Looking For Some Graphics Help…A LOT Of It

Perhaps you’ve noticed the cheeky little header image that tops every blog post on the old blog, the one reading “This Space For Rent.” No, I’m not trying to monetize my blog (though if you’re interested, gimme a call – I can use the cash…), I’m trying to send a message: I need help.

Blogging is fun, but perhaps the most tedious part is looking for images to use with posts. Between the 3,000,000,000 different licenses out there governing which image you can use when and the unending horrible images that show up on any given image search, finding the right picture to help make a post feel right is almost impossible. It would be so much easier (and mutually beneficial) if some of my shutterbug friends would send me some of their favorite pictures to use as images for my blogs.

I realize that wouldn’t solve all of my problems, if for no other reason than I write on some pretty weird stuff, and most of the people I know aren’t as weird as me. But on those days when I need a sunset, or a nice architectural detail, to be able to dip into a file of photos from friends would be nice. And just as nice to be able to share their talents with the world at large.

Hey – I don’t mind sharing the love.

So if you’re a photog, or you like creating neat things in Photoshop or Lightbox or whatever and you’d like to have another place to show your work, let me know. You can always send me a message on Facebook, or just write something in the comments below. I’ll be more than happy to attribute, link to your webpage, whatever you’d like as a way of highlighting your work with mine.

After all: we artists have to stick together, right?

Insomniac’s Internet Report

Welcome back, Dave. Hal has upgraded to wifi and is waiting to show you some new tricks...

I couldn’t sleep last night, a fact you might have guessed given the blog’s suddenly new appearance (Side Note: can I help it if WordPress finally produced a free theme almost exactly like I’ve been wanting? I saw this last night and got giddy). To pass the time, and to prevent my insomnia from infecting my beloved wife, I opted to hit the couch with the old laptop and see what the internet has to offer once the midnight oil is lit.

The quick summation: Jack Squat.

In a world of supposedly 24-hour information, I just so happened to pick the world’s most boring 24-hours in which to be wide awake. Baseball is on a break until the All-Star sham starts, the NFL and NBA are both locked out and moving at pace that makes glaciers seem impatient, and Facebook offers no one with whom to banter once the clock strikes one in the morning. CNN’s lead story was about Prince William and Duchess Kate wearing cowboy gear to commemorate their historic opening of the Calgary Stampeded (Brits in boots and bolos – there’s some stunning reading!), and the folks at Fox weren’t much better (I think it was all about nine ways to bring Casey Anthony to justice, “Old West” style).

Even TMZ was DOA, and I couldn’t even bring myself to Google the words “Perez Hilton”, just out of fear that my computer would catch a digital STD. I tried reading some online books, but without the tactile sensation of a page to turn, Wuthering Heights is even more dreadful than previously imagined. I tried to keep up with Twitter, but even their feed was pathetically slow – two tweets in twenty minutes…it’s like all of the smart alecks in the world fell into a coma at the exact same time.

Hulu was hopeless (I just can’t bring myself to watch anything other than Law & Order from NBC) and YouTube gets boring after the 254,302 video of some poor father being “accidentally” hit in the groin. I tried reading some of the classier content aggregators but all I got was aggravation.

So in the end I turned on a small lamp, grabbed a Raymond Chandler story collection, and read some tales about my favorite fictional detective of all time, Philip Marlowe. My brain slowed down, I got to read some great writing, and eventually I was able to close my eyes and drift off to sleep…for ten minutes. I woke up to the sounds of my wife making coffee and my daughter flitting around the house, upset because daddy was taking up the whole couch and she wanted her seat.

Now, I’m too tired to really post anything insightful or truly hilarious, my head kind of hurts, and I have the vague sensation of needing to keel over at any moment. I can already hear my bed calling my name.

Unless aliens land or Casey Anthony suddenly elopes with OJ, I doubt there’ll be anything happening online tonight that I’ll really want to be part of. And even if aliens land, that can wait til morning.

OJ and Casey…well, who cares?