International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today, September 19, is Talk Like a Pirate Day! So have some fun, length those "arrrr"s and act totally ridiculous. See the official site too - talklikeapirate.com.

What I Want from a Blog

One of the things I want from my own personal blog is the ability to control how it looks and easily update it. When I say that I want to control how it looks, I mean I would like to design it, control the CSS and so forth. None of the free providers really have all of those options for the amount I'm willing to pay at this point, which is zero dollars. One of them, I think it was livejournal, allowed the CSS to be edited, but the user needed a premium account. I didn't like how you couldn't sort out which services were free and which were advanced-user until you've already placed the time into editing the coding. That was annoying.

I am currently at blogger because I have a couple of family members using the service and it is through gmail. I heart google.

HW1:3 Flag Compression

Flash Bunny

Artist Anand Duncan and her super cute animations of bunnies would be an excellent resource in the art room. It showcases works completed for Disney to Cartoon Network, and a diversity of fine art mediums, most particularly quick graphite sketches. What I find most interesting about the site is that Duncan provides the amount of time it took to draw a human model. If shown in the classroom, this would be a good opportunity to talk about how an artist can market themselves and how they show quality of value.

The Post-it gives birth to the New Identity

I will begin my first posting by acknowledging the Post-it stuck on the upper right corner of my iMac, requesting that I "begin and maintain my first blog". I think its been there for maybe a month or two, and is most likely one of the newer Post-its making similar requests and reminders within the computer region. I've attempted to begin a blog before, however I always stopped my registration when it asked me to pick a name. The decision was too great. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the blog, so how could I possibly pick a name? If I just went into default mode and used my common avatar user-name, I would end up with the url skiwana.blogspot.com. If I went for my "U of I alias" the url would be cegolf.blogspot.com. If I wanted to have something more focuses, like on a hobby, I would end up with a url like theartofprocrastination.blogspot.com or oneunitaday.blogspot.com or themidnightoil.blogspot.com. The list could go on and on with the confusion and options available.

Knowing what I wanted to do with the blog was a huge part of my commitment issue with starting a blog. If I want to use it as a journal, then I would need to write consistently and be willing to share my thoughts with the cyberworld – ie. making the private public. Will I be willing to spend the time to compose these thoughts so that they may be interesting to others? Will it help me get over my writer's block if I write about my daily nonsense? Would I get weirded out if people start finding and reading my blog or will I get disappointed if I'm the only one moving the page hit counter?

Today I found my motivation to leap over my fear of committing to a blog name. This motivation was homework from my Informatics 102 course, requiring that I "sign up for a free (blogging) service" and "maintain it for the rest of the semester". Since I will be having to post homework at this address for INFO102, it seems appropriate to use the site as something that can grow from a day-to-day log to whatever it morfs into. Choosing the name Sedezin, which had been the business name I ran under when I did design consulting before returning to grad school, is my first step towards rebranding this identity. My current day-to-day is dedicated to writing papers, teaching, and make art. So my site remains offline and an unused url. Rebranding would allow my to reconsider who I consider my audience to be.

And so I leave this topic to go design a new logo, as new excitement has been born with the birth of this blog.