You know. I was reading an article in Time a couple of days ago entitled The Danger of Yellow Ribbon Patriotism by Joe Klein, and it really got me to thinking about the (so called) war and the effects the millions of decals, magnets, ribbons and signage displayed all over the freaking place.

It appears as if the display of these Ribbons are more of statement of compliance and a fad than in support of anything. It's a big, fat, stupid bomb of Patriotism - fire and forget. Most people in the country really have no idea what is going on over there, and quite frankly they really don't want to. With the exception of the tragedy afflicted soldiers and family members, to whom this war has become far too familiar, what the hell difference does it make if you slap a $2 sticker on your $50,000, 5 ton, 10 mpg SUV or not? Now don't get me wrong, I support the military action 100% and every one of the soldiers & civilians stationed overseas; in all capacities. Having served in the Marines myself, those are my extended family over there getting shot at, bombed, and blown up - not a bunch of no-names who matter not.

Our government refuses to give 100%, and they are not united in OUR commitment to providing a peaceful resolution to all of the military actions currently underway in the Middle East. Where are the bonds? Where is the national call to service? Why hasn't the government called on us to make sacrifices for our troops? You know, the ones we are so strongly supporting? We are all content to just sit back, sipping our Starbucks while looking over the latest sell-sheet for the new Ford SUV to hit the market. Meanwhile, the country free falls into a bottomless pit of debt.

Maybe instead of paying $200,000 for that $15,000 house in the upper west side, or tossin' that MasterCard like like so much pizza dough - we should start to look at what really matters and see if we can figure out a way to get our people home safely.

excerpt:
It is only with a public acknowledgment of the unutterable agony this war has caused that we can begin a serious and long overdue conversation about Iraq, about why this war—which, unlike Vietnam, cannot be abandoned without serious consequences—is still worth fighting and why we should recommit the entire nation to the struggle. This is a failure of leadership, perhaps the signal failure of the Bush presidency.

That pretty much sums it up for me - thanks Joe.

There really isn't anything else to say.....

I was at Borders the other day (because I bought a book I already had, and had to exchange it) and ran across this Batman Graphic Novel series called Hush. It's a collection of comics from last year by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams; and it's awesome! The artwork is superb and the storyline is new and refreshing. I'm not giving any oft he storyline away at all, so if you're interested check out the website on DC, and find out for yourself.

I've only made it through the first of the 2, so I am looking forward to book 2. They are available in Hardcover & soft cover, for 20 bucks and 13 bucks - at Borders and most likely from Amazon.

I know I'm gonna get some flak for this, but I don't really care. Batman is one of my all-time favorites, and I am extremely excited that there are going to be more Batman movies continuing the character set and style from Batman Begins. That movie was awesome, and definitely will be on my DVD list this Christmas.

I found an interesting article (thanks Molly) on a study done at the University of Glamorgan, comparing the aesthetic differences inherent in the design created by men versus women. Some of the conclusions are no big surprise, regardless, it is interesting that more and more often now, universities are getting interested in the underlying dynamics of the intarweb. It seems like the days of "hey look it's Flash - ain't it cool" are long gone and folks are trying to get at the psychology of what we like and why we like it on the web. Good. As a designer this kind of stuff will only help me do my job better. That way when Dale's kid Nick comes knocking on my door in about... say 7 years, looking for a job - he won't get mine. Although, not there yet, as the study states; "What we have found is that organisations are not considering how they can tailor their websites to appeal to their entire target audience. If this is true for education institutions, then it is also very likely to be true for businesses who are not attaining their potential because their website isn't meeting the visual needs of their audience."This most certainly true for most of the work I have done in the past, although in my defense - I have never tasked with designing a site for women. Whew! That's good. Because a great understander of the female archetype I am not. I will have to pay a bit more attention to these things in the future and see what I can do in my little realm to help create a more focused, user-centric design for our target audience. Take a gander, it's worth the read

I apparently had some free time on my hands this fine evening, so I posted some of the pictures I have of the summer vacation this year.

Check them out.

Ha. I really couldn't take it any more. After almost 200 comment spams (pretty much the lowest form of internet-scum that I can think of) nailing my blog this weekend, I have made some changes which will hopefully block an arse load of these toad-faced ignoramuses from being able to fill up my comment log with junk.

I mean, there is a certain satisfaction that comes along with hitting the delete function on all that garbage, but I get tired of it.

So, I'm workin' to make it harder on you jackasses, so move on. You're crap is not wanted here.

Before I forget too, in case anyone wants my list, here it is: view da list of shame.