This blog is about my obsession with toys. No–let me more rephrase that and say toys that happen to be high art. I realize that many people might disagree with me on that point but I plan to change your mind in this article.

Most of you know that I'm a huge toy collector. I've always loved toys. Even as a child, I didn't want every toy on the market, but rather the ones that I thought were aesthetically pleasing. I would pass over a toy that was popular because it just didn't look cool to me. My GI JOE army was a strange amalgam of good guys, bad guys, and toys that I took apart to re-assemble in a fashion that I thought was best. Certain heads just didn't look right on certain bodies and some arms and torsos worked better on a different set of legs. By the time I got done compiling my forces, they pretty much all worked for a unified "Army of the Cool" and usually fought against a potpourri of the worst figures I'd get as a gift (the ones I didn't pick out for myself).

Read More...

Friday Ashlee and I rode to Macon for her Teacher of the Year interview. She had to go to the Bibb County Board of Education office and give an in-person interview to judges and the former Teacher of the Year. It was pretty cold in Macon Friday. It was odd, Saturday warmed up like it was a beautiful Spring day. Nonetheless, she said that everything went well in the interview and I know she did great. She has to give one more speech on April 1st to Georgia Power in Atlanta and she won't know anything until May.

Speaking of my beautiful bride, I just updated her website: www.ashleemitchell.com Check it out! Read More...

After reading my friend Justin Samples' Blog about the blatant misuse of the Papyrus font, I can't help to blog about something that's been on my mind for a while–logos. Most people that know me know that I do graphic design from time to time. It's a hobby that I picked up in college. I'm sure it spawned from a drawing obsession in Middle and High School because I used to draw all of the time. All of that led me to really enjoy graphic design and ultimately making a little money at it. I'm not the greatest graphic designer in the world but I know when I've done something right (and wrong).

Logos are one of those things that I love. I've always found it fascinating how a company or brand will summarize their entire existence with one image. Think about the Nike "swoosh", the ubiquitous Coca Cola script, or Apple's "apple". All of them are examples of great logos. They're easily recognized and can't be mistaken for anything else. They're also very classy and memorable. That's what goes into making a great logo. Read More...

It's really hard for me to believe that my little guy's ten years old! It really doesn't feel like it was that long ago when I brought him home. I read an article in the newspaper and went and picked one out of the litter. Needless to say, he was the feistiest one of the bunch! Ten years later... He still is. His determination to get what he wants goes far beyond anything that I've ever seen before in a cat. He lets you know what he wants, he speaks his mind, he plays, and he does a good bit of napping... What else do you expect from a cat?

Anyway, today is his tenth birthday and I thought I should give him a shout out for being the coolest cat ever! Happy birthday, little buddy! Read More...

Okay... I'm a tinkerer... Yes. I've been delaying the blogs for a couple of months now. Sorry about that to all of you out there that have been reading. Actually, the cool part is that the site will be much better now that I'm using RapidWeaver (the company's logo is to the left). First of all, you can now post your comments on my blog. I like that. I didn't have that feature with iWeb. Sure, it's offered to MobileMe (Apple's web server), but MobileMe is so slow that I couldn't stand the download times. Read More...