New Year Cleanup

I'm in cleanup mode this week. Cleaned up my desk at work. Made a backup copy of all my 2007 Excel documents (hundreds of them) and started a 2008 folder. The momentum at work has carried over to the blog at home. The sidebar was cluttered with videos that everyone should have seen by now. I figure the first page of any blog should include as little stagnant info as possible. Most of the content on the first page should be recent stuff. So I've moved all the videos to blog posts and added a new category. Just click on the "videos" category to browse through them whenever.

I backdated all but the last couple video posts. The Animoto videos are a new thing. I stumbled across the Animoto site a couple weeks ago. Just upload some photos and an MP3 audio file to automatically produce a professional looking video. Very cool! But it took a while to find a site where I could download MP3s with the correct Creative Commons license to use on the blog. I finally found SoundClick after wading around totally confused on other sites. There are several artists at SoundClick that offer "Free" licensed songs for non-commercial use, but you have to look for them. Read up on the Creative Commons stuff if your going to try out the Animoto site. Keep it legal.

I added a new links table in the sidebar several weeks ago. I hope it's obvious that those are...well, links. If you're into the bamboo rod making thing, the "Rod Making" links will take you to the very best sites the world wide web has to offer. The "My Photos" section will take you to my online photo albums - ho hum. If you're looking for fishing info in the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri, a couple of very good forums and the generation sites are listed under "Ozarks". Then there's the "Must Visit!" list. Well, you really must visit those sites. They're very cool.

The "about me" stuff was cleaned up a week or two ago. I figure there are just a few things about me that matter. So I scaled all the babble down to my name and a few relevant points. I really don't matter at all without Jesus. I'd just fish all the time if SWMBO didn't send me to work 5 days a week. The kids...well, what can I say. They've raised the bar for all the teenagers in their generation. They're good looking, smart, hard working and...they love their dad. The accountant gig pays for all the rod making stuff in the garage. And the amateur rod making thing keeps me humble. The rods never turn out perfect, but the next one will be...

So there you have it. The sidebar is cleaned up and ready for 2008.

David