Image Overhaul

To kick off the new blogging season I've decided to massively overhaul my gnarly imagery, both personally and blogally. I've had a number of readers tell me that my blog was hard to read. Let's face it...stark white text on a dark black background with psychedelic swirlies in the periphery creates a laborious and likely painful reading experience. But I was proud of my layout! I'd created it from scratch and even made my little "Demented Dreamer" logo all by my onesie in Photoshop from a cropped picture of Talmage buried in the leaves. I didn't expect many people other than myself to read the thing and hey...I'm a psychedelic sort of dude. Sometimes I'd just pull up my own blog and stare at it whilst listening to Strawberry Alarm Clock. Now that I know there are actual readers that probably value their eyesight, I've decided to make it much more friendly to the occulars. I've also added a few new touches to the sidebar:

- A picture of The Possum himself.
- A list of blog followers, which at the current time fight in an army of TWO.
- A link to my latest tweet from Twitter.
- A link to the day's Woot. Those of you unfamiliar with Woot, this is something you need to check out. One deal for one day. Sometimes it's complete and total carp (l33tsp34k for "crap") but sometimes it's an incredible buy that sells out in a matter of hours. Once it sells, it's down for the day. This is not an ad! I'm just addicted to Woot and am looking to spread the addiction.

I hope you like the changes to the site.

Further, I've decided to overhaul my own personal physical image. My entire life, for the most part, I've parted my hair. Everyone parted their bloody hair in the '80s and my dad has parted his hair the same way since 1955. There are genetics at work here people. It wouldn't matter what the current hip style may be, no matter how nerdly and ghastly the part may look, if there is hair on my head and it is long enough... I'll part it. It's a force stronger than me, like gravity and love. The brush almost acts on its own, independently of my hand. So yesterday I went to Kristy at Salon di Jon and said "Cut me Mick! Chop this hair so short that a part would be a total impossibility!" And chop she did. When I left I asked her to style it in a groovy fauxhawk so as to get a nice little rise out of Sherri. To my surprise, my lovely bride quite liked the new doo. So I tested it today at work, and lo and behold...The Cookie Chicks dig it. So hey, maybe the hawk can stay.

You also probably wondered what Grizzly Adams was doing on my Blogger page. Well, believe it or not, the manly-looking bearded one is actually me! Every year I try and grow a beard for a few weeks to see if it's any less pathetic than the year before. And every year it isn't. This year it seems to be a little more full than 2007, but it's still not going to win me any Cat Stevens lookalike contests. But I don't care. When people ask about it I just simply say, "it's cold outside" instead of telling them the real reason, which is that I'm secretly and subconsciously trying to piss off my old man. I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that he shakes his head and snickers the instant he sees me tonight at the dance concert, and at some point during the course of the night will discreetly mention that "appearance is crucial in the business world." Discreet huh? Why don't you just hold me down and go at my face with a weedwacker pop! Ultimately I leave it to you, dear reader, to judge. Sam Beam or Jim Beam?