The shot below was taken by my friends at Houndstooth & Caroline Photography.  It rocks my socks.  And it’s just a small taste of their pixel goodness.

Go be their friend: FB, Twitter, or Blog.

So proud.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It may also be the best thing to ever come from France.

The other day, Mike Osegueda wrote a great article for the Fresno Bee, offering a few suggestions on what Fresnans can do to enjoy all that Fresno has to offer in 2010.  I agree with his suggestions, and I’ve picked a few that I’d like to focus on the next year:

• Pick an iconic Fresno place you’ve never been — the old Security Bank building, Forestiere Underground Gardens, Warnors Center for the Performing Arts, Kearney Park, etc. — and go. I’ve been meaning to go to the Underground Gardens and Kearney Park for years.
• Learn to love downtown. Sure, it’s a work in progress, but there’s plenty of stuff worth a trip: Yoshi Now, Broadway Studios, Joe’s Steakhouse, Arte Américas, Downtown Community Art Center, Tokyo Garden and, of course, The Grizzlies.  I like downtown a lot, but I really only visit for Grizzlies games.  I’d like to try more dining in the area.
• Appreciate local art. Go to ArtHop (first and third Thursdays of each month), and if you see something you like, buy it.  We go to Art Hop often.  I’d like to take the next step and support artists (and decorate our house).
• Go to the Rogue Festival, one of the Fresno’s true jewels for the creative arts. It runs March 4-13 this year.  I’ve never been.
• When you hear someone diss Fresno, defend your city. Pat yourself on the back when you’re done.  Honestly, it’s easy to just nod and agree.  I’d like to stand up for all that Fresno has to offer!

What’s your favorite thing about the place you live?

-Frederick Faber, as quoted by A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit Of God

Blogging well requires relationship.  It requires regular attention not only to your blog, but to the blogs of your readers, and your potential readers.  For me, I know that this attention would be better spent on the family and friends who are physically near me.  I have a hard enough time being a good friend.  I’ve tried to spend 2009 building less into web relationship and more into the people I actually spend time with.  The caveat, of course, is that some of the people I spend time with are friends that I made through blogging or Twitter.  I don’t discount the friends I’ve made in the blogging community, I simply feel a greater responsibility to those who are with me each day.

Blogging well requires time.  When I first started blogging I worked for a company with a pretty lax internet policy and lots of down time.  Finding interesting YouTube videos and writing witty bits of sarcasm could take up a couple of hours and it was no big deal.  Things aren’t like that anymore.  I’m working two busy jobs and when I come home I should probably spend time talking to my wife rather than typing on a laptop.

Blogging well requires content.  Average Joe (aka, me) doesn’t really have much to say.  Truth is, there is only a small circle of people who would care to read a long discourse on the role of worship in the Exodus (yeah, that’s a two-month old draft) and everything else I write about (food, my dog, snarky comments) fits perfectly into 140 characters on Twitter and Facebook.  Without meaningful content, blogging is somewhat… meaningless.

What that means for blogging in 2010.  I’m not putting down blogging as a medium.  I still think it’s great.  I still read lots of ‘em.  I’m still going to write on this one.  I just think it’s changing.  The blogs that are holding on and thriving are those that have a purpose. Generally, that purpose is to promote something– a person, an idea, an album, something.  The time and energy that goes into a good blog needs to have a payoff beyond, “oh! I had 31 views today!”  It needs to translate into mp3s sold, ideas accepted, seats filled, or some other goal.

That’s my opinion.  Thoughts?

I must be getting old.

Because I love it.