Dog Days (continued)

• Andrew Cairns at "Wonderings" notes that "Postmodernism is fast becomming the terrorist’s best friend."
  
• Brad Williams doesn't think he could take getting BlogSpotted. But I have to BlogSpot him; he has some good observations and valuable ideas about the value of trash-talking the enemy in the war on terror.
  
• Agent Tim likes the graphics here. He wondered aloud if I use Photoshop.® Actually, no. I have a copy of Photoshop Elements, which I rarely use. I do most of the graphics here and on my website with Paint Shop Pro. It's cheap and easy and I have been using it since about 1996. The truth is, I spend very little time on graphics for the blog. Many of them start with pictures I take with a digital camera (Nikon). The picture above is a dog I spotted tied up outside a McDonald's somewhere in Tennessee in 2003, while Darlene and I were driving home from our son's wedding in Virginia. (The guy who owned the dog saw me from inside the restaurant. He came out indignant, untied the dog, and left. I dunno what the bandage or whatever is on top of the dog's head. I think he had just had his ears cropped. But it looks like a sad little party hat that really completes the melancholy look on the dog's face. I also don't know the dog's name, but I nicknamed him "Jabez.") I do also occasionally rip off and modify a .gif or a .jpeg from the Web. If I need a quick image of, say, a Zippo® lighter, I'll find one by using Google's image search feature. It takes me 5-10 minutes at most to modify an image. For example, I found this image of a "Mind the Gap" sign through Google. It was from a collection of photos documenting a trip to London with a group of students from the University of Texas at Dallas—the 2002 McDermott Scholars. I liked that photo because it included all the primary colors. The photo was unattributed and had no copyright notice, so I appropriated it without compunction. First I scaled it down and cropped it:
  
  To avoid messing up my blog's template, the image can be no wider than 400 pixels. That determines the scale of every image for me. I also add a single-pixel red line around most images. Next, I erased the existing graffito and added one that says PyroManiac. Voila.
  
  Time spent: about 3.75 minutes.
  
• Speaking of graphics, Adrian Warnock has fittingly themed his blog with Big Ben, courtesy of the PyroManiac's graphics factory. Looking good.
  
• Rebecca Stark apparently doesn't want to be BlogSpotted again, so she has tried to refain from saying anything clever. My standards must be slipping, because even that was clever enough to catch my notice.
  
• Carla Rolfe cited my remarks about the emerging church at "Emergent No," and it generated quite a flood of comments. It seems the tolerance vigilantes are not very happy with the PyroManiac.
  
• Scott at "Scattered and Covered" also thought my observations on the EC were "a little over the top." And I thought I was being fairly restrained. I'll have much more to say about the follies of the "emerging church" in the days to come. If you think what I already said was over the top, I'm guessing you're really not going to like the rest of what I have to say.
  
• Mailman at "A Firm Nail" "generally" agrees with my remarks about the BBC's language scruples, and how postmodern ambiguity undermines true justice. I'm disappointed. I was hoping he'd say I nailed it.
  
• Jeri Massi is not happy about the war in Iraq.
  
• Tim Ake liked my thoughts on how our use of language is increasingly being used to obscure the truth about things.
  
• So did Joe at "The Potter's Clay."
  
• Brad Huston, on the other hand, thinks those of us who want to see terrorists brought to justice are guilty of "legalism."
  
• Paul at "Cup of Coffee Talk" is jealous of Chris Pixley. No wonder. Pixley has made one vacuous post, and already he has four comments and a BlogSpot. Think of it like this, Paul: all the pressure is on Chris. You can post or not post whatever and whenever you like. But if Pixley doesn't come up with something profound soon, he'll never live it down.
  
• Jon Trainer wonders if complaining is the key to getting BlogSpotted. Not necessarily. But I guess it doesn't hurt, either.

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