November 5, 2007
xkcd, fullyramblomatic & Zero Punctuation
I found this little gem of a webcomic through the fullyramblomatic blog of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, independent game designer, reviewer and creator of the now infamous Zero Punctuation game reviews
As a comic xkcd covers some pretty sophisticated ideas about everything from romance to hard core math and everything in between
Many of the strips really hit home (although, I'd probably go hunting to find a fulgurite before attempting to make one), especially ones like this about "Small Talk".
However, this comic is my absolute favorite:
P.S. Don't forget to visit the site and check the hover tags for each comic!
dreamslaughter and Burn This Book
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of cool books and one of the coolest books that I've found in ages is "Burn This Book" by dreamslaughter. This completely bodacious collection of seditious quotes suitable for burning should be compulsory reading for any person that believes in freedom.
Get yours today!
P.S. If you're ordering from Canuckia (like yours truly), just drop the author a note to arrange shipping, as the Paypal order page lists the US of A as the only shipping destination.
April 3, 2007
Artisan Jewelry
Sandra Eileen is a cool Artisan Jewelry designer that scores big points for shrugging off the commercialism of MySpace and having great flower pics on her blog.
December 11, 2006
flickr
I’ve started posted some pictures of my chainmail and some pictures of the island on a flickr account, let me know what you think!
December 7, 2006
Judy's Journal
A journal for one of the island’s most well known textile artists: Judith Martin, who also happens to be a website client of mine and who is directly responsible for getting me involved with Lark Books back in 2004.
Freshisle Fibers
Freshisle Fibers is a blog put together by a local teacher and friend that also dyes and sells cool yarn from local sheep over the internet.
Project: Crack House
Here’s an amusing site put together by a friend so old that they knew me before I was born. The recent purchase of an alleged crack house in Toronto spurred enough questions from friends and family that a picture web log was required to chart the progress, now in its second month.
November 30, 2006
Pass It On
There are precious few times in life when I feel truly clever, tonight (eerrrr, make that this morning), however, happens to be one of this times.
A few days ago I saw a cool little addition on a blog that I was reading. Basically, it was a little automatic set of links that allowed readers a simple way to submit the blog post to all the various social networking sites, like Digg and del.icio.us.
I instantly decided that I simply must have this feature on my journal! (If for nothing else than figuring out how it worked from a technical standpoint.) A quick scan of Movable Type plug-ins on the Six-Apart website turned up an interesting plug-in called "Promote This!", which appeared to add just the functionality that I was looking for.
The installation instructions were sparse and thank goodness I knew about the little addition that's required for running MT cgi scripts on Version 5.0 of Microsoft's IIS server (Linux users may stop snickering now!):
use File::Basename;
use File::Spec;
use lib File::Spec->catdir(dirname($0), "lib");
(Trust me, that's vital information right there!)
Anyhow, after a little fiddling around, I got the plug-in up and mostly running, one of the news service links didn't work and there were 3 services that I wanted to add to the list.
So, after taking a deep breath, I jumped head first into the actual PERL script of the plug-in. You must understand, of course, that I know almost nothing about PERL, but after swimming around in code for a little bit the basic structure of the plug-in started to make sense.
In the end I was actually able to correct the problem with the NewsVine link and add the 3 services I was interested in: Linkroll, StumbleUpon and BlogMarks.
Pretty sweet for somebody with no functional PERL coding experience! I passed the updated version to the original author of "Promote This", here's hoping that the updated version goes public!
In the meantime, if you visit permalinks for my posts you will find a new section called "Pass It On", which, if you deem an article to be of worth, you can use to instantly submit the article to your favorite service.
Thanks and Enjoy!
November 29, 2006
Discover Manitoulin
About a gazillion years ago (in 'net time at least) I used to moderate a tiny forum as part of my Manitoulin Link website. It was powered by an older PERL BBS system called the "Mr. Fong Device" that was basically a customized version of WWWboard put out by the now defunct CyberArmy. Looking back, this was actually my first foray into working with dynamic web content. The final result was fairly successful, however, I was forced to change web hosts somewhere along the line, which caused a technical issue with old Mr. Fong that I just wasn't savvy enough to correct.
I had always meant to find a replacement, but just never seemed to find the time, until now! (Drum roll, please...)
Introducing the new "Discover Manitoulin Forum", powered by a narfy PHP script called SMF (Simple Machines Forum). It's elegant, powerful and very easy to set up and configure!
Hopefully this new forum will become the happening spot for residents (full and part time), as well as visitors to discuss their favorite freshwater island!
November 28, 2006
Etsy.com
I had a bit of a 180 with the design concept for my Art of Chainmail website this weekend, I decided to put all my renovations on hold and go with a complete minimalist outlook. Basically, I just wanted to focus on the two things that are important to me right now: my chainmail jewelry work and my books.
Part of my new design philosophy was to start listing my jewelry on Etsy.com. I had been eying Etsy for some time; it's basically a very cool web 2.0 (be sure to check out their cool Time Machine and Geolocator tools) version of Ebay that is exclusively for handcrafters.
So, please check out the new Art of Chainmail and my jewelry on Etsy and let me know what you think!
November 19, 2006
Stumbling Along the Artist’s Path
Recently I received an email from an artist that visited my dad about 14 years ago. It’s funny to remember “the old days”, growing up with all sorts of people dropping in to visit our home and talk to dad about art. Life is so different now, living with Audrey and the cats and taking great comfort in the fact that (thankfully) hardly anyone ever drops in!
Anyhow, this artist has a cool blog (that I’m adding to my Allies) with tons and tons of different art links, lots of stuff that you wouldn’t normally come across just surfing the ‘net at random. His site is part of Stumbleupon.com, a fun site that’s actually dedicated to helping people find all those weird and wonderful sites.
I also wanted to mention that my father has an art show coming up (or on now, we’re not sure) at the Lennox Contemporary Gallery in Toronto.
Sérgio Artigas
This art blog belongs to a cool ‘net friend from Brazil that does some amazing illustrations. I got to know him while discussing some technical points of chainmail for his fantasy illustrations.
November 18, 2006
Adventures of Ange
I just remembered that I ran into the mother of a friend from the local Farmers’ Markets, who is travelling in Europe through an organization called WWOOF (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms).
She’s a pretty amazing young lady to venture overseas by herself, I have always been impressed by the art she brought to the local markets and I totally miss her coffee-laden cookies! (Some mornings that extra jolt of sugar and caffeine really got me through the day!)
You just have to admire anyone willing to go on a grand adventure, please enjoy the “Adventures of Ange”, the newest addition to my Allies.
(BTW, there are actually tons of excellent adventure blogs on the main Travellerspoint Travel Community website!)
November 16, 2006
Epicureal
A new category of blog posts related to good food and drink!
November 11, 2006
Moosetape®
Moosetape® is an ancient joke from my early days on the undernet's #SCA IRC channel.
Moose Tape® - the Adhesive Strip Miracle of the Next Millenium!
Midi Asylum
The “Midi Asylum” is a simple page from my old Art of Chainmail website that I wanted to convert over so that it wasn’t lost when I complete my AOC renovation. It contains a midi track that my father and I created for a short film back in the 90’s.
Cinema
Silly me, I forgot to include a category of blog entries for movies! So, voila! "Cinema" has been created, so it was written, so mote it be!
November 9, 2006
Audrey
One of my favorite sayings has always been "Plants are the best pets". Think about it for a second. What kind of sound does a plant make when it's hungry? That's right, none! What kind of waste does a plant produce? No stinky litter or puddles on the carpet, plant waste is pure oxygen! Ah, smells so good! Plant needs outside? Does it bark? Does it Meow? Nope, it just sits there and waits patiently
Did your unfortunate plant pet pass away? No need for flushing, no need to dig a hole, that’s right, you have insta-mulch!
I’d even venture far enough to say that plants are better than children. Just think of the above scenarios with children. No diapers, no crying, no “Mommeeeee!”, no child welfare, no shallow graves.
It’s this thought process that finally led me to abandon the idea of having a human girlfriend, wife or any other kind of significant other and officially adopt a plant as my committed “life partner”.
Ladies and Gentlemen, children of all ages, I would like to introduce you to my fiancé: Audrey.
Continue reading "Audrey"
IMVU
I discovered an odd little 3D chat program the other night called "IMVU". It's based on a very clean interface and the kind of currency based economic model that is becoming very popular for MMOs in Japan. Combine that with a MySpace-esque homepage system and you get something that at the very least has all the right components to be a success.
Be sure to look me up if you decide to give it a whirl!
Draxenn
"Draxenn" my bestest buddy in the whole world! He keeps alivejournal (that's he's very bad at keeping up to date!), is the author of the Dark Poems and Jagged Mind websites and all around cool chap.
Draxenn's Self Portrait
Jack Whyte
This is a website I put together for my dad aeons ago! It's in serious need of updating, but still, if you're curious about his work, this is the place to check out! Remember he's "Jack Whyte" the artist, not Jack Whyte the author.
Life on Manitoulin
The 3rd Manitoulinite journal in my Allies list, this one is written by a relative newcomer to the island. "Christine" has a relaxed blog with a great sense of humour and great taste in locally made jewelry!
Murray
Another fellow Manitoulinite and Technophile, "Murray's Manitoulin journal" is much more relaxed than Poko's and another great place to learn about the island.
Poko
A fellow Manitoulinite and Technophile, "Poko's journal" is the place to go for lively political happenings!
Narfy
So, what is “Narf”?
Well, in the immortal words of Pinky: “Narf is like Poit or Zot, except its Narf”.
Yes, that’s right, I stole the usage of my favorite faux expletive from “Pinky and the Brain”.
Only I expanded on just plain Narf, for instance I will often use:
“Narrrrrrrrfffff” as a drawn out “wooooooweeee”. (Ok, Pinky likes to do that too.)
“Narfy” to describe something cool.
“Tré Narfeé” to describe something übercool (pronounced “tray narfay”).
"Narflicious" to describe something that is both cool and delicious.
"Narf-a-doodle-doo!" The ultimate narf-based expletive!
Pseudodictionary
I love to make up words and when I think of a really good one "The Pseudodictionary" is where I post it. If you'd like to see all my made up words, do a search for "Dylon Whyte".
A Jagged Mind
"A Jagged Mind" is a totally excellent web comic put on my best buddy Draxenn. He has even written a few episodes about various adventures and events in my life, mostly very silly things I have said without thinking first!
Here's a sample: "A Day in Oblivion"
And another: "What about the 'F'?"
A Prairie Home Companion
Another classic radio series, A Prairie Home Companion" is a wonderful blend of music, humour and good old fashion storytelling by one of the best voices in the business; Garrison Keillor.
The best thing about this website are the excellent archives of past episodes, in fact, that’s how I finally tracked down a couple live performances by Sahara Smith, who I will have to post about separately.
The Art of Chainmail
"The Art of Chainmail" is my main website and is also the name of my book series, the first volume of which has sold over 3,000 copies.
Camulod
Ok, so my father’s name is Jack Whyte, and he has been a professional artist for well over 45 years. Some time back in the early 90’s a book came out called “The Skystone” by a Canadian author named, oddly enough, Jack Whyte. Well, this caused quite a bit of confusion, as the book started to become quite popular. A friend of mine bought me a copy as a bit of joke, but for some reason I decided to read it and it turned out to be really good.
The basic idea of the story is focusing on what could have possibly been the historical basis for the King Arthur legend, starting just before the fall of the Roman Empire into Britain’s “Dark Age”. The only trouble is that the book was the first of a trilogy, so I was left waiting for quite a while for the next part of the story, “The Singing Sword”. By the time the 3rd book came out the series was revised to contain 5 books. I bet that astute observers can see where this is going, every time another book was released the series expanded to include more books. I believe that by the time it finally came to an end it contained a total of 8 books, 9 if you count the fact that one of the middle books was published in two parts. I recall that the wait between the third and fourth books was particularly long and there was much strangeness as the seventh and eighth books (counting the total as 9) jumped back in time to retell parts of the previous story from 2 different perspectives before finally getting back to the main story in the ninth and final volume.
Continue reading "Camulod"
Castle Chaos
Well, when you deal with a trickster like Coyote, you never know what you'll get! "Castle Chaos" and the Sacred Order of O.D.D. prove this!
November 7, 2006
Car Talk
NPR's weekly radio show "Car Talk" or better "Cah Tack" is hands down the funniest show on radio, ever, bar none!
November 6, 2006
Chain Mail Jewelry
"Chain Mail Jewelry - Contemporary Designs from Classic Techniques" is “my book” (well, my second book), which is perhaps a little unfair, as I do share co-authorship with the book’s editor and project co-ordinator; Terry Taylor. Also, only 4 of the 29 total chainmail jewelry projects in the book are my original work.
However, I did create some 384 original digital illustrations for the book and wrote (and re-wrote and re-wrote ad nauseam) all the step-by-step instructions in the book. So I do feel very close to every single page of what is currently the prettiest mainstream book on the construction of chainmail available.
The story of my involvement in the project is mostly a series of coincidences. Back in the late fall of 2004 I received a forward email from one of my website clients from here on the island; Judith Martin. The email was an open call from Lark Books looking for chainmail jewelry artists to submit projects for consideration to be included in an upcoming book.
Continue reading "Chain Mail Jewelry"
Church of Virus
"Church of Virus": a self-proclaimed neo-cybernetic philosophy for the 21st century that abhors the “sins” of Dogmatism, Apathy and Hypocrisy and admires the “virtues” of Reason, Empathy and Vision. If you’d like to know more, go ahead and read.
Cryptozoology
What could be more fun than the search for creatures that are currently unknown to science? That's "Cryptozoology" for you! The fascinating quest not only for the big unknowns like Sasquatch and Ogopogo, but also minor surprises, like Furry Cave Lobsters, Saola and Jerusalem Crickets, all of which have only become known to science in the past few years.
Dark Poems
My bestest buddy in the whole world, Draxenn, likes to write "Dark Poems". This page is one of his poems that I did a digital illustration for with a link to a blog of his other work.
Digg
“Digg” is a techno-geek’s best friend, constantly overflowing with more tech stories than you can shake an 8086 chip at. Each story is recommended and rated by readers, which usually keeps the content interesting and fresh, a definite must for those caught in the throws of technolust or those suffering from a technobust.
Disinformation
The “Disinformation” website is a great source for “alternate” news stories that normally don’t get covered by the mainstream media. They are also publishers of some excellent books, including 3 of my all time favorite books, containing collected alternative writings and edited by Russ Kick* (in order of publication):
You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths
Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies
Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide To Media Mirages And Establishment Lies
*Russ Kick also runs the “Rare Erotica Blog”, which showcases his collection of vintage erotica. Before anyone has a heart attack, we’re talking very tasteful photos and art (not pornography), most of which is quite old and very interesting to examine contextually to its place in history.
Fortean Times
"Fortean Times" is absolutely the finest monthly publication on weirdness in print today! Where else can you read news articles on such diverse subjects as Opus Dei, El Chupacabra, Cybermen and Ritual Castration all in one single issue of a magazine?
Actually, what makes Fortean Times really special is the “Fortean” perspective on such oddball news stories. Follows of author Charles Fort dubbed themselves Forteans even before his death, in acknowledgement of concurrence with his viewpoint, which was open to all explanations for a particular piece of evidence, not just explanations and interpretations which are convenient to science and/or religion. I definitely consider myself a Fortean, as I abhor all forms of dogmatic thinking, unless, of course, in the spirit of Fort, I am pontificating in a dogmatic manner for the purposes of sarcastic humour.
What follows is a direct quote from Fortean Times, explaining their principal philosophy with the publication:
Continue reading "Fortean Times"
Lost Johnny
This is a website I created for the now defunct band "Lost Johnny". Actually, I created an entire CD case graphic layout for them, complete with printed monotone flames on the CD. I understand that 500 copies of the CD were produced, which may makes it the rarest publication containing my artwork in existence! Woop-de-woop-wa?
Manitoulin Island
This is a good website to start at if you are interested in learning about my home: "Manitoulin Island". (…and I'm not just writing that because I created the site in question! ok, yes I am, but really, it's a good site!)
Meme Central
If you have spent anytime reading through previous journal posts on my old Lonely Gunman blog, or if you’ve looked through any of my digital art, you will know that the concept of Memes and Memetics are very close to my heart. I mean, what other concept explains the explosion of viral marketing websites (like MySpace) if not Memetics?
Heck, singer Heather Nova even wrote a song about Memes: “Virus of the Mind” from her CD: South
Learn more about this emerging science at "Meme Central"!
MySpace
Everybody has to have a "MySpace" page, right? Well this is a link to my very, very, very boring MySpace Page. The amazing thing to me is how much traffic MySpace generates for my Art of Chainmail website; it's the top referrer after Google.com!
Besides, where else can I be linked to Morgan Webb Co-Hostess of X-Play AND the Last Pirates of the Great Salt Lake?
Paradoxian Tarot
"The Paradoxian Tarot" was the follow-up to “Question Reality”, my original digital art show. It follows a strange piece of philosophy that I developed around the concept of paradox being the natural state of the universe.
The actual site is very chaotic in nature, dealing random Paradoxian Tarot cards, each with its own unique meaning, both to me, as the card’s creator and to you, as personal interpreter for the cards.
My thinking on reality has been shifting of late; however, I still consider paradox as the balanced state of the universe. Keep your eyes peeled for more abstruse philosophy on the pages of this very blog!
Question Reality
"Question Reality" is the title of an art show that I created for the Gore Bay Museum in 2000, reproduced here in electronic form. The images are all digital composites, one of my favorite art forms. I was once accused of doing awful 3D renderings, but I assure you, absolutely no polygons were rendered for the creation of this art show.
The best compliment I have ever received about this show was from a nice young college student. I was repairing her laptop in my living room, where many of these pictures hung. She commented that my digital art was very “Dada”, it took some further research into the fundamental concepts Dadaism, but I was eventually forced to acquiesce to her very astute observation and one of the very few regrets I carry with me to this day is I never had the opportunity to tell her so directly.
Scott McCloud
is the author of 3 of the most seminal works on comics and sequential art ever written (in order of publication):
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
These books are without equal with it comes to understanding storytelling through the medium of sequential art. What makes these books unique is that they are each presented as a graphic novel in their own right, with the author taking the central role of presenting each concept through the exact medium that he is writing about. Scott’s approach is nearly flawless in this regard; I don’t know of a single other learning source that is as easy to assimilate. If you have any interest in creating your own comics, from strips to full blown graphic novels, even if you’re an aspiring film maker or you’re just a sequential art fan that would like to know more about the concepts that underlay your favorite comics and graphic novels, these books are an absolute must read!
The Great Eastern
Named after the ship that laid the first Trans-Atlantic communication cable, “The Great Eastern” was one of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations weirdest and funniest summer replacement series ever. “Newfoundland’s Cultural Magazine” hosted by Paul Moth, a recovering addict, created it’s own ridiculous universe of recurring characters, locations and mythology. Faithful listeners were rewarded by a type of deep humour that perhaps only appeals to other island dwellers, like myself. It’s hard to say, at the very least, this excellent link has a full history of the series and spin-offs, as well as a complete downloadable library, so that knowledge of The Great Eastern will never be lost to humankind.
The Gumpy Owl
The Gumpy Owl"The Gumpy Owl" is an interesting blog that I discovered through links on the Disinformation website. The author attempts to avoid posting useless details of his life in favour of focusing on technological and dystopian news stories. I don’t know where he digs up his stories, but there’s always something different to peruse on this site!
The Lonely Gunman
“The Lonely Gunman” is the title of my original blog about esoteric digital nonsense. It was power by Blogger.com, which is still a pretty good blog solution, even though I prefer the power of Movable Type these days.
The Lonely Gunman is also where I developed all my bad blog habits (such as placing aside comments in italicized parentheses).
X-Play
I'm not sure why "X-Play" is my favorite video/computer game review show. It could be their irreverent approach to reviews, it could be their sarcastic humour, or it could be Morgan Webb, the most irreverent, sarcastic, kick-ass lady in video game reviews today.
In fact, I’m sure that Morgan could totally kick Adam Sessler’s backside to the moon and back, in fact, if Morgan ever wants to come over that kick my… …ok, ok, I know that the closest a chump like me will ever get to a famous video game reviewer is having her as a MySpace friend, but a boy can dream, can’t he?
November 5, 2006
6 Degrees
A very silly category of blog entries where I recount various folks whom I am connected to by the infamous concept of “6 Degrees of Seperation”*.
*Actually, according to one of my favorite books, Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
the separation in human relationships is more in order of 2.5, as opposed to 6.
Posted by Dylon at 11:21 PM |
April 2008
