andrew dodson

After posting my “not sure I want to blog anymore” post yesterday, I came across this article.  It details the reasons why blogs are falling by the wayside.  Notably:

Further, text-based Web sites aren’t where the buzz is anymore. The
reason blogs took off is that they made publishing easy for
non-techies. Part of that simplicity was a lack of support for
pictures, audio, and videoclips. At the time, multimedia content was
too hard to upload, too unlikely to play back, and too hungry for
bandwidth.

Social multimedia sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook have
since made publishing pics and video as easy as typing text. Easier, if
you consider the time most bloggers spend fretting over their words.
Take a clue from Robert Scoble,
who made his name as Microsoft’s “technical evangelist” blogger from
2003 to 2006. Today, he focuses on posting videos and Twitter updates.
“I keep my blog mostly for long-form writing,” he says.

Twitter — which limits each text-only post to 140 characters — is to
2008 what the blogosphere was to 2004. You’ll find Scoble, Calacanis,
and most of their buddies from the golden age there. They claim it’s
because Twitter operates even faster than the blogosphere. And Twitter
posts can be searched instantly, without waiting for Google to index
them.

So, in the past two days, I’ve posted two blogs about how I’m not sure I want to blog anymore.  Blogging about not blogging.  Makes perfect sense.

I’m going to skip the “sorry I haven’t blogged in a while” part of this post and cut to the chase.

I haven’t blogged because I haven’t felt like it.  The interesting part?  It seems that not a whole lot of people have noticed, and that’s been perfectly fine with me.  I’ve really considered what to do with this blog as of late.  Yeah, I know.  I’ve been pro-blogging for the last four years, encouraging everyone and their mom to start a blog.  Many of my friends have started blogs, and I enjoy reading all of them.  But, I just haven’t felt like blogging much lately.

Maybe I’ll get the bug to blog more frequently soon.  For now, I’m pondering some other ideas for this site.

How ’bout the new look of the blog? Wordpress.org has revamped their theme directory and I found this one yesterday. I really like the simplicity of it.

So, what have I been up to? I’ve kept up with learning Flash and that’s coming along fairly well. I’m thinking about implementing some Flash on the Josh Martin Band website, but I’m not sure. I’d like to put what I’ve learned into practice in one way or another.

I’ve mainly spent time redesigning a few sites as of late. I continue to get people calling or emailing with interest in having a website done, so that’s been encouraging for BADmedia. I’m hoping to nail down a few more sites by the end of this week.

The Josh Martin Band stepped back on stage this past weekend at the Frankfort Christian Academy. It was good to play again. We’re going to start rehearsing again soon for some upcoming gigs. Josh has written some new material, so we will work on that as well.

I’m often asked what type of software I use to create my websites, logos and the like.  Everyone knows I’m a Mac guy, and they assume I use the Adobe Creative Suite.  Not so fast!  Assumptions can sometimes be wrong.

Yes, I’m a Mac guy.  Love ‘em.  Used a PC for years before finally using a Mac at work.  Hands down, Macs are far better machines.  Trust me.  PC users are scared to switch because they’re afraid a Mac can’t do what a PC does.  Wrong.  Not only can it do everything a PC does, it can do it better and you won’t be pulling your hair out all the time.

Anyway… on to the real topic.  What software do I use?  My general rule of thumb is easy – find something that does what I want for free.  The glory of humanity is this – there are people willing to donate their time and effort and ability to create a nice software package for free.  This is called Open Source.  When I simply can’t find a good open-source (free) program, I find one for cheap.  I try to keep my overhead as low as possible.

General Graphic Art

For my general designs, this is where I don’t skimp.  I use Adobe Illustrator a lot.  I’m currently looking into open source programs (Inkscape), or cheap programs (Vector Designer) for my vector art needs.  Until I decide if those programs are viable, I’ll use Illustrator.

Photo Editing / Raster Graphics

Photoshop?  No.  I use Gimp.  It’s a wonderful, free program.  For all of you out there using pirated versions of Photoshop because you can’t afford to buy it yourself – please try Gimp.  There IS a learning curve, but it can do everything Photoshop can do.  I’m very impressed with it.  Not to mention, it’s more streamlined that PS and runs much faster on my computers.

Web Editing – HTML

These days, I don’t do a whole heck of a lot with HTML.  When I absolutely have to code something with HTML, I use Nvu (there is also a version called Kompozer).  It gets the job done and is free.

Web Editing – PHP, XML, General Coding

I’ve fallen in love with Smultron.  A free, powerful text editor that plays nicely with PHP, XML, CSS, and HTML files.  A nice, multi-purpose program.

Web Editing – CSS

There is a free solution here that some people might enjoy.  Simple CSS.  I’ve tried it and it does get the job done.  But, it has some quirks that I don’t like.  So, I use CSSEdit.  It’s not a free program, but is in the “affordable” bracket.  It’s a pretty slick program.

Wordpress

These days, I design all of my sites around Wordpress.  I love the ability to maintain my sites from any computer with an internet connection.  There is a learning curve to designing custom themes, but once you figure it out, it’s a breeze.

Word Processing

Sometimes, clients send me Word documents with their content.  Mac does have a version of Microsoft Office, but it’s not cheap.  So, I use NeoOffice to read Word & Excel files and more.  A truly wonderful, free word processing program.  They are constantly updating it and improving its features.

So, there you have it.  If you’re looking to save some money, but still be productive, I strongly suggest looking into open source options.  Small businesses, schools, churches, governments, civic groups and non-profits could benefit greatly from saving money and using these types of programs.  You should at least look into them and give them a chance.

Hello faithful blog readers. No, I haven’t abandoned this blog. As it turns out, I’m in the midst of my busiest time of year (a little later than usual this year), but that will likely die down soon, as summer is upon us. I really do have a LOT to blog about, but strangely haven’t found the time. I’m kicking around about 10 blog posts in my head and can’t seem to get a moment to hop on here. So, I’m going to make an attempt at catching up on my blogging this week and give everyone something maybe-or-maybe-not-so-interesting to read.

More to come…

I’m happy to recommend a new blog by a somewhat new friend – John Martin (not to be confused with Josh, and no relation).  John and I go back to February of 2006 when I was considering buying an electronic drum set.  My boss recommended I speak with a guy who used to rent a house from him.  So, I called and met up with John at Memorial Baptist Church and he sold me on the Yamaha DTXpress III Special.  Since then, I’ve had occasional contact with him through CLS and church activities.  Recently, he joined us (some guys from The Point and me) on a trip to Seattle, so I’ve gotten to know him better in the last few months.  I learned about his blog earlier this week, but I’m just getting around to linking to it.

John is a great guy in this order – He loves the Lord, he loves his family, is a great husband and father, he faithfully serves his church as a pastor, and he is a great drummer & musician.  Go read his blog.

It’s that time of week… time to randomly blog:

• CLS has picked up steam over the last couple of weeks.  I’m going to try my best to keep up with blogging, but I am prepared to be working some overtime over the next several weeks.  Along with other projects, the blog might get forgotten about some days!
• NCAA Final Four this weekend – my pick in North Carolina, as much as I don’t like that.  I just think they’re too powerful.  With the way they’ve beaten people in the tourney so far, they remind me a lot of another extremely talented team that won it all by pounding teams in the tournament – the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats.
• Baseball season is now in full swing.  UK got off to an amazing start, but they’re now into SEC play, and have lost a handful of games over the last couple of weeks.  The Reds kicked off their season yesterday with a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks.  The staff gave up three homers, and the Reds only mustered three hits.  Fortunately, they have 161 games left to turn things around.
• Seriously – the Drop Trio is good.  Check them out.  The Leap album is a completely improvised album, which I’d normally love, but judging from some 30-second sound clips, it’s not as groove oriented as their other two releases.
• I’m enjoying Wordpress 2.5 so far.  If you haven’t upgraded yet, you should!

Thursday is for links, so today…

• The Resurgence has posted the audio from the conference. Go check it out!
• This is the kind of church Barack Obama attends.
• Rick posted 10 passages of Scripture every Christian should know.
• Now I know why I spend so much time on the internet.
• Shane posts about Spurgeon on sin.

Lots of good blogging going on this week! Enjoy…

• Josh wants us to articulate well and I agree. Definitely something I need to be more aware of.
• I caught up with a former Georgetown classmate this week on Facebook – Ryan Coatney. He has a great post dealing with the church at his blog. I’ll definitely be checking his blog regularly.
• Over at the New Attitude blog, there’s a good post on remembering the Gospel in our everyday conversations.
• Challies has a review of Mark Driscoll’s new book – Vintage Jesus. He’s not sure if he recommends it or not.

Look for a double helping of posts tomorrow evening (Friday) to kick-start the new blog schedule. I’ll be posting several links to other articles to cover today’s post (yes, a day late – sorry!), and I will be posting PCG notes. Due to the icy conditions outside, our PCG didn’t meet tonight, but I still plan on answering the questions (again) on my own. I’ll be posting these tomorrow evening from home as I do laundry and pack for my Seattle trip.

Our flight leaves very, very early Saturday morning, and we should be in Seattle early enough to enjoy the day and do some sight-seeing. The conference doesn’t start until Sunday.