baby's got some brand new blogs.

My mind has been swirling around blog topics lately, and I can't seem to focus on just one. Lots has happened since my last post (not counting the previous one), but for now, I'll just share a few new websites I've been frequenting.

First, there's tastespotting. Ever since we bought the house, all of the sudden I'm into this whole meal planning business. Either that or the house was laced with vats of estrogen somehow which causes me to want to cook excessively. Granted, some of the recipes actually do look pretty crazy. For example, I would never eat this. I would never eat anything that wasabi ever shared a room with, for that matter.

Secondly, there's notcot. The website is labeled as "a visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusement." My favorite post since I've been reading notcot featured some interesting decals to liven up my decor-less house. I have some ideas for doing something like this in my guest bathroom. We'll see.

Lastly (I know, short list), there's my guilty pleasure, dedicated to celebrities' disastrous fashion mishaps. Seriously, some of the witty writing has caused me to LOL. And trust you-me, I don't LOL very often. ;)

a new typography term.

I just had to post it. Just had to. My coworker IM'd this to me a minute ago.

I fully support this new term. Come on, Merriam-Webster!

all-in-one gadgetry. hmm.

So for the past few months I've been entertaining the thought of getting a new cell phone. My cell phone with AT&T has technically been upgradeable since the last time my contract expired - Kyle & I did an upgrade through Wirefly and apparently my phone/number didn't take. So I can still upgrade. That, and with a business discount on cell phones through AT&T makes it tempting to upgrade at a moment's notice - whether I need to or not.

Right now I'm pretty satisfied with my LG CU500. Granted, other than the fact that my initials lead the model number (neat!), it's a pretty decent phone. Lots o' contacts: check. MP3 player: check. Expanded memory through MicroSD: check. Sound quality is not bad, and after buying a data connection cable and hacking its annoying ascending ringtone - it does its job pretty decently for a cell phone.

And that's exactly it. It's a cell phone.

When Apple debuted its iPhone (or rather, when Apple debuted "iPhone" - geez), it was a little hard to not do a double take. It's a sexy little phone/web browser/mp3 player/calendar/emailing/whatucallit. So are Treos. And so are Blackberry cell phones.

It wasn't until the other day when I received a rather unpleasant e-mail that I had to re-examine my want for an all-in-one gadget. Had I been out for lunch I probably would have been sick to my stomach after getting that e-mail. When my cell phone is out of my purse, I'm constantly looking at it - whether it's for the time or a new text message. If my phone also chimed every time I got an e-mail: forget it. I'd never put the dumb thing down.

Several months ago, I spent about 2 hours one weekend putting different pictures and MP3s on my cell phone. I actually used the MP3 player for probably a week and haven't used it since. That's one thing I don't like about my cell phone - the MicroSD card is behind the battery, so in order to transfer music to my phone (it doesn't play well with my iMac at home via bluetooth) I have to power it down, and that gets annoying.

So I've decided I'm going to put off getting an all-in-one phone. That's one less thing for me to be impulsive about.

Actually, I still wouldn't mind getting one of these...After all, an internet tablet never hurt anyone.

a break between "wows."

This week at work we're being trained by the very talented Gabe Watkins, who's very well versed in the entire CS3 suite. It's exciting and refreshing to have someone new come in and work with us through the creative process, learning tips and tricks along the way.

It's also a breath of fresh air to find someone else so fascinated with detail in design and animation - the last person I knew to be this way was my visual effects instructor at UCA. Because we're such a small company here, it's easy to skip over the details that make design and animation a challenge (like it was at UCA). You forget that you can add lighting effects, wiggles, masks and movement. You forget that you can add depth to objects with contrast and saturation. Gabe has definitely brought me personally to a new way of analyzing a visual canvas.

And the man is what, 29? He's awesome.