New Design for WhiteBinder.org

I just finished putting together a new site design for WhiteBinder.org. The prompting for the change came because I recently got involved in putting a site together for a friend of mine back in LA (which I may or may not tell you about depending on how it turns out when it’s all done). Anyway, the more I was working on that other site, the more I was unhappy with how WhiteBinder looked. It just seemed too monochromatic and jammed together. I’m really happy with how this new design has turned out. It’s not just a new look, there are also some new features that will enhance the experience for you, the website visitor (yes, you!). Here are the highlights:

1. You can resize the font on any page by clicking the “A” graphics in the top bar.
2. You can change the width of the site from “narrow” to “wide” to “auto width” by clicking those little line and arrow graphics in the top bar.
3. You can set the color scheme of the site to blue, green or orange to match almost any decor. No longer will my site clash with your drapes.
4. I figured out how to get the “create pdf” button to work that appears in the top right of every article. Before, all the text in the pdf would be all jumbled together. The way I got it to work, for those that are interested (ok, just Marky… ok, probably not even Marky), is to pull all the css code out of the paragraph tags (even any class designations) and put everything into the separate style sheet. I’ve only had time to do this for a few of the more popular articles so far so it doesn’t yet work for all of them.
5. The main menu on the top left is set up as a transmenu. Move your mouse over the menu and you’ll see it in action (ooh, high tech!)

You may also notice some familiar faces in the scrolling graphic on the main page. I’ll be updating those images from time to time so check back often, you never know who will make an appearance on the soon-to-be-world-famous WhiteBinder scrolling graphic of destiny^®!

So anyway, it’s still a bit of a work in progress and I could use your help polishing it up. Please take a look around and let me know if you come across anything that doesn’t work or doesn’t seem to be formatted correctly, or just let me know how completely awesome the site is in all ways, I’m cool with either.

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A Jon Stewart Tribute Post

I am a HUGE fan of Jon Stewart, the host of The Daily Show. I think he’s filled a void and given a voice to a viewpoint and a political position that was rarely seen in the media before, but sorely needed. He’s made a point to attack the idea that there are only two sides to any political debate, either the “radical right” or the “loony left”. I see him as an advocate for the moderates—the thoughtful, informed and active moderates; those that can see both the good and the bad (and the ridiculous) in both parties; those that want good people with good ideas to lead the country, not just “their side”.

I certainly don’t agree with everything he says, and that’s okay. I think one of his biggest contributions has been to show how to disagree without being disagreeable, how to have completely different fundamental beliefs from someone else but still show them respect and have a genuine interest in understanding how they came to have those beliefs. It also doesn’t hurt that he, and the rest of the show, can be really, really funny.

Here are a few clips to some great Jon Stewart moments (in the interests of space, I’m just doing links instead of embedding the video). Let me know what you think, and if you don’t think they’re great… I, uh… *thinking to myself: what would Jon Stewart do?*… I guess I can respect your different viewpoint.

Jon Stewart discusses the Duke lacrosse story. I can’t resist this one, it’s got Duke and “the law” in it. Also, keep in mind that Nancy Grace is a lawyer and former prosecutor.

Jon Stewart looks at law school rankings. Another one I couldn’t resist. This is a clip from just the other day that looks at Regent Law School and the mystery of why so many of its graduates work in the current administration.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire. This appearance by Jon Stewart on CNN’s “debate” show caused a real stir when it happened and became a large factor in CNN’s decision to cancel the show. You can also click here for other clips of the appearance and one of Jon Stewart talking about it on his show the next day.

Jon Stewart interviewed by Charlie Rose. A short clip of Jon talking with Duke Law alum, Charlie Rose, about the process he and his staff go through in putting together their show.

Jon Stewart’s bit at the Emmys. Jon was a presenter at the Emmy Awards shortly after the whole Hurricane Katrina mess and he put together a clip that was “censored” by CBS. The video quality isn’t great but it’s the only version I could find of it.

Jon Stewart interviewed by Bill O’Reilly. Jon defends his show against The Big Kahuna. I actually think they both did pretty well in this interview. An interesting footnote here is that in the interview, Bill O’Reilly refers to Daily Show viewers as “stoned slackers”. In the interim between this interview and when Bill O’Reilly appeared on The Daily Show as a guest a few weeks later, Comedy Central commissioned a survey and found out that the average Daily Show viewer had more formal education than an O’Reilly Factor viewer.

Jon Stewart’s monologue right after 9/11. This is from the first Daily Show episode after the 9/11 attacks. A deeply moving speech. This is Jon Stewart at his finest and is probably one of the things he’ll be most remembered for.

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I need your help with WhiteBinder.org

I just posted a new article on WhiteBinder.org. For anyone that doesn’t know, this is a site I created some time back to post all the spiritual thoughts, stories, articles and other church-related things I’ve collected since my mission. I haven’t posted much to the site in the last few months mainly because I’ve already pretty much run though all my “A” material.

The article I just posted is one I came across recently from Davis Bitton (church scholar and co-author of The Mormon Experience) called, I Don’t Have a Testimony of Church History. It’s really interesting. He talks about his experience being both an active member of the church and a historian. It reminded me that there are still a lot of great articles and stories floating around out there that would be great additions to the site. This is where I’m hoping you guys can help me. If you’ve got anything that you think would be a good addition to the site, please send it to me. You can email it to me in pretty much any format, or you can mail me a hard copy of it if that’s all you have. If you need any of my contact info, let me know in the comments and I’ll get it to you. I would love to really turn the site into a great resource for people to be able to come and get access to great talks, stories and other resources on the church.

The site actually gets a fair number of visitors without me doing much at all to promote it. The image of the map above is taken from the stats program I use for the site (it’s Google Analytics, which is a great, free program). Each orange dot on the map indicates at least one visitor from that spot to whitebinder.org in just the last month! The vast majority come through searches in google and other search engines. I also have a feature where people can sign up to get an email whenever new content is posted to the site and there are now more people signed up for it that I don’t know than ones I do. So, I think the site is providing value to people and I would love to keep adding to it and improving it. I hope you can help!

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1,200 Quotes, and counting…

I just updated the Simpson’s random quote generator on the site with a bunch of new quotes. We’re now up to just over 1,200 hand-selected, pre-screened, gut-busting quotes. Go ahead, refresh the page. There are new gems waiting just for you!

Also, because of my extremely generous nature, if anyone else would like to have the generator on their site, just let me know and I’ll send you the files. It’s a simple wordpress plugin. You could also customize it pretty easily to do quotes from other shows (but why would you want to!).

And Heidi, we need to talk. Come on! You can’t have a Simpson’s quote generator on your site and just name it “Random Quote”. As Ralph would say, “I’m bemarrassed for you”. Get Marky to jazz it up for you (and while he’s at it, you should get him to make the backgrounds of the images transparent. This is a classy plugin, after all).

I’ll leave you with a few of the best of the ones I just added.

Lisa: Do we have any food that wasn’t brutally slaughtered?
Homer: Well, I think the veal might have died of loneliness.

Homer: I’ll do the dishes when I pick it out of the chore hat and it’s not a practice. See, there it is. But that was just a practice. The system works!

Bum: Well, there are six schools of begging: bad musician, messed up vet, cripple, fake cripple, religious zealot, and crazy guy. I think you would do well with crazy guy.
Homer: Coke and Pepsi are the same thing! Wake up, people! [gibberish]
Bum: Wow, now, that is good crazy!

Kent Brockman: Springfield will have its first annual “Do What You Feel” festival this Saturday, whenever you feel like showing up. It will be a welcome change from our “Do As We Say” festival, started by German settlers in 1946.

Mr. Burns: Now a few more details about this year’s company picnic. It’s at the plant, no food will be served, the only activity will be work, and the picnic is canceled.

Martin’s Mother: While my son’s at fat camp, I cleaned out his room. How much will you give me for this? [hands Comic Book Guy a box]
Comic Book Guy: Probably nothing but let us see… Oh, a handwritten script for Star Wars, by George Lucas? Princess Leia’s anti-jiggle breast tape! Film reel labeled “Alternate Ending – Luke’s Father Is Chewbacca”!!! Oh! Oh!… [calms down] I’ll give you five dollars for the box.

Dr. Nick: With my diet, you can eat anything you want, any time you want!
Marge: And you’ll lose weight?
Dr. Nick: Uhh, you might. It’s a free country!

Rod: Is he killing that guitar, daddy?
Ned: Yes, son.

Principal Skinner: I know Weinstein’s parents were upset, Superintendent, but I was sure it was a phony excuse. I mean, it sounds so made up, “Yom Kip-pur.”

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Pork Board Makes Woman Remove Her Shirt

How’s that for an attention grabbing headline! I came across this story a little while ago and I thought some people in the family would find it interesting. In a nutshell, a young mother started a blog focusing on breastfeeding issues. As part of her blog, she offered for sale some t-shirts with breastfeeding related sayings on them. One of the shirts had the slogan “The Other White Milk” (not exactly laugh-out-loud hilarious, but ok, whatever). Anyway, this shirt caught the attention of the National Pork Board which owns the trademark “The Other White Meat.” They didn’t think it was so funny and they had one of their lawyers (who I’m sure is a great guy, just doing his job, way underpaid, loves his mother, etc., etc.) draft up a cease and desist letter that seemed just a tad too harsh for the circumstances.

The real kicker, and the part that raised this story above just another run-of-the-mill company protecting its trademarks case, was the part in the lawyer’s letter where he claimed that, not only was the woman’s use of the phrase confusingly similar to the Pork Board’s trademark (like people will mistakenly believe that the Pork Board endorses breast milk? Don’t they know that the Pork Board has worked very hard to stay neutral in that whole ugly debate?), but, as he states in the letter, “your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of National Pork Board’s mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption.” What!? Even a quick look at this woman’s blog makes it obvious that she’s just a mom that thinks breastfeeding is great. Admittedly, her interest in promoting breastfeeding (she calls herself the “Lactivist”. Get it?) is a bit beyond my own personal level of interest and/or comfort, but I can’t see where they get the “beyond merely for infant consumption” angle.

So, news of this letter made the rounds on the internet. I won’t ruin the ending by telling you how it was resolved. You can click on the link above and read how it all played out. I will say that it involves follow up letters from the CEO of the Pork Board written in a decidely less aggresive tone. I like this story because it highlights one of those ironies of life, where the company’s own attempt at protecting its image is what actually hurts its image the most.

P.S. Some of the other shirts she offers are a bit more clever, in my own opinion. I like “That’s my baby’s lunch you’re staring at”, “Breasts: Not just for selling cars anymore” and “Too lazy to bottlefeed”.

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