I'm taking a moment to brag. It's not a huge thing, but this photo was selected as the Image of the Week at the NAPP Member Portfolio site. At least it was enough to make me smile.
http://www.photoshopuser.com/members/portfolios/
Why do your themes for Movable Type still suck so much? Mostly, you have variations on a theme created years ago. Stylecatcher came out in 2005 as a potential solution and it quickly went nowhere.
I can't speak for all of your users, but I'm guessing there's a pretty significant contingent of folks like me; people who lack design skills or otherwise don't want to spend time delving into code to tweak CSS settings. We want visual choices. Wordpress has several, including some great options for purchase. They're easy to implement, often requiring little more than clicking a link for automatic download and activation. Within seconds, you can re-skin your Wordpress blog with some really cool themes.
Why the fuck can't you do that with Movable Type? Take a look at a package I bought from Pro Photo Blogs. It's awesome and reasonably priced. It offered configurable options that allowed me to create my photo blog on Word Press in a way that I could NEVER do using Movable Type, unless I spent thousands of dollars on a custom template.
As a non-profit hobbyist, the economics just don't work for me to spend that kind of money on my blog. So am I, and other MT users, doomed to ugliness or time consuming code-wrenching, or are you going to do something about it? Will you create a configurable design tool that isn't laughable?
There is a market opportunity for you to explore. It doesn't matter to me if Six Apart addresses this market itself or successfully encourages third party designers to create visually stimulating themes for Movable Type without requiring coding. It's time that Movable Type stepped up to the plate and met this challenge. Wordpress has a community of blog themes that is far and away superior to Movable Type. It's time that you closed the gap.
]]>The new blog is under Word Press and I'm thinking it's time to change everything to that platform. While MT is fine for corporate accounts & Britney Spears, who can hire developers to tinker around with it, it's just a giant pain in the ass for a guy like me who only wants a decent configuration tool so he can get to the business of writing. MT's online configuration tool is laughable.
Until I can make some changes here, please feel free to join me at http://williambeem.com if you have an interest in photography.
]]>
I'm taking a moment to brag. It's not a huge thing, but this photo was selected as the Image of the Week at the NAPP Member Portfolio site. At least it was enough to make me smile.
http://www.photoshopuser.com/members/portfolios/
I'm not sure which of my three dogs is the dumbest. Today it's the little one, Max. A few months ago he seemed to be at death's door and could barely move. The vet wanted to operate on him, but his blood test revealed a liver problem. We figured he'd be dead in a month.
I started giving him some wet food as a treat in the morning, and he recovered. It's not like he was starving, he always ate his food the same as the other two dogs. It's just that this food seems to excite him. What dog doesn't like wet food over dry?
Keep in mind this dog is about 17 years old, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he were ready to pass away. He's old, can't see for cataracts, has cysts all around his body, and generally doesn't have much of anything to do; except eat that wet food every morning. Now it's something he demands.
I get home from the gym about 9:00 am and let all the dogs inside. He immediately starts running into me, stepping on me, and doing everything he can to get his daily wet food treat. I can't give it to him in front of the bigger dogs, since they'd just nudge him away and eat it. I have to get them back outside and then Max starts prancing.
You'd almost think he was a 2 year-old dog again. He literally stands up on his hind legs, paddles his front paws, and then BOUNCES his way into the kitchen to eat. That's what he was doing this morning, bouncing along and looking over his shoulder, when he bounced his furry ass into the water bowl for the big dogs. It's almost big enough for him to sleep in it, but he doesn't because, you know, it's full of water. Anyway, he hops full body into the bowl, jumps out, and splashes water all over my kitchen floor. It doesn't matter to him, since he still wants that wet food, but you know he's not going to clean up the mess he made.
Max earns the award for Dumbest Dog of the Day.
]]>]]>
I could join and wish you a happy new year, but I wonder if that carries any legal obligation. Suppose you don't have a happy new year at all. Can you sue me? Have I become responsible for your happiness during the year? As much as I may want you all to have a happy new year, I'm afraid I don't have enough power to ensure that it actually happens. It's one of those things where you need to take responsibility for your own actions and hope that's sufficient.
Let's face it, the new year is really a contrived celebration. Many years ago, some old men decided to start counting the days until the Earth made enough revolutions around the Sun to get back to the same place. These old men didn't even know the Earth was moving around the Sun at the time, but all the pieces fit and they could count so many days until we got back where we started. Oh, it took a while before they had the calendar figured out completely. Someone had to add the leap year. Let's not forget that a lot of birthdays at the end of February got screwed when Roman Emperors decided to steal some days to make months named after them a day longer. People are always picking on February, so I presume that's why we put the extra day in the Leap Year there.
So even though it was arbitrarily considered the start of a New Year, January 1st has some real psychological impact on people. For instance, it's when they start their Resolutions for the new year. That means parking at my gym is going to be rough for the next month. Fortunately, most of those people burn out and leave by February. I don't really think it's the new year that inspires some attention to physical fitness, at least not by itself. Rather, it's probably due to all the food & drink consumed from Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve, and maybe also during football games and parades on New Year's Day. Once they get past that point, it seems like a good time to start working off that holiday fat. You can call it a resolution if you want, but I call it a lot of people who are too cheap or broke to buy new pants. Either that, or their vanity won't allow them to admit they went up a size or more.
When you sit and think about it, there's really nothing that's changed as a result of the new year. The holiday season would be over even if we started the new year in March. People would feel just as much need to drop a few pounds or at least stop living to such excess. The New Year is a contrived holiday. What are we really celebrating, after all?
Maybe that's why the climax of the celebration is really so short. I once spent New Year's Eve in Times Square with some friends. Basically, that entails going down there 12 hours before midnight so the cops can put you in a pen without food, water, shelter, or any toilet facilities. You can get out if you want, but then you can't get back in your same pen. You have to go further back down the street to get in another pen if you still want to celebrate. Of course, that means you're separated from your friends if they don't all go pee with you.
The street party is for the cheap folks, though. The real party happens in the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, but it's not cheap at all. People spend BIG bucks for a room with a view, and then more money for the party happening inside the hotel. I suppose it's worth it, though. For a fee, you don't freeze to death, you get food, drink, and access to bathrooms without losing your place.
All of this is just a prelude to the big moment, though. You know, where a big ball of flashing lights gradually lowers itself down a poll. Really, I'm not kidding. That's it. A million people gather to watch that damn ball lower itself, a bunch of confetti shoots all over the crowd and THEN...nothing happens. It's the new year. Whatever was happening before is still happening, except mail delivery stops and banks close for a day.
So it's 2009. I don't want to be a social outcast for not going along with the party spirit. Therefore, I wish you a Happy New Year*.
[* - This statement is in no way a binding agreement or guarantee that you will actually have a happy new year.]
]]>]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
That opens up the world of being out there, grabbing a quick photo, and immediately sharing it with the world via your blog. Well, at least if you use TypePad. Those of us who bought Movable Type early in Six Apart's life are still feeling a bit left out of the cool stuff. It seems pretty clear that Six Apart favors its TypePad base, and probably Vox right after that.
My guess is that those users are a larger market. However, I'm still not sure if I understand why this new iPhone app doesn't work with Movable Type. After all, Six Apart went through some effort a while ago to make sure the code base between TypePad and Movable Type were the same. The only real difference is that you'd need to have a very small section of the program to point the program to your Movable Type host - something that seems really, really trivial.
Apparently that was still too much. Six Apart does some really cool stuff, but I'm getting tired of them ignoring the platform that got them started. I'm getting tired of whining about features that they provide to TypePad, but not Movable Type. I'm getting tired of being a second class citizen.
]]>Shame on me for that. However, doesn't this seem pretty stupid from a business point of view? I went in there every 3,000 miles for my free oil change. Each vehicle has the same schedule, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or elaborate computer tracking program to say:
"Mr. Beem, I see you're here for your 6,000 mile oil change. I'd like to remind you that you need to rotate your tires in order to qualify for a free tire exchange later. The fee for the rotation is $xx.xx."
That seems like good business. It not only offers the customer a choice, but it's a good way to increase your earnings. As long as the prices are reasonable per the market, I imagine most folks would accept. What the hell, you're already there and they have the car up on the jack. Why not rotate the tires while the oil drains?
The service department at Winter Park Dodge doesn't do that for its customers, though. I tried going through my sales rep, since she sent me a post card reminding me of an upcoming oil change. Cool. I figured if they could spend the money to mail a postcard about a service item, maybe they could also just tell a customer about other pending service.
I also asked her how they expect to earn a customer's future service business once they miss a required service item. She didn't know, but was willing to query the manager. She also thought that, although I may not qualify for free tires, perhaps they'd be willing to sell them to me at cost or discount them so I could get back to my maintenance schedule for future free tires.
That was a month ago. Earlier today, I e-mailed her back to inquire about the result. Her response came and simply said that the manager doesn't see it my way.
That's it. That's the big customer service response from the manager at Winter Park Dodge. The manager didn't take any time to contact me, hear my side of the situation, or even explain why the decision was made. The manager just doesn't see it my way.
Well, that saves me a bit of decision making. For example, I know that there's no point in driving all the way down to Winter Park Dodge for service when I can get it from another dealer closer to home. I know there's no way in hell I'll be buying tires from Winter Park Dodge. In fact, they gave me a pretty good indication that Winter Park Dodge does not want to lift a finger for my business.
It's a shame, because I really would like to have a service department that I can trust to ensure that this vehicle has proper maintenance and runs well. I'm happy to pay for that service. However, I don't like to pay anyone who doesn't honestly value my business enough to show a little courtesy. I guess that leaves out the service department at Winter Park Dodge.
]]>
I was afraid that the 90 second videos on Flickr would be rather lame, but it's clearly become a format as important as Haiku.
Model Ashley Simone displays the art of 2007 World Body Painting Champion Carolyn Roper during the FABAIC in Orlando. I wanted to post this as a contrast to yesterday's black and white image. Most body art that I've viewed seem to use similarly vibrant colors. In my opinion, this piece was one of the stand-out works during the show. That's not to say that other artists didn't create jaw dropping work; they did. This one just happens to be my favorite.
]]>
Sometimes you see an image in color and it just screams out for black and white. That was the case, for me anyway, with this image I shot of Abby Trent at the Face and Body Art International Conference this past week in Orlando.
In most cases, body art is so vibrant in color that it's a shame to either desaturate it or change to black and white. To be fair, I thought the original color image was charming. However, I began to feel more inclined to show the lines here instead of the colors.
