Tyler Hunt

I found a few sites today that I want to share. They all revolve around Miranda July’s world somehow.

It’s short for Funky Furniture and Design, or “Funky. Furniture. And. Design.” This period-after-every-word style on the subheadings is one of the things that makes Funfurde such a cool little blog. Each entry serves as a mini-review of some item from the world of modern furniture and accessories. There’s all sorts of odd-looking, overpriced eye candy to drool over or scoff at.

The wait is over. John Hever’s blog is now live.

I don’t remember where I first came across the Real Live Preacher’s blog, but it has been one of the most enjoyable blogging experiences I’ve had recently. It seems like so many blogs today are just the regurgitation of the same old news and links, but the Preacher has some touching stories and insightful commentary that reaches deeper than the majority of the Web’s superfluous writers will ever venture. He has a way of telling stories that really connect at a personal level. There aren’t many people capable of capturing the essance of human relationships in words quite the way he does.

I didn’t really starting get into music until some time after mix tapes were on their way out. In fact, I don’t think I was even aware of the process until I saw the movie High Fidelity. These days, with CD burners in every computer and digital downloads becoming mainstream, the mix tape medium has found its place in the book of music history. Then I came across Steven Garrity’s Acts of Volition blog and radio program. This format could very well be considered the new mix tape. Combining recorded music with commentary, each playlist has been thought out and hand selected to fit together into a single cohesive unit.

The title “Acts of Volition” couldn’t be more fitting, since the very act of putting together a coherent track listing is a series of conscious choices. This format is also a great way to discover new artists (some of them Canadian), as each song’s commentary provides a word-of-mouth effect. There are currently six sessions available, so try one out and let me know what you think.

I always find it inspiring when ever I look at some of the top photoblogs. Browsing through one called shutterbug today, I was reminded once again of the power of the digital image. The photographer, Tracey, is a Australian web developer and part-time photography student. Her current gallery, “Butterfly Ballet”, is a simple, colorful study in macro photography that shows that it doesn’t take an amzing subject to make brilliant photos. Her sushi shots put my phone cam pics to shame, and look good enough to appear in any mainstream food ‘zine. And while current digital technology is approaching the feel of film, nothing beats the real thing, and Strange City is an excellent example of what can be done with a little creativity.

In addition to her personal gallery, she and her husband are also behind several of the leading online photo projects. The 26 Things photo scavenger hunt and Connect 8 give photographers a common set of criteria to shoot and share with the community. The most recent event, A Day In The Life gave photogs the chance to share their New Years Eve with the world. The amount of participation in these projects is impressive, and definitely worth keeping in mind for anyone looking for some motivation to be more creative and expressive with a camera.

First, a little background. I don’t read much fiction, but when a short story by Cory Doctorow came to my attention, my admiration for such authors and their works has increased. From beginning to end, Doctorow’s engrossing tale of the merging of machine and mind provided a welcome escape from the realities of homework and studies.

Then as I was browsing some random blogs tonight, I came across scamper.org. At first I was impressed by the design, but thought the writing was a little off the wall, and the subtitle “Mining Esoterica” served to confirm the elusive nature of longish prose entries. They seemed real enough at first, the psychotic ramblings of a cubicle-dwelling prisoner, but the more I read the more I wondered how much of this blog was grounded and how much was concocted. Whatever the case may be, there are some clever tales here worth the time they take to read.

The personal site of a UCLA student, Webspiffy is another wonderful Movable Type deployment. There are a couple things that impressed me about this site. The firstis the font size adjustment buttons in the top right of each page, which is a nice touch, but nothing revoluationary. The bulleted list of categories has something you don’t see too often, however, and that’s mouseover bullets. The design is simple and clearn with an intuitive interface that’s worth replicating. The content focus slants towards techie blogger topics, with some random life stories thrown into the mix. A monthly music listing and categorical library page give some insight into the author’s tastes while also providing him with opportunity to make a few bucks off the site. Overall, it’s a good read that’s easy on the eyes and offers sound, standards compliant design.

This is a site with not one, but two taglines: “Observing social, technological, political and economic change in our world” and “A tool for forecasting investment, business, and career opportunities.” I like this blog because there are stories here that aren’t simply rehashings of big headlines from the major news sites. Covering some unique themes such as the “obesity epidemic” and “the new age of germs,” there’s plenty of interesting insight into our world today and what the future may hold for it.

With an insightful post today about RSS feeds and their implications for personal communication media such as blogs, Voisen.org contains the musings of a San Diego writer and programmer. I really like the clean design of the site, and the use of clever layout features like the teaser line at the top of the page and the excerpts for each individual post in the right column. There’s also some real substance to the entries, such as this piece discussing the pros and cons of virtual and real communites. Overall, this site is in many ways what I would like my blog to be. But, alas, I seem to be stuck in a creative rut these days, as Daniel will be quick to attest to.

With mobile devices playing an incresingly important role in the lives of many people, MobileTracker attempts to aggregate news from the mobile industry. Most of the topics are related to new cell phones, and I’ve found it to be a good source of information about my next phone, the Sony Ericsson T616. While the site’s topic is a bit of a niche, it can be interesting to browse through some of the recent headlines to see the new features of tomorrow’s cell phones.

While it’s not quite Thursday yet, I’m going to post about The Thursday Thumb-Twiddler anyway. This “weekly question & answer blog” proposes three thought-provoking questions every Thursday. One thing I like about this site is the clever use that has been found for TrackBack. Basically, anyone with their own blog (theoretically any, but MovableType blogs are supported best) can post their answers, and a link to their response will show up on the Thursday site.

In my opinion, TrackBack is one of the most clever and underutilized web technologies to be developed recently. It allows instant notification of site updates and cross-linking between related information. This can only be good for the web. Unfortunately, I can’t use it on this site with my current server configuration. Hopefully that will be changing soon.

It’s been a while since the last Blink entry, so I’ve been searching hard to try and find something worth posting. I came across this blog and was engrossed in the writer’s tales of a recent European vacation. Then, when she mentioned taking hundreds of pictures and travelling with Kevin, I realized that this Sarah was Sarah Lane of TSS fame. Read all about their trip to the UK, and see some of the pictures they took as part of the Digital Camera Showdown for the show.

IdeaBlog is one of those sites for me that really says “why didn’t I think of that,” in more ways than one. Offering an endless supply of free ideas on a wide range of topics, it’s a sort of compendium of intellectual property that has been turned over to the masses. Granted, some of them are just foolishness, but other are may have viable marketability. It appears the site’s following has kind of died off; there hasn’t been a new post since April 2003.

This one is another photo blog, from another New Yorker. Meccapixel.com offers short series of photos in the Big Apple. The photographer, Michael Cosentino, has a way of capturing the essence of people in everyday settings, like this Festivus party. The site design is very clean and functional, and all of the photos can be purchased as prints or in digital format.