One Thing I've Noticed (If You are Perfect in Every Way, Please Disregard.....)

When I was a kid in school I never put a lot of stock in that left brain vs. right brain, visual vs. audial (is that how you say that?), math vs. language psychobabble. But when I was a kid, I also thought I could do everything (I mean come on they tell you can if you just put your mind to it) so that shows how much I know. But being in the English department at school and working in an IT job (read: comptuer job) I've found this split to be very true.

******Warning: The Following is Extreme Overexaggeration. Handle With Caution!**********

The guys I work with in my office (yes, they're all guys) can't put a sentence together. And English people can't open email. For some reason my illustrious and illustrative blog friends can put two and two together, but they're kind of weird anyway.

****************End of Exaggeration. Please Take Deep Breaths and Continue*************

Seriously though, it's not the easy thing in the world to speak clearly or keep your HTML syntax neat (and working properly). Therefore, I have decided to post some helpful links that deal with these two seemingly opposed areas.

1. The Elements of Style by William Strunk

So apparently I'm the only chump who actually bought this book, when I could have just read it online. Actually, my copy is very cool, it was just published last year and it's an illustrated version (you can see it here there's even a nifty video), but I digress. This book has been a standby of English literature and composition for almost a century and it offers really simple and really useful tips on writing and grammer. The best thing about this volume is that it's small and doesn't bog you down with technical diatribes on past participles and gerunds, or even worse split infinitives. It's pretty amazing to me that this little book still has a great deal of currency now.

2. Hacking the Blogger Matrix by Graham Waldon

I was just introduced to this page today, but I wish I would have known it existed earlier. I have already put one of its tips to work, changing my archives from a list to a pull down menu. I plan to turn all my links into pulldowns because I think it looks nice. Ward did this on his site and I have been wanting to ever since I saw it. I haven't gone through a lot of this page yet, but I'm pretty excited about it's potential and I think it's simple enough for anyone to understand and easily incorporate their tricks into their own blog. Happy upgrading! (Bonus point for the cool illustration at the top)

3. Citation Guide from Duke University Libraries

As an English major, I am by law required (punishable by removal of tweed apparel) to own the latest edition of the MLA Handbook For Writers of Research Papers (it's up to 6th in case you were wondering), but I hate flipping through that thing. Fortunately some librarian at our own Ellis Library has linked to this fabulous online (and may I add free) guide to citing works, which I use frequently. Seeing as you can now be thrown out of the country for simply thinking in another person's words (be careful quoting from your favorite episode of Arrested Development) I would highly suggest at least being aware that this exists.

4. A Little Something Off the Wall for My Illustrator Comrades...the Best Kept Secret of the Blogging World...Martha Stewart?!?!?

I'm a convert. I own every issue of Real Simple magazine, but I opened a Martha Stewart Living at the dentist the other day (by the way if you live in Columbia, Dr. Eric Burton at Accent Dental is the best dentist ever. They give you parrafin wax hand treatments while they clean your teeth and they are the nicest people in the world). Real Simple is emblematic of the life I hope to lead, whereas Martha's magazine is so much more practical that I have already started incorporating her many tips. Even right here on my blog. In the latest issue she included this fabulous piece about how to fancy up some ordinary ceramic dinnerware and teapots by painitng dot patterns on them. The pieces are so simple and beautiful I wanted to do this project right away. Unfortunately, Nick has met his threshold for my projects and I don't really have time (or space to store the new fancy dishes). But I wanted to do something to this blog (notice the new banner?) and I had the brilliant idea of photoshoping color into the templates on her site and adding them to some fancy lettering. Voila, new banner for this site and my wedding blog (in our wedding colors, in case you were wondering what those are going to be). I have a feeling Miss Martha is going to show up here a lot.

5. Finally, Mom, This One's For You: "There Is A Blog In Your Future" (You'd better listen, the woman with the crystal ball is looking right at you)

You see it all began way back when....My mom has bragged up and down to everyone she knows about how beautiful and well thought out and insightful my blog is, but when confronted about her own maternal contribution to my being able to blog, she has artfully avoided the matter. The truth is my Mom is a brilliant nurse who dispenses advice to the neediest of parents, be it at 2:00 am or in the middle of a grocery store crisis. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all her advice were available to the desperate public? And it doesn't stop there, this woman has made a name for herself by knowing where the best Pampers coupons and the free subscriptions to Parents are on that overwhelming sea we call the internet. If only she could link in public. If only. I know as a future parent, we need more people like her to get us through those sleepless nights when the baby's not crying because he's hungry, she's wet, he's teething, she's sick, but just crying for no reason at all (damn babies). Maybe she'll take this article to heart and call on her incredibly computer savvy daughter to answer the demand for just such a blog. Here's hoping.