Web Find: Nat Geo Blogs

I have 3 sites that load up when I start FireFox: Google's Gmail service, the Blogger dashboard and National Geographic's main web site. The first one is, obviously to see my mail, the second, because it keeps me doing this and the third because it connects me to the real world.

Nat Geo's home site has so many great features that sometimes one contracts "choice blindness" a web malady in which the user is faced with so many selections to explore that they mentally recoil from the challenge. Never fear, beyond the gorgeous photos of river valleys and frolicking endangered animals, the News section of the site contains a ton of amazing blogs.

Deep Survival
The official description: Adventure Contributing Editor Laurence Gonzales shares wilderness wisdom.
My description: Whether you are an experienced world-class mountain climber or a weekend hiker, this is the source for you. Articles such as How To Build a Fire are invaluable. Fire Piston; go google it.

The Green Guide
Offers buying guides, tips for a green home and even a green parenting blog!

Signs From Earth
Completely great and comprehensive "big picture" news on how climate change affects us and vice versa.

Grist.org
Like a good vitamin, Grist.org is packed with (what should be) your RDA of common sense and information about how to deal with the barrage of information about green living, food safety and climate in the news. Here's one of my favorites, How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic.

The Daily Green
A ton of great info and features, plus blogs such as The Green Cheapskate.

Worldchanging.com
A Seattle-based blog focused on exploring innovative solutions to the planet's problems. Sample it here.

The Mother Nature Network
Eco-awareness news and resources, plus beer!

Inhabitat.com
A blog focused on sustainable, eco-friendly housing and materials. Who knew that wombat-ass is the future of packaging?

TreeHugger.com
A site with 3 sections: Get Informed (articles on various aspects of environmentalism), Interact (forums, games and quizzes) and Take Action (various ways to "go green" and a job board), this is a valuable resource if you're the type who reads about an environmental issue and wants to actually do something about it.

Dot Earth
A NYT blog on the politics of environmental awareness with coverage of environmental disasters, summits and initiatives.

Web Find: Nat Geo Blogs

Site Love: Sticker Mule.com

Stickermule.com I love the way this site is laid out. It's so clean, yet colorful and you can tell in the half-second it takes to read the site title what it's about. Check out their blog too. The flickr badge is "TD4". Just the "visual caffeine" I need for a case of the Mondays.

Site Love: Sticker Mule.com

Cool Site of the Day

Up until 11 am this morning I did not know a thing about Yayoi Kusama. The BBC's Day In Pictures for Dec. 11, 2009 included an image of her work in an auto showroom and I felt compelled to look her up on Wikipedia. Which is where I found her amazing website. Enjoy!

Mainly what I love about this site is the attention to detail. Every feature, the language choice buttons, site navigation and return to the top link, reflects the artists vision in a way that is truly inspiring.

Cool Site of the Day

Not Your Mama's Fiber Optic Lamp

Any real '80s refugee has a suppressed memory or two involving Spencer's Gifts. My favorite obsession, which continued into early college trips to Boston's Chinatown, was the fiber optic flower lamp which would incandence into a revolving rainbow of hues over and over. These lamps are like the futuristic projections of a bygone era.

(plus, how can I resist passing on two of the best urls I've seen all month?)

Not Your Mama's Fiber Optic Lamp

The Vintage Web

Big up to Jim Champoux for recommending this island of misfit web sites!

The Vintage Web

What IS in DJ Lance's bag?

I've often wondered who the geniuses are behind Yo Gabba Gabba, a Nick Jr. feature that makes up for the sensual assault of shows such as "Toot and Puddle" and "Pinky Dinky Doo". And now I know! They have a blog! It's awesome, go add to your blogroll right NOW.

What IS in DJ Lance's bag?

Pregnancy 2.0

Widgetbox has some cool widgets to track the progress of your own little "widget".

BTW, if you are looking for a fun way to share the news...

Pregnancy 2.0

A Jennsweb Girly-Girl Moment

Found via Artfire on Twitter. Neon-hued vegan eyeshadow! Finally, a reason to stop smearing on that mixture of butter and food-coloring! (oh c'mon like you've never considered that while making xmas cookies)

A Jennsweb Girly-Girl Moment

Creepiest Cast Credits Ever

So I have 2 different film magazines with big 2008 fall movie lineups both with big photo spreads on the Hillicoat-directed adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". I figured they might be worth something someday because both covers trumpet the November 2008 release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" days before Warner Brothers announced delaying the film until July 2009 in order to have a "big tent-pole release" in the summer.(does anyone else feel the urge to giggle when they hear this phrase? Or am I the only one with the brain of a 12 year old boy?)

Anyway we're approaching February and still no big promo push for what promises to be an insanely powerful film. I mean, you've got Viggo Mortenson pushing a shopping cart through a post-apocalyptic landscape! It's "Mad Max" meets Demoula's on a Saturday! What's not to love?
Well- if you check out the cast credits on IMDB, maybe the studio powers that be think it may be a little risky to release a film with character names like "Baby Eater" and "Cannibal #2" in today's economic climate. Not exactly a date movie I'm guessing.

Creepiest Cast Credits Ever

Web Trawling

It's been a busy busy busy day. Chloe's got a bad head cold and it's too cold to take her outside, but in between swiping her nose with a tissue and infusions of orange juice, I found some fun stuff today:

1) Combination birdcage and aquarium on Fazai38's blog.

2) Techcrunch wrote a good post on how to increase your Twitter following.

3) I found a pretty cool video on Youtube for a post I did on Salem Living about Lunar New Year at the PEM.

4) Web Design Depot has a great article about choosing a CMS platform that I can't wait to read as soon as tiny hands stop pulling me away from the keyboard.

Web Trawling

Blogger Tools On Mashable

Mashable has a really useful post about 25 Great Blogger Widgets. Stay tuned to see some of them showing up here soon!

Blogger Tools On Mashable

Random memory: Lupo The Butcher

Fun find of the day on Youtube. For all you Sick And Twisted fans out there.

Random memory: Lupo The Butcher

Rcterry.com launched

In the same week that Barack Obama took the Oath of Office (twice; just to be sure he knew what he was getting into), my web design company launched RCTerry.com. It's was a very timely project to be working on in two ways. It's the dawn of a new era in both national and personal politics, just like in 1961, the year when Robert Terry went to work with the Peace Corps. It's also the type of web site that just won the attention of The New York Times in this weeks Sunday Book Review.

Rcterry.com launched

Cool Site of the Day

Found via Reddit's link about an eight-armed creature existing before the dinosaurs by about 300 million years. (Ungoliant perhaps?) A clean, colorful and visually appealing site about science news on the Australian news site, abc.net.au proves that Australians got it going on.

Cool Site of the Day