Okay, this is a continuation of the the posts here and here. In which I detail levels of suckiness as they have been predominant in my life lately. Yes, I have already admitted to this being very emo of me, but karma has been smacking me around.    more »

The Case Foundation is hosting an interesting new grants program called Make It Your Own Awards, an initiative that encourages people to connect, innovate, and activate their communities. They received nearly 5000 entries of ideas by applicants and charities nationwide. Of those, the top 100 applicants were awarded $100. Then they narrowed it down to the top 20 finalists who each received $10,000! Now they are asking for your vote to determine who moves on to the Final Four and gets $25,000 for their cause.

Cast your vote here and help turn dreams into reality! Just by participating, you could get $2,500 for your favorite charity. Voting ends April 22nd.

"Michael Salter's work is a massive and in-depth response to visual culture. A self proclaimed "obsessive observer" he culls through the avalanche of mass media and corporate branding to find poignant, absurd and baffling pieces which become part of his work. His work bridges all disciplines from product and toy design, to kinetic sculpture, logotypes, animation, and signage. He is currently interested in cognitive behavior and its relationship to particular visual stimuli, and the continued construction of styrofoam robots." - UO Department of Art   more »

Vote now! The polls close on March 31st.

I love these videos because they are a testimonial to the power of tapping into those creative forces we all have within us - the desire to change our own lives, as well as those around us, by doing something positive with the resources we have despite the limitations and road blocks. Here are two stories of men who have found meaningful ways to connect to others. They are truly inspiring and edifying...   more »

I knew someone who traveled the world as a professional book hunter. I hear there is a lot of money to be made. How do you get a job like that?

This is a continuation of the article found here and yeah, I admit to whining a bit, but this IS a blog and if we are not emo occasionally we may have our blogging rights removed.   more »

You may have heard by now that Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. The New York Times wrote a very interesting 3 page obituary article about this amazing author, veteran, and futurist... in short, he was brilliant.

This clip is from one of my very favorite movies of all time, The Colors of Infinity. It's an educational documentary that Clarke narrates, which explores fractal geometry, forever marking him as one of my heroes. There are interviews with a number of notable mathematicians, including Benoît Mandelbrot. The soundtrack might sound a little Pink Floydian to you - that's because it was by David Gilmour, humanitarian, guitarist and vocalist of the legendary Pink Floyd. Just another reason why this movie rocks my socks. I could watch this movie over and over and never tire of it. In fact, I have.

So without further ado, here is 1 of 6



If you're interested, here are the rest:
2 of 6
3 of 6
4 of 6
5 of 6
6 of 6

I have had several people asking where I, Kylere, aka Michael aka Stacy's lesser half have been. I have been summarizing just how thoroughly rotten the last few months have been in my head and thanks to a handy laptop and pain meds I am going to present SOME of how badly karma has decided to dump on me. As an important note, without my Wife, Mother, a few friends and really cool people at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Flint I would have to have given up on the very concept of karma...   more »

I just set up a couple of new galleries while I was reviewing Image Compressor 2008 for Tucows. Turns out, it's a fun but powerful software that does more than just compress images. It also has a photo editor that can import Photoshop filters and it's web album creation tool can recognize templates for Picasa. I found some really cool free ones over at Paul van Roekel's site that were super easy to implement and use.

The article I've written about Image Compressor went live over at Tucows on Friday.

And check out my new totally stellar interactive showcase galleries by clicking on the images below!

Fractal Showcase


Traditional Showcase

Just thought I'd share this cute clip from Creature Comforts. I've never seen the actual show, but this made me smile. We all have our own funny hangups about our physical appearance, don't we?

Super Strength Visual Hypnosis - Click here for more amazing videos

Thought that was cool.

Also in the WTF department, there's this... (and all about my unimaginative zombie dream)   more »