Wow, linkage from Becky McCray! Thanks much. Becky’s post had some great advice too (and definitely some stuff for me to think about!).

Coming here wondering “who the heck is this Chris Van Patten fellow”? For some info on me, click over to http://chrisvanpatten.com/ - there is some good stuff there, as well as links off to several social networks where you can find more. Unfortunately in terms of my professional work, you caught me in the midst of a business transition (leaving one partnership to start another), and my new business’ website is not quite ready yet (a few more finishing details and some copy to write), but you can see a selected portfolio on my personal homepage and find all my contact details there to get more information. On request, I can provide you with access to my full website design portfolio. I also use Final Cut Studio 2, and can provide full media production services.

Someday this will be extended into a full biography/about me post. Thanks Becky for getting me started on that path, and thank you for taking the time to click on over to my site!

I’ve been a follower of Becky McCray on Twitter for quite some time, but only today did I begin following her website, SmallBizSurvival.com. I don’t know what took me so long, the site is awesome! It’s packed with great articles, tools, and tricks for small businesses. It has a rural focus too, which is excellent for my area. As a web designer who has had success finding a niche in a b2b market online (primarily being outsourced to do work from other consultancies) and having a bit of trouble translating that success into direct work with businesses offline (eliminating the middle man) I’m finding a lot of great advice on the SmallBizSurvival website that will hopefully get me on a good track in this other focus of my business.

Some of my favorite articles:

Next questions from starting your first business
Checklists for starting your first business
Five common mistakes

I also enjoy the weekly “brag basket” posts. Hopefully I’ll have some accomplishments to share in the near future!

SmallBizSurvival is a great blog and it’s highly recommended for any entrepreneur, big or small. It’s already given me some great advice and I’m sure you can find something valuable too!

I wrote this letter to my local newspaper today.

Central New York, and the city of Utica in particular, is incredibly fortunate to have a downtown anchor with the Stanley Theatre. With the new expansion nearing its completion, there are now talks of the future, with the theatre serving as a precursor to the success of a revitalized downtown Utica. And it should; Central New York badly needs a central arts, commerce, and culture hub, and Utica’s downtown is perfectly suited to provide this function.

Unfortunately, the dysfunctional state of politics in Central New York routinely prove that such lofty goals can be more difficult than they sound. Whether it is partisan fighting, secretive decision making, confusing backtracking, placing local responsibilities on the state, an ignorance of suburban sprawl (and to some degree, and embrace of this sprawl: see the lack of a Utica Chamber of Commerce in favor of a Mohawk Valley Chamber), or our local leaders’ ultimate lack of foresight and vision, we are routinely denied the economic center that we need to sustain and build successful, white-collar jobs in the future.

So let this serve as a petition to local leaders: please, seize on the opportunity we have with the rebirth of the Stanley Theatre. Utica has been given an incredible chance to recreate itself as a thriving, exciting metropolis. We have an opportunity to attract businesses to the downtown area, to build jobs, to increase the presents of arts and culture in our community. And the restoration of Utica can be only of great benefit to all other local communities: the presence of an anchor in this area will serve to attract young families and will help to combat the exodus of our young people. But it can only happen with an unprecedented level of cooperation in our local government at all levels. Let us enter a new era in Central New York and restore our crown jewel, Utica, to the grandeur it once held.

I’ll be posting soon. I’ve been busy with a pretty big project… so check here for more.

Jacob’s FOSSwire article about GNOME’s new appearances panel has hit Digg.

We’re doing really well lately, we just posted a survey for our readers and we’re getting lots of great responses. Keep up the great work Peter and Jacob!

Lorem Ipscream (thanks to Russell for the link) is seemingly just another Lorem Ipsum generator, albeit with a hot design. I personally use the generator at Lipsum.com (or if I’m pressed for time I can just visit http://www.lipsum.com/feed/html to get a 5 paragraph bite of LipSum text) so it didn’t seem to me that Lorem Ipscream would pique my interests.

Then I saw that it has a poetry generator:

Sailing Three Tuesdays
Like omg, I can’t believe that my parents didn’t let me go to the Fallout Boy concert! Channel the spirit of millions of pre-teens to make your perfect sob ballad.

Yes. Perfect. Brilliant.

My generated poem?

Cause we like to see us as a dream, I am guided by the gaze of uncaring faces.
You don’t even care what you think.
Tax away my troubles make me be the same.
Cause we like to take anything.
Sway side to side and watch my blood run cold you’re not cool britannia.
Oh, look what you say.

Oh. My. God.

I actually burst out laughing when I read this. For those of you who don’t read the MySpaces of angsty teens (I’m a teen too, please don’t come for me Chris Hansen) this is very much representative of the bad poetry that is so prevalent on MySpace.

My ex-girlfriend used to write this bad poetry. Seeing a generator that was able to produce poetry at the same caliber was just all the better. Seriously.

From an email forward:

An Upscale Bar

A ‘C’ an ‘E-flat’ and a ‘G’ walk into a bar. The bartender said, “Sorry, I don’t serve minors”. The E-flat left and the C and G had an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth was diminished and the G was out flat.

An F entered and tried to augment the situation but was not sharp enough. A D entered and excused himself to the bathroom, saying, “I’ll just be a second”. An A entered but the bartender wasn’t convinced this relative of C was not a minor.

Then the bartender noticed a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar. “Get out, right now!” he exclaimed. “You’re the seventh minor I’ve found in this bar tonight”.

The next night the E-flat returned to the bar in a 3-piece suit. The bartender said, “You’re looking sharp tonight. This could be a major development”. This was the case, when the E-flat took off the suit and everything else to stand there au natural. Eventually, the C sobered up and realized in horror that he was under a rest. He was brought to trial, found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and was sentenced to ten years of D.S. without the possibility of a Coda.

On appeal, he was found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, because the accusation was bassless.

The bartender decided he needed a rest - and closed the bar.