Several years ago I was filling out a question on an employment profile for a job I was applying for. There was one question that stands out in my memory. It asked to complete this statement:

“The last time I changed one of my basic beliefs was…”

People who know me, know that I have a tendency to be extremely stubborn when it comes to convincing me to change my mind about anything let alone one of my basic beliefs. I have always considered this to be a strength of my personality, so to complete the sentence I wrote,

“The last time I changed one of my basic beliefs was when I knew that I was going to be a father. I made a conscious decision to take a firm stand on beliefs that I would otherwise have been passive or timid about. I want my son to see his father as a man with a strong set of beliefs.”

Looking back at my answer now, it seems kind of funny that I said that the last time one of my beliefs changed was when my beliefs became stronger. It is kind of like the trick interview question where they ask you to name one of your weaknesses. You always feel like you are dodging the question when you answer, “I am too much of a perfectionist.” The truth is our weaknesses are all too real, and our beliefs aren’t as firm as we like to tell ourselves.

The reason I have been thinking about this lately has to do with blogging. The audience for my other two blogs has really exploded and that comes with the exhausting side effect of having to be willing to backup everything you say. I say “exhausting” because knowing there will be opposition to your statement makes you think twice before you publish something. You have to ask yourself if it is worth the effort? I think that is part of the reason there are so many blogs that would rather just give you a link rather than commit to making a personal statement about it. That is where conviction comes in.

It really doesn’t matter what you say, somebody will disagree with you. This came as a surprise to me, because I came into blogging with the naive belief that a well written essay could change the minds of people who would disagree. Sadly, this is rarely the case. I think most people are as unwilling to change a basic belief as I am. People rarely change and that can be seen in most blog comments. Usually only one of two things happen. Either an argument arises that can’t be settled, or a compromise is made and both people half-heartedly accept a watered down middle ground. It might seem like the second scenario is preferred, but I would argue that this is the more dangerous scenario because it involves someone changing a basic belief. That person’s belief is now closer to what they recently strongly opposed. “Peacemaker” commenters see that as a victory, but the reality is that they have helped to create a place where there isn’t anything left to believe in. To be honest, I find the “peacemaker” commenters more annoying than the person I am disagreeing with. I can respect a person who believes strongly enough to disagree with me. The people that want to find a middle ground where everyone can “just get along” are unwittingly creating an atmosphere of complacency, antipathy, relativity, and mediocrity. In other words, a place where the only people who aren’t welcome are the people with conviction. That is extremely dangerous especially when you consider that one of the common traits of great people in history is conviction. Jesus, Marin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, the list is endless.

So here is my request of the blogosphere:
If you disagree with me, don’t be afraid to say so. Let’s be respectful, but don’t think less of me when you don’t change my mind. If you are the “peacemaker” type, be considerate of the conviction of the people on both sides of the argument. Don’t be afraid to pick a side in a disagreement and stand behind your decision. Blog with conviction and never compromise your beliefs!

If you have a blog, you probably require that commenters enter their email address before they can leave a comment. This is obviously a good way to control comment spam, but it also a good way to gather email addresses and create a database of email addresses from your blog readers. If you use Movable Type, there isn’t a built-in way to gather all the email addresses of your commenters, but it is possible. All you have to do is create new template. Go to the template section in your Movable Type interface and click on “Create New Index Template.” Give your new template a name like “email-Addresses” and name the output file something like “blogemailaddresses.html.” Uncheck the box that says “Rebuild this template automatically when rebuilding index templates.” Since you will only be using this template periodically to gather email addresses, it is better to rebuild this template manually so you aren’t putting unnecessary stress on your server. Next paste the following code in the “Template Body.”

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body>
<table width="750" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<MTEntries lastn="300"> <MTComments>
<tr>
<td width="250"><MTCommentDate format="%B %e, %Y"$></td>
<td width="250"><MTCommentAuthor default="Anonymous"></td>
<td width="250"><$MTCommentEmail$></td>
</tr>
</MTComments> </MTEntries>
</table>

</body>
</html>

Next click “save” and then rebuild the template. Type the address of the file you created in your browser, and you will see a page with a table containing email addresses of everyone who has commented on your site! You can save this page and open it in Excel, or Word, or whatever program you use. To change the template to gather email addresses from more or less entries, change “300″ in <MTEntries lastn="300"> to a larger or smaller number.

Now you are ready to send a mass email with your new database of email addresses. It is probably a good idea to delete the page when you are finished just in case it gets found by a search engine or spammer. When you send out mass emails be polite, and be sure go give them a chance “opt-out” so that your email isn’t perceived as spam. Also make sure you BCC (blind carbon copy) your email recipients to further protect your list. If you do use this template to gather email addresses, protect your reader’s email addresses at all costs. Remember that your reputation with your readers is on the line!

When I got Tivo a few months ago, I was excited by the possibility of streamlining my television habits. I could watch the shows that I usually miss because they are on at odd times, as well as the shows that overlap with shows my wife wants to watch. I could watch at my convenience, hit pause whenever something else demands my attention. Best of all, I could fast forward through the commercials. In other words, I was no longer a slave to TV. It worked for me. I can watch what I want, when I want.

So after three months of Tivo bliss, I came to a stunning realization. Sometimes I actually want to watch commercials! I thought it was a fluke when fast forwarding through the commercials I had the urge to rewind to see some of the ads based on seeing a single frame for a split second. I resisted the urge and assured myself that no advertisement was worth rewinding for. But this kept happening, and finally I caved in. I hit rewind.

This experience has really altered my thinking about commercials. I used to think that in an environment where we are bombarded by ads constantly, most people have become immune. When given the opportunity to silence the ads that scream for our attention constantly, wouldn’t we guiltlessly hit mute? Maybe not. People are much more sophisticated when it comes to how they interact with ads than simply building up an immunity to them. You might think that people hate ads, but in fact the opposite is true: there are some ads that we want to see. This is where the human ad filter is so impressive. We have the ability to filter everything out except for the things that have the possibility of having value to us. While it may seem like we have learned to ignore advertising, the reality is that we have just developed a filtering system that allows us to only see what we want.

March Madness starts tomorrow, and this year I talked Betsy into filling out a bracket in hopes that when I monopolize the tv in the next couple weeks she won’t mind so much. Surprisingly, Rian had pretty strong opinions about the tournament. He is talking enough that when I ask him to pick between two teams, he can repeat one of the names. He especially liked saying “Dook” and picked the Blue Devils to go all the way. Here are all of our final four predictions:

Betsy
Duke, UCLA, Connecticut, Villanova
Winner: Duke
Betsy’s full bracket

Rian
Duke, Memphis, Connecticut, Florida
Winner: Duke

Rian’s full bracket

Me
Duke, Gonzaga, Connecticut, Villanova
Winner: Connecticut
My full bracket

I spent some time over the weekend optimizing my system for converting vinyl records to mp3’s. Since it is more of a chore to convert vinyl to mp3’s than cd’s, I wanted to make sure that I am getting the best quality possible so I am not wasting my time. Plus, I was curious to see if I could make mp3’s that were as good if not better than what I would get from iTunes. Here are the results of an afternoon of tinkering. I am not an expert, so take this information with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are countless combinations of software and hardware, so your mileage may vary…

As I have said before, I use a Griffin iMic for connecting my turntable to my Macintosh G4. The iMic comes with a great little piece of software called Final Vinyl, which allows you to record your vinyl as it plays. It saves the files as “aiff” files which I can bring into iTunes and convert them to mp3’s. I should also note that testing would have been much harder, if not impossible, if I didn’t have a great pair of headphones. When I purchased my Sennheiser HD580’s I was aware for the first time of the poor quality of the files I was getting from my turntable. After some trial and error, I am now pretty confident that I am getting all that I can out of my inexpensive system. My turntable is a Sony PSLX250H Turntable“>Sony PSLX250H. It has a built-in preamplifier that I thought worked pretty well until today. When the preamp is on, the files I imported had quite a bit more noise and distortion than the ones imported with the preamp off. When the preamp is off there is a setting in Final Vinyl that you need to adjust to compensate for the lack of volume. In the EQ you have the option to use a typical connection or to connect to a turntable. To boost the signal with the preamp off, simply click “Connected to Turntable.” It says that 40db is standard, but my tests showed that this introduced way too much noise. I found that boosting the signal by 10db was the only one that didn’t degrade the sound. The overall volume was low compared with other tracks, but iTunes allows you to control the volume level of individual files, and that almost gets it to a normal level. Some of these settings seem counterintuitive, and I encourage you to test your system yourself and trust your ears if you take on the task of converting vinyl to digital files.

For today’s test, I used Beck’s “Venom Confection - E-Pro Remixes” because it has dynamic sound and it is one of the few brand new records I own. It is also a great song that I don’t mind listening to repeatedly. It is also available on iTunes which gives me an “official” mp3 to compare my files against. When I bring the aiff file into iTunes it is 1411 kbps. You can listen to it as is, but it is probably a good idea to convert it to a smaller file. Under “Advanced” there is an option to “Convert Selection to…” and depending on what your import settings are, this will convert your aiff to the format of your choice. I have been using “Apple Lossless” format recently, but for this test I made an AAC file at 128 kbps to match what I bought from iTunes.

Now for the results of my test! I apologize in advance because I don’t have the vocabulary of an audiophile. Here are how the four different sources sounded:

Vinyl
The best sound came from listening to the vinyl straight off the turntable. Instead of going through my computer, I have a pretty decent Sony receiver and that makes a big difference. Since my Beck record is in mint condition, there aren’t any crackles or pops, just pure audio bliss. Honestly, I am amazed by the sound quality I get from my inexpensive setup. The bass is rich, the vocals are crystal clear, and the clarity is exceptional. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Aiff
Second place goes to the aiff file created by Final Vinyl. Compared to the original vinyl, it gets pretty close. The place I notice the shortcomings of the aiff are when there are lots of different things happening at the same time. There is just the slightest loss of definition at those points. I don’t know why, but this file seemed to emphasize the bass a little more than when I listened to the vinyl through my receiver.

AAC (128 kbps) converted from Aiff
I have an extremely hard time telling this file from the aiff. To be honest the only reason this isn’t tied for second place is because at 128 kbps, there has to be less information than the huge aiff file. Perhaps as I get more experience, I will be able to hear the difference.

iTunes AAC
I really expected this file to stand up better than it did to the vinyl. It was definitely cleaner than the imported versions. It’s not that there is a hiss or pops in my vinyl conversion, it is more like each layer of sound is separate from the others. I was also surprised by the lack of bass in this file. The bass is thunderous on vinyl, and very timid in the file from iTunes.

Last place finishers
I imported the vinyl using many different combinations of settings, and only the setup that I described above was better than the iTunes AAC. Everything else I tried degraded the sound or introduced noise that seriously compromised the integrity of the file. If your records are in mint condition, and you are confident in your setup, it is definitely possible to create files that compete with or surpass the quality you get from iTunes. If you are willing to invest the time to test your system, you will be rewarded for your efforst. Otherwise, stick with iTunes, or importing from cd.

I found out that I will be having an art show next January in Nebraska at Hastings College. I had a show there in 2004 with my friends Suzanne and Bennett Holzworth and I am looking forward to being in the gallery again. I get the back room, and the main space will display the controversial work of Robbie Conal. I was reluctant at first, but the more I think about it, the more excited I am about the show. I have wanted a reason to explore more deeply the Christian themes that have until now been little more than a footnote in my body of work. I will leave much unsaid for now, but you can expect more details in future posts.

Wireless headsets for phones annoy me for some reason. People who walk around wearing the headsets just drives me nuts. Walking and talking is only mildly irritating compared with when a person talks to me without taking their earpiece off. I decided to do a little research to see if I was the only person bothered by it, and not surprisingly there are plenty of people that think this behavior is rude. I especially liked a quote that likened “carrying on an in-person conversation while wearing a headset to shaking hands with gloves on.” You can drop hints like, “Oh, were you talking to me? I couldn’t tell with your headset on,” but they usually don’t seem to get it. They are oblivious to their rudeness and seem more infatuated with how cool they look with their trendy gadget.

Perhaps I am so sensitive to this breach in etiquette because of my own habits of listening to my iPod. I have my headphones on the majority of the day, and I am very aware of the boundary that my headphones provide. My desk is in a high traffic area of the office, and I (thankfully) don’t have a cubicle to separate my space from the masses. It is hard for people to pass my desk without saying something, so often I have my headphones on without music just to discourage people from talking to me. My hope is that the huge over-ear Sennheiser’s that I purchased recently exaggerate the effect even further. The funny thing is that the Sennheiser’s are “open” headphones, so they let as much sound in as they let out. I can hear people perfectly. Still, when someone says something to me I still take the headphones off and ask, “what?” just to keep the charade going. Usually, I try and be polite by taking the headphones off and giving the person my undivided attention, but sometimes I leave them on just to be intentionally distant. At least I know when I am being rude.

As I start building a record collection, the bargain bin has been amazingly good to me. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my best finds so far. (The links take you to Amazon where you can buy the cd - sorry Amazon doesn’t sell vinyl!)

I Robot, by Alan Parsons Project

Deja Vu, by Crosby Stills Nash and Young

Moondance, By Van Morrison

Animals, by Pink Floyd

Led Zeppelin I, by Led Zeppelin

Led Zepelin II, by Led Zeppelin

Nashville Skyline, by Bob Dylan

Bringing It All Back Home, by Bob Dylan

Bookends, by Simon and Garfunkel

Businessweek.com has a good interview with Mena Trott, founder of Movable Type. Mena is a former graphic designer, and the interview talks about some of the design challenges that are faced by the maker of the leading blog software in the world: Movable Type. The highlight of the interview is when she is asked about the relationship of blogs and the media. She said:

“I think the biggest impact of blogs on mainstream journalism is the presence of a more personal voice. The popularity of the personal tone used by bloggers has caused traditional media to realize it’s O.K. for some reporters to use “I.”"

I agree completely. Blogs are just people talking like people. The human voice is an infectious sound that people want to hear. We don’t want to listen to empty suits. Now that we can get the news in so many different ways we prefer hearing it come from a real person.

I launched this site once I knew everything was working. It seems like that is how I have been designing websites lately. Get it working first, then clean it up later. Is that lazy? Anyway, I installed the first of many upgrades today. Most of them probably won’t get announced because they will be minor tweaks, but I wanted to talk a little bit about this one.

I added the hiding/revealing navigation on the top and bottom of the page. To make this work I slightly modified a javascript that was written by Shaun Inman. Thank you Shaun for being so willing to let people learn from your skills! Shaun is the father of sIFR, which stands for Scalable Inman Flash Replacement. sIFR is an amazing tool for anyone interested in expanding the typography on your website beyond the generic. If your browser has a Flash Player installed, sIFR will replace the text you specify with a different font. Since swf files have the ability to have fonts embedded in them, sIFR allows you to create headlines using any font that you own. It really is a smart way to bring rich typography to the web. So why am I not using sIFR if it is so great? Believe me, I want to. Unfortunately, sIFR still has a couple shortcomings that are keeping me from fully endorsing it.

1. sIFR doesn’t support transparent backgrounds.
Actually it can support transparent backgrounds on some browsers, but it isn’t recommended. I would be replacing the text on the wood textures, so it is a shame that the transparent background doesn’t work better. My workaround was to use the wood texture in the Flash file. I would have been satisfied with that solution if it weren’t for the other problem…

2. It doesn’t support letter spacing
I like to give Trajan a wide letter spacing in my headlines, and this just isn’t possible using sIFR. I tried setting it in Flash, since Flash 8 allows letter spacing to be set for dynamic text. Unfortunately, that variable gets lost by the time it is generated in the swf on the fly. Even if that would have worked, I wasn’t happy with requiring Flash Player 8 just to read my headlines.

So overall, sIFR was a series of compromises that I just wasn’t willing to make for this site. I am looking forward to using it in less demanding scenarios and I am hoping the bugs get worked out in the next release.