From: Announcements, Design By Bevans on Sunday, July 27, 2008

I've been working on redesigning the look of this site for about a week now. So, what do you think? It's not meant to be flashy, but it is meant to be easy to read, easy to navigate, and easy for me to maintain (ok, you can't really judge that last part). I also gave it a 3-column layout, so I could add more stuff on the sidebars.

 

There's still some work that needs doing, and if you happen to notice something that seems broken/wrong, please let me know.

 

I'm also going to be using a modified (ie: recolored) version of this template for an upcoming project of mine. I'll announce more on that when I feel like it.

From: Announcements, Design, Money, Science By Bevans on Monday, June 23, 2008

This is something that's been sloshing around in my head for a while now.

I'm one of those people who has some pretty strong opinions on a lot of things, but I've always felt that it's best to keep your mind open to new ideas, even if they contradict what you think you know. So, this design is intended to show the world that you're willing to listen to new data and maybe even change your mind, but only if presented with proof.

I first got the idea for this design when I heard someone tell a story on one of the podcasts I listen to. I've heard it several times now, but I think the first was on Penn Jilette's radio show. The story is about a scientist who believed he had solved a certain problem. For decades, he believed his solution, until one day at a convention (or something) he was giving a lecture, and a person in the audience stood up and told the scientist that his theory was wrong. He went in front of the audience and showed the scientist where he had gotten the theory wrong. Rather than become angry and yell at this person, the scientist smiled and shook the person's hand. The audience applauded. After a whole lifetime, the scientist had been proven wrong, and he couldn't have been more happy.

That's what's great about science and critical thinking. So to celebrate that idea, I made this design and put it on a bunch of t-shirts, to sell on the internet.

From: Announcements, Design, Politics, Ranting By Bevans on Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I spent some time today putting together a design that's been rolling around in my head for a few weeks now. I think it turned out pretty well, and I think I nailed the logo.

As usual, I've put it on various shirts, stickers, pins, and other assorted merchandise, which you can buy here.

This design pretty much sums up my opinion of John McCain. His policies and opinions remind me of Bush, but not quite as bad. He seems to want to continue waging war (and more of them), favoring the rich, and generally carrying on the Bush legacy. I kinda feel bad saying that, because he seems like a nice guy, but then again, so did Bush.

At the moment, I'd say there's about a 75% chance that I'll be voting for Obama. Generally, he seems like a good choice. Not GREAT necessarily, but he has potential. I'm still keeping my eyes open though. I would vote for a third-party candidate if, by some miraculous turn of events, one actually had a chance to win.

I've tried voting for the person I thought would make the best president (Nader in `00), and I've voted for the lesser of two evils (Kerry in `04). These days, I'm basically going by this strategy: Vote out the Republicans, and then vote out the Democrats. In that order. I don't care for the Democrats, but I REALLY don't like the Republicans. And of course, I'm only talking about the most prominent of them all. There are some great leaders in both parties, who aren't afraid to step out from under their party's shadow. Good luck to them in the future.

From: Announcements, Design, Links, Money By Bevans on Sunday, May 11, 2008

For a while now, I've been trying to think of a way to update one of my favorite designs, the Angry Cactus logo. Since I lost the original file, I decided to remake it and see what I came up with.

In the end, almost nothing changed. I made the "aggravation lines" a little more interesting, and I gave it a much better color scheme. I've learned a lot more about color in the years since I first designed the logo. Originally, it had a gradient of bright yellow in the background, and a very bright green coloring the cactus and words. Ick. This time, I stuck with a complementary color scheme. I actually went through dozens of color variations before deciding that I liked the compelementary ones best. In fact, I'm even thinking of making it available in red, orange, and blue.

So, I've updated the Angry Cactus Shop on CafePress with the new design, so hopefully I'll be able to sell a few more shirts and buttons and stuff. So far, I've sold 8 Angry Cactus items, which is a record for me.

From: Announcements, Ranting By Bevans on Sunday, February 17, 2008

World, lemme make this quick.

It's ok for you to pronounce "2008" as "two-thousand and eight" or just "two-thousand eight". You picked up the habit in 2000, when the previous pronunciation convention was temporarily inapplicable.

HOWEVER, by my decree, you must stop in 2010. You may only pronounce it "twenty ten", not "two-thousand ten". And you may only pronounce 2011 as "twenty eleven", and so on.

Yes, it sounds kinda science-fictiony, like we're all living in the future or something. Well, we are. Get used to it.

Bevans, out.

From: Announcements, Ranting By Bevans on Friday, November 23, 2007

Title says it all. The title "Bevans Rants" sucks. I need something better. So, let's hear some suggestions. Preferably something with "Bevans" in the title.

From: Announcements, Design By Bevans on Monday, November 19, 2007

Very blue, isn't it? I took a template that I worked a long time on for another blog I do, and tinted it blue. It was the lazy solution, but it saved me a ton of time, and I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do with this site.

So, let me know what you think. Does anything need a-changin'?

From: Announcements By Bevans on Thursday, May 03, 2007

Welcome to Bevans Rants at No One, or BRNO. I'll probably change that name eventually.

What's the purpose of this god-forsaken blog? To give me a place to make my opinions known, just like every other idiot blogger out there.

"But gee Bevans," you might say, "don't you already have like 6 web sites, three of which are already specifically devoted to yourself?" Well, this is different. Sort of. I'm probably going to incorporate this blog into The Insane Asylum (my former blog-esque site) eventually, but the reason why I'm not just going back to that is because Blogger has such a slick interface. I don't even have to organize things myself, size or resize images, fix links, and so on, because Blogger will do that for me.

So, what will be the first thing I post about?


By the way, any friends of mine who want to post here too can feel free. Just send me an e-mail and I'll let you.

UPDATE: This is just a template. I'll think about making my own look eventually.