[Geeky Guide] The New Banner

I don't know if you guys have noticed that the Geeky Guide has had a new title banner for a few weeks now. Amid all the other geeky things I've been writing about along with all those annoying real-life obligations, I realized I had yet to take the time to formally discuss the change in a blog post. And it's a pretty fun story.

Many months back (like December 2010), I received a message from a reader offering to provide a new header graphic for the blog. It was a really nice offer and of course I agreed, although I had no major ideas of what I might want other than it be something geeky and perhaps a little queer too. Obviously I'm not a very right brain kind of guy in situations like this.

Fast forward to this month and he finally got back to me with this little number that we now have on the site. It took a little tweaking to get the new look implemented but the end results were beyond fantastic - I can't believe how awesome this turned out!

So here's me giving a very big THANK YOU to the amazing Mikko Vartio from Finland! It was amazingly generous of you to do the work to come up with this new header graphic and it has certainly made a major difference in terms of the site experience.

For you other readers, be sure to check out his work and follow him on Twitter! He's a fellow geek, so you know it'll be worth your while.

[Daily Geekery] November 24, 2010

And here are all the geeky items of interest I shared over the past 24 hours. With luck you might enjoy some of them. Otherwise, do let me know - your comments are always appreciated!

Links:

• Google Doodle Touts 'Barefoot Contessa' Ina Garten's Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe - Google + Ina Garten = weirdly awesome.
  
• TIME: Ain’t That a Stake in the Heart: Warner Rebooting Buffy… Without Whedon - I'm a big fan of James Poniewozik's TV commentaries and this quick dip into the sans Whedon Buffy movie reboot. Good points all around.
  
• Geekosystem: Philosoraptor’s 50 Wisest Musings - Call me late in terms of this particular meme. But thanks to Geekosystem, I am now fully up-to-date regarding the awesomeness of the infamous Philosoraptor.
  
• Inquirer: Appeal to Pope: Allow condom use for couples - While I don't see the need to petition Pope Palpatine for anything really, it's interesting to note local government officials trying to weigh in on the issue and not just act as parrots for the Church.
  
• CNN: After strike, SK leader calls for 'enormous retaliation' against NK - This whole Korea situation does unnerve me. Of course given recent rhetoric between the two nations, I feel like things should die down in time again as the politicians take lead once a few political concessions are made. But it's hard to say at this point so we'll just have to wait and see for now.
  
• BBC News: Vatican clarifies condom comment - When the news about the Pope's new book came out, everyone jumped on his analogy about HIV positive male prostitute. While radical, the statement was still something that people could deny as being isolated. In a follow-up, the Vatican has now clarified that it's possible that the use of condoms to be used to prevent the transfer of HIV could be seen as less wrong that the contraceptive effects. It's not a full pass, but it is a sweeping statement that applies to both men and women. Take that CBCP!
  
• SlideShare: YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT! - Yeah, this presentation sums up a number of my pet peeves about horrible work PowerPoint presentations quite nicely.
  
• Inquirer: Senate starts livestream of sessions - so our local senate is now livestreaming their sessions on the web for greater transparency. Modern C-SPAN much?
  
• Break.com: Geek and Gamer Girls Director's Cut - So I didn't catch this video when it first made the rounds of the web, so sue me. But then at least I've caught this awesome director's cut. Two points: (1) I so want a gay version of this and (2) Seth Green has his cute moments, doesn't he?
  
• EntertainmentEarth: Transformers Generations Deluxe Figures Wave 6 - I'm sorry, but that Thunderwing figure in the latest line of Transformers Generations toys is just awesome! I so want one of these!

Images:
A photo that is too awesome for words. Videos:
"It Gets Better" — Love, Pixar



Video Review of the Transformers: Generations Thunderwing

• CollegeHumor - Hardly Working: Wizard of Oz
  
• CollegeHumor - Honest 4 Loko Commercial

And that's today's Daily Geekery!

[Alpha] Scoring Icons

More or less, I'm decided on using gear wheels for my scoring system as was under consideration in a previous entry. Now my challenge is what precisely to call them.

I can identify at least three ways of doing so:

1. gears
2. cogs
3. sprockets

Being the addict of alliterations that I am, I have to admit that "geeky gears" appeals to me. Then again, I'm pretty corny, so I'll take a shot in the dark and hope that someone provides feedback on what term would best fit.

In addition, I need help in either sourcing a good picture of a gear that I can shrink down to 50 x 50 pixels and have it still look good. I'm thinking if it would be a bit over the top to superimpose a "G" on it s well to mark it as part of the site. I did a few prelimary experiments using images I acquired from Corbis using Photoshop 7 and the intial results have been rather...well...manky, for lack of a better term. My Photoshop skills are so out of whack, I'll definitely need to practice more in terms of actually creating images. All I've been doing in the past four years at least has been just basic photo clean-up, red-eye correction and resizing. I feel so ashamed as a geek, haha.

So share your thoughts and expertise! Help the Geeky Guide start with a bang!