves me, this I knowa, for thee-ah Bible tells me-a so-ah...) That last example works best if said with a little caribbean flava.
- Once you can "spit on the spot" (spitting is a another term for freestyling), try and "spit" about more specific things. (hmmmm, sometimes when I am on a bridge or a tall building I try and spit on a spot.)
- Jump in and battle someone
- Here is my favorite tip...and I am not making this up...okay ready? Make sure your first battle is against someone you dislike - it will make it easier for you to throw in denegrating metaphors (a key staple in any rap battle), personal disses, and punch lines (a combination of the two.) Here is an example. "Yo, you be trippen on yo wal-mart drawers, and you eat garbage from a can cause you so poor. Word." My CD will be out in the late fall...watch for it.
- And last, don't worry if you lose your first few battles. Again practice is the key.
If you do read the article I would like to direct your attention to the warning near the bottom of the page. "Spitting, as refered to in the article does not refer to "saliva expulsion" but rather a poetic combination of wordage.
I would invite all you to try out your mad skills and throw out some mad spits here on the comments. Keep it clean yo. I'm out.
Bye Bye Miss American Princess
I hate it when I miss really funny and new stuff Mia does. There are always pro's and con's to working from home, but one of the awesome opportunities I have had is to have been at home for most of her life. Being away at a "real" job is probably the hardest thing about it. My time with her and Mickie is cut down drastically. But enough whining...
Today at Wendy's Mia decided that everyone in the place needed to be told "bye." And it was not just an ordinary "bye." It was a "people in Mexico heard her yell BYE." And she had to do it over and over and over again! And then if that wasn't enough, Mickie asked said they were going to pray before they ate and Mia folded her hands and closed her eyes - and then proceded to want to pray the rest of the meal. I guess she could be doing worse things.
Too bad I missed it.
"ByE!" BYe!" "bYE"
So much new and time is too few
Wow, so much has happened in the past week I can hardly keep up. I feel like I am being pulled in about 1000 directions. Okay, so what else is new?
Two big items this go-round. First, I got a job! The weekend after I made my portfolio I got an interview with a company here in Des Moines. They interviewed me Monday morning and Monday night offered me the job. I slept and prayed on that night and accepted in the morning. My first day was on Friday. So who do I work for??? Trans-Lux Fair-Play. The Fair-Play name is fairly well known as they have been making scoreboards for over 70 years. In fact check out who makes your local high school, college or pro scoreboard and it is probably them.
My official title is Media Specialist. I am in charge of 2 corporate web sites. Fair-Play.com and transluxcommercial.com. The one with the long name will be getting a major face lift soon. I also will be doing graphic design for their print media, creating animations for scoreboards (you know, those cheesy baseball characters and huge letters...), and training customers on how to use the software to program the scoreboards. Wow, I am tired just thinking about it all. But it is exactly what I have been looking for. God is good and His timing is always perfect. You'd think I would learn, but noooooo.
Right now after 3 days I am trying to keep my head above water and get familiar with a lot of new stuff but I am really enjoying it. I'll post some pictures of my cubicle soon because I know you all are dying to see it.
The next big item is...(if I knew anything about writing and marketing these articles would be separate but I don't.) so here goes.
Mickie and I officially joined Saylorville Baptist's church plant in Polk City a couple weeks ago. Our church voted a few months ago to plant a new church and the location that was decided on was Polk City. We held our very first service on Sunday morning in the loft of a garage. It was cozy and a great atmosphere. We had over 40 people and 8 visitors from the community! Awesome! I had the opportunity to lead the music which went well. I have put up a small website for the church plant at www.lakesidefellowship.net where you can find out more.
Pray for us as we embark on this awesome journey!
New Personal Portfolio
In my search for a full time job I have seen the need to create a personal portfolio. A resume just doesn't cut it these days. Awhile ago I had the good fortune to acquire the domain joshbyers.com. My name isn't as common as Bob Smith or something but I still thought it was pretty cool to be able to have my own name. So I snapped it up. I didn't know really what to do with it until now.
I have created a personal portfolio highlighting my work done in print and web media. Hopefully this will give potential employers a good view of what I have done and what I am capable of. And it's pretty cool too. Check it out at www.joshbyers.com
Sorry for those of you with dial-up, the site is graphic intense and 56k challenged...
Let me know what you think. I will look forward to your comments.
Choose Your Own Blog
Today I am going to revisit an old blogging game we played awhile ago. In the spirit of "choose your adventure" this blog post will allow you to choose your own flow for today's story. Have fun!
It has been a little [crazy] [calmer] around here with Mickie gone the past few days. She went to [Lincoln, NE] [Maui, HI], [South Bend, IN] for a 2 day class on [fetal monitoring] [growing sugar cane] [being Irish]. Mia and I have had fun although [I haven't gotten much work done], [she backed the car into the garage door]. One of the highlights of our couple days has been [finding a live skunk in the neighbors window well], [going to McDonalds].
Random Uber Shot
Mickie gets home tonight and [the house had better be clean], [there had better be some oreos left]. We just tried the new mint oreos and they are [really good - they taste like Thin Mints], [the worst cookie creation ever], [jive].
That is about it for today's [fun], [silly antics]. If there are mispellings I am sure dad will [let me know], [have an ulcer], [make a joke/pun about ulcers and mispellings...]
Here is today's fun link. Turn any photo into a wacky poloroid with caption!
All Your Wildest Dreams Will Come True
I am on a blogging rampage today!!! This is for you Napolean Dynomite fans out there. I was directed to a site which has a collection of ads done by Nappy and Pedro for the Utah State Fair. They are flippin' sweet!
Video and Audio
This is for you Brady...
Guess the Google
Now introducing the best time waster of the day!!! Like I need any more... I came across this site from anothe site which is how things like this happen. I get into a surfing zone and before I know it I have surfed farther than man has known to surf and inevitably I come across a wacky site that is really cool. That is the case here.
The site in question poses an interesting question. Where did these images come from? The challenge is to look at 20 images from Google and figure out which keyword was used to get them. It's pretty addicting but please don't blame me for your lack of work. I'm just the messenger. Have Fun!
...and just in case that didn't waste enough of your time here is another site that will have you in a trance in about 30 seconds...just move your mouse and click.
Really Wacky but Stragely Cool
Blowout
So, what's with the title? I would be interested to hear what your initial thoughts were when you read the title? Did I have a bad tire, did I get really mad, did Mia's diaper leak? Nope, none of the above. Believe it or not is has to do with a sporting event.
I was invited to go with Pastor Dave to the Drake UNI football game tonight. And so I went. The game was really close for the first 5 minutes and then UNI put up 42 points in the first half. So while the game wasn't that exciting there were a few things that were. Let me share them with you. First of all it was my first experience "in the dome." This is a big deal in Iowa. We have a dome. The UNI-Dome. Nothing real spectacular, but it is a fun place to watch a game. They obviously play on Astro-turf which brought back fond memories of high school football and rug burns. The second exciting experience was the fact that I bought a hot dog inside the stadium of a live sporting event for under $10. In fact there was a special going on for these "Dome Dogs." They were only $1. No, they wern't little weinies. (Is that how you speall weinies?) You know the little minature sausage things on a toothpick? By the way I normally suck on those toothpicks for awhile cause they still have the taste of BBQ... Anyway, back to the hot dogs. Yes $1! I got 2. And that was about it for the exciting experiences. Sorry if I got your hopes up and now you are disapointed. If so then you can add in: the roof of the dome blew off and we were exposed to a bright light which looked like an alien craft after which the players were switched for alien counterparts, yet the dome dogs were still only a dollar.
Next. I think I am really sick or something because I am not pumped up for football season like I should be. Maybe I'm too depressed after watching nothing but baseball hightlights for what seems like 30 years. Someone tackle me.
There are a few spots left for my Yahoo Fantasy Football leasgue if you would like in. Email me by tomorrow morning and I will get you the details.
One interesting side note: On the way home from the game we stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and they had Coke imported from Mexico in glass bottles. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said. When I asked the cashier about it, she replied nonchalantly that they always have them. Hmmm, well alrighty then. I bought 2.