Messin' with my blog's style

My blog/web host provider, Squarespace, has updated its software to a new version. For a few days, the looks may be as odd as the content...

Evolution as an artist

If you only read the Blue Skunk blog in your RSS feed aggregator (GoogleReader, Bloglines, etc.), you are missing out on a treat.

My son Brady has been creating cartoon "blue skunks" for me since the inception of the Blue Skunk in 2005. His creations appear in the blog heading. I have enough now on file to change them twice a month - or as I remember. And yes, I stole the changing logo idea from Google.

I've found it interesting to see how he has grown as an artist. This cartoon was one he created 4 years ago for our book Machines Are the Easy Part: People Are the Hard Part:

 

Not bad.

 

But check the latest that will be appearing in a blog header soon:

 

His experiments with watercolors seem to be working.

 

Anyway, if you don't look at the Blue Skunk site itself now and then, you are missing out on one of its best features.

Your comments?

It's not really a big secret.

Writers like knowing that they have been read. I don't care how loud the protestations of bloggers who insist they write "only for themselves" or "for personal growth," every public scribbler likes knowing other people have considered what they have written. If they didn't, they'd be writing in a spiral notebook - probably locked away in a garret. I just don't envision Emily Dickinson having a "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" blog.

Anywho, if you would like to make a blogger's day, leave a comment on a post. Agree, disagree, add, or just say thanks, but make it heart-felt. Make it relevant. Don't be a troll.

If you are a blogger and receive a comment, I've always thought it polite to say thanks to the commenter when possible. This is not a universally practiced - or endorsed - practice. Somehow, I just think if a person has given up a chunk of life to read and craft a response, I should be grateful. 

• To encourage you to make commenting a regular practice, check out Kim Cofino's 31 Day Comment Challenge. (It's day 3 and I am already a week behind - how does that happen?) For those who really like structure, see the Comment Challenge wiki. Check out using coComment, even though it doesn't work on the Blue Skunk.
• To help guide your commenting "etiquette" check out Darren Draper's Edublogger Etiquette - Responding To Comments. Actually read his entire etiquette series. Interesting stuff.

http://www.teesnthings.com

Oops, that's probably NOT the right attitude on the t-shirt... 

(Ironically, I've had to turn off comments on this post since it gets hit regularly by spammers.)