So, I just used this for my blog: http://tamesequels.blogspot.com, and will shortly be posting a digital literacy lab for this. Basically, if you want to put a blog feed as a widget on another blog, you can customize one for free on this website. It's really easy and it gives you a code at the end of the customization to post. Check out my blog to see one. It's the "My Photography" section, and you'll see how it posts everything from that blog really nicely. A great tool for making your website alive.

So true. Flickr. Prezi. Diigo. Scribd. All about the hilarity of trending website's names.

It is what it is. A pretty cool, relatively simple resource.

Check out my newest blog entry and you'll see that I have a photoshop tutorial posted! I discuss textures and their many uses in this entry, so it will likely be very useful for a good resource for textures if you want to create new media through the most powerful tool that is Adobe Photoshop CS4!

An interesting list.

I have this obsession with Russia and its authors, so this is something that I was quite excited to listen to as I worked around my apartment today. I love Chekhov, especially his letters to his family while he was traveling around Siberia. It doesn't have a lot to do with Technology and Modern Inventions, but it has to do with expanding our learning in general.

I know that this is a pretty indulgent post, but I was thinking about self-directed learning and it hit me that we shouldn't discount the things that are fun to read as non self-directed learning. This is one of my favorite artists' Sufjan Stevens. He's kind of like a modern day David Byrne, but he also happens to be a devout christian. I like the way he mixes religion with music in subtle forms and so I appreciated his comments on religious worship here.

I just found this live visual for one of my favorite musicians--Sufjan Stevens. According to the animator's website, she uses tons and tons of algorithms to make this happen. Its kind of mesmerizing and strangely enough reminds me of kidpix. Anyways.

One of my favorite mormon artists has a blog!

A visual essay of some of my own photography that I feel/hope conveys spiritual truth AND artistic truth. See my blog post at http://tamesequels.blogspot.com for my discussion about these two kinds of truths. All of these pieces are taken with a low resolution camera phone to try and convey that artistic beauty can be found in this world with the humblest means and mediums. This is one of my new art projects. I have always had an interest in photography, so this has been a good chance for me to experiment. I will try to post a photo on this site every day.

Although this is limited in page views, it has a great introduction. I read this book for my colloquium Honors Biology class with Dr. Evans. Our whole them revolved around evolution and this book was very logical and concise. An excellent read.

This flowchart speaks the truth. Just for fun.

I stumbled upon this website the other day. Its an article site with a bunch of hired authors. "Wait--hired authors!!" You say, in righteous defense of the open "wiki" model. But the cool thing about hired authors is that they are all viewing and rating each other's articles. Hence, "helium," the best articles rise to the top. I mean who decided that it was the best system to have bored 40 year olds living with their parents as the main source of information. (Let's be honest, those wikipedia articles didn't write themselves.) The good thing about a paid workforce is that there is a sense of pressure under writing the articles. Their business model is in and of itself an "invisible hand." Anyways, i thought it was a cool idea. Voila.

One of a few "Simplify" blogs that I have discovered recently. It seems to be a growing popular lifestyle choice. "Life is frittered away with detail. Simplify, Simplify" -Thoreau.

One of a few "Simplify" blogs that I have discovered recently. It seems to be a growing popular lifestyle choice. "Life is frittered away with detail. Simplify, Simplify" -Thoreau.

Yes, I never sleep. Anyways, I thought this sample page of visitors to a website about languages was incredibly precise and accurate. How does a computer get this knowledge, one might ask? (Does google have a tracker on where people come from to help their ads/ search services?)

Interesting idea about how the internet may be forming our character. Maybe not the best thing.

I'm not sure that this is how most people use tumblr, but it occured to me that searching for images through a blogging service where people are handpicking these images may be a better system. How many of us have looked something up through google images with sheer frustration at the lack of variety of images? Maybe I'm the only one. All I'm saying is that you should try opening up tumblr, plugging in a word like "mountains" or something and see what rolls out. Keep in mind that an extract of the blogger's text entry is displayed with the image, so it is not a legitimate "image search." But I really feel that this way of people deciding what images should be showing up is a great one. That is all. Also--Don't get too distracted by the huge sign up form in the middle of the page.

This is an interesting list I found of companies that make the most of the "fan" account they have on facebook. Another interesting crossroad between our economy and technology.

Well, there's snow on the mountains finally. I am one of the few people who smiles at the sight of white. I have this weird obsession with Antarctica and I want to say how greatly I adore this film I watched the other day. If you have any interest in cold places as I do, I HIGHLY recommend this beautiful film by Werner Herzog (director of Grizzly Man). Its not a simple Planet Earth documentary, but examines why all of these different people end up at the bottom of the world. And some of the under ice scuba diving is simply breathtaking. FYI, it's on instant view on netflix.