This is a test...

I'm trying to see if Facebook is correctly importing my blog posts again. This is only a test. Feel free to check out the last few posts, though if you missed any.

Shiny!

Can't really explain why shiny is better than not shiny. Maybe its some latent thing, some treasurehunting instinct that hangs in there. All I can say is shiny is awesome. Shiny coins, glossy cars, slick glass. Something about just catches the eye and draws me in.

So, I had to know. How the heck do graphic designers create those gorgeous icons and badges you see all over the internet? I thought, man that's got to be hard. I mean those things are designed by professionals. I'll never be able to do that.

So, I Googled it. I found a website that had a list of tutorials on how to make everything shiny.
What was great was, the guy was using Macromedia Fireworks. This is the very software I use for the snobby reason that it was free to download.

Even if you don't use Fireworks, you can apply the same concepts to any graphic software you're comfortable with. Read to tutorials here.

Or you can just enjoy looking over my obsessive learning process.

The first one doesn't have any shiny in it. It's just the original concept before I discovered how exciting and easy shining it up could be.



The second one is my first pass at making shiny icons. The tutorial I read showed how to make round ones so I made round ones too.



This has reflections. I'm gettin' fancier.



This is the last one I made before I realized I was getting on my wife's nerves by begging her to look at what I made now. Very shiny.



So, that's pretty much how I spent my Sunday off. The wife said she liked the first one best (the one that's not shiny at all...I know, right?). Incidentally, this is my first attempt to post images from a Picasa account so if everything doesn't display correctly I apologize. I can only get better, right?

Displaced Dialogue

I'm experimenting with some new content ideas. This one is called 'Displaced Dialogue.' I will create a non-sequitur where I juxtapose a photo of someone famous or influential and a quote that is NOT from that person. If you're keeping score at home, 'juxtapose' is worth twenty-five points in Scrabble, but you have to get 'pose' on the board first because 'juxtapose' is more than seven letters.

Anyway, let's just dive in.

Neither of the Clintons said:

"What?"
"I just thought...you were a guy."
"Most guys do."





If you know who did say it, feel free to comment below. I'll share the answer in my next post.

Don't forget to check out the links for Anna. Just click on of the buttons at the top of the sidebar.

Anna and the King...

This is Anna Vaprova. Anna is about two and a half. She is bright, beautiful and full of the potential of life that is the gift of young children. Unfortunately, Anna has a monster after her. This monster is not hiding under her bed or in her closet. It is not banished by nightlights or sweet dreams. The monster is cancer.

Anna, who lives with her family in Russia, has a form of cancer. The doctors have treated her, but this monster is persistent and the doctors in Russia have reached the limits of their resources. Anna's next alternative is to travel out of the country to seek treatment elsewhere. This is very expensive and family and friends are doing everything possible to raise the funds. To read Anna's story and see what you can do to help, click the buttons above. Also, check out www.iam4everlearning.blogspot.com to read the guest post by Ola, Anna's aunt here in Illinois.

Please read and consider the life of Anna. I know the Cancer Monster eats up men, women and children every day. If there's anything we can do to keep one child out of it's jaws I want to try. And remember:

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
James 5:16

Time to think...

This is my first post in something like ten weeks. I've had a lot to think about and I tend to think in silence. At the end of December last year, I was introduced to a series of sermons by David Platt of Brook Hill Church. Mr. Platt is a young pastor of a large church in the are of Birmingham, Alabama. Beginning with his family, and taking the lesson out to his church and then the Christian population as a whole, Mr. Platt has asked people to do something radical. He wants us to read the gospel of Jesus and accept every word as true. I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. I have tried to apply it to my life and live according to its principles. Yet, hearing the passionate words of this pastor convicted me of the truth that I have lived a me-centered Americanized brand of Christianity that minimizes certain teachings of Christ that would be uncomfortable to accept. I have gone back to the scriptures and re-read them for myself. What Mr. Platt is teaching is not a new interpretation or his own twist on the scripture. It is a call to take Jesus's words exactly as they are given and resist the temptation to make them say something they do not.

For me this has meant thinking about my life and my stuff differently. If I believe what the Bible says, then I have given my life to Jesus and that means it is his. Truly it was his before then, he having the claims of the maker upon the made thing. Either way, my  time, my strength, my devotion, my all BELONG to him. If I were to dedicate my every living moment to his service it would be nothing more than what he has a right to. Every penny I earn, every possession in my house MUST be available and not merely in a wishy-washy "willing to" kind of way. I need to put everything I have to work for Jesus to meet the demands he places on those who choose to follow him; love each other, help the poor, and preach the gospel.

It has taken me some time to weigh this out. I can't tell you for sure what all the implications will be, but I can say that since God has gifted me with a drive to write and I already have this blog established, I will be trying to use it for Him in someway. Bear with me and I hope we will all draw nearer to God.

Finally, I strongly urge everyone, believer or non-believer, to listen to and consider the words of David Platt. I'm not lifting up one particular man, but I think he has hit on a critical truth and the emotion he shares it with is very compelling. Please take the time hear his message. He has also written a book containing much of the same materials as his sermon series if you would prefer that format. I've included links below.


http://www.brookhills.org/media/series/radical/


Radical by David Platt available at Amazon.com