July 28th, 2006
Several months ago, I signed up for a drawing for an Xbox 360 on the Catalyst Conference website. (Catalyst, in case you’re wondering, is an annual Christian leadership conference being held in Atlanta, GA this October ‘06.)I found out about Catalyst from my friend Scott Villemain, who has attended the conferences through his church for the past two years. He can’t say enough good things about the conference. From the videos and literature I’ve seen that are being produced for the conference, I’ve been really impressed myself. The folks at INJOY (the “people development company” behind the conference) really have their act together.
Well… on Monday, I received a call from L.V. from INJOY, who was happy to inform me that I was this week’s winner of the Xbox 360. I was in disbelief. I never win anything. I’ve entered countless contest/drawings over the years to no avail. Why should this time be any different? My disbelief was erased yesterday, when an Xbox 360 arrived at the office. All I can say is wow and Thank You. Seriously.
If you’ve never heard of the Catalyst Conference, please check it out. Those that I know that have attended it in the past can’t say enough good things about the conference.
July 28th, 2006
A few links of interest to fans of the show…
- Oceanic Airlines - Well designed. Definitely connected to the show.
- Snowglobe Collective - Whoa. A new kind of fugly. Not sure if it’s connected with Lost or not, but Desmond did mention they were in a “Snowglobe” of sorts…
- Driveshaft - the band webpage. Has some interesting articles on Flight 815…
July 25th, 2006
I’ll be attending the “Mastering Photoshop CS2” seminar in Atlanta on August 21st. It looks to be a pretty cool mix of classes. It’s been a while since I attended a seminar specifically on Photoshop, so it’ll be nice to be able to “sharpen the saw” with tips and tricks learned from this seminar.
Learn the ingenious techniques that experienced Photoshop professionals use every day to accomplish amazing effects with a minimum of effort. Discover a faster, better way to use Photoshop®. No hyper-technical jargon, no beginner basics – just class after class of “real-world” techniques that will advance your skills and make you more productive than ever before. After an enlightening day with Deke McClelland, your confidence in your Photoshop skills will be at an all-time high.
The last Photoshop seminar I attended was several years ago. It was geared towards users of all levels, but without fail, it seemed like all of the advanced sessions I attended had beginners in them that monopolized all of the speaker’s time with question after question. Hopefully this seminar will work out better than that…
July 21st, 2006
I just returned from a 7:45pm showing of Clerks 2 at the local theatre. I had hesitated in going, but my brother offered to buy my ticket, so how could I refuse?
Clerks 2 was offensive, vulgar, crude, disgusting, and so on and so on and so on. It also told a great story.
Clerks 2 takes off 10 years after the original movie, but it doesn’t retell the same story over again. Kevin Smith had something else to say.
I’ve been a fan of Kevin Smith for close to a decade now. Clerks was one of those movies that, at least in my opinion, should be required viewing for people entering the workforce. (The other required film would be Office Space.) Clerks told the story of two guys - Dante and Randal - and their mundane lives at the Kwik Stop. Clerks 2 starts off ten years later with Dante opening up the Kwik Stop only to discover it is engulfed in flames. In an instant, his life is turned upside down. Fast-forward a year - Dante and Randal are now working at Mooby’s working menial jobs, and Dante’s made plans to leave New Jersey and start a new life in Florida. What ensues is hilarious, thought-provoking and even a little emotional.
If you can ignore the crudeness in the flick, and the overuse of profanity you’ll see that at the heart of it, Clerks 2 is a great movie.
July 21st, 2006
Seriously. Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael are coming back. 03.30.07. View Trailer.
It’s been years since there’s been a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and I’m glad to see they are going fully CGI on the new one.
July 20th, 2006
I’ve been having some technical issues with the website over the past few days. If things are acting up for you, please let me know. I had to repair the MySQL database today and that appears to have resolved part of the problems I was having, but time will tell whether my site will remain stable or not. If you happen to notice any issues with the site in the meantime, please send me an email at: chris ‘at’ cdharrison ‘dot com or IM me on GoogleTalk using ‘chris at cdharrison dot com’. Thanks for your help and your patience.
July 19th, 2006
If photography is your thing, you might be interested in Adobe Lightroom.
Project: Lightroom™ is Adobe’s effort to engage the professional photography community in a new way, giving you the opportunity to kick the tires and shape the feature set of a new tool being created just for you. Ultimately, we want Lightroom to be truly built from the ground up by photographers, for photographers, helping solve your unique workflow challenges.
Adobe Lightroom Beta is now available for Windows - snag it here.
July 19th, 2006
Blog spam is a huge problem. Akismet estimates that 93% of comments made on blogs are usually spam. That is a ridiculously high amount of spam! A little blog like mine doesn’t receive a lot of traffic (maybe 20-30 visitors a day). Yet, since my conversion to Wordpress several months ago, I have received well over 600 spam comments (versus about 50 legit comments). It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I realized that maybe I should check on which posts are being affected. Know what I discovered? They were posts about Wordpress.
I love the Akismet plugin for Wordpress. It works well, and I have yet to deal with a spam comment on the front-end of my site. It’s caught every bit of spam I’ve ever received through this site and makes dealing with it very easy.
So, what did I do to take care of the spam - so even Akismet wouldn’t have to deal with it? That was easy, actually. I disallowed Pings and Comments on the posts attracting the spammers. Problem solved (for now at least).
July 13th, 2006
Let’s face it, most greeting cards aren’t that great. Better Living by Giving aims to change that, with a twist. They’re looking to make a difference:
We started this company with passions for great design, art and music, nested with a need to make a little difference in this big world. We looked inside to see what made us happy. It was actually very simple. Helping make others happy made us happy. And so this became our mission.
Designing cards and getting to work with talented creatives are just icing. The best part is knowing someone will help someone else feel better. That’s the beauty of giving cards.
What an awesome concept! It’s hard to believe that something like this came out of Augusta. But then, the two people behind it - Linda and Brent - are stars in the Augusta design community. While I was with The Alison Group, I worked under Linda’s supervision - and she is one of the most talented designers I’ve ever met.
So, if you feel like helping out a great cause, and would love to get some very well-designed greeting cards in the process, check out their site: http://www.betterlivingbygiving.com
July 11th, 2006
It’s a sad, sad day for fans of Windows 95/98/Me *gag*. Effective today, Microsoft will no longer support your antiquated operating system(s). Perhaps it’s time for an upgrade or possibly a switch?
End of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me - Effective July 11, 2006, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me (and their related components) will transition to a non-supported status. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates. Microsoft is not offering a custom support agreement for these products.
