I have been slowly churning around what ThomTurner.com 2.0 will look like, and what the purpose of the site will be. I am going to be making significant changes to the look of the website and contemplating how the design change will reflect the content of the site.

As I have been mapping out what I want to do on the site I am also going to run two separate installations of Worpdress with separate themes as a way to teach myself how to use Wordpress to build a more comprehensive site. It will be a puzzle. And I love puzzles.

Beyond that, this will give me an opportunity to blog more about general life stuff that I am interested in. It will be random—the opposite of a site like Everyday Liturgy that is so focused.

The blog will be rambling with features on tips and tricks I am gaining with GIMP and Scribus. Several of my friends have encouraged me to blog more frequently, so once the overhaul is done I am going to do so. The portfolio is going to be super cool and very focused. I am looking forward to it. You should too!

• is heading over to the Baileys house through the snow. #
• loves his Golf, he really does, but the interior door handle just broke…sure to cost approx. 8,910.74 #
• @scottlenger please explain…I was thinking along the lines of high grade epoxy. #
• @scottlenger genius, but might not work for me. The handle on the inside of the door broke off like the handle on a mug. #
• @scottlenger mine are the interior door handles, found them here, but wrong color: http://is.gd/c8SU might go the epoxy route w/ some velcro #
• @emergentvillage that podcast is great. #
• felt justified going to work this morning and seeing all the little tykes get in the school buses…so we had 4 inches of snow: go to school #
• the Ag Secretary is from Iowa? Booo, bad pick…four more years of monocultures and high fructose corn syrup. #
• @spcochenour hah, that’s great. #
• believes that pollution could be dramatically reduced by making it illegal for high schoolers to do burn outs every day they leave school. #
• @toddhiestand what’s Omnifocus? #
• is mentally preparing himself to make the best beans and rice ever tonight. #

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• is listening to the new Fall Out Boy album on lala.com #
• is listening to the Weezer Christmas Album. I will buy anything Weezer burns onto a disc. #
• is wondering what kind of soup to get for lunch. #
• had some black bean soup with lots of jalapenos for lunch, with a homemade baguette and an apple…beat that Panera!!! #
• @makeesha play video games, you can control the volume better and not wake any sleeping person up; clean when she wakes up and can help out! #

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• @evancurry no way man. I made the dough from scratch and everything! I have one left over. Come up here and sample it! #
• @donheatley I know myself, whom works there (here? I am at KPMG right now, sitting in my cube, working the day away). #
• really enjoyed the Advent service last night and the creative team meeting after that…the Giants game, not so much. #
• this upsets my Tolkien-loving soul! Beyond words, simply beyond words. I am boycotting Star Trek! http://is.gd/bMWT #
• @joshbenner still eating/drinking the Soup in Hand? #
• @spcochenour that’s why I love my breadmaker! #
• wonders at the possibilities of the shoe attack, and how awesome it would have been if W had caught one in the air and flung it back! #
• is getting prepared for the EmergentNJ cohort meeting at 6pm tonight at Allendale Bar & Grill in Allendale, NJ. Come on out! #

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Our actions are captured in our pictures, and so instead of writing a two or three page verbose newsletter highlighting awards and band concerts, show people those awards and band concerts.  The newsletter should function more like a little photo magazine, with pictures telling the story so you don’t have to!  Captions can fill in the background information and the necessary biography.

Last year I created a two page Christmas newsletter and sent it out as a PDF with embedded links to pictures.  This year I decided to reverse the concept and have the pictures with little explanation—actions speak louder than words! So I picked out pictures from each month or big event from the past year and have been loading them into Scribus and using GIMP to do any heavier photo editing and for the best filter in the world: add border.  With Scribus and GIMP I know have a 16 page photo magazine ready to hand out to any one with an internet connection!

Here’s where it gets better.  Instead of attaching the PDF I am going one step further and uploading it into the Issuu viewer from issuu.com This viewer will display a standard PDF in many different ways, and can be embeded in any web page!  It eases the sharing for less tech-savvy people, because the interface is very user friendly and eliminates the step of saving and opening the attachment.

I have to add the back cover and some finishing touches to my newsletter, so get cracking on yours and we’ll see how they turn out!

• is baking French Baguettes while finishing up the Sarah and Thomas Christmas Newsletter. #

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• bought a TV. #
• is watching “The Year My Parents Went On Vacation” #

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• bought a TV. #
• is watching “The Year My Parents Went On Vacation” #

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