Behind the Music: This Is It

I thought that today I'd give you all a behind the scenes look at my blog, This Is It. What I mean by "behind the scenes" is actually just a good explanation of everything that's on here so that you, the user, can get the most out of my amazing blog.

Before I begin, I'd like everyone to know that my left bicep is twitching uncontrollably. I think it's because I slalom skied (yes, that is the correct past tense . . . according to Wikipedia) for about 15 minutes straight yesterday which was more than my body could handle.

Okay, now to the wonderful explanation. First off, I'd like you to take a look at the picture at the very top of this page. Well, almost the very top. Ignore that bar across the top of the page. The picture at almost the very top of this page is, if you'll look closely and maybe squint your eyes, a city skyline. Which city? Chicago. Why? Because Chicago is probably my favorite big city in America and I think that it has an awesome skyline. Now, to get the picture of Chicago's skyline to look like that, I used a simple online program called The Textorizer. This is a great little application that allows you to turn any picture into a text-based outline or cloud or that picture. Just go to the website and do some trial and error with it. If you're looking for a place to upload pictures on the web (which you have to do before you can run them through Textorizer) I suggest ImageShack. Once you upload your picture, just go down to the very bottom of the page and copy the address labeled "Direct link to image" into the box on the Textorizer website.
Next, let's take a look at the top right of the screen where what is called the sidebar begins. Well, it would be the top right if you're using Firefox as your web browser. If you're using IE then, because IE doesn't read normal CSS coding very well, the sidebar begins sort of level with the frame of the post. Anyway, at the top of the sidebar you'll see my profile; it's labeled "About Me." Nothing really interesting here except that it says that my name is Reggie Smith. Why Reggie Smith? Well, in my junior year of college, Facebook started getting very popular. A lot of my friends were on it and I was not. I thought it was lame, but being as inquisitive as I am (my friends call me "Whisker" because I'm curious like a cat), I decided that I wanted to see what kind of lame stuff they put on their profiles. So I made up a fake name and created a profile with nothing on it. Soon, however, I had been sucked into the infinite procrastinatorial abyss that is Facebook and I had a full profile with all of my most personal secrets laid bare for the world to see. At one point I even changed my name on Facebook to Chris Martin, but it was boring so I changed back. All of that to say, that's where Reggie Smith came from: me being a cynical and arrogant stalker on Facebook.

Just beneath my profile, you'll see what I consider to be the most important thing on my blog: a link to download Mozilla Firefox. Why do I consider it to be of utmost importance; important enough, in fact, to label it "First Things First"? Because Internet Explorer is the bane of my existence. Not only is it the absolute worst choice for web browsers (if you'd like to read a comparison of IE 7 and Firefox 2.0 then read this article on CNET) but Microsoft essentially dupes almost all of the users of Windows PCs into thinking that IE is the only worthwhile browser since it comes preloaded on your computer. So, please read that article on CNET and download Firefox. It's free, and like the image on my blog says it's "like Internet Explorer . . . except Firefox actually works."

Moving on. Below you'll see another picture that has been run through the Textorizer. As of now, the picture is of me wearing my backpack right before I left to go to Switzerland in May.

Below that picture you'll find a list of books that I'm reading. If you click on their links, you'll go to their pages on Amazon.com. Some of you may have noticed that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was only up there for about two days. That's because I ripped through all 870 pages in about 12 hours total. It's a good book. The other book I've been reading lately is called The Language of God, and although the title might suggest a frilly Max Lucado book, it's actually a book written by the scientist who heads the Human Genome Project. He's a Christian and he is arguing for two things: the existence of God using as proof some of the things he's discovered while studying the human genome; and also a closer interaction of faith and science. I'll try to keep my booklist updated as I read different things.

The next two sections of the sidebar are filled with links to the sites that I frequent at least on a weekly basis. There are blogs, MySpace pages (for musicians), and some normal websites. I highly suggest the blogs on the list: Le Seul Mot Juste, A Broad (Patrick McQuinn), and A place that has to be believed to be seen (Dave Libbon).

Okay, we're close to the end now. Beneath the list of links, you'll see a little strip of video frames. This is called a Google Video Bar and I have it set up to link to my four favorite videos that we made while I was MC for CRU at USC. The videos are (in order) the ninja video, Deep Thoughts, my graduation speech, and Dolls Pt 1. If you click on the image the video will start playing at the top of the blog. Watch and enjoy.

Beneath the videos are two ways to browse through my past blog entries. First you can browse by label which is the subject of the blog. Second, you can look through the blog posts chronologically. I'm not sure what my favorite posts have been, although other people seem to have enjoyed "American Happened Tonight" and "But, what is it?" so perhaps if you want to look back you can start there.

Okay, I've been typing for way too long. I hope that you've enjoyed learning more about my blog and me, and that you will keep reading and tell all of your friends about it (although, there is admittedly very little on this blog that would interest anyone who doesn't know me).

Good night and good luck.