James 1:27: Caring for Orphans and Widows

Beginning 2:45am Saturday, November 27th, I embark on a first. I journey to Costa Rica in Central America to work in several homes needing repairs. These homes are occupied by loving and giving foster parents who are associated with an organization called Casa Viva.

I will share my experiences upon my return, but beginning today, I will not post until then.

You might consider digging into my blog while I'm away to find things which either you've not seen, or might be worth going deeper. I also have some great places to visit on the blog role on the left column of BarryBlog.

While I'm away, if you think of it, please pray for my health (I am nursing an injury prone back), and for opportunities to be an encourager on the job sites and to anyone in spiritual need (who isn't?). But mostly that my work and my actions will show somebody, somehow, that I'm determined to live a life worthy of His name. I want my life to reflect His goodness and grace.

See you in a little over a week. I pray next week also finds you in step with Him, and that God gives you peace, understanding and joy.

Here are BarryBlog Archives.

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The Designers Mixtape: Design Studio Fuel

TheDesignersMixTape. Listen to the tunes other designers are rocking out to. Firms like Hydro74, Superfamous, T.26, TheRonin, k10k, Misprintedtype and others. Brought to you by Nitrocorpz and Zeh.

Minneapolis Architecture: A Rich Tradition

University of Minnesota Architecture professor John Comazzi introduces us to a rich heritage of Minneapolis landmarks (after a short and unfortunate intro commercial). Done in superb Cool Hunting style.

Automated Voicemail: Talk To A Human

Flabbergasted is a nice term to use to describe the feeling you get as you're being held hostage to a companies' automated voicemail. Public Utilities and mega corporations are no longer the only ones firing humans and employing these obnoxious systems. That's where the Gethuman 500 Database comes to play. It's an indispensable listing of major companies who have this crappy system and how you can circumvent these and go directly to a live human being. You see, the gethuman standard is a specification for how customer service phone systems and support should work. Wishful thinking perhaps. In the meantime, in addition to their 500, they also have some basic tips here.

Andy Rutledge: The Designview Show Podcast

Andy Rutledge, of andyrutledge.com, now brings you The Designview show— examining design fundamentals, business, culture, and professionalism. Show #1, October 22, 2007: Too often, designers are not allowed to design. And in every case it’s either the designer’s fault or the agency’s fault, never the client’s fault. Part of the reason for this is that we've allowed our profession to be stolen from us. It’s time to take back our profession.

UPDATE: Show #2 now available

Sweet Ride.




Cartoon by Dave Walker.

( via howaboutorange )

Röyksopp's Eple: Trippy Video

Eple—from the Norwegian word for apple, is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's first album "Melody A.M.." Apple, Inc. used it as the intro for the Mac OS X v10.3 Setup Assistant. The video is mezmerizing.

( via pompomist )

One & Co.: Industrial Design Excellence

Industrial Designer One and Company. Business & creativity. Art & science. Intelligence & beauty. See for yourself.

( via my friend Gary Marsh )

SimpleWeather: Bada-Boom, Bada-Bing.

Sometimes all you need is the weather. And while other weather websites make you weed through weather news, travel forecasts, driving & traffic, healthy living, home & family, sports & recreation, and syncronized swimming, simpleweather gives you exactly what you're looking for: the weather. simpleWeather is designed to be extremely helpful and fast. And with Ray holding the purse strings, Joe coding like a mad man, and Vince cutting all the deals, simpleweather is sure to be a player in the weather arena.




Is it me, or are Ray and Al Capone seperated at birth?

Apple iPhone Innovation: The Naysayers

"It’s easy to look at the iPhone and then reverse-engineer the arguments that would have killed it off at most any other company:

Consumers will reject a keyboard they can't feel

No one will spend that much for a phone

People won't want to get a new number online

You can't suceed working with just one carrier"

- Adam Hanft

( via FC ExpertBlogger )

Tide: A Dag-Gone Houdini?

Tide. A Dag-Gone Houdini?


Tide. Silence A Stain.

Blog Action Day: Today.

Blog Action Day. It's today. A day when nearly 16,000 blogs focus efforts on issues relating to the environment. So check out all the blogs, learn about what we are doing, can do and should do about the environment, and chime in and let the small BarryBlog world know your thoughts. Should this matter to Christians? Is global warming real? Interested in more resources? Click here.

Calvin Nowell. Start Somewhere.

As many of you know, Sunday is off limits to me in terms of blogging. But I find it fitting to break this tradition if for only this reason. The reason is Calvin Nowell, and as you'll see from his story, this is a most worthy reason.

I had the distinct privilege, and I mean privilege, to meet Calvin personally several weeks ago. We have spoken several times since, and in one conversation he asked me if he could pray for me and my wife. I will never forget that generosity. It meant a great deal to me, and it came so absolutely out of the blue.

He speaks to people through his weight loss experience, having lost over 200 pounds, but that just scratches the surface. Calvin's life is Holy Spirit lead–something he is very aware of. Calvin shares that he lost weight from the inside out. He shared that when he was wearing a 60 inch waist pant, people could easily see he was carrying around a lot of weight. But his real message lies deeper in the realization that you too are carrying around as much weight as he, but no one can see it. Think about that. Your weight. The weight of sin. No one around you can see it, but God, and He wants you to realize the freedom in His name so you can free yourself from that bondage. Through faith and discipline Calvin found out how. And he is a changed person.

I suspect if I had met Calvin before his weight loss, I would have been drawn to him just the same. His music will draw you in too. He is a master song writer in the same league as Fred, Kirk, Marcus Cole and other brothers anointed with the gift of song. I would ask that you check out the videos for yourself. See the work being done in his life, and pray for Calvin as he continues in his ministry, in his traveling and in his every day walk, that he meets great people, and that God gets all the glory.

As Calvin himself says...

"Start with what's necessary. Then what's possible. And suddenly you're doing the impossible."

I find meeting Calvin as a high point in my life. His CD is the best CD I've heard in years. If you are looking for a gift giving and life giving opportunity this holiday season, buy Calvin's CD "Start Somewhere."

Check out the video from Start Something, for the song "Mercy's On It's Way."

Great Creative: Honest

Contagious is a word that comes to mind after watching this video. The synergy between these two guys is unmistakable. They are cool in that they don't take themselves all super serious like so many people. They also don't claim to know it all, and I love the freedom with which they operate. I really like these guys and hope they continue to rock.

30 Photoshop Shortcuts: WebDesignerWall

School your colleagues. Boost productivity. Impress your boss. There are 30 shortcuts here, so even you, yes, YOU, don't know 'em all. And hey, WebDesignerWall is a great resource all around. Oh yeah, you're too busy.

Check it.

Fast Company: 2007 Masters of Design

Innovation and inspiration. Beauty and profit. Management and creativity. Fast Company October 2007 reports on the intersection of business and design. The online version has multimedia and a ton of things the print version does not (and visa versa, I know, as I finally broke down and subscribed). You can also find archives for years 2004, 2005 and 2006. Masters feature Yves Behar, Bob Greenberg, Sam Lucente (my favorite), Paola Antonelli and Philippe Starck. The website also includes resources, green design, elements of design and a newcomers section. What are you waiting for? Now get yer learnin' on.

( via Cameron Moll's Premium Linkage )

WAN: User Generated Architectural Resource

WorldArchitectureNews (WAN), billed as the world's leading supplier of news to the global architectural community, is one of the resources I cherish for all things Global Architecture. It's full of news, podcast interviews in mp3, project images, links to architects and lead architectural stories of our times. A great feature is the News In Pictures section. I had never heard of Zaha Hadid before, but after seeing this, I'm now a fan. If you're looking for an education on architecture, or are researching the latest projects on the horizon, this WAN is a great place to start.

Another nice caveat is the fact that their global project database is user generated by member architects who actively build and update the site. WAN offers a RSS feed, but they go a step further and explain what this is if you're a newbie.

(building image in post collage ® Zaha Haid Architects )

I'm a Design:Related Featured Designer. Cool.

Design:Related decided to make me one of the Featured Designers today. I don't recall if this is for a day, a week or what exactly, so depending on when you check this out, try here for my feature. Then this one for where my stuff is camped out more regularly. I was invited initially (a.k.a.: LinkedIn Connection Request) to check things out by Chris at Outwear, then decided to take it for a spin myself. It's been fun to work through some of the beta bugs with Matt, and I can see how this site has value into the future and of course I'm betting on Matt and Karen to make their internet millions one of these days. If they do, I am most certainly hoping they won't forget their early adopters and throw us some bones! So check me out, yo.

Saltwater. Cancer Cure? New Fuel Option?

Saltwater Burns when exposed to Radiowaves!

Real Heros: Team Hoyt

I can only imagine

99 Balloons

Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body. However, that could not stop the living God from proclaiming Himself through this boy who never uttered a word. In the midst of heartbreaking tragedy, the Mooney family found the presence of God strengthening, comforting, and guiding them. Their story reminds us to seek God and endure our struggles rather than blame Him for our hardships.

( via between two worlds )

Calvin Miller: I Met My Master Face To Face

blogsolid: A Solid Blogging Resource

blogsolid is a really excellent resource for bloggers brought to you by South African Imar Krige. It's full of tips, advice and ideas, broken down into three parts. Solid Basics – a foundation for enjoyable blogging. Solid Growth - take your blogging to the next level. Solid Power - fresh ideas for seasoned bloggers. It's really for any blogger, and tackles all kinds of subjects. Highly recommended if you have a blog or are thinking of developing one.

Graphis Annual 1965/66: Mid-Century Yummie

Compliments of insect54 and Flickr, the 1965-66 Graphis Annual for your perusal. So, is it pronounced Graph-eese, or Graph-is? I say the former. Perhaps it doesn't matter.

( via a tip from Josh )

Top 20 Magazine Covers and Colors

American Magazine Conference 2005 named the 40 of the last 40 year's greatest magazine covers. Starting with number 20, colourlovers.com takes you back in time through the world of publication color.

( via DesignFloat )

Calvin Miller: The Power in Letting Go

Seam Carving: Next Gen Image Manipulation

My friend Chris tipped me off to an amazing image manipulation algorithm developed by Shai Avidan, who was recently hired by Adobe. He calls this technolgy "Seam Carving for Content-Aware Resizing." The obvious thought then would be that this technology might make it into the CS4 product line. All I can saw is WOW, and I hope so. Check out this video. It becomes gets amazing about midway through. Also, check out John Nock's blog for two more heavyhitters joining the Adobe ranks.


( via Chris's tip to techcrunch )

Contrabrand: Brandon Todd Wilson

Brandon Todd Wilson is an excellent designer, and contrabrand is an awesome design site. Brandon's work is incredible, and I'm just making the connection from him and a previous BarryBlog post. I tried to mash up some of his work in my post graphic in homage to his excellent work, but unfortunately this doesn't do justice. Check out his blog. His work. Some of his skectches. And some rootbeer.

The website for his 9 to 5, verse, is also special.

( via DesignFloat, via Muse [a fellow Wilson] )