NaBloPoMo

This morning I read something about NaNoWriMo. I don't wri nos, but it reminded me of something I do like to do: po blos.

So I decided that, despite the fact that I already missed the first day, I'm going to participate in NaBloPoMo.
My sister does it every year. At least she did for several years. I think she still does. I just realized it has been several weeks since I've visited her online domain, so for all I know she has abandoned the entire institution.

Regardless, I'm going to say something every day for the rest of the month. It will likely be a lot of complaining about homework and other such trivialities, but I'll try to find something interesting to say, for Cassie's sake, and in case anyone else happens to stop by.

So go ahead and stop by.

P.S. For those of you who were concerned, I stopped by my sister's blog to optain the URL for that link up there. She's still there, but she NaBloPoMo'd early this year.

Break

It's fall break. You'd think that would mean I have a bunch of spare time to do things like write blog posts. I feel like I have even less time than usual. My fall break to do list is about as long as my arm. But at least I'm saying this much. Who knows, maybe it will be the start of a new era of blogging.

We'll see.

Bad Bosses

College is great for people watching. I've made an effort not to let all the stupid kids get under my skin, and found that there is an endless supply of humor in their stupidity.

It can be very entertaining to watch the twenty year old smoke his tobacco pipe pretentiously outside the student building, feeling smugly confident that everyone who passes by wishes they could be him.

Another good one is the dude trying to get to know the girl who is doing everything short of slapping him to let him know she isn't interested. He takes a step closer, she takes two steps back. He asks her what classes she has, she answers with a non sequitur about how she really needs to get going to meet someone for lunch.

Sometimes though, it still just drives me crazy. Just now, I overheard a girl telling her friends how dumb her boss is. She asked for time off to go to a job interview. His totally inappropriate response was "do you really think its a good idea to ask for that?" This brought on a series of exclamations from her friends: "WTF!?" "Of course, it's totally worth it!" "That's a way better job!" Not one of them seemed to realize the problem. The story ended with the protagonist putting in her two week notice.

You go girl, that idiot boss will think twice before questioning your commitment to your job again!

Torture

Captain Hook got this toy for Christmas:

He likes to keep the animals safely behind (under?) closed doors. Actually, a more apt description would be he needs to close them. It is an intense, driving need. Even now he is hurtling across the room at top crawl because he heard me open them up to take a picture. Sometimes he'll notice it during his play, and drop everything to ensure proper closure.

We like to play a game with him. He closes the doors and we pop them back open. He will play this game as long as it takes for us to get tired of it and leave them closed in peace. Quite the opposite of how most games with him end.

One of my favorite variations is when I let him get them all closed. He will look suspiciously at the toy and at me for a moment or two, then proceed to another toy. Just as he gets there I pop one open again.

I almost feel guilty, but so far he's always met the challenge with a smile.

Psychosomatic

I'm currently working on a site for a zinc medicated soap company. Each of the skin diseases it is meant to treat has a section of the site, and today I'm writing the content for those pages. As I've been researching the symptoms of these various conditions, I've become very aware of a dreadful itch. All over. It has been a rather uncomfortable day.

The Art of Pictures

So I really love art. Creating things gives me a particular thrill I can't compare to anything else. Most of my creativity through the years has been focused on music. I've pretty much always been doing something musical, and it's got me through the years quite nicely. My desire to create (along with my love of food) has also led me to cooking and baking (bread just came out of the oven!) and gardening. I've never been great at drawing, painting, or any of that, although I think I could be if I gave it adequate attention and practice, and it's one of the many things on my eventual to do list.

Recently I've rediscovered a love that I had only the briefest affair with: photography. I dabbled a little a few years ago, but never got much into it, mostly due to lack of equipment. The Mrs got me a much nicer camera a few months ago, and I immediately dove back in. Then I discovered Trey Ratcliff on Google+. It's amazing how seeing someone with passion and talent can inspire you to do more.

I have neither the time nor funds to make what I want of it (yet),but in my spare moments I've been experimenting, learning theory, and playing with free software. Those of you who are experienced, any recommendations for free software, tutorials, etc?

Here is a small sample of some of the stuff I've done. Hopefully I'll have more to share before long. Maybe even some music to go with it!



Addendum:
Eric Reeder just liked this on Facebook, calling to my attention that both times I have become involved with photography, he was part of the inspiration. The first time he had a picture of the old Kennecott refinery (or whatever it was) in Copperton, the subject of a recurring childhood nightmare, which is a story I'll tell another time. Here is Eric's website.

Worst Dressed Cities

This week GQ.com released "The 40 Worst Dressed Cities in America." Being from Utah, I was amused by the presence of both Salt Lake(8) and Provo(15) on the list. As I suspected, they were over-generalized and religiously insensitive, but not entirely inaccurate. But while most of the article's sizable readership were busy being either offended or delighted by their city's ranking, it was the marketing aspect of the article that had me mesmerized. 

First off, it's a great title. Sure it's not even the slightest bit creative, but it piques curiosity and has successfully collected countless clicks and links. Why? Because people love lists. They're easy to swallow, and face it, "The 10 Most Amazing Marsupials" sounds a lot more interesting than "About Australian Wildlife." Lists are so effective, sites like Cracked.com peddle them almost exclusively.

The other thing about a list like this is that it generally doesn't need to be supported by things like facts. They are often really op-ed pieces disguised as studies or polls. Such is the case with this one. They claim (most likely tongue in cheek) a "deeply scientific, irrefutable poll," but that is clearly not the case. It appears they just took a bunch of the biggest cities and found a trend they could generalize, then filled it in with a few smaller places containing an easy target. It's very likely in fact that a list of the best dressed cities would have looked largely the same. 

For me, the credibility of the list was blown entirely by number 22: Wasilla, AK. Wasilla is undoubtedly dressed no better or worse than any of the thousands of other obscure small towns scattered across the country. The crucial difference is that their obscurity was lifted when Sarah Palin entered the political scene a few years back. Like  the Provo section, it was all too transparent that this was a case of an easy target. In fact, the article didn't even try hide it: "Regardless of how you approach the style of the now-infamous Alaskan town of Wasilla, all you'll ever think about is Sarah and Todd and the whole Palin gang. And they are terrible."

I don't mean this as a defense of the Palins' style (I'm certainly not qualified as a fashion critic; just ask my wife) nor anything else about them. My only point here is that good marketing and good journalism aren't always the same thing. This piece of questionable journalism is also a piece of excellent marketing. What were they looking for? Readers. What did they get? Lots and lots of readers. As a bonus, many of those readers added comments or links from their own site. (There are four links there in this blog alone.) It was a perfectly executed marketing campaign, designed as a critique of America's style.   

Sometimes the best way to attract attention is to break the rules. How else would Provo end up in a prestigious fashion magazine?