EJ Kusterer - Suiteness

My friend and bandmate from MO ECHO, Liz Kusterer released a short 3 song album today. Check it out.

Digital Analogue: Forget "where's my jetpack?", I want to know...

An old friend of ours from college --whose blog I've only just recently caught back up with-- posted an interesting question on personal technology. See the post here at Digital Analogue: Forget "where's my jetpack?", I want to know....

Derek Brink - New Year's Eve

My friend Derek has recently posted a concept piece album and story combination. I've known him as a musician for awhile and I've enjoyed his writing for some time on his website and blog. He's been and continues to be a member of Blue Tattoo and the Michael Feldman Group. Now I want to recommend his latest body of work and urge you go download it right now as it is completely 100% free! Go read and listen to New Year's Eve, a musical novella by Derek Brink.

Greentree Designs: Ithaca,NY:Website Design:Graphic Design:Logo Design

A long-time friend and one-time coworker (MonsterCommerce & Network Solutions) named Mark G. has updated his profile/portfolio site at Greentree Designs. They now have a blog and an expanded list of services.

Honoring Soldiers And Their Families

The freedoms we enjoy often come from the sacrifices of the men and women in uniform. But many times the mission abroad leaves the families back home with their own struggles.

Sunday the National Guard paid tribute to the contributions of both the troops and their loved ones.

ABC News Channel 20's Mike Brooks takes a closer look.

One of my friends, a soldier named Ryan Keeter, is featured in the video on the following page. Go to Springfield, Illinois WICS ABC 20 Newsroom. This quote is from that page.

Let Me Rule Your Heart by Rubber Universe

I've mentioned Gina and Robert before. They are two members of a band called Rubber Universe. I met them through work, but they are both accomplished musicians and damn fine people. Here's an animated video to their song Let Me Rule Your Heart. Check it out.

SoNotTheNews.com :: Your site for stuff that is not the news!:

There's a lot of good news sites out there for those people who want to get the news. But if you want something that is NOT the news, look no further than sonotthenews.com; your site for stuff that is not the news!

Strength of Will by Antonia Phillips

My friend Toni has a new poem just posted online. Here's a snippet:

We know not when we do,
We know not how we say,
We know not where we want,
We know only know that we are.

Read the full entry called Strength of Will by Antonia Phillips at Poetry.com.

I Used To Love Her (Coming Soon)

An old friend from college is in a movie coming out soon. He's got a lot of music and spoken word projects I should have linked to by now, but here is a trailer for the movie. Mel "Romeo" Roberson is the male lead who utters the title line "I Used To Love Her". Go Romeo, go!

Update: Though I just saw this trailer on Romeo's Facebook page recently, it would appear that the movie itself has already been out for just under a year. IMDb.com placed it's release on June 5^th, 2008.

Jer86gn on Pixerbog.com

My buddy and coworker, whose username is Jer86gn, has an account on Pixerbog for sharing his pix from his cell phone camera. He used to use Popug and I've written about his shots before.. Check out his latest shot on Pixerbog.com and view his profile page.

Blue Tattoo Gig

My friend Derek (former music minister at Ferguson Christian Church) recently had a show with his band at a place called "The Chapel". I had really wanted to go, but couldn't make it. Be sure to check out the Recap on his blog.

Nikomas for President!

My friend Nikomas (former youth minister of Ferguson Christian Church) is considering running for president in 2016, since he will be 35 years old. He would be our first Mexican president. Read all about it on his post, The First Mexident.

Handknits by Susan

mittens
Originally uploaded by handknitsbysusan

One of my wife's old grade school through high school friends has a knitting blog. We got to visit with Susan and her family over Christmas when we went to Chicago. It was a lot of fun. A recent post she wrote is a great personal story with a happy ending of her reuniting some lost mittens with their owner. Check out her full site at Handknits by Susan.

Rat Lifter

2008-11-20
Originally uploaded by psychojelly@sbcglobal.net

My Friend Ryan has a new comic book he is posting online using Wordpress and various plugins. It's called Rat Lifter. It's not clear at this point who or what a Rat Lifter is. But there's fire, muscular bad guys, falling meteors, monsters and a few random stabbings. It should be fun.

Rat Lifter

What the Hell is a Rat Lifter!? This has yet to be determined. All that is known so far is that it is the title of an upcoming webcomic. Some of the principle characters are found on these pages.

Go to Rat Lifter.

Congratulations: J.D. and Megan Pohlman

I'd like to congratulate J.D. and Megan on their great wedding over this last weekend. I got my invitation a few months back and was surprised and delighted to learn that it was going to take place in Quincy, Illinois, which is apparently where Megan's family is from. This was a double treat for my family and I because Lisa and I used to live in Quincy as well and our oldest daughter was born there.

I want to have a full write-up and post a recap of the night, but it's too late at night right now and I'm too tired. For now, take a look at the following two links that helped point guests to the wedding.

• J.D. and Megan's Wedding Map - Wedding Mapper
• Free Personalized and Interactive Wedding Maps, Local Wedding Planning Tools - Wedding Mapper

I've linked to J.D.'s website before. In fact, his personal site was one of the first that I linked to, since his stuff was a major inspiration for having my own site.

House of Rah

My friend Ryan has set up a new site and blog for posting and promoting his artwork called House of Rah.

Hello, and welcome to the online home of illustrator Ryan VanMeter. This is the place for information about current illustration rates, projects, and other things that may be going on.

I've enjoyed Ryan's mixed medium stuff since I first met him back at Quincy. His stuff is intense and usually captures a fantastical action moment with original characters. Ryan also has a current slide show of images from his flickr account on this new site. Most of what's available here currently are his original black and white renderings.

Main Gallery Preview

geedus.com

Two of my coworker buddies are members of a local rock band named Geedus. They are playing a show in Belleville one week from tonight.

Friday, May 2^nd, 2008

Quinn's Restaurant & Sports Bar
4519 N. Illinois St.
Swansea, Illinois 62226
.618.257.8203

Featuring originals & lots of new covers, as well as your favorites!

Go to geedus.com for more information. I'm not sure I'll be able to make this show, but I want to and you should want to also. Rock on!

Update: Show canceled, Quinn's has closed.

JanetLackey.com :: Graphic Design for Interactive Media and Print

A friend and former coworker I admire has left her daily job as a graphic web designer and is leaping into independent work as a freelance for-hire web designer.

You have reached the online portfolio of Janet Lackey. I'm a graphic designer living in the midwestern U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri. As I approach a decade in the design field, I find what makes my career so enjoyable are the colorful variety of projects and clients I work with.

If there's anyone that can pull this off and be successful, it's Janet. So check out JanetLackey.com. Also, catch up with her stuff on her blog, her LinkedIn profile and her flickr photos.

For the record, I'm not stalking her. She just has a lot of cool stuff she does online and this is just a few that I know of.

Duck Goes MOO!!!

I wrote about my friend Charles Guthrie's sites before, but here are a few other pages you should know about.

• Duck Goes MOO!!!
• Coffee-Walk
• GeekyKeen
• Mid America Web Design
• MySpace: Dr. Booty Man