NEW BLOG!!!!

Hey world... I didn't stop blogging, so if you subscribe to this RSS my blog has moved to a brand spanking new location. It is now completely integrated into my website and my domain name. So please feel free to join me.

Moving On

I've known about Tumblr for quite a number of years now. Actually I'm not really sure when I first heard about them, but recently I heard people talking about it more and more so just as I did with Twitter I decided to look into it a bit more. Then after reading through their website I took the next step and decided I'd test out the waters.

The sign-up experience was a breeze, and so super simple, it had a lot of nice features and aspects. In the last year or so the way I use the internet has evolved. I am uploading videos to Vimeo, I am uploading pictures to Flickr, I am bookmarking websites on Delicious, and I am tweeting it up on Twitter. Occasionally I was also still finding things to actually write a blog about as well. So a lot of people started complaining to me that I wasn't "blogging" anymore. So I would inform them of just how very active I was online & that I am just using various outlets. Well Tumblr allows me to utilize all of these different outlets but bring them to just one place. It's great!

So I am inviting you all to come and join me over at Tumblr. To the two people that have subscribed to my RSS feed, feel free to now follow my Tumblr RSS feed instead. You will notice that I have successfully moved ALL of my old blog posts over to the Tumblr archive as well. I've already updated all of the links on my personal website to be directed to the new blog location.

Enjoy™

Hannah & Pongo

Once upon a time I went outside with Pongo and he got out, and I said, "OH NO! Pongo got out!"

So I went after him.

Pongo went to a "spooky forest," so I went there too.

He went to a "volcano," so I went too.

He went to a "chair forest," so I went too.

Then it was "really windy" so we went back home.

The End.

This was a story that Hannah told me the other day. So I quickly wrote it down and thought it would make a GREAT children's book. Hannah is ALWAYS drawing, so now I am trying to save as many of her drawings as I think could be applied to her story. I was thinking I could make it into an actual book written & illustrated by Hannah.

Good News for People Who Love Bad News

(Click on the image above to go directly to the music)

A mix tape for those bad days or moments in life that we all have. This mix of eleven tracks including music by Ben Folds, Bishop Allen, Pinback, Death Cab for Cutie, Noah & the Whale, Modest Mouse, Mirah, Straylight Run and Brand New should give you something not only to relate to, but it just might help you see the sun behind the clouds.

Enjoy™

You should follow me on Twitter!

The Jumper

Recently Connor is obsessed with jumping! So we hung up our little jumper that Hannah used to love, and it turns out he will stay in it for very long periods of time perfectly happy and content. The boy LOVES to jump!


Even when you hold him in your lap, he still just wants to jump.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

I know I haven't been updating this blog "per say" as regularly as I should. I am a very active tweeter. In fact my tweets stream directly to the sidebar. I also am continually adding to my "Networthy" section in the sidebar. I will try to be a better blogger though.

WORK RELATED NEWS

I somehow managed to convince my wonderful boss Brian Liddiard to send me to SXSW Interactive for the second year in a row. SXSW starts up in March 2010 & I am SUPER excited about that.

I also recently launched an awesome website for a Salt Lake City Dentist, showcasing my growing knowledge of CSS to the community of Salt Lake City (at least those looking for a dentist), and the infinite abyss I call the interweb. The site will look best for those using a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari), but will still function well in any other browser that is NOT Internet Explorer 6.

PERSONAL RELATED NEWS

Other than that, we are doing well and thinking of different ways to improve our house. Connor is growing up too fast, and is already 6 months old. Hannah is growing like a weed and regrettably starts school next year, and seems to be very anxious to do so. She has also recently been more than willing to scamper off to primary with a smile on her face instead of the usual kicking and screaming that I would usually have to endure as I passed her off to her teacher every Sunday at church.

You should follow me on Twitter.

Shane Observed

(*Released in 1986)

I recently received the Communication Arts Advertising Annual, and have been working my way through it. Today I read an interesting "Creativity" article by Natalia Ilyin, who emailed several questions to Bill Hill (the creator of ClearType). One of his answers really stood out to me.

QUESTION

"Your blog's "Digital Declaration of Independence" asserts "every human has an equal anunalienable right to the means to create, distribute and consume information." And yet you are a big fan of Amazon's Kindle, which puts distribution into the hands of a very small group and reading only into hands that can afford a reader. How do you envision solving these problems?"

HILL: "I deliberately drew a parallel in theat "Declaration" with the United States Declaration of Independence. That asserted that all men were created equal and had certain fundamental rights, but it took more than 200 years before the U.S. could elect a black President."
"It was a great document, because the men who created it realized its purpose was to serve as a beacon. You can't climb the hill all at once—but someone has to stick a flag on the top and say: 'Here's where we have to go!'"
"The kindle is a transitional device. When the first pocket calculators appeared, they cost hundreds of dollars. Now you get one free when you fill up at Exxon. But Kindle is helping to drive digitization of hundreds of thousands of titles. It's 'good enough' for now, but devices need to get better and cheaper. We're not at the top of the hill yet, by a long way."

Now although I personally feel that, "electing a black President" is not the best example of where our "Declaration of Independence" has taken us (in fact I would go as far to say I feel we, as a country, are twisting and taking the Declaration of Independence in the opposite direction, that the writers intended. But that is off subject so I will refrain). I do understand the point he is trying to make. I really enjoyed his example of the calculator, and where that has taken us as far as technology and the digital revolution has come. I still have my fathers calculator which is a really old Texas Instruments calculator that is very simple compared to the calculators that are out now, but at the time my Father spent a nice chunk of money on this calculator. Now I'm interested in seeing if the Kindle is really that same starting point as far as digital reading devices are concerned.

Shane Recommends

Here are the best things I came across on the infinite abyss I like to call the Interweb in 2009. If you pay any attention to my tweets or my "Net Worthy" section on the right side of my blog you most likely already saw all of these. Enjoy™

The Four Ways People Decide

Style VS. Design

Creating a Timeless User Experience

Goodbye, Google

The secrets of Google's design team

10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines

Can You Be a Web Designer?

Start-up Metrics that Matter by Dave McClure

Great Designs Should Be Experienced and Not Seen

Handcrafted CSS