i am ryanarrowsmith

Alrighty, so they made the Oscar nomination announcements today. Brian saw most of the nominated films while he was off of work recovering but I haven’t seen all of them. But, in true Piggy style, I’m not letting my obvious lack of insight prevent me from speculating on the outcome.

So here they are, my picks.

*Best Picture*
Brokeback Mountain - (seen it)
Capote
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich - (seen it)

As my third entry into the Textplates competition, I submitted Something Fishy. Literally. :)

This theme features a couple o’ fishies in the header and some gravel on the floor. It also uses Java to create an enhanced menu that houses navigation. It’s pretty neato. I’m actually thinking about using it for this site to show my pride. :)

This may be completely coincidental so I am not making any accusations, merely asking for feedback.

I love and always use the Color Schemer’s online tool to help me visualize colors instead of HEX codes.

This seems to be sweeping the net. I got tagged by Sam. Punk. This is pretty simple: if you get tagged, you’ve gotta fill out your version and tag 4 other people.
Four jobs I’ve had in my life

Dishwasher
Butcher block clerk
Call center rep
Data (circuits/DSL) Install technician and support

Four movies I can watch over and over

Goonies
Kill Bill [...]

It looks like disgust is finally growing over Simon’s comments towards sexually ambigous apllicants on American Idol. I found this article on Simon’s anti-gay rhettoric. I don’t think Simon is a homophobe…but I also don’t think he’d be allowed to make such comments about other minorities.

Of all the things that I want to write about on my blog but can’t, local politics come in first.

Because of Brian’s work, I have to be a bit more mindful in regard to local government, especially in today’s current environment where everyone is being accused of bias and ulterior motives.

To see how Pillsbury makes their world famous crescent rolls, take a peek at this entry. Warning: you may never look at these tasty little pastries the same way again.

This post should really be filed under the “too-much-time-on-my-hands, easily-amused” category. As I wrote this, I thought about how often I get tickled by the goofiest things. I am a dork.

I was reading an article on EW.com when I ran across the word “bellwether”. I think I had it as a vocab word once upon a time.

For those who don’t know, a bellwether is a leading indicator of trends.

I was a busy bee over the weekend. Brian woke up with a sore throat and feeling sorta cruddy on Saturday. He needed to rest so I worked on web stuff in my office. I renewed Piggy Did It! and I submitted a couple designs to Textplates’s Textpattern theme contest.

We stayed in all day and, like we planned, remained in our PJs until the end. On Sunday, we got more done around the house. We finished hanging artwork, I unpacked the final boxes that were lounging in the living room [...]

It’s official….I’ve made my first theme contest submission!

I put together a Textpattern theme featuring Bree from Desperate Housewives for the Textplates contest. I sent it on it’s way…now I’m just waiting to hear if it makes the cut.

The other night (the fiasco night) Brian was working late covering a meeting and didn’t make it home until close to midnight. Then yesterday, we were up a bit earlier than normal and stayed an hour and half late at work (we carpool since we work a block away from each other).

Here are sites I frequent. I didn’t categorize them because that makes my brain hurt (it tastes like burning). Instead, I put them in alphabetical order so you can follow my trail.

Have a sight I missed, site ya think I’d enjoy or found a broken link? Click here to send me an and I’ll check it out.

Before we get to the main event, here are a few of my favorite blogs that I read daily. Good stuff y’all.

Ah! You looked.

What’s a Colophon?
A brief listing of production information, often including typeface details and information related to any artwork. It’s also a type of sieve used in cooking for separating liquids and solids.

Ryan Arrowsmith
Is a 25-year-old from the state of Oklahoma, USA. He’s a data install and support technician and enjoys tinkering with web design on the side. His claim to fame is that he was the first person to ever use the word “unawesome”.

His life
Ryan has two parents, one sister, one brother and two half sisters.

He came out at the age of 18 to his family and friends. Ryan is happily partnered to his loving mate, Brian, who is a journalist by trade. The pair have been inseparable since meeting many years ago.

The two are avid pop culture enthusiasts and enjoy seeing movies, going to concerts, shopping and spending time at home being hermits. Having recently purchased their first home, they are still unpacking and getting settled.

In early childhood, Ryan was bitten by the art bug (well, either that or a radioactive spider). He spent much of his time in school sketching or drawing, rather than paying attention. He commuted to and from school via webbing emitted from his wrists.

Ryan and Brian have one dog, Charlie, who is their 4-year-old Shih Tzu. She was a Christmas present from Brian to Ryan.

The site
This site is powered by Textpattern “a free, flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs”.

The theme is based off of James Koster’s original template which Ryan tweaked to meet his needs and ported to Textpattern.

The “Pictures” section of this site is powered by Gallery2.

The font used for site entries is Verdana.

Favorites

• Piggy Did It!
• 9Rules Network
• 6ix Shooter Media
• Fullmoon Graphics
• Entertainment Weekly
• Life, Love and Laura

As you can see, I’ve put a new skin on the site.

James Koster from 6ix Shooter Media actually made this bad boy, I just tweaked it here and there, and then ported it to Textpattern.

I worked all night on a new layout, complete with valid CSS and XHTML, had it just about right when poof! My browser then PC (friggin Dell) locked up on me.

I downloaded this new little WYSIWYG editor plug in thingie for Textpattern so I thought I’d see how I like it.

 So far, not so much.

 It’s not that I can’t code entries manually, Textile is brilliant.  It’s just I get tired of typing < a href="blahblahblah"> for my links and < strong> to make one little word bold.   But this editor makes all my text look goofy and it’s messing with my alignment. 

 Ho hum.  Off to uninstall.

I’m freakin’ out here. _FREAKIN’ OUT!_ Madame Alexander just posted their new 2006 catalog on the internet and it’s got some super awesome stuff in it.

Canadian illustrator Devon Bowman’s work is being featured on Illustration Mundo’s Spotlight section this month.

During Brian’s recovery, I had the chance to read Gregory Maguire’s sequel to _Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West_, _Son of a Witch_.

Yay for me! I got a present! Yay for me! He he. Okay, so I am way too excited about this….but in our mailbox last night was my Crate and Barrel delivery! I ordered four of the orange hot spots (at $2.95 each! come on!) and a set of these cute little measuring spoons (also $2.95).

At last! A Textpattern templating site and competition!

I’m still in the process of cleaning up my server and rejiggering stuff behind the scenes.

I am a die-hard Apple Macintosh user and lover but, ever since they did away with the colored eMacs and iBooks, I have been a little disappointed with their sense of style. With that being said, Sony is moving in the exact opposite direction.

If I was going to choose one, I’d go with the green one (cause green is my second favorite color behind orange, which they don’t offer).

Have you heard about this?

I’m feeling better today. I think with the move and everything else going on lately, it just sort of welled up yesterday so that I was feeling frazzled and out of synch.

That’s all.

I am blue.

Well, after four days of moving pretty much non-stop, it’s safe to say I am pooooooooooped. So is Bri.

At the top of my “list of things I don’t get” is variance in prices by retailer.
Give me an example you say? How about this one, tell me what you think. I’ve been pricing those neat little silicone “hot spots” (aka trivets, potholder, hot pad, bottle opener) because we don’t own [...]

We’re listening to the radio at work and the announcer dude said, “…storm front moving in overnight with the possibility of up to 2-3 inches of snow by mid-morning Tuesday.”
Woo hoo! I don’t know who all’s keeping up with us Okies but we’re in need of some moisture; wild fire’s everywhere.

The rest of the weekend was pretty kewl. We went home on Saturday and rested up after a busy morning and afternoon.
Yesterday, we had some errands to run. In our old place, the second bathroom was off of our toy/game/spare bedroom so it was sorta more casual and fun. We had made [...]

Funny… :)
1. Being gay is not natural. And as you know Americans have always rejected unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds [...]

Brian and I woke pretty early today so we figured, why not get a jump start, eh?
So we got all cleaned up and decided we’d start the move! We’ve spent most of today moving odds and ends, it’s been a hoot.
My brother, Travis, and sister-in-law, Carrie, were in town having lunch with Laura today [...]

Well, it’s final. I am not a Movable Type person. Sure, it’s sleek and has about 3 billion available plugins…but when you get right down to it, it’s just not as easy to use or as fast as Textpattern.
So, I’m back on TXP. I’m in the process of porting old entries [...]

I was browsing through old files on my server and came across all of my old Piggy illustrations. This one was always one of my favorites, even though it’s bulky (in physical size and file size). Note to self: After we get settled, I must get Piggy Did It! back up and [...]

I’m not going to make a sweeping claim that I am an actual superhero, that would be a bit…well, immature. But in recent weeks, I have come to realize that I posses a very specific, super-human ability.
I can become invisible.
Now, I’ve yet to master my super powers because it seems to happen at odd [...]

I started this post yesterday but work is finally picking back up after the holidays.
We had a good New Year’s. Brian and I went to OKC on Friday night and spent the weekend with our buddies Andy and Amy. Andy has been Brian’s best friend since they were in 6th grade and Amy [...]